It was already afternoon when the four returned to the academy, and they each washed up and rested in their quarters. They had just changed when a familiar sweep of spiritual power passed over them-Dugu Bo's voice rang directly in their minds: "Come to the training grounds."
Dugu Bo had sat on the stone bench for nearly an hour before he finally saw the four approaching.
"Finally willing to come back?" Dugu Bo snorted, his emerald eyes sweeping over them. Bai Yu's leg was wrapped in bandages, and she dared not put her full weight on her left foot as she walked. Zhong Yue's left sleeve was rolled up to his elbow, revealing a swath of purplish bruising across his forearm. Feng Xiaotian and Feng Lingtian had changed into clean clothes and showed no visible injuries, but when Feng Xiaotian sat on the stone bench, his right shoulder noticeably dipped-he had tugged at a wound and forcibly suppressed his reaction. It was quick, so quick that only an old poison master like Dugu Bo could have caught it.
Dugu Bo asked nothing. He took several bottles of topical medicine from inside his robes and tossed them over. "Apply it yourselves. Don't expect this old man to wait on you."
Feng Lingtian caught the medicine and grinned. The old man's tongue was harsh, but his eyes were sharper than anyone's.
Feng Lingtian turned around and clapped his hands. "Everyone, stop for a moment. I have a few ideas about our cultivation going forward."
Once everyone had gathered, Feng Lingtian took a stack of papers from inside his robes and handed them out by name. "I refined the pills, so I have a rough idea of how you can train to absorb their medicinal effects faster. Try following these training plans for a while. You should get better results."
Everyone looked down at their own sheet. The pages were densely covered in writing-which Soul Skills to practice at which hours, whose medicinal power was stuck in which meridian and needed targeted combat training to stimulate it, who should stop pushing for levels and consolidate their foundation first. Everything was clearly marked.
Shi Yan read his sheet from beginning to end before finally squeezing out a sentence. "You even wrote down how many bowls of medicinal decoction I should drink on which days!"
Feng Lingtian did not even look up. "I revised your prescription three times. Don't waste it."
Shi Yan scratched the back of his head and said nothing more. He merely reread the small lines beside his name, then quietly walked to a corner of the training grounds and began his first set of exercises according to the schedule on the paper. The others dispersed as well, taking their sheets and finding places to train.
The results soon showed once they began following the plans. Over the course of a month, everyone could feel the medicinal power in their bodies being absorbed faster, their Soul Power growing more condensed by the day. Their breakthroughs came at different times, but Feng Lingtian's predictions of their pace were close to the mark.
Su Mei'er was the first to reach level thirty.
That day, Su Mei'er was sparring with Feng Lingtian on the training grounds, practicing the binding angles of Wind Lightning Chain, when she suddenly stopped. She glanced behind her-the phantom of a third tail had lit up at some point. It was watery blue, shimmering with faint ripples in the sunlight.
"Finally, level thirty." Su Mei'er tilted her head, her three tails slowly spreading behind her. The first was blue-green with lightning patterns, the second fiery red, and the third watery blue, each color distinct.
Feng Lingtian withdrew his feather blades and walked over to look. "Is this... a water attribute?"
Su Mei'er nodded, stroking the watery-blue tail. "Looks like I'll have to find a fox with both wind and water attributes this time."
Nearby, Zhong Yue was doing weight training with a tortoise shell on his back. He looked up in confusion when he heard her. "Su Mei'er, your Soul Rings really are unusual. First fire, now water."
Su Mei'er smiled and explained. "Ever since it awakened, my Martial Soul has only had one primary attribute-wind. I didn't think anything was strange at first. It wasn't until my first Soul Hunting trip that I noticed something was off." She curled her first tail, and an arc of electricity flickered at its tip. "That Soul Beast had a little lightning attribute. After I absorbed it, lightning patterns appeared on this wind tail. My First Soul Skill, Wind Lightning Chain, has both wind and lightning attributes."
