Testing the Martial Soul

It was late at night.

Most of the new students were either asleep in their dormitories or meditating in cultivation.

On the path leading to Sea God Lake, the figures of two people stood out clearly.

Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong walked side by side. They occasionally passed two or three people out for a night run, but neither side disturbed the other.

With her hands clasped behind her back, Wang Dong took light, brisk steps as she stayed close beside Huo Yuhao.

"Huo Yuhao, what martial soul are you even coming out to test in the middle of the night?" Wang Dong turned to look at him, her pink-blue eyes filled with curiosity.

"Do you need a sparring partner?" She raised her delicate chin, putting on an extremely magnanimous air. "As long as you beg this young master, I can reluctantly serve as your little test subject."

As she spoke, she unconsciously swallowed and added, "But afterward, you'll have to reward me with a grilled meat meal."

Ever since that picnic by Sea God Lake,

this young master had become completely addicted to the taste of grilled meat.

Back in the dormitory, she was always trying every possible way to pester Huo Yuhao for food.

Most of the time, Huo Yuhao could not be bothered with her.

Only when he happened to want some himself would he put on a reluctant expression and agree.

And just that alone

was enough to make this tsundere happy for several days.

"No need." Huo Yuhao shook his head.

"Why not?"

"I'm testing my second martial soul. I don't need a living punching bag."

The moment those words fell,

Wang Dong, who was walking beside him, abruptly stopped.

A second martial soul?

Her eyes widened as she stared at him in disbelief.

Aside from his bizarre methods, this bastard was actually a twin martial soul user?

But soon, her shock was replaced by an inexplicable excitement.

"What a coincidence." Wang Dong moved closer and slapped Huo Yuhao hard on the shoulder. "This young master is also a twin martial soul user. See? The two of us are quite a match."

Hearing her reveal this, Huo Yuhao found it rather amusing.

This little girl was not a twin martial soul user at all. She clearly had three martial souls.

But he did not show it on his face, instead putting on an extremely interested expression.

"Oh?" Huo Yuhao raised a brow. "Summon it and let me see."

That was exactly what Wang Dong had been waiting for.

She took half a step back and raised her left hand with great pride.

A flash of black light appeared.

An exceptionally exquisite little black hammer appeared in her palm.

There were no soul rings attached to it.

Yet the invisible pressure it radiated was heavy and tyrannical, as if it could smash through everything, and it was incomparably pure.

Even at a glance, one could tell that it was no ordinary tool martial soul.

Huo Yuhao immediately widened his eyes in cooperation.

He took a deep breath and cried out in feigned shock, "Th-this... could this be the Clear Sky Hammer? Are you from the reclusive Clear Sky Sect?"

Seeing Huo Yuhao's stunned expression, as though he had never seen the world, greatly satisfied Wang Dong's vanity.

Over this period of time, she had kept suffering setbacks in front of this bastard.

Now, she had finally won back some face.

She nodded with great satisfaction, then put away the little hammer in her hand.

"Alright, your turn." Wang Dong urged, "Hurry up and show me your second martial soul so this young master can properly admire it."

Huo Yuhao did not refuse.

He extended his left hand and slowly circulated the soul power within his body.

Very soon,

a formless yet visible stream of icy-blue air gradually gathered in his left palm.

An extremely frigid temperature instantly spread outward.

Even the air between them was frozen into a fine layer of white frost.

Wang Dong stared curiously at the stream of air in his hand.

She watched it for a long while but still could not make sense of it.

"What is that thing?" She frowned slightly. "Why doesn't it even have a fixed shape?"

"This is my second martial soul," Huo Yuhao said calmly.

"It is currently incomplete and has yet to condense into a specific form."

Hearing that explanation, Wang Dong was completely dumbfounded.

A martial soul could exist without a physical form?

This completely overturned the soul master knowledge she had accumulated over more than a decade.

"Why is that?" she asked instinctively.

