The Living Key

Huo Yuhao's furious shout was like a basin of icy water, dousing the flames of greed in everyone's hearts.

Tu Feng and the others stiffened all over, their feet nailed in place.

But soon enough, that unparalleled temptation once again took the high ground.

"Damn it, what are we afraid of?!" The squad member with the fleshy face from before had bloodshot eyes, practically drooling. "He's alone! That soul beast just broke free, so it must be weak! We rush him together, grab it, and run!"

"That's right! Captain! The bold feast while the timid starve!"

"The gods' legacy is right in front of us! What are we waiting for?!"

People's hearts began to stir again.

Watching these fools blinded by greed, Huo Yuhao sneered inwardly.

He had never expected to scare them off with a single sentence.

He slowly raised a hand—not toward Tu Feng and the others, but toward Sky Dream Iceworm beside him, who had just broken free and was still in an exhilarated state.

"Sky Dream, do me a favor."

Huo Yuhao's mental link was simple and direct.

"What?" Sky Dream Iceworm's immense consciousness carried a trace of displeasure. "I've only just gotten out and haven't even properly enjoyed my freedom yet! Just looking at these little bugs annoys me!"

"They aren't bugs. They're flies," Huo Yuhao replied calmly. "You don't need to attack. Just let them feel what a 'god' is."

"A god?" There was a teasing note in Sky Dream Iceworm's thoughts. "I'm not a god, but scaring a few mortals is child's play."

The next second—

"ROAR—!!!"

That roar was no longer an outpouring of joy.

An indescribable, pure, tyrannical mental pressure swept through the entire temple like an invisible tidal wave!

That pressure carried the loneliness accumulated over a million years, the fury of breaking free from a cage, and, above all, the absolute contempt born from standing at the pinnacle of the hierarchy of life!

"Ah—!"

"My head! It's going to explode!"

The few squad members charging at the front could not even finish their screams before their eyes rolled back, foam spilled from their mouths, and they fell stiffly backward, instantly knocked unconscious!

Tu Feng and the rest felt as though they had been struck by lightning!

They felt as if an invisible hand had seized their souls tightly and tossed them into a high-speed blender!

Their minds went blank!

Their thoughts came to a complete halt!

The soul-guided guns in their hands fell to the ground with a clatter. Their bodies seemed to have been stripped of all bones as they collapsed limply, convulsing violently, unable to move even a finger!

Terror?

No. They could not even muster the emotion of terror.

Before that vast mental pressure, as boundless as a sea of stars, they were as insignificant as grains of dust, stripped even of the right to think.

This was... the power of a million-year soul beast?!

Merely leaking a trace of its aura had completely robbed this group of battle-hardened Soul Kings and Soul Emperors of their ability to resist!

Tu Feng lay sprawled on the ground, his body trembling uncontrollably, his heart filled with boundless horror.

Only now did he truly understand that Huo Yuhao's words—"Anyone who dares take another step forward dies"—had never been a threat.

They had been a statement of fact.

At the center of the formation, Huo Yuhao stood before Sky Dream Iceworm's enormous body like a traveler standing beside a mountain.

Yet that terrifying mental pressure had deftly bypassed him.

He reached out and gently patted Sky Dream Iceworm's crystal-like body, sending over a soothing thought.

"That's enough. Don't actually kill them. They'll still be useful."

Only then did Sky Dream Iceworm's violent mental pressure slowly recede.

Still not satisfied, it complained, "How boring. These guys are way too fragile. They're not even enough to fill my teeth."

"You bear a lot of hostility toward humans," Huo Yuhao communicated with it mentally.

"Of course!" Sky Dream Iceworm's thoughts were filled with righteous fury. "If you were locked in a dark room for a million years, with someone trying to carve flesh off you every day, could you possibly like them? If you weren't somewhat interesting, kid, you'd be lying there with them right now!"

Huo Yuhao sensed Sky Dream Iceworm's pure, undisguised rage, along with the special "exemption" it had granted him.

His heart settled.

Good. A preliminary foundation of trust had been established.

Now, it was time to deal with the trouble outside.

He turned and walked toward the Light of Truth members sprawled on the ground, who had only just recovered a sliver of awareness and were gasping for breath.

Tu Feng laboriously raised his head. Looking at Huo Yuhao approaching step by step, he saw a kind of calm on that young face that he could not comprehend at all.

At that moment, the greed in Tu Feng's heart was completely replaced by bone-deep terror.

"Y-you..." His throat had gone dry, and he could not force out another word.

"Can we talk properly now?" Huo Yuhao asked from above.

He crouched down, picked up the soul tool communicator Tu Feng had dropped, and tossed it lightly in his hand.

"You didn't believe what I said earlier."

"Now that you've experienced it firsthand, how did it feel?"

Tu Feng's face turned liver-red. Humiliation, fear, and resentment intertwined, making him wish he could crawl into a crack in the ground.

"W-what exactly is that thing?" Tu Feng asked hoarsely.

"A divine inheritance." Huo Yuhao calmly uttered four words.

"Bullshit!" one of the team members could not help retorting. "How can an inheritance be alive?!"

