"Very good."
"Ice Empress, I acknowledge your decision."
"Rest assured—following me will not bring you shame."
"In time, you will understand just how correct your choice today truly is."
For Ye Yu, the Ice Empressr' surrender came as no surprise. In fact, he was very satisfied.
After all, in the original tale, if the Ice Empress could submit to Huo Yuhao, then surrendering to him was only natural.
"Bing Bing, this is great!"
"From now on, we can be together forever!"
Hearing the Ice Empress agree to the sacrifice, the Skydream Ice Worm was thrilled beyond words.
The Ice Empress, however, merely gave a cold snort, her heart seething with resentment.
True, if the Skydream Ice Worm's words were real—if she could preserve her consciousness, become part of a human's Martial Soul, and even become a god in the future—then offering herself in sacrifice wasn't entirely unacceptable.
It might even be a promising future.
After all, at most another ten thousand years and she would be forced to face her own Four-Hundred-Thousand-Year Thunder Tribulation—a calamity with a ninety-percent chance of death.
But being captured by the Skydream Ice Worm working together with a human, forced into this situation? That was hardly something to feel happy about.
Ye Yu was her future master, a Spirit Master whose strength she could neither offend nor resist.
The Skydream Ice Worm, however—formerly nothing more than her prey, a lucky bug who stumbled upon fortune—earned nothing but her disdain and annoyance.
All that frustration and quiet hatred, she now aimed squarely at him.
"Don't call me Bing bing."
"Call me that again, and I'll kill you."
The Ice Empress's voice was frosty with displeasure.
The Skydream Ice Worm only chuckled, utterly unafraid. If they still had physical bodies, he knew he wouldn't be her match.
But once she sacrificed herself to Ye Yu, becoming a spiritual Martial Soul like him, she would be nothing but a disembodied soul.
And in that state, there was no way the Ice Empress could best a million-year-old spiritual-type soul beast like himself.
So why would he fear her now?
With the Ice Empress's surrender, Ye Yu relaxed the Blue Silver Spirit Jade Tree roots coiling around her, releasing the Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion to the ground.
"Ice Empress, begin the sacrifice."
Taking a deep breath, the Ice Empress activated the sacrificial technique.
In an instant, blinding light burst forth—icy white intertwined with emerald green—spreading outwards in a dome of radiant color, enveloping both her and Ye Yu.
The Skydream Ice Worm, being Ye Yu's intelligent Spirit Ring, was unaffected by the protective barrier generated during the sacrifice and remained inside.
The Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion's body rose into the air, her crystalline shell now gleaming like a perfect jade carving. Streams of icy white and emerald light surged from her body into Ye Yu, transforming into pure Spirit Power and merging into the fourth set of meridians within his body—those reserved for cultivating Spirit Power for his future third ice-attribute Martial Soul.
Time slipped away unnoticed.
When the light faded, the Ice Empress's body was gone.
In her place remained a scarlet Thirty-Thousand-Year Spirit Ring and an ice-white and emerald crystalline torso bone shaped like the upper body of a scorpion, complete with a razor-sharp tail hook.
The Spirit Ring and Spirit Bone flew straight toward Ye Yu.
At the same time, he summoned the third ice-attribute Martial Soul prototype—a mass of icy-white liquid-like light—behind him.
The torso bone dropped into his arms, while the scarlet ring locked onto the prototype Martial Soul.
Because this was a sacrifice, the Ice Empress's Spirit Ring immediately became the first ring of this third Martial Soul, injecting the Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion's Martial Soul essence directly into it.
The prototype's form was still undefined, but the Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion essence was a perfect elemental match.
However, most of the Skydream Ice Worm's Martial Soul essence had gone to Ye Yu's second Martial Soul, Spirit Eyes, leaving too little to elevate the prototype to its peak quality.
To perfect it, Ye Yu intended to add the Golden Holy Dragon Martial Soul essence from Yu Xiaogang's Luo Sanpao.
Long before the Ice Empress's sacrifice began, Ye Yu had already stored this Golden Holy Dragon essence within his External Spirit Bone – Demon Willow Fluff, which had parasitically fused with his body.
As the sacrifice neared its end, Ye Yu activated the Spirit Bone Ability, Devouring Parasitism, to channel the Golden Holy Dragon essence back into his body, guiding it into his spiritual sea—the Niwan Palace.
When the Ice Empress's Spirit Ring locked onto the prototype Martial Soul, Ye Yu seized the moment.
"Now!"
He injected the Golden Holy Dragon essence into the prototype's Martial Soul essence.
Within his spiritual sea, the icy-white, emerald, and now golden light of the prototype flared brilliantly. It shrank into a pulsing egg of interwoven colors, as if nurturing something inside.
Thanks to the dragon bloodline's immense compatibility, the Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion and Golden Holy Dragon essences merged seamlessly.
The egg swelled, then cracked—six gleaming ice-blue scorpion legs tipped with gold extended from its sides, followed by massive pincer claws embedded with hexagonal gem-like protrusions.
A nine-segmented tail, crystalline in ice-blue and emerald with golden highlights, unfurled behind it, the stinger sharp as a blade.
From its back spread two majestic dragon wings, while its front revealed a fierce draconic head—part insect, part dragon—its neck thick and high, exuding a regal, frigid aura.
Ice-blue dragon scales covered every surface, even over the previously smooth chitin.
Compared to the pure Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion, the fusion with the Golden Holy Dragon essence transformed the prototype into a titanic dragon-scorpion hybrid—dual-element in ice and light—with both supreme power and imposing form.
Feeling its presence, Ye Yu was deeply pleased.
"Not bad… not bad at all."
"From now on, you'll be called… Ice Jade Emperor Dragon Scorpion!"