"You despicable human, stop spewing vicious slander!" After He Caitou spilled everything in one breath, Tai Tan flew into a rage.
He Caitou knew he probably would not survive falling into these Soul Beasts' hands, so, like a cracked pot smashed to pieces, he threw caution to the wind.
"Girl, don't believe this hypocritical human's claims." Unlike Tai Tan, Niu Tian was not nearly so agitated. He merely spoke to Qiu'er in a low voice, his tone earnest and weighty.
Huo Yuhao could tell that these two were clearly still trying to avoid earning Qiu'er's dislike. They probably had yet to learn that the trace of Tang Wutong's divine consciousness in Qiu'er's Sea of Consciousness had already vanished.
Truly worthy of being the leader of the Soul Beasts! Huo Yuhao sighed inwardly. With his help, that Silver Dragon Empress had taken human form ahead of time. After returning to her rightful divine station, her ruthlessness was nothing like that of the [Lustful Dragon King] whom the Tang Family's manipulation had produced in his previous life-the one who could not tear herself away whenever she saw Crown Prince Tang Wulin.
"Qiu'er, remember this: we would never hurt you. We all belong to the Soul Beast lineage. We're family!"
After leaving those words behind, Niu Tian and Tai Tan took their leave of Qiu'er and the Ferocious Beasts guarding her.
Watching Niu Tian and Tai Tan disappear into the distance, Qiu'er said nothing. She merely ordered Xiong Jun to escort He Caitou to the shore of the Lake of Life for questioning.
"Yuhao, let that girl come out!" In terms of her standing, Qiu'er was the embodiment of the Soul Beast lineage's fortune and a watcher over one aspect of the plane. Her perception did not even depend on her cultivation; naturally, she had sensed another person hiding nearby.
Only after seeing that Qiu'er had sent the beasts away did Huo Yuhao undo the folded space surrounding Xiao Xiao.
When Xiao Xiao appeared, all Huo Yuhao saw was her stunned expression. Of course, she too had witnessed everything that had just happened.
Caitou, so when you said we would be like the gods, one couple for one lifetime, you were lying to me?
Such thoughts had kept surfacing in Xiao Xiao's mind ever since she heard He Caitou point at Niu Tian and Tai Tan and say, "So when you promised me a Divine Artifact and beautiful women, you were only using me as bait..."
To Huo Yuhao's embarrassment, he could hardly offer Xiao Xiao any comfort now. In his previous life, after becoming Huo Yuhao of the Dai family, he himself had only awakened to the truth in the final moment of his life.
"Yuhao, is the outside world always like this?" In this life, having encountered such a thing the moment she left the Lake of Life, Qiu'er lost more than half her longing for the world beyond the Star Dou Great Forest.
"Not entirely. But you may encounter many people and things like this that upset you." Huo Yuhao fell silent for a while before answering.
"Yuhao, then can you take me out to see the outside world as you see it?" Hearing Huo Yuhao say it was "not entirely" like this stirred Qiu'er's curiosity.
"Yes. But not yet! Qiu'er, until you reach the pinnacle of this plane, you must stay in the Star Dou Great Forest. If you leave, I'll have a hard time keeping you safe." Huo Yuhao shook his head, firmly rejecting Qiu'er's suggestion that she go with him.
Huo Yuhao had come here only to deal with the aftermath for Qiu'er of the Soul Hunting Plan launched by Shrek. If he took her away now, she would soon fall into danger, and all his efforts would have been for nothing.
Then Huo Yuhao turned to Xiao Xiao and said, "Miss Xiao Xiao, you're safe now. Keep heading north and return to your Shrek Academy!"
Return to Shrek? Return, my foot!
The dazed Xiao Xiao suddenly made a face at Huo Yuhao and said, "I'm not going back to that wretched place! I'm going with you. Wherever you go, I'll go!"
Huo Yuhao waved a hand. "Then come with me!"
As Huo Yuhao took Xiao Xiao back to Sun Moon, vast quantities of Blue Silver Grass within the Heaven Dou Empire withered and died!
The way of heaven took from excess to replenish what was lacking. An academy like Shrek Academy monopolizing two-thirds of an entire planet's spiritual energy and life energy was naturally a textbook example of something inviting heaven's backlash.
In the past, Shrek had avoided this backlash by continuously gathering the power of fortune. Now that its fortune had dispersed, the accumulated backlash had all but become a heavenly punishment.
At this point, this calamity is greater than the heavens themselves! On his way back to Sun Moon, Huo Yuhao naturally noticed the Blue Silver Grass withering along the route.
"Elder Yi, Brother Sky Dream, Ice Empress, things have reached the point where either I or the Tang Family must perish! Do you still intend to stay with me?" Huo Yuhao asked his companions in his Sea of Consciousness and the Undead Demiplane.
"Yuhao, whatever you face in the future, I'll face it with you." Brother Sky Dream, sprawled atop Ice Empress, sounded rather languid.
The discussion did not last long. With a heavy heart, Huo Yuhao returned to his dormitory at the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy.
"Yuhao, you're finally back!" That day, after returning, he went for a walk through the campus woods and ran into Snow Girl, hearing her call out to him.
Seeing Snow Girl, who was usually absorbed in cultivation, looking like this, Huo Yuhao immediately realized that something interesting must have happened.
"You look so happy. Something happened, didn't it?" Huo Yuhao asked with a smile.
"Of course!" Just as she was about to explain, Snow Girl glanced at the petite Xiao Xiao, whose eyes were bright and lively. "Why is she here too?"
"Her?" Huo Yuhao explained, "She didn't want to stay at Shrek anymore, so she came here with me."
A hint of helplessness colored Huo Yuhao's words.
"Here's what happened, Yuhao. Over the past few days, after your Haodong Three Wonders became known, they spread not only through the Sun Moon Empire, but soon throughout the entire world of Soul Masters."
"Because your cultivation method isn't a closed system, some people have used it to comprehend profound truths uniquely their own-for example, the Heartbreak Palm!"
"And there are many other cultivation methods like that. You offered a way of thinking, and people branched out from it, creating all sorts of innovations."
"So that's what happened?" Listening to Snow Girl's account, Huo Yuhao realized that the changes to the entire Douluo Continent's landscape were more profound than anything that had happened since this planet began evolving into a plane.
Among the core principles of those cultivation methods, there must be quite a few with greater potential than the Haodong Three Wonders I passed down, Huo Yuhao mused.
He knew his own limitations. Unlike Tang San, who believed the Tang Sect Secret Arts to be unrivaled in the world, Huo Yuhao had never considered himself an absolute ruler who could tower over all ages.
It was perfectly natural for others to imitate and surpass something he introduced.
Huo Yuhao asked, "Xue'er, have you refined all your Soul Rings into Blood Essence Soul Rings now?"
Snow Girl nodded. "That went very smoothly. Recently, the law that lets people break through cultivation bottlenecks without hunting souls to obtain Soul Rings has extended beyond the Soul Saint level."
"Now, I truly feel at every moment a oneness with heaven and humanity that I rarely experienced even when I was the Heavenly Snow Woman, daughter of the Far North."
"Let me tell you: the path of Soul Masters is like this now..."
Before you continue