The first true contact between Bai Su and Su Ming ended when the sky became dark and the moon showed up. Bai Su thought she won that day. She thought that she had done her best and successfully made Su Ming notice her, planting a faint mark in his heart.
If she did not win, then why would he look dazed when she met him initially? If she did not win, then why would he use that gentle wind when they parted ways?
Bai Su thought that she had completely won. Her act when she left had even unfolded all the unreasonableness and boldness within her.
When she thought about it, Bai Su could still feel her heart pounding against her chest. She sat down within her cave in the seventh summit and looked at the bronze mirror before her. She looked at her own reflection in the mirror. Gradually, a prideful look appeared on her face.
"Su Ming, you must have not expected me to do this, heh heh."
When Bai Su thought of what had happened, besides her heart starting to race in her chest, a hint of lingering fear also rose within her.
She had no idea what had come over her to do something so crazy. It was as if at that moment she was no longer herself but had turned into someone else entirely.
She looked into the bronze mirror and that person in the mirror became strange and unfamiliar to her. That person had her hair tied by a red string. Her braids fell on her shoulders, and there were crystals stuck on her forehead. This appearance was one Bai Su had never put on before this day.
She looked at herself, and simply continued looking…
"This appearance isn’t so bad…"
Bai Su smiled with pursed lips and slowly closed her eyes before immersing herself in her meditation. That day, she did not look for Si Ma Xin. In fact, Si Ma Xin’s name never crossed her mind, which was an event that had never happened before.
With a joy that she did not even realize she was experiencing and a smug smile on her lips, she eagerly waited for the next day.
During that night, it was silent on the ninth summit. Zi Che stood respectfully outside Su Ming’s cave abode. Before him were a dozen ice rocks the size of fists.
Freezing air seeped out of the ice rocks, and when wind blew past, the freezing air blew into Su Ming’s face, causing his eyes to flicker.
"This stone won’t melt even when burned, but it’s not st.u.r.dy. You can use cold air and mold the stone into all sorts of shapes. Master, I didn’t have much time, that’s why I could only find this number of stones… but don’t worry, I will continue searching. Give me a month and I’ll be able to gather much more," Zi Che said respectfully. When he saw Su Ming nodding, he retreated a few hundred feet away before sitting down and waiting for new orders.
Su Ming looked at the dozen ice rocks and picked one up. Immediately, he felt the rock weighing down his hand. It was only the size of a fist, but it felt like he was holding onto a mountain that was the height of a human.
"It’s such a strange stone, but it has such fatal weakness."
Su Ming clenched his right hand. Cracks immediately appeared on the ice rock and, with a bang, it shattered into several pieces, each piece still weighing far more than their actual size.
Once Su Ming picked up the shattered pieces, he brought out an item from his storage bag with his left hand. Once that item appeared, Zi Che’s pupils instantly shrank.
It was a spherical pearl – Spirit Plunder!
Once that pill was brought out, it absorbed all the light in the surroundings and the area became dark, making it seem like there was a void floating before Su Ming.
If a person could see through the dim light outside the pill and into the pill itself, they could clearly see that there were wisps of smoke within that were moving about slowly. At the center of the wisps was an ice flower. There was an enchanting eye floating above the ice flower, and that eye had two pupils!
Su Ming had no access to any cold air that would allow him to change the ice rocks into the shape he wanted, even if most of the people in Freezing Sky Clan trained using cold.
However, Su Ming had Spirit Plunder. A thread of the prodigy Si Ma Xin’s Berserker Mark was in the pill. As Su Ming pointed at Spirit Plunder with his left hand, the dim light on the pill instantly vanished and was replaced with the seemingly sealed ice that flowed on top of the wisps of smoke.
The chilling air from the flower wound up Su Ming’s left hand. When he pressed his hand on the ice rocks, that cold air spread out and surrounded them.
As the cold air seeped into the stones and gradually fused with the dozen ice rocks, the rocks started shrinking. After the time taken to burn an incense stick, when Su Ming lifted his hand and the cold air dissipated, two hoops made from those dozen ice rocks appeared before him.
The two hoops were of normal size and were very fragile. They could be destroyed if he used the slightest strength, but the weight added together of the two hoops was equal to a small hill.
Su Ming took up the hoops and a grave look appeared on his face. The two were very heavy, but not to the point that he could not lift them up. Yet if he had more pairs of these things, then unless he circulated his Qi, then he would be unable to move them with his physical body.
‘I hope you’ll be able to help me increase my speed.’
A light flickered in Su Ming’s eyes and he placed the two ice hoops on his feet before standing up and taking a step forward.
The moment he took a step forward, the platform shuddered.
‘It’s still not enough.’
