The Extreme North was as harsh and cold as it ever was, even if this was the outer region, there was not a single human on sight.
Though cold, the extreme north was not completely devoid of life. Wildlife, adapted to survive the harshest of conditions, could still be found in pockets scattered across the icy landscape. In the distance, a pack of hundred year old Arctic Wolves prowled through the snow, their thick fur helping to shield them from the biting wind.
Then, one of the wolves found a small, puffball of white fur that seemed a bit out of place even in the white expansive snow.
The leading Arctic Wolf sniffed the air for a moment and its eyes narrowed into a hungry gaze. It lightly growled at his pack to flank the puffball. It had survived long in the Extreme North, it had survived numerous tribulations in its life and knew many tricks preys would do to become a predator. It approached the puffball cautiously, ready to pounce at any moment.
As it drew closer, its guard quickly dropped as it recognized it to be a ten year old Snow Rabbit. One of the weakest ice snow beasts in the Extreme North. Although it could become a terrifying soul beast when it reaches at least a thousand years old, but those 999 years old below are only fated to become the predators' food.
The poor, cute Snow Rabbit froze up. With its trembling body, it turned its head around to find numerous hungry gazes locked into its body.
It didn't try to run away. The pressure emitting from the pack of Arctic Wolves was enough to almost squish it to death.
In the wild, there was only one rule that every beast follows.
The strong strive while the weak dies off.
The Snow Rabbit closes its eyes, waiting for the jaws of death to come for it.
As the leader of the Arctic Wolves opened its slobbering maws, a loud rumbling sound suddenly filled the air, shaking the ground beneath the wolves' paws. The pack and the Snow Rabbit turned their heads to see a massive avalanche cascading down the nearby mountain, barreling toward them with incredible force.
"?!"
Instinctively, the pack and the rabbit started sprinting towards the opposite direction with everything that they've got.
Unfortunately for them however, the avalanche was still faster. In just a few seconds, the pack of Arctic Wolves and Snow Rabbit were completely buried under tons of snow and ice. The once fierce predators and their prey were now trapped beneath the frozen avalanche, unable to escape.
Suddenly, a pale white human right arm burst out of the thick snow and slowly coming out of it was Huo Yuhao with a big smile on his face.
"Hahahaha! That was awesome!"
During this one-month training period, Huo Yuhao focused his efforts on mastering his new abilities to the maximum. Under the guidance of the Ice Empress, he honed his control over Ultimate Ice, gradually increasing the precision of his freezing abilities. He started with simple exercises, freezing small amounts of snow into ice sculptures, but quickly progressed to more complex tasks, such as creating intricate building-sized sculptures of art.
It took him a week to hone his control over Ultimate Ice to the maximum limit.
What came next was obviously his second martial soul's soul skills; Ice Pincers and Ice Empress' Armor. The former is a pure strength ability that can only be utilised at its maximum in a close-combat situation. While the latter is a purely defensive ability: it covers his entire body with extremely tough ice crystals.
Another week. It took him another week to familiarize himself with the soul skills, hone them, and try out all kinds of tricks he can use against his opponents.
And for the remaining couple of weeks, Huo Yuhao decided on improving his connection with the Ice God Legacy so its energy could smoothly flow into his body, further refined his soul power and create some techniques using it.
And right now, he had been swallowed by an avalanche because he had been a bit too loud and had unknowingly been in close proximity to a fragile snow-covered slope. As he emerged from the snow, Huo Yuhao brushed off the ice and laughed at the absurdity of the situation.
"Talk about being caught off guard!" he exclaimed to himself, his smile never leaving his face. He looked around and blinked, seeing trembling Arctic Wolves and Snow Rabbit.
Huo Yuhao grinned, "Looks like today's my lucky day. I was getting hungry!"
.....
A small fire let out a crisp sound in the igloo as Huo Yuhao roasted the freshly caught Arctic Wolves over the flames. The warmth of the fire contrasted with the icy chill of the Extreme North, creating a cozy atmosphere within the small shelter. The scent of sizzling meat and crackling fire filled the air, making Huo Yuhao's stomach growl in anticipation.
He had quickly constructed the quite easily with his Ultimate Ice control. He honestly wanted to make it bigger but that would certainly attract all kinds of soul beasts, which he didn't want right now as he wanted to enjoy some good roasted meat.
Unhesitatingly, he took a large bite out of the roasted Arctic Wolf right thigh, savoring its juices and spices he added in to enhance the flavor.
"K-Kyuuu..."
"Hm?" Huo Yuhao blinked his eyes and turned towards the small white fluffy rabbit locked in a small cell made of ice.
"..."
"..."
The two stared at each other. While Huo Yuhao held a emotionless and cold gaze, the little Snow Rabbit's eyes went completely wide and teary.
"... You're lucky you're cute... And that there's a lot more Arctic Wolves to eat." He grunted as he took another bit before handing it to a surprised and then joyful Snow Rabbit.
It's typically known that Rabbits are herbivores, meaning they would only eat plants. But plants in the Extreme North are extremely rare to the point its nonexistent. Thus, any animals here are forced to adapt and evolve to eat meat to survive.
Snow Rabbits are no exception as this one quickly started nibbling onto the roasted Arctic Wolf thigh.
Huo Yuhao stared at the Snow Rabbit and gave a soft smile.
