Domain of Perpetual Ice, the first of two soul abilities of the Ice Empress's torso soul bone.
Back when he first got it, Huo Yuhao could only muster a quarter of its true prowess and could only used its basic ability of enveloping an area around him in ultimate ice with the oppressive aura of the Ice Empress.
However, after some time of his body being blessed by both the Ice God's Bone and the Life Gold, the torso soul bone had underwent some transformations that made its soul abilities stronger—its domain specifically, now has the capability of amplifying its user's physical strength, soul power, and ultimate ice by 100% while debuffing his opponents' strength and movement due its extreme chill; leaving them unable to exhibit less than 60% of their strength.
But in this moment, facing the Heavenly Tribulation, Huo Yuhao was relying in its amplification rather than its debuffs.
Flicking his wrist, the Frostbane sword appeared in his hand. Its crystalline blade shimmered with a chilling radiance and enlarged, exuding an aura of absolute frost that seemed to resonate with the frozen domain surrounding him.
"Huuu...." With his amplified power from the Perpetual Ice domain, Huo Yuhao gripped it tightly, feeling the icy energy surge through his veins. The katana held by his susanoo shimmered and became ethereal, double-edged; becoming more complete and surreal — but it still lacked a certain....key component.
Above, the tribulation vortex rumbled ominously, and another bolt of deep-purple lightning formed, its intensity far greater than the previous ones. It crackled with an overwhelming force of destruction, as if the very laws of the universe were preparing to erase him from existence.
Huo Yuhao narrowed his eyes and his Mangekyou Sharingan contracted, pitch-black flames coated the body of the susanoo; hoping it could burn away some of that lightning. He had much more skills to offer, but unfortunately, it wouldn't do much against a force that was fundamentally beyond the mortal realm.
Even with his vast arsenal of techniques—be it Ultimate Ice, spiritual power, or the might of his Susanoo—he was still standing against fraction of the will of the heavens.
Yet, Huo Yuhao had never been one to simply accept fate. He came far into this life, plus he was still so young, so how could he just die like this?
He wasn't just fighting for his life, but also for the friends and teachers depending on him from within his spiritual sea! Skydream, Ice Empress, Snow Empress, Indra, Electrolux—
"My fate.... is my mine to decide! I will survive!"
His gaze flickered with madness, the edges of his vision tinged red from the blood dripping down his eyes.
Suddenly, a dense icy-blue and liquid-like substance started coating his body. With dark lines accenting the edges of his body; gradually becoming a strange bubbly icy-blue aura of sorts.
It became unstable for a short while before it gradually stabilizes, with intricate patterns all across it and formed behind the back of the icy-blue cloak was the symbol of a round fan—the symbol of the Uchiha.
'Am I doing this right?' Snow Empress' voice sounded.
'This is...!?' Huo Yuhao widened his eyes in shock, feeling a surge of immense power flowing through his meridians, to the point of almost bursting from the overwhelming force, yet it was also being forcibly calmed down by his regeneration that seemed to have been enhanced a bit by the cloak.
'Snow Empress? What are you—'
'Looks like we're about to die anyway. Might as well go all out, huh?' Snow Empress's voice was eerily calm, yet there was an undercurrent of something deeper—resolve.
The others in the spiritual sea also showed their support by giving more of their energy into Huo Yuhao; enhancing all his physical capabilities, soul and spiritual power, and focusing most of it all into keeping his body from implosion.
Even so, his body was barely holding on. Thick veins protruded all across his body, seemingly about to burst and blood kept spilling out of some of his orifices but were hidden by the icy-blue substance coating his body.
Huo Yuhao's heart pounded. The icy-blue substance covering his body.... it reminded him of something he'd seen in one of his previous lives. 'A Jinchūriki cloak? Is that even possible?!'
Well, thinking about it for a moment, it theoretically could and would worked but...
He shook his head. 'I'll ask ancestor about it more later. I have to survive this first!'
From beneath Huo Yuhao's feet, a bright icy-blue light erupted, sending a chilling wave of frost outward. The ground beneath him froze solid, layers upon layers of Ultimate Ice and Snow forming an intricate, glacial mound. Then, his entire body was engulfed in the same ethereal light.
