Restless Souls

Chapter: The Soul That Cannot Rest

The morning after the freshman assessment, Huo Yuhao was already waiting for Chi Qiu at the gate with his pack on his back.

Following the post-assessment class assignments, Chi Qiu remained in Zhou Yi's class, while Wang Dong, having chosen the agility-attack system, had been moved to Mu Jin's Freshman Class 2. Last night, while Wang Dong was out fetching water to bathe, Huo Yuhao had quietly packed his luggage and hidden it under his bed, setting off at dawn today. Before he left, Wang Dong had still been fast asleep.

There were few items in his pack: just a towel, a tube of nearly empty toothpaste and an old toothbrush, a set of old clothes, a storage Soul Tool, and some Silver Soul Coins.

He had earned some money selling grilled fish during the first half of the semester, but purchasing a storage Soul Tool had consumed most of it. Chi Qiu still had some spare funds, so the two of them pooling their resources together should be enough for travel expenses.

While lost in thought, he caught sight of that faint, shimmering gold amidst the white mist of the morning light.

"That Wang Yan is the vice-homeroom teacher," Chi Qiu said as she walked to his side. "He is very easy to talk to when it comes to leave requests."

"That's good, I was worried you'd be given a hard time by Zhou Yi," Huo Yuhao said, pulling the backpack strap that had slipped onto his arm back up to his shoulder. "No time to lose, let's go."

In the square of Shrek Academy, those towering statues had already begun to reflect the first rays of the morning sun. Without further hesitation, the two immediately set off toward the Star Dou Great Forest.

Along the way, Sky Dream Ice Silkworm kept chattering incessantly in Huo Yuhao's Sea of Consciousness:

"Yuhao, it's not that Brother is lecturing you, but are you really going to let that little Lucky Beast girl go to our destination with you?"

"Brother Sky Dream, it's not that I insist on her coming..." Huo Yuhao chuckled. "If I didn't let her come, she'd be worried I'd run off. Don't forget, I only avoided being trapped because I promised her I would return to the Star Dou Great Forest regularly."

"Oh." Sky Dream Ice Silkworm seemed to have more to say but held back; his round, crystalline silkworm head dove into the Sea of Consciousness, leaving the remaining half of his jade-white body dangling outside in a tangled mess.

"What's wrong?" Huo Yuhao asked, feeling a bit dizzy from Tian Meng's sudden dive. "Isn't the goal to obtain my second soul ring and reshape my martial soul? Qiu'er knows all this, right? Why can't she come along?"

"This... uh..."

Huo Yuhao's tone turned serious: "Brother Sky Dream, are you hiding something from me?"

"How could that be..." The round silkworm body shivered. "If something happens to you, Brother won't survive either. No matter what, I would never harm you."

"Hmm." Huo Yuhao nodded in realization. "So you are hiding something, but it just doesn't harm me."

"Hey! Yuhao, you've gotten much sharper after reading books for a few months," Sky Dream Ice Silkworm wailed. "Since you've said that, if Brother doesn't confess, there's going to be a trust crisis between us. Actually, it's like this..."

And so, Sky Dream Ice Silkworm tearfully recounted his ten-thousand-year love-hate entanglement with the Ice Empress, leaving Huo Yuhao's temples throbbing.

"Wait, wait, Brother Sky Dream, you mean our target is the Ice Empress with three hundred and ninety thousand years of cultivation that you keep talking about?!"

"Of course." Sky Dream Ice Silkworm was still deeply immersed in the ten-thousand-year tragic romance he had brewed himself. "My dear Bingbing, as long as we accomplish this step, we can spare her the suffering of the heavenly tribulation..."

"..."

Huo Yuhao ultimately didn't interrupt Sky Dream Ice Silkworm's emotional outpouring. After a while, seeing that Tian Meng was exhausted from his own self-moved state, he finally spoke: "But Brother Sky Dream, that is the Ice Empress. Do you have any solid confidence in persuading her to join us?"

Tian Meng's tiny silkworm eyes rolled. "Originally, I only had a sixty percent chance. Whether it succeeds or not depends on how you perform and make her trust you. However... I just suddenly thought, if the Lucky Beast is willing to help, it would probably be ninety percent."

"You mean, you want me to ask Qiu'er for help."

As he spoke, Huo Yuhao glanced at Chi Qiu, who was walking on his right. Chi Qiu, who was focused on identifying the direction, noticed his gaze and shot him an inquisitive look.

They were almost there, currently on the border where the Star Dou Great Forest met the villages on the outskirts of the Heaven Soul Empire. The soul masters here were all highly tense, terrified of soul beast attacks; but for Chi Qiu, it felt as familiar as returning home.

She had told Huo Yuhao that she could tell which part of the Star Dou Great Forest they were in just by observing the growth of the grass and trees.

"Something to say?" she asked.

Huo Yuhao subconsciously touched his ear: "I have a favor to ask."

The two stayed in the Star Dou Great Forest for one night. At dawn, Chi Qiu held a funeral for that Secret Technique Soul Bone. A sorrowful dragon roar echoed as she pointed the Golden Dragon Spear toward the sky; a strand of soul power shot toward the dark purple sky like a golden thread, instantly exploding into tiny sparks that crackled and vanished into the boundless horizon.

The slaughter between humans and soul beasts seemed inevitable, but the wanton killing brought about by obtaining such soul bones was simply too much.

Huo Yuhao silently dug a pit, which reminded him of when he buried his mother—that, too, had been an unknown dawn.

