Forcibly Taking Shui Bing'er Away?

Shui Yunlian stood at the academy gate, her gaze sweeping over the half-dead Ma Hongjun in the carriage. She felt not a shred of sympathy.

A good-for-nothing who couldn't even control his own Evil Fire wanted to burden Bing'er? She had spent half her life among Soul Masters. People consumed by their own Evil Fire were almost always those who had indulged themselves without restraint and were now paying the price.

The location of his injury alone was revolting. Worse, the strange, scorching aura pouring off the fat boy made her skin crawl.

Looking at him felt filthy. Taking a step closer felt like breathing polluted air. And letting Bing'er touch him with her Ice Phoenix Martial Soul—

Just imagining it made her scalp prickle.

It wasn't that she couldn't suppress the Evil Fire.

With her ice-attribute cultivation as an Eighty-sixth Rank Soul Douluo, she lacked the Ice Phoenix's innate advantage, but suppressing it for a while would be easy enough.

She simply didn't want to.

His aura disgusted her to the core. He wasn't worth her help, much less the risk to her most promising student.

"Please leave."

Shui Yunlian's voice was so cold she didn't bother with a polite word more.

She turned and went back inside. Her pale blue dress swept over the threshold, and the two silver-white doors slowly closed, leaving the Shrek group alone in the cold wind.

Flender stood at the academy gate, the wind tossing what little hair he had. He stared at the closed doors, then glanced back at Ma Hongjun, who was groaning in agony inside the carriage. He gritted his teeth, helpless.

Zhao Wuji hadn't expected Dean Shui to dismiss them so bluntly. His expression darkened, but this was her territory, and he couldn't make a scene.

Tang San said nothing. He merely frowned at the closed doors, his gaze heavy.

He hadn't expected to be turned away without even seeing Shui Bing'er.

"Let's find a hotel and think of another way." Tang San looked away, his voice calm.

The group found a hotel near the academy and settled in.

By the time they carried Ma Hongjun into a room, he was barely conscious. The dark red patterns on his skin had spread farther, and his whole body burned like iron pulled fresh from a furnace. Tang

San gave him some water, then used Black Jade Hands to seal several major acupoints. For now, it was enough to keep him alive.

"If we can't invite her openly, we'll have to approach her alone."

Tang San stood by the window, looking toward the silver-white spires of Skywater Academy. The corners of his mouth lifted slightly.

Oscar's eyes lit up. "You've got it, Little San! You mean... wait until she leaves the academy and catch her alone?"

Flender gave Tang San a surprised look and hesitated.

"If Dean Shui finds out, this could end badly."

"What's there to worry about? We're not abducting her. We're only asking her for help."

Tang San's voice remained calm, as though he were discussing something perfectly ordinary.

"All right, then. But what if Shui Bing'er refuses?"

Dai Mubai showed a rare spark of interest. At last, this trip offered something exciting enough to take his mind off his troubles.

Zhao Wuji folded his arms and grinned, flashing his white teeth.

"Then we'll make her agree. Bring her to the hotel. With so many of us there, you think one little girl can get away?"

Yu Xiaogang stood silently in the corner, neither objecting nor voicing his approval.

As Grandmaster, some things were better left unsaid. But his silence was permission enough.

For the next two days, Oscar kept watch outside Skywater Academy.

Wrapped in an old cloak, he huddled against a wall across the street, shivering in the cold.

At last, on the evening of the third day, the academy gates opened and two young women walked out side by side.

Both wore Skywater Academy's standard long dress, one taller than the other.

The taller young woman was slender, with long ice-blue hair falling to her waist and gleaming faintly in the sunset. Her features were as exquisite as a sculpture carved from ice and jade, and an unapproachable chill surrounded her—

It was Shui Bing'er.

The shorter one was her younger sister, Shui Yue'er. Round-faced and bright-eyed, she looked much livelier. Her Martial Soul shared the same origin as her sister's, though her cultivation was slightly weaker.

They left the academy and followed the road beside Ice Lake toward home.

Before they had gone far, several figures stepped out of an alley and surrounded them.

Shui Bing'er stopped and put an arm out to shield her sister. Her ice-blue eyes swept coldly over the people closing in.

Flender, Zhao Wuji, Tang San, Dai Mubai, and Yu Xiaogang blocked their path in a semicircle.

"What do you want?" Shui Bing'er's voice was cool and wary. Soul Rings were already faintly appearing beneath her feet.

"Miss Shui, please don't misunderstand."

Tang San stepped forward, his tone courteous.

"We only want you to help suppress the Evil Fire inside one of our companions.

Your dean wouldn't make an exception, so we had no choice but to wait for you here."

Shui Bing'er frowned slightly.

The dean had told her about this. A group of arrogant outsiders wanted her to suppress the fire poison afflicting a fat boy consumed by Evil Fire.

She had refused then—

Not because she couldn't, but because she didn't want to.

Someone who couldn't control his own Evil Fire and had even ruined the place he used to relieve it could hardly be a decent person.

"I'm sorry."

Shui Bing'er's voice was as cold as the depths of Ice Lake.

"I won't help someone with such rotten character."

"Rotten? Watch what you say!"

Oscar popped out from behind the others, unable to hold back.

Ma Hongjun was a little wild, sure, but rotten? That was going too far.

After all, that was how their academy taught them: a Soul Master who didn't cause trouble wasn't a good Soul Master. The fat boy was only putting that lesson into practice.

"We have nothing to say to each other."

Shui Bing'er shook her head, her gaze growing colder.

"This is Skywater City. If I call out, none of you will get away."

A fierce glint flashed in Zhao Wuji's eyes. His voice sank.

"If you won't help, we'll have no choice but to take you two away by force."

"Do it." Tang San wasted no more words.

But the instant Zhao Wuji reached for her, Shui Bing'er and Shui Yue'er moved together. Ice-and-snow Soul Power erupted from the sisters, their matching auras merging in a heartbeat. A terrifying storm of freezing wind swept outward.

Ice-blue light burst across the lakeshore. The lake froze over in spreading sheets, the willows along its bank were instantly coated in frost, and a clear phoenix cry rang into the sky—

The phantom of the Ice and Snow Phoenix spread its wings amid a sky full of ice crystals, bathing half the heavens in ice-blue light.

Before Zhao Wuji's hand could touch Shui Bing'er's sleeve, the freezing shockwave from their Martial Soul Fusion Skill sent him staggering back seven or eight steps.

He steadied himself, his eyes wide with shock.

"A Martial Soul Fusion Skill?"

Flender was stunned too. For all his calculations, he had never imagined these two young women possessed a Martial Soul Fusion Skill.

Such skills were rare enough, let alone in two girls so young.

They hadn't even unleashed it at full strength, yet the shockwave alone had forced Zhao Wuji back. The sheer force of it was enough to alert every Soul Master for miles around.