A small obsidian salamander clung to her hand, out of all things it just had to be a pet beast soul. Qiu Ye was tempted to sell it but its little beady eyes and cute smile swayed her heart. Qiu Ye wasn't a sentimental person but even she couldn't ignore the little beast. Winter wanted to play with it so Qiu Ye swapped with her in Elysium where she could still study the other few beast souls. Pet beasts weren't very valuable since they required so many resources until they evolved and started attacking. Even beast mounts did more damage by running at beasts than pet beasts did before they evolved. The higher the rank, the more resources they needed. Qiu Ye had fed her pet rose finch for the past month but it still didn't seem to want to evolve. The bird was just a knight rank beast soul, this salamander was a duke. If the bird doesn't evolve soon, the salamander would take over a year at least.

Winter seemed to really like the pets though so Qiu Ye held onto them. The other duke beast soul was much more useful. Aura beast souls were extremely rare as they allowed for a powerful upgrade for any friendly fighter or beast around the user. Qiu Ye wasn't much of a team fighter but if word got out that she had a duke aura beast soul, her value as a mercenary would sky rocket.

The first marquees beast soul was much better, arm braces that fit over her dire wolf armour. Considering the type of beast she got the beast souls from, she wasn't expecting to get any weapons. Armour was always useful anyways. The other marquees beast soul was a partial transformation. Unlike complete transformations like the siren, partial transformations focused on a specific part of the body but upgrade is much larger than the upgrade in a complete transformation. It can also be used together with transformations but the user the partial transformation will replace the part of the transformed body, they don't combine.

When she equipped it, black scales covered the back of her hands and softer smaller scales coated her palm. She still had the same level of mobility as she's always had, the scales didn't seem to impede her in anyway. Using her spear to experiment, she realised that the scales on the back of her hand were extremely durable. She would have to test it in combat to see just how strong they were but right now they were even stronger than the marquees arm braces she got. It seemed to strengthen her hand a lot and she was able to grip her spear comfortably without worrying about slipping. Maybe as some sort of small side effect, her palms stopped sweating.

She wanted to go and test them but it was late and the alternate week was ending. For now she just practiced longevity to try and break through the second tier. Though Winter seemed a lot more cheerful with both the rose finch and the obsidian salamander to play with, she seemed to be a little lonely on her own in Elysium. Technically she and Qiu Ye were the same person so she couldn't help feel a little guilty for taking over her life. All Winter did when controlling the body was learn and study in class, she didn't really interact with people outside of activities where students talked with each other. Qiu Ye was determined to find some friends for Winter to hang out with, after all, if she and Winter had similar tastes, she knew where to find good people.

First day of the base week, students were walking around the hall chatting amongst themselves.

"What classes do we have today?"

"My arms are really sore, hope the coach doesn't make training too rough."

"Did you see Bing Luo today? Her new skirt looks so cute."

"Any news no the Ice Queen? Last time we saw anything from her was when she blew up the gym."

"Hey Tian Xing, you've seen the Ice Queen before right? Do you know which class she's in? Last time I saw her tackling those seniors she glanced my way, she has such a cool handsome yet beautiful face. I bet she has a thing for me."

"Quit kidding yourself Cai Wen, you keep sticking your dick in crazy and you'll end up infertile some day."

Cai Wen punched Tian Xing in the shoulder

"Come on, you're in her class. Is it true that it's like she changes personalities when she gets into battle?"

"I don't know man, stop gossiping we're going to be late."

The two boys walked around the corner and almost crashed into Qiu Ye, who side stepped them and walked into the classroom door.

"Oh my god that was her."

"Would've been a terrible first introduction eh?"

"Whatever."

Tian Xing split with his friend and entered the classroom, his heart now calming down from the fright. Qiu Ye softly smiled, she could hear them chattering from a mile away, he was just like she remembered. In her past life, Tian Xing had taught her sword skills. Zhang Qing was Tian Xing's cousin, it was through him Qiu Ye met her past life's best friend. Noticing how Qiu Ye reacted when walking into Tian Xing, Winter spoke up.

"You could've dodged him a mile away, it's almost like you intentionally almost ran into him. You got a crush on him or something?"

"You know that's not the case, he was my friend in my past life. You seem like more of a people person than I am, why don't you introduce yourself to him. Don't worry, you'll like him. I think."

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"Why thank you for recognising my charm. He seems cute, what's his deal."

"He's a softy, real nice and loyal guy. Just as a heads up, you should probably steer away from any talk about his family."

"Why?"

"You know how prestigious this school is, his family is much poorer than ours. His parents had to marry his two elder sisters off to major families to afford to send him here. He'll tell you when he gets more comfortable with you."

"Hmm alright. You're right he does seem like someone I'd be friends with."

"Do your thing."

Winter took control of the body and walked up to Tian Xing's desk, there was still another 15 minutes before class started.

"Hey sorry about earlier, you alright?"

"Hmm? Oh yeah, it's nothing. It was kind of my fault I was distracted."

