Arrival at the World's Highest City

On the broad official road, an inconspicuous freight carriage was parked by the roadside, with the outline of a massive city wall clearly visible ahead.

They were not far from their destination, yet the carriage had stopped here. It was rather strange.

"We're here, you two."

The old man seated at the front looked toward the cargo compartment behind him. A somewhat frail-looking boy and a gentle, beautiful woman slowly emerged from among the piled goods.

"Sir, this is the fare. Please accept it."

The boy had barely jumped down from the carriage when he walked to the front and held out a hand clutching several Silver Soul Coins.

The old man hurriedly waved his hand with a hearty smile. "Little friend, you did all the cooking along the way. Giving you a ride was this old man's good fortune. How could I possibly take your fare?"

"Thank you, sir."

Hearing this, Huo Yuhao said nothing further. After thanking him with a smile, he returned to his mother's side.

The old man could not help looking at Huo Yun'er and sighing with a smile. "He's so sensible at such a young age. Truly enviable. By the way, do you really not need this old man to take you into the city?"

Hearing him praise Huo Yuhao, Huo Yun'er's face instead showed a trace of shame. She gently rubbed Huo Yuhao's hair and smiled as she nodded to the old man.

"We have other matters to attend to, so we aren't in a hurry to enter the city. Let us part here. Thank you for looking after us along the way, sir."

"When traveling, if you meet someone in trouble, you help if you can. It's nothing much. Goodbye, little friend."

The old man waved, smiling as he bid Huo Yuhao farewell, then drove the carriage away into the distance.

"Mom, let's enter the city too."

Only after the carriage disappeared at the edge of his vision did Huo Yuhao turn to Huo Yun'er beside him and speak.

Naturally, they did not actually have other matters to attend to, as Huo Yun'er had claimed. They merely wanted to prevent the people in the city ahead from seeing the old man traveling with them and implicating him.

Although, given the Duchess's methods, she might not be able to trace them here, it was always better to be careful.

Hearing Huo Yuhao's words, Huo Yun'er finally snapped back to her senses. A self-mocking look appeared on her face before she took Huo Yuhao's hand and slowly walked toward the city ahead.

She had never imagined that the words Huo Yuhao had spoken when they decided to leave the Duke's Mansion—"I'll protect Mom"—would come true so quickly.

As Dai Hao's personal maid, Huo Yun'er knew very little about the outside world. A month ago, when mother and son had set out from the White Tiger Duke's Mansion, the confusion and fear in her heart when they stepped beyond its gates were easy to imagine.

Yet Huo Yuhao, only six years old at the time, had arranged everything flawlessly. She had barely needed to do anything. Under Huo Yuhao's guidance, after changing carriages several times, the two of them had traveled all the way from the Star Luo Empire to the Skysoul Empire.

And today, they had finally arrived at the Skysoul Empire's capital, Heaven Dou City.

The whole process felt unreal, like a dream.

As for why they had come to Heaven Dou City, it was Huo Yuhao's decision. If they were talking about cities with the best public security, it would be the capitals of the various nations and Shrek City. Xingluo City had the Duchess's influence, so they definitely could not stay there. The Battle Soul Empire was too weak, so Huo Yuhao had ruled it out as well.

There was no need to even consider Mingdu. After eliminating it, only Shrek City and Heaven Dou City remained. In terms of safety, Shrek was certainly better, but Huo Yuhao needed to earn money, so he had ultimately chosen Heaven Dou.

Zhu Lu had not brought much money when she came to the Duke's Mansion that day, so the Storage Bracelet she gave him contained only nearly two hundred Gold Soul Coins. For ordinary people, that was unquestionably a huge sum. If they settled in a small town and lived frugally, it would be enough to last them quite a long time.

But his mother had overworked herself at the Duke's Mansion over the years, leaving many lingering ailments that required medicinal herbs to treat. Moreover, his current Physical Quality was too poor. After being altered by Arrogance Original Sin, his growing body also needed more nutrition. More than a hundred Gold Soul Coins sounded like a lot, but once they started spending it, it would probably run out before long.

However, as someone reborn, Huo Yuhao naturally did not lack ways to make money. After some thought, he settled on two methods to pursue at the same time: selling Roasted Fish and making Soul Guidance Devices for sale.

