News of the civil strife in the Star Dou Empire soon spread across the entire continent. None of the factions reacted immediately. Without needing to say it aloud, everyone was waiting for Shrek to set the tone.
Those were the rumors Huo Yuhao had heard in the days since his return to Sun Moon.
Once he had confirmed the general situation, Huo Yuhao lost interest in digging up more gossip and turned his attention to cultivation-Soul Tool cultivation.
"Yuhao, you don't seem very invested in cultivating as a Soul Master."
After returning to room 411 of the Mingyue Hotel, Huo Yuhao had spent the days before the new semester holed up forging Soul Tools, rarely meditating to cultivate.
Snow Girl knew perfectly well that this went completely against the norms of Soul Master cultivation.
In this life, Huo Yuhao's mind truly was not on Soul Master cultivation.
Huo Yuhao had made many preparations in this life to carve out a path of his own.
Retrieving his mother Huo Yun'er's soul was only one part of that undertaking. As he stirred up the situation in the Star Luo Empire, his understanding of the changes in fortune had also deepened.
What he was making now, however, was a special Soul Tool shaped like his own Spirit Eyes Martial Soul. If he successfully completed it, he would truly set foot on the path that belonged to him.
The path Huo Yuhao was about to take was also a road to godhood, except that this godhood would be his own.
"Snow Girl, I told you before. I'm not good at Soul Master cultivation!"
As Huo Yuhao spoke, resolve shone through the helplessness on his face.
Living a second life and having become the [Audience], he knew perfectly well that his path as a Soul Master led nowhere. Why would he stubbornly cling to it?
Even though he had invested so much sentiment in the path of a Soul Master, he knew he had to face reality if he wanted to defy heaven and change his fate.
Retracing his cultivation path from his previous life would merely bring back the Tang Family's faithful dog, [Huo Yuhao].
"Snow Girl, your current talent and physique are very well suited to Soul Master cultivation. I'll do everything I can to help you reach the pinnacle of this path. You'll succeed, and I'll succeed on my own path too!"
Snow Girl said nothing more. After exchanging a look with Huo Yuhao, a trace of steely resolve crossed her face, and she entered meditation to begin cultivating.
Although Snow Girl did not understand many of the things Huo Yuhao wanted to do, she believed he could succeed.
Glancing back at Snow Girl, who sat meditating on the other bed, Huo Yuhao felt a rush of bashfulness. Still, he rose, took a garment-shaped Soul Tool that nourished spiritual sense from the wardrobe, and draped it over her.
He remembered how, before he began this second life, he had felt such bitter hatred in his final moment as [Huo Yuhao]. He had hated himself and the Tang Family alike. "In this life, I will never let anyone make sacrifices of you! Anyone who harbors such designs will regret ever coming into this world!"
Huo Yuhao had begun thinking about the Soul Tool he was now carving on the very day he resolved to come to the Sun Moon Empire. Only when the situation in the Star Luo Empire changed, and he captured that thread of shifting fortune with unparalleled directness and clarity, had he finished sketching its rough outline in his mind. Scene after scene unfolded within Huo Yuhao's Sea of Consciousness: his birth in this life, clinging to his mother for survival in the woodshed, leaving the Duke's Mansion and entering the Star Dou Great Forest, meeting Elder Yi and Tian Meng again, and everything that had brought him to this moment. Only then did he stop working.
"It's done!"
Joy spread across Huo Yuhao's face. He knew that, after more than a decade of striving in this life, he had finally produced something that belonged entirely to him!
"Little Yuhao, is this the initial form of the Divine Artifact you've always told me you wanted to forge?" Electrolux's aged voice rang out within Huo Yuhao's Sea of Consciousness.
Hearing Electrolux speak, Huo Yuhao put on the eye-shaped Soul Tool pendant.
Huo Yuhao had named this Soul Tool the "Eye of Destiny." To any powerful individual other than Huo Yuhao, it would seem to be nothing more than a detection Soul Tool.
"That's right, Elder Yi. This is the Divine Artifact I've always told you I wanted to forge."
"It looks ordinary. In fact, I haven't sensed any special aura from it." Electrolux stated his impression directly.
"But it has the potential to overturn the future!" There was an apologetic note in Huo Yuhao's voice as he looked at Electrolux, Tian Meng, and the Ice Empress. "Elder Yi, Brother Sky Dream, Ice Empress, this is my greatest secret. I can't reveal it just yet."
"What's wrong with that? Every powerful individual has their own secrets." The Ice Empress was utterly unconcerned.
"By the way, your earlier efforts to steer the Star Luo Empire into its current situation were a move on the board, weren't they?" Something suddenly occurred to Electrolux.
He realized that, ever since they had met, every action this disciple of his took seemed to have been calculated in advance.
"Yes, Elder Yi. You really understand me," Huo Yuhao said gravely. "I don't want the upcoming Continental Advanced Soul Master Academy Soul Fighting Tournament to be held in the Star Luo Empire."
Huo Yuhao remembered his previous life. From the Evil Soul Master ambush that blasted Chen Zifeng and the other Shrek Seven Monsters originally chosen to represent Shrek Academy into cripples midway through their journey, all the way to the Qiankun Asking Love Valley, everything he encountered involving tournaments and auctions had been shrouded in fog.
During his second life, he had not dared visit dangerous places like Shrek and the Clear Sky Sect, but he had unraveled places such as Sun Moon's Qiankun Asking Love Valley.
Wandering far outside the Qiankun Asking Love Valley, Huo Yuhao had seen it clearly: the so-called Qiankun Asking Love Valley was just like the angel god trial in the Douluo Hall ten thousand years ago, nothing more than a site for the godhood inheritance of a deceased deity.
To put it plainly, such places were ideal channels through which his father-in-law, [Tang Bingqing], could legally interfere with the mortal world in this era.
At this inheritance site of the fallen God of Love, Tang San could use "inheritance trials" as a pretext to act upon the mortal world at will, provided he did not take anyone's life.
Huo Yuhao's solution was simple. He kept indirectly drawing powerful individuals into the Qiankun Asking Love Valley, depleting the God of Love's divine will within it.
Once the God of Love's divine will was exhausted, this god trial would cease to exist on the Douluo Continent. No longer an inheritance site, the Qiankun Asking Love Valley would no longer serve as a channel for Tang San to act legally.
Thus, the Sun Moon Empire was now a very safe haven for Huo Yuhao-unless his father-in-law from his previous life, [Tang Bingqing], decided to discard that mask of spotless purity and reveal the Holy Spirit Cult's Holy Emperor beneath it.
As for the rest of the Douluo Continent outside the Sun Moon Empire, including the Star Luo Empire, he was better off not lingering anywhere. That was the conclusion Huo Yuhao had reached after viewing the "Douluo Continent" through the authority of the [Audience].
"Then what comes next may be that Sea God testing you!" Electrolux said gravely. "My Undead Demiplane still needs time to be assimilated by the Douluo Continent's plane and become a subplane attached to it."
"There's enough time!" Huo Yuhao reassured him. "Elder Yi, in my previous life, one of the justifications Tang San used in the Divine Realm to act against you legally was eliminating a Lich from another world."
"Now you're already my Martial Soul. If he wants to act against you again, he can only make an issue of the Undead Demiplane."
"But among all the points he has established on the Douluo Continent that I know of or can infer, his next opportunity to keep me locked in his sights for an extended period is the upcoming Soul Fighting Tournament. And after what happened in the Star Luo Empire, a delay in the tournament is inevitable."
"When that time comes, I'll have the perfect touchstone for my Eye of Destiny!"
Before you continue