Douluo Continent: My name is Lu Mingfei, and my martial soul is Lu Mingze.

Lu Mingze glanced at Lu Mingfei, then looked away. "But that's not important. What's important is that your time is running out. The great calamity of four hundred thousand years is almost here, isn't it? The great calamity of seven hundred thousand years is also coming soon. If you miss this opportunity, who knows when the next one will be?"

This statement hit Hyotei and Yuki-tei's sore spot.

They really don't have time.

Especially for Hyotei, the great calamity of four hundred thousand years is just around the corner.

"I'll give you three days to consider," Lu Mingze said. "After that, whether you agree or not, we will leave the far north."

"If you agree, come find him."

He pointed at Lu Mingfei.

"If you don't agree, we'll leave, and you can continue with your lives. When the heavenly tribulation comes, you'll have to bear it yourselves. If you survive it, you'll live another 100,000 years; if you don't, then it's as if you never existed."

"It's that simple."

After Lu Mingze finished speaking, he raised his wine glass and made a toasting gesture.

The next second, space shattered.

Like a mirror cracked in the middle with countless slits, light pours in through the slits, then comes the wind, then the snow.

Xue Di stood up, her long, silvery-white hair cascading down to her waist. Her deep blue eyes stared at Lu Mingze for a moment before turning to Bing Di and saying softly, "Bing'er, let's go."

Two ferocious beasts, hundreds of thousands of years old, turned and walked out of the cave, disappearing into the swirling snow.

Lu Mingfei lay on the animal hide, staring at the cave entrance, and after a long while, he finally managed to utter a sentence: "They just left like that?"

"Otherwise what? Stay and chat with you?" Lu Mingze's voice echoed in my mind, his tone full of smugness.

"Brother, they are the three Heavenly Kings of the Far North, not your babysitter."

It's hard to say whether she'll become a nanny in the future.

Lu Mingfei rolled his eyes, too lazy to pay him any attention.

But before he could finish rolling his eyes a second time, Lu Mingze's voice rang out again, this time with a hint of amusement: "But bro, I'll bet you, that Hyotei will be back soon."

"On what grounds?"

"Then don't worry about it."

Lu Mingze didn't answer, he just smiled, a smile that gave Lu Mingfei goosebumps.

Hyotei and Yuki-tei hadn't gone far when Hyotei stopped.

Her body trembled slightly, not from cold, but from breathlessness.

Because that sound came again.

"Hyotei—why are you hiding—I know you heard me—I, Tianmeng Ice Silkworm, am back—weren't you so arrogant back then when you were chasing after me like a tonic—why are you afraid to see me now—"

The sound was sharp and thin, like a needle piercing your ear and swirling inside.

Hyotei's tail hook lashed out, tearing a half-meter-deep crack in the ice wall beside them.

"That damn fat worm." Hyotei's voice was as cold as a knife scraping ice. "How long has it been howling?"

Xue Di thought for a moment: "It was calling out even before you entered the cave."

"Has it been barking all this time?"

"It keeps calling."

Hyotei paused for a second, then turned and walked in the direction from which the sound came.

Xue Di looked at her but didn't stop her.

Hyotei was incredibly fast, transforming into a streak of emerald green in the snowstorm.

Several thoughts raced through her mind—that fat worm was annoying, but it was a million-year-old soul beast with a million years of cultivation and extremely pure ice attribute energy. If she could devour its energy, her chances of surviving the 400,000-year tribulation would increase by at least 30%.

Even if what Lu Mingze said is true, it's always good to have multiple options.

Resources are scarce in this far north, and the Heavenly Dream Ice Silkworm was raised here anyway, so why not take it?

As for Lu Mingze's words, "Don't go looking for it," Hyotei didn't take them to heart at all.

It's just a fat worm, what waves can it make?

Hyotei traveled dozens of miles through the blizzard before finally spotting the figure that had sent her blood pressure soaring.

Tianmeng Ice Silkworm.

A snow-white silkworm, round and plump, covered with a shell like ice crystals, was lying on the snow, shaking its head and chirping.

