Ghostly Cooperation, Clear Sky Sect

Huo Yuhao watched the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm return to its lively, bouncing self, feeling so exhausted he wanted to just lie flat on the spot.

What exactly was the point of this thing?

A mascot?

Keep it around to serve as a jellybean for the Ghost Demon Venerable?

The Sky Dream Ice Silkworm looked at Huo Yuhao, then at the stranger standing not far away, and finally sensed that something was wrong.

"Yuhao, who is this..."

Huo Yuhao sighed.

"This is my master."

"Oh, oh, master, I see."

The Sky Dream Ice Silkworm nodded, just about to offer some polite pleasantries, when its body suddenly stiffened.

Wait.

Yuhao's master?

And inside the Sea of Consciousness?

Holy crap!! It's that demigod!!

When did he turn into this?!

The Sky Dream Ice Silkworm froze in place once again, racking its brain to come up with something flattering to say.

But its extremely limited brain capacity clearly did not support such an endeavor.

And so, the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm stood there stammering for a long time without managing to squeeze out a single word.

Fortunately, the Ghost Demon Venerable paid it no mind.

The Ghost Demon Venerable simply looked at Huo Yuhao calmly, as if what had just happened had never occurred at all.

"Remember what you promised me."

Huo Yuhao cupped his hands, his attitude so respectful that not a single fault could be found.

"This disciple will remember."

"Very good."

The Ghost Demon Venerable turned and walked back into the Black Cyclone.

Just before entering, he paused, the corners of his mouth curling into an imperceptible arc.

"By the way, that projection of the scorpion was not bad."

"Make a few more in the future."

Huo Yuhao: "..."

The Sky Dream Ice Silkworm: "???"

Once the Black Cyclone had completely retracted, the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm suddenly jumped up.

"What scorpion? What projection? Yuhao! Did you sell Bingbing behind Brother's back?!"

"Brother Sky Dream, calm down."

"Brother cannot calm down! Bingbing is Brother's life!"

"It was just a projection."

"A projection won't do either! That is Brother's intellectual property!"

Huo Yuhao rubbed his temples.

Too much had happened today; he really had no mood to listen to the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm explain what intellectual property rights were.

"Brother Sky Dream, I have things to do, I'm heading out."

Huo Yuhao had no mood to play along with it now and left straight away.

Looking at the empty Sea of Consciousness, the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm was stunned.

A moment later, its indignant howl echoed through the Sea of Consciousness.

"Yuhao! You've changed! You weren't like this when you tricked me into coming in here!"

In reality.

When Huo Yuhao opened his eyes again, the dormitory had already darkened.

Only scattered lights remained outside the window.

He sat on the bed, his body still feeling heavy and his head throbbing.

Huo Yuhao felt exhausted now.

It wasn't physical exhaustion, but the mental fatigue of finishing a full game against an old fox, only to realize the opponent might not have even used their full strength from the very beginning.

Huo Yuhao let out a long breath and looked down at his hands.

His fingers could still move, and there was nothing unusual about his body.

His soul power circulation was still normal.

There were no signs of the Ghost Killing Art having been tampered with.

At least for the moment, Ghost Demon Venerable had not planted any obvious landmines within his body.

Of course.

Just because there were none on the surface did not mean there were none hidden in the shadows.

"What a pain..."

Huo Yuhao muttered under his breath.

His current situation could not simply be described as terrible.

It was absurd.

Ahead lay the dog-training scheme of God King Tang, and behind lurked the possession attempt by Ghost Demon Venerable.

A normal transmigrator starts with either a system or an old master.

But look at him.

His old master was a Demon Venerable.

His system was a leash held by a God King.

Was this not just some hellish joke?

It wasn't funny at all!!

Huo Yuhao felt a bit hungry. Just as he prepared to get out of bed, the dormitory door was pushed open.

Wang Dong walked in carrying two lunch boxes.

Seeing that Huo Yuhao had woken up, she froze for a moment before immediately closing the door.

"You're finally awake."

She placed the lunch boxes on the table, her tone a bit sharp.

"I thought you were going to sleep straight until tomorrow morning."

Huo Yuhao glanced at the lunch boxes.

They were hot.

In all likelihood, Wang Dong had just returned from the cafeteria.

Who would have thought she could be so thoughtful?

