Chapter Nine: The Fluttering Butterfly Effect

Mu Yang never could have imagined that his arrival would prompt the Snow Empress to postpone her decision to take human form, narrowly avoiding capture by a soul engineer who ventured into the Extreme North. As a result, Huo Yuhao never saw the Snow Empress at the auction house, and their destinies barely brushed against each other.

In his meditation, Mu Yang felt the world’s malice pressing in on him.

This meditation actually has consciousness!

I’m bored to death. Usually, even ten minutes of this would drive me insane. I can’t understand why people in Douluo Continent are so fond of cultivation. It must be because they have no mobile games or computer games—yes, that must be it!

Though Mu Yang grumbled inwardly, his consciousness remained immersed in cultivation. After all, the Snow Empress was right here in the ice palace—whatever he did, she could basically see through at a glance. (Note: When Mu Yang used the Spoonbender, it was within the system; at most, the Snow Empress could tell that he was suddenly in pain.)

During meditation, Mu Yang noticed larger flashes of light around him. They were beautiful, but these were larger concentrations of soul power. If they remained still, it meant he couldn’t absorb them—trying might just make his body explode.

Mu Yang possessed the power of immortality, but if he blew up the space in his body where his soul power was stored while absorbing energy, and couldn’t restore it, wouldn’t that be worse than crying? He really didn’t want to take risks, but the more one tries to avoid something, the stronger the urge becomes—Mu Yang was no exception.

And then, trouble found him…

(The space for storing soul power will, for now, be called the Sea of Qi.)

The Sea of Qi managed to contain the ball of light, but digestion was slow. Still, this meant that even without meditation, Mu Yang could gradually increase his soul power—though it seemed the Sea of Qi had almost ruptured, only to recover shortly after.

The rate at which his soul power grew was about the same as his normal cultivation speed.

Double the speed, double the joy. This was just from squeezing a single, smaller light orb into his Sea of Qi. Then Mu Yang tried another, and the Sea of Qi ruptured again—yet recovered—and the rate of soul power growth increased further. Now, it was roughly 2.5 times faster than his own cultivation speed.

At this point, Mu Yang’s spirits lifted.

“Gentlemen, I have a bold idea!” Mu Yang accidentally spoke his thoughts aloud.

The Snow Empress overheard him.

“What bold idea?” She gazed at Mu Yang with a half-smile, as he looked half on the verge of tears.

“Ah, ma’am, when did you get here?” Mu Yang immediately put on the demeanor of a loyal follower.

“Tell me about this bold idea of yours first,” the Snow Empress said, fixing her gaze on him.

Mu Yang couldn’t think of a way out, so he had no choice but to confess what he had just done.

“You can even repair your Sea of Qi? It seems I underestimated the direction of your mutation,” the Snow Empress remarked, slightly astonished.

“However, it’s best not to undertake this kind of meditation. Advancing too quickly will bring about the tribulation ahead of time. If you’re not fully prepared, enduring the tribulation will be extremely difficult. Even if your body can recover quickly, your soul might not.”

After the Snow Empress left, Mu Yang overestimated himself again. He tried loading seventy-two orbs of light into his Sea of Qi, but after that, it could hold no more.

Still, the seventy-two orbs swiftly raised Mu Yang’s cultivation to level ten, where he hit a bottleneck.

Half a month later, the Snow Empress killed a soul engineer who had entered the Extreme North and seized several spatial rings, a few of which Mu Yang managed to appropriate.

Another half month passed, and the Snow Empress finally decided to take human form...