An ape and a serpent appeared in Huo Yuhao's field of vision. The ape was the Titan Giant Ape, and the serpent was the Sky Azure Bull Python.
Not far from them stood a petite girl: Xiao Xiao.
Farther away, concealed in the shadows, was He Caitou, a sleazy look on his face.
"Despicable humans!" the Titan Giant Ape and Sky Azure Bull Python roared. "Get out of our territory!"
They first bellowed this at Xiao Xiao, then the Titan Giant Ape reached out to press his hand down on the girl they had supposedly encountered by chance. Just then, Qiu'er arrived at the Star Dou Great Forest Northern Border under the covert watch of numerous high-ranking soul beasts and witnessed the scene.
Yet in the next instant, Xiao Xiao suddenly vanished.
"Damn it, what happened?" Tai Tan asked Niu Tian. Tai Tan was the Titan Giant Ape's name, and Niu Tian was the Sky Azure Bull Python's.
Their original plan had been to kill Xiao Xiao after she arrived, posing as powerful members of the soul beast camp and letting Qiu'er witness it. That would earn the trust of Qiu'er, who would happen to pass through the area.
In reality, since Xiao Xiao's true form was a divine artifact, her "death" would merely mean the erasure of her personality.
Afterward, He Caitou would emerge from the shadows and play the Nine-Phoenix Ceremonial Flute inside the Three-Life Soul-Suppressing Cauldron. The moment its sound entered Qiu'er's ears, the two divine artifacts' wondrous power to suppress fortune would erupt.
Unless Qiu'er could immediately ascend to a divine seat, as the embodiment of fortune, she would be suppressed by these two divine artifacts and could forget about leaving Shrek Academy for the rest of her life in the mortal world.
"What is Mu En doing?" Seeing the plan fail again, Tai Tan's eyes looked ready to drip blood.
By then, the armies Shrek and the Holy Spirit Cult had sent to hunt souls had collapsed, and the soul beasts had complete control over the situation in the Star Dou Great Forest.
The ape and serpent knew they could not resort to force now.
They approached Qiu'er and said, "Don't be afraid, little girl. Your uncles have already chased away those hateful humans."
"Have you really chased them away?" Only then did Huo Yuhao reveal himself.
"Human bastard, where did you crawl out from?" Tai Tan demanded when a youth suddenly emerged from the forest.
"I was just passing through, of course..."
"Passing through? Do you take us for three-year-olds?" Tai Tan sneered. "During a soul hunting operation of this scale, a soul master with roughly six rings just happens to turn up here, and you say you were passing through?"
"Since you've delivered yourself to our doorstep and come before us, you've already given us a reason to kill you!"
As he spoke, Tai Tan pressed his hand toward Huo Yuhao, intending to obliterate him.
"Stop!" As Qiu'er cried out, someone beside her unleashed a Dark-Gold Claw Mark, blocking the palm imprint Tai Tan had sent out.
The instant the two imprints collided, a nearby mountaintop exploded.
"Uncles, he's my friend. He means the Star Dou Great Forest no harm." Qiu'er looked at Niu Tian and Tai Tan in puzzlement and asked,
"By the way, who are you two?"
"We brothers are the Sky Azure Bull Python and Titan Giant Ape, who were persecuted all those years ago by humans led by the evil Spirit Hall!" Tai Tan scratched his head, putting on an air of righteous indignation as though he stood firmly on the soul beasts' side, and recounted the story to Qiu'er.
"Oh, so you two seniors mean that the Holy Spirit Cult and the people wearing that dark green attire this time are all lingering poison left behind by Spirit Hall?"
Huo Yuhao listened to their little essay with a smile that never reached his eyes.
"You dare profane the sanctity of the Blue Silver Emperor's and Sister Xiao Wu's sacrifice of their lives? Are you courting death, you little bastard?" Seeing no sympathy on Huo Yuhao's face, Niu Tian's veins immediately bulged.
