Unrivaled Tang Sect Volume 35

Book 35: The Frontlines!

Chapter 491: Reaching the Frontline

Elder Song lifted her hand, and a beam of light shot out. It suddenly exploded not far in front of her, turning into a green image. It was the symbol of Shrek Academy.

Not long afterward, more than ten ﬁgures approached from the distance.

Huo Yuhao was stunned when he saw Princess Wei Na of the Heavenly Soul Empire ﬂying in the front. The soul masters with her were quite strong, too. They were all at least seven- ringed Soul Sages. It seemed like the Academy had notiﬁed them that Elder Song and Dean Yan were leading a team over. This was why there was such a distinguished welcome.

The rest didn’t know, but Huo Yuhao was clearly aware that Princess Wei Na’s status in the Heavenly Soul Empire was just like Princess Jiujiu’s status in the Star Luo Empire.

Very soon, Princess Wei Na and the rest arrived in front of them. They stopped thirty meters away.

“Greetings, you must be Elder Song. I am Wei Na from the Heavenly Soul Empire.” Princess Wei Na greeted Elder Song. Those who were strong were usually well-respected.

Elder Song smiled and said, “Princess Wei Na, you don’t have to stand on ceremony.”

Wei Na quickly turned to Huo Yuhao. After nodding slightly at him, she gestured for Elder Song to follow her. The soul masters with Wei Na also made way for those from Shrek Academy to proceed towards Heavenly Spirit City.

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Wei Na and Elder Song ﬂew side-by-side. As they ﬂew, Wei Na softly described the current situation at the front line.

Although Huo Yuhao’s ears weren’t as strong as his eyes, he could still hear Wei Na’s words, as she didn’t intentionally lower her voice.

“Princess Wei Na, how’s the situation at the front line right now?” Elder Song asked her.

Princess Wei Na replied, “It’s still quite stable. Ever since the Star Luo Empire attacked the Sun Moon Empire, the pressure on us has been greatly alleviated. This has been especially true over the past month. The Sun Moon Empire’s attacks have already ceased. They’re only trying to stabilize their own territories now. At the same time, they are still trying to prevent all our surveillance. The most difﬁcult thing for us now is to survey them. In terms of surveillance soul tools, we are really lagging behind.”

It’s still a problem of surveillance! Huo Yuhao sighed in his heart. The Sun Moon Empire’s advantage in this area was simply too great.

Princess Wei Na didn’t look too well. Her face was pale, and her eyes were slightly red. She looked overworked. Her empire’s territory had been invaded. As an important member of the imperial family, she was under great pressure. It was rumored that the imperial family of the Heavenly Soul Empire had suffered heavy damage when the empire was invaded. The Emperor even fought personally, and sustained critical injuries.

Heavenly Spirit City was a large-scale city in the center of the Heavenly Soul Empire not very far from Heaven Dou City. After the capital was lost, this city was the last stronghold that the empire had. If they lost Heavenly Spirit City, there was a wide expanse of land behind it that the Sun Moon Empire could occupy.

Princess Wei Na said to Elder Song, “Elder Song, my father wanted to personally come receive all of you. However, he has yet to recover from his injuries. This was why he sent me over. I’m sorry.”

Elder Song shrugged off the apology and said, “You don’t have to stand on ceremony right now. We have a common enemy. Also, the Academy has been receiving support from the Heavenly Soul Empire all this while. It’s only right that we help you on the battleﬁeld. Your Highness, you should know our plan, right?”

As she ﬁnished speaking, Elder Song’s gaze sharpened.

Princess Wei Na nodded gently, and didn’t say anything else.

The plan that Elder Song referred to was naturally the three soul engineer legions that Shrek Academy was establishing. Currently, only the core members of the three empires of the Douluo Continent knew about this plan. By asking this question, Elder Song was conﬁrming Wei Na’s status in the Heavenly Soul Empire.

Everyone proceeded towards Heavenly Spirit City, which had been completely revamped. Huo Yuhao saw the Zhuge Divine Crossbow Cannons that the Tang Sect had manufactured on top of the city walls. There were quite a number of them. It seemed like all the Zhuge Divine Crossbow Cannons that the empire had bought from the Tang Sect, as long as they were in perfect condition, were out.

There were very few civilians in the city. Soldiers were everywhere.

Princess Wei Na said, “The civilians of the city have been evacuated to a safer place. Right now, this has become a military establishment. It’s also our last line of defense.” As she ﬁnished speaking, she couldn’t help but sigh. She revealed a slightly sad look in her eyes.

A few months ago, who would have expected the great Heavenly Soul Empire to be reduced to such a tragic state?

After entering the city, Princess Wei Na personally arranged the accommodations for those from Shrek Academy, temporarily allowing them to stay within Heavenly Spirit City. After that, she personally escorted Elder Song and Dean Yan to meet the senior commanders of the coalition army that had formed between the three empires.

Everyone from the Tang Sect remained behind to rest.

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Huo Yuhao was already too tired by now. Once they were given their accommodations, he immediately went to his room to meditate. He was in great need of a rest.

When he awoke from his meditation, the sky had already turned dark. It was evening now.

Huo Yuhao let out a breath as he walked out from his room. He felt much better. His great spiritual power and life energy meant that he had abnormal recovery abilities. Furthermore, he was still absorbing the Manifold Mysterious Ice Essence in his blood, and his soul power was thus increasing steadily. He was consolidating his Rank 80 cultivation.

The Ice Bear King had naturally followed him on this trip. However, he was a Savage Beast. Ordinary soul masters couldn’t recognize him, but there were Body Sect members at the front line. Those who were stronger could naturally recognize the Ice Bear King. If they wanted to deal with him, trouble would ensue. Although it wasn’t a big possibility, Huo Yuhao still asked the Ice Bear King to rest in his spectral demiplane. He had prepared sufﬁcient food there. In fact, it was all the food that he had stolen from the ration warehouse in Heaven Dou City. With that food around, the Ice Bear King wouldn’t need to worry for at least the next half month.

“Are you awake?” a gentle voice asked. Huo Yuhao turned his head to look, and saw Ye Guyi standing not far away from him.

They had all been allocated a room within a small courtyard. They entered the courtyard the moment they stepped out of their rooms.

Huo Yuhao smiled as he said, “Guyi, your cultivation has been improving well!” This was his ﬁrst solo interaction with Ye Guyi since he had returned. From the soul power undulations that she released, he could clearly tell that her cultivation should be around Rank 70. She must have had experienced great progress during her closed-door cultivation.

Ye Guyi smiled and replied, “I’m still far from you. You’re my target.”

Huo Yuhao smiled. “You’re a little too ambitious!”

Ye Guyi rolled her eyes and replied, “You’re too arrogant.”

Huo Yuhao chortled, “I’m only speaking the truth.”

“What are you guys talking about?” Nan Qiuqiu suddenly appeared out of nowhere. She took a few steps to reach Ye Guyi and said warily to Huo Yuhao, “I’ve experienced great improvement, too. Why haven’t you praised me before?”

Huo Yuhao helplessly said, “You’ve experienced great improvement? Why can’t I tell? I only think that you’ve been idling all the time.”

“You!” Nan Qiuqiu was furious, and was about to act up.

At this moment, a knock was heard from the door to the courtyard.

Nan Qiuqiu glared at Huo Yuhao before going to open the door.

Huo Yuhao revealed a stunned look when he saw who was outside. Wasn’t that Princess Wei Na?

“Your Highness?” Nan Qiuqiu was shocked.

Wei Na smiled and asked, “Can I come in?”

“Please do.” Nan Qiuqiu immediately made way.

After meeting with the senior commanders in the afternoon, Elder Song and Yan Shaozhe had expressed that their sole intention for coming here was just to save people. Of course, they would do their best to help the empire. It was just that the possibility of a ﬁght breaking out now was very slim, given that the situation was very stable.

Huo Yuhao didn’t know what was going on, but Ye Guyi and Nan Qiuqiu were clearly aware. Why is Her Highness here?

After entering the courtyard, Wei Na naturally turned to Huo Yuhao. She revealed a surprised look on her face when she saw him and said, “Yuhao, you’re here. I came here to look for you.”

Huo Yuhao pointed at his nose and asked, “Me?”

Princess Wei Na nodded and replied, “Yes! Can we talk in your room? I have something to tell you.”

Huo Yuhao hesitated for a moment before replying, “Alright then. Your Highness, please.” As he spoke, he led Princess Wei Na into his room.

Nan Qiuqiu’s eyes widened when she saw Wei Na closing the door. She turned to Ye Guyi and said, “Sister Guyi, see! This guy is attracting the attention of ladies everywhere he goes. I really don’t know what’s so attractive about him.”

Ye Guyi laughed and answered, “What attracting the attention of ladies? You’re thinking too much.”

Nan Qiuqiu wasn’t pleased as she said, “How am I thinking too much? If he’s not attracting attention, why did Her Highness come to ﬁnd him? Isn’t she one of the senior commanders in the Heavenly Soul Empire? I heard she holds an important position, too. If it’s for ofﬁcial matters, she should ﬁnd eldest senior, even if she doesn’t ﬁnd Elder Song or Dean Yan. Why did she come to ﬁnd him? There must be something going on between the two of them.”

Ye Guyi knocked her head and said, “What have you been thinking about? Why can’t you think properly? Obviously, there’s only a very ceremonial interaction between Her Highness and Yuhao. Furthermore, her empire is already in such distress. How would she have time for relationships? There must be some ofﬁcial matters. Don’t forget that Yuhao is very symbolic of the Tang Sect. Even eldest senior has to consult his opinions on many matters. In addition, he is very adept at surveillance. I think it might have to do with that.”

Nan Qiuqiu blinked and said, “Hey, Sister Guyi, I’ve discovered that you’ve become smarter!”

Ye Guyi snapped, “I didn’t. It’s just that you got dumb! The more concerned you are, the more distressed you’ll be. You even persuaded me earlier. Why do I feel that you’re sinking in deeper and deeper?”

“No!” Nan Qiuqiu’s face turned red before she denied the allegation.

Ye Guyi smiled, “You know for yourself whether it’s true.

Whatever you said to me before, say it to yourself now.”

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Huo Yuhao invited Wei Na to take a seat, while he sat in the opposite chair. “Apologies, Your Highness, I’ve only just moved in. There’s nothing I can serve you with.”

Wei Na shook her head and sighed lightly, “I don’t have the mood to deal with all that now. However, the temperature in your room is a little low!”

Huo Yuhao smiled as he replied, “I was cultivating earlier.

Have you forgotten my martial soul?”

Wei Na was suddenly enlightened. “Oh, right, you have an Ultimate Ice martial soul!”

Huo Yuhao nodded and said, “Your Highness, I wonder what you are here for?”

Wei Na lifted her head to look at Huo Yuhao. There was a deep look in her eyes, as if there was some kind of special emotional undulation contained within.

Although Huo Yuhao’s spiritual power was strong, he still grew a little awkward as she stared at him like that. He was too embarrassed to probe.

At this moment, Wei Na kneeled down in front of Huo Yuhao and kowtowed to him. “Yuhao, please save the Heavenly Soul Empire.”

Huo Yuhao’s hair was already standing from her stare earlier. However, he was astonished by what she did right now, and immediately rushed forward to lift her up.

“Your Highness, what are you doing? We can talk.”

Wei Na allowed Huo Yuhao to lift her up. However, she was already tearing up when she faced Huo Yuhao again.

A woman’s tears were very lethal. When he saw the tears in her eyes, Huo Yuhao felt very sour in his heart. Princess Wei Na was very awe-inspiring before! But now, she…

As he thought until here, he couldn’t help but sigh and said, “Your Highness, if you have anything to tell me, just tell me directly. I’ll help you in whatever way I can.”

“Thanks.” Wei Na sobbed as she nodded. “I’m sorry, I lost my composure. I’ve been under far too much pressure during this period of time. It feels so good to see you again. I still remember the ﬁrst time we met!”

Huo Yuhao didn’t say anything, but just sat there quietly. If he really took her as a weak young lady, he would be committing a very foolish error. Princess Jiujiu was already very impressive. However, Huo Yuhao thought more highly of Princess Wei Na.

Wei Na rubbed her tears away when she saw that he had no reaction. She said, “The Sun Moon Empire has come too abruptly. They’ve completely sealed off our surveillance on them. Initially, I was delighted that we had the Body Sect with us. I even thought that our overall strength was superior to the

Star Luo Empire. However, who knew that the Sun Moon Empire’s soul tools were of such impressive standards? When I ﬁrst saw that great explosion that tore our defensive line apart, how our advanced-tier soul masters were killed and how our enemies were completely ﬁne under their linked defensive barrier, I realized how foolish my thinking was.”

She seemed a little distracted and lost as she spoke until here. She wasn’t trying to earn pity from this, but show her true feelings. She had gone through too much over the past few months. The empire had collapsed, countless lives were lost, and everything seemed to be greatly connected to soul tools.

After sighing, Wei Na turned her attention to Huo Yuhao. “When I ﬁrst saw you, I had already realized the importance of soul tools. Honestly speaking, even though we’ve lost very heavily, we would have been in a worse state if not for the Zhuge Divine Crossbow Cannons that the Tang Sect has produced. I heard about your exploits in the Star Luo Empire. You were the one who helped the Star Luo Empire regain control of the Ming Dou Mountain Range, which relieved the pressure on us. Although you didn’t directly participate in the war, you are still a benefactor of the Heavenly Soul Empire. Even though the Heavenly Soul Empire is in decline, I can still make decisions. I can give you a knighthood.”

She was ﬁlled with hope as she looked at Huo Yuhao at this point. She waited eagerly for his answer.

Huo Yuhao was in shock right now. This Princess Wei Na is indeed very impressive! How did she know I helped the Star Luo Empire regain control of the Ming Dou Mountain Range? The Star Luo Empire wouldn’t have publicly revealed any of the details of that. Furthermore, she also knows that I was offered a knighthood by the Star Luo Empire. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have suggested that to me.

A knighthood in the Heavenly Soul Empire is still very good even though the empire is only left with one-third of its original territories. In terms of intelligence, the Heavenly Soul Empire should be ahead of the Star Luo Empire.

Huo Yuhao shook his head gently and replied, “I’m sorry, Your Highness. Perhaps you already know that I was offered a knighthood by the Star Luo Empire. But I’m doing that because of some personal matters. I’m not being greedy. I appreciate your offer.”

Princess Wei Na sighed in her heart. She was already very open with her words, but Huo Yuhao still rejected her outright.

“Yuhao, you know the situation we’re in. I can offer you more, but it can only happen once we are faring better. If you have any needs, please feel free to tell me.”

She’s only talking about beneﬁts. It seems like she’s after something big.

Huo Yuhao pondered for a moment before answering seriously, “Your Highness, I have nothing I need. My needs are the Academy’s needs. As long as the Heavenly Soul Empire continues to support the Academy, everything’s ﬁne. If you need help, feel free to ask me.”

What a stubborn fellow! Wei Na was secretly depressed, but the look on her face turned more and more melancholic.

“I just hope that you can help the Heavenly Soul Empire one day. We won’t forget your contributions. If we can do it and you need it, just tell us. This promise is for forever. Honestly speaking, I’m only here today to build a good relationship with you. You don’t have to think too much.

“That’s right, I’m here to pull you over. Furthermore, I was determined before I even came. No matter what request you have, we’ll do our best to fulﬁl it. That includes my body.” Princess Wei Na lowered her voice. When she ﬁnished speaking, she had already lowered her head. Her voice was soft, but it was audible enough for Huo Yuhao.

She was very beautiful, and she was also being ﬂirtatious now. To any man, she was devastatingly attractive. Even Huo Yuhao was slightly moved when he saw her like that.

“Your Highness, you don’t have to be like that. We have a common enemy now. Everyone knows that we’re doomed if the Heavenly Soul Empire is destroyed by the Sun Moon Empire. That’s why we’ll do our best to help you. It’s just that you should know that Shrek is working with all the empires. What we can do now is only to stall for time. While the Sun Moon Empire’s soul tools are powerful, they aren’t as strong as the three empires combined. After occupying so much land, they’ll need time to settle in. This time is very valuable to us.”

“Yes.” Wei Na nodded gently before she stood up and said, “Yuhao, I’ve already told you my intentions clearly. Since you don’t have any requests, I’ll leave ﬁrst. There are still things I need to settle. It’s still the same. If you have anything in the

future that you need us to help you with, we will support you without any hesitation.”

“Your Highness, you’re too kind.” Huo Yuhao nodded slightly before he stood up and sent her to the door.

She suddenly turned around when she reached the door. She looked at him with a sharp gaze.

Huo Yuhao was slightly taken aback, and only heard Wei Na whisper, “Do you have that kind of male problem?”

“What?” Huo Yuhao was confused, and his face turned red. He didn’t expect the elegant Princess Wei Na to ask such a question.

Wei Na chuckled before leaving. As she left, she muttered to herself, “I’m ﬁnally feeling better.”

Huo Yuhao’s lips shuddered as he watched her leave. Even though he knew that Princess Wei Na was only being herself at the end, it was too ridiculous.

Princess Wei Na left, and Bei Bei appeared from the side. He laughed, “Little junior, was she here to bribe you?”

Huo Yuhao laughed bitterly as he nodded. He had already felt that Bei Bei wasn’t far away just now. Although Princess Wei Na wasn’t being very loud earlier, Bei Bei could still hear her, given his cultivation.

Bei Bei laughed, “You’re in demand right now! Isn’t it good being the Prince Consort?”

Huo Yuhao’s face turned black. “Eldest senior, even you’re laughing at me.”

“Haha! Little junior, a man must never say no!” Bei Bei laughed before walking off.

Huo Yuhao immediately chased after him and asked, “Eldest senior, when do we take action?”

Bei Bei replied, “We’ll discuss that after dinner. Elder Song and Dean Yan are both back. Elder Song said that the Heavenly Soul Empire hopes that we can help them with surveillance. It seems like they know what you did for the Star Luo Empire. They want to exploit us fully!

“Princess Wei Na probably came to ﬁnd you for that reason. She’s a clever lady. She knows that you’re adept in this area,

and how important you are to the Tang Sect. She might even know that you’ll be one of the main commanders of the three soul engineer legions in the future. Bribing you would be beneﬁcial to the Heavenly Soul Empire.”

Huo Yuhao nodded and replied, “I think so, too.”

Bei Bei glanced at him in amusement. “Of course, we can’t exclude the possibility that she’s really into you. After all, my little junior is a man of many talents. You are ﬁt enough to be with Her Highness.”

Huo Yuhao laughed bitterly, “Eldest senior, stop mocking me already. We have to perform surveillance. If we don’t, we can’t ﬁnd Teacher Xiao Ya. It’s ﬁne if we coordinate with them in this area. Furthermore, we’ll need their help if we want to save Teacher Xiao Ya. Without the war as a cover, it’s impossible for us to enter the Sun Moon Empire’s territory.”

Bei Bei’s expression turned serious as they talked about saving Tang Ya. In fact, no one was more anxious than him. Tang Ya had disappeared so long ago. It had been so many years. In all these years, Bei Bei had been in torment when he didn’t have news of her. When he received news of her, she had

already become a Holy Lady of the Holy Ghost Church. He clearly knew where his lover was, but he couldn’t save her. Right now, it was clear how tortured he must feel.

Now that he ﬁnally had a chance to ﬁnd her, he was undoubtedly very anxious. However, the conﬂict between the armies involved close to a million soldiers. How easy was it to ﬁnd someone among a million people? Furthermore, Tang Ya was on their enemy’s side right now, and none of them knew how strong she was. In addition, she would be surrounded by powerful individuals from the Holy Ghost Church. To save her, a plan had to be hatched ﬁrst.

“Let’s go and have dinner. After dinner, we’ll start planning.” Bei Bei grabbed Huo Yuhao’s shoulder and they headed towards the guest hall.

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Dinner wasscrumptious. The Heavenly Soul Empire went to great efforts to prepare this dinner for them. Elder Song and Dean Yan sat in the main seats, while those from the Tang Sect formed a circle.

Everyone ate very quickly. The food consisted of rare delicacies that were very nourishing to soul masters’ bodies. However, everyone was concerned about their mission this time, and couldn’t be bothered to rave about how delicious the food was.

Dinner ended quickly, and servants helped them clean up the dining table. Elder Song then said, “Alright, let’s talk about our mission.”

Everyone unwittingly sat up straight. Even Yan Shaozhe wasn’t an exception. In front of Elder Song, he was still a junior.

After pondering for a moment, Elder Song turned her attention to Yan Shaozhe and asked, “Shaozhe, what’s your opinion?”

Yan Shaozhe replied, “I’ll ﬁrst talk about what we learned from the Heavenly Soul Empire today.

“Currently, the Heavenly Soul, Dou Ling, and Star Luo Empires are all gathered somewhere. Over here, there are nine

soul master legions and more than twenty Titled Douluo. The overall strength is rather high. The marshal of the three armies is a prince from the Heavenly Soul Empire known as Shuai Xue. He hopes that we can help the Heavenly Soul Empire weaken the Sun Moon Empire’s surveillance

caabilities. At the same time, he provided some information on

their army. He’ll coordinate with us for this mission.”

Elder Song added, “Their request is quite reasonable. After all, we only have eleven people. It’s impossible for us to change the entire situation of the war. However, we can still weaken the enemy’s surveillance ability.”

Elder Song was one of the strongest agility-type soul masters currently living, a Rank 97 Transcendent Douluo. If she made an appearance, it would be very easy for her to destroy some of the surveillance soul tools, unless the Sun Moon Empire had some kind of strict set-up.

Elder Song turned her attention to Bei Bei. “Bei Bei, tell me your opinions.” Bei Bei was the leader of the Tang Sect, and one of the symbolic ﬁgures of the Academy too.

Bei Bei nodded and replied, “Elder Song, Dean Yan, our main aim here is to save Xiao Ya before we do our best to help the Heavenly Soul Empire, under the condition that we can ensure our personal safety. That’s why I think we should perform our own surveillance ﬁrst, and ﬁnd out where Xiao Ya is. At the same time, we can ﬁnd out what the Sun Moon Empire’s set-up is before we decide on the best course of action.”

Elder Song nodded slightly and was amused as she looked at Huo Yuhao. She asked, “Come, our little surveillance hero. How do you think we should act with regards to the Sun Moon Empire?”

Huo Yuhao’s exploits at the Ming Dou Mountain Range had long spread to the Academy. As an important member of the Sea God’s Pavilion, Elder Song naturally knew what had happened. After hearing Elder Song’s words, even Yan Shaozhe had a grin on his face.

Before Huo Yuhao had even grown up, Yan Shaozhe had already thought very highly of him. Now, Huo Yuhao was all grown up, and was one of the symbolic ﬁgures of the younger generation of soul masters. He was also the soul master with the highest potential in the Tang Sect.

Huo Yuhao rarely returned to Shrek Academy now. Even if he did, he would leave shortly thereafter. Yan Shaozhe didn’t know the extent of his abilities. In terms of seniority, Huo Yuhao was still considered his little junior.

Huo Yuhao coughed and replied, “Elder Song, Dean Yan, I’m no hero. If we’re talking about surveillance, I think I should be ﬁne performing super-high aerial surveillance on the Sun Moon Empire. Given my understanding of the Sun Moon Empire’s aerial surveillance soul tools, I believe they can only keep their soul tools at an altitude of three thousand meters. As long as I’m above that altitude, I can basically conﬁrm their overall situation. However, as it’s too high up, the details might be a little vague. I can perform that surveillance.

“It’ll be difﬁcult to pinpoint Teacher Xiao Ya’s location. My Spiritual Detection can only work within a certain region. Furthermore, there are bound to be spiritual barriers around certain soul tools in the Sun Moon Empire. Once my Spiritual Detection touches those barriers, I will immediately be discovered. If I’m within range, I’ll deﬁnitely be attacked. If the Sun Moon Empire discovers me, I’m afraid I wouldn’t be able to escape. It’s quite difﬁcult to retreat completely.

“That’s why I suggest that we need to at least ﬁght them once if we want to bring Teacher Xiao Ya back. We can ambush them in the night. It’s only when we interact that I can bring reliable information back, but only if we can sufﬁciently protect ourselves.”

As for how he was going to survey the Sun Moon Empire, Huo Yuhao naturally already had a plan. After his many rounds of surveillance during the war, he was slowly gaining experience. During his Ultimate Soldier Plan training, he also slowly made it a part of him. Moreover, his ability to protect himself had grown signiﬁcantly as his abilities grew. He even had the Ice Bear King as his trump card. He knew that he had the conﬁdence of ﬁghting any enemy if the ﬁght was small- scale. Even against a Titled Douluo, he believed he could still retreat successfully.

After hearing Huo Yuhao’s words, Elder Song was even more amused. “No wonder you’re a talent that we nurtured from our Ultimate Soldier Plan. If we want to spark a ﬁght, we’ll need the Heavenly Soul Empire’s help. We’ll also need to be careful. You should know that the Sun Moon Empire has soul engineer legions, and they react very quickly. Their attacks are also very lethal because of their linked soul tools. If things go awry, we run the risk of suffering heavy casualties.”

Huo Yuhao nodded and answered, “Yes, I’ve thought of this already. That’s why we can’t have too many people around if we want to ambush them. However, we’ll need strong individuals. If we can deploy some of the Titled Douluo from the Heavenly Soul Empire, it would be fantastic.”

“What do you think about leading this ﬁght?” Elder Song asked.

“Me?” Huo Yuhao was stunned, and hurriedly said, “How can I? You and Dean Yan are both around. I’m only a small soldier under the two of you.”

Elder Song laughed. “Alright, you don’t have to be modest. If you’re talking about ﬁghting a war, Shaozhe and I are both not experienced enough. You’ve already participated in many ﬁghts against the Sun Moon Empire, and you know their soul engineer legions better than us. We’re not real soldiers. Whoever’s capable will lead us. Let’s do this. From now on, all ten of us. including me and Shaozhe. will be under your command. As for liaising with the Heavenly Soul Empire, I’ll do it. What do you guys think?”

Those from the Tang Sect naturally weren’t in a position to say anything, but they were all stunned. They didn’t think Elder Song would think so highly of Huo Yuhao.

Yan Shaoze said without any hesitation, “I think it’s feasible.

Elder Song, you’re wise.”

“I…” Huo Yuhao smiled bitterly as he looked at Elder Song and Dean Yan. Why do both of them look so sly with their smiles? Am I not being put in a spot? I have to command both of them…

Elder Song said with a straight face, “Yuhao, you don’t have to be stressed. We aren’t joking around with you. You’ll lead this mission, and we’ll do our best to coordinate with you. You’re the only one who truly knows what’s going on with the Sun Moon Empire’s soul engineer legions. Furthermore, we’ve never fought a real soul engineer legion before. You should know that our individual strengths are less prominent with the existence of linked soul tools. Otherwise, the Heavenly Soul Empire wouldn’t be in such a state, since they have the help of the Body Sect.”

Chapter 492: Surveillance Begins

Elder Song said, “I agree with what you described earlier, but I’ll need a more detailed plan. Devise a plan tonight, and we’ll discuss it with the Heavenly Soul Empire tomorrow, so that the mission can start quickly.”

“Elder Song, I…” Huo Yuhao still wanted to say something, but he was stopped by Elder Song.

“Young man, never decline to shoulder a responsibility. Don’t forget, you’re also one of the members of the Sea God’s Pavilion. Don’t throw the face of your teacher!”

What else could Huo Yuhao say now that Elder Mu had been brought into the conversation? He took a deep breath and nodded seriously. “Thank you, Elder Song and Dean Yan, for your trust in me. I’ll do my best.”

Elder Song smiled and said, “Don’t blame us for doing this. We’re already old, and our brains aren’t working as well as they used to. You’re about the right age. Alright, discuss your

plan. If you need us to do anything, you can just inform us tomorrow. We’ll go and rest ﬁrst.”

After she ﬁnished speaking, Elder Song stood up and proceeded to her room. She was much more relaxed after pushing the responsibility away!

Elder Song’s trust indeed gave Huo Yuhao great pressure. He smiled bitterly at Bei Bei, but Bei Bei turned his head away while revealing a slight grin on his face.

When Xuan Ziwen didn’t want to let Huo Yuhao join this mission, Bei Bei had felt very depressed. He knew very well what Huo Yuhao could do. Elder Song’s words had resonated with him. In the entire Shrek Academy, Huo Yuhao was the one who had interacted the most with the Sun Moon Empire’s soul engineer legions, and he had even attained impressive results. Without him, the Star Luo Empire couldn’t have regained control of the Ming Dou Mountain Range, and the entire situation of the war would have been very different right now.

Huo Yuhao didn’t know that he was already an expert on military matters in Shrek Academy. While Elder Song

appeared to be pushing the responsibility onto him, she was in fact placing her trust in him, and hoped that this would help to further train him.

In the future, the Academy was going to send three soul engineer legions to join the war. They would need an outstanding marshal. The soul engineer legions were formed by students and teachers, as well as externally-hired soul masters. All of them had joined willingly. All three empires of the original Douluo Continent would surely be watching them very closely. During a Conference of the Sea God’s Pavilion, it had already been decided that the three soul engineer legions could only be led by someone from Shrek, and not anyone else from the other three empires. It wasn’t that they couldn’t be trusted. It was that this project involved their interests, and there might be a conﬂict of interests if the soul engineer legions were led by any of the empires.

But Shrek City was only a city, and Shrek Academy was a soul master and soul engineer Academy. It wasn’t a military academy. There were very few people who knew much about military matters at Shrek. In such a situation, someone like Huo Yuhao was needed to help alleviate the pressure on the Academy.

As a result, Elder Song intentionally wanted to build Huo Yuhao’s expertise in military matters. At the same time, it was a test for him. Earlier, the operations that Huo Yuhao were a part of didn’t involve anyone from the senior management of Shrek Academy. This time, Elder Song and Yan Shaozhe could directly observe his abilities.

This battleﬁeld was deﬁnitely the best place for him to demonstrate his prowess!

Naturally, Huo Yuhao didn’t know the intentions behind Elder Song’s decision. He was only a little stressed out right now. For me to command Elder Song and Dean Yan is really a little…

Elder Song left, but Yan Shaozhe didn’t. He nodded at Huo Yuhao. “Alright, let’s make a detailed plan. Everyone, contribute your thoughts.”

Bei Bei said, “Yuhao, you should be the one coming up with the plan. I only have one request: in this plan, our safety must be the ﬁrst priority, especially yours. You must not expose yourself to any danger. Otherwise, I’d rather you didn’t save Xiao Ya. Do you understand?”

Huo Yuhao sighed in his heart. How was it possible for them to avoid danger if they wanted to rescue Tang Ya? However, he still nodded and said, “The overall plan is in the direction that I mentioned earlier. I’ll need a few days. First, we’ll survey the Sun Moon Empire’s army from an extremely high altitude. At the same time, we need to gather some information on the Sun Moon Empire from the Heavenly Soul Empire. For example, how many soul engineer legions does the Sun Moon Empire have? How many advanced-tier soul engineers do they have? What kind of advanced-tier soul tools do they have? Of course, I’ll verify all this through my surveillance. The Sun Moon Empire is deﬁnitely prepared. They’ll use some kind of method to hide their strength and power.”

Bei Bei nodded and said, “It’s still the same words. Whether it’s your surveillance or our operation, safety comes ﬁrst.”

Huo Yuhao nodded. “Alright, let’s discuss the plan in detail.”

He lifted his gaze to look at the others, who turned their attention to him. Xu Sanshi even directly said, “Little junior, don’t look down on us. Since Elder Song has given you the reins, we’re all your soldiers now. We’ll do whatever you want.”

Huo Yuhao laughed bitterly, “It’s not easy being the one in charge! Third senior, come up with an idea, too.”

Xu Sanshi immediately shook his head and said, “I have no idea. I’m not skilled in this anymore. You can decide.”

Huo Yuhao then looked at the rest, and they also turned their heads away. When his gaze reached Ye Guyi and Nan Qiuqiu, both of them burst out laughing.

Huo Yuhao sighed in annoyance and said, “Since this is the case, we’ll begin with the surveillance ﬁrst. After that, we’ll come up with a detailed plan.”

Without sufﬁcient intelligence and surveillance, he couldn’t come up with a concrete plan.

“Do I need to come with you?” Yan Shaozhe asked.

Huo Yuhao shook his head and said, “No, Dean Yan, you can rest. I’ll perform surveillance tonight. The Sun Moon Empire

will never discover me, unless they’ve developed a new aerial surveillance soul tool.”

Yan Shaozhe smiled and replied, “Alright then, you can go then. Take care of your safety. Let our contacts from the Heavenly Soul Empire escort you out of the city. You’ll only go into the sky when you leave the city, so as to prevent any misunderstandings.”

“Alright.”

Heavenly Spirit City was on high alert right now. Although the Heavenly Soul Empire couldn’t compare to the Sun Moon Empire in terms of aerial surveillance soul tools, there were still some aerial surveillance soul tools around.

---------

After Huo Yuhao found his contact for the army, the contact immediately reported to his superiors.

In just a while, Princess Wei Na personally came over.

The moment they met, she eagerly asked, “Are you going to survey the Sun Moon Empire?”

Huo Yuhao nodded and answered, “Yes! Any operation has to be built on credible intelligence from a surveillance mission.”

Wei Na thought for a moment before saying, “I would like to go with you.”

“What?” Huo Yuhao was shocked. “What kind of joke are you playing? How can someone as important as you follow me? Although it’s not that dangerous, it should never happen.”

Wei Na smiled and said, “Please let me go. I’ve been in the background all this while and never participated in any ﬁghting at the frontline. I only want to do something for my empire. In fact, if not for this thought, I would have left with Aotian.”

“What?” Huo Yuhao opened his eyes wide. “Aotian? Long Aotian?” He clearly remembered that the Body Sect had appeared during the Soul Dueling Tournament. Long Aotian,

who possessed a Whitesilver-level Body Soul, was very strong. No one from Shrek’s Seven Monsters could challenge him in a duel. Furthermore, Long Aotian was Princess Wei Na’s ﬁancé.

Wei Na sadly replied, “Yes, he’s gone. Otherwise, why would I have suggested those conditions to you? To protect me, he died from a soul ray unleashed by a Class 9 soul tool. I wanted to leave with him then, but I had no choice but to remain alive for my country. Aotian is dead and so is my heart.

“Yuhao, I don’t want to talk too much. Just let me go with you. You should know that I also have twin martial souls. Furthermore, my two martial souls are quite similar to yours. Although they are weaker, you’ll ﬁnd things easier with my aid. I’m already a Soul Emperor now. I won’t burden you.”

Right now, Princess Wei Na was being truthful. As he saw the sad look in her eyes and thought of Wang Dong’er, Huo Yuhao couldn’t bring himself to reject her. He only nodded and said, “Alright, but you have to listen to me.”

“Okay. It’s a promise.” Wei Na rubbed her tears away before nodding at Huo Yuhao.

Long Aotian was actually dead. Now that he thought of their ﬁght on the tournament stage, Huo Yuhao couldn’t help but feel heavy in his heart.

Wei Na led Huo Yuhao to the outside of the city. With her around, a lot of trouble was avoided while they left the city.

Huo Yuhao softly asked, “Your Highness, how great are the Body Sect’s losses?”

Wei Na’s body stiffened up, and she turned to Huo Yuhao.

Seeing her red eyes, he hurriedly added, “You can forget it if it’s not convenient to reveal the ﬁgures.”

Wei Na smiled bitterly, “It’s ﬁne. The Body Sect had eleven Titled Douluo, but three are now dead, including my teacher. Another four are critically injured. They can’t join the war for now. More than a third of the Body Sect’s disciples are dead, too.”

Huo Yuhao was shocked after hearing her words. “There are so many casualties?”

Wei Na nodded and said, “The Sun Moon Empire once targeted us in an execution when they attacked Heaven Dou City. They ambushed us in the night and used some kind of special soul tool to disrupt our aerial surveillance soul tools. After that, a soul engineer legion suddenly appeared above Heaven Dou City. They locked onto speciﬁc, strong individuals on our side using their own aerial surveillance soul tools and tried to assassinate them. It was then that we suffered heavy losses. There were also many evil soul masters with them. If not for the fact that my teacher chased them away even with his injuries, the imperial family would have been wiped out.”

Huo Yuhao was silent. The advantage that the Sun Moon Empire had in terms of soul tools meant that they could use a lot of strategies. If not for Wei Na’s words, he wouldn’t have expected the Sun Moon Empire to come up with such a tactic. Interference soul tool? They were indeed exploiting their advantages!

Wei Na looked at Huo Yuhao seriously and said, “Let me go with you. Although my abilities are beneath yours, I’m the most suitable person to help you. I’m just like you. I have twin

martial souls. And if you remember, you should know that our martial souls are similar.”

Similar? Huo Yuhao was slightly moved when he heard this. Yes! Princess Wei Na’s twin martial souls are indeed quite similar to mine. One of her martial souls is a Snow Lotus, an auxiliary and healing-type martial soul. It also contains the elements of ice and snow. Her other martial soul is even stronger. It’s her brain. Even in the Body Sect, she was one of the most talented. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have been rated so highly.

Her Whitesilver-level Body Sect had gone through its second mutation, and she was once the main control-type soul master of the Snowdemon Sect’s team.

Seeing that Huo Yuhao was hesitating, Wei Na hurriedly said, “Furthermore, you can avoid a lot of unnecessary trouble if I’m around. I have a signaler that belongs to the Heavenly Soul Empire. With me around, you won’t have to worry about being mistaken for the enemy.”

Huo Yuhao sighed softly as he saw how persistent she was. He said, “Alright then. However, you must listen to me. Since

you’re going with me, I have to ensure your safety.”

“Okay.” Wei Na agreed without any hesitation.

The signaler on Wei Na would deﬁnitely make things much more convenient. The two of them took off right from the ground and proceeded straight for the sky.

Just like Wei Na had said, her cultivation was that of a Soul Emperor now. Along with a ﬂying-type soul tool, she was quick in the air. Even though the Heavenly Soul Empire lagged far behind the Sun Moon Empire in terms of soul tools, Wei Na still had access to the best soul tools in the empire, since she was a princess.

Huo Yuhao shot straight up into the sky with her, rising higher and higher. He didn’t ﬂaunt his skills either, and also used a ﬂying-type soul tool.

The two of them were far off from the ground in just a while, the scenery below them becoming more and more blurry.

When both of them were more than two thousand meters in the sky, Wei Na slowed down. After all, she was only a Soul Emperor. Even though her Snow Lotus helped her to resist the cold, her soul power would start to be drained at a much quicker speed the higher she ﬂew.

However, she didn’t trouble Huo Yuhao. The ﬂying-type soul tool behind her shone subtly. Huo Yuhao suddenly sensed that at least four Milk Bottles had released soul power undulations into her ﬂying-type soul tool, continuously pouring in soul power.

Huo Yuhao naturally didn’t face such a problem. Very soon, the two of them were close to three thousand meters in the sky.

At such an altitude, Wei Na was a little overwhelmed, and her ﬂying speed dropped greatly. She looked at Huo Yuhao beside her. From the start until the end, Huo Yuhao’s ﬂying remained very normal. Although he didn’t use any special abilities or speed, Wei Na was still very impressed with him. They were both the same age, and he was even slightly younger, but he was already so strong. It seems like he is indeed much stronger than he was before. No wonder the Star Luo Empire said that it

was his surveillance that helped them regain control of the Ming Dou Mountain Range.

“Yuhao, is this altitude ﬁne?” Wei Na asked Huo Yuhao.

Huo Yuhao answered, “Not yet. This only puts us in line with the Sun Moon Empire’s high altitude aerial surveillance soul tools. We need to go higher to prevent being discovered.”

Wei Na was confused as she asked, “But can we even see anything if we ﬂy further up? It’s night time, too...”

There were soul masters in the Heavenly Soul Empire who could ﬂy even higher. A Titled Douluo could reach an altitude of up to ﬁve thousand meters. However, such an altitude put one very far from the ground. It was difﬁcult to see anything, much less perform any surveillance. Moreover, this didn’t include the presence of clouds and fog that might reduce visibility.

Huo Yuhao asked, “Have you forgotten? My martial soul is my eyes.”

“Oh.” Wei Na didn’t say anything else.

Huo Yuhao’s ﬁgure ﬂashed, and he arrived behind Wei Na. She subconsciously turned towards him. Huo Yuhao extended his right hand and grabbed the center of her ﬂying-type soul tool. Wei Na suddenly felt lighter. She ascended at a much faster speed. Under Huo Yuhao’s charge, they ﬂew higher and higher.

This…

Just as Wei Na was shocked, she couldn’t help but re-evaluate her judgment of Huo Yuhao’s cultivation. She also possessed a spiritual-type martial soul, and it was the strongest Body Soul one could have, the brain. Although her Spiritual Detection couldn’t rival Huo Yuhao’s, she could still clearly sense the changes in him at such close distance. She knew that Huo Yuhao wasn’t using any Milk Bottles to aid him. His soul power undulations became stronger as they ﬂew up once again. However, her Spiritual Detection couldn’t sense how strong Huo Yuhao’s spiritual power was.

She sighed silently in her heart. Initially, when she had joined the Body Sect, she had thought that she was the best

soul master, along with Long Aotian, in the younger generation of soul masters. However, after she had interacted with those from Shrek Academy, she fully understood that those from Shrek weren’t inferior to her at all. Huo Yuhao was one of them. He was so far ahead of her that she couldn’t even tell how strong he was anymore.

They continued rising until they reached an altitude of four thousand meters. Huo Yuhao slowed down at this altitude. Although his cultivation wasn’t weak, he would drain too much of his energy if he continued to go any higher.

Furthermore, in Huo Yuhao’s opinion, they were at an altitude that was no longer detectable by high altitude aerial surveillance soul tools. They started to ﬂy horizontally now. He led Princess Wei Na towards the Sun Moon Empire’s military base.

At that moment, soul power undulations spread along his body. Huo Yuhao sensed pure and gentle soul power surging into his body. There was even a redolent aura that came with it. Suddenly, his spiritual and soul power were greatly replenished. They might even have been boosted. He felt much more energetic now.

Wei Na nodded at him as he glanced at her. In her palm was a snow lotus emitting a gentle glow.

With Huo Yuhao helping her ﬂy, what Wei Na had to do was resist the cold. She didn’t want to become a burden. By unleashing her Snow Lotus, she also greatly replenished Huo Yuhao’s energy.

At this moment, Wei Na sensed gentle spiritual undulations coming from Huo Yuhao. The light around his body distorted slightly.

Wei Na’s spiritual power was also rather strong. She immediately realized what he was doing and asked in shock, “Are you using your spiritual-type soul skill to distort light?”

Huo Yuhao shook his head and replied, “No, I have a soul skill called Imitation. I can assimilate with my surroundings and conceal myself.”

Wei Na suddenly understood, and remarked, “No wonder you’re so good at surveillance, this is why; concealing yourself before using your Spiritual Detection to perform surveillance!

You can even use your ice-type soul power to avoid thermal detectors. I understand now!”

Huo Yuhao didn’t make a sound, but he was impressed with how clever she was.

However, Wei Na was only excited for a moment before she looked a little dejected. Even though she knew how Huo Yuhao did it, she couldn’t copy him. Her martial soul was her brain, not her eyes. Her vision was much weaker than his. Instead, her brain could unleash offensive soul skills. For example, the Banshee’s Wail that she had once unleashed brought a lot of problems to the Tang Sect’s team.

Huo Yuhao’s Spirit Eyes weren’t as strong as Wei Na’s Brain. However, he had a natural advantage over her. When he obtained his ﬁrst soul ring from the Skydream Iceworm, it was already destined that no one could rival the talent of his spiritual-type martial soul anymore.

All the soul rings that he had obtained after that were mostly auxiliary. However, it was precisely because he gave up his offensive power that his Spirit Eyes became stronger. In terms of control, he held a natural advantage. Ordinary soul masters,

even soul masters with twin martial souls like Na Na, wouldn’t forgo their offensive power when they added more soul rings.

They slowly drew closer to the sky directly above the Sun Moon Empire’s military base. Huo Yuhao looked down. He didn’t use his Spiritual Detection, but purely used his Spirit Eyes to see, not wanting to alarm anyone. As he gained more and more experience, he became more and more cautious, too!

As he observed the Sun Moon Empire’s military base, he also unleashed his Spiritual Detection Sharing. Wei Na only felt that everything in front of her had brightened, and the pitch- black night sky had all of a sudden become clear. The image in front of her was quickly enlarged.

She shook slightly in astonishment. This is a godly skill! At least, it is during surveillance. If our empire had such a talented soul master, we wouldn’t have been defeated so badly...

The Heavenly Soul Empire had ﬁnally realized the importance of surveillance after paying the price of losing two- thirds of its land following the appearance of a new generation of soul tools.

In terms of ﬁghting strength, the Heavenly Soul Empire wasn’t so inferior to the Sun Moon Empire that they were invaded and battered so easily. The Heavenly Soul Empire also lacked greatly in their surveillance capabilities, not just in soul tools. From the start until the end, the Heavenly Soul Empire was the passive one, and didn’t even know when the enemy

would appear, or how much strength they possessed. This was why they had lost so badly.

While Wei Na was in shock, Huo Yuhao had already carefully observed the setup of the Sun Moon Empire’s base.

He had fought the Sun Moon Empire’s armies quite a number of times. As a result, he could roughly tell what their setup was.

Very soon, his expression turned grim.

If he had to describe their base, it would be ‘impenetrable’.

The entire base was shaped like a long snake. However, it wasn’t completely horizontal. Rather, it was built in such a way that it ﬁt the geographical structure of the land. More importantly, Huo Yuhao discovered ﬁve soul formations in the base. Each of these soul formations could only be built by an entire soul engineer legion.

This meant that the Sun Moon Empire had ﬁve soul engineer legions here. Without mentioning the number of soul engineer legions in the Hand that Protects the Nation that were here, ﬁve soul engineer legions were already sufﬁcient to ensure that they were well-protected. If a full-blown conﬂict happened here, they would be extremely destructive. The Sun Moon Empire hadn’t gotten to starting one yet, probably because they had been greatly drained in their previous ﬁghts, and needed time to recuperate and regroup.

What Huo Yuhao saw was also seen by Princess Wei Na. She had some understanding of the Sun Moon Empire’s army. Through this surveillance, she also got a clearer look at things that she wasn’t aware of before.

Huo Yuhao sighed slightly and said, “Five soul formations. Even an Ultimate Douluo would ﬁnd it difﬁcult to breach their base. Your Highness, how many soul engineer legions from the Hand that Protects the Nation are here?”

Wei Na replied, “Two. One is the Imperial Dragon Soul Engineer Legion, and the other is the Terrorclaw Soul Engineer Legion.”

Huo Yuhao’s heart sank once again. Among the ﬁve soul engineer legions in the Hand that Protects the Nation, the strongest was undoubtedly the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineer Legion. The remaining four beast lord-ranked soul engineer legions had differences in their abilities. Among them, the strongest was the Imperial Dragon Soul Engineer Legion, followed by the Terrorclaw Soul Engineer Legion and

the Phoenix Soul Engineer Legion. The weakest was the Evil Tyrant Soul Engineer Legion.

