Su Hui tucked the Ten Thousand Year Ice Jade Scorpion Left Arm Bone and the Level 4 Milk Bottle away.
As he stepped out of the auction house, a smile still played at the corner of his mouth.
Today's haul had far exceeded his expectations.
In the era he came from, neither of these items could be measured in value.
Never mind that Ten Thousand Year Soul Bones were incredibly rare in Tang San's time.
Even a Level 4 Milk Bottle that could replenish Soul Power was practically a divine artifact in an era when Soul Masters below Soul King still struggled to keep their Soul Power topped up.
As expected, traveling to the future meant finding all sorts of treasures.
Of course, the old era had its own advantages too.
In this era, Soul Tool technology had advanced, and all kinds of metals had become ridiculously expensive.
But things were different if you went back to the past.
Back then, Soul Tool technology didn't exist, and people hadn't discovered the remarkable uses of many metals, so they were cheap.
Su Hui was planning to use the Gold Soul Coins in his hands to buy some rare metals and craft Soul Tools.
He strolled leisurely along the street.
"Hey, someone's following you."
Ice Empress's cool voice suddenly rang out in his mind.
Su Hui stopped in his tracks, his smile freezing on his face.
He instinctively wanted to look back, but forcibly held himself back.
"What level are they?"
"Just a Soul Ancestor."
Su Hui's tense shoulders relaxed.
That was it?
He mocked himself inwardly for acting as if he were facing a formidable enemy.
A mere Soul Ancestor wasn't enough to make him panic.
Come to think of it, the man had probably followed him all the way from the auction house because he had his eye on the Soul Bone and Milk Bottle.
Killing someone and robbing them was hardly unusual on the Douluo Continent.
"What are you going to do?" Ice Empress asked.
Su Hui didn't answer right away. First, he let his mind sink into his body.
The pink Anywhere Door hung quietly above the Martial Soul Clock, whose hands were almost back at their starting point.
He grinned.
The timing was perfect.
"If someone wants to play, we can't exactly be cold to them, can we?"
Su Hui passed through the crowded streets, deliberately taking the less-traveled routes. After several twists and turns, he finally slipped into an abandoned neighborhood.
The area was strewn with broken walls and ruins. Weeds sprang wildly from the cracks in the stones, and the wind moaned as it passed through the ruined eaves.
He stopped.
In the silent clearing, only the wind and the faint hubbub of the distant streets could be heard.
"Friend."
Su Hui turned around, his tone as casual as if he were greeting an old acquaintance.
"You've been following me all this way. Isn't it time you came out?"
"..."
At first, there was no answer.
A few breaths later,
a dark figure slowly emerged from the shadows of a broken wall.
He wore black and had his face covered, revealing only a pair of sinister eyes.
Su Hui sized him up and asked, "Why are you following me?"
The man in black didn't answer the question.
His gaze swept over Su Hui again and again, as if checking something.
His eyes held undisguised greed, mixed with a trace of condescending scrutiny.
"I've been watching you."
The man in black finally spoke, his voice rough. "You're only a Soul Elder."
As he spoke, he released his Martial Soul.
"Awooo!"
A gray-black Lone Wolf phantom coalesced behind him, its coarse fur bristling like steel needles and its fangs bared. A vicious aura radiated from it.
Next, four Soul Rings—yellow, yellow, purple, and purple—rose from beneath his feet. It was the standard optimal configuration, and quite impressive for a Soul Ancestor.
"Hand over the Soul Bone and the Milk Bottle, and I'll spare your life."
The man in black spoke as if announcing an established fact.
Su Hui nodded.
So he really was after those.
Then he smiled.
"A mere Soul Ancestor dares threaten me?"
He slowly rolled his wrist.
As soon as he said that, the man opposite him visibly paused.
The greed in the man in black's eyes gave way to a murderous chill. His Lone Wolf Martial Soul growled, Soul Power surging around him.
"You asked for it."
The man in black forced the words through clenched teeth.
"I'll kill you, and the things will be mine anyway."
He said no more. Pushing off with one foot, he shot toward Su Hui like an arrow loosed from its bow.
With Martial Soul Possession, his body grew a size larger. Claws sprouted from his fingertips as he lunged straight for Su Hui's throat, the wind whistling around them.
Su Hui didn't dodge.
He chose to meet the attack head-on.
Their fists collided!
"Bang!"
The dull impact boomed through the empty ruins.
"Hm?"
The man in black's pupils shrank.
His arm went numb, and the force sent him stumbling back three steps, his heels carving two deep furrows in the dirt.
Su Hui, meanwhile, stood perfectly still.
He lowered his eyes to his fist, now certain.
His physical strength was even greater than he'd expected.
Even with the other man's Beast Martial Soul Possession, he had the upper hand in a contest of pure strength.
The man in black regained his balance, his expression shifting.
He realized that this Soul Elder before him wasn't normal.
So he stopped holding back.
"Kid, since you want to die, I'll grant your wish."
The Lone Wolf Martial Soul roared, and the third purple Soul Ring lit up.
Dozens of black phantom wolf claws ripped through the air, converging on Su Hui from all directions.
Su Hui calmly raised his right hand.
"Easy now. I still want to use you to practice. This is my first time fighting a human Soul Master."