'...I don't know why, but it's appetite and a bit of appearance reminds me of Wang Dong for some reason.' He softly chuckled before turning his head towards the fire he created with a E-rank jutsu called Lighter and some of wood he brought before heading here.
"...Yuhao..." Suddenly, a deep and old voice that was filled with authority and gentleness sounded in his spiritual sea.
"Ancestor?" Huo Yuhao blinked, his eyes widened in joy as he jumped to his feet, and froze for a moment to stop himself from destroying his shelter.
Nevertheless, his excitement could not be contained as he replied, "Ancestor! You're finally awake!"
"Hm." Ancestor grunted an affirmation, its ghostly faceless figure appeared before him, scaring the unprepared Snow Rabbit.
"Looks like you've been doing well since my... slumber." Ancestor softly said as he inspected Huo Yuhao's body and he nodded. "Good. I can see that you have made significant progress in your training. Your control over Ultimate Ice is impressive, and your mastery of Ice Pincers and Ice Empress' Armor is commendable. Additionally, your connection with the Ice God Legacy has grown stronger, allowing you to refine your soul power and create new techniques. I am proud of your achievements, Huo Yuhao."
Huo Yuhao couldn't help but feel a surge of pride at the praise from his ancestor. He had worked hard over the past month, pushing himself to the limit in order to improve his skills. It was rewarding to see that his efforts had paid off.
"Thank you, Ancestor," Huo Yuhao replied respectfully. "I have learned a lot during this training period, and I am grateful for Ice Empress' guidance."
He blinked. "Speaking of her, where is Ice Empress? And Skydream? I haven't heard from them for a while..."
"Eh, ever since they saw that you've got everything handled a couple days ago, the little worm and little scorpion decided to get lazy and hibernate." He dismissively waved his hand.
'What are they, bears?' Huo Yuhao thought to himself, a mixture of amusement and annoyance evident in his gaze. "Though I figure they would," he muttered.
"But don't worry," Ancestor continued, a small smile forming on his faceless visage. "They'll wake up eventually. I'm curious, what are your second soul ring and third soul ring skills?"
Huo Yuhao nodded and calmly explained what soul beasts he hunted and what their soul skills he got from them.
"....My second soul ring from the Snow Deer King is called Snow Dream, it's like the Tsukuyomi but not only does it have time dilation but it also have multiple layers of illusions stacked on the target."
"Oh? Multiple illusions stacked together..." Ancestor muttered, intrigued.
'From the sounds of it, it resembles the Izanami but without the need of physical sensation."
"Hm. Snow Dream.... Is it like an onion? Even breaking through the illusion, there'd be another one. While it seems unbeatable, I could see two ways one can breakthrough this illusion." Ancestor said.
"One, they break all of the illusions at once. Something only someone with greater spiritual power than you, can and will do to escape that illusion. Two, they find the source of the illusions, which is you, and destroy it, which would dispel all the layers at once. The second method could be used by someone even weaker than you, as there are all sorts of soul masters with their strange martial souls and skills in the world."
"Eh, as expected of Ancestor. You guessed the weaknesses of my second soul ring skill so easily." Huo Yuhao rubbed the back of his head. "Unfortunately however, I can't really... train my second soul ring in the Extreme North since most of the soul beasts I've encountered here, below 20,000 years old, couldn't fight back against my Snow Dream."
"But it'll be fine! After my training here and I head back to civilization, I can use Snow Dream on people as that would be more challenging and allow me to fully explore its capabilities."
Ancestor nodded in understanding. "That's a wise decision, Huo Yuhao. It's important to continuously challenge yourself and push your limits in order to grow stronger. And what about your third soul ring skill?"
Huo Yuhao's eyes lit up as he explained, "My third soul ring is called Spirit Fyre, the soul ring from the Crimson Spirit Ape. And unlike most flames, this one only affects one's mind; burning their consciousness and spiritual sea to cinder. It won't stop unless they have a dual spiritual and ice attribute martial soul, which is as rare as a true dragon, or I stop it myself."
"..." Ancestor blankly looked at Huo Yuhao.
"Ancestor?"
'...Did I ever show him Amaterasu? This boy, isn't he just getting soul skills similar to the Mangekyō Sharingan abilities?'
Ancestor let out a sigh and just put that thought on the back for now. "It's nothing, I was just impressed on how you got useful and powerful soul skills."
Huo Yuhao grinned.
"And since you've almost got every newfound abilities you have mastered to your current limit, it's time for your second phase of training to begin." Ancestor said as he conjured two scrolls with kanji letters on them that only him, Huo Yuhao and the other loaches in Huo Yuhao's mind could read.
The one in his left hand read Water while the other read Wind.
"Your ninjutsu has started getting rusty, no? Well, I've got two training scrolls here; one is about water jutsus while the other is wind jutsus. Pick which one you want to start training for at least one month before proceeding to the next."
Huo Yuhao looked at the two scrolls in front of him with narrowed eyes.
"I..."
.....
AN: I have returned from a week long hiatus from a different week of sadness and depression to give you more of this story!
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I'm gonna be honest here, I spent the week just spacing out, thinking stuff, create some memorials for them, and then trying to enjoy the week by playing some Genshin.
...Now I know why some of the people I knew who played it F2P style quit🥲
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