The Imperial Dragon Soul Engineer Legion and Terrorclaw Soul Engineer Legion were both here. This represented more than half the strength of the four beast lord-ranked soul engineer legions. No wonder the Heavenly Soul Empire found things so difﬁcult here.

“Alright, this is all we can see from such an altitude. We have to return.” Huo Yuhao said to Wei Na.

In fact, if he were the only one, he would carry out a series of surveillance passes. He might even go lower, or use his Spiritual Detection. However, he couldn’t do that with Princess Wei Na around. He had to ensure her safety!

At this moment, Huo Yuhao felt an omen. This omen didn’t come from his Spiritual Detection or soul power undulations. It came from his Three-Eyed Golden Lion skull. It was the warning given to him by his power of destiny.

Not right!

He subconsciously looked down, and discovered that one of the soul formations below was shining with red light.

“Shit!” Huo Yuhao shouted. Following this, he grabbed Wei Na’s ﬂying-type soul tool with both his hands and spun around in the sky, ﬂinging her away with all his strength.

By the time she reacted, her body was already ﬂung like a cannon shell. Huo Yuhao quickly rose into the sky.

By tossing her away, Huo Yuhao had already wasted some valuable time that he could have used to ﬂee. It would be very difﬁcult to avoid the enemy’s attack now. He could only rise further into the sky. The higher the altitude, the weaker soul power was. Furthermore, Huo Yuhao even used his Instant Teleportation to go higher up.

Just as he ﬁnished this, a beam of red light shot into the sky. It blazed through four thousand meters of sky and engulfed Huo Yuhao.

This beam of red light was more than a hundred meters wide. Although it only ﬂashed once before disappearing, its aura was overwhelming, and made it seem as if the entire sky had been pierced.

When Wei Na saw the red light sweeping past in the distance before Huo Yuhao was engulfed by it, she opened her mouth in shock, and was completely stunned in place. At an altitude of four thousand meters, without Huo Yuhao’s help, she only barely managed to keep herself up in the sky.

Before she reacted even further, Huo Yuhao’s voice suddenly sounded in her head. “What are you waiting for?! Why aren’t you leaving?!”

Following this, a black ﬁgure ﬂashed past and grabbed her. As Huo Yuhao unleashed his Imitation once again, he quickly ﬂed into the distance at his quickest possible speed.

Fortunately, that red light only struck once before it eventually dimmed and disappeared.

“Yuhao, are you okay?” Princess Wei Na only reacted now. Although she didn’t know what that red light was, she at least knew that it wasn’t ﬁreworks. How strong did it have to be if it could travel four thousand meters into the sky? If not for Huo Yuhao, she would have been dead by now.

What Wei Na didn’t see was that pitch-black scales were slowly fading away on Huo Yuhao’s body, while his clothes had already been torn apart.

Only Huo Yuhao truly knew how terrifying that strike was after experiencing it.

Furthermore, he knew exactly where it came from.

It had come from linked offensive soul tools. It had to be!

Right now, Huo Yuhao was completely astonished. That red light was high-energy and high-heat. The instantaneous surge

of temperature sparked by that red light even melted his Ice Emperor Armor. Huo Yuhao had even unleashed a Class 6 Invincible Barrier, but it was vaporized, too. Eventually, he had used Di Tian’s reverse scale to protect his body. However, his clothes weren’t that fortunate.

Huo Yuhao clearly knew that he would have been critically hurt even if he didn’t die, if not for Di Tian’s strength.

It was pertinent to note that the red light only struck him after travelling four thousand meters up into the sky! If it was closer, it would have been even more terrifying.

Fortunately, the same attack didn’t come again. The Sun Moon Empire’s base also appeared to be very peaceful.

Huo Yuhao brought Princess Wei Na all the way until they were above Heaven Dou City before they landed. When Princess Wei Na could control her own ﬂying again, Huo Yuhao retrieved a new set of clothes to wear.

That was a real scare! Huo Yuhao’s hair was still standing on end.

When the two of them landed, Huo Yuhao saw that Princess Wei Na was very pale. He wasn’t faring much better, either.

Although she was still scared out of her wits, Princess Wei Na couldn’t help but ask, “Yuhao, what was that attack earlier? How did the Sun Moon Empire discover us and lock onto our position?” Understanding the Sun Moon Empire’s setup was very important to the Heavenly Soul Empire.

Huo Yuhao replied, “If I’m not wrong, that attack should have come from linked offensive soul tools. This means that one of the soul engineer legions locked onto us, and a linked attack was ﬁred from their soul formation. Although it was weakened as it progressed through the air, it was still very strong.

“I’m not sure how they locked onto us. However, it had to be through a surveillance soul tool. It seems like the Sun Moon Empire has made new progress in terms of ground-based surveillance soul tools. They’re actually able to see four thousand meters into the air.”

After hearing his words, Princess Wei Na couldn’t help but turn gloomy. Originally, the gap between the Heavenly Soul Empire and Sun Moon Empire was already very great. If this gap was widened further, wouldn’t that signify destruction for the Heavenly Soul Empire?

Huo Yuhao tried to comfort her upon seeing her expression. “Your Highness, don’t be too worried. If I’m not wrong, the Sun Moon Empire’s ground-based surveillance soul tools can’t produce a wide effect even if they detect to a further distance. They can’t sweep the sky. We must have triggered one of their ground-based surveillance soul tools accidentally. Otherwise, the attacks should have come in waves. We weren’t attacked after the ﬁrst strike. They must have lost track of us.”

Wei Na laughed bitterly, “You don’t have to comfort me. I know the difference between us and the Sun Moon Empire. I’m sorry I dragged you down. If not for me, you wouldn’t have been hit by that beam of light.” She was smart. She clearly knew what had happened earlier. If Huo Yuhao hadn’t bothered with her and just ﬂed, he would have been able to escape the attack.

Huo Yuhao smiled and said, “We’re allies. Let’s not talk about this anymore. However, I’m afraid they’ll tighten their

defenses after this incident. I’m afraid I can’t bring you along the next time.”

Chapter 493: Ju Zi, Seed

Wei Na tilted her head slightly and reached into her pockets, retrieved a small pouch, and gave it to Huo Yuhao. “This is the highest-tier signal soul tool from our side. If you have this, you will never be attacked by friendly forces.”

Huo Yuhao naturally understood the princess’ intentions, and he didn’t reject her gift, taking it and placing it in his own pocket.

Wei Na stared at him deeply and said, “Yuhao, gratitude cannot be voiced for the great favors that you have given us. I will remember that. I need to hurry back so that I can log what I’ve seen today. Intelligence like that is far too precious.”

“Alright.”

------

Huo Yuhao turned around and headed into his own courtyard after watching Wei Na leave. He contemplated his

experiences in the air as he walked.

Such powerful linked offensive soul tools! An attack like that would probably severely injure even a Titled Douluo. Fortunately, I had Imitation to conceal myself continuously, so I didn’t have to suffer continuous attacks. Otherwise, the consequences could have been disastrous. At the least, Princess Wei Na wouldn’t have returned with her life.

However, Huo Yuhao was starting to feel that the Beast God’s reverse scale had its beneﬁts, and increasingly so. At least, it provided protection for him in his most perilous moments. Otherwise, he would need quite some time to recover if he had returned with severe injuries, even though his own body was quite tough.

What can we do to ﬁnd Teacher Xiao Ya? The Sun Moon Empire's camp is like a metal plate. It’s just too difﬁcult.

Huo Yuhao returned to his room with those questions, and removed his outer shirt as he crossed his legs and meditated.

------

Huo Yuhao reported the results of his investigation to Elder Song and Yan Shaozhe at daybreak. However, he didn’t mention that Princess Wei Na went with him, and only told them that he discovered the linked offensive soul tool’s attack and evaded it before he hurried back.

Everyone’s faces grew solemn when they heard Huo Yuhao’s description. Elder Song lowered her voice and said, “Why don’t I accompany you tonight? That attack is powerful, but I should have no problem protecting you.”

Huo Yuhao thought for a moment and said, “That’s perfect.

But, Elder Song, there is something else I want to do.”

“Eh?” Elder Song glanced at Huo Yuhao confusedly.

Huo Yuhao’s eyes sparkled. “I want to see just how far the Sun Moon Empire’s ground-based aerial surveillance soul tools can reach. We can only win our battles if we understand our enemies fully.”

Elder Song nodded. She believed that with her around, the Sun Moon Empire’s linked offensive soul tools couldn’t possibly hurt Huo Yuhao no matter how powerful they were.

Huo Yuhao didn’t obtain any accurate information, but he could guess that the Sun Moon Empire’s advances in ground- based aerial surveillance soul tools likely occurred because of the multiple losses that he had caused them. Their ground- based aerial surveillance soul tools were probably developed speciﬁcally for him. Furthermore, he could be sure that they were oscillation detectors.

To be able to target oscillation detectors so high up in the sky was extremely astonishing, even if their waves were compressed. The Sun Moon Empire had an absolute advantage in their industrial capabilities.

------

The Sun Moon Empire’s Radiant City, inside the royal palace...

There was a silent, very large room. It was almost two hundred square meters, ornamented with the luxury and spectacle that only the royal family could have.

A handsome youth was sitting next to a table and eating some delicious food, and he seemed like he was really enjoying himself.

A soft knocking was heard at the door.

The youth’s eyes immediately lit up as he swiftly stood up and glanced in the door’s direction. “Please come in.”

The door opened, and a beautiful lady dressed in palace clothes walked in. Her hair was tied into a bun above her head, and her luxurious golden dress made her seem even more noble and elegant. Her skin was fair and almost translucent, like water would come out if someone squeezed her skin.

The door closed, and the room’s atmosphere instantly became a lot more pleasant with such a gorgeous lady inside.

“Royal sister,” the youth discreetly swallowed as he called out softly.

“Yes.” The girl blushed a little, and she seemed shy and bashful as she gradually walked towards the table. “Aren’t you going to ask me to sit down”?

“Oh, oh. Please sit down,” the expensively-dressed youth spoke a little awkwardly.

The girl gradually sat down as she lowered her head and said in embarassment, “I’m a little nervous, royal brother.”

“I’m a little nervous, too. Why don’t you eat something ﬁrst, sister?” The youth stared at the girl’s neck, which resembled that of an elegant swan, and the passion in his eyes was slowly sparked as even his voice began to tremble a little.

He had been pining after this girl for a long time, but had never had the guts to do anything about it. Who knew that such a fantastic opportunity would befall him today? This was much more wonderful than a snack from the gods! This snack wasn’t just a snack, it was also absolutely delicious.

The girl gradually lifted her head as she bit down on her lower lip and said gently, “Do you really dare to, royal brother?”

The youth was momentarily stunned before he snickered and said, “Of course, I wouldn’t normally dare to. But this is an order, and is something that my royal brother wants me to do. What else should I be afraid of? My brother has already shut me in for so many days to keep this secret. But I felt that everything was worth it no matter what price I had to pay when I saw you. You’re so beautiful, royal sister.”

The girl smiled plainly and said, “Since you know that he wants to keep this secret, aren’t you afraid that once the thing is done, he will kill you for it?”

The youth laughed and said, “How is that possible? We are cousins, and in the family hierarchy, I’m ranked among the ﬁrst few who will be heir to the throne. Without the family’s order, who dares to touch me? My brother hasn’t been on the throne for too long, and even though he seems quite stable up there, if he dares to touch me, hmph!”

The young girl heaved a faint sigh and said, “You’re thinking too much, royal brother, and you have underestimated your brother’s methods. If he were so merciful, how could he become emperor?”

“Eh?” The youth’s expression changed a little as he lowered his voice and said, “What do you mean, royal sister?”

The young girl smiled and shook her head. “I don’t mean anything. I just want you to understand before you die.”

“You!” The youth suddenly stood up. Suddenly, he felt a wave of dizziness come over his head as he stared at the girl in front of him with an incredulous look in his eyes.

The girl slowly stood up, and the faint but fragrant aroma on her body dampened as she made a grab at him. The youth’s body immediately ﬂew backwards and landed on the bed as he lost consciousness.

The young girl’s face, which originally had a faint smile on it, immediately turned cold. “I’m sorry, royal brother. Blame your brother if you wish to blame someone.” She held a sharp spike-

shaped object in her hands as she spoke and walked towards the bed.

-------

Fifteen minutes later...

The girl appeared inside a royal hall.

“It’s done, Your Majesty,” the girl spoke gently. The person sitting on the throne was none other than the Sun Moon Empire’s emperor, Xu Tianran, while the luxuriously-dressed girl was Ju Zi.

“Thank you, Ju Zi. Please stand up.” Xu Tianran waved his hand at her with a smile on her face. However, one could see upon closer inspection that his smile contained a kind of awkwardness and bitterness that was hard to detect.

Xu Tianran said, “Go and prepare. You have to begin as soon as possible to maintain activity. The royal doctor is already prepared.”

“Yes, Your Majesty,” Ju Zi nodded gently as she turned to leave.

She had just walked out of the hall when a dark shadow soundlessly appeared where she had been standing. He knelt down on one knee to Xu Tianran and reported, “Prince Tianhe has passed away, and it’s conﬁrmed that the empress did it herself. His life was taken in one hit, his heart was pierced, and he died.”

“Alright, you may leave. Tell the royal doctor to see me after his inspection,” Xu Tianran answered coldly.

“Yes!”

The dark shadow departed soundlessly as Xu Tianran gradually stood up and paced around the room with his prosthetic legs.

His face was overcast. Prince Tianhe’s blood was very pure, and even though he was lazy and didn’t have a high cultivation rank, he was the most suitable target.

Xu Tianran felt as if his heart had been cut by a knife. Even though he had always treated Ju Zi as one of his most important chess pieces, they had spent so many years together, so how could he not develop any feelings for her? However, he couldn’t do what normal men could, and the royal family

needed an heir. Thus, he had to devise such a devious plan.

Ju Zi didn’t need to have any physical contact with Prince Tianhe, even if she wanted his seed. That could be accomplished with the Sun Moon Empire’s technology. What was amusing was that Prince Tianhe thought he had taken the advantage. His death by Ju Zi’s hands was also at Xu Tianran’s order.

The reason why Xu Tianran chose to do this was simple: Ju Zi couldn’t go back once she killed Prince Tianhe, because her life would be over if this piece of news was spread. At the same time, Prince Tianhe would become the future heir’s true father if she was taking his seed. How could Xu Tianran allow such a person to live in the world? He wouldn’t be afraid of Ju Zi telling the crown prince anything in the future if he died at her hands. At the same time, this was a measure to tie Ju Zi even closer to himself.

Xu Tianran knew that his actions were very selﬁsh and very cruel, and that was especially true for Ju Zi, who had always been loyal to him. However, he couldn’t rest not doing all this. He was one of the most ambitious and ruthless characters of his time, and he would never let anything escape his grasp.

I’ll compensate Ju Zi slowly in the future! But before that…

Xu Tianran’s eyes ﬂashed coldly as his thoughts stopped there.

It didn’t take long before an elderly royal doctor walked in from outside and knelt down in front of Xu Tianran.

“How is it?” Xu Tianran asked coldly.

The royal physician deliberately lowered his voice and said, “Your Majesty, the empress is still perfect.”

The iciness on Xu Tianran’s face mostly vanished after he heard the doctor’s words. He felt as if an enormous burden had been lifted from his chest as he muttered under his breath, “I’m sorry, Ju Zi, I was overthinking. I will treat you well as long as you don’t betray me.” He then said to the man kneeling on the ﬂoor, “You may go, royal physician, and take care of the Empress. Make sure this goes well.”

“Yes,” the royal physician said respectfully. “Rest assured, Your Majesty, I have checked the Empress’ body many times. She is very healthy, and today is the most opportune time for her to become pregnant. I am more than ninety percent conﬁdent that I can help the Empress get pregnant.”

The royal physician was just speaking his mind honestly, but he was completely unaware that his last sentence sounded vaguely ambiguous, and Xu Tianran’s eyes ﬂickered murderously in response. Of course, from the beginning to the end, he was never going to let anybody who had anything to do with this live.

“Go. Once it’s complete, I will reward you heavily.”

“Thank you, Your Majesty.”

------

Ju Zi was also in a silent room. She was lying down on a bed, covered only by a clean white gown. Her eyes were very calm, but there was a dash of cold deep within them.

Xu Tianran, Xu Tianran, Xu Tianran!

Ju Zi repeated that name continuously in her heart.

Xu Tianran, I haven’t misjudged you after all. I have been so loyal to you, but you treat me like this. Good, very good! It’s a pity that no matter how intelligent you are, you are clueless that I have already been prepared for all this. How could I bear a child for a stranger?

The royal physician’s warm voice came to her. “Are you ready, Empress? You might feel some pain in a while.”

“Alright, royal physician. You may begin,” Ju Zi answered plainly.

“Alright, then. Please give me the seed that you have prepared,” the royal physician spoke respectfully.

Ju Zi lifted her hand, and a small metal tube appeared in the center of her palm as she slowly passed it to the physician. There was a tinge of tenderness on her facial expression at this moment, and the name of Xu Tianran gradually disappeared from her mind, while another name took its place…

------

High up in the night sky...

Four thousand ﬁve hundred meters up, Huo Yuhao was hovering silently in midair; he had already appeared once more above the Sun Moon Empire’s army camp. He made sure he was as vigilant as he could be while he quietly observed the army camp beneath him. At the same time, he tried to sense whatever dangers could appear at any moment.

Four thousand ﬁve hundred meters. I wonder if the Sun Moon Empire’s ground-based aerial surveillance soul tools can still discover me. Huo Yuhao squinted a little as he bided his time quietly.

Several minutes quickly passed, but nothing was happening beneath him. The red light that he had encountered the previous night didn’t appear.

A faint smile gradually appeared at the corner of Huo Yuhao’s mouth.

His eyes gazed at something faintly discernible in the distance; a cloud that was drifting through the air. He maintained his original position, quietly awaiting something.

Suddenly, a ball of black mist descended from the sky without warning and blanketed his position.

Huo Yuhao looked a little shocked as he immediately dispelled his Imitation and revealed himself in the air.

“Tsk, tsk! I thought, which other powerful soul master could it be? But you’re just a little kid. You’re just a Soul Sage, and you dare to spy on the Sun Moon Empire’s army camp?” A hoarse voice that wasn’t pleasing to the ear could be heard. Two black shadows suddenly appeared ﬁfty meters away from Huo Yuhao as the cloud that he was staring at disappeared.

Clouds of black mist bore down on him in a circle from all directions and surrounded Huo Yuhao, while the two black shadows stared at him alertly.

Two yellow, two purple, and ﬁve black soul rings glowed on the person who was speaking. The other black shadow, who didn’t make a sound, had an even stronger combination of soul rings. He had one yellow, three purple, and ﬁve black soul rings.

They were both Titled Douluo. Furthermore, the auras emanating from their bodies felt very sinister and evil.

“Evil soul masters?” Huo Yuhao exclaimed in surprise.

“Kid, don’t you think it’s a little too late for you to realize that?” The man in black who spoke before drifted towards Huo Yuhao as he spoke. A bluish-black light gradually grew larger behind him. This bluish-black light shadow looked incredibly terrifying. In the beginning, it looked like a skull, but Huo Yuhao could only see after it swelled that it was a pale human face. He couldn’t even tell if this face was male or female, because were countless disgusting bluish-black maggots crawling all over it.

The other man in black didn’t make a sound from the beginning to the end. Light glowed from behind him as well, but this light was dark green, and condensed into an enormous centipede with a single eye on its forehead swaying gently in the air.

Huo Yuhao’s face was completely pale. Wow, two evil Titled Douluo.

Evil Titled Douluo were frightening individuals comparable to Transcendent Douluo in the world of soul masters! Huo Yuhao seemed to tremble in fright.

“It’s too late to be afraid. The two of us wouldn’t have had to make this trip if we didn’t have to capture you alive. Alright, kid, follow us down. Otherwise, I’ll let you have a taste of my Avenging Spirit Mask. I’ll let it consume your spirit bit by bit, and that feeling, tsk, tsk…”

Avenging Spirit Mask. This was the ﬁrst time Huo Yuhao had heard of a martial soul like that. It seemed like a mutated martial soul, and it was deﬁnitely an evil martial soul!

“Two seniors, I’m just a scout responsible for collecting intelligence. Why do you have to cause trouble for me?” Huo Yuhao forced a laugh as he spoke.

“Hahahaha! Kid, you don’t have to insult us with words. Are you going to let us capture you without resisting, or do we have to make a move on you?”

Huo Yuhao gritted his teeth and said, “I can let you capture me, but can I know your titles? At least, I will know whose hands I’ve fallen into.”

The evil soul master who possessed the Avenging Spirit Mask said, “There’s no harm in telling you. I am the Masquerade Douluo, and this is the Heavenly Centipede Douluo.”

“I didn’t expect us to meet again. You’re a spy after all.” A familiar voice could be heard, and it came from the Heavenly Centipede Douluo, who hadn’t spoken at all until this point. He suddenly lifted the black veil that was covering his face and revealed himself.

Huo Yuhao’s expression changed a little when he saw him, because he knew this evil soul master. He was the Duskwater Alliance Master, and he seemed to be the Holy Ghost Church’s Second Elder.

Huo Yuhao had always been careful, and that was the reason why he would always change his appearance even when he was conducting aerial surveillance. However, the look that he had chosen to take on was the same as the identity he had used to participate in the Radiant City Elite Soul Engineering Tournament, Tang Wu. He was immediately recognized by Nangong Wan.

“We ﬁnally meet again, Alliance Master Nangong,” Huo Yuhao replied, but his expression seemed a lot calmer than before.

Nangong Wan gritted his teeth when he saw Huo Yuhao.

Huo Yuhao had helped the Duskwater Alliance eventually win the championship during the Radiant City Elite Soul Engineering Tournament, and took away all his prizes. Nangong Wan was prepared to take him in as his disciple back then, but because Huo Yuhao’s performance was far too outstanding, and especially because of his necromancy, even the Holy Ghost Church’s vice-leader paid attention to him. She believed that he was the Holy Ghost Church’s Holy Son, who had yet to appear in this world. But who knew that Huo Yuhao would immediately disappear after the competition, and take away countless rare metals, the Sunmoon Divine Needle, and a Class 9 stationary soul cannon shell, the Annihilation Storm.

The Sunmoon Divine Needle was still alright, as the Starsky Douluo, Ye Yulin had taken that out. However, it wasn’t easy for the Holy Ghost Church to obtain Annihilation Storm, and the original intent was for it to urge soul engineers to put effort into the competition. But Huo Yuhao had vanished into

thin air during the mess of that enormous explosion, without a trace.

In the aftermath of the great explosion, Nangong Wan had tried hard to ﬁnd him, but how could he ﬁnd Tang Wu? Now that he had met Huo Yuhao once more today, Nangong Wan could tell from where he had appeared that he was a spy. Furthermore, he was the Heavenly Soul Empire’s spy. How could he not be angry?

The vice-leader had berated him for not being able to ﬁnd Huo Yuhao.

“Yes, it’s been a long time. Should I call you Tang Wu, or by another name?” Nangong Wan said coldly.

Huo Yuhao smiled plainly and said, “You can just call me Tang Wu.” Of course, he wouldn’t be so foolish as to reveal his identity. Furthermore, he wasn’t just a soul engineer when he met Nangong Wan back then. He had also presented himself as a necromancer.

“Alright, Tang Wu. I want to see how you can run away this time!” Nangong Wan said coldly.

Huo Yuhao grinned and said, “Run? Why would I run? The two of you are the ones who shouldn’t run away later.”

“Eh?” The Masquerade Douluo and the Heavenly Centipede Douluo were momentarily stunned as a green shadow bolted towards them like a ghost from far away. It took but a few blinks of the eye for her to arrive beside Huo Yuhao. Wasn’t it the Greenshadow Douluo, Elder Song?

Huo Yuhao had departed at the same time as Elder Song, but they didn’t travel together. Huo Yuhao was attracting the attention of the ground-based aerial surveillance soul tools from four thousand ﬁve hundred meters up in the sky, while Elder Song watched him from six thousand meters. Six thousand meters was the limit that humans could reach, and nobody but Transcendent Douluo could reach that altitude. The Sun Moon Empire’s surveillance soul tools couldn’t possibly reach that height.

However, Huo Yuhao didn’t expect to encounter two evil Titled Douluo who wanted to capture him alive. This was an

unexpected but pleasant surprise. If he could capture a Titled Douluo, it would be a lot easier for him to discover Tang Ya’s location!

The Heavenly Centipede Douluo and the Masquerade Douluo’s expressions froze a little when Elder Song appeared. They hadn’t sensed this powerful individual’s presence around them before this. Furthermore, Elder Song had arrived way too quickly; she was already in front of them when they saw her. They could tell from just her speed that she was undoubtedly a Transcendent Douluo.

Elder Song hovered calmly in midair. Her expression was very casual and plain, but that was enough to give those two evil soul masters immense pressure.

Not being able to sense their opponent’s aura was the most frightening for individuals who were Titled Douluo. The reason was because they saw with their own eyes that Elder Song had descended from above, and with her speed, she had to have been at an altitude of more than ﬁfty-ﬁve hundred meters. She could conceal her aura so thoroughly, she was deﬁnitely a Transcendent Douluo.

An evil soul master’s advantage wasn’t that obvious anymore at a Transcendent Douluo’s level. Furthermore, evil soul

masters themselves had difﬁculty becoming Titled Douluo, while becoming a Transcendent Douluo was even more challenging.

The Masquerade Douluo was at Rank 91, while Nangong Wan was a little stronger at Rank 92.

Nangong Wan’s eyes squinted a little as intense silver light shone from them. The giant centipede projection behind him seemed to come alive as it twisted, while his nine soul rings ﬂickered faintly.

The Masquerade Douluo’s sinister aura became increasingly dense, and that frightening human face continued forward as it tried to envelop Huo Yuhao and Elder Song.

Elder Song was just standing there, yet she seemed incredibly casual, as she didn’t even unleash her martial soul.

Huo Yuhao suddenly moved. He retreated instead of pushing forward, and disappeared behind Elder Song with a ﬂash.

Everyone began to move together, and the two evil soul masters immediately made their moves at the same time as Huo Yuhao.

The enormous human face behind the Masquerade Douluo suddenly pushed forward and loomed over Huo Yuhao and Elder Song. Agonizing cries echoed throughout the skies, extremely frightening. The Masquerade Douluo’s second, third, and fourth soul rings glowed one after another. The projection was so huge that the Heavenly Centipede Douluo was completely blocked behind it.

Huo Yuhao was already behind Elder Song, but he could still feel an intense force tugging at his soul, as if it were about to tear his spirit apart. Furthermore, he could feel threads of eerie chill bearing down on him from all directions.

The corner of Huo Yuhao’s mouth curved into a cold smile.

Are we ﬁghting with spiritual power now?

Huo Yuhao’s soul rings immediately covered his entire body, as he used Imitation to display normal colors, while his third soul ring glowed and transformed into a white circle: Mass Enfeeblement!

Huo Yuhao had already linked up with Elder Song by sharing his Spiritual Detection, and he stretched his Spiritual Detection over the entire area around them. Huo Yuhao didn’t just cover the battleﬁeld; he also covered a large area outside the battleﬁeld. He would deﬁnitely discover any other enemies should they appear.

This was the ﬁrst time Huo Yuhao was working together in battle with a soul master as powerful as Elder Song was. He felt a little nervous, but he was more excited, as battling with and against Titled Douluo was an experience that was far too precious. Furthermore, he wasn’t in any danger at all with an individual as powerful as Elder Song around.

Mass Enfeeblement’s effects were quite obvious, as the human face that was bearing down on them became a little more illusory.

Huo Yuhao’s Eye of Destiny suddenly opened at the same time. However, the evil soul masters couldn’t see what he was doing because Elder Song was standing in front of him.

The rose-gold Eye of Destiny immediately became a cross between black and white, so deep that it resembled the distant starry skies as the uncanny aura of destiny permeated the air. Huo Yuhao’s sixth soul ring suddenly ﬂickered.

The two evil soul masters couldn’t feel what Huo Yuhao was doing, but Elder Song’s senses were very keen. She could feel a kind of radiance piercing her back when Huo Yuhao’s Eye of Destiny started to change color, and that strange undulation even made her feel a sense of danger. That wasn’t soul power, nor was it spiritual power; it was an unknown force to Elder Song. Just as the two evil soul masters felt about her, uncertainties were the most frightening thing to people as powerful as she.

The battle erupted in a split second. Huo Yuhao’s Mass Enfeeblement had just taken effect when the human face arrived before Elder Song.

Elder Song raised her right hand and used it as a blade as she sliced it across the sky. A dark green shadow ﬂashed and disappeared as the human face was immediately cut in two, but that wasn’t all. The dim green shadow that didn’t seem very strong at all immediately arrived in front of the Masquerade Douluo.

The Masquerade Douluo felt his heart skip a beat. The light in front of him contorted a little as he swiftly retreated, and his body quivered in the next moment as the dark shadow vanished. However, there seemed to be some kind of liquid energy dissipate in front of him.

The enormous dark green centipede stretched across the heavens in this moment, and blasted venomous dark green fog towards Elder Song. This venomous fog was very unique, and it appeared as countless tiny particles as it covered the sky. Elder Song pushed her palm forward, and her powerful soul power penetrated through the venomous fog, yet did nothing to stop it.

Right at this moment, a dark beam ﬁred soundlessly from Huo Yuhao’s Eye of Destiny and struck the Masquerade Douluo, who was still retreating into the distance.

It was night time, and the light high up in the sky was already dim. The beam’s black colors were the same as that of the night sky, and it also didn’t have any soul power or spiritual power undulations.

Elder Song felt Huo Yuhao’s black beam the most deeply when he ﬁred it. She felt goosebumps break out over her body, and was astonished once more.

The venomous fog wasn’t dispelled, but that wasn’t enough to stump someone as powerful as Elder Song was. Green light ﬂashed as she took Huo Yuhao several dozen meters away and escaped the venomous fog’s area of effect. Elder Song was an agility-type soul master, after all.

The Masquerade Douluo shivered coldly when he was struck by that black beam. Something unknown happened, and an ominous feeling immediately coursed over his entire body.

What’s wrong with me? The Masquerade Douluo was shocked, but his attacks didn’t stop. He raised his hands as his ﬁngers began to move like he was controlling something. Huo Yuhao and Elder Song had shifted horizontally in an instant, but twisting shadows immediately began to tremble vigorously around them.

“Eh?” Elder Song’s face changed a little, because she could clearly feel that these twisting shadows seemed to contain a very strange power that slowed her reactions and movements.

She didn’t just feel her movements slow, she could even feel that her mind and thoughts were also slowing.

That is…

A control-type soul master. Is the Masquerade Douluo actually a control-type soul master?

There was no question that the Heavenly Centipede Douluo was an assault-type soul master, and an assault-type soul master cooperating with a control-type soul master was the best guarantee for unleashing their full potential.

This wasn’t the ﬁrst time that Nangong Wan and the Masquerade Douluo had worked together. Nangong Wan immediately launched his assault on the other side once the Masquerade Douluo made his move.

The centipede’s shadow suddenly grew material, while Nangong Wan’s own body vanished. The giant centipede that was ﬂickering with dark green colors immediately swelled, and its gigantic frame immediately crashed against Elder Song and Huo Yuhao. It took a but a breath before it grew to over ﬁfty

meters long, while its hundreds of pairs of legs bore down on Huo Yuhao and Elder Song.

Martial soul True Body!

A Titled Douluo’s most powerful attack was when he transformed into his martial soul tTrue Body and launched a direct attack. Not even the Beast God, Di Tian, was an exception to this fact.

Soul masters with beast souls had a similar style of battle to top-tier soul beasts once they became Soul Sages.

Elder Song was slowed as Nangong Wan began his assault. The Masquerade Douluo shone with light, but the human face from before didn’t reappear. Instead, more illusory shadows revealed themselves. They were clearly pale white maggots, and they surrounded Elder Song and Huo Yuhao as they were forming a formation. Strange spiritual undulations emanated from each maggot, and interfered with Huo Yuhao and Elder Song.

Huo Yuhao’s Eye of Destiny glowed once more in this moment, as the air around him and Elder Song over several tens of square meters shook intensely. Those were soul power undulations, and those quakes came from his spirit and his soul.

Spiritual Blast!

Soundless explosions detonated as the maggots that were radiating spiritual undulations immediately froze, and their restrictive effects suddenly ended.

Elder Song’s eyes immediately became clear as green light erupted from her body. She didn’t bother with the giant centipede that was rushing towards her, and an eagle’s call rang out as she transformed into an intense green beam and went straight for the Masquerade Douluo.

She was a Rank 97 Titled Douluo, and her speed was just too frightening when she was using her full strength.

Agility-type soul masters were known for their speed and attacking capabilities, while they were relatively weaker in

defense. Elder Song was one of the strongest agility-type soul masters in the world today.

If anybody could see what she was doing, they would see that Elder Song almost immediately transformed into a Greenshadow Godly Eagle as she charged forward. This Greenshadow Godly Eagle wasn’t very big, its wingspan stretched to less than four meters. It was a lot smaller and less intimidating compared to that enormous centipede, but the eagle’s most terrifying characteristic was the fact that nobody could see it clearly. Not even Huo Yuhao could see her with his Spirit Eyes, because she was simply too quick. She was so quick that she almost reached the speed that Instant Teleportation could reach. Huo Yuhao could faintly see some afterimages ﬂash across the air as Elder Song appeared behind the Masquerade Douluo. Countless maggots immediately exploded and melted into goo as they dissipated in the air wherever she crossed.

The Masquerade Douluo’s title was not because his martial soul was a mask. The Masquerade Douluo’s martial soul was a Demonic Maggot, a strange martial soul that required consuming human souls to evolve. Furthermore, the Masquerade Douluo was the most fond of consuming the brains of all kinds of living creatures. His martial soul would improve with every instance of consumption.

Chapter 494: Spineless Nangong Wan

He was considered half a spiritual-type soul master. However, he had many evil tricks up his sleeves, too. His Demonic Maggot also contained a lethal poison, so his abilities were actually mixed.

Right now, the Masquerade Douluo was already very stiff in the air. He was just like the maggots that were struck by Huo Yuhao’s Spiritual Blast earlier.

This isn’t good! Nangong Wan was horriﬁed. Although he didn’t know what had happened to the Masquerade Douluo, he knew that the situation wasn’t good from how stiff his body was, and how Elder Song had appeared behind him.

How is this possible? No matter what, the Masquerade Douluo is a Titled Douluo! Even an Ultimate Douluo can’t kill him instantly! To become a Titled Douluo, one had to be very strong. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be able to handle the strength of a soul core. However, why did the Masquerade Douluo seem like he was…

However, Elder Song’s attack also exposed Huo Yuhao, leaving him facing the Heavenly Centipede Nangong Wan.

The huge centipede crashed down on him with a terrifying and dominant aura.

However, what Nangong Wan only saw a grin on Huo Yuhao’s face.

A projection ﬂashed before Huo Yuhao transformed into the Masquerade Douluo. At this moment, Nangong Wan was already so close that he couldn’t retract his attack.

As a dark-green light ﬂashed, the Masquerade Douluo was instantly torn to pieces. Under the effect of the poison from the Heavenly Centipede True Body, he was instantly dissolved, and turned into dark-green liquid that dripped down.

Is Masquerade dead? Nangong Wan was horriﬁed. Although he didn’t know how Huo Yuhao had switched the Masquerade Douluo over, it was clear that the Masquerade Douluo had been dealt a lethal blow, given how he was completely helpless against his attack.

Right now, Huo Yuhao nicely appeared where the Masquerade Douluo was earlier. He had used his Spiritual Duplication to duplicate the Xuanwu Displacement.

He had used the Xuanwu Displacement many times, and had started to really like this soul skill. It’s deﬁnitely a life-saving ultimate skill! The only problem is that I need to ﬁnd Xu Sanshi to duplicate it again every three times I use it.

Nangong Wan wasn’t the only one who was astonished by the Masquerade Douluo’s death. Even Elder Song was shocked. She never expected a Titled Douluo to be so weak. In fact, the Masquerade Douluo’s defense collapsed the moment they had clashed!

Originally, Elder Song had thought that the Masquerade Douluo was critically hurt by her.

Everything happened too quickly. When Nangong Wan completely disintegrated the Masquerade Douluo, Huo Yuhao had already slipped behind Elder Song.

Nangong Wan tensed up before his Heavenly Centipede True Body squirmed. After this, he opened his mouth wide and released a poisonous fog that engulfed Elder Song and Huo Yuhao.

I can’t ﬁght anymore. The Masquerade Douluo’s death was too weird. He was so weirded out that he started to become afraid. Although he knew that he was stronger than the Masquerade Douluo, he also knew that the difference wasn’t very big. He didn’t want to die here. He had already made up his mind to ﬂee as he released his poisonous fog.

His poisonous fog was his origin skill, and very strong. No soul power could sweep it away, it could only be avoided. It could even cover a large area. It was the best skill he could use to escape.

However, at this moment, the temperature of the air fell signiﬁcantly. The already chilly night sky turned even colder, and thick snow started to fall from the sky.

The poisonous fog that he released contained water, too. Suddenly, the water in the fog froze, thinning out the fog. A blizzard began to rage. Although the fog couldn’t be dissipated

by soul power, it was still useless against the falling snow. The extremely low temperature also greatly restricted Nangong Wan’s speed.

An illusory beam of rose-gold light seemed to turn from fake to real as it landed on Nangong Wan.

Nangong Wan groaned, and his spirit shook tremendously. He immediately detached from his Heavenly Centipede True Body.

A green projection arrived in front of Nangong Wan. All Nangong Wan saw was a mighty Greenshadow Godly Eagle.

Birds were the natural nemesis of centipedes. This was even truer for the Greenshadow Godly Eagle. Nangong Wan, who had just sustained an attack from Huo Yuhao’s Spiritual Shock, could only conjure his soul power to forcibly clash with Elder Song.

The absolute difference in their abilities was demonstrated at this moment. Nangong Wan grunted before he was ﬂung away, spitting blood.

Elder Song’s Greenshadow Godly Eagle immediately ﬂew above his head. It was exactly at this moment that a weird white whirlpool appeared above Nangong Wan.

He felt very confused and blurred after he was dealt such a heavy blow. He wanted to use his protective skill, but he couldn’t do it. The Greenshadow Godly Eagle was now above him, and pierced her sharp talons into his shoulders.

Sharp soul power instantly surged into Nangong Wan’s body. He screamed in pain once again. His own soul power had been sealed, and he had lost the ability to resist.

From the start until the end, the ﬁght lasted less than a minute. Of the two evil Titled Douluo, one was killed, and the other was captured.

The Greenshadow Godly Eagle turned to look at Huo Yuhao. Huo Yuhao seemed to be very calm right now. He ﬂew towards Elder Song and gave her a thumbs-up. “Let’s go, Elder Song.”

The eagle opened its mouth, and Elder Song’s voice came out. “You!... It seems like my decision was right to let you command this operation. Let’s go.” As she spoke, she had already ﬂuttered her wings, and turned into a streak of green light heading toward Heavenly Spirit City. Huo Yuhao used his

Imitation to hide himself once again before following closely behind her.

Elder Song’s compliment wasn’t without justiﬁcation. Huo Yuhao’s abilities left her very impressed. The ﬁght earlier was a clash between three Titled Douluo, but in fact, Elder Song clearly knew that the entire ﬁght was under Huo Yuhao’s control. He was deﬁnitely a deserved control-type soul master.

From his Mass Enfeeblement at the start, Huo Yuhao used some kind of method to weaken the Masquerade Douluo’s defense. After that, Elder Song unleashed her full strength at the Masquerade Douluo because Huo Yuhao had asked her to do it through his Spiritual Detection. Otherwise, why would Elder Song abandon Huo Yuhao to attack the Masquerade Douluo just as the Heavenly Centipede was approaching him?

Elder Song didn’t think of that. Naturally, their enemies didn’t think of that, either. That was how the Masquerade Douluo was killed.

Huo Yuhao controlled the entire proceedings, using his Xuanwu Displacement to escape from danger. Just as the Heavenly Centipede wanted to escape, he used a domain-type skill to neutralize the poisonous fog. At the same time, he used his spiritual-type attack to stall Nangong Wan and knock him out of his Martial Soul True Body. Elder Song came at that point, preventing him from protecting himself, even with all his strength. Huo Yuhao had even ‘offered’ Nangong Wan his

Spiritual Confusion before Elder Song attacked.

Elder Song believed that she could win against both Titled Douluo, even if she fought them herself. However, it would have been very difﬁcult to keep them in the ﬁght. It would have already been good enough if she could kill one of them. However, it would have taken time. The Masquerade Douluo controlled, while the Heavenly Centipede attacked. If they complemented each other well, they wouldn’t have been easy to deal with.

However, those two evil soul masters were completely under Huo Yuhao’s thumb, and were outplayed. Although they might not have been aware of his abilities, one couldn’t discount his power, either.

What Elder Song truly felt was that all her abilities seemed to have been boosted when she fought alongside Huo Yuhao. During the ﬁghting, it was an unprecedentedly great feeling. Right now, she understood why he was such a symbolic ﬁgure in the Tang Sect. He was truly strong!

As there were two evil soul masters dealing with Elder Song and Huo Yuhao, the Sun Moon Empire didn’t send anyone else to attack. When they realized something was amiss, Elder Song and Huo Yuhao had already vanished. The two evil soul masters were also gone.

------

They silently returned to Heavenly Spirit City. Nangong Wan had already been knocked out by Elder Song, and they brought him back to the courtyard.

The rest hadn’t gone to sleep yet. They were waiting for Huo Yuhao and Elder Song to return.

“Eh, Elder Song, who is this?” Nan Qiuqiu was waiting in the courtyard. When she saw Huo Yuhao and Elder Song returning

with Nangong Wan, she immediately rushed up to receive them.

Elder Song smiled and answered, “We’ve caught an evil soul master. I’m sure we’ll get something if we question him.”

The rest all walked out from their rooms. Yan Shaozhe received them. As he saw Nangong Wan, he revealed a thoughtful look on his face.

Nangong Wan looked very pathetic right now. His shoulders were already stained red with blood. Elder Song had crippled the passageways in his arms and sealed his soul power. He was completely disabled now.

“Elder Song, why is this person so familiar to me?” Yan Shaozhe asked doubtfully.

Elder Song replied, “You’re right if he’s familiar to you. He’s Nangong Wan, the Heavenly Centipede.”

Yan Shaozhe instantly opened his eyes wide. “This is actually the Heavenly Centipede Douluo, Nangong Wan? No wonder he seemed so familiar. When I was out exploring after I graduated from the Academy, I once interacted with him. His martial soul was very difﬁcult to deal with, especially with the poison in it. I wanted to kill him then, but his poison was too strong. Eventually, he escaped. I didn’t expect him to land in your hands today!”

Elder Song shook her head and said, “He didn’t exactly land in my hands. Yuhao and I teamed up to capture him. To be honest, I’m starting to like the idea of ﬁghting alongside Yuhao. With him around, I feel that my powers have increased.”

Yan Shaozhe didn’t expect Elder Song to think so highly of Huo Yuhao and laughed, “Elder Song, don’t spoil my little junior like that.”

Elder Song chortled and said, “I mean what I say. Yuhao’s spiritual power is not inferior to any spiritual-type Titled Douluo. Apart from his cultivation being slightly weaker, his

control and auxiliary abilities are deﬁnitely not inferior to a Titled Douluo. For ﬁghts at our tier, it would be of great help if he were around.”

Huo Yuhao was a little embarrassed as he said, “Elder Song, you praise me too much.”

Elder Song smiled without saying anything. Yan Shaozhe laughed, “Little junior, don’t be so humble. Come, tell us how you faced the Heavenly Centipede Douluo, and describe the entire ﬁghting process.”

Huo Yuhao looked at Elder Song. After Elder Song gave him permission, he described how he had met and fought the two evil soul masters in detail.

After learning that he had killed another evil Titled Douluo, Yan Shaozhe couldn’t laugh anymore.

As they were not that strong yet, those from the Tang Sect didn’t participate in ﬁghts against Titled Douluo. However, Yan Shaozhe was clearly aware of the abilities of evil Titled Douluo.

He knew how frustrating they were to deal with. He questioned whether he could deal with two evil soul masters in such a short time even if he teamed up with Elder Song. From Huo Yuhao’s description, it seemed like the two evil soul masters were killed even before they managed to unleash their

full strength.

Huo Yuhao’s Spirit Eyes are very mysterious. No wonder Elder Song is so in awe of him. No wonder he’s a leading ﬁgure of the new generation! No wonder teacher mentioned that the Academy would have a pillar once Yuhao grows up. The Academy’s reputation as the top academy on the continent is destined to continue on!

“Yuhao.” Yan Shaozhe suddenly turned serious and looked at Huo Yuhao.

“Yes? Dean Yan.” Huo Yuhao didn’t understand why Yan Shaozhe had suddenly become so serious.

Yan Shaozhe said, “After this operation ends, don’t go out so often anymore. Remain in the Tang Sect or on Sea God’s Island to cultivate. It’s best if you wait until your cultivation reaches that of a Titled Douluo before you leave again.”

Huo Yuhao didn’t expect Yan Shaozhe to say this. He revealed a bitter smile on his face. The Tang Sect already had a Teacher Xuan who wouldn’t let him leave the sect. Now there was Dean Yan as well.

Elder Song nodded in agreement and said, “Shaozhe is right. After we return this time, I’ll talk to Elder Xuan. Don’t leave Shrek City so easily in the future.”

“Elder Song, Dean Yan, why is that?” Xiao Xiao asked, puzzled.

Yan Shaozhe smiled and answered, “The Academy can’t afford to lose him. Yuhao is too important to the Academy’s future. Even though soul tools have become the trend of late, individual abilities are still of critical importance at the highest level. In the future, the Academy will need someone who is very strong. Yuhao is shaping up to be this person. He was like teacher back then. He’s even surpassed him. We can’t let him take any risks.”

Elder Song nodded. She completely agreed with Yan Shaozhe’s point of view.

Huo Yuhao laughed bitterly and said, “Titled Douluo… that’ll take some time. But…”

“There are no buts,” Elder Song said. “No matter what happens, nothing is more important than your successful development. Whatever you want to achieve outside, the Academy can help you. However, you must remain within Shrek City. Bei Bei, you are responsible for watching him after we return. If he sneaks off, I’ll question you.”

“Yes!” Bei Bei revealed a smile on his face. He secretly thought to himself. It seems like I don’t have to worry about little junior’s safety for some time now...

Huo Yuhao coughed and said, “Elder Song, Dean Yan, we should interrogate Nangong Wan ﬁrst. Let’s see if we can ﬁnd out where Teacher Xiao Ya is.”

Elder Song nodded and said, “I’m afraid it’ll be difﬁcult. Evil soul masters are very twisted. They aren’t afraid of dying. Furthermore, we can’t force them to say anything. What ideas do you have?”

