"Huo Yuhao?"
Yang Haoyu looked thoughtful. Ordinary people were rarely seen even at the North Pole of the Holy Demon Continent, so how could there be a baby there?
But since he had already rescued him, he still needed to determine whether he was human or from the Demon Clan.
If he was human, then he had done a good deed. If not, he could simply destroy him.
He then circulated his Spiritual Energy and carefully examined Huo Yuhao's body.
However, when his Spiritual Energy entered Huo Yuhao's body, his expression suddenly changed, and his eyes shone with golden light.
"He was actually born with an Elemental Body. No wonder he could survive in this environment."
Under the examination of his Spiritual Energy, Huo Yuhao's meridians were crystal clear, broad, and resilient, far surpassing the limits of an ordinary baby. Even a child of seven or eight could not compare to Huo Yuhao.
Besides that, the bones in Huo Yuhao's body were extremely dense, with a faint, cold gleam occasionally flashing across them. His internal organs were perfectly clean, without the slightest impurity.
What shocked him most was that a stream of extraordinarily pure ice-attribute Spiritual Energy was circulating on its own inside Huo Yuhao, cycling endlessly, renewing itself without end.
This was precisely an inborn Elemental Body.
A pure ice attribute.
But it was precisely after sensing that Huo Yuhao had an Ice Elemental Body that Yang Haoyu began to hesitate.
The reason was simple.
This child was a genius one in ten thousand. The path of magic might be smoother for him.
Although the Knight Temple had an inheritance for ice-attribute knights, none had appeared for so many years. The last one had appeared several thousand years ago.
So if he took Huo Yuhao back to the Knight Temple, his future path of cultivation would be fraught with difficulty.
But everyone had selfish interests, and he was no exception.
Li Zhengzhi, the newly appointed master of the Magic Temple, was exceptionally gifted, and the Magic Temple was ambitious, hoping to challenge the Knight Temple. Yang Haoyu certainly did not want to aid the enemy.
On top of that, the Long Family of the Knight Temple had risen too quickly in recent years. He had to consider his own family as well.
After considering the matter for a long time, Yang Haoyu finally made up his mind.
His eyes softened. Looking at the jade tag on Huo Yuhao, he said softly:
"Huo Yuhao, right? Come back to the Knight Temple with me first. We'll see whether you have any talent for the path of a knight. If you don't, I can send you to the Magic Temple later, and it won't hold up your cultivation."
It sounded as though he were trying to persuade himself, but also as though he were explaining something.
He took a cloak from his spatial ring and wrapped Huo Yuhao in it. Then, holding Huo Yuhao, he pushed off with the tip of his foot and became a streak of light, flying toward Imperial Dragon Pass.
After he left, the tornado seemed to shatter, turning directly into wind and snow that fell to the ground.
As for Huo Yuhao, he acted like a baby, lying in Yang Haoyu's arms as though he had fallen asleep.
A moment later, Yang Haoyu returned to the sky above Imperial Dragon Pass.
Long Tianyin came out to welcome him. When he saw the baby in Yang Haoyu's arms, he was slightly taken aback.
Hadn't he gone to carry out a mission? Why had he brought back a child?
"Brother Yang, who is this?" Long Tianyin could not help asking.
"Oh, this child!"
Yang Haoyu explained with a smile, "I came across him on my way to inspect the situation. I was afraid something might happen to him out in the wilderness, so I brought him back."
"As for the tornado and blizzard that appeared there, I've already dealt with them!"
"I