Winter smiled while Qiu Ye fed her more intel

"You're the one who practices the thousand hand sword style right? I heard it's a really difficult skill."

Tian Xing laughed shyly

"I'm just lucky because my body is compatible with it."

"Oh there's no need to be humble I can tell how hard you work."

Tian Xing scratched his head to hide his face but it was obvious he was happy for his effort to be recognised.

"If coach doesn't have any specific for you to practice, will you spar with me later?"

"Don't you practice archery and elemental attacks?"

"Yeah but I need to stop relying on Ice, any practice would be really helpful. You seem like a really tough opponent so I feel like I would grow a lot from sparring with you."

"Oh then in that case of course. I feel like my growth has been hitting a bottle neck recently so sparring with you would really help."

The two exchanged contact information and Winter went back to her seat. She started studying diligently as she usually did. The students that overheard her talk with Tian Xing were shocked. The Ice Queen infamous for her cool and tough attitude just reached out to a random student in the class, and she was even nice to him. Half of the students thought she was targeting him and wanted to bully him in training while the others envied him for gaining the attention of a rare beauty.

News quickly spread that the Ice Queen was going to spar with a student in the same year as her. People know she was more than capable of defeating seniors so there was no reason why she would fight a seemingly ordinary guy unless she wanted to use him as a punching bag. After a long and boring class, everyone rushed out to gather in the gym.

The gym was renovated to be larger and was able to accommodate for all the students gathering in there. Qiu Ye had unintentionally destroyed a wall when she tried to increase the power of her drill arrow by using other arrows to increase it's speed and destructive power. It was through that experiment she developed the idea to throw her spear through the ring of drill arrows. The school didn't charge her since experimentation was encouraged, but she was forced to help around the school with some filing work.

As soon as the coach told the students to get training, the crowd parted to give room for Qiu Ye and and Tian Xing. Tian Xing thought the audience was just due to Qiu Ye's reputation, a chance to watch an elite fight for the juniors was always welcome. Nothing was more entertaining than watching a good fight, especially someone with Qiu Ye's looks. Tian Xing picked up his sword and gave a few practice swings to loosen up his joints. Qiu Ye simply raise her hands and signalled for him to start.

"You're not going to humiliate him are you?"

"No of course not, but I will take him seriously. I understand his flaws and It's up to me to make him realise them too."

Thousand Hands sword style wasn't very well known due to it's difficulty to practice. It required for the user to be incredibly flexible and agile. If used by a master, it would be basically impossible to dodge. The skill was created to open up infinite possible paths for the sword to go, but the user must be able to bend and push their arm in quite tough angles. Problem was that it traded versatility for power, users often intentionally slowed the strike down because using strength caused their arms to go rigid. Most of the time this wasn't an issue because the opponent gets struck hundreds of times from every possible direction and is overwhelmed. But against a seasoned fighter with a tough body and clear mind, it was easily countered.

Tian Xing lifted his sword up and swing down, now obviously people on the side thought Qiu Ye would get struck from the top, however she dodged backwards instead of to the side. The sword curved around and swung at her hip, if she had dodged to the side she would've gotten hit. Tian Xing smiled, it was a good choice accepting her offer to spar.

As soon as she dodged, she rushed forward to attack. As promised, she didn't use any elemental attacks. With her palm, she tried to knock the sword out of his hand by striking the guard. Tian Xing stepped back and swung, it looked like the sword bent around and attacked her back but Qiu Ye ducked and swept her feet. Tian Xing was feeling discouraged by the fact that Qiu Ye was somehow dodging all his strikes, but he knew it was his chance to improve.

Using her control over sound, she spoke to Tian Xing while fighting.

"You've got the core idea of the skill down but there's a reason why I can dodge."

Tian Xing looked shocked, he thought she was trying to distract him so he continued swinging.

"You're telegraphing your strikes, even though the paths are open I can still tell what you're thinking. Think faster, make choices instantly. You need to develop fighting experience to immediately know where to strike and how as soon as the moment arrives."

His eye brows furrowed, he understood what she was saying, but it was not like he could just learn it on the spot. The fight continued like this, Qiu Ye would close into strike his hand but then dodge the weird twisting sword skills. Tian Xing was starting to get a grasp on the pattern of Qiu Ye's attacks and was starting to be able to predict where she would go and how to stop her.

"Good, you're getting the hang of it. But you're still slightly telegraphing your moves, it's too slow for you to think and then do. It needs to go straight from seeing to doing."

Tian Xing nodded, he could tell he was making progress. He was sweating heavily and his body ached but he was feeling excited. Qiu Ye continued to press him while he tried to strike her, he almost struck her once but she managed to some how hop up and twist her body parallel to the ground and kick up at his hand. Her foot knocked his grip loose and the sword fell to the floor, Qiu Ye immediately used her hands to bounce up and knock Tian Xing over softly.

The crowd cheered, they thought Qiu Ye was just playing with him long enough until he got tired. They couldn't hear anything she was saying to him.

"How did you do that?"

Tian Xing whispered, Qiu Ye simple smiled.

"Want to go again?"

He nodded.