Million-Year Soul Ring, Fusion!

Huo Yuhao sat down cross-legged, sending out one final confirmation through the mental link.

The next second, the winds and clouds abruptly shifted!

Boom—!

Sky Dream Iceworm's mountain-like crystalline body suddenly erupted with a radiance billions of times more dazzling than the sun!

The entire underground divine temple—no, the entire subterranean space beneath the Far North Icefield—began to shake violently at that very moment!

"Kid, catch this! This is Sky Dream's million years!"

Sky Dream Iceworm's roar exploded through the spiritual plane as its body began dissolving and disintegrating at a rate visible to the naked eye!

This was not death, but a higher form of transformation into energy!

Its enormous physical body turned into the purest essence of life and spiritual energy, forming a golden pillar of light that pierced heaven and earth as it crashed down upon the cross-legged Huo Yuhao!

"Holy shit!"

At the entrance to the passageway, Tu Feng and the others were hurled away by the terrifying energy shockwave. They lay plastered to the ground, unable even to lift their heads.

They felt that world-destroying power with utter horror. Th-this... was this the true power of the divine legacy?!

And that kid... he was actually going to swallow that power?!

Madman! He was absolutely a madman!

The instant the pillar of light descended upon him, Huo Yuhao felt as though he was not absorbing energy, but being struck head-on by a star!

"Uaaaargh—!"

Torn apart!

Crushed!

Annihilated!

Indescribable agony exploded from the depths of his soul, instantly sweeping through every cell in his body!

His sea of consciousness, once a tranquil little lake, was directly burst apart the moment the golden ocean poured into it!

Countless fragments of memory—Sky Dream Iceworm's million years of loneliness, rage, slumber, awakening...—turned into billions of sharp blades, frantically slicing through Huo Yuhao's consciousness!

Any other soul master, even a Titled Douluo, would have had their soul completely overwhelmed by this torrent of memories within 0.01 seconds, becoming a total imbecile!

But Huo Yuhao was not just any soul master!

[Ultra-high-density energy influx detected! Excessive memory data stream detected!]

[Threat Level: Extinction!]

["Thought Palace" overload protection protocol activated!]

Bzzzz—!

Just as Huo Yuhao's consciousness was about to collapse, the magnificent palace at the core of his mind roared into motion!

The palace, originally meant only for simulations and deductions, seemed to have been instantly upgraded from a single-core processor into a quantum computer under the stimulation of Sky Dream Iceworm's enormous energy! Its processing power surged madly by geometric increments!

[Plan failed! Revising plan!]

["Diversion-Guided" injection plan activated!]

[Establishing "Energy Buffer Isolation Zone"... establishment successful!]

[Constructing "Memory Archive Database"... construction successful!]

[Initiating "Soul Origin Synchronization Protocol"... protocol initiated!]

The golden torrent, enough to overwhelm everything, was forcibly split into three streams by the [Thought Palace] the instant it entered Huo Yuhao's sea of consciousness!

The most majestic energy was guided into a temporarily opened "energy pool," where it would be used to construct his soul ring and transform his body!

The most chaotic fragments of memory were packaged, compressed, categorized, and stored in another "database"!

Only the purest, most essential soul origin was carefully guided into a shallow connection with Huo Yuhao's soul!

"Fuck... what the hell... what kind of brain do you have?!"

Sky Dream Iceworm's consciousness cried out in disbelief from within Huo Yuhao's sea of consciousness.

The raging storm and near-certain death it had anticipated had somehow been turned into something orderly by a method it could not comprehend at all!

This was not fusion. This was practically an unbelievably precise surgical operation!

"Don't lose focus, Sky Dream! Maintain synchronization!"

Even amid the agonizing pain, Huo Yuhao's will remained absolutely calm as he took the initiative to guide everything.

His body was undergoing earth-shaking changes!

The vast life energy washed through his limbs and bones. His slightly frail body, once weakened by malnutrition, was becoming incredibly tough at an astonishing rate! His bones, meridians, muscles... all were being reforged!

His spiritual power was soaring like a rocket, breaking through one bottleneck after another!

His perception, which had originally covered only a few dozen meters, now extended wildly outward... a hundred meters, a thousand meters, ten thousand meters... It even pierced through the thick rock layers, allowing him to "see" the howling icy winds aboveground and "hear" the sound of snowflakes falling!

The entire world became clearer and more three-dimensional than ever in his perception!

And the most eye-catching change was occurring on the surface of his body!

A ring of light slowly rose from beneath his feet.

It was not the white of a ten-year soul ring.

Nor was it the yellow of a hundred-year soul ring.

Nor the purple of a thousand-year soul ring.

And even less the black of a ten-thousand-year soul ring!

It was a... brilliant, noble gold that seemed to encompass every light in the world!

A golden soul ring, pure to the utmost extreme!

The instant this golden soul ring appeared, an indescribable pressure spread from Huo Yuhao's body! It was an absolute suppression born of the difference in their very levels of life!

If a ten-year soul ring was a stream, and a ten-thousand-year soul ring was a river, then Huo Yuhao's golden soul ring was a boundless sea of stars!

At the same time, within the [Thought Palace], the "memory archive" belonging to the Sky Dream Iceworm finished organizing itself.

[Data organization complete.]

[Obtained: <Douluo Continent Soul Beast Encyclopedia (Million-Year Collector's Edition)>]

[Obtained: <Principles of Ancient Soul Tools and Lost Illustrated Compendium>]

[Obtained: <Secret Anecdotes and Unofficial History of the Divine Realm (Sky Dream Iceworm Edition)>]

A vast amount of knowledge, like newly opened libraries, lay quietly displayed within Huo Yuhao's palace, ready to be accessed and consulted at any time.

The fusion continued.

The Sky Dream Iceworm's final, pure soul essence found its home at the center of the [Thought Palace].

No master-servant contract formed there, nor did any parasitic relationship take shape.

Instead, an independent "symbiotic space" emitting a gentle white glow was constructed within the palace's core.

The Sky Dream Iceworm's consciousness—a chubby, chibi little silkworm—floated curiously around that space, touching here and looking there.

"Awesome... fucking unbelievably awesome..." The Sky Dream Iceworm's voice rang in Huo Yuhao's mind, brimming with the excitement of surviving a catastrophe. "Kid, your [Thought Palace] is practically a bug! I, Sky Dream, am living here from now on! It's way more comfortable than that pitch-black dump!"

"Welcome aboard, my comrade."

Huo Yuhao's consciousness appeared before it and replied calmly.

"Hehe, comrade!" The Sky Dream Iceworm circled Huo Yuhao's consciousness twice. "How does it feel? This million-year gift package from yours truly packs quite a punch, doesn't it?"

Huo Yuhao felt the surging power within him, so immense it seemed capable of crushing stars in his grasp, along with the endless knowledge in his mind.

He knew that from this moment onward, the world before him had become entirely different.

The chessboard laid out by that so-called "god" now revealed countless cracks that could be pried open in his eyes.

Outside, the soaring pillar of golden light slowly receded, all of it sinking into Huo Yuhao's body.

The dark temple returned to its deathly silence.

Huo Yuhao opened his eyes.

Within those black pupils, a golden river of stars seemed to flow.

He slowly rose to his feet.