"Hao, that girl called Su Tong just now-her Martial Soul was very powerful."
After Huo Yuhao left the Heaven Soul Library, the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm spoke to him through voice transmission.
"Her Martial Soul gave me a faint, almost imperceptible sense of pressure. Only ultimate ice could make me feel that way."
The Sky Dream Ice Silkworm analyzed it seriously. "In the Far North, only Ice Jade Scorpions and the Snow Woman Clan possess ultimate ice. Even the Titan Snow Demon King, one of the Three Great Heavenly Kings of the Far North, doesn't have it."
"Then her Martial Soul is very likely the Heavenly Snow Woman?"
The Sky Dream Ice Silkworm had once spent a long time being relentlessly hunted by the Ice Empress.
If Su Tong's Martial Soul were an Ice Jade Scorpion, the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm would have identified it immediately, rather than needing to analyze it as he did now.
Huo Yuhao glanced back at the Heaven Soul Library.
He could not help remarking, "Everyone says Shrek Academy is full of crouching tigers and hidden dragons, but I think Heaven Dou City is the truly astounding place. It even has a Soul Master with an ultimate attribute."
"As expected of the Heaven Dou Empire, which claimed the greatest share of the old Heaven Dou's legacy."
The notion of fortune was mysterious beyond measure. As Heaven Dou City had been the capital of the Heaven Dou Empire, the nation with the most gods ten thousand years ago, Huo Yuhao believed the current Heaven Dou Empire had claimed the vast majority of its national fortune.
Otherwise, it was difficult to explain why most of the world's foremost Soul Master factions lay within Heaven Dou's borders.
Shrek Academy, the Body Sect, the Nine Treasures Glazed Tile Sect, the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan, the Clear Sky Sect, which had changed its name to Clear Sky Castle...
The Sky Dream Ice Silkworm flattered him. "So what if it's the Heavenly Snow Woman? Hao, what you'll obtain in the future is the Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion Martial Soul, the absolute sovereign of the ice attribute. Apart from the Snow Empress, no one could surpass you in terms of attribute."
During this time, the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm had racked his brains to grow closer to Huo Yuhao. Whenever an opportunity arose, he would shower him with flattery.
Huo Yuhao ignored the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm's flattery.
He stopped paying attention to Su Tong and turned his focus back to his own cultivation.
Over the days that followed, Huo Yuhao threw himself into cultivating with all his might, day and night without rest.
He even stopped entering cities, training and resting entirely in the wilderness instead. Over more than a month, his Soul Power grew rapidly at a rate visible to the naked eye.
Setting out from Shrek City, he had traveled almost from the southernmost tip of the Heaven Dou Empire to its northernmost tip, crossing the entire nation.
The Martial Scripture had merely given Huo Yuhao a powerful foundation. Whether he could become a mighty figure who stood tall between heaven and earth in the future still depended on his own cultivation.
During this time, Huo Yuhao even encountered an Evil Soul Master in the Heaven Dou Empire's northern territory.
However, that person's cultivation was only around the Soul Grandmaster level, and he was trafficking children in North Mountain City in the Heaven Dou Empire.
When Huo Yuhao discovered this Evil Soul Master, he did not hesitate. A single sweep of his halberd took the man's head from his shoulders.
This was the first time he had killed someone in this life, but he felt no discomfort.
Huo Yuhao's greatest gain from this battle was a necklace-shaped Storage Soul Tool.
This Storage Soul Tool had a sizable storage space, almost three cubic meters in all. For Huo Yuhao, who was heading to the core region of the Far North, it was rain sent from heaven, allowing him to effectively sustain his consumption of living supplies in the core region.
Finally, when Huo Yuhao's Soul Power Level reached twenty, he was already standing before Northern Plains City at the northernmost tip of the Heaven Dou Empire.
This was Su Tong's hometown, and his final stop before entering the Far North.
He panted slightly, and the white mist of his breath instantly froze into tiny ice fragments that danced through the air.
It was the polar night in the Far North, and Northern Plains City was affected as well. Looking up, he could see auroras roaming and rolling across the sky, turning the heavens into a sea of colored glass.
"Tian Meng, it's up to you from here." Huo Yuhao could not help rubbing his hands together in the cold.
"No problem, Hao! But you need to take your clothes off first so I can slip my Remnant Husk over you."
Huo Yuhao did as instructed. The instant he removed his clothes, the cold turned his entire body red.
The Sky Dream Ice Silkworm dared not fool around with him. The moment Huo Yuhao removed his last piece of clothing, he slipped his Remnant Husk over him.
A faint layer of golden light surged from Huo Yuhao's head. Then a ball of white light appeared at his chest, becoming a membrane roughly the size of his body and slipping straight over him.
Huo Yuhao hurried to put his clothes back on. Being stark naked really was an unsightly sight.
The Ice Silkworm's Remnant Husk kept all the cold outside. There was no warmth, but no cold either, as though every temperature merely brushed lightly past his body.
"Hao."
The Sky Dream Ice Silkworm's voice grew serious. "This place is very far from the northeastern end where I lived, and I'm unfamiliar with the terrain, so we need to reach the core region first. From here on, you need to follow my directions, or the two of us might never make it out."
Huo Yuhao checked his Storage Soul Tool. Once he confirmed that he had purchased all the necessary supplies from Northern Plains City, he followed the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm's guidance and stepped into the Far North.
He moved extremely fast. Even the increasingly thick ice and snow could hardly impede his speed.
Huo Yuhao kept his Spiritual Detection Soul Skill active throughout, avoiding every place where the terrain was unclear. Under the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm's guidance, he also evaded every passing Soul Beast as he hurried toward the core region of the Far North.
Now was not the time for tempering himself. Any loss of stamina could become the final straw that broke the camel's back.
Yet being unable to practice martial arts did not mean Huo Yuhao was willing to let this time go to waste.
"Spirit divides into yin and yang; the movement of spirit is the beginning of life..."
Fully focused, Huo Yuhao took advantage of keeping Spiritual Detection active at all times to cultivate the Talisman Master system.
The Talisman Master system suited his Spirit Eyes almost perfectly. When a strand of spiritual power cultivated through the Divine Motion Chapter appeared, Huo Yuhao's field of vision suddenly expanded dramatically.
The range of his Spiritual Detection Soul Skill increased by almost twenty percent in an instant.
He vaguely sensed that the Talisman Master's spiritual power seemed to be trying to engrave the Spiritual Detection Soul Skill into his Spirit Eyes.
Or rather, it was trying to refine his Spirit Eyes Martial Soul into his own Life-Bound Talisman Seal.
However, because his current spiritual power cultivation was too weak, still far below even a One-Seal Talisman Master's, the attempt to engrave a talisman seal into his Spirit Eyes ultimately ended in failure.
Huo Yuhao was not discouraged. "This is a good start."
"Once I turn my Soul Skills, and even my Spirit Eyes, into Life-Bound Talisman Seals, it will mean I can break free of the Martial Soul's constraints. Even if my Martial Soul is unfortunately shattered in the future, it won't affect my combat strength, because I will have made all that mighty power my own."
The Sky Dream Ice Silkworm knew nothing of Huo Yuhao's thoughts and continued guiding him onward.
In this way, Huo Yuhao traveled more than four hundred li through the Far North.
By now, the snow had risen past Huo Yuhao's knees. He cut down a tree, made two skis, and strapped them to his feet, continuing onward by skiing.