The forest behind Shrek Academy was silent.
Moonlight filtered through the ancient trees, casting fractured shadows across the damp earth. This was a place even spirit beasts avoided—too close to the academy, too saturated with residual killing intent from past training.
Lin Chen stood alone at the clearing's center.
Zhu Zhuqing waited at the edge, back against a tree, arms folded. She didn't interfere. She watched.
She always watched.
Lin Chen raised his hand.
"System," he said softly.
The interface unfolded before him like a translucent scripture.
[Secondary Martial Spirit: Sealed][Unsealing Conditions: Soul Power Stabilized — Complete][Authorization: Confirm?]
"Confirm."
The air collapsed inward.
Not violently—inevitably.
A pressure far denser than any soul ring descended, forcing Zhu Zhuqing's breath to hitch. Her instincts screamed danger, but she didn't move.
Lin Chen's second martial spirit awakened.
It wasn't summoned outward.
It emerged behind him, as if it had always been there.
A frost-white lotus bloomed silently in midair.
Its petals were layered like crystalline blades, each one etched with ancient patterns that glowed faintly blue. Cold radiated outward—not freezing, but absolute, as if heat itself was being judged and found unworthy.
Zhu Zhuqing's pupils constricted.
"That's…" she whispered.
"A control-type spirit," Lin Chen said calmly. "Born from stillness."
Beneath his feet, a soul ring rose.
White.
Pure.
And then—black lines crawled across it.
The white deepened, darkened, until it stabilized into a jet-black ring.
Zhu Zhuqing's heart skipped.
"…Second ring?" she asked.
Lin Chen nodded.
"This one wasn't hunted," he said. "It was inherited."
The system chimed.
[Soul Ring Origin: Frostmoon Immortal Lotus][Age: 87,000 Years — Mutated Variant][Type: Domain / Suppression]
The lotus behind him rotated slowly.
Lin Chen lifted his hand.
"Second Soul Skill," he said."Frost Dominion."
The world changed.
The clearing dimmed as a translucent domain expanded outward—fifty meters in all directions. Sound dulled. Colors faded. Even moonlight slowed, as if moving through water.
Zhu Zhuqing felt it immediately.
Her breathing steadied.
Her heartbeat synchronized.
Her thoughts—sharpened.
"…It's not suppressing me," she said softly.
Lin Chen glanced at her. "It doesn't suppress allies," he replied. "It aligns them."
At the domain's edge, frost crystallized along tree bark, not as ice—but as structured patterns, like laws being written into matter.
The domain receded.
The lotus faded.
The night returned.
Zhu Zhuqing exhaled slowly.
"That wasn't a soul skill," she said. "That was a territory."
Lin Chen smiled faintly. "One day, it will be."
The system pulsed once more.
[Bond Resonance Increased — Zhu Zhuqing][Shadow Attribute Stability +18%][Potential Ring Evolution Available — Locked]
Zhu Zhuqing met his eyes.
"You're not walking the same path as us," she said.
"No," Lin Chen agreed. "I'm walking beside it."
For the first time—
She smiled.
Not cold.
Not guarded.
Genuine.
Somewhere far away, in a place drenched in holy light and blood-stained ambition—
Bibi Dong paused mid-step.
Her heart skipped.
"…A domain?" she murmured.
Her lips curved upward.
"Now that," she said softly, "is worth watching."