Wu Feng, Huo Yuhao: Our Goal Is the Stars and the Sea!

Mu En glanced at Yan Shaozhe's shifting eyes, sighed softly, and turned to Huo Yuhao. "Go back, child."

Huo Yuhao looked at Qian Duoduo. When Qian nodded, he bowed. "This student takes his leave."

Stepping out of the Sea God Pavilion, Huo Yuhao's expression darkened. After his head-on clash with the Martial Soul Department, Yan Shaozhe was bound to make trouble for him in secret. But he did not regret it in the slightest—

The Martial Soul Department saw no farther than frogs at the bottom of a well. And Xuan Zi's habit of using strength to bully the weak had touched a nerve.

He had never been a magnanimous man. Show him a foot of respect, and he would return a yard; cross him, and he would repay even the smallest slight. He would remember the pressure Xuan Zi had put on him today.

"Got a taste of what it's like to be weak?" In the Sea of Consciousness, the Howling Celestial Dog's languid voice held a sharp edge.

"Yeah," Huo Yuhao answered grimly.

"The strong devour the weak. In this world, weakness itself is Original Sin."

Huo Yuhao drew a deep breath, a keen light flashing in his eyes.

That was right. Only by growing stronger could he control his own fate instead of letting others hold him at their mercy.

The next day, in the Freshman Class Nine classroom.

Gu Yue turned toward Huo Yuhao, whose face was clouded, her violet eyes full of puzzlement. Yesterday, the boy had been eagerly studying Soul Tool inscriptions. Today, gloom seemed to hang around him. "Is something bothering you?"

"It's nothing." Huo Yuhao shook his head. He would not drag anyone else into his private troubles.

"Really?" Gu Yue pressed, stubbornness creeping into her voice.

Huo Yuhao looked up and teased, "Classmate Gu Yue, I don't think we know each other well enough to share personal matters yet, do we?"

Gu Yue puffed out her cheeks and turned away with a haughty air, the tips of her ears faintly red—

That was careless. I shouldn't have been so forward.

Seven days passed in the blink of an eye.

By day, Huo Yuhao studied Martial Soul fundamentals and chatted with Gu Yue. In the afternoons, he immersed himself in the Soul Tool Department, studying machinery and inscribing runes. Deep into the night, the Howling Celestial Dog personally taught him the foundations of Formation Runes, Pill Runes, and Artifact Runes.

His schedule was packed to the brim, and his strength quietly broke through to rank fourteen with one Soul Ring.

Shrek Academy, Soul Fighting Arena.

The bluestone platform gleamed cold and hard. Ning Tian walked up beside Huo Yuhao, her golden hair falling over her shoulders. "Yuhao, what do you think Teacher Mu will teach us today?" she asked gently.

"No need to guess. Practical combat." Huo Yuhao shrugged and answered outright.

"Yuhao!" Gu Yue appeared without warning, dark hair brushing her shoulders. Her violet eyes swept over Ning Tian with open displeasure.

Beside Ning Tian, the red-haired Wu Feng immediately gave a cold snort.

"Quiet." Mu Jin surveyed the students with a stern expression. "Today's training in the Soul Fighting Arena will be practical combat."

Before he had finished speaking, Wu Feng stepped forward, her red hair blazing and defiance in her eyes as she stared straight at Huo Yuhao. "Huo Yuhao, I challenge you!"

She completely ignored Ning Tian's warning glance.

Ning Tian gave Huo Yuhao a small, apologetic nod, helplessness written all over her face.

Does anyone understand what I'm going through? I gave one honest answer and got targeted by a girl who's into another girl. What did I do to deserve this?

"Well..." Mu Jin hesitated.

"I accept." Huo Yuhao answered calmly and sprang onto the fighting platform, landing without a sound.

"Huo Yuhao, rank fourteen, one-ring Control System. Twin Martial Souls—Heavenly Eye and Reignbow Arbiter." His voice was even.

