That morning brought another familiar physical conditioning class. Under the watchful eye of that twisted old spinster Zhou Yi, the students of Freshman Class One continued their endless weighted runs. After all, this was a classic Shrek Academy exercise handed down since Yu Xiaogang's time ten thousand years ago.
We old Shrek folks opened our eyes each morning, and guess what? Ha! Worn-out knee cartilage!
Meanwhile, under Huo Yuhao's direction, Freshman Class Nine began a distinctly modern physical training routine.
Based on the differences in the students' results during their last run, Huo Yuhao drew on his daily training regimen from his previous life and divided the class into groups for targeted training.
Whether it was sprinting to develop explosive power, squat jumps to strengthen their legs, or jumping rope to improve endurance, all of it felt refreshingly new to Class Nine's students. They found this training quite interesting and approached it with tremendous enthusiasm.
Mu Jin watched happily as Huo Yuhao assigned one training task after another, inwardly cursing Zhou Yi once again for being a blind fool.
He also found time to give Huo Yuhao the soul bone he had won from Zhou Yi. As expected, however, it was a secret art soul bone of the most worthless kind.
Still, despite the secret art soul bone's lousy quality, it might prove useful when Huo Yuhao fused with his second martial soul in the future. He thanked Mu Jin as well. Getting a soul bone made him happy, of course, but seeing Zhou Yi suffer a setback delighted him even more.
After class, Huo Yuhao went to Shrek Academy's library. After asking the librarian a few questions, he headed straight for the shelves at the very back, where ancient texts were stored.
"Martial Soul Inheritance of Soul Master Families... Habits and Distribution of the Continent's Soul Beasts... The Destruction of Slaughter City and the Birth of the Holy Spirit Cult? Damn, they even have books this explosive?"
At last, in a dust-covered corner, Huo Yuhao found the ancient book he was looking for: the Douluo Continent Encyclopedia of Plants.
He gently blew the dust off its cover. This ancient volume was made not of paper, but of the hide of a particular soul beast. Only such precious material could keep a book from rotting or falling apart even after ten thousand years.
"Douluo Continent Encyclopedia of Plants, by Bu Yaolian of Shrek Academy," Huo Yuhao read slowly. Suddenly, however, a gleam flashed in his eyes. Beside the title, he noticed some faint lettering that seemed to have been scraped away.
Author: Chrysanthemum Douluo Yue Guan.
"Pfft! Cough, cough, cough..." Huo Yuhao nearly choked to death on his own saliva.
Holy shit. You really live up to the name Bu Yaolian-'no shame'! You truly are shameless! So this book was written ten thousand years ago by Chrysanthemum Douluo Yue Guan, an elder of Spirit Hall, and you actually scraped off his name and signed your own.
Back on Blue Star, that would get you branded for academic misconduct at the very least!
"Forget it. There's nothing I can do about this anyway. It's hardly the first time Shrek Academy has shown off how low it can sink." Huo Yuhao shrugged helplessly.
He carefully turned the pages of the book before him, while Yao Lao released a thread of soul perception and committed its lifelike illustrations and written explanations to memory.
"Mother's illness has been getting worse, yet Father is still stationed at the western border. Doesn't he have even the slightest..."
A somewhat loud conversation caught Huo Yuhao's attention. He looked up to see a boy and a girl standing not far away.
The boy was tall and powerfully built, with handsome, icy features. His long golden hair was parted down the middle and fell loosely to either side. A closer look revealed that his deep blue eyes each contained double pupils.
The girl had black hair and delicate, beautiful features. Her eyes were unusual: their colors differed, with pale blue on the left and pale yellow on the right. As she gazed at the boy before her, her pupils turned slightly vertical, giving her a remarkably strange appearance.
A cold glint flashed through Huo Yuhao's eyes, and a chilling smile appeared at the corner of his mouth. He recognized these two-or rather, he recognized the boy.
The White Tiger Duke's son, his brother by circumstance, Dai Huabin!
Interesting. Life really does bring people together wherever you go, Huo Yuhao thought.
Although he personally had no grudge against Dai Huabin, he had taken on Huo Yuhao's identity and gained a second life. That meant he ought to help Huo Yuhao avenge himself. Such was his code of conduct.
Back then, although years of overwork had left Huo Yun'er ill and frail, she could still have held on. The ones who had truly killed her were Dai Huabin and the guards at his side.
Given his status, there was no way Dai Huabin had been unaware of Huo Yun'er and Huo Yuhao, two people bound to the White Tiger Duke by countless tangled threads. His deliberate collision with Huo Yuhao, followed by his orders for the guards to beat Huo Yun'er so severely that she died of her injuries, had undoubtedly been intentional.
Or perhaps his mother, the White Tiger Duke's wife, had instructed him from behind the scenes. After all, even a vicious tiger would not devour its own cubs. Even if Dai Hao learned that Huo Yun'er had died at Dai Huabin's hands, he would never kill him.
But the root of it all was that Dai Hao, the mighty White Tiger Duke, could not keep those few ounces of flesh in his trousers under control.
And so, in Huo Yuhao's mind, Dai Hao, the White Tiger Duke's wife, and Dai Huabin had all earned a place on his death list.
"Yuhao, that boy must be the chief culprit behind your mother's death, correct?" Yao Lao asked from within the Sea of Consciousness.
Huo Yun'er had happened to pick up the Black Ring in which he resided, so he had personally witnessed the sordid events that had unfolded in the Duke's Mansion.
Yet Huo Yuhao merely smiled faintly and asked, "Teacher, have you met the White Tiger Duke's wife? Do you know what illness she has?"
"Yes. She schemes too deeply and worries too much, to the point that she's damaged her heart meridians. Why? What are you planning, Yuhao?" Yao Lao asked.
"Sorry for the trouble, Teacher, but please write me a prescription. I want to treat the duchess," Huo Yuhao said with a cold smile. "Wouldn't letting her die suddenly of illness be far too easy on her? My mother's murderer and I cannot live beneath the same sky. I must make her taste this hellish suffering while she's alive. Only then can I comfort my mother's spirit in heaven."
"Yuhao, you..." Yao Lao wanted to voice his concerns, but ultimately said nothing more and simply recited the names of several medicinal ingredients.
Huo Yuhao took out a slip of paper and wrote down the ingredients, along with the precautions to follow when preparing the decoction.
Then he stood up, put on a cheerful smile, and walked toward Dai Huabin.
Sensing someone approaching, Dai Huabin immediately frowned. He turned to look at Huo Yuhao and asked coldly, "Who are you? What do you want?"
"You're Dai Huabin, right? Allow me to introduce myself. I'm the class monitor of Freshman Class Nine, Huo Yuhao. I happened to overhear that your mother is unwell. As it happens, I've studied a little medicine and know something about medicinal properties, so I've written a prescription especially for you. After all, we're fellow students. I sincerely hope your mother recovers soon."
Although a gentle smile rested on his lips, deep within Huo Yuhao's eyes shone a cold, merciless, indifferent light.
Indeed, he desperately hoped the White Tiger Duke's wife would recover soon-even more desperately than Dai Huabin did!
Before you continue