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"Alright, now let's talk about your problem." Xuan Ming put down his teacup, picked up two more cups, and filled them with water.
"When you activate your Spirit, you must be able to clearly perceive the direction of flow and the intensity changes of every wisp of ice energy," Xuan Ming said, as a small ice ball condensed in his hand. The ice ball slowly rotated in his palm, its surface shimmering with crystalline light.
"Just like this, I can feel the distribution of every bit of ice energy within this ice ball. I can change its shape, temperature, and even cause tiny explosions within it at will."
Shui Bing'er's eyes widened. She could feel the terrifying power contained within that seemingly ordinary ice ball, and Xuan Ming's control over it had reached an astonishing level of mastery.
"You try it," Xuan Ming handed the ice ball to Shui Bing'er.
Shui Bing'er carefully took the ice ball. The moment it touched her hand, she felt a cold and powerful force surging within. She tried to use her spirit power to sense the energy inside the ice ball, but as soon as she made contact, she felt that energy, like a wild horse unbridled, almost losing control.
"Take your time. When I say you overestimate yourselves, it means you don't have a clear understanding of your own abilities; you lack self-awareness," Xuan Ming said.
"Use your spirit power to envelop the ice ball and feel every subtle change within it."
Shui Bing'er took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and concentrated, doing as Xuan Ming instructed.
Gradually, with Xuan Ming's assistance, she could feel the energy flow inside the ice ball becoming clearer. Although still very faint, it was a good start.
"This is just the most basic. Once you can clearly sense every subtle change in ice energy, you can try to guide its flow with your spirit power. Don't try to achieve miracles with brute force; you don't have that ability yet," Xuan Ming said, condensing another ice ball.
"Once you can guide the flow of ice energy, you can start trying this: use your spirit power to guide the energy inside the ice ball to flow significantly, changing the ice ball's shape, just like this."
As he spoke, the ice ball in Xuan Ming's palm rapidly changed like flowing liquid, condensing into a small Ice Phoenix image.
"You can also do this." Xuan Ming condensed another ice ball, guiding the ice energy to flow, and it quickly transformed into the likeness of Shui Bing'er.
Shui Bing'er watched intently. It was the first time she had seen someone control ice as if it were water. This required an extremely strong control over the ice element to achieve.
"When… when can I do this?" Shui Bing'er's voice carried a hint of eagerness and anticipation.
"I don't know, it depends on you," Xuan Ming placed both ice sculptures on the table.
"Your own ice energy isn't strong enough yet. Don't think about achieving miracles with brute force. You don't have that much power to squander. Controlling every bit of your power to the extreme is what you should be considering, and it's a fundamental issue. However, I see that none of you seem to pay much attention to this aspect, mostly just blindly pursuing power."
Shui Bing'er's expression was a bit unnatural. "Isn't a higher level of control over one's Spirit something that can only be gradually developed as the Spirit grows?"
"Is that so?" Xuan Ming looked puzzled.
"How come I don't know?"
"…" Shui Bing'er.
"How long did you practice that move just now?"
Xuan Ming thought for a moment. "Almost a month, I suppose. Ning Rongrong was so annoying back then, stubbornly chasing me to take her out to play on hot days. I couldn't stand it, so I tried making her some ice sculptures to play with on her own."
"As a result, she put the ice sculptures in her pocket and ended up with a fever, almost getting me chopped by Sword Douluo."
Shui Bing'er's face showed a strange expression.
Before she came, she actually thought Xuan Ming was a very aloof person, but he wasn't aloof at all.
"What kind of look is that?" Xuan Ming asked.
"Nothing, I just feel… you seem to be, not quite like the rumors," Shui Bing'er said.
"Or rather, completely different."
Ever since the opening ceremony of the competition, all the rumors they had heard about Xuan Ming were uniformly "negative news."
Things like being ruthless, killing without batting an eye, being cold and heartless, and so on.
"You also know those are just rumors." Xuan Ming poured another cup of tea.
"Did you offend someone? I feel like someone in Tiandou City has been deliberately guiding public opinion recently, making your image in everyone's eyes…" Shui Bing'er trailed off, hesitant to finish her sentence.
"This matter has nothing to do with you, and don't ask any more questions," Xuan Ming drained the tea in his cup.
"What I just told you, there's another way to train it."
Xuan Ming pointed to one of the two cups of clear water that had been poured on the table from the beginning. "Freeze this cup into ice."
Shui Bing'er paused, then reached out and held a cup of water. A bone-chilling cold surged forth, and in an instant, the water in the cup froze into ice.
Xuan Ming picked up the other cup of water, and a cold intent surged in his palm, similarly solidifying it into ice.
Under Shui Bing'er's puzzled gaze, Xuan Ming took out the ice from both cups.
"Look at these two ice cubes. What's the difference?"
