Holding Sun and Moon, Plucking Stars

Another half year passed.

In the spring of Huo Yuhao's fourteenth year, he broke through to Rank 50.

Just as before, the instant he broke through, his body underwent another mutation.

The ten-thousand-year Three-Life Wolf Ape left leg bone replaced the bone in his original left leg.

His Spirit Eyes martial soul rose on its own, accompanied by a black Soul Ring—a ten-thousand-year one. His fifth Soul Ring was still ten thousand years old.

Taiwan Novel Network, a cure for boredom, extremely useful.

The Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion martial soul gained another orange-gold Soul Ring. He knew it was another two-hundred-thousand-year one.

Huo Yuhao stood in the courtyard, looking at the five Soul Rings beneath his feet. One red, four orange-gold.

He was about to withdraw his martial souls—

The sky suddenly changed.

The once-clear sky darkened in an instant. Black clouds gathered from every direction, blotting out the entire sky in the blink of an eye and casting all of Spirit City into shadow.

A thunderous boom suddenly rang out.

It was not thunder.

It was something even more terrifying than thunder.

A stream of gray air descended from the heavens, tearing through the clouds and the air before plunging straight into Huo Yuhao's Sea of Spirit.

An overwhelming pressure descended with it.

The pressure was so powerful that Huo Yuhao's body froze completely, unable to move. It was so powerful that every Titled Douluo in Spirit Hall abruptly raised their heads and stared in this direction in horror.

A miserable scream rang out within the Sea of Spirit.

That Million-Year Soul Beast, Skydream Iceworm, had curled into a trembling ball, too terrified to speak. Ice Empress lay beside him, shaking as well, the luster gone from her emerald carapace. Snow Empress stood in the distance, pale-faced and faintly trembling.

"God-level..." Skydream Iceworm muttered, his voice filled with terror. "This is god-level... We're done for. Yuhao, did you offend someone?"

Huo Yuhao's spiritual body stood upon the golden sea, watching the gray current gather beneath the dome.

It grew denser and denser, more and more solid, until it finally condensed into something.

A bead.

An utterly ordinary gray bead floated motionlessly above the Sea of Spirit.

Huo Yuhao stared at the bead, and a strange feeling welled up within him.

Longing, and guilt.

Why did he feel such emotions? This was clearly their first meeting.

"Holding sun and moon, plucking stars, there is no one like me in this world..."

An aged voice echoed through the Sea of Spirit.

The voice was soft and faint, as though it had come from a place unimaginably far away, yet also as though it were whispering beside his ear. It carried an indescribable ancientness, like the sigh of an old man who had lived for countless years.

Huo Yuhao froze.

At that moment, the enormous Eye of Eternity above the Sea of Spirit began to tremble.

It shook violently, more fiercely than ever before. Its rose-gold radiance flickered intensely, as though someone were desperately suppressing something—

Suppressing an emotion on the verge of overflowing.

Then, a rose-gold beam laced with black and white shot from its pupil and landed upon the gray bead.

The jade-green sword was drawn by the Eye of Eternity and descended beside the gray bead.

The gray bead and the Blade of Living Beings' Watch were wrapped in that light.

The light grew brighter and brighter, until finally...

Boom!

Golden light exploded.

The entire Sea of Spirit was illuminated by the golden radiance, and towering waves surged across its golden surface. Skydream Iceworm and the others were thrown about by the impact, crying out as they shut their eyes.

When the light faded, everything returned to calm. The Blade of Living Beings' Watch had merely dimmed somewhat before falling back into the Sea of Spirit.

A person now stood above the Sea of Spirit.

It was an old man.

His face was aged and deeply lined, yet his eyes shone brilliantly, as if countless stars were hidden within them. He wore a black robe covered in golden runes. Those runes flowed with light, as though they were alive.

In one hand, he held a staff.

A tri-colored staff—black, white, and gold intertwined into intricate patterns. At its tip was set a massive crystal. The crystal was transparent, yet light flowed faintly within it, as though an entire world lay inside.

The old man floated there, lowering his head to look at his hands and his body. He remained silent for a long time.

Then he raised his head and looked toward the Eye of Eternity above.

Complex emotions flashed through his eyes.

"Teacher..."

An utterly unfamiliar yet utterly familiar voice rang out.

It sounded somewhat like Huo Yuhao's.

The voice was soft, so soft, as though it were calling across ten thousand years of time.

Huo Yuhao was stunned.

The Eye of Eternity could speak?!