Huo Yuhao said, “I can use my spiritual power to interfere with his thoughts and question him from there on, forcing him to tell the truth. However, my spiritual power must be far beyond his before I can do that, and he’s a Titled Douluo. Even if his soul power is sealed, his spiritual power is still very strong. I’m afraid it’ll be difﬁcult.”

Yan Shaozhe’s eyes shone with a cold light. “That’s simple. I’ll just make him sufﬁciently weak. A person’s mind is greatly connected to his body. When someone is weakened beyond a certain degree, his mind will also become weak and vulnerable. You can exploit that opportunity to question him.”

Huo Yuhao nodded and said, “If that’s the case, I’ll give it a go.”

“Everyone else can go back and rest. Shaozhe, Yuhao, follow me.” Elder Song grabbed Nangong Wan with one hand and walked toward a room where no one was staying.

Bei Bei said, “Elder Song, let me tag along.” He was really anxious about Tang Ya’s whereabouts.

Elder Song nodded and said, “Alright, you can come along.”

The four of them led Nangong Wan into the room. Elder Song passed Nangong Wan over to Yan Shaozhe and said, “Shaozhe, you can take over.”

Yan Shaozhe nodded and said, “Let me take a look at his condition ﬁrst, to see if he has any restrictions placed on him.”

Gentle white light shone from Yan Shaozhe’s hand. He used his palms to quickly slap Nangong Wan all over.

As he started slapping, Nangong Wan started shaking. At the beginning, the shaking was very gentle. However, as Yan Shaozhe slapped him even harder, Nangong Wan’s body started to shake more and more.

To a Titled Douluo, the power of his soul core was the core of his strength. Elder Song was using her soul power to seal Nangong Wan’s soul core such that it spun at a slower speed. From there, it would be unable to provide him enough soul power.

Yan Shaozhe only checked for ﬁfteen minutes before he stopped. He nodded at Elder Song and said, “It should be ﬁne. Even the Holy Ghost Church will ﬁnd it difﬁcult to put any restrictions on him, given his cultivation!”

Elder Song nodded and said, “Let’s start then. What do you plan to do?”

Yan Shaozhe’s eyes ﬂashed coldly, “I’ll cripple his soul core ﬁrst and allow his soul power to dissipate. In that way, he won’t harm anyone anymore. Furthermore, without his soul power to support him, his body will become very weak, even with his great spiritual power.”

Elder Song nodded and said, “Alright, we’ll do that then. You can do it, I’ll protect you. Yuhao, be prepared. After we cripple his soul power, we don’t know what kind of reaction we will elicit. We need to keep him from descending into hysteria.”

“Yes.” Huo Yuhao walked to one side and sat cross-legged on a chair. He temporarily took a rest to restore his energy.

Yan Shaozhe stood in front of the bed that they had laid Nangong Wan out on. His hands formed a ring in front of his body. Gentle white soul power surged out, and gradually turned dim gold. The soul power undulations he released also started to dance like ﬂames. The soul power slowly formed a

whirlpool drifting above Nangong Wan.

It wasn’t easy trying to cripple a Titled Douluo’s soul core. It was like what had happened when Huo Yuhao performed histest. A huge explosion could occur if one’s soul core was affected. If the soul core of a Titled Douluo exploded, it could potentially be very dangerous.

If a Titled Douluo died, like the Masquerade Douluo had, things would still be ﬁne. That was because the soul core of a dead Titled Douluo would shrink and slowly vanish as he gradually lost his life energy. Even if an explosion occurred, it would happen in another dimension. It wouldn’t affect this world.

However, crippling a soul master’s soul core before he was dead was much more troublesome. A soul master’s soul core depended on the soul master’s life energy. To cripple his soul core, the soul power in his soul core had to be guided out, and

the soul core had to be destroyed just as it was at its weakest point.

The white ﬂames that revolved above Nangong Wan spun even faster. A white whirlpool subtly appeared in front of Yan Shaozhe’s belly, where his soul core was located.

Yan Shaozhe was a Transcendent Douluo. As Elder Mu’s inheriting disciple and the dean of Shrek Academy’s Martial Soul Department, he was very strong. His Radiant Phoenix was a top-ranked martial soul, and he was a Transcendent Douluo. All these years, his soul power had been slowly improving.

He was now a Rank 96 Titled Douluo. Compared to Elder Song, he was only inferior by one rank. Although the difference in this one rank was very great, Yan Shaozhe might not be much weaker than Elder Song if he fought her with his full strength, considering that his martial soul was much stronger.

Right now, the aura of his soul core was released. Huo Yuhao, who was resting, could feel something. He didn’t need to open his eyes, and only silently sensed the soul power undulations from Yan Shaozhe’s body. He was secretly impressed.

Yan Shaozhe’s soul power was circulating in a whirlpool state around his soul core. However, the circulation of his soul power was much slower than Huo Yuhao’s, because his soul power was completely ﬂuid!

If Huo Yuhao’s soul core was like a tornado in the sky, then Yan Shaozhe’s soul core was like a huge whirlpool that could devour everything in the ocean. The soul power that it contained was much greater.

A Titled Douluo is indeed a Titled Douluo! As Huo Yuhao secretly looked on in awe, he was also reﬂecting on himself. As his abilities increased, his self-conﬁdence also grew. He was even conﬁdent of ﬁghting some Titled Douluo. However, the aura that Yan Shaozhe exuded right now made him fully aware of how inferior he was.

Wasn’t that the case? Although he appeared to have controlled the ﬁght earlier, that was because Elder Song was around! If not for her, he would have died against an evil Titled Douluo, even if it was just a duel. If those two evil Titled Douluo had unleashed their full strength right from the start, he wouldn’t have been able to take advantage of them or even handle a ﬁght at that tier.

Elder Song and Dean Yan were both right. He had to get stronger. After he returned this time, he had to work harder on

his cultivation as he learned about soul tools from Teacher Xuan. At the very least, he had to fully absorb the Manifold Mysterious Ice Essence in his body ﬁrst.

As Huo Yuhao was thinking about all that, Yan Shaozhe began.

The white whirlpool above Nangong Wan slowly descended. The sharp part of it landed directly on Nangong Wan’s dantian.

When it touched Nangong Wan’s body, Nangong Wan shuddered and regained consciousness.

When he saw the ﬂames on his body as he awoke, he was astonished. He clearly felt that his soul power was quickly seeping out through his dantian. It slowly dissipated, and as it dissipated, it entered another dimension.

They, they’re trying to cripple my soul power...

Nangong Wan was horriﬁed as he said, “No, no… you can’t do this!”

“You’ve harmed so many people,” Yan Shaozhe said coldly, “we are only carrying out justice. We are already being very merciful by not killing you. It’s a good thing to get rid of your abilities as an evil soul master.”

“No, no, I beg you! Leave me some soul power! I’ll let you do whatever you want.” To a Titled Douluo, the dissipation of his soul power was too terrifying. He was too used to having great strength. The moment he lost it all would be a worse torment than death itself.

Yan Shaozhe was moved and asked, “Oh? You’ll let me do whatever I want?”

Nangong Wan couldn’t move, and could only speak, “Yes, yes. I’ll do anything you want. If you need me to, I can become an undercover agent in the Holy Ghost Church. You can put restrictions on my body. As long as you let me keep my soul power, I’m willing to do anything.”

Elder Song furrowed her brow and looked at Yan Shaozhe. On the other side, Huo Yuhao had also slowly opened his eyes. They didn’t expect Nangong Wan to be so spineless.

“Alright, let me ask you a few questions ﬁrst.” Yan Shaozhe said. However, the whirlpool was still sucking away his soul power.

Nangong Wan answered in pain, “Can you stop sucking away my soul power ﬁrst?”

Yan Shaozhe snorted coldly and said, “As long as a Titled Douluo’s soul core isn’t destroyed, isn’t it easy to restore his soul power? We can leave it like this. It’ll keep you awake, too. Let me ask you now. Answer me as quickly as possible. If you hesitate, I’ll destroy your soul core. You only have one chance. Don’t test my determination.”

“Alright. Ask me then.” Nangong Wan knew that he was doomed. In front of a Transcendent Douluo, there was no way he could take chances.

“Where’s the Holy Ghost Church’s headquarters?” Yan Shaozhe asked.

After hearing his question, Nangong Wan was stunned, then laughed bitterly. “I can’t tell you. Before I entered the church, all those who are able to enter the headquarters had restrictions placed on them. Once we reveal anything, the restriction will be triggered. Surely you don’t want me to blow apart, right?”

Yan Shaozhe was afraid in his heart. If not for Huo Yuhao’s previous experience, he would have had his doubts. However, he was convinced this time. In spite of this, he remained very stern. “You’re a Titled Douluo. Who can place those restrictions on you?” As he spoke, he immediately strengthened the draw on Nangong Wan’s soul power.

Nangong Wan hurriedly said, “I really can’t say anything. Our Supreme Leader was the one who personally placed the restrictions on us. Apart from her, the sect leader, the vice-sect leader, and the Chief of the Worship Hall, everyone else in the sect has had restrictions placed on them. Once we mention where our headquarters is, we’ll immediately blow up and die.”

Yan Shaozhe furrowed his brow. “Does this mean that the Holy Ghost Church can take your life at any time if you betray them?”

Nangong Wan said, “That won’t happen. It’s not easy placing restrictions on someone to control them. The Supreme Leader’s curse can only be triggered in a very speciﬁc way. It’s only when I entertain the thought of revealing that speciﬁc place in my head. Apart from that, there won’t be any other

effect.”

“So this curse can’t be removed?” Yan Shaozhe asked.

Nangong Wan laughed bitterly. “It’s not impossible. If someone’s spiritual power is greater than the Supreme Leader’s, this curse can still be removed. However, it’s too difﬁcult. The Supreme Leader is an Ultimate Douluo. She’s too strong.”

Yan Shaozhe nodded and asked, “Alright, let me ask you then. How many people are there in the Holy Ghost Church? How are they divided?”

This time, Nangong Wan didn’t hesitate, and immediately said, “The most powerful ﬁgure in the Holy Ghost Church is our Supreme Leader, who is also the Sun Moon Empire’s Death God Douluo. Apart from her, we also have our sect leader and vice-sect leader. They are married. Our sect leader is called

Zhongli Wu, while our vice-sect leader is called Feng Ling. We have eight honorary elders below them, who are all Titled Douluo. There are evil soul masters of different tiers underneath these eight elders. Apart from all of us, there are also special people in our church, including the two Holy Ladies. Great hope has been placed on them, they are very talented, and they hold important positions in the church. They’re even more important than the eight honorary elders.

“The evil soul masters in the Holy Ghost Church Worship Hall are the strongest. The Hallmaster of the Worship Hall, who is also the Chief of the Worship Hall, is the Darkness Holy Dragon and Dragon Emperor Douluo, Long Xiaoyao. He has eleven others in the Worship Hall under him. They are all Titled Douluo, and ﬁve of them are even Transcendent Douluo. Including the Chief, there are twelve of them. Their statuses are very high in the church. Only the Supreme Leader can command them. Even the sect leader can’t do so.”

Yan Shaozhe and Elder Song looked at each other. They had really beneﬁted greatly from catching Nangong Wan this time. Such information was too valuable to Shrek Academy and the three empires of the original Douluo Continent. Finally, they had some knowledge of the Holy Ghost Church’s internal structure.

According to Nangong Wan, the Holy Ghost Church had more than twenty Titled Douluo, including two Ultimate Douluo. They were indeed very strong!

Bei Bei continued asking from one side, “Why aren’t the eight honorary elders in the Worship Hall if they are Titled Douluo too?”

Nangong Wan replied, “The Worshipped are hired by the church. They aren’t all evil soul masters. The eight elders have lineages related to the church. That’s why they’re different. Furthermore, those that are evil soul masters in the Worship Hall are all very talented. Their martial souls are very strong. For example, the Scorpion Tiger Douluo Zhang Peng is one of them.”

Bei Bei asked again, “Apart from you and the Masquerade Douluo, who else from the Holy Ghost Church is at the front line? Is the Masquerade Douluo one of the eight honorary elders?”

Nangong Wan answered, “Masquerade is ranked seventh among the elders. Apart from the two of us, the sect leader is also at the front line. There’s the sect leader, a Holy Lady, and

six members from the Worship Hall. Excluding me and Masquerade, there are two other honorary elders here. I’m ranked second among the elders. Out of the other two elders, one is the Third Elder, the Dark Lightning Douluo. Although his soul power is only at Rank 92, he’s also a Class 9 soul engineer. His abilities aren’t beneath mine. The other one is the Fourth Elder, the Netherworld Douluo. His martial soul is a Netherworld Sword, and he’s at Rank 93.”

After hearing the words ‘Third Elder’ and ‘Fourth Elder’, Huo Yuhao suddenly jumped off his seat. A hateful look came over his face.

If not for their ambush back then, Wang Qiu’er wouldn’t have needed to sacriﬁce herself. Huo Yuhao deeply hated the both of them!

Yan Shaozhe squinted and muttered to himself, “The Holy Ghost Church is really relentless! They actually have eleven evil Titled Douluo. This time, we killed one of them and captured another one, but there are still nine left. These evil soul masters are deﬁnitely more terrifying than Class 9 stationary soul cannons if they join the war. I remember news from the Heavenly Soul Empire that purported that the borders of the empire were only breached because of the evil

soul masters, and the great casualties they caused. The same happened when Heaven Dou City was attacked.”

Huo Yuhao came to the bedside at this moment, suppressing his hatred and asked, “What are your Holy Ladies called? And where are they?”

Nangong Wan said, “They have no name. We call them ‘Holy Lady’ directly. The one at the frontline right now is the Bluesilver Holy Lady. The other one, known as the Phoenix Holy Lady, is with the vice-sect leader. The Bluesilver Holy Lady follows the sect leader, as he holds an important position. He stays in the tent next to the central tent in the Imperial Dragon Soul Engineer Legion’s area. It’s easy to identify, as it’s golden. The Bluesilver Holy Lady stays in a tent beside his.”

Chapter 495: Sneaking In

Teacher Xiao Ya is indeed in the base. Huo Yuhao’s eyes brightened, and he turned to Bei Bei. Bei Bei already looked pretty agitated right now. He ﬁnally knew where she was, and had an opportunity to save her. Bei Bei was overwhelmed with emotion, and subconsciously clenched his ﬁsts.

Yan Shaozhe nodded and said, “I’ll let you retain your soul power, seeing that you are so cooperative.” As he spoke, he retracted the whirlpool above Nangong Wan and slapped his forehead with his right hand, knocking Nangong Wan unconscious once again.

The entire room descended into momentary silence. They had obtained valuable information after capturing Nangong Wan. Not only did they ﬁnd out where Tang Ya and Ma Xiaotao were, they also understood more about the internal structure of the Holy Ghost Church. This was very helpful to Shrek Academy for dealing with the Holy Ghost Church in the future.

Huo Yuhao looked at Yan Shaozhe and asked, “Dean Yan, since we have accurate information, can we plan how we’re going to carry out our operation?”

Yan Shaozhe was amused as he looked at him and said, “Didn’t we agree that you’d command the operation? Of course you’ll come up with the plan. What ideas do you have?”

Huo Yuhao couldn’t be bothered with being modest right now and immediately replied, “If we want to save Teacher Xiao Ya, we can only bait her out. The Sun Moon Empire’s set-up is too strong. Five soul formations are enough to kill any expert. We need to draw Teacher Xiao Ya out, no other way.”

Yan Shaozhe squinted and asked, “How do we do that then? Unless it’s a full-scale battle, the Holy Ghost Church’s sect leader might not appear. Tang Ya will naturally not appear then.”

Huo Yuhao furrowed his brow and said, “Yes, that’s why it’s difﬁcult. If we ﬁght all-out, the Heavenly Soul Empire will suffer heavy losses. Even if the Sun Moon Empire wouldn’t have sufﬁcient resources to last the entire ﬁght, they’ll still be very strong once they attack. They still have a lot of evil soul masters helping them. That’s why I believe that the Heavenly Soul Empire won’t be willing to cooperate with us if that were the plan. If that’s the case, we only have one other solution.”

“Oh?” Elder Song, Yan Shaozhe and Bei Bei focused their attention on Huo Yuhao.

Huo Yuhao’s eyes ﬂashed with a cold light and he turned to Nangong Wan before saying, “Nothing ventured, nothing gained!”

“No!” Bei Bei shouted without any hesitation. His eyes were ﬁlled with horror.

Although Huo Yuhao only said a few words, Bei Bei knew exactly what he wanted to do.

“You can’t do it. It’s too dangerous.” Elder Song commented. “You want to use him to enter the base? Have you even thought of what would happen if you were recognized? There are many powerful individuals in the Sun Moon Empire’s base. The Holy Ghost Church’s sect leader is even holding down the fort. How can you sneak in so easily?”

Huo Yuhao smiled and replied, “Elder Song, Dean Yan, eldest senior, don’t worry. Since I came up with his idea, I’m

naturally conﬁdent that it’ll work. Although there’s some risk, it’s not as bad as all of you think. Elder Song, take a look.”

As he spoke, Huo Yuhao spun once. Suddenly, his aura changed greatly, and his body rapidly transformed. After he completed his turn, his look had completely changed. Didn’t he look just like the Masquerade Douluo? Even his aura was identical, sinister and cold. There were no discrepancies at all.

“This…” Earlier, Elder Song and Huo Yuhao had faced the two evil Titled Douluo together. Right now, she was astonished when she saw the changes to Huo Yuhao.

Elder Song was a Rank 97 Titled Douluo. However, she couldn’t tell that there was anything wrong with Huo Yuhao just by using her normal senses.

Elder Song increased her spiritual power and swept it across Huo Yuhao. He shuddered slightly, but a wave of spiritual power was suddenly deﬂected back. It even carried a sinister aura. Just like before, there wasn’t any difference from the Masquerade Douluo.

Huo Yuhao lifted his hands, and pitch-black maggots started to surface in mid-air. Every maggot carried strong spiritual undulations. They reached toward Elder Song like a huge web.

However, Elder Song felt something wrong when she came into contact with this huge web. Earlier, the soul skill that the Masquerade Douluo had unleashed caused her entire person, including her spirit, to slow slightly. However, Huo Yuhao’s soul skill only left her slightly weaker. There was a difference when it came to strength, but the sinister aura remained.

Elder Song said, “Your soul skill seems to be off, but it appears very similar on the surface.”

Huo Yuhao smiled and said, “It deﬁnitely won’t be the same. However, with my Imitation and Nangong Wan’s help, there shouldn’t be too many problems. Nangong Wan holds an even higher position than the Masquerade Douluo. I’ll ask him about some of the Masquerade Douluo’s habits later. After we return, I won’t be easy to recognize with Nangong Wan leading the way. Even the sect leader can’t tell who I am without laying his hands on me.”

Bei Bei shook his head and said, “No, it’s too dangerous. I can’t implicate you to save Xiao Ya. Little junior, I know that you want to save her, too. If not for the fact that I’m helpless, I would have volunteered to sneak in instead. However, you’re different. You’re the future hope of the Tang Sect and Shrek Academy. I can’t have you take this risk. If something happens to you, how could I account to the Academy and the rest of our

teammates?”

Huo Yuhao said, “Eldest senior, we have no other way right now. We can only do this so that we can achieve our aim in the shortest time possible. Furthermore, who says that I’m going alone? All of you will follow me. I can’t ﬁght by myself.”

“What?” Bei Bei, Elder Song and Yan Shaozhe were stunned as they looked at Huo Yuhao. Is he not going alone? However, there were so many of them, and none of them had Imitation like Huo Yuhao. How could they sneak in too?

Huo Yuhao smiled mysteriously and said, “Let’s make a simple plan and take advantage of the time that we have to sneak into the Sun Moon Empire’s base ﬁrst. After that, we can discuss our detailed plan. We…”

He lowered his voice and explained the plan once. After hearing his plan, Bei Bei looked enlightened, while Elder Song and Yan Shaozhe were increasingly shocked.

--------

One hour later...

The night sky was still dark, but the Sun Moon Empire’s base wasn’t peaceful.

The sect leader of the Holy Ghost Church was standing in the center of the commander’s tent of the Sun Moon Empire’s Crusading Army. The marshal of this army was a very notable general in the Sun Moon Empire.

Ju Zi had returned to the empire, and had other plans. The army was now commanded by this marshal. Although he was already more than seventy years old, he was still a Soul Douluo, called Lin Hai. Although his cultivation wasn’t superb, his inﬂuence in the Sun Moon Empire was still great, as he hailed from a family of military men, and he was also a Duke.

Initially, when Ju Zi had entered the army, he had helped her a lot. He was also of the same lineage as Xu Tianran. Otherwise, Xu Tianran wouldn’t have passed him the reins of the three armies.

Lin Hai had another advantage that enabled him to become marshal of the three armies. It was his abilities. Weak abilities weren’t always necessarily a bad thing. Because he wasn’t a Titled Douluo, he couldn’t command the stronger Class 9 soul engineer legion, even though his inﬂuence in the army was very high. Thus he could only command the ordinary soldiers. While the legion commanders of the soul engineer legions had to listen to his instructions, they still acted with great autonomy.

Ju Zi could truly ensure strict obedience to her instructions and command the entire army. It wasn’t because of her soulmaster abilities, but her mysterious and unpredictable strategies that left the three armies shocked. Right now, Ju Zi was being called the ‘Female God of War’ in the Sun Moon Empire.

Lin Hai didn’t possess the same unpredictability as Ju Zi, but he was more sturdy as a person. What was needed now was

balance. He was naturally the most suitable person to command the three armies.

However, Lin Hai wasn’t in a good mood. Yesterday, their ground-based surveillance soul tools had discovered enemies sneaking about in the sky. They ﬁred a linked attack, but couldn’t lock onto the foe because they were too far away. He didn’t know what had happened. However, he gave the order to increase their surveillance of the sky after that incident.

Indeed, the enemies appeared again today. Just as Lin Hai was about to attack the sky with even greater intensity, the sect leader of the Holy Ghost Church wanted people to capture their enemies alive. After all, enemies that could conceal themselves were very difﬁcult to take precautions against. It was better to capture them and ﬁnd out where their abilities came from.

The sect leader of the Holy Ghost Church was also the Imperial Tutor. At the same time, he had the authority to supervise Lin Hai. Lin Hai naturally couldn’t stop him, given that he had made such a proposition. As a result, the Heavenly Centipede Douluo and Masquerade Douluo were deployed. To Zhongli Wu, two evil Titled Douluo were enough to capture their enemies.

However, who could guess that Nangong Wan and the Masquerade Douluo would disappear? Even the ground-based surveillance soul tools only discovered strong soul power undulations before the two of them vanished.

They were two evil Titled Douluo. The Holy Ghost Church had been around for many years, but there weren’t many evil Titled Douluo. Zhongli Wu held Nangong Wan in high regard. Although he wasn’t young anymore, his Heavenly Centipede could still improve. If he was lucky enough, he might still become a Transcendent Douluo. Now that both of them were missing, how could Zhongli Wu not be furious?

“Still no news? Are your people dumb?” Zhongli Wu said coldly to Lin Hai.

Although Zhongli Wu wouldn’t admit it, he still admired Ju Zi a lot. When the Star Luo Empire snatched the Ming Dou Mountain Range back, Zhongli Wu felt it was unbelievable. His own mother couldn’t stop the Star Luo Empire. He was still in disbelief. After that, Ye Xishui mentioned that someone had used Di Tian’s strength to keep her at bay. It was then Zhongli Wu ﬁnally understood.

Although the Star Luo Empire had regained control of the Ming Dou Mountain Range and was causing trouble at the Sun Moon Empire’s borders, the Heavenly Soul Empire had already lost two-thirds of their land. Even their capital had been taken. All these were the merits of Ju Zi. Thus Zhongli Wu would have been much more polite if Ju Zi were here. However, he believed that Lin Hai was only a puppet.

“All the surveillance soul tools are operating at their highest efﬁciency. Also, we’ve sent out more than ten soul engineer teams to search the sky. Indeed, we haven’t found anything.”

Lin Hai also knew that he couldn’t afford to offend Zhongli Wu. He could only explain the situation once again.

Zhongli Wu’s eyes ﬂashed with a cold light. Don’t tell me they have many skilled individuals hiding in the sky? Impossible, the surveillance soul tools here have been in use all this while. They are even monitoring the sky using ground-based telescopes. Unless they can all conceal themselves, how could they disappear in the sky?

As it’s night time, the ground-based telescopes are much less effective. However, even so, any major movements would still be discovered. Furthermore, Nangong Wan and Masquerade are both Titled Douluo. Even if the enemies are strong, they should be able to handle them for some time. At least they should be able to send distress signals. I don’t understand how they could go missing.

Just as Zhongli Wu was puzzled, frantic footstep noises were heard. “Reporting!”

Lin Hai straightened his face. “Tell me, what have you found?”

“Yes, Marshal. The Heavenly Centipede Douluo and Masquerade Douluo are back.”

After hearing his words, Lin Hai heaved a sigh of relief. The two of them are ﬁnally back. Now, I wonder how this guy will continue to put me in a spot.

Zhongli Wu also appeared much more composed, and said, “Tell them that I’m here. Ask them to come see me.”

“Noted.” The soldier relaying the message acknowledged his order and quickly rushed off.

Not long afterward, the curtains to the commander’s tent opened, and two people walked in.

Nangong Wan was walking slightly in front. He quickly arrived in front of Zhongli Wu and bowed before saying, “Sect leader.”

The Masquerade Douluo followed closely behind him and did the same.

Zhongli Wu asked, “Why have both of you disappeared for so long? What happened?”

Nangong Wan looked very grim. “That fellow was very cunning. After we discovered him, we hid in the clouds and got closer to him. However, he discovered us before we got close to him. He’s a spiritual-type Titled Douluo, but his abilities are extraordinary. He was very quick, and his senses were also very acute. After discovering us, he immediately turned around and ﬂed. He had someone to help him. When we chased him to the Heavenly Soul Empire’s base, we were afraid of falling into their trap, so we stopped and turned back.”

Zhongli Wu didn’t suspect Nangong Wan. It was a normal situation. How easy was it to harm two Titled Douluo?

Zhongli Wu nodded and asked, “What other discoveries have you made?”

Nangong Wan replied, “Yes, sect leader. We seemed to have seen some people from Shrek Academy. Whoever helped that Titled Douluo seemed to have come from Shrek Academy. We

saw one of their signals. Because of that, we didn’t venture further, as we were afraid of falling into their trap.”

“Shrek Academy?” Zhongli Wu was slightly moved when he heard these words. All this while, the Holy Ghost Church had felt that their greatest enemy wasn’t the Body Sect, but Shrek Academy.

Shrek Academy had been around for thousands of years. Furthermore, they had students from all around the world. Many military ﬁgures in the three empires of the original Douluo Continent hailed from Shrek Academy. When Shrek Academy announced their desire to accept students, the response would be overwhelming. It was why the Sun Moon Empire had failed when they started the ﬁrst war. Shrek Academy’s intervention had rendered everything futile.

It had been some time since this war had started. Although Shrek Academy hadn’t openly joined in the war, the Death God Douluo claimed that someone from Shrek Academy had intervened during the Ming Dou Mountain Range incident. Now there were people from Shrek Academy here, too?

Nangong Wan and the Masquerade Douluo stood at one side and silently waited as Zhongli Wu pondered.

“Did you clearly see what martial souls those from Shrek Academy possessed?” Zhongli Wu asked.

Nangong Wan replied, “I only saw one. It was from a Transcendent Douluo. His martial soul was a golden phoenix. His abilities were very great. Even if I challenged him to a duel, I wouldn’t be conﬁdent of beating him.”

“Golden phoenix? Transcendent Douluo? Yan Shaozhe?” A cold look surfaced on Zhongli Wu’s face. Yan Shaozhe, the Radiant Phoenix Douluo. He’s actually personally here. It seems like Shrek Academy is about to intervene.

As he ﬁnished speaking, Zhongli Wu’s expression turned grimmer and grimmer. Although Shrek Academy no longer had an Ultimate Douluo, the Holy Ghost Church had never once let down their guard against them. Even though the Holy Ghost Church was at its peak now, and even had two Ultimate Douluo, they didn’t have any plan of directly attacking Shrek Academy.

This was especially true since Shrek Academy had forced the Great Star Dou Forest to retreat not long ago, further enhancing the Academy’s reputation as the top academy on the continent. Although the Holy Ghost Church wasn’t aware of what had truly happened, the Great Star Dou Forest was still the number one soul beast forest in the world. Of the Ten Great Savage Beasts, ﬁve were in the Great Star Dou Forest. This even included Di Tian! Even so, none of them could take down Shrek City. It showed how strong Shrek City was.

The Holy Ghost Church was going to deal with Shrek Academy sooner or later. However, they had no intention of using their abilities to deal with them directly. They wanted to borrow the Sun Moon Empire’s strength. No matter how strong Shrek Academy was, it was still a soul master academy. Their values would be deeply rooted. Although the Academy had been investing greatly in soul tools in recent years, Zhongli Wu still felt that it was insufﬁcient. Could they possibly catch up so quickly?

No matter how impenetrable Shrek City was, they wouldn’t be able to survive if Zhongli Wu led some soul engineer legions to attack them, and ﬁred Class 9 stationary soul cannons at them.

However, Zhongli Wu was a little depressed that Ye Xishui and Long Xiaoyao had said that they couldn’t attack Shrek Academy directly no matter what. Without the support of the two of them, Zhongli Wu didn’t dare to make any plans to attack Shrek Academy.

“Since they’re here, we’ll let them come at us. Marshal Lin Hai.” Zhongli Wu turned to Lin Hai.

Lin Hai immediately stood up, and respectfully said, “Imperial Tutor, please give me your orders.”

Zhongli Wu said, “Get your men to be more cautious and step up surveillance. Once you discover something, inform me quickly. I want to see what Yan Shaozhe is up to.”

“Yes!” Lin Hai respectfully acknowledged his words.

Zhongli Wu turned to Nangong Wan and said, “Nangong, Masquerade, go and rest. Both of you have done well this time by bringing back important news. However, don’t chase our enemies recklessly in the future. Shrek Academy is very sly. Once you fall into their trap, you’ll be in big trouble. Both of

you are important to the church. I hope nothing happens to you.”

“Thank you for your concern.” Nangong Wan and the Masquerade Douluo bowed at the same time.

Zhongli Wu waved them off and said, “Alright, both of you are dismissed.”

“Yes.” Nangong Wan and the Masquerade Douluo turned around and left.

Just as they reached the opening of the tent, Zhongli Wu suddenly called, “Wait a minute.”

Nangong Wan and the Masquerade Douluo both stopped. The Masquerade Douluo stiffened up, but it was only slightly. It wasn’t obvious.

Zhongli Wu said, “Masquerade, you’ve already stagnated for some time. Stop thinking about playing with women. Work harder. Although your martial soul isn’t very strong, it’s very

special. If you can become a Transcendent Douluo in the future, it’ll be very helpful to the church.”

“Sect leader, you also know that it’s difﬁcult to cultivate my Demonic Maggot. It’s not that I’m not working hard. It’s just that my Demonic Maggot hasn’t been able to gain anything from devouring the spirits of ordinary humans after I became a Titled Douluo. I can only achieve something if I devour the spirit of a Titled Douluo. Why don’t you give me some resources when the war continues?” the Masquerade Douluo laughed.

Zhongli Wu furrowed his brow and said, “Enough with that. The church still has uses for the spirits of Titled Douluo. Even if your Demonic Maggot devours their spirits, it will take more then just one or two to help you improve. It’s such a waste. Although we are evil soul masters, stop trying to use shortcuts to achieve your goal. Work hard on your cultivation, you can improve in that way too. Look at Nangong. He’s already Rank

93 now. When he reaches Rank 94, the church will turn

resources toward him and quickly help him become a Transcendent Douluo. If you stay in your current state, you can only remain as one of the lousier elders we have.”

“Yes, I’ll work harder,” the Masquerade Douluo said a little awkwardly.

“You can go.” Zhongli Wu gestured again. The Masquerade Douluo felt as if he had been given a big let off, and walked out with Nangong Wan.

---

After exiting the commander’s tent, Nangong Wan and the Masquerade Douluo looked at each other. The originally sinister look in the Masquerade Douluo’s eyes became clearer, and he nodded gently.

Nangong Wan led him toward the left. Their tents were not far away.

The real Masquerade Douluo had died at Elder Song’s hands. Without a doubt, the Masquerade Douluo now was an imitation. Huo Yuhao was imitating him.

When Zhongli Wu had called out to him earlier, Huo Yuhao had tensed up. He clearly knew that if he was exposed in such a core area of the base, he would ﬁnd it extremely difﬁcult to

escape from the sect leader of the Holy Ghost Church, even if he had the protection of Di Tian’s reverse scale.

Fortunately, he had found out some details on the Masquerade Douluo from Nangong Wan before he came her, and had managed to bluff his way through.

Nangong Wan sent the Masquerade Douluo to his tent before speaking through his soul power, “When are you going to remove my restrictions?”

Huo Yuhao said, “When we ﬁnish this mission, we’ll remove the restrictions. Shrek Academy isn’t the Holy Ghost Church. We’ll keep our promises. As long as you cooperate with us, we won’t hurt you. We’ll even help you keep up the pretense. When you ﬁnish this mission, you’ll be free to continue being an elder of the Holy Ghost Church. Of course, whatever you want to do in the future, it’ll be your business. However, if you continue to harm others, you’ll land in our hands again.”

Nangong Wan laughed bitterly as he nodded. He pointed to Huo Yuhao’s tent before turning and leaving. He didn’t fully trust Huo Yuhao. However, not believing Huo Yuhao didn’t mean that he didn’t believe Shrek Academy. Shrek Academy’s

reputation on the continent was very notable. Earlier, Yan Shaozhe and Elder Song had guaranteed that he would be given his freedom if he helped them complete this mission. Right now, the restrictions in Nangong Wan’s body were placed by Huo Yuhao using necromancy after Yan Shaozhe sucked away his soul power. In fact, the restrictions weren’t lethal, but they would be very painful if they were triggered.

After all, Huo Yuhao’s cultivation wasn’t too far off from his. These restrictions would only last for three days, too. Of course, Nangong Wan didn’t know all this. He only knew that his spiritual sea was in excruciating pain when he tested the restrictions.

Huo Yuhao bent over and entered his tent.

The evil soul masters were treated very well in this camp, and the tent was very large. However, Huo Yuhao’s expression immediately changed when stepped in.

There was a strong fragrance in the Masquerade Douluo’s tent. This fragrance carried the smell of aphrodisiac. Not only that, but there was also a sinister aura that accompanied it.

“Sir, you’re back,” a soft-spoken voice was heard. Two simply-dressed young girls received him immediately. Their faces were slightly red, and their breathing carried the aura of aphrodisiacs. Evidently, they were being inﬂuenced by those drugs.

These two young girls were very pretty, but the look in their eyes was hollow. It was like they had lost their souls.

Huo Yuhao said, “Stay away from me. Put your clothes on. I don’t need your services today.”

“What?” The two girls were stunned, but they didn’t dare to say anything, and immediately dressed up before leaving when they felt the killing intent coming from Huo Yuhao.

After they left, the tent immediately smelled more refreshing.

Huo Yuhao pulled the curtains open to get rid of the smell. Although he only had a brief interaction with both girls earlier, he could still feel that the aphrodisiacs came from their bodies. This meant that their bodies had been modiﬁed. The way that

the Holy Ghost Church harmed people could really make one bristle with anger.

Huo Yuhao didn’t use his Spiritual Detection to observe his surroundings. He was in a very important area of the base. Everyone from the Holy Ghost Church stayed within this core region. Defense was undoubtedly very tight in such a region. If there was a spiritual barrier or a powerful individual around, he would immediately be detected.

This was why Huo Yuhao only looked out from his windows after pulling his curtains open and sensing his surroundings. After fresher air circulated through his tent, he immediately shut the windows.

The decorations inside this tent were quite classy. There was a huge carpet made out of animal fur laying on the ground, and a huge bed in the center of the tent. In the front, there was a table, a sofa and daily tools.

After sending the two young girls out, Huo Yuhao wasn’t afraid of the Holy Ghost Church suspecting anything. Earlier, Zhongli Wu had told him to stop being so obsessed with sex. He was only listening to orders.

After closing the curtains, the entire tent became much quieter, and it was much dimmer. There were only a few dim soul lamps still on.

Evil soul masters didn’t enjoy bright environments. Such dimness gave off a very sinister feeling.

Huo Yuhao didn’t get onto the bed. The Masquerade Douluo must have had been on it with many young girls, and it felt too dirty. He pulled out a chair and sat down on it. After that, he carefully unleashed his spiritual power.

His Spiritual Detection was limited to his tent, but every single nook and cranny was within his detection.

He wanted to make sure that this place was ﬁne before he proceeded with the next step of his operation.

A few minutes later, he opened his eyes once again and nodded. This is more like where an evil Titled Douluo should stay. There aren’t any surveillance precautions taken in this tent, and there are also no surveillance soul tools covering it.

This was great news. Huo Yuhao unleashed his soul power once again. This time, he formed a spiritual barrier and isolated the inside of the tent from the rest of the outside world. He would immediately discover if someone tried to use their spiritual power in this tent. It was just like when he was discovered by a barrier before.

After completing this set-up, Huo Yuhao started to mutter incantations. His voice was very soft. Unless one were in the same room, it would be impossible to hear him.

The Masquerade Douluo was also partially adept at spiritual power, so it was easier for Huo Yuhao to keep up his false appearance if he imitated him. The evil soul master aura of the Masquerade Douluo could be imitated, while his spiritual power wasn’t any weaker than the Masquerade Douluo’s was.

As he started chanting, the space in front of him started to distort. Halos ﬂashed, and a pitch-black door slowly opened in front of him.

Huo Yuhao veriﬁed that no one had breached his spiritual barrier before he took a step into that door.

----------------

He came out into another dimension, his spectral demiplane.

On a bare mountain, Elder Song, Yan Shaozhe and everyone from the Tang Sect was waiting for him. In addition to them, there was also the Ice Bear King.

Everyone from the Tang Sect had entered Huo Yuhao’s spectral demiplane. They didn’t have too much of a reaction when they ﬁrst entered, but Yan Shaozhe and Elder Song were both astonished.

They hadn’t expected Huo Yuhao to be capable of this. Because they were very well-informed, they understood what a demiplane meant.

Elder Song and Yan Shaozhe immediately realized where the spectral army came from when they were ﬁghting the Great Star Dou Forest, and they saw the boundless sea of spectres.

However, neither of them had asked any questions about it.

In Huo Yuhao’s plan, there was no way he could rescue Tang Ya alone.

Tang Ya’s current abilities were unknown. However, they knew she was at least an evil Soul Sage. Huo Yuhao couldn’t harm her, either. It was impossible to capture her quickly. Furthermore, any movement in this base would be immediately discovered.

Huo Yuhao had no choice but to expose his spectral demiplane to them, and let everyone rest inside it. When he entered it, it meant that everyone had assembled. Right now, the ﬁrst step of the plan had been completed.

“How is it, Yuhao?” Everyone heaved a sigh of relief when they saw Huo Yuhao.

Huo Yuhao nodded lightly and recounted everything that had happened to them.

Elder Song nodded and said, “Alright, take care then. You don’t have to worry about us. We’ll be waiting for you. When you think the time is right, we’ll begin the mission.”

“Yes.” Huo Yuhao had entered to say hi to everyone, and tell them that he had successfully snuck into the Sun Moon Empire’s base.

Yan Shaozhe furrowed his brow and said, “Yuhao, you should expedite your plan. The longer you stay there, the more you run the risk of being exposed.”

“Yes.” Huo Yuhao acknowledged once again.

Elder Song laughed, “Shaozhe, I think you’ve yet to acclimate to the environment here.”

Chapter 496: The Walking Corpse Tang Ya

Wasn’t that right? Yan Shaozhe’s martial soul was a Radiant Phoenix, and all his abilities were based on the element of light, while the demiplane was inhabited by undead creatures. Yan Shaozhe and Ye Guyi deﬁnitely felt the most uncomfortable. If Ye Guyi hadn’t already tried and realized that killing these undead creatures didn’t improve her cultivation, she would probably have charged around to slaughter some undead.

Yan Shaozhe directly admitted it, and said, “Yes! I truly don’t like the feeling of this place. Yuhao, you have to tell me how you got this demiplane when we go back. I believe not even an Ultimate Douluo can possibly possess a place like this.”

“Yes. One of my teachers left this place for me,” Huo Yuhao needed to keep this secret very strictly before, but as he became stronger, he didn’t need to be so stringent. After all, he required this ability more frequently now, just as he had told Elder Xuan without hesitation back then about how he had a Necromancer martial soul.

Huo Yuhao retreated from the black door, and began to chant, closing the spectral gate. Everything within the tent returned to normal.

Huo Yuhao’s plan wasn’t complicated. He was to go undercover in the Sun Moon Empire’s army camp, his next step being to ﬁnd some way to locate where Tang Ya was staying. Then, he would attempt to get closer to her, and ﬁgure out what was happening there. Afterwards, he would ﬁnd a suitable opportunity to make a move and rescue her.

Huo Yuhao had already planned how he was going to escape. He would have no choice but to draw upon his abilities as a necromancer when that happened. They only had a chance to escape if he could create sufﬁcient chaos.

Huo Yuhao and the others had already conveyed their plans to the Heavenly Soul Empire before they departed. The Heavenly Soul Empire would feint an attack right before Huo Yuhao and the others would make their move, but a feint attack would be all. The attack was meant to attract their enemies’ attention so that they could maneuver and complete their mission better.

The Heavenly Soul Empire was very supportive of their plan, and that was especially true after ﬁnding out that Elder Song had defeated and killed an evil Titled Douluo. Huo Yuhao had also promised that he would try his best to disrupt and destroy things within the Sun Moon Empire’s camp.

Huo Yuhao was the only successful product from the Ultimate Soldier Plan, and he was best at concealing himself, assassinations, and carrying out covert missions. Creating some trouble inside the Sun Moon Empire’s camp wouldn’t be difﬁcult at all.

He began to contemplate his plan as he sat down with his legs crossed, and he tried all he could to make sure that his plan was complete. His strength would be very inadequate if he was by himself, but he had a very good helper now.

----------

The sky was becoming brighter outside, and the break of dawn meant a new day was about to begin.

Huo Yuhao exited the tent and stared at the blue skies as he gazed far into the east, quietly absorbing the thread of purple energy that rose there.

It didn’t take long before Nangong Wan walked briskly towards him. Their eyes met for a moment, and Nangong Wan smiled as he walked over and said, “Up so early, Masquerade? Come, let’s go grab something to eat.”

Nangong Wan didn’t rest the previous night either. He was even more worried than Huo Yuhao that Yuhao’s identity would be revealed, because he would be in deep trouble if the false identity was discovered. When that happened, life and death wasn’t the problem, because he would rather die than be alive. Nangong Wan was all too aware of the Holy Ghost Church’s methods.

“Alright.” Huo Yuhao didn’t waste words.

They proceeded towards the canteen under Nangong Wan’s guidance. Nangong Wan projected his voice with his mind as they walked, and he introduced the places they walked by.

Nangong Wan was very useful as a spy, because Huo Yuhao couldn’t use Spiritual Detection to investigate the camp directly. They were inside the army camp’s core section, and there were many powerful evil soul masters wherever they went. They were heading towards where the soul engineer legions were camped, and it was imperative for Huo Yuhao to know where they ate, where they showered, where they typically exercised or moved around in the day, and which areas were forbidden or the most dangerous. He could only make sure that his plan was complete with sufﬁcient intelligence.

“The Holy Lady typically has her breakfast very early in the day, and it should be about now. We should go see her.” Nangong Wan passed a message to Huo Yuhao.

Huo Yuhao answered with his mind without altering his expression. “Avoid interacting with other people to keep from exposing us.”

Nangong Wan replied, “That won’t be much of a problem. Us evil soul masters have our own personalities, and I’m better with people, so I’m more acquainted and friendly with many evil soul masters. But you don’t interact much with them, so

even if you don’t say a word, they won’t say anything to you even if you run into them.”

“Alright.”

They arrived in front of an enormous tent as they ﬁnished.

Typical soldiers and even ofﬁcers got their meals from the army cooks before they went back to have them in their own mess. Only high-level army ofﬁcials had their own canteen spots, while evil soul masters naturally had better treatment. The soul engineer legions and high-level army ofﬁcials were also unwilling to eat with evil soul masters, so even though their canteen wasn’t big, it was almost exclusively for evil soul masters to eat in.

There were some evil soul masters who were here to eat even though it was still early. They bowed respectfully when they saw Huo Yuhao and Nangong Wan. Status differences were very clear within an organization like the Holy Ghost Church, and strength was status. If those who were weaker dared to offend those who were stronger, nobody would speak out for the perpetrator, even if he was killed.

There were more than ten tables in the dining tent, and each table could seat about six people.

Huo Yuhao’s body quivered once he entered the tent, and his eyes were almost guided by his consciousness as he immediately saw Tang Ya, who was eating at the innermost table.

Tang Ya was wearing a long black dress, with bright blue ﬂowery patterns on the edges. This clearly showed that her status was different from the others, since most individuals in the Holy Ghost Church only had a pure black cloak. Elders like Nangong Wan and the Masquerade Douluo had silver patterns at the edges of their robes, and Nangong Wan had told Huo Yuhao that people from the Worship Hall had golden patterns. The Supreme Leader that Huo Yuhao had seen before had golden patterns all over his robe, and it had appeared most luxurious and attractive.

Huo Yuhao and Nangong Wan exchanged a look, and Nangong Wan took him all the way inside until they were in front of Tang Ya’s table as Nangong Wan said respectfully, “Holy Lady.”

Tang Ya looked up at them as she nodded with a plain look in her eyes. She didn’t say anything, however.

Huo Yuhao’s emotions rippled faintly when he saw her eyes. Tang Ya’s eyes were extremely cold, as if there weren’t any emotions in them at all, and her pupils were completely gray. Huo Yuhao couldn’t detect any kind of life from her body.

Huo Yuhao had interrogated the Delicate Silk Immortal about Tang Ya’s situation before. You You had told him that Tang Ya was under an evil spell, and she was badly poisoned. Her Delicate Silk Immortal Pill could dispel the toxins in Tang Ya’s body. At least, her pill could gradually remove and suppress those toxins. However, she still needed the Bluesilver Emperor to awaken her martial soul’s life energy. Otherwise, her life energy would ﬂow away together with those evil toxins, and she would ultimately die.

The dishes in front of Tang Ya were very simple, but they looked very exquisite. There were evil soul masters at the other tables, but not a single one dared to sit at her table, as if this table was exclusively prepared for her.

Nangong Wan and Huo Yuhao walked to another table and sat down as they got their breakfast. Breakfast was very sumptuous, and was prepared with ingredients that were very nutritious and beneﬁcial for evil soul masters. Only evil soul masters had such special treatment.

Huo Yuhao ate as he quietly felt the changes in Tang Ya’s aura. Her aura was undulating very weakly, as if her entire being no longer had any life energy. However, Huo Yuhao could feel an intense sense of alarm from her as she sat there, as if there was an enormous beast hidden within her.

