Testing Soul Skills

Within the sea of consciousness.

Huo Yuhao's thoughts stirred slightly.

The Heavenly Creation Cauldron, which hovered quietly in midair, suddenly unleashed an utterly terrifying suction force.

Before that gray stream of air could react—

Whoosh.

Elex, who had just finished showing off and was about to go dormant, was forcibly dragged into the cauldron's inner space.

He did not even manage to utter a complete protest.

The great cauldron then trembled faintly before vanishing once more into the depths of the mist.

The entire spiritual world fell completely silent.

Only a fair, tender little boy remained, staring at everything in stunned disbelief.

Huo Yuhao left the sea of consciousness.

He slowly opened his eyes, stood up, and stretched his slightly stiff body.

His bones let out a series of crisp cracks.

Huo Yuhao thought to himself that the first cheat he had in the original story was finally safely in his hands.

With a thought—

Pale golden soul power slowly emerged beneath his feet.

Immediately afterward, one yellow and one white soul ring rose from beneath his feet.

Looking at that white soul ring, the corners of Huo Yuhao's mouth could not help but rise wildly.

To avoid attracting attention, Tianmeng Iceworm had directly disguised the appearance of this million-year soul ring as the lowest-tier, ten-year variety.

But his martial soul was a composite mutation of the Spirit Eyes and his brain.

This thing had granted him four absurdly powerful skills in one go.

Aside from the standard Spirit Detection from the original story—

The remaining three had all changed.

Spiritual Link was equivalent to setting up a lag-free local network. Not only could it share his godlike perspective at any moment, but it could also directly transmit words and images through their minds.

Spiritual Simulation was even more outrageous.

As long as he consumed spiritual power, he could construct precise models in his mind. Once known conditions were entered, it could infer and simulate all subsequent combat developments like a supercomputer.

It was practically a blessing for modern test-takers.

As for the last one—

A gleam flashed through Huo Yuhao's eyes.

Mental Telekinesis.

This was the real deal when it came to physical damage.

He fixed his gaze on a rock several meters away that weighed roughly a few jin.

That white ten-year soul ring flickered faintly.

The next second—

An invisible yet exceptionally heavy, materialized force of thought surged forth like an enormous hand, gripping the rock tightly.

It then yanked it straight up from the ground, suspending it in midair.

Huo Yuhao slowly raised his right hand.

Through the air—

He clenched it fiercely.

"Bang!"

The hard rock seemed to have been slammed by a hydraulic press weighing dozens of tons, exploding directly into a shower of fragments in midair.

The shattered stones clattered down across the ground.

Huo Yuhao calculated briefly. If he combined Mental Telekinesis with the predictive capabilities of Spiritual Simulation, he would not even need to move his hands or feet. With sheer thought alone, he could toss an ordinary two-ring Grand Soul Master around in the air like a ball.

This was far more useful than the original simulation soul skill, which could only create illusions.

It could see, calculate, and physically smash people. It was unquestionably a top-tier, all-round setup without a single blind spot.

Just then—

"Whoosh, whoosh."

Two hurried sounds of rushing wind came from deep within the forest.

"Little Junior Brother!"

Tang Ya's anxious voice followed close behind.

The moment her words fell, one blue and one green figure shot out from the bushes.

Bei Bei and Tang Ya arrived with anxious expressions.

They had been utterly baffled as well. They had simply been walking along, and when they turned around, their little junior brother had vanished without a trace.

If they had not heard the sound of rocks exploding from this direction earlier, they had no idea how long they would have wandered around like headless flies searching for him.

Tang Ya rushed straight up to Huo Yuhao.

She grabbed his arm and looked him over from top to bottom, terrified that he might be missing a limb.

Huo Yuhao patted his chest.

"Sister Xiaoya, I'm fine."

Tang Ya let out a breath of relief.

Then, her gaze fell on the soul rings beneath Huo Yuhao's feet, which he had yet to withdraw.

One yellow and one white.

Tang Ya's expression instantly froze.

Bei Bei was stunned as well.

The two of them stared fixedly at the white soul ring representing ten years of cultivation, their faces filled with utter disbelief.

"Y-you absorbed a soul ring by yourself?"

Tang Ya's voice trembled slightly.

