Insane Ma Xiaotao

"What are you looking at?" Wang Dong was not yet fast asleep at this moment, moving with the premonition of some inner radar as she padded over barefoot in two steps to stand beside Huo Yuhao, following his gaze toward the school gate.

"With those two pinholes of yours, you still want to compete with me on eyesight? What could you possibly see clearly?" Huo Yuhao looked at Wang Dong, who was straining her eyes forward and trying to discern what exactly he was watching, and couldn't help teasing her with a touch of banter.

"You're the one with two pinholes!" Wang Dong bristled like an agitated kitten, grabbing fiercely at the clothes on Huo Yuhao's shoulder while her other hand twisted hard for half a turn at Huo Yuhao's waist like turning a car key.

Huo Yuhao smoothly wrapped an arm around the small of Wang Dong's waist, smiling somewhat insidiously. "This is a delivery you brought upon yourself, my dear Wang."

As he spoke, Huo Yuhao's other hand began tickling back and forth under Wang Dong's armpits and around her waist.

"Hahahaha... No, don't, Yuhao... I was wrong... I was wrong." Wang Dong begged for mercy frantically, her voice even slipping into its original feminine register for a few moments without her noticing.

Huo Yuhao casually tossed Wang Dong onto his own bed, then immediately touched her face and said, "Some people, tested every year and failed every year, lost every single time."

Wang Dong's face flushed a brilliant crimson, slapping away Huo Yuhao's hand with a mix of embarrassment and annoyance before sticking her tongue out at him. She then pulled Huo Yuhao's quilt over herself, curled up into a ball, and muttered, "I'm sleepy, going to sleep! You pest!"

In the middle of the night, when Wang Dong woke up, she suddenly remembered that the bed she was sleeping in was Huo Yuhao's. Her face flushed crimson once more, and she turned her head to look toward her own mattress.

Huo Yuhao was not sleeping in Wang Dong's bed at this time; instead, he sat cross-legged at the far end of the bed, meditating.

A simple meal, ordered from who knows where, still sat on the bedside table between the two beds.

Warmth instantly flooded Wang Dong's heart. She reached out, took the food, and began to eat with relish.

After the fifth round of assessments on the third day, Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong parted ways with Xiao Xiao, then strolled by the shores of Sea God Lake.

If it truly was fate, then there was no avoiding it. If it wasn't fate, wandering the lakeside scenery to soothe one's mood was a fine way to unwind for Huo Yuhao, who had endured ten bloody battles over the course of three consecutive days.

Although Wang Yan's warning had come first, that warning completely belonged to a category that only deterred gentlemen and not thieves. Once people fought until their eyes turned red, it was hard to define whether they intentionally landed fatal blows. Wang Yan didn't want to invite too many lawsuits, but as long as things weren't too excessive, he wouldn't intervene.

Though it was much better than other zones where limbs and organs flew about at every turn, calling it a fair match was completely going against one's conscience.

A gentle breeze blew, carrying wisps of water vapor that truly diluted the rich stench of blood Huo Yuhao had inhaled in the Assessment Area.

Yet this peaceful serenity did not last long before the gentle breeze was quickly replaced by a wave of heat.

Huo Yuhao sighed imperceptibly, a flash of annoyance surfacing in his eyes.

It really was one adhesive plaster after another, throwing themselves forward.

Huo Yuhao locked his gaze ahead and quickly spotted a red dot hurtling toward him at high speed.

After a second, that red dot resolved itself into full view: a young woman wearing a red veil.

"Her figure isn't bad, at least." While offering this critique, Huo Yuhao activated the Void Eye, making himself vanish from Ma Xiaotao's sight in an instant.

Driven mad by the evil fire, Ma Xiaotao was not entirely devoid of consciousness; she merely harbored an instinctive urge to destroy everything before her.

At this moment, seeing Huo Yuhao—her locked target—vanish instantly, she froze in place. The next instant, a bizarre spectacle unfolded before her eyes.

The waters of Sea God Lake before her were actually freezing into ice.

It wasn't the entire surface freezing over, but rather a narrow path of ice wide enough for only a single person to walk upon.

The ice path spread toward her at a steady pace, as if some strange person who brought ice with every step was walking toward her one step at a time.

Manipulated by the evil fire and stripped of much of her reasoning, Ma Xiaotao immediately raised her arm once more, shooting a streak of black-red fire toward the ice surface.

"To dare use a fire element attack against me even now—truly courting death."

On Huo Yuhao's arm, the Ice God Eye had already snapped open. As he used the Void Eye to appear directly before Ma Xiaotao, he pressed a single finger against the center of her brow. The next moment, endless Mystic Ice poured straight along the center of Ma Xiaotao's brow and into her blood vessels.

Carrying the ice-type soul beasts' faith in the Ice God, this Mystic Ice plunged into Ma Xiaotao's frenzied bloodstream, surging onward toward her brain.

Unnoticeably, a seed had been planted deep within Ma Xiaotao's mind.

Ma Xiaotao's eyes glazed over blankly for an instant before she pitched forward, plunging headfirst into the water.

The moment Ma Xiaotao's eyes turned vacant, Huo Yuhao activated his second soul skill and sprinted away.

After Ma Xiaotao fell into the water and Huo Yuhao had already cleared the straight-line perimeter of Sea God Lake, several white-robed figures hurried over.

"Good thing no one else was by the lake at the time. Little Tao must have rushed over here on her own and passed out when she couldn't find her target," one of the white-robed figures said as they pulled Ma Xiaotao from the water, speaking to the leading white-robed figure.

The white-robed figure waved a hand, surveyed the surrounding environment, and said in a deep voice, "Let's leave first. We'll talk after taking her back."

Back at the dormitory, Wang Dong gave Huo Yuhao a once-over and then demanded, "What's wrong with you? Why is your soul power aura so scattered? Did you get into a fight with someone?"

Huo Yuhao shook his head, brushing it off casually. "Nothing much, just stretched my limbs a bit."

Seeing that Huo Yuhao didn't want to talk about it, Wang Dong pressed no further, instead saying, "I heard that Dai Huabin's team is the same—ten wins out of ten."

Huo Yuhao nodded. After all, he wasn't the original Huo Yuhao; hearing the news of Dai Huabin's roaring rampage brought him no great surprise. He simply said calmly, "Normal enough. After all, he's a Soul Elder, and he has a girl with a Hell Spirit Cat martial soul following him. It'd be stranger if he didn't win every match."

Hearing this, Wang Dong's interest was instantly piqued. She pressed on, "Do you also know about the White Tiger Family that Dai Huabin comes from?"

Huo Yuhao retorted dryly, "Isn't that obvious? My recommendation letter came from a city right around Star Luo City. That's where I'm from."

Wang Dong stuck out her tongue, then asked, "Then have you figured out what to do if they actually manage to pull off a Martial Soul Fusion Skill at this stage?"

Huo Yuhao shrugged, looking completely unconcerned. "What else can I do? Fight them head-on. What else is there? Could I just surrender?"

Meanwhile, over at Sea God Pavilion...