In a small courtyard, Shui Wuhen wore a solemn expression as soul power continuously surged out from both of his hands, compressing again and again.
Beside him, Shui Bing'er watched her brother's actions curiously and muttered, "Brother has been researching this self-created soul skill for over a month already, and he still hasn't succeeded. It seems this self-created soul skill really is quite difficult."
When Shui Wuhen first developed his initial self-created soul skill, Rotating Ice Gravel, it only took him a week to succeed.
For his later self-created soul skills, none of them took more than half a month to initially complete.
But this time, it had already been over a month, and Shui Wuhen still hadn't even completed the first stage, which naturally surprised Shui Bing'er quite a bit.
"Sigh~ I really don't know what brother is thinking. We're both already stuck at a bottleneck, and only need to absorb a soul ring to break through, but brother doesn't seem anxious at all."
Shui Bing'er sighed.
In the past, once soul masters reached a breakthrough, they would usually go hunting for soul rings immediately. Only her brother was an exception—clearly, he could become the youngest Titled Douluo in the world as long as he wished, yet he seemed completely unconcerned.
That was a Titled Douluo—an existence dreamed of by countless soul masters, one of the few on the entire continent.
However, Shui Wuhen was unaware of Shui Bing'er's thoughts. All of his focus was concentrated on the small crystalline sphere forming in his hands.
Continuous streams of energy were released by Shui Wuhen and condensed into the crystalline sphere in front of him, causing its size to grow from the size of a mung bean to that of a soybean.
"It's almost there! Almost there!"
Beads of sweat appeared on Shui Wuhen's forehead. After more than a month of research, he had finally reached the final step.
As long as he crossed this step, his inner core method would be considered initially formed.
About a quarter of an hour later, the ice-blue crystalline sphere in his palm had grown to the size of a ping-pong ball. Then Shui Wuhen's eyes flashed, and his spiritual power was released without reservation, crazily compressing the ice-blue sphere.
Immediately, the ice-blue sphere rapidly shrank, stabilizing only when it became less than one-tenth of its original size.
In the next moment, the ice-blue crystalline sphere erupted with terrifying suction. Instantly, the surrounding heaven and earth energy seemed to encounter a black hole, crazily rushing toward it and pouring inside.
After a long while, the ice-blue crystalline sphere finally returned to calm.
Looking at the inner core in his hand that resembled the Ten-Headed Sun Snake, Shui Wuhen suddenly laughed.
"Hahaha, I did it, I did it!!!"
From today onward, he had finally grasped the principle of inner core condensation. Although its effect was still far from Articuno's inner core, that was not a problem—because once the step from zero to one was completed, everything else would only be a matter of time for him.
At this moment, Shui Bing'er, who had long noticed the commotion, jumped over to Shui Wuhen's side after hearing his laughter. Her blue eyes looked at the ice-blue inner core in his hand.
"So this is what brother has been working on for over a month? What is it used for?" Shui Bing'er asked curiously.
Upon hearing this, Shui Wuhen calmed himself and said, "Its uses are very great. It can be used as a weapon—once activated, it explodes with tremendous power, enough to match Articuno's full-strength attack.
But that's not the main point. The most important thing is that it can greatly enhance a soul master's combat strength and make them stronger!"
"Enhance a soul master's combat strength… and make them stronger?" Shui Bing'er was confused. "Just this thing?"
Shui Wuhen's words had clearly touched Shui Bing'er's blind spot of knowledge. In her understanding, the only things that could make a soul master stronger were soul rings, soul bones, and auxiliary-type soul master abilities.
Could it be that her brother had developed a support-type self-created soul skill this time, something that could enhance himself like auxiliary soul masters do?
Shui Wuhen smiled faintly. "You'll understand soon enough. But before that, I still need to find a soul ring for you. Otherwise, with your current soul power level, you won't be able to condense a core yet."
Shui Wuhen planned to take Shui Bing'er to the deep sea to hunt a ten-thousand-year ice-attribute soul beast. After all, on the continent, ten-thousand-year soul beasts were too rare, and finding a suitable one was too difficult.
As for the Extreme North Forbidden Land, although Shui Wuhen speculated that even beings like the Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion must exist there, and ten-thousand-year soul beasts would certainly not be lacking, he was not planning to go there for now.
After all, if there was only that single Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion in the Extreme North, it would be fine—Shui Wuhen was not afraid of it at his current strength, and if they encountered it, he could even try to kill it.
But he was worried that the Extreme North might not contain only that one beast. If there were other even stronger soul beasts, then bringing Shui Bing'er would be extremely dangerous.
The sea, although also home to many soul beasts, was vast and boundless. Each beast occupied its own territory, with great distances between them, making it nearly impossible for them to support one another.
Previously, when Shui Wuhen killed that 200,000-year Ice Dragon, he had already tested this. From the time he refined the corpse into pills and absorbed the soul ring, no second soul beast had appeared.
Moreover, Shui Wuhen had already promised that the Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion would become Shui Bing'er's ninth soul ring. Right now, Shui Bing'er was only at rank seventy. Even with the help of pills, reaching rank ninety would take a considerable amount of time, so there was no rush.
"Finally going to hunt soul rings?"
Upon hearing Shui Wuhen's words, Shui Bing'er's eyes lit up. She had long wanted to obtain her seventh soul ring, but had been waiting to go together with Shui Wuhen.
Seeing her excited expression, Shui Wuhen smiled helplessly and patted her head. "That's right. And with your current physical condition, you should be able to attempt a ten-thousand-year soul ring. With your head soul bone suppressing it, you don't need to worry about spiritual backlash. As for the excess energy that is difficult to control, it can just be condensed into a core through this opportunity."
The accidental inner core formed by Articuno's condensation had undeniable effects. Not only did it increase his soul power capacity, but it also significantly improved his soul power recovery speed.
Although it did not directly increase his combat power, the indirect improvements were substantial.
More soul power meant stronger soul skills and more frequent use of them.
This indirectly and greatly enhanced a soul master's strength. For soul masters whose soul power reserves were already limited, it was undoubtedly a massive boost.
Something like this—now that he knew about it—only a fool would refuse it.
Shui Wuhen did not know that a similar method would exist in later generations of the Douluo Continent. They would call it—
Soul Core.