Half a year later, Huo Yun awakens

At Uncle Cao's words, everyone eating nearby turned to look at Huo Yuhao.

Although this was Shrek City, that did not mean Soul Masters were everywhere.

Among the people gathered here, only Aunt Lan was a Soul Master, currently at rank 23. Everyone else was an ordinary person.

Naturally, they were especially curious about a child with innate soul power.

"Yes." Huo Yuhao nodded and readily admitted it. After a night, he had more or less thought things through. After all, he still had to cultivate, so hiding it forever was impossible. Surely he could not stop cultivating until Huo Yun woke up. That would waste far too much time.

"That's a good thing! What rank is your innate soul power?" Uncle Cao asked curiously.

"Rank 6." Huo Yuhao gave a middling number. As for revealing his innate full soul power-forget it. The shadow that experience had left over him was too deep.

"That's pretty high, only one rank below that girl Strawberry. Cultivate hard, and perhaps you can be like her, reaching above rank 15 at eleven and entering Shrek Academy," Aunt Lan said with a smile. Being eleven with cultivation above rank 15 was Shrek Academy's minimum admission requirement.

Huo Yuhao smiled without answering.

"True enough. We never imagined that girl would make it so far, either. We must have accumulated virtue in our past lives." Mentioning Strawberry's achievements filled Uncle Cao's face with pride.

He was an ordinary man, and Aunt Lan was only a rank 23 Soul Grandmaster, but their daughter was already a Soul King. At this rate, even if she did not break through to Titled Douluo in this lifetime, becoming a Soul Douluo would be absolutely no problem.

That was extraordinary luck. Whenever he met his old friends for a meal, bringing it up always gave him something to be proud of.

Proud as he was, what Uncle Cao said to Huo Yuhao was, "Yuhao, although your Sister Strawberry is a flighty one, she's accomplished quite a bit. You're no worse than her, so work hard! Try to surpass her someday. Then we'll see how that girl can still brag to me about how amazing she is."

Huo Yuhao froze for a moment. How was he supposed to respond to that?

"Why bring that up? Don't put pressure on the child. Yuhao, don't listen to your Uncle Cao's nonsense. Just do your best from now on." Aunt Lan shot Uncle Cao a reproachful glare.

"There's nothing wrong with a fine young man having some ambition." Uncle Cao did not dare defy his wife, but he still wanted to preserve a little dignity as the head of the household.

"There's nothing wrong with ambition, but you can't just go filling his head with any old ambition.

"Yuhao, don't listen to your Uncle Cao. Listen to your aunt. Settle down here without any worries. This will be your home from now on, so don't stand on ceremony." Aunt Lan first gave Uncle Cao another look, thoroughly suppressing him and frightening him into lowering his head and drinking his porridge. Then she turned to Huo Yuhao and spoke gently.

"I understand." Huo Yuhao nodded lightly, but he certainly did not take those words to heart. After all, he was an outsider.

"Oh, right, I also heard that girl Strawberry say your grilled fish is especially delicious." Seeing Huo Yuhao's reaction, Uncle Cao knew he still had not let his guard down. Suddenly remembering something, he looked up and asked.

"It's all right, I suppose. Sister Strawberry was just praising me." Huo Yuhao scratched his head.

"She's hardly the type to praise people. She has a very picky palate. If she said that, you must have genuine skill. How about you make lunch today, and we all try your grilled fish?" Aunt Lan knew her daughter's personality well. Those words could not have been false.

"Sure. Just don't complain that it tastes bad if I don't do a good job." Huo Yuhao did not refuse.

"Of course we won't." A sturdy, bald middle-aged man was the first to agree, and everyone else followed.

The morning passed amid their chatter and laughter. After breakfast, Uncle Cao and Aunt Lan told Huo Yuhao to go cultivate. They said he had talent and would surely accomplish a great deal in the future, so he could not afford to waste time like this.

Huo Yuhao did not cultivate for too long. He went to help well before lunchtime.

Just as they had said, lunch was grilled fish prepared by Huo Yuhao.

His skill at grilling fish stunned everyone present and won unanimous praise.

"Haha... I told you that girl Strawberry wouldn't praise someone casually! This tastes fantastic. All the grilled fish I've eaten over the years isn't even in the same league." Uncle Cao's praise was so extravagant that it made Huo Yuhao a little embarrassed.

"It's not that good, is it?"