Teacher?

The Eye of Eternity called this old man teacher?

The old man looked at the Eye of Eternity and remained silent for a long time.

Then he sighed.

That sigh carried endless ancientness, endless helplessness, and endless heartache.

"Foolish child..." he said. "Foolish child..."

"You clearly already have everything," he said. "Why must you do this?"

The light on the Eye of Eternity stalled for a moment.

It did not speak again.

The entire Sea of Spirit fell silent.

Skydream Iceworm curled up in the corner, not daring to move. Ice Empress lay beside him, her golden eyes watching everything unfold. Snow Empress stood there, her eyes filled with complicated emotions as she watched the scene.

A very, very long time passed.

The Eye of Eternity's voice rang out once more.

This time, the voice carried an indescribable calmness.

"You know," it said, "I am someone who likes to pursue perfection..."

The old man fell silent.

He looked at the Eye of Eternity, at its rose-gold light, at the fine black-and-white lines, at everything hidden within its gaze.

He opened his mouth, wanting to say something.

But the Eye of Eternity's light dimmed.

It closed its eye once more.

As though nothing had happened.

The old man stood in midair, looking at it in silence for a very, very long time.

At last, he gently shook his head.

"Foolish child."

He spoke softly.

Then he lowered his head and looked toward Huo Yuhao on the Sea of Spirit.

There was a trace of complexity in his eyes.

Huo Yuhao stood upon the golden sea, looking up at him.

The two met each other's gaze.

One was a fourteen-year-old boy.

The other was an old man of unknown age.

The gray bead above the Sea of Spirit had vanished. Only the old man remained, floating there with his robes billowing, the crystal atop his staff faintly glowing.

In the distance, Skydream Iceworm cautiously raised his head for a glance before swiftly shrinking back.

"God-level..." he muttered. "It really is god-level..."

"Child."

Electrolux lowered his head to look at Huo Yuhao before him and suddenly felt somewhat dazed.

Through the Eye of Eternity, he had just seen Huo Yuhao's life. Those memories surged toward him like a tide, allowing him to see that child's past—see the thin, small child standing before the ruins; see the child gritting his teeth through the agony of a soul bone growing; see the child meditating in the courtyard day after day; see the child on the arena, calm beyond his years.

But before that, he had seen something else.

He had seen the Eye of Eternity's own memories.

A past that seemed even more distant.

A magnificent, breathtakingly brilliant life.

And also an incomparably tragic life.

The illegitimate son of a duke's estate, he awakened his martial soul, yet it was not the White Tiger. He had only Rank One innate soul power and was freely trampled and beaten by the other servants.

His mother had been beaten severely while protecting him. They had no money for treatment, so his mother died.

Amid endless rain, he knelt before his mother's grave, before the wooden board serving as her tombstone. Like a lone wolf, he gritted his teeth and swore, "I will sever the White Tiger lineage!"

In the end, he became a God King of the Divine Realm.

In the end, he changed back to his father's surname.

In the end, he denied all the suffering that his former, younger self had endured.

Because his entire life had been controlled by an even more powerful god.

That god had gone to such excessive lengths, cast aside all shame, merely to turn him into a dog—a docile dog.

The figure in those memories slowly overlapped with the boy standing before him.

The boy before him was undoubtedly far luckier. His life was entirely in his own hands.

Electrolux fell silent for a moment.

Then he spoke softly.

"Would you be willing to take me as your teacher?"

Huo Yuhao looked up at him.

"Would you inherit the legacy of my Deathly Saint Law God?"

Huo Yuhao's pupils contracted slightly.

Deathly Saint Law God.

He did not know what that title meant. But he had just heard Skydream Iceworm say it—god-level.

The old man before him was a god-level powerhouse.

A god-level powerhouse wanted to accept him as a disciple.

Without the slightest hesitation.

Huo Yuhao dropped to his knees with a thump.

"Teacher!"

His voice was loud and decisive, so decisive that even Electrolux was briefly stunned.

Then the old man smiled.

The smile was faint, yet it held a trace of comfort, a trace of helplessness, and emotions that could not be put into words.

"Get up," he said, then muttered softly, "Silly child, actually, you became my disciple long ago."

Huo Yuhao rose to his feet and looked at him.

Electrolux's gaze fell upon his face and lingered there for a long time.

"The Eye of Eternity did not merely restore my divine consciousness just now," he said. "It also brought you a new martial soul."

Huo Yuhao froze.

"What?"

"A third martial soul," Electrolux said.

