For Eleven Years of Hatred, Yuhao Swore an Oath

Huo Yuhao firmly grasped En Zuo's outstretched hand, gritting his teeth. "I accept your invitation. I'll join Monster Academy. As long as you can let me see my mother again, I'm willing to do anything!"

"But you must fulfill it in advance. Otherwise, I'd rather die than cooperate with you in anything."

Huo Yuhao still harbored reservations toward En Zuo. Being able to agree to this extent was already the result of an endless inner struggle, of grasping at the last straw offered before he drowned.

He did not want to give up.

For that, he was willing to abandon everything he currently had.

"Let's get acquainted again. My name is En Zuo. En as in gratitude, Zuo as in assistance."

En Zuo straightened Huo Yuhao's clothes and appearance, saying gently, "Everything will be as you wish, Huo Yuhao."

"I... I'm Huo Yuhao."

Huo Yuhao was somewhat at a loss. Since escaping the White Tiger Duke's Estate, aside from his mother and the newly acquainted Tang Ya and Bei Bei, En Zuo was the third person to treat him well.

From childhood to adulthood, all he had faced was malice. When confronted with such sudden kindness, Huo Yuhao simply did not know how to handle it.

The Demon Ding on En Zuo's shoulder curiously peered at Huo Yuhao. Its round, plump body was reflected in those Spirit Eyes.

"Eep, eep..." Startled by the Demon Ding's appearance, Huo Yuhao nervously took a step back. Not long ago, he had fought a Wind Baboon to the death. Facing a soul beast still filled him with an inexplicable tension.

Even knowing that this was En Zuo's externalized martial soul, his bodily instincts were difficult to change for the time being.

"Demon Ding, Huo Yuhao will be our comrade-in-arms from now on. Are you happy?" En Zuo rubbed Demon Ding's head. The latter comfortably closed its eyes and let out a delighted cry.

"Waa meow!" (Then this kid will be my little brother from now on!)

Demon Ding excitedly flew a circle around Huo Yuhao, vigorously sniffed him all over, and revealed a satisfied expression. It was very pleased with this little brother.

Huo Yuhao gradually became familiar with Demon Ding as well. In the end, there was not much difference between their temperaments. For people in their youth, beginning a friendship was pure and simple.

"Alright, it's time. We should go."

En Zuo called to Demon Ding. Once it fluttered down onto his shoulder, the crystal staff in his hand lightly touched the void, bursting forth with a dazzling doorframe of crimson lightning as the Narak Domain fully unfolded.

"This is..." Huo Yuhao opened his mouth wide. He could not understand what En Zuo's martial soul ability actually was, nor where this so-called Monster Academy was located.

He asked Sky Dream Ice Silkworm within his spiritual sea, "Brother Tianmeng, what kind of ability is En Zuo's?"

"If I'm not mistaken, he's a spatial-type soul master, even rarer than spiritual-type soul masters." Sky Dream Ice Silkworm said seriously, "To open a stable spatial passage at three rings—he's practically an unprecedented genius in the history of Douluo Continent."

"He's almost caught up to my status as an unprecedented million-year soul beast."

"But none of that matters. No matter how talented he is, he can't compare to you, Yuhao. After all, your first soul ring is a hundred times stronger than his." Sky Dream Ice Silkworm said smugly.

Huo Yuhao was skeptical. He even suspected that the name Sky Dream Ice Silkworm had been chosen because it dreamed every day.

Compared with it, even En Zuo's words seemed more credible.

As En Zuo maintained the Narak Domain, he cautioned Huo Yuhao, giving him advance warning. "No matter what you see afterward, don't panic. I'll handle everything for you."

"I understand." Huo Yuhao steadied his emotions and obediently let En Zuo pull him along as they stepped together through the doorway crackling with black-and-red lightning.

Under Tang Ya and Bei Bei's horrified gazes, their figures were swallowed up, as though they had never existed in this world.

En Zuo had no intention of concealing himself, nor did he disdain to hide anything from them. These native soul masters trapped in this space-time had no ability to contend with him at all.

His foothold lay in the Dragon King Era. As long as he could grow smoothly in this time and space before accumulating enough strength—

Even the Gold and Silver Dragon Kings held no fear for En Zuo.

At the final moment before departing, a ripple passed through En Zuo's calm eyes. From this instant onward, the fate of Dai Yuhao in this parallel world began to turn. His name was destined to be sung in the Dragon King Era ten thousand years later.

Within Narak Space.

Huo Yuhao had even forgotten how to speak. He stared incredulously at everything around him. Flowing figures, like a great river, converged toward the endless reaches of Narak Space's golden expanse.

From every position, he could glimpse the trajectories of fate belonging to different people in different space-times.

Huo Yuhao realized something. He remained silent, his eyes filled with intense terror. He saw Sky Dream Ice Silkworm, saw Tang Ya, and finally... saw himself!

He saw himself forgive Dai Hao. He saw himself, in the Divine Realm, persuaded by Dai Mubai and by his birth mother, lay down his obsession.

He saw himself acknowledge his ancestry, return to the clan, and adopt the name Dai Yuhao.

Huo Yuhao's pupils lost focus. Everything En Zuo said was true... He hadn't lied to me.

"But... why..."

"How could this happen..." Huo Yuhao clenched the White Tiger Dagger tightly, unaware as his fingers slid across its sharp edge. Uncontrollable fury surged within his chest before finally turning into a heart-rending roar. "How could this happen?! How could I possibly accept such an absurd outcome?!"

"Why did you change your surname back to Dai, Huo Yuhao?!"

Scene after scene flashed back through his Spirit Eyes. The forgiveness of the future became a sharp blade that brutally pierced young Huo Yuhao's heart.

En Zuo comforted Huo Yuhao with a complicated expression. As the protagonist of an era, although his ending was fairly happy, the journey had undoubtedly been a tragedy.

Huo Yuhao's history of growth was the story of how Dai Yuhao had personally ended that once high-spirited youth with Spirit Eyes.

"Everything has changed." En Zuo slightly raised his crystal staff, and the tedious scenes repeatedly playing before Huo Yuhao abruptly came to a halt.

They then split into countless curtains that completely surrounded the two of them, the life trajectories of Huo Yuhao in several parallel space-times proceeding in orderly fashion.

Until a brand-new curtain slowly lit up, freezing on the moment En Zuo took Huo Yuhao away.

"You are the only exception." En Zuo waved his hand, dispersing every unchanging fate trajectory of Huo Yuhao apart from this one. "Under Monster Academy's guidance, you will become even stronger. No one will be able to stop your revenge."

"Not even your counterparts in parallel space-times can stop you."

Huo Yuhao answered with silence. After a long while, he raised his bloodshot eyes, more resolute than ever before. "I will find them one by one and kill them all."

"Even if I don't have the power they gained by groveling and bowing! Even if I'm beaten to death! I'll still bite a chunk of flesh off them."

"For me... for my mother..."

"For the hatred carved into my marrow over these eleven years."