Shui Bing'er's Brush with Death

Su Hui walked up to Shui Bing'er and stopped.

He bent down, extended a hand toward her, and wore a faint smile at the corner of his mouth.

"Let's call it a day; the test ends here."

"..."

Shui Bing'er looked up at him.

Biting her lower lip, she placed her hand into Su Hui's palm: "...I will win next time."

Su Hui exerted force through his arm to pull her up, then released her hand and stepped back half a pace to give her enough space.

He said in a relaxed tone, "I'll be waiting."

Shui Furong hurried over at this moment, first carefully checking Shui Bing'er's condition.

Her soul power was exhausted, and there were a few minor external injuries on her body.

But nothing serious; she would recover after a night's rest.

She breathed a sigh of relief.

It seemed Su Hui had truly held back on purpose.

She then turned her head to look at the Ice Jade Scorpion puppet sitting behind Su Hui, her eyes becoming incredibly intense.

"Little Su, what exactly is going on with your third soul skill?"

Her tone was filled with irrepressible curiosity.

"How is this Ice Jade Scorpion-shaped puppet just like a real soul beast?"

"Its movements, attacks, and even its aura are no different from a living creature."

"Not to mention Bing'er, even I felt the pressure of a 50,000-year soul beast from it while standing on the sidelines just now."

She paused, took a deep breath, and added solemnly.

"To be honest, I initially thought your third soul skill wasn't as powerful as I imagined, but it seems I was dead wrong."

Su Hui smiled and patted the cold shell of the Ice Jade Scorpion puppet behind him.

"The Dean isn't wrong; the soul skill Extreme Ice Differentiation doesn't rely on the fisticuffs of the Ice Man form for its lethality."

"Then what does it rely on?"

"Self-detonation."

Su Hui's tone was as flat as if he were commenting on the nice weather.

"Once the Ultimate Ice is condensed to its limit, its structure becomes extremely unstable. As long as I actively trigger it, the power within the blast radius is enough to kill a ten-thousand-year soul beast instantly."

"Just now, Senior Bing'er was less than five meters away from the Ice Man. If I had used that move, Dean, you probably wouldn't have even had time to save her."

"Self-detonation!"

A chill ran up Shui Furong's spine.

She subconsciously imagined the scene.

If Su Hui had truly detonated the Ice Man.

The powerful energy of the Ultimate Ice would have exploded within a five-meter radius.

Shui Bing'er would likely have been blown to pieces on the spot.

Forget saving her; she wouldn't even have a body left to piece together.

Shui Bing'er stood to the side, her expression frozen for a moment.

Recalling her tactical choice to close in on Su Hui's main body to avoid the Ice Man, she suddenly felt a chill down her back.

"So I was only a thought away from the Grim Reaper just now."

Su Hui continued to explain: "As for the Ice Jade Scorpion form, that is considered the second stage of this soul skill."

"The differentiated ice puppet can be molded. I shaped it into the likeness of an Ice Jade Scorpion and then used a special method to make it inherit the combat abilities of that original 50,000-year Ice Jade Scorpion."

"Essentially, it is a soul beast that retains its combat instincts, only it follows my commands completely."

"However, the consumption to maintain the Ice Jade Scorpion form is more than five times that of the Ice Man form. In just this short while, nearly half of my soul power has been drained."

After speaking, he waved his hand casually.

The Ice Jade Scorpion avatar transformed back into pure Ultimate Ice energy and dissipated into the air.

After hearing this explanation, Shui Furong's lips moved, and it took a long while before she spat out a few words: "A clone that fights automatically, can be molded, inherits soul beast abilities, plus a mutually destructive self-detonation method..."

"This third soul skill of yours is worthy of a 50,000-year soul ring; it's even a bit overpowered."

Her voice carried irrepressible shock and ecstasy.

Adding a monster-level combatant like this to the Skywater Team, even if only as a substitute, would be of immeasurable tactical value to the entire team.

"..."