Inside his dantian, Snow Empress' sat upon her frozen throne—her long, silver white hair flowing behind her like an endless river of frost. She looked up, a rare, determined expression on her usually cold face.
'Huo Yuhao.... I'll trust you.'
A sudden surge of ice and snow exploded around Huo Yuhao's body—a large and beautiful figure of a towering woman gradually formed. Although she had no definitive features, there's no denying her heavenly curves and large assets.
Her face was blanked face, her body was entirely light-blue in color. In a unexpected move, she began to seamlessly fuse with the susanoo as if it were armor; like a suit of samurai armor formed on her.
'Snow Empress?!' Huo Yuhao's eyes widened in shock.
It was the projection avatar of Snow Empress. Huo Yuhao looked around to find himself within her—vast ultimate ice and snow energy flowed all around him, filling him with the sense of limitless power.
This was all the energies she had accumulated as a 700,000 year old soul beast taking on a solid form, even a Transcendent Douluo wouldn't be an equal to such vast soul power. Only Skydream could confidently say that he had more energy than, but never could defeat her.
Using this form had temporarily elevated Huo Yuhao's prowess to a Transcendent Douluo!
'Ancestor, did you plan about this when you had sealed Snow Empress in my dantian?' Huo Yuhao couldn't help but ask.
'Honestly, no. I did consider the possibility but I lacked most of the knowledge behind the inner-workings of the seal of the tailed beast to really know if it would work. Plus, different worlds and different laws in nature. This is just an accident, judging by how...unrefined this transformation is.'
Above, the heavenly tribulation rumbled, sensing the presence of another, much stronger, entity alongside Huo Yuhao. The storm thickened, a massive bolt of destruction forming within the vortex.
Huo Yuhao wryly smiled. 'Well, it doesn't look like it wants to play fair.'
'Heaven is never fair, especially to us soul beasts.' Snow Empress said.
'....It's been an honor to fight alongside you guys.'
Huo Yuhao gripped his sword tightly, the frost-laced blade humming with raw power. The icy-blue cloak surrounding him flickered, still unstable, yet it remained.
Crackkakoom!!*
Above, the vortex roared, the destructive bolt within writhing like a caged beast about to be unleashed. The sheer intensity of it made the air crackle and space-time distorting; everything within a 10-mile radius of Huo Yuhao was completely frozen in time.
This time, even a Transcendent Douluo wouldn't be able to walk away from this alive.
It was suffocating, to say the least. Huo Yuhao gritted his teeth, feeling his heart momentarily stopped beating when the pressure of the Heavenly Tribulation intensified.
'It feels as though the entire world is bearing down on me...'
Huo Yuhao took a deep breath, steadying his grip on Frostbane as his ultimate ice and fire surged through his veins.
Just because he devoured the soul rings of soul beasts, it prompted the response of a heavenly tribulation? Nah, Huo Yuhao could smell the conspiracy and bullshit.
But unless he survives this, he would never figure out the person behind this.
He then let out a war cry, "I WILL LIVE!!!"
Crackkakooom!!*
The sky split apart as the tribulation bolt descended, a titanic force of destruction tearing through the sky. The frozen trees went ablaze, the crater that Huo Yuhao was in turned into a molten lava from the sheer heat the lightning was emitting even though it was still in the air.
Huo Yuhao's vision swam, the curse of the Mangekyou Sharingan was blinding him further, but his resolve did not waver.
His body screamed in agony, his muscles tearing apart only to be forcibly mended by his regeneration and the unstable, icy-blue cloak wrapped around him. His soul power churned wildly, threatening to spiral out of control, yet he forced it into submission.
As another bolt about to strike him, the fusion of Snow Empress and Susanoo roared to life. The massive snow lady dressed in a flaming armor lifted its ethereal sword, now burning with Ultimate Ice-Fire. It moved in perfect sync with Huo Yuhao as he swung Frostbane upward, his whole of everything pouring into this one, decisive strike.
'Everyone...' Huo Yuhao's vision turned completely white.
'I'm sorry...'
BOOOOOM!!