Huo Yuhao could feel his heart tie up into knots as he ate his breakfast in silence. He could still remember when he ﬁrst met teacher Xiao Ya, and how lively and cheerful she was. She was with his eldest senior brother back then, and they were like a couple made in heaven! She made the decision and allowed him to join the Tang Sect, and then she used the Tang Sect’s only spot to let him enter Shrek Academy. It could be said that Tang Ya and Bei Bei had given him a new life, and Huo Yuhao had always kept this favor deep within his heart. Huo Yuhao’s pain and agony as he witnessed Tang Ya’s current situation wasn’t difﬁcult to imagine. He truly didn’t know how Bei Bei would react if he saw her like this.

Huo Yuhao made a silent vow to himself. Teacher Xiao Ya, we will deﬁnitely save you from this place no matter what. We have to help you return to normal.

Just as Huo Yuhao’s emotions were riling up, a voice suddenly rang out. “Second brother, Old Seven, you guys are early today!”

“Old Seven” naturally referred to the Masquerade Douluo, while “second brother” referred to Nangong Wan.

Huo Yuhao immediately withdrew his emotions as he raised his head. However, his emotions quivered vigorously for a moment when he saw who had come.

The person who was speaking to them was the one who was adept with soul tools in the Holy Ghost Church, the Third Elder that Huo Yuhao harbored a deep hatred for. Back then, those three Elders had forced him to burn his spiritual sea before Wang Qiu’er sacriﬁced herself to save him.

It could be said that Qiu’er died at the hands of the Third Elder and the Fourth Elder. Huo Yuhao didn’t expect to run

into this person so quickly.

However, he had long known that he was here after Nangong Wan’s information, so he did have some mental preparation. He quickly returned to normal after his emotions rippled a little.

Nangong Wan said appropriately, “We’re not early. It’s just that we didn’t sleep much last night. Someone from the Heavenly Soul Empire came over and was conducting surveillance high up in the sky. We went up to take a look, and chased them all the way back to the Heavenly Soul Empire’s side. I think we’re in a bit of trouble, Old Three. We have discovered people from Shrek Academy, and we’ve heard from the Supreme Leader that the Dean of Shrek Academy’s Martial Soul Department, the Radiant Phoenix Douluo Yan Shaozhe, is here.”

“Yan Shaozhe?” The Third Elder immediately shifted his attention to Nangong Wan as he asked in confusion, “Yan Shaozhe? Wasn’t he Dragon God Douluo Mu En’s disciple back then? He should be a Transcendent Douluo by now...”

Nangong Wan nodded and said, “That isn’t all. If I remember correctly, he is also the next heir of Shrek Academy’s Sea God’s Pavilion.”

The Third Elder sat down beside Nangong Wan and grunted coldly as he said, “Let him come. After all, our battle with Shrek Academy is a matter of when, not if. We have more than ten thousand soldiers in our great army, and we also have the Sun Moon Empire’s ﬁve great soul engineer legions, while the Supreme Leader is holding down the fort in person. Even if all of Shrek Academy’s elites were here, their effectiveness on a battleﬁeld such as this one would be very limited.”

Nangong Wan chuckled and said, “That sounds about right.

Hurry up and eat.”

The Third Elder looked up at Huo Yuhao, who was beside Nangong Wan, and asked, “Old Seven, I heard you’ve chased your two mistresses away?”

Huo Yuhao’s expression darkened as he replied, “Third brother, don’t pick on my scabs. The Supreme Leader scolded me yesterday, so how can I not change? If you’re interested, those two girls can belong to you. I’m just afraid that you can’t take it.”

The Third Elder laughed and said, “Nonsense. You know I don’t like such things.”

Huo Yuhao laughed coldly and said, “How can that be? Why do I remember that you imprisoned a lady back then? It’s not that you don’t like such things, but that you are very focused in your love, hahaha!”

The Third Elder blushed as he said suspiciously, “How did you know that?”

Huo Yuhao was naturally referring to the Third Elder imprisoning Nan Shuishui, which not even Nangong Wan

knew about. Huo Yuhao said plainly, “As long as you’ve done something, somebody will know. You’re already so old, third brother, so why are you still embarrassed? Alright, I’ve had my ﬁll. I’m going back, and you can continue chatting with second brother. I didn’t sleep well last night, so I’m going back to cultivate so that the Supreme Leader can’t say that I’ve been lazy.”

Huo Yuhao stood up after his speech and walked out. He didn’t want to say anymore, as he was bound to say something wrong if he did. It was better to minimize any interaction with these evil soul masters.

The Third Elder said unhappily to Nangong Wan, “Second brother, why does Old Seven seem so weird today?”

Nangong Wan laughed and replied, “That’s probably because he isn’t in such a good mood after the Supreme Leader chided him last night. But you know what’s up with Old Seven, it’s very difﬁcult for him to improve with that martial soul of his.”

Huo Yuhao saw that Tang Ya had also stood up to walk out before he left the canteen, and an idea occurred to him as he slowed his steps.

Tang Ya maintained a steady pace as she walked towards her tent after leaving the canteen. The evil soul masters didn’t reside very far from the canteen. Huo Yuhao naturally shared a path with her, and he pretended to run into her as he slowed and said respectfully, “Holy Lady.”

“Yes,” Tang Ya acknowledged as she walked across his path, expressionless. She didn’t pay any attention to him at all.

Huo Yuhao made a quick judgment in his mind. From Tang Ya’s current situation, her mind had to be affected by some kind of restriction or spell, and her martial soul had been infected by evil toxins. However, those evil toxins were catalyzing her growth and improvement, and from the aura that she was giving off, she should be an eight-ringed Soul Douluo.

Evil soul masters cultivate really quickly! Back then, teacher Xiao Ya was still quite some distance away from eldest senior brother’s cultivation, but she has surpassed him now.

Huo Yuhao watched Tang Ya disappear into her tent before he returned to his own.

Today’s result is good. At least, I’ve seen Tang Ya, and that proves Nangong Wan’s intel is accurate. Now, I have to ﬁgure out how to take her away.

------------

Huo Yuhao crossed his legs and began to meditate after he returned to his room, but his brain began to spin rapidly.

How can I take Teacher Xiao Ya away safely? Furthermore, I have to ensure that we don’t sustain any injuries or losses.

The Sun Moon Empire’s camp was rather peaceful because there were no battles, and only the occasional sounds of training soldiers could be heard from time to time. This area where the evil soul masters resided was separated from the rest, and there were no soldiers patrolling the area, so there wasn’t much noise.

---

A day quickly passed. Huo Yuhao didn’t wait for Nangong Wan to arrive at midday as he went ahead to the canteen to eat. He deliberately went ahead early to avoid the powerful evil soul masters before he returned to his tent to continue cultivating.

From the other evil soul masters’ perspective, the Seventh Elder began to put in effort after the Supreme Leader had scolded him, so nobody suspected him.

------

Darkness befell the heavens as the sky became completely dark before Huo Yuhao opened his eyes in his tent.

The tent was very dim, but Huo Yuhao’s eyes were bright as the stars in the night sky.

It’s time to test the waters. A thread of white light emerged from Huo Yuhao’s eyes, and his entire body seemed to quiver as the light around him contorted a little.

A ﬁgure appeared soundlessly in front of him. This ﬁgure was small and cute, and about as large as an infant, but it looked identical to Huo Yuhao.

The light became increasingly material, like it was a real tiny person. This was Huo Yuhao’s spiritual avatar, which he had conjured with his concrete-material spiritual power.

Huo Yuhao had created a spiritual soul core, so his spiritual avatar was much stronger than before. His spiritual avatar could use some of Huo Yuhao’s soul skills, and people couldn’t even tell that his avatar was made from energy just looking at it.

The mini-Huo Yuhao glanced at his original body before he vanished into the air with a ﬂash., using Imitation.

Huo Yuhao’s spiritual avatar could only use his Spirit Eyes’ soul skills. However, using a soul skill would consume part of his spiritual avatar’s origin energy, and once his avatar’s origin energy was depleted, it would crumble.

Huo Yuhao’s spiritual avatar left the tent under the cover of Imitation, and soundlessly approached Tang Ya’s tent. Huo Yuhao didn’t go inside once he arrived outside Tang Ya’s tent. Who knew whether Tang Ya had a spiritual barrier around her? Huo Yuhao would reveal his original body if he was discovered, and everything that he had discovered before would go to waste.

Huo Yuhao circled around Tang Ya’s tent, then circled another time around a large golden tent not far from there before he snuck further away.

He wouldn’t go into a tent to investigate things right now, because he could be easily ambushed or trapped if he did so. He had to be sure about the army camp’s situation as a whole before anything else. Furthermore, there was a more important place he had to ﬁnd.

Huo Yuhao could only use his spiritual avatar to rove briskly around the army camp because he couldn’t use Spiritual Detection, though he could roam around quite freely and casually using Imitation.

The Sun Moon Empire’s army camp undoubtedly had all kinds of surveillance soul tools, but these surveillance soul tools were directed outwards, not inwards.

Who would be so bored as to investigate their own soldiers’ situation? The reason why Huo Yuhao made his spiritual avatar so small was both to conserve spiritual power and also because a small body was harder for the surveillance soul tools to detect.

Huo Yuhao moved very quickly, and he went almost one full circuit around the army camp before he quietly returned to his own tent. His spiritual avatar returned to his original body, and everything returned to normal.

Huo Yuhao’s eyes opened again, and the “Masquerade Douluo’s” expression turned extremely solemn.

Huo Yuhao could see a lot more clearly after investigating at such close proximity. The Sun Moon Empire’s layout was seamless, and almost entirely impenetrable.

There were many soldiers guarding their ﬁve soul tool camps. There were no surveillance soul tools pointed inwards in the army camp’s other places, but there were some around the ﬁve soul tool locations. Everybody who came near had to be interrogated.

Huo Yuhao didn’t dare let his spiritual avatar go close to those soul tool camps. Furthermore, he could feel that there were linked formations continuously activated within those fronts. Even though he wasn’t sure that they were doing, he had no doubt that they possessed formidable defensive or offensive capabilities. One misstep and he would be discovered, and become cannon fodder.

Huo Yuhao had originally hoped to ﬁnd one of the Sun Moon Empire’s storage soul tools, or a warehouse that housed stationary soul cannon shells, which he could detonate at the appropriate time. He would create much chaos in the army camp if that happened, and cooperating with the Heavenly Soul Empire when the time came would be most effective.

But it seemed like he had to change his plan, because he couldn’t ﬁnd any warehouses that stored soul tools. There was no question that these warehouses were contained within those soul tool camps, which meant that he would have to

break through their defenses if he wanted to bomb those warehouses. Not even Elder Song could do that, even if she was here, let alone him!

What should I do? Huo Yuhao’s eyes squinted as he contemplated long and hard. This was very important for him, because insufﬁcient chaos wouldn’t give them sufﬁcient time.

The night was peaceful, and everything seemed to return to tranquility. The Sun Moon Empire increased their ground- based aerial surveillance, but they didn’t discover anything. The Heavenly Soul Empire also seemed particularly calm and quiet.

The Holy Ghost Church’s evil soul masters discovered that, over the past two days, their Seventh Elder had become particularly hardworking. He didn’t touch any girls, and he remained in his tent to cultivate intently. He was almost not seen at all during the day.

------------------

Dinner, on the second night...

Huo Yuhao deliberately called Nangong Wan before eating dinner, and they walked towards the evil soul masters’ canteen together.

'Third Elder, can you ﬁnd an empty and remote place for me? It would be better if this place wasn’t inside this core area, and best if it was near any of the ﬁve soul tool forts. The place must be quiet and uninhabited.' Huo Yuhao sent to Nangong Wan telepathically.

Nangong Wan was momentarily stunned. He forced a laugh and said, “I’m afraid that’s a little difﬁcult. The areas close to those soul tool forts are heavily guarded, and well-equipped with all sorts of surveillance soul tools. It’s almost impossible to do something around them without being discovered. Are you guys ready to make your move?” A worried expression appeared on his face as he spoke.

Huo Yuhao said plainly, “You don’t have to worry, Third Elder. We will give you a way out even when we execute our plan. You have to help me ﬁnd such a place as fast as possible, and if it really isn’t possible, a location slightly further away from those soul tool forts is also acceptable, but it has to be further away from where we are. Only then can we move according to our plan.”

Nangong Wan knew that he no longer had a choice. He was most afraid of Huo Yuhao’s identity being revealed, because Huo Yuhao had returned with him as the Masquerade Douluo. Nangong Wan would also be exposed if Huo Yuhao was discovered.

“Alright, I’ll try my best.”

Nangong Wan scurried away after dinner. He was much more familiar with the situation inside the army camp than Huo Yuhao was.

Nangong Wan came to Huo Yuhao’s tent to ﬁnd him after two hours.

“There’s a solution, Tang Wu.” Nangong Wan still thought Huo Yuhao was Tang Wu up even now.

Huo Yuhao frowned and replied, “Call me Masquerade.”

Nangong Wan froze for a moment. “Alright, Masquerade, I think we have an opportunity, and it’s quite a good one at that. The Holy Ghost Church has the authority to supervise and survey the army. The Supreme Leader has just passed the order for us to patrol several soul tool forts tomorrow afternoon. The two forts that belong the Hand that Protects the Nation’s two soul engineer legions are a little more troublesome because they don’t show us much respect. The other three forts that are responsible for defense that belong to normal soul engineer

legions are more polite toward us. Why don’t we take a trip down together, so you can ﬁnd an opportunity?”

Huo Yuhao was elated when he heard the news. “That’s fantastic, let’s do it then. Tell the Supreme Leader that I will accompany you on patrol tomorrow.”

“Alright,” Nangong Wan acknowledged, and he hesitated before he then continued, “If you execute your plan tomorrow, what happens to me?”

Huo Yuhao answered, “Don’t worry, I’ll ﬁnd an appropriate solution for you. When everything happens, I’ll fake my death, and all you have to do is pretend you have no idea about anything. As for the restrictions on your body, we will help you remove them once we fully execute our plan. You’re a smart man, and you should understand that something bad will happen to you if you foil our plan.”

Nangong Wan hurriedly said, “Of course, of course. Don’t worry, as long as you keep your promise to remove my restrictions, I will help you as much as possible even if you look for me again next time.” Nangong Wan had taken Huo Yuhao, the “Masquerade Douluo”, back together with him, and that

meant he had a hold on Nangong Wan. Huo Yuhao wasn’t at all worried that Nangong Wan would expose him in their operation. As for what would happen afterwards, Huo Yuhao didn’t consider that too seriously. Who knew how things would unfold? How could Nangong Wan follow his instructions if there wasn’t something to threaten him with?

But rescuing Tang Ya was of utmost importance for everyone from Shrek.

-----

Huo Yuhao immediately sealed his tent with a spiritual barrier once he escorted Nangong Wan away before swiftly summoning his spectral gate and began to discuss his plan with his companions. The most important component of his plan was executable with Nangong Wan’s intel, and the next step was to iron out the rest of the plan perfectly. They would act tomorrow night.

Huo Yuhao returned to his tent after discussing inside his spectral demiplane for two hours. His spiritual barrier was very normal, and wasn’t triggered at all, but Huo Yuhao didn’t rest. Instead, he conjured another spiritual avatar and sent it

out of his tent. He followed the path that he had scouted out several days ago as he swiftly left the camp and disappeared into the distance.

The Sun Moon Empire’s surveillance soul tools that pointed outside covered every corner, but not every kind of soul tool could do that task.

Huo Yuhao found a few loopholes after investigating for two days. His spiritual avatar wasn’t afraid of thermal detectors, and he also had help from Imitation. Huo Yuhao evaded the oscillation detectors and spiritual detectors before he slipped out of the camp and went straight for Heaven Dou City. His spiritual avatar was carrying the signal soul tool that Princess Wei Na had given him.

---

Huo Yuhao’s spiritual avatar returned quietly after two hours, and slipped back into the army camp with the same method as it swiftly returned to his tent and integrated back into his body.

Preparations were mostly complete, and the next step had to be left until tomorrow.

It was late into the night, and Huo Yuhao glanced in the direction of Tang Ya’s tent before he closed his eyes and began to meditate. He had to maintain his peak spiritual condition for tomorrow’s operation.

Huo Yuhao got up very early in the morning, and cultivated his Purple Demon Eyes before he proceeded towards the canteen.

He was walking when he suddenly sensed something, and subconsciously turned to look back. He saw Tang Ya, who was calmly walking in the same direction.

Huo Yuhao had seen Tang Ya a few times over the past two days, but Tang Ya almost never spoke with anyone. She was like a statue, or rather, she was like the walking dead.

But Huo Yuhao was sure that Tang Ya hadn’t completely lost her consciousness. Otherwise, what use would this Holy Lady be for the Holy Ghost Church in the future? The Holy Ghost

Church was probably hoping that she and Ma Xiaotao would carry the Holy Ghost Church forward. How would that be possible if they were just puppets?

“Holy Lady,” Huo Yuhao stopped and walked over to Tang Ya as he bowed.

“Hey,” Tang Ya nodded, but she still responded as coldly as ever.

Just as Huo Yuhao thought she would walk past him to eat, Tang Ya suddenly stopped and turned around to face him. She said coldly, “Seventh Elder, your aura seems to have changed. Are you having any problems with cultivation recently?”

“Eh?” Huo Yuhao’s heart skipped a beat. This was the ﬁrst time that he had heard Tang Ya speak after coming into this place undercover. Tang Ya’s voice wasn’t very different from back then, but her voice no longer had any emotions, like she was just a machine talking.

“Holy Lady, what kind of changes are you talking about?” Huo Yuhao’s mind was very stable. He wasn’t caught off-guard

by the sudden change in circumstances, and he asked her a question instead with a smile on his face.

Tang Ya seemed taken aback as she frowned and said, “I can’t quite put a ﬁnger on it. I just ﬁnd that your aura has become more intimate than before, like there’s more familiarity. You’re not as despicable as before.”

“Uh…” Tang Ya didn’t attempt to mask her feelings when she said that she despised the Masquerade Douluo. That surprised Huo Yuhao, because even though Tang Ya was the Holy Lady, she was just a Soul Douluo! She wasn’t polite at all to this “Elder”.

“Bluesilver.” An elderly voice could be heard at this moment. Huo Yuhao felt his entire body tense up when he heard this voice, and he hurriedly took a few steps back as he spoke respectfully to where that voice was coming from. “Greetings, Supreme Leader!”

Didn’t that old voice belong to the Holy Ghost Church’s Supreme Leader, Zhongli Wu?

Tang Ya wasn’t as reverent as Huo Yuhao was. Instead, she simply bowed faintly as a gesture in Zhongli Wu’s direction.

Zhongli Wu came up beside Tang Ya and removed the hood on his head.

This was the ﬁrst time that Huo Yuhao had a look at the Holy Ghost Church’s Supreme Leader at such close proximity.

Zhongli Wu’s hair was short and silvery, very thin and dense, and very sharp and tough, like steel needles. His eyebrows were thick, his eyes were bright, and he was actually extremely handsome. His eyes were dark purple, and exuded a faint deep and profound aura. Nobody could tell he was an evil soul master just by looking at him.

He looked very young, and if not for his silver hair, he would have passed for a middle-aged man. But Huo Yuhao knew that Zhongli Wu was only one generation younger than his teacher, Mu En, and the Death God Douluo, Ye Xishui. He was probably more than a hundred and eighty years old, yet he still looked very young.

“I didn’t say much,” Tang Ya responded coldly to Zhongli Wu’s doubts, and Huo Yuhao heaved a sigh of relief in his heart.

Zhongli Wu smiled faintly and said, “Are you still hating on Seventh Elder? He didn’t mean to scare you back then. I didn’t expect you hold grudges. I’ve already instructed him not to unleash his Demonic Maggot in front of you, no matter what, so you don’t have to worry. Come, let’s eat.”

Zhongli Wu immediately grabbed Tang Ya’s hand as he spoke, and they walked towards the canteen.

Eh? Huo Yuhao felt a little strange when he witnessed how intimate Zhongli Wu was with Tang Ya. Can it be that Zhongli Wu is pining after teacher Xiao Ya? But he’s already a hundred and eighty years old.

Huo Yuhao watched Zhongli Wu and Tang Ya walk towards the canteen, and he could only grit his teeth and follow at the back to prevent any suspicion.

Zhongli Wu suddenly stopped walking at this moment.

Huo Yuhao felt his heart skip a beat. Has he discovered something?

Zhongli Wu turned around to look at Huo Yuhao and said, “Masquerade, you cannot come along. The Blusilver Holy Lady doesn’t have much of an appetite with you around. Go back, and have your meal later.”

Huo Yuhao was overjoyed when he heard those words, and he bowed respectfully toward Zhongli Wu like a great burden had been lifted from his chest before he turned to leave. Who wants to eat with you guys!?

Huo Yuhao swiftly returned to his tent, and exhaled deeply once he stepped in. That was so close! Teacher Xiao Ya seems to have discovered something. Fortunately, she seems a little dense and inarticulate, and she didn’t bring it up to Zhongli Wu.

For Huo Yuhao, the safest choice right now would be to run away as quickly as possible so that he could prevent any unforeseen dangers. But could he really leave? Everything that he had prepared and worked for would be wasted if he did.

I can’t leave, so I’m going to take a chance. I have to bet that Teacher Xiao Ya hasn’t recognized me, and she hasn’t mentioned anything to Zhongli Wu.

Huo Yuhao couldn’t help but feel a little nervous as his thoughts stopped there. Everything that he had worked for would be wasted if he was discovered now, and he would also ﬁnd himself trapped in dire danger.

Chapter 497: Second Soul Engineer Legion

Huo Yuhao recalled the interactions between Tang Ya and Zhongli Wu previously, and discovered some useful things. For example, the Masquerade Douluo had used his Demonic Maggot to scare Tang Ya and cast a shadow in her heart. Furthermore, Zhongli Wu pampered her a lot. It didn’t seem like they had romantic feelings between them. Rather, it felt like Zhongli Wu was protecting her. What kind of feeling was it? It was very weird.

Waiting was sometimes a torture, especially in the situation that Huo Yuhao was facing.

Waiting for an hour was like waiting for half a century. Finally, Huo Yuhao calmed himself down. Things should be ﬁne since there’s been no reaction for half a day. It seems like I’m in luck.

------

After walking out from the tent, Huo Yuhao observed his surroundings as he proceeded towards the canteen. Indeed,

Tang Ya and Zhongli Wu were no longer there. Things were very normal. He went to ﬁnd Nangong Wan again. Seeing that he was ﬁne, he veriﬁed that he had averted the crisis.

The afternoon passed just like that. Huo Yuhao only completely calmed down after lunch. He meditated in his tent for an hour before Nangong Wan came to ﬁnd him.

“Seven, let’s go and take a look!” Nangong Wan’s voice rose outside the tent.

Huo Yuhao drifted up and walked out of the tent. Not only was Nangong Wan around, but there were also six other evil soul masters with weaker cultivations. They all had at least six rings. According to what Nangong Wan had told Huo Yuhao, the Holy Ghost Church sent only those who were at least Soul Emperors to the frontline. There were very few evil soul masters, and nurturing them wasn’t easy. It was very likely they would die at the front lines. That was why only those who could protect themselves were sent over.

“Go.” Huo Yuhao calmly said, and followed Nangong Wan.

Nangong Wan said, “Three and Four have been sent to supervise the Fourth Soul Engineer Legion. Let’s go take a look at the Second Soul Engineer Legion.”

“Alright,” Huo Yuhao replied.

Having Nangong Wan as a mole was very effective. The intelligence that he brought to Shrek Academy gave the Academy a new understanding of the Sun Moon Empire’s setup.

The Sun Moon Empire had originally only had ten soul engineer legions. However, all the other soul engineer legions from other empires were brought under their control after the war started, allowing them to form another ﬁve soul engineer legions. In this way, the Sun Moon Empire now had a total of ﬁfteen soul engineer legions.

Among them, the ﬁve soul engineer legions in the Hand that Protects the Nation were the strongest. The other ten soul engineer legions were ordered.

Right now, there were ﬁve soul engineer legions at the front line. Apart from the Imperial Dragon Soul Engineer Legion and Terrorclaw Soul Engineer Legion, there were also the Second, Third and Fourth Soul Engineer Legions.

As for the other ten soul engineer legions, the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineer Legion was stationed in the capital. Unless they were commanded by Xu Tianran personally, they wouldn’t leave easily. The Phoenix Soul Engineer Legion was also in the capital right now. The Evil Tyrant Soul Engineer Legion had teamed up with two other soul engineer legions to deal with the soul master teams from the Star Luo Empire that were scattered all over the Sun Moon Empire’s territories. The remaining soul engineer legions were also arranged in their own ways.

The Sun Moon Empire relied on these ﬁve soul engineer legions and their elite soul tools at the front lines to suppress the coalition army of the three empires of the original Douluo Continent. In fact, the Heavenly Soul Empire had been battered so heavily that they were quite afraid by now. In the ﬁghts before, they had suffered heavy casualties. To keep Heavenly Spirit City intact was already the best that they could achieve at this stage. The initiative lay in the hands of the Sun Moon Empire now.

The Sun Moon Empire had their own plans. In the report that Ju Zi gave to Xu Tianran, they indicated that they wanted to consolidate the new territories they had obtained from the Heavenly Soul Empire ﬁrst.

Given the strength of the Sun Moon Empire, they could deﬁnitely take the entire Heavenly Soul Empire down. However, that would also mean that the Sun Moon Empire would need to protect more land. When that happened, the Sun Moon Empire would also have to take on the Dou Ling and Star Luo Empires directly.

Once the Heavenly Soul Empire was destroyed, the remaining two empires would have no choice except to ﬁght all-out. Along with the threat of Shrek City, the Sun Moon Empire would also have no other option but to ﬁght. To the overall plans of the Sun Moon Empire, this wasn’t a good thing. At least, it wasn’t good if they weren’t prepared. Without the conﬁdence of attaining complete victory, Ju Zi suggested that the Sun Moon Empire shouldn’t rush to destroy the Heavenly Soul Empire.

Xu Tianran adopted her suggestion. As he consolidated the territories that they had, he quickly adjusted their resources to produce more soul tool accessories. Through soul tool

technology, he slowly inﬂuenced the people in the parts of the Heavenly Soul Empire that had fallen to the Sun Moon Empire. This would gradually get them to accept reality.

War couldn’t achieve their aims immediately. Ju Zi’s plan would take as long as ten years. In her complete plan, domination of the continent would take at least that long. Although Xu Tianran thought that this was a little too long, her detailed plan still managed to convince him. Even the senior commanders of the Sun Moon Empire approved of her plan after reviewing it. The plan raised Ju Zi’s reputation in the Sun Moon Empire.

After this plan was drafted, she had headed into the north to gather rare metals. However, she had bumped into Huo Yuhao, who had ruined her plan.

Ju Zi’s status in the military was very important to Xu Tianran. As a result, he even took the initiative to cover up her setback. An unbeaten female god of war was very helpful for morale. It was something that mustn’t be affected easily.

Currently, the ﬁve soul engineer legions at the frontline had been there for some time. Among them, the Imperial Dragon

and Terrorclaw Soul Engineer Legions were very strong. They didn’t even give face to the Holy Ghost Church. The Holy Ghost Church had faced quite a few problems trying to supervise these two soul engineer legions. They only took orders directly from the Sun Moon Empire’s imperial family.

Although Zhongli Wu had wanted to force a check on them, the Holy Ghost Church still had many objectives to be achieved in the Sun Moon Empire. It wasn’t advisable for him to offend Xu Tianran. After all, Xu Tianran was the Emperor. The Sun Moon Empire was also very inﬂuential and powerful now. Although the Holy Ghost Church was also very powerful, and even had two Ultimate Douluo, how could a sect compete with an entire empire in terms of overall abilities?

As a result, Zhongli Wu could only bear it and perform circumstantial supervision on them.

While the beast lord-ranked soul engineer legions were unwilling, the other three ordinary soul engineer legions were helpless. Just like how Zhongli Wu didn’t want to offend Xu Tianran, Xu Tianran also didn’t want to offend the Holy Ghost Church. There was something that he shared with the Holy Ghost Church: they wanted to borrow each other’s strength to deal with Shrek Academy.

While Shrek Academy hadn’t seemed to do anything in the war so far, both Xu Tianran and Zhongli Wu were very wary of them!

--------------

“We’re here.” Nangong Wan alerted Huo Yuhao. There was a soul formation not far in front of them.

There were already senior commanders from the Second Soul Engineer Legion waiting outside the soul formation after they received their orders. The person standing in front was a middle-aged man around ﬁfty years old. He was tall and burly, and his aura was overwhelming. He was obviously a Soul Douluo.

“Greetings, Your Majesty.” That middle-aged man came up to receive them. Your Majesty was how they referred to Titled Douluo. In the world of Titled Douluo, they didn’t call one another that. However, it was how lower-ranked soul masters showed their respect when they saw Titled Douluo.

“Show us the way.” Nangong Wan was much more arrogant when he saw these ordinary soul masters. Huo Yuhao didn’t say anything.

This middle-aged man was the legion commander of the Second Soul Engineer Legion, Guo Nu. He was a Soul Douluo, and a Class 8 soul engineer.

Ordinary soul engineer legions were led by Class 8 soul engineers. After all, there were very few Class 9 soul engineers, even in the Sun Moon Empire.

Guo Nu stood to one side and gave way to the both of them.

He personally showed them the way.

This was Huo Yuhao’s ﬁrst time entering a soul formation of the Sun Moon Empire without ﬁghting them.

After entering, he immediately sensed a strong killing aura sweeping across him. Lethal soul tools were neatly arranged, almost all long-range soul cannons. Looking in from the outside, it really looked like a forest of steel.

Huo Yuhao made an estimate as he looked over. There were more than a hundred long-range soul cannons!

As for why they were of different classes, it was because their effective ranges and strengths were different. Not only could they overlap one another, but they could also conserve soul power for short-range attacks.

These soul cannons were just covering the perimeter. There were larger soul tools in the middle. There was even a Class 9 soul tool, and soul tools that Huo Yuhao didn’t know the names to.

Soon enough, Huo Yuhao saw the elongated warehouses in the soul formation. Overall, they looked narrow and long, and they were placed to the sides of the soul formation, so that they could replenish it at anytime.

There were ﬁve hundred soul engineers in this ordinary soul engineer legion. Not only were they fully equipped with soul tools, they even had linked soul tools. Once they attacked, they were very destructive. The soul tools they had were deﬁnitely much stronger than the ones Shrek City had before.

Di Tian’s wariness of humans was not unfounded. As soul tools developed, the balance between soul beasts and humans was disrupted. Although soul beasts had the Beast God, humans were overall getting much stronger than soul beasts.

Given such a soul formation, even a hundred thousand-man army might not be able to breach it! Linked soul tools could greatly harm them before the soul tools exhausted their power. This was also why a soul engineer legion was so terrifying.

They simply toured the soul formation in a round of supervision. To the other soul engineers, this was a routine inspection, and it wasn’t their ﬁrst time. However, Huo Yuhao was delighted. Although he couldn’t imprint the production method of every soul tool there into memory, he could still remember the arrangement of this soul formation, the uses of the soul tools, and how they coordinated with one another. This was undoubtedly great knowledge for the future three soul engineer legions of Shrek Academy.

“Are both of you coming to our side to rest and take a cup of tea?” Guo Nu asked respectfully.

He didn’t dare to treat evil soul masters poorly. He wasn’t even a Titled Douluo. His soul engineer legion was also not as great as the soul engineer legions in the Hand that Protects the Nation. He couldn’t afford to offend these powerful evil soul masters.

“Alright, we shall do so. I wonder if Commander Guo has any good stuff?” Nangong Wan asked.

“I’ve prepared them for both of you,” Guo Na replied softly.

Guo Nu’s tent was to the left of the soul formation. Every commander of a soul engineer legion had his own tent.

The so-called ‘getting a cup of tea’ was in fact a feast. Guo Nu had long prepared things. He invited Huo Yuhao, Nangong Wan, and the six evil soul masters into his tent for the feast. He ﬁrst gave them a toast before asking his subordinates to bring some other stuff in.

Guo Nu smiled as he said, “Your Majesty, please put in some good words for me in front of the Imperial Tutor.” After this, he gestured, and a few of his subordinates opened a few cases.

The aura of metal mixed with a killing aura was released. Nangong Wan’s eyes brightened, and he subconsciously said, “This is great stuff! Although they aren’t very strong, they are still decent enough.”

There were four cases. One of them contained three Class 7 stationary soul cannon shells. The other three cases contained Class 5 stationary soul cannon shells. There were ten of them in each case.

Although they were only Class 5 and 7 soul cannon shells, there were a large number of them. If they were sold, they could be exchanged for an astronomical number of gold soul coins.

Soul engineer legions lacked everything except for soul tools. Furthermore, Guo Nu was clearly aware that evil soul masters loved stationary soul cannon shells. They were powerful, and had a great effective range. At any time, they were strategic resources. Even if they were sold somewhere else and to any empire, they were well-loved.

“Seven, keep them for now. We can divide them later. Commander Guo is too kind. It seems like the Second Soul Engineer Legion will only get stronger under your leadership.”

Although Nangong Wan was greedy, his own life was more important. He gave all of them to Huo Yuhao as a gift. At the very least, he hoped Huo Yuhao would be more willing to remove his restrictions in the future.

Huo Yuhao naturally didn’t stand on ceremony. This was good stuff. He had used almost all of the stationary soul cannon shells he had obtained from Radiant City during the beast wave. What he lacked right now was advanced stationary soul cannon shells.

Chapter 498: Annihilation Storm

Seeing that Huo Yuhao had stashed the stationary soul cannon shells, Guo Na felt that he had no choice, even though he felt pained by his decision. If he didn’t build up his relationship with these evil soul masters, he didn’t know what kind of problems he would face in the future.

After putting all the stationary soul cannon shells away, Huo Yuhao returned to their table and lifted a wine cup with his right hand. “Thanks, Commander Guo, for your precious gift. Come, let me give you a toast.”

Guo Nu quickly stood up and drank with Huo Yuhao.

As Huo Yuhao drank, he gently touched Nangong Wan with his toes. When he sat down, Nangong Wan immediately raised his wine cup and gave Guo Nu a toast as well.

Taking this opportunity, Huo Yuhao rubbed his right hand across his forehead. It seemed like he was ﬁxing his hair, but an almost invisible ball of distorted light went under the table just as his hand went down. If one could observe it more

closely, one might discover that there seemed to be something inside the sphere...

After eating a full meal, Guo Nu personally sent Huo Yuhao, Nangong Wan, and the rest out of the soul formation. After the evil soul masters had left, his expression also turned colder. As long as one was a real soul master, or even a soul engineer, who would fancy interacting with evil soul masters, who killed without blinking an eye?

He sighed silently. I hope nothing goes wrong with relying on evil soul masters to achieve domination. He shook his head a little helplessly before he turned around.

However, he didn’t know that a ball of white light had slipped out from under the table in his tent. It quickly hid in a dark corner to the side.

As Nangong Wan and Huo Yuhao walked back, Nangong Wan glanced curiously at Huo Yuhao. He asked, “Have you done it?”

Huo Yuhao smiled and replied, “Yes.”

Nangong Wan was even more stunned. He didn’t see Huo Yuhao doing anything at all! Huo Yuhao had only signaled him to give Guo Nu a toast once. Don’t tell me that he did it then?

When Huo Yuhao saw his puzzled look, he said, “If you could tell, don’t you think Guo Nu could tell too? Don’t worry. When things are done, I’ll fulﬁll my promise to you.”

Nangong Wan nodded. He had no choice now but to believe Huo Yuhao. He trusted Shrek’s credibility.

After returning to his tent, Huo Yuhao sat down cross-legged and circulated his soul power. He forced the alcohol that he had consumed earlier out of his body. The ﬁrst step of the plan had been completed. The next step was to be carried out later tonight.

He entered meditation, continuing to cultivate. Even in enemy territory, he kept on improving his abilities. Without sufﬁcient ability, he couldn’t do anything. With something as good as the Manifold Mysterious Ice Essence in his body, along with the help of his spiritual soul core, he felt that his daily cultivation rewarded him greatly. This feeling spurred him on to work even harder.

---------------

Night fell. As usual, Huo Yuhao went to the canteen to eat his dinner. After that, he silently returned to his tent. The other evil soul masters were also acting as they usually did.

After these last few days of observation, Huo Yuhao had familiarized himself with the surroundings of his camp. He used his spiritual power to observe the route that Tang Ya had to take. After verifying that she had returned to her tent, he entered meditation and waited.

He had realized that her routine was very similar to his. Apart from her daily meals, she would cultivate in her own tent. From the outside, one could subtly hear her breathing. Evil soul masters were very relaxed here. Even Zhongli Wu didn’t summon them together for anything.

Huo Yuhao had seen the elders and worshippers here. There were two Transcendent Douluo from the Holy Ghost Church’s Worship Hall here as well. They weren’t all evil soul masters. The Scorpion Tiger Douluo Zhang Peng was here, also from the Worship Hall. He was staying not far from Tang Ya. When

Tang Ya went to the canteen to eat, Huo Yuhao saw that Zhang Peng sat beside her on a few occasions. He was the only other person who could sit beside her, apart from Zhongli Wu.

Zhang Peng was by her side the ﬁrst time Huo Yuhao saw Tang Ya as an evil soul master. In his opinion, Zhang Peng was probably assigned to protect her. While Tang Ya’s cultivation couldn’t compare to Ma Xiaotao’s, the Holy Ghost Church did this to supervise her training and protect her.

The Scorpion Tiger Douluo wasn’t someone who could be dealt with easily. He was bound to become a barrier to their efforts in the near future.

Although Huo Yuhao already had a plan, he didn’t know what would happen during the process of carrying it out. He could only take it one step at a time. He hoped that everything would progress in the right direction.

The sky turned darker and darker, and the base also quieted down. After a day of training, the ordinary soldiers also returned to their own bunks to rest. Only the night guards continued their patrols. Of course, the defenses of the soul formations were still very strict, even at night.

------------

The tent of the Commanderof the Second Soul Engineer Legion...

After having dinner, Guo Nu carried out a few administrative duties after he returned. His tent was where he discussed things with his subordinates. He didn’t sleep there.

After ﬁnishing his administrative matters, Guo Nu left the commander’s tent and went to take a look at his soul formation. Before he slept every night, he would carry out a routine check to keep any problems from cropping up. After that, he would return to his own tent to rest.

As he stepped out from his tent, a ball of white light slowly crept out from the corner. It had done very well to conceal its aura earlier. Guo Nu didn’t discover anything, even though he was a Soul Douluo.

After it appeared, it silently took from and gradually expanded. It slowly adopted a human form, ending up looking

like Huo Yuhao.

That afternoon, Huo Yuhao had left this ball of spiritual power in the tent just as Nangong Wan was raising a toast to Guo Nu. To ensure that it could last long enough, Huo Yuhao didn’t attach a soul skill to it. He only used Imitation.

After adopting a human form, this spiritual body looked a little illusory. As time passed, it had still lost a lot of spiritual power. However, it still had enough to complete Huo Yuhao’s plan.

A small ring appeared on the spiritual entity’s hand as it ﬂipped its wrist, and light ﬂashed. It was the Starlight Sapphire Ring. When Huo Yuhao had left behind this ball of light, it was this ring that was left inside of it.

The ring shone with light, and Huo Yuhao revealed a smile on his face. He retrieved a long box from the ring and placed it on the table inside the tent.

He looked a little unwilling when he saw this box. If he had any other choice, he wouldn’t have chosen to take it out.

His spiritual power spread and formed a spiritual barrier inside the tent, isolating the auras both inside and outside the tent.

Nangong Wan had informed him of the habits of the legion commanders of the soul engineer legions. Huo Yuhao knew that Guo Nu wouldn’t return after leaving. He would go straight to sleep after his routine check. This tent was the safest place to be right now. No surveillance soul tools would be covering this area, either.

After setting up this spiritual barrier, Huo Yuhao’s spiritual entity looked much more illusory. He had turned almost completely transparent.

He carefully opened the box.

As the box opened, Huo Yuhao’s spiritual entity was the ﬁrst to bear the brunt of it. An tremendous shock shook him. If his spiritual power wasn’t strong enough, his spiritual entity would have been dissipated.

Huo Yuhao was also horriﬁed. Fortunately, his spiritual power was in the concrete-material realm. Otherwise, he would have been in big trouble.

There was a long cannon shell lying inside the box. What was released earlier was the aura of armored cavalry. When it swept by, Huo Yuhao’s spiritual entity had almost dissipated.

If Nangong Wan saw this, he would immediately recognize it. That was because he had once used this cannon shell to spur soul engineers to obtain good results in the Radiant City Elite Soul Engineering Tournament, back when he was still the Duskwater Alliance Master.

Huo Yuhao had absconded with this cannon shell and other items during the major explosion in Radiant City. He had kept this Class 9 stationary soul cannon shell all this while, and given the rest of the items to the Tang Sect.

Sensing the aura coming from this Class 9 cannon shell, Huo Yuhao was in awe. This is a true strategic weapon! Xuan Ziwen had once told him that even a Class 9 soul engineer would need three to six months and a lot of rare metals to complete the production of such a soul tool. Every time such a soul tool was

created, it also drained the energy of a Class 9 soul engineer greatly. As a result, such a strategic weapon was very rare, even in the Sun Moon Empire.

Initially, the Sun Moon Empire had breached the Ming Dou Mountain Range using three such Class 9 stationary soul cannon shells, blowing a canyon open in the mountains. Huo Yuhao still remembered the event clearly. This was his ﬁrst time trying something as terrifying as this!

It was a little too much for Huo Yuhao to use a Class 9 soul tool, given his current cultivation. However, a stationary soul cannon shell was different. The thing about this shell was that it wasn’t difﬁcult to operate, it just had to be detonated. It was basically just an extremely terrifying bomb. The energy it needed was contained within it, and didn’t need any soul master to pour in his soul energy. Of course, it was a different thing when using a specialized soul cannon to ﬁre a long-range attack with it.

If possible, Huo Yuhao was far more willing to ﬁre it using a soul cannon. It was an ultra long-range weapon that could reach more than ﬁfteen kilometers away, far more powerful than an ordinary shell. Huo Yuhao wasn’t aware of what its furthest range was, only a Class 9 soul engineer would know the exact distance.

However, he had no choice right now. This shell was the best option he had!

His spiritual entity lifted the massive shell with both hands. Huo Yuhao twisted around to take a look before walking

behind the main seat in the tent, mounting it.

It wasn’t difﬁcult to ﬁre this Class 9 stationary soul cannon. Its core formation just had to be triggered. As a Class 7 soul engineer who had manufactured a Class 8 soul tool, it wasn’t difﬁcult for Huo Yuhao to trigger the core formation of this soul cannon.

After placing the soul cannon shell, Huo Yuhao put the box away. The box was still valuable, as it could isolate the aura of a Class 9 soul cannon shell.

After settling everything, his spiritual entity didn’t leave. If he wanted to trigger it at the best moment, he had to do it personally, rather than setting a time for it to detonate on its own. Because of this, Huo Yuhao had no choice but to lose some of the spiritual power that he had left in his spiritual entity. He could only try to escape when the time came. If he couldn’t, he could only accept his fate.

After completing all this, he had already opened his eyes in his own tent, and started muttering some incantations. A spiritual barrier formed inside his own tent.

Not long afterward, a pitch-black door slowly opened, and ﬁgures started to silently walk out from it. The tent, which was originally quite spacious, became a little cramped quickly.

The Ice Bear King was the last to walk out. He was so huge that he took up the most space in the tent.

“Yuhao, are you ready?” Elder Song asked Huo Yuhao.

Huo Yuhao nodded and said, “I’ve already installed a Class 9 stationary soul cannon shell called Annihilation Storm. It’s a Class 9 soul tool that is speciﬁcally targeted to destroy metal. It’s very destructive. Furthermore, it causes destruction from the inside out. That soul engineer legion will deﬁnitely be annihilated. I just don’t know how many people will die because of it.”

Yan Shaozhe said, “Yuhao, you’re too soft. This is war, and people die. What we need to do is to end it quickly to prevent more people from dying because of it. Destroying strategic machines will save more people. Do you understand?”

Huo Yuhao nodded slightly. After enduring many ﬁghts, he had already accepted some aspects of war.

Elder Song said, “It’s about time. Get ready to take action.”

Huo Yuhao looked at the timer that he had prepared beforehand and nodded at Elder Song, “We’ll help the Heavenly Soul Empire destroy a soul engineer legion this time. This will greatly alleviate the pressure on them. It can also be considered repayment to them for re-deploying their army.”

As he spoke, Huo Yuhao unleashed his Spiritual Detection and connected his mind to his teammates.

His Spiritual Detection slowly spread out. He had already surveyed his surroundings, and covered every inch that didn’t have a spiritual barrier. He provided a detailed layout of the area to his teammates, especially the tent that Tang Ya stayed in.

“I hope everyone can listen to my commands later. After we save Teacher Xiao Ya, we still need to return here and re-enter

my spectral demiplane. We’re only safe when that happens. We’ll then think of a way to escape.”

Elder Song said, “Yes. From now on, we’ll listen to your commands.”

Huo Yuhao was a little astonished when he looked at Elder Song. He only saw the encouragement in her eyes.

He took a deep breath and calmed himself down. Huo Yuhao focused and switched his thoughts to his spiritual entity.

------

The evil soul masters were stationed at the core of the entire base. This base contained more than a hundred thousand men, spreading more than ﬁfty kilometers in every direction. The second soul formation was located near the edge of the base closest to the Heavenly Soul Empire.

Huo Yuhao squinted, and a mysterious look ﬂashed across his eyes. His spiritual entity also started to take action. His hands

were pressed tightly against the shell and a streak of spiritual power poured in. This triggered the core formation of the Annihilation Storm.

A terrifying pressure was released from the Annihilation Storm. Huo Yuhao only felt that his spiritual entity was about to be torn apart, while the Annihilation Storm shone brightly, and emanated a bright metallic glow.

Huo Yuhao didn’t dare to stall further. His spiritual entity was blown apart. He used the strength of the explosion to force a streak of his spiritual power to drill its way out of the tent. It quickly rose as fast as it could into the sky. He could only use this short period of time to preserve his spiritual power. Although it was only a streak, he would still be critically hurt if it was destroyed.

---

Guo Nu walked into his soul formation. His routine check was about to end. Although he was very familiar with his own legion, he would still feel a sense of pride every time he patrolled his soul formation.

It wasn’t just him. Almost all the soul engineers in the Sun Moon Empire that served in the military felt that they were an invincible presence on the continent. In their eyes, the three empires of the original Douluo Continent lagged far behind them. Very soon, they would be conquered by the Sun Moon Empire. Only the Sun Moon Empire was ﬁt to rule the entire continent, and help the continent develop further.

