Mu En: I've Really Never Seen a Scene Like This

"Oh, sorry, I don't have a Grand Ancestor, so I'm not too sure what a Grand Ancestor is," Huo Yuhao said, scratching his head awkwardly, his face full of apology.

The corners of Yan Shaozhe's and Bei Bei's mouths both twitched.

There was nothing wrong with that, but somehow it sounded like an insult, making it very hard not to suspect Huo Yuhao had done it on purpose.

Yan Shaozhe badly wanted to reprimand Huo Yuhao and say that a Grand Ancestor was not a thing, and that he should show respect to his seniors.

But when the words reached his lips, he felt that saying it that way was wrong too.

It left him feeling horribly stifled.

"Grand Ancestor, Little Brother Huo had a very hard life before. He never went to school..." Bei Bei lay beside Mu En and pleaded on Huo Yuhao's behalf.

"It's all right." Mu En smiled without the slightest concern, raised a hand to soothe Bei Bei, then looked at Huo Yuhao again. "I was the one being rude. My name is Mu En, and I am Bei Bei's Grand Ancestor. Yuhao, you won't mind if I call you that, will you?"

"No, no, no, I'm the one who was rude!" Huo Yuhao hurriedly bowed again, then said obediently and sensibly, "Since Senior is Big Brother Bei Bei's elder, then of course there's no problem."

Seeing Huo Yuhao's well-behaved appearance, Mu En smiled and said, "This manner of yours is very different from when you first befriended Bei Bei."

Huo Yuhao's heart tightened, and he thought to himself, This old geezer was already watching me back then? Was it when I came to Shrek City last time?!

But Huo Yuhao did not show the slightest panic. He merely put on an appropriately embarrassed expression and replied, "Life forced my hand."

He looked exactly like someone whose little scheme had been seen through.

"What a fine 'life forced my hand.'" Mu En's voice rose slightly, but his smile remained unchanged, making it impossible to tell what he was thinking.

Mu En did not continue questioning him. Clearly, Huo Yuhao had passed this first meeting's test.

Of course, that was also because Mu En did not particularly care whether Huo Yuhao had approached Bei Bei with some ulterior motive.

Because right now, Huo Yuhao had already "fallen into" Shrek's hands. If Huo Yuhao really did harbor ill intentions, then he would be in for a world of pain.

As long as they made Huo Yuhao loyal to Shrek in the future, then with this bond, Huo Yuhao would inevitably become Bei Bei's greatest support, guarding Shrek alongside Bei Bei one day.

What came next was the real matter.

"Yuhao, I heard that your Martial Soul has the Ultimate Ice attribute. Might you allow this old man to see it for himself?" Mu En asked.

"Of course." Huo Yuhao said respectfully.

Yan Shaozhe, standing nearby, grew excited.

Now this was something he could get fired up about!

At this moment, Bei Bei suddenly spoke with a somewhat complicated expression. "Grand Ancestor, Little Brother Huo's Martial Soul is a little special."

"Oh? Special?" Mu En became interested.

Yan Shaozhe, however, smiled confidently. "Bei Bei, don't worry. My Shrek Academy is the place on the continent with the deepest research into Martial Souls. Nurturing Little Yuhao until he grows strong won't be any problem."

Huo Yuhao rolled his eyes inwardly, speechless.

Oh my, you're already calling me Little Yuhao? How close and affectionate.

Anyone who didn't know better would think you and I had some special relationship.

And were you showing off just now?

But on the surface, Huo Yuhao remained calm. He directly raised his hand and summoned the Mutated Frost Centipede Martial Soul.

"Come on out, my Frost Centipede!"

The Martial Soul was summoned, condensing from a phantom into a solid form.

The Mutated Frost Centipede rose upright like a person, appearing before everyone.

Sky Dream Ice Silkworm once again possessed the Mutated Frost Centipede, but he did not dare make a sound, behaving extremely honestly.

Because Sky Dream Ice Silkworm could keenly sense Mu En's strength. He was terrified that one careless slip would expose a flaw and bring about irreparable trouble.

And when they saw the Mutated Frost Centipede, the expressions of Mu En and Yan Shaozhe both changed from intrigued to somewhat stiff.

"A Mutated Martial Soul?!" Yan Shaozhe cried out in shock, his voice becoming slightly distorted.

