Douluo Dalu 3: Legend of the White Fox

Xia Yi admitted that he had deliberately arranged for Wujin and Gu Yue to work together.

Although Xia Yi was unaware of what had happened in the Extreme North, he could sense that Wujin's hostility toward Gu Yue was gradually fading.

At such a moment, Xia Yi had to step in and create opportunities for Wujin and Gu Yue to interact.

Otherwise, given their pride, the two of them might never have any meaningful connection in their entire lives.

For the sake of Star Dou Forest and the unity of soul beasts, Xia Yi had to take action to ease their tensions.

And he was the most suitable person to do so.

After leaving East Sea Academy, Xia Yi headed to the East Sea City Spirit Pagoda.

However, he wasn't there to see Gu Yue.

To prepare for her battle against Xia Yi in Shrek City, Gu Yue had already chosen the best cultivation room in the East Sea City Spirit Pagoda and gone into seclusion.

Xia Yi had come to the Spirit Pagoda for the same reason.

Standing in front of the tightly closed door of Gu Yue's cultivation room, he chose the room next to hers and began his own closed-door training.

He had already reached the peak of Rank 29 and could break through to Rank 30 at any moment.

East Sea Academy was too small and lacked a suitable cultivation room for such a breakthrough.

Technically, Xia Yi was still Leng Yaozhu's student.

Even though he had not joined the Spirit Pagoda, borrowing a cultivation room from a branch tower was no problem for him.

As long as he did not involve the core technologies of the Spirit Pagoda, the East Sea City Spirit Pagoda would not refuse his request.

Gu Yue had already occupied the most spiritually rich cultivation room, so Xia Yi had to settle for the next best option—the one beside hers.

Every cultivation room in the Spirit Pagoda was isolated by soul tool formations, ensuring that cultivators inside were not affected by their neighbors.

Inside her cultivation room, Gu Yue sat cross-legged on an ice bed carved from ten-thousand-year cold ice, her eyes closed. Her long, jet-black hair cascaded over her shoulders, reaching down her back.

She seemed to have entered another dimension, another world.

Suddenly, the atmosphere in the room shifted, and a deep, melodious dragon's roar echoed through the space. The light within the cultivation room dimmed, as though all the illumination had been absorbed into her body.

The next moment, specks of multicolored light appeared around her, evenly distributed and quietly revolving around her body.

The low dragon's roar grew clearer.

As the roar resounded, the elemental particles in the room began to change. Particles of the same element started to condense, forming strange little dragons that joyfully swam around Gu Yue's body.

The blue ones were water element dragons, the red ones were fire element dragons. There were also green wind element dragons, yellow earth element dragons, black darkness element dragons, silver space element dragons, and golden light element dragons.

However, just as Gu Yue was about to absorb these elemental dragons, the water element dragon suddenly began to turn transparent at a speed visible to the naked eye.

At the same time, the ten-thousand-year cold ice bed beneath her slowly became illusory.

"What terrifying ice-attribute power," Gu Yue murmured, opening her eyes as a purple light flickered in her gaze.

As an Elementalist, she was extremely sensitive to the fluctuations of elements in the air.

Because of this, she could clearly sense a powerful ice element force continuously devouring all the surrounding ice-attribute energy.

Even the water elements in the air were rapidly being converted into ice elements before being consumed.

Not even the soul tool formations in the cultivation room could isolate this ice attribute power.

Gu Yue parted her red lips slightly and gently inhaled. The elemental dragons swimming around her, including the disappearing water element dragon, were all absorbed into her body.

When she pushed open the door of her cultivation room, she found that the entire corridor was packed with Spirit Pagoda staff.

To be precise, they weren't just gathered in front of her room, but were crowded from the door of Xia Yi's cultivation room all the way to hers.

"What's going on?" Gu Yue asked quickly.