This is what you call a forest of steel! Guo Nu nodded in satisfaction as he took a last look at his soul formation. Surveillance to the outside were lessened today after orders came down from the top. In this way, the soul engineers had less of a workload. Otherwise, the soul engineers had to be divided into three shifts every day to operate the surveillance soul tools. At least half the soul engineers needed to pour their soul power into the soul tools every day to maintain them. Although this was the most effective, it weakened the ﬁghting strength of the soul engineer legions.

It wasn’t easy for Guo Nu to climb to his current position. He took good care of his subordinates. In his heart, they were his most precious resource. Comparatively, soul tools weren’t as important. If soul tools were drained, they could be replenished. However, soul engineers couldn’t be easily replaced.

Just as Guo Nu was about to return to his tent, he suddenly felt that something wasn’t right. The surrounding atmosphere seemed to have changed.

As a Class 8 Soul Douluo, his senses were still quite acute, even though he wasn’t a traditional soul master. When he realized something was amiss, he subconsciously turned in the direction that he felt something from. What he saw was a strange light ﬂashing from his commander’s tent.

Eh? What’s going on? Guo Nu was alarmed.

There seemed to be an intense beam of light coming from the tent, gradually strengthening. An invisible killing aura was also rising from the tent at an incredible speed. However, it seemed to have been suppressed, so the beam of light wasn’t completely unleashed from the tent.

This is not right. Something’s going wrong.

Guo Nu shouted, “Everyone, be careful! Unleash our linked defense! Quickly!”

Although he didn’t know what was going on, he was always very prudent. However, it was already late at night. Apart from the soul engineers on duty, the other soul engineers were already sleeping. Under such circumstances, not many heard his shouts.

Guo Nu quickly unleashed his Class 8 protective soul barrier and rushed in the direction of his command tent. At the same time, he sounded the alarm.

Suddenly, the entire soul formation rang with deafening alarms. Even the troops stationed at the perimeter could hear them clearly.

The Sun Moon Empire’s soul engineer legions were elites that were well trained and very experienced. The Second Soul Engineer Legion was one of the original ten soul engineer legions, and they were all veterans.

Once the alarm sounded, the soul engineers on duty immediately reacted. Beams from soul rays shone. The ﬁrst to be activated was the linked defensive formation. A ﬁlmy layer of white light immediately shone. Promptly, a second linked defensive formation was unleashed within the soul formation.

However, it was also at this moment that the light in the commander’s tent was fully unleashed.

Guo Nu had already rushed in front of the tent at this moment. He pulled the curtains apart. As he pulled them apart, he immediately unleashed an Invincible Barrier.

Although he didn’t know what was inside the commander’s tent, he could still sense an extraordinary presence inside from the intense light, and a growing killing aura. This was why he was especially wary.

When the curtains were pulled open, a strong aura swept towards him. Guo Nu’s Class 8 barrier immediately shook. Cracks appeared in the surface of his protective barrier, while the terrifyingly sharp killing aura immediately burst out of the tent. The tent and everything inside it was torn to pieces.

This, this is…

Guo Nu suddenly opened his eyes wide. He ﬁnally saw what was releasing the light. It was a stationary shell! As a Class 8 soul engineer, Guo Nu was also very adept at creating all types of soul tools. He could immediately recognize what that shell was.

His voice cracked as he exclaimed, “A Class 9, a Class 9 stationary shell!”

As he exclaimed, he immediately turned and ran away. At this moment, he hated his parents for only giving him a single pair of legs. He ran as fast as he could.

However, at this instant, Guo Nu suddenly felt that everything around him had turned illusory, and became unreal. The entire spatial dimension seemed to have been torn to pieces instantly. This included his Class 8 protective soul barrier and his Invincible Barrier.

Guo Nu was dazed. He only felt that his body and spirit had ﬂown into the air, and were ﬂying higher and higher. Everything around him was unreal. Below him, an unprecedentedly bright light made his distorted reality even more surreal… and then, he didn’t know what happened anymore...

Class 9 stationary shells were known as the most destructive Class 9 soul tools. This was because it was very difﬁcult to construct a Class 9 stationary shell that wasn’t weaker than a Class 9 soul tool. In the process of making it, one didn’t have to worry about whether the shell could handle its explosive nature. As a result, Class 9 stationary shells were the symbols of extremity.

More simply put, the power of a Class 9 stationary shell was equivalent to an all-out attack from an Ultimate Douluo. It could even cover a larger region!

Guo Nu wasn’t weak. He was a Class 8 soul engineer. However, he had no chance against a Class 9 shell from such a short distance away, no chance at all.

Annihilation Storm!

Even Huo Yuhao didn’t know the true strength of this stationary shell. He had absconded with the shell before Nangong Wan could warn him.

Right now, this shell that the Holy Ghost Church had used a lot of effort to obtain in the past fully unleashed its strength.

The ﬁrst step was only a terrifying explosion followed by an extreme surge in temperature and heavy pressure. During the explosion, thin bearings were released from the shell. Each of these bearings was only the size of a ﬁngernail. They scattered very quickly during the explosion. They penetrated almost anything, but they would stick to metal the moment they touched it.

They were called Metal Bombs, and were Class 3 soul tools. However, they were also stationary soul tools, and could only be used once.

Metal Bombs were also known for destroying soul tools. They were made from special and rare metals called Golden Fusion Crystals. These rare metals could fuse with most other

metals. Soul engineers used a special point about this rare metal to carve high-explosive core formations on the crystals.

Once these crystals touched other metals and fused, the high- explosive core formations in them would come into effect. Because the crystals were already inside metal, the explosion would occur inside the metal. As a result, the metal would be turned into smithereens during the explosion and scattered, thereby causing even more damage.

These secondary explosions were the reason why this Class 9 shell was called Annihilation Storm.

When creating this Annihilation Storm, one thousand and eighty Metal Bombs had to be created, before being placed inside the Annihilation Storm. After that, Golden Fusion Crystals had to be used, while creating a protective layer to prevent the Metal Bombs from touching any other metals. The protective layer was a vacuum that contained spatial power. This could only be done using some very complex core formations. A strong defensive core formation was then placed on the surface, while all types of explosive core formations were installed inside, along with some complex core formations to support them. The result was this Annihilation Storm.

Once it blew apart, the explosive strength that it unleashed was like an ordinary Class 9 high-explosive stationary shell. After that, the Metal Bombs inside would be scattered in a region spanning a kilometer across. These Metal Bombs would generate a second explosion when they touched any other metals.

As a result, this Annihilation Storm was much stronger when there were a lot of metals around. However, its true explosive strength was still weaker than the stationary shells that the Sun Moon Empire had used to bomb the Ming Dou Mountain Range.

Although Huo Yuhao didn’t know the true strength of this Annihilation Storm, he knew that it had something to do with metals. This time, his target was the soul formation. Moreover, there was no better choice for him, so he unleashed the Annihilation Storm here.

Even Huo Yuhao didn’t expect he’d make such a correct choice.

Under the terrifying explosion, the entire soul formation became like a high-temperature, high-pressure ocean. Almost the entire soul formation suffered from the shockwaves as tremendous booms resonated through the air.

It was a Class 9 stationary shell. It was so terrifying that anyone would shudder just looking at it.

The right thing that Guo Nu did before he died was to command his men to unleash their linked defensive formation. The soul formation of the Second Soul Engineer Legion was engulfed by that linked defensive formation immediately.

When this defensive formation was used too suddenly, it ﬁrst needed Milk Bottles to provide soul power. If it lasted too long, soul masters needed to pour their own soul power in.

As a result, the explosion of the Annihilation Storm was like an explosion within the linked defensive formation. The protective strength of this linked defensive formation was quite impressive. Even though it instantly came under enormous pressure and was slowly breaking down, it still managed to resist the Annihilation Storm at its peak strength.

However, there was still a ﬂaw in this. Because the explosive strength of the Annihilation Storm couldn’t spread out, it naturally took effect on everything within the formation.

Almost all the soul engineers were killed instantly. These soul engineers averaged three rings. How could they possibly resist the strength of the Annihilation Storm? The Metal Bombs that ﬂew out landed inside the formation as they were blocked by the formation itself.

However, there were soul tools everywhere inside the soul formation! What were soul tools made from? Metal!

Metal Bombs were very complementary to metals. This meant that they became even more explosive as a result of this. Only a few rare metals couldn’t be destroyed by these Metal Bombs.

However, the soul tools used by the Second Soul Engineer Legion weren’t the best in the Sun Moon Empire. How could they possibly be made from the rarest metals?

Suddenly, the Metal Bombs that were deﬂected found their carriers.

In the next moment, a second round of explosions occurred.

The linked defensive formation collapsed. Broken pieces of metal were ﬂung everywhere.

Linked defensive formations were supposed to be stronger, but they were mainly used to block external attacks. Since when were they used to contain attacks? It wasn’t easy for this linked defensive formation to contain the ﬁrst explosion. However, as all the soul tools were destroyed, the linked defensive formation also collapsed. It had no chance against the second round of explosions.

The nearby tents were immediately torn to pieces. The broken pieces of metal were ﬂung more than a thousand meters away. Within this region, almost no soldier survived. The explosion and ﬂying metal shrapnel opened a huge gap in the Sun Moon Empire’s base in just a couple seconds.

The explosions were so tremendous that the entire base was alerted!

------------

At the core region where the evil soul masters were stationed, all the evil soul masters rushed out of their tents, and only saw surging lights in the distance.

Suddenly, deafening alarms rang out across the entire base. Linked defensive formations in the various soul formations were unleashed. These linked defensive formations appeared extremely bright at night.

Zhongli Wu also walked out from his tent. Seeing the bright lights in the distance, he was also astonished.

“What’s going on? Where is that place?” Zhongli Wu shouted.

Evil soul masters were very united. Many evil soul masters immediately gathered towards Zhongli Wu. Huo Yuhao

estimated that there were around forty soul masters here. Apart from the Titled Douluo, the rest were all at least Soul Emperors.

Tang Ya naturally walked out from her tent. She looked as indifferent as ever, not much different from before. The Scorpion Tiger Douluo Zhang Peng was beside her. He looked on in shock, very grim.

Zhongli Wu was very calm, and said, “An enemy attack! Everyone, be prepared to defend! Don’t separate from the group without my orders.”

Screams rang out in the distance. The sky above Heavenly Spirit City brightened, and countless soul masters, emanating light from their bodies, shone brightly on the horizon.

This was…

Chapter 499: An All-out Decisive Battle?

Zhongli Wu was astonished. Just from what he could see, there were more than three thousand soul masters ﬂying in the air, which meant every single one of the Heavenly Soul Empire’s main forces who could use ﬂying-type soul tools. Were the Heavenly Soul Empire making a last-ditch attempt?

The Third Elder walked swiftly in front of Zhongli Wu and whispered, “Supreme Leader, the explosion should be from where the second soul engineer legion is stationed. Judging from how forceful the explosion was and the soul power undulations in the air, it’s very likely to have been from a stationary soul cannon shell.”

Zhongli Wu was both shocked and furious. “What? A stationary soul cannon shell? Isn’t the Sun Moon Empire the only one who possesses things as terrifyingly destructive as that? How did the Heavenly Soul Empire come to have one of those? Even if they did, how did they ﬁre it into our camp? What has happened to our surveillance soul tools?”

Of course, none of the evil soul masters next to him could answer his questions.

Huo Yuhao was standing among the other evil soul masters like Nangong Wan was, but his attention was fully concentrated on Tang Ya. He was waiting for an opportunity, and this opportunity was slowly forming after the enormous explosion, which, along with the Heavenly Soul Empire’s attack, looked like an all-out assault had begun!

The Sun Moon Empire’s reaction was quick. Even though the explosion caught everyone off-guard, the entire camp began to move even as the hurricane of metal was wreaking havoc. Orders were given one after another, and Lin Hai, who was the marshal, had already entered the command tent, and was directing his army.

The other four soul tool fronts weren’t affected by any aftershocks or ripples. They activated their linked defensive formations, and they also began to charge their linked offensive soul tools to prepare for battle.

Back when the Sun Moon Empire was constructing their base in this place, they had been prepared for a long, drawn-out battle. They had camped several dozen kilometers from Heavenly Spirit City.

There were only several special stationary soul cannon shells that could reach that far. Therefore, not even their linked offensive formations could cross that distance. They had to wait for the Heavenly Soul Empire’s powerful individuals to come within range before they could retaliate.

A messenger swiftly ran over and announced, “Imperial Tutor, Commander Lin Hai invites you to discuss matters in the commander’s tent.”

Zhongli Wu nodded and said, “Please follow me, Consecrates. Everyone else will remain here. Do not leave unless absolutely necessary.”

“Yes!” The group of evil soul masters bowed in acknowledgement.

Zhongli Wu brought six Consecrates, including the Scorpion Tiger Douluo, and proceeded quickly towards the command tent. The other evil soul masters all remained behind, including Tang Ya.

Huo Yuhao heaved a sigh of relief when he saw Zhongli Wu didn’t take Tang Ya away. He could see his opportunity coming.

There were more than thirty evil soul masters remaining. There were four Titled Douluo within this group, ‘including’ Huo Yuhao, who was impersonating the Masquerade Douluo; Nangong Wan, the Third Elder, and the Fourth Elder.

That meant their real enemies were only the Third and Fourth Elders. Tang Ya was probably the strongest one out of the other evil soul masters. Even though there were several Soul Douluo, they were few in number.

Deafening war cries could be heard in the skies over Heavenly Spirit City, like there weren’t just many soul masters moving out in the sky. It looked like their army was also pushing forward over the ground.

The Sun Moon Empire couldn’t understand why the Heavenly Soul Empire had chosen to launch an assault at night, because nighttime wasn’t beneﬁcial for their foot soldiers! Furthermore, the Sun Moon Empire had several soul tool fronts in place, and with how strong they were, even Titled Douluo would be going towards certain death if they charged

them. The Heavenly Soul Empire would have to pay with far too many lives without Heavenly Spirit City’s protection to reach them.

However, the Sun Moon Empire didn’t dare to underestimate their enemies, even if that was the case. The large explosion in the second soul engineer legion camp was enough to shock everyone. If the Heavenly Soul Empire could do that, what else could they do?

Huo Yuhao gestured at Nangong Wan with his eyes, and Nangong Wan nodded at him softly.

Nobody knew what the enormous explosion was, but Nangong Wan could faintly guess. The only thing he didn’t understand was exactly how Huo Yuhao had managed to place the stationary soul cannon shell into the second soul engineer legion’s camp.

A thread of spiritual power drifted over to Huo Yuhao and integrated into this body. Spiritual power was formless, and he wasn’t afraid of anyone discovering it at all. He withdrew that thread, and could feel his spirit rejuvenate. The linked defensive dome had helped him, because his spiritual avatar

had just barely risen into the sky enough before Annihilation Storm exploded. Guo Nu had ordered the linked defensive dome’s activation, which blocked the explosion’s ﬁrst blast, and gave Huo Yuhao’s spiritual avatar the chance to escape and return.

“Second brother, let me go back and get something. I’ll be back in no time,” Huo Yuhao said to Nangong Wan.

Nangong Wan nodded and said, “Go, come back as soon as possible.”

“Yes,” Huo Yuhao acknowledged before he proceeded towards his own tent.

The four Elders took charge of this group. Even though Zhongli Wu had just instructed them to remain here, he didn’t say that they absolutely couldn’t leave. The Masquerade Douluo was an Elder, so nobody stopped him.

The relationship between Elders was different from that between the Consecrates. There were evil soul masters among the Consecrates, and powerful foreign soul masters. Even

though they had a very high status, their relationships with one another weren’t intimate at all. The Elders were different, as they had almost grown up together in the Holy Ghost Church, and had been together for several decades now, some even more than a century. They had a good relationship with each other. The Masquerade Douluo didn’t quite ﬁt into the group, but he was still friendly enough with the other Elders. Therefore, the Third Elder and the Fourth Elder didn’t speak out against him.

Huo Yuhao quickly moved towards his tent, and returned in the blink of an eye. Nangong Wan glanced at him and nodded gently, but nobody was paying attention to them.

The Sun Moon Empire’s soldiers were fully mobilized. The army gathered swiftly, and military orders were passed out one after another from the command tent. The Sun Moon Empire’s soul engineers were gathering at the soul tool fronts, and even appeared in the sky. Even though they were far fewer in number compared to the Heavenly Soul Empire, everyone knew that soul engineers had a great advantage on a battleﬁeld against soul masters. They were an entire body with their linked soul tools.

The explosion caused by Annihilation Storm was starting to recede and settle down. The terrifying explosion had engulfed almost a quarter of the Sun Moon Empire’s main camp. Even though only the areas near the explosion’s epicenter had sustained heavy losses, the explosion brought chaos and panic to the entire army.

The command tent had to direct and prepare their army to defend against their enemies, and they also had to console their soldiers and take care of the wounded at the same time. The entire Sun Moon Empire’s camp appeared to fall into disarray.

The Third Elder frowned and wondered aloud, “That’s weird... why would a stationary soul cannon shell explode in our own camp?”

“Could it have been an accident?” the Fourth Elder asked.

The Third Elder shook his head and glanced at him disdainfully. “You’re so ignorant. The second soul engineer legion doesn’t even have a stationary soul cannon shell with their status, so how could it be accidentally triggered? Even the beast-ranked soul engineer legions have one at most, and

they’re under strict protection. We don’t even have a single one in our army camp because the two beast-ranked soul engineer legions used their stock in the war before this.”

“Then what’s going on?” the Fourth Elder asked, confused. “Can it be that spies have snuck into our camp despite our strict defenses? At least, I’m conﬁdent that nobody has that ability.”

Nangong Wan cut in appropriately and said, “Back when Old Seven and I went around the Heavenly Soul Empire, we discovered that Shrek Academy’s people had appeared. Can this be them? It seems we have sustained incredibly large losses this time, and a soul engineer legion has disappeared just like that! We aren’t even talking about how many normal soldiers we’ve lost yet.”

The Third Elder frowned even more tightly and said, “Yes! It’s no wonder the Supreme Leader isn’t letting us go outside. Otherwise, I would want to see what kind of stationary soul cannon shell that was.”

Nangong Wan said, “The Supreme Leader is doing this for our own good; he’s concerned about everyone’s safety. You

don’t have to talk so much.”

“Alright.” The Third Elder scanned the other evil soul masters. Everyone lowered their heads at the same time when they met his gaze, except for Tang Ya.

Huo Yuhao said, “Second brother, why don’t I take a look at the command tent? I want to ﬁnd out exactly what is going on.”

Nangong Wan answered, “Go. But I reckon the Supreme Leader isn’t in a good mood, so you’d best be careful.”

“Yes.” Huo Yuhao acknowledged as he walked towards the command tent. Evil soul masters like them, especially those who were Titled Douluo, had a transcendent status within the army camp. Even though they were on high alert and heightened vigilance, nobody dared to stop them.

The Third Elder watched Huo Yuhao leave, and he couldn’t help but comment, “Masquerade has been a lot more normal over the past few days. I think being with him is a lot more

comfortable than before. I heard that he hasn’t been ruining girls after the Supreme Leader chided him that day?”

Nangong Wan chuckled and said, “Maybe he’s afraid that the Supreme Leader will punish him.”

The Third Elder grunted and said, “He knows how to be afraid? This isn’t the ﬁrst or second time that the Supreme Leader has chided him for that bad habit of his. Seems like he has promised him something this time. Do you know what that is, second brother?”

Nangong Wan shook his head and said, “That, I don’t know. You’d have to ask him or the Supreme Leader if you want to know. Him being more normal is a good thing.”

The Fourth Elder chortled and said, “Yes, that fellow is the most abnormal between us brothers. He’s always living in his own world, so being more normal is a good thing. We can do anything if us brothers are united.”

Just as he was talking in amusement, the Third Elder suddenly frowned and commented, “Why do I feel like it’s a

little cold? Is the weather changing too?”

Nangong Wan stared at him doubtfully and said, “Are you getting old? How are you feeling cold? Why don’t I feel cold?”

Boom!

There was no warning at all as Nangong Wan’s body suddenly froze, and he was blasted forward like a cannonball. He crashed into four or ﬁve relatively weaker evil soul masters as he ﬂew and sent them ﬂying away, every single one of them crying out in pain as blood spewed from their mouths. Their bodies were all twisted from the collision, and they didn’t seem like they could live through that.

“Second brother!” Both the Third Elder and the Fourth Elder were astonished.

The change happened too abruptly. A blurry green shadow appeared almost instantly beside the Third Elder, and an incredibly sharp aura descended upon him.

The Third Elder was startled, caught off-guard. He believed himself strong, but his enemy’s soul power undulations suppressed him so much that he found it hard to breathe. He clapped his hands subconsciously as he activated his Class 9 protective soul barrier and his Invincible Barrier at the same time.

Intense explosions could be heard as his Class 9 protective soul barrier was torn apart. Golden light ﬂickered continuously on his Invincible Barrier, and it seemed like it was cracking apart.

An Invincible Barrier’s greatest problem was that it could only be crafted at Class 7. It was more suitable for relatively weaker soul masters, and it was most effective at that standard. However, it was a lot less effective for and against Titled Douluo.

The green shadow gradually materialized: it was Elder Song!

Elder Song broke through the Third Elder’s external defenses with a single strike. Her attacks were lightning quick as countless green shadows engulfed him.

Blinding golden ﬂames lit up the sky on the other side. Deep booming phoenix calls were heard as the Fourth Elder was enveloped in a sphere of radiant ﬂames. His Netherworld Sword ﬂew up and down, but he could barely hold on as he was beaten back continuously.

Silhouettes appeared at the same time all around them, and they swiftly launched an assault against the evil soul masters, who were so startled that they froze instinctively.

These people had appeared all too suddenly. Six or seven evil soul masters were heavily injured from their attacks as soon as they appeared, and in addition to Nangong Wan, who was sent ﬂying away, a third of the evil soul masters’ strength was shaved off.

Shrek Academy was the one responsible for this sudden ambush.

According to Huo Yuhao’s plan, this battle had to be fought and ended as quickly as possible. Huo Yuhao was escorting his companions out when he returned to his tent before this.

The Holy Ghost Church’s Supreme Leader led six Consecrates to the command tent, so these evil soul masters’ overall strength was a lot weaker. How could Huo Yuhao let go of such an opportunity?

The Heavenly Soul Empire’s assault was just a feint. They had no intention of clashing head-on with the Sun Moon Empire’s soul tool forts, and their attack happened at the time they had agreed on.

To ensure that everything would be perfect, Huo Yuhao told Princess Wei Na that there were two key points to tonight’s operation. First, they had to agree on a time, and secondly, the Heavenly Soul Empire had to wait until the Sun Moon Empire was in chaos and disarray from the explosion.

The Heavenly Soul Empire was only to launch their feint attack when both things happened. If the explosion didn’t occur, then the feint was to be canceled.

The plan was more successful than they had expected. The Heavenly Soul Empire were overjoyed when they saw such a powerful explosion going off in the Sun Moon Empire’s camp, and several senior ofﬁcers even believed that the Heavenly Soul

Empire should take this chance to launch an all-out offensive. However, this idea was rejected by the other higher-ups, with Wei Na at the helm.

The Heavenly Soul Empire wouldn’t launch an offensive like that unless they had absolute conﬁdence, because they couldn’t afford to sustain the losses. The army outside Heavenly Spirit City was the last of what the Heavenly Soul Empire could muster, and if they lost this strength, then the Heavenly Soul Empire wouldn’t be able to recover.

Huo Yuhao had used Imitation to bring everyone out of his tent, and with cover from Imitation and his formidable spiritual power, not even powerful Titled Douluo like the Third Elder and the Fourth Elder realized what was happening. Of course, for that to happen, Nangong Wan had to do what he needed to do.

He had secretly released his soul power when they were conversing and created a barrier behind them, and trying as much as possible to block off their sense of their surroundings, allowing Shrek Academy to ambush them like that when they made their move.

What was Huo Yuhao doing? He had an important task. Many of the Sun Moon Empire’s senior ofﬁcials and some of the Holy Ghost Church’s most powerful individuals were gathered at the command tent, which their battle was happening not far from. Their plan would have to be abandoned prematurely if the Supreme Leader came to rescue his companions, if he realized that something was wrong. Furthermore, their lives would be in danger!

Therefore, Huo Yuhao went to the command tent to place a spiritual barrier outside it, and cut off any soul power undulations and sound from the outside world.

Even Elder Song and Yan Shaozhe would have trouble doing this, because they had to accomplish that task with soul power, and soul power undulations were too easily discovered.

Huo Yuhao could rely on his formidable spiritual power, and with Imitation, his Spiritual Interference Domain, and his immensely powerful control over his spiritual power, ﬁnishing this task was a lot easier.

Huo Yuhao had seemed to leave quietly and casually, but he had already used his full strength. He had left a hidden

spiritual avatar at the battleﬁeld, and used Imitation through his spiritual avatar to conceal everyone from Shrek. On the other side, he had tried his best to form the strongest spiritual barrier that he could conjure so that he could completely separate the commander’s tent from the outside world, just so Zhongli Wu wouldn’t discover what was happening here.

Huo Yuhao was clear that he couldn’t do this for long, because if he wanted to cut off sound and soul power undulations, he would have to cut off everything, and it would be relatively quiet inside the command tent. Zhongli Wu probably wouldn’t realize what was happening for a short period of time, but that was hard to say if a longer time passed.

The Third Elder and the Fourth Elder were suppressed in an instant when Shrek launched an all-out attack. After all, they were facing two Transcendent Douluo, and that was especially true when Elder Song was a Rank 97 Transcendent Douluo. It wasn’t hard to imagine her ﬁghting strength with her incredible speed.

But evil soul masters did have quite an advantage compared to other soul masters of the same rank. The Third Elder and the Fourth Elder weren’t completely run over even though they were at an absolute disadvantage.

A barrier that resembled a web of lightning appeared around the Third Elder and blocked Elder Song’s relentless assault; it was a soul tool he had used to protect himself.

The Third Elder’s title was Dark Lightning, the Dark Lightning Douluo, and he was a soul engineer at the same time. He had fused his martial soul with a soul tool that he had created himself, and possessed a set of unique ﬁghting abilities. He ampliﬁed the power of his soul skills with soul tools, and all his attacks possessed the force of Dark Lightning. This Dark Lightning possessed the formidable element of lightning along with a thread of evil, an evil that could only be absorbed from a pile of dead people. The Third Elder’s powers became stronger when there were more dead people around.

The Annihilation Storm had just killed many soul engineers and soldiers in the explosion, and all that dark and evil aura wasn’t far from this place. The Third Elder could channel some of that, and he used his full strength as he unleashed his Dark Lightning and released all sorts of protective soul tools. Only then could he barely protect his life under Elder Song’s swift and ferocious onslaught.

But the Third Elder was feeling terribly bitter. It didn’t take long before Elder Song had damaged one of his three strongest soul tools, while the other two tools also had problems to varied extents under Elder Song’s formidable attacks. These losses by themselves gave him a heartache.

The Fourth Elder’s situation was even worse than the Third Elder. The Fourth Elder’s title was Netherworld, the Netherworld Douluo, and his martial soul was the Netherworld Sword.

Back then, he had teamed up with the Third Elder and forced Huo Yuhao to burn his spiritual sea to escape. But he was now facing the Dean of Shrek Academy’s Martial Soul Department, the Dragon Emperor Douluo Mu En’s eldest disciple, and the next heir to the Sea God’s Pavilion.

Yan Shaozhe was one rank beneath Elder Song in terms of cultivation, but his potential was a lot greater. Back then, Mu En had hopes that he could become an Ultimate Douluo, since only Ultimate Douluo were worthy of becoming Master of the Sea God’s Pavilion.

Yan Shaozhe’s martial soul, the Radiant Phoenix, gave him the title of Radiant Phoenix Douluo. His Radiant Phoenix was a fusion between light and ﬁre, just like Bei Bei’s Radiant Holy Dragon was a fusion between light and lightning. Even though he didn’t have a pure Ultimate martial soul, the combination of the elements of light and ﬁre was a fantastic counter to the Netherworld Douluo’s abilities. There was an enormous gap between their cultivations at the same time. The Netherworld Douluo was already bleeding all over his face, and he had sustained relatively severe injuries as he fought for his life. He didn’t hesitate to burn his soul power, and he channeled his soul core to the highest possible level before he could even defend himself against Yan Shaozhe’s attacks. However, even if he could stay alive in the end, he would be so heavily injured that his cultivation would probably regress.

Shrek Academy had gained an absolute advantage in these two battles, while the other battles weren’t considered too difﬁcult. The reason for that was because Shrek had, besides two Transcendent Douluo, a Savage Beast!

The Ice Bear King, Little Bai, was the last to make his move, because he needed time to charge up his attack. When he walked out from Huo Yuhao’s Imitation, a formidable blizzard howled out and wreaked havoc. Under his deliberate control,

the blizzard was maintained only around the evil soul masters, and barreled towards them.

Back then, he had brought his Blizzard down from the sky and held back the entire Fire Phoenix Soul Engineer Legion. He was now unleashing it from the ground, and its force was much more terrifying.

However, Huo Yuhao was afraid that the blizzard would be too strong, and the Holy Ghost Church’s Supreme Leader would be startled. Therefore, he had asked Little Bai to reduce his blizzard’s strength. Otherwise, the blizzard would have been even more frightening.

Little Bai almost suppressed the rest of the evil soul masters all by himself. The gap in their cultivations and the frightening power of Ultimate Ice meant that those evil soul masters, who were only Soul Douluo at best, could only ﬁght to protect their lives.

Shrek Academy’s team had appeared way too suddenly. The evil soul masters didn’t expect, even in their wildest dreams, that so many enemies would appear in the core areas of the Sun Moon Empire’s camp, and that their enemies would be so powerful. They were caught off-guard from the get-go.

Tang Ya was possibly the calmest out of all the evil soul masters. She reacted immediately after Nangong Wan was sent hurtling away. Dark blue light ﬂickered on her body and eight soul rings swiftly appeared around her. She actually had seven black rings and one red ring; nobody knew how the Holy Ghost Church had helped her soul rings evolve like that.

Dark blue Dark Bluesilver vines immediately burst through the air one after another as they whipped towards Elder Song in an attempt to help the Third Elder deal with her.

But how powerful was Elder Song? Her Greenshadow Godly Eagle was wind-type, and Tang Ya’s Dark Bluesilver Vines were sliced into pieces by formless wind blades before they came too close to her. Tang Ya couldn’t possibly hurt her even if Elder Song wasn’t targeting her.

Just as Tang Ya was about to unleash her most powerful soul skill, she suddenly saw a person appear in front of her. This person’s entire body ﬂickered with streaks of lightning, a man who was full of passion and emotion.

She was just about to unleash an attack at full strength, but for some reason, she froze when she saw this man, and didn’t unleash her next soul skill.

“Xiao… Ya…” Bei Bei’s voice trembled, sounding like a whimper. He couldn’t control his emotions at all when he saw Tang Ya.

Tang Ya was still as beautiful as ever, but she didn’t have her liveliness and her energy from before, and seemed like a statue, like the walking dead.

Huo Yuhao had already seen what Tang Ya was like, but he didn’t dare tell Bei Bei, because he was afraid that Bei Bei would be sad. Bei Bei could now feel his heart knotting up painfully as he saw what Tang Ya was like.

“Xiao Ya, Xiao Ya, I’m Bei Bei! Do… do you remember me?” Tears ﬂowed down Bei Bei’s cheeks uncontrollably, and even though he was releasing his martial soul, he didn’t have any will to ﬁght at all. His entire body was just quivering before her.

Tears didn’t come easy from a real man. Ever since Xiao Ya had gone missing, Bei Bei had been going through agonizing torture in his heart. He believed that it was his fault for not taking care of Xiao Ya that she had ended up in the Holy Ghost Church’s hands.

The last time they met was on the competition stage. When Tang Ya used her Bluesilver Tyrant Spear and impaled him, he had really wanted to just let go and liberate himself. He was absolutely willing, even if he had to die in Tang Ya’s embrace.

This was the second time that they had met after that time, now among endless soldiers, and in the darkness of the night. Bei Bei stared at Tang Ya, who was like a zombie, and he couldn’t control his emotions at all.

Tang Ya stared at Bei Bei, who had tears covering his entire face. She seemed a little frozen as well, but her hand was still

slowly rising in Bei Bei’s direction. Her eyes suddenly became cold in the next moment, and countless dark blue shadows lunged right at Bei Bei.

Bei Bei just stood there, motionless. He still didn’t believe that Tang Ya would harm him, even at a time like this.

“What are you doing, Bei Bei?” Xu Sanshi shouted in shock, and a golden light appeared in front of him in the next moment. An enormous shield protected Bei Bei behind it, blocking all the blue shadows going right for him.

Bei Bei’s body trembled as he snapped around at Xu Sanshi, who was rushing to his side. “Don’t interfere, Sanshi! I don’t believe Xiao Ya will harm me.”

Xu Sanshi retorted angrily, “Are you insane? Can you not see that she has been brainwashed, and her mind is being controlled? We have to leave as quickly as possible! Little junior brother cannot keep that up for too long! What kind of romantic game are you playing at now? If you want to move Xiao Ya and let her recover, you have to wait for when everyone has returned safely. Why are you so muddled? Are you trying to kill everyone?”

Xu Sanshi didn’t stop as he hollered furiously at Bei Bei. His Xuanwu Shield became a shield wall as he blocked all the area attacks from Tang Ya’s Dark Bluesilver Grass.

Even though Tang Ya was already an eight-ringed Soul Douluo, Xu Sanshi’s strength had increased exponentially ever since he had fused with his Spirit. His Golden Tortoise was hovering beside him, and it released circles of golden light one after another that greatly boosted his Xuanwu Shield.

Bei Bei was momentarily stunned after Xu Sanshi berated him. However, some clarity ﬁnally returned to his eyes as he said, “I’m sorry, I was wrong.” He swiftly came out from behind Xu Sanshi’s shield as he spoke, and he pounced right at Tang Ya amidst ﬂickering golden lightning, unleashing his Radiant Holy Dragon.

Bei Bei used Thunderous Dragon Claw, his ﬁrst soul skill, and slashed at Tang Ya as he used Vigorous Thunderbolt, his second soul skill, at the same time. Thousands of streaks of lightning permeated the skies as they sliced away the Dark Blusilver Grass in the air.

An elegant white stallion ﬂickering with golden light appeared before Bei Bei, and dragon scales immediately covered Bei Bei’s body. It was Bei Bei’s Spirit, his Heavenly Dragon Horse.

Back then, Bei Bei’s Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon had ofﬁcially evolved into a Radiant Holy Dragon after he fused with the Heavenly Dragon Horse. Bei Bei’s aura now swelled as his Spirit appeared. Even though he wasn’t using his martial soul true body, his ﬁghting strength was near that standard with the Heavenly Dragon Horse’s support.

Tang Ya’s eyes were ice-cold from the beginning to the end. She raised her hands and made a grab with her left hand in the air as her Bluesilver Tyrant Spear gradually took form. She pushed out with her right hand towards Bei Bei, and an enormous bluish-black web opened up. It blocked his Thunderous Dragon Claw before it reached for him.

The web was becoming larger and larger as it ﬂew, and it could hold its own against Bei Bei’s radiant lightning.

Bei Bei stomped his right foot heavily on the ground as the lightning on his body ﬂourished. That was his third soul skill,

Thunderous Fury!

Golden circles of light were released beneath his feet in the next moment. He used Dragon Emperor’s Realm Quake, and his aura rose incredibly quickly to an extremely fearsome level.

This was the reason why Bei Bei didn’t use his martial soul true body. His ﬁghting strength would be even stronger if he was in his martial soul true body, but his Dragon Emperor’s Realm Quake could only be used at its full strength with Dragon Emperor Demonic Rupture. His martial soul true body didn’t have such delicate control, and at the bottom of it all, he was still afraid that he would hurt Tang Ya.

A pair of enormous dragon claws rose as they slashed at the enormous web. The large web dropped down and closed up as it trapped him inside.

Bei Bei ﬁxed his gaze as he shouted, and tore to his sides savagely. He realized as he was tearing that the web was both extremely viscous and tough at the same time, and he couldn’t tear open this web even with his strength.

Furthermore, there were many bluish-black spikes on this web, which released extremely pure energies of darkness that attempted to worm their way into his body. Bei Bei would have been injured as he slashed against those spikes if not for his Radiant Holy Dragon’s scales protecting him.

But Bei Bei was a powerful Soul Sage, after all. With his Heavenly Dragon Horse supporting him, he used Dragon Emperor Demonic Rupture as blinding golden light shot into the air. Intense energies of light gave way to pure power as the large web was torn in two. As he tossed those two pieces away, they were thrown towards two evil soul masters in the distance.

However, Bei Bei could clearly feel his scalp going numb in this moment. Tang Ya’s Bluesilver Tyrant Spear had taken form, and the tip of the spear was pointed right at him. She was in a stance like she was going to throw it.

In this moment, Tang Ya was the only person that Bei Bei could see. He could still vividly remember, back on the competition stage, Tang Ya had used her Bluesilver Tyrant Spear to impale him. He didn’t dodge last time, and he had used his passionate and warm blood to meet Tang Ya’s attack. He wanted Tang Ya to feel the love that he had for her in his

blood. Back then, Bei Bei felt that Tang Ya seemed to recover part of her memory from his repeated calls.

They were almost in the exact same situation in this moment. Many emotions surfaced in Bei Bei’s mind as he faced her Bluesilver Tyrant Spear once more.

Tang Ya clutched her Bluesilver Tyrant Spear as she stared at the man who had just torn apart her Spiderweb Binding. She seemed to be momentarily stunned, and her ice-cold eyes ﬂowed with a tinge of hesitation.

Xu Sanshi arrived beside Bei Bei with a single stride. He wasn’t afraid of her Bluesilver Tyrant Spear, and his Xuanwu Shield was at the ready.

“Sanshi!” Bei Bei suddenly growled.

“What?” Xu Sanshi turned around at him.

Bei Bei stared at him deeply and said, “Leave this to me.

Trust me!”

Xu Sanshi quivered as he said solemnly, “Bei Bei!”

Bei Bei lowered his voice. “Trust me!”

Xu Sanshi took a deep breath. He held onto his golden Xuanwu Shield as he took a step back. However, he didn’t leave the battle.

The Ice Bear King, Little Bai, was controlling the entire battleﬁeld; Shrek Academy’s warriors had the absolute upper hand even though they were few in number.

The most intimidating ones from the Tang Sect were Ji Juechen and Ye Guyi. Ji Juechen’s Judgment Sword unleashed formidable sword intent, and every swing of his sword was a nightmare for those evil soul masters.

Ye Guyi’s situation was even better. Her martial soul was a Holy Angel, while her type wasn’t light. Instead, her martial soul was a holy-type martial soul. Her aura would be strengthened every time she killed an evil soul master, and

here, she immediately surpassed the strength of a normal Soul Sage.

Ye Guyi’s martial soul was one of the strongest ones within the entire Tang Sect. In terms of just martial souls, her martial soul probably surpassed either of Huo Yuhao’s.

The element of holiness contained within a Holy Angel was extremely rare, and was born to ﬁght against evil. A Holy Angel would be strengthened every time it killed something evil.

Ye Guyi had just slaughtered an evil Soul Emperor, dissipating his martial soul into dust and nothingness. What she gained from this kill was equivalent to cultivating for three months by herself.

It wasn’t easy to ﬁnd something evil from day to day, but the Holy Ghost Church was a most suitable opponent for Ye Guyi to strengthen herself with. Furthermore, almost every single evil soul master’s abilities would be countered before her Holy Angel.

The element of light could counter evil, but it wasn’t as strong. Evil soul masters had been investigating how to deal with the element of light for many years, and they had a set of their own methods. However, there wasn’t much they could do against the element of holiness. Holiness was a natural counter to them, and holiness always trumped evil, so it was a one- sided affair. The reason why the element of holiness was so powerful was that it had almost no natural enemies, while it could counter all evil and darkness.

Chapter 500: Phoenix Covering Retreat

An avenging spirit ﬂew in front of Ye Guyi. If she were an ordinary Soul Emperor, she would have to be very cautious when facing an evil soul master. If she wasn’t cautious enough, her spiritual sea might be affected. However, against Ye Guyi, she only shone with golden light before the avenging spirit screamed tragically and vanished. The power of puriﬁcation even caused the avenging spirit to be sucked into Ye Guyi’s body to replenish her and increase her cultivation.

As a result, Ye Guyi’s ﬁghting strength was fully unleashed as she fought under the Ice Bear King’s protection. She was the nightmare of every evil soul master.

Huo Yuhao had risked everything to save her before because she could naturally curb evil soul masters. As Ye Guyi’s abilities increased, her deterrence against evil soul masters grew stronger, too.

Ye Guyi was already close to becoming a Soul Sage. After this ﬁght, she was conﬁdent that she could make a breakthrough to become a Soul Sage. When that happened, her Holy Angel would have four wings, and her overall abilities would greatly

increase. She wouldn’t be afraid even against an evil Soul Douluo!

Nan Qiuqiu followed beside Ye Guyi, coordinating with her. Ye Guyi’s Holy Angel was the most effective against evil soul masters, while Nan Qiuqiu was using her Ruby Dragon’s Annihilation abilities to protect her, enabling Ye Guyi’s offensive power to be unleashed to the limit.

It wasn’t just Nan Qiuqiu. Xiao Xiao was also protecting Ye Guyi. Her Threelives Soulcrush Cauldron was used as a control-type martial soul to isolate Ye Guyi from their enemies. This prevented too many enemies from appearing directly in front of her, allowing Ye Guyi to better unleash her abilities.

Apart from the three of them, everyone else also demonstrated their powers. Jiang Nannan’s abilities had greatly increased ever since she had fused with the Ruby Soft Tendon Python’s Spirit. Right now, a python over three meters long ran riot on the battleﬁeld. The strangest part of it was that it possessed the abilities that Jiang Nannan had. Just this alone was enough to make it as strong as Xu Sanshi’s Golden Tortoise.

Jiang Nannan had already transformed into her Martial Soul True Body at this moment, but it wasn’t her Softbone Rabbit. Rather, she had fused her True Body into her Ruby Soft Tendon Python, increasing her Spirit’s abilities greatly. She relied on the size of her python to disrupt proceedings on the battleﬁeld, and the evil soul masters were unable to gather.

“Xiao Ya!” Bei Bei shouted at Tang Ya, who had already raised her Bluesilver Tyrant Spear.

Tang Ya’s body shook. She was already hesitating a little. When she heard Bei Bei’s call, her actions slowed even further.

Bei Bei removed his Dragon Emperor’s Realm Quake and slowly walked towards Tang Ya. With every step he took, his body dimmed slightly. After three steps, his dragon scales had completely disappeared, and his martial soul had even been retracted. He revealed his true appearance.

“Xiao Ya, I’m Bei Bei. Do you remember me?” Bei Bei walked towards Tang Ya.

Xu Sanshi held his Golden Xuanwu Shield tightly, and suddenly swept his hand across his body. His shield ﬂew out and struck a few evil Soul Emperors that were charging over.

He was worried about Bei Bei. However, he couldn’t stop him at this moment. From that earlier moment, he had already seen the determined look in Bei Bei’s eyes. Even though he was very close to Bei Bei, it was his ﬁrst time seeing such a look in his eyes.

He knew that Bei Bei had already made up his mind. No matter what, he had to try. As a brother, he couldn’t stop him. If he were in such a situation with Jiang Nannan, he would also do the same thing.

Bei Bei, come on! Xu Sanshi shouted silently, and focused his gaze on Tang Ya. Once something went wrong, he would dash in to save Bei Bei immediately.

Tang Ya was a little dazed as she stood there. There was still a large bunch of dark Bluesilver Grass dancing around her feet. However, they didn’t attack. The sharp Bluesilver Tyrant Spear ﬂashed with a dark-blue light. Its dominant aura made it felt

like it could pierce through the sky. However, she didn’t thrust it toward Bei Bei.

Bei Bei was still walking toward her. His gaze became even gentler, and there wasn’t even a streak of soul power undulations coming from him.

“Xiao Ya, I won’t do anything to you. How can I possibly hurt you? You are my Xiao Ya, and you’ll always be. If you want to attack, then kill me. I’m willing even if my blood stains your body.”

“Don’t come over!” Tang Ya suddenly shouted. This was also her ﬁrst time speaking on this battleﬁeld. Her voice was no longer as cold and indifferent as it was before. Rather, she sounded a little afraid and panicky.

After hearing her speak, Xu Sanshi heaved a sigh of relief. Tang Ya’s emotions were roused after seeing Bei Bei. This meant that he was still in her memory.

Bei Bei didn’t listen to Tang Ya, and continued to walk forward. He wasn’t very far from Tang Ya to begin with, and

now, he was almost in front of her.

“Don’t come over!” Tang Ya’s voice turned a little sharper.

Her icy-cold eyes were ﬁlled with indecision.

“Xiao Ya, Xiao Ya… I’m Bei Bei.” Bei Bei continued to walk forward. He was calling Tang Ya’s name as if he were calling his own wife.

Finally, he was in front of her. She didn’t move her spear. It was even shaking in her grip.

Bei Bei was now right in front of the spear, but he didn’t stop. He walked directly into the spear, and the tip of the spear pierced his shoulder. There was a trace of red on the tip of the spear, which spread along the dark patterns on it.

As Tang Ya’s cultivation increased, the spear was able to absorb blood. As it absorbed blood, it also fused the dark poison elements inside it into the enemy’s blood.

Bei Bei turned pale, but his gaze was still as gentle as ever. “Xiao Ya, I’m Bei Bei.”

Seeing that the tip of her spear had pierced Bei Bei’s shoulder, Tang Ya was stunned, and just looked at him in a daze. It was like she was looking at some unbelievable thing.

Bei Bei moved another inch forward. Immediately, the spear pierced deeper into him. From the start until the end, Bei Bei didn’t reveal a painful look on his face. There was only a gentle look throughout.

“Xiao Ya, I’m Bei Bei,” Bei Bei continued to call softly.

“Ah!” Tang Ya started to shout frantically, and furiously let go of the spear in her hand. Without her soul power, her spear immediately dissipated, and turned into streaks of dark-blue light that disappeared into the air. The Bluesilver Grass around Tang Ya also instantly disappeared. Her face was very pale, and her body started to shake tremendously. Her hands were on her head.

“My head hurts. It hurts so, so much.”

Bei Bei resisted the pain in his shoulder and rushed forward, hugging Tang Ya.

Even though Tang Ya’s body was icy-cold right now, and was ﬁlled with an intense aura of darkness, when Bei Bei hugged her, tears ﬂowed from her eyes uncontrollably.

How many years had it been? Ever since Tang Ya went missing, it had been many years. He was ﬁnally able to hold her in his arms again.

Xiao Ya, you don’t know how blissful I feel right now. No matter what price I have to pay, I’ll treat you.

Seeing that Bei Bei had succeeded, Xu Sanshi was delighted. He charged towards Bei Bei and whispered, “Alright, let’s go quickly, so that we can ask little junior to leave.”

Bei Bei twisted to look at him and nodded quickly. After that, he carried Tang Ya away and ﬂed towards the Masquerade Douluo’s tent. The door to the spectral demiplane was already open…

---------------

The command tent of the Sun Moon Empire...