"Wu Feng, rank twenty-five, two-ring assault-type Battle Soul Master. Martial Soul: Red Dragon!" Wu Feng leaped onto the platform. The first hint of draconic might rolled off her, fierce and imposing.

"Begin!"

Martial Soul Possession activated instantly!

Wu Feng's eyes became crimson, slit-pupiled dragon eyes. Fine scales spread across her skin, her school uniform split apart, and a close-fitting black leather outfit outlined her athletic figure. Her first and Second Soul Skill Rings pulsed in unison. "Second Soul Skill: Dragon's Wrath!"

Violent Soul Power swept through her body, boosting her offense and defense by several notches!

First Soul Skill: Dragon's Fire!

Crimson flames ignited around her fist. The air crackled under their heat as she charged straight at him!

Golden light burst from Huo Yuhao's eyes. His Heavenly Eye opened fully—

First Soul Skill: Heaven's Apex: All-Seer Clarity!

Detection spread in every direction in an instant, piercing every barrier.

At the same time, the Reignbow Arbiter, blue as a frost-clear sky, took shape in his palm. Starlight shimmered along the stringless bow, while the phantom of a centaur deity flashed into being behind him and vanished.

He made no attempt to meet Wu Feng's fist head-on. A sidestep, a sideways turn, a sudden change of direction—every step carried him precisely clear of her Dragon's Fire and punches. He used a ranged fighter's keep-away tactics to the fullest.

"Dodge! All you do is dodge! Fight me head-on if you've got the guts!" Wu Feng's attacks grew increasingly chaotic. Anger rushed to her head, and she lost her rhythm completely.

Huo Yuhao rolled his eyes. What kind of joke is that? I'm a ranged fighter, and she wants me to trade blows with an assault fighter up close? I'd have to have my head caught in a door.

His fingertips drew back the Imperial Bow to a full moon. A platinum arrow of light formed at its tip, stars tracing their paths through it. "As you... wish."

Innate Soul Skill: Annihilation!

Twang—!

The arrow tore through the air with a sharp sonic boom, streaking toward Wu Feng on a blue-gold meteor trail!

Wu Feng was about to twist aside when a piercing pain struck her brow. The annihilating force of Ultimate Spirit drove into her, and she froze where she stood!

"Ah!" Her scream of pain rang across the Soul Fighting Arena. Dragon's Fire collapsed, and she staggered backward. The arrow grazed her shoulder, tearing flesh, but the wound was not life-threatening—

Huo Yuhao had deliberately held back.

"Concede?" Huo Yuhao asked evenly, lowering his bow.

"Never!" Wu Feng gritted her teeth and stood. She glanced at Ning Tian below the platform, stubbornness flashing in her eyes, then charged again with her fist raised.

Huo Yuhao sighed softly. Golden light flared from the Soul Ring beneath his feet as his Soul Skills linked together.

Innate Soul Skill: Annihilation + First Soul Skill: Heaven's Apex: All-Seer Clarity (weakened version)!

He simulated Tian Meng's spiritual pressure and hurled it, wrapped in the power of Annihilation, straight into Wu Feng's consciousness. Already injured in spirit, she saw darkness swallow her vision and toppled stiffly onto the platform, completely unconscious.

Tian Meng: I've got nothing else, but spiritual power? I've got plenty of that.

Howling Celestial Dog: I taught him that.

"Huo Yuhao wins!" Mu Jin declared loudly.

Ning Tian hurried onto the platform and helped Wu Feng up. "Thank you for holding back," she said softly to Huo Yuhao.

"It was nothing." Huo Yuhao nodded.

No sooner had he spoken than a cool, graceful figure leaped onto the platform. Violet eyes fixed intently on Huo Yuhao. "Huo Yuhao, I challenge you," Gu Yue said in earnest.

Huo Yuhao went blank, his pupils practically shaking. (⊙ω⊙)?

What is going on?

Me?

Challenge the Silver Dragon King?

What kind of cosmic joke is that?!

