"At last, I've manifested the second ability." After the discussion gathering ended, Huo Yuhao returned to Xuan Ziwen's Laboratory Three and spent half the day working. Gazing at the Eye of Destiny pendant, now finished with this round of modifications, he sighed in satisfaction.
"With this ability, A world away within arm's reach!, I have another safeguard for my life. Getting around this world will be easier, too."
"Next, it's time to visit Qiu'er again!"
Only then did Huo Yuhao notice Snow Girl's bitter expression in the brightly lit laboratory. She had just failed to inscribe a Formation Disc.
Seeing Snow Girl's distress, Huo Yuhao sighed inwardly.
When destiny opened one window for someone, it also closed another.
Snow Girl possessed extraordinary talent for controlling the power of ice and snow, but her control over energies of other attributes was thoroughly mediocre. Thus, she kept making mistakes while inscribing formations that used those energies.
Huo Yuhao did not disturb Snow Girl as she worked through her trials and errors. Instead, he took the Eye of Destiny pendant into the restroom.
After making sure no one was around, Huo Yuhao vanished in a flash.
Huo Yuhao reappeared beneath a large tree in the southern part of the Star Dou Great Forest-the very place where Elder Yi's divine consciousness and Brother Sky Dream had encountered him.
"What seems harmless is often deadly."
"Looks like plenty of people know how to exploit that!"
After sensing the lingering auras Mu En and the other two Peerless Douluos had left there, Huo Yuhao deduced that the main force attacking the Star Dou Great Forest must have approached from the south.
"From the Soul Beasts' perspective, the former Heaven Dou Empire's territory to the north has many powerful experts, while the Sun Moon Empire to the west has powerful weapons. Their main forces would therefore be stationed along the northern and western edges."
"You attacked from the south, leaving the eastern route to the Eastern Star Luo Empire open. What a clever scheme!"
"For the Soul Beasts, it's a surprise attack. For the human world, it's a way to beat the Eastern Star Luo Empire into obedience."
"But you still underestimated Beast God Di Tian. An expert whose mortal body can bear the name of a god is, by nature, a deity without a divine seat."
"In a world where strength speaks through battle, if you can't win the fight, all your schemes are empty talk."
"Perhaps Qiu'er has escaped this deadly crisis!"
Looking up at the sky that would not stop bleeding, Huo Yuhao kept weighing matters in his mind.
Huo Yuhao seized a wounded Evil Soul Master fleeing from the direction of the Lake of Life and demanded, "Tell me, what condition is Ye Xishui in right now?"
With his neck locked in Huo Yuhao's spiritual power, the Evil Soul Master was frightened out of his wits. Trembling uncontrollably, he said, "Spare me, young hero! Spare me! The supreme cult leader is fighting the Soul Beast experts in the forest's core. I really don't know what condition she's in."
Huo Yuhao wasted no more words on the Evil Soul Master. He drove his Soul Tool lightsaber through the man's heart, killing him.
A cold gleam flashed through Huo Yuhao's eyes, and he took a roundabout route toward the northern side of the Star Dou Great Forest.
Meanwhile, Huo Yuhao calculated inwardly, Since I've run into you gloves on the Tang Family's hands here, it would be a shame not to seize the chance to kill as many of you as I can!
On his detour toward the northern part of the Star Dou Great Forest, Huo Yuhao caught the thick, bloody stench that drifted through the air on the wind from time to time. It was so pungent that anyone who failed to block their sense of smell would retch. This was the distinctive aura the Evil Soul Masters produced through repeated slaughter.
Keeping Spiritual Detection active, Huo Yuhao periodically changed into another set of disguise Soul Tool clothing as he searched for Holy Spirit Cult members he could eliminate.
Meanwhile, on the shores of the Lake of Life, Mu En brought forth the divine artifact, the Vast Sea Cosmic Shroud. It was both a divine artifact and a portion of the Sea God's power.
The instant the Vast Sea Cosmic Shroud rose, a layer of blue light enveloped Mu En's body.
