The Bu Le incident was like a stone tossed into a lake. Though it stirred up ripples, they soon settled amid the grueling training that went on day after day.
Still, in the hearts of the Shrek Seven Devils, a hard-to-describe sense of awe had grown toward Lin Yi, their silent guard.
His words—"Anything that might threaten the young lady's safety, or pose a potential danger, has no reason to exist"—and his swift, decisive killing method had made them realize just how deeply the cold blood of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect's core forces ran through this seemingly gentle support-type Soul King.
Grandmaster Yu Xiaogang's hellish training continued. He squeezed the Shrek Seven Devils' potential to the limit, putting them through all sorts of unimaginable training exercises designed to break their limits and hone their resolve and teamwork.
From marching upstream beneath waterfalls with weights strapped on, to weaving through dense arrays of bamboo spears, to restricting one another's Soul Power and fighting to the death... Every day, the cries and gasps of the boys and girls echoed through the back courtyard of Shrek Academy, which also bore witness to their visible growth.
Throughout these nine months of high-pressure training, Lin Yi always kept to his boundaries.
By day, when Ning Rongrong and the others sweated through their training and challenged their limits under Yu Xiaogang's strict supervision, he never went near the training ground, as if he were a complete outsider.
He simply stayed in his room or in some quiet corner of the academy, absorbed in his own cultivation.
Without the "Mimicry Training Grounds" in the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, built at great expense and highly compatible with his Martial Soul, Lin Yi could clearly feel that his Soul Power accumulated much more slowly than it had back at the sect.
But he wasn't impatient. He knew how important it was to build a solid foundation.
He devoted more of his attention to refining his Soul Power, deepening his understanding of the five Soul Skills of his Snow Lotus Martial Soul and honing his control over them, as well as continually reaching out with his spiritual power to communicate with and nurture the two Ice Dragons and the Ice Phoenix still asleep within him.
He brought the meditation method Sword Douluo Chen Xin had taught him to its utmost, drawing in wisps of the world's energy, refining them, and merging them into the barrier at level fifty-five.
Over the course of nine months, he rose from level fifty-two to level fifty-five. To outsiders, that was already a staggering rate of progress, but to him, it truly was "much slower."
Only at night, when Yu Xiaogang announced they would be heading to the Soto Great Soul Arena for practical combat training, did Lin Yi appear on time, silently following at the end of the group.
He still rarely took action, seeming more like a calm observer. Only when a team member was injured or had used up so much Soul Power that it would affect the fights ahead would he quietly release Healing Light or the area-wide Extreme Cold Domain—with only its healing effects activated—to restore them, precisely and efficiently. His healing was always perfectly timed. He never overstepped or took credit, as if he were merely completing a routine task.
Over these nine months, the Shrek Seven Devils' strength had surged, and their teamwork had grown ever more seamless. They gradually made a name for themselves at the Soto Great Soul Arena.
Lin Yi's presence was like an invisible talisman of reassurance, leaving them with fewer worries when facing powerful enemies. Ning Rongrong, too, shed much of her spoiled manner through the grueling training. She was still mischievous, but her eyes now held more resolve and trust in her companions.
She would occasionally sneak a glance at the silent figure at the end of the group, her feelings hard to name. There was gratitude, dependence, and perhaps even a complicated affection born of distance, one she had yet to notice in herself.
When the nine-month training period ended, the Shrek Seven Devils were given a brief rest and began preparing for the upcoming Continent-wide Advanced Soul Master Academy Elite Tournament.
It was then that a sword intent of unparalleled sharpness, like a shooting star splitting the heavens, descended upon Shrek Academy.
Sword Douluo Chen Xin had arrived.
He still wore his immaculate white robes. His features were simple and austere, and his gaze was as sharp as a sword.
His arrival disturbed no one. He went straight to the door of Lin Yi's room.
"Teacher." Lin Yi opened the door and bowed respectfully. He seemed unsurprised by Chen Xin's arrival.
Chen Xin's gaze swept over Lin Yi like lightning, and he gave a slight nod. "Level fifty-five. Your foundation is solid, and you haven't slacked off. It seems that although Shrek Academy lacks a mimicry environment, it has its own way of tempering you."
