Chapter 77: Scorpion Tail

After a long time, Tang Wulin's emotions finally stabilized completely.

The two chatted happily, as if the earlier awkward atmosphere had never existed.

Tang Wulin asked curiously:

"Huo Yutong, what is the ability of your external soul bone?"

Knowledge about soul bones is the same as that about soul rings; it belongs to the basic level of soul master knowledge, and Wang Yan naturally had covered it in class.

External soul bones differ from ordinary soul bones; although ordinary soul bones can have all kinds of strange abilities, they are basically divided into six types: skull, torso, and limb bones. By comparison, external soul bones have far more varieties—if a soul beast's appearance is unusual, all sorts of oddities can be made into them. An external soul bone like Huo Yutong's tail type is already considered relatively common.

It is said that among the first generation of Shilake Academy's Seven Monsters, the strongest, Tang San, possessed his own external soul bone, and it was precisely this external soul bone that greatly widened the gap between him and the other six monsters.

Although this is merely hearsay, it still shows the importance and rarity of external soul bones.

Besides differing in location from ordinary soul bones, the greatest strength of external soul bones lies in their growth potential.

Theoretically, even if the external soul bone comes from only a ten-year soul beast, as long as the soul master who absorbs it becomes sufficiently strong, it will in no way be inferior to an ordinary hundred-thousand-year soul bone.

Thinking back, Huo Yutong didn't even use her external soul bone in the fight just now; she really went easy on him.

Huo Yutong explained:

"My external soul bone mainly has two abilities: one is that I can extend it at will, accompanied by an extremely rich ice element, which can be used as a whip in battle; the other is that I can inject ice-attribute soul power into an enemy's body through the tip of the scorpion tail, directly disintegrating them from within."

"?" Tang Wulin blinked doubtfully, "No poison attribute?"

Knowledge of the Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion is something only senior students can learn, so Tang Wulin knows about it as little as he does about the Ice Sky Snow Girl.

Due to stereotypes, he still thought scorpions must have a poison attribute.

Huo Yutong shook her head.

"It's a pity, but no. As far as I know, the Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion clan gave up its own poison in pursuit of the ultimate ice attribute; perhaps it had poison in ancient times, but mine is non-toxic."

She also learned this knowledge from listening to the Ice Emperor's explanation.

But frankly, the extremely high ice element contained in the tail of the Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion is not much different from deadly poison.

After obtaining this external soul bone, she once casually caught a weak hundred-year soul beast on the Extreme North Ice Plains and injected ice element into its body for an experiment.

The hundred-year soul beast couldn't even last three seconds before being frozen solid from inside to outside.

Given that soul beasts in the Extreme North generally have high cold resistance, and Huo Yutong specifically caught one skilled in melee combat—even it ended up like this—so a fellow soul master of the same rank being stabbed by her tail would basically admit defeat outright.

This is also one reason why Huo Yutong didn't use her external soul bone in her fight with Tang Wulin; its destructive power is truly too great, and she would absolutely never aim it at Tang Wulin.

"So that's how it is."

Tang Wulin suddenly realized.

The vast world truly contains everything; the fact that Ice Jade Emperor Scorpions sacrifice other attributes for the extreme of a single one is something he had never heard of before.

Thinking of this, he suddenly became curious again.

"Huo Yutong, can you let me take a close look at your external soul bone again?"

Huo Yutong's demonstration just now was too brief; he didn't get a clear look before she retracted it.

"Sure."

Huo Yutong didn't think much, directly extending her scorpion tail toward Tang Wulin's face.

Unlike ordinary scorpion tails with many segments, Huo Yutong's scorpion tail consists of only five segments, each emitting a beautiful jade-green hue; the segment connected to her skin is the widest, tapering toward the tip, and the final segment bears a hook made of diamond ice crystal, whose tip shines with a silvery-white mirror-like luster.

Unlike the furry tails of ordinary animals, Huo Yutong's scorpion tail has not a single hair, yet this does not detract from its beauty; the green light it emits is incredibly alluring, and Tang Wulin instinctively reached out to touch it.

"!"

To his surprise, Huo Yutong's reaction was unexpectedly strong; her body jerked violently, almost making her jump on the spot.

Tang Wulin blinked in astonishment.

"Does it hurt?"

He couldn't quite understand, since Huo Yutong had said the scorpion tail could extend like a whip or inject ice element into a person's body—how could it be so sensitive?

"... It's nothing." Huo Yutong, blushing, fell silent for a moment before reluctantly saying, "It's just a strange feeling that startled me."

What Tang Wulin didn't know was that Ice Jade Emperor Scorpions often mobilize ice element to shield their tails in battle, making them as hard as a whip; without ice-element protection, the tail is the most sensitive and fragile part of the Scorpion's body, and they would never let anything other than a mate touch it. Huo Yutong is naturally the same—when Tang Wulin touched her tail just now, she felt a surge of electricity run through her whole body, leaving her breathless.

"Oh, then I won't touch it anymore."

Tang Wulin nodded in realization and looked at his own palm.

Besides, the feel was actually not bad—smooth and icy cold but not enough to cause frostbite, like a piece of cold jade.

Looking at him like that, Huo Yutong whispered:

"How does it feel?"

"Pretty good."

Tang Wulin spoke frankly.

The scorpion tail really feels comfortable to touch.

"Really..."

Huo Yutong's face grew redder; after hesitating, she actually extended her scorpion tail toward Tang Wulin's face again.

"... Yutong?"

"You said it feels good to touch, right? Actually I'm not that bothered either—if you want to touch it, go ahead and touch as much as you like."

Tang Wulin was shocked.

"Are you sure?"

Looking at Huo Yutong's appearance, her scorpion tail certainly doesn't look like something you can just casually touch.

Huo Yutong said nothing, barely nodding her head.

Tang Wulin took a deep breath.

He had a strange intuition that Huo Yutong actually didn't object to him touching her tail.

After carefully observing her expression for a moment, Tang Wulin slowly placed his hand on the scorpion tail.

"——"

Huo Yutong trembled slightly, turning her face to the side so Tang Wulin couldn't see her expression.

However, the base of her ears turned completely red.

Seeing Huo Yutong silent, Tang Wulin continued stroking.

Honestly, this feeling gets more addictive the more you touch it.

He has forged dozens of metal types, none of which have a feel comparable to this scorpion tail.

He didn't notice that, as he stroked, the amplitude of Huo Yutong's trembling grew larger.

Suddenly, Huo Yutong flicked her scorpion tail onto his face.

"Ah! Yu, Yutong?"

Tang Wulin looked at Huo Yutong, who had suddenly jumped back for no reason, and let out a panicked voice.

In his memory, this was the first time Huo Yutong had attacked him without even a greeting.

Although the force wasn't strong either.

Huo Yutong turned her back to him, her voice trembling as she said, "I haven't come back in a month; I don't even know what my room has become. I'll go tidy it up first."

Saying that, without waiting for Tang Wulin's answer, she rushed into the Sea God Pavilion as if fleeing.

"... What's going on?"

Only Tang Wulin remained there, tilting his head in confusion.

As an aside, if you inject ice element into the body and then combine it with Ice Burst Technique... hehehe, art is an explosion!

(End of chapter)