Blitzkrieg

Chapter: Lightning War

The scene before Huo Yuhao was no longer a vast, empty golden ocean, but a secluded valley nestled between mountains and water. A lake shimmering with golden ripples sat at the center of his vision, while the banks were covered in an endless expanse of golden-green grassland, dotted with tiny white flowers like stars.

There was a small wooden cabin on the shore with its door wide open; the furnishings inside were similar to the woodshed where Huo Yuhao had lived with his mother in his early childhood. In his subconscious, he longed for a place to call home just like that.

However, he had no idea what a normal home looked like, which was why the home he simulated was no different from a woodshed; that was his entire memory of "home."

At this moment, two familiar figures stood on the shore. Huo Yuhao looked closely and realized they were none other than Sky Dream Ice Silkworm and Ice Empress!

Huh, so he could actually perform the action of "looking closely"? Huo Yuhao then realized that he had manifested an image of himself within his Sea of Consciousness at some point.

"Is this what you desire?" An aged voice came from behind him. He immediately turned around to see an old man in white robes sitting quietly on a moss-covered rock, cupping a handful of pure spiritual spring water in his hands, lost in thought.

"Elder Yi." Huo Yuhao called out in pleasant surprise, "So this is what you used to look like."

"What a beautiful and pure spiritual world," Electrolux said slowly. "Being able to nourish my divine sense in a world like this makes me feel an unprecedented sense of peace. Yuhao, maintain this appearance of your Sea of Consciousness... do not let external matters alter your state of mind."

"I will certainly try," Huo Yuhao nodded vigorously. "I will never let everyone's expectations down."

"It's no trouble," Huo Yuhao smiled slightly. "I have a way."

"The control-type Soul King on the opposing side might be a bit troublesome," Chen An said with some concern.

Huo Yuhao couldn't help but rub his hands together. A team battle meant he would be participating. He wondered how the seniors would try to "make things difficult" for him today?

The seven members of the Heaven Spirit Royal Branch Academy looked high-spirited at this moment. After all, the opposing side had only sent three people for a team battle; even for the formidable Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineer Academy, this was simply too arrogant. This anger caused their fighting spirit to soar.

After a few seconds of silence, the entire arena erupted in cheers, which were much louder than during the first match. The audience had gradually been ignited by the matches of the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineer Academy, whereas the performance from the Shrek side had left them somewhat disappointed.

As the contestants from both sides stood on their respective sides of the arena, the referee confirmed one last time with Chen Fei that they were only sending three people, then waved his hand:

"The match begins!"

In reality, the reason they hadn't spoken to Huo Yuhao and the others before was simply because the two brothers were a bit shy. Now that they finally had a chance to talk, the more outgoing Chen An immediately tried to get close to their junior.

"Alright, Senior Chen An, I've already guessed Teacher Yu's plan," Huo Yuhao patted his chest. "Be ready to receive my spiritual connection; I will display the tactics for you."

Although everyone guessed that something must have gone wrong with Shrek, the audience didn't care about that; they had paid to watch the match.

"Team battle!" Everyone here couldn't help but shout.

During the time waiting for the second round of the round-robin tournament, Huo Yuhao had been focusing his energy on improving and consolidating his spiritual power and soul power. After being cleansed by the Life Gold, Huo Yuhao had already reached the threshold of level thirty.

Although Huo Yuhao was a bit worried that his extreme cultivation would slow down after reaching level thirty, Ice Empress said it was the perfect time for him to accumulate more during the tournament, so that when he went back to find a soul ring, the accumulated soul power would be released. At least it didn't look like his speed was slow, so it didn't dampen his confidence too much.

"You look much more spirited, Yuhao," Xiao Hongchen said with a smile, patting Huo Yuhao on the shoulder on the way to the arena. "Is it just my imagination?"

As they spoke, they had just stood in the waiting area, and Ma Rulong was already holding up a small ball on the drawing platform alongside the opposing captain.

"It shouldn't be my imagination, Brother Xiao," Huo Yuhao said, feigning calmness. "I've reached level thirty."

Chen An seemed easier to talk to and was already trying to get familiar with Huo Yuhao: "Junior, it's time for us to learn a thing or two from your skills. Today, my brother and I will listen to you."

"You only need to not let yourself down," Electrolux said. "Very well, go back now; the little kitten is waiting for you."

Who could have imagined that the joke about leveling up twice in half a month would actually come true?

"Ah?" Xiao Hongchen's perfect smile immediately froze on his face.

"Captain Ma has already gone to draw lots," Lin Xi smiled, changing the subject. "I hope for a comfortable result."

Today, he and the other team members had woken up early; the next round of the round-robin tournament was about to begin.

