Ice Empress, Huo Yuhao Exposed!

Just as the radiance of the Bright Holy Dragon spread across the continent.

As all of Shrek Academy rejoiced over Mu En's recovery from his injuries.

One person alone was sunk in unease and struggle.

Inside Huo Yuhao's dormitory.

His face was pale, and fine beads of cold sweat seeped across his forehead.

His heart felt as if it were being clenched tight by an invisible hand.

"Yuhao! Get ready!"

The Sky Dream Ice Silkworm's voice had lost its usual laziness and carried an urgency like never before.

"Your Martial Soul is about to be exposed!"

The Ice Empress's cool voice also held a trace of gravity. "That's right. Extreme Ice, combined with the source aura of my four hundred thousand years of cultivation, is completely different from an ordinary Martial Soul."

"Since the Golden Ranking could see through Mu En's old injuries, seeing through us would be no difficult matter either."

"The next Martial Soul is very likely to be us!"

Huo Yuhao felt as if he had fallen into an ice cellar.

Was the thing he feared most finally about to happen?

Once the Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion Martial Soul was exposed, what followed would be Brother Sky Dream's Million-Year Soul Ring...

He would become the target of everyone!

"What do I do... What am I supposed to do?"

Huo Yuhao's voice was dry, tinged with despair.

"Go to the Sea God's Pavilion!"

The Sky Dream Ice Silkworm said urgently, "Before it's announced, go find Mu En, go find Yan Shaozhe!"

"Tell them the truth! Only by gaining the protection of Shrek's highest ranks will you have a chance of survival!"

The Ice Empress was silent for a moment before she also spoke. "That is the only way for now. That Mu En's nature can be considered upright. Now that his injuries have healed, perhaps he has the ability to protect you."

"Take the gamble, Yuhao!"

Huo Yuhao's eyes wavered violently.

Tell them the truth?

Tell the academy's upper ranks all his secrets, including Teacher Electrolux's existence?

This was undoubtedly a huge gamble.

But... he simply could not bear the consequences of not coming clean!

"All right!"

Huo Yuhao suddenly gritted his teeth, and a trace of determination flashed through his eyes.

"I'm going to the Sea God's Pavilion!"

He hesitated no longer and immediately got up.

He rushed toward the Inner Court's Sea God's Pavilion at top speed.

Along the way, he could feel the joyful atmosphere filling the academy, but that only made the coldness and heaviness in his heart stand out all the more.

Outside the Sea God's Pavilion.

That rich aura of life, together with the lingering might of the Bright Holy Dragon that had yet to fully dissipate, made Huo Yuhao's heart settle slightly.

He took a deep breath and mustered his courage.

Then he triggered the Sea God's Pavilion's warning Soul Tool.

Inside the pavilion, everyone still immersed in the joy of Mu En's recovery sensed the movement outside.

"Hm? Is that child Yuhao?"

Yan Shaozhe raised his brows slightly, a little surprised.

He could sense that Huo Yuhao's aura was extremely hurried and unstable.

Mu En's cloudy eyes, now once again lit with divine radiance, looked toward the entrance and saw the young man outside, whose heart was filled with struggle and fear.

He spoke gently. "Let him in. For this child to come here at this moment, it must be something extremely important."

Hearing this, Yan Shaozhe immediately waved his hand and opened the doors of the Sea God's Pavilion.

Huo Yuhao walked in quickly. When he saw the gazes of all the pavilion elders inside focused on him.

The pressure on him surged, and his face turned even paler.

This appearance of his was completely different from his usual calm resilience.

"Yuhao, what has you so alarmed?"

Yan Shaozhe looked at him, his tone carrying concern and a trace of confusion.

Mu En had recovered, and the academy was overjoyed.

How could Huo Yuhao show such an expression?

Xian Lin'er, Qian Duoduo, and the others also cast curious looks his way.