"Difference?" Shui Bing'er was slightly startled, and with a glance, she noticed the obvious disparity.
"Color?"
The ice she froze had a white center and transparent surroundings, while the ice Xuan Ming froze had white edges but was transparent internally.
"Why?" Shui Bing'er asked, puzzled.
She had never paid attention to this issue before.
"The freezing method is different," Xuan Ming said.
"You froze it from the outside in, so the air and impurities in the water were squeezed to the core, forming those white gaps."
"But I froze it from the inside out, so the air and impurities in the water were all pushed to the outside, which is why the outside is white."
Shui Bing'er was slightly stunned. "From the inside out? How… how did you do that?"
"It's still about control over ice energy," Xuan Ming said.
"When you activate your Spirit, ice energy diffuses outward from your body, so naturally, it freezes from the outside in. However, the speed and intensity of diffusion can be controlled. When freezing, manipulate the ice energy to bypass the air and impurities in the water, first letting the ice energy condense at the center of the water, and then diffuse from the inside out. This way, you can achieve freezing from the inside out."
Shui Bing'er frowned slightly. "But, this…"
"What's the difference?" Xuan Ming asked.
Shui Bing'er hesitated and nodded. "Direct freezing from the outside in is faster. As a control system Spirit Master, what I need to consider is how to control opponents more quickly, so speed is the most essential. Doing it this way, not to mention the extreme difficulty, would also greatly reduce the speed."
Xuan Ming nodded. "For a third-rate Spirit Master, that is indeed the case."
Shui Bing'er's expression stiffened, and a surge of anger rose in her heart, but it extinguished itself in an instant.
If anyone else said that, she could retort, but if Xuan Ming said it, she had to hold it in!
"This matter is more troublesome to explain, so let's use an example. Do you know Poison Douluo?" Xuan Ming asked.
Shui Bing'er nodded. "Yes, the Supreme of Poisons."
In today's Spirit Master's world, Poison Douluo's strength isn't particularly strong, but his threat level ranks among the top even among all Titled Douluo.
"You haven't encountered Dugu Bo, so you don't understand his abilities. Your ice and snow can restrain Dugu Yan, but they are meaningless against Dugu Bo. This isn't just a gap in spirit power levels; it's because their levels of poison usage are completely different," Xuan Ming said.
"Dugu Yan's poison skills are too superficial; she can only play with superficial, potent poisons, which are fine for scaring people, but against a true master, she's just delivering herself as food."
"But with Dugu Bo, facing him, you wouldn't even know when you got poisoned; you wouldn't know how you died."
"His poison is invisible and colorless. If you're not prepared beforehand, by the time you realize it, it's already too late."
"Similarly, your ice can also do that."
Shui Bing'er was startled. "Ice can too?"
"For others, it might be impossible to reach that level in this lifetime, but you have the top-tier ice-attribute Spirit, Ice Phoenix. Achieving such a thing is not impossible," Xuan Ming said.
"Just like in today's match, that support system Spirit Master in your team first created a rain, which was used to prepare your Spirit Fusion Skill. Those raindrops greatly increased the power of Ice and Snow Drifting."
"What if you treat your opponent as this cup of water?"
"Your control over ice energy is still very weak. Freezing water takes time, let alone freezing a person. But you can, each time you release an ice seal up , let a portion of your ice energy invade the opponent's body, one time after another. When enough ice energy accumulates inside the opponent, you then activate it, freezing them from the inside. What do you think would happen?"
Shui Bing'er's expression changed slightly. "This… isn't the difficulty too great?"
"The difficulty is indeed great. To completely freeze an opponent in this way, even for me, it's not simple, let alone for you," Xuan Ming said.
"But you don't need to freeze all of them; freezing a part is more than enough."
Xuan Ming picked up another cup of unfrozen clear water and once again released ice energy. Under Shui Bing'er's somewhat flustered gaze, tiny ice spike spheres condensed and formed in the water, one after another.
"You tell me, if this cup of water were replaced with a person, what would happen?"
Shui Bing'er's expression was a bit stiff; she couldn't speak.
Just thinking about it, she could see how cruel that scene would be!
"You… have you ever frozen anyone like that?" Shui Bing'er couldn't help but ask.
"No," Xuan Ming put the cup down.
"This fighting style, like playing with ice as if playing with poison, is too troublesome. Why would I use such complicated methods for someone I can kill with a single slap?"
Shui Bing'er was a little suspicious. "Then how did you come up with such a… ruthless move?"
"Because there was a period when I was under a lot of pressure, and my heart… was quite dark, I suppose," Xuan Ming said.
"Others don't even know I have such methods, or even that I can play with ice. If I were to use such methods to launch a sneak attack, no one would know."
"Once ice spikes condense in the heart or brain, and there's no defense, one wouldn't even know how they died. Moreover, the ice melts in a short while, and even an autopsy wouldn't reveal any problems."