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--- Chapter 413 ---
The Ice Phoenix Lord appeared from thin air and then looked down at the unconscious Shui Bing'er. "Alright, I will take this girl as my disciple."
"Young Lord, may I speak with her consciousness?"
Han Yuan gently laid Shui Bing'er and Xue Wu on the warm ground before responding, "Alright."
The Ice Phoenix Lord nodded in agreement. "Don't worry, Young Lord. I will mold this girl into the perfect apostle of the Phoenix Clan. For the future, and for you."
"..." Han Yuan remained silent.
"You don't have to be that extreme either."
Seemingly ignoring Han Yuan, the Ice Phoenix Lord just vanished into the girl's brow.
Han Yuan sighed, "How troublesome."
After that, he casually snapped his fingers, using a small portion of the Purple Silver Ruin Monarch's divine life attribute to heal the students of Skywater Academy.
Fortunately, none of them suffered fatal injuries. The 'ice armor' that Shui Bing'er had provided at the last second mitigated the damage inflicted by the Mirror Image Beast, thus saving their lives.
At the same time, Han Yuan took a closer look at their aptitudes and martial souls.
Shui Bing'er: Ice Phoenix
Xue Wu: Dancing Snowflake
Shui Yue'er: Dolphin
Yu Hairou: Coral Barracuda
Qiu Ruoshui: Green Lotus Perch
Gu Qingbo: Blue Sailfish
Shen Liuyu: Enamel Lucky Crocodile
Although seven of them were actually three to four years older than Han Yuan, their talents were already among the best of the present era, at least by public standards.
Shui Bing'er could definitely reach the Spirit King realm before the age of twenty, while the rest were catching up to her in the Spirit Ancestor Realm at the same age.
One could say that Skywater Academy genuinely knew how to filter and select its students—only young and beautiful female students with pure yin attributes. They also didn't care much about background, but chose specifically those possessing water or ice-attributed martial souls that allowed them to cultivate 'yin-based' attributes even faster.
Their choice of cultivation path was acceptable, but somewhat immature, as Han Yuan viewed Shui Bing'er and the other girls' cultivation methods as somewhat inefficient.
Even though ice and water weren't Han Yuan's primary specialties, he had a strong understanding of elemental laws.
Still, spiritual power cultivation was a vague concept in this era. Even the strongest Limit Douluo powerhouses of the time hadn't truly grasped the power of laws.
Even though powerhouses like Qian Daoliu, Bo Saixi, and Tang Chen have touched upon some concepts, these 'concepts' are merely a tiny fraction of the laws. Both Qian Daoliu and Bo Saixi were high priests of the gods, so they had some insights.
Let alone the laws of elements and concepts, even something like the mental force cultivation of this era is severely lacking.
Han Yuan glanced at the unconscious Mirror Image Beast and rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "What should I do with you, hmm..."
"Let's turn this fellow into a Spirit Soul. It should also yield a skull spirit bone, right?"
"A skull-type spirit bone with clone spirit skill. That's also excellent base material for an artifact."
After saying this, Han Yuan snapped his fingers, transforming the Mirror Image Beast into a Spirit Soul.
Aside from the skull-type spirit bone—the Mirror Skull Bone that Oscar obtained in the original story upon gaining his sixth spirit ring—Han Yuan also transformed the other physical remains into pure essence to elevate the Spirit Soul's growth to 20,000 years.
Looking at a miniature Mirror Image Beast sleeping in his palm, Han Yuan shook his head gently, acknowledging that he wasn't a saint. He closed his palm and sent the Mirror Image Beast into the Sky Poison Pearl.
"Senior White Eyes, do you know who the ancestors of the Mirror Image Beast were?" Han Yuan asked curiously.
The White-Eyed Phoenix Lord perched casually on Han Yuan's shoulder and responded uncertainly, "If I'm not mistaken, this beast should be the descendant of an alien beast."
