Huo Yuhao's Crisis

By the Lake of Life, Lei Chen slowly withdrew his vast perception, a look of understanding and amusement appearing on his face.

The actions of Shrek Academy and the Noumenon Sect had not surprised him.

Before the ultimate temptation of breaking through Level 100 and achieving godhood, any so-called secret sect teachings or past bonds seemed pale and powerless.

That Mu En and Du Bushi had obtained the Purple Demon Eyes and Nine-Aperture Glazed Heart—two secret arts aimed directly at the limits of spiritual power—so quickly, and had unhesitatingly chosen to spread them alongside the Innate Secret Art, had saved him quite a bit of trouble with their "enlightenment" and efficiency.

For the soul master system of the Douluo Plane, regardless of how endlessly varied martial souls might be, ultimately rested upon the two foundations of the body and spirit.

The root cause for the vast majority of soul masters stuck at bottlenecks and unable to advance was nothing more than bodies too weak to bear greater soul power, or spiritual power too feeble to control it.

Now, the Innate Secret Art provided a supreme path for tempering the body and forging a Divine Body, while the Purple Demon Eyes and Nine-Aperture Glazed Heart completed the method of nourishing spiritual power to its peak. With both paths progressing side by side, as long as one possessed sufficient talent and perseverance, there would no longer be any shackles on a soul master's path ahead.

So-called bottlenecks would no longer be insurmountable chasms, but merely small thresholds that required patient crossing when one's accumulation was insufficient.

The Divine-Mortal Divide from Level 99 to Level 100 would likewise become a natural transformation that followed its course—when a mortal body became a Divine Body, mortal consciousness ascended into Divine Sense, and soul power transformed into Divine Power, it would all happen as a matter of course.

"The body and spirit are the two wings of cultivation. Only when both wings fly together can one soar through the nine heavens."

Lei Chen murmured softly, quite satisfied with the development of the human soul masters.

The alteration of the rules and the guidance of a path had already sown the seeds of hope. All that remained was to wait quietly for more powerful figures to emerge from this fertile land. For the time being, he no longer needed to intervene excessively.

Since that was the case, his consciousness naturally turned, like an emperor inspecting his domain, toward another vital component of the plane—the Soul Beasts.

His will swept across the vast Star Dou Great Forest, sensing the flourishing vitality of the Soul Beast clans under the nourishment of the Golden Ancient Tree and the Lake of Life. In particular, Imperial Auspicious Beast Wang Qiu'er had advanced rapidly in cultivation with the aid of the Icefire Yin Yang Well, while the Golden Dragon King Origin was recovering faster than expected.

However, when his perception swept across the Far North Land, eternally blanketed in snow and ice, the scene unfolding there immediately brought a clear look of surprise to Lei Chen's face.

Within his "vision," a peculiar confrontation was playing out at the edge of the Far North Land's Core Circle.

A boy who appeared to be only in his teens, with soul power fluctuations of merely Level 20, was trembling as he lay prostrate on the ice. His face had been frozen bluish-purple, yet his eyes were filled with nervousness and anticipation.

Not far in front of the boy, a huge cocoon-like barrier of light had temporarily imprisoned a petite figure radiating a terrifying aura—it was one of the Far North's Three Heavenly Kings, the Ice Empress, the Ice Jade Empress Scorpion!

Although the Ice Empress's movements were restrained by the strange barrier, surging ice-attributed energy churned violently around her crystalline scorpion body, battering the barrier and sending fierce ripples across its surface. Clearly, the confinement would not last long.

What caught Lei Chen's attention even more was that the energy level radiating from the Ice Empress was distinctly stronger than that of an ordinary four-hundred-thousand-year Soul Beast. She had already reached the level of four hundred and ninety thousand years, clearly due to the benefits brought by the Myriad-Year Profound Ice Marrow he had bestowed earlier.

As Lei Chen watched the scene, an exasperated spiritual fluctuation emanated from the boy and entered the Ice Empress's perception:

"Ice Ice! Listen to me! This is a once-in-a-millennium opportunity! Give up that path of facing the Heavenly Tribulation, a path destined to be unimaginably difficult, and become this child's second martial soul. Then we can attain immortality in another form and explore the mysteries of the world together!"

The source of that spiritual fluctuation was none other than the Million-Year Soul Beast hidden within the boy's Sea of Spirit—Skydream Iceworm.

Yet the Ice Empress's scorpion eyes, gleaming with diamond-like light, contained only cold fury and disdain. "Shut up! You stupid worm! Who is your Ice Ice? You dare use such despicable means to ambush me!"

Her reply was sharp and brimming with killing intent. "Immortality? Merging with trash like you and clinging to life, and you dare call that immortality? How laughable!"

"This queen is now favored by the Plane Lord and has been granted a divine treasure. My cultivation has greatly advanced, and my future path to godhood is within sight. Why would I ruin my own prospects and keep company with a stupid worm like you?"

"As for this human brat..." The Ice Empress's gaze swept over Huo Yuhao, as though she were looking at an insect she could crush at any moment. "He dared enter this queen's territory and take part in such a scheme. Once this queen breaks free, he will be the first one I use as a sacrifice!"

Huo Yuhao was startled by the Ice Empress's undisguised killing intent, while Skydream Iceworm's spiritual fluctuations were likewise full of anxiety:

"Plane Lord? What is that? Ah, Ice Ice, why don't you understand? We Soul Beasts cannot survive the Heavenly Tribulation. Only by attaching ourselves to humans and nurturing them into gods can we rise along with them!"

Seeing that Skydream Iceworm did not even know what a Plane Lord was, the Ice Empress no longer wished to waste words on him. Her aura surged to its peak, and the cocoon-like barrier emitted an overloaded crack. At the instant it was about to shatter—

Watching this familiar scene, now utterly diverted from its original course by his intervention, Lei Chen could not help shaking his head with a laugh.

"Huo Yuhao... his luck really is hard to call either good or bad."

He could see it clearly. Under the current circumstances, if no outside force intervened, the Ice Empress would break free in the next moment and, in her rage, wipe out Skydream Iceworm's spiritual consciousness along with Huo Yuhao, the "accomplice," without the slightest hesitation.

An enraged strike from a Far North Heavenly King with four hundred and ninety thousand years of cultivation was something even a Super Douluo might not escape unscathed. For Huo Yuhao, a little fellow who did not even possess a second soul ring, this was almost certainly a dead end with no chance of survival.

Yet this fatal situation had been "just so happened" to be seen by Lei Chen. In truth, it was no coincidence.

A great deal of this plane's fortune had gathered upon Huo Yuhao, and Lei Chen had never withdrawn it. Though this fortune could not directly grant him strength, it could guide encounters in the unseen and reveal a sliver of life amid desperate circumstances. What had happened today was proof enough.

"So be it." A faint curve lifted at the corner of Lei Chen's lips. Since he had seen it, and since this boy still bore the title of child of fortune, he could not let him die so inexplicably in the Far North Land.

With his mind made up, Lei Chen's figure quietly faded from the shore of the Lake of Life.

The next moment, above the icy plains of the Far North Land, where the wind and snow howled and killing intent filled the air, space rippled faintly. A figure enveloped in a soft seven-colored glow descended soundlessly.