This was all thanks to the encounter with the Life Gold; otherwise, with his level just past twenty-nine, it would have taken at least two more months to reach the bottleneck of level thirty.

As soon as he finished speaking, Huo Yuhao's Spiritual Detection Sharing was instantly activated, and at the same time, two conspicuous green zigzag lines appeared in the eyes of the Chen brothers along with the sharing.

The timing of the Soul Shock was grasped perfectly; Huo Yuhao's strike didn't consume much spiritual power, but instead, it guided the soul skills that had failed to launch to backfire on their owners.

Huo Yuhao clearly thought of this as well. Chen Fei and Chen An naturally protected him on his left and right, and he asked directly: "Two seniors, how about we end this battle within two minutes?"

Furthermore, after watching this academy's matches, he discovered they had no defense-type soul masters. This was almost the best combat environment for agility-attack soul engineers.

Before the formation of the Heaven Spirit Royal Branch Academy could even move, it was pierced from within by two lightning-fast beams of light. The two brothers didn't even look to see if their soul skills and soul tools had hit; they simply attacked from one person to the next with fluid motions, using the momentum to reach the next target immediately, like the needle and thread in the hands of a skilled seamstress flying up and down, or like a pleasing game of pass-the-parcel.

Just as Huo Yuhao's spiritual consciousness returned to his body, Electrolux looked at the golden, nameless carvings on the mountain slope on one side of the valley that remained indifferent, and asked in a low voice that only they could hear:

"Are you still not going to take shape and appear?"

Huo Yuhao exhaled gently, discovering that this level of consumption was actually acceptable for him. It was clear how many times the Life Gold had boosted his spiritual cultivation.

Lin Xi complained from the side: "We're still only sending three people for a team battle?" Clearly, he also wanted to participate.

The light of the level-six Soul Guidance Thrusters flashed and vanished; the audience hadn't even had time to see what happened before Chen Fei and Chen An had already approached the Heaven Spirit Royal Branch Academy's team from both sides of the arena.

They truly placed absolute trust in Huo Yuhao.

"Three people are enough," Chen Fei said.

The academy they were facing was a branch of the Royal Academy from the Heaven Spirit Empire, a pure soul master academy with decent strength, but they were no match for the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineer Academy.

In less than two minutes, the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineer Academy secured the victory.

At this moment, the soul power that Chen Fei and Chen An had just consumed had already recovered, and the two rushed toward the three remaining opponents who had little combat ability left, clearing them out of the arena one by one.

The content of the following match could be described as threading a needle, smooth and flowing.

The Nameless Seal flickered, and Electrolux heard its reply:

"The time is not yet right."

"Small problem," Chen Fei said.

The Soul King was the first to react, raising his hand to unleash his strongest fifth soul skill. But just as his soul ring began to glow, a golden-green light shot out from Huo Yuhao's eyes. The Soul King immediately collapsed to the ground as if paralyzed, and the activation of his soul skill was cut short.

In a pure soul master team battle, it would normally be reasonable to let Wang Dong get some practice, but Yu Rufeng wanted the academy to display the same momentum as they had in the first match. After all, Wang Dong was only a three-ring soul master, while this Heaven Spirit Royal Branch Academy team contained a Soul King, and the others were all at the Soul Ancestor level. There was a weaker pure soul master team in the round-robin, and Yu Rufeng planned to let Wang Dong take the stage for that match.

This strange way of using spiritual power was also something he had learned under the guidance of Elder Yi.

The two seniors who usually didn't speak much to Huo Yuhao heard this and were the first to step out of the team. They were brothers, and both of their martial souls were Flash Birds—a pure agility-attack martial soul, though of slightly lower quality, which was why they had chosen the path of soul tool masters.

"As expected of Huo Yuhao," Yu Rufeng exclaimed sincerely from off the field. "His judgment is top-notch; he immediately arranged the tactics based on the abilities of Chen Fei and Chen An."

Xiao Hongchen stood beside Teacher Yu and responded casually, lost in his own thoughts. Meng Hongchen, on the other hand, was more direct: "Haha, Teacher Yu, my brother doesn't like hearing others praised as being more talented than him."

And when those two bolts of lightning returned to Huo Yuhao's side in the blink of an eye, only two Soul Ancestors and that Soul King remained standing on the opposing side. Even those two Soul Ancestors were barely able to stay on their feet.

Yu Rufeng immediately made his tactical arrangements: "Chen Fei, Chen An, Huo Yuhao, the three of you go up."

Yu Rufeng chuckled: "Xiao Hongchen has his own strengths; there is no need to make such comparisons."

"Of course," Xiao Hongchen immediately put on that arrogant expression of his.

Meng Hongchen glanced at Xiao Hongchen, seemingly wanting to say more, but she swallowed her words in the end.