"Cough, cough... I'm fine!"
Huo Tian stepped back three paces, moving away from Ma Xiaotao. Seeing him suddenly distance himself, Ma Xiaotao's eyes instantly reddened, and her voice grew hoarse.
"Brother Tian... do you hate me that much?"
Ma Xiaotao turned away in a huff, folding her arms across her chest, her whole body trembling.
"No..."
Huo Tian started to speak, then stopped. Of course he understood Ma Xiaotao's little thoughts, but he had no interest in that sort of thing for now. He only wanted to keep improving his strength.
"System! Can you help me remove the Evil Fire inside me?"
Huo Tian turned away, no longer paying attention to Ma Xiaotao, and spoke to the empty air.
[No!]
"Ugh, what a blockhead!"
Seeing that Huo Tian still had not come to comfort her after so long, Ma Xiaotao puffed out her cheeks and muttered under her breath.
A scream came from inside the cave. Yan Shaozhe and Xuan Zi soon beat the Blazing Fire Sparrow down to a sliver of health. It lay dying on the ground, blood lingering at the tip of its beak.
"Kill it and absorb its Soul Ring!"
Xuan Zi hoisted the entire Blazing Fire Sparrow up, then hurled it toward Huo Tian with a forceful swing of his right hand.
The Blazing Fire Sparrow slammed heavily into the ground, smashing a deep crater into the flat grassland. Huo Tian jumped into the crater, and a ball of flame burst from his hand, sending the Blazing Fire Sparrow on its final journey.
The Blazing Fire Sparrow let out a low cry and died with its eyes still open.
A surge of power slowly rose from the Blazing Fire Sparrow's corpse, forming a blood-red Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring that radiated waves of oppressive pressure.
A trace of the Blazing Fire Sparrow's malicious will still remained inside the Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring, hoping to strike back while Huo Tian absorbed it.
Huo Tian immediately sat cross-legged and circulated the Soul Power within him, drawing the Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring into his body. A phantom Nether Radiant Vermilion Bird appeared behind him.
The malicious will within the Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring tried to unleash Soul Shock to disrupt Huo Tian, but the Vermilion Bird erased it in an instant. A mere Blazing Fire Sparrow had actually wanted to strike back.
The terrifying pressure of the Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring radiated around Huo Tian, while Evil Fire burned ceaselessly over his body.
The surrounding trees burned to ashes beneath those flames.
"Brother Tian's Martial Soul has even fiercer Evil Fire than mine!"
Ma Xiaotao retreated far from the crater, but she could still feel the Evil Fire constantly seething in the air. If Huo Tian's Evil Fire had been inside her instead, there was no telling how many times she would have died by now.
"Alas! Everything about Xiaotian is good, except that his Evil Fire goes out of control whenever he gets angry!"
Yan Shaozhe stood with his hands behind his back, watching Huo Tian absorb the Soul Ring with a worried expression, feeling sorrow for him.
Yan Shaozhe and Huo Tian were seventy years apart in age. Yan Shaozhe had brought Huo Tian back to Shrek Academy when he was six and had looked after him for eleven years, always treating him like his own son.
Xuan Zi lay in a patch of grass nearby, gnawing on a chicken leg and drinking wine, gazing idly at the sky.
Ever since that incident, he had suffered a heavy blow and was constantly filled with regret.
"Teacher! Is Brother Tian's Evil Fire very difficult to eradicate?"
Ma Xiaotao placed her hands behind her back, anxiously twisting them together, her face full of worry.
"Xiaotao, the Evil Fire inside you only needs to evolve into Ultimate Fire, and you will no longer be affected!"
"Xiaotian's Evil Fire contains two Ultimate Attributes, Ultimate Fire and Ultimate Darkness! Completely eradicating it would be as difficult as ascending to heaven!"
"Only a virgin woman who possesses both Ultimate Ice and the Holy Attribute could harmonize the two powers within Huo Tian!"
"That woman's cultivation must not differ too greatly from Huo Tian's!"
Yan Shaozhe stood quietly to the side, stroking his short beard.
Hearing Yan Shaozhe's words, Ma Xiaotao pressed her lips together and clenched her two fair hands into fists.
The pressure brought by the Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring gradually withdrew. Huo Tian finished absorbing it with ease, the entire process going extremely smoothly.
Perhaps because the Blazing Fire Sparrow still possessed a trace of the Vermilion Bird bloodline, this Soul Ring was an excellent match for Huo Tian's Martial Soul.
Huo Tian opened his eyes. Behind him, the Vermilion Bird let out a piercing cry and unleashed endless Evil Fire. He leaped up, seven terrifying Soul Rings flashing beneath his feet: purple, purple, black, black, black, red, red.
"Your strength has improved considerably again!"
Yan Shaozhe raised his hands and applauded, a kindly smile on his face. He could sense that Huo Tian's cultivation was now that of a rank seventy-three Soul Saint.
