The next day!
Last night, after listening to Huo Yun explain the cultivation methods, Huo Yuhao had spent the rest of the night trying them out.
Since the methods for cultivating Soul Power and Spiritual Power were a matching set, as he continued cultivating, Huo Yuhao discovered that either method could actually set the other into motion.
In other words, even if Huo Yuhao focused entirely on cultivating Soul Power, the Spiritual Power cultivation method would also circulate under its influence. The reverse was true as well: when he cultivated Spiritual Power, his Soul Power would also be stirred into motion.
He could cultivate both Soul Power and Spiritual Power at once. However, since his main focus was on Soul Power, his Spiritual Power cultivation could not compare to actively circulating the method himself. The reverse was also true, and neither interfered with whichever method he was primarily cultivating.
This saved Huo Yuhao quite a bit of trouble. In the future, he could devote one day to cultivating Soul Power and the next to cultivating Spiritual Power. After all, while he cultivated one, the other would quietly circulate as well. Even if it fell short, he could make up for it the following day.
Early that morning, Huo Yuhao got up to try the Body-Refining Method Huo Yun had taught him.
The principles of the Body-Forging Fist were: the body led the breath, the breath guided Soul Power, and Soul Power forged the body!
As his body moved, his breathing had to keep pace without falling into disorder. Guided by the special breathing technique, the Soul Power within him began circulating toward designated parts of his body, directly battering the flesh there.
One full cycle covered every part of the body, and completing a set took roughly ten minutes.
Yet those ten minutes left Huo Yuhao drenched in sweat. After finishing a set, his entire body ached, and he could barely remain standing.
"Don't force yourself. Sit there and rest a while. This is what happens after practicing the Body-Forging Fist. You only practice it once a day, no matter how strong you become. Unless your physical strength completely surpasses your Soul Power, finishing one full cycle counts as passing." Huo Yun spoke as she watched Huo Yuhao stubbornly refuse to collapse.
There was no one else here. He did not need to push himself so hard.
"But you never said I'd be completely drained afterward! Even my Soul Power is almost gone." Huo Yuhao plopped onto the ground, panting heavily. Halfway through, he had already felt unable to continue, but he had gritted his teeth and held out until the end.
"But the effects are powerful. Once a day strengthens your body. Oh, and don't forget to eat more afterward. The blood and vital energy your body uses up need to be replenished through food. At noon, go make Soul Tools at the shop I mentioned last night. Before that, though, survive first."
"What do you mean?" Huo Yuhao did not understand her last words. What did she mean, survive first? Wasn't he alive and well?
"Huo Yuhao!" Before Huo Yuhao could figure out what Huo Yun meant, a familiar feminine voice, laced with anger, rang out beside him.
Huo Yuhao, who had still been sitting on the ground panting, instantly stiffened. He mechanically turned toward the voice.
He saw two familiar figures: Strawberry and Zhang Lexuan!
Strawberry's face was filled with anger, and her eyes seemed to spit fire.
As for Zhang Lexuan, her reaction was not as strong as Strawberry's, but her slightly darkened expression felt to Huo Yuhao like the calm before a storm.
I'm done for!
The moment he saw them, Huo Yuhao knew he was finished. Forcing down his fear, he greeted the two women. "Good morning, Sister Strawberry, Sister Lexuan."
"My. Morning. Is. Not. Good!" Enunciating every word, Strawberry strode over to Huo Yuhao and reached out to twist his ear.
"Getting bold, aren't you? So young, and you've already learned to leave without a word. Do you know I've been worried sick about you lately?"
Strawberry left the rest unsaid, twisting Huo Yuhao's ear harder and harder.
"Ow, ow, ow! Gently, Sister Strawberry, gently! I was wrong, I was wrong!" Huo Yuhao repeatedly begged for mercy.
"Stop playing pitiful. Where have you been all this time? If you don't give me an explanation today, this isn't over. And don't tell me you went home to get something. I don't believe it." Despite her words, Strawberry eased her grip considerably.
Huo Yuhao looked toward Zhang Lexuan. Although she said nothing, her eyes had already said everything.
Sure enough, people who knew his actual circumstances were not as easy to fool as Uncle Cao and Aunt Lan. Or perhaps Uncle Cao and Aunt Lan had not believed him either, but seeing that Huo Yuhao did not want to talk, they had stopped pressing.
But judging by Strawberry's manner, she probably would not give up unless he told her something today.