Seeing his dumbfounded face, Gu Yue's lips curved slightly. It had absolutely nothing to do with any discomfort she felt over Ning Tian getting close to Huo Yuhao. She was simply curious about the divine aura of the Reignbow Arbiter—

Really. Just curious!

"Classmate Gu Yue, I just finished a match. My Soul Power hasn't recovered yet." Huo Yuhao tried to decline politely, shrugging like a helpless bear, his desire to survive written all over his face.

"That's fine. I'll wait." Gu Yue refused to budge, the amusement in her violet eyes growing more obvious.

Huo Yuhao: (´ﾟωﾟ)?

Does anyone know how to get out of this? Answers online, please. Urgent!

In the end, Gu Yue did not take the platform. It was not that she had gone soft. She merely glanced at Huo Yuhao, who was still breathing a little hard, tossed out a "Next time," and turned away haughtily—though her violet eyes stole another look at him.

The blazing afternoon sun spilled over the gray stone buildings of the Soul Tool Department, gilding them with light. Metal Soul Tool components reflected countless cold glints.

Huo Yuhao had barely entered the laboratory when Qian Duoduo, his face glowing with excitement, and Fan Yu, fists clenched tight, closed in around him.

"Yuhao, remember the All-Domain Network and Floating Cannon you proposed?" Qian Duoduo rubbed his hands together, excitement ringing in his voice.

"Teacher, do you mean..." Huo Yuhao's eyes lit up, his heart pounding—

If those two ideas became reality, they would leap past the Sun Moon Empire's Soul Tool Technology. It would be a revolution that defined a new era.

"The network still needs a closed loop for its core inscriptions, but the Floating Cannon works! We're doing the final adjustments now!" Qian Duoduo shook his head, then nodded, thrusting an object into Huo Yuhao's hand.

It was a silvery-gray spherical Soul Tool with a biomimetic, eye-shaped core set in its center. Fine azure Soul Power circuits covered its surface, seamlessly blending a technological look with Soul Tool patterns. It felt cool and hard in his palm.

"Feed it Soul Power," Qian Duoduo urged.

Huo Yuhao did as he was told, sending pale-gold Soul Power into the Floating Cannon—

The sphere hummed and rose by itself to a height of half a foot. Scarlet lines lit up in its core. At once, he felt a spiritual connection form, as though the Floating Cannon were an extension of his own body, as easy to control as his hand.

His pupils contracted. In an instant, he understood: Douluo Soul Tools ran on Soul Power to begin with. Why copy the physics of magnetic levitation from Blue Star?

If Soul Power could do the job, why take the long way around?

That was the essence of Soul Tools!

But in the next moment, Huo Yuhao put away his smile and looked at Qian Duoduo. His words were blunt and measured. "Teacher, the Floating Cannon works, but that's all it does."

"Have you thought about what comes next? This thing depends entirely on Soul Power and spiritual power to control it. What about a thousand or ten thousand years from now? If Soul Beasts go extinct and the Soul Master profession declines, this technology becomes useless. Our entire Soul Tool civilization would be duckweed with no roots."

He knew it all too well. Without the Soul Spirit System, only the ravaged remains of the Star Dou Great Forest would be left ten thousand years from now, and the foundations of the Soul Master profession would eventually collapse. They could not stake the fate of an entire civilization on a single profession.

The excitement froze on Qian Duoduo's face. He stood stunned, and as he thought it through, cold sweat broke out down his back—

He had thought only of dominating the battlefield now. He had never considered what would sustain them ten thousand years later.

Fan Yu's brows drew tight as he fell into thought. Huo Yuhao's vision had already gone far beyond that of every Soul Engineer of their time.

Huo Yuhao lifted his gaze to the window. His eyes seemed to pierce through the buildings to the star-filled sky beyond, and his voice carried the fierce conviction of youth. "Teacher, our goal was never to crush the Sun Moon Empire. It's the stars and the sea."

We can't build some overbearing technology that falls apart the moment Soul Power is gone. The flame of civilization needs another road forward—one that doesn't depend on a single source of power.