The floodgates of memory burst open.
This place, this age, these clothes—this was the very moment when he had left the White Tiger Duke Mansion in the Star Luo Empire in his previous life, entered the Star Dou Great Forest alone to hunt a Soul Beast and obtain his first Soul Ring, and... met the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm here, forever changing the course of his fate!
Just as his heart churned and memories from his past and present lives surged through his consciousness like a tide—
A sudden change occurred!
A faint white light appeared without warning in the empty space before him!
It wasn't dazzling, but it carried an eerie penetrating force, as if it could ignore all physical barriers and strike directly at the source of his soul.
Huo Yuhao didn't even have time to react before the white light shot toward him like an arrow loosed from a bow, moving faster than thought, and plunged straight into the space between his brows!
"What?!"
Alarm bells rang in Huo Yuhao's mind. Almost instinctively, he tried to summon what remained of his spiritual power to defend himself.
But the next moment, he forced down the urge to fight back—not because he couldn't resist, but because he didn't dare.
He was in a dangerous place, surrounded by threats. Any violent fluctuation in his Soul Power or spiritual power might attract unwanted trouble.
More importantly, he needed to know what this white light was, and who was behind it.
Was it one of Tang San's methods? Or some other unknown variable?
He quickly sat cross-legged, closed his eyes, and sank his consciousness into his body.
Within the Sea of Spirit.
It was no longer the vast, boundless, resplendent world he remembered from his previous life. Instead, it was a pale blue "pool," barely a hundred zhang across, so still it was almost lifeless.
The surface rippled faintly, reflecting the pitiful state of his spiritual power.
Huo Yuhao's spirit took solid form at the center of the pool. He looked like the boy in his physical body, but the chill in his eyes was even more piercing.
Almost as soon as he arrived, he "saw" the intruder.
A soul wrapped in pale blue light was trying to steady itself near the edge of the pool, its movements somewhat frantic.
The soul looked like a young man in his twenties, with unremarkable features but an air of arrogance and greed that far outstripped his strength. His eyes darted about as if surveying his new territory.
The white light swirling around him was impure and unstable. Clearly, he had relied on some external object to keep his soul from dissipating and force his way in here.
"Who are you?" Huo Yuhao's voice echoed coldly through the silent spiritual space. Every syllable carried a sharp killing intent and undisguised wariness. "Why have you trespassed into my body? What do you want?"
The foreign soul—Wang Teng—finally steadied himself. He turned at the sound of Huo Yuhao's voice and looked him up and down. Surprise and confusion flashed in his eyes at the sight of Huo Yuhao's spirit, far more solid than an ordinary person's, with even a hint of an immortal quality.
But the surprise was quickly replaced by even stronger greed.
He could sense that the owner of this body had little spiritual power in terms of "quantity," but its "quality" was astonishingly high. The soul itself was unbelievably pure—an absolutely perfect target for possession!
Wang Teng grinned, trying to put on a superior air of someone in complete control. He spoke with deliberately feigned authority. "Who am I? Well, I don't mind telling you. My name is Wang Teng! As for why I'm here... I've come to take your place, you dog of the Tang family!"
"Dog of the Tang family?"
Huo Yuhao frowned slightly, his thoughts racing.
When had he become a dog of the Tang family?
"You don't need to know that!" Seeing Huo Yuhao's "stunned" expression, Wang Teng assumed he was scared witless. His smugness grew, and he impatiently waved a hand. "All you need to know is that you're about to die! I'll devour your soul, take your place, and become this world's new Child of Fortune!
"As for your miserable future, I'll change it for you!
"Heh, don't worry. I'll take 'good' care of all those beauties of yours, too..."
By the end, an obscene, greedy smile had spread across his face.
Before his words had even faded, Wang Teng raised his hand and pressed it down, shouting, "Dual-World Gate, suppress!"
A low hum—
A gray-white gate, ancient and illusory, appeared out of thin air above Huo Yuhao's spirit!
The gate was only about a zhang high, its design plain and its doors shut. Blurred, twisted lines were carved across it, as if they contained the mysteries of time and space.
The instant it appeared, a strange power spread through the area. It carried the sluggish sensation of time freezing and the crushing weight of space being sealed. Like invisible shackles, it descended upon Huo Yuhao's spirit!
Huo Yuhao immediately felt his movements slow. His connection to the Sea of Spirit was also disrupted.
If this had been the real eleven-year-old Huo Yuhao, whose spiritual power was feeble, he would have been powerless against this force that targeted the soul directly. He could only have watched helplessly as he was devoured.
Wang Teng's smugness nearly overflowed. Carefully maintaining the power of the gate, he drifted toward Huo Yuhao, who was "pinned" in place, and continued to crow, "Don't waste your time struggling! This is my cheat—the Dual-World Gate! It contains the supreme power of time and space!
"With your pitiful spiritual power, you can't even move! Just be a stepping-stone on my path to the peak! Hahaha..."
However, he failed to notice the trace of icy contempt deep in Huo Yuhao's eyes beneath the gate's power.
Huo Yuhao's thoughts raced, and in an instant he understood the true nature of this so-called "Dual-World Gate."
The power of time and space radiating from the gate had some substance to it, but it was extremely weak and crude. More importantly, its strength seemed to be directly linked to the user's spiritual power!
Judging roughly, Wang Teng's soul was only a little stronger than that of an ordinary Soul Grandmaster. He might not even have reached the level of a Soul Elder.
A gate powered by spiritual strength of that level could unleash nothing more than a feeble binding force. Against a truly powerful soul, it was utterly inadequate.
As for Huo Yuhao, although his spiritual power had dwindled drastically, the essence of his soul had been tempered by divinity!
He was a divine soul that had wielded the power of fate and glimpsed the source of the laws!
Even broken, even weak, his very nature was far beyond the reach of such crude power over time and space.
More importantly, the instant Wang Teng summoned the "Dual-World Gate" and its power spread to the source of his soul, Huo Yuhao clearly felt something deep within him stir.
A familiar, warm power quietly spread, like a sleeping giant dragon stirring with a single breath.
"Is that so? You think you can take my place?"
Huo Yuhao's cold voice rang out, utterly calm.
To Wang Teng's astonishment, the boy's spirit, which should have been firmly pinned in place, slowly—but with unwavering steadiness—raised his right hand!
The movement was fluid and natural, as if that so-called temporal and spatial binding didn't exist at all!
"What?! Impossible!"
The smugness vanished from Wang Teng's face, replaced by horrified disbelief.
He frantically poured more soul power into the gate, trying to strengthen its suppression. The gray-white portal flickered rapidly, yet it couldn't slow Huo Yuhao's movements by even the slightest degree.
Huo Yuhao didn't even look at the gate. He merely raised his head and gazed past its illusory shape toward the "sky" above his Sea of Spirit, as if summoning something.
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