"Who told you an inheritance had to be a dead object?" Huo Yuhao countered, a trace of mockery in his voice. "Did you think a 'divine inheritance' was some divine artifact left behind by a god? Or perhaps a cultivation manual?"

"How naive."

Huo Yuhao pointed at the enormous, holy Sky Dream Iceworm behind him and began spinning his story on the spot.

"It—the Sky Dream Iceworm—is the 'living key' to the 'divine inheritance'!"

"A living... key?" Tu Feng froze.

"That's right." Huo Yuhao began speaking utter nonsense with a straight face. The Thought Palace had long since prepared a perfectly self-consistent explanation for him.

"The true core of these ruins is not what you see before you. And this million-year soul beast is not the treasure itself, but the sole proof needed to unlock it!"

"Capture it by force? Attack it? That would only damage the key and destroy the energy balance of the entire ruin. All of us would be blown into cosmic dust here."

What he said was half true and half false.

If Sky Dream's energy truly went out of control, a devastating explosion would indeed occur here.

Tu Feng and the others looked at one another. The spiritual pressure from before had scared the wits out of them, and they now believed seventy or eighty percent of Huo Yuhao's words.

"Then... then what should we do?" Tu Feng asked instinctively.

Huo Yuhao straightened his back, putting on a "sacred and solemn" expression.

"That is why I came here."

"The prophecy states that when the giant beast awakens, only the wielder of the 'key' can communicate with it and guide it to open the true divine treasury."

He pointed at himself.

"Modestly speaking, I am the person chosen by the prophecy."

That declaration left Tu Feng and the others utterly speechless.

A prophecy?

The chosen one?

Why was this script getting more and more absurd?

Yet when they considered Huo Yuhao's incomprehensible actions just now, along with the terrifying giant beast that was only friendly toward him...

For a moment, they could not find any reason to refute him!

Just then!

Buzz, buzz, buzz—

The soul tool communicator in Huo Yuhao's hand began vibrating violently again.

It was Xu Qingsong!

Huo Yuhao pressed the connect button and switched on the speaker.

Xu Qingsong's voice, cold as iron, immediately came through, carrying an urgency he could not suppress.

"Tu Feng?! No, who are you?!"

Xu Qingsong had clearly heard that something was wrong from the background noise as well.

"It's me, Huo Yuhao," Huo Yuhao replied calmly.

There was a second of silence from the other end, as though Xu Qingsong was processing the information.

"What was that spiritual shockwave just now?! The life-energy index in Sector B-7 has already exceeded the detection limit! Answer me!" Xu Qingsong's tone was severe to the extreme.

"As you sensed," Huo Yuhao said unhurriedly, "the core of the 'divine inheritance' has awakened."

He paused, emphasizing his next words.

"More precisely, the 'living key' has awakened."

"A living key?" A trace of gravity entered Xu Qingsong's voice.

"Yes. A soul beast that has slept for a million years. It is both the guardian and the only key. Any rough methods will only result in mutual destruction." Huo Yuhao repeated the explanation he had just given, this time to his true superior.

The communicator fell into prolonged silence once more.

Far away at the base, Xu Qingsong stared at the energy reading on the screen, which had completely turned red and displayed "Unquantifiable." Veins throbbed on his forehead.

A prophecy? The chosen one?

He did not believe a single word of it.

But he believed the data on the screen.

And he believed one fact even more: right now, only this boy named Huo Yuhao could stand beside that terrifying colossal beast.

"I don't care what kind of 'prophesied one' you are."

After a long silence, Xu Qingsong's icy voice rang out again, carrying an order that brooked no defiance.

"Now, I order you to ensure the absolute safety of the 'living key' at any cost! And immediately begin attempting to communicate with it and bring it under control!"

"The organization needs a complete 'inheritance,' not a pile of ruins!"

"Tu Feng and his squad will be entirely under your command from now on. If they make any suspicious moves, you may kill them on the spot!"

The moment those words were spoken, Tu Feng and the others went pale.

Commander Xu Qingsong... had actually handed command over to this kid?

And even given him the power of life and death?!

Huo Yuhao ended the call.

He tossed the cold communicator back to Tu Feng and looked at the captain, who had been so arrogant just moments ago but now resembled a stray dog.

Tu Feng accepted the communicator with trembling hands. Raising his head, he forced out a smile uglier than crying.

"Consultant... no, Officer Huo... what should we do next?"

Huo Yuhao ignored him, turned around, and walked toward Sky Dream Iceworm again.

To the group of team members sprawled weakly on the ground, he left only his back and a single sentence.

"Wait here."

He stopped before Sky Dream Iceworm, and the mental connection activated once more.

"It's settled. For now, no one will dare make a move against us."

"Tch, a bunch of trash." Sky Dream snorted disdainfully.

Huo Yuhao looked at the colossal beast before him—a treasure and a super bomb all at once—and took a deep breath.

The real challenge had only just begun.

He turned toward Tu Feng, who stood not far behind him, and issued his first order as an "officer."

"Keep your people under control. Don't let them make a sound and disturb me while I 'tame' the sacred beast."