As the Dean of the Martial Soul Department, Yan Shaozhe's research and understanding of Martial Souls, while not necessarily profound beyond measure, was absolutely far deeper than Bei Bei's.

A Detached Martial Soul could be regarded as one category of Martial Soul, but without a doubt, a Detached Martial Soul was a type of Mutated Martial Soul.

And Mutated Martial Souls often represented degradation.

It was not that there had never been Martial Souls that mutated to become stronger. Evil Fire Phoenix was also a Mutated Martial Soul, but the probability was simply too low. Moreover, Mutated Martial Souls always had flaws, especially in the category of Detached Martial Souls.

Did anyone really think Shrek Academy had never deeply researched Detached Martial Souls of the same type as a certain Grandmaster's?

In history, there had also been soul masters who awakened flawed Detached Martial Souls and came to Shrek Academy seeking help.

Unfortunately, a certain Grandmaster had not relied on his own theoretical knowledge to resolve the drawbacks of his Martial Soul, and Shrek Academy was likewise powerless against the flaws of Detached Martial Souls.

The instant he saw the Mutated Frost Centipede appear outside the body, Yan Shaozhe's heart went half cold.

A degraded Martial Soul—even if it had the Ultimate Ice attribute, would it still have the ability to save Ma Xiaotao?

So what if it still had the Ultimate Ice attribute?

The defects of a Martial Soul always appeared when one least expected them.

Don't forget, ten thousand years ago, the younger sister of Clear Sky Douluo from the Clear Sky Sect had also awakened a Mutated Martial Soul, and even came with an innate domain, yet she had been unable to break through rank ten her entire life.

Mu En, on the other hand, was much calmer.

After all, he was Dragon God Douluo, an old geezer who now stood at the peak of the Douluo Continent. What kind of scene had he not seen?

"Yuhao, you should already be rank twenty now, correct? Could you let me see your soul ring?" Mu En's voice remained gentle.

"All right." Huo Yuhao nodded.

Immediately afterward, a White Soul Ring drifted up around the Mutated Frost Centipede.

Mu En's gaze focused, while Yan Shaozhe's face filled with despair.

Yan Shaozhe: It's over, wait for death, goodbye.

Bei Bei, however, suddenly felt somewhat confused.

Before, hadn't Little Brother Huo's first soul ring not been this color?

Before any of them could speak, the White Soul Ring on the Mutated Frost Centipede swayed and turned yellow. In the next second, it turned purple. In the next second, it turned yellow again, then once more turned back to the original white.

White, yellow, purple, yellow, white...

The soul ring on the Mutated Frost Centipede was like an LED strobe light, its colors shifting back and forth, nearly blinding the other three.

Bei Bei was deeply shaken.

Yan Shaozhe was bewildered.

Mu En...

He expressed that he had really never seen a scene like this before.

A faint golden light flowed through Mu En's pupils as he said in surprise, "It isn't an illusion. The soul ring is indeed shifting between ten years, hundred years, and thousand years. Yuhao, how did you manage this?"

It was not as if there were no soul skills or secret arts on the Douluo Continent that could change the color of a soul ring.

But a method capable of changing a soul ring's age was truly something he had seen for the first time.

Huo Yuhao naturally answered truthfully. Since he had chosen to expose it, he had no intention of hiding it.

"Replying to Senior, this was a change that appeared after my Martial Soul fully awakened. My original first soul ring was only an ordinary ten-year soul ring, but because of my Martial Soul, I was unable to summon and use it."

"After my Martial Soul fully awakened, my first soul ring became the Natal Soul Ring of my Frost Centipede Martial Soul. The age of the soul ring can change according to my will, but when the soul ring's age changes, the power of the soul skill changes along with it."

"And the highest age the soul ring can change to is determined by the upper limit of the soul ring age that my own body can withstand."

The last sentence was a lie.

The highest age of the Natal Soul Ring depended on the strength of the Mutated Frost Centipede Martial Soul itself, not Huo Yuhao's endurance.

Huo Yuhao said this entirely on purpose.

After all, to obtain his Second Soul Ring, he would still have to borrow Shrek Academy's strength. Huo Yuhao did not want the conservative Shrek Academy to follow those so-called ten great theories and force a hundred-year Second Soul Ring onto him.

If that happened, Huo Yuhao really would have to slip out of Shrek Academy overnight.