Third Martial Soul

As Huo Yuhao sat cross-legged before the Demon Passage, Electrolux asked solemnly, "All right, Xiao Huo, are you ready?"

Huo Yuhao didn't answer. He simply nodded firmly to Electrolux.

Ever since Baili Du had left three years ago, Electrolux had been the one teaching little Huo Yuhao. And, of course, Huo Yuhao had never disappointed him.

This Third Martial Soul was sure to succeed!

Electrolux began chanting an incantation. He pointed his staff through the air and cast the magic spell Heart of Undead Nirvana on him.

It could force a person to remain in their clearest state of mind for twenty-four hours, preventing their emotions from clouding their judgment.

"Here it comes!"

With a wave of his staff, a gray-gold orb of light drifted down onto the sealed Demon Passage.

At once, like a bear jolted awake from hibernation, a frightening, unsettling sizzle rang out from the heart of the Demon Sealing Forest. Cracks split the sealed purple-black gate as the gray-gold orb struck it, and rich streams of purple-gold light spilled through the fissures.

A colossal phantom appeared in the Demon Gate. He stood over thirty meters tall, his entire body covered in purple-gold scales. A pair of horns atop his head stretched three meters long, and his features were remarkably human. Behind him spread enormous wings made of purple flames, and he held a gigantic purple-gold flame sword.

The Demon Monarch, Alba—a peak powerhouse of the Demon Plane, a quasi-divine-level expert.

The instant his phantom appeared, the space around him twisted violently. It seemed that the power of the plane was frantically rejecting his presence.

Tang Hao, get up and get to work!

Alba naturally felt the Douluo Plane's rejection. He clicked his tongue in displeasure. It had been thousands of years, yet the Douluo Plane's suppression was still so powerful that they couldn't find an opportunity to strike.

But when he saw Huo Yuhao seated before the Demon Gate, his eyes lit up. He looked the boy up and down and was surprised to find that this human was an unexpectedly perfect fit for his power.

"Excellent! My perfect vessel, become a demon and bring darkness to this world!"

He swept his hand, which held the flame sword, and a mass of purple-black blood essence mixed with purple-gold light flowed toward Huo Yuhao and into his body.

His aim was to plant a demon seed in Huo Yuhao, creating a Fallen Angel Martial Soul infused with demonic power.

This Martial Soul was, in truth, a coordinate leading to the Demon Plane. Once Huo Yuhao grew strong enough, it could serve as an anchor point from which they could invade and devour the Douluo Continent.

An intense sense of power spread through Huo Yuhao's body, making him tremble slightly. Thick darkness, almost tangible, burrowed into him and reshaped his body, causing his aura to soar.

Though he was only a Soul Elder, the pressure radiating from him was already no weaker than that of a Soul Emperor or Soul Sage—and his aura was still rising.

He slowly rose into the air. A pair of enormous wings gradually emerged from his back, purple-gold scales growing across them and revealing an extraordinary demonic royal bloodline. A purple-black ring, at least three times larger than an ordinary Thousand-Year Soul Ring, rose beneath his feet, radiating a strange aura.

The Third Martial Soul, the Fallen Angel, was his!

"Hmm? What's going on?!"

Only then did Alba realize that the seed he had chosen was still frantically drawing on his source power!

Something was wrong! This wasn't a tasty treat delivered right to his door. It was a trap!

"Roar! Stop it!"

Half an hour later.

"D-Don't... don't draw any more... I'm almost empty..."

The Demon Monarch Alba's body rapidly shriveled. His once thirty-meter-tall form dwindled to less than three meters, and even the purple-gold flame sword in his hand vanished, unable to hold its shape.

"Hmm... Not bad!"

Electrolux's gray figure looked at the purple-black orb in his hand, which resembled an oversized pearl, and nodded with satisfaction. The Demon Monarch's source power was quite satisfactory—pure darkness... Very good, very good.

With Huo Yuhao only at the Soul Elder level, he naturally couldn't withstand the source power of a quasi-divine expert. Most of that power had been seized by Electrolux...

After all, he needed to save some strength to deal with Tang San's hidden hand and protect his disciple.

"Hmph!"

Knowing he had been tricked, Alba snorted coldly, his gaze fixed on Huo Yuhao as though he meant to memorize his face.

His figure slowly faded, and the disturbance at the Demon Gate disappeared.

The next step was the most important. Electrolux had to fuse the power of the Holy Necromancer into this Fallen Angel Martial Soul!

He had already worked out the details. He didn't need to fuse his divine consciousness completely into the Martial Soul. He only needed to balance the supreme Light Power and necromantic power he had once wielded against the supreme darkness given by the Demon Monarch.

"Hah!"

Elder Yi gave a low shout, and his staff blazed with light. One gray-white incantation after another took shape in the air, then surged toward Huo Yuhao's body as if racing each other.

A hazy gray ring appeared beneath Huo Yuhao. Aside from its strange color, the obvious difference between it and an ordinary Soul Ring was that it was more than a full size larger, shining in contrast with the purple-black ring.

"Yuhao, it's beginning! Remember! The boundary between light and darkness isn't as clear-cut as you think. Light can turn into darkness, and darkness can just as easily turn into light."

With that, Electrolux's palm turned pure gold. He brought it down hard on Huo Yuhao's head, and a third pure-gold ring rose, starkly contrasting with the first two.

Huo Yuhao's whole body shuddered. Black and gold, two utterly opposing forces, flickered across his fair skin. His skin split open, revealing muscle and blood beneath, only for the violent clash between light and darkness to make them disappear.

"Mmgh..." He barely managed a groan before it was choked off. The power of light and darkness had destroyed his vocal cords, too.

Electrolux said in a low voice, "Endure it! You have to get through this. I guarantee that once you truly master light and darkness, you'll become the greatest genius this world has ever seen!"

Under normal circumstances, light and darkness were completely opposed, their mutual rejection even stronger than that of ice and fire. Even Gu Yuena, back then, wouldn't have dared claim she had fully controlled both attributes.

The only ones who had likely mastered the powers of both attributes completely were the first Dragon God and the second Dragon God, Dragon God Lan Xuanyu. Lan Xuanyu had even developed the formidable Light and Dark Divine Lightning from them.

But everything Lan Xuanyu had achieved was built on the Dragon God Bloodline. Electrolux, the legendary powerhouse of the Holy Demon Continent, had relied entirely on his own talent!

Now, he was passing that talent on to his own disciple.