"You're being modest, Yuhao. I think we could add grilled fish to our menu. How does Yuhao's Grilled Fish sound? We'll set aside a spot just for you and sell only fifty fish a day. We'll handle the preparation, and you'll grill them. Once you're done, you can clock out. You still need to cultivate, after all. Of course, we won't make you grill for free. You'll definitely be paid." Uncle Cao waved his hand.

"I think that'll work! Nothing to complain about, Boss, but do we get any employee perks? Like having Yuhao save an extra fish or two?" Before Huo Yuhao could answer, a kitchen assistant eating with them spoke up first.

"What's the point of saving one or two? Who would that feed? You're not planning to sneak off and hog them yourself, are you? If we're saving any, it ought to be seventeen or eighteen so everyone can have some." Another person exposed the kitchen assistant's little scheme.

"Stop, stop, stop. Save what? I said fifty fish, and there won't be any extras. That would waste Yuhao's cultivation time. Yuhao has soul power, and he's going to become a powerful Soul Master. I'm telling you, if you hold him back, you'll be the first one I fire," Uncle Cao said fiercely.

Yet those words warmed Huo Yuhao's heart. He had actually already seen through it: Uncle Cao had brought this up to lay the groundwork.

It would let him stay here with peace of mind. Grilling fish would bring the restaurant a little extra income, but the real purpose was to let him feel truly comfortable staying, since he would have work to do.

And if Huo Yuhao were a little more thick-skinned and wanted to stay anyway, they seemed likely to welcome that too.

Just like that, Huo Yuhao officially settled down at the restaurant called Cao’s Rice Bowl as a cook in charge of grilled fish. Yes, a cook, not an apprentice.

Their praise for Huo Yuhao's grilled fish was no empty flattery. The very first day it went on sale, it attracted quite a few repeat customers. It took nearly three hours to sell all fifty fish that day.

On the second day, he finished in less than an hour, and the time only grew shorter afterward.

No one else had Huo Yuhao's control over the heat, so he became one of Cao’s Rice Bowl’s chefs, though he was responsible only for grilled fish.

As for why it was called Cao’s Rice Bowl, Huo Yuhao only learned after moving in that it had originally sold rice bowls. The shop was Uncle Cao's family business, established in his grandfather's generation and gradually developed into a restaurant.

Although it could now be called a hotel, they still kept the name Uncle Cao's grandfather had given it: Cao’s Rice Bowl.

As Huo Yuhao's grilled fish gradually gained a reputation, he spent less and less time grilling, because some orders were already being placed the night before.

When Huo Yuhao went to help, he simply waited for people to arrive and grilled their fish. He even knew beforehand when they would come to collect them.

Eventually, fifty fish were not enough to go around. Some people suggested that Uncle Cao and Aunt Lan offer more grilled fish, but neither of them considered doing so.

Fifty fish remained fifty fish.

The days flew by like this, and half a year passed.

Actually preserving Huo Yun'er's soul had not been difficult. The difficult part was that Huo Yun had also blocked the enemy's view-Tang San's view.

That had been no easy feat. Whatever else he was, he was still a God King. Even as Douluo Consciousness, Huo Yun's strength could not compare to his. If not for her standing as World Consciousness and the fact that this was her territory, she might not have been able to obscure his view at all.

But obscuring his view had also exacted an enormous price.

She had spent a full half year asleep before finally, slowly awakening.

"I'm back, Yuhao. Did you miss Mommy?" Huo Yun might now have fully immersed herself in the role of Huo Yuhao's mother. Of course, it might also have been because their innate connection was there, inevitably bringing them a little closer.

Huo Yuhao felt the same way. Though barely half a day had passed between his officially learning of her existence and her falling asleep, hearing Huo Yun's voice again filled his heart with happiness and joy. "You're awake, Mom."

Huo Yun's presence proved that he still had a home, that he was not alone.

"Mm, that was such a comfortable sleep. Have you been all right while I was asleep? Has anyone bullied you? Tell me. If anyone dares bully my child, I'll show them what heavenly punishment means!" Huo Yun's voice rang out spiritedly. Her strength had now recovered too. As long as she acted behind the Divine Realm's back without letting its damned gods and rules discover her, she could send a torrential downpour over someone's head, meant for that person alone, complete with lightning strikes.

"No one's bullied me. Uncle Cao, Aunt Lan, Sister Lin, and Sister Strawberry have all treated me very well." Hearing her words, Huo Yuhao rubbed his nose, which felt a little prickly. This was what it felt like to have a parent protecting him.

