Chapter 138: This Is Reasonable

The despair of death surfaced in Snow Emperor's mind.

This was not mere rhetoric, but a genuine sensation—an overwhelming feeling of being shattered, rising from the deepest, darkest recesses of her soul. It was not pain but a void, a complete disintegration of self, as if ice had melted into water, then evaporated into steam. Consciousness ceased to exist, leaving behind an endless abyss of darkness.

Snow Emperess had never died before, but perhaps this was what the demise of an elemental being felt like.

In her hundreds of thousands of years of life, the ruler of the Extreme North had never been so close to true death.

In some remote corner of her mind, reason screamed at her to flee, but her body seemed disconnected from her thoughts, frozen in place, unable to move.

To weaker elemental beings, creatures of the same attribute were naturally the greatest of nourishment. Since her birth, Snow Emperess had faced countless life-and-death crises, yet never before had she…

It felt as though she truly had died once before but had somehow forgotten the memory of that death—until now, when those memories came surging back, paralyzing her.

Who is that? Her mind sluggishly turned.

Snow Emperess had never seen that face before, but she was certain—this man was absolutely not the Three-Eyed Golden Lion!

And in this world, there should not exist a being capable of making her feel death so tangibly—not even a god!

Yet she had no time to consider this further, for behind her, Di Tian, despite hovering in midair, had assumed a kneeling posture. On his face was an expression that could only be described as fervent worship.

The tall man raised his hand, and a blazing, razor-sharp golden radiance ignited in his palm, gradually taking the form of a long spear.

That icy golden glow stung Snow Emperor's eyes. She knew—this was the end.

Yet, strangely, there were no complex thoughts in her heart. At most, she felt a little regretful—she had done so much to prepare for her next tribulation, but now, none of it would matter.

According to her original plan, she could have taken advantage of reincarnation to become the Ice God in one fell swoop.

But oddly enough, death did not descend upon her.

The man's expression fluctuated violently before finally settling into an annoyed, helpless, and somewhat smug look.

—His only son was screaming in his ear.

"Stop! dad! Don't attack!! Your true body is trapped in the God Realm! If you act recklessly and get discovered, you won't even have a chance to escape! Do you want to die?!"

Inside his consciousness space, Wang Rui was howling in utter lack of composure.

Never mind the God Realm—there was also that mysterious entity that had stirred when Huo Yuqing and Ice Emperor merged. It might still be watching the Extreme North. If the Golden Dragon King exposed himself by using his power, no matter how capable Wang Rui's Fate Force was, he definitely wouldn't be able to fly up to the God Realm to save his father.

"Also! Put your hand down! No summoning the Golden Dragon Spear!"

"That Snow Woman tried to kill you, yet you want me to spare her? Hmph, such soft-heartedness." In Wang Rui's consciousness space, the massive golden dragon that practically filled the entire sky rumbled.

Wang Rui nearly rolled his eyes to the back of his head.

This old fat dragon was clearly pleased that Wang Rui was showing concern for him—after all, that golden dragon face couldn't even hide its smugness—but it just couldn't say anything decent for once.

"I'm only worried that you'll die up there and ruin my plans," Wang Rui snapped, voice laced with irritation. "Who would care if your fat dragon butt gets kicked by those God Kings?"

Yep, definitely his biological son. The Golden Dragon bloodline apparently had no room for subtlety.

On the side, Electrolux, silently watching: …As long as you two are happy.

While arguing with his son, the Golden Dragon King kept his expression neutral.

"Scram." He coldly told Snow Emperor, his speech growing less awkward with each word. "Since my brat wants to spare your life… remember to be grateful for the Emperor Auspicious Beast's mercy. You owe him one. Hmph, I can't be bothered to kill you a second time."

Snow Emperess, who had thought herself doomed, hesitated for a moment before immediately transforming into a streak of light and fleeing.

She gritted her teeth, enduring the overwhelming weakness from her severe injuries, yet stubbornly avoided retreating to the peak where she usually resided.

Whether that man's words were true or false, she had no way of resisting him. She had to leave herself a sliver of hope.

The Golden Dragon King watched as Snow Emperess disappeared into the chaotic white expanse at the edge of the snowy plains. True to his word, he did not pursue her. Instead, he muttered inside Wang Rui's consciousness space:

"I can see the resentment in her heart. Didn't you tell me before—'thirty years east of the river, thirty years west of the river, don't bully the poor and the young'? That Snow Woman might not have the surname Xiao, but I say we follow up and eliminate the threat properly."

He was fully intending to crush that ice elemental spirit on the spot.

For a long time, the Golden Dragon King had been wallowing in the beast race's collective negative emotions, his only connection to the outside world being the bond with Wang Rui. It was like dangling over an abyss, clinging to a single spider's thread to avoid falling into total oblivion. Only the heavens knew how terrified he was the moment he felt that thread freezing and about to snap.

Moreover, after all this time, he had long since come to regard Wang Rui as his true family.

Luckily, when the God of Shura had attempted to claim the Golden Dragon Spear for himself, he had secretly modified the array sealing the Golden Dragon King. Since he hadn't been able to completely re-seal it afterward, the Golden Dragon King had been able to force his way through that small gap and channel his power to the lower realms via his bond with the Auspicious Beast.

Even now, he still felt lingering fear.

…Someone should really thank the God of Shura.

"…Did you just call a soul beast with nearly 700,000 years of cultivation a young?" Wang Rui said dryly. "Soul beasts today aren't as abundant as they were in your era. A top-tier combat force like Snow Emperor can't be killed so easily. Compared to humans, the growth of a soul beast's peak power is far too slow. But I also can't let Snow Emperess hold a grudge against Star Dou…"

Wang Rui pondered for a moment before using his Eye of Destiny to gaze in the direction where Snow Emperor had fled.

At this moment, the Golden Dragon King, who was sharing Wang Rui's senses, also saw through the perspective of the Eye of Destiny—the ceaseless spinning of luck and causality across all things. The sheer volume of information poured in, making his already foggy, negativity-laden mind even dizzier.

"Ugh… do you have to become the God of Destiny?" the Golden Dragon King muttered weakly. "Your intelligence wasn't high to begin with. What if your brain burns out?"

"Shut up," Wang Rui snapped.

The limited-time spirit old man fell silent, possibly stunned senseless by the Eye of Destiny's overwhelming vision.

Wang Rui, however, carefully grasped a thread of fate tightly entwined around Snow Emperor—a hazy, not-yet-fully-formed causal link—and followed it to a faint, nearly depleted mist of light.

This dim aura in the Eye of Destiny belonged to the snow lotus that Snow Emperor planned to consume to take human form and transcend her tribulation.

Since the Emperor Auspicious Beast could manipulate fate itself, it was only natural that the flow of events could be nudged toward a certain direction…

As golden light representing auspiciousness landed upon that distant snow lotus, its luck rapidly strengthened, even surpassing Snow Emperess's.

Severely injured, Snow Emperor might be careless in the final struggle. Or she might encounter an accident. If the snow lotus's consciousness overwhelmed hers during the fusion, preserving its own mind while inheriting the Snow Woman's power and leaving the Extreme North to be drawn to the Beast God Sect…

That was reasonable.

As for the "accident"… Wang Rui looked at the two thin lines of human karma—symbolizing evil cause and effect—that had just landed on Snow Emperor, and blinked.

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Question: Who do you think caused this