Leaving the Far North

"It's just ahead. This is as far as I'll take you. You'll have to go the rest of the way yourself." Di Tian looked down at the vast ice fields and set Huo Yuhao down.

"Thank you. Give my regards to the Auspicious Beast." Huo Yuhao thanked Di Tian.

Di Tian looked at Huo Yuhao, his gaze finally settling on his ice-blue hair. "Aren't you going to disguise your hair and face?"

"No. Cover this up, cover that up-one lie needs another lie to cover it. At least let me appear before them with my real face." Huo Yuhao shook his head. He had already returned to his adolescent form, but his hair was ice-blue now and could never return to black. His face, though ninety percent the same as before, had become more handsome, his skin fairer. His youthful face bore firm contours, brimming with boyish vitality.

One could say Huo Yuhao still looked like Huo Yuhao, but overall, it was as though a loser had staged a stunning comeback. Among his classmates, his looks had only counted as handsome by ordinary standards; now, even amid a crowd of beautiful men and women, he could hold his own.

"All right. Just explain it properly when the time comes. I don't want to have to turn around and come back for you," Di Tian said.

"Mm." Huo Yuhao nodded lightly, and Di Tian turned and left.

Huo Yuhao changed back into the clothes he had worn before entering the Far North and put on his coat made from Crimson Flame Tiger hide, though he no longer actually needed a hide coat to keep warm.

With his Ice God Martial Soul, cold had long since left him behind. Even the ice of the entire world was now under his command.

But an act had to be carried through to the end. Looking down at the clothes Aunt Lan had bought him, Huo Yuhao finally made some sweeping alterations to them and his coat, leaving himself looking thoroughly bedraggled.

After checking his direction, he strode toward the white expanse of snow ahead. He had walked for almost ten minutes, wind sweeping snow across the white landscape, when a voice suddenly came from ahead. "Wait, up ahead... is that Yuhao?"

"Who's calling me?" Huo Yuhao asked somewhat timidly.

"It really is Yuhao!" A delighted voice came from the other side, and a figure suddenly flashed into view before Huo Yuhao. He looked up and saw Yan Shaozhe, dean of Shrek Academy's Martial Soul Academy.

"Headmaster Yan!" Huo Yuhao called out, his face filled with delighted surprise.

"I never thought you'd still be alive, kid. Lexuan, Lin'er, your Sister Strawberry, and I have been searching for you for almost over a month. We even mobilized the Shrek people here to help search. We thought you'd long since become a Soul Beast's dinner." Looking astonished, Yan Shaozhe rubbed Huo Yuhao's head.

"It's been that long? I really didn't expect that either. I did nearly die along the way." Huo Yuhao smiled wryly.

"You'll be all right now. I'll take you to the others." Yan Shaozhe took Huo Yuhao's hand and led him through the wind and snow, soon joining a group of people.

There were several dozen of them, but Huo Yuhao only knew a few: Zhang Lexuan, Strawberry, Xian Lin'er, and Ling Luochen.

"Yuhao! Thank goodness, you're still alive!" At the sight of Huo Yuhao, Strawberry lunged forward and gathered him into her arms, crying tears of joy. "Thank goodness! I thought I'd never see you again!"

"I..." Huo Yuhao badly wanted to say that he had been fine, but if she kept hugging him like this, something would happen to him sooner or later.

Strawberry did not have much of a figure, and she held him so tightly that Huo Yuhao felt as though his whole face were pressed against a steel plate. She was practically killing him with her embrace.

"Calm down, Strawberry. Isn't Yuhao fine? But if you squeeze any harder, he might lose his life." It was Zhang Lexuan who noticed something wrong with Huo Yuhao's complexion and hurried forward to rescue him.

Only then did Strawberry release Huo Yuhao. His fair little face was flushed red with a purplish tinge, clearly from being unable to breathe.

"Sorry, I got too excited." Tears still clung to Strawberry's face. She truly had been afraid.

"Cough, cough..." Huo Yuhao coughed violently several times before slowly catching his breath.

"It's good that you're safe. But Yuhao, what happened to your hair and face?" In high spirits, Xian Lin'er stepped forward happily, only then noticing the changes to Huo Yuhao's appearance and hair color.

