The sun rose in the east and set in the west, flowers bloomed and withered, and the days passed steadily like this, truly comfortable and pleasant.
Shen Hanyu even had the fleeting illusion that he wanted to continue living this way forever, but reality told him that all of this was only temporary. A person could rest appropriately, but could not remain decadent indefinitely. The meaning of life still lay in constant exploration and progress; lying still and winning without effort was not realistic for someone of his semi-noble background.
After absorbing the sixth soul ring and the right leg bone, his soul power had reached level 65. Now, after two and a half months of cultivation, his soul power had finally reached level 66.
Soul masters with extreme attributes cultivated extremely slowly between levels 30 and 70—this was one of the drawbacks of extreme soul masters. However, the advantage was that their combat strength generally far surpassed that of soul masters at the same level, and once they broke through to Soul Sage, their cultivation speed would far exceed that of ordinary soul masters. This was the reason why extreme-attribute soul masters always achieved higher accomplishments than ordinary ones.
Although his cultivation speed had slowed, Shen Hanyu did not particularly mind it.
After the Ice Dream sacrificed itself to become his seventh soul ring, it could only provide him with a 990,000-year, or even a million-year, seventh soul ring, and it could also grant him a blank ice-attribute martial soul.
Shen Hanyu's original intention was for his second martial soul to ideally be a soul beast that possessed both ice and fire attributes.
Although this sounded difficult, there were actually quite a few soul beasts that carried both of these seemingly conflicting attributes, such as the Ice-Fire Demon Tiger or the Li-Striped Ice-Fire Dragon, rare but not impossible to find.
The fire-attribute energy within his body had also settled down, even showing signs of fusing with his extreme ice. This was undoubtedly a good thing. Once he fully mastered this energy, his achievements would certainly shock the entire Douluo Continent.
Shen Hanyu then thought of the two dragon corpses beneath the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well. He greatly coveted those two god-level soul bones. No matter what, he had to obtain them. That way, even if no divine inheritance came looking for him, he could still rely on the divine power within those two soul bones to break through the Limit Douluo barrier in one go and step into the god level.
After breaking through to Soul Sage and obtaining his second martial soul, Shen Hanyu decided to directly acquire soul rings for it, which would cause another surge in his cultivation. However, before that, he needed to ensure his body could withstand the terrifying energy brought by so many soul rings.
.........
Recently, Shen Liuyu and the Shui sisters had been visiting quite frequently, coming almost every two or three days. Shen Hanyu did not find it annoying and always appeared quite happy each time.
Whether he was genuinely happy or merely pretending was unimportant; what mattered was maintaining appearances.
As Dugu Bo had said, he was the kind of person who acted one way on the surface and another behind the scenes. Of course, it was best if fewer people knew about this, since there was no benefit in it anyway.
Whenever the three of them came, Shen Liuyu showed no reaction. After all, Shen Hanyu was her biological brother, and this place could be considered her home too. Naturally, she felt no restraint and would even sometimes order Shen Hanyu around in front of the Shui sisters, acting like a little adult.
Shui Yue'er was a little social butterfly. If you asked who most wanted to come to Shen Hanyu's place, it would undoubtedly be her. Sometimes she would stare blankly at Shen Hanyu's face in a daze, so lost that she wouldn't even respond when called.
She looked exactly like a little lovestruck girl.
Shui Bing'er was initially a bit reserved, but after gradually becoming familiar, she was able to relax and even chat with Shen Hanyu about interesting things at the academy, revealing quite a few embarrassing stories about Shen Liuyu.
These incidents weren't major, just things like Shen Liuyu falling asleep in class, sneaking out over the wall at night with them to visit the night market, or even the time she openly beat up two hooligans from the neighboring Elephant Academy on the street.
Shen Hanyu listened patiently, gently sipping his tea. Aside from an imperceptible cold smile when he heard the word "hooligans," he remained attentive throughout, and he could even see shadows of his own university life from his previous life in these stories.
In university, because he was an orphan with no one to rely on, he had been targeted by a few thugs in his class. He was a vengeful person, so not long after, he secretly ambushed and beat those thugs in a small alley with no surveillance, using the righteous, moral, kind red brick. Two of them were left mentally dazed from the blows, and the third collapsed immediately after taking a brick to the forehead.
However, those guys had done plenty of stealing and bullying classmates in the area, as well as harassing female students on the street, yet not one dared to report it to the police; they just gritted their teeth and endured it.
After that, Shen Hanyu's life returned to peace.
As for later accidentally becoming a mercenary abroad, that was purely coincidental. One time, the other side's leader saw that he was smart and had a ruthless streak, so he directly recruited him. Shen Hanyu didn't disappoint; his first kill was extremely decisive, and afterward, he didn't feel the slightest emotional fluctuation.
Of course, those were things of the past and not worth mentioning now.
.........
By the time Shui Bing'er finished telling her stories, it was already late. The sun had once again begun its untimely decline, struggling at the horizon and painting the sky a deep red.
Shui Bing'er got up and went to the kitchen to cook. She had developed this habit; Shen Hanyu's cooking was average, while Shen Liuyu and Shui Yue'er were completely hopeless in the kitchen. The responsibility could only fall to her, though she didn't mind it at all.
Some girls might dislike cooking, but many were quite interested in it, like Shui Bing'er now.
Tonight's dinner was simple: braised century-old earth dragon meat, steamed ten-year snow fish, and cold-dressed Tang San's mom... cough, cold-dressed blue silver grass and emerald ears. Three simple dishes, very basic yet abundant. This meal had meat and vegetables, was nutritionally balanced, and could be said to be essential for a genius soul master's diet.
Only with sufficient nutrition could a soul master's body develop properly. As for eating plain steamed buns and porridge every day... well, one could survive.
Everyone present was a battle soul master with a large appetite, and the table of food was quickly cleared.
After dinner.
Shui Yue'er rubbed her now round little belly and said in a cute, naive tone:
"Sis, your cooking is so much better than Brother Yu's, at least there's no bug in the cold-dressed blue silver grass..."
Hearing this, Shen Liuyu's expression changed, and she immediately pinched Shen Hanyu hard.
Shen Hanyu looked very innocent. After all, who would have known that a little creature was still hiding in the washed blue silver grass?
Unfortunately, it had been discovered by Shen Liuyu. Well... although it wasn't poisonous, the psychological trauma wasn't something that would fade in a day or two—it might even become a lifelong pain...