Against My Heart (Revised)

After condensing his Soul Core, Huo Yuhao took a rare day off. Having gained a basic grasp of Necromancy and inherited the Undead Demiplane, he spent a little more time in the Star Dou Great Forest and added a hundred-thousand-year Eighth Soul Ring to his Divine Dragon Pearl. With that, his journey through the Star Dou Great Forest reached a perfect conclusion, and he chose to leave.

Huo Yuhao used his teleportation skill to reach Luoyun Village. This was his first attempt at using it, and it was indeed excellent, but there were two crucial details that Seven-Color, that scheming little girl, had neglected to tell him.

First, it consumed a terrifying amount of Soul Power. It was completely unsuitable for traveling and only useful for escaping with his life.

Second, he had to withstand the rending force of space during teleportation. His physical strength had to be at least at the Titled Douluo level, or he would die directly within the spatial passage.

Fortunately, Huo Yuhao met both requirements. However, this discovery also put an end to all his ideas of teleporting with other people. After all, he would be transporting corpses rather than passengers.

Thank goodness he had discovered it early!

But after reaching Luoyun Village, he fell silent.

Within Huo Yuhao's perception, there was not a single living person in Luoyun Village, apart from an Evil Soul Master casting a spell at the village entrance.

Huo Yuhao had never loathed Evil Soul Masters so much. Dark powers wielded for righteous purposes were just. But in reality, how many Evil Soul Masters could endure the tedium of cultivation without committing evil? Almost none.

"Does seeing dead people make you that happy?" Huo Yuhao asked coldly.

His Psychic Power blotted out the sky like an ocean of mental force, crushing down on this feeble Soul Emperor-level Evil Soul Master until he could not even beg for mercy. As he watched Huo Yuhao approach, every step seemed to carry a terrifying weight.

The stooped Evil Soul Master was so frightened that he lost control of both his bladder and bowels. He frantically opened his mouth, trying to explain himself, but could not make a sound.

"Not even an apology?" Huo Yuhao shook his head regretfully.

He slowly raised his hand, looking at the man with icy eyes as though he were looking at an animal. Huo Yuhao gently closed one hand into a fist, and the figure before him was instantly crushed into a mass of mangled remains. Blood mixed with bodily fluids sprayed across the ground, creating a brutally striking sight.

Naturally, Huo Yuhao could tell that this Evil Soul Master had not killed the people of Luoyun Village. But by jumping out and provoking him at a time like this, the man had left himself only one road: death.

After all, though Huo Yuhao's expression was calm, his heart was anything but. Anyone who dared provoke him now would be blasted into nothing, without even a scrap remaining.

This was Huo Yuhao's first time witnessing the aftermath of ordinary people being slaughtered. When he had killed Evil Soul Masters before, he had thought he was simply good at accepting things, since killing barely stirred him. Only now did he realize that his feelings depended on who had died.

His attachment to Luoyun Village was not that deep. After all, he had only stayed for two months. His impression of it was a warm, welcoming, utterly ordinary little village. Yet, just as Huo Yuhao had said, this was his first home in the truest sense.

He had lied to Electrolux when answering that question the other day!

He might not have been foolish enough to let an enemy threaten and control him as Zhang Lexuan had, but his heart would still have been stirred. He could not be that cold-blooded.

After all, even Zhang Lexuan, who had been raised under a feudal society's teachings, had made that choice. How much more so would he, someone who had grown up beneath the red flag?

But now, even that one choice had vanished.

Suddenly, he felt utterly lost.

"Elder Yi, how is it? Are there any souls that remember what happened that night?" Huo Yuhao asked gravely.

Electrolux shook his head!

"They almost all died in their sleep. They know nothing about what happened."

That makes things difficult!

Huo Yuhao's face was livid.

Who would attack an ordinary village? What grudge could they possibly have? The only culprits Huo Yuhao could rule out were Evil Soul Masters. It was truly ironic.

"Elder Yi, I'm going to use that spell."

Huo Yuhao seemed to have made up his mind.

Electrolux's expression grew solemn. Looking at Huo Yuhao, he found the boy strangely unfamiliar. All this time, he had thought Huo Yuhao was a youth who valued strength above all else. Only today did he seem to have glimpsed a genuine side of him.

