The voice paused for a moment, then sounded again.
"You knew I was here all along?"
It wasn't an accusation. His tone was calm, like an elderly man making an offhand remark.
Dai Huabin was silent in his Spiritual Sea for several seconds.
It was a delicate question.
Of course he knew.
That ball of silver-white light had transferred from the blade and settled in a corner of his Spiritual Sea. For the past three months, whenever he circulated his spiritual power, he had sensed that faint, elusive presence.
But he had left it alone because the time wasn't right.
Who was Electrolux?
His divine consciousness had endured for centuries in the form of a fragment. With such patience and experience, thinking he could fool Electrolux by keeping things hidden would have been wishful thinking.
Sincerity sometimes worked better than any scheme.
"I knew." Dai Huabin spoke calmly. "You've been staying here for three months, Senior. I've sensed you the whole time."
The ball of light rippled faintly.
"You didn't say a word. You just waited three months." There was something more in Electrolux's voice now, a touch of genuine interest.
"What do you want to say now that I've awakened?"
Dai Huabin didn't beat around the bush.
"Senior, I know who you are."
The ball of light paused.
He enunciated every word.
"The Holy Demon Continent. The Scourge of the Undead. The Holy Necromancer—Electrolux."
This time, silence in the Spiritual Sea stretched on for a long while.
The silver-white light began to tremble, its vibrations growing faster and spreading outward.
Then Electrolux spoke.
"How did you learn of this?" His voice had changed. He was genuinely shocked. "From what I've sensed these past few months, this place is certainly not the Holy Demon Continent."
"This is the Douluo Continent," Dai Huabin replied.
"Then how—"
"Senior, let me finish." Dai Huabin cut off the unfinished question.
The light fell still.
Dai Huabin gathered his thoughts, then slowly began to explain.
He had come from another world.
There were no Soul Masters or Martial Souls there, but countless records existed. He had read about the Douluo Continent, the Holy Demon Continent, and Electrolux's eventual fate. He could even recite the details from memory.
Some kind of guiding hand of fate had brought him here, allowing him to learn many things he should never have known.
He spoke about Electrolux with restraint, neither showing off nor deliberately striking a nerve.
The Necromancy Holy Mage, one of the Holy Demon Continent's greatest figures. After his death, a fragment of his divine consciousness had crossed time and space and arrived on the Douluo Continent.
That was all.
After Dai Huabin finished, silence once again filled the Spiritual Sea for a long time.
Then Electrolux sighed.
It wasn't a sigh of disappointment. It was the sort of yielding release that came when someone had been seen through completely and had no choice but to accept it.
"Outrageous."
Electrolux spoke slowly.
"If anyone else had said such a thing, I would have thought him mad. But..."
He paused.
"I crossed time and space as a fragment of divine consciousness and landed in another world. That very fact would sound like nonsense to anyone. Since it has already happened, then what you've said..."
He didn't finish, but his meaning was clear.
"Every detail you mentioned is correct," Electrolux said gravely. "Especially those old affairs on the Holy Demon Continent. The number of people who could know them... can be counted on one hand."
"So I wasn't lying."
"Mm."
The Spiritual Sea fell quiet again for a while.
"You've told me all this. What do you want in return?"
"Nothing." Dai Huabin answered calmly. "Given your experience, there's no point in trying to hide things from you. It's better to be open and honest."
Electrolux let out a brief chuckle. There was genuine amusement in it.
"You're young, but quick-witted," he said. "So what are you really after?"
"To change my fate." Dai Huabin paused. "And protect the person I love."
As he said it, he thought of Zhu Lu.
Just before he'd passed out, she had held a warm cloth and wiped the sweat and dust from his forehead, then stayed by his side to care for him.
The sense of security she gave him was hard to put into words, but it was real.
Electrolux didn't answer right away.
There was a moment of silence.
Then something different crept into his voice. It wasn't teasing or wistfulness, but rather an emotion that had been stirred and was now being deliberately held in check.
"The person you love." Electrolux repeated those three words. "You're still a boy, yet you say it with such certainty."
"Certainty has nothing to do with age."
A brief silence.
Then Electrolux gave a soft "Mm," and something in his voice seemed to ease.
"Since that's the case," Electrolux said, "I'll grant you a fortuitous opportunity."
Dai Huabin's heart stirred. He didn't urge him on, simply waited.
The next moment, Electrolux's divine consciousness began to move.
The silver-white light slowly spread through the Spiritual Sea, covering a portion of it and carrying an ancient, precise power.
Dai Huabin felt his arm move.
It wasn't his doing. Electrolux was using his remaining divine consciousness to possess his body and make him take the Spirit-Devouring Carving Knife out of his Soul Tool.
Dai Huabin's mind was clear, but his body moved against his will.
Now, however, Electrolux's divine consciousness flowed out through his palm, sinking deep into the blade.
The layer of dark, sinister energy covering the Spirit-Devouring Carving Knife began to churn and writhe uneasily, resisting the cleansing force.
The resistance didn't last long.
Electrolux's divine consciousness peeled away the churning sinister energy, wisp by wisp, eradicating it completely.
Once the sinister energy had dissipated, something long suppressed within the blade began to awaken.
A warm, utterly pure vitality seeped out from within it.
Electrolux spoke from within the Spiritual Sea, his voice low and focused.
"Life Gold is a material born of creation. I've cleansed its curse with my divine consciousness. Your Spiritual Sea will become the perfect vessel for it."
As his words fell, a warm current flowed from Dai Huabin's palm back into his body, coursing up his arm and into his chest before rushing straight into his Spiritual Sea.
The instant the warm current touched his Spiritual Sea, the center of Dai Huabin's brow trembled violently.
Then came a burning sensation.
A seed sealed away for ages expanded from within, forcing itself open and adapting. The process wasn't comfortable. It was a dull ache, like something forcibly swelling into place.
"Don't resist. Go with it," Electrolux said.
Dai Huabin suppressed the instinctive defenses rising within him.
The trembling at his brow slowly subsided.
A sense of clarity surged through him.
He could feel the energy flowing through the surrounding air. His perception was more than a level sharper than before, and even the faintest fluctuations in his Spiritual Sea stood out in crisp detail.
"This is..."
"The Eye of Life."
Electrolux said,
"Life Gold has opened it at the center of your brow.
From now on, your Spiritual Sea will be nearly indestructible, immune to outside corruption."
Before you continue