Could this be the special treatment one gets only after raising their favorability high enough?

Gala Geimu never lied to me!

Huo Yuhao originally wanted to say, "Thanks, foster father."

The thought had barely surfaced before he slammed on the brakes.

Thanks, foster mother?

Forget it, neither felt appropriate.

If he shouted that out now, Wang Dong might flip out on the spot.

"Thanks."

Huo Yuhao took the lunch box, sat at the table, and opened it.

The meal wasn't exactly luxurious, but it had both meat and vegetables, and even thoughtfully included soup.

Wang Dong sat opposite him, arms crossed over her chest, and said with a haughty air.

"Don't get the wrong idea. I was just afraid you'd starve to death in the dorm, which would be a hassle if the academy started asking questions."

"Mm, I understand."

"What do you understand?! You don't understand anything!"

Wang Dong glared at him and retorted irritably.

"You'd better give me an explanation for what happened today!"

Huo Yuhao paused with his chopsticks.

"Explain what?"

"Wu Feng."

Wang Dong stared at him.

"You aren't the type of person who can't control himself, yet today you nearly beat her to death!"

Huo Yuhao picked up a piece of meat, put it in his mouth, and chewed slowly.

He did not respond immediately.

Wang Dong waited for a moment, her voice dropping lower.

"Huo Yuhao, I'm not pleading on her behalf."

"She insulted you, and I'm angry too."

"If you hadn't struck first, I definitely would have beaten her up for you."

"But the state you were in today... it scared me."

Huo Yuhao looked up at her.

There was still a trace of petulance on Wang Dong's face, but there was no blame in her words.

It was clear that she was genuinely worried.

Huo Yuhao felt a stir in his heart.

If this were Sky Dream Ice Silkworm, he would probably still be pestering him about the copyright of the Ice Empress projection.

How could the gap between a human and a worm be so vast!

So vast!!

However, Huo Yuhao still could not tell her the truth, so he simply lowered his head to continue eating and replied, Kaidō.

"I'm fine."

"What kind of answer is that?"

Wang Dong was extremely dissatisfied with Huo Yuhao's attitude.

"If you want to brush me off, at least find a decent excuse."

Huo Yuhao had no choice but to put down his chopsticks and speak.

"That remark of Wu Feng's crossed my bottom line."

Wang Dong was stunned for a moment.

Huo Yuhao did not continue.

There were some things that did not need to be told to Wang Dong.

White Tiger Duke's mansion, Huo Yun'er, Dai Huabin, Dai Hao.

Sky Dream Ice Silkworm, Ghost Demon Venerable, and also Tang San.

Unknowingly, he already carried too many secrets.

Wang Dong did not press him further.

She simply pushed the soup toward Huo Yuhao.

"Still, you can't kill people in the academy."

"Mn."

"If you really want to fight in the future, call me beforehand."

Huo Yuhao nearly choked on his soup, looking at her with a strange expression.

"Weren't you just advising me not to kill people?"

Wang Dong was completely righteous about this.

"I advised you not to kill in the academy, I didn't tell you to keep holding it in forever."

Huo Yuhao looked at her.

Why did those words sound so pleasant to his ears?

As expected of the daughter of God King Tang.

Although her father was not a good person, the daughter seemed alright for now.

At the very least, he found her quite agreeable at the moment.

"Fine, I'll call you next time."

"That's more like it."

Wang Dong huffed and added another sentence.

"But don't expect me to clean up your mess; I'm only responsible for helping you fight."

"That's enough."

Huo Yuhao lowered his head and continued eating.

As the food entered his stomach, his mind cleared up a little.

He began to reorganize the events that had occurred today.

The biggest problem right now was still Ghost Demon Venerable.

Even though he had agreed to cooperate with his mouth.

But could that thing be trusted?

Trusting Ghost Demon Venerable would be better than believing God King Tang suddenly found his conscience, took his daughter back to the God Realm, and incidentally set Huo Yuhao free.

At least the latter was something Huo Yuhao might achieve in his dreams if he worked hard enough.

Ghost Demon Venerable showing his cards today looked like a mutual compromise, but in reality, he was forcing Huo Yuhao to accept a new way of coexisting.

It was shifting from "covert possession" to "semi-public cooperation."

This way, Huo Yuhao would no longer be able to pretend he knew nothing in the future.

