Huo Yuhao's Sea of Consciousness.
Two figures lay faceup on the ice field.
Huo Yuhao clutched his head with both hands, his mind filled with sickening dizziness. It felt as though a blender were churning his brains, making him want to vomit.
But he could not throw anything up. He could only lie on the ground in agony.
Beside him, Tian Meng was in the same state, his eyes spinning like two tiny mosquito coils.
After quite a while, Huo Yuhao began to feel a little better and asked:
"T-Tian Meng... wh-what... happened?"
Tian Meng answered weakly, "That person's f-fire attribute... was very strong. I... I used my... origin power... The... aftereffects are pretty bad..."
"I won't be able to... possess you again... for a long time... You... you'll have to be... careful from now on..."
Huo Yuhao sounded disappointed. "What? After just that little while? Aren't you a million-year soul beast... Isn't that a bit weak? Defeating a Soul Emperor in one move means you're at least a Soul Saint. If you could keep possessing me, wouldn't I be a genuine Soul Saint?"
Tian Meng: "..."
How could anything that good exist in this world?
Possessing Huo Yuhao and defeating a Soul Emperor in one move had already pushed him to his limit. Yet Huo Yuhao still was not satisfied...
"I'm kidding. There's no such thing as power without a price, right?" Having recovered from his dizziness, Huo Yuhao sat up and smiled. "Thank you, Tian Meng."
Then he left his Sea of Consciousness.
When he woke, a middle-aged man in white had appeared nearby.
Huo Yuhao raised his eyebrows and asked, "You are...?"
The middle-aged man in white did not introduce himself. He merely said flatly, "You're fine now. Forget what you just saw, or you'll be expelled from the academy. This is your compensation. I trust you're a smart boy."
As he spoke, he tossed Huo Yuhao a small green sphere. It was a medicinal pill-a Soul Ascension Pill, an immensely valuable pill that could greatly increase a soul master's soul power.
The middle-aged man in white rose into the air and was about to fly toward the center of Sea God Lake when a voice stopped him.
"Wait."
Huo Yuhao spoke evenly, his cold gaze fixed on the middle-aged man in white. "That person just now was an Inner Court student, wasn't she? Only Inner Court students wear red uniforms like that."
The middle-aged man in white neither admitted nor denied it. After a brief silence, he said, "Go to class. Remember, forget everything you saw today."
"Is the academy trying to shut me up?" Huo Yuhao asked coldly. "Not only will I not forget, I'll carve this into my heart! That Inner Court student nearly killed me!"
His voice was not loud, but it cut straight through the air.
"Are you keeping Evil Soul Masters penned up here at Shrek Academy?"
The middle-aged man in white's expression changed, and he snapped, "What nonsense are you spouting? This was just an accident!"
A crushing pressure suddenly radiated from him, leaving Huo Yuhao unable to breathe.
Huo Yuhao stood without a word. Even though he could not move, he continued staring coldly at the middle-aged man in white.
"I'll repeat myself one more time. Forget what happened today, or you're expelled!"
With that, he was gone.
The pressure on him abruptly vanished. Huo Yuhao remained where he was, staring darkly toward the center of the lake, where Shrek Academy's Inner Court was located.
"Y-Yuhao..." Tian Meng's weak voice rang out.
"Tian Meng, what is it?"
"You're angry again..."
Tian Meng trembled as he looked up at the pitch-black sky within the Sea of Consciousness. Countless bolts of lightning ripped across the heavens, and terrifying, unceasing thunder shook the ice field.
In Tian Meng's memories, the Far North had blizzards that lasted for months, but never such sky-filling lightning and thunder.
"Sorry. I frightened you a little," Huo Yuhao said flatly. He built Tian Meng a little house of ice within his Sea of Consciousness, then continued staring coldly toward the center of the lake.
He put a piece of ice into his mouth. It gave a crisp crunch beneath his teeth, soothing his steadily mounting fury.
Expelled?
Suddenly, he hurled the Soul Ascension Pill in his hand away, his expression twisting as he roared.
"I'm only afraid you'll talk big and never dare follow through!"
The smooth, emerald-green Soul Ascension Pill traced a long arc through the air before falling into the shimmering lake with a splash.
Just like that, Huo Yuhao threw into the lake a treasure that would have sparked a bidding frenzy at even the finest auctions outside.
Without the slightest regret, Huo Yuhao turned and left.
Tian Meng hid inside the little ice house in the Sea of Consciousness, trembling.
He had never seen Huo Yuhao this furious. In the past, even when anger burned inside him, Huo Yuhao had maintained a calm, indifferent exterior. In all the memories of Huo Yuhao that Tian Meng had seen, there had only been one other instance of such a savage, soul beast-like roar.
All of that day's lessons were theoretical: martial soul classifications in the morning, and identifying soul beasts' ages in the afternoon. Huo Yuhao wore a dark expression and only half listened. Though his eyes were on the lectern, his mind was elsewhere.
A chilly aura that warned everyone to keep their distance radiated from him, making the other students afraid to look directly at him.
How had their class monitor, who had been so easy to talk to yesterday, become so terrifying today?
Huo Yuhao kept thinking about what had happened that morning.
How utterly laughable!
A student from the Inner Court of the mighty Shrek Academy had attempted murder on academy grounds. Instead of considering how to deal with it, the academy's first thought had been to silence him and stop him from telling anyone.
Absurd!
Huo Yuhao knew that his lucky survival had nothing to do with how talented he was, nor with his opponent showing mercy. It was solely because Tian Meng was there.
To get him out of danger, Tian Meng had even used his own origin power, leaving him terribly weak.
Without Tian Meng, whether it had been him, any other first-year student, or even a second- or third-year Outer Court student, they would have faced certain death at the hands of that Soul Emperor-level Inner Court student.
She had come to kill! No Outer Court student could possibly have survived that terrifying heat!
And what had the academy done after learning about it?
They had given him a paltry bit of compensation and expected to sweep the whole thing under the rug!
Huo Yuhao was furious-not because he had suffered an undeserved calamity, but because of Shrek Academy's attitude!
The continent's foremost academy had actually tolerated the presence of a student like that, and even hoped to conceal everything!
Huo Yuhao even suspected that if he really had died there today, the academy would not have punished that person in red in the slightest!
A deep loathing for Shrek Academy, the very place he attended, rose within Huo Yuhao.
A mad decision quietly began to take root in his heart-he would drag this so-called foremost academy on the continent down from its divine pedestal!
But he was rational. He knew that, as he was now, he could not possibly do it.
What should he do? Tell everyone what had happened today?
No! No one would believe him. He was the only victim, and there were no other witnesses.
The academy could simply declare it an unsubstantiated, one-sided account, then find an excuse to expel him.
Then what should he do?
Grow stronger! Keep growing stronger!
Never before had Huo Yuhao yearned so urgently for power!
In the past, he had always taken life as it came, approaching cultivation with the attitude that he would do his best. As long as he had put in the effort, it did not matter how strong he became.
But after being possessed by Tian Meng, he had experienced the sense of security that strength brought.
Now, a pathological craving for power had suddenly risen in his heart.
Only with power could he reveal the truth to the world!
Only with power could he topple those things that stood high above everyone else!
He would grow stronger!
In the past, Huo Yuhao had believed that growing stronger was about protecting certain things.
But now, his resolve to grow stronger was about destroying certain things.