Though he was still recognizable as Huo Yuhao at a glance, anyone with eyes could see how much he had changed.

"Maybe it's because my second Martial Soul awakened?" Huo Yuhao said uncertainly.

"Your second Martial Soul awakened?! You awakened your second Martial Soul!" Strawberry exclaimed in surprise. Of course they knew Huo Yuhao had a second Martial Soul. Their trip to the Far North had originally been to help him awaken it, but unfortunately, those things had happened along the way.

Of course, she did not know that Huo Yun had arranged for the Titan Snow Demon King and the others to come pick Huo Yuhao up.

"Yes." Huo Yuhao nodded.

"What Martial Soul?" Yan Shaozhe asked.

"My Martial Soul is a little unusual. I named it Frost." As he spoke, Huo Yuhao raised his right hand. Twelve ice crystals flew from his palm, revolving rhythmically in the air around it.

They looked like ice crystals, but a closer look revealed distinctive vein patterns within each one.

"This stuff is frost?" Strawberry stared at the ice crystals in Huo Yuhao's hand. Her understanding of frost was completely different from the Frost in his hand.

"Strawberry, Huo Yuhao only named it Frost. It isn't actual frost," Zhang Lexuan reminded her.

"Yuhao, what abilities does this Martial Soul have?" Xian Lin'er studied the Martial Soul in Huo Yuhao's hand. After a moment's thought, she realized there was no record of it at Shrek and could not help asking.

"My Martial Soul is ice-attributed. It contains an extremely powerful ice attribute. I'm not sure how powerful, but all the Soul Beasts I encountered along the way seemed quite frightened of it and turned tail immediately. I tried it earlier, without any Soul Skills." Huo Yuhao waved his hand as he spoke. The ice crystals revolving around his palm suddenly released a tremendous surge of cold directly ahead, forming a one-meter-high mound of ice on the spot in the blink of an eye.

The instant that cold appeared, disbelief filled both Yan Shaozhe's and Xian Lin'er's eyes. They spoke in unison. "Ultimate Ice."

They could feel the cold's ability to suppress other attributes. They had felt this ability before-not from anyone else, but from the Emperor Auspicious Beast, the Three-Eyed Golden Lion.

There was only one possibility when the same ability appeared in Huo Yuhao. The cold he released closely resembled the Three-Eyed Golden Lion's ability, and both immediately thought of Ultimate Attributes.

Only ultimate elemental attributes could suppress other, non-ultimate elemental attributes.

"Deans, you mean Yuhao's second Martial Soul is Ultimate Ice?" Zhang Lexuan quickly understood what Yan Shaozhe and Xian Lin'er meant.

"Yes. Just then, I felt as though the power within me wanted to bow in worship to it. It's undoubtedly Ultimate Ice." No one present had more authority to speak than Ling Luochen. Her Martial Soul was ice-attributed to begin with, and she could clearly sense the intensity of the cold emanating from that Martial Soul.

"So this is an Ultimate Attribute. I'd only read about them in books before." Huo Yuhao looked as though he had only just learned the value of his Martial Soul.

"You really are a lucky kid. Tell us how you awakened it." Yan Shaozhe smiled as he asked. Though he did not know how Huo Yuhao had awakened it, he had originally wanted to witness the awakening of his second Martial Soul and learn about his circumstances. Now that it had already awakened, he could only see how much Huo Yuhao knew.

"I don't know either. After that blizzard blew me away, I felt as though I'd entered a very warm hot spring. When I woke up again, I found myself buried beneath thick snow. It took the strength of nine oxen and two tigers to climb out. After surviving that ordeal, I discovered my second Martial Soul had awakened." Huo Yuhao shook his head. He certainly could not reveal what had really happened.

But his account left Yan Shaozhe and Xian Lin'er in a fog. With no knowledge of how it had awakened, they could only guess.

"Could the Titan Snow Demon King's attack have stimulated Yuhao's Martial Soul?"

"It's also possible Huo Yuhao happened to land in the place he sensed and somehow awakened his Martial Soul there."

"Whichever it was... isn't that ridiculously lucky?"

