Wuuu wuuu wuuu…
In the Extreme North, the biting cold wind rampaged through the air, a terrifying chill spreading in all directions.
At the heart of the Extreme North, a white mecha stood tall against the fierce wind, atop a snowy peak.
It was none other than Xia Yi's mecha and soul spirit—Heart of the Ice God.
Heart of the Ice God raised both hands into the air, and a massive vortex slowly appeared between her palms. The endless wind and snow were immediately sucked into it.
"You demon! How dare you?!" A furious roar echoed through the skies, as a colossal, rainbow-colored Hao Tian Hammer smashed toward the vortex.
"The divine realm of soul beasts has already appeared. You can't stop me now," Heart of the Ice God snorted coldly. With a wave of her hand, the blizzard condensed into a giant ice sword, which she swung down at the Hao Tian Hammer.
BOOM!A terrifying shockwave of soul power swept across the Extreme North, as if threatening to shatter the very sky. Even the aftershock alone instantly caused countless glaciers to collapse.
Atop the snowy peak, the white mecha of Heart of the Ice God creaked under pressure. Despite being forged from soul-forged metal with 100% fusion compatibility, it could not withstand such force—cracks began appearing across its structure.
"Any existence that tries to disrupt the rules of the Douluo Plane must die. If this is all the strength you have, then stay here!"A cold, murderous voice echoed from the heavens.
"Looks like you've recovered quite a bit… but it's not enough to stop me. If I want to leave, you can't hold me."Her mecha, now covered in cracks, shimmered as she activated a spatial tunnel with a thought. With one step, she vanished.
In the Genesis Origin, Xia Yi looked at the suddenly-appeared Heart of the Ice God and her damaged mecha body, and asked, "Are you alright? Who did this to you?"
"I just exchanged a blow with the Douluo Plane's Plane Master. Nothing serious—just the mecha needs major repairs," Heart of the Ice God sighed. "I didn't expect him to recover so quickly. At this rate, he'll probably be fully recovered soon."
Heart of the Ice God dared to clash directly with the Plane Master only because the Genesis Origin had been successfully established. As Xia Yi's soul spirit—and since Xia Yi was one of the Three Kings of Genesis Origin—she could open a spatial tunnel to it at any time.
"What's the big deal? Just a second-level god," Gu Yue scoffed nearby. "How did you provoke the Plane Master?"
"I merely gathered all the scattered divine consciousness fragments of the Ice God," Heart of the Ice God sighed again. "The Ice God was the first Ice Empress born in the Extreme North, and once formed the Ice God divinity there. So the Ice God is essentially part of the Extreme North itself. Even after her death, the region slowly regathered her divine consciousness to resurrect her."
"For years, the Extreme North has already reunited all her fragments. But due to the suppression from the Divine Realm and the Douluo Plane, she couldn't be revived. The fragments were forced to merge with the plane's rules. Now that the soul beast divine realm has appeared, those restrictions have been broken, so I tried to gather all the fragments again. The Plane Master obviously didn't want her to return and tried to stop me."
"I set up some tricks in the Extreme North, and with those divine fragments, I could temporarily control the natural forces there like the Ice God once did. But since my master's cultivation is still weak, and I'm his soul spirit, I'm too restricted to unleash the full power of the Ice God's consciousness. So I still couldn't match the Plane Master."
As she spoke, Heart of the Ice God looked at Xia Yi.
"You could've left that last part out," Xia Yi gave her a sharp look. "So? Did you succeed?"
"Yes, I've reclaimed all of the Ice God's divine consciousness fragments." She smiled and nodded. "Now I just need to enter seclusion and merge with them."
"After merging, will you become the Ice God?" Xia Yi asked.
"No," she shook her head. "I'm your soul spirit now. To truly become the Ice God again, I'd need to reclaim the Snow Empress Token from the God of Emotions and… you, Master, would need to have at least first-level god cultivation."
"So I'm still the one holding you back?" Xia Yi laughed.
"No! Not at all," Heart of the Ice God shook her head quickly. "Without you, I wouldn't have had this chance to recover. Thanks to you, I might even surpass the Ice God's peak—becoming a God King isn't impossible."
"Alright, alright." Xia Yi waved his hand. "Go merge your fragments then. I've got stuff to do."
"In that case, I won't disturb you further."She gave a respectful bow before turning into a beam of light and merging into Xia Yi's body.
Watching her act so respectfully, Xia Yi chuckled to himself. He recalled how arrogant she had been when she first became his soul spirit.
Heart of the Ice God wasn't trying to flatter Xia Yi. When she first became his soul spirit, she was furious.
Part of her was once the mighty Ice God—imagine how humiliating it was to suddenly become the soul spirit of a little fox? Her anger was understandable.
But after witnessing Xia Yi's talent, learning his origins might surpass even hers, and benefiting greatly from his power, all her resentment disappeared.
First was Xia Yi's Absolute Zero, which deepened her understanding of ice. Later, she encountered the Hetu Luoshu. Now, given enough time, she was confident she could surpass the Ice God's peak—and becoming a God King wasn't a fantasy anymore.
Now that Heart of the Ice God had returned to Xia Yi's body to cultivate, Xia Yi turned to Gu Yue and said, "Let's go."
Due to the effort of building a new divine realm, Gu Yue had been stuck in Genesis Origin for a while. With the realm now complete, she was finally free.
Lan Fozi still needed time to refine the pearl left behind by the Deep Sea Demon Whale King. The Demon Empress was staying behind to accompany her and guard Genesis Origin.
So Xia Yi planned to return to the Douluo Plane with Gu Yue first.
After the fall of the Tang Sect and Shrek Academy, the Spirit Pagoda had pledged allegiance to the Sun-Moon Federation, uniting the plane without further internal conflict.
The Douluo Plane was now flourishing.
Leng Yaozhu still held her position as Vice Tower Master of the Spirit Pagoda. In addition, for leading the pagoda to join the Federation, she had been appointed Vice Speaker of the Sun-Moon Federation Parliament.
When Xia Yi arrived at Leng Yaozhu's office, he found that although the office was full of people, she herself was absent.
Scanning the room, he saw mostly unfamiliar faces.
He stepped forward to the woman in charge of greeting the newcomers—Long Yali.
"Yali, where's Zhu'er?"
"Xia Yi!"Seeing him, Long Yali quickly stood and greeted him respectfully. "Just earlier, Lady Tianfeng was here interviewing these newcomers, but she suddenly left a short while ago. I don't know where she went."
"She left suddenly?" Xia Yi smiled, already guessing what Leng Yaozhu was up to. He turned to the rookies around them. "So Zhu'er is personally interviewing newcomers now?"
"These rookies have already been through rigorous screening. Each one has their strengths. Lady Heavenly Phoenix handpicked every single one. She wants to train a team specifically to study new soul spirits," Long Yali explained, though a trace of frustration flashed in her eyes as she looked at Xia Yi.
After all, he had taken all the soul beast souls for his own use, leaving only artificial soul spirits behind—which couldn't meet the cultivation needs of Douluo's soul masters.
To train enough Spirit Transmitters to produce soul spirits, the Spirit Pagoda had recruited a massive number of new people during this year's annual hiring campaign.
(End of Chapter)