At the top of Sea God Mountain, the forbidden area at the center of Sea God Island, Bo Saixi stood with her hands behind her back.
The piercing cold wind blowing from the high sky stirred her hair and clothes, yet it failed to cause even the slightest ripple.
Her majestic and ethereal presence was unparalleled, exuding an otherworldly elegance.
But if someone were to carefully observe her expression at this moment, they would easily notice that her eyes, despite their usual composure, were now filled with a heavy burden and a trace of helplessness.
The source of all this came from the woman now sitting cross-legged at the foot of the mountain.
Several months ago, this woman had stepped onto the island from the sea, and upon their first meeting, she directly expressed her desire to witness the inheritance of the Sea God.
As devout believers of the Sea God, the fanatics of Sea God Island could not possibly remain indifferent after hearing such blasphemous words. However, wary of her overwhelming aura, they immediately reported the matter to the Seven Holy Pillars to stop her.
Yet, the woman's strength was absurdly powerful.
Even with the dual support of the Holy Pillars and the formations of Sea God Island, several Holy Pillar Douluos were easily overpowered and seriously injured by her.
Even when Bo Saixi personally intervened, she found herself equally helpless. Although she could barely manage to contend with the woman using the formations of Sea God Island, she couldn't ensure the safety of everyone else.
If the woman had intended to kill, this island might have been completely massacred by her.
Unless Bo Saixi chose to burn herself out and fully unleash the Sea God Martial Soul, she was no match for the woman.
But clearly, she wouldn't do that.
Not only did the woman not display strong hostility that warranted such a costly sacrifice, but Bo Saixi also wasn't willing to go to the extent of giving up her life.
Even if she were to sacrifice herself, without the Sea God Trident in hand, Bo Saixi couldn't be sure if she could still communicate with the Sea God's will.
Moreover, even if the Sea God's will did descend, could it truly defeat this woman?
Bo Saixi had her doubts.
She could sense that the woman still concealed an even more terrifying power within her.
Though she was reluctant to admit it, ever since meeting Su Cheng, her faith in the authority and might of the gods had started to waver.
After all, gods were essentially powerful beings who had transcended the mortal world.
But if someone had indeed found another path, one that allowed them to remain in this world while still becoming incredibly powerful, was it impossible to achieve?
Of course not.
Because not long ago, she had witnessed such a person with her own eyes.
And coincidentally, the woman at the foot of the mountain possessed the Six-Winged Angel Martial Soul, a legacy of the Spirit Hall. Meanwhile, Bo Saixi's "disciple" was now also part of the Spirit Hall.
The connection between the two might be deeper than it seemed.
Perhaps, this woman's extraordinary strength was also due to Su Cheng's influence.
If all she wanted was to comprehend the power of the Sea God and didn't do anything excessive, Bo Saixi had no intention of interfering further. She might as well turn a blind eye to it.
"Qian Daoliu, who would have thought you had such a descendant? And… Cheng'er, what are you up to now..."
Amid the howling mountain wind, it seemed as if a soft whisper echoed gently.
At the foot of Sea God Mountain, not far from the Sea God's Light, a peerless beauty in white closed her eyes, sensing the abundant soul power within the light, which was infused with a vast amount of faith power.
At the same time, faint flames seemed to flicker around her body, as if responding to the Sea God's Light, or perhaps resisting it.
Time passed slowly, and after half a day, she suddenly opened her eyes.
For a brief moment, blazing white light flashed in her pupils, but the next instant, it faded away, reverting to her bright golden eyes.
Exhaling softly, she stood up, silently gazing at the Sea God Mountain before her.
She could feel the gaze from the mountaintop sweeping over her, but she didn't care. Though the person up there was strong, they posed no threat to her.
This woman was none other than Qian Renxue, who had resolutely left Spirit City over a year ago.
Su Cheng had been right; she hadn't stayed on the Douluo Continent for long.
Part of the reason was to avoid Su Cheng, but more importantly, she needed further tempering.
Acquiring powerful spirit rings, seeing more of the world, and comprehending the will of other powerful beings—these were far more crucial to Qian Renxue at this stage than merely cultivating soul power.
The Sun God's Will she had comprehended was extremely unique.
The sun hung high in the sky, yet it illuminated all things, bringing endless light and heat to the world.
This intent, which overlooked everything and granted life, was just as indispensable as its overpowering and domineering force.
Without sufficient accumulation, her pursuit of following the way of heaven and determining the way of humanity would be nothing more than a castle in the air.
