Old Friend

After a long while, Huo Yuhao opened his eyes and swept his gaze around the area.

The battle just now had not caused much damage here. Then again, a place bearing a godly inheritance could not possibly be so easily destroyed.

He could even sense that he seemed to have formed a faint yet genuine connection with this city.

His gaze settled on the spot where Tang Chen had vanished. A small golden hammer lay quietly there. Huo Yuhao picked it up and temporarily placed it inside Twenty-Four Bridges Under Moonlight.

He had no intention of giving it to Poseisi, but since this item was connected to the Clear Sky Sect, he could not allow any possibility of it falling into other hands.

He looked up at the exit above. Before Huo Yuhao could make another move, the Ghost Sculpture floated before him.

The blade trembled lightly.

"Fine. It's time to use you." Huo Yuhao sounded somewhat helpless. Two years had passed; Ghost Sculpture had been restrained for far too long.

He reached out and gripped it, and a magnificent, dreamlike seven-colored soul ring appeared around his waist.

Back when he had searched for clues regarding his teacher Electrolux, and because the foundational abilities used by both of his teachers were magic, Huo Yuhao had seriously studied under Rong Nianbing.

Although Douluo Continent and the Radiant Continent differed greatly in their cultivation methods, they were quite similar in terms of spiritual power and elemental attributes.

The foundational framework for activating undead magic had been transformed from Teacher Electrolux's divine consciousness.

As for Radiant Continent magic, Huo Yuhao used the Ghost Sculpture.

During his two years in Killing City, he had used undead magic only once, to enter the undead demiplane. At all other times, he had not displayed any power that did not belong to Douluo Continent.

But that had been a helpless choice. Without spiritual power, undead magic could still be forcibly activated with life force, but Radiant Continent magic could not be used at all.

Now that two years had passed, his spiritual power had recovered to the level of a Great Soul Master. The Slaughter King was dead, and the Asura inheritance was already in his hands. Naturally, there was no need to hide any longer.

With the Ghost Sculpture as his pen and spiritual power as his ink, he traced a simple magic array. The wind elements drifting through the air immediately responded.

A third-tier Wind Flight spell appeared, carrying him straight toward the opening.

He passed through the light barrier without the slightest obstruction and arrived in a pure white world in the blink of an eye.

Countless wisps of frigid white mist rushed eagerly into his body.

His Spirit Eyes martial soul activated passively, and Huo Yuhao could sense that his Spirit Eyes had been granted a domain skill called the Slaughter God Domain.

When the white mist dispersed and he turned around again, the light barrier and narrow path were nowhere to be seen.

He was standing amid a dense forest instead.

The woods were quiet, filled only with the faint chirping of insects and the gentle sound of flowing water. Moonlight filtered through the leaves. It was nighttime.

After briefly determining his direction, Huo Yuhao followed the sound and quickly found a stream several meters wide.

Without any hesitation, he stripped off the only thing he was wearing—his shorts—and jumped in.

After several high-intensity battles, the blood on his body had long dried in layer after layer. Coupled with his time in that high-temperature environment, Huo Yuhao felt that he could not possibly smell any more rancid.

Huo Yuhao closed his eyes and lay on the water's surface, allowing the stream to wash over his body. His heart had never been so tranquil. He had finally returned.

Suddenly, a series of noisy sounds reached his ears.

Huo Yuhao had no time to lament his luck before leaping onto the bank in a flash.

He only had time to pull on a pair of shorts.

The commotion in the distance grew louder and louder. With a flip of his palm, a felt cloak appeared in his hand. He shook it open and draped it over his head and face. There was no helping it—under the fairly bright moonlight, his silver hair was far too conspicuous.

Crouching in the grass, he suppressed his aura to the lowest possible level and watched the direction of the disturbance vigilantly.

"Tap, tap..."

"Rustle, rustle..."

The footsteps were crisp, like the sound of some feline creature stepping across tree trunks, followed by the sound of swathes of tall grass being trampled and snapped.

With the Netherworld Spirit Cat possessing her, Zhu Zhuqing moved with the agility of a true cat. Her toes touched down lightly as she leaped through the forest, her expression cold and stern, her attention wholly focused.

The night vision naturally granted by the Netherworld Spirit Cat martial soul allowed her to see her surroundings clearly even in the dark.

Her nimble figure darted through the woods, making only faint sounds as she landed.

Huo Yuhao lay in the grass and watched the girl leap past him, continuing onward. The two pupils in his eyes could not help widening!

He had never expected that the first acquaintance he would meet after leaving Killing City would be Zhu Zhuqing.

Though her features were far more youthful, it was indeed Zhu Zhuqing.

She no longer possessed the calm elegance she had in the Divine Realm. She even looked somewhat disheveled from traveling. Her aura had become much colder and harder, and her hurried steps made it seem as though something was pursuing her.

Huo Yuhao's nerves tensed. He let her leave and remained quietly where he was.

Only after her figure had completely disappeared did the tension in Huo Yuhao's heart ease somewhat. As if recalling something, soul power circulated within him. Before long, the two pupils in each of his eyes gradually merged into one.

His Spirit Eyes opened as he stared toward the direction Zhu Zhuqing had come from. Barely fifteen minutes later, two figures, one tall and one short, emerged in pursuit.

Both were adult men. Judging by their auras, one was a Great Soul Master and the other a Soul Elder. Seeing this, Huo Yuhao no longer bothered to hide. One had two rings and the other had three; neither was worth his concern.

He leaped out directly, a blood-red longsword appearing in his hand. Lowering his voice, he asked, "Who are you? Why are you chasing her?"

The two showed no intention of talking. They immediately attacked with their strongest killing moves.

A cluster of Ghost Vines and a pair of beast claws shot toward Huo Yuhao's face.

Seeing this, Huo Yuhao no longer intended to hold back. His Spirit Eyes flashed, and the Slaughter God Domain spread out, instantly weakening the two men by one-tenth.

As his figure flickered, before the shock on their faces had even faded, the Asura Demon Sword had already left two lines of blood across their necks.

He searched the two men from head to toe. Other than a crude map and several dozen gold soul coins, he found nothing related to their identities.

Huo Yuhao buried the two corpses where they lay before pursuing Zhu Zhuqing in the direction she had gone.

Night fell once more. Huo Yuhao tugged at his hood and made sure he was covered from head to toe before lightly climbing into the treetops.

Only after ensuring that he could see the tree hollow where Zhu Zhuqing was hiding from the corner of his eye did he lean against the trunk to rest.

Over the past few days, he had been following far behind Zhu Zhuqing. They had encountered three groups of people along the way, and after those people revealed their killing intent, he had casually dealt with them all.

Even so, Huo Yuhao felt that something was wrong.

At Zhu Zhuqing's age, she should have been studying at Shrek. How had she provoked enemies like these?