The Purpose of Cultivation, an Unexpected Goal

From a purely personal standpoint, Huang Jinxu could find little fault with Mu En.

He was a senior worthy of respect.

But Mu En had carried the Sea God's consciousness and divine power in his own body. That made things harder to judge.

Huang Jinxu had been wary of him ever since Mu En intervened when Wang Dong moved dormitories.

At the time, though, he could not tell whether Mu En had acted under Tang San's influence or had simply taken an interest in Wang Dong's identity.

Now, things were entirely different.

The Sea God's consciousness and power had already left Mu En, yet he remained immersed in ecstasy.

The Sea God had manifested. That meant Lord Sea God was still watching over and protecting Shrek Academy at every moment.

With Lord Sea God's protection, whatever difficulties Shrek Academy faced would part before them like bamboo beneath a blade.

What was more, Mu En could sense that Lord Sea God had left a wisp of divine power inside him before departing.

He would have to nourish that wisp with Soul Power at all times, but it brought him a tangible benefit. His lifespan had not increased, yet for the years he had left, he could finally fight without holding anything back.

To Mu En, that was a gift beyond measure.

"The Sea God's daughter, and the Sea God's future successor?"

Mu En looked at the unconscious Wang Dong and the horror-stricken Huo Yuhao, doubts rising in his heart.

Wang Dong being the Sea God's daughter was shocking, but given that she came from the Clear Sky Sect, it made a certain sense.

But why had Lord Sea God taken notice of a youngster like Huo Yuhao and chosen him as the next Sea God's successor?

More importantly, Little Xu had recognized something extraordinary in him ahead of time and taken him as a disciple.

"After ten thousand years, another Deity will rise from Shrek Academy. The Divine Master, too, will still be one of our own. Is this what it means to pass on a legacy?"

"That sounds rather good."

Though Mu En suspected Little Xu had secrets of his own, he had no intention of prying.

Even if the secret were as vast as the heavens, it belonged to one of Shrek Academy's own. Why pry and turn a good thing into a bad one?

"Little Yuhao, the Soul Power around here may remain turbulent for the next few days after all that commotion. You should get some rest early tonight."

Mu En set aside his tangled thoughts and gently reassured Huo Yuhao, who looked badly frightened.

Huo Yuhao nodded mechanically. Then, as something occurred to him, he shook his head without thinking.

Mu En was baffled by his reaction. What was that supposed to mean?

But he did not ask.

A young man's thoughts were strange and changeable. It was only natural that an old man like him could not understand them.

He then took the sleeping Wang Dong to the Golden Tree Hollow.

The protection of Sea God Divine Power assured him that Wang Dong would be fine, but that was no excuse for carelessness. Placing her in the Golden Tree Hollow, where life force could flow into her constantly and keep her body functioning, was the safer course.

After Mu En left, Huo Yuhao went into the dormitory, changed into thicker clothes, then came back out.

If the Soul Power here was turbulent and unsuitable for cultivation, he would cultivate somewhere else.

Huo Yuhao's thinking was simple: he would not waste a single moment he could spend cultivating.

"When it comes to cultivation, he really is a little madman."

"I wonder how long hatred can drive him to keep this up."

Huang Jinxu watched the direction Huo Yuhao had gone and sighed softly.

He did not know that, on this point, he had truly misjudged him.

To Huo Yuhao, everyone he had met since entering the Star Dou Great Forest—his teacher, Brother Bei Bei, Sister Xiao Ya, Ning Tian...—had been good to him.

Wrapped in warmth and kindness, and without having encountered Dai Huabin, the hatred in Huo Yuhao's heart had, for now, been soothed.

Now, he cultivated so diligently not only to prove himself, but also to live up to his teacher's expectations.

Since his mother's death, his teacher had been the only person who made him feel at ease and warm.

He absolutely could not disappoint his teacher.

In Huo Yuhao's heart, the image of the great father his mother had described was gradually merging with the image of his teacher.

Bright moonlight lay over Sea God Lake like a veil of silver gauze. A breeze passed, sending ripples across the water that swayed like fish swimming with the wind.

As Huo Yuhao circulated his cultivation technique, he drew down starlight and gathered the brilliant glow of the moon. Specks of light gathered around him and silently sank into his skin.

In the haze of night, Huo Yuhao glimmered from head to toe, as though draped in a silver gauze robe.

The light around him was faint, yet it answered and resonated with the bright moon above.

"The Glazed Mystic Jade Body can actually project its power outward?"

Huang Jinxu was genuinely shocked.

He had created the Glazed Mystic Jade Body by reworking the Mysterious Jade Hand. To perfect it, he had even made a special visit to the Body Sect.

Unfortunately, the Body Sect had its rules. Anyone without a Body Martial Soul was barred from learning its secret arts.

They would not even let him study their predecessors' notes on Martial Souls.

To persuade Du Busi to make an exception, he had spent an entire year traveling across the continent, awakening Martial Souls for villagers in remote places. Only then had he found a promising talent with a Body Martial Soul.

That had allowed him to strike a deal with Du Busi and read the Body Sect predecessors' insights into Body Martial Souls.

They were not the Body Sect's core teachings, but he had gained a great deal from them. Only then had he developed the Glazed Mystic Jade Body.

The problem was that the Glazed Mystic Jade Body he had developed grew out of the Mysterious Jade Hand and incorporated some of the Body Sect predecessors' ideas behind the Leakless Golden Body. At heart, it was purely a body-tempering technique, meant to strengthen defense and, as far as possible, remedy the Douluo Continent cultivation system's weakness of high offense and low defense.

Yet the Glazed Mystic Jade Body Huo Yuhao was cultivating had developed in another direction entirely.

It looked more like something Huang Jinxu had conceived in theory but never managed to develop—something akin to the Golden Light Mantra he had known in his previous life.

Projected outward, it could strike an enemy; drawn inward, it could protect the body.

"Was the Plane Will guiding and pushing it along?"

"It seems the Plane Will's protection around him has recovered."

For Huang Jinxu, this truly was an unexpected delight.

The Glazed Mystic Jade Body he had taught Huo Yuhao was not the version he cultivated himself. It was a version riddled with risks and uncertainties. He had hoped to use Huo Yuhao's unique qualities to perfect it and advance his own Glazed Mystic Jade Body, so that one day he might forge a divine body through cultivation on the Douluo Continent.

He had never imagined that the Plane Will's protection would help bring an entirely new technique into being.

Following this line of thought, perhaps he could develop another technique to protect the body and improve his chances of forging a divine body.

(Something urgent came up while I'm out. I'll make up the promised ten thousand words tomorrow.)