While an earth-shaking battle erupted in the Star Dou Great Forest, Huo Yuhao was taking part in a martial arts exchange at the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy.
After sharing the "Haodong Three Wonders," he had soon become a celebrity in the relatively small Sun Moon Soul Master World.
"Brother Spirit Ice, the fist, sword, and palm techniques you taught us are all incredibly profound methods of cultivation, but none of them can be separated from Dong'er. Who is this Dong'er?" asked a girl named Ke Ke. She was in the same class as Huo Yuhao and Ju Zi; all of them were Xuan Ziwen's students.
"You're asking who Dong'er is? That's my pet name for winter!" Huo Yuhao spread his hands.
"Spirit Ice, you even gave winter a pet name? You really are a sentimental soul!" Ke Ke's eyes immediately lit up at his answer.
"Then do you call autumn Qiu'er, spring Chun'er, and summer Xia'er, too? Have you given all four seasons pet names?"
"Of course not!" Huo Yuhao shook his head. "Winter is special to me!"
At that, someone immediately asked, "So you've got a story to tell? Tell us brothers and sisters about it!"
"Since everyone wants to hear it, I'll tell you!"
"I came from the Star Luo Empire. I was the illegitimate son of a nobleman there. My mother was a bonded laborer whom my father had purchased for his family's handicraft workshop. Because she was beautiful, he chose her to be a maid.
"One day, my father raped my mother while drunk, and I was conceived. Because of that, the lady of the household would not tolerate either of us, and my father abandoned us, too.
"In the winter when I was eight, the bitter wind cut like a knife. I remember Mother hiding her frozen fingers in sleeves covered in patches upon patches, yet her pale, bluish knuckles still trembled uncontrollably. She gazed at the snow swirling beyond the window lattice-it fell so fiercely, as though it meant to bury the entire city in a ghastly white grave.
"The charcoal brazier in our side courtyard had long gone out. I curled beside Mother's knees, as thin as a withered leaf. I dared not say I was cold, only tucked my cracked boots deeper into the straw. The steward's sneer drifted over the wall: 'A bastard born to a lowly maid thinks he deserves charcoal?' I suddenly looked up, accidentally letting my anger show in my eyes. Mother immediately covered them with her hand, her palm meeting warm wetness.
"When the night watch clapper sounded the third watch, the underfloor heating in the lady's room was blazing. Mother knelt in the snow washing clothes. Shards of ice sliced open the old scars on her wrists, and beads of blood dripped into the copper basin, blooming into crimson plum blossoms. Music from reed pipes and flutes drifted from the main house, accompanied by the women's delicate laughter: 'It's hardly surprising that the little abomination didn't awaken the master's ancestral martial soul. He was born to a filthy creature, after all.'
"At the time, I was in the drafty woodshed, counting the patches of starlight between the roof tiles. I remember the bloody froth Mother had coughed up the previous night staining her handkerchief, like a sparrow that had suddenly died in the snow.
"Two years later, in the winter when I was ten, my mother left me forever.
"She left me to dance alone in an icy world.
"That is why I can never forget the winter when Mother contracted consumption."
"That is why, whenever I think of that winter, thoughts surge through me in their thousands.
"All my life, I will keep remembering that winter. I can never forget it.
"In that winter, when boundless ice and snow covered the earth, I swore that if I ever transcended reincarnation and ascended to godhood, I would bring my mother back."
"That is why the mantras of the three cultivation methods I comprehended, the 'Haodong Three Wonders,' are: Si Dong Fist, thoughts surge like a spring!
"Nian Dong Sword, never forgotten!
"Haodong Palm, lifetime after lifetime!
"Dong'er, Dong'er, Dong'er!
"Withering amid splendor, Golden Road!
"Blazing heat amid ultimate frost, Heavenly Emperor's Hammer!
"Truth amid nothingness, Spiritual Storm!
"A solitary dance amid ice and frost, Raiment of Light!"
"If you don't disdain this set of cultivation techniques, then practice it!"
In the old-fashioned classroom, Huo Yuhao calmly told his story to everyone.
As they listened, Ke Ke and the other students all fell silent.
