Soul Spirits

Er Bai's strength was not great, but even that was enough to hold Snow Emperor back.

"Mom, stay. This matter is useful to land soul beasts too." Er Bai spoke to Snow Emperor with a hint of pleading in his voice. Little White followed his example, grabbing the hem of her dress on the other side.

Huo Yuhao glanced over, then turned and rubbed Liya's head. "Go bring the tears you left behind just now. I have an important use for them."

Liya obediently nodded. Huo Yuhao crouched down and placed her back into the water.

Sea Princess Eve and Lijing immediately swam toward Liya.

"Liya, how do you feel?" Lijing looked worriedly at her younger sister. The tears her sister had shed were all golden pearls, tears that only Sea Princesses shed in moments of extreme grief. They were genuine origins of spiritual power.

Eve was even more direct. She pressed her forehead against her daughter's and carefully examined the younger girl's condition with her spiritual power. Her sea of spirit was exceptionally stable, her spiritual power pure, with no signs of having been controlled.

Moreover, the origins of spiritual power and life that Liya had lost had been replenished. Thinking of the seven-colored soul ring the youth had displayed earlier, along with that golden-green light brimming with life, Eve was both delighted and alarmed. This was a power that had never appeared on Douluo Continent before.

"Mom, Yuhao won't hurt me. I know that." Liya's cheeks were tinged with a young girl's blush. Even she now felt that what she had done earlier had been incredibly bold, but she did not regret it. If she missed this opportunity because of embarrassment, she would regret it for the rest of her life.

Eve carefully checked her daughter over from head to toe once more. Only after confirming that there was nothing wrong did she allow her to take the golden pearls ashore.

This time, Liya sat directly on the ice. Blushing, she took out a wide gauze skirt adorned with many pearls and gemstones and wrapped it around her waist. Only then did she lift her fish tail from the water and give it a slight flick. The droplets naturally scattered away, revealing a pair of straight, snow-white legs before Huo Yuhao.

Liya immediately noticed Huo Yuhao's gaze. Her round, pink toes unconsciously curled, and she quickly stood up. The gems and strands of pearls on her skirt collided, producing a crisp sound.

Then Liya noticed that Huo Yuhao's ears had suddenly turned red and that he had started looking away. Liya instinctively covered her chest, and then the youth's face reddened as well. Although her body looked about the size of a human girl of fourteen or fifteen, she was a soul beast and had long since reached adulthood. Her chest was already quite well-developed.

Flustered, she took out another gauze scarf and wrapped herself up properly before walking over to Huo Yuhao with a red face and handing him the golden pearls in her hand.

Each golden pearl was plump and round. A quick count showed there were seven. Huo Yuhao's expression turned solemn as he cast aside all distracting thoughts and accepted them with gravity.

The Eye of Destiny opened once again. The seven pearls flew into it one by one, quickly merging into his sea of spirit.

His sea of spirit had previously been nearly shattered, but Qiu'er's skull bone and the power of Uncle Kaka had forcibly stabilized it. Then he had absorbed Qian Renxue's soul power with its sacred attribute. It was now basically stable, but only Huo Yuhao himself knew just how empty it remained within.

Liya's seven pearls had resolved his most urgent need.

Huo Yuhao opened his eyes and nodded to Liya before turning toward Sea Princess Eve. "Senior Sea Princess, I'll need your help with what comes next."

"What, are you ready to show us the method you mentioned?" Eve crossed her arms and looked the youth up and down. Although there had been an unexpected incident with her daughter earlier, now that they were discussing business, she had to adopt the proper attitude of a clan leader and handle matters professionally.

Snow Emperor turned to look at Huo Yuhao as well. The Far North needed such a method too, one that would allow soul beasts to continue living.

"Like him? He's strong, but he's just too... ugly." Ice Empress frowned as she gave her assessment. Since nearly everyone present was in human form, she had transformed into one as well. If it came down to choosing between death and ugliness, she would still choose ugliness.

Eve and Lijing nodded as well. Appearance was secondary; the main issue was that aura of death, which was far too direct and terrifying.

The two women were dressed the same way as Liya. As the main subjects of this transaction, they had also come ashore. Since this matter was so important, they had temporarily assigned the rest of their clansmen to guard the nearby waters.

After all, besides sea soul beasts like them who worshipped the Sea God, there were many other clans such as the Demon Orcas and Deep Sea Demon Whales.

"You've misunderstood. Er Bai was born due to a fortunate coincidence. He is not a soul spirit." Huo Yuhao shook his head, stopping the soul beasts from making unnecessary assumptions. Er Bai nodded at the right moment but did not speak. It was better to leave everything to Grandfather at a time like this; interrupting might ruin his plan.

"I cannot tell you all why soul spirits first came into being, but I can explain their function." Since this concerned Snow Emperor, he wanted to wait for her to notice it herself and ask him directly.

"The primary function of a soul spirit is to grant its host soul rings. The higher the soul beast's cultivation before becoming a soul spirit, the more soul rings it can provide. At the highest level, a hundred-thousand-year soul spirit can provide its host with up to five hundred-thousand-year soul rings—that is, ten soul skills." Huo Yuhao spoke calmly.

"Five hundred-thousand-year soul rings? Wouldn't the host explode? Even if they didn't, what does that have to do with us soul beasts? Soul beasts don't need soul rings." Ice Empress spoke with disbelief and a trace of disdain.

"They won't. You can think of them as empty shells of soul rings with the quality of hundred-thousand-year soul rings. Part of the power inside them must ultimately be filled in by the host." That was not exactly how it worked, of course, but it would be easier for them to understand this way.

"However, once a soul beast chooses to cultivate as a human, it can condense its first six soul rings by itself. After that, it still has to hunt soul beasts. And the soul rings that strengthen oneself the most are either those with compatible attributes or those from soul beasts that share one's martial soul. But who could bear to harm their own kind, or even their friends and family?" Huo Yuhao pointed out the crucial issue.

No one could clearly say whether a soul beast that cultivated as a human was ultimately a soul beast or a human, because both sides had reasons to wipe out soul beasts that chose to cultivate as humans.

"But if such a soul beast that has cultivated as a human possesses a soul spirit from its own kind, then even if it is only a ten-thousand-year soul spirit, it can make up for the final few missing soul rings and gain soul skills perfectly suited to itself. Even if it is not the strongest, it should still be far stronger than an ordinary human soul master."

These were all his deductions, but he had once become a god. From such a lofty vantage point, he naturally understood.

"Most importantly, even if it chooses a human host, and even if that host dies, the soul spirit can still choose another host within a certain period of time." Huo Yuhao's words fell.

At once, everyone present's eyes lit up.