The Uncanny Shrek

"Shrek's people were strong."

Huo Yuhao's voice was not loud, yet it made both Qian Ren Duo and Qian Ren Jun stop in their tracks.

They had just walked out of the Great Soul Arena. The sun was shining brightly outside, and the streets bustled with people. Midday in Heaven Dou City was always lively—vendors shouting their wares, carriages rumbling past, children laughing as they chased one another, all woven into a noisy net. Yet Qian Ren Duo stopped on the steps and turned to look at Huo Yuhao, disbelief written across his face.

"Strong?" He repeated the word as though he had heard something unbelievable. "Are you serious?"

Huo Yuhao nodded.

"They're definitely not as strong as Spirit Hall," he added, "but they might still give us some trouble."

Qian Ren Duo frowned. He looked back toward the Great Soul Arena. Through its open gates, he could vaguely see the cheering crowd inside. He had watched that match just now. In less than ten breaths, the boy called Tang San had used his bizarre Blue Silver Grass to bind up the entire Heaven Dou Imperial Academy Team Two. Those blades of grass writhed like living creatures, red-and-black light flickering beneath the sun as they tied the seven opponents up so tightly that they had no chance to struggle.

But so what?

"Why do you say that?" Qian Ren Duo asked. "Aren't they just a few Soul Ancestors?"

In his mind, an insurmountable gulf lay between Soul Ancestors and Soul Kings. One Soul King could handle three Soul Ancestors without issue, let alone Spirit Hall, which had five Soul Kings. Five against seven—no matter how he looked at it, it was a crushing victory.

Huo Yuhao fell silent for a moment.

"No." He shook his head. "I looked carefully just now. They have seven Soul Ancestors."

Qian Ren Jun snorted with laughter beside him.

"All Soul Ancestors?" He spread his hands, his face full of disdain and his grin wide. "So what? We have four Soul Kings. Before we left, Xie Yue had just broken through to level fifty-three. My brother is level fifty-three, Hu Liena is level fifty-one, Yan is level fifty-two—five Soul Kings against seven Soul Ancestors. How are they supposed to fight us? With their heads?"

He laughed as though he had just told a joke. Qian Ren Duo laughed too. Though not as exaggeratedly as his younger brother, his face held the same unconcerned look. He folded his arms over his chest, tilted his head at Huo Yuhao, and waited for him to continue.

Wang Qiu'er still looked detached from the world. She stood there, her long golden hair glowing softly in the sunlight, her red eyes calm as water. She neither laughed nor dismissed him. She simply waited for Huo Yuhao to finish.

Huo Yuhao was silent for a while.

The sunlight fell across his face, making his expression clear. His dark eyes carried an indescribable gravity. It was not fear or nervousness, but vigilance—a hunter's wariness upon seeing another prey, or a chess player's alertness upon discovering an unforeseen hidden move on the board.

"I don't know why," he finally said slowly, as though choosing his words, "but I keep feeling that they're uncanny."

Qian Ren Duo paused and put away his smile.

"Uncanny? Why?"

"Look at their team. There's someone surnamed Dai. White Tiger Martial Soul, golden hair, the one standing at the front." Huo Yuhao's voice was calm, as though he were stating something obvious. "He should be a prince of the Star Luo Empire."

Qian Ren Duo recalled the match from earlier. That golden-haired youth had indeed stood out. He was tall and imposing, standing at the very front of the team like a fierce tiger ready to pounce. Beside him stood a black-haired girl. She kept a low profile, remained silent the entire time, and barely seemed to have any presence at all.

"He kept following a girl in their team," Huo Yuhao continued. "That girl moved lightly, like a cat. She should have an agility-attack Martial Soul. If I may venture a guess, her Martial Soul is the Hell Spirit Cat, and her surname is Zhu."

Qian Ren Duo froze for a moment.

Hell Spirit Cat. The Zhu Clan.

The entire continent knew of the marriage tradition between the Dai Clan and the Zhu Clan. White Tiger paired with Hell Spirit Cat meant the Hell White Tiger—the legendary Martial Soul Fusion Skill capable of rivaling a Soul Emperor-level expert.

"You mean..." His voice lowered.