"So, it's not native to the Douluo Plane?" Han Yuan narrowed his eyes in surprise.
The White-Eyed Phoenix Lord shook her head gently. "No, the ancestor of the Mirror Image Beast is most likely an alien creature. Unfortunately, due to the planar suppression of the Douluo Plane and the limitation that spirit beasts can't ascend to godhood, their lineage gradually adapts and evolves into spirit beasts."
"In ancient times, such beasts did not exist, at least not in the records I've got."
"I see..." Han Yuan then recalled another prehistoric alien beast, the Ten-Headed Fierce Yang Serpent, from the Asura Hell Road. That creature was incredibly powerful and even helped Ma Hongjun's martial soul in evolving from an ordinary Fire Phoenix to a Ten-Headed Fire Phoenix.
"Well, let's leave this place," Han Yuan declared.
The others nodded at Han Yuan's words and prepared to leave with the seven students from Skywater Academy when a desperate shout echoed from a distance.
"Wait!"
Han Yuan and the others spotted a woman in a tattered blue robe who appeared injured, with exposed skin and bloody marks. She could barely support herself with an icy long sword.
"Young Lord, that woman's life force is fading," Jade Phoenix Lord said calmly, "At this point, she might lose her life."
"Go heal her, Senior Jade Phoenix. She must be the leading teacher of these girls." Han Yuan replied calmly.
Jade Phoenix Lord flapped to the injured woman's side and enveloped her in a green light of rejuvenation, healing her completely. However, due to extreme exhaustion, her mind still felt weary.
It wasn't until Han Yuan offered the woman a spiritual recovery pill that she was finally able to speak coherently.
She adjusted her breathing and then bowed, saying, "Chen Wuyao thanks everyone for helping my students and me. I will remember this favor for my whole life and will repay it in the future."
"Chen Wuyao…" Han Yuan couldn't help but gaze at the blue-robed woman with keen curiosity. "So, your martial soul is that sword. Are you perhaps related to Sword Douluo?"
Chen Wuyao looked stunned for a moment before replying, "Sword Douluo and my family have some relations, but we are actually not from the same lineage."
"His Seven Kill Sword was once part of the Seven Sword Sect, of which my Skyfrost Sword was also a part until its disbandment a few thousand years ago."
"While we may have a distant relation, my generation wasn't very close to Excellency Sword Douluo, as he is now part of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda Sect."
"Is that so?" Han Yuan nodded in understanding.
Nevertheless, when he heard the name "Skyfrost Sword," he couldn't help but remember Wu Zhangkong from the third book of the Douluo Series, who possessed the same martial soul and was also the teacher of the protagonist's group.
Wu Zhangkong later became a Limit Douluo, a powerhouse in the mortal realm. The potential of this martial soul is quite high.
Han Yuan then looked at Chen Wuyao and said, "Sister Chen, I will give you two choices."
"I can escort you and your students from Skywater Academy to Snow Ridge City, or you can follow us to the Extreme North."
"Extreme North…" Chen Wuyao's body trembled. "What are you planning to do there?"
Han Yuan shrugged casually. "Just some business."
He then added, "Ah, yes, I forgot to introduce myself. That was very rude of me. My name is Han Yuan, a student from the Dao Academy."
Chen Wuyao's trembling body froze as she solemnly gazed at Han Yuan's young, handsome face in awe. "Y-You're the number one… number one genius on the continent!"
"A monstrous genius who reached the Spirit King Realm at the young age of ten!"
"Haha, I'm not that great," Han Yuan replied humbly, waving his hand dismissively.
"Honestly, I am asking you that question because I see potential in your students."
"Students' potential…" Chen Wuyao realized this could be the opportunity for her Skywater Academy to rise. "Then, Young Master Han, please take care of us."
"Very well, you made the right decision," Han Yuan smiled faintly.
The women behind Han Yuan rolled their eyes at him, thinking, 'And you said you weren't interested in taking concubines? Heh, men!'