While the harmony between her power and will was only the foundation, the key lay in possessing a will broad and inclusive enough to embrace and scrutinize everything.
Over a year ago, when she had coincidentally touched upon that terrifying power, it was only natural that she had almost been completely assimilated by it.
After all, such power wasn't something that mortals could easily handle.
In fact, not even the gods of the Divine Realm dared to directly face the true sun.
Compared to Su Cheng's seamless integration of power, Qian Renxue, whose ascension process had been somewhat "shortcut," faced far greater challenges in fully mastering her inner strength.
Not only did she need to continually strengthen her will and deepen her foundation, but whenever she touched the power of the sun, she also had to be constantly vigilant to avoid being assimilated by that vast, seemingly infinite divine intent.
After leaving Spirit City, she first traveled to the Extreme North, a place considered forbidden to humans, where she killed a formidable beast, the Titan Snow Demon King, with over 200,000 years of cultivation. This became her eighth spirit ring.
Only then did she cross the sea to arrive at Sea God Island.
The reason she came here was that Su Cheng had once mentioned the existence of the Sea God and had spoken of some past entanglements with the High Priest of Sea God Island.
So, instinctively, she wanted to come here to take a look and, incidentally, to observe the difference between the Sea God's divine power and that of the Angel God.
At this moment, a cold, melodious voice came from behind her, seemingly adding a chill to the surrounding air.
"Master, are you really planning to challenge the Deep Sea Demon Whale King?"
"Challenge?" Qian Renxue curled her lips into a mocking smile. "I will kill it and make it my ninth spirit ring."
"But…"
"What? You think I can't do it?"
"No, but it seems unnecessary. The spirit rings don't seem to provide much benefit to you."
"Xue Di, do you know? Whether the spirit ring is 700,000 years old or a million years old doesn't matter to me."
"…I understand."
"Good that you understand."
Qian Renxue turned to look at the woman who had followed her from the Extreme North.
She was breathtakingly beautiful.
A young girl, around seventeen or eighteen years old, had snow-white hair that flowed down her back, reaching all the way to the ground. Her sky-blue eyes were ethereal and crystal clear, exuding a calm detachment as if she could see through everything in the world.
Her slender figure was perfectly proportioned, curvaceous in all the right places, and even though she wore a plain white dress with no embellishments, she still radiated a dazzling beauty that stirred the heart.
Even though Qian Renxue had seen many beautiful women, especially in Spirit City where there were quite a few, she herself being one of the finest, the woman before her still left her in awe.
There were many beautiful soul masters on this continent, but very few had such an extraordinary aura.
Of course, this wasn't surprising, as the woman in front of her wasn't human at all. She was a terrifying soul beast with a formidable 700,000-year cultivation, the Ice Sky Snow Empress.
Her origins were also extraordinary. Unlike ordinary creatures that come from generations of bloodline inheritance, she was a being formed by nature itself, nurtured by the purest ice elemental forces from the core of the Extreme North. After countless years of incubation, she finally developed her own consciousness and became an intelligent being.
If Ah Yin's transformation into a plant spirit was due to a stroke of luck, then Snow Empress was a natural-born spirit, the purest elemental entity.
However, while Qian Renxue was somewhat curious about Snow Empress's existence, it was just a passing curiosity. She never paid much attention to these matters—keeping Snow Empress as a backup spirit ring was an option, or killing her directly wouldn't matter either.
In contrast, Snow Empress found Qian Renxue's existence truly baffling. She couldn't understand how a human could grow so powerful, and what baffled her even more was that the other party looked extremely young, not even thirty years old.
She knew that humans had a high ceiling for growth and could advance rapidly in cultivation. Most importantly, they didn't have to endure the repeated tribulations that soul beasts faced until they reached a million years of cultivation to touch upon the divine realm.
Humans could rise to the heavens simply by gathering faith or inheriting the legacies of their predecessors.
Although this process was equally difficult, compared to the treacherous path of soul beast cultivation, it was at least a hundred times easier.
But the problem was that the person in front of her hadn't even reached godhood yet. When they first met, she was only a seven-ring Soul Saint.
Snow Empress still vividly remembered the scene from that day.
In the Extreme North, where human footsteps were rarely seen and where it was considered forbidden territory for humans, suddenly a human appeared. At that time, the human's cultivation seemed to be only around the seventy-level mark.
When she stepped into the territory of the Titan Snow Demon King, one of the three great kings of the Extreme North, the ferocious beast naturally attacked her without hesitation.
