Caught Off Guard

"Brother Tian Meng, you're awake?"

Huo Yuhao cried out in surprise and delight.

"Yes. If I'd slept any longer, I wouldn't even have known when I died."

The Sky Dream Ice Silkworm's aggrieved voice rang through Huo Yuhao's Sea of Consciousness.

Tang Wulin was still standing nearby in a daze when the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm drew Huo Yuhao into the Sea of Consciousness again.

"Huh? What's wrong, Brother Tian Meng?"

Huo Yuhao scratched his head, looking utterly bewildered. He had no idea what had happened.

"Yuhao, who was that thing beside you just now?"

The Sky Dream Ice Silkworm curled up as though it might make him feel safer, but his expression was grave.

"What thing? Wait, my third brother isn't a thing. No, my third brother is a thing?"

Huo Yuhao tied himself in knots, but the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm still gleaned something from his words.

"You're brothers with that fellow who looks like a human boy?"

The Sky Dream Ice Silkworm looked as though he were questioning his entire existence. How could a being like that call a little girl his brother?

And frankly, if he hadn't drawn on his own essence to improve Huo Yuhao's body, no one would have spared a Soul Master like him a glance on the street.

"Looks like a human boy? What do you mean, Brother Tian Meng?"

Huo Yuhao's expression darkened abruptly. He was quite fond of his new little brother, but Brother Tian Meng had seen a great deal of the world. Was something wrong with Tang Wulin?

"Yuhao, you remember what I told you about my time in the Star Dou Great Forest, don't you?"

The Sky Dream Ice Silkworm did not answer. Instead, he changed the subject.

"I remember, Brother Tian Meng."

Huo Yuhao did not press him and answered calmly.

"Apart from that group of Ferocious Beasts, most of the energy of heaven and earth in my body was actually taken by another being. All I know is that even Di Tian, the Golden-Eyed Black Dragon King with over eight hundred thousand years of Cultivation, called that being 'My Lord.'"

"I once happened to sense My Lord's aura. Your third brother is far weaker, and his aura is entirely different, but that supreme essence is exactly the same."

At last, the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm shook his head and delivered his firm verdict on Tang Wulin.

"I suspect your third brother is a Beast God!"

A Beast God?

Huo Yuhao blinked. If anything, he believed the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm even less.

If a god really had sworn brotherhood with him, that man would have run straight to his mother's grave to kowtow.

"All right, I'm not sure myself. But that boy doesn't feel entirely human. He definitely has Soul Beast blood in him."

The Sky Dream Ice Silkworm spoke with utter conviction. He was a million-year Soul Beast, after all. He could tell that much.

Huo Yuhao was thoroughly confused. First My Lord, then a Beast God, and now the boy wasn't human? What was going on?

"Brother Tian Meng, no matter what, Wulin and I have sworn brotherhood. He'll always be my third brother."

Huo Yuhao clenched his fists. Dazzling light flashed in his Spiritual Eyes as he spoke to the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm with complete earnestness.

"Forget it. Having a third brother like him might be a good thing for you, Yuhao."

The Sky Dream Ice Silkworm sighed, his gaze full of helplessness as he looked at Huo Yuhao.

"That's not why I swore brotherhood with him!"

Huo Yuhao could not help protesting.

"But my intentions weren't exactly pure at the time."

Huo Yuhao's voice gradually faded to a mutter.

Back then, his head had been full of thoughts about having brothers to help him, so he had readily agreed. It made the whole thing feel like a scheme.

"But you didn't let hatred blind you. You've treated them sincerely. What does your initial motive matter?"

An aged voice slowly rang through the Sea of Consciousness. Only then did the man and the silkworm notice that the Gray Pearl at its center had vanished at some point. It had become a gray current that spread out and claimed a small patch of territory.

"You old geezer! Who are you, stealing my territory?"

The Sky Dream Ice Silkworm was furious. It was one thing for the stranger to slip in while he had the chance; if he stayed asleep, Tian Meng could ignore him. But now he was blatantly stealing territory. How could Tian Meng stand for that? The Sky Dream Ice Silkworm's anger flared—then went nowhere. He had no way to affect the fellow at all.

"Steal your territory? What are you, anyway? Nothing but a fat worm."

The aged voice refused to yield, every word dripping with disdain.

After the soul and the silkworm traded barbs and Huo Yuhao stepped in to stop them, the commotion in the Sea of Consciousness finally quieted for the moment. Huo Yuhao also learned roughly what the Gray Pearl was.

"Old geezer, if you're so capable, why don't you tell us what Yuhao's third brother really is?"

The Sky Dream Ice Silkworm's eyes darted as an idea struck him, and he immediately set about provoking Electrolux.

"Hmph. Big worm, your little goading trick is crude. But since I'm staying in Yuhao's Sea of Consciousness, I'll take the challenge."

Electrolux's voice brimmed with pride. He might have only a wisp of Divine Sense left, but even that was enough for him to work wonders. At worst, he would fall asleep again. It wasn't as though he clung to life.

"Then tell us. Don't try to fool Yuhao and me."

The Sky Dream Ice Silkworm waggled his brows, waiting to see Electrolux make a fool of himself. And if he lost his wager? So what? Yuhao would get the information. At most, Tian Meng would go back to sleep. He was getting sleepy anyway.

Electrolux said nothing. He carefully separated a tiny portion of his wisp of Divine Sense and sent it out of the Sea of Consciousness to examine Tang Wulin.

A long while later, Electrolux spoke again, his voice noticeably weaker.

"This child has an extraordinary jumble of things within him. First is the power the big worm said resembles My Lord's. I happened to sense it when I came to this continent. It appears to come from his bloodline. It has also been sealed and is steadily merging into the child's body."

"A sealed bloodline?"

The Sky Dream Ice Silkworm could not suppress a cry of surprise. Sharp-tongued as he was, he trusted Electrolux's abilities. Even with a million years' worth of spiritual power, he could not affect that wisp of Divine Sense. Just what kind of being could seal bloodline power of that magnitude inside a child?

There's no hope of reviving the Soul Beasts.

The thought suddenly surfaced in the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm's mind.

Good thing I got on board first.

Huo Yuhao, meanwhile, had already imagined a mountain of family entanglements, grudges, love, and hatred—enough to fill a million-word novel.

"Furthermore, this child has been washed by the Law of Life, another supreme law."

"And his parents are no ordinary people either. His bloodline carries two other noble auras."

Even Electrolux sounded astonished. The child was a veritable hodgepodge, yet every power within him was formidable.

"There also seems to be something hidden deep inside his body—"

"This is bad! Yuhao, I'm sorry!"

Electrolux's aged voice cut off abruptly. The gray current that had been churning through the Sea of Consciousness fell still.

"Elder Yi?"

"Elder Yi?"

Huo Yuhao called out to Electrolux in alarm, but received no reply.

What he needed to worry about next, however, was not Electrolux. It was himself.

A noble aura surged into his Sea of Consciousness and wrapped tightly around Huo Yuhao before gradually merging with him.