Huo Yuhao stood rooted in place as though struck by lightning.

A third martial soul?

As far as he knew, a Soul Master could possess no more than two martial souls. Twin Martial Souls already made one a peerless genius seen only once in ten thousand, a rare existence capable of driving the entire continent mad.

Yet now, this old man was telling him—

He had three martial souls?

He instinctively withdrew from the Sea of Spirit.

When he opened his eyes, he was standing in the courtyard. The dark clouds had dispersed, and sunlight fell from overhead onto his body, warm and comforting.

He took a deep breath and released his martial souls.

The Spirit Eyes martial soul activated, and five Soul Rings rose beneath his feet—white, purple, black, black, black.

The Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion martial soul activated, and five Soul Rings rose beneath his feet—red, orange-gold, orange-gold, orange-gold, orange-gold.

Then—

His third martial soul activated.

A power unlike anything he had ever felt surged from the depths of his body. It was cold yet blazing, dark yet bright, filled with the aura of death yet containing the hope of life.

A gigantic phantom condensed behind him.

It was a figure in gray robes. Its face could not be seen, and only faint golden light showed where its eyes should have been. The phantom radiated a pressure that made hearts tremble, like a god descending from another world.

A Soul Ring rose beneath his feet.

There was only one—a gray Soul Ring.

It was far larger than ordinary Soul Rings, nearly twice their size. Gray light flowed across it, as though it contained endless mysteries.

Light and darkness.

Life and death.

Two utterly opposing auras flowed around that gray figure, clashing with each other, yet also giving rise to and restraining one another. They intertwined, forming a perfect cycle, like the chaos at the dawn of creation.

Third martial soul—the Deathly Saint Law God!

Huo Yuhao stood where he was, looking at the enormous phantom behind him and the unprecedented gray Soul Ring beneath his feet, unable to speak for a long time.

He raised his hand and clenched it into a fist.

Tang Hao.

That name surfaced in his mind once more.

Seven years ago, that man had destroyed everything he had in this world. For seven years, every day, he had thought of revenge, of growing stronger, of one day standing before that man and making him pay the price.

Though he knew it would be difficult.

Tang Hao was a Titled Douluo, the Clear Sky Douluo, one of the strongest people alive. He, meanwhile, was only a fourteen-year-old Soul King. The gap between them was immense, so great that its end was almost impossible to see.

He needed time.

A great deal of time.

He looked at the gray phantom behind him and felt the brand-new power within his body. A faint smile slowly curved his lips.

Tang Hao, Tang Hao.

Now I really can't imagine how I could ever lose in the future.

You'd better pray that you, or your son, have luck as good as mine.

He raised his head and looked toward the sky.

The dark clouds from earlier had already dispersed, and the sky had returned to clarity. The sun hung at its zenith, molten-gold light pouring down in a blaze of brilliance.

Looking at that sun, he suddenly recalled something Skydream Iceworm had said long ago.

The God-Making Plan.

An existence even stronger than a Titled Douluo.

Only by becoming a god could one possess unparalleled power.

Only then could one have the confidence to protect everyone by one's side.

Only then could one gain eternal life.

He raised his hand, shielding his eyes from the blinding sunlight.

"I, too, will become one," he said. His voice was soft, yet resolute. "One who holds the sun and moon in his hand and plucks the stars from the sky."

Sunlight slipped through his fingers and fell across his face, illuminating his dark eyes until they shone brightly.

The Eye of Eternity trembled slightly, and a faint, almost imperceptible sigh echoed through Huo Yuhao's Sea of Spirit.

At that moment, his figure overlapped with that of another boy from the "original" timeline.

That boy had also possessed Spirit Eyes. He had also lost his mother at a young age and carried blazing hatred in his heart. He had also stood amid the wind and snow of the Far North, a place bitterly cold all year round, and declared his lofty ambition.

"One day, I will make it so the heavens can no longer block my eyes, the earth can no longer bury my heart, and all things in this world submit because of me. I will become one who holds the sun and moon in his hand and plucks the stars from the sky."

The difference was—

After that boy encountered a certain person, his fate had never truly belonged to him again.

But he—

Huo Yuhao.

In this era, no one could control his fate.

He lowered his hand and gave the molten-gold sun one final look.

Then he turned around and walked into the house.

Behind him, the enormous gray phantom slowly faded away. The gray Soul Ring also sank into his body and vanished.

The courtyard returned to silence.

Only sunlight continued to fall, gilding everything in gold.