Crack!
A faint sound of breaking reached their ears.
"!!!"
Shui Furong's pupils contracted.
She reached out and pulled Shui Bing'er and Shui Yue'er behind her. With a gentle push of Soul Power, she sent the other five girls back as well.
She released her Martial Soul. Icy-blue ice elements gathered around her, and eight Soul Rings rose beneath her feet—yellow, yellow, purple, purple, black, black, black, black. The standard Soul Douluo configuration.
Shui Furong watched the ice barrier warily.
"Crack, crack, crack..."
Cracks spread across its surface, like a spiderweb branching out from the top in every direction.
Crack—
The ice barrier shattered completely!
Countless ice crystals refracted the sunlight in blinding flashes.
A sword of ice had already formed in Shui Furong's right hand.
Soul Power surged through her meridians like a tide, ready to unleash a lethal strike at any moment.
Then she saw the Ice Jade Scorpion.
Its body was entirely jade-green, its shell smooth as polished stone. Its tail stinger rested on the ground, and it sat as still as a statue.
"Is it dead?"
Shui Furong froze.
She could sense no life in the Ice Jade Scorpion, nor any fluctuation of Soul Power. It was completely dead!
"Mom, there's someone!"
Shui Bing'er's cry drew Shui Furong's gaze away from the Ice Jade Scorpion.
As the light refracted by the ice crystals faded, she saw what lay at the center of the barrier.
Beyond the dead Ice Jade Scorpion, a black-haired youth sat cross-legged.
He was bare-chested. His skin wasn't especially fair, but had a healthy, sun-kissed hue.
His muscles were clearly defined without looking exaggerated. The lines of his collarbones and shoulder blades stood out against the cold light of the frozen wastes.
Shui Yue'er and several other girls couldn't help letting their eyes drift over to him. Then Shui Yue'er's face turned bright red.
The other girls hurriedly looked away, though their ears were quietly turning pink.
But what left them all speechless wasn't the youth's figure or looks.
It was his Soul Rings!
Three Soul Rings revolved around him.
The first was purple, deep as a violet at dusk.
The second was black, dark as an abyss.
The third was black as well, just as inky.
Purple, black, black!
What kind of Soul Ring Configuration was that?
The ice sword nearly slipped from Shui Furong's hand.
Her senses clearly picked up the Soul Power fluctuations around the youth as they surged upward at a breakneck pace.
Yet the rise still remained within the Soul Elder realm. His level climbed from thirty, breaking through one threshold after another—thirty-one, thirty-two, thirty-three... It shot all the way to level thirty-six before gradually stopping.
A three-ring Soul Elder!
Shui Furong's eyes widened!
A three-ring Soul Elder with one Thousand-Year Soul Ring and two Ten Thousand Year Soul Rings!
Shui Furong felt her understanding of the world creaking apart.
She had lived for over forty years and had seen countless geniuses.
Her daughter, Shui Bing'er, was a genius with innate Soul Power at level nine. At Skywater Academy—and even in all of Skywater City—she was considered outstanding.
But even Shui Bing'er's three Soul Rings were only the optimal configuration of yellow, yellow, and purple.
A Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring was already far beyond a Thousand-Year Soul Ring, let alone one in the third position.
Yet this youth had a Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring in his second position, and even his first was at the Thousand-Year level.
What kind of monster was he?
As his aura settled, the Soul Rings abruptly vanished, and the youth opened his eyes.
They were clear, dark eyes.
His gaze was bright, still tinged with the sharpness of someone who had just absorbed a Soul Ring.
"Ah! Boss Su!!!"
Shui Yue'er's shriek shattered the silence.
She pointed straight at Su Hui with her pale finger, her mouth hanging wide open, looking as if she'd seen a ghost.
"It's you? Boss Su!"
Su Hui looked at Shui Yue'er, then at Shui Bing'er beside her, who was equally stunned into silence.
He paused for a moment.
So the people the Ice Jade Scorpion had been chasing were these sisters.
The Far North was vast, yet he'd run into them of all people. The odds were lower than getting hit by a pie falling from the sky.
After his brief surprise, Su Hui flashed them a bright smile. "Shui Bing'er, Shui Yue'er. Long time no see."
He raised a hand in greeting, his tone as casual as if he'd bumped into old acquaintances on the street.
"You..."
Shui Bing'er opened her mouth, but couldn't get a single word out.
Long time no see?
Could all this really be explained with a simple "long time no see"?
Her mind was caught in the middle of a level-twelve storm.
The Su Hui she knew was Boss Su, who sold barbecue from a street stall in Skywater City.
