Attempting a Martial Soul Fusion Skill

"Let's get the fish ready first. Wulin's been hungry for ages."

Huo Yuhao's voice faltered. Clearly, those words had stirred up quite a storm in his heart, but he let the matter drop because he was worried Tang Wulin would go hungry.

"Right. Fish first, fish first."

Wang Dong's eyes lit up as she spoke with a grin.

As the first batch of grilled fish came off the fire, their savory aroma spread along the shore of Sea God Lake. As promised, Huo Yuhao handed the first two to Wang Dong by way of apology, then gave the third to Tang Wulin.

"Wow!"

Wang Dong endured the heat and took a small bite. Her eyes widened at once, shining with delight.

"This is way better than what you made before, Yuhao."

"The ingredients, seasoning, and cooking are all much better than they were on the road. Of course it tastes better."

Huo Yuhao smiled, barely holding back a laugh at Wang Dong's reaction.

Tang Wulin tried Huo Yuhao's cooking too, and it left him stunned. He had eaten plenty of fine food, and the academy's chefs were every bit as skilled. Yet Huo Yuhao's grilled fish had something different about it, a flavor he could not help longing for afterward. He had no idea why.

Unable to figure it out, Tang Wulin stopped thinking about it and kept tearing into the fish Huo Yuhao had given him. Beside him, Wang Dong clicked her tongue in amazement from time to time.

Huo Yuhao watched the fish with his Spiritual Eyes, occasionally glancing at Tang Wulin. A complicated look crossed his face, along with a trace of curiosity buried deep in his heart.

He wondered who Tang Wulin really was and what he held within him. Even Elder Yi, who Tian Meng had said was far stronger than her while alive, had met his Waterloo against Tang Wulin.

With Spiritual Detection helping him, Huo Yuhao grilled several fish at once without breaking a sweat. He even ate as he cooked and occasionally exchanged a few words with Wang Dong. Tang Wulin, meanwhile, was genuinely hungry. He finished not only the fish killed by the dragon's might earlier, but every fish Wang Dong had bought as well.

"Third Brother, you sure can eat."

Wang Dong leaned over, astonished. Two fish had been enough for her, while Tang Wulin had eaten nearly thirty. Looking at his only slightly rounded belly, she could not imagine where all that fish had gone.

"Heh, I train my blood and vitality, so I eat a bit more."

Tang Wulin did not deny it. He scratched his head and explained sheepishly, then thanked Huo Yuhao.

"Sorry for the trouble, Second Brother."

"It's nothing. Seeing you enjoy it is the greatest reward a cook like me could ask for."

Huo Yuhao waved a hand. He truly was happy that something he had made had brought someone else joy.

Once they had eaten and drunk their fill, Wang Dong took out a large blanket covered in intricate patterns and soft, fine pile, then carefully spread it over the grass.

"Come on, get on."

Wang Dong kicked off her shoes and flopped onto it first. The thick blanket felt so comfortable over the soft grass that she could not resist rolling around.

Tang Wulin's eyes lit up, and he joined her without hesitation. Rather than romping about like Wang Dong, though, he sat down and quietly gazed at Sea God Lake, where white mist rose from the water.

Huo Yuhao hesitated, then took off his shoes and silently sat at the edge.

"Right, Second Brother, Third Brother, weren't you going to try a Martial Soul Fusion Skill? Why not try it now?"

After frolicking on the blanket, Wang Dong finally settled down. She looked at them with bright eyes full of curiosity.

"We could give it a try."

Tang Wulin rubbed his chin and agreed. He wanted to know whether he and Huo Yuhao had a Martial Soul Fusion Skill. It would give him another trump card for challenging opponents above his level. The inner academy's texts also said that two people with a high degree of compatibility might cultivate faster together, which mattered even more to him.

"Second Brother!"

Tang Wulin turned to Huo Yuhao for his opinion, but then remembered what the books said about Martial Soul Fusion Skills: partners of different sexes were usually husband and wife, while those of the same sex were usually close friends.

His father seemed to have said that Second Brother was a girl. At the thought, Tang Wulin felt a rush of blood, and his fair little face took on a rosy tint.

"Shall we try?"

Huo Yuhao sounded uncertain. He had once lived with the Dai Family, but because he had not awakened the White Tiger Martial Soul and the duke's wife had singled him out, he had spent every day working. He knew little about the Dai Family's most famous Martial Soul Fusion Skill.

"How do we try?"

Huo Yuhao edged closer. Thinking of those two brothers again filled him with bitter hatred and made him all the more intent on trying the Martial Soul Fusion Skill.

"Hold hands first, maybe?"

Wang Dong was happy to stir things up. Though she was no model student, she had paid some attention to her studies before she became a seasoned slacker and her two fathers started calling her a lazybones.

Whether they had a Martial Soul Fusion Skill or not, they needed physical contact to feel anything.

"Huh?"

"Hold hands!"

Huo Yuhao shuddered. Things the servants had said back at the Duke's Mansion flooded his mind, and his face turned red as a cooked prawn.

Tang Wulin was no different. Back when he was in kindergarten, his mother had told him not to hold a girl's hand casually. He still remembered it clearly.

Holding Second Brother's hand doesn't count as holding a girl's hand, does it?

Tang Wulin secretly glanced up at Huo Yuhao's flushed face, making that excuse to himself.

Besides, this isn't casual at all. We're testing whether we have a Martial Soul Fusion Skill.

Tang Wulin soon convinced himself.

Wang Dong looked from one to the other. Why did something feel off? They were brothers holding hands. What was the big deal? Why were they reacting like this?

Wang Dong scratched her head. Sunlight filtered through the gaps between the green leaves, casting a greenish tint over her hair. Why did her head suddenly feel so heavy?

"Come on."

Though Huo Yuhao had been the first to grow shy, he was also the first to shake it off. Resolve filled his eyes as he held out his hand to Tang Wulin.

He had heard that Shrek Academy held a competition for new students. Dai Huabin was sure to take part, and they might face each other there.

With Tian Meng's help, Huo Yuhao was confident he would one day surpass Dai Huabin and grind him beneath his heel. But he did not want to lose to him in this competition. Rather than stand at the back of the arena using Soul Skills, he wanted to unleash a Martial Soul Fusion Skill with Tang Wulin and defeat Dai Huabin with his own hands.

Of course, all of that depended on whether they had a Martial Soul Fusion Skill.

Tang Wulin said nothing. He simply placed his small hand in Huo Yuhao's.

Tang Wulin's first impression was that Huo Yuhao's hand felt bonelessly soft. It was smooth and fair, too, and pleasant to hold. All of that was thanks to the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm's transformation of Huo Yuhao's body.

The instant their hands met, the Soul Power Tang Wulin had cultivated through the Mysterious Heaven Skill stirred first. Tang San himself, who had long since surpassed the Mysterious Heaven Skill's limits, had taught him this technique. Naturally, it was nothing like the incomplete version Tang San had left behind.

It immediately flowed into Huo Yuhao, drawing his scant Mysterious Heaven Skill Soul Power into a gallop. Huo Yuhao's Soul Power obediently followed behind. It entered through their left hands and exited through their right, forming a cycle on its own. The flow was at least twice as fast as when Huo Yuhao cultivated alone, and it surged through meridians he had never trained before, battering at them again and again.

As the saying went, two tigers could not share one mountain—unless one was male and the other female. Your Mysterious Heaven Skill was the female tiger; mine was the male.

At once, their auras began to mingle.