"Little Bingbing—I'm here—you've finally come—"

Without a word, Hyotei swung its tail hook, the cold blue light slicing through the snow and wind at a speed almost invisible to the naked eye.

Then the tail hook stopped.

It wasn't that Hyotei wanted to stop; something was blocking it.

A layer of pale golden light spread from the Heavenly Dream Ice Silkworm, like a giant bubble, firmly sticking the Ice Emperor's tail hook to mid-air.

The light membrane was covered with dense patterns. It wasn't a soul skill, but something she had never seen before—a qualitative change that occurred when mental power and ice attribute were fused to the extreme.

Hyotei's pupils suddenly contracted.

She tried to pull the tail hook back, but couldn't.

She tried to back away, only to find her entire body enveloped in that layer of light, like an insect sealed in amber.

"Tenmu!" Hyotei's voice held a hint of shock and anger for the first time. "You—"

"Bingbing, don't be angry." Tianmeng Ice Silkworm slowly crawled over, its voice full of smugness.

"I've been waiting for this day for so long. Do you know how many years I've been eaten by those ferocious beasts in the Star Dou Great Forest? I was being eaten every day, and every day I thought, how wonderful it would be if one day I could keep you by my side and make sure you could never run away again."

Hyotei's body was filled with icy energy, and the power of extreme ice surged outwards wildly, but the golden spiritual energy enveloped her like cotton, and her power dissipated as soon as it struck, making it impossible to exert any force.

The Heavenly Dream Ice Silkworm crawled in front of her, raised its round head to look at her, and spoke in a serious tone.

"Bingbing, listen to me. I don't want to hurt you, I want to cooperate with you."

"Cooperation?" Hyotei sneered. "You call this cooperation?"

"Let me finish speaking first." Tianmeng Bingcan's voice carried an indescribable sincerity.

"I call it the 'God-Making Project'."

Hyotei didn't speak, but their struggling stopped.

Seeing that she had quieted down, Tianmeng Bingcan began to speak eloquently.

"Bingbing, you know better than I that you can't survive the 400,000-year calamity. It's not that I don't believe in your strength, it's just that the calamity specifically targets the weaknesses of ice-attribute soul beasts, and no matter how high your cultivation level is, you can't withstand it."

"The rules of the divine realm that suppress soul beasts are undeniable, and no one can circumvent them."

"so what?"

"So I came up with a solution."

Tianmeng Ice Silkworm lowered her voice slightly: "I found a human Soul Master named Huo Yuhao, whose spiritual talent is extremely high. I gave him my first Soul Ring, a million-year spiritual Soul Ring. In this way, he can bear my power, and I can also survive through him."

Hyotei's expression changed.

"You sold yourself to a human?"

"It's not selling, it's binding," Tianmeng Ice Silkworm said seriously.

"Soul beasts coexist with humans, gaining eternal life by helping humans ascend to godhood. He becomes stronger, I become stronger. He becomes a god, I live forever. This is the only way to bypass the rules of the divine realm."

Tianmeng Ice Silkworm's voice softened: "I want you to come with me. Bingbing, give your power to Huo Yuhao as well, let it become his second martial soul. You have the Ultimate Ice, he has the Spirit Eye of the Spiritual Type, the two martial souls complement each other, his talent will take off directly."

"Once he becomes a god, you and I will both gain eternal life. And—"

It paused, a hint of hesitation in its voice: "And that way we can stay together forever."

Hyotei remained silent for a long time.

The plan that Tianmeng Ice Silkworm mentioned is essentially the same as what Lu Mingze just said in the cave—to bind soul beasts with humans, bypass the rules of the divine realm, and use humans to become gods and gain immortality.

But Tianmeng's proposal was clearly worse.

Lu Mingze's claim to the monarchy at least sounds somewhat credible, and that brat's ability to create space to isolate himself from the outside world is genuine.

And what about Tianmeng? They placed all their hopes on a human child whose innate soul power was only level one.

This isn't creating a god; this is gambling.