As the Imperial Tutor and leader of the Holy Ghost Church, Zhongli Wu sat in the main seat. Even Lin Hai was only sitting by his side.

A large number of orders had already been passed down. The entire base was busy with this ﬁght.

Zhongli Wu was very grim. Apart from Lin Hai, there were also many other commanders from the Sun Moon Empire inside the tent. As Zhongli Wu and the six Consecrated from the Holy Ghost Church’s Worship Hall were inside the tent, they were all afraid.

“Why is no one reporting after so long? What’s with your soldiers?” Zhongli Wu asked Lin Hai.

Lin Hai furrowed his brow and said, “This shouldn’t be happening. It’s been some time. The messengers should be constantly reporting information.”

After a series of orders were passed down earlier, the command tent had quieted down. They had been waiting for some time already, but no further messengers had arrived. How was the ﬁght continuing on without any commands?

“Oh?” Zhongli Wu’s expression suddenly changed. He stood up immediately. “Things aren’t right. Why is it so quiet? Even if the command tent can isolate noise quite well, there should be some movement outside. Let’s go out and take a look.” As he spoke, he headed out.

Of course no messengers came. This was because the “Masquerade Douluo” was outside. After setting up the spiritual barrier, Huo Yuhao had already stopped three waves of messengers. With the spiritual barrier isolating all noises from outside, those three waves of messengers were tricked into a dark corner beside the command tent through Huo Yuhao’s Spiritual Interference Domain. They were also unconscious.

The curtains of the tent were pulled open, and Zhongli Wu was the ﬁrst to walk out. Seeing that Zhongli Wu had come out, Huo Yuhao was alarmed. Things hadn’t ﬁnished on the other side; not everyone had retreated yet.

Huo Yuhao knew that they were ﬁghting for time right now. Every second would make his teammates safer. Bei Bei had just picked up Xiao Ya, and was about to retreat towards his tent!

Huo Yuhao’s Spiritual Detection engulfed the entire battleﬁeld. He knew everything that was happening. Time! Time!

Huo Yuhao suddenly thought of something, and quickly rushed forward two steps. He screamed in panic, “Sect leader, things aren’t going well. We’ve been ambushed by people from Shrek Academy!” Although he was screaming, he was blocking Zhongli Wu’s path.

“What?” After walking out of the tent, Zhongli Wu immediately sensed something amiss. What’s with that weird soul power undulation in the air? Why did I not sense anything earlier?

However, he couldn’t be bothered with that at this moment. He hurriedly shouted, “All Consecrated, follow me to deal with the enemy!”

However, a strong blizzard suddenly raged in at that moment!

Under Huo Yuhao’s command, the Ice Bear King had been suppressing his abilities all this while, and didn’t unleash his Blizzard at its full strength.

But now, the area covered by the Blizzard instantly expanded. Visibility was greatly reduced, preventing the Sect Leader and the Consecrated of the Holy Ghost Church from seeing clearly. All sensing through soul power was reduced to its weakest because of this extremely powerful domain-type soul skill.

Zhongli Wu shouted furiously and smacked his right hand forward. A ball of strong purple light was released from his palm. This purple light spread through the air, turning into dark purple balls. Wherever these balls passed, the snowﬂakes in the air would melt and disappear. He couldn’t be bothered with the Blizzard at all, and charged directly towards the battleﬁeld.

He was very conﬁdent in his abilities as a Titled Douluo.

----------------

On the other side, everyone from Shrek Academy also quickly ﬂed as they saw Bei Bei carrying Xiao Ya away.

Elder Song smacked her palm toward the Third Elder, critically hurting him, spitting out blood in the process. However, she couldn’t be bothered to deal him a ﬁnal, lethal blow before she turned into a streak of jade-green light that immediately ﬂashed away, shooting straight towards Zhongli Wu. If no one stopped the oncoming Holy Ghost Church members, they wouldn’t be able to ﬂee.

Yan Shaozhe’s sixth soul ring rose. The reason why he and Elder Song couldn’t kill the Third and Fourth Elders quickly was because they were suppressing their power. They couldn’t risk generating strong soul power undulations that Zhongli Wu might discover.

Huo Yuhao was able to isolate noise and soul power undulations, but the truth would still be exposed if the tremors in the ground were too strong. But at this moment, there was nothing for them to hide anymore. Yan Shaozhe unleashed his full powers.

A bright golden phoenix ﬂuttered its wings and collided with the Fourth Elder. At the same time, it ﬂew straight towards the oncoming evil soul masters, and forced the evil soul masters pestering the people from the Tang Sect back. They naturally took this opportunity to charge straight back to Huo Yuhao’s tent. Yan Shaozhe followed Elder Song closely. After he fused into the back of the golden phoenix, he unleashed his Martial Soul True Body. His ninth soul ring also shone.

“Ji!...” A sonorous and deafening phoenix scream rose. Yan Shaozhe’s Phoenix True Body grew incredibly in size, his wings extending more than a hundred meters across. Strong phoenix ﬂames rose before they shot towards the ground.

Every one of these ﬂames was shaped like a phoenix. The strong aura of light even caused Little Bai’s Blizzard to dissipate temporarily.

The originally dark sky brightened up at this moment. A bright golden ﬁre was burning, and the Radiant Phoenix in the sky was shining with an elegant radiance.

This was Yan Shaozhe’s ninth soul skill, Phoenix Descent. It was his strongest soul skill.

At this instant, he seemed to have completely transformed into a true God Beast Phoenix.

The strong light element suppressed Zhongli Wu and the six Consecrated, stalling them slightly, just long enough for the ﬂames to engulf them.

Zhongli Wu and the others had charged out anxiously when they realized the pressing situation on the battleﬁeld, whereas Yan Shaozhe was warned by Huo Yuhao. He was already prepared, and didn’t hesitate to unleash his strongest soul skill.

Elder Song also shone with green light. She had turned into her Greenshadow Godly Eagle before Yan Shaozhe had transformed. When the Phoenix Descent was unleashed, the Godly Eagle instantly ﬂashed in the air. At that instant, even Huo Yuhao only saw a green light ﬂashing by, followed by the appearance of a jade-green light.

Right now, the Greenshadow Godly Eagle was no longer like a martial soul anymore. It was more like an artistic piece that

had been carved from jade. The speed of the eagle reached its extreme as she reached Zhongli Wu.

Zhongli Wu didn’t have time to unleash his Martial Soul True Body. As he had no choice, he could only defend with all his might. Under such a circumstance, Elder Song’s abilities were unleashed to their greatest. Along with the fact that the evil soul masters had to resist the ﬂames from the Phoenix True Body, all seven of them were ﬂung away as they were struck by Elder Song.

It was Elder Song’s ninth soul skill, Emerald Reﬁnement!

Zhongli Wu’s cultivation was close to Elder Song’s, but he was an evil soul master. If they were in a duel, Elder Song could only use her speed to ﬁght him. She might not be his match.

However, given the current situation, Zhongli Wu was still ﬂung away, even though he wasn’t hurt.

Huo Yuhao let out a tragic scream within the ﬂames before he disappeared.

After all, the ﬂames came from a Transcendent Douluo. Its terrifying power could kill an ordinary Titled Douluo.

Everyone from the Tang Sect took this opportunity to rush into Huo Yuhao’s tent. They concealed themselves within the Blizzard and made their way into Huo Yuhao’s spectral demiplane.

A white halo was suddenly released from the ﬂames: Mass Enfeeblement! The surrounding space distorted from his Spiritual Interference Domain.

Zhongli Wu wanted to ﬂy back, but he suddenly felt a wave of strong spiritual power striking him. He groaned in the air and his body shone with purple light. However, his body only shook, and he stopped.

“Yuhao, leave!” Yan Shaozhe ordered.

Huo Yuhao knew that he was helpless in a ﬁght of this tier. He had hit Zongli Wu with his strongest Spiritual Shock, but only felt a spiritual backlash. He didn’t dare to stop, and

quickly ﬂed. At the same time, he said to Nangong Wan, who was playing dead, “The restrictions in your spiritual sea will disappear after three days. You don’t have to do anything.”

Nangong Wan was playing dead after he was knocked away. To make it even more real, he even intentionally hurt himself, breaking a few of his bones. After hearing Huo Yuhao’s words, he couldn’t do anything but believe. If he tried to probe further, he might expose himself.

Huo Yuhao called the Ice Bear King and quickly retreated into his tent. A beam of jade-green light shone behind them. They only felt that they became lighter before they rushed into the tent.

“Quickly, go!” Elder Song’s voice came to them.

Huo Yuhao said, “No, Elder Song. Leave with Little Bai ﬁrst. I’ll wait for Dean Yan. I need to shut this door myself. If I leave, it could be exposed.”

Elder Song said, “Don’t worry. You don’t have to care about him. Shaozhe has a way of escaping. Let’s leave ﬁrst, quick!”

“What?” Huo Yuhao was doubtful, but he couldn’t suspect Elder Song’s words. He didn’t dare to stall any further, and quickly entered the door with Little Bai.

Elder Song followed them. After entering the demiplane, Elder Song immediately said to Huo Yuhao. “Shut the door.”

“Dean Yan…” Huo Yuhao was shocked as he looked at Elder Song. Are we not waiting for Dean Yan?

Elder Song smiled and replied, “Don’t worry, Shaozhe really has a way of escaping. Do you really think it’s so easy being the Dean of the Martial Soul Department? He shares the same teacher as you. If he’s not capable enough, how could he become the heir to the Master of the Sea God’s Pavilion?”

Huo Yuhao quickly shut the door. As the door shut, the entire demiplane was dissociated from the Douluo Continent. At this moment, the evil soul masters couldn’t ﬁnd them no matter how strong they were.

Of course, if Huo Yuhao and the others wanted to return, they would still need to return to the base. However, it would only be him then. It would be much easier for him to ﬂee in those circumstances. He didn’t need to rush things now. It was better for things to settle down ﬁrst.

In the plan that Huo Yuhao had set, Yan Shaozhe had volunteered to cover any retreat. Huo Yuhao naturally knew how strong he was. Such an arrangement was naturally appropriate.

However, things didn’t proceed as smoothly as planned. After the explosion, the Holy Ghost Church’s sect leader didn’t send anyone to check on things. This was a surprise to Huo Yuhao. He had underestimated how selﬁsh evil soul masters were.

The command tent was too close to the battleﬁeld. The sect leader had still managed to discover an issue. It would be too dangerous for him to cover any retreat. Even if he wanted to, he didn’t possess the ability to do so! He was even afraid that Nangong Wan would expose his disguise as the Masquerade Douluo. However, it would be ﬁne if everyone could retreat safely. However, who knew that Yan Shaozhe wouldn’t choose

to leave? The plan was almost perfect. The only ﬂaw was that Yan Shaozhe didn’t leave with them.

Right now, Huo Yuhao ﬁgured that Dean Yan must have some kind of trump card as he saw the smile on Elder Song’s face.

The Blizzard disappeared, but the phoenix ﬂames were still raging. The entire sky was illuminated by golden light.

The Sun Moon Empire’s ﬂying soul engineers were quickly assembling in this direction. This was where the command tent was, at the core of the entire base. If things went wrong here, there would be great trouble.

Yan Shaozhe’s Phoenix Descent greatly suppressed Zhongli Wu and the six Consecrated, and they weren’t able to break free from his ﬂames.

Not only did these phoenix ﬂames contain a pure aura of life, but they were also burning like ﬂames of Ultimate Fire. To be caught within these phoenix ﬂames was like being dragged into a quagmire. Although the evil soul masters were very strong, and there were even a few Transcendent Douluo among them, they could only passively defend as they were suppressed by the ﬂames.

Yan Shaozhe controlled the ﬂames immaculately, and didn’t care how fast he was being drained. Whichever evil soul master tried to charge over was immediately struck by the ﬂames he was controlling.

“Yan Shaozhe, you’re courting death!” Zhongli Wu snorted coldly. He wasn’t anxious anymore. His body ﬂashed with purple light, and he allowed the ﬂames to attack him. He stood there without moving.

Yan Shaozhe’s overwhelming attack was aimed at a large area. Even if he were a Transcendent Douluo, he would be greatly drained, yet he ignored all costs. Under such

circumstances, he wouldn’t be able to last long. Once he couldn’t hold on anymore, he would be doomed.

There were so many evil soul masters. Was it even possible they could not deal with a Transcendent Douluo in a weakened state?

The Masquerade Douluo had disappeared within the ﬂames. Zhongli Wu personally witnessed it. He felt extremely sorry! Every Titled Douluo was an important asset to the Holy Ghost Church, even though the Masquerade Douluo’s cultivation was likely to remain stagnant.

Furthermore, he didn’t know how many losses his side had incurred. How were the Second, Third, and Fourth Elders?

Don’t tell me they’re dead too? Impossible! From that earlier aura, there seemed to only be three Transcendent Douluo from Shrek Academy. How could they kill four of our Titled Douluo, although there’s only three of them? They even did it so quickly!

Zhongli Wu had already calmed down as he basked in the ﬂames. However, he couldn’t understand why Shrek Academy would suddenly attack.

Such a short ambush can’t possibly cause any damage. How did they get in? They just attacked us, and now they’re leaving? They even got the Radiant Phoenix Douluo Yan Shaozhe to cover their retreat. This is unbelievable. If they’re trading the Masquerade Douluo for the Radiant Phoenix Douluo, it’s deﬁnitely not worth it! The Radiant Phoenix Douluo is the heir to the Master of the Sea God’s Pavilion. If not for the fact that Elder Mu died too early, Elder Xuan wouldn’t have become the Master at all. Yan Shaozhe would have been the next Master of the Sea God’s Pavilion!

After pondering for a moment, Zhongli Wu ﬁnally had a clue. No matter what was happening, he had to do his best to kill Yan Shaozhe. As long as Yan Shaozhe died, the losses they had suffered this time would be worth it.

The ﬂames grew weaker and weaker. Just like Zhongli Wu had judged, even a Transcendent Douluo couldn’t last long maintaining such a strong attack.

“Yan Shaozhe!” A cold and sinister voice rang across the sky.

Even the ﬂames retracted slightly as they were suppressed.

Before the ﬂames were completely extinguished, Zhongli Wu snorted, and his back started to shine with purple light. He turned into an elderly, purplish ﬁgure, which pointed in Yan Shaozhe’s direction. Zhongli Wu’s eighth soul ring ﬂashed with light.

A streak of purplish light as thin as a needle instantly swept across the sky. Wherever that streak of purplish light passed, even the ﬂames were instantly pierced.

Yan Shaozhe groaned in the air.

Zhongli Wu ﬂashed away, and he ﬁnally broke free from the ﬂames, which were also extinguished at this moment.

Yan Shaozhe regained his human form and landed on the ground, staggering a little. There was a ball of purplish ﬂame burning on his chest.

He struggled to support himself. The six Consecrated had already quickly surrounded him. Two were in the sky and four were on the ground, trapping him. Zhongli Wu was in front of him. This was a trap even a Transcendent Douluo like him couldn’t break free from.

“Yan Shaozhe, where do you think you’re escaping to?” Zhongli Wu cursed coldly.

Yan Shaozhe smiled. “Why should I run? Since I chose to stay, I have no intention of leaving! You’ve been thinking too much.”

“Oh?” Zhongli Wu was stunned. He hadn’t expected Yan Shaozhe to be so composed, even though he was encircled and had been struck by his eighth soul skill, the Godly Death Needle.

The Godly Death Needle looked as thin as a strand of hair, but it was so strong that it could pierce through a mountain. It was speciﬁcally used to overcome all types of protective soul skills. Among all the current soul skills that Zhongli Wu knew about, none of them could resist his Godly Death Needle. To avoid being hurt, one could only try to avoid it. However, the

Godly Death Needle could lock onto its targets, and wasn’t that easy to avoid!

The purplish ﬂame on Yan Shaozhe’s chest came from the Godly Death Needle. He was using the strength of his phoenix ﬂames to resist the Godly Death Needle. Zhongli Wu wasn’t bothered by the fact at all. If his Godly Death Needle were so easy to deal with, it wouldn’t be ﬁt to be his eighth soul skill.

When this needle entered any biological entity, it would spark a kind of ﬂame called the Withering Flame. No matter what the elemental type of a soul power was, it would be destroyed under the Withering Flame. It was like a soul master burning his soul power and spiritual sea. This Withering Flame expedited the combustion of one’s soul power and spiritual sea, and the soul master couldn’t possibly extinguish the ﬂame. During the process of combustion, no overwhelming ﬁghting strength was unleashed. Instead, the soul master would slowly experience a decline.

Zhongli Wu glanced around at the others from the Holy Ghost Church and said coldly, “Do you really think you’re going to get lucky?” He looked extremely grim.

Not many of the people from the Holy Ghost Church could stand up. The Third and Fourth Elders appeared to be critically hurt, and struggled to crawl to their feet. Nangong Wan even acted like he couldn’t get up. Worse, the Bluesilver Holy Lady was nowhere to be seen!

Zhongli Wu was now intent on exacting revenge. This last thing infuriated him like nothing else!

It was important to know that the Bluesilver Holy Lady and the Phoenix Holy Lady were the successors that he had nurtured. The Phoenix Holy Lady was still receiving treatment at the Holy Ghost Church’s headquarters because of the evil ﬁre in her body. On the other hand, things were going very smoothly with the Bluesilver Holy Lady. According to the current situation, her mind would be completely puriﬁed, and she would completely lose her sense of self.

They were known as successors not because they would rule the Holy Ghost Church in the future, but because they would become some of the strongest individuals in the church.

Zhongli Wu was very aware that his mother and Long Xiaoyao were already very old. It was difﬁcult to tell how much

longer they could live. How could an evil soul master sect like the Holy Ghost Church remain powerful without any Ultimate Douluo? If the two of them died, everyone was bound to gang up on them!

The Holy Ghost Church had a secret method that could stimulate a Soul Master’s abilities, allowing their followers to grow rapidly. However, there was a negative side to this secret method. It completely corroded a person’s mind, and they would believe that they were just killing machines.

With such a secret method, an extremely talented soul master could be gradually improved, and could possibly become an Ultimate Douluo. However, the soul master had to be introspective, his body had to be pure enough, and his martial soul had to be appropriate.

Tang Ya and Ma Xiaotao were candidates that he had found suitable. Comparatively speaking, Ma Xiaotao was much more talented. After her phoenix ﬂames fused with the evil ﬁre, it would evolve into Ultimate Fire. Once she became an Ultimate Douluo, she would be an Ultimate Fire Douluo. She would be even stronger than Ye Xishui and Long Xiaoyao.

However, Ma Xiaotao wasn’t very compatible with the secret method, exactly because she was too talented, and her ﬂames were too domineering. It was very difﬁcult to corrode her mind. Although there was some effect, her mind wasn’t greatly affected, even after all this time.

Although Tang Ya wasn’t as talented as Ma Xiaotao, she was much more compatible with the secret method. After she consumed the medicine, her mind had been completely devoured by the evil poison. Her cultivation had increased greatly. In terms of rank, she was almost at Ma Xiaotao’s standard.

Once Tang Ya became a Titled Douluo, the secret method would be completed. When that happened, only some special articles would be needed to help keep her under control. In the future, she was bound to become the Holy Ghost Church’s biggest trump card. When Ye Xishui and Long Xiaoyao were no longer around, Tang Ya would be present to ensure that the Holy Ghost Church could last another hundred years without falling.

Because of how important she was, Zhongli Wu had kept the Scorpion Tiger Douluo with her to protect her. However, Tang Ya had disappeared! It was important to know that the Holy

Ghost Church had used a lot of resources on Tang Ya! After all, Zhongli Wu wasn’t just nurturing an extremely powerful Ultimate Douluo. He also had to ensure that she would enjoy great longevity after she became an Ultimate Douluo. It was the only way he could maximize the beneﬁts to the sect.

Tang Ya’s disappearance was even more heartbreaking than the Masquerade Douluo’s death. He was so furious now that he wanted to completely annihilate Shrek Academy right now!

“Yan Shaozhe, where did you take the Bluesilver Holy Lady?” Zhongli Wu asked coldly.

Yan Shaozhe smiled and said, “What Bluesilver Holy Lady? I don’t know who you’re talking about.”

Zhongli Wu snorted furiously, “You’re already here; why are you still acting? Do you really think I won’t dare to kill you? No, that would be too easy on you. I’ll make you my puppet, a puppet that’s a Transcendent Douluo… our soul will never reincarnate!”

After hearing his threats, Yan Shaozhe was still smiling, and appeared very composed. “Zhongli Wu, you think too much. Quickly, go and save those who are hurt. I won’t play with you anymore. Bye!”

As he spoke, Yan Shaozhe suddenly burned with golden ﬂames. Even the purple ﬂames on his chest were devoured by these golden ﬂames. Then, he slowly disappeared into the ﬁres!@Chapter 501: Detoxing

The golden ﬂames were so scorching that the Holy Ghost Church’s Consecrated all unwittingly took a step back, not daring to touch the ﬂames. It felt like Yan Shaozhe was burning his own spirit and body right now, purifying everything he had from this world.

“Is, is he mad? He’s killing himself?” Zhongli Wu was in a daze when he saw the burning ﬂames, and completely stunned. He didn’t understand why Yan Shaozhe would make such a choice.

The ﬂames slowly extinguished. Yan Shaozhe had disappeared, along with any trace of his aura.

Zhongli Wu should have been delighted that the Dean of the Martial Soul Department of Shrek Academy and the heir to the Master of the Sea God’s Pavilion was dead. However, he felt that Yan Shaozhe had died too easily as a Transcendent Douluo. If it were him, he would have done his best to ﬁght his way out, even if he was encircled.

Right, where’s the rest of those from Shrek Academy?

When I ﬁrst came out of the tent earlier, I saw at least seven or eight people from Shrek Academy. However, they were protected by the phoenix ﬂames and concealed by the blizzard. Yan Shaozhe was ﬁghting so hard to cover them. However, he’s the Dean of their Martial Soul Department. No, something isn’t right...

“Quick, go search for them! We must not let them escape!” As he spoke, Zhongli Wu ﬂashed away, ﬂying towards the location where the people from the Holy Ghost Church were gathered earlier.

He turned very grim when he came to where everyone from the Holy Ghost Church had assembled. On the ground was corpse after corpse. In just this short period of time, more than ten people from the Holy Ghost Church had died. Although most of them were Soul Emperors, they were still the elites of the church, since they were sent to the front line.

It wasn’t easy to nurture an evil soul master. Now that ten of them had died in one go, Zhongli Wu felt his heart ache. It wasn’t just ten of them. The Masquerade Douluo had also been

burned to death, and the Bluesilver Holy Lady was missing. Twelve were gone, including two extremely important individuals.

Zhongli Wu felt his blood surging. He was about to spit out blood. “Bastard!” he shouted furiously.

------

At this moment, those in the command tent had also reacted. Lin Hai came over, too. For some reason, he was gloating inside when he saw those dead evil soul masters.

No one liked evil soul masters, even the soldiers on the same side as them. Evil soul masters couldn’t even be considered humans in the eyes of ordinary people. But everyone had to be prudent in front of them. Even Lin Hai wasn’t an exception.

“Imperial Tutor, I’ve already summoned the leaders of the soul engineer legions we have in the sky. They also didn’t see how the raiders escaped. I’ve already given an order to search the entire base for them. All surveillance soul tools are operating to ﬁnd them, too. The Heavenly Soul Empire has

also retreated. It seems like they planned this attack; it was an ambush. How bad are your losses over here?”

Zhongli Wu took a few deep breaths and tried to suppress his rage. How bad are my losses? Incredibly bad! However, Lin Hai was already doing very well to cope with the situation. Even if he wanted to rage, he couldn’t.

“Alright, please help me ﬁnd them. Even if you have to dig one meter into the ground, I want them found!” Zhongli Wu ordered coldly.

“Yes.” Lin Hai acknowledged his words before turning and leaving. He wasn’t willing to stay too long. It was too dangerous, given how Zhongli Wu looked like a walking volcano right now.

------

The entire base got busy. Lin Hai even got his men to dig one meter into the ground. After all, the people from Shrek Academy couldn’t possibly have vanished into thin air, they must have had some way of leaving. There were soul engineers

and surveillance soul tools in the sky. Even if they could conceal themselves, they couldn’t have possibly escaped their encirclement!

All the tents in the core region of the base were temporarily dismantled before the ground was dug up.

However, nothing came up even after two days. Not only was Zhongli Wu extremely infuriated, even Lin Hai was confused. Don’t tell me they really can disappear into thin air? If Shrek Academy possesses such mysterious and magical powers, they would deﬁnitely be a much greater threat…

------

As the Sun Moon Empire was puzzling over this matter, those from Shrek Academy were doing very well in the demiplane. The only worrying thing was Tang Ya’s condition.

They had returned to the demiplane and sealed it shut. Even if the Sun Moon Empire dug ten meters into the ground, they couldn’t possibly ﬁnd them.

After Yan Shaozhe disappeared, none of their enemies could ﬁnd any trace of them. Under the cover of the blizzard and phoenix ﬂames, no one saw how they had escaped the scene.

Tang Ya wasn’t in very good shape. She lay in Bei Bei’s arms with her eyes closed. She was terrifyingly pale, and clutching her head in her hands, evidently in great pain.

“Yuhao, what do we do?” Bei Bei looked at Huo Yuhao like he was asking for help.

Huo Yuhao replied, “According to what the Delicate Silk Immortal told me, Teacher Xiao Ya should have been affected by some kind of evil poison. This poison has already spread to every part of her body, including her martial soul and spiritual sea.

“The Delicate Silk Immortal gave me a spiritual pill that she cultivated. It should be able to expel some of the poison. However, the problem is that the poison has fused too deeply with Teacher Xiao Ya. As she slowly detoxiﬁes, her life energy might also slowly dissipate. She’ll grow weaker and weaker. This is why we need to ﬁnd the Bluesilver Emperor, to fuse her life energy with her martial soul. By absorbing the Bluesilver

Emperor’s strength, she’ll be able to stimulate the origin of her martial soul, re-igniting her life energy. This will allow her to live.”

Bei Bei asked, “What should we do with her now? What if we don’t treat her now? Wasn’t she doing very well in the Holy Ghost Church?”

Huo Yuhao shook his head and replied, “It’s impossible to maintain her condition, seeing how she is now. She was greatly affected when she saw you, and her consciousness is slowly coming back. This has caused a reaction in the evil poison in her body. If she continues to take in more evil poison, she might be able to maintain her condition, but she’ll be more poisoned.

“Furthermore, we don’t have any evil poison to give her. We need to start detoxifying her. Otherwise, once the poison runs riot in her body, even an immortal won’t be able to save her life.”

Bei Bei took a deep breath and calmed himself down. He asked, “Yuhao, tell me the truth. If we continue to detoxify her, how much longer can she live?”

Huo Yuhao replied, “I can’t tell; it depends on how fast she’s being cleansed. In my opinion, she’ll only last half a year to a year’s time, somewhere within that range.”

Bei Bei remained quiet. When he saw how pale Tang Ya was, he gritted his teeth and said, “Alright, let’s start. Within half a year, I’ll do my best to ﬁnd the Bluesilver Emperor for her. If I can’t, that’s it for her.”

Huo Yuhao sighed silently in his heart when he saw how desperate Bei Bei looked. There was no other way. They couldn’t possibly return her to the Holy Ghost Church.

“Alright, let me check her body ﬁrst.” He was already familiar with the Poison Scripture passed down in the Tang Sect, and was one of the best in terms of his understanding of all types of lethal poison.

Huo Yuhao retrieved the pill, which was releasing a dim pinkish glow, and letting out a light fragrance. When everyone smelled this scent, they couldn’t help but feel refreshed. Even Ye Guyi felt much more relaxed.

When this pinkish glow touched Tang Ya, the pill shone slightly brighter. The glow also instantly turned darker.

Tang Ya’s body shook, and she trembled a little.

Very soon, dark-blue patterns surfaced on her skin. It was like the patterns on her dark Bluesilver Grass.

Huo Yuhao retrieved a needle and pricked Tang Ya’s ﬁnger. A drop of blood fell out. The pill received this drop of blood, which was slightly darker in hue than normal blood.

The pill was originally faintly pinkish in color, but it turned dark pink after receiving that drop of blood. The drop of blood seemed to have vaporized, and a dark blue fog gradually rose from the pill.

Huo Yuhao used his other hand to cover the top of the pill, unleashing his Ice Empress’ Pincer. Under the effect of the aura of Ultimate Ice, the fog that rose up immediately condensed into powder and attached to the frozen ice crystals.

The drop of blood was puriﬁed, but it turned light pink, not the normal color of blood. The life energy of this blood was dissipating rapidly. Although it still possessed the characteristics of blood, it was visibly different from normal blood.

When he saw all this, even Bei Bei understood what Huo Yuhao was talking about earlier.

The evil poison had completely inﬁltrated her body. It wasn’t just her blood. Her bones, meridians, and even her spirit and martial soul had been affected. The evil poison had completely linked with her life energy. Detoxifying her was the same as releasing her life energy!

Huo Yuhao turned his palm around and took a detailed look at the dark-blue powder. At the same time, he unleashed his spiritual power to boost his olfactory sense and vision, in a bid to recognize what this poison was.

He still held some hope in his heart. Given the large number of treasures that he had obtained from the Iceﬁre Yin Yang Well, they should be sufﬁcient if they could expel the poison in Tang Ya’s body.

But very soon, he was disappointed. After a brief moment, he lifted his head to look at Bei Bei. He shook his head gently and said, “Eldest senior, there’s no other way. I’ve already felt it clearly. This evil poison is very complex. It’s a kind of lethal poison made from a mix of other poisons, formed by mixing many other lethal poisons. As it has fused with Teacher Xiao Ya’s life energy, its components can’t be independently identiﬁed. Furthermore, there are also strong spiritual undulations coming from this evil poison. They should belong to the person who injected this poison into Teacher Xiao Ya’s body. I have no way of separating her life energy from the poison or identifying its components.”

Bei Bei nodded lightly and replied, “I understand. Yuhao, you’ve done your best.”

“Yes. But don’t worry, eldest senior, I’ve some conﬁdence in keeping her alive. Given her current condition, if she continues getting poisoned, I’m afraid that the poison would completely take over her entire body within half a year’s time. When that happens, her spirit will be devoured by the evil poison. There wouldn’t be any way of waking her up then.

“Right now, detoxifying her requires half a year. This means that she won’t die within the next half a year during the cleansing process. However, her life energy will keep on dissipating. The more conscious she is, the weaker she’ll become. When her memories ﬁnally return, that will be the time when her life energy is almost drained.

“However, I have the Life Guardian Blade. From now on, she can carry it with her wherever she goes. Her life energy will be continually replenished from the life aura of the blade. In this way, she’ll be able to survive for a year, at the very least. This gives us enough time to locate the Bluesilver Emperor.”

After hearing his words, Bei Bei was delighted. “That’ll be great! Thanks, Yuhao!”

Huo Yuhao replied, “There’s no need to thank me for anything. This is the least I can do. I also hope that Teacher Xiao Ya can recover!”

Xu Sanshi asked from one side, “Yuhao, if the life energy from your Life Guardian Blade is so strong, can’t it help her recover? Can’t her life energy be completely replenished by it?”

Huo Yuhao shook his head and said, “It might be a possibility if it were someone else. However, it won’t do in her situation. Her life origin is also being taken apart as her life energy dissipates. The same goes for her martial soul. This also means that her life energy is like water, and her body is like a container. Only sufﬁcient water can sustain her. However, the container is now broken. No matter how much water you pour in, the water will still ﬂow out.

“We can say that water is constantly ﬂowing into the container, which stops it from becoming completely empty at a slower rate. She can live longer. However, the container can only be repaired if we ﬁnd the Bluesilver Emperor. If we can,

her life energy will solidify on its own, and she’ll recover even if there’s no replenishment from elsewhere.”

Xu Sanshi was enlightened. “So that’s the case. It’s actually so confusing.”

Bei Bei said, “Alright, Yuhao, you can begin now. No matter what happens in the end, we’ve already done our best.”

Huo Yuhao nodded and said, “Yes. Eldest senior, hug Teacher Xiao Ya tightly. She’ll be in real pain later. However, this ﬁrst step is very crucial. At least it can guarantee that her body won’t continue to be damaged by the evil poison.”

“Yes.” Bei Bei hugged Tang Ya tightly. Right now, he was as pale as she was. He had never been so tense.

Huo Yuhao brought the pill in front of Tang Ya. This pill contained the essence of the Delicate Silk Immortal’s years of cultivation. It was even more effective in detoxiﬁcation than the Delicate Silk Immortal herself.

A gentle pink light surged into Tang Ya’s body under the guidance of Huo Yuhao’s soul power. She shuddered as those purplish-black patterns appeared on her skin once again.

The pinkish glow from the Delicate Silk Immortal Pill touched the dark-blue. Tang Ya’s body started to ripple. The purplish-black patterns seemed to be pulled apart by the pinkish light as it rippled on Tang Ya’s skin.

Her body started shaking hard. Dark-blue beads of sweat instantly surfaced on her forehead.

Huo Yuhao depressed his palm slightly as he held the pill with his other hand. The diamond ice crystals of his Ice Empress’ Pincer engulfed his palm. He used the Tang Sect’s Controlling Crane Capturing Dragon to suck the beads of perspiration on Tang Ya’s forehead that contained poison into his palm. When the beads touched Huo Yuhao’s Ice Empress’ Pincer, they quickly froze.

Slowly, a dark-blue ice crystal appeared on Huo Yuhao’s palm as dark-blue beads of sweat kept ﬂying out from Tang Ya’s body. The beads even ﬂew out from her shirt into the air.

Elder Song waved her hand and said, “Girls can remain.

Guys, go to one side and cultivate. Don’t stay here to watch.”

Xu Sanshi and the rest immediately revealed a weird expression on their faces. However, they still turned around and walked to one side to cultivate. Only Xiao Xiao, Jiang Nannan, Ye Guyi, and Nan Qiuqiu remained.

Elder Song was afraid that Tang Ya’s clothes would be torn during this treatment process. Huo Yuhao was trying to treat her, and thus he had no choice but to remain. However, the rest of the guys had to leave.

Tang Ya’s body shook even harder. However, her life aura was getting weaker and weaker.

Huo Yuhao’s Eye of Destiny opened. A beam of gentle spiritual power engulfed Tang Ya’s forehead, helping to stabilize her spiritual sea. At the same time, a streak of jade- green lightning shot out and drifted above her forehead. After this, the streak of lightning slowly landed and stuck to her chest. It was the Life Guardian Blade.

The moment the Life Guardian Blade appeared, the air was ﬁlled with a strong aura of life.

Huo Yuhao’s eyes ﬂashed, and a distorted projection formed beside his body. It actually became another him. This distorted projection appeared a little illusory, but it soon became more real.

Elder Song was secretly shocked. Concrete-material spiritual power!

The Huo Yuhao that was slowly taking form silently walked forward and came to Tang Ya’s side. He summoned his spiritual power and poured it into the Life Guardian Blade. He directed the life energy in the Life Guardian Blade to ﬂow into Tang Ya’s body.

It was only at this moment that a slight pinkish glow returned to Tang Ya’s face. Although her life energy was still dissipating, the life energy that was being poured into her body was much stronger. At least, it was capable of maintaining her own energy level.

Bei Bei still looked as pale as ever, now able to fully sense what Huo Yuhao was talking about earlier.

After the immense life energy from the Life Guardian Blade ﬂowed into Tang Ya’s body, it would slowly seep out from the pores over her entire body and enter his. It made Bei Bei feel like his body was being nourished instead.

If this were his normal cultivation time, Bei Bei would deﬁnitely be happy with such a situation. An increase in his soul power would mean a strengthening of any soul master’s body. It was very beneﬁcial to his future cultivation.

However, how could Bei Bei be happy with the current situation he was in? Life energy was seeping out from Tang Ya’s body. This meant that she wasn’t absorbing anything!

Time passed, second by second. The dark-blue poisonous ice crystal in Huo Yuhao’s hand was already as large as his palm. The beads coming from Tang Ya’s body started to fade in color.

Tang Ya’s body ﬁnally calmed down under the effect of Huo Yuhao’s spiritual power and the life energy of the Life

Guardian Blade. She slowly fell into a deep sleep.

After the poisonous ice crystals expanded another round, Huo Yuhao retracted the immortal pill. At the same time, he put the block of ice crystals into his storage-type soul tool. Under the extremely low temperature of his Ultimate Ice, it wouldn’t be able to cause any further trouble.

Huo Yuhao also heaved a sigh of relief. He stood up, but his spiritual entity was still controlling the output of life energy into Tang Ya’s body to maintain the life energy inside her body.

Although this couldn’t strengthen her life energy, one’s bodily functions would recover at a faster speed if one had sufﬁcient life energy, so his efforts weren’t for nothing.

Bei Bei was anxious as he looked at Huo Yuhao. Huo Yuhao nodded at him. “Eldest senior, don’t worry. Teacher Xiao Ya’s condition is still quite stable. After this round of detoxiﬁcation, the poison on the surface has all been sucked out. She won’t be corroded any further, but this will make her weaker. You’ll still need to take care of her.”

Bei Bei asked, “Will she regain her awareness when she wakes up?”

Huo Yuhao laughed bitterly and said, “I’m afraid it’s going to be difﬁcult. I’m not sure what will really happen. However, the evil poison has invaded her body for too long. Her spiritual sea has been seriously affected. She’ll need time even if she recovers.

“Furthermore, more poison has to be expelled from her body before she can recover. Eldest senior, you should speak more with her. This will greatly help her in recovering her memories. Reminisce about some personal things.”

“Alright, thanks, Yuhao.” Bei Bei knew that this was the best result they could have achieved. “How long will this pouring of life energy into her last?”

Huo Yuhao unleashed his Spiritual Detection and sensed Tang Ya’s pulse as well as her physical condition. After pondering for a brief moment, he said, “Around an hour. Allow Teacher Xiao Ya’s bodily functions to slowly recover under the stimulation of life energy. In this way, she’ll be able to live longer. As long as we ﬁnd the Bluesilver Emperor in the meantime and summon Tang Ya’s martial soul, as well as her original life energy, we’ll be able to treat her. When we pour in life energy then, it won’t disappear. She’ll be able to produce her own life energy too!”

After hearing Huo Yuhao’s explanation, Bei Bei felt more relieved. After the ﬁrst round of detoxiﬁcation, Xiao Ya’s condition wasn’t going to worsen anymore. What he had to do now was locate the Bluesilver Emperor.

Huo Yuhao said, “Eldest senior, I suddenly thought of an idea. Listen to it and see whether it’s feasible.”

“Oh?” Bei Bei’s eyes brightened.

Huo Yuhao said, “Due to the Sun Moon Empire’s invasion and the expansion of Shrek City, Shrek City is currently the safest place on the continent. At least this is what everyone from the three empires in the original Douluo Continent thinks. In Shrek City, there are powers from every empire.

“Over the years, the Tang Sect has slowly grown in name. In my opinion, we should announce a mission to locate the Bluesilver Emperor. Whoever can provide reliable information and helps us to locate the Bluesilver Emperor will be owed a favor under the sect’s name, as long as whatever he wants us to do isn’t morally wrong. Or, we can repay him by giving him a batch of soul tools. After all, we are limited on our own. However, if we can tap into the strength of the entire Douluo Continent, we’ll be more able to ﬁnd the Bluesilver Emperor.”

After hearing Huo Yuhao’s words, Bei Bei was slightly stunned. After that, he furrowed his brow and said, “No, we can’t do that. We can’t place such a huge burden on the sect because of Xiao Ya. We won’t know what whoever helps us will want. I can’t bring so much trouble to the sect because of me and Tang Ya. Even if we have to repay someone, it should be under my name.”

Huo Yuhao shook his head in reply. “No, eldest senior. You are not persuasive enough. I’m afraid that you don’t want to hear this. No matter who it is, our individual abilities can’t convince entire empires to help us search for something.

“However, the Tang Sect is different. Right now, the three empires of the original Douluo Continent have used the soul tools that we’ve produced. They also know of our close relationship with the Academy. Given this, we’ll be able to attract their attention once we announce this mission. From there, they’ll help us to ﬁnd the Bluesilver Emperor.”

Bei Bei sighed and said, “Yuhao, I recognize your good intentions. However, we can’t do this. It took very long for the Tang Sect to achieve what it has today. We can’t do this for Xiao Ya…”

“Why not? We think it’s workable,” Jiang Nannan suddenly interrupted.

“Nannan…” Bei Bei lifted his head to look at Jiang Nannan.

Jiang Nannan looked very determined. “Bei Bei, do you still remember why we joined the Tang Sect? We didn’t aim to own such a strong sect. We are teammates and friends. Honestly, Xiao Ya is the real sect leader of the Tang Sect. You are only acting on her behalf and assuming her authority because she hasn’t been around. Now that our real sect leader is in trouble, shouldn’t we do our best to help her?

“Furthermore, it’s not just her. No matter who faces such trouble in the sect, we’ll do everything we can to save him or her. It’s only this way that we can demonstrate how united the Tang Sect is, so that every disciple of the sect is willing to do his best for the sect, and treats the sect as his family. I think Yuhao’s idea is workable.”

After hearing Jiang Nannan’s words, Bei Bei went silent. Right now, he only felt a warm ﬂow in his chest. All these years, he had been living in pain because of Xiao Ya’s disappearance. He had placed all of his energy into his cultivation and developing the Tang Sect.

Huo Yuhao and Jiang Nannan’s words didn’t just bring him warmth. They made him feel a sense of kinship, especially when she talked about the unity of the Tang Sect. That’s right, the Tang Sect is very united!

Jiang Nannan turned her head after seeing Bei Bei lower his, and said to Huo Yuhao, “Yuhao, it’s set. After we return, we’ll announce this mission. I believe that there will be interested parties.”

“Alright!” Huo Yuhao immediately agreed.

Bei Bei let out a long breath and nodded gently, saying, “Thanks. I’m thanking all of you on behalf of Xiao Ya.”

Xiao Xiao laughed, “Eldest senior, why are you thanking all of us on behalf of Teacher Xiao Ya? We’re all friends! This is what we should be doing!”

With this plan, Bei Bei was instantly in a better mood. If they were unable to ﬁnd the Bluesilver Emperor, even with the strength of the entire Douluo Continent, Tang Ya’s fate might indeed be sealed...

Elder Song nodded and said, “I also believe that Yuhao’s plan is workable. Tang Ya is indeed the only heir to the Tang Sect. The Sect and Shrek Academy possess thousands of years of

ties. I believe the Academy will support the Sect in this matter. However, please forgive the Academy, because we can’t use our name, given our involvements in many areas. However, the Academy will try its best to help no matter what conditions the person who ﬁnds the Bluesilver Emperor requests.”

“Thanks, Elder Song,” Bei Bei said gratefully. Elder Song held a very important position in the Sea God’s Pavilion, only inferior to Elder Xuan. With Elder Song’s support, it was almost a guarantee that Dean Xian Lin’er and Qian Duoduo would also express their support. In addition, along with Huo Yuhao, Bei Bei, and Elder Song’s votes, they already had ﬁve votes in the Sea God’s Pavilion, close to half the total votes.

-----------------

Things temporarily settled down in the demiplane. The mission this time had been successfully completed. Not only did they manage to save Tang Ya, they even used a Class 9 stationary shell to destroy an entire soul engineer legion of the Sun Moon Empire. This alleviated some of the pressure on the Heavenly Soul Empire at the front line.

Of course, this was only possible because the shell was detonated inside the Sun Moon Empire’s base. If not for Nangong Wan, they wouldn’t have accomplished this. Although the Sun Moon Empire’s army still seemed to be very disciplined, they were already facing internal chaos. Investigations were underway, causing great disruptions.

The Heavenly Soul Empire was delightfully surprised by this. Although their surveillance was limited, they naturally knew about what had happened, given the great uproar that had ensued because of the Class 9 stationary shell. It was so powerful that its effects could be clearly witnessed even from tens of kilometers away. They were already informed in detail of where the Sun Moon Empire’s soul engineer legions were by Huo Yuhao’s surveillance, and so could piece the puzzle together.

If not for the fact that Wei Na was leading the Heavenly Soul Empire’s army then, and took the initiative to carry on with the original plan, they might actually have turned the act into a real show.

Because of this matter, the marshals of the Star Luo and Dou Ling Empires were very displeased. They thought that the

Heavenly Soul Empire was too conservative, and hadn’t exploited such a great opportunity.

In fact, the Heavenly Soul Empire had their own difﬁculties. Naturally, they knew that this was a great opportunity. However, the Sun Moon Empire didn’t seem to be in a bad state. Also, the armies that were gathered were already all the remaining forces that the Heavenly Soul Empire had. Once the ﬁght fully broke out, they couldn’t possibly let the Dou Ling and Star Luo Empires lead the lines, they had to be the ﬁrst to act. When that happened, they were bound to suffer heavy losses.

They might not even win this ﬁght. Even if they did, it would be a hard-fought and tragic victory. Even if the Sun Moon Empire was forced back temporarily, what if they came back again? If the Heavenly Soul Empire sustained great casualties, how could they possibly revive their empire? Even if they could, they wouldn’t be able to protect it!

The Sun Moon Empire posed a great threat. However, if the Heavenly Soul Empire weakened to a certain point, and the Sun Moon Empire’s threat also fell, the Star Luo Empire and Dou Ling Empires might actually be able to threaten the Heavenly Soul Empire. As a result, given such a conﬂict of

interests, the Heavenly Soul Empire still decided to follow their original plan.

The facts proved that their decision was right. Although the Sun Moon Empire suffered heavy losses, they weren’t on the brink of collapse. If there really was a ﬁght, no one knew who would prevail. No matter what, the Heavenly Soul Empire was bound to sustain heavy losses as the aggressors. They had to breach the other four soul formations that the Sun Moon Empire had set up!

-----------------

After the incident, there was a great uproar in the Sun Moon Empire. The loss of a soul engineer legion seemed to have caused Lin Hai to age overnight. He was the only one to shoulder this responsibility. Furthermore, the Holy Ghost Church had also sustained heavy losses. One of their elders was dead, one of their Holy Ladies had disappeared, and many evil soul masters had been killed. This responsibility was deﬁnitely not going to be shouldered by Zhongli Wu!

There were widespread investigations going on in the Sun Moon Empire’s base. However, three days had passed, and it

still seemed like those from Shrek had vanished into thin air. There were no clues to their whereabouts at all.

The only thing that Zhongli Wu felt was fortunate was that Nangong Wan, the Third Elder, and the Fourth Elder all survived, even though they had sustained critical injuries. The life energy of a Titled Douluo was very strong. After a certain period of recuperation, they would be able to recover.

--------------

Night of the fourth day...

A black crack silently appeared inside a pitch-black tent. A ﬁgure silently appeared out of it.

It was very quiet in this tent, where the Masquerade Douluo had stayed before he died. Although he was dead, no one had touched his tent, even though investigations were being carried out in the base.

This ﬁgure was hiding in a dark corner. He let out his Spiritual Detection to sense the changes in his surroundings. After a brief moment, another person walked out from the crack after the ﬁgure veriﬁed that the coast was clear.

