Ju Zi cupped his face in her hands as she stared into his eyes from as near as they could be. She stroked his face tenderly as she felt the warmth coming from his cheeks, and her eyes were covered with moisture once more.
"I can"t bear to leave you, do you know that?" She said gently.
Huo Yuhao"s body shook, but he couldn"t say anything at all.
He did like Ju Zi before, but his heart now truly belonged only to Dong"er. Furthermore, even if Don"ger hadn"t appeared, he couldn"t go against his principles for Ju Zi. However, his heart was truly aching so, so much in this moment.
"I want to kiss you - may I? Consider it a farewell kiss." Ju Zi said softly.
Huo Yuhao was momentarily stunned. Ju Zi stepped forward against his body without waiting for his response as her ice-cold but moist lips pressed tightly against his.
Her lips were soft and fragrant. Huo Yuhao was a normal man, and especially because of the atmosphere they were in, he really couldn"t push her away.
Subtle intoxication coursed over his body, and Huo Yuhao suddenly felt as if his entire being was immersed in this feeling. Even his spirit began to feel a little lost in the next moment.
"Eh?" Huo Yuhao grunted softly, and his eyes suddenly widened, because he could clearly feel that something wasn"t right.
Ju Zi was still kissing him, and she smiled gently.
Her lips parted as she said, "Don"t try to struggle. This Infinite Intoxication has no antidote. It"s not poisonous; it will only make you sleep for a little while. I love you, Yuhao, really. I love you. You will be the only man that I will ever love in this life."
Huo Yuhao"s body gradually slid into her arms along with her soft and fine words.
The Infinite Intoxication was too strong. Huo Yuhao"s spiritual sea was almost instantly cut off by that strange drug, and he couldn"t even communicate with his four formidable Spirits. His consciousness slowly left him, and only a bitter smile remained on the corner of his mouth.
Ju Zi is right - my heart is just too soft.
Ju Zi placed him carefully onto the ground as she sat quietly beside him. She raised one of his arms and rested against it as she curled herself up against his chest.
Snow and ice was everywhere around them, but the Extreme North"s low temperature didn"t affect the burning pa.s.sion in her heart at all.
She had been waiting for this day for far too long. The feeling of curling up in his arms was wonderful.
Waves of warmth emanated from Ju Zi and spread over both of their bodies to fight against the severe cold around them. She was just lying there, silent and enchanted, enjoying this rare blissful moment.
Fifteen minutes pa.s.sed as she lay there motionless, and there was only happiness on her face.
She slowly sat up from Huo Yuhao"s embrace after fifteen minutes, and the warmth, tenderness, and bliss on her face was gradually subst.i.tuted by iciness.
She gradually stood up as she stared at Huo Yuhao beside her. She muttered, "I did say that your heart was too soft, especially towards people you like. But why do I just like that about you? I can feel that you will be an enormous threat to my future plans, and I should kill you at this time. Killing you can resolve the only remaining soft emotions in my heart, and I can eliminate a great threat at the same time."
Ju Zi flipped her wrist as she spoke, and a spike that was yellowish all over appeared in her grip.
Murderousness flickered in her eyes, but lasted but a moment before she smiled.
"He won"t kill me, so how can I kill him? His heart is soft, and mine is cold, but my heart melts only when I am with him! You"re so foolish. No matter what, I will not hurt you. Do you know that? As long as you"re alive, I will not go insane. That bit of tenderness in my heart is what I treasure the most. Not only will I not hurt you - if somebody else hurts you, I will kill that person no matter who he or she is."
She tapped the tip of her foot gently against Huo Yuhao"s waist as she spoke, and flipped Huo Yuhao onto his side.
She squatted down beside him and stared at him seriously. After few moments, she raised the yellow spike and thrust it ferociously towards Huo Yuhao"s waist.
……
Cold wind billowed.
The sky was already bright when Huo Yuhao came to from his blackout.
Daytime in the Extreme North was a lot shorter compared to the inner mainland. The sky was already completely bright at this point, but it still looked very dim.
Huo Yuhao swiftly sat up and glanced down at himself subconsciously. He didn"t feel anything different.
He looked around him, and everything was just snow and ice; Ju Zi was long gone. However, the soul tools that Huo Yuhao had detected that generated heat were placed in a circle around him. These were the things that had been giving him warmth before.
Even though he possessed Ultimate Ice and wasn"t afraid of the cold, he couldn"t help but feel a wave of warmth flow through his body when he saw those soul tools that generated heat.
Haih, Ju Zi!
Huo Yuhao stood up and gazed in the direction of the Sun Moon Empire"s great army. He shook his head exasperatedly, but his gaze quickly turned to one of determination.