Although selling Roasted Fish would certainly earn more than ten times less than selling Soul Guidance Devices, selling Soul Guidance Devices was not nearly so simple. Rare metals were not cheap, after all. Setting aside whether he even had a channel to purchase them, he first needed sufficient funds.

Two hundred Gold Soul Coins could not even buy a pound of better rare metals. Thus, before that, he could only rely on the lower-cost Roasted Fish. More importantly, selling Roasted Fish could not only earn money, but also speed up the unlocking of Gluttony Original Sin.

On the journey to Heaven Dou City, his mother, Huo Yun'er, and the carriage driver had provided him with quite a bit of Gluttony energy. The trigger was also very simple: all one needed was to feel a craving for food. That was why he had continued insisting on doing the cooking.

With the culinary skills that had steadily improved through exchanges with his teacher Rong Nianbing in his previous life in the Divine Realm, the food Huo Yuhao made now was enough to make people drool just from its scent.

Over the course of a month, he had successfully turned a small portion of one of the gray light spheres in his Spiritual Space dark yellow.

He had also summed up some details regarding the unlocking of the Original Sin Sources.

For energy of the same Original Sin, each living being could only provide it once every three days. However, energy from different Original Sins was not restricted.

For example, if someone smelled the fragrance of Huo Yuhao's cooking, they would generate energy to unlock Gluttony Original Sin. But before they could generate Gluttony Original Sin energy again, they would need to wait three days. Yet if that person suddenly displayed an arrogant attitude during that time, they would once again provide Huo Yuhao with energy to unlock Arrogance Original Sin. The next time they wanted to generate Arrogance Original Sin energy, they would likewise have to wait three days.

As for how he had discovered this, it was entirely because, during one roadside rest, a passerby had been drawn over by the scent of the food. After seeing his mother, Huo Yun'er, the man developed improper thoughts and began arrogantly spouting nonsense. After Huo Yuhao frightened him away, he flew into a rage out of humiliation.

Gluttony, Lust, Arrogance, Wrath.

One person had provided Huo Yuhao with four kinds of Original Sin energy in a short time. It had truly stunned him.

To repay the man, Huo Yuhao had enthusiastically given that fellow, who had insulted his mother, a Destiny-Judgment. As for what price that man would pay for this misfortune, it would depend entirely on his luck.

In addition, Huo Yuhao had discovered that the higher someone's cultivation, the more Original Sin energy they could provide at once. Compared to Huo Yun'er, an ordinary person, the many Soul Masters at the Duke's Mansion who displayed their arrogance had directly helped him unlock the Pride Origin in a short time, while the Original Sin energy Huo Yun'er provided was obviously far, far less.

Even so, the process was still a little too slow. After comparing the results, Huo Yuhao discovered that after successfully unlocking the Pride Origin, unlocking the other Original Sin Sources would become even more difficult.

If this was the pattern, then once he unlocked the Gluttony Origin, the speed at which the remaining five Original Sin Sources could be unlocked might decrease even further.

At first glance, this seemed to encourage the seven Original Sins to progress in tandem. But because it was difficult for him to precisely control the Original Sins produced by those around him, and because Huo Yuhao had a feeling that unlocking Original Sin Sources consecutively in a short period would place immense mental strain on him, it would likely be hard for his reborn self to endure, even if he would naturally have had no fear of it as a Deity.

It had to be said that the effects brought by the Pride Origin were extraordinarily powerful. Someone without sufficient willpower might try every possible means to unlock the other Original Sin Sources, only to be swallowed by their own inflated desires in the end. It was like a trap full of temptation.

The slower unlocking speed, on the other hand, gave him enough time to adapt to the effects of each newly unlocked Original Sin Source.

So, to be safe, he chose to unlock them one at a time and let nature take its course.

Still, although he could not unlock them yet, based on his understanding of the abilities of the Seven Original Sins Gods in the Divine Realm, Huo Yuhao could roughly guess the powers of these Original Sin Sources. For example, the Gluttony Origin's effect should be related to devouring...

As he thought, Huo Yuhao's attention settled on the light sphere in his Spiritual Space, which was mostly gray but faintly streaked with an eerie dark red.

That was Lust Original Sin.

Recalling the God of Lust's behavior in his previous life, his expression became somewhat complicated, and he could only suck in a breath through clenched teeth.

It... probably wouldn't be that outrageous, right?