Su Hui stopped in front of Shui Bing'er.
He bent down and held out a hand, a faint smile playing at the corners of his mouth.
"That's enough. Let's call today's test here."
"..."
Shui Bing'er looked up at him.
She bit her lower lip and placed her hand in Su Hui's palm. "...I'll win next time."
Su Hui pulled her to her feet, then let go and stepped back half a pace to give her enough room.
"Anytime," he said casually.
Shui Furong hurried over and first checked Shui Bing'er over carefully.
Her Soul Power was depleted, and she had a few minor injuries.
But none were serious; a night's rest would be enough to recover.
She breathed a sigh of relief.
It seemed Su Hui really had been holding back.
Then she turned to look at the Ice Jade Scorpion Puppet crouched behind Su Hui, her gaze burning with excitement.
"Xiao Su, what exactly is going on with your third Soul Skill?"
Her voice was full of barely contained curiosity.
"How can this Ice Jade Scorpion-shaped puppet seem just like a real Soul Beast?"
"Its movements, attacks, even its aura are indistinguishable from a living creature."
"Forget Bing'er—even I could feel the pressure of a fifty-thousand-year Soul Beast from it while standing at the edge of the field."
She paused, took a deep breath, then added solemnly,
"To be honest, at first I thought your third Soul Skill wasn't as powerful as I'd imagined. Now I see I was completely wrong."
Su Hui smiled and patted the Ice Jade Scorpion Puppet's cold shell behind him.
"You weren't mistaken, Dean. Extreme Ice Differentiation doesn't rely on the Ice Man's fists and feet to kill."
"Then what does it rely on?"
"Self-destruction."
Su Hui's tone was as calm as if he were commenting on the weather.
"Once Ultimate Ice is condensed to its limit, its structure becomes extremely unstable. If I detonate it, the blast would be powerful enough to kill a Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast outright."
"Senior Bing'er was less than five meters away from the Ice Man just now. If I'd used this move, Dean, you probably wouldn't have had time to save her."
"Self-destruction!"
A chill shot up Shui Furong's spine.
She couldn't help imagining the scene.
If Su Hui had really detonated the Ice Man—
A powerful burst of Ultimate Ice energy would have exploded within five meters.
Shui Bing'er would probably have been blown to pieces on the spot.
Forget saving her; Shui Furong wouldn't even have been able to piece her body back together.
Shui Bing'er stood nearby, her expression freezing for a moment.
She thought back to her decision to move closer to Su Hui himself to avoid the Ice Man, and suddenly felt a chill run down her back.
"So just now, I was one thought away from death."
Su Hui continued explaining. "As for the Ice Jade Scorpion form, it's the second stage of this Soul Skill."
"The Ice Puppet I create can be reshaped. I made it look like an Ice Jade Scorpion, then used a special method to let it inherit the combat abilities of that fifty-thousand-year-old Ice Jade Scorpion."
"Essentially, it's a Soul Beast that retains its fighting instincts, but obeys my every command."
"However, maintaining the Ice Jade Scorpion form consumes more than five times as much as the Ice Man form. In just this short time, it's already drained nearly half my Soul Power."
With that, he casually waved a hand.
The Ice Jade Scorpion incarnation turned back into pure Ultimate Ice energy and dissipated into the air.
After hearing his explanation, Shui Furong's lips moved. It took her a long while to finally get the words out. "A clone that fights on its own, can be reshaped, inherits a Soul Beast's abilities, and can even take its enemy down with it by self-destructing..."
"Your third Soul Skill lives up to the age of its fifty-thousand-year Soul Ring. It might even be a little overpowered."
Her voice brimmed with shock and delight she could barely contain.
Adding a monster-level fighter like him to Skywater Team, even as a substitute, would bring incalculable tactical value to the whole team.
"..."
Shui Bing'er said nothing, but mentally raised Su Hui's threat level by three ranks.
"We're both Level 36, yet he didn't even move himself. One Soul Skill alone was enough to drain all my Soul Power."
"That guy and the rest of us aren't even running on the same track."
Before long, word reached the rest of Skywater Team that Su Hui had chosen to join them as a substitute.
Xue Wu paced back and forth in Shui Bing'er's dormitory, hands on her hips.
"A substitute? Su Hui as a substitute?"
Her voice rose.
"Captain, you're sure you're not joking with me?"
"He can even beat you, and now he's joining Skywater Team as a substitute? Does that make any sense?"
Shui Yue'er leaned against the window, twirling a strand of hair around her finger. "Sister Xue Wu, calm down. You're about to slap a hole in the table."
"How am I supposed to calm down?"
Xue Wu turned around, brows knitted, her voice weighed down by a complicated emotion.
"His age, strength, and talent are all right there. Forget being a regular team member...Bing'er, don't take this the wrong way, but I'll be honest."
"I think he could take my place as captain—or even yours, Bing'er—if he wanted."
Shui Bing'er said nothing. She simply lifted the teacup from the table and took a sip.
Xue Wu took a deep breath, her tone suddenly softening. "Could he be...doing this for us?"
The dormitory fell quiet for a moment.
Shui Yue'er stopped twirling her hair.
The others looked over as well.
"Our Skywater Team has trained together for so many years. The understanding between us can't be replaced in a day or two."
Xue Wu's voice dropped, but her words grew more serious.
"If he joins, someone will have to leave."
She paused, unconsciously clenching her hands. "So that's why he volunteered to be a substitute?"
"Substitutes don't compete, don't take up a slot, and don't affect the seven-member lineup. He's thought of everything?"
Yu Hairou scratched her head. "At first, I thought it'd be pretty awkward for the academy to bring in a male student."
"And now?" Shui Bing'er asked.
Yu Hairou turned her face away, the tips of her ears faintly red. "...It doesn't sit right with me."
"He's considered so much for our sake, and we haven't even thanked him to his face."
Shui Yue'er giggled. "We can thank him anytime. After all, Boss Su is such a nice person."
Shui Bing'er set down her teacup. Its porcelain base knocked against the wooden table with a dull thud. "All right, don't overthink it."
"Now that you know Su Hui is doing this for your sake, make sure you repay his kindness."
All the girls felt grateful.
But Xue Wu and the others were overthinking it.
Su Hui himself had simply wanted to avoid the hassle.
As far as he was concerned, training and Soul Fighting as a regular member of Skywater Team would be a waste of time.
He'd be better off using that time to study Soul Tools.
He was still waiting to make a Soul Tool out of the ten-thousand-year Ice Jade Scorpion Left Arm Bone he had.
At that very moment.
In the small private courtyard Skywater Academy had assigned to Su Hui,
the man in question was crouched in front of a workbench half his height.
He held a Soul Bone in one hand, his brows furrowed into a knot.
He weighed the Ice Jade Scorpion Left Arm Bone in his hand, his eyes gleaming.
His plan was to use this Soul Bone as the core of a Soul Tool that could trigger its Soul Bone Skill, Ice Explosion Technique.
If he used Thousand Refinement metal, then in theory a Level 4 Soul Tool would be enough to achieve the initial goal.
But the problem was...Thousand Refinement.
He didn't even have a decent forging hammer.
He'd have to build an entire forging setup from scratch.
"First, I need to get a forge set up."
Su Hui put away the Soul Bone, stood up, and looked around the courtyard.
"I'll need an enclosed smithy, a high-temperature furnace, a quenching pool, and ventilation ducts."
"Oh, and it'll have to be soundproofed. It'd be a pain if I disturbed the other students."
Looks like I'll have to talk to Dean Shui Furong about renovating the courtyard.
Before you continue