Shui Bing'er did not speak, but in her heart, she raised Su Hui's danger level by three tiers.

"We're both at level thirty-six, yet he didn't even use his true form, defeating me until my soul power was exhausted with just a single soul skill."

"This guy isn't even on the same track as us."

Soon, the news that Su Hui had voluntarily chosen to join the Skywater Team as a substitute reached the ears of the other members.

Xue Wu stood with her hands on her hips, pacing back and forth in Shui Bing'er's dormitory.

"A substitute? Su Hui is going to be a substitute?"

Her voice rose in pitch.

"Captain, are you sure you aren't joking with me?"

"He can even defeat you, and now he's coming to our Skywater Team as a substitute? Is that appropriate?"

Shui Yue'er leaned against the window, twirling a strand of hair around her fingertip: "Sister Xue Wu, calm down first; you're about to crack the table."

"How can I be calm?"

Xue Wu turned around, her brows tightly furrowed, her voice suppressing a complex emotion.

"His age, his strength, his talent—they're all right there. Forget about being a regular member... Bing'er, I'm going to be honest, so please don't mind."

"I think even if he wanted my position as vice-captain, or even your position as captain, Bing'er, it wouldn't be a problem."

Shui Bing'er didn't speak, simply picking up the tea on the table to take a sip.

Xue Wu took a deep breath, her tone suddenly softening: "Could it be... that he did it for us?"

The dormitory fell silent for a moment.

Shui Yue'er stopped twirling her hair.

The others also cast their gazes over.

"Our Skywater Team has been honing our chemistry for so many years; the rapport between us isn't something that can be replaced in a day or two."

Xue Wu's voice dropped, but it became more earnest.

"If he were to join, someone would inevitably have to step down."

She paused, her hands clenching unconsciously: "Is that why he volunteered to be a substitute?"

"A substitute doesn't take the field, doesn't occupy a roster spot, and doesn't affect our seven-person formation. He thought of everything?"

Yu Hairou scratched her hair: "I originally thought it was quite awkward for the academy to recruit a male student."

"And now?" Shui Bing'er asked.

Yu Hairou turned her head away, the tips of her ears slightly red: "...It feels quite bad."

"He considered so much for us, yet we haven't even thanked him in person."

Shui Yue'er chuckled, "We can thank him whenever we want, after all, Boss Su is such a nice person."

Shui Bing'er set the teacup down, the porcelain base hitting the wooden table with a dull thud: "Alright, don't overthink it."

"Since you know Su Hui did it to look out for you, then repay him well in the future."

The women were all filled with gratitude.

However, Xue Wu and the others were overthinking it.

Su Hui himself simply found it troublesome.

In his view, the training and soul fighting of the Skywater Team's regular members were a waste of time.

He would rather spend that time researching Soul Tools.

He was still waiting to finish crafting the Soul Tool using the ten-thousand-year Ice Jade Scorpion Left Arm Bone in his hand.

At this very moment.

In the small, private courtyard assigned to Su Hui by Skywater Academy.

The man himself was hunched over a workbench half a person's height.

He held a soul bone in his hand, his brows knitted into a knot.

He weighed the Ice Jade Scorpion Left Arm Bone in his hand, his eyes gleaming.

His concept was to use this soul bone as the core to create a Soul Tool capable of triggering the soul bone's skill, Ice Explosion Technique.

If combined with Thousand Refinement metal, theoretically, crafting a level four Soul Tool would be enough to initially achieve his goal.

But the problem was... the Thousand Refinement.

He didn't even have a decent forging hammer right now.

He had to build the entire forging system from scratch.

"First, I have to get a forging bench set up."

Su Hui retracted the soul bone, stood up, and looked around the courtyard.

"I need an enclosed forging room, a high-temperature furnace, a quenching pool, and ventilation ducts."

"Right, and it needs to be soundproofed; it would be troublesome if I disturbed the surrounding students."

It seems I'll have to go find Dean Shui Furong to discuss the renovations for the courtyard.