Huo Yuhao opened his mouth. The words he had prepared rolled in his throat, yet he found them impossibly hard to say.

He took a deep breath and was just about to force himself to speak. "Elder Mu, Dean Yan, esteemed elders, this disciple has an important matter to report. It concerns... concerns this Golden Ranking. It may have something to do with me..."

But just as he had gotten halfway through, before he could point out the key part—

Boom!

The Golden Ranking in the sky once again erupted with earth-shaking radiance without the slightest warning!

That light instantly drew the attention of everyone inside Sea God's Pavilion!

Even Mu En turned his gaze toward the window, his expression growing focused.

The words that had reached Huo Yuhao's lips were forcibly blocked back down.

He watched as the elders were instantly drawn in by the Golden Ranking, and his heart turned ice-cold.

It's over... too late...

He could only let out a bitter sigh in his heart.

He swallowed the words he had not finished saying and, like everyone else, carried a calm that was almost despairing.

He raised his head toward the Golden Ranking that would decide his fate, waiting for the final judgment.

Xuan Zi even patted him on the shoulder and said in a rough voice, "Kid, whatever it is, wait until this ranking list finishes announcing before you say it."

"Let's see first what kind of martial soul can rank above Elder Mu's Bright Holy Dragon!"

Huo Yuhao tugged the corner of his mouth into a smile uglier than crying, then nodded.

Then he heard that announcement, like a funeral bell, resounding through his soul:

Douluo Continent Martial Soul Ranking, Fifth Place: Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion!

On the fifth line of the Golden Ranking, an ultimate jade-green cold light shot into the sky.

That light was not deathly still.

Instead, it carried the majesty and pride belonging to a king of the Extreme North!

The light condensed, and the illusory figure of a scorpion appeared. Its entire body seemed carved from the finest jade, its posture elegant yet ferocious, its tail hook flashing with a deadly cold gleam.

The instant it appeared, the surrounding air seemed to be completely frozen.

Even the light of the Golden Ranking seemed to stagnate for an instant!

The coldness and majesty it gave off was shockingly the Extreme Ice attribute!

Martial Soul: Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion

Owner: Huo Yuhao (Shrek Academy)

Martial Soul Assessment: Formed from an Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion, one of the Three Great Kings of the Extreme North with a cultivation close to four hundred thousand years, who voluntarily transformed into a Soul Spirit and perfectly fused with the owner, creating an Extreme Ice martial soul. This process defied the heavens and broke the conventional method of obtaining spirit rings, allowing the martial soul to possess the primal wildness and vast energy of a soul beast as well as the growth potential of a human. It possesses the Extreme Ice attribute, controls the coldest power in the world, and has boundless potential. Comprehensive Assessment: ranked fifth.

Reward: Extreme Ice attribute purity increased, the source power of the Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion further fused, all Spirit Ring Lifespans increased by ten thousand years, one God-given Soul Ring, Spiritual Power and ice-attribute perception greatly enhanced, Eternal Frost Domain upgraded to a Demigod Level domain.

"Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion! A four-hundred-thousand-year Ferocious Beast Soul Spirit?!"

"My heavens! Soul beasts can turn into martial souls? Isn't that the information exposed before on the Soul Beast Power Ranking?"

"Huo Yuhao? From Shrek Academy? He... he actually has a four-hundred-thousand-year Soul Spirit?!"

"Extreme Ice! Another Extreme Attribute! Fifth! Ranked above the Bright Holy Dragon!"

"Wait... the information from that Soul Beast Power Ranking before, the Million-Year Soul Ring... could that be on him too?!"

The entire Douluo Continent was as if a destructive bomb had been thrown into it.

In an instant, it sank into unprecedented madness and uproar!

If the previous martial souls, though powerful, had still remained within the scope of traditional understanding, then the appearance of this "Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion" martial soul, along with the method by which it was formed, completely overturned the ironclad laws of the Soul Master world that had stood for ten thousand years.