Tai Tan was filled with anger.
"How long does it take to get a broken soul ring? Is he going for a million-year soul ring or something? Pathetic!"
Just thinking about Wang Donge'er waiting alone for months, feeling down every day, made Tai Tan want to drag that guy over and give him a good beating.
"That boy, is his name Su Yu?"
Niu Tian, far more patient than Tai Tan, kept his expression neutral and continued to inquire.
"Yeah, his name's Su Yu, from the Ice God Palace, with an old guy guarding him."
"That old guy's got some skills. I'm not even sure I could beat him; he's much stronger than that short, fat Hongchen."
Tai Tan recounted. At the mention of Hongchen, a trace of disdain slipped into his tone.
"Short, fat, weak—just loves to mess around. Useless, though he's not bad as a punching bag."
"Oh? Even you're not sure you could win?"
Niu Tian was surprised. He knew Tai Tan's strength well; few across the entire Douluo Continent could match him.
"Mu Wu, that old guy, is really strong. I didn't go all out, but he seemed to be holding back too."
"If it weren't for that old guy stopping me, I would have taught that brat Su Yu a lesson on the very first day!"
"Big brother, you don't know—on her first day at school, that brat bullied Dong'er. Later, he even turned Dong'er into his little follower, bossing her around. It was way too much!"
Tai Tan seethed with anger.
"Kids messing around, and you want to step in?"
Niu Tian looked at him strangely.
"Is this something worth getting worked up over? Are you ignoring everything I've taught you?"
Luckily, Mu Wu had intervened. But to be able to hold Tai Tan back...
"It seems this Su Yu might not have a simple background. The Ice God Palace, that's a faction devoted to the Ice God, isn't it? Like the old Spirit Hall or Sea God Island."
Niu Tian pondered aloud, and suddenly, something dawned on him, his expression shifting.
"Big brother, what are you thinking about?"
Tai Tan asked, puzzled.
"I have something to ask you. What's Su Yu's temperament like? Especially, how does he treat Dong'er?"
"Big brother, why are you asking this?"
Tai Tan was confused.
"Just answer the question. No need for extra commentary!"
Niu Tian, growing impatient, scolded him.
Feeling slightly embarrassed, Tai Tan refrained from arguing and answered honestly.
"That kid's temperament is alright, and he treats Dong'er decently. He's helped her quite a bit too."
Tai Tan then recounted how Su Yu had helped Wang Dong'er out of trouble, advocated for compensation on her behalf, and even suggested helping Wang Dong'er switch departments. After finishing, Tai Tan curiously observed Niu Tian's reaction.
"It seems this boy isn't so bad. But I wonder if it's what I'm thinking..."
Niu Tian murmured softly.
As he snapped out of his thoughts, he noticed Tai Tan staring at him intensely, his face contorted. Startled, he smacked Tai Tan on the head.
"Why are you staring at me like a dead fish?"
Tai Tan took the hit solidly, rubbing his head in grievance.
"I didn't do anything!"
"Big brother~"
Tai Tan put on a pitiful expression, which, combined with his rugged appearance, was almost unbearable to look at.
Niu Tian took a deep breath to calm himself and said, "Alright, drop that ridiculous look."
"Go and help Dong'er track down any leads on Su Yu. It'll put her at ease. I'm guessing Su Yu's still at the Ice God Palace. People like him are different from ordinary soul masters."
Niu Tian's gaze sharpened as he watched the still-confused Tai Tan.
"Why are you still standing here? Go!"
"Oh!"
Tai Tan responded quietly, trudging out of the hall with a dispirited look.
Niu Tian's eyes grew thoughtful as he looked upward.
"Is this why you sent Dong'er to the Sun Moon Continent? This boy named Su Yu... Could he, like you, be one of the chosen ones?"
Niu Tian speculated silently.
...
Far to the extreme north.
The cold wind howled, and ice and snow swirled everywhere. Tiny ice shards filled the air, obscuring the sky. The entire northern sky was a blurred chaos, with dim, hazy light casting a diffused glow.
On a flat plain, a gigantic ice bear stood tall, fifty to sixty meters high—like a small mountain. It stood on two legs like a human, its claws gleaming menacingly. Its entire body was round, coated in thick snow-white fur. Its arms were as thick as palace pillars, and its open paws as wide as tree canopies. Beneath the thick fur, layers of fat and muscle were tightly packed. Despite its seemingly clumsy form, the faint but fierce aura it emitted was enough to keep people at bay.
