Inside the tent, the campfire cast a faint, warm glow through the canvas.
Shui Yue'er turned over and snuggled closer to her sister beneath the fur blanket.
"Big sis, isn't it funny? We came all the way out to the snowy plains and still ran into Boss Su."
Shui Bing'er lay on her side, her silver hair spread across the pillow, her eyes half-open.
"It really is."
"And Boss Su even joined our academy!"
Shui Yue'er propped her chin on her hands, her legs kicking idly in the air.
"From now on, we can eat Boss Su's barbecue every day. Just thinking about it makes me happy."
Shui Bing'er didn't answer right away. Outside the tent, the wind howled past, making the canvas billow slightly.
"Big sis, what do you think Boss Su's story is?"
"...I don't know."
Shui Bing'er pulled the blanket higher. "But there's one thing I'm sure of."
"What?"
"If anyone else told me about the things he's experienced, I'd think they were making it up. But somehow, when it's him, I believe it."
Shui Yue'er giggled.
"That's because Boss Su himself is so weird. He's a Soul Master who sells barbecue, and his grilled meat is so delicious."
The corner of Shui Bing'er's mouth lifted almost imperceptibly.
"Go to sleep. We still have to travel tomorrow."
"Oh... Big sis, what do you think Boss Su is doing right now?"
"Go to sleep."
"Hehe."
The tent fell quiet.
But Shui Bing'er lay awake, staring at the ceiling for a long time.
Su Hui... Just how many secrets are you hiding?
Inside another tent.
Su Hui was not resting.
He sat cross-legged on his bedroll, eyes closed, breathing evenly.
A faint glimmer from the campfire slipped through a gap in the tent flap, drawing a thin line of light across the ground.
With some time to spare, he took stock of what he had gained that day.
The most obvious change after breaking through to Soul Elder was the leap in his physical strength.
His muscles, bones, and meridians had all become much more resilient, and the Soul Power stored in his body had doubled.
He sank into his Sea of Consciousness.
"Ice Empress, has the age of my Second Soul Ring increased?"
Ice Empress lay on her Ice Throne, her jade-green tail hook drooping lazily at her side.
"The seal on my origin has loosened a little, so the age of your Second Soul Ring has naturally increased. Your Second and Third Soul Rings are both fifty thousand years old now."
Su Hui frowned.
"A fifty-thousand-year Second Soul Ring and a fifty-thousand-year Third Soul Ring... By rights, a boost of that magnitude should have pushed my Soul Power past level forty."
Ice Empress gave a soft snort.
"Why don't you check what level you are now?"
Su Hui examined himself for a moment, his frown deepening.
"Level thirty-six."
"Not satisfied?"
"I just don't think it makes sense."
"What doesn't?"
Ice Empress sat upright on her throne, her jade-green compound eyes reflecting a faint glow.
"You possess Ultimate Fire and Ultimate Ice. You have two Ultimate Attributes crammed into one body. Do you think that's a good thing?"
Su Hui considered it.
It was a good thing, but maybe it wasn't entirely a good thing.
Ultimate Attributes were powerful, but they also had significant drawbacks for Soul Masters.
"Before level seventy, Ultimate Attributes severely slow a Soul Master's cultivation."
"At least you know that."
Ice Empress swayed her tail hook.
"Ultimate Attributes are immensely powerful, but they're also domineering."
"For an ordinary Soul Master, absorbing the energy of heaven and earth is as simple as pouring water into a pool. You're stuffing it between two millstones, and the Ultimate Attributes grind most of it away first."
That made sense.
Even by the era of Peerless Tang Sect, cultivating Ultimate Attributes was difficult because there were no proper cultivation methods.
Countless geniuses throughout history had been stopped by that obstacle. Only a handful had ever managed to cultivate their Ultimate Attributes to the peak.
Su Hui was silent for a moment, then opened his palm.
"What did the fifty-thousand-year Third Soul Ring give me?"
A black Soul Ring flashed into view and vanished.
Ultimate Ice surged through his meridians and quickly gathered in his palm, taking the form of an ice-blue scorpion. Even the markings on its tail hook were rendered in the finest detail.
It was an Ice Jade Scorpion.
This was his Third Soul Skill, "Extreme Ice Differentiation."
Extreme Ice Differentiation: It can create an Ice Scorpion Avatar formed from Ultimate Ice. The Ice Scorpion Avatar possesses physical strength corresponding to the cultivation level of the Soul Ring, can attack independently, and can also be controlled by him to lock onto a target.