"I went to the Star Dou Great Forest." Seeing this, Huo Yuhao decided not to hide it.
"You went to the Star Dou Great Forest? What for? You've reached rank ten?" Zhang Lexuan froze for a moment at his words, then understood. What else could he have gone to the Star Dou Great Forest for? Naturally, he had gone looking for Soul Beasts and a Soul Ring. In other words, Huo Yuhao had already reached rank ten.
"Yes." Huo Yuhao nodded.
"How did you reach rank ten so quickly? Wasn't your innate Soul Power rank six? Back then, I cultivated for over a year, almost two, before reaching rank ten. No, you were lying to us from the start! Your innate Soul Power wasn't rank six at all. Tell me, what was it really?" Strawberry reacted a beat late, but once she understood, her hand grew even more merciless.
"Yes, it wasn't rank six! I was already rank ten when we met. I had innate full Soul Power!" In pain, Huo Yuhao hurriedly answered.
This revelation startled both Strawberry and Zhang Lexuan instead. As outstanding students of Shrek Academy, they knew all too well the significance of innate full Soul Power.
Basically, possessing innate full Soul Power guaranteed that one would at least become a Titled Douluo-level powerhouse in the future.
And then there was Huo Yuhao's Martial Soul. Those were his eyes, a high-grade spiritual-type Body Martial Soul!
Shrek Academy might go an entire year without recruiting a genius of this caliber.
Thinking that such a genius had been hidden in their home, Strawberry felt both delighted and furious. "Fine, fine, fine, fine! Innate full Soul Power, and you lied to us that your innate Soul Power was only rank six. You hid it for half a year, decided it was time to get a Soul Ring, and then sneaked out to find one without telling us a word.
"Tell me, are your Sister Lexuan and I that untrustworthy? It's been half a year, and you couldn't bear to tell us a single word of truth?"
If Huo Yuhao had not told the truth at the very beginning, they could have understood. But it had been almost half a year. Searching her conscience, Strawberry knew she had come back from time to time over those months to teach Huo Yuhao common knowledge about the Soul Master World. She had treated him very well, regarding him as something of a little brother.
And the result was that her own little brother had rebelled for half a year without telling her a single word of truth.
Although he was not her biological brother, this amounted to her own little brother rebelling. How could an older sister not be furious? She was ready to explode!
Spare the rod for three days, and the child would climb onto the roof to tear off the tiles. She had to teach him what bloodline suppression meant. Even without a blood connection, she had to make him understand who was in charge in this house.
"My mother and I were hunted down because of my innate full Soul Power." With that single sentence, Huo Yuhao completely extinguished Strawberry's anger.
"What did you say?" Strawberry dug at her ear. She understood every word Huo Yuhao had spoken, so why did she find them a little incomprehensible when put together?
"You said you were hunted down because of your talent? Why?" Zhang Lexuan did not quite understand either. If Huo Yuhao was a child of some great clan, someone with innate full Soul Power should have been nurtured as a core member.
If he came from an ordinary family, any great clan that found him would surely try to recruit him, rather than immediately think of silencing him forever upon discovering him. It made no logical sense.
"My mother was originally the maid of a great clan's patriarch. Because they grew up together, my mother later became..." Huo Yuhao did not finish, but Strawberry and Zhang Lexuan understood what he meant. "Anyway, afterward, she had me. But that patriarch had a first wife, who never liked my mother. While he was away, she claimed my mother had died of illness. When I awakened innate full Soul Power, it would definitely have to be reported to him.
"She had already lied. Once that man found out, she'd be in trouble too, so she simply decided that, having started, she might as well see it through.
"That's why I lied at first. If my Soul Power hadn't been innate full Soul Power to begin with, perhaps none of that would have happened."
By the end, tears had filled Huo Yuhao's eyes. He hated his own weakness. He had made grand declarations before his mother that he would protect her in the future, only to end up protecting nothing at all.
"Where is that damned bastard? Who is it? I'll avenge you." Strawberry was so furious that she looked ready to shatter her pearly teeth with the force of her clenched jaw.
"There's no need. I'll settle this debt with them. I'll settle it with my own hands." Huo Yuhao shook his head, intense killing intent glinting in his tear-filled eyes.
"Then how do you plan to take revenge?" Zhang Lexuan asked, drawing Huo Yuhao into her arms with tender concern.
Although they had guessed there must be a story behind it, they had not expected this.