The clash sent shockwaves ripping through the outer region of the Great Star Dou Forest, annihilating almost all the soul beasts in a ten kilometer radius from where Huo Yuhao was.
A bright purple light soon followed, blinding almost everyone that could see it—and a lot of people and soul beast saw it, even those from Shrek City could see it.
"Xuan Zi. Go to the forest. I have a bad feeling." Mu En said with a frown.
"Yes!" Xuan Zi wasted no time and his body blurred, flying off towards the forest.
Mu En wanted to follow after but unfortunately, he was a little busy at the moment.
"....I'm guessing that's not a regular occurrence at this place?" Jing Hongchen, the Hall Master of Illustrious Virtue Hall, calmly stirred his tea.
Mu En glanced at him indifferently. "Boy, you better hope that situation has nothing to do with you, or else."
He hadn't applied any sort of pressure on Jing Hongchen, but a drop of cold sweat could be visibly seen dripping down his temple.
"YUHAO!!" Yan Shaozhe exclaimed in horror as numerous figures stopped behind him with grim expressions.
Di Tian narrowed his eyes, clenching his fist tight. 'This... this isn't any regular heavenly tribulation. This is a heavenly retribution! Which idiot pissed off a God?!'
A Heavenly Retribution is a rare and controversial phenomena due to its cheating nature. It's a situation in which a God would insert a small portion of their divine law into the heavenly tribulation, making sure the one undergoing the tribulation would receive the wrath of the God.
There was no reward upon surviving this, in fact, there had been no documented record of someone surviving a Heavenly Retribution! It was mostly used by jealous and vengeful gods to erase potential threats before they could ascend. This was such a frowned upon method that it became forbidden and all Gods are to apprehend the God using it.
Di Tian narrowed his gaze. 'Just now, I've sense the presence of the Snow Empress. Why is she here? And why is a God targeting her? Is it because...'
His eyes slightly widened, as a guess entered his mind that turned his blood cold. 'Could they have found the Great Lord?! N-No, it can't be. The great lord would've warned me if they had.'
At that moment, the dark clouds began dissipating—the heavenly retribution was over.
Bear Lord whistled. "Damn, that was a strong heavenly tribulation. Not sure that even I would survive, so they're pretty much dead."
"The question is, however, whoever was that?" Bi Ji said.
The other Great Beasts shrugged their shoulders, completely clueless.
"Should we...take a look?" Scarlet King then suggested.
Di Tian snapped out of his thoughts and ordered, "Yes, we should. A unknown existence powerful enough to trigger a Heavenly Tribulation appearing in the Great Star Dou Forest is not something we can ignore—hm?"
He then sensed a familiar aura coming close to the location where the unknown being was struck by the heavenly retribution.
Di Tian's eyes widened and bellowed. "Go! Protect the Auspicious Emperor!"
The other Great Beasts' bodies trembled, a panicked look on their faces.
"Yes!"
"Wha—stop! You..." Yan Shaozhe tried to stop them but he was just slapped away from the air by Di Tian. The Great Beasts quickly headed out.
'He's still alive...' A strange soul beast walked over.
Its body was shaped like a lion, but its claws were that of a dragon. There were even golden flames coming off its dragon claws. It has a very beautiful bright golden fur, and its body seemed semi-transparent.
But the most peculiar thing thing about this soul beast was its eyes. It has two ordinary golden eyes, but its third vertical eye emitted a bewitching red glow that seemed to look into the threads of fate and destiny itself.
It glided down a long slope of molten lava, its extreme heat was nothing towards it. It continued down the slope, towards the most bottom of the pit of lava, frost and lightning to meet its fated encounter.
'There!' It stared at a lump of ashes and charcoal at the center, it was what remains of the person called Huo Yuhao.
But extraordinarily, as the soul beast draw nearer, its eyes light up.
There was still a breath of life!
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AN: I'm back! I was busy IRL last week so I didn't post any chapters, sorry about that. All about illnesses, death and a lot of sadness...
I don't want to talk about it.
So! Huo Yuhao survives the Heavenly Tribulation...How? Was it his regeneration? No, well, kinda? Maybe? Hmm....
All will be explained in the next chapter!
1/4 chapters of the week