Furthermore, if it suffers a fatal attack or he detonates it himself, it will unleash an Extreme Ice explosion of immense power.
Su Hui focused his thoughts and poured Soul Power into the Ice Scorpion Avatar.
The Ice Scorpion Avatar abruptly swelled, growing from the size of his palm to more than a zhang long.
It had thick pincers, a clearly segmented tail hook, and a body covered in ice-crystal armor.
He reached out and tapped one pincer. It rang out with a clank.
"It has a body, but it can't use Soul Skills."
Su Hui was a little disappointed with this Soul Skill.
The Ice Jade Scorpion's greatest strength wasn't brute force, but its mastery of Ultimate Ice.
An Ice Jade Scorpion that could only fight hand to hand was little more than a meat shield.
"Can I only use it as a suicide bomb?"
To an ordinary Soul Master, this Soul Skill would be divine. It gave them a fighter at the level of a fifty-thousand-year Soul Beast, and a mobile bomb to boot.
But Su Hui felt that something wasn't quite right.
"Hey."
Ice Empress's voice suddenly cut in.
"Your Soul Skill isn't as simple as that."
Su Hui was puzzled. "Ice Empress, what did you notice?"
"Don't move. Keep the connection to Extreme Ice Differentiation open."
Su Hui did as she asked, opening the Soul Power channel between his Sea of Consciousness and the Ice Scorpion Avatar.
A cool tendril of spiritual power reached out through the channel.
A few moments passed.
In his Sea of Consciousness, another consciousness stirred awake.
Xiao Bing, who had been lying on a chunk of ice, suddenly raised her tail hook. Her half-transparent Ice Jade Scorpion spirit form had awakened.
The next moment.
Light shone in the hollow compound eyes of the Ice Scorpion Avatar.
They were no longer two lifeless beads of ice.
Golden radiance shone from deep within its eyes.
Its pincers parted slightly and its tail hook swayed. The Ice Scorpion Avatar, more than a zhang long, turned toward Su Hui and raised a pincer at him, as if saying hello.
"Hm?"
Su Hui froze.
The Ice Jade Scorpion Avatar had moved?
But he hadn't controlled it at all.
"It worked!"
Ice Empress sounded rather pleased with herself.
"What happened?"
Staring at the Ice Scorpion, which seemed far too lively to be a mere construct, Su Hui was bewildered. "How did it start moving on its own? It's almost like it's alive."
"It is alive."
Ice Empress spoke leisurely. "Xiao Bing's spirit and soul are controlling that Ice Puppet now."
"Xiao Bing can use the Ice Jade Scorpion Clan's true power through this body, including Soul Skills."
Su Hui's pupils shrank. "Xiao Bing?!"
Xiao Bing—the fifty-thousand-year Ice Jade Scorpion who had sacrificed herself to him at Ice Empress's command.
Like Ice Empress, her spirit form resided in his Sea of Consciousness.
He sprang to his feet, nearly knocking over the top of the tent.
"So that means..."
"That means," Ice Empress interrupted, "Xiao Bing can enter the Ice Puppet and bring it to life, letting it unleash the full might of a fifty-thousand-year Ice Jade Scorpion."
Su Hui stared at the Ice Scorpion before him, excitement burning brighter and brighter in his eyes.
"Doesn't that mean I've gained another fighter on the level of a fifty-thousand-year Ice Jade Scorpion? And one that can wield Ultimate Ice and use Soul Skills, at that?"
"Wait."
Another possibility suddenly occurred to him.
But before he could speak, Ice Empress cut him off. "I know what you want to ask."
A flash of jade-green light, and Xiao Bing's spirit form was pulled back.
Immediately afterward, an even more powerful and imposing divine sense entered the Ice Jade Scorpion Avatar.
The patterns on the icy armor covering the scorpion's body changed abruptly. Deep-green, flowing markings appeared across its previously transparent, ice-blue shell.
Its pincers thickened, and a faint glow appeared around the barb at the end of its tail hook.
The Avatar grew even larger.
An oppressive force washed over him, and the temperature inside the tent plunged to freezing.
If Ice Empress hadn't been controlling it deliberately, Shui Furong and the others would have noticed the commotion.
"!!!"
Su Hui steadied his breathing.
His gaze fixed on the Ice Jade Scorpion Avatar, blazing with anticipation.
Because its bearing was no longer Xiao Bing's—it belonged to Ice Empress!
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