If someone saw him now, they would be astonished to realize that the two ﬁgures looked exactly the same. They were both Huo Yuhao!

Chapter 502: The Medicine Reﬁnement Plan!

The ﬁrst ﬁgure that appeared was actually Huo Yuhao’s spiritual avatar. Once bitten, twice shy, and Huo Yuhao was a lot more careful after the painful lesson he had learned from his previous experience. He used his spiritual avatar to investigate what was happening outside, and his original body appeared only when he made sure there was no danger. It was a lot safer.

The black crack closed, and the two shadows disappeared into the air at the same time with Imitation. They snuck out of the tent together.

Security within the Sun Moon Empire’s camp was clearly a lot tighter than before. There were soldiers patrolling even where the evil soul masters resided.

The patrolling soldiers carried speciﬁc types of surveillance soul tools. They didn’t use them to investigate inside the tents, but they swept across the air and the ground continuously, aiming to detect soul masters who were adept at concealing themselves, and prevent them from sneaking inside.

However, such simple surveillance was useless against Huo Yuhao’s Spiritual Detection.

Huo Yuhao used his avatar to scout the path ahead, keeping his Spiritual Detection within a ﬁxed range. He didn’t touch any tents at all, and inched forward carefully from memory.

Huo Yuhao needed a safe spot to bring his companions back safely. Wherever he opened the large gate to his spectral demiplane, it would have to reappear at the same location if reopened from within. Hence Huo Yuhao had appeared in the tent that he had stayed in before.

The Holy Ghost Church deﬁnitely didn’t know his spectral demiplane’s characteristics. The only thing he was worried about was that Nangong Wan would reveal something, and if his identity as the Masquerade Douluo was revealed, his enemies would have the chance to set a trap.

Reality proved that Nangong Wan was still quite intelligent. He was the Holy Ghost Church’s Second Elder, and he had probably concealed his betrayal very well. That was equivalent

to covering Huo Yuhao’s identity, and so his stealthy operations were a lot more relaxed.

---------

It took a full hour, but Huo Yuhao ﬁnally left the Sun Moon Empire’s army camp after going past many patrols and surveillance soul tools.

It wasn’t difﬁcult for him to get out with his abilities if he wanted to; increasing the number of patrols was futile. As long as they didn’t do continuous blanket sweeps, he would always be able to ﬁnd cracks in the defense. He had been through so many battles, undercover operations, and reconnaissance missions that he had become increasingly familiar and adept with his skills in these areas.

But even after he was out, he didn’t let down his guard at all. He swiftly ﬂew towards the Heavenly Soul Empire’s camp, and went straight into the territory that the Heavenly Soul Empire controlled before he ﬂying into the sky and proceeding towards Heavenly Spirit City.

Huo Yuhao was actually the most worried about Yan Shaozhe, as Elder Song would always smile and say nothing when he asked her about him.

------

Huo Yuhao ﬁnally returned to the small courtyard that Shrek Academy has been assigned to. He was startled as he entered the courtyard, because he witnessed Yan Shaozhe and Princess Wei Na coming out from the living room, chatting as they walked.

Huo Yuhao descended from the sky, immediately alerting Yan Shaozhe, who saw who it was. Relieved, he said, “You’re ﬁnally back, Yuhao. You have pretty good restraint! Is everyone alright?”

“Yea… yes, we’re ﬁne. Dean, you…” Huo Yuhao spoke with his eyes wide and his jaw agape.

Yan Shaozhe smiled as he placed his index ﬁnger on his lips. Princess Wei Na quickly stepped forward as she faced Huo

Yuhao with a look of pleasant surprise on her face. “You’re back, Yuhao! How is it? Where’s everyone else?”

Huo Yuhao naturally wouldn’t reveal his secret in front of Princess Wei Na. He replied hurriedly, “Don’t worry, princess, everyone else is safe. I’m back here to check on things.”

Wei Na exclaimed, “Shrek is worthy of their name! There hasn’t been anything we could do with the Sun Moon Empire, but a single operation from Shrek Academy has destroyed one of their soul engineer legions! If we can destroy another one or two of them, we might really be able to sound the horns for an assault.”

Huo Yuhao forced a laugh and said, “That’s easier said than done! We relied on cheap tricks this time. The Sun Moon Empire has made sufﬁcient preparations against it happening so easily. To tell you the truth, princess, we had to use a stationary soul cannon shell that we obtained from the Sun Moon Empire a long time ago. If you want us to execute another operation like that, you’ll have to give us a weapon of that standard before anything else. I’m afraid you don’t have any.”

It was Princess Wei Na’s turn to laugh bitterly. She couldn’t even bring out a Class 8 stationary soul cannon shell, let alone a Class 9 one!

The Heavenly Soul Empire had lost a lot of their territory, equivalent to losing large amounts of resources. They barely had enough to sustain their armies, while they had to rely on the Star Luo Empire and the Dou Ling Empire for anything else.

Princess Wei Na said sincerely, “Anyhow, I have to thank everyone for this operation. With what has happened, the Sun Moon Empire shouldn’t be launching any offensives against us in the near future, which should give us sufﬁcient time to prepare and build up our strength. We will develop as many soul tools as we can, and think of ways to hold them back at the same time.”

Huo Yuhao nodded, but said nothing else.

Wei Na still wanted to chat with him for a little bit, but she saw that Yan Shaozhe had been standing there waiting the whole time. It was clear that they had internal matters they wanted to discuss, so she could only take her leave.

---

Huo Yuhao swiftly took a few steps forward after he watched the princess leave and came before Yan Shaozhe. He grabbed the Dean’s arms subconsciously and looked him up and down.

“Dean Yan, you, you’re…” Huo Yuhao didn’t know what to say.

Yan Shaozhe smiled faintly and said, “You’re not the only one who’s confused. I think the Holy Ghost Church’s Supreme Leader, Zhongli Wu is probably even more perplexed. He must still be wondering how the Dean of Shrek Academy’s Martial Soul Department died just like that. Hahaha!”

Huo Yuhao released his hands and whispered, “How did you escape?”

Yan Shaozhe smiled and replied, “Little junior brother, even though there’s a huge age gap between us, you should still address me as senior brother. I am your true eldest senior

brother! As for how I managed to escape, it’s actually very simple…”

He leaned beside Huo Yuhao’s ear and whispered something, and Huo Yuhao’s eyes widened after listening to his explanation. “There’s actually such a magical…”

Yan Shaozhe placed his index ﬁnger to his lips and laughed as he said, “It’s alright as long as you know, but you can’t talk about it. This is your senior brother’s secret to saving his life.”

“Yes, I’ll keep your secret.” Huo Yuhao felt his heart skip a beat. Yan Shaozhe’s secret was just too magical, but he also had to keep this secret. Otherwise, if malicious people knew about it, they could speciﬁcally target his ability, and his skill wouldn’t be effective anymore.

Yan Shaozhe said, “Come, let’s go into the room. Get everyone out, and we can return.”

“Alright.”

---

Huo Yuhao began to chant as they returned to the living room, and opened his spectral demiplane. Yan Shaozhe looked on as Elder Song and the others came out of the demiplane one after another. He couldn’t help but say with a sigh, “Yuhao, even though I really don’t like this ability of yours, I have to say that it can be considered a godly skill when used in certain situations! You have contributed even a secret like this to the Academy, that’s…”

Huo Yuhao chuckled and said, “The Academy is my home. The Academy has given me everything that I have today, and I belong to the Academy. There’s nothing to say about contributions.”

Elder Song smiled and said, “You’re right. On the other hand, the Academy will belong to you guys in the future. Alright, it’s time for us to bid farewell to the Heavenly Soul Empire.”

Even though their mission had many twists and turns, they had ﬁnally completed their task. They had helped the Heavenly Soul Empire complete their reconnaissance and dealt a huge

blow to the Sun Moon Empire’s army. Most importantly, they had managed to rescue Tang Ya!

Their mission had killed many birds with one stone. They had to return to the Academy as quickly as possible, because Elder Song, Dean Yan, and everyone from the Tang Sect had many things they had to deal with, after all.

Huo Yuhao replied, “Let’s bid our farewells tomorrow morning. I’ll take this opportunity to write down everything that I have learned in detail, and hand that to the Heavenly Soul Empire. That should help them.”

Elder Song nodded and said, “That’s ﬁne.”

---

They stayed for another night, and everyone regained their peak condition besides Tang Ya. The Ice Bear King, Little Bai, chose to remain in Huo Yuhao’s spectral demiplane.

Everyone bid their farewells to the Heavenly Soul Empire the next day. The Heavenly Soul Empire longed for them to stay, but everyone from Shrek Academy still refused politely as they left Heavenly Spirit and returned to Shrek Academy.

----------------

The Tang Sect, Shrek City...

Elder Song and Yan Shaozhe immediately returned to Shrek Academy once they returned to Shrek City. They also had to report this mission to the Academy and record it.

Everyone from the Tang Sect naturally returned there.

Tang Ya had awoken from her deep slumber. After her treatment that day, she had fallen into a deep slumber for a day and a night before coming to. The sinister aura on her body was a lot weaker after she woke up, but her mind was still not clear. She still appeared very muddleheaded, and there wasn’t any color in her eyes. Fortunately, her aura of an evil soul master was no longer as dense, though her soul power seemed

to dissipate a little along with those evil toxins. She was no longer aggressive.

Bei Bei accompanied her every day to speak to her, but Tang Ya never said anything from the beginning to the end. She was just sitting there like a stone, and she would do that for the entire day. Bei Bei had to help her eat, sleep, bathe, and even when she had to go to the toilet, like she had lost her basic ability to live.

Bei Bei wasn’t unhappy about any of that. He took care of Tang Ya patiently, and rejected Xiao Xiao and Jiang Nannan’s offers to share his burden. He told them that he owed Tang Ya far too much over these years, and it took them so much effort to ﬁnally take her back. He was perfectly willing to protect her like this for eternity; to love her, and care for her.

“Look, Xiao Ya, the Tang Sect is right in front of us.” Everyone from the Tang Sect was escorting Bei Bei and Tang Ya, and they were ﬁnally back at the Tang Sect. The Tang Sect’s main gate was within sight.

Tang Ya still seemed very dazed, and she could barely walk forward as Bei Bei supported her. Her entire being seemed like a walking undead.

“Do you still remember, Xiao Ya? You told me back then that your greatest wish was for the Tang Sect to recover, and regain their former glory. That was also your late parents’ wish. The truth is, I have been working hard ever since to ﬁnd a way to rebuild the Tang Sect. I wanted to give you a pleasant surprise, but it’s my fault that you decided to leave because I didn’t try harder to understand your thoughts. That’s the reason why so many things happened afterwards.

“Look, I have rebuilt the Tang Sect for you, and it grows stronger by the day. You have to recover as quickly as possible! Nannan is right, you are the rightful leader of the Tang Sect.

The Tang Sect needs you to support it. How can you do that by being like this?” Bei Bei whispered into Tang Ya’s ear.

Everyone walked towards the Tang Sect as he spoke.

Tang Ya’s eyes were still dazed, but when she saw the Tang Sect’s name on the plaque that hung over its main gate, her eyes trembled faintly as her lips quivered. “The Tang Sect…”

Even though her voice was very, very soft, everyone from the Tang Sect were at least Soul Emperors. Everyone could hear her.

Bei Bei’s body shook as he stared at Tang Ya with a look of pleasant surprise on his face.

Tang Ya was still looking at the large words on the plaque. There seemed to be something more in her eyes, and her lips were still quivering. But she couldn’t say another word.

Everyone naturally stopped. They paused, and nobody disturbed her as they just let her stare at those words. There

was ﬁnally something that could affect her memory, which was just fantastic.

Tang Ya’s eyes seemed to recover their confusion after a few moments. She leaned into Bei Bei’s embrace, and the color in her eyes disappeared.

Bei Bei said softly, “Yes, this is the Tang Sect, and it’s our home. You will stay here from today onwards, and I will accompany you always. Is that okay?”

Of course, Tang Ya wouldn’t respond, but only then did everyone start escorting them once more, and walk into the Tang Sect.

-----------

Everyone started getting back to work once they came back. They hadn’t left for a long time, and they came back much earlier than the month they had predicted. However, there was still quite a bit of work piled up.

Xu Sanshi, Jiang Nannan, Xiao Xiao and the others went to handle those affairs, while Huo Yuhao accompanied Bei Bei to settle Tang Ya in.

Bei Bei stared at Xiao Ya, who was lying down on the bed, as he whispered to Huo Yuhao, “Did you hear that, Yuhao? Xiao Ya said, ‘the Tang Sect’!” Bei Bei’s eyes grew excited as he spoke, like a little child at the moment.

Huo Yuhao hurriedly nodded and said, “I did, of course I heard her. This is probably Teacher Xiao Ya’s deepest memory. Don’t worry, eldest senior brother; her memory will deﬁnitely recover as long as we continuously dispel those evil poisons. You have to continue speaking to her, as that will help catalyze her recovery. I will delegate some tasks right away, and once that is done, there are some other plans that I want to speak to you about.”

“Eh? What plans? If it isn’t complicated, then just tell me now. I’ve spoken to Sanshi, and he’ll help me with some of my work for some time to come. I will spend more time accompanying Xiao Ya.”

Huo Yuhao nodded and replied, “It’s not complicated. I brought back some natural treasures when I brought Big Mao and Second Mao back.” With that, he recounted how Big Mao and Second Mao ate all those herbs and medicines inside the Iceﬁre Yin Yang Well back in the Setting Sun Forest.

Bei Bei didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry after listening to his story. “Those two fellows! But it seems like a bad thing has changed into a good one. I didn’t pay much attention when you told me last time. Seems like you’ve brought back quite a harvest?”

Huo Yuhao said, “It is quite copious. I have taken away almost all the fruits and whatnot which they gestated that can be considered immortal herbs. Even if they’re considered hundred-thousand-year soul beasts, they need thousands of years to gestate good stuff like this.”

Bei Bei asked, “What do you mean?”

Huo Yuhao lowered his voice and said, “You know, eldest senior brother, that the situation in the continent is very unclear. Even though the Sun Moon Empire has temporarily halted their invasion, war can break out again at any time,

judging by the way they do things. Once the Heavenly Soul Empire can’t stop the Sun Moon Empire’s great army, the Academy will quickly receive the brunt of their attack.

“Furthermore, both the Sun Moon Empire and the Holy Ghost Church have perceived our Academy as a thorn in their side, and they would be more than happy to see us gone. Therefore, we have to make our preparations early if we want to be sufﬁciently effective in this war.

“When we were resting in my spectral demiplane several days ago, I closely studied the poison and medicine manual that Tang San, our ancestor, left behind. Tang San has detailed comprehensively what those natural treasures do, and how some herbs complement each other, and how some herbs reject each other. I am certain that everyone’s cultivation will increase exponentially after consuming these herbs. The Tang Sect’s overall strength will be greatly boosted afterwards!

“I think I should process these herbs soon. What do you think?”

Bei Bei answered without hesitation, “That’s fantastic! Of course you may! What do you require the Tang Sect to help you

with?”

Huo Yuhao shook his head and said, “There’s no need for that. Eldest senior brother, I just need you to convince Teacher Xuan to give me some time. I will learn about forging soul tools from him once I ﬁnish processing the herbs.”

Bei Bei laughed. “So you’re worried about that. Don’t worry, even though Teacher Xuan is extremely stubborn, he seems to have conceded after you crafted that Class 8 soul tool. Furthermore, he isn’t an unreasonable person; you have a suitable reason, and you’re doing this for everyone. He won’t disagree. But are you conﬁdent in being able to do all that?”

Huo Yuhao nodded. “There shouldn’t be a problem. Tang San’s medicine manual points out that these natural treasures will already have very strong effects when consumed individually. But because these herbs have their own special characteristics, they will also have side effects when consumed unless they’re especially suitable for a particular martial soul or body type. Forging pills from these herbs means I will attempt to fuse their unique characteristics together, which requires great control. I should have no problem with that with my Spiritual Detection.

“Furthermore, the things that I have brought back are of even higher quality than the herbs that Tang San has detailed. If I can reﬁne them correctly, they will be greatly beneﬁcial to the Tang Sect.”

Bei Bei nodded and said, “Alright, go ahead. I fully support you on this. I’ll look for Teacher Xuan in a little bit.”

“That’s great!” Huo Yuhao replied.

Bei Bei instructed him, “But don’t mention this to others, because you can’t give everyone too much hope. The more hope they have, the more disappointed they’ll be.”

Huo Yuhao understood the meaning in Bei Bei’s eyes. He knew that his eldest senior brother was trying to protect him. Everything would be ﬁne if he was successful, but if he wasn’t, Bei Bei was afraid that everyone would have differing opinions.

------------

Bei Bei took care of Tang Ya, and Huo Yuhao immediately left the Tang Sect. He had to delegate some tasks before purchasing some secondary materials. Forging and processing herbs wasn’t that simple, and even though he had just told Bei Bei that he was conﬁdent, he didn’t dare to be careless or overconﬁdent at all. These were natural treasures, and weren’t something that money could buy. He would regret it immensely if something went wrong!

The tasks that he had to delegate were simple, and Huo Yuhao had already discussed them with Elder Song on the way back.

Elder Song oversaw all the auctions within Shrek City. She had told Huo Yuhao to look for the auctioneers, and tell them that he was to announce this task through an auction. Elder Song had already sent people to give the auctioneers a heads- up after entering the city.

The bounty, after the Tang Sect thoroughly discussed it, was ﬁnally set at a promise from the Tang Sect for a Class 8 stationary soul cannon shell or a soul tool of the same class.

That was a bounty sufﬁcient to drive people crazy. Both Class 8 soul tools and a Class 8 stationary soul cannon shell were priceless treasures, and only the Sun Moon Empire had them.

Huo Yuhao had already thought things through. If the person who claimed the bounty chose a soul tool, then he had Hongchen’s Blessing, which Jing Hongchen had given him, and he could take that one out. As for a Class 8 stationary soul cannon shell, Xuan Ziwen was already attempting to forge one. Huo Yuhao believed that with his abilities, crafting one wouldn’t be very difﬁcult.

As for other things and Class 8 stationary soul cannon shells, there was a limit to them, and the Tang Sect could sustain the costs.

-----------

Huo Yuhao placed the bounty successfully after Elder Song had given the auctioneers a heads-up, and went ahead and purchased some necessities for forging pills from herbs before he walked back to the Tang Sect.

Huo Yuhao calculated a few things. He would run a few experiments ﬁrst with normal herbs, and would only use those natural treasures once he was practiced and more familiar with the process.

He really hoped that something would come of this. The Tang Sect would beneﬁt greatly if this happened, and he still intended to give the Academy some, as well!

But all that was for later. He would have to wait until he successfully created those pills...

Huo Yuhao was just about to reach the main gate when he saw someone walking towards him. They seemed to be walking towards the Tang Sect, and Huo Yuhao hurriedly accelerated when he saw this person as he exclaimed in pleasant surprise, “Eldest senior sister?”

Wasn’t the person who was walking towards him the eldest senior sister of Shrek Academy’s inner courtyard, Zhang Lexuan? She was also one of the Sea God’s Pavilion’s members.

The Sea God’s Pavilion was starting to undergo a generational change. Huo Yuhao, Bei Bei, and Zhang Lexuan were elites of the younger generation, and were all part of the Sea God’s Pavilion.

Zhang Lexuan was also startled when she saw Huo Yuhao. She laughed and said, “That’s convenient, I was going to look for you. I didn’t think I’d meet you here.”

“Ah? You’re looking for me?” Huo Yuhao asked in surprise.

He was looking Zhang Lexuan up and down at the same time.

Zhang Lexuan was wearing a long blue dress today, which made her look even more slender. There was a faint smile on her pretty face that exuded good cheer, and she seemed to be drastically different from before.

There had always been a tinge of melancholy between her eyes back then, but she couldn’t appear any more normal today. Huo Yuhao was very happy for her. Even though the Yin-Yang Love Querying Valley made him lose Dong’er, their experience there wasn’t entirely bad. At least, his eldest senior sister had lost her memory of her feelings towards Bei Bei, which was a great thing for her. She had managed to discard her heaviest burden.

Huo Yuhao had heard that his eldest senior sister had accepted one of the inner courtyard’s teachers, and they were dating now. Furthermore, his eldest senior sister had already become one of the inner courtyard’s teachers as well, and her cultivation was improving greatly. Her status within the Academy was getting higher and higher.

“Come in and have a seat, eldest senior sister.” Huo Yuhao was a disciple of the Tang Sect, and he naturally had to play the host. He hurriedly gestured courteously for Zhang Lexuan to enter.

Zhang Lexuan chuckled and said, “I’m here to ﬁnd you. Since I’ve run into you, I’m not going inside. I’ll just tell you.”

“Ah? Me?” Huo Yuhao stared at Zhang Lexuan in shock.

Zhang Lexuan replied, “Yes! It’s so hard to catch you. Who else can I be looking for? You’re always running around outside every day, so where would I go to ﬁnd you? Let me ask you, have you graduated from the Academy?”

Huo Yuhao scratched his head. He had forgotten about that. Ever since he came back from the big competition, he hadn’t studied in the Academy’s curriculum.

Zhang Lexuan was a little speechless. “You’re part of the Sea God’s Pavilion after all, so how embarrassing will it be when people ﬁnd out that you haven’t even ofﬁcially graduated from the Academy? You should have no problem graduating from

the inner courtyard with your current abilities, but we still need you to do some paperwork.”

Huo Yuhao said, “But the others from the Tang Sect…”

Zhang Lexuan grunted and said, “Everyone else has already completed their paperwork; you’re the only one left. You can consider yourself graduated once you pass the inner courtyard’s graduation assessment, and only then can you say you’re a graduate from Shrek Academy.”

Huo Yuhao said, “Alright then, let me take the test. Eldest senior sister, when do you think it’s appropriate for me to go?” Zhang Lexuan was right. Even though he was really busy, it was better for him to ofﬁcially graduate from the Academy.

Zhang Lexuan said, “You’ve just returned, so you can rest for a few days. Oh, yes, there’s something else. Everyone else is no longer considered a student from the inner courtyard, because they have graduated. But you haven’t, and you’re also single, while the next season’s Sea God’s Fated Blind Date is about to begin. You have to participate, do you understand?”

“Ah?” Huo Yuhao stared at Zhang Lexuan in astonishment. “I have to participate in the Fated Blind Date, eldest senior sister?”

Zhang Lexuan nodded seriously and said, “That’s the Academy’s rules. All single boys and girls from the inner courtyard have to participate. You’re part of the Academy, and you still haven’t ofﬁcially graduated. How can you not participate?”

“I… eldest senior sister, let’s forget about that. You know that I already have Dong’er, and even though she’s missing, I can’t go back to participate in the Fated Blind Date anymore.” Huo Yuhao’s eyes became a little dim as he spoke.

Zhang Lexuan heaved a faint sigh and said, “Yuhao, I understand your feelings, and I also feel very sorry for you. Dong’er is a good girl. However, the Academy’s rules cannot be broken, right? You have to give me face. Let’s do it like this: you’ll just be there to participate, and I’ll ask all the girls not to choose you. You won’t be affected that way.”

Huo Yuhao pulled a long face. “I have a lot of things to do right now, eldest senior sister. You know that this is crunch

time for the Tang Sect.”

Zhang Lexuan’s face sank. “Do you still want your graduation certiﬁcate, Huo Yuhao? Let me tell you, if you can’t pass this, nobody will give you a graduation certiﬁcate, even if you’re part of the Sea God’s Pavilion.”

“Uh…” Zhang Lexuan was ﬁrming up, and her dignity as his eldest senior sister immediately came up. Huo Yuhao didn’t dare to argue against her.

Zhang Lexuan thought for a moment, then said, “Let’s do it like this. You’re walking over the event anyway, and you still have to deal with graduation paperwork. Why don’t you come to the inner courtyard during the night of the Sea God’s Fated Blind Date, and you’ll participate in the event at night, and I’ll arrange for your graduation assessment on the following morning, then I’ll help you deal with your paperwork. You can save the most time that way.”

Huo Yuhao really couldn’t turn her down anymore. He could only accept his fate. “Alright, eldest senior sister, I’ll listen to you.”

Zhang Lexuan’s frown turned into a smile as she said, “That’s better! It’s a deal, then. The Sea God’s Fated Blind Date will be held ﬁve days from now, and if you dare to not come, hmph! The Tang Sect will not know peace.” Zhang Lexuan turned and strode away after leaving this threat.

Huo Yuhao’s face was full of exasperation as he watched her leave. He really couldn’t afford to offend his eldest senior sister!

But... she was right. He couldn’t break the Academy’s rules. Furthermore, getting his graduation certiﬁcate was also very important. He would just be there to walk through the event.

Five days from now. I can’t forget about that…

---

Huo Yuhao walked into the Tang Sect as he thought, and immediately began to contemplate and research forging those pills.

Huo Yuhao needed speciﬁc tools to do this. He needed a furnace, and he needed sufﬁcient warmth in the ﬁre.

A pill furnace was simple. All he had to do was make a soul tool.

Huo Yuhao began to draw a blueprint for that soul tool as he contemplated. No matter what, he was still a Class 7 soul engineer who could forge a Class 8 soul tool. Even though he hadn’t seriously studied forging soul tools for a few years, a small problem like this couldn’t stump him.

The pill furnace had to satisfy several conditions. First, it had to be strong enough to resist high temperatures. Second, it had to produce high temperatures. Third, it had to be able to control its temperature. Fourth, the furnace itself couldn’t have any effect on these herbs at all.

He should be able to start forging pills after satisfying these conditions.

It wasn’t hard to forge a soul tool while satisfying these conditions…

---

Just as Huo Yuhao was just about to complete his blueprint, a knock came from outside

“Who is it?” Huo Yuhao asked subconsciously, without even looking up.

“It’s me!” A very dissatisﬁed voice could be heard from outside.

“Ah?” The person who owned this voice was one of the people that Huo Yuhao feared the most. He hurriedly stood up and opened the door.

“Why are you here, Teacher Xuan?” Huo Yuhao greeted Xuan Ziwen with a sheepish smile on his face.

Xuan Ziwen grunted coldly and said, “You dirty fellow. You’re back rather quickly, but you used Bei Bei as your shield as soon as you came back. Do you think I’ll let you go? How

many days do you need to forge whatever pills? Give me an accurate estimate.”

Huo Yuhao forced a smile and said, “How can I give you a proper estimate, Teacher Xuan? This is also my ﬁrst time, and I still have to do some experiments. You know that we have to conduct experiments every time we craft a new soul tool! It’s similar for forging pills. I was just drawing up some blueprints for a pill furnace. Don’t worry, once I’m done with my pills, I will immediately learn about soul tools from you. What do you think?”

“A blueprint for a pill furnace? Let me take a look.” It was his ﬁrst reaction when he heard “soul tool”.

Huo Yuhao hurriedly handed over the blueprint that he had just drawn.

Xuan Ziwen didn’t have to ask what Huo Yuhao needed from his pill furnace; he understood Huo Yuhao’s intentions with a few glances.

However, his ﬁrst reaction after looking through the blueprint was to slap his hand upside Huo Yuhao’s head.

“Aiyo, why did you hit me, Teacher Xuan?” Huo Yuhao said aggrievedly.

Xuan Ziwen snapped, “Idiot, to think you’re a Class 7 soul engineer! Don’t tell others that you’re my disciple, because I can’t take that embarrassment. Look at what you’re drawing; what is that? It would be surprising if you could actually forge pills successfully with this thing of yours. Just waiting to waste some resources.”

“Ah?” Huo Yuhao admired Xuan Ziwen the most in terms of forging soul tools. Xuan Ziwen wouldn’t speak without thinking about this, and he was very strict about his research with soul tools.

Huo Yuhao hurriedly sought advice humbly. “Teacher Xuan, can you tell me what’s wrong with my blueprint? Help me.”

Xuan Ziwen grunted coldly and said, “Now you want to learn? You have never been willing to properly learn about

forging soul tools from me over the years, and you feel embarrassed now? You messed up something as simple as this! Hmph!

“Don’t think you can do this well with that spiritual power of yours. No matter how formidable your spiritual power is, if you don’t have sufﬁcient experience, if you don’t have the newest theories and principles, all that is wasted. Let me just touch on two things to tell you why your furnace is useless.

“First, let me ask you, how can your furnace ensure that the herbs’ medicinal effects won’t be lost? Do you not know that herbs that are considered natural treasures will release their medicinal effects once they’re used? Can metal seal the furnace so that these medicinal effects won’t be lost? Once these medicinal effects are lost, everything that’s good will ﬂow away. Are you preparing a furnace full of dregs for everyone?”

Chapter 503: You Need a Class 9 Pill Furnace!

“This…” Huo Yuhao suddenly realized that he had neglected an important problem.

Xuan Ziwen followed by saying, “Secondly, let me ask you. When origin energy of heaven and earth is gathered and compressed within a certain region, what will happen when the tool compressing it has its own limit?”

“This…” Huo Yuhao started to perspire.

Xuan Ziwen laughed coldly. “It will blow apart! Even you will be blown apart! Do you not know how much origin energy there is in these treasures? Haven’t you eaten them before? Can’t you imagine at all? Do you really think a furnace is enough? What a joke! If you can’t solve these two problems, you’ll only be wasting resources.”

As he spoke, he threw the blueprint at Huo Yuhao’s face before turning and leaving.

“Hey! Teacher Xuan, don’t go! I was wrong, I was wrong. Please advise me!” Xuan Ziwen pointed out the problems, but not the solutions. Furthermore, Huo Yuhao couldn’t think of anything to deal with these two problems. He immediately chased after Xuan Ziwen.

Although Xuan Ziwen was walking away, he revealed a weird grin on his face. He thought to himself. Rascal, you’ll deﬁnitely be tricked this time, won’t you? Hehe!

After hearing from Bei Bei that Huo Yuhao wanted to use precious treasures to cultivate medicine, he had already anticipated that there would be problems with the furnace. The reason was very simple. When Xuan Ziwen was in the Sun Moon Empire, there was a soul engineer that he shared great ties with who was in charge of cultivating medicines for the imperial family.

Why were there so many soul engineers in the Sun Moon Empire? It was because they could be cultivated using a lot of medicine. The soul engineers who weren’t talented could consume medicine to increase their cultivation speed.

In this aspect, the Sun Moon Empire held an absolute advantage over the other empires. Xuan Ziwen was also not talented in terms of his martial soul, so he had also resorted to using medicine to increase his cultivation.

His cultivation had reached nine rings through medicinal help, too. However, he realized that the medicines in Shrek weren’t cultivated before they were consumed, even though they were top quality. This was a waste of medicine.

However, he didn’t say anything because he had his own important research to do, and also because he wasn’t very adept at cultivating pills.

Hearing what Huo Yuhao wanted to do this time, he rushed over. The reason was very simple. The furnace he needed had to be an advanced-tier soul tool if such precious treasures were used as materials to cultivate medicine. The higher the quality of the materials, the higher the requirements for the furnace. This was what that Sun Moon Empire’s pill-cultivating soul engineer had told him before.

Although he didn’t know what the treasures Huo Yuhao had brought back were or what their quality was, he could roughly

guess from Bei Bei’s simple description that at least a Class 9 furnace would be needed! Given Huo Yuhao’s current abilities, he couldn’t possibly produce a Class 9 soul tool. Xuan Ziwen knew that blueprint was worthless no matter how detailed or well-drawn it was, because Huo Yuhao couldn’t solve a very

simple problem: compressing the origin energy that was released. Without it, an explosion was the only outcome.

How could Huo Yuhao know about Xuan Ziwen’s experience? He even pursued him after being admonished. Xuan Ziwen had killed two birds with one stone.

“Why are you following me?” Xuan Ziwen stopped in his tracks and looked at Huo Yuhao coldly.

Huo Yuhao hurriedly and respectfully said, “Teacher Xuan, I was wrong. I’ll put more effort into learning soul tool production from you.” He was also very intelligent. He knew that Xuan Ziwen was doing this as a show for him. How could he not understand what his intentions were?

Xuan Ziwen snorted disdainfully and replied, “Do I have to teach you even if you’re willing to learn? Twin martial souls

and Ultimate Ice. Go on then. Go and be your soul master.” As he spoke, he turned around and left.

Huo Yuhao’s ﬁgure immediately ﬂashed, and he blocked Xuan Ziwen’s path. He was full of smiles as he said, “Teacher Xuan, I know I was in the wrong. Even if it’s a death sentence, there’s still time for repentance. You should give me a chance to turn over a new leaf. Don’t worry, I’ll learn under you seriously. In the future, I’ll do my best to become a Class 9 soul engineer. I won’t give up anymore. What do you think?”

Xuan Ziwen appeared to be in a better mood now. He snorted once and said, “That’s more like it. Counting on the fact that you appear more sincere today, I’ll agree reluctantly. However, remember that I’m nurturing you not purely because I want you to become a Class 9 soul engineer. Although Class 9 soul engineers are very rare, they aren’t the extreme.”

Huo Yuhao was astonished. “So, what do you want to do?”

Xuan Ziwen revealed an intense and passionate look in his eyes. He stared at Huo Yuhao until goosebumps started to appear on Yuhao’s skin.

“Before I die, I hope I can nurture a Class 10 soul engineer, and help him reach the peak of soul engineers! My talent is limited. I’ll never become a Class 10 soul engineer. However, you are a prodigy. I believe that I can do it. Just work hard. This time, I won’t let you leave the Tang Sect easily before you become a Class 9 soul engineer. Whatever commitments you have, I want you to throw them aside.”

“This…” Huo Yuhao suddenly turned grim, and smiled bitterly at Xuan Ziwen.

Class 9 soul engineer. How is it that easy? First, I need to become a Titled Douluo. That doesn’t happen in a day or two.

Xuan Ziwen laughed coldly and said, “Are you unwilling? It’s up to you. Do whatever you want.” As he spoke, he walked leisurely away.

“Teacher Xuan, don’t go!” Huo Yuhao hurriedly chased after him, and laughed bitterly. “See, I barely have eight rings now. How easy is it for me to reach nine rings? Moreover, I still need to become a Class 9 soul engineer. Aren’t your requirements a little too high? Yes, I guarantee that I’ll work hard. Should you not relax your demands? How about a Class 8 soul engineer?”

Xuan Ziwen didn’t even bother with him. He continued to walk forward as if he didn’t hear anything.

Huo Yuhao was also helpless now. He knew that he couldn’t succeed without Teacher Xuan’s help this time. However, wasn’t it a little too strict to stop him from leaving the Tang Sect before he became a Class 9 soul engineer? If he wasn’t fortunate, wouldn’t that take him from eight to ten years?

“Teacher Xuan, Teacher Xuan!” Seeing that Xuan Ziwen was getting further and further away, Huo Yuhao continued chasing after him. He gritted his teeth and said, “Alright, I agree. However, I can’t absolutely not leave the sect. I’ll try not to leave Shrek City. However, if there’s something important, especially when the Academy requests it, I’ll need to go.”

Xuan Ziwen also knew that he couldn’t force Huo Yuhao too much. He nodded and said, “That’s ﬁne.” Shrek Academy was very supportive of his research, and they shared a good relationship. In addition, Xuan Ziwen also knew that Huo Yuhao was one of the members of the Sea God’s Pavilion. If the Academy had something for him to do, Xuan Ziwen couldn’t possibly stop him.

With his words, Huo Yuhao heaved a sigh of relief. Before he could say anything else, Xuan Ziwen added, “Rascal, don’t think I don’t know what you’re plotting, If you try to use the Academy to sneak off, don’t blame me for being unkind. I won’t show any mercy then. I’ll leave the Tang Sect just like

how I left the Illustrious Virtue Hall.”

“Ugh… Teacher Xuan, am I that sort of person? Why would I use the Academy as an excuse to sneak off? Don’t worry, I’ll study seriously.” Although Huo Yuhao felt a little guilty, he still spoke the truth in his heart. This was no time to offend Xuan Ziwen!

Xuan Ziwen nodded in satisfaction and said, “Alright, follow me then. We have to design your furnace properly. We need a Class 9 furnace for stability.”

“Class 9!” Huo Yuhao was really shocked.

Xuan Ziwen laughed coldly and said, “Do you think it’s so easy to reﬁne treasures? Without a Class 9 furnace, you won’t be able to contain the aura of such good stuff. Not only do you have to seal it, you’ll have to compress it, too! All the details

have to be considered. You have no room for failure. Do you really think you’re performing an experiment?”

Huo Yuhao wanted to reply ‘yes!’. He had brought back a lot of good stuff this time. Although he couldn’t perform an experiment using the same materials, it was still possible for him to choose one that wasn’t too expensive. However, he didn’t dare say that. Xuan Ziwen was very serious!

Instead, he humbly asked, “Teacher Xuan, what should we do?”

Xuan Ziwen said as he walked, “We’ll perfect the blueprint over these next few years. I had a friend who was a pill- cultivating master; I heard him explaining how to cultivate pills before. However, he didn’t create a Class 9 furnace back then, he only thought of it. You must join in the design. Although your cultivation and experience are lacking, your spiritual power is strong enough. It shouldn’t be a problem for you to take a look at some complex blueprints. You’ll be my assistant when I make the furnace.”

“Yes!” Seeing the serious look on Xuan Ziwen’s face, Huo Yuhao was touched. He knew that it was very valuable to be

able to accompany a Class 9 soul engineer in his attempt to make a Class 9 soul tool! Xuan Ziwen was bound to advise him during the process. Such an experience would be beneﬁcial to him in his efforts to become a Class 9 soul engineer himself.

Huo Yuhao followed Xuan Ziwen to his laboratory. Xuan Ziwen was always very quick in doing whatever he wanted, especially in the area of soul tools.

He took out a piece of white paper and immediately made a simple drawing.

To produce a complex soul tool, the ﬁrst thing to do was to list out the requirements. After that, solutions had to be devised. The third step was to create the necessary formations using those solutions. Then, the formations had to be linked with one another. During this process of linkage, it was important to simplify things without compromising usefulness. The last step was to perform a mechanical run-in.

After these ﬁve steps, the core formations could then be worked on. The outer shells were then created based on how the core formations came out.

The entire process was rather complicated.

When Huo Yuhao successfully created the Class 8 decomposition cannon, he was still some way off from the

standards of a Class 8 soul engineer. After all, the blueprint that he had then was provided by Xuan Ziwen.

As Xuan Ziwen drew out a blueprint, he muttered to himself, “First is the choice of materials. Since our pill furnace will be Class 9, we need to consider the materials that we will use. Even though using core formations can generate energy compression and isolation, the materials used have to be resilient and resistant enough to isolate external substances. At the same time, it needs to be a good conductor of heat…”

Huo Yuhao stood at one side and listened to Xuan Ziwen seriously as he looked at the blueprint being drawn up. Everything being said was for his beneﬁt.

During the process of research, time always passed very quickly.

Xuan Ziwen was indeed a Class 9 soul engineer. It had only been a day, but Huo Yuhao was already feeling pretty overwhelmed, even given the strength of his spiritual power. He had to meditate to restore it. However, Xuan Ziwen was still forgoing food and sleep for his research. The blueprint that he was drawing up already made up a stack of paper.

The complexity of Class 9 soul tools was far beyond Huo Yuhao’s expectations. This Class 9 soul tool was formed by multiple Class 8 soul tools. Not only did it involve the knowledge of spatial systems, but temporal systems, too. Every detail deviated greatly from what Huo Yuhao had learned in

the past.

Furthermore, in the process of creating a Class 9 soul tool, every rare metal used was absolutely precious. It was very difﬁcult to carve each and every one of them. Not only did one require great soul power, but one also needed to combine his soul and spiritual power. Even with Huo Yuhao’s immense spiritual power, the complicated core formations were still astonishing to him. He was completely bamboozled.

He didn’t understand everything Xuan Ziwen was talking about. However, Xuan Ziwen didn’t seem to be bothered at all. He continued to ramble on, and didn’t repeat himself at all, letting Huo Yuhao work out everything by himself. He only asked Huo Yuhao questions occasionally. If he got them right, they would continue. If he was wrong, he would be admonished.

---

In the blink of an eye, three days passed. A prototype had been made. Xuan Ziwen was already on the fourth step of the blueprint, the simpliﬁcation and combination of the required formations.

This combination wasn’t just for the purpose of eventually coming up with a core formation. Rather, through the simpliﬁcation, they hoped that the core formation could also be simpliﬁed. This would make it less difﬁcult to create.

Of course, this was only a relative statement. A Class 9 soul tool still required a great amount of effort to forge.

Class 9 stationary shells were even more difﬁcult. This was because the core formations of a Class 9 stationary shell required very detailed and extreme designs, in addition to the complexity of it, so that it could produce the greatest strength when it blew apart. As a result, it could detonate anytime during the production process.

“Yuhao.” A soft voice came from outside. Huo Yuhao turned around and saw He Caitou waving to him.

Huo Yuhao took a look at Xuan Ziwen, who signaled that he could go over. His gaze was ﬁxated on his blueprint from start to ﬁnish.

Huo Yuhao walked over in front of He Caitou. He lowered his voice, “Second senior, what’s the matter?”

He Caitou lowered his voice. “I came here to ﬁnd you. You and Teacher Xuan have already been here for three days. It’s time to rest when it’s time to rest. You should remind him, too. This was what eldest senior said to me. Another thing: don’t forget you have to make a trip to the Academy the day after tomorrow. Eldest senior sister sent someone to remind you today.”

“Oh, oh.” Huo Yuhao recalled now. He had agreed to Zhang Lexuan’s request to join the Fated Blind Date. At the same time, he needed to get his graduation certiﬁcate.

He smacked his forehead and replied, “Thank heaven that you reminded me. Otherwise, I would really have forgotten! Thanks, second senior.”

He Caitou smiled and said, “We’re brothers. You don’t have to thank me. What are you and Teacher Xuan researching?”

“A pill furnace,” Huo Yuhao replied. Although Bei Bei didn’t allow him to talk about cultivating pills, it was ﬁne to mention a pill furnace.

He Caitou was curious. “A pill furnace? For what purpose?”

“To cultivate pills,” Huo Yuhao replied, “Teacher Xuan wants to make an advanced-tier pill furnace. This is so that pills can be cultivated for disciples of the sect to consume, which would quicken their cultivation speed.”

He Caitou’s eyes brightened and he commented, “That’s great! I’m anxious after seeing that all of your cultivations have been increasing signiﬁcantly!” Ever since he became a Soul Sage, He Caitou felt that his cultivation speed had been lagging behind. It wasn’t that he wasn’t working hard enough; it was because of his martial soul.

He Caitou was a food-type soul master. It was harder for a food-type soul master to cultivate during the later stages of his

cultivation, and much more difﬁcult for a food-type soul master to increase his soul power compared to an ordinary soul master. However, with the right medicine, it would be much easier. Regarding this, He Caitou had always been very accepting. He was a soul engineer, too. Most soul engineers

relied on medicine to improve. It would be great for him to have medicines to consume. If his cultivation wasn’t high enough, it would affect his ability to become a Class 8 or 9 soul engineer.

Huo Yuhao smiled and said, “Don’t be anxious. When the pill furnace is done, we can try it.”

He Caitou nodded and said, “I’ll return ﬁrst. The past few years have been tiring. However, I still feel a sense of achievement when I see soul tools being created. Learn well from Teacher Xuan. Little junior, you are much more talented than me. You must do your best!”

“Deﬁnitely!” Huo Yuhao acknowledged.

------

He Caitou left and Huo Yuhao returned to Xuan Ziwen’s side.

He continued to analyze the blueprint along with his teacher.

Over these last few days, Xuan Ziwen was rather satisﬁed with Huo Yuhao. Huo Yuhao hadn’t left his side during the past three days. Furthermore, he was actually very pleased inside, even though he was scolding Huo Yuhao frequently. Huo Yuhao was very intelligent, even smarter than he was before. Regarding his descriptions, he was always able to draw inferences about other cases. At times, he even came up with suggestions that stunned his teacher.

Xuan Ziwen was rather pleased to have such a clever student. However, he always acted ﬁerce to prevent him from being overly full of himself. Talents had to be restrained a little to prevent them from getting arrogant.

Huo Yuhao was indeed much more intelligent than he was before. The reason was very simple: Wang Qiu’er’s sacriﬁce. Wang Qiu’er had given him the Skull of Destiny. Not only did it increase Huo Yuhao’s spiritual power, but it also greatly enhanced his intelligence, though even Huo Yuhao was unsure of how that had happened.

In fact, if not for the fact that his intelligence had greatly increased, his cultivation wouldn’t have grown at such a rapid speed, even if he consumed the rarest substances and fused with a large amount of life energy.

------

In the blink of an eye, another day passed. It was easy for one to forgo sleep and food when one was deep in research. It was only when He Caitou came to ﬁnd Huo Yuhao again that he remembered he needed to make a trip to the Academy.

Xuan Ziwen didn’t stop him. He had to collect his graduation certiﬁcate, after all. They were already at the last stage of their blueprint. Given Huo Yuhao’s current abilities, he wouldn’t be able to comprehend this stage. It was a point where nothing could be allowed to go wrong. If something did, all the precious materials would go to waste!

After exiting Xuan Ziwen’s laboratory, Huo Yuhao took in a deep breath. It was unprecedentedly comfortable feeling the surge of fresh air into his lungs.

“Second senior, I’ll go ﬁrst. Please help me tell eldest senior that I’ll be back tomorrow morning.” It was bright outside, but Huo Yuhao had been in the laboratory for many days. He hadn’t tracked the time at all.

He Caitou stopped him and asked, “Little junior, are you planning to go just like that?”

Huo Yuhao answered, “Of course! What other way is there?”

He Caitou was speechless. “Little junior, eldest senior sister mentioned that you are going for the Sea God’s Fated Blind Date. You are the face of the Tang Sect now. Look at you. You’ve not changed your clothes since you returned. You’ve not showered for many days either, and your hair is a mess. If you go like this, she’ll send you back. Go and tidy up before getting some food. Freshen up ﬁrst.”

“Ugh…” If not for He Caitou’s reminder, Huo Yuhao wouldn’t have realized that he had so many problems right now. He hadn’t showered in days, and had skipped a few meals. He had been immersed in the world of soul tools. He seemed so slipshod right now. How could he represent the Tang Sect like this?

Huo Yuhao’s face turned red, and he said, “I’ll return now.

Thanks for your reminder, second senior.”

He Caitou laughed, “You! Quickly, go. Eldest senior has already prepared clothes for you. Go and represent the Tang Sect. Recruit more students. You must be more presentable, do you understand?”

“Oh, yes.” Huo Yuhao replied. He felt warm inside. Eldest senior is so busy taking care of Teacher Xiao Ya, but he hasn’t forgotten about me. His concern makes me feel as if he’s my biological elder brother.

Before Huo Yuhao returned to his room, he ﬁrst tried to determine the position of the sun. It’s still morning, less than two hours to noon. It seems like eldest senior deliberately asked second senior to call me so that I’d have time to tidy myself up.