Then, the entire battle, from start to finish, took less than a minute. The Titan Snow Demon King, with a cultivation of 200,000 years, was slain under her sword.
She effortlessly absorbed the powerful spirit ring of the fierce beast, and immediately, her apparent cultivation skyrocketed to the peak of Soul Douluo, where she then turned her sword towards the 400,000-year-old Emperor Scorpion, and even herself, who was even stronger.
At the beginning of the battle, both Snow Empress and Ice Empress didn't take Qian Renxue's challenge seriously. Although they were both rulers of the Extreme North, their strength was far beyond that of the Titan Snow Demon King. They were not even on the same level.
At least for Snow Empress, it was easy for her to severely injure the Titan Snow Demon King with a single strike.
In fact, in the special extreme cold environment of the Extreme North, even the Beast God Di Tian, with over 800,000 years of cultivation, hiding in the Star Dou Forest, might not be able to defeat her.
As the Spirit of Ice and Snow, wherever there was ice and snow, her perception reached. She was the daughter of the ice field itself.
The most domineering soul beasts in the Extreme North had all fallen to Snow Empress's Snow Empress Three Absolutes.
However, it wasn't until she actually fought with Qian Renxue that she realized how terribly wrong she had been.
The energy fluctuations that Qian Renxue emitted weren't particularly high, but the level of power she wielded was something Snow Empress couldn't comprehend.
It was like a walking sun among mortals!
With a strong elemental suppression, even when Snow Empress and Ice Empress combined their powers, they were still steadily suppressed by Qian Renxue's strength.
Every slash, every stab brought with it a threat of severe injury.
Moreover, while Ice Empress remained bewildered, Snow Empress, with her strength, could vaguely sense that Qian Renxue harbored an unimaginable, terrifying power within her, which had yet to be unleashed.
If Qian Renxue fully unleashed that power, neither Snow Empress herself nor the Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion would stand a chance of survival.
In a helpless situation, Snow Empress, seeking to protect both herself and Ice Empress, voluntarily revealed the existence of other powerful soul beasts, such as Di Tian in the Star Dou Forest and the Deep Sea Demon Whale King in the sea, offering Qian Renxue better options for her ninth spirit ring.
It was under these circumstances that Qian Renxue spared them, but she didn't let the two fierce beasts go easily.
More accurately, she didn't let Snow Empress go.
"I can spare your lives, but you must come with me," she said, pointing her sword at Snow Empress.
"..."
In the end, Snow Empress agreed to Qian Renxue's demand and followed her, leaving the Extreme North.
For someone as proud as Snow Empress, her decision to follow Qian Renxue wasn't just to survive or out of some sentiment for Ice Empress.
The key was that she saw a certain possibility in Qian Renxue—a chance to transcend the world's constraints, escape the torment of heavenly tribulations, and even advance further!
As a spirit of ice and snow, her desires were minimal. In the tens of thousands of years she spent guarding the Extreme North, away from the hustle and bustle of the world, she had few other desires.
Apart from a superficial sense of responsibility towards the soul beasts she found pleasing and her subordinates, her only belief was to become stronger, or to put it more bluntly, to keep living.
To live.
This is the strongest desire all beings are born with.
Even the desire to reproduce stems from the instinct to continue the bloodline.
For a long-lived being like Snow Empress, who had never encountered the allure of the mortal world, she naturally didn't have such thoughts.
As long as she could survive every heavenly tribulation and continue to exist, that was enough.
"Hmm?"
At this moment, Snow Empress suddenly noticed that Qian Renxue, standing before her, trembled slightly, and an extremely complex emotional fluctuation appeared on her face.
Deep within her golden eyes, the cold indifference was gone, replaced by endless emotions like melting ice, transforming into a deep pool, filled with incomprehensible feelings.
In the midst of undisguised joy, there was also doubt, pain, and anger, which left Snow Empress both surprised and puzzled.
From the time they met until now, nearly six months had passed.
During these six months, Qian Renxue had left the strongest impression on Snow Empress as someone who was arrogant, conceited, and indifferent to others' feelings.
It seemed as if there was nothing or no one in the world that she truly cared about.
But now, what had changed?
In the next moment, Snow Empress followed her gaze and sensed the person who had landed on the island.
From their aura, they seemed ordinary, nothing special.
Wait, no!
If this were just an ordinary human, how could they get so close without her noticing?
Who was this person?
What was their relationship with Qian Renxue?