"Deans, whatever happened, Yuhao awakening his Martial Soul is a good thing. That means we've accomplished what we came to the Far North to do. Yuhao is safe, and his Martial Soul has awakened. Now that the Ice God's Divine Seat also has an owner, we can stop thinking about it. Everything has come to a perfect conclusion. Let's hurry and leave the Far North. This really isn't a good place." Strawberry addressed the two deans as they discussed how Huo Yuhao's Martial Soul had awakened.

"You're right." Only then did Xian Lin'er and Yan Shaozhe come to their senses. This really was no place for a discussion. It was the deadly region known as the Far North.

As for how long they should stay, the previous outcome told them enough. Even with two Titled Douluos overseeing things, the other three had still become separated from them. Danger lurked everywhere here. Who knew whether they might turn around and encounter two more Ferocious Beasts? It was best to leave early.

As they spoke, the two led the group onward, flying out of the Far North. They had been on the ground earlier to rest. Yan Shaozhe had sensed someone approaching, checked with his Spiritual Power, and discovered Huo Yuhao. He did not know whether to call himself lucky or unlucky.

If he was unlucky, he had still found Huo Yuhao in the end. But if he was lucky, a single trip into the Far North had brought so much trouble.

After thinking for a long time, once they had flown out of the Far North, Yan Shaozhe looked back at the vast white land and shook his head with a sigh. "Unless there's a reason, we should come to the Far North less often. This place is far too uncanny."

Xian Lin'er, who enjoyed sniping at Yan Shaozhe, agreed for once. "Agreed."

"Speaking of which, Yuhao, your Martial Soul has awakened now, but you haven't obtained a Soul Ring. You're still a rank-twenty Soul Grandmaster. What are your thoughts on that?" Yan Shaozhe withdrew his gaze and looked at Huo Yuhao.

"Well, I already have my second Soul Ring," Huo Yuhao said.

"What? You've already obtained your second Soul Ring?" Xian Lin'er, who was carrying Huo Yuhao as they flew, asked in surprise.

"Yes. I found it while I was lost in the Far North. It was a thousand-year Soul Beast, an Ice Silkworm. It gave me-it gave me a Soul Skill called Spiritual Simulation, which lets me simulate a person's attacks or a Soul Beast's attacks. The consumption is a little high, though. Some things I can't simulate, probably because my Soul Power can't sustain them.

"It also lets me simulate a person's aura and appearance." Huo Yuhao nodded. In truth, he had not obtained his second Soul Ring, but he had to tell this lie because Huo Yun had already arranged everything for him.

So, for the Soul Skill, he simply used one provided by his first Soul Ring.

"Show us when we stop to rest. An Ice Silkworm can provide such an impressive Soul Skill?" Strawberry asked curiously. Huo Yuhao made it sound miraculous, and she wanted to see whether he really could simulate things.

"Sure." Huo Yuhao agreed without hesitation.

The group flew toward Shrek City.

At the same time, the blizzard sweeping across the entire Far North and the torrential rain over the whole Douluo Continent ceased.

News of everything that had happened in the Far North began flying back to the major powers as swiftly as birds that had sprouted wings.

At the same time, the appearance of the person who had obtained the Divine Seat-Huo Yuhao's female form-along with information about her, spread across the entire continent.

In an underground space deep within the Evil Demon Forest of the Sun Moon Empire, two figures studied the information that had come back. One, clearly a woman, said, "Someone Di Tian brought. That means he's most likely in the Star Dou Great Forest now."

"Probably. But Xi Shui, that Divine Seat is ice-attributed. We approached it before, and if we hadn't retreated quickly, we would have been frozen on the spot." The other figure, a man, seemed to see what the woman opposite him intended and tried to dissuade her.

"So what if it doesn't suit us? It's a Divine Seat. What if it can let us become gods? Even if it can't directly help us become gods, a chance at godhood would be good enough. In any case, I won't give up. Someone! Send people to the Star Dou Great Forest and find this person for me, whatever it takes." But clearly, the female figure would not give up merely because she was told to. She swept her hand and issued the order.

Soon, more than a dozen figures flew out of the Evil Demon Forest.

Even deep within the Evil Demon Forest, an eye brimming with evil slowly opened.

"A Divine Seat, in the Star Dou Great Forest? Interesting. It seems I'll have to revisit an old haunt."

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