"The one you helped me find on my second Soul Hunting trip had a fire attribute." The tip of her second, fiery-red tail twitched lightly. "Absorbing it activated my fire tail and gave me my Second Soul Skill, Wind Fire Bewildering Array."
Watching Su Mei'er's watery-blue third tail, Feng Lingtian suddenly spoke. "Your Martial Soul probably activates a tail automatically every time you reach a ten-level threshold, and its color tells you which element to look for next-right?"
Su Mei'er blinked. "When did you figure that out?"
"Just now. You said you only noticed something was off during your first Soul Hunting trip, and your second confirmed the pattern. Now your third tail has lit up watery blue. The pattern couldn't be more obvious." Feng Lingtian folded his arms. "Your Martial Soul isn't activating elements at random. It's pointing the way for you."
Su Mei'er did not deny it, merely curling her lips. She withdrew her three tails and dusted nonexistent dirt off her hands. "A fox Soul Beast with both wind and water attributes won't be easy to find," she said ruefully.
"A Water Wind Fox would fit your requirements perfectly," Feng Lingtian said. "I saw it in an illustrated Soul Beast guide. Water Wind Foxes have appeared in the marshlands south of the Heavenly Wind Mountain Range." As he spoke, he took a small porcelain bottle from inside his robes.
Su Mei'er looked at the small porcelain bottle in his hand and asked in puzzlement, "What's that?"
"This is a Primordial Martial Awakening Pill · Ice. I refined it using an ultimate ice Immortal Herb-the Octagonal Mysterious Ice Grass-as the main ingredient." Feng Lingtian tipped out a pill, icy blue throughout, with flowing frost patterns. "Last time, I had you take the Primordial Martial Awakening Pill · Fire just to test whether it could evolve your fire tail into ultimate fire-and it actually worked."
"I want to try again this time. Your third tail only has a water attribute right now. If you take this before hunting a Water Wind Fox, could your water tail evolve directly into ultimate ice when you absorb the Soul Ring? Even if it isn't ultimate ice, it should at least be ultimate water. With luck, you might get both water and ice forms and be able to switch between them."
Feng Lingtian offered her the pill. "You know how powerful ultimate fire is. Well? Interested in trying?"
After listening, Su Mei'er tilted her head in thought, then smiled. "What's there to fear about something this good?"
Su Mei'er did not hesitate. With a flick of her thumb, the Primordial Martial Awakening Pill · Ice traced an arc into her mouth. It dissolved on contact, and a cool stream of medicinal power sank down her throat into her dantian, then spread along her meridians to the root of her third tail. The watery-blue tail trembled slightly, and a barely perceptible layer of frosty white appeared within its blue glow.
"The medicinal power will need a few days to fuse completely," Feng Lingtian said. "Once your meridians have fully adapted to their affinity for the ice element, we'll hunt a Water Wind Fox. Then your third tail will have a chance to gain the ultimate ice attribute."
"What if it doesn't gain the ultimate ice attribute?" Su Mei'er asked.
"Even if it isn't ultimate ice, it'll definitely be ultimate water. You won't lose out."
Su Mei'er rolled her eyes at Feng Lingtian. "You certainly have a unique way of reassuring people."
Su Mei'er lowered her head to look at her watery-blue tail, now tinged with frosty white, and its tip twitched lightly. An extremely thin ice crystal broke free from the tip and drifted through the air. It did not fall to the ground-instead, it suddenly burst in midair, turning into a fist-sized cloud of icy mist that enveloped her entire third tail. When the mist dispersed, the frosty white at its tip had already spread to the middle of the tail. Several fine, closely spaced ice spines grew along its edges, gleaming with a cold, sharp light beneath the sun.
She had only taken the pill and had yet to hunt for a Soul Ring, yet ice spines had already taken physical form.
Su Mei'er stared at the newly formed ice spines on the tip of her tail, and the corners of her lips slowly curved upward.
What would her third tail transform into? She really couldn't wait.