Su Yu stared at the distant Ice Bear King, lost in thought.
"This is the test subject you found for me?" he asked, glancing down at the tiny Snow Empress nestled in his arms, doubting her intentions. He suspected her heart had turned black. This little creature… couldn't be trusted.
"Yiya~ Yiya~" (Yes, yes!)
The little Snow Empress clapped her tiny hands, chirping excitedly.
Su Yu: "..."
Looking at the massive Ice Bear King, then down at his own slender arms and legs, Su Yu was speechless.
"You think I can handle that thing?"
"One slap from it, and I'll be meeting my ancestors."
Su Yu was realistic; the Ice Bear King could probably take on a Rank 96 super Douluo, while he wouldn't even fill its teeth.
"Yiya~ Yiya~"
The Snow Empress chirped again.
"You're saying the Ice Bear King won't fight back, and I can just attack freely?"
Su Yu was stunned. Was that true?
"Yiya!"
The Snow Empress nodded her little head.
"Why didn't you say so earlier?"
Now Su Yu was excited. So the Ice Bear King was just here to be his punching bag? Perfect. He wouldn't hold back, then.
"Ice Empress! Ice Empress!"
Su Yu called out.
The Ice Empress, in her loli form, walked over to his side.
"Watch over the Snow Empress for me. I'm going to have some fun."
Su Yu handed the Snow Empress to the Ice Empress.
The Ice Empress cradled the Snow Empress like a precious treasure. "Show me how much you've progressed in the past few months."
"Then keep your eyes wide open."
Su Yu grinned, his figure flickering like the wind as he darted forward.
In the blink of an eye, he was several dozen meters away.
With his ability to generate true energy, Su Yu could maintain his peak speed while using his Wind God Legs without worry. It felt exhilarating.
"Xiao Bai, sorry for the trouble!"
Su Yu looked up at the towering Ice Bear King and shouted.
The Ice Bear King patted its chest, signaling for Su Yu to proceed.
Su Yu's gaze sharpened, his expression turning serious. This was the Ice Bear King—it was nearly impossible to hurt it. So, there was no need to hold back.
In the next moment, a chilling aura spread as his martial soul awakened. The Ice Emperor martial soul appeared behind Su Yu, casting a pale blue glow that radiated outward. Around him, four soul rings materialized in the colors black, black, gold, and black.
Over the past few months, Su Yu had used the source power of the Iceworm to push both his second and fourth soul rings to their limits. Each of these soul rings now had an age of over fifty thousand years.
Su Yu's eyes flashed, and his first soul ring lit up. Instantly, the Ice Bear King was frozen in place.
Ice Emperor's Decree!
After evolving beyond fifty thousand years, the effects of his soul ring had also improved. Originally, it could freeze opponents two stages higher than him for three seconds. Now, it lasted for four seconds and had gained a special attribute: Same-Tier Suppression.
What did Same-Tier Suppression mean? Previously, the Ice Emperor's Decree, while powerful, could be purified or nullified by skills that removed negative statuses. In other words, even a one-ring soul master could break free if they had purification or control-removal skills.
But not anymore.
With Same-Tier Suppression, the Ice Emperor's Decree now held an advantage over rule-based skills of the same level. Even a four-ring soul master's purification skill couldn't break it. Only someone with soul power one tier higher than Su Yu could free themselves.
Thanks to this Same-Tier Suppression, the Ice Emperor's Decree had become much stronger. Even Jiang Nannan's invincible golden body—a bug-like skill—could be forcibly frozen as long as she was at the same level as Su Yu. That's how dominating it was.
However, no matter how powerful a skill was, it was useless in the face of absolute strength.
In less than a second, the frozen Ice Bear King broke free. Against a powerhouse like the Ice Bear King, the Ice Emperor's Decree was still ineffective.
But Su Yu wasn't discouraged. He hadn't expected to be able to restrain the Ice Bear King in the first place.
With a thought, Su Yu's third and fourth soul rings lit up simultaneously.
Ice Emperor's Bind, Ice Emperor's Feathers.