Su Ming walked around back and forth on the platform. Once he found that he was not in too much discomfort, he no longer thought about it and sat down once again. With the moonlight s.h.i.+ning on his face, he looked at the moon in the sky and a contemplative look appeared in his eyes.
‘I can use ice rocks to increase my speed, but that’s only to increase my physical body’s speed. It won’t help me increase my speed when I fly…
‘That’s already not part of my physical abilities, but an Art…’
Su Ming looked at the moon in the sky, and a scene gradually appeared in his eyes.
There was a golden light s.h.i.+ning in the horizon within that scene. That golden light stirred up a huge gust of wind and traveled 10,000 lis in distance in the span of a breath, approaching the place at a shocking speed before turning into the Golden Roc that was about 10,000 feet in size.
"This is the fastest speed I’ve ever witnessed!" Su Ming mumbled and closed his eyes.
After a moment, he opened them and brought out the drawing board. He drew a few lines with his right hand and immediately, a Golden Roc appeared on the drawing board before his eyes.
‘In regards to my speed, I can use the ice rocks to train my body so it’ll be able to resist the pressure brought by faster speeds, which will in turn increase my physical speed!
‘Similarly, I can copy the instant the Golden Roc flapped its wings and use it as the second Style in my Picture Creation. By doing so, I’ll be able to increase my speed more completely.’
Determination appeared in Su Ming’s eyes.
‘As for my defense… I have to wait for third senior brother to bring me those Runes before I can begin the tests.’
Su Ming sank into his thoughts once again for a while before he focused his attention and started drawing on the drawing board once again.
He was so absorbed in it that he ignored everything else around him. His entire mind was on the drawing board, and as he drew, multiple flying Golden Rocs appeared on it.
Every single time the Golden Rocs flapped its wings, their feathers would change, their bodies would transform, and under Su Ming’s hand, the differences of each individual bird gradually became clearer.
It was the same as when he had copied Si Ma Xin’s sword attack. He would continuously copy it to search for his own Creation.
When morning arrived and the morning sun rose in the horizon, Bai Su came once again to the ninth summit.
She was still dressed in that manner and was still smiling while showing her canines. With a proud expression on her face, she walked past Zi Che and stood before Su Ming. She looked at him sitting there with the morning sun s.h.i.+ning on him as he drew on the drawing board.
Bai Su stood by the side and watched for a moment but could only see Su Ming moving his finger on the drawing board. She could not see what he drew. In her eyes, that drawing board was empty.
After a moment, she grew impatient.
"Hey, I’ve been waiting for half a day! Stop pretending I’m not here!"
It was as if Su Ming did not hear her and simply continued drawing. When Zi Che saw this in the distance, he smiled wryly and turned his head around to not watch them anymore. He could not understand Su Ming’s actions. If he hated the girl, then why did he let her come here, but if he did not hate the girl, then why did he not choose to see her from the very beginning?
Zi Che could not see through the secrets behind this.
When Bai Su saw that Su Ming still pretended to not have heard her, she let out a harrumph and went forward to s.n.a.t.c.h his drawing board, yet the moment she wanted to act, for some unknown reason, when she saw the concentrated look on Su Ming’s face, her outstretched hand froze.
It was as if she hesitated for a moment, but her hand still seized the drawing board. The instant she touched the drawing board, her hair suddenly floated up and the red string tying up her hair immediately broke, causing her long hair to fall down. Her clothes started flapping viciously as if a violent gust of wind was blowing against her.
Bai Su’s face instantly turned pale and a dazed look appeared in her eyes, as if she had lost her soul and it was sucked into the drawing board. Right before her eyes, an unfamiliar world appeared.
She saw a golden light pa.s.sing by through a dark sky. Once that golden light pa.s.sed by, another appeared.
She had no idea how long it lasted, but Bai Su saw countless golden lights.
The moment she felt as if she forgot herself and her mind turned blank, an aloof voice seemed to echo within the clouded and indistinct world.
"This is a lesson for you, don’t interrupt my training."
After the words, Bai Su felt as if her soul returned and she regained control of her own body. She trembled, and the world before her shattered. Once her vision rea.s.sembled itself, she saw Su Ming’s eyes.
There was calmness within his eyes, but within that calmness was a might that made her heart tremble. That imposing might in his eyes was one that Si Ma Xin did not possess.
Under his gaze, an indescribable fatigue and weakness spread through her whole body. She staggered a few steps back and her vision blurred. She fell unconscious to the ground.
She fainted because she did not have the divine sense Su Ming had that had surpa.s.sed most of those in the Berserker Tribe. With her weak mind, she could not handle the Golden Roc’s light that was formed by Su Ming’s repeated drawings.
"Send her down. We’ll have a few days of peace," Su Ming said slowly, then continued immersing himself in copying the Golden Roc.
Zi Che quickly walked forward. With one wave of his arm, he took Bai Su away from the ninth summit.