I"m sorry, Ju Zi. You have your targets, but I have to stop you. I cannot let you achieve your goal. If we meet again on the battlefield, perhaps that is our destiny.
"Yuhao, she is right. Your heart is too soft. If she wanted to do something bad to you, you would have died a hundred times over." A shadow flickered as the Snow Empress glimmered soundlessly beside him.
He snapped around at the Snow Empress, and saw her displeased look.
Huo Yuhao"s four Spirits were powerful, but their existence depended on Huo Yuhao, after all. During the previous night, after Huo Yuhao"s spiritual sea was blocked off by that sinister Infinite Intoxication, his four Spirits couldn"t channel his strength no matter how worried they were. They couldn"t even come out because his spiritual sea was shut off.
"I"m sorry, Snow Empress," Huo Yuhao forced a laugh as he spoke.
The Snow Empress said plainly, "You don"t have to apologize to me. Your softheartedness has led you to your current dire situation. That woman is dangerous. If you can, killing her is the best choice."
Huo Yuhao laughed bitterly and said, "I can"t do it. Ju Zi has saved my life before. I…"
The Snow Empress waved him off and didn"t let him continue. "If you can"t do it, then don"t interact with her so closely anymore. What do you intend to do next?"
Huo Yuhao answered, "I will continue investigating what this army is here to do. They have come so far into the Extreme North, and it can"t be that they"re here to deal with me. They must have some other objective. I will discover their objective, and then I will stop them."
The Snow Empress thought for a moment, then said, "That"s not difficult. This is my home, and it"s also the Ice Empress" home."
Huo Yuhao"s eyes glowed as he heard her words. "What do you mean, Snow Empress."
The Snow Empress said, "You should wait until you find out what they want. Otherwise, we can"t do anything against them."
"Alright," Huo Yuhao acknowledged.
Even though he was softhearted toward Ju Zi, he was never unclear about the bigger picture. He wouldn"t give up on his own goal just because Ju Zi was the commander of the Sun Moon Empire"s army.
Huo Yuhao ate some dry rations and readjusted himself to make sure that his body was alright before he travelled in the direction of where the Sun Moon Empire"s army was camped.
He had confidence. Even if the army was gone, he could still track them using any traces they had left behind with his abilities.
However, the Sun Moon Empire"s army was still there, and they were still camped where they were the previous night. Furthermore, the soul engineers and soldiers were starting to get busy. They were still building based on the foundations of the trap they had set for Huo Yuhao the previous day, but he didn"t know what they were doing.
Huo Yuhao"s eyes closed into slits as he watched them hustle around, and he began to think. It seemed like this place was their destination. But what could they be doing in a place like this?
He had learned his lesson, and he wouldn"t go in to investigate anymore. Furthermore, even if he did, he had to be especially careful. He wasn"t interested in causing damage right now, as finding out the Sun Moon Empire"s objective was more important.
Huo Yuhao observed quietly in the snow and ice, and a day pa.s.sed just like that.
There were a lot of soul engineers partic.i.p.ating in the labor, while their machines worked very quickly. They took but one day to finish the base of their constructions over five hundred square meters. A certain large machine attracted Huo Yuhao"s attention.
There was a drill-like thing beneath this enormous machine. This drill was more than five meters in diameter, and it was constructed by hoisting components into place. This machine was very large, and the metal pillars from before formed the foundations for its construction. Some stabilizing mechanisms were built with those metal pillars as the skeleton.
What are they trying to do, exactly?
Huo Yuhao was very suspicious. Are they trying to drill into the ground? But what can be beneath the ground?
An idea came to Huo Yuhao as he contemplated. Underground? What can be underground? There can only be one answer - resources!
Can it be that there are some resources in the Extreme North that the Sun Moon Empire needs? Or…
Huo Yuhao did not continue observing from where he was, but ran further away and soared into the sky.
He had been following the Sun Moon Empire"s army over these days, but he had always been doing everything from the ground. His field of view would be a lot wider if he flew into the sky, and perhaps he could discover something then.
The chilly air was sharper, and the temperature even lower. However, those conditions didn"t affect Huo Yuhao. He didn"t have to use the Snowy Dance of Ultimate Ice; he only needed the Domain of Perpetual Ice to form a layer of protection around him, and that was sufficient.
Huo Yuhao gazed down as he flew high into the sky, and he quickly discovered some problems.
There were some barracks established twenty-five kilometers from where the Sun Moon Empire"s army was camped. That area should be within the Dou Ling Empire"s territory. The Heavenly Soul Empire"s territory was in the other direction, and there seemed to be some old structures about ten kilometers out. The Sun Moon Empire was currently camped between those two areas.