"Uncle Cao, Aunt Lan, Sister Lin, Sister Strawberry?" Huo Yun paused, then drew on her authority to quickly check what had happened to Huo Yuhao over the past half year.

Shrek City. Sure enough, it was Shrek City.

What an ill-fated connection.

After finishing her investigation, Huo Yun sighed. When she had sensed Zhang Lexuan and the others before, she had known Huo Yuhao would definitely come to Shrek City, especially after she fell asleep.

Deep down, Huo Yun did not want Huo Yuhao to have anything to do with Shrek. After all, there were hardly any normal people here, and power left behind by Tang San remained here too.

But now they had already made contact, and Huo Yuhao had followed them to Shrek City. Given his current relationship with Strawberry and the others, he might feel reluctant if she simply asked him to leave.

Why had the original Huo Yuhao, clearly chosen by Douluo Consciousness to protect it, ended up on Tang San's side? Wasn't it because Tang San knew how to play the game of human relationships, using his daughter to bind Huo Yuhao to his side?

Huo Yuhao had been the type who lacked love from childhood. If someone gave him an inch of kindness, he would repay them with a foot.

Because he was alone, once someone treated him well, he wanted to protect that warmth with everything he had.

Honestly, a Huo Yuhao like that was better suited to being the female lead than the male lead. His personality was practically the embodiment of the perfect heroine. If only he were a daughter. Tang San had no son at present, so he could not bind him even if he wanted to.

"Yes. Sister Strawberry was one of the people in that group who saved us before, and Uncle Cao and Aunt Lan..." Hearing Huo Yun's surprise, Huo Yuhao thought she did not know who Strawberry and the others were, so he introduced them.

After listening, Huo Yun smiled and said, "I know. Have you forgotten who your mother is? I'm this planet's consciousness. Whatever happens on it, I only need to take a look to know what happened."

Huo Yuhao scratched his head awkwardly. He really had forgotten that.

"Still, your current situation does make things a little troublesome. I need to take you to find a soul ring next, but it won't be easy to explain to outsiders." Huo Yun did not dwell on it for long. The immediate priority was to find Huo Yuhao a soul ring and let him truly become a Soul Master.

"Mom, other people form groups to find soul rings. We need to find one that suits me. How are we going to do that without telling anyone?" Huo Yuhao was no longer the child who had never set foot in the Soul Master world. Over the past half year, he had learned about that world and the most common knowledge concerning Soul Masters from Strawberry, Zhang Lexuan, and the others who occasionally visited.

He also had plans of his own. At the very least, he felt he should not settle for an ordinary soul ring just to fill the slot. To find one that suited him, his first ring would require hunting a soul beast around four hundred years old.

"Don't worry. For the one I've found you, the two of us can go alone. And he isn't an ordinary four-hundred-year soul beast, but the only million-year soul beast on the continent right now." As Huo Yun spoke, the character for "hundred" appeared on her multicolored ball of light, with "ten thousand" appearing beside it.

"A million years?!" Huo Yuhao was stunned by the news, his mouth hanging open. His eyes now seemed to bear "hundred" in one and "ten thousand" in the other.

As far as he knew, an ordinary Soul Master already had enough trouble dealing with a hundred-year soul beast.

Yet his mother wanted him to face a million-year one directly. Was he going to find a soul ring, or deliver himself as a meal?

Besides, did million-year soul beasts really exist on this continent?

Huo Yuhao had previously known the highest soul beast level to be a hundred thousand year soul ring, but after meeting Strawberry and Zhang Lexuan, he had learned that there were even higher-level soul beasts beyond a hundred thousand years. Those soul beasts were called ferocious beasts.

The highest known cultivation among them was only eight hundred and ninety thousand years. As for million-year soul beasts, he had only heard Strawberry and the others mention that ten thousand years ago, the former Tang Sect leader, Sea God Tang San, had hunted one. The ninth soul ring of his second martial soul, the Clear Sky Hammer, had been a million-year soul ring.

But that was already legend. Whether it was true or false was now somewhat impossible to verify.

"Yes. And this million-year soul beast is rather special. He isn't very strong in combat, and he's approaching the end of his lifespan. He happens to need a Soul Master with a mental attribute so he can become their soul ring-a Wisdom Soul Ring-to preserve his life.

"He's also the first soul ring I've found for you. Since you're a Soul Master with a mental attribute, you two are a perfect match."