"It seems your answer that day did not come from your heart."

Electrolux suddenly smiled. To think that he, the Undead Calamity, would take in such a loyal and compassionate disciple. It surprised even him.

Although he had stressed that Huo Yuhao should abandon hatred, keep his heart under control, use evil powers for good, and turn toward the light, he had never asked Huo Yuhao to become loyal and compassionate. He believed Huo Yuhao ought to be decisive and ruthless when killing was necessary.

Justice and light did not always require a kind heart.

"You know what price that spell demands!" Electrolux reminded him.

"Elder Yi, I know. But whatever I do, I follow only my own heart."

"The destruction of Luoyun Village goes against my heart!"

"Good! Well said-against your heart! What do we cultivate for? Isn't it so that everything can accord with our wishes? That is how a true man should be! Yuhao, take out those hundred-thousand-year Soul Bones. They contain abundant life force too. I can use them to minimize the toll on you."

Electrolux spoke confidently.

There was actually such a good option?

Huo Yuhao's heart immediately leaped with joy. Truly, having an elder at home was like having a treasure.

It was not that Tian Meng was unaffordable; Electrolux simply offered better value.

Forbidden Spell, Time Reversal!

This was the spell Huo Yuhao intended to cast. The reason Electrolux was so wary of it was that it consumed a vast amount of life force, and the further back time was reversed, the greater the consumption.

With Electrolux's assurance, however, Huo Yuhao no longer had any worries. In truth, he had not particularly minded to begin with. After all, he already had his sights on Di Tian's gold of life, and his plan was already underway.

He was still young and could quickly replenish that little bit of life force. Electrolux, on the other hand, had reacted quite strongly.

Once they had both calmed their minds, Electrolux began chanting first. Three hundred-thousand-year Soul Bones from different body parts visibly dissolved into energy liquids of various colors. Then, under Elder Yi's conversion, they became a pure liquid brimming with life force.

Huo Yuhao began to act as well.

Although Time Reversal was classified as a forbidden spell, it was relatively simple. It had only become forbidden because ordinary sorcerers and mages lacked sufficient life energy to activate it.

Huo Yuhao, however, was different. His body had been strengthened several times, and some of the energy from Swallowed Star remained unabsorbed within him.

That was one source of his confidence.

And now Electrolux had also converted Soul Bones into abundant life force for him.

One could say that he no longer even needed to expend his own life force to cast this spell.

Huo Yuhao began chanting. As he poured in the life energy within his body and constructed the magic circuit, an enormous vertical eye soon appeared before them.

The scene visible within it was Luoyun Village as it stood before them. Even the puddle of the Evil Soul Master's blood on the ground was clearly visible.

Seeing that the Eye of Reversal had formed, Huo Yuhao stopped supplying life force. The energy from Swallowed Star within him had just been completely exhausted, so he hurriedly drew over the pure life energy in Electrolux's hands and began pouring it into the Eye of Reversal.

Time within the Eye of Reversal began racing backward, while the life energy in Electrolux's hands was consumed at tremendous speed. Finally, the image in the Eye of Reversal stopped on a night seven days earlier.

Huo Yuhao and Electrolux watched the entire sequence as though they were watching a film.

The more he watched, the stronger the killing intent in Huo Yuhao's eyes became. He had never expected the Star Luo Empire to be so ruthless. Rather than rescuing people, they had delivered the finishing blows. They truly lived up to their title as an iron-blooded empire.

After learning the truth, Huo Yuhao dismissed the Eye of Reversal. Though his heart felt heavy, the dead were gone, and the living still had to carry on with their lives. He planned to bury the villagers together, then leave this place of sorrow.

He would avenge them when an opportunity arose. In any case, once he destroyed the White Tiger Duke's Mansion and the Zhu Mansion, the Star Luo Empire would be all but finished. Adding the Xu Family to the list would hardly make a difference.

But just as he was digging a pit to bury the bodies, a hurried figure flew in through the village entrance behind him. Huo Yuhao's hand froze where it gripped a corpse.

Zhang Lexuan, are you cursed or something?!

Boohoo, the number of bookmarks went up so fast today that this author was moved to tears-little pearls came rolling down.

(End of chapter)