Nighttime Spar Between Siblings, Spinning Ice Rain

"Knock, knock~"

In the middle of the night, after hesitating for a moment, Shui Bing'er knocked on Shui Wuchen's door.

"Brother, are you asleep?"

Upon hearing her voice, Shui Wuchen stopped cultivating, rose to his feet, and opened the door.

Outside stood Shui Bing'er in her pajamas, her long aqua-blue hair messily draped over her shoulders. The commanding air she had carried during the day was gone, making her seem a little more adorable.

Shui Wuchen led her into the room and poured her a cup of water. "Bing'er, why are you looking for me so late? Is something wrong?"

"I couldn't sleep."

Shui Bing'er accepted the water and brushed aside the hair by her ear as she replied.

"Hmm~~"

Upon hearing Shui Bing'er's words, the Articuno by the window rolled its eyes. If you can't sleep, why don't you cultivate? Did you have to come disturb someone in the middle of the night?

After hearing Shui Bing'er's words, Shui Wuchen fell silent for a while before suggesting, "Do you need me to take you for a walk?"

A moment later, Shui Wuchen and Shui Bing'er stood side by side on a path surrounded by flowers of every kind. Cicadas chirped and frogs croaked in the night, while moonlight reflected off the pool in the courtyard.

The Articuno perched on Shui Wuchen's shoulder, idly watching the scenery around them.

To the Articuno, the God of Ice, these riotously colorful flowers were merely fleeting. Only glaciers that had remained frozen since ancient times were eternal.

Here, she even had to carefully restrain her aura, afraid that the cold she naturally gave off would cause these delicate flowers to wither.

After an unknown amount of time, Shui Wuchen and Shui Bing'er arrived at a Martial Arts Arena.

"We actually walked all the way here."

Shui Bing'er was somewhat surprised. This should have been a place provided by the Heaven Dou Imperial Family for contestants to exchange pointers. However, most academies had not yet arrived, and it was the middle of the night, so the fighting platform was empty.

Then, Shui Bing'er smiled and suggested to Shui Wuchen, "Brother, it feels like it's been a long time since we sparred. Why don't we take this opportunity to have a match?"

"Sure. Let me see how well you've learned your Self-Created Soul Skill."

At that, Shui Wuchen nodded slightly before leaping onto the fighting platform.

Shui Bing'er also flew onto the platform. Taking a deep breath, she said to Shui Wuchen, "Brother, please guide me!"

As she spoke, Shui Bing'er began circulating her Soul Power. Four soul rings—yellow, yellow, purple, purple—appeared around her. As the soul rings emerged, the phantom of an Ice Phoenix abruptly appeared as well, radiating strands of cold air.

The instant she used Martial Soul Possession, the gentleness in Shui Bing'er's eyes vanished, replaced by a calmer, colder look.

At the same time, a faint Ice Blue glow enveloped Shui Wuchen's body. He had clearly activated his Soul Power as well.

The next moment, Shui Bing'er's first soul ring lit up. A surge of cold rose beneath Shui Wuchen's feet, instantly freezing him into a massive block of ice.

This was Shui Bing'er's first Soul Skill, Ice Seal!

Although Ice Seal was only a hundred-year Soul Skill, its effects were far from weak.

It could instantly freeze an entire area, including all living creatures within it. It also consumed little Soul Power and could be used repeatedly.

Once frozen by Ice Seal, even opponents stronger than Shui Bing'er would need to expend some effort to break free. As a control-type Soul Skill, it was absolutely overpowered.

"Spinning Ice Rain!"

Seeing Shui Wuchen under control, Shui Bing'er immediately condensed dozens of rapidly spinning Ice Cones in front of herself and fired them toward the frozen Shui Wuchen.

The Ice Cones moved with astonishing speed and possessed immense piercing power. In an instant, they pierced through the block of ice trapping Shui Wuchen and slammed into the ground behind it.

Even so, Shui Bing'er did not dare relax in the slightest, because she knew her brother would not be defeated so easily.

Just then, a familiar voice came from behind her.

"Not bad. It seems you've become quite proficient with Spinning Ice Rain."

The moment Shui Bing'er heard that voice, she immediately turned around. Shui Wuchen had appeared behind her at some unknown point, with a pair of Ice Wings spread behind his back.

The instant Shui Bing'er activated Ice Seal, Shui Wuchen had vanished from where he stood. The one Shui Bing'er had frozen was merely an afterimage he had left behind.

As for why Shui Wuchen possessed such incredible speed, that had to do with his third Soul Skill.

Shui Wuchen's third Soul Skill was called High-Speed Movement. It could greatly increase a Soul Master's speed, and when paired with the Ice Wings he had developed, it allowed Shui Wuchen to reach a speed close to teleportation over short distances.

Although Shui Bing'er's Ice Seal was instantaneous, it still took a brief moment after activation to completely freeze its target. That brief moment was already enough for Shui Wuchen to escape!

Shui Bing'er's expression remained unchanged as she calmly said, "Compared to you, Brother, this is nothing. After all, you created Spinning Ice Rain when you were still young."

That was right. The move Shui Bing'er had just used was not a Self-Created Soul Skill she had invented herself. Shui Wuchen had created it, then taught it to her.

Spinning Ice Rain had originally been called Rotating Ice Gravel. Shui Wuchen had created it based on his first Soul Skill, Ice Gravel.

However, Shui Wuchen continued refining the move afterward, eventually turning it into the current Spinning Ice Rain.

"Bing'er, you don't need to compare yourself with me."

Shui Wuchen shook his head helplessly. "Even at the Clear Sky Sect, the number one sect in the world, most of the Self-Created Soul Skills they use were created by their former sect master, Tang Chen. But that doesn't stop them from using them."

"Still, from what I can see, your Spinning Ice Rain is not yet complete."

As soon as he finished speaking, hundreds of rapidly spinning Ice Cones instantly condensed around Shui Wuchen. With a light sweep of his right hand, the Ice Cones shot forth one after another.

Like Shui Bing'er's Ice Seal, Shui Wuchen's first Soul Skill, Ice Gravel, was also an instantaneous Soul Skill without a limit on quantity. As long as he had sufficient Soul Power, he could theoretically use it infinitely.

Furthermore, Shui Wuchen had discovered that his Ice Gravel was exceptionally fast. Even agility-attack Soul Masters of the same rank found it difficult to evade.

Its power was just a little lacking, so Shui Wuchen chose to use high-speed rotation to increase Ice Gravel's piercing power, creating his first Self-Created Soul Skill, Rotating Ice Gravel!

Shui Wuchen had actually considered another direction for improving it: merging multiple pieces of Ice Gravel into one to increase the power of the Ice Gravel Soul Skill.

However, after Shui Wuchen obtained his second Soul Skill, Triple Spin Strike, he abandoned that idea.

This was because Shui Wuchen discovered that compared to Ice Gravel, Triple Spin Strike was actually better material for improvement.

The original effect of Triple Spin Strike was to coat a part of the body in ice element. Whenever that part struck an opponent, its power would double with each hit.

If he could create a Soul Skill based on those characteristics, its upper limit would definitely be far higher than Ice Gravel's.