Huo Yuhao nodded very naturally.

What was there to hide?

But the next second—

Tang Ya's eyes visibly reddened.

"I'm sorry, Little Junior Brother."

Her voice was filled with deep guilt.

"It's all my fault. I knew the Star Dou Great Forest was dangerous, yet I was careless enough to lose you."

Bei Bei clenched his fists in frustration. His gentle eyes were full of self-reproach.

An eleven-year-old genius with twentieth rank soul power.

If Huo Yuhao had stayed with them, they could have gotten him an excellent soul ring of eight or nine hundred years at the very least.

Yet because he had been separated from them, he had been forced to absorb a worthless ten-year trash soul ring.

It was practically crippling his once-limitless talent by half.

Bei Bei sighed and patted Huo Yuhao on the shoulder.

"Your senior brother failed to protect you too. For something like damage to your foundation... once we return to the Tang Sect, we'll find a way to use spiritual medicine to make it up to you."

Having ruined someone's future like this made the only two remaining members of the Tang Sect, whose morals were exceptionally upright, so guilty that they practically wanted to crawl into a crack in the ground.

Huo Yuhao thought that these two truly did not have any bad intentions.

Every emotion they felt was plainly written across their faces.

He smiled helplessly.

"Sister Xiaoya, Senior Brother, I'm really fine."

As he spoke, Huo Yuhao casually dispersed his soul power.

"Besides, who told you a ten-year soul ring has to be garbage?"

"This depends on luck. Stop looking so miserable and hurry up to help Sister Xiaoya find a soul beast. You'll find out soon enough."

Not long after, they—

In a damp marshland—

The three encountered a thousand-year Mandala Snake.

Its entire body was dark green, its scales reflected a ghostly sheen, and it was both extremely fast and highly venomous.

It was simply perfect as Tang Ya's third soul ring.

"Little Junior Brother, stand back."

Bei Bei said seriously.

Lightning surged around his body as his arm rapidly became covered in a layer of blue dragon scales.

He was just about to charge forward into close combat.

Suddenly—

His mind jolted sharply.

An indescribably wondrous sensation descended upon him in an instant.

Huo Yuhao activated Spiritual Link and Spirit Detection simultaneously.

Bei Bei's eyes widened.

The world before him had completely changed.

With him at the center, every detail within a hundred-meter radius—whether behind him or hidden beneath the soil—seemed to form a three-dimensional projection that had been forcibly stuffed into his mind.

Even the trajectory of the scales sliding across the Mandala Snake's body and the rhythm of its muscles exerting force—

Were all clearly marked.

This was practically the legendary full-map hack with x-ray vision included.

"Holy shit..."

Even Bei Bei, with his excellent upbringing, could not stop himself from swearing.

Tang Ya was dumbfounded too.

This was the skill of the ten-year soul ring he had mentioned?

Who was he trying to fool?

Even a top-tier auxiliary soul ring at the ten-thousand-year level could not possibly possess such an absurd panoramic field of vision.

With such an unreasonable support ability—

The battle became completely one-sided.

Bei Bei was like a prophet using cheats, accurately evading the venom and attacks every time.

"Brother Bei Bei, observe the flow of soul power within its body."

Huo Yuhao's calm voice rang directly in both their minds.

Bang.

A dragon claw wreathed in lightning slammed down fiercely.

After only a few exchanges—

That unfortunate thousand-year Mandala Snake collapsed to the ground and stopped moving.

Tang Ya swallowed.

She drew a hidden weapon, stepped forward, and cleanly ended the battle.

A purple soul ring slowly emerged.

An hour later—

Tang Ya successfully finished absorbing the soul ring.

She rose from the ground, and the way she looked at Huo Yuhao now was exactly like she was looking at a little monster.

With such a divine support skill, would not all the soul beast forests across the continent be his to sweep through at will?

This was fucking ridiculous.

But it was a pity that it was only a ten-year soul ring. If he had obtained a better hundred-year soul ring, perhaps the soul skill's effects would have been even stronger.

"Little Junior Brother."

Tang Ya took a deep breath and suppressed the shock in her heart.

She looked at Huo Yuhao with utmost seriousness.

"Come with us to Shrek Academy."