"A fifty-thousand-year cultivation base."
The Ice Empress's tone returned to its usual calm. "That's just right."
"...Just right for what?"
"Your soul ring."
"Huh?"
Su Hui blinked in astonishment.
He looked down at the Ice Jade Scorpion, then thought back to what the Ice Empress had just said.
For a moment, he couldn't grasp the logic connecting the two.
"Wait!"
Su Hui sorted out his thoughts.
"That's one of your people, right? Are you sure you want one of your own kind to become a human's soul ring?"
"And a fifty-thousand-year soul ring? I'm only at level thirty. Can my body handle it?"
"Besides, the Silver Dragon King Martial Soul needs soul rings with different attributes, and the Ice Jade Scorpion is ice-elemental. You also..."
"The age isn't a problem."
The Ice Empress cut him off.
"I'll have it make a sacrifice. During the process, I'll help stabilize the soul ring's energy."
"With me here, and since you've also fused with my soul bone, a fifty-thousand-year soul ring won't harm your body."
She paused briefly, and her tone shifted ever so slightly, no longer quite so cold and forceful.
"But my condition is that it makes the sacrifice my way."
"Afterward, its soul will also reside in your spiritual sea. If you become a god someday, you'll have to revive it as well."
Su Hui fell silent for a beat.
This condition... sounded familiar.
The Ice Empress had entered his spiritual sea the same way. Now she wanted to stuff another Ice Jade Scorpion in there.
Sooner or later, his spiritual sea would turn into a communal dormitory for the Ice Jade Scorpion clan.
"As for the soul ring's attributes..."
The Ice Empress continued unhurriedly. "Don't you have the ability to refine soul rings?"
"Absorb its soul ring for now, as a stopgap. Later, when you find a soul ring with the right attributes, just refine this one away and replace it."
"You're already level thirty. If you refuse to break through at this bottleneck, are you planning to wait forever for that so-called perfect soul ring?"
Her words had struck home.
Su Hui had to admit she had a point.
Without a soul ring, he couldn't advance from level thirty to level thirty-one.
And his current requirements for soul ring attributes were exceptionally strict.
If he insisted on finding soul rings with different elements that perfectly matched the Silver Dragon King Martial Soul before absorbing them, he might be stuck at level thirty for a long time.
The White Silver Dragon Spear's refining ability was one of his trump cards.
He could use the Ice Jade Scorpion's soul ring to break through the bottleneck for now, then refine it away and start over later.
"Besides,"
the Ice Empress added, her tone carrying a hint of deeper meaning.
"I chose to have it make a sacrifice to you because I discovered that the soul bone it can produce is quite special."
"Special?"
"That's right. The soul bone it can produce is its scorpion tail."
"!!!"
Su Hui's pupils contracted slightly.
A scorpion tail!
Not one of the six standard soul bones: head, arms, legs, or torso!
That could only be an external soul bone!
He barely needed to think.
All his knowledge about external soul bones surged up from the depths of his memory.
The rarest kind of soul bone, one that didn't occupy any of the six standard slots and could evolve along with its soul master.
Tang San's Eight Spider Lances were the most typical example, evolving from spider legs into the Sea God's Eight Wings.
He'd coveted those for ages.
A fifty-thousand-year Ice Jade Scorpion offering itself up would guarantee him a fifty-thousand-year soul ring, plus an external soul bone.
It was a deal that didn't even need calculating.
What's more, with the Ice Empress vouching for him, there wouldn't be any risk in the process.
The Ice Empress might have a rather icy temper.
But they were in the same boat now. She wouldn't screw him over in this matter.
Once he'd thought it through, Su Hui's reasoning became crystal clear.
"Ahem, Ice Empress."
He cleared his throat.
"What else?"
"One last question."
"Go ahead."
Su Hui looked utterly serious, and his tone was just as earnest. "Is this Ice Jade Scorpion male or female?"
"......"
His spiritual sea fell silent for three full breaths.
Then the Ice Empress's voice rang out, every word seeming to grind between clenched teeth, colored by an utterly repressed, bizarre emotion:
"Female!"
"What are you wasting time for? Yes or no, just say it! I'm sick of listening to you ramble!"
Su Hui made his decision on the spot. "Yes, yes, yes!"
......
Outside the ice barrier.
Half an hour passed slowly in the bitter winds of the Far North.
Shui Bing'er held her younger sister's hand tightly, her deep-blue hair whipping through the snow.
Her gaze never left the enormous ice barrier, and her lips were pressed white.
The other girls from the Tianshui team huddled together, none of them speaking or suggesting they leave.
"Sister, your hand hurts."
Shui Yue'er mumbled softly.
Only then did Shui Bing'er realize how hard she'd been gripping her hand.
"Sorry."
She quickly loosened her grip, but still didn't let go completely.
"Whoosh!"
The sound of something cutting through the wind rang out just then.
A blue figure darted over from afar, leaving a long afterimage across the snowy plain.
She was incredibly fast, landing in front of the seven girls within a few breaths.
She was a beautiful woman in palace dress, with a voluptuous figure.
Her blue hair was piled into a high bun. Though fine lines marked the corners of her eyes, they did nothing to diminish her charm; if anything, they lent her the distinctive allure of a mature woman.
Shui Furong.
The dean of Tianshui Academy, an eighty-third-level Soul Douluo with an Ice Element Martial Soul—and Shui Bing'er's mother.
Her gaze swept quickly over the seven girls.
"Bing'er, I finally found you. Are you all right?"
Only after confirming that every one of them was unharmed did her tense shoulders finally relax.
"Dean!"
Several girls called out at once, their voices trembling with the relief of having survived a disaster.
"Aunt Furong!"
Shui Yue'er threw herself straight into her arms.
"Don't be afraid. I'm here."
Shui Furong wrapped an arm around Yue'er and gently patted her back.
Seeing that the others were unharmed, she finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Then she looked up, turning her deep-blue eyes—the same as her daughter's—toward Shui Bing'er.
"Bing'er, what's going on with this ice barrier?"
Shui Bing'er took a deep breath and recounted what had happened as concisely as she could.
They'd gotten separated in the blizzard, encountered an Ice Jade Scorpion, fled all the way, and just as it was about to catch them, the ice barrier had appeared out of nowhere.
She explained everything clearly and left nothing out.
Shui Furong listened, her gaze shifting to the enormous ice barrier.
A deep-blue sheen flowed across its surface. Even in the bitter cold of the Far North, it radiated a chill that made her heart skip a beat.
In all her decades of life, she'd seen countless ice-element soul skills, but never power in this form.
"You said there's a ten-thousand-year soul beast trapped inside? A scorpion?"
"Yes."
Shui Furong fell into thought.
As an eighty-third-level Soul Douluo, dealing with a ten-thousand-year soul beast wouldn't be difficult.
But something about the situation felt suspicious.
Whoever could trap a ten-thousand-year soul beast was certainly no weaker than she was.
It wasn't yet clear whether the other party was friend or foe. Breaking the ice barrier rashly might only complicate matters.
Before you continue