"Miss Gu Yue, your junior brother's cultivation room suddenly erupted with an extremely strong ice-element fluctuation. Many of the ten-thousand-year cold ice beds in the surrounding cultivation rooms have been consumed," the staff member in charge of the second training area explained with a wry smile.

The ten-thousand-year cold ice beds were obtained at great expense and effort from the core glaciers of the Extreme North.

Once extracted, they were inscribed with intricate soul tool formations, ensuring they would not melt while also allowing soul masters to use their ice-attribute energy to stabilize their minds during training. This not only improved cultivation efficiency but also significantly reduced the risk of deviation.

According to the Spirit Pagoda's records, ten thousand years ago, the Emotion God and Spirit Ice Douluo Huo Yuhao had used a ten-thousand-year cold ice jade marrow bed to fuse with the third most powerful soul beast on the continent—the leader of the Extreme North's Three Heavenly Kings, Snow Empress, who had a cultivation level of nearly 700,000 years.

At the time, Huo Yuhao was only at the Soul King level.

Although the ten-thousand-year cold ice beds were far less valuable than ten-thousand-year cold ice jade marrow beds, they were still considered priceless cultivation treasures for ordinary soul masters.

Even in the Spirit Pagoda, only the most elite cultivation rooms had them.

There were only eighteen in total.

Yet just now, during Xia Yi's cultivation, a total of eight ten-thousand-year cold ice beds—including the ones in both Gu Yue's and Xia Yi's rooms—had been devoured.

The remaining ten had only been saved because the Spirit Pagoda staff had swiftly stored them away upon noticing the anomaly.

Otherwise, the East Sea City Spirit Pagoda might have lost every single one.

"My junior brother, Xia Yi…" Gu Yue's gaze turned peculiar. "When did he arrive?"

"He arrived yesterday and has been cultivating inside for over a night now," the staff member replied.

"A whole night…" Gu Yue frowned slightly. "I understand. You all can leave now. Don't worry about my junior brother and me. As for the damage caused by his training, we will compensate for it in full."

"Thank you very much, Miss Gu Yue." The staff member managing the cultivation rooms let out a huge sigh of relief.

Each ten-thousand-year cold ice bed was meticulously recorded. Losing so many at once would have been impossible to explain if no one took responsibility.

Inside the cultivation room, Xia Yi gazed at the Ice God's Heart in his hand, lost in thought.

"I don't care if you're big brother or big sister—I know you can hear me. If you really have power, can't you just help me turn my soul ring purple? If not, black would be fine too…"

Xia Yi didn't know whether to laugh or cry. His third soul ring was platinum-colored—essentially a million-year soul ring.

The problem was, once he revealed such a ring, it would definitely cause an uproar.

A wave of anger, mixed with resentment, emanated from the Ice God's Heart.

Xia Yi instantly understood its meaning.

It was complaining that after swallowing most of its power and forcing it into a soul-spirit contract, he still dared to ask for more.

"Big brother, big sister, you were the one who tried to take over my body first! If anything, you just suffered the consequences of your own actions. Besides, I have no idea how you even became my soul spirit! And now, our fates are tied together—if I get captured and taken away for research, I doubt things will end well for you either!" Xia Yi was on the verge of tears. Other soul masters could control their soul spirits, but here he was—his very first soul spirit was already so rebellious.

He had already pleaded with it, but it was still acting all arrogant.

It really wasn't Xia Yi's fault! The last time, it was the Ice God's Heart that had rushed into his mouth on its own, leading to most of its power being devoured.

And this time, he had no idea how it ended up turning into his soul spirit.

Xia Yi was a shape-shifting soul beast. As long as his soul power met the requirements, he could fully condense his own soul rings in the early stages.

He didn't need soul spirits at all.

Yet this time, right after his soul power broke through Level 30, he suddenly felt a new connection between himself and the Ice God's Heart.

With just a thought, he had summoned the Ice God's Heart from his spiritual world.

Immediately, a platinum-colored soul ring appeared around him.

