The bonfire crackled, its orange-red light dancing across everyone's faces.
After Shui Furong finished explaining her theory about male and female Soul Beasts offering themselves one after the other, it took the girls quite a while to recover from their shock.
Xue Wu propped her chin on her hand and let out a long sigh.
Yu Hairou just kept shaking her head, muttering something about how comparing yourself to others could drive you mad.
Shen Liuyu, Gu Qingbo, and Qiu Ruoshui didn't say a word, but their envious expressions revealed everything they were thinking.
"You're way too lucky," Shui Yue'er muttered.
Shui Bing'er turned her head and replied calmly, "Little Boss Su went through life and death to get this opportunity. He nearly died in an ice cave. It's not something you can envy."
Shui Furong nodded and said seriously, "Bing'er is right."
"An offering from a Soul Beast is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. If you fell into an ice cave and encountered a dying Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast, there's no telling whether you'd even survive."
"Luck comes with risks. You can't just look at the outcome."
The dean had spoken, and the girls immediately checked their expressions and nodded in agreement.
Still, when Shui Bing'er looked away, the corner of her mouth tightened despite herself.
Envious!
How could she not be?
His Second Soul Ring was already at the ten-thousand-year level, and his third Soul Ring was another one.
You couldn't just go out and see a configuration like that.
You could scour the entire Douluo Continent and still might not find another.
She herself had innate Soul Power at rank nine, and every step of her cultivation had been solid and steady.
Even in all of Skywater City, she was considered a peerless genius.
But her three Soul Rings were only yellow, yellow, and purple.
That was the best configuration generally recognized in the Soul Master World under the limits of what was possible.
For her fourth Soul Ring, she would probably choose one that was only four thousand years old.
After all, the theoretical limit was five thousand years.
But Su Hui, who had become a Soul Master a full four years after she had, had already caught up to her rank.
He'd gone from rank twenty to rank thirty-six in just a few days. Who would believe it if they heard that?
Shui Bing'er quietly let out a breath and pushed the distracting thoughts aside.
Just then, Shui Yue'er jumped up, ran over to Su Hui, and crouched beside him. Looking up at him curiously, she asked, "Little Boss Su, what about your purple First Soul Ring? Did a Soul Beast offer itself for that one too?"
The area around the bonfire fell silent for a beat.
Everyone froze.
The two black ten-thousand-year Soul Rings had been so striking that they'd all overlooked the fact that Su Hui's First Soul Ring wasn't the usual yellow, but purple.
"Right, a thousand-year First Soul Ring."
"I almost forgot about that."
Everyone's eyes turned back to Su Hui.
His expression didn't change as he shook his head. "That one wasn't an offering."
He shifted his sitting position slightly and began spinning his second tale.
He'd prepared the story long ago. As before, it followed one core principle: it had to sound outlandish, yet be impossible to verify.
"I'd only recently become a Soul Master. I went alone to a Soul Beast forest to hunt for a Soul Ring. I searched for ages without finding a suitable Soul Beast, but I did come across a flower."
"A flower?"
The others looked puzzled.
Weren't they talking about Soul Beasts and Soul Rings? How had flowers entered the conversation?
"Yeah."
Su Hui gestured with his hands. "It looked like a ball of fire. Its petals were burning, and its roots were planted in a patch of scorched earth."
"I figured it had to be something special, so I thought about it and ate it."
Shui Yue'er's eyes widened. "You just ate it? You didn't even know what it was!"
"I was tired and hungry. I didn't think it through."
Su Hui scratched his head, looking a little sheepish.
"After I ate it, it felt like my whole body was on fire. The heat burned out from between my bones. I thought I was done for, and then I passed out."
"When I woke up, I had a purple Soul Ring and a Soul Skill."
As he spoke, he raised his right hand and snapped his fingers.
The bonfire suddenly surged, its flames leaping several meters into the air. The heat drove the girls back all at once.
Then the flames split off into a fist-sized fireball.
Su Hui flicked his finger.
The fireball shot more than ten meters and struck the snow.
