Chapter 53: Ice

“How then should this primordial power be harnessed?” Tianmeng found himself once again ensnared in perplexity.

Though a divine level being could remodel a martial soul, reconstruct soul rings, bestow innate soul power, and even alter a creature’s gender without side effects, he himself was a failure.

All the so-called divine-level authority, divine power, divine methods—he possessed none of them.

Aside from his life tier, nothing about him truly befitted the title of deity.

“Let me handle this,” Elder Yi spoke up with a gentle smile, having remained silent until now. The primordial power slipped from Tianmeng’s grasp and flowed into the martial soul above Huo Yuhao’s head.

A thick mist churned and contracted, coalescing into a form resembling a humanoid figure.

The crimson soul ring brought by the Ice Emperor appeared instantly, fluttering alongside the Snow Emperor's soul ring, both pulsating in rhythm. Huo Yuhao’s soul power level steadily climbed in tandem.

Twenty-one… twenty-two…

Twenty-six!

“Soul power levels are capped by soul rings, but adding new rings also grants a certain boost. It seems to be a rule,” Elder Yi recorded his observations.

In life, he had been stuck, with no path forward—forever stalled at the threshold of the divine level, wasting away nearly endless years.

Now, a brand new realm he had never before witnessed was unfolding before him, rekindling the scholar’s curiosity long buried.

“It's been so many years since I’ve felt such interest…” Elder Yi chuckled dryly and shook his head.

The insights and accumulations from two worlds, the collision and fusion of different power systems, the exclusive tier of divinity—it was all being unveiled before him.

At that moment, the silkworm gradually roused itself.

“Eh…?” Tianmeng stared blankly at Elder Yi, still grasping at air, incredulous: “You knew from the very beginning?”

When he first sacrificed, he had hidden the primordial power deep within himself. How could this be seen through so easily?

“Just as I said,” Elder Yi sighed softly, “total amount and quality are not the same.”

Tianmeng’s spiritual power appeared formidable, yet it was like water—an intangible, gentle fluid. Aside from its vast, ocean-like quantity, there was nothing remarkable about it.

A mere façade.

Not only before Elder Yi’s divine perception, even comparing it to the Snow Emperor’s spiritual sense, Tianmeng’s spiritual power seemed utterly feeble.

“The moment I first saw you, the divine-level aura hidden within you was already exposed,” Elder Yi said with resignation. “I followed that aura from the void to the Douluo Continent, ultimately discovering the divine essence within Yuhao’s spiritual sea.”

Before he finished, the light in Tianmeng’s eyes dimmed.

He was crushed mercilessly.

By rank, he should have been slightly superior to Elder Yi, yet this divine beast was utterly annihilated, not even a trace left.

Before Tianmeng could dwell on his disappointment for long, Elder Yi’s large hand reached out again.

“Don’t pull! That’s my time limit!” Tianmeng cried sharply, “That’s the time I reserved for the other soul rings of the Spirit Eye!”

He had hoped to use that energy to craft a set of red rings for Huo Yuhao…

And now one-fifth was being taken away outright!

“Calm down~ You still have plenty of energy left; it’ll be more than enough in the future,” Elder Yi said carefully, channeling energy into the mutated Snow Emperor soul ring while sighing.

As a millennia-old elder, he was somewhat overwhelmed by the incessant pestering of this million-year-old child.

“Pop~”

With each increase in time limit, the Snow Emperor soul ring emitted strange ripples. Within moments, the nearly divine-level ring was tinged with an icy blue hue, radiating a faint glow.

“The Spirit Eye martial soul has you, a divine-level existence, as its foundation. If the second martial soul were weaker, it would easily lag behind in the future.”

“As for the martial soul itself… it will regulate its form to the most suitable state.”

After performing so many operations in one breath, Elder Yi grew fatigued. He uttered a few brief words before retreating back into the spiritual sea.

As a fragment of a shattered divine consciousness, he was still in a state of sustainable death.

If not for drawing some power from the divine essence, he would have long since collapsed and vanished.

“If only I could find a piece of Living Gold…”

Before drifting back into slumber, Elder Yi sighed faintly.

...

“Phew—”

Half an hour later, Huo Yuhao, now accustomed to the energy within him, slowly opened his eyes. A flash of icy blue flickered deep within his pupils.

Outside, no other figures remained; only the ill-fated soul saint wrapped tightly in a silkworm cocoon lay beneath thick snow like a mummy.

Sensing something, Huo Yuhao activated his martial soul.

Two soul rings, one red and one blue, slowly appeared.

Yet the form linked to the soul rings was neither the Ice Queen nor the Ice Emperor, but…

Himself!

A translucent, icy blue figure radiating deep coldness—Huo Yuhao!

“?”

Upon seeing this strange martial soul form, Huo Yuhao’s expression instantly froze.

He never could have dreamed his second martial soul would be like this.

What had just happened?

Why had the first soul ring turned icy blue?

And who could explain why his second martial soul bore the same face as him?

“That was the handiwork of that senior…” a cold, feminine voice echoed in his mind—the Snow Emperor herself. Yet even she was at a loss for words when faced with such oddities.

“Snow Emperor?”

At the sound, Huo Yuhao’s form solidified within the spiritual sea.

To this day, this vast space finally showed subtle changes. The spheres of light floating above seemed higher and more distant, and on the small island at the center of the water appeared two figures, one green, one white.

As he opened his eyes, Tianmeng’s sallow face caught his attention.

“Tianmeng? What’s wrong?” Huo Yuhao asked, his expression strange as he instinctively looked down at himself.

Nothing seemed amiss.

Whether it was the sacrifice or the addition of soul rings, though the results were somewhat baffling, they had all succeeded. Why, then, did Tianmeng appear so broken in spirit?

“Nothing... just struggling to accept reality,” Tianmeng said, lying despondently on the water’s surface, rising and falling with Huo Yuhao’s emotional fluctuations.

First, he had been thoroughly crushed by Elder Yi, then chased out of the spirit island by the Ice Emperor and Snow Emperor together.

He truly needed to rest quietly now.

“Don’t mind him!”

A green figure landed beside Huo Yuhao, transforming into a tiny girl barely reaching his chin, glaring furiously at Tianmeng.

“How dare you scheme against me...”