Ghostly Apparition's Showdown, Schemes Come to Naught (Two-in-one, 4000-word chapter, seeking collections and votes)

In the dormitory,

As soon as Huo Yuhao returned to the dormitory, he went straight to his bed and sat down cross-legged. Then he promptly closed his eyes and began meditating.

Only this could soothe his jumbled thoughts and clear the chaos in his mind.

Wang Dong sat across from him, watching with concern.

Only after a quarter of an hour did Huo Yuhao slowly exhale a breath of stale air and open his eyes.

"Yuhao, how are you? Feeling any better?"

The moment Huo Yuhao opened his eyes, Wang Dong hurried over. In her hand was a precious-looking pill she'd apparently dug up from somewhere, and she tried to feed it to him.

"This is medicine my family gave me for injuries. Eat a couple first."

Huo Yuhao firmly declined.

"No need. I'm fine now."

Wang Dong eyed him suspiciously for a while. Only after confirming that Huo Yuhao had returned to his usual, clear-headed self did she breathe a sigh of relief. Then she couldn't help complaining,

"Yuhao, what was going on with you today? Why were you so impulsive?"

"Even if you really wanted to kill Wu Feng, you couldn't do it inside the academy! And you even talked back to that teacher who suddenly showed up."

Wang Dong didn't know who Xuan Zi was. She mistakenly thought he was a teacher from the Outer Academy.

"This is going to be a problem. If that teacher deliberately targets you, you could get expelled over this!"

Wang Dong seemed to have a whole bellyful of words, and she chattered on and on. Every word, though, was driven by worry for Huo Yuhao.

Inside the Sea of Consciousness, Sky Dream Ice Silkworm had also been jolted awake by the incident and kept talking.

"Exactly, Yuhao! What was going on with you today? You weren't calm at all. I already told you a human powerhouse was coming. Why did you keep attacking?"

With one person and one silkworm talking nonstop, one in the real world and the other inside Huo Yuhao's Sea of Consciousness, he felt like he had two heads and both were about to burst.

"Enough, enough! Stop talking for now!"

Caught between them, Huo Yuhao could only stop them helplessly.

"Just let me be quiet for a bit."

Seeing him like this, Wang Dong and Sky Dream Ice Silkworm both felt sorry for him and fell silent.

Huo Yuhao took several deep breaths, forcing himself to calm down.

He had already sensed that something was wrong.

The incident today hadn't strayed from his intentions in its broad strokes, but the way it had unfolded had slipped beyond his control.

Huo Yuhao didn't feel guilty for wanting to kill Wu Feng. That was simply the price she deserved to pay for her actions.

But it shouldn't have happened like this.

He seemed to have lost control.

Just as Wang Dong and Sky Dream Ice Silkworm had said, even if he really had wanted to kill Wu Feng, why had he spoken so viciously to Xuan Zi when he arrived?

There was no purpose, no reason. He had simply let his malice spill out indiscriminately and vented his emotions.

There had been no need for it at all, and it wasn't in keeping with his usual behavior.

He had even told Ma Xiaotao earlier,

that he controlled his emotions, rather than letting them control him.

Huo Yuhao could accept gathering up every last one of his feelings, without the slightest emotional fluctuation, and killing Wu Feng with nothing but pure killing intent in a state of reason.

But he couldn't accept acting like he had today, letting his emotions steer him until he couldn't control his actions and tried to kill her.

Though both paths led to the same outcome, their meaning was entirely different.

Suddenly, Huo Yuhao thought of something.

The Ghost Killing Art seemed to have mentioned this.

Ghost Demon Venerable had called the latter behavior...

Killing Intent Backlash!

Huo Yuhao's eyes snapped open as he realized what the problem was.

He had actually suffered a Killing Intent Backlash?

But how was that possible?

According to the Ghost Killing Art's method of converting killing intent, it couldn't appear from nowhere. Under conscious control, it took a special channel to convert all of one's excess emotions into killing intent, then gather that killing intent into killing aura.

There was a limit. It could never exceed the limits Huo Yuhao's body could withstand.

Simply put,

no matter how Huo Yuhao's emotions were converted inside his body, they were still his own feelings changing form.

And those feelings had to remain within a safe range he could handle.

For instance, his hatred for the White Tiger Duke was intense, but it wasn't enough to crush him and make him break down emotionally.

Otherwise, Huo Yuhao would have gone mad long ago.

The same applied if he used the Ghost Killing Art to convert all that hatred into killing intent.

The total amount remained unchanged and wouldn't exceed what he could bear.

That meant that normally, as long as Huo Yuhao didn't actively absorb emotions from outside into himself, there was no chance he would lose control.

That was the ingenious part of the Ghost Killing Art.

It let him cast aside unnecessary emotions in battle and convert them into tangible killing aura, while keeping his mind in a state of absolute reason so that fear and sentiment wouldn't cloud his judgment.

Two birds with one stone.

But by that logic, this Killing Intent Backlash was extremely suspicious.

Huo Yuhao thought it over carefully.

