If he remembered correctly, aside from the Elephant Armor Academy and the destroyed Thunder Academy, soul masters from the other three Five Elements Academy factions all eventually defected to the Shrek Academy camp.
With the Five Elements Academy stepping forward at this moment, it undoubtedly equaled giving Spirit Hall a massive opportunity.
This was for the best.
Huo Yuhao immediately made a gesture inviting someone forward.
"Qingbo..."
Shui Bing'er grabbed Gu Qingbo, who was about to take the stage, saying with a face full of worry, "The Spirit Transferring Plan hasn't been implemented yet. Do you know the risks involved in this?"
Following that.
Shui Yue'er, Xue Wu, and the others all crowded over, one after another expressing their concerns.
Yet Gu Qingbo simply wanted to give it a try, perhaps because of the inner suppression she felt.
Although Shui Bing'er served as the captain of Skywater Academy, she was the youngest in age, whereas Gu Qingbo was already eighteen, yet her soul power had only just broken through the fortieth rank.
Skywater Academy always ranked members by strength. Not to mention Xue Wu, with Shui Bing'er and Shui Yue'er being fifteen and six years old respectively, and though Qiu Ruoshui, Yu Hairou, and Shen Liuyu were also only seventeen, their strength was already rapidly approaching that of this eighteen-year-old big sister.
Added to that, this soul master tournament gathered heaven-defying prodigies whom Gu Qingbo had already experienced firsthand.
Eighteen years old.
If her aptitude was poor and she still didn't dare to take a risk, then she might truly have no chance left in the future.
Who didn't have a bit of fiery blood deep in their heart?
"Don't worry."
Gu Qingbo smiled faintly to comfort everyone, "Nothing will go wrong."
With that said.
Under the gaze of countless eyes, Gu Qingbo walked straight onto the arena, then nodded at Huo Yuhao.
Gu Qingbo's figure was slender and upright, slightly taller than Shui Yue'er. With long ice-blue hair, a pure and pretty face, and a cold, sharp temperament, her Skywater Academy water-patterned combat attire accentuated her perfection.
Huo Yuhao didn't drag things out any longer, turning his head to look at Gu Yuena in the air, "Beast God, please go to the Spirit Hall hunting grounds to select a suitable soul beast for her, and tame it. Otherwise..."
"No need to waste time."
Before Huo Yuhao could finish speaking, Gu Yuena raised a hand to cut him off.
Then, amidst countless shocked gazes, the Silver Dragon Spear directly appeared in her hand, and without the slightest hesitation, she slashed straight toward the void.
Rips~
A shattering sound rang out, and the space directly in front of her was cleaved open with a gap.
Then it gradually expanded.
That was... the Star Dou Great Forest!
The power of space!
For a moment, those soul masters who had just sat down stood up once more. Wasn't the Star Dou Great Forest clearly visible inside that gap in the air?
Even Bibi Dong was shaken to her core upon seeing this scene.
The Beast God?!
As expected of the Beast God!
What other terrifying existences that he didn't know about did this Huo Yuhao actually know?
Even Bibi Dong was left numb.
Even Huo Yuhao was startled by the scene before his eyes. In his memories, he knew Gu Yuena was extremely powerful and also mastered spatial power, but he hadn't expected her to be terrifying to this extent, directly opening a spatial channel between Spirit Hall and the Star Dou Great Forest.
In reality, however, that was not the case.
If Gu Yuena wanted to establish a complete spatial channel, her true body's injuries would need to recover for at least another twenty thousand years-at minimum until the era of Tang Wulin.
Yet why could she pull it off right now?
The reason was that her true body was still at the Lake of Life. The spatial channel Gu Yuena currently established was a connection to the existence of her true body-a skill that allowed her avatar to return to the true body at any time, rather than a spatial channel in the true sense.
And there was also a time limit.
Gu Yuena had merely slipped up and shown off under the gaze of countless eyes.
"Di Tian."
Gu Yuena didn't want to waste time, speaking directly toward the Lake of Life, "Help this deity find a water-attribute soul beast whose lifespan is nearing its end."
As her voice fell.
A streak of black light instantly plunged into the Lake of Life, so fast that everyone failed to see clearly what it was.
Immediately following.
