"I had no idea so much happened to you last night. Are you all right?"
Early the next morning, with everyone busy dealing with the Evil Soul Master incident, the Outer Court gave its students the morning off. According to the timetable, there were no lectures that afternoon either, only independent cultivation.
That effectively meant they had an entire day without classes.
Wang Dong had taken the rare opportunity to sleep in. Only after getting up had she heard scattered snippets about the previous night, prompting her to check on Huo Yuhao.
Huo Yuhao shook his head, flexed his wrist, and said,
"It's nothing. I'm fine. A little excitement now and then helps get the blood circulating."
Wang Dong scratched her head, then said apologetically to Huo Yuhao,
"I was too impatient last night. If I'd gone with you, maybe..."
Huo Yuhao waved a hand and said bluntly,
"I'm not blaming you. If you'd come with me, the most likely outcome would've been one more person for me to look after. Xiao Xiao coming back last night was enough of a scare already."
Wang Dong froze for a moment, while Huo Yuhao continued calmly,
"But we were pretty lucky, too. After she came back, she actually unlocked a Martial Soul Fusion Skill with me."
Hearing that, Wang Dong felt as though a piece of her heart had been torn away. She grabbed Huo Yuhao's arm and said,
"W-what did you say? You two have a Martial Soul Fusion Skill now?! Didn't you say you weren't quite in sync enough?"
Huo Yuhao found Wang Dong's reaction rather funny. He raised his hands, shrugged, and said,
"We only said we weren't quite there yet. Last night, we were like desperate patients grasping at any cure, and we stumbled past that threshold. There's nothing strange about it.
"And unless something unexpected happens, this might not even be our only Martial Soul Fusion Skill."
Wang Dong stiffened on the spot. Huo Yuhao stretched, then said to her,
"It's a rare day off. Get some more sleep. I'm going out for a walk."
Without waiting for Wang Dong's answer, Huo Yuhao opened the door and left the dormitory.
He had barely left the dormitory grounds when he spotted Xiao Xiao standing beneath a tree beside the path, watching him.
Huo Yuhao walked over to her. Her face flushed crimson, Xiao Xiao said,
"Yuhao, I ate that Spirit Phoenix Grass... but my Martial Soul changed along with it. Should we try again and see whether we can still use our Martial Soul Fusion Skill?"
Huo Yuhao paused, then looked at Xiao Xiao and said,
"You've already finished absorbing it? That doesn't sound right. That grass wasn't exactly young. You shouldn't have been able to absorb all its energy so quickly."
Xiao Xiao scratched her head, a bewildered look in her eyes, and said to Huo Yuhao,
"I don't know either. After I took it out, it turned into something like Spirit Liquid in my hand, then entered my body through the skin of my palm."
Huo Yuhao raised an eyebrow at that. Just then, the Snow Empress spoke inside his mind.
"It was because of your first Martial Soul. Last night, after her Nine Phoenix Ceremonial Flute Martial Soul performed a Martial Soul Fusion Skill with your first Martial Soul, a trace of your first Martial Soul's aura remained on it. That trace must have helped dissolve part of the Spirit Phoenix Grass's energy, then wrapped around that energy and carried it straight into Xiao Xiao's body, where it nestled closely against her Martial Soul."
"Normally, after an ordinary spiritual treasure enters a human's or Soul Beast's body, it can still be reclaimed and used again within a certain period... Take the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm, for example. That was why the Soul Beasts of the Star Dou Great Forest captured him to absorb his energy."
At the mention of the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm, Huo Yuhao sensed him coughing awkwardly twice in the other Sea of Consciousness partitioned off inside his mind. The Snow Empress continued,
"But this little girl's situation is much better. The spiritual grass's energy was carried into the deepest part of her Dantian and nestled tightly against her Martial Soul. That means there's no way to detect that she ever ate this grass, nor can its energy be extracted again."
Huo Yuhao nodded, then brought his attention back to Xiao Xiao and asked,
"So what has your Martial Soul mutated into? Should we find somewhere like a Soul Fighting Arena to demonstrate it?"
Xiao Xiao nodded, then suggested to Huo Yuhao,
"Isn't Teacher Wang from the Outer Court quite knowledgeable about Martial Souls? Why don't we ask him?"
Huo Yuhao hesitated briefly, then nodded. Among the people who appeared early on, Wang Yan was fairly dependable when it came to professional expertise. At least he seemed more dependable than Xuan Zi.
As for Wang Yan and Xuan Zi being two legs in the same pair of trousers, that could wait until later. Xuan Zi had been negligent to some extent last night, too. Who knew how the Sea God Pavilion would whitewash it?
In truth, however the Sea God Pavilion dealt with Xuan Zi made no difference to Huo Yuhao.
Rather than wait for someone else to pass judgment on Xuan Zi, Huo Yuhao preferred to grow strong enough to deal with him personally.
Besides, the more lightly that washed-up Xuan got off now, the guiltier he might feel, making him less inclined to pull any tricks on Huo Yuhao.
In his office, Wang Yan had been enjoying the rare chance afforded by the day off to work on his lesson plans in peace. Even so, he was not annoyed when Huo Yuhao and Xiao Xiao interrupted him.
When he heard that Xiao Xiao's Martial Soul had mutated after last night's Martial Soul Fusion Skill, his interest was immediately piqued.
"Actually, I'd wanted to mention this before, Yuhao. Your Martial Soul is extraordinarily powerful, and before this, it had almost no resonance with any other Martial Soul in this world. You could call it one of a kind. As for its underlying rhythm, among everyone I know, only one exceptionally powerful senior has anything similar."
Huo Yuhao nodded. Watching Wang Yan analyze the matter in all seriousness, he could not help laughing inwardly. He and Xiao Xiao had agreed on their story beforehand.
Even with the fact that she had consumed a spiritual treasure like Spirit Phoenix Grass concealed, Wang Yan still produced an impeccably reasoned analysis.
There was a certain beauty to getting every step wrong yet arriving at the right answer. It was rather entertaining to watch.
As for the exceptionally powerful senior Wang Yan had mentioned meeting, he was probably referring to Xuan Zi.
Washed-up Xuan might be thoroughly washed up, but his Martial Soul certainly was not. His Godly Taotie Bull possessed the Taotie bloodline, though its side effects truly made him as gluttonous as a Taotie.
Still, in some accounts, Taotie stood alongside Qiongqi as one of the Four Fierce Beasts.
It was reasonable enough for Wang Yan to think its rhythm bore some resemblance to Qiongqi's.
Looking at it that way, the Holy Spirit Cult's desire to kill him made perfect sense.
After all, washed-up Xuan and his Godly Taotie Bull were already serving as an elder at Shrek Academy. Though they did not recognize Huo Yuhao's Qiongqi, it was perfectly natural for them to sense that he, too, could become an elder.
And with him displaying his sharp edge so openly lately, it was only natural that they would feel threatened...
Before you continue