If not for Qiu'er and Xiong Jun's presence, Niu Tian would have dearly loved to kill Huo Yuhao. How could this little bastard be so arrogant that he dared not be moved?
"Then tell me, what exactly did I profane?" Huo Yuhao asked in return.
Niu Tian was momentarily at a loss for words. Huo Yuhao had indeed said nothing malicious about the Blue Silver Emperor or Xiao Wu.
"Little girl, this human has a glib tongue. He's likely a schemer. Be careful not to let him hoodwink you!" Niu Tian spoke to Qiu'er like an elder.
As he spoke, Niu Tian turned his gaze toward He Caitou in the shadows. Xu He could no longer be allowed to live.
The ape and serpent knew exactly what it would mean if Xu He fell into the hands of the Star Dou Great Forest. And with Xiong Jun's abilities, He Caitou had clearly already been exposed.
"Have you finished spying, ant? Die!" As he spoke, Niu Tian stretched out his hand toward He Caitou in the distance!
Raging thunder born of his vast blood energy descended on He Caitou. They were no longer the hundred-thousand-year soul beasts they had been ten thousand years ago. Their true cultivation was that of divine officials of the Divine Realm, and when they struck to kill, they possessed the power to destroy heaven and earth in the mortal world.
"Senior, this isn't the script we agreed on!" He Caitou was utterly stunned.
The script they had settled on before coming was clear: after Xiao Xiao's consciousness was erased and she revealed her true form as the Nine-Phoenix Ceremonial Flute inside the Three-Life Soul-Suppressing Cauldron, he would rush out, retrieve the flute from the cauldron, and blow into it with his mouth to complete the plan.
The divine artifact, reactivated by his playing, would develop a new consciousness and become his wife.
She was a beauty bestowed upon him by a god.
Without the lure of a beauty and a divine artifact, why would someone who had once been a prince risk coming here?
"Senior, this is just a change in circumstances, part of the script, right?" He was just about to mouth those words when the raging thunder severed one of his arms, sending blood gushing out.
Just as Niu Tian's raging thunder was about to strike He Caitou dead, He Caitou vanished as Xiao Xiao had before him.
Xiong Jun watched coldly from the side, unable to keep the corners of his mouth from rising. As a ferocious beast, he knew Qiu'er had no such ability.
In truth, one play had simply crossed into another's stage.
"Who's playing tricks?" Unlike Xiong Jun, who was enjoying the spectacle, the ape and serpent were growing increasingly anxious.
"It was you, brat, wasn't it?" Their oppressive auras, approaching the pinnacle of nine rings, bore down on Huo Yuhao.
"So you really are a despicable human who sneaked in here to exploit an opportunity, helping your fellow humans with their sinister intentions." Niu Tian pointed at Huo Yuhao as he advanced, then looked at Qiu'er and said, "Little girl, this treacherous human cannot be trusted."
"What tricks have I played?" Huo Yuhao spread his hands. "Did you see me release any power just now?"
Huo Yuhao was confident that, aside from the few standing before the Divine Realm Center and this plane's plane consciousness, no one had noticed what he had just done.
This was the power of Near at Hand, Far at the Horizon, the second ability he had engraved on the Eye of Destiny.
Anywhere within the Douluo Continent's plane, space would bend to his will. On this planet, a single step and a distance of ten thousand miles were no longer any different to him.
After He Caitou emerged again from folded space, he stared at Niu Tian and Tai Tan with venomous resentment.
"Seize him!" Seeing Qiu'er's expression, Xiong Jun pointed at He Caitou and coldly ordered the sub-dragons hidden in the shadows, including the Storm Demon Dragon.
"You two despicable beasts! You actually tricked me!" He Caitou had heard the entire exchange between Huo Yuhao and the ape and serpent.
Who could accept a fate of being nothing more than a pawn, or even a discarded pawn?
At that moment, He Caitou's face was filled with venomous resentment.