Early the next morning, Huo Yuhao and Jin Peng set off for Heaven Dou City.
After they told Xue Heng everything about the Mind-Soul Forging Method, the emperor immediately recognized its strategic value.
If this succeeded, Heaven Dou would reverse its disadvantage in the field of soul guidance in one stroke, with the prospect of restoring the former Heaven Dou.
It could even march south to pluck the stars and point its sword west at Sun Moon.
Xue Heng suppressed his excitement, then ordered the establishment of the Mind-Soul Research Institute and classified the matter as Heaven Dou's highest secret.
Everyone involved in perfecting the Mind-Soul Forging Method would receive a noble title if they had none, or a promotion in rank if they already held one.
At the same time, Xue Heng also dispatched secret envoys to search for Clear Sky Castle and investigate whether any descendants of the Strength Clan still survived.
Huo Yuhao and Jin Peng stayed in the imperial palace for an entire day.
The sun sank in the west, setting the horizon aflame with red.
After informing Jin Peng of his upcoming itinerary, Huo Yuhao pushed open the hall doors and headed straight toward Di'ao Academy.
Given Su Tong's cool, aloof temperament, if she had come to Di'ao looking for him, there was most likely something important.
He therefore ought not to keep her waiting at Di'ao for long.
Huo Yuhao crossed the broad streets, his Supreme Purity Sky Roaming Steps growing increasingly practiced. Everyone along the way felt only as though a gust of wind had passed beside them.
By the time they reacted, not a trace of him remained in sight.
"Azure Dragon Viscount, you're here."
Seeing Huo Yuhao approach, the guards at the entrance hurriedly held their right hands across their chests and gave him a standard Soul Master salute.
They did not know that Huo Yuhao was now the Azure Dragon Count.
Over the past two months, because he regularly came to suppress Ma Xiaotao's evil fire, Huo Yuhao-the "truant" whom the higher-ups had specifically named to join the Di'ao team-had long since become a legendary figure whom Di'ao Academy delighted in discussing.
Huo Yuhao greeted the guards with a smile, then asked, "Has Ma Xiaotao caused any trouble these past few days?"
A guard replied, "Azure Dragon Viscount, the dean ordered that Ma Xiaotao be kept under strict supervision. She is forbidden from deliberately provoking trouble, or she'll immediately be sent back to Shrek Academy."
"So she hasn't dared cause any trouble at the academy lately. She can only behave herself and attend classes."
Huo Yuhao felt somewhat reassured.
Ma Xiaotao had a fiery temper, and her evil fire also affected her disposition. Without Xue Heng's second decree restraining Shrek, she probably really would have come to blows at Di'ao Academy.
He had already seen it clearly: someone like Ma Xiaotao feared neither heaven nor earth, but she feared bringing trouble upon Shrek Academy.
Until her evil fire problem was completely resolved, Shrek simply would not dare jump about making trouble before Heaven Dou.
Because, at its core, it was ultimately a Soul Master academy. Even if it was now showing signs of reaching out to meddle in the empire's internal affairs, it still had to rely on incoming students to develop.
Especially students from within Heaven Dou's borders.
If it truly drove the Heaven Dou Empire into a corner, prompting it to join forces with the great lords and the Body Sect to cut off its supply of students even at the cost of mutual ruin, that was a price Shrek could not currently afford.
Nor could the Douluo Continent afford it.
Thus, the Heaven Dou Empire and Shrek Academy shared a tacit understanding, maintaining a delicate balance between them for the time being.
Huo Yuhao continued, "I heard from the people in the Body Sect that a girl named Su Tong came looking for me these past few days?"
"Oh! You mean the young lady whose martial soul is the Heavenly Snow Woman?"
The guard hurriedly replied, "She did come. But you were cultivating in the Body Sect at the time, so the dean arranged for her to wait for you on Star-Watching Island in the academy's Heavenly Heart Lake."
Heavenly Heart Lake lay in the hills behind Di'ao Academy, in peaceful, secluded surroundings.