The killing aura he had released seemed to have far exceeded his own limit. It had been two or three times greater than usual, and at its peak, around five times greater.

That was what had caused the backlash, ultimately making him lose control of his emotions.

That killing aura had to have come from outside. It wasn't his own, because Huo Yuhao's body couldn't possibly bear the crushing weight it brought with it.

All right, then. Time for a no-prize quiz.

Where had all that extra killing aura come from?

What a hard question...

"..."

Huo Yuhao's face darkened in an instant.

Ghost Demon Venerable!!

You old bastard!!

You set me up again!!!

Inside Huo Yuhao's Sea of Consciousness.

Feeling Huo Yuhao's low spirits, Sky Dream Ice Silkworm began to wonder whether it had gone too far with what it had just said.

When all was said and done, Yuhao was still a child.

It was normal for a child to get worked up and lose control of himself.

So it cleared its throat and rolled its little eyes around, trying to steer Huo Yuhao toward a lighter topic.

"By the way, Yuhao, have I told you about my God-Making Project for you yet?"

As it happened, just as Sky Dream Ice Silkworm began speaking, Huo Yuhao entered his Sea of Consciousness, ready to settle the score with Ghost Demon Venerable.

Of course, there was no way he could confront Ghost Demon Venerable head-on right now.

That wasn't realistic.

Nor was it rational.

He had already recovered from the Killing Intent Backlash and could think calmly again.

But he still had to make his position clear.

This was the second time Ghost Demon Venerable had set him up, and he hadn't even bothered to hide it. Huo Yuhao couldn't let him keep doing this.

Enough was enough.

Once was bad enough, twice was pushing it. He absolutely wouldn't let it happen a third time!

If Ghost Demon Venerable could control the killing aura inside him today, tomorrow he might be able to control Huo Yuhao himself.

If that happened, Huo Yuhao would truly be finished...

So Huo Yuhao took a deep breath, steeled his resolve, and entered his Sea of Consciousness.

But his timing gave Sky Dream Ice Silkworm a lovely misunderstanding.

It thought Huo Yuhao had entered the Sea of Consciousness because he was interested in its plan for his future.

So it eagerly wriggled its comical, plump, snow-white body over to Huo Yuhao and launched into a grand description of its God-Making Project and its vision of their wonderful future together.

Its plan was nothing more than the Second Martial Soul, Ultimate Ice, and then cultivating hard so Huo Yuhao could take it and Ice Empress with him to the Divine Realm for a happy life.

Huo Yuhao knew the whole thing all too well. He could recite it backwards by now.

His attention wasn't on Sky Dream Ice Silkworm at all.

While pretending to listen to Sky Dream Ice Silkworm hold forth, Huo Yuhao secretly glanced at the Black Cyclone that marked Ghost Demon Venerable's location.

The cyclone showed no reaction, as if it really had been asleep all this time.

Huo Yuhao had almost believed it.

Ever since he entered, the old bastard had been playing dead.

He'd gotten addicted to pretending to be dead, hadn't he?!

Looks like he needed to find a way to draw him out.

Huo Yuhao looked at Sky Dream Ice Silkworm, who was singing Ice Empress's praises, then at Ghost Demon Venerable, who seemed determined to stay tucked inside his shell. Suddenly, an idea came to him.

As everyone knew,

back when Ghost Demon Venerable had slaughtered everyone across the Five Domains and Two Heavens until they were all afraid to show their faces, there was one person who had repeatedly caused him trouble and still walked away unscathed.

She even cultivated both the Thunder Path and the Soul Path.

Thunder Ghost True Monarch, Jing Lan.

A petite female Gu Immortal with a youthful face.

In other words,

a loli.

As it happened, Ice Empress's human form seemed to be a loli too.

Like Jing Lan, she was a cool loli.

Huo Yuhao couldn't help grinning at the thought.

Let's do it!!

I refuse to believe you won't come out for this!

So he pretended to be curious and asked Sky Dream Ice Silkworm,

"Brother Sky Dream, what does Ice Empress look like? Is she really as pretty as you say?"

"Of course!! My Bingbing is the prettiest there is!!"

Hearing Huo Yuhao's question, Sky Dream Ice Silkworm instantly got worked up. It wouldn't allow anyone, human or beast, to question Ice Empress's beauty!

It used its astonishing spiritual power to project a gigantic Ice Jade Empress Scorpion inside Huo Yuhao's Sea of Consciousness, with every detail captured down to the last hair.

Huo Yuhao's mouth twitched.

Who wanted to see that? He wasn't interested in bugs.

So he pretended to look unimpressed.

"Brother Sky Dream, I think Ice Empress is just average. She doesn't really fit human tastes."

"What do you mean, 'human tastes'?!"

"What do you humans know about beauty?!"

Sky Dream Ice Silkworm was so incensed that it stamped its feet. It promptly displayed Ice Empress in her human form.

The gigantic projection of the Ice Jade Empress Scorpion vanished in an instant, replaced by a little green-haired girl with twin ponytails. Her face looked very young, and she wore an unmistakably haughty expression.