She'd happened to hear that he'd obtained his First Soul Ring and officially become a Soul Master about a year ago.
How had someone who'd only obtained his First Soul Ring a year ago ended up in the Far North with such an unheard-of Soul Ring Configuration?
And he'd just absorbed a Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring—almost certainly from the Ten Thousand Year Scorpion Soul Beast lying beside him.
How had he withstood that energy?
Shui Furong took in every bit of her daughter's shock.
But more than that, she wanted to know who Su Hui was.
She tamped down the storm raging in her heart and dispelled her ice sword, though she kept her Soul Power circulating.
She stepped forward. "Young man, could you explain what's going on?"
Her tone was fairly calm.
But the slight quickness in her speech betrayed her impatience.
She nodded toward the dead Ice Jade Scorpion.
"This Scorpion Soul Beast is at least ten thousand years old. How did you kill it? And how did you absorb its Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring?"
She paused, then added, "You seem to be... only a Soul Elder."
Su Hui spread his hands, looking thoroughly innocent.
"I'm not entirely sure what happened myself."
He'd already worked out his story in his head.
He couldn't mention the Ice Empress. He couldn't mention the Anywhere Door. And he definitely couldn't mention traveling through time and space.
So he'd just make up a story that sounded plausible enough.
It wasn't as if these people could go and check.
"Not long ago, I came to the snowy plains alone to hunt for a suitable Second Soul Ring."
His first sentence made everyone's expressions change. They all looked at him strangely.
A Great Soul Master had come alone to hunt Soul Beasts in this human-inhabitable no-man's-land? Had he lost his mind?
Su Hui acted as though he hadn't noticed their expressions and continued, gesturing as he spoke. "At the time, I accidentally fell into an ice cave. Then I saw a scorpion, exactly like the one you saw earlier, except—"
He deliberately paused, putting a note of regret into his voice.
"That Scorpion Soul Beast was on the verge of death. It was just lying there, barely moving."
"I was going to go around it and look for an exit, but then it suddenly turned into a beam of light and shot straight into the top of my head."
"I passed out right then. I have no idea what happened after that."
Su Hui turned around, showing them his back.
A vivid green scorpion tattoo stood out against his well-built back.
Its pincers were spread wide, its tail stinger arched high, every section of its shell rendered in the finest detail.
A faint green glow shimmered beneath the cold light of the frozen wastes, as though a living creature were curled across his skin.
The girls all drew in a sharp breath.
Su Hui turned around again and continued making things up. "When I woke up, I found I'd gained a black Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring, and this scorpion tattoo had appeared on my back."
He scratched his head, putting on a puzzled expression.
"Not long after I crawled out of the ice cave, the tattoo started flashing, as if it had sensed something."
"I ran in the direction it pointed and saw another scorpion, exactly like the first one."
"Then... the same thing happened again."
Su Hui spread his hands and shrugged.
"It turned into a beam of light and shot into the top of my head too, and I gained another black Soul Ring."
With that, he fell silent and looked innocently at everyone.
His expression was so sincere that he seemed to be the most confused person there.
"Uh..."
The girls' expressions were quite a sight.
Shui Yue'er scratched her head, her eyebrows twisted into a knot.
"Boss Su, that story of yours is way too fantastical!"
"That was a Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring! You just somehow wound up with two of them?"
Shui Bing'er pressed her lips together. Reason told her that this whole thing was bizarre from beginning to end.
When she'd first met Su Hui, he'd been nothing more than an ordinary man selling barbecue from a street stall.
She'd only heard that he'd awakened his Martial Soul and become a Soul Master a year ago.
Two Ten Thousand Year Soul Rings in one year? And he'd absorbed them passively?
That was more absurd than the legends sung by traveling bards.
"A Great Soul Master's or Soul Elder's body simply can't withstand the energy of a Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring."
Shui Bing'er furrowed her brow. "The impact alone when the Soul Ring enters the body would be enough to shatter the meridians."
Su Hui blinked, ready to pile on a couple more lies to make his story hold together.
Then Shui Furong, who'd been silent all this time, suddenly spoke.
"No."
All the girls turned to look at her.
Shui Furong's gaze was fixed firmly on Su Hui.
A searing light surged in her azure eyes.
Her voice trembled, not from the cold, but from excitement.
"It's possible!"
"Huh?" Shui Yue'er tilted her head.
Shui Bing'er was even more confused about what her mother meant.
How could a Soul Elder absorb a Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring?
Shui Furong's eyes burned as she spoke, each word distinct. "A Soul Beast's sacrifice."
Before you continue