When Huo Yuhao opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was the stunning figure standing watch over him.
"Awake?"
"Mm." Huo Yuhao shook his head lightly and looked at Xuedi. "How long was I out?"
Performing the soul spirit ritual with a beast of Bingdi's level had almost completely drained his mental energy, so he had passed out as soon as the ritual was over.
"Ten days."
"That long?"
Huo Yuhao was stunned by Xuedi's response and instinctively looked at her. "You've been guarding me the whole time?"
Xuedi shook her head and raised her hand, revealing an ice-blue lotus in her palm.
"I set up a protective barrier around you for a while and left to find the 100,000-year Snow Lotus you mentioned."
Before Huo Yuhao could react, the lotus was handed to him, and her cold voice rang out again.
"You can still absorb another soul ring, right? Take it."
This was something they had discussed before the soul spirit contract with Bingdi. Unlike his Spirit Eyes martial soul, which allowed Brother Tianmeng to provide multiple soul rings, his ice-attribute martial soul had to take a different approach.
He needed to acquire as much power from other soul beasts as possible to evolve his martial soul. Although he could gain strength by taking a beating, it wasn't exactly efficient. Not to mention, if he let someone like Xuedi hit him, he might not survive to see his martial soul evolve...
So, every soul ring for his second martial soul was critical. Unless absolutely necessary, Huo Yuhao didn't plan on letting his soul spirits provide additional rings.
"But isn't this meant for your transformation?"
Huo Yuhao was a bit bewildered. Weren't they supposed to wait until the next time they met to make a decision?
She was giving him the very Snow Lotus that was supposed to help her transform. Wasn't this like cutting off her own path?
Seeing Huo Yuhao's confused expression, Xuedi pressed her lips together, offering no explanation. Instead, she simply pushed the Snow Lotus into his hands.
"The Snow Lotus is filled with the essence of heaven and earth, but it lacks sentience. Even though it's 100,000 years old, it won't resist absorption. Now, while I'm here, hurry up and absorb it."
In the mental space, Bingdi glanced at Tianmeng Iceworm.
"Why do I feel like something's off with Xuedi?"
"...No."
Tianmeng Iceworm was silent for a moment before slowly shaking his head. "This is normal."
A huge question mark appeared on Bingdi's face. "What are you even talking about?"
"Ahem, since you're so curious, I'll tell you. If I had to sum it up in one sentence..."
Tianmeng's expression became solemn and cryptic as he spoke.
"—If the heavens hadn't given us our Little Yuhao, all the enchantresses of the world would have ruled eternal darkness!"
Before Tianmeng could finish, Bingdi snapped her claws shut, cutting him off mid-spell, with an air of menace as she clacked her pincers.
"Did you do something behind my back? Before the soul spirit ritual, I think I saw you talking to Xuedi."
"Ahem, I just told her about some of the things Little Yuhao has done. At most, I offered a bit of... assistance. Yeah, it's kind of complicated, but you'll understand after you've seen more."
Ignoring the conversation between the two soul spirits in his mental space, Huo Yuhao glanced down at the Snow Lotus in his hands and gave a slight nod.
"...Alright."
As he released his second martial soul, an orange-gold soul ring slowly rose from beneath his feet—a clear mark of a soul beast over 200,000 years old. In the past, Bingdi had appeared as a red soul ring with four golden markings due to her intelligence.
Now, after absorbing Bingdi, the changes brought about by the evolving ice-attribute martial soul were fully revealed to Xuedi.
Thin dragon scales emerged on Huo Yuhao's palms and quickly spread along his arms. This time, after gaining another soul ring, the scales covered both arms entirely, unlike before when they stopped at his forearms.
But the changes didn't stop there. The once pure white dragon scales now had a dark blue border around their edges, still as crystal-clear as before. From a distance, the white and blue scales gleamed like exquisite glazed glass, significantly enhancing the martial soul's beauty.
Perhaps because of the difference in strength between Bingdi and the Ice Dragon King, the Ice Dragon traits remained dominant after this evolution, with no major transformation in appearance. However, Huo Yuhao sensed that the changes Bingdi had brought were far from over—he simply wasn't powerful enough to fully unleash his martial soul's true form.
Even though there wasn't much of a physical transformation, Huo Yuhao could feel the enhancements to his strength and physical abilities compared to before the evolution.
Xuedi scanned him from top to bottom, her gaze finally settling on the orange-gold soul ring beneath his feet.
"What do you call this martial soul?"
It was only now, hearing Xuedi's cold voice, that Huo Yuhao remembered he hadn't given his martial soul a name yet. Thinking about how it would continue to evolve, he decided to keep the name simple.
"...I'll call it Ice Emperor."
Xuedi nodded slightly, as if approving of the name. "Begin your third evolution."
"I'm afraid that's not possible."
Huo Yuhao shook his head. "From what I've seen with Bingdi's fusion, the Snow Lotus probably isn't enough to trigger another major evolution."
The Ice Emperor martial soul's starting quality was too high after absorbing the Ice Dragon King. Even Bingdi, who was close to 400,000 years old, only brought subtle changes. The Snow Lotus might offer a slight enhancement, but not a full evolution.
Still, it was a 100,000-year soul ring. Enough of these small enhancements could eventually cause a qualitative change. Besides, it wasn't like he had other Ice Dragon Kings lying around.
At this point, Huo Yuhao felt that the only one who could truly help him achieve another major transformation was Xuedi herself.
After several hours, a scarlet soul ring rose to join the orange-gold one. The Snow Lotus had been absorbed without a hitch—there was no pain involved, and Huo Yuhao even felt somewhat refreshed.
As he expected, the Snow Lotus didn't cause any drastic changes, only adding faint petal-like patterns to each scale. These patterns were subtle and easy to miss if not looked at closely.
Perhaps due to the Snow Lotus being composed purely of the essence of heaven and earth, it didn't provide any soul bones either. But Huo Yuhao wasn't too bothered by that. A 100,000-year soul ring was already more than enough, and he could sense that the Snow Lotus had subtly changed his body in ways he didn't fully understand yet.
"Huh? My hair…"
Before he could finish his thought, Xuedi, who had been quietly watching him, curled her lips slightly and nodded.
"The effect is pretty good. You do look better."
"…?"
Seeing his confusion, Xuedi waved her hand, and an ice mirror materialized out of thin air in front of him, reflecting his now stunned, delicate face.
"Is... is that me???"
(End of Chapter)