"A Martial Soul Fusion Skill," Huo Yuhao said. "White Tiger plus Hell Spirit Cat equals Hell White Tiger. Everyone on the continent knows of the marriage tradition between the Dai Clan and Zhu Clan. If both of them have Soul Ancestor-level strength, the power of that Martial Soul Fusion Skill won't be much weaker than a level-sixty Soul Emperor."

Qian Ren Duo fell silent.

Of course he knew the Dai Clan and Zhu Clan. They were the imperial families of the Star Luo Empire, marrying generation after generation and inheriting that pair of Martial Soul Fusion Skills. Legend said that the Hell White Tiger's full-force strike could tear apart the earth and devour the sky, though that was clearly exaggerated.

If both of them had reached the Soul Ancestor rank, then the power of that Martial Soul Fusion Skill... He began calculating in his mind, and as he did, his expression darkened.

"And that fat man," Huo Yuhao continued at an unhurried pace. "He should be a fire-type. He doesn't seem particularly special right now, but I keep sensing a hidden aura from him. That aura... is scorching, as though something is being suppressed."

Qian Ren Duo's brow furrowed even more deeply. He remembered the fat man: round-bodied, his eyes narrowing into slits whenever he smiled, looking harmless enough. But Huo Yuhao said he had a hidden aura—anything Huo Yuhao considered "not simple" could not possibly be simple.

"That Ning Rongrong is the only daughter of Ning Fengzhi, the leader of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect. Her Martial Soul is the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda." Huo Yuhao continued as though reading from a list. "The Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda is the continent's number one support Martial Soul. Even though she only has four Soul Rings right now, as long as she is there, the entire team's overall strength will rise by at least forty percent."

Qian Ren Duo's expression began to change. The Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda was a legendary support Martial Soul, capable of providing teammates with all-around enhancement. Strength, speed, defense, Soul Power recovery—all attributes would be greatly increased. If that girl had truly reached the Soul Ancestor rank, then the effects of her boosts...

"That Oscar has a food-type Martial Soul." Huo Yuhao paused. "Food-type Martial Souls aren't much use in battle, but if he has time to prepare, his sausages can provide all kinds of enhancements. Their sustained combat ability will greatly increase."

Qian Ren Duo no longer laughed.

He had always thought Shrek was merely an ordinary team that had lucked into producing one genius with a ten-thousand-year fourth Soul Ring. But after hearing Huo Yuhao's analysis, this team was simply... Put it this way: if Spirit Hall did not have so many Soul Kings this year, there would be a high chance of an upset.

"Personally, I think the most uncanny one is Tang San." Huo Yuhao's voice suddenly became very soft, so soft that he seemed to be talking to himself.

Qian Ren Duo looked at him.

"Level forty-seven," Huo Yuhao said. "The one with the ten-thousand-year fourth Soul Ring."

He paused, seeming to recall something.

"I fought him at the Great Soul Arena yesterday."

Qian Ren Duo was taken aback. "Yesterday? That Thousand-Handed Asura was him?"

Huo Yuhao nodded.

"He lost?"

"He lost."

Qian Ren Duo breathed a sigh of relief, his shoulders relaxing slightly. "Then isn't that settled? You beat him. What's there to fear?"

Huo Yuhao shook his head.

"It's different," he said. "His Blue Silver Grass is strange. It isn't ordinary Blue Silver Grass."

He raised his hand and looked at his palm in the sunlight. Those hands looked ordinary, no different from usual. Yet he still remembered how those Blue Silver Grass vines had felt when he grabbed them yesterday—tough, cold, carrying an unpleasant aura. It had been like grabbing a snake, cold and slick, ready to slip through his fingers at any moment.

"Blue Silver Grass is a useless Martial Soul. Everyone on the continent knows that," he said. "But his Blue Silver Grass is tougher than most vine-type Martial Souls. I had to use a powerful Soul Skill that consumed a great deal of Soul Power just to tear it apart. An ordinary Soul Ancestor wouldn't be able to break free at all."

Qian Ren Duo's expression turned grave.

Was that really still Blue Silver Grass?

"And he has an External Soul Bone," Huo Yuhao said.