Huo Yuhao immediately perked up.

That's it! Exactly!

A loli was what he wanted!!

His excited gaze instantly put Sky Dream Ice Silkworm on alert. In a flash, it darted between Huo Yuhao and the projected Ice Empress, its eyes full of suspicion.

"I'm warning you, don't get any funny ideas. Bingbing's been my bug for ages!"

Getting possessive, are you?

Huo Yuhao couldn't help rolling his eyes at it.

He wasn't a loli fan. Someone else was the one who needed a good shock.

Sure enough, the moment Ice Empress's classic loli appearance came into view, Ghost Demon Venerable slowly opened his eyes inside the Black Cyclone, watching with interest the projection Sky Dream Ice Silkworm had formed with its spiritual power.

As the master of the Sea of Consciousness, Huo Yuhao sensed Ghost Demon Venerable's movement at once and secretly congratulated himself.

So much for playing dead. Why'd you stop?

You old bastard!!

I should've shocked you to death ages ago!!

Just as Huo Yuhao was feeling pleased with himself and getting ready to move on to the next step of his plan, he suddenly noticed—

Why had Sky Dream Ice Silkworm gone quiet?

He turned to look, only to find Sky Dream Ice Silkworm frozen in place like someone had pinned it down. Its expression and body were locked in the same defensive pose as before, perfectly motionless.

Something wasn't right...

An ominous feeling suddenly welled up inside Huo Yuhao.

Sure enough, in the next instant, the Black Cyclone that had shrouded Ghost Demon Venerable gradually dispersed. A figure unfamiliar to Huo Yuhao slowly emerged from within.

The person was tall and slender, with a cold gaze and long hair falling to the waist. A faint, aloof smile played at the corners of their mouth.

One glance was enough to make anyone feel the intense madness and oppression radiating from them.

Most importantly,

Huo Yuyao felt a familiar aura coming from him, one that shared the same source as his own.

The aura of the Ghost Killing Art!

Ghost Demon Venerable!!

Huo Yuyao's scalp went instantly numb.

He had no idea why the other party had suddenly done this, revealing his true face right before him!

Was he finally done pretending? Was he going to take over his body?!

Why had he appeared now? Was he already absolutely certain he'd win?!

Wasn't he afraid that Huo Yuyao would fight him to the death, even if it meant they both perished?!

A myriad of thoughts flashed through Huo Yuyao's mind in an instant. The situation had completely exceeded his expectations!

Huo Yuyao couldn't make head or tail of what Ghost Demon Venerable was trying to do. That was what sent a chill down his spine.

The situation was like this:

Huo Yuyao had only wanted to sit down and eat, but Ghost Demon Venerable had come over and flipped the entire table!!

It tastes bad?!

Then nobody gets to eat!!

He was the kind of person who didn't care if everyone went hungry!!

Huo Yuyao was practically on the verge of tears. All he could do was keep praying silently.

My lord, I regret it. Why don't you just go back?

I can pretend I didn't see anything. Wouldn't it be nice if we all just kept having fun together...

But Ghost Demon Venerable clearly had no intention of granting his wish.

While Huo Yuyao stood there dumbfounded, Ghost Demon Venerable had already walked over to the projected image of Ice Empress in her little-girl form. He looked her over carefully, nodded in satisfaction,

then swept his hand and tossed her whole into the Black Cyclone behind him.

He had clearly put her away for safekeeping.

Then Ghost Demon Venerable turned to Huo Yuyao, his smile full of amusement.

"Why the long face? Isn't this exactly what you wanted to see?"

His cold gaze seemed to pierce through every thought in Huo Yuyao's mind.

Under that stare, Huo Yuyao felt a chill creep through him. Right now, he wished he were dead.

His heart screamed.

My lord, I can't read!! I have no idea what you're talking about!!

Couldn't you at least play along?! You can't just spring something this intense on me!! My poor heart can't take it!!!

But Huo Yuyao knew full well that was impossible.

Since Ghost Demon Venerable had done this, he must want something from him. Otherwise, he had no reason to show up in front of him so soon.

So Huo Yuyao tried to steady himself, got his expression under control, and put on an excited look of belated realization.

"Is that you, Master? You're finally awake? That's wonderful!!!"

Huo Yuyao had to summon all his strength to keep the last three words from coming out through gritted teeth. He did his best to look happy.

Ghost Demon Venerable's expression didn't change at all in response to Huo Yuyao's feigned ignorance. The amused smile remained at the corner of his mouth, and his shadowy gaze seemed able to see through everything.

"There's no need to put on such a pitiful act."

"I think our conversation can be much simpler and more effective."

At those two sentences, Huo Yuyao's heart gave a lurch. The unease he'd felt from the start grew even stronger.

Sure enough, Ghost Demon Venerable's next words were like cruel, razor-sharp claws, tearing open the disguise Huo Yuyao had hidden behind for so long and exposing the truth buried deep in his heart—

a bloody truth.

"After all..."

"You and I are both Demons from Beyond."