The old thing had flipped the table directly, forcibly changing the rules.

What was even more insidious was that by clarifying the identity of "Demon from Beyond," Ghost Demon Venerable would create a misconception in Huo Yuhao.

A misconception that the two were of the same kind and could understand each other.

An ordinary transmigrator encountering this situation might really be led astray.

After all, as a lonely soul in a strange world, suddenly meeting another "fellow countryman"—even if this fellow didn't come from the same world—made it easy to let one's guard down or even feel pity.

Take our dear brother Thieving Heaven, for example.

Unfortunately.

The one who came was Ghost.

Huo Yuhao had also read Reverend Insanity.

He knew all too well what those four words, Ghost Demon Venerable, represented.

It meant that not a single word coming out of his mouth could be trusted, not even a single punctuation mark!

The cooperation he spoke of, translated into the language of the Gu World, meant:

I won't eat you for now, but you had better fatten yourself up.

Huo Yuhao took a bite of his meal, his thoughts slowly clearing.

His losses today were actually not as great as he had imagined.

Identity as a Demon from Beyond exposed?

Thinking about it carefully, this was bound to happen sooner or later.

Ghost Demon Venerable was never a pushover to begin with; it was not strange that he could detect his anomalies.

What was truly important was that Ghost Demon Venerable still did not know that Huo Yuhao knew his background.

This was the last trump card in Huo Yuhao's hand.

Ghost Demon Venerable would only think that Huo Yuhao was a transmigrator from an unknown world, perhaps with some unusual knowledge of the Douluo Continent, a bit deeper in thought, and a bit bolder.

But he would never imagine that Huo Yuhao even knew about his affairs in the Gu World.

At least not for now.

This information gap was the greatest advantage he currently held.

It must be kept under wraps!

Not a single bit could be revealed to anyone!!

The dormitory was quiet for a moment.

Huo Yuhao finished the second portion of food before closing the lunchbox again.

He was indeed hungry.

Operating the Ghost Killing Art consumed a great deal of physical strength.

Especially today, when he was forcibly triggered by Ghost Demon Venerable's killing intent, leaving him feeling as if he had been wrung dry.

Wang Dong stood up to tidy the table.

She was a neat freak and couldn't stand seeing lunchboxes left in a mess.

Huo Yuhao watched her busy herself and suddenly felt like laughing.

The God King's daughter was bringing him food and helping him clean up.

If Tang San could see this, his blood pressure would probably skyrocket to the heavens.

Thinking of Tang San, Huo Yuhao couldn't help but sigh in his heart.

Lord God King.

Look at me, won't you!

Your dog... pfft, the Child of Destiny you chose is about to be abducted by the Demon Venerable!

If you don't come soon, I'll really be forced to join the demons!

The more Huo Yuhao thought about it, the more miserable he felt.

He even felt like working overtime to burn incense in front of the Sea God Statue overnight.

He used to burn incense every day, hoping that Tang San would notice him and conveniently take care of Ghost Demon Venerable.

The situation has escalated.

Ghost Demon Venerable has already played his hand openly.

Yet God King Tang is as silent as if he'd been disconnected from the world, not making a single move.

For the first time, Huo Yuhao felt worried for God King Tang.

You didn't actually get beaten to death, did you?

Don't die so early!!

At least save me before you kick the bucket!!

Meanwhile, within a secluded sect shrouded in mist and clouds.

The door to a sealed stone chamber slowly creaked open.

Niu Tian stepped out from within.

Titan had been waiting outside, long since grown impatient; seeing him emerge, he immediately hurried over.

"Big Brother, how did it go?"

"What exactly did that person say?"

Niu Tian did not answer, instead opening his palm to reveal two items.

One was a jade tablet engraved with the character 'Tang'. It appeared to be the standard-issue item exclusive to Clear Sky Sect disciples, yet upon closer inspection, it was exceptionally crystalline and seemed to possess a certain magnetic charm.

The other was a slip of paper.

The three characters for Shrek were clearly written upon it.

Titan scratched his head in confusion and asked Niu Tian, "Big Brother, what does this mean?"

Facing his second brother, who remained as dim-witted as ever even after cultivating into human form, Niu Tian could only sigh helplessly.

"It seems..."

"We need to take a trip to Shrek."