Two Months Later, Summoning Xue Wu

Time passed like a white horse galloping past a crack, and in the blink of an eye, nearly two months had gone by.

Frozen Forest, core zone.

After an intense battle, Shui Qinghan and Shui Qingrou joined forces to strike down a sixty-nine-thousand-year-old—nearly seventy-thousand-year-old—Cold Pool Tide Crab on the spot.

A two-meter-tall, five-meter-long, cyan-blue crab lay on the bank. Its hard shell was battered and broken, revealing clean, white crab meat in several places.

A pitch-black soul ring floated silently above the corpse of the Cold Pool Tide Crab.

Shui Qingrou sat cross-legged, using her Soul Power to guide the nearly seventy-thousand-year-old soul ring, pulling it down over her body.

Watching Shui Qingrou begin to absorb the ring, Shui Qinghan stood guard while dismantling the crab.

Regrettably, this nearly seventy-thousand-year-old Cold Pool Tide Crab did not yield a soul bone.

However, they were not without gains.

The crab meat and roe were both delicacies; consuming them could strengthen bones, improve the resilience of meridians, and enhance one's constitution.

Hunting this crab had not taken much effort; most of their time had been wasted searching for a suitable soul beast.

The Frozen Forest was far inferior to the Great Star Dou Forest in terms of area, quantity of soul beasts, and their strength. Finding a soul beast of the appropriate age was truly difficult.

Even so, the core zone of the Frozen Forest was extremely dangerous, with no shortage of powerful soul beasts, so they had to explore slowly.

Although the core zone of the Frozen Forest lacked Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts, there were plenty of beasts between fifty thousand and eighty thousand years old.

With Shui Qinghan's current strength, she could barely handle one or two eighty-thousand-year-old soul beasts.

If the numbers were any higher, she would be no match and would have to flee with Shui Qingrou.

Therefore, whenever night fell, they would retreat to the mixed zone to rest.

Only at dawn the next day would they continue to venture deep into the core zone to search for beasts of the right age.

Since the Frozen Forest was close to the Far North, the nights were much longer than the days.

This back-and-forth wasted a great deal of time.

Two hours slipped by in a flash, and the lead-gray sky gradually grew dim.

Fortunately, the absorption of the soul ring was nearing its end.

The pitch-black ten-thousand-year soul ring merged into Shui Qingrou's body, and a powerful surge of Soul Power erupted from her.

Level eighty-one, level eighty-two, level eighty-three...

The intense fluctuations of Soul Power climbed until they reached the peak of level eighty-three before finally coming to a slow halt.

"The peak of level eighty-three, and my Soul Power is extremely solid, without the slightest sense of instability." Shui Qingrou slowly opened her eyes, her gaze filled with pleasant surprise.

"Not bad. Once we return to the academy, as long as you cultivate with focus for a period, your cultivation might be able to break through again," Shui Qinghan said with a light smile.

Breakthroughs in minor realms did not have the same bottlenecks as major ones.

Shui Qingrou was now at the peak of level eighty-three, only one step away from level eighty-four.

As long as she practiced diligently for a few months, she would steadily break through to level eighty-four.

By then, the remaining four stalks of Ten-Thousand-Year Ice Marrow, combined with the Soul Core secret technique taught by Jiang Lan, would be just enough to allow Shui Qingrou to break through to the Title Douluo realm, and perhaps even allow her to advance a step or two within that realm, ensuring she would not fall into the rank of the weakest Title Douluo.

Furthermore, now that she was familiar with the process of compressing solid Soul Power, she would be able to condense an ice-attribute Soul Core within three months, becoming a level ninety quasi-Title Douluo.

At that time, she could pass on her experience in condensing a Soul Core to Shui Qingrou, increasing the chances of her success.

"I understand." Shui Qingrou nodded, her face full of emotion.

"I never thought that one day, I would actually be able to set foot in the realm of a Title Douluo."

"It seems we owe Jiang Lan more and more," Shui Qinghan said, also filled with emotion.

First the Whale Rubber, then the Ten-Thousand-Year Ice Marrow, and now the Soul Core secret technique.

These three great opportunities had directly and steadily lifted the two sisters into the Title Douluo realm.

Such kindness was truly immense.

To call it a debt of rebirth would not be an exaggeration.

After all, without the opportunities provided by Jiang Lan, let alone breaking through to the Title Douluo realm, they likely wouldn't even have been able to touch the threshold.

"Sister, didn't we already let Bing'er and Yue'er offer themselves to him?" Shui Qingrou joked.

"Hmph, if one could break through to the Title Douluo realm simply by sending away their daughters, then the soul master families and sects on this continent would be desperate to shove every eligible woman they had toward Jiang Lan," Shui Qinghan retorted with a roll of her eyes.

"It's not that exaggerated, is it?" Shui Qingrou felt embarrassed.

Wasn't the Ten-Thousand-Year Ice Marrow just an ice-attribute treasure?

Could it really be effective for soul masters of other attributes?

"You'll know when you reach level eighty-nine," Shui Qinghan said calmly.

This secret technique for condensing a Soul Core greatly reduced the difficulty for a Soul Douluo to break through to the Title Douluo realm.

This meant that as long as a junior in the family had an innate level eight Soul Power, there was a high probability of reaching the Title Douluo realm.

Innate level eight Soul Power leading to a Title Douluo breakthrough—what kind of concept was that?

For some powerful Martial Souls, this meant a lineage of constant Title Douluos, or even multiple Title Douluos in one generation.

This was truly quite exaggerated.

To give a simple example, if Ning Fengzhi knew of this secret technique, he would likely not hesitate to pack up his own daughters, including his most doted-upon Ning Rongrong, and marry them off to Jiang Lan in exchange for it.

With the financial resources of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect combined with this secret technique, they might truly be able to buy their way to several guardian Title Douluos.

"So mysterious," Shui Qingrou muttered.

"The hour is late, we should return," Shui Qinghan said indifferently.

She planned to return to Skywater Academy, bring Xue Wu along, and then head to the Far North.

Xue Wu and Shui Bing'er possessed a Martial Soul Fusion Skill; the two were not biological sisters, yet their relationship was closer than that of any kin.

In the history of the Douluo Continent, it was not unheard of for biological sisters with a Martial Soul Fusion Skill to marry the same husband.

Moreover, in the eyes of the people of the Douluo Continent, it was perfectly normal for nobles and the powerful to have three wives and four concubines.

If one did not take wives and concubines to spread their lineage, how could one pass down their Martial Soul?

In short, no matter how many wives and concubines Jiang Lan took in the future, as long as Shui Bing'er was the primary wife, that was enough.

The two immediately set off, leaving the Frozen Forest, and hurried back to Skywater Academy without stopping.

Upon returning to the academy, Shui Qinghan found the teacher in charge of the advanced class and had them notify Xue Wu to come over.

Before long, Xue Wu arrived at Shui Qinghan's office and asked:

"Headmistress, is there something you need me for?"

"I do have a matter I wish to discuss with you." Shui Qinghan looked Xue Wu up and down and said.

Although Xue Wu was only twelve, under the nourishment of her Soul Power, her figure was already remarkably tall and outstanding, with curves in all the right places. Her features were delicate yet carried a hint of heroic spirit, and paired with her short, gray-blue hair, she looked exceptionally spirited and possessed a unique charm.