In this state, Mu En looked just as Tang San did when he manifested himself in the Divine Realm, his entire body seemingly encased in a blue gemstone.
Seeing this, Ye Xishui understood that the Sea God's protection had descended upon Mu En.
After all these years, even with her, Mu En, and Long Xiaoyao nearing the ends of their lives, seeing Mu En in this state still made Ye Xishui recall the sunny youth who had appeared before her so many years ago, like a beam of light.
You're still so wooden! Although Mu En was not as handsome as Long Xiaoyao, and although she knew he harbored far more amorous thoughts than Long Xiaoyao did, no one could truly replace Mu En in her heart.
Her feelings for Long Xiaoyao arose more from guilt!
If I hadn't possessed the Blood Soul Demon Puppet martial soul, or if I'd discarded it early on and become a Soul Master with the Bright Phoenix martial soul, I wouldn't have had to turn myself into this thing, neither human nor ghost, for that "Holy Emperor's self-fulfilling prophecy." Xiaoyao, things between us would never have become so awkward.
That was what she thought.
Just as Bibi Dong ten thousand years ago had believed herself unworthy of Yu Xiaogang and thus laid all her hatred at the Qian Family's feet, Ye Xishui, who believed herself unworthy of Mu En, bore the same bitter resentment toward Long Xiaoyao.
But Long Xiaoyao was not the Qian Family, which had produced the power-hungry Qian Xunji. He truly was a man detached from worldly affairs. It was Ye Xishui who had laid the honey trap, keeping Long Xiaoyao dangling so he would safeguard her in a place as vicious as the Holy Spirit Cult.
Unlike the [gentleman] Mu En, Ye Xishui was quite candid about being a vile person herself.
She had schemed against everyone. Her relationships with her descendant Yan Shaozhe and the others, with Long Xiaoyao, her husband in all but name, and with Zhongli, her nominal husband who had come to make contact when she had [accidentally] joined the Holy Spirit Cult all those years ago-just as Ma Xiaotao and Tang Ya had after she abducted them into the cult-were all rooted in some sort of calculation.
Some of those calculations were her own, while others served the purposes of a higher existence.
Thus, facing an overwhelmingly powerful enemy like Di Tian now, she felt little anxiety. She had long since grown weary of the world and had little attachment to living in it.
Di Tian curled his five fingers toward Mu En. Palm-shaped black light instantly wrapped around the blue-gold light formed by the Vast Sea Cosmic Shroud, then tightened.
But the power of the Sea God's divine will within the artifact completely blocked the black light, leaving it no hope of penetrating.
Di Tian immediately realized that swiftly killing Mu En was unrealistic. He turned his gaze to Ye Xishui and Long Xiaoyao instead.
The Dark Dragonkind Prince's bloodline suppression was a disaster for Long Xiaoyao and his Dark Holy Dragon martial soul. Once Di Tian began exerting it on him, Long Xiaoyao could wield only thirty percent of his strength in Di Tian's presence.
"Xishui, Xiaoyao, hurry inside..." Mu En called to them.
But these were empty words. In such a situation, no one could possibly slip past Di Tian and enter the protection of the Vast Sea Cosmic Shroud.
When Huo Yuhao heard the unbroken, thunderous rumbling, he understood that this was a self-detonation at the Peerless Douluo level!
With Di Tian's understanding of space and time, the explosion naturally could not hurt him, but it would be lethal to Qiu'er.
Thus, after taking Qiu'er away from the Lake of Life, Di Tian immediately sent her to the northern part of the Star Dou Great Forest.
For the forces of the Star Dou Great Forest, the Holy Spirit Cult members lay to the west, Shrek to the east, and these three Peerless Douluos had just emerged from the south.
The Heaven Dou Empire to the north, meanwhile, was caught in a war with Sun Moon and had no attention to spare even for itself.
In Di Tian's view, the north should have been a safe place for Qiu'er.
Before you continue