Huo Yuhao glanced at her, and there was obvious disdain in his clear eyes.

He shook his head and sighed. "Even if I explained it to you, with that pitiful little brain of yours, you probably still wouldn't understand."

A cool breeze swept past.

Wang Dong's pretty face darkened at a visible speed.

She took a deep breath. She had originally wanted to flare up immediately, but seeing the genuine disdain on his face, she forcibly held it back.

He's infuriating!

Though rage burned in her heart, she truly did not know how to refute him.

After all, ever since they had enrolled, her intelligence had seemingly never gained the upper hand in front of this guy.

She could only grit her teeth in secret, snort coldly, and turn her head away.

At this moment,

the two of them had arrived at an open area by Sea God Lake.

Huo Yuhao took several specially made little glass bottles from his storage soul tool.

They contained various unique soul beast essence blood samples he had prepared in advance.

Every drop of essence blood retained an extremely faint trace of soul beast origin.

He pulled out the stopper of one of the bottles.

As soul power surged, a drop of dark-red essence blood was drawn out and fell directly into the icy mist in his palm.

The next second,

the icy mist suddenly began to boil.

Under Huo Yuhao's guidance, the origin within the essence blood rapidly fused with the icy mist.

The originally shapeless cold air began to stretch and expand.

In the blink of an eye,

the phantom of a strange beast with wings on its back, a tiger's head, and a wolf's body appeared out of thin air.

It floated silently above his palm, radiating a fierce aura.

But this state did not last long.

After several breaths, the beast phantom twisted violently before collapsing and returning to a scattered mass of icy mist.

A rejection reaction.

Huo Yuhao silently muttered to himself.

Even with pure ice-attribute origin, it still could not solidify an external form.

He did not stop. Instead, he opened the second bottle and continued with the next test.

Very soon,

under the stimulation of different essence blood samples, the icy mist in his palm turned into a heavy iron-armored bear, then transformed into an agile wind baboon.

Huo Yuhao's gaze was focused.

He precisely recorded in his mind the duration of every transformation and the point at which each one collapsed.

Not only that,

he even took out several small soul tool core formations and attempted to directly insert that mass of martial soul origin into soul tools for compatibility tests.

This string of operations left Wang Dong, who stood beside him, dazzled.

Although she had no idea what he was doing, the various transformations were genuinely fascinating.

She crouched beside Huo Yuhao, resting her cheeks on both hands as she watched with great interest.

The night wind off the lake carried a trace of moisture.

For some reason, as she watched Huo Yuhao's focused and quiet profile, Wang Dong felt her heartbeat quicken slightly.

Even the air around them seemed to have become strangely peaceful.

Sea God Island.

Beneath the Golden Tree.

A graceful fiery-red figure was curled painfully beside the thick roots.

It was Ma Xiaotao.

At this moment, her entire body was trembling violently beyond her control.

Her originally fair skin was flushed an unnatural red, radiating a suffocating heat.

Hot.

Even her sanity was being stripped away bit by bit.

The ultimate evil fire had not only given her a cultivation speed beyond all others of her generation, but had also left her suffering year-round from the backlash of scorching flames.

Tonight,

the suppression within her body had completely collapsed.

That scorching heat, enough to burn away all reason, frantically battered the last line of defense in her mind.

Ma Xiaotao clenched her teeth tightly.

A trace of blood flowed from the corner of her mouth, only to be instantly evaporated into white vapor by the heat around her body.

At last,

the defenses of her sanity crumbled.

Boom!

A mass of dark-red, violent flames instantly shot into the sky from around her.

Ma Xiaotao's eyes completely lost focus, replaced by emotionless brutality and madness.

"Screech—"

A violent phoenix cry that seemed to split metal and stone rang through the night sky.

Blazing wings of fire abruptly spread open behind her.

Ma Xiaotao, now in a berserk state, shot into the sky and flew straight toward the shore of Sea God Lake.