Most importantly, he was eight or nine years old, alone on the outskirts of the Star Dou Great Forest, and could blast apart the ice Shui Bing'er had formed with a single punch. No matter how she looked at it, he was no ordinary Soul Master.
"This boy is no simple character!" Shui Bing'er narrowed her eyes slightly and asked coldly, "Your Martial Soul... is a scorpion?"
"Yes." Luo Chen nodded. "A Nether Devil Scorpion."
"Nether... Demon Scorpion?" Shui Bing'er murmured, a snippet of information about this kind of Soul Beast flashing through her mind.
Soon, Shui Bing'er finally remembered. She had read about it in an ancient book.
The Nether Devil Scorpion was among the strongest of the strong among arthropod Soul Beasts.
It was said that a thousand-year Nether Devil Scorpion could contend with a Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast, and the potent venom within its body was even more formidable, capable of easily poisoning a Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast to death.
Unfortunately, since most lived in lands of deadly poison, records of them on the continent were few and far between.
At this thought, Shui Bing'er's pupils contracted slightly. The Nether Devil Scorpion is a rare, top-tier Martial Soul, but so is my Ice Phoenix! Why can I still feel a heart-quaking pressure coming from him?
Shui Bing'er hated this feeling. It was as though she were an antelope facing a lurking Ferocious Beast.
"By the way..." she asked, "what... is your name?"
"Luo Chen." Luo Chen gave her an indifferent glance. "And yours?"
"Shui Bing'er."
The two looked at each other for another moment, a subtle atmosphere hanging in the air.
For some inexplicable reason, Shui Bing'er's heartbeat quickened a little.
Calm down... calm down...
Bing'er, you're the top student at Skywater Academy. What haven't you seen?
Isn't he just a strange boy? Is he worth getting your heart racing like this?
There's nothing special about him...
*...*
There really is nothing special about him...
*...*
All right, he is a little unusual, but I only want to figure out why his Martial Soul makes my heart quail.
Yes, that's the reason.
At this thought, Shui Bing'er spoke first, sounding somewhat awkward. "Um, about what happened earlier... I'm truly sorry."
"This is my token. If you catch a cold, you can come find me in Skywater City."
"It's fine." Luo Chen shook his head, raising a hand to refuse the token Shui Bing'er offered. "You meant well."
He paused, then suddenly laughed. "But remember to check first next time. Otherwise, you might freeze an innocent bystander to death while he's taking a bath."
Shui Bing'er: "..."
Is he making fun of me?
He must be!
He just won't let it go, will he?
But... he does have a point. I can't refute him at all.
Damn it!
No, I have to leave now! If I stay any longer, I'm afraid I won't be able to stop myself from attacking him.
Just then, another cool voice came from deep within the forest. "Bing'er, haven't you fetched the water yet?"
Only upon hearing this did Shui Bing'er remember what she had come here to do.
And so, while calling loudly, "I have! I'll be right there!" she tossed the bucket into the river and drew up a bucket of water.
"Well, I... I'm leaving!"
With that, she picked up the wooden bucket and left with somewhat flustered steps.
On the way back, Shui Bing'er kept reassuring herself.
Calm down, Shui Bing'er. You have to stay calm. You absolutely can't let Xiao Xue notice anything amiss.
You only froze over the lake's surface. It really wasn't a big deal.
As for that boy named Luo Chen, I probably won't see him again, right?
...Probably?
Luo Chen watched her retreating figure gradually disappear into the forest, a smile curling his lips.
"I never expected that icy beauty from the original story to be such a character. This is too funny."
As the night deepened, Luo Chen found a large tree, leaned against its trunk, and closed his eyes to wait for dawn.
Early the next morning, Luo Chen woke up in the tree and stretched.
"It's been so long since I've slept this well." Rubbing his eyes, Luo Chen muttered to himself, "I'll find some fruit to eat, then hunt a Netherworld Stinger Scorpion and obtain my second Soul Ring."
With that, Luo Chen leaped up, hooked the scorpion tail behind him around a branch, and used it to launch himself into the air, flying toward the dark region on the outskirts of the Star Dou Great Forest.
The dark region on the outskirts of the Star Dou Great Forest was the strangest place in the entire forest.
Ancient trees towered into the sky here, their branches and leaves so dense that they blocked out almost all sunlight, leaving the ground shrouded in darkness year-round.
A damp, decaying smell filled the air. Thick layers of fallen leaves and dead branches covered the ground, making cracking sounds when stepped on.
Occasionally, a few rays of sunlight spilled through gaps in the foliage, forming shafts of light that only made the place seem stranger.
The instant he entered the dark region, Luo Chen immediately activated Martial Soul Possession with his Netherworld Scorpion Emperor.
An immensely powerful presence emanated from his body. Wherever he went, every Soul Beast trembled, staying rooted to the spot without moving.
After ten days of arduous searching in the dark region, Luo Chen finally found a Netherworld Stinger Scorpion.
At that moment, it was lying at the base of an enormous dead tree, its body curled up as though asleep.
Luo Chen crouched on a branch of a large tree, quietly observing this Soul Beast through a gap in the foliage.
At the same time, he frantically recalled information about the Netherworld Stinger Scorpion.
The Netherworld Stinger Scorpion was a Soul Beast with a pure netherworld attribute, its entire body pitch-black as ink and its carapace hard as iron.
Perhaps to increase its speed, its body was smaller than a Nine Poison Scorpion's, measuring about the size of an adult's torso.
Its most striking feature was the scorpion tail behind it.
Unlike an ordinary scorpion's tail, the Netherworld Stinger Scorpion's tail was divided into three segments, each covered in sharp barbs, with its tip steeped in a ghostly green, deadly venom.
At the same time, its method of attack was extremely unusual: its tail could fire several penetrating scorpion needles at its enemies.
The scorpion needles came in dense, swift volleys and possessed penetrating power, allowing them to easily pierce the defenses of Soul Beasts of the same rank.
Once a scorpion needle struck, its venom would swiftly invade the body and corrode its bodily functions.
Luo Chen carefully examined this Netherworld Stinger Scorpion's tail. According to the book, a Netherworld Poison Scorpion's tail had three segments at birth, and afterward
For every additional five hundred years of age, the Netherworld Stinger Scorpion's hooked tail could grow another segment.
At that moment, the Netherworld Stinger Scorpion before him already had five segments in its hooked tail and was even about to grow a sixth. Luo Chen rapidly calculated in his mind and soon determined this Netherworld Stinger Scorpion's age: at least one thousand seven hundred and eighty years.
"One thousand seven hundred and eighty years?!" Luo Chen's brows furrowed slightly.
After all, the limit for an ordinary Soul Master's second Soul Ring was generally around six hundred to seven hundred years.
Yet the Netherworld Stinger Scorpion before him was as old as one thousand seven hundred and eighty years, a full thousand-plus years beyond an ordinary Soul Master's second Soul Ring, making it a choice for many people's third Soul Ring.
But could Luo Chen be compared to ordinary people? After being tempered by the Scorpion Emperor Body Tempering Technique, his body had long since become capable of withstanding ordinary blades and spears head-on. The bodily tearing caused by a mere one-thousand-seven-hundred-and-eighty-year Soul Ring was hardly worth mentioning.
"My first Soul Ring was a seven-hundred-year Nine Poison Scorpion, already beyond the limit." A smile curled Luo Chen's lips. "How could my second Soul Ring be inferior to my first?"