With a light leap, the Suanni hurled her powerful, agile body toward Huo Yuhao and the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm.
The Sky Dream Ice Silkworm seemed resigned to his fate and stood rooted to the spot, no longer resisting.
Huo Yuhao instinctively grabbed him and rolled aside, dodging the Suanni's pounce, but his enormous true body was not so lucky. She pinned it beneath her feet.
The Suanni was in no hurry. As though toying with them, she shot out slow-moving balls of golden flame and watched them dodge.
Standing atop the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm's true body, she watched the two scrambling figures with pity and sneered, "So pitiful. So weak."
Dragging the dazed Sky Dream Ice Silkworm along as he kept dodging, Huo Yuhao had already unleashed a torrent of curses in his heart.
Even a thousand-year soul beast was a rare sight at the edge of the Star Dou Great Forest. How had a monster like this shown up?
He cursed at Tian Meng, whom he was dragging by the hand. "Aren't you a million-year soul beast, you big fat worm? Why are you afraid of that thing?"
"I refuse to believe your million years of cultivation are nothing but air! Why are you sitting around waiting to die? Fight back!"
Tian Meng said dejectedly, "No... I can't... I can't attack her..."
He couldn't attack? Why?
Just as Huo Yuhao was puzzling over this, the Suanni abruptly stopped toying with them and leaped aside.
"An ultimate light attribute. How nostalgic."
An aged voice, steeped in authority, rang out softly, inspiring involuntary awe.
The Suanni's expression changed drastically, and she warily watched the gray figure materializing before Huo Yuhao.
It appeared to be a human clad in gray robes, wavering in and out of sight, yet radiating an oppressive aura that none would dare defy.
The Suanni asked warily, "Who are you?"
"Merely a remnant soul fortunate enough to have survived."
The gray figure spoke slowly, seemingly studying the Suanni.
"Ultimate light and fire attributes, immense Spiritual Power, the power of destiny... you even seem to possess a trace of dragon blood..."
The Suanni grew restless and uneasy. In a single encounter, that gray figure had seen through all her abilities, yet she could not see through him at all.
Just how vast was the gulf between them?
She paced in place, neither daring to approach nor willing to leave. Her gaze occasionally flicked toward Huo Yuhao and the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm. With walls of fire surrounding them, she had no fear of their escaping.
Looks like Brother Hao's got some luck left after all.
As Huo Yuhao was marveling at this, he suddenly felt a tug on his arm.
The Sky Dream Ice Silkworm was pulling on one of his arms, stammering, "Y-young man, I don't know who he is, but wh-while we have the chance, let's hurry and escape. The s-soul ring can... wait until later..."
Huo Yuhao snapped, "Escape? Escape, my ass! Can't you see the sea of fire around us?"
The Sky Dream Ice Silkworm said quietly, "If I use my origin power, I can still neutralize a few of her attacks. Even a seven-hundred-thousand-year soul beast can be injured by my origin power..."
"If you're that powerful, why run? I don't believe you don't know any attacks like Spiritual Shock. Blast her to death with your million years of Spiritual Power!" Huo Yuhao said, baffled.
"I can sense that Lion Dog has a mental attribute too, and her Spiritual Power definitely isn't as strong as yours. Your Spiritual Shock will absolutely make her regret this!"
Huo Yuhao tried his best to remain calm as he analyzed the situation, utterly unaware of how insane his plan to fight back seemed to the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm.
"You idiot! Do you know what kind of soul beast she is?" the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm cried.
"She's the one protected by all the ferocious beasts in the entire Star Dou Great Forest-the Emperor Auspicious Beast, the Three-Eyed Golden Lion!"
"And?"
"Although she only has around fifteen thousand years of cultivation, her strength has already reached the hundred-thousand-year level!"
"So?" Huo Yuhao remained baffled. "Even at the hundred-thousand-year level, you could still severely injure her with Spiritual Shock."
"You still don't understand what the Emperor Auspicious Beast means to soul beasts!"
The Sky Dream Ice Silkworm was truly frightened.
"No matter how powerful a soul beast is-even a ferocious beast-it can only bow down in worship before the Emperor Auspicious Beast. It must never harm her. Even if she chooses it as food, it can only flee. It must never fight back!"
"How interesting." Huo Yuhao laughed. "So you soul beasts are just as feudal."
"What do you know? Wherever the Emperor Auspicious Beast is, all soul beasts cultivate twice as fast as normal. And only one Emperor Auspicious Beast can exist on the entire continent at a time. She's that one! In other words, she's the supreme treasure jointly protected by every soul beast in the Star Dou Great Forest!"
"If I attack her now, those ferocious beasts will absolutely tear me apart!"
"I'll extinguish the sea of fire around us right now. Let's escape together."
The Sky Dream Ice Silkworm pleaded, hoping Huo Yuhao would leave with him.
"Do you think things could get any worse than they are now?"
Huo Yuhao put a piece of ice into his mouth and chewed slowly.
"Do you really think those soul beasts in the Star Dou Great Forest ever treated you as one of their own?"
The question struck straight into the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm's heart, awakening certain painful memories.
"You said the Emperor Auspicious Beast can speed up other soul beasts' cultivation. Absorbing your heaven-and-earth energy does the same thing, so why didn't they put you on a pedestal and worship you too?"
Huo Yuhao's voice was calm, yet it cut into the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm's heart like a knife.
"The point of retreating isn't to keep running. It's a defensive move made because you lack the strength, weighing your options until you can counterattack. Once you find a chance to strike at the enemy's fighting forces, you have to hit back decisively!"
The Sky Dream Ice Silkworm recalled the few stretches of wakefulness in his long life. It seemed he... really had been running away all along.
He had fallen into an ice cavern while fleeing, fallen into the ocean while fleeing, and wandered into the Star Dou Great Forest while fleeing...
He began to waver.
He asked softly, "And after we hit back? Do we wait for their endless revenge?"
"I, Brother Hao, am not the kind of person who likes swallowing humiliation and bearing the burden. If I've got a score to settle, I like settling it as soon as possible."
"Even if I can't get revenge, making the other side sick with frustration is good enough."
"But then there'll be no turning back..." the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm said bitterly.
He had not noticed that, little by little, the fear in his heart was fading.
"Did you have a way back before?"
An excited, savage grin curled Huo Yuhao's lips.
"If we're doing this, we're taking it all the way!"
"Now, gather all your Spiritual Power, aim at that eye on her forehead, and drive it in hard!"
"Do you want to be a coward for a million years, or someone strong enough to control his own destiny?"
"Tell me what you choose!"
Huo Yuhao's words were like a devil's whispers, their temptation impossible for the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm to resist.
"I... I've never tried an attack on this scale before. If it fails, th-then we really are finished."
His breathing quickened, and his voice still trembled slightly, but it was no longer entirely from fear. Another emotion had joined it.
Excitement.
His enormous ice silkworm body rose behind him, shining with white and golden light, which finally converged upon his golden eyes.
"If we aren't finished..."
Huo Yuhao smiled, his eyes brimming with boundless confidence, audacity, and ambition.
"Then I'll take you to godhood!"