The next day, Huo Yuhao got up and left the dormitory building at the first glimmer of dawn, while Wang Dong was still dreaming.
Watching him leave, the old man reclining outside the dormitory building could not help sighing in admiration.
"He gets up so early every day. What a disciplined child."
Naturally, after getting up, it was time for breakfast.
Huo Yuhao did not go to the cafeteria. Instead, he headed to a scenic spot-the shore of Sea God Lake.
The air was fresh, the scenery beautiful, and a faint, hazy mist drifted over the shimmering lake.
It really was the perfect place for breakfast.
Huo Yuhao set out his stove, lit the charcoal, and began practicing his signature craft.
He now chose to eat breakfast beside Sea God Lake every morning. A few days ago, when he had opened his dormitory window to barbecue in the morning, a chorus of wails had somehow risen outside.
"Aaah-who's unleashing poison this early in the morning?"
"It smells so good I can't sleep!"
Huo Yuhao: "..."
Fine. If he could not eat in the dormitory, Brother Hao would eat outside.
The shore of Sea God Lake had become his first choice.
Beautiful surroundings, good ventilation-just looking at it whetted his appetite.
Besides, hardly anyone came to Sea God Lake so early in the morning, so he did not have to worry about being disturbed.
Huo Yuhao's menu was not limited to grilled fish. He had a little of every kind of barbecue, and today he intended to change things up.
For instance, right now he was grilling a turtle.
"A turtle martial soul, huh? Sooner or later, I'll roast you!"
Huo Yuhao turned the turtle over on the stove, imagining it was Xu Sanshi as he spoke viciously.
"Mmm... Yuhao, I want some too," Tian Meng said, standing beside him and eyeing it hungrily.
"Why did you come out without permission again...?" Huo Yuhao looked utterly helpless.
Tian Meng wore an innocent expression. "There's nobody around, is there?"
Huo Yuhao was adamant. "Even if there's nobody around, you can't. Get back inside."
"From now on, you can only come out when we're selling barbecue. While we're at the academy, stay put in the Sea of Consciousness."
Tian Meng wheedled, "Not even when nobody's around?"
"Nooo."
"Heehee, I'm not going back."
Tian Meng made a face and stuck out his tongue mischievously.
Suddenly, his expression changed. He turned toward Sea God Lake, where a red speck flickered faintly through the mist over the distant water.
Tian Meng instantly vanished, returning to Huo Yuhao's Sea of Consciousness.
"Yuhao, run! That one's heading straight for us!"
"Yeah, I sensed it."
Huo Yuhao had also noticed the red speck drawing closer and closer.
It was clearly a red figure racing across the lake at high speed, heading straight toward Huo Yuhao.
Huo Yuhao could make out the figure's appearance.
The figure was fiery red from head to toe-fiery-red clothes, fiery-red hair, and a fiery-red mask, with a terrifying aura of flames pouring from her entire body.
Heat! Ferocious heat!
With his ice martial soul, Huo Yuhao was extremely sensitive to even minute changes in temperature. The rapidly approaching fiery-red figure was surrounded by temperatures several hundred degrees hotter than the stove in front of him!
Without another thought, Huo Yuhao turned and ran.
But the fiery-red figure was faster. In the blink of an eye, she swept across several hundred meters of the lake. The terrifying heat raised countless clouds of steam, while the plants along the shore turned scorched yellow beneath its blaze.
"Shit!"
The fierce blast of air from that heat bowled Huo Yuhao over. He stumbled, his clothes instantly soaked with sweat.
Huo Yuhao's body temperature shot up. It had been a long time since he had experienced being drenched in sweat like this.
He looked toward the red figure. She showed no intention of stopping and continued charging at him.
Gritting his teeth, Huo Yuhao activated his ice martial soul. Cold flowed ceaselessly from his dantian throughout his body, doing its utmost to resist the waves of heat.
"Yuhao, sorry. I'll have to step in." Tian Meng's voice sounded beside his ear, unusually grave.
Huo Yuhao gave a bitter smile. "If you don't step in now, I really am going to die!"
As they spoke, he suddenly felt his body fill with power. An unfamiliar force was contesting his control over his body.
Huo Yuhao did not resist. He knew this was Tian Meng's doing.
The cold around him suddenly overwhelmed the scorching heat ahead. The red figure gave a muffled grunt, and a flicker of alarm seemed to flash through the red eyes beneath her mask.
A faint golden and white sheen veiled Huo Yuhao's originally azure eyes as he gazed disdainfully at the red figure in the air. He raised his right arm slightly, and an eerie, absolute cold radiated from his fingertips.
Everything within a hundred-meter diameter centered on him had frozen solid.
"You dared attack Yuhao? Die!"
Huo Yuhao spoke coolly, but his voice emerged as two overlapping tones, one male and one female.
"Tian Meng's One Finger!"
It was Tian Meng speaking through Huo Yuhao's body after possessing him.
With a point of his index finger, a beam of icy-blue light shot straight toward the red figure.
The red figure felt the temperature around her plummet. Her body shuddered, and she soared into the air with a piercing phoenix cry. A phantom Fire Phoenix appeared behind her, and six Soul Rings lit up-two yellow, two purple, and two black.
She was actually a Soul Emperor-level Expert!
The moment the icy-blue beam struck her, it turned into steam that filled the sky.
Huo Yuhao withdrew his hand, and the icy-blue light vanished with it.
The red figure looked at Huo Yuhao in bewilderment.
That attack had been all thunder and little rain. Its power did not remotely match the imposing force he had displayed earlier.
Huo Yuhao stood where he was and spoke in a strange, blended voice. "Tian Meng, your naming skills are way too lame, aren't they?"
"Huh? That was Lord Tian Meng's strongest attack!"
"Heh. If the name isn't cool, it won't have any swagger no matter how powerful it is. Let Brother Hao teach you how to name a move."
He continued this bizarre conversation with himself. Suddenly, a savage grin flashed across his face. He looked at the red figure in the air and pointed his index finger again.
"Great Wilderness Heaven-Prisoning Finger!"
A piercing icy-blue beam instantly tore through the red figure and the Fire Phoenix behind her.
The fierce flames were extinguished completely beneath the absolute cold. Amid a thunderous boom, the red figure stiffened in midair and fell straight into the distant, unfrozen waters of Sea God Lake.
"Heh. Where did this oversized turkey come from, putting on a supernatural act to scare your Brother Hao? Tian Meng, nicely done."
Huo Yuhao snapped his fingers, about to strike a cool pose, when his entire body suddenly went limp. His head spun, and he collapsed to the ground, unconscious.
The frozen ground and lake around him also returned to normal. No one knew of the clash that had erupted there just a moment earlier.
While Huo Yuhao lay unconscious, several figures rapidly approached.
"This is bad! An outer court student was injured!"
"Where's Xiaotao?"
"Xiaotao's here!"
Someone hauled the red-clad figure out of the lake. Judging by her figure, she was actually a woman.
Someone else checked Huo Yuhao's condition and breathed a sigh of relief.
"Fortunately, it's nothing serious. He's only unconscious."
The old man leading them sighed in relief. "Fortunately, no terrible mistake was made. Take this student back, give him generous compensation, and tell him to forget what happened today. If he dares spread word of it, expel him!"
With that, he gathered the red-clad woman in his arms and flew toward the center of Sea God Lake.