"No wonder you call yourself Spirit Ice! Don't worry. How could we disdain you? None of us came from particularly noble backgrounds, either. What reason would we have to look down on one another?" Only after a long while did Ke Ke speak.
Looking at everyone's differing expressions, Huo Yuhao was filled with wistful emotion.
Of course, the origin story of the "Haodong Three Wonders" that Huo Yuhao had told them was both false and true.
It was false because, in his previous life, the Tang Family had gradually implanted the "Haodong Three Wonders" in him by manipulating his life. Yet it was true because this story was precisely what had allowed the Tang Family to succeed.
It was true because, had he not genuinely been unable to forget that winter, the trinity of Wang Dong, Wang Dong'er, and Tang Wutong in his previous life could never have entered his life and become his master merely through the word "winter" in a name and a face identical to Huo Yun'er's.
When Huo Yuhao spoke those words, the strand of Supreme God-level divine sense from his previous life dissipated as well, leaving only the spiritual sense of this life.
The "Haodong Three Wonders," the inner demon the Tang Family had planted in Huo Yuhao's heart, formed the core of the God of Emotion's Divine Seat. Once Huo Yuhao refused to remain Huo Yuhao under the Dai surname, or betrayed the Tang Family, the lightest consequence would be the complete loss of his cultivation.
The most likely outcome was death!
But to Huo Yuhao, who had lived through the final moments of his previous life, what was there to fear about death?
Everything from his past receded into the distance, while clarity filled Huo Yuhao's heart: in this life, he would no longer be the Tang Family's god. He would be his own god.
"Your Majesty the God King, what are you doing?" At that moment, before the Divine Realm Center, a voice rang out that Tang San now found grating.
"I am surveying all affairs of the mortal world! What brings you here, Minister Nian Bing?" Tang San asked with a frown. As he watched the fighting in the Star Dou Great Forest, he discovered that Rong Nianbing had blocked his view.
"I've come to find a successor to a Divine Seat!"
From first using the Dragon Rain Gathering Dance Blade Technique that Rong Nianbing had taught him in his previous life at the continent-wide Advanced Soul Master Soul Fighting Tournament, to completely relinquishing his Divine Seat over these past few days, everything Huo Yuhao had done had been for this moment: to give his teacher Nian Bing the best possible chance of bypassing Tang San's interference with his perception and sensing what was happening on the Douluo Continent.
At that moment, the battle in the Star Dou Great Forest finally took a new turn:
When Tang San's gaze had first descended, it had forcibly restrained the Silver Dragon King and shattered the dark canopy of protection formed by Di Tian's Dragon God Claw, seemingly bringing the entire situation under his control.
But now, the blood raining from the sky instantly freed the Silver Dragon King from the numbness Tang San's gaze had inflicted throughout her body. Rong Nianbing's confrontation with Tang San at the Divine Realm Center made it difficult for Tang San to continue projecting divine power through his gaze.
Climbing out of the deep crater, Di Tian spat out a great mouthful of blood, then hurriedly soared into the air and caught the Silver Dragon as she fell from the sky.
Di Tian's face was icy. Before him stood three human Peerless Douluo.
The three darted toward Qiu'er like flying shuttles.
"That black loach was just wounded by a heavenly god! He can't do anything to us for now! Hurry and seize that Three-Eyed Beast!" Mu En shouted.
While Mu En spoke, Long Xiaoyao had already charged up to Qiu'er and reached for her throat.
But at that moment, Long Xiaoyao's body suddenly went rigid: Dragonkind bloodline pressure! Di Tian had unleashed the bloodline pressure he possessed as the Dark Dragonkind Prince.
The next instant, Long Xiaoyao saw that Di Tian's palm was already pressed against his chest. Then his body flew backward like a meteor and slammed heavily into a towering mountain.
That brush with death left Qiu'er, who was still undergoing her transformation into human form, deathly pale.
The blood raining down across the sky fell upon her. For some reason, sorrow rose in her heart.
Because the rain seemed to be telling her, "Qiu'er, compared with you, what is a Divine Seat worth?"
Before you continue