"An External Soul Bone?" Qian Ren Jun's voice suddenly rose, as though someone had stepped on his tail. "How is that possible? How old is he?"

"Eight spider legs grew out of his back," Huo Yuhao said. "They were fast, and from the look of them, they should have been highly venomous. I had to use Darkgolden Terrorclaw to block them."

Qian Ren Jun's mouth fell open, but no words came out. He looked at Huo Yuhao, then at Qian Ren Duo, the disdain on his face fading bit by bit.

An External Soul Bone. It was even rarer than an ordinary Soul Bone, something that could only be encountered by chance. One could count the people in all of Spirit Hall who possessed one on a single hand. Yet a youth from some unknown little academy had an External Soul Bone?

"And..." Huo Yuhao paused and pointed at his forehead. "I keep feeling that he isn't as simple as he appears."

Qian Ren Duo looked at him.

"When I saw him, my Eye of Eternity trembled." Huo Yuhao's voice was quiet, as light as a breeze, yet it sent a chill down Qian Ren Duo's back.

He had seen Huo Yuhao's Eye of Eternity. That rose-gold vertical eye remained closed most of the time and only opened at critical moments. It could see fate, see things others could not. Huo Yuhao had used it to save him once. Something capable of making it tremble—

A fine chill crept across his back.

"Me too."

A cool voice rang out, like a block of ice dropped into boiling water.

Everyone turned to Wang Qiu'er.

She stood there, her golden hair lifted by the wind, her red eyes calmly fixed on Huo Yuhao. Under the sun, those eyes seemed especially deep, like two dark lakes whose bottoms could not be seen.

"My Martial Soul is the Golden Dragon," she said. "As a descendant of true dragons, it is extremely sensitive to dangerous auras."

She paused, her gaze passing through the crowd toward the Great Soul Arena.

"I also think he is dangerous."

Qian Ren Duo fell silent.

If Huo Yuhao alone had said this, he might have thought it was making a mountain out of a molehill. But with Wang Qiu'er added to the matter—this girl with the Golden Dragon Martial Soul, who never uttered a single unnecessary word—it was different. If two people both considered someone dangerous, then that person definitely had a problem.

People streamed along the street as cries of vendors rose and fell. An old man selling candied hawthorn pushed his cart past them, with several children running behind it. Yet the few of them stood on the steps outside the Great Soul Arena without speaking. The sunlight shone warmly upon them, but Qian Ren Duo felt a little cold inside.

After a long while, Qian Ren Duo finally spoke.

"Fine." His voice regained its calm, and his smile returned. But it was different from before, carrying less frivolity and more seriousness. "Since both of you say so, we'll go watch their matches from now on."

He looked at Huo Yuhao.

"Though I still think we can win steadily, it's always best to know both ourselves and our enemy."

Huo Yuhao nodded.

He walked several steps, then suddenly stopped and looked back.

"By the way, you fought a match yesterday... Did he recognize you today?"

Huo Yuhao thought for a moment.

"He probably did," he said. "The way he looked at me was strange."

"How strange?"

Huo Yuhao fell silent for a moment. He recalled those eyes, the eyes that had watched him on the stage. Resentment, fury, killing intent—and something else, something he could not describe. That gaze was too complicated, so complicated that it did not feel as though Tang San were looking at a stranger, but at a... sworn enemy.

"Like he was looking at an enemy," he said. "The kind who killed his father, mother, wife, and children."

Qian Ren Duo was taken aback.

"But I had never seen him before yesterday," Huo Yuhao added.

Qian Ren Duo frowned but did not press the matter. He turned around and continued walking forward. The sun stretched his shadow long across the ground, trailing behind him like a silent tail.

The four of them headed toward the inn.

Huo Yuhao walked at the very back. His gaze passed through the crowd toward the Great Soul Arena. The matches there were still going on, and waves of cheering rolled out like surf crashing against reefs.

He remembered those eyes, eyes whose venomous resentment had nearly solidified into substance.

The Eye of Eternity flickered faintly in his Sea of Spirit, its rose-gold radiance brightening and dimming as though warning him of something.

He withdrew his gaze, quickened his pace, and caught up with the others.