An entire silver-blue twin-winged spirit fish gleaming with smooth scales burst out of the Lake of Life, crossed the spatial channel, and arrived above the Spirit Hall arena.
The spirit fish first swam in a circle around Gu Yuena, as if communicating about something, and then slowly descended close to Huo Yuhao and Gu Qingbo.
A flying fish?
Right as Huo Yuhao was in a daze, Gu Yuena timely closed the spatial channel and only then spoke, "This is a Stillwater Silver Shuttle with a cultivation of nearly twenty thousand years. It has always lived in the depths of the Lake of Life. Now its limit is approaching, and it is powerless to break through its bottleneck. It voluntarily wishes to forge a Soul Spirit Contract with a human soul master."
As her voice fell.
The entire venue instantly erupted into an uproar.
Twenty thousand years?!
Must be a mistake, right? The absorbable soul ring age for a fortieth-rank soul ancestor is between three and five thousand years.
Can this actually work?
In an instant, more and more people instinctively looked off-field toward Grandmaster Yu Xiaogang.
The theory grandmaster was right there.
Although they didn't know what method the grandmaster used to make Tang San absorb a ten thousand year soul ring beyond his rank, they were certain that this method could absolutely never be replicated by a second person.
And right now, this soul beast possessed nearly twenty thousand years of cultivation. Wasn't that purely sending a soul master to their death? The discussions and doubts from the audience could be described as one wave after another.
At this moment, Yu Xiaogang's eyes also narrowed involuntarily. He was an expert in studying soul masters, and anyone knew that forcibly absorbing a soul ring exceeding one's age was like cramming excess energy forcefully into a vessel; if the meridians and body couldn't bear it, the person would directly explode and die.
Although he didn't know why Bibi Dong wanted to concoct this so-called Spirit Transferring Plan, absorbing a two-thousand-year soul ring beyond one's rank was utterly impossible. On this point, Yu Xiaogang was more confident than anyone else.
Indeed.
Even Huo Yuhao furrowed his brows upon hearing that this soul beast possessed a cultivation of nearly twenty thousand years.
Even though there was the Spirit Transferring Array to forge a soul contract, one was still affected by the rule: the higher the soul spirit's age, the greater the burden on the host. Even with the soul beast being completely willing, coupled with Huo Yuhao's spiritual power guarding the process from start to finish, Gu Qingbo's matching age limit should be around ten thousand years.
Absorbing a soul spirit also had to take the soul master's own physique into consideration, right? Wasn't twenty thousand years going a bit too far?
Huo Yuhao frowned slightly as he looked at Gu Yuena in the air, never expecting the other party to actually be smiling at him.
A soul bone?!
Could this soul beast possibly possess a soul bone?
If that were the case, its excess energy could be temporarily stored within the soul bone, sparing Gu Qingbo from bearing the massive toll.
He understood.
He thought to himself that Gu Yuena was also finding a way to help him build momentum!
"Start once you're ready."
Huo Yuhao gained confidence in his heart, and then nodded reassuringly toward Gu Qingbo.
"Mn."
To be honest, Gu Qingbo felt very unconfident in her heart at the moment, but this was the path she had chosen herself.
Especially when she saw Huo Yuhao's gentle gaze carrying a hint of encouragement, seven or eight parts of her inner tension vanished.
Finally.
Gu Qingbo took a deep breath and sat cross-legged directly in front of the Stillwater Silver Shuttle.
"Do not resist; open your hearts and completely trust each other." Huo Yuhao stopped wasting words and directly activated the Spirit Transferring Array, spiritual threads building a bridge of contract between Gu Qingbo and the Stillwater Silver Shuttle.
There was no fierce suppression like that of ordinary soul masters absorbing soul rings, nor the crazy antagonistic confrontation everyone had anticipated. There was only the gradual interweaving of two streams of energy and consciousness.
In less than the time it took to brew a cup of tea.
A miraculous scene occurred.
The Stillwater Silver Shuttle's physical body gradually turned transparent, and the energy of its body was flowing toward Gu Qingbo, finally merging entirely into Gu Qingbo's body together with its soul.
Amidst countless shocked and incredible gazes across the entire venue, a ten thousand year soul ring of the blackest extreme slowly rose from before Gu Qingbo.
Before you continue