Zhang Lexuan was an orphan too, but her family had been slaughtered by enemies, leaving only her alive. Back then, her mother had hidden her beneath a bed and shielded her with her own body. That was the only reason she had survived.
She understood Huo Yuhao's present anger all too well. Back then, she too had lost her reason in pursuit of revenge. She did not want Huo Yuhao to become like that.
"I may be weak now, but that doesn't mean I'll be weak in the future. I believe it won't take me twenty years. When that time comes, I'll make that woman pay for everything she's done," Huo Yuhao said through gritted teeth.
He believed he had that ability. He was the Child of Destiny nurtured by this world! If he still lacked the ability to take revenge on the White Tiger Duke's Mansion after twenty years, he might as well find somewhere to hang himself.
If he was that weak, how would he protect his other mother in the future?
"All right." Looking at Huo Yuhao, Zhang Lexuan knew this was a hurdle in his heart that he had to cross himself.
"But growing stronger doesn't happen in a single leap. Speaking of which, how was the first Soul Ring you found? What's its Soul Skill like?" Strawberry tried to turn Huo Yuhao's thoughts elsewhere, while also feeling curious about his Soul Skill.
"My Soul Skill... you'll understand once you experience it." At the mention of Soul Skills, Huo Yuhao paused. He currently had four Soul Skills and was considering which one to reveal. After all, he could hardly say his first Soul Ring was a Million-Year Soul Ring with four Soul Skills. That would be a little too earth-shattering.
"What sort of Soul Skill is it? Is it difficult to explain?" Strawberry assumed Huo Yuhao's Soul Skill was complicated and hard for him to explain.
Soon, she and Zhang Lexuan both gave a slight shudder.
Everything within a radius of 120 meters appeared in the two women's minds in three-dimensional form.
The surrounding houses, the people inside, and everything they were doing all seemed to slow down. Every change in the muscles of everyone within range, every minute detail, even the dust in the air entered their minds with nothing left out.
This...
The two women looked at Huo Yuhao in shock as a yellow Soul Ring quietly rose around him.
A hundred-year Soul Ring was perfectly normal. It had long been common knowledge that the limit for a Soul Master's first Soul Ring was a little over four hundred years.
For instance, both their Soul Rings had limits of four hundred years, while Zhang Lexuan's first Soul Ring was even close to five hundred years.
Thus, seeing a yellow Soul Ring was nothing remarkable, but Huo Yuhao's Soul Skill truly shocked them.
This Soul Skill was outrageously powerful.
As a Soul Emperor and a Soul King, they understood all too well how formidable Huo Yuhao's Soul Skill was. Its terrifying support capability of anticipating the enemy allowed them to easily grasp every change within a radius of 120 meters.
In battle, rapidly anticipating an opponent's next move and intercepting it in advance meant being half a step faster, and that was still faster. Moreover, it was absolutely a natural bane of agility-attack types.
What Strawberry and Zhang Lexuan did not know was that Huo Yuhao was using not one Soul Skill, but two.
Spiritual Detection and Spiritual Sharing!
The remaining two Soul Skills were Spiritual Shock and Spiritual Simulation.
These differed from Huo Yuhao's original four Soul Skills. When Huo Yuhao obtained his Soul Ring, Huo Yun had intervened and slightly altered the Soul Skills he received.
Huo Yun knew all too well how powerful the two support abilities, Spiritual Detection and Spiritual Sharing, were, so she kept them. Then there was Spiritual Shock. After looking through the options, she discovered that it was the only offensive Soul Skill the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm could provide, so she simply kept it too.
The remaining Spiritual Simulation was actually a survival skill belonging to the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm's race, the Ice Silkworms. It could use Spiritual Power to blend the user into the surrounding space, or imitate the appearances of various Soul Beasts to intimidate opponents.
An additional ability allowed the user to change the color of their Soul Rings, just as Huo Yuhao had now changed his Million-Year Soul Ring's original lustrous white into the yellow of a hundred-year Soul Ring.
Huo Yuhao had originally possessed this ability too, but it had come from his second Soul Ring. Huo Yun had allowed him to obtain this powerful survival ability ahead of time.
Moreover, compared to the Simulation Huo Yuhao had originally obtained, this was an upgraded version.
This Spiritual Simulation could imitate not only appearances, but attacks as well. In other words, it could simulate other people's Soul Skills, and they would be genuinely effective. However, the simulated Soul Skills consumed enormous amounts of Soul Power and Spiritual Power, so they could only be used when necessary.
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