There was a Pure Heart Retreat on Star-Watching Island in the lake, where Dean Xue Xin usually received honored guests, so few students went there ordinarily.
Having Su Tong wait there suited her cool, aloof temperament.
"Thank you." Huo Yuhao nodded to the guards, then walked into the academy.
Night deepened, and Di'ao's solemn, stately buildings appeared especially tranquil beneath the moonlight.
Teachers and students passing by greeted Huo Yuhao, hoping that he could claim the championship alongside Long Aotian, Jiang Peng, and the others at next year's Soul Master Tournament.
Huo Yuhao responded to each of them and soon passed through the teaching and dormitory areas, arriving at the path into the hills behind the academy.
The towering mountains had been shaped through the abilities of an immensely powerful earth-type Super Douluo in Heaven Dou's history.
The path wound between ancient trees that towered into the sky on either side.
Heavenly Heart Lake was not large, but its clear waters reflected a sky full of stars.
A gentle breeze stirred shimmering ripples across the surface.
Huo Yuhao spread his Ice Dragon Wings and swept toward Star-Watching Island in the center of the lake.
Cold spread from the Ice Dragon Wings, leaving an exceedingly long trail of ice across the water.
In just a few breaths, Huo Yuhao landed steadily before the doors of the Pure Heart Retreat on Star-Watching Island.
He folded his Ice Dragon Wings and knocked softly. "Sister Su Tong, I'm here."
The door slowly opened.
Su Tong wore white, her beauty pure and otherworldly. Her long, snow-white hair fell loose, gleaming faintly beneath the moonlight.
Her ice-blue eyes rested on Huo Yuhao, and her voice was as cold as frost. "I never expected you to have twin martial souls."
"Word has already spread across the Douluo Continent. The Body Sect emerged to shake the world by trampling on Shrek, bringing along its Young Sect Master, Huo Yuhao, who possesses both an ultimate martial soul and a body martial soul."
"Your prominence truly is unrivaled now."
Huo Yuhao said, "Sister Su Tong, you didn't come all this way just to tell me that, did you?"
Su Tong stepped aside, gesturing for Huo Yuhao to enter the residence.
"My martial soul is the Heavenly Snow Woman," she said. "But it clearly falls short of your Azure Sky Profound Ice Dragon."
Su Tong recalled the scene when she had met Huo Yuhao at the gates of Heaven Dou City.
The faint pressure emanating from Huo Yuhao then had actually made even her Heavenly Snow Woman martial soul tremble.
"I came to find you simply because I wanted to tell you something."
Su Tong and Huo Yuhao sat opposite each other at the tea table beside the window. "I don't know whether this is an isolated case or something our ultimate martial souls have in common."
"After I became a Soul Elder, my cultivation speed suddenly dropped. You could practically say that every level was a bottleneck."
"Even though I've tried everything I can and cultivated day and night without stopping, I'm still only a rank forty-seven Soul Ancestor."
Compared with ordinary Soul Masters, such a cultivation speed could already be called genius-level, at least comparable to Mu Yun and Mu Xue.
Yet Su Tong was extremely dissatisfied with it.
"The reason I came to Heaven Dou City that time was to consult their public library and find out whether this situation was normal."
"It was only recently that I confirmed from an old text that had found its way into the hands of the common people that this was something all ultimate martial souls shared."
After finishing, Su Tong took a slight breath, seemingly unaccustomed to saying so much at once.
She took a small sip of tea and asked, "What rank are you now?"
Huo Yuhao said, "Rank twenty-six."
Su Tong's delicate brows furrowed slightly, a trace of puzzlement flashing through her eyes.
"You now have the Body Sect behind you, and you're also the Heaven Dou Empire's Azure Dragon Viscount."
She said, "That means you've already given up your identity as someone from the Star Luo Empire. In that case, this sect and empire will certainly devote all their resources to nurturing you."
"Given the early-stage talent of an ultimate martial soul, you should at least be a Soul Elder by now."