"This disciple wouldn't dare slack off."
"Rongrong has settled in here and made considerable progress." Chen Xin changed the subject. "The support system of your Snow Lotus Martial Soul has begun to take shape, but you can't rely entirely on others for offense and self-preservation. You must reach the Soul Douluo level as soon as possible."
Lin Yi's heart stirred, and he looked up.
"Come with me." Chen Xin's tone left no room for argument. "The Far North is where you truly belong. It's there that your ice will find its home."
Without any long farewells, or even a visit to Ning Rongrong, Lin Yi simply gave a brief explanation to Flender and Yu Xiaogang, who had hurried over after hearing the news. Then, led by Chen Xin, he became a streak of light and vanished above Shrek Academy, heading straight for that bitterly cold wasteland.
One year and three months later.
The core region of the Far North, Douluo Continent.
This was a forbidden land of life, a realm of eternal permafrost. The howling winds cut like steel blades against the bone, and the air was filled with an extreme chill capable of freezing Soul Power. As far as the eye could see, all was white: glaciers rose like forests, and blizzards raged.
Inside a glacier that had remained frozen for ten thousand years, Lin Yi sat cross-legged in an ice cave forcibly carved into its depths. A thin layer of ice crystals covered his body. His eyebrows and hair were pure white, as if he had become one with the glacier.
Terrifying cold surged into his body like a tide, only to be greedily devoured and refined by the three extreme ice-type Martial Souls within him.
There were no comfortable mimicry environments here, only the most primitive and violent world energy and extreme ice elements.
Every day, he fought the bitter cold and endured the solitude, tempering his will, body, and Soul Power on the brink of life and death.
Sword Douluo Chen Xin offered little instruction on his Soul Skills. Only when Lin Yi could no longer endure did he use his supreme sword intent to calm the rampaging energy within him. And when Lin Yi began to falter, Chen Xin urged him on in silence with an even colder gaze.
It was the most brutal kind of ascetic cultivation, but also the most effective path to growth.
One year and three months—nearly five hundred days and nights of torment and trials.
On this day, the aura around Lin Yi suddenly turned wild. The cold that had accumulated in the ice cave for who knew how many years surged toward him, forming a massive frost vortex above his head. The Soul Power within him was like a boiling river, battering against the solid barrier.
Boom!
A muffled crash sounded from inside him. The ice cave shuddered violently, and countless ice chips pattered down from its walls. Lin Yi's eyes snapped open. The phantom images of an Ice Dragon and an Ice Phoenix seemed to flash through his pupils, sharp and cold!
Level sixty!
In just one year and three months, in such a brutal environment, he had forced his way from level fifty-five to the threshold of level sixty! If word of this cultivation speed got out, the entire Soul Master World would be left speechless.
Chen Xin, who had been guarding the perimeter and using his own sword intent to block most of the energy fluctuations here, now walked inside.
Looking at Lin Yi, whose aura had surged and whose surrounding chill had grown ever purer and more piercing, Chen Xin finally showed a trace of admiration he could no longer hide.
"Level sixty. Not bad." Chen Xin's words were as concise as ever. "Your physical strength and spiritual power have been tempered by the cold here a thousand times over. They're already far beyond those of others at your level. Your Sixth Soul Ring can now inherit even greater power."
His gaze turned toward the depths beyond the ice cave, where endless snowstorms and glaciers stretched away. His tone carried a hint of gravity and resolve. "The target is a nearly twenty-thousand-year-old branch descendant of the Far North's ruler, the Ice Jade Empress Scorpion, or a Frost Dragon Lizard of equivalent rank. Only the Soul Ring of a Soul Beast like that is worthy of the effort you've put into cultivation, and only one like it can bring about a qualitative leap in your Snow Lotus Martial Soul!"
Lin Yi drew in a deep breath of air cold enough to pierce to the bone. Feeling the level-sixty Soul Power surging through him and the Ice Dragon and Ice Phoenix Martial Souls growing ever more restless after his breakthrough, he felt a searing battle intent flare in his eyes.
"Yes, Teacher!"
Before you continue