Chapter 132: Possessing the Ice Empress, A New Mission
After all preparations were set in motion, Qi Tian temporarily had nothing else to handle.
His most important task now was still cultivating soul power and comprehending the twin martial soul experience Bibi Dong had passed on to him.
To use two martial souls simultaneously, he still had a long way to go.
Late at night, Qi Tian and Zhu Zhuqing used the heat of their bodies to warm her long-abandoned room, and afterward, they fell asleep together.
At midnight, the system—which had been silent for so long—finally resurfaced.
This time, the person he possessed was finally no longer in a dormant state.
When Qi Tian's split soul awakened, he discovered he was in an endless world of ice and snow—white as far as the eye could see, stretching beyond the horizon.
Under such conditions, the night was as bright as day.
"What kind of damned place is this?" Qi Tian was stunned.
The Star Luo Empire was in the south; snowfall was rare. The Heaven Dou Empire also lacked such extreme environments.
"Don't tell me… this is the Extreme North?" Qi Tian thought.
He immediately looked inward, searching for the martial soul of the body he had possessed—hoping to determine the identity of this body's owner.
Once he identified the martial soul, he could make an educated guess about who this person was.
But after sensing for a moment, Qi Tian was shocked to find— this body actually had no martial soul.
'Did I possess an ordinary person?'
'No… ordinary people still have martial souls. This is the Spirit Hall era—everyone can awaken their martial soul.'
'Then… am I not in a human body at all?' Qi Tian wondered.
He extended his hand to take a look—and discovered that before him were two enormous claws, each more than a meter long.
Both claws were covered in hexagonal, diamond-like protrusions, while the tips and the mouthparts gleamed like polished silver.
Through the mirror-like shine of the front claws, Qi Tian saw his current appearance—
A silver-white mandible, hexagonal eyes,
and a jade-green segmented scorpion tail tipped with a silver-white barb.
'Damn—I'm not even human right now. I'm…a soul beast, the Ice Jade Scorpion!?' Qi Tian was utterly shocked.
No wonder his split soul had remained dormant for days—he had been attached to a soul beast.
Soul beasts falling asleep for long periods was normal, so Qi Tian wasn't surprised.
At this moment, the original soul of the body finally reacted.
"Who are you!? Why are you occupying my body!?" a voice suddenly rang in Qi Tian's mind.
"So you still have such a clear consciousness… is this Ice Jade Scorpion actually the Ice Empress?" Qi Tian analyzed silently.
Normal ten-thousand-year soul beasts had intelligence equivalent to human children.
Only a portion of the fifty-thousand-year-old beasts had intelligence equal to humans.
Some hundred-thousand-year soul beasts had intelligence surpassing humans entirely.
And this body had four layers of ring marks on its carapace—signifying cultivation approaching four hundred thousand years.
It was undoubtedly the Ice Empress.
"Why aren't you speaking!? Get out of my body right now!" the Ice Empress's soul roared.
At first, she thought she was immobilized by some kind of control-type soul skill.
But when her body actually lifted its claws, she realized someone—or something—had seized full control of her physical form.
To take over the body of a 390,000-year soul beast, the intruder must be unimaginably terrifying, and that realization made her uneasy.
Finally, Qi Tian spoke.
"I'm a human. Are you… The Ice Empress of the Extreme North?" Qi Tian asked.
"A human!? Have human soul skills become this bizarre now? You can actually invade my body!?" The Ice Empress was stunned.
If someone used her body to self-detonate or sacrifice herself, she'd be finished.
"Don't panic. This possession skill isn't something I control freely. By tomorrow, you'll regain your body."
Sensing her anxiety, Qi Tian hurried to reassure her.
The Ice Empress remained skeptical, but she quickly realized her powerful soul couldn't expel Qi Tian— so she could only resign herself to the situation.
"Damn it! Why did you have to use this skill now, of all times? Earlier or later would've been fine—my prey is getting away!" she snapped.
"Prey? What prey?" Qi Tian asked.
"A fat Iceworm! Close to a million years of cultivation! Eating it would benefit me immensely!"
The Ice Empress explained—she had been cultivating in slumber when she suddenly sensed a powerful energy wave, which woke her.
When she went to investigate, she found an Iceworm that had devoured countless Manifold Mysterious Ice Essences and broken through to over nine hundred thousand years.
The moment it emerged, the energy fluctuations awakened her.
"Tianmeng Iceworm?"
Upon hearing of an Iceworm of nearly a million-year cultivation, Qi Tian immediately thought of Tianmeng.
The Iceworm race was originally prey for the Ice Jade Scorpion race.
Who knew why Tianmeng fell in love with the Ice Empress?
Tianmeng liking the Ice Empress was like a mouse falling in love with a cat. Even though both had cultivated into intelligent beings, it was still absurd.
Did he have Stockholm syndrome? Falling for his natural predator?
The Ice Empress replied quickly,
"Yes, yes! It calls itself Tianmeng. It just emerged from the Ice Abyss—how do you know it?"
Qi Tian ignored her question and instead asked, "Which direction did it escape to?"
Wanting to recover her delicious prey, the Ice Empress instantly pointed the way.
Qi Tian charged southwest. It seemed the Tianmeng Iceworm had fled into the ocean and eventually entered the Star Dou Forest.
"No—I can't afford to miss the Tianmeng Iceworm. I must think of a solution."
Just then, the system finally spoke.
[Current Mission: Change the Ice Empress's fate.]
[Stage Reward: While borrowing the Ice Empress's body, cultivation progress will feed back to the main body.]
[Final Reward: Method of soul core condensation. Includes Soul Core Condensation Method and Yin-Yang Complementary Soul Core Method. Up to three soul cores can be condensed.]
[Mission Details:
1. Capture the Tianmeng Iceworm to obtain the potential to survive the 400,000-year tribulation.
2. Help the Ice Empress "conquer" the Snow Empress.]
Qi Tian stared at the sudden mission prompt, feeling a bit overwhelmed.
Forget capturing the Tianmeng Iceworm—
Even helping the Ice Empress "conquer" the Snow Empress" was an insane challenge.
The Snow Empress's personality was truly cold— not the "cold outside, warm inside" type like Zhu Zhuqing. Winning her over was unimaginably difficult.
Not to mention… The Ice Empress was a female scorpion. She possessed zero traits that would attract the Snow Empress.
'If you asked my real body to do this, maybe it'd be possible…' Qi Tian complained.
The Snow Empress might have been cold, but he knew that the naturally born Ice and Snow Spirit actually loved human warmth.
As long as she experienced the warmth of the mortal world, she could be moved.
But the Ice Empress could never achieve that.
'Forget it—one step at a time. For now, I must catch the Tianmeng Iceworm first.' Qi Tian decided.
The soul core condensation method—
He wanted it too much.
It would be extremely important not only for himself but for everyone around him.
Qi Tian even suspected that one reason why soul masters thousands of years later found it easier to break through to Titled Douluo was because this soul core condensation method played a crucial role.
—
End of Chapter