Huo Tian withdrew his Martial Soul and crouched down to search the Blazing Fire Sparrow's corpse. Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts almost always produced Soul Bones.
"Damn! Two Soul Bones!"
Huo Tian lifted the Blazing Fire Sparrow's right wing and left leg. Two translucent, crimson-crystal Hundred Thousand Year Soul Bones shone continuously.
These two Soul Bones were a hundred-thousand-year Blazing Fire Sparrow left leg bone and a hundred-thousand-year Blazing Fire Sparrow right arm bone.
"That luck of yours is second to none!"
Yan Shaozhe stared enviously at the Soul Bones in Huo Tian's hands. If Huo Tian had not belonged to Shrek Academy, he would have wanted to murder him and steal his goods.
Hundred Thousand Year Soul Bones were far too valuable, and Huo Tian had gotten two to drop at once.
"All right, if there's nothing else, let's head back!"
Xuan Zi, who had been drinking himself into a stupor nearby, suddenly spoke up, wiping the grease from his mouth.
"Senior Brother! I plan to travel the continent for a year and return afterward!"
"Teacher already knows, so I won't be going back with you!"
Huo Tian explained his situation.
"All right!"
Yan Shaozhe turned away and paid him no further attention.
"Ah! Brother Tian, you're going to travel the continent? Can I come with you?"
"Ow! Teacher, why did you hit my head?"
No sooner had Ma Xiaotao spoken than the stern-faced Yan Shaozhe gave her head a hard knock. She clutched her head with both hands.
"What strength do you have, and what strength does he have? Even a Titled Douluo might not be able to keep Xiaotian from leaving!"
"You struggle to fight even a Soul Saint right now, yet you want to travel the continent!"
Yan Shaozhe shot Ma Xiaotao a fierce glare to make her abandon the idea. At his words, her fair face flushed red and grew hot.
The three turned into three streaking meteors and vanished from Blazing Fire Valley, leaving Huo Tian alone.
"Brother Tian! Come back soon!"
Ma Xiaotao's voice echoed through the sky.
"Finally! I can go take a disciple!"
Huo Tian put the Blazing Fire Sparrow's corpse on the ground into his Storage Soul Tool. Activating Martial Soul Possession, he transformed into a Vermilion Bird and flew swiftly through the sky, heading in the opposite direction from Shrek City.
"Waaah-"
"Mom! I'll make that faithless man pay!"
"I'll make sure the White Tiger Duke's Mansion's bloodline ends!"
On the mountain behind the White Tiger Duke's Mansion stood an earthen grave. A wooden marker had been thrust upside down into the ground before it, engraved with the words "Grave of Huo Yun'er."
A small, thin girl knelt before the grave and kowtowed. Her eyes were red, her teeth clenched as her fair little hands pounded the ground over and over.
Huo Yutong's mother, Huo Yun'er, had died of illness three days earlier. The White Tiger Duchess had withheld Huo Yun'er's monthly pay.
Huo Yutong had no money to arrange Huo Yun'er's funeral. She could only dig a deep pit with her bare hands and bury Huo Yun'er. Now she was covered in dirt from head to toe.
"Do you want revenge?"
A languid male voice came from behind Huo Yutong. She immediately turned around, warily watching the red-haired youth who had suddenly appeared.
"Who are you?"
Huo Yutong spoke in a frail voice and retreated three steps, her face full of wariness.
Huo Tian leaned against a large tree with his arms folded across his chest. He had searched all around the White Tiger Duke's Mansion without finding Huo Yutong, finally locating her through the system.
As long as I take Huo Yutong as my disciple, I can complete the mission! Who wouldn't love such an adorable Little Huo Girl?
"If I'm not mistaken, your Martial Soul is Spirit Eyes! Would you be willing to take me as your master?"
With each step Huo Tian took, another Soul Ring appeared. Seven Soul Rings flashed beneath his feet-purple, purple, black, black, black, red, red-as he restrained his pressure.
"Red Soul Rings...!"
Huo Yutong covered her mouth, staring dumbfounded at the extraordinary colors of those seven Soul Rings. Huo Yun'er had once told her that red represented a Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring.
Huo Tian quietly waited for her answer.
Looking at the handsome youth before her, who possessed such strength at such a young age, Huo Yutong felt that becoming his disciple would be an immense honor.
"Huo Yutong pays her respects to Master!"
Huo Yutong dropped to one knee and kowtowed to Huo Tian. Huo Yun'er was dead, and Huo Yutong did not know where to go or what to do. Her only thought now was to avenge her mother.
Huo Yutong did not care what purpose the youth before her had, as long as she could take revenge.
"Yutong, get up! No more kneeling from now on!"
Huo Tian crouched down and helped her up with both hands. He could feel that her arms were nothing but bone, without a bit of muscle.
Huo Tian truly felt sorry for Huo Yutong.