Boom!
A cloud of white steam burst into the air, and melted snow sprayed everywhere.
"That's what happened."
"..."
The girls looked at one another.
Shui Furong stared at Su Hui, her voice grave. "The flaming flower you ate was most likely some sort of rare natural treasure, or perhaps a special kind of plant Soul Beast."
Shui Bing'er murmured, "Do things like that really exist in the world?"
"The world is vast, and full of wonders. Something like that may be rare, but it's not unheard of."
Shui Furong spoke with such confidence that the girls were convinced.
Today had truly opened their eyes.
Shui Furong suddenly asked, "Little Su, how old are you this year?"
Su Hui blinked. "Eleven."
"Uh..."
The entire group by the bonfire fell silent for two seconds.
Everyone's breathing stopped for a beat.
Shui Bing'er's fingers clenched the skirt over her knees.
The dry twig slipped from Xue Wu's hand and fell to the ground, unnoticed.
Yu Hairou and Shen Liuyu exchanged a glance, each seeing the same stunned look on the other's face.
Eleven years old!
An eleven-year-old rank-thirty-six Soul Elder with purple, black, and black Soul Rings.
What else could he be but a monster?
"Gasp!"
Shui Furong took a deep breath, then did something none of them expected.
She grabbed Su Hui by the hand!
The dean of Skywater Academy, an eighty-third-rank Soul Douluo, now looked at him with such fervor that it was as if she wanted to set him alight.
"Little Su, would you like to join Skywater Academy?"
Su Hui froze. Before he could react, Shui Bing'er sprang to her feet.
"Mom! Doesn't our academy only accept female students? And they have to have a water- or ice-type Martial Soul—"
Before she could finish, Shui Yue'er jumped in.
"Yeah! Little Boss Su's First Soul Ring is fire-type. He doesn't meet our academy's admissions requirements at all."
The other girls nodded along.
Shui Furong rolled her eyes at them one by one.
"Then let me teach you a lesson."
"Rules are dead, people are alive. A genius like Little Su might not appear once in a century—no, he might not appear once in a millennium."
"Out there, which of the three great sects, Spirit Hall, or the Imperial Academies of the two great empires wouldn't fight tooth and nail to recruit him?"
"If he's willing to come to Skywater Academy, we'll be the ones getting an incredible bargain."
"Uh... well..."
The girls thought it over and realized the dean was absolutely right.
Su Hui's Soul Ring Configuration spoke for itself.
Forget eleven-year-olds—even a fifteen-year-old Soul Elder would be considered exceptional.
What's more, no one else in the entire Soul Master World had a Soul Ring Configuration like his.
If they let someone like him go, the major powers would go mad fighting over him.
Shui Furong turned back to Su Hui and promised earnestly, "Little Su, if you agree, Skywater Academy will give you the best treatment we can offer."
"Cultivation resources, a Storage Soul Tool, Soul Bones, Soul Hunting—if the academy has it, you'll get your share!"
"This..."
Su Hui hadn't expected Shui Furong's invitation to come so suddenly.
He had indeed considered joining an academy.
He'd weighed several possibilities before, but Skywater Academy hadn't even crossed his mind.
After all, it was a famous girls' academy, and he didn't meet a single one of its admission requirements.
And now, here he was, with Skywater Academy's dean herself holding his hand and offering him generous terms to enroll.
His gaze unconsciously swept over the girls sitting around the bonfire.
Shui Bing'er was frowning at her mother.
Her deep blue hair shimmered softly in the firelight.
Shui Yue'er had already scooted over beside him, her eyes sparkling.
Xue Wu and Yu Hairou were huddled together, whispering about something.
Shen Liuyu, Gu Qingbo, and Qiu Ruoshui were all staring at him, waiting for an answer.
The whole academy was full of girls, and he'd be the only boy.
He could already picture himself standing out as the sole man in an all-girls' school full of beauties.
It gave him the feeling of being the one handsome guy standing tall in a girls' school.
Su Hui blinked, then nodded.
"I can join Skywater Academy."
Before you continue