Countless icy threads spread out, covering a radius of a hundred meters. These fine threads began to climb up the Ice Bear King's body, spreading the power of extreme ice. Above, a phantom of a phoenix appeared, spreading its wings, and then countless razor-sharp ice feathers rained down, completely enveloping the Ice Bear King.
The attack covered a radius of over a hundred meters with the Ice Bear King at its center. Each ice feather was sharper than steel, easily capable of piercing the defenses of an ordinary Soul Ancestor.
The dense rain of ice feathers was relentless.
"Is this the fourth spirit skill he acquired? Not bad power," the Ice Empress, watching from the side, murmured in admiration.
"But, as expected, it's still not enough to harm the Ice Bear King. Its defense is notorious for being impenetrable."
Just as the Ice Empress said, these extremely sharp ice feathers bounced off the Ice Bear King's body without even scratching its fur. Some even struck its eyelids and were deflected. As for the icy threads, they couldn't hinder the Ice Bear King at all.
The Ice Bear King scratched its head with one paw, saying, "Is there more? This feels like a nice scratch."
Hearing this, Su Yu's face darkened. He knew the big guy didn't mean anything by it, but it still felt like mockery.
"Scratch, huh? I'll show you scratching!"
Su Yu gritted his teeth, and the temperature around him plummeted.
With a flash, Su Yu appeared in front of the Ice Bear King's chest! He placed his palm on it lightly, showing no strain or effort.
As his hand fell, an intense cold aura surged into the Ice Bear King's body, and the area around his palm began to freeze.
Emperor's Palm: Snowless Glacier!
But that wasn't all. At the same time, an even more intense cold burst forth.
Within a radius of several hundred meters, the temperature dropped sharply, and snow began to fall from the sky. Countless snowflakes filled the air, transforming the area into a forbidden zone.
This was the domain technique, Snowy Dance of Ultimate Ice, the final skill of the Snow Empress's three ultimate techniques.
Su Yu's palm strike contained the power of the Empress' Chill domain. At this moment, the extreme ice energy exploded, completely freezing the Ice Bear King.
But Su Yu didn't stop. His first, second, and fourth soul rings all lit up at once.
In the next moment, something astonishing happened.
The three soul rings began to fuse, and a powerful wave of energy spread out.
Ring Fusion!
This was a special talent: the ability to fuse soul rings to unleash even greater power. The stronger the soul rings, the more powerful the fusion would be.
This wasn't something granted by a system; Su Yu had figured it out on his own. It was his unique talent!
Three sixty-thousand-year soul rings fused—what kind of power would that create?
Su Yu was about to find out.
With a wave of his hand, an incredibly sharp aura appeared. An ice-blue sword slashed through the air, slicing toward the Ice Bear King.
Though it seemed like a long time, only two seconds had passed by now.
The Ice Bear King struggled for a moment, and the ice around it shattered piece by piece. As a soul beast of the extreme north, it naturally had high resistance to ice.
But just as the Ice Bear King broke free, the ice-blue sword arrived.
The sword seemed ordinary, but it emitted an intense sharpness capable of slicing through space itself.
Shk!
The ice-blue sword pierced the Ice Bear King's fur, sinking into its body.
Su Yu was shocked and quickly retreated.
The Ice Bear King glanced at the tiny ice sword lodged in its chest, like a toothpick, with a trace of surprise in its eyes.
"It... broke through the Ice Bear King's defense?"
The Ice Empress, watching from the sidelines, was stunned. She hadn't expected Su Yu to unleash such a powerful attack.
"Extreme Ice Unparalleled, Empress' Sword, combined with Su Yu's Ring Fusion, can produce such a powerful strike?"
"No, that's not it. The Ice Bear King didn't use its soul power to defend. Even so, barely scratching its skin is already impressive."
The Ice Empress shook her head, her jade-green eyes showing some approval.
Su Yu's attack had demonstrated impressive power. She hadn't expected him to possess the Ring Fusion technique either. His burst of strength was commendable.
By now, the test was more or less complete. The Ice Empress, holding the Snow Empress, began walking toward the battlefield.
"Xiao Bai, um... sorry about that."
Su Yu scratched his head awkwardly as he looked at the Ice Bear King. He hadn't expected his Extreme Ice Unparalleled Empress' Sword slash to be sharper than he'd thought, actually managing to wound the Ice Bear King.