By now, he was almost certain that the Ice God's Heart had already become his soul spirit.

Now that it had become his soul spirit, he could faintly sense its thoughts.

"If you still dare to speak! If you hadn't targeted me first, I wouldn't have even thought about taking over your body! Even if it means mutual destruction, I will never help you. Hmph!" The Ice God's Heart's thoughts transmitted directly into Xia Yi's mind.

It was the one who truly wanted to cry but had no tears.

Originally, it had possessed the power of a God-Slaying Fixed Soul Guidance Missile, yet its attempt to take over a mere one-ring soul master had ended in failure.

Not only had it lost most of its power, but it had also been forced to hide in Xia Yi's spiritual world, relying on sleep to slowly recover. But somehow, in its sleep, it had inexplicably transformed into Xia Yi's soul spirit.

Even it had taken a long time to react to what had happened.

The realization had nearly driven it mad.

If it had known earlier that staying in Xia Yi's spiritual world would cost such an outrageous rent—demanding its very being as payment—it would never have stayed, not even if someone had beaten it to death!

"I'm warning you! Don't think I won't get mad! If you don't help me change my soul ring to purple, I'll explode you right now! Worst case, I'll just lose you and condense a new soul ring myself!" Xia Yi snorted coldly. He still didn't fully understand what was going on, but there was no way he was going to let a soul spirit be this arrogant.

"Even if I die, your soul ring won't disappear—it'll still be platinum-colored. Besides, now that I'm your soul spirit, even if I die, as long as you remain alive, I will still be reborn." The Ice God's Heart was completely unfazed. "If you hadn't devoured most of my power last time, I wouldn't be stuck at mere platinum now."

"Don't think I can't do anything to you. And stop pretending to be all wronged! Don't assume I can't tell—I can feel it clearly. Your consciousness is much sharper than before. If I'm not mistaken, your consciousness was slowly dissipating before, and it only stabilized after you entered my spiritual world, right?" Xia Yi snorted.

The Ice God's Heart in Xia Yi's hand froze for a moment. It hadn't expected Xia Yi to be able to figure out its condition. With a swoosh, it instantly darted back into Xia Yi's forehead.

"My consciousness is still fragile. Your spiritual world is special. I need to sleep inside to stabilize my consciousness. Because of that, I'll help you this once. But from now on, unless I come to you on my own, don't disturb me. Unless… you can get the Snow Emperor's Order from the God of Emotions."

Although it agreed to help Xia Yi, the Ice God's Heart refused to acknowledge him as its master.

A wave of icy energy spread from the Ice God's Heart into Xia Yi's body.

His platinum-colored third soul ring instantly turned golden-orange.

Then, it quickly shifted to red, then black in the blink of an eye, and finally settled into the same purple hue as his first and second soul rings.

Looking at the three identical purple soul rings around him, Xia Yi finally let out a sigh of relief.

"You still haven't told me what the Snow Emperor's Order is," he asked.

After waiting for a long time with no response, Xia Yi focused his consciousness into his spiritual world, only to find that the Ice God's Heart had already concealed its aura and fallen into a deep sleep.

"Hey, your master is talking to you, and you just ignore me and go straight to sleep? Isn't that a bit too rude?" Xia Yi was speechless. He really wanted to shake the Ice God's Heart awake.

Of course, that was just a thought. After all, it was his soul spirit.

Might as well take care of it for now.

"I'm the master. I can't be bothered to argue with a little soul spirit." Giving himself that comforting excuse, Xia Yi happily stood up.

Even though his soul spirit was disobedient, at least it had given him a million-year soul ring and a rather powerful soul skill.

As the master, he decided to be generous and not punish it for its disrespect.

"If only I could get a few more million-year soul spirits. Even if none of them respected me, I'd still be fine with it," Xia Yi chuckled.

"If you laugh any harder, your drool is going to start dripping."

(End of Chapter)