If he wanted to snatch those opportunities for himself, he first had to meet Huo Yuhao.
Ming Zhao immediately prepared to set out for Star Luo City.
When he was still a Soul King, he had visited Star Luo City once before, not only to confirm the age gap between himself and Huo Yuhao so he could work out the original story's timeline, but also to snatch a treasure for himself.
Gold of Life.
Unfortunately, when he was still a Soul King, the Spirit-Devouring Carving Knife had yet to be acquired by the Starlight Auction House. He had secretly made inquiries through many channels, but had failed to learn anything about it at the auction house.
Ming Zhao had given up on snatching it ahead of time.
By his calculations, there were about two months left until Shrek Academy's next enrollment, and Huo Yuhao was nearly eleven.
That meant the story was about to begin.
By now, the Spirit-Devouring Carving Knife had most likely found its way to Star Luo City, so it was time to try his luck at the Starlight Auction House.
"Cultivation close to the Soul Douluo level... starting out with this kind of strength makes getting things done so convenient." Ming Zhao smiled coldly, his eyes filled with malice.
In the face of absolute strength, what could Huo Yuhao possibly use to compete with him?
One step ahead, every step ahead.
If only one person in this era could become a god, it would surely be him, Ming Zhao, not that loyal dog who willingly knelt at Tang San's feet.
Before leaving Heaven Dou City, Ming Zhao used a few methods to alter his appearance and conceal his true face.
He had inflicted considerable losses on Shrek, killing a full seventeen Inner Court disciples in quick succession, including a true genius like Zhang Lexuan, who was about to become a pillar of Shrek.
The Inner Court usually had only fifty or sixty disciples at any given time, and even at its fullest, it barely reached a hundred.
Ming Zhao did not know how many disciples in the Shrek Inner Court had yet to graduate this year, but even if the seventeen he had killed did not account for a quarter of them, they should have made up a fifth.
At the very least, it was twenty percent.
That was why he believed that once news of Zhang Lexuan and the others' deaths reached Shrek, he would surely face their most frenzied retaliation and pursuit.
At the center of such a storm, Ming Zhao thought it best to keep a low profile.
He was arrogant and wicked, not stupid, and had no interest in putting himself in danger.
Things did not turn out differently from what he had expected.
After Xuan Zi returned to Shrek at full speed, he immediately convened a Sea God Pavilion Meeting and announced that Zhang Lexuan and the others had been wiped out, with not even their bodies recovered.
After a brief silence, the members of the Sea God Pavilion erupted in uncontrollable rage.
Seventeen Inner Court disciples had died at the hands of the same Evil Soul Master. It was an enormous scandal, one that had happened only a handful of times in Shrek's entire history.
For his dereliction of duty, Xuan Zi received Mu En's harshest punishment: confinement, a ban on alcohol, and restrictions on how much he could eat.
As for Ming Zhao, the Sea God Pavilion issued its highest-level kill order, offering a fifty-thousand-year Soul Bone as a bounty for his head.
Even three Titled Douluo experts from the academy were deployed. Shrek Academy also mobilized the powerful intelligence network it had cultivated for years and began a frenzied hunt for the Evil Soul Master Ming Zhao across the Douluo Continent.
In every city Ming Zhao passed through, he saw notices calling for his capture and death. He also occasionally saw people from Shrek Academy hurrying to and fro, every one of them wearing a grave and murderous expression.
He paid no attention to any of it and did not care in the slightest that they were hunting him.
With his unusual destiny, he could easily disappear into the crowd with the slightest disguise. Unless he acted and exposed himself, no one could possibly discover that he was an Evil Soul Master.
Since leaving Heaven Dou City, Ming Zhao had brushed past Shrek's people several times, but his identity as an Evil Soul Master had never been discovered.
Still, Shrek's pursuit did affect the speed of his journey.
When he did not use his Martial Souls or Soul Power, he showed none of the evil presence, baleful presence, or bloody reek that Evil Soul Masters could not conceal. He looked like an ordinary, sunny person.
But as soon as he used more than a certain degree of power, the true nature of the Red and White Twin Fiends would be exposed.
So he could only travel at a leisurely pace, spending most of his time sightseeing.
As he headed toward Star Luo City, he digested the gains from his battle with Zhang Lexuan and the others and refined the Shrek Inner Court disciples, making them full-fledged members of the Red and White Twin Fiends' Night Parade of a Hundred Ghosts.
Thus, it took him nearly half a month to reach Star Luo City without incident.
Before entering the city proper, Ming Zhao made a detour to the White Tiger Duke's Mansion, where he found the small, frail Huo Yuhao in the familiar old woodshed.
The last time Ming Zhao had come, Huo Yun'er was still alive, and Huo Yuhao had been a little tyke who had only just awakened his Martial Soul.
When he saw him again this time, Huo Yun'er was already in the ground, and Huo Yuhao's face had become full of bitterness and resentment.
In Ming Zhao's eyes, he was an ideal Evil Soul Master in the making. With just a little guidance, he would embrace wicked thoughts and become a puppet of power.
But Ming Zhao did not do that.
It would be far more beneficial to him if Huo Yuhao stayed alive and cultivated diligently.
After cultivating for years, he had discovered something frustrating that he could not resolve himself.
His peculiar destiny had given Ming Zhao terrifying talent: Twin Martial Souls with Innate Full Soul Power, and the two Martial Souls could even use a Self Martial Soul Fusion Skill. His methods were strange and ever-changing, and he was so powerful that he had no equal.
On the other hand, his luck was simply abysmal.
In all his years of cultivation, Ming Zhao had never encountered any worthwhile opportunities or treasures.
Even when he broke through to Soul Saint and hunted for his Seventh Soul Ring, a ninety-thousand-year Soul Beast had failed to drop a Soul Bone for him.
That was a ninety-thousand-year Soul Beast! Even if the chance of it dropping a Soul Bone was not a hundred percent, it was still sixty or seventy percent, yet the unlucky Ming Zhao had gotten nothing but a Soul Ring.
After absorbing the Soul Ring, he had been so furious that he chopped the Soul Beast's corpse into mincemeat, then resigned himself to the fact that he was an unlucky bastard.
Huo Yuhao was his complete opposite. Opportunities came one after another on his path of growth, and even the heavens spoon-fed him.
What Ming Zhao envied most was a lucky bastard like him. By keeping Huo Yuhao around, he could keep snatching the treasures Huo Yuhao encountered and make up for what he could not obtain himself.
With Huo Yuhao's status as a child of fortune, the more Ming Zhao snatched from him, the more the Douluo Continent's fortune would make up for the opportunities Huo Yuhao lost. Then Ming Zhao would snatch those too, and the Douluo Continent would keep giving.
Treating Huo Yuhao like a crop of leeks and harvesting him each time he grew back was far more beneficial than killing him outright.
"I hope you don't disappoint me. Otherwise, I won't care whether you're the protagonist of a thirty-thousand-year scheme." Ming Zhao narrowed his eyes slightly and waved a hand, leaving behind a ghostly shadow.
He would not keep his eyes on Huo Yuhao at all times. This ghostly shadow would serve as his spy.