Chi Qiu turned around, her expression hazy and unclear in the lingering light of the sparks: "No need to bury it. Since things have come to this, you may use that soul bone."

Huo Yuhao was startled and quickly waved his hands: "That wouldn't be appropriate."

"It's nothing," she said calmly. "As a human, you can understand our feelings, and that is already..." She bit her lip slightly, cutting herself off.

"In any case, don't feel burdened. Use it. I have already bid them farewell."

Huo Yuhao was speechless, finally reaching out to carefully store the Secret Technique Soul Bone into his storage Soul Tool. A thought crossed his mind: "Actually, my mother's grave is not far from here."

"Do you want to go see it?" Chi Qiu asked.

"Yes," Huo Yuhao said. "After seeing my mother, we will head to the Extreme North."

Back then, the Duke's Mansion wouldn't even properly bury Huo Yun'er, and in the end, it was Huo Yuhao who had erected a tombstone for her himself. Her grave was in such a remote place because she didn't even have the qualifications to be buried beside the ancestors of the Dai Family.

Walking to the grave, Huo Yuhao first knelt and kowtowed three times, then his eyes grew sore as the hardships he had endured at Shrek flooded his heart. No matter how strong he had been during this time, he was still just a child, and in front of his mother, he couldn't help but reveal his vulnerability.

He shouted in a hoarse voice: "Mom, I'm leaving."

"The things you told me about this continent when I was little, I've discovered that many of them were actually incorrect. On the way here, I was thinking, this must be because you spent your whole life trapped within the Duke's Mansion."

"So, your son intends to go out and see what the world outside is really like."

"Don't worry, your son has grown up and can take care of himself. Besides, I am about to become a level 20 Soul Grand Master."

"So... I'm leaving."

Huo Yuhao slowly stood up and gently brushed the dirt from his knees. Just as he was about to step back, a familiar, aged voice rang out in his Sea of Consciousness: "Little Yuhao, wait a moment."

"Is it you?" Huo Yuhao was stunned. "Is there a problem?"

"I sensed a wisp of divine consciousness that seemed to want to seize something from this grave, but it was later covered up by another fluctuation and failed, leaving only a mark here."

"Seize?" Huo Yuhao frowned.

"If my judgment is correct, the soul that divine consciousness wanted to take away was your mother's."

Huo Yuhao's gaze suddenly sharpened.

"Who... who wants to take my mother away?"

"That is not someone you can contend with right now." The voice was gentle yet dignified, forcefully suppressing the fire of anger in Huo Yuhao's heart. "If you want to settle the score, you must wait until you have stepped into a higher realm. Do not let hatred lead you astray."

"But..."

"I know what you are thinking," the old man said indifferently. "Since you are worried that your mother's soul will be harmed again after you leave, I will provide you with a safeguard. I will borrow your power for a moment."

Chi Qiu, who had been standing a few meters away from Huo Yuhao and silently watching him mourn his mother, suddenly changed expression. An aura that did not seem to belong to this world erupted from Huo Yuhao; it was a pure aura of death that made every living thing it touched feel as if their soul was being ferried away.

A lead-gray spirit ring rose from beneath Huo Yuhao's feet, trailing layers of afterimages that made it impossible to tell the number of rings for a moment. Chi Qiu guessed that this was the inconspicuous little gray ball in Huo Yuhao's sea of consciousness, yet she still felt suffocated by the power surging in the air.

This might be spirit power, but the way it operated was completely different from spirit power.

At this moment, Huo Yuhao's deep emerald eyes had turned completely into an ethereal gray. He slowly raised an arm, his index finger tracing through the air. Faint gray traces flowed with his movements, gradually writing out astonishing incantations that did not belong to this world.

After the final stroke, he waved his hand through the void, and the edges of this string of strange gray characters flashed with a pale golden circle before they vanished as if wiped away.

"I have removed that positioning brand," the old man said. Afterward, he manipulated Huo Yuhao's hands to fold together.

At this moment, Huo Yuhao's heart could no longer be described as merely shocked. He felt as if he were facing a miracle.

His five senses were all present, and his consciousness was clear, yet it seemed that this old man had easily taken control of his body. At the same time, both his spirit power and mental power were operating in ways different from usual.

The spirit power in his meridians was flowing backward—a situation that would normally cost a spirit master their life—yet Huo Yuhao felt not the slightest discomfort. It was certain that the old man was actively controlling the flow of his spirit power.

He watched as a gray magic circle appeared in his palm, its patterns intricate and exquisite, possessing a beauty of reincarnation where everything ceases and everything is reborn. He could not believe that such a thing had been accomplished using his own power.

"Using this kind of magic truly makes me feel a bit nostalgic," the voice seemed quite moved. "It even reminds me of some things... for instance, my former title."

"Holy Necromancer, Scourge of the Undead, Electrolux."

As soon as this heavy, earth-shattering title fell, he urged Huo Yuhao to point at the magic circle, and a gray light instantly covered the graveyard before them. A moment later, the gray vanished as if it had never existed.

"I have done all that I can," Electrolux's voice gradually faded. "Within ten years, the soul beneath this land cannot be moved by anyone. Even gods have their specialties, and clearly, he is not specialized in death and souls. Therefore, it will not be an easy task for him to break through this magic."

"Whether you can develop to the level of challenging him within ten years depends on yourself. I have consumed quite a bit of energy and need to return to that green eye of yours to rest."