The purple First Soul Ring appeared.
Three-thousand-year First Soul Skill: Fire Element Manipulation!
"Whoosh!"
Flames gathered into a ball in his palm, then burst into a rain of fire. Each streak of flame met a phantom wolf claw with pinpoint accuracy.
Before the man in black could change his approach, three fireballs came roaring toward him in a triangular formation.
He rolled awkwardly to the side, barely dodging two. The third grazed his shoulder.
"Sizzle!"
A large hole burned through his black clothes, exposing the skin beneath, red-hot from the scorching heat.
Then came several more fire arrows, dense as a downpour.
The man in black could barely keep up.
The Lone Wolf Martial Soul's fur curled and blackened, and patches of skin were torn and scorched across its body. The stench of burnt fur filled the air.
Su Hui hadn't even moved.
He simply stood there, making tiny motions with his fingers as the flames changed shape at his will.
One moment they became flaming fists, fireballs, and exploding fire arrows!
The next, they turned into a wall of fire that blocked every one of the man in black's attacks.
The wall of fire could also close around him in an instant.
Su Hui was deliberately controlling the pace, in no hurry to end the fight.
It wasn't every day that a sparring partner came knocking. This was the perfect chance to sharpen his combat skills.
"What are you, anyway?!"
The man in black finally realized something was wrong.
What kind of Soul Skill could keep changing like that?
He panted heavily, the corners of his eyes twitching as blood vessels gradually crept across them.
From beginning to end, this Soul Elder had been toying with him. The effortless ease of it was a deep humiliation to his pride.
"You're dead!"
He roared as the fourth purple Soul Ring blazed to life.
"Awooooo!!!"
The Lone Wolf Martial Soul threw back its head and howled, its body swelling to nearly twice its size.
Its muscles grew knotted and bulging, its fangs longer and sharper, and its eyes became a violent, blood-red blur.
Fourth Soul Skill: Lone Wolf Berserk!
His speed and strength increased dramatically for a short time, at the cost of having his reason nearly swallowed by his bestial instincts.
The man in black no longer cared about anything. He was going to tear the person before him to shreds.
Almost at the same moment, Ice Empress spoke again. "Stop playing. A powerful expert is approaching, and fast."
Su Hui's expression turned cold.
"Fine. I'm done playing too."
With a casual clench of his hand, the flames around them vanished.
At the same time, a black Soul Ring rose from beneath his feet.
It was his Second Soul Ring, one he had never shown anyone before. It was a deep, pure black, glinting with a chilling sheen beneath the sunlight.
"!!!"
The man in black's furious eyes widened.
What had he just seen?
A black Soul Ring!
That was the color of a Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring!
He was a Soul Elder. How could he have a Soul Ring of the Ten Thousand Year level?!
Fear finally overtook the man's murderous intent, but it was already too late.
Su Hui punched.
"Crack, crack, crack!"
A layer of crystal-clear ice armor formed over his knuckles.
A bone-chilling cold radiated from it.
Even the air seemed to crack as it froze.
Second Soul Skill: Ice Empress Pincer!
The berserk Lone Wolf crashed into his fist.
The power of Ultimate Ice burst forth without restraint.
"Boom!!!"
Terrifying cold erupted from Su Hui's fist.
The man in black froze the moment he touched the ice.
His fur, skin, muscles, and bones were covered layer by layer in frost. Even his ferocious expression was locked in place.
Just like that, he was frozen into a lifelike ice sculpture.
But the ice sculpture shook under the force of Su Hui's punch.
Crack—!
The ice sculpture shattered,
blasting into a heap of ice shards!
Su Hui drew back his fist and looked at the shattered ice scattered across the ground, still encasing chunks of frozen flesh. His emotions were unexpectedly calm.
He felt no disgust, no fear, not even excitement.
It was like he had done something trivial.
Was this what it meant to kill someone?
It didn't seem like anything special.
He had no time to think it over. The sound of something tearing through the air was already approaching from afar.
It was coming this way at incredible speed.
"Go!"
The Ice Empress urged him on. "Whoever's coming is at least a Soul Saint. You're no match for them, and I'd have to expend a great deal of energy to fight in my current state."
Su Hui, however, calmly bent down, picked up the Storage Soul Tool the man in black had dropped, and tucked it into his robes.
Then he raised a hand.
"Ding!"
A pink Anywhere Door appeared out of thin air.
The delicate clock hand on its face had stopped exactly where it had started, without the slightest deviation.
"Click!"
The Anywhere Door slowly swung open.
Beyond it lay a swirling vortex of space and time, bottomless and connected to another world.
Su Hui glanced at the figure in the sky, the corners of his mouth lifting in a faint smile. "That's the end of this trip. I hope it'll be a little more interesting next time."
With that, he stepped into the vortex of space and time.
A thunderous shout exploded across the sky. "Shrek Enforcement Team! Everyone, surrender your weapons!"
A figure dropped from the sky. The powerful blast of air swept away all the surrounding icy mist, revealing a desolate wasteland.
The newcomer frowned and surveyed the area.
There wasn't a soul in sight.
Only fragments of ice lay scattered across the ground, slowly melting and making faint cracking sounds in the gusting air.
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