Spicy Rabbit Head, You're Already Crying with Rage

The four set off again, heading deeper into the Frozen Forest.

This time, however, Wang Xian'er and the other two simply hid themselves, leaving Su Yuan to proceed alone.

After his earlier battle with the Snow Wolf, Su Yuan had gradually grown accustomed to traveling through Soul Beast territory. He put aside his playful attitude and began keeping a wary eye on his surroundings.

For his second battle, Su Yuan encountered a Snow Rabbit just over a hundred years old. In the end, neither the boy nor the rabbit could do anything to the other.

Su Yuan wanted to kill this evil Spicy Rabbit Head, but it moved through the snow at least twice as fast as the earlier Snow Wolf. It was also so small that even landing a hit was incredibly difficult, let alone killing it in one blow.

The Snow Rabbit wanted to kill Su Yuan too, but once he activated his Ice Dragon Scale Armor, its meager attack power couldn't even knock off a single scale, let alone pierce his defenses and deliver a fatal blow.

Not only did it fail to breach Su Yuan's defenses, but he also caught the brief opening while it was recovering from an attack and gave it a vicious slap, nearly bursting its spicy rabbit head.

In the end, it fled with its tail between its legs.

Su Yuan couldn't catch it either, so he had to let the matter drop and summon some outside assistance.

"Old Mo, I'm craving spicy rabbit head."

And so, the Spicy Rabbit Head that should have escaped unscathed after battling Old Demon Su for three hundred rounds became a delicious rabbit head beneath Old Mo's cold butcher's blade.

As he gnawed on the rabbit head, Su Yuan reflected on how it had felt to use his Soul Skills in these two battles.

He had to admit that these two Soul Skills might not be particularly powerful, but they suited him very well, especially the person he had been before awakening his cheat.

With so few options available, one offensive Soul Skill and one defensive Soul Skill were enough to handle most combat situations in the early stages.

Under the tutelage of two Soul Douluos, these two Soul Skills had delivered outstanding results in combat. Even without ranged attacks, he was fully capable of protecting himself.

Against stronger Soul Beasts, though, there was nothing he could do.

No Soul Skill would make a difference. Against an overwhelming gap in raw stats, even the flashiest Soul Skills could only scrape the skin.

After finishing the rabbit head, Su Yuan rested for a while. Once his Soul Power had more or less recovered, he set off again.

A little farther along, he encountered his third battle of the day.

This battle proved especially difficult.

Because what he encountered was an Ice Bear, one of the Soul Beasts at the very top of the Far North's food chain.

The same kind of Ice Bear as the Ice Bear King.

Though it was only six hundred years old, its combat strength was certainly no weaker than that of most thousand-year Soul Beasts. Its physical toughness was absurd to the point of being monstrous, plunging Su Yuan into a genuinely grueling battle.

At first, Su Yuan had even wanted to avoid it rather than fight.

But in the end, he gritted his teeth and charged in anyway.

With Wang Xian'er and the other two watching, I definitely won't die. Besides, how can this count as training if I only pick Soul Beasts I can beat?

Only something stronger than me can provide enough pressure for me to break past my limits!

"Ice Dragon Claw!"

"Ice Dragon Scale Armor!"

Come on, let's have a proper fight!

The next second...

"Gwaa!"

The Ice Bear hit Su Yuan like a Dayun truck, sending him flying with a piercing scream.

Stop recording, stop recording...

Su Yuan crashed into the snow with all four limbs pointing skyward and began questioning his life.

This is a fucking six-hundred-year-old Ice Bear?

I'm a level-thirty Dragon Soul Master, practically a Soul Elder, and there's still this huge a gap between our physical strength?

After sending Su Yuan flying, the Ice Bear didn't stop. It raced across the snow, trying to launch him again like a charging tank.

That fucking display forced Su Yuan to face reality. He was at an absolute disadvantage in physical strength, with no chance of winning in close combat. Even his strongest attack couldn't break through the Ice Bear's terrifying defenses.

This Ice Bear was just like him when he had stood before the Spicy Rabbit Head earlier. Its horrifying raw stats alone left its opponent helpless.

And, just like the Snow Rabbit, he had only two advantages left.

Small size!

High speed!

Just as Wang Xian'er and the others were about to lose patience and intervene, Su Yuan struggled out of the snow and narrowly dodged the Ice Bear's locomotive charge.

Boom!

Unable to stop, the Ice Bear actually smashed straight through a tree nearly thirty centimeters in diameter in the Frozen Forest. The crashing tree sent countless snowflakes and ice chips flying.

"Holy shit, can a human even beat this fucking thing?" A chill crawled over Su Yuan.

If I tried sliding underneath it, I'd probably stuff it so full it'd die, wouldn't I?

But...

"Heh..." Su Yuan smiled faintly, the corner of his mouth curling into a Dragon King's smirk.

A Soul Beast is still a Soul Beast. Below the ten-thousand-year level, it barely has any intelligence, only basic animal instincts. And as a human, my greatest strength is my brains!

"Blind Little Bear, keep coming if you've got the guts!" Su Yuan grinned, raised both hands, and stuck up both middle fingers, offering a universal gesture of friendship to the Ice Bear as it shook its head and climbed to its feet.

The Ice Bear couldn't understand it, but it somehow felt subjected to the ultimate mockery and humiliation. Its ice-blue eyes instantly turned red.

Warning... warning...

Who are you calling little?!

"ROAR!!!" In the blink of an eye, the Ice Bear became a Flame Bear. It dropped onto all fours and charged toward Su Yuan, roaring as it ran.

Seeing that his taunting strategy had worked, Su Yuan laughed loudly, turned, and ran. As he fled, he deliberately exaggerated his movements, kicking up great clouds of snow.

With eyes only for Su Yuan, the Ice Bear already lacked the brains to pay attention to its surroundings. The snow he deliberately stirred up restricted its vision even further.

Just as it was about to hit Su Yuan, the boy, who looked like a scrawny monkey in its eyes, deftly twisted aside again and escaped its charge.

Once again unable to brake, it slammed into an even larger tree at full speed, knocking that one down too.

This time, even the Ice Bear felt searing pain and dizziness in its head, and it began thinking of retreat.

Can't catch him... maybe I should stop trying.

But when it raised its head, Su Yuan's infuriating face appeared in its vision again. He even turned around, stuck out his backside, and patted it at the bear.

"You're already crying with rage."

For some reason, those two middle fingers sticking up like skyrocket fireworks looked even more dazzling than the sun to the Ice Bear...

Red. Even redder.

The Ice Bear completely lost its mind and fell into Su Yuan's trap once more. This time, however, it struck not a tree, but a massive boulder frozen as hard as steel.

The rock shattered, and so did the Ice Bear's skull.

As the swirling snow gradually settled, a panting Su Yuan slowly walked over to the Ice Bear. Seeing it breathe out more than it breathed in, he broke into a victorious smile.

"Tactics, kid!"

His right hand, transformed into an ice-crystal dragon claw, suddenly plunged through its fractured skull and churned its brain to pulp.

A lustrous deep yellow Soul Ring gradually formed above its corpse.