A set of brand new clothes was laid on the table in the room. Huo Yuhao quickly took a hot bath, and afterwards all his fatigue seemed to have disappeared. Given his current cultivation, he was ﬁne even if he didn’t sleep for a few days.

Just when he had ﬁnished showering and was prepared to put on his clothes, he suddenly heard an anxious voice calling him in his head.“Yuhao, Yuhao!”

The Snow Empress’ call jolted Huo Yuhao awake. He hurriedly asked, “What’s wrong, Ice Empress?”

A white light ﬂashed, and the Snow Empress appeared in front of him. She appeared very anxious, “Where’s Little Bai?

When he was still in your demiplane, I had already sensed something amiss. Quickly, let him out. I’m afraid he might face a bottleneck soon.”

“What?” Huo Yuhao was given a scare. The Ice Bear King and Snow Empress were closely connected. The Snow Empress had saved him, and transferred some of her abilities to him. This was how he became the Ice Bear King. They had a tight connection. If the Snow Empress said something like this, she must have discovered something.

Huo Yuhao didn’t dare to delay any further. He quickly recited a few incantations and opened the door that led to his demiplane. He entered the demiplane along with the Snow Empress.

When he came in, he was completely shocked. There was an unprecedented change in his demiplane.

The entire sky was dark and gloomy. Bolts of lightning intersected in the sky. Immense pressure bore down from the skies, suppressing the countless specters on the ground. Some of the stronger ones roared at the bolts of lightning, as if they were trying to resist the heavens.

The Ice Bear King was standing on a mountain, just standing there quietly. Right now, he appeared very calm. He was still in his human form, and there were still some food scraps on the sides of his lips. His gaze was deep and long. There was even a sense of self-mockery and disdain to it.

As he stood there, he really seemed to have become the core of the entire demiplane at this moment.

Suddenly, a bolt of lightning struck down from the sky onto Little Bai’s head. Little Bai roared furiously, and his hair all stood on end. A layer of icy-blue light surfaced to resist the lightning. As it clashed with the bolt of lightning, the lightning dissipated, and Little Bai’s body shook a little. There was an electrifying look in his eyes after this happened.

“This is…” Huo Yuhao was astonished as he watched beside the Snow Empress. The Snow Empress appeared very serious and said, “It’s started, it’s actually started. I didn’t expect your demiplane to be so close to reality, a Lightning Catastrophe can actually happen here! This is a catastrophe that soul beasts have to face every hundred thousand years. Although the catastrophe faced by each soul beast is different, it is without a doubt that a Lightning Catastrophe is the most dangerous. No

wonder I always had this feeling that Little Bai wouldn’t be able to survive this catastrophe. It’s actually a Lightning Catastrophe!”

Huo Yuhao asked, “What should we do now? Can we help him resist the Lightning Catastrophe?”

The Snow Empress shook her head and replied, “No, you can’t. You’ll only be courting death. Your cultivation is too weak. If I still had my original body, we might still stand a chance. However, it’s not possible, I’m only a spiritual entity now. I’m afraid of lightning. I’ll also be courting death if I go and help him.”

Huo Yuhao anxiously asked, “Don’t tell me that we can only watch? What if he dies if he can’t resist it anymore? Is there no way at all?”

At this moment, another bolt of lightning struck. Little Bai found it more difﬁcult to resist the lightning this time. Not only did he stagger, but he also returned to his original form. A patch of hair on his shoulders had already been charred.

“We have no other way right now,” the Snow Empress said decisively. “We can only leave him to it. This fellow is too greedy. If he had returned to the Douluo Continent with you, we would have known about any catastrophe before it arrived. However, he can’t sense anything here, he can only suffer. If he’s able to hold on, that’ll be great. Even if he can’t, he won’t be completely decimated. As long as a streak of his spiritual sense is left, we can still transform it and bring him back.”

Huo Yuhao looked at the Snow Empress. He was helpless right now. The Snow Empress had experienced such a catastrophe seven times. She was more experienced, and he could only listen to her advice.

Fortunately, the lightning was only targeting Little Bai. The sky was getting darker and darker. Thick clouds were gathering above the mountain. If the lightning targeted the specters, this demiplane would surely be ravaged.

BOOM! BOOM!

Two consecutive bolts of lightning struck. Little Bai summoned his soul power to its maximum, and an icy-blue shield surfaced above his head, resisting those two bolts of

lightning. However, Huo Yuhao could clearly sense Little Bai’s aura growing weaker.

The power of lightning was great, and contained the natural qi of heaven and earth. Huo Yuhao felt as if his body had been baptized by the thunderous natural qi when he felt it so close to him.

Little Bai peered into the sky and roared. His massive body squirmed a little. Following this, a beam of icy-blue light shot into the sky, charging straight for the clouds. Instantly, everything within a region spanning a thousand meters in diameter was turned into ice and snow. Snowﬂakes danced in the air, and the temperature fell dramatically.

Huo Yuhao wasn’t harmed even though he was in this region, since his martial soul was Ultimate Ice, and he also had the Snow Empress with him.

Little Bai was retaliating. Huo Yuhao opened his eyes wide to see what Little Bai had achieved.

The truth, however, was that Little Bai’s attack wasn’t very effective.

Bolts of lightning struck down and dismantled the beam of light that he unleashed. Even though there was still a streak of light that hit the clouds, weakening them, Little Bai’s body was already shaking uncontrollably as the streak of light dissipated. The soul power undulations that came from his body had weakened considerably, too.

The earlier attack was already his strongest strike. Huo Yuhao and the Snow Empress rushed over. The Ice Bear King had already been facing the lightning for some time. His soul power was almost drained.

The clouds seemed to be infuriated. Bolts of lightning struck towards Little Bai.

Little Bai didn’t appear to be out of hope when he peered into the sky. There was only a persistent look on his face. An icy- blue whirlpool slowly appeared on his forehead. The surrounding air currents seemed to undulate tremendously, and the bolts of lightning were resisted just like that.

Huo Yuhao saw a core shaped like a snowﬂake at the center of that rapidly spinning whirlpool. It was Little Bai’s soul core. It turned out that one’s soul core could be used like that...

When Huo Yuhao saw the soul core, he heaved a sigh of relief. This was power that only a Titled Douluo or a hundred- thousand-year soul beast possessed! He and his teammates had killed Titled Douluo before. However, they were always very fortunate. If the Titled Douluo they had killed had unleashed their soul cores, their ﬁghting strength would have been signiﬁcantly greater. However, Huo Yuhao could tell that this was Little Bai’s last resort. Once his soul core was damaged, his life would be in great danger, and his cultivation would fall signiﬁcantly. He might even completely lose his cultivation. It was why Titled Douluo rarely relied on the strength of their soul core.

To Huo Yuhao, observing this ﬁght was a good way of accumulating experience. Personally witnessing a soul beast overcoming a catastrophe was very rare among human soul masters.

Boom, boom, boom, boom!...

Bolts of lightning continued to fall. Little Bai’s soul core was still capable of resisting them initially. However, his aura gradually started to weaken, and his soul core started to shake unstably. Given his condition, the strength of his soul core couldn’t completely protect his body anymore. Patches of black started to appear on his body. He was also forced to sit on the ground by the lightning striking him. His gaze was also becoming dimmer and dimmer.

BOOM!

Yet another ball of lightning struck. Little Bai was ﬂung into the air as an explosion reverberated across the demiplane. The air currents surrounding his soul core instantly disappeared, leaving his soul core exposed.

“Little Bai!” Huo Yuhao screamed. He sprinted forward without any hesitation.

“Yuhao, don’t go!” The Snow Empress didn’t expect Huo Yuhao to be so quick. She was already too late before she could stop him. Huo Yuhao instantly teleported above Little Bai. He mimicked a lifting action, and his immense Ultimate Ice soul power was unleashed from his body.

Another ball-shaped bolt of lightning formed in the sky and crashed down toward Little Bai, Huo Yuhao placed himself between the ball of lightning and Little Bai.

There was a decisive look in his eyes. He knew that what he was doing was dangerous. However, if he didn’t do this, he wouldn’t be able to forgive himself.

He couldn’t forget how Little Bai had accompanied him and called him “Grandpa”. Without Little Bai, he wouldn’t have been able to breach Heaven Dou City. Without Little Bai, he wouldn’t have been able to resist Ju Zi, or sneak into the Sun Moon Empire’s base.

Little Bai had been with him all this while, silently contributing to his cause. Apart from eating, he didn’t ask for anything else. Every time he took action, he gave his all. He even got injured. Although Huo Yuhao hadn’t expressed his gratitude, he knew all this in his heart.

Chapter 504: The Beast God's Bewilderment

The Ice Bear King was very innocent. He appeared very foolish, but was very determined. Even though he knew that the Snow Empress had lost her original body, he still listened to her, precisely because she had saved him and brought him up. He treated the Snow Empress like his mother, and treated Huo Yuhao as his grandfather.

If the Ice Bear King was in a life or death situation and Huo Yuhao only stood by one side watching, how could he be ﬁt to be the Ice Bear King’s partner?

This was why Huo Yuhao didn’t hesitate at all. To him, any price he had to pay was nothing compared to that clear feeling in his heart. He was willing to take the risk for Little Bai.

However, he wasn’t completely irrational. He wanted to rely on the reverse scale. Although he didn’t know whether it could resist the lightning, he still did it willingly.

As the ball-shaped lightning fell from the sky, the terrifying natural qi instantly engulfed Huo Yuhao. The Snow Empress

wanted to rush over, but was ﬂung away by the immense natural qi.

The Ice Bear King was ﬁlled with astonishment. He had collapsed on the ground and clearly sensed his life dissipating away. He also clearly saw how that ball of lightning completely engulfed Huo Yuhao, who was so small compared to him, but appeared so tall and mighty in mid-air right now.

“Grandpa…” Little Bai was sobbing. He could no longer remain as calm as he was before. Two big beads of tears rolled down from the sides of his eyes. He could clearly sense the concern that came from Huo Yuhao.

“Yuhao!” the Snow Empress shouted. At this moment, she was also ﬁlled with astonishment. It was her ﬁrst time seeing a human risking everything to save a soul beast. Even if he had the Beast God’s reverse scale, how could he be sure that the Beast God would appear at this moment to save him? Moreover, this was the spectral demiplane, not the Douluo Continent. Even if Di Tian was here, could he do anything?

Before any answer was known, Huo Yuhao still charged over without hesitation. What did this show? It showed his

attachment to Little Bai. If he was already like that to Little Bai, how would he treat the Snow Empress, the Ice Empress, and the Skydream Iceworm? It would naturally be better.

At this moment, the Snow Empress was ﬁlled with gratitude. She wasn’t just grateful that Huo Yuhao had saved Little Bai. She was also grateful that he had shown her the kind side of humans. The Snow Empress knew that if Huo Yuhao survived this ordeal, she and the other Spirits would no longer have any other barriers with him anymore.

A sonorous dragon roar eventually sounded out. However, the voice also sounded like it was in torment. A pitch-black glow spread out and engulfed all the lightning. Huo Yuhao fell from the sky and crashed to the ground. In the sky, a pitch- black dragon claw remained in mid-air, and grabbing towards the catastrophic clouds.

At the same time, a furious voice sounded, “Huo Yuhao, you are really courting death. If you die in the forest, I could still steal your destiny. You rascal!”

The Snow Empress smiled. However, the smile only lasted for a moment before it froze in place. That was because of the

claw.

The claw grabbed towards the sky. The catastrophic clouds were so strong that they had almost killed the Ice Bear King. However, they were crushed by the claw.

“Dragon! God’s! Claw!” the Snow Empress said, word by word. At the same time, she also took the opportunity to vanish into Huo Yuhao’s body just as Di Tian was too distracted to notice.

Right now, Huo Yuhao felt as if his body was about to disintegrate. However, he wasn’t in pain, because he was completely numb at this point. All his bones, muscles, passageways and even his spiritual sea were numb at this point.

However, what he found very surprising was that he felt an itch. It was both uncomfortable and comfortable at the same time.

What was going on?

The catastrophic clouds disappeared. The Beast God’s voice sounded once again. “Yuhao, what are you doing? Why is there a Lightning Catastrophe? How dare you use your own body to get in the way of a Lightning Catastrophe? If you do this one more time, you can go and die!”

Di Tian was indeed infuriated. Although he had used his claw to destroy the catastrophe, he was the one who suffered the greatest impact of the lightning when he was summoned by the reverse scale. It was important to know that it was the last stage of the catastrophe, which was when it unleashed its strongest attack. Even a three-hundred-thousand-year soul beast like the Ice Bear King couldn’t handle it! Di Tian rushed over using spatial power, and suffered such a strong attack immediately. It was understandable how much pain he was in. He was really hurt.

Huo Yuhao revealed a smile on his face and touched his completely charred hair. He chortled, “Beast God, thanks. I was just helping a friend. If I didn’t, he would have died.”

“What?” The dragon claw disappeared. A near-transparent black projection surfaced in mid-air. Di Tian couldn’t truly transcend time and arrive here with his real body, especially since they weren’t on the Douluo Continent. The fact that he

was able to do even this much fully demonstrated his deep understanding of spatial power. Regarding that fact, Huo Yuhao was truly petriﬁed. Di Tian was much stronger than he had imagined!

Di Tian looked around, and revealed a weird look on his face. “What is this place? It’s not the Douluo Continent. It seems to be a parallel spatial dimension. Eh, is this a demiplane? How is this possible? Was this a demiplane created by a mortal being?”

As Di Tian spoke, the astonishment in his voice became more and more obvious.

In the Douluo Continent, he recognized himself as the strongest existence. He was also the closest to becoming a god. His senses were far more acute than any other Ultimate Douluo or Savage Beast. It was because of his sensitivity, especially towards spatial power, that he was able to become the strongest out of the Ten Great Savage Beasts in the Douluo Continent.

Even so, he wasn’t completely conﬁdent in creating such a demiplane!

This wasn’t a complete plane, because he couldn’t sense a complete ecology in this plane. There was no aura of the gods in this demiplane, either. This also meant that it had to be the work of a mortal being. If that was the case, how strong was the person who had created this plane? At the very least, the

Beast God was inferior to him. It seemed like there was someone stronger than him, someone who was between a god and him that existed. To him, this wasn’t a huge blow. Rather, it was an exciting discovery!

It had been awhile since Di Tian had the motivation to cultivate. It was because he clearly knew that he couldn’t possibly become a god, even if he worked harder. He could only maintain his current state. However, after witnessing the existence of such a demiplane, how could he not be delighted? If his abilities could increase such that he could create such a demiplane, would he be able to survive the next Catastrophe and possibly live for another hundred thousand years?

After realizing all this, Di Tian was suddenly very motivated.

The fury he had for Huo Yuhao earlier also mostly dissipated.

When he turned his attention to Huo Yuhao again, he naturally noticed the Ice Bear King.

“Ah, an ice-type Savage Beast with a three-hundred- thousand-year cultivation. Are you from the Extreme North?” The Beast God was a little puzzled as he looked at the Ice Bear King.

The Ice Bear King didn’t utter a sound. Right now, he was only looking at Huo Yuhao. There was a look of closeness in his eyes, as if he were looking at his own father or kin.

The Beast God was very powerful. He knew from the look in the Ice Bear King’s eyes that Huo Yuhao had been resisting the attack on his behalf. The astonishment that the Snow Empress experienced earlier came to him, too!

Although the Ice Bear King didn’t come from the Great Star Dou Forest, he was also a soul beast. Di Tian considered himself the king of all soul beasts in the Douluo Continent. All soul beasts were like his people. When he saw how Huo Yuhao had risked his life to save a Savage Beast, his anger dissipated even further.

Huo Yuhao asked Di Tian, “Beast God, can you save him?

He’s critically hurt from resisting the Lightning Catastrophe.”

Di Tian descended from the sky and landed beside Huo Yuhao. He only took a few glances at the Ice Bear King before he said, “I can’t save him. His origin is greatly damaged from resisting the Lightning Catastrophe, and his soul core has also cracked. The only way to save him now is to make him your

Spirit. Eh, how has your soul power reached Rank 80 so quickly?”

Although Di Tian’s reverse scale was on Huo Yuhao’s body, he could only sense what was going on whenever Huo Yuhao felt the aura in the godly realm, or when he was in danger. He couldn’t monitor Huo Yuhao all the time. Right now, he was shocked to realize that Huo Yuhao was already at Rank 80. This fellow’s cultivation is increasing too quickly.

“Is there really no way?” Huo Yuhao asked anxiously, “You’ve overcome eight Catastrophes. You’re so experienced. Come, save him!”

Di Tian snorted and said, “Given my current status, why would I lie to you? If I can’t save him, I can’t. Aren’t you Rank 80 now? Quickly, fuse with him. Otherwise, it’ll be too late. Since you saved him, I’m sure he’s willing to become your Spirit.”

After hearing Di Tian’s words, Little Bai was already nodding repeatedly before Huo Yuhao even opened his mouth. Not only was there a look of excitement in his eyes, but there was even great eagerness.

Huo Yuhao knew that there was no other way. If even Di Tian couldn’t save him, Little Bai wouldn’t be able to live. He pursed his lips, and then nodded at Little Bai.

Little Bai’s eyes brightened immediately. It was as if he experienced a surge of energy just before he died. He forcibly turned himself around and bowed in front of Huo Yuhao.

Di Tian said, “Begin then. I’ll protect you. After you fuse with him, I have something important to ask you.”

“Thanks.” Huo Yuhao didn’t say much. After he expressed his gratitude, he immediately started to recite the incantations for an equal contract.

In terms of fusing with Spirits, Huo Yuhao had the greatest experience out of all soul masters. He was the person who had

established the profession of a Spirit Transmission Master, and the Pagoda Master of the Spirit Pagoda.

A formation gradually appeared below Huo Yuhao and the Ice Bear King. Huo Yuhao sensed the Ice Bear King’s intent, and slowly released his spiritual power, summoning him.

The Ice Bear King slowly lifted one of his front paws and extended a ﬁnger to Huo Yuhao.

His ﬁnger was too thick. Even when Huo Yuhao placed his entire palm on the Ice Bear King’s ﬁnger, it couldn’t even cover the ﬁngertip.

A gentle icy-blue light rippled from the Ice Bear King’s body. He was a Savage Beast that had survived two Catastrophes. After experiencing this Lightning Catastrophe, he was technically a Savage Beast that had been through three Catastrophes. It was just that he could survive no longer.

A dim blue glow also appeared on Huo Yuhao’s body.

“Eh!” When he saw the changes to Huo Yuhao’s body, Di Tian exclaimed gently in surprise. However, he didn’t say anything further.

The icy-blue glow released from Little Bai’s body turned into rings that engulfed Huo Yuhao. Huo Yuhao was stunned to realize that Little Bai’s origin strength was completely compatible with his. There wasn’t any rejection during the fusion process at all. He also didn’t feel bloated because Little Bai’s origin strength was too great. After he fused Little Bai’s strength into his body, it quickly fused with his soul power. It even helped to absorb the Manifold Mysterious Ice Essence in his blood.

Huo Yuhao turned ice blue. The seven soul rings of his Ice Jade Empress Scorpion also gradually surfaced.

Red, orange, orange, orange, orange, red, and red. Seven soul rings shone brightly.

In a normal ﬁght, Huo Yuhao wouldn’t reveal the colors of his soul rings, it was equivalent to telling his opponents that he was extraordinary. However, there was nothing he could do about it right now. He deﬁnitely didn’t dare to be careless, and

did his best for this fusion. His soul rings were thus in their original form and color.

Di Tian’s pupils shrank a little. He was in awe. This kid is indeed extraordinary! No wonder he can attract the calls of the godly realm. I must monitor him more closely. No matter what, I can’t let him bring the aura of the Destiny God Beast into the godly realm...

The Ice Bear King’s body slowly collapsed, and his life aura slowly disappeared. A brand-new red soul ring with three golden patterns slowly rose from his feet.

From this moment on, Huo Yuhao had truly become a Soul Douluo. He was now an eight-ringed Soul Douluo!

Even Huo Yuhao didn’t expect his Ultimate Ice martial soul to be the ﬁrst to reach eight rings.

In fact, it was becoming increasingly more difﬁcult to add soul rings to his main martial soul. It was too difﬁcult to ﬁnd a spiritual-type soul beast. Furthermore, as the number of

Spirits he had increased, Huo Yuhao became even less willing to kill soul beasts to increase the number of soul rings he had.

Chapter 505: Xiao Bai the Jiangshi

This fusion provided enough strength that his Ice Jade Empress Scorpion no longer needed any soul rings. This wasn’t a small thing. If his spiritual sea couldn’t handle the spiritual strength of his Spirits, everything would be for naught. The impact on him would also be very great, and it might be a possibility that his spiritual sea would be crushed.

It wasn’t possible for someone to replicate the method by which Huo Yuhao had fused with ﬁve Spirits. He was only able to do so because his spiritual power was in the concrete- material realm, and also because he possessed the Three-Eyed Golden Lion’s Skull of Destiny, as well as his Spirit Eyes’ soul core.

The icy-blue glow slowly faded. Huo Yuhao only felt that he was continuously improving. The soul power in his body kept on rising. The pleasure of experiencing a breakthrough made him feel as if he were about to ﬂy.

His body was ﬁlled with strength. The remaining Manifold Mysterious Ice Essence instantly melted and fused into his body.

The Ice Bear King’s body was already stiff. His life aura had completely vanished. However, a brand-new life was slowly taking form in Huo Yuhao’s body. Little Bai’s Spirit was slowly forming.

The Ice Bear King was a soul beast who had lived for hundreds of thousands of years. Logically speaking, he should be able to give Huo Yuhao a soul bone. But Huo Yuhao was stunned that no soul bone appeared. It was just his Spirit that formed.

A red eighth soul ring fully demonstrated the strength of a hundred-thousand-year soul beast.

He slowly stood up and looked at the Ice Bear King’s massive corpse. Huo Yuhao couldn’t help but sigh. Little Bai, I still couldn’t help you in the end.

In fact, Huo Yuhao didn’t want Little Bai to be his Spirit after he developed feelings for him. By becoming his Spirit, it meant that Little Bai would lose his body. To a certain extent, he was dead. Huo Yuhao wasn’t fully conﬁdent of becoming a god! If he was able to help Little Bai overcome his bottleneck, he

would have been able to live for another hundred thousand years.

Just as Huo Yuhao was feeling a little down, the Beast God Di Tian suddenly exclaimed in astonishment, “Oh, what’s going on? Undead?”

Huo Yuhao thought that some specters were venturing towards them. He wanted to take a look, but he was shocked to realize that Little Bai’s charred corpse had actually moved. After this, the corpse gradually sat up.

This…

Huo Yuhao was wide-eyed in shock as he looked at Little Bai. Little Bai straightened his back. His body was still gigantic, but the charred bits started to fall off his body. After this, he let out a deep roar.

His roar was very special. Compared to his original roar, it was much sharper and weirder. However, the specters that thought that things had returned to normal following the lightning catastrophe actually looked in his direction.

After this, Huo Yuhao sensed some kind of special strength gathering in this direction and into Little Bai’s body. His aura was increasing at an alarming speed.

As the charred bits fell off of his body, Little Bai’s skin grew a layer of greyish fur, still ﬂashing with dim-blue light. Little Bai’s eyes also turned grey, and a weird glow kept on transforming him.

“Has he become an undead?” Huo Yuhao muttered to himself in shock.

Di Tian nodded and said, “It seems so. It seems that he has been restricted by this world. It’s the work of this demiplane. Even after he became your Spirit, it seems like some of his spirit is still in his own body. After that, his body slowly transformed into an undead. He was originally a Savage Beast, which means he was very strong, and his body is still resilient enough. Although he was lethally hurt earlier, he seems to have become stronger after becoming undead. His aura isn’t weak at all.”

Huo Yuhao revealed a bitter smile on his face. He didn’t know whether it was a good thing that Little Bai had become undead...

At this moment, a white light ﬂashed. Little Bai, who had turned into his human form, appeared beside Huo Yuhao. When he saw his original body was roaring into the sky, he was also astonished.

He had just completed the Spirit fusion, and still hadn’t sensed the changes to his own body before this situation surfaced.

As the Beast God was around, the Snow Empress couldn’t appear. As a result, Little Bai ran out on his own.

Huo Yuhao was astonished as he asked Little Bai, “Little Bai, what’s going on? Can you sense the changes to your body?”

Little Bai replied, “Grandpa, I’ll try.” As he spoke, he shut his eyes, and the gentle power of his spiritual origin cautiously extended towards his body.

His body, which was absorbing the spectral aura from the demiplane, immediately sensed it when Little Bai tried to reach over. His body immediately turned around and looked back at him.

As the four eyes met, Little Bai and his spectral body shook. In the next moment, Little Bai revealed a delighted look on his face.

“Boss, I’ve connected with it. It’s still me! I can sense my own aura.”

Huo Yuhao was confused, and scratched his head. He asked, “What’s going on?”

Little Bai replied, “It seems like I was restricted by the rules of this world when I tried to become your Spirit. A streak of my spirit still remains in my body. Without me controlling my own body, it started to change according to the rules of this world. That’s what happened. I should be a vampire, as humans would call it. However, I feel stronger even though I’m a vampire now, especially my body. However, I need to absorb more energy ﬁrst. Hehe, I already told you that I love this

place. It’s great, I can live as two entities now. This is amazing!”

Huo Yuhao was also in a bit of a daze. He didn’t know whether this was a good or a bad thing. However, since it had already happened, and Little Bai could connect to his own body, things were already considered not too bad. At least he wouldn’t be attacked. If Little Bai’s corpse was even stronger than Little Bai was originally, it wouldn’t have an opponent in this demiplane, and could rule the entire place. It was indeed not a bad thing.

Huo Yuhao nodded and said, “It’s good as long as you’re ﬁne. Little Bai, return to my body ﬁrst and let me sense the changes. You’ve just become my Spirit. You can’t waste too much of your origin strength.”

“Alright!” Little Bai immediately agreed. He disappeared into Huo Yuhao’s body after staring at Huo Yuhao with a stirring look in his eyes.

Huo Yuhao turned to the Beast God. Di Tian was annoyed as he said with a weird expression, “Huo Yuhao, you’re becoming more and more unclear to me. Tell me about the history of this

demiplane. It couldn’t have just appeared out of thin air. How did you ﬁnd this place?”

After pondering for a moment, Huo Yuhao decided to tell the truth. There was no point in hiding things from Di Tian. Although his reverse scale had restricted his connection with the godly realm, Di Tian had still saved him on many occasions. Huo Yuhao didn’t like him, but he didn’t hate him either. He only treated him as a target that he wanted to reach in the future.

“This demiplane was created by a teacher of mine. He was called Electrolux, the Divine Law of Necromancy. He was a noble existence that hailed from another world.”

Huo Yuhao recounted how he had managed to fuse with Electrolux, and how he was guided by him, gaining strong necromantic abilities in the process.

Di Tian didn’t doubt him at all or pose any questions. He only listened seriously.

The Divine Law of Necromancy came from another world. Electrolux even had his own divine sense. All these were considered rather inspirational to Di Tian. Regarding this, Huo Yuhao didn’t think it was critical. Even if Di Tian learned anything from this, he couldn’t become a god.

“Alright, you’ve told me everything I need to know. This demiplane is rather good. You must preserve it well. It can become part of your power. Given your current abilities, you can already use it to a great extent. You must be careful in the future. Stop getting into trouble, I can’t always save you. Do you understand?” Di Tian said seriously.

“Yes. Thank you, elder Di Tian, for saving my life!” Huo Yuhao nodded at Di Tian.

The projection that was Di Tian disappeared as quickly as it had appeared. It just vanished into thin air. Huo Yuhao was secretly in awe. Elder Di Tian is indeed the strongest existence on the continent! When can my control of spatial power reach his standard?

Little Bai’s corpse was still absorbing the spectral power in the demiplane to transform itself. Huo Yuhao didn’t dare to

stay too long, as he still had things to attend to. If not for the fact that Little Bai had suddenly faced an urgent problem, he would have already tidied himself up and gotten ready to leave for Shrek Academy.

When Huo Yuhao returned to the Tang Sect and his own room, he was feeling depressed.

The reason was very simple. His hair…

Was that heavenly lightning so easily resisted? Even though Huo Yuhao wasn’t clear about what kind of effect the lightning had on his body, he could clearly see the frazzled hairs on his head right now.

His hair was neither long nor short. It just reached his shoulders. Now that it was all sticking out like a porcupine. He couldn’t even press it down. How could he see anyone like this?

He couldn’t help it, he had to take a bath again. Enough water ﬁnally restored his hair to normal. However, as he was struck by lightning, his hair was still curly after returning to

normal. But the effect wasn’t that bad. At least he didn’t become ugly...

Looking at the sky outside, it was already dark. Huo Yuhao quickly dressed in the new clothes that Bei Bei had given him. They ﬁt well. He was wearing a white warrior robe, which only had a few accessories. However, many parts of the robe were made from silk. Even though the robe was white, it refracted light to differing degrees, and made Huo Yuhao look very elegant in it.

Huo Yuhao also felt more energized and refreshed as he donned the robe.

At this moment, Huo Yuhao felt his ﬁrst sense of excitement after fusing with Little Bai as his ﬁfth Spirit. This excitement didn’t come from his Spirit, but from the fact that he was now an eight-ringed Soul Douluo.

A Soul Douluo was only inferior to Titled Douluo! Huo Yuhao was barely twenty years old. No one in the history of Shrek Academy was able to achieve what he had at this age.

Zhang Lexuan became a Soul Douluo when she was thirty, and she was already the pride of Shrek Academy back then.

Huo Yuhao shuddered when he thought of her. He didn’t dare to delay any further. He didn’t even bother with eating, and quickly rushed towards Shrek Academy. If he was late, she might be infuriated with him. He couldn’t afford to offend her, he still had to graduate!

Huo Yuhao rushed all the way to Shrek Academy. School had already ended, and the students were all streaming out. The gates of the Academy were far more crowded than they were when he had entered for his ﬁrst time, so long ago. Due to the expansion of Shrek City, the entire Academy was now a busy area.

It took some effort to squeeze through the gates. Just as he was prepared to enter the Academy, he heard some students discussing something.

“I heard there’ll be a Sea God’s Fated Blind Date in the inner courtyard tonight, on the Sea God’s Lake. Furthermore, this year’s Fated Blind Date is different from previous years. Even those not from the inner courtyard are allowed to observe the

event. This is unprecedented, but I’m not sure what the reason for it is.”

“I’m sure you don’t. My cousin is from the inner courtyard. This time, the Sea God’s Fated Blind Date is open to outer courtyard disciples because it’s being used as a way to stimulate us to work harder. It’s only by working hard and becoming an inner courtyard disciple that we can participate in a Sea God’s Fated Blind Date. It’s important to know that our seniors who take part in the Blind Dates are extremely talented. It would be great to have such a partner. Furthermore, I’ve heard that the success rate is high. A lot of seniors were unwilling to reveal their feelings when they were still in the outer courtyard. They can take this chance to reveal them all. Of course, I’ve also heard that it’s important for one to be strong enough if they want to achieve anything in the Blind Date.”

“Yes, we need to work hard! I’m going to work hard. One day, I must stand on the Sea God’s Lake and participate in the Sea God’s Fated Blind Date! Let’s go and get something to eat quick. We’ll rush back after we ﬁnish eating and get a good spot. Otherwise, we won’t be able to see anything.”

“Hehe, you don’t know what I’m going to do. I’m prepared to buy a magnifying soul tool. With that thing, I can even see the

sleeves of our seniors clearly. In addition, it’s not that expensive, either. The Tang Sect has just released a new batch of them. Do you want one?”

“What? There’s something as good as that? Of course I want it. I can still use it to peep at girls in the future…”

As he listened up to that point, Huo Yuhao became nostalgic. I really didn’t expect outer courtyard students to be allowed to observe the Fated Blind Date. It seems those two juniors are right. Permitting them to observe the event can help stimulate their cultivation. This isn’t really a bad thing.

It feels so much better than when I just joined the Academy! How great would it be if I could watch the Sea God’s Fated Blind Date with Dong’er?

As he thought of Wang Dong’er, Huo Yuhao felt a bit of heartache, and gently shook his head. He quickened his pace as he headed towards the inner Academy.

------

The Academy was very crowded. Huo Yuhao put his student badge on his chest, so no one stopped him. However, he knew fewer of the students now that a few batches had graduated. At most, a few students thought that he was dressed rather weirdly, because almost all the students took pride in wearing the uniform of the Academy.

When Huo Yuhao made his way to the shore of Sea God’s Lake, he was stunned to realize that the sky was still bright. It was barely evening, but there were already people seated at the better spots. He came to a spot on the shore that was close to the lake itself, and saw a young outer courtyard student just settling down. There was a mat that could seat more than ten people on the ground. He seemed to have just ﬁnished setting it up, and the edges of the mat were pressed down with various items. After he ﬁnished, he tidied up the mat as he sat down in satisfaction on it.

Huo Yuhao smiled and said, “Junior, why are you taking up so much space?”

The outer courtyard student didn’t even lift his head and replied, “Who says that I’m alone? I’m here to reserve seats for others. There’s more than ten of us. They went to get some food, and will be back soon.”

Huo Yuhao laughed, “All of you have indeed allocated your duties well!”

That student laughed in return, “Yes! If we don’t come early, we won’t have good spots. We’re already so tired from cultivating every day. This is a good opportunity to relax. All of us treasure this opportunity. It’s excellent to be able to witness how our seniors are going to seek love. We came here to set our own targets.”

Huo Yuhao smiled and said, “It’s good that you’re not here just to skive. However, it’s also good to take a breather every now and then.”

“Oh?” This outer courtyard student felt something amiss when he heard how Huo Yuhao was advising him. He lifted his head and looked at him.

Huo Yuhao’s robe caught a lot of attention. After that, he saw the badge on Huo Yuhao’s chest.

The badge given to the inner courtyard disciples was red. There was also an image of a Shrek Monster on it. It was extremely obvious on Huo Yuhao’s white robe.

“Ah! A senior from the inner courtyard. Are you a senior from the inner courtyard?” The outer courtyard student was immediately impressed.

The inner courtyard disciples in Shrek Academy were highly respected. They were even more respected than some teachers in the outer courtyard. After all, inner courtyard disciples all had at least ﬁve soul rings. The more outstanding ones even had seven rings. If this was the outer courtyard, they would already be a Dean. Furthermore, they were all young, and extremely talented.

The outer courtyard students were already talented, and the inner courtyard students were even more so. Normally, inner courtyard students rarely interacted with outer courtyard students, as they were very busy with their cultivation. So this outer courtyard student was very excited when he met an inner courtyard disciple.

Huo Yuhao smiled and replied, “Yes! Nice to meet you, junior.”

The outer courtyard student jumped up excitedly. “Senior, I’m called Jin Sha. My friends call me Sandbag. You can call me that, too! Are you going to Sea God’s Island?”

Huo Yuhao nodded.

The outer courtyard student was shaking with excitement as he asked, “Will you be going to the Sea God Pavilion’s Blind Date tonight?!”

Huo Yuhao smiled. “It’s the Sea God’s Fated Blind Date.

You’ve said something wrong.”

“Er, er… I’m too excited. I was at a loss for words.”

Huo Yuhao nodded and said, “I’ll be there.”

“Wow, that’s great! Senior, I envy you so much! I wonder when I can participate?!” Jin Sha said excitedly.

Huo Yuhao saw his uniform; he was a Year 3 or 4 student. From his soul power undulations, it seemed like he had three rings.

“You’ll get your chance if you work hard. Let’s work hard together, junior. I’ll go and register ﬁrst. If we’re fated to meet again, we’ll meet each other again.” As he spoke, Huo Yuhao waved his hand before he ﬂew up and towards the Sea God’s Pavilion.

“Bye, senior!” Jin Sha waved back at Huo Yuhao.

At this moment, Huo Yuhao was already more than ten meters away. He touched the surface of the lake with his toes as he proceeded towards the Sea God’s Paviliom.

To Huo Yuhao, this was very easy. However, Jin Sha was ﬁlled with admiration and envy. As he watched Huo Yuhao slowly disappear into the distance, he couldn’t help but mutter to himself, “When can I as be as strong as this senior? He can

ﬂy over water without even unleashing his martial soul. He’s really powerful! He has to be at least a Soul Emperor!”

------

Huo Yuhao naturally didn’t know that Jin Sha was evaluating how strong he was. Very soon, he reached Sea God’s Island. After reaching the island, he naturally went straight to the Sea God’s Pavilion. He didn’t know where to register for the Blind Date.

The Sea God’s Pavilion was as calm and quiet as ever. The refreshing and fragrant air gave one an invigorating feeling. It was indescribably comfortable.

Huo Yuhao knelt down in front of the Golden Tree and respectfully kowtowed thrice. After this, he stood up and walked into the Pavilion.

The Sea God’s Pavilion was very quiet right now. After entering, he didn’t sense anyone’s aura. He couldn’t use his Spiritual Detection either, as he didn’t want to alarm the elders.

He was feeling a little depressed right now. It was already evening, but he didn’t know where to go for the Sea God’s Fated Blind Date! There wasn’t even anyone to ask.

However, at this moment, his stomach started growling. He hadn’t eaten in a few days, and his stomach was revolting.

As he thought of eating, Huo Yuhao started to salivate. The food in the inner courtyard had always been very tempting. To ensure that the students were fully nourished for their cultivation, the food in the inner courtyard had always been made from the best ingredients on the continent, and delicately prepared.

Not only was the food nourishing, it was also very tasty. It was one of the programs that the inner courtyard disciples enjoyed most. When they were still at the Academy, Shrek’s Seven Monsters would constantly ﬁnd excuses to come over to Sea God’s Island and have a meal. They wouldn’t leave without ﬁlling their stomachs.

Since he couldn’t ﬁnd anyone, he ﬁgured he might as well go to the canteen, where he might run into someone, as well as grab a bite to eat.

Huo Yuhao walked out from the Sea God’s Pavilion and rushed straight to the canteen in the inner courtyard.

It was meal time. When he went into the canteen, he saw many familiar faces. Furthermore, the food in the inner courtyard had been prepared. Some people were queuing up, while some were already eating.

“Hey, isn’t this Huo Yuhao? What a rare guest! How does he have time to come to the inner courtyard?” some unfriendly voices spoke up. When Huo Yuhao turned his head, he immediately saw a familiar face. It was Wu Feng, the person who had opposed him when he ﬁrst came into the Academy.

It had been a long time since he had met her. Wu Feng appeared less sinister than she had in the past. Her body was

much more slender, and she was also much more voluptuous. She looked a little bit like Ma Xiaotao back then.

Ning Tian was seated beside Wu Feng. When he saw Huo Yuhao, his expression also turned slightly weird.

They had gone through the Love Querying test in the Yin Yang Love Querying Valley. Finally, Ning Tian had managed to change her gender, from a ‘she’ to a ‘he’.

When she returned, Ning Tian spent a long time trying to adapt. It was only because of Wu Feng’s help that she managed to gradually adapt to becoming a guy. At the same time, she fell in love with her male identity. After all, she could now openly be together with Wu Feng after she became a man. She could also become the true heir to the Seven Treasures Glazed Sect.

After that, the two of them cultivated together in the inner courtyard. Due to their compatibility, they improved very quickly. They thought Huo Yuhao wouldn’t be able to catch up to their cultivation speed, as he was too busy outside. Perhaps their gap had already been reduced signiﬁcantly.

“Wu Feng, how are you?” Huo Yuhao greeted Wu Feng. At the same time, he nodded at Ning Tian. Naturally, he wouldn’t comment much on her gender change.

It wasn’t just Wu Feng and Ning Tian who were there. After hearing their conversation, a few familiar faces came over. Dai Huabin and Zhu Lu were among them, along with Xie Huanyue.

They were once rising ﬁgures in the outer courtyard. Many years had passed since then. Right now, Wu Feng, Ning Tian, Xie Huanyue, Dai Huabin, and Zhu Lu had become the elite disciples of the inner courtyard.

As they developed, the older generation of disciples, led by Zhang Lexuan, Han Ruoruo and Wu Ming, had already graduated. They were now involved in some enterprises related to Shrek City. Although they hadn’t left the Academy, they were no longer part of the inner courtyard. Among the new generation of disciples, Dai Huabin was currently the strongest. He was now close to becoming a Soul Sage. Although some of the more experienced inner courtyard disciples were stronger than him, it didn’t change the fact that he was one of the leading ﬁgures in the younger generation of disciples.

When Dai Huabin saw Huo Yuhao, he was not as indifferent and hostile as he was before. However, he didn’t appear overly friendly, either. He nodded back before pulling Zhu Lu away to get their food.

Wu Feng snorted and replied, “I was doing well, but I don’t think you’re that well. Why are you here? Are you still an inner courtyard disciple? I’ve never seen you cultivating in the inner courtyard.”

Huo Yuhao laughed bitterly. “Of course I am. I’ve not ofﬁcially graduated. I’m here today to take the graduation test.”

Wu Feng’s eyes brightened. “Graduation test? It seems like you’re conﬁdent. Our graduation test is very difﬁcult.”

Huo Yuhao said, “Let me try then. If I can’t, I’ll continue working hard. Take a seat, I’ll go get something to eat.” As he spoke, he turned around and went to get some food. He really was quite hungry by now.

---

The food in the inner courtyard was as scrumptious as ever. Huo Yuhao got a big portion of emerald sea cucumber and another portion of stewed dragon meat, as well as some hibiscus crystal rice. He found a corner and started eating.

The inner courtyard disciples in the canteen weren’t just people that Huo Yuhao was familiar with. There were some who he didn’t recognize. There were other guys and ladies who were curious when they saw Wu Feng talking to him. They were all inner courtyard disciples, but they had never seen Huo Yuhao before. Naturally, they were curious.

Although Huo Yuhao wasn’t particularly handsome, he had a very special aura. Even in a canteen full of elites, he became the focus of everyone’s attention when he entered.

---

Wu Feng twisted her lips and whispered to Ning Tian, “Brother Tian, what do you think Huo Yuhao’s cultivation is at right now? Do you think he’s a Soul Sage yet?”

Ning Tian replied, “I guess so. He’s been a member of the Sea God’s Pavilion since some time ago. He enjoys much greater privileges compared to the rest of us. Although I don’t know what he’s been busy with all this while, it feels like he’s much stronger than he was before.”

Wu Feng snorted and said, “So what if he’s stronger? We’ve been working so hard recently. We’ll be able to close the gap. He bloomed early. But if he doesn’t work hard, he’ll soon be overtaken. When we’re Titled Douluo, we don’t know who will be stronger.”

Ning Tian shook his head as he chuckled. He didn’t say anything. In fact, both he and Wu Feng knew that they couldn’t compare to Huo Yuhao in terms of talent. Wu Feng wouldn’t admit it only because of her own pride. They all knew that Huo Yuhao had long since transcended their level.

They had always treated Huo Yuhao as their target. As for whether they could catch up to him, it was unknown.

They weren’t the only ones who treated Huo Yuhao as a target. Xie Huanyue and the rest whispered at this moment, “I think it’s going to be difﬁcult to catch up to him! He even

established the Spirit Pagoda. When all of you are at seven rings, are you going to choose to fuse with Spirits?”

After hearing Xie Huanyue’s words, Wu Feng and Ning Tian looked at one another, and couldn’t hide their desire.

They had seen how effective Spirits were. Right now, everyone knew that Spirits greatly enhanced the abilities of soul masters. If a Spirit was used well, it could be far more powerful than soul rings. To most soul masters, fusing with a strong Spirit to be their origin Spirit was the best. At least up until now, no one had fused with two Spirits as Huo Yuhao had.

Xie Huanyue lowered her voice, “If you want to fuse with a Spirit, it’s best not to offend him. He holds an important position in the Spirit Pagoda. Even the elders in the Spirit Pagoda respect his opinions. If he comes up with any tricks, we’ll be unable to do anything.”

Wu Feng was petriﬁed, and retracted some of her initial hostility. To genius soul masters like them, their future abilities and cultivation couldn’t be taken lightly!

Ning Tian laughed as he shook his head and said, “If Huo Yuhao was so petty, he wouldn’t be so successful now. You don’t have to worry about this. However, I don’t think he’s simply back for the graduation test.”

Wu Feng was stunned as she asked, “Don’t tell me you’re talking about the Sea God’s Fated Blind Date tonight?”

Ning Tian nodded and said, “He might participate. Otherwise, why did he come back within these two days to take the test? Wang Dong’er is missing, and he hasn’t graduated. He’s also single. According to the rules of the inner courtyard, he has to participate!”

Wu Feng’s expression turned weird as she looked at Ning Tian.

Ning Tian turned red and asked, “Why are you looking at me? It’s all in the past.”

Wu Feng coughed and said, “Nothing, I’ll keep a close watch on you! Let’s go and watch tonight.”

Ning Tian nodded and said, “Let’s go. We can watch from the boat.”

---

As they were discussing things, Huo Yuhao was having a good time with his meal. The food didn’t disappoint him. As he ate, he felt a warm feeling in his belly, which slowly ﬂowed out to his arms. He was feeling extremely relaxed.

Even though he had the Manifold Mysterious Ice Essence in his body, and didn’t need to eat since he could get his nutrients from the ice essence, it was much more satisfying to gain his strength through eating. Who would not want delicacies? Huo Yuhao was often starving when he was a child. He treasured and enjoyed food a lot.

He gobbled up all his food and left nothing at all on his plate.

Just as he was ﬁnished eating, someone knocked on his table.

Huo Yuhao ate his last mouthful of rice, puzzled as he lifted his head. Being disturbed while eating wasn’t very proper. Initially, he thought it was Wu Feng or Dai Huabin. However, he discovered it was a middle-aged man he didn’t know when he lifted his head.

This man looked as if he was thirty-some years old. He appeared very solemn, and asked coldly, “Who asked you to eat in the inner courtyard canteen? Who are you? Tell me your name!”

“What?” Huo Yuhao was stunned. “I’m a disciple of the inner courtyard. Why can’t I eat in the inner courtyard?”

The middle-aged man snorted, “Do we have such a disciple?

Not even wearing your uniform?”

“This…” Huo Yuhao was a little awkward. “I’m sorry! You must be a teacher in the inner courtyard. I’ve not been in the inner courtyard for some time, and my uniform no longer ﬁt me. That is why I’m dressed in something else. Look, this is my badge.”

As he spoke, Huo Yuhao quickly removed his badge from his chest and passed it over.

Cerita silat IndoMandarin

Unrivaled Tang Sect Volume 35

Chapter 491: Reaching the Frontline

Chapter 492: Surveillance Begins

Chapter 493: Ju Zi, Seed

Chapter 494: Spineless Nangong Wan

Chapter 495: Sneaking In

Chapter 496: The Walking Corpse Tang Ya

Chapter 497: Second Soul Engineer Legion

Chapter 498: Annihilation Storm

Chapter 499: An All-out Decisive Battle?

Chapter 500: Phoenix Covering Retreat

Chapter 502: The Medicine Reﬁnement Plan!

Chapter 503: You Need a Class 9 Pill Furnace!

Chapter 504: The Beast God's Bewilderment

Chapter 505: Xiao Bai the Jiangshi

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