Ice Maiden

In the blink of an eye, another week had passed, and Five Elements Academy's annual Joint Training Event was held at Thunderbolt Academy right on schedule.

In the current Thunderbolt Academy, aside from its original students, Blazing Fire Academy Students in gold-and-red uniforms, Elephant Armor Academy Students in black uniforms, Divine Wind Academy Students in cyan uniforms, and Heavenly Water Academy Students in blue uniforms could be seen everywhere.

Some of the older students had clearly known one another for a long time, and now they were taking advantage of this annual opportunity to gather together, laugh, and mess around.

Most of the students had gathered at Thunderbolt Academy's main field, where five arenas had now been set up. From time to time, students went up to spar and fight, while their supporters below the stages cheered and shouted, making the atmosphere lively and heated.

However, all that excitement belonged to other people and had nothing to do with Yu Tianlin.

Half a month had already passed since he had started Tree Climbing Training. Yu Tianlin could finally maintain suitable adhesion while ensuring that he kept the Power of Thunder and Lightning restrained. He could now walk on tree trunks as though on flat ground, and even running was no problem. In other words, his Tree Climbing Training could be considered perfectly completed.

Yu Tianlin felt it out for a moment. His control over his thunder-and-lightning Soul Power had indeed improved quite a bit, but he always felt as though something was missing, that it was not perfect enough. If he developed Chidori in this state, he could do it, but it would take twice the effort for half the result, with poor efficiency.

Since that was the case, he might as well keep pushing forward and proceed with Water Treading Training. Once he completed this training as well, there would not be many difficulties left in developing Chidori.

So even though this was currently the grand Joint Training Event of the Five Elements Academy, Yu Tianlin did not participate. Right now, all his thoughts were focused on treading water.

After finding a remote lake where hardly anyone came and went, Yu Tianlin began his Water Treading Training.

Ahem. He had originally planned to complete this training in the bathtub in his dormitory the whole time. In the end, the bathtub exploded on the very first day...

With no other choice, Yu Tianlin could only go out and look for a lake to train in. Surely he would not blow up an entire lake too, right?

Treading water was different from climbing trees. Tree climbing involved gathering Soul Power at the soles of the feet to produce adhesion, allowing one to stick to a tree trunk or a wall.

Treading water was the exact opposite. It involved releasing Soul Power from the soles of the feet to produce a pushing force, allowing one to stand on the surface of the water.

Tree climbing and water treading were one attraction and one repulsion. Therefore, after completing these two training methods, one would be able to release and withdraw one's own Soul Power freely, controlling it as easily as moving an arm.

Fortunately, Yu Tianlin had completed the restraint of the Power of Thunder and Lightning during the first week, so in this Water Treading Training, he did not have to go through as much trouble as he had when he first started climbing trees.

Yu Tianlin directly gathered Soul Power at the soles of his feet, then stretched his left foot toward the lake's surface and slowly released his Soul Power. When he felt a wave of repulsive force, he shifted his center of gravity onto his left foot.

However, as his center of gravity shifted, Yu Tianlin suddenly discovered that the repulsive force was too small. It was not enough to support his body. His left foot stepped straight through empty air and sank into the lake, and it looked as if his entire body was about to fall into the water.

Yu Tianlin had expected this long ago. Of course, he would not expect to succeed on the first try. Failure was inevitable. If he fell into the lake, then so be it. He could swim anyway. He would just climb back up later and try a few more times.

At this critical moment, Yu Tianlin suddenly saw the surface of the lake beneath his feet freeze at a speed visible to the naked eye. Although he did not know what was going on, his reaction was also very quick. His right foot tapped sharply against the ice, he pulled out his frozen left foot, then used the force to return to the lakeshore.

The lake surface had suddenly frozen over, so someone must have acted. As soon as Yu Tianlin got ashore, he turned back to look.

He saw a young girl standing beneath a tree about ten meters away, leaning against it.

The girl's entire body was enveloped in a layer of blue light, and two yellow Soul Rings circled around her body. It seemed that she was the one who had made a move.

"Why were you walking into the lake for no reason? Were you trying to kill yourself because you couldn't take it anymore?"

The girl's clear voice rang out. At the same time, the blue light wrapped around her dispersed, revealing her figure. It seemed she had withdrawn her Martial Soul.

The girl was petite, around one meter forty tall, and wore a pale-blue long dress, which was the uniform of Skywater Academy. Her water-blue long hair fell loose behind her, her skin was fair, and her features were delicate. She just looked rather young, so she should not be very old.

"You're from Skywater Academy?" Yu Tianlin said. "Thanks for earlier."

"I wasn't walking toward the lake to end my life. I was training to improve my Soul Power control."

"Improve control over Soul Power?" Hearing Yu Tianlin's words, the girl immediately became interested. As she walked toward him, she asked, "Are you a Control System Soul Master too?"

All right, the single word "too" directly revealed the development direction of the girl's Martial Soul—the Control System.

"I'm an Assault System Soul Master." Yu Tianlin shook his head and said, "I just think Assault System Soul Masters should also improve their control over Soul Power. That way, when using soul skills, they can reduce waste and increase their ability to fight continuously."

"Assault System? That's kind of interesting." The girl walked to Yu Tianlin's side and asked, "How are you supposed to do this training?"

It was just treading water, and there was nothing much to hide, so Yu Tianlin directly explained it to the girl.

"Like this?" After the girl roughly understood the principles of Water Treading, she immediately began trying it. However, when the tip of her foot touched the water's surface, a sheet of thin ice quickly appeared with her toe as the center. The girl jumped directly onto the thin ice and looked at Yu Tianlin with a hint of pride. "It doesn't seem that hard."

"That's completely wrong." Seeing this scene, Yu Tianlin said, "You're only relying on the advantage of your own ice attribute to freeze the lake surface, then standing on the ice."

"If it's only for the sake of standing on the lake, then naturally, there's no problem with what you're doing. But what I'm talking about is training Soul Power control."

"You should restrain the chill in your Soul Power and stand on the water's surface purely by relying on the repulsive force created by the Soul Power itself. You should even be able to run quickly across the surface of the water. Only then would it count as qualified."

"You make it sound so simple, but how is that even possible?" The girl pouted slightly. "You can't do it either, can you?"

"It's precisely because I can't tread water yet that I'm practicing here. If it were tree climbing, I've already mastered it completely." Yu Tianlin walked toward the tree the girl had been leaning against earlier and smiled. "Come with me."

"Tree climbing? What's that?"

The girl was a little puzzled and followed behind Yu Tianlin.

When he arrived beneath the tree, Yu Tianlin directly placed one foot on the trunk. After completing the adhesion of his sole, he exerted a little force with his other foot, which also left the ground and stepped onto the tree trunk.

At this moment, both of Yu Tianlin's feet were stuck to the tree trunk, and his entire body was parallel to the ground. If Newton saw this scene, he would weep.

The girl said in surprise, "You can actually do it to this extent!"