"You...!"
Ling Luochеn blushed again.
To be honest, even she had lost count of how many times she had blushed in front of this boy.
Growing up, she had rarely ever blushed.
Someone had carried her back from the Far North, then even said she was light.
For a moment, Ling Luochеn had no idea what to say.
Seeing her pretty face turn from white to red, Xue Chen asked cautiously,
"Big sister, desperate times call for desperate measures. We're both people of the jianghu. Surely you don't think I was taking liberties with you?"
You were!
Ling Luochеn swallowed the words that had nearly escaped her lips and slowly shook her head.
For some reason, although she had only just met this boy, she felt an involuntary desire to draw closer to him.
"Let me introduce myself. My name is Ling Luochеn, and I'm an inner court disciple of Shrek Academy."
Smoothing the long hair at her forehead, Ling Luochеn looked at Xue Chen.
"What's your name?"
"My name is Xue Chen... I suppose I'm an orphan."
After thinking for a moment, Xue Chen finally spoke.
An orphan. Being an orphan is great.
Isn't being an orphan standard equipment for transmigrators these days?
Not to mention that Xue Chen had two older sisters who shared neither a father nor a mother with him. Even among the vast army of transmigrators, that counted as an exceptionally high-end setup.
The Flame Emperor was awesome, wasn't he?
He only had one younger sister who wasn't related to him by blood.
Tang San was badass, wasn't he?
He only had one sworn younger sister who wasn't related to him by blood.
"An orphan?"
Ling Luochеn's willow-leaf brows furrowed slightly. After looking Xue Chen up and down for a moment, she asked in some confusion,
"You were wearing just a thin shirt, yet you could... could carry me out of the Far North. You must be a Soul Master too, right?"
"So what if I'm a Soul Master? Can't a Soul Master be an orphan?"
Xue Chen puffed out his chest, looking unconvinced.
For some reason, Ling Luochеn actually saw a kind of pride in Xue Chen.
What exactly are you so proud of?!
"That's not what I meant!"
Ling Luochеn shook her head, her dark hair swaying with the motion.
"Is your Martial Soul an ice-attribute Martial Soul?"
"Why aren't you afraid of the low temperatures in the Far North?"
"An ice-attribute Martial Soul? I wouldn't quite call it that."
A glint flickered in Xue Chen's eyes. He had been worrying about being unable to obtain a recommendation letter from a city lord and thus being unable to join Shrek Academy.
Although he knew that as long as he revealed his Martial Soul, Shrek Academy would definitely accept him unconditionally.
But with this connection to Ling Luochеn, his admission to Shrek Academy wouldn't seem so abrupt.
"I don't know what my Martial Soul is either, but ever since I awakened it, I haven't been afraid of the low temperatures in the Far North."
Hearing this, Ling Luochеn's eyes immediately lit up.
Her Martial Soul was the Ice Element.
It was an exceedingly rare elemental Martial Soul, giving her an extremely high affinity for and resistance to the ice attribute.
But even a Martial Soul like the Ice Element, which ranked among the very best of the ice attribute, couldn't make her immune to the cold of the Far North.
Could this boy who had saved her life possess a Martial Soul of even higher quality than hers?
"Little brother Xue Chen."
At that thought, Ling Luochеn hurriedly said to Xue Chen,
"Could... could you release your Martial Soul and let your big sister take a look?"
"That's no problem."
Xue Chen nodded. Or rather, he had been waiting for Ling Luochеn to say precisely that!
"Martial Soul Possession!"
With Xue Chen's low shout, the phantom of the Five Elements Qilin appeared behind him once again.
An immense pressure instantly spread out from the room in all directions.
"This is... what Martial Soul is this?"
As she looked at the qilin phantom behind Xue Chen, Ling Luochеn's body abruptly stiffened. She couldn't help pressing her legs together a little, and even her voice began to tremble.
Logically speaking, although the Five Elements Qilin Martial Soul was of high quality, it shouldn't exert any superior Martial Soul pressure on the Ice Element Martial Soul.
After all, Beast Martial Souls and elemental Martial Souls were entirely different categories. How could there be any superior Martial Soul pressure between them?
Yet Xue Chen's first Soul Ring happened to be formed from the Snow Empress.
Across the entire Douluo Continent, whether among ice-attribute Martial Souls or ice-attribute Soul Beasts, was there a single one that could compare to the Snow Empress?
"You... hurry and withdraw your Martial Soul!"
Ling Luochеn's voice was somewhat strained. The pressure the Snow Empress's Soul Ring exerted on her almost left her unable to breathe.
"Oh!"
Without saying anything more, Xue Chen obediently withdrew his Martial Soul.
As Xue Chen withdrew his Martial Soul, Ling Luochеn let out a long breath, and her expression slowly relaxed.
Her legs, which had been tightly pressed together, slowly parted as well.
Now she understood why that Icefield Mammoth of over thirty thousand years had clamped its limbs together back in the Far North!
"Your Martial Soul... is so powerful!"
Only after taking quite a while to recover did she speak, though her voice held an indescribable complexity.
"To suppress my Ice Element Martial Soul to this extent, your Martial Soul... really is Ultimate Ice?"
Ling Luochеn had always wanted to evolve her Martial Soul into Ultimate Ice, but she had never expected a boy to possess such a Martial Soul.
She still remembered an inner court teacher telling her that cultivating alongside an Ultimate Ice Martial Soul could greatly increase her cultivation speed.
At the same time, she also understood why she had felt an inexplicable closeness to this boy.
"Little brother Xue Chen!"
At that thought, a brilliant smile suddenly blossomed on Ling Luochеn's coldly beautiful face.
"What... what are you doing?"
Xue Chen took two steps back.
Right now, Ling Luochеn looked exactly like a creepy uncle trying to take a little girl to see his goldfish.
"Do you know about Shrek Academy?"
Ling Luochеn rose from the bed and approached Xue Chen step by step.
"Of course. Didn't you just say you were an inner court disciple of Shrek Academy?"
Xue Chen took another two steps back, his back pressing straight against the window.
"Your Martial Soul is very powerful. Shrek Academy needs talented people like you."
Ling Luochеn seized both of Xue Chen's hands, showing none of the demeanor of the inner court's ice goddess.
"At Shrek Academy, your talent will be fully developed. You'll become a supreme powerhouse standing at the pinnacle of the continent!"
How should one put it? Leaving aside Shrek Academy's ability to educate its students, its pyramid-scheme-style recruitment methods were unmatched on the continent.
"Come to Shrek Academy with your big sister. I'll take good care of you!"
Ling Luochеn's lovely eyes were filled with fervor.
Big sister?
What big sister?
How did I end up with another big sister?
Xue Chen had still underestimated how much Ling Luochеn-or rather, Shrek Academy-valued an Ultimate Martial Soul.
"Um, could you let go of me first?"
Xue Chen couldn't help saying.
Ling Luochеn said nothing, but her grip on both of Xue Chen's hands tightened instead.
Even she couldn't say whether she was too excited or whether it was something else. In any case, she couldn't bear to let go.
"I'm willing to go to Shrek Academy with you. Is that good enough?"
Seeing this, Xue Chen could only agree.