Dai Huabin: Xuan Zi, save me!

After Huo Yuhao helped Xuan Ziwen solve the problem of soul power loss when storing soul power in Milk Bottles, someone came to visit.

The visitor wore lavish robes and a warm expression that made people feel as though they were basking in a spring breeze.

The man, with his regal bearing, was the current Crown Prince of the Sun Moon Empire.

"You are...?" Huo Yuhao initially put on a puzzled look.

As an [audience member], Huo Yuhao knew that among the non-Soul Masters in the history of human civilization on the Douluo Continent, this man was unquestionably a figure of note.

In his previous life, this man had immediately laid plans to destroy the Evil Soul Masters after making use of the Holy Spirit Cult. Although Huo Yuhao had ultimately assassinated him, a non-Soul Master emperor who warranted the personal intervention of a generation's Son of the Plane had ample reason to be proud.

"I am Crown Prince Xu Tianran. And who might you be, young friend?" Xu Tianran was always direct with people he truly appreciated, dispensing with excessive pleasantries.

"If you encounter any trouble that I can help with, young friend, I would be willing to try..."

"Your Highness, my name is Huo Yuhao. I made an enemy in the Star Luo Empire and came here to stay for a while. Another reason is my keen interest in Soul Tool technology."

"The Star Luo Empire truly is a place that leaves bright pearls buried in dust. Young friend, stay in Mingdu and pursue your future here! I promise you will find this place very satisfying." Xu Tianran looked approachable, as though accommodating others were simply his natural disposition.

"With Your Highness urging me to stay so earnestly, it would be rude of me to refuse."

"I have no home. Since Your Highness is willing to accept me, I should naturally help ease your burdens. For example, I could improve your constitution so you can cultivate your martial soul normally, and even restore your [manly vigor]..." Huo Yuhao stressed the words "manly vigor," then left the rest unsaid.

Although the Sun Moon Empire paid little attention to the path of Soul Masters, its upper ranks still knew that being able to cultivate a martial soul and become a Soul Master meant a longer lifespan.

Thus, Huo Yuhao's promise made Xu Tianran's pupils abruptly contract. For someone like Xu Tianran, who stood at the pinnacle of the non-Soul Master world, the lure of a longer life-and even becoming a man again-was beyond description.

When observing Xu Tianran through the [Eye of Destiny], Huo Yuhao had discovered that the Xu Family's Purple Brilliant Heaven Destroying Dragon martial soul, supposedly the Dragon God's younger brother, was merely a mass of destruction power.

The Soul Masters of the Douluo Continent had needed him, the Son of the Plane, to introduce the Soul Spirit System ten thousand years later before they could even understand spiritual power. How could they possibly have a system for cultivating destruction power?

Much less one that accounted for destruction power's tremendous consumption of life energy.

The Xu Family had never resolved its deficiency in life energy. Its members were either physically frail or, at the very least, accomplished nothing in cultivation. Clearly, there was no trace of the God of Destruction upon them.

Everything within a plane controlled by the Divine Realm lay under its control. The Xu Family possessed destruction power, yet bore no trace of the God of Destruction. That meant they were neither favored by him nor stepping stones prepared for his successor.

Whose pawns the Xu Family were was therefore beyond doubt. The rumors that the Purple Brilliant Heaven Destroying Dragon was the Ancestor of the Sub-Dragons and the Dragon God's younger brother were clearly just a smokescreen.

What Huo Yuhao gave Xu Tianran was a Life Crystal he had condensed.

This single object, which Electrolux called quite ordinary, was enough to show Xu Tianran Huo Yuhao's sincerity.

It confirmed for Huo Yuhao just how tightfisted his father-in-law, [Tang Bingqing], had been in dangling bait before the Xu Family, a pawn destined to be discarded.

On the day Tang Wutong visited Mingdu with great fanfare as a Goddess, Huo Yuhao had been extremely wary that the Tang Family was raising its stake in the Xu Family.

But when Long Xiaoyao stepped forward on the day Xuan Zi made his move, Huo Yuhao saw that Xu Tianran had clearly misjudged the situation.

This was Huo Yuhao's opportunity.

For the time being, Sun Moon was safe for him.

In the afternoon's match, the boy standing before him was handsome and blond, with a cold, sinister expression and double pupils.

This boy was Dai Huabin, formerly the second young master of the White Tiger Duke's Mansion, now the second prince of the Western Star Luo Empire.

As a Four-Ring Soul Ancestor, Dai Huabin naturally dared not face Huo Yuhao alone. Huo Yuhao was also a Four-Ring Soul Ancestor, but a Level 5 Soul Engineer as well, so Dai Huabin had brought Zhu Lu along.

Although this was an individual match, and two people ganging up on one violated the rules, what did rules amount to before the noble Shrek Academy?

Rules were merely what the strong imposed upon the weak, and what the weak were obliged to obey!

