The Second Contract, Sea Heart Flame

Skywater Academy?

Xiao Yao had some guesses about who these two were. He called out tentatively:

"Shui Bing'er?"

"Huh?" The older girl looked toward him, her eyes a little bewildered.

Gu Yihan also gave him a questioning look, as though asking how he knew her.

Xiao Yao smiled. "I heard Skywater Academy had an outstanding student who was both strong and beautiful, so I tried calling out her name. I didn't expect to guess right."

Gu Yihan suspected nothing. Her cousin did have something of a reputation at the academy, and she had heard that she had quite a few admirers outside it as well.

Gu Sanshui led the sisters, Shui Bing'er and Shui Yue'er, over, while Gu Yihan led Xiao Yao and Xiao Wu, bringing the two groups together.

Xiao Yao greeted her with a smile. "Hello, Miss Shui Bing'er. My name is Xiao Yao. This is our first meeting, but I've long heard of your reputation."

Xiao Wu also studied her curiously.

Having already signed a contract with Xiao Yao, she naturally knew that during that brief exchange just now, her Brother Xiao Yao had already signed a contract with this water-like woman.

She wanted to see what was so special about her that Brother Xiao Yao had decided to form a contract with her before even seeing her face.

"Xiao... Yao, what reputation do I have? It's nothing but undeserved praise from my classmates. Just call me Bing'er."

Shui Bing'er replied as well, an indescribable naturalness in her every movement.

Beside her, Shui Yue'er was already dumbfounded. Since when had her sister acted like this?

As the person closest to her, she naturally knew that although her sister seemed friendly and easy for anyone to get along with, she was actually warm on the outside and cold within, maintaining a very precise sense of distance in her dealings with others.

When had she ever let someone address her directly by name on their first meeting like this, let alone a strange man?

Could she have become boy-crazy, just like her?

He really was quite handsome, more handsome than those guys from the five great academies.

Unfortunately, he wasn't to her taste. She still preferred someone a little more rugged and forceful.

Little did she know that the moment Shui Bing'er answered Xiao Yao's greeting, their contract had already been established, and their intimacy had reached ten.

In Shui Bing'er's heart, Xiao Yao already held a slightly higher place than an ordinary friend, so calling each other by name was no big deal.

It was getting late, so they found a restaurant and chatted over a meal.

Xiao Yao and Xiao Wu each stated their Soul Power levels-twenty-four and twenty-five, respectively-and said they had come to Heavenly Dou City to study.

"So you came to Heavenly Dou City to study. What a shame, then. Neither of you has a water attribute, and this handsome fellow isn't a girl, either. Otherwise, I'd recommend you to our Skywater Academy."

Shui Yue'er was a straightforward girl, carefree in temperament and frank in speech, which made her likable.

Gu Yihan's lips parted slightly, but she hesitated.

As far as she knew, Xiao Yao and Xiao Wu were actually only seven or eight years old. They merely looked older than the girls.

Having broken through to Soul Grandmaster at that age, even Skywater Academy would probably be willing to make an exception and admit them.

But she still said nothing. Neither Xiao Yao nor Xiao Wu had brought it up themselves, so perhaps they had their own considerations.

"We'll all be in Heavenly Dou City. There'll still be plenty of chances for us to meet."

Xiao Yao didn't take up that topic, instead brushing past it.

In truth, he was rather troubled as well. He had already offered plenty of compliments, both openly and indirectly, yet Shui Bing'er's intimacy hadn't budged at all.

That left him a little discouraged. Perhaps Xiao Wu's intimacy had been so easy to grind that his confidence had swollen out of proportion.

"It's getting late. Xiao Wu and I will take our leave. We'll find a hotel first, then handle our enrollment tomorrow."

Seeing that Xiao Yao and Xiao Wu were leaving, Shui Yue'er hurriedly stood up.

"Don't go! Why don't you just stay at my house? It's nearby."

Xiao Yao waved a hand. "No need. Your parents must be anxiously waiting for you to bring Yihan and Sanshui home. I won't intrude on your family reunion."

"Goodbye."

Xiao Yao left the restaurant with Xiao Wu, only to feel a response from the Heavenly Book Martial Soul.

[Intimacy has reached 20. Spiritual Objects Chapter unlocked: "Martial Soul Evolution Set · Ever Together, the Love of Fish and Bird." Please gift it to your contracted partner, Shui Bing'er.]

[Intimacy has reached 20. Spiritual Objects Chapter unlocked: "Sea Heart Flame" (already refined).]

Xiao Yao froze for a moment, then walked even faster. There were simply too many questions, and he needed to find somewhere to think.

As soon as they left, Shui Yue'er mischievously nudged her sister's chest.

"'Bing'er, Bing'er.' This is the first time you've let someone call you directly by name, Sister. Has your heart been stirred?"

Shui Bing'er rolled her eyes, a rare sight. "Stop fooling around. We've only just met. How could there be any talk of my heart being stirred?"

"But Xiao Yao really is courteous and measured, knowing when to advance and when to retreat. It was clearly still early, yet he took the initiative to leave. Even when you invited him, he didn't take the offered slope to ride his donkey down."

"Just as he said, he left that time for our family. Mom and Dad are still waiting for us at home. He's nothing like you, only ever thinking about running wild outside."

As she spoke, she tapped her younger sister on the head.

Shui Yue'er wasn't annoyed. She even stuck out her tongue.

"Now that you put it that way, Sister, he really is a good person. He's nothing like those men from the academy next door. Every time we go out with them, they wish we'd stay until the dead of night."

"You have the nerve to say that? Keep being so obsessed with having fun, and watch out-you might end up throwing yourself into the bargain one day."

"That won't happen. I always bring the secret weapon Dad gave me."

Xiao Yao wasn't familiar with Heavenly Dou City either, so he found a hotel near the city gates and checked in.

Along the way, he had also figured out where Shui Bing'er's intimacy toward him had come from, leaving him momentarily speechless before he laughed.

Truly, flowers planted with care refused to bloom, while a willow cutting casually stuck into the soil grew into shade.

It seemed Shui Bing'er and Xiao Wu were two completely different people. If he had praised Xiao Wu like that, her tail would have been sticking up into the heavens long ago.

Shui Bing'er, on the other hand, was a typical well-bred young lady. Perhaps he could be more aggressive later, but at the beginning, he still needed to meet her moral standards to raise her intimacy.

Then there was the matter of intimacy rewards.

Only when Xiao Wu's intimacy reached eighty had he been rewarded with the "Martial Soul Evolution Set · Tender Charm, Bewitching Bones Bunny Girl," yet Shui Bing'er had barely passed twenty, and he had already received the equally high-quality "Martial Soul Evolution Set · Ever Together, the Love of Fish and Bird."

The same went for him: only after intimacy reached eighty had he met all the conditions for refining the fallen heart flame and completed its refinement, yet now he had been given an already-refined sea heart flame directly.

Although the sea heart flame wasn't as outstanding as the fallen heart flame, one ranked fifteenth on the heavenly flame ranking and the other fourteenth. The gap wasn't that large.

Why was the difference in rewards so great?

Only after thinking about it all night did Xiao Yao understand: it still came down to how difficult intimacy was to grind.

Xiao Wu's intimacy was far too easy to grind. To put it in gaming terms, Xiao Wu was like the beginner tutorial, so naturally the rewards were a little worse.

But Shui Bing'er was a proper boss, so naturally the rewards were richer.