Dai Huabin was confident that the supreme technique passed down by the Divine Ancestor would destroy this lowborn wretch who had previously profaned the descendants of gods in a single stroke.

"A lowborn wretch will always be a lowborn wretch. Huo Yuhao, you're good at fighting? What good does that do you? You're still going to die today!" Dai Huabin began spewing insults the moment the match started.

In his previous life, after entering Shrek Academy, Huo Yuhao had remained in a social stratum far removed from the one to which the woodshed of his childhood belonged.

Thus, in the father-son reconciliation drama arranged by [Tang Bingqing], he had even been moved to floods of tears by the so-called repentance of someone like Dai Huabin.

In this life, he had seen through the truth of the world and become an [audience member], yet even then, he had only perceived the Douluo Continent's power structure through the straightforward descriptions in "Peerless Tang Sect."

Now, interacting with many of his so-called companions from his previous life under a different identity allowed him to see their true attitudes toward him. For Huo Yuhao, it was undoubtedly a very different flavor of experience.

Meanwhile, Dai Huabin, standing before Huo Yuhao, was likewise filled with countless emotions.

This is the lowborn wretch who destroyed the glory of the Evil Fire Phoenix! He must die, both Dai Huabin and Zhu Lu thought. Only in death can he become nourishment for my path to godhood!

Ever since hearing his mother say, "My son has the aptitude for godhood," Dai Huabin's heart had blossomed with joy.

Since the Soul Fighting Tournament began, this boy named Huo Yuhao, who had dealt setbacks to Shrek Academy, had seemed to Dai Huabin like the perfect trial placed by the Divine Realm along his path to godhood.

Like every true member of Shrek, Dai Huabin deeply agreed with a saying of the legendary Thousand-Hand Asura, who had become a Supreme God: [Never try to play the pig to eat the tiger, or you may very easily become a pig for real.]

Thus, Dai Huabin and Zhu Lu unleashed a killing move against Huo Yuhao right from the start.

Huo Yuhao saw Dai Huabin suddenly sprint backward. Zhu Lu also turned around instantly and chased straight after him.

Then a tremendous tiger's roar erupted from Dai Huabin's mouth. Accompanying that roar, his entire body swelled, and white fur interspersed with black tiger stripes surged wildly from within him.

Zhu Lu lightly clenched her pearly teeth. A faint black glow enveloped her entire body, and her form became elusive, almost transparent, as she spread her arms and lunged toward Dai Huabin.

At that moment, the aura of Dai Huabin, possessed by his Evil-Eyed White Tiger martial soul, merged completely with that of Zhu Lu, possessed by her Nether Civet martial soul. Their fused state seemed like a white tiger devouring a black cat. Black and white radiance blended completely within an expanding golden halo, revealing an enormous, transparent white tiger with black stripes, purple eyes, and double pupils, staring coldly at Huo Yuhao.

"Hell White Tiger!"

This was a divine skill! A divine skill that had played a vital role in the great battle ten thousand years ago that decided the fate of the world and destroyed the [evil Spirit Hall]!

As this power was released, the ground immediately shattered inch by inch, and the destruction showed no sign of stopping.

"You lowborn wretch, worthless as grass! This is the price you must pay for profaning the descendants of gods! Die!"

When Dai Huabin swung his tiger claws, even the air split apart. That rupture spread toward Huo Yuhao, covering the entire Soul Fighting arena and leaving him absolutely no room to dodge.

Before the attack even struck Huo Yuhao, Dai Huabin felt as though he could already see him being torn to pieces.

But in an instant, gray light blazed above Huo Yuhao's head. A gray door opened, sucked him inside, then vanished along with him.

When Huo Yuhao reappeared, even the air had turned gray-white. This was blade energy. The gray-white currents took the form of a colossal dragon, which lashed its tail into the white tiger formed by Dai Huabin and Zhu Lu.

The Hell White Tiger, so insufferably arrogant moments earlier, shattered instantly under that sweep of the colossal dragon's tail.

Dai Huabin and Zhu Lu's bodies appeared once more. They fell to the ground and spat blood, their faces as pale as paper.

Dragon Rain Gathering Dance Blade Technique! This was the divine skill Huo Yuhao had learned from Rong Nianbing, the God of Emotion, in his previous life!

However, to avoid inviting trouble, Huo Yuhao had performed the move using his arm, clad in a Defensive Soul Tool, as the blade.

With his blood and vital energy thrown into turmoil, Dai Huabin writhed on the ground like a maggot. Seeing Huo Yuhao approach them step by step, he was terrified. "Lowborn wretch, what are you trying to do?"

Dai Huabin was certain that the power Huo Yuhao had just unleashed had far exceeded the five-ring level.

"What am I trying to do?" Huo Yuhao's steps were casual. "What do you think?"

By then, Dai Huabin and Zhu Lu had fallen into despair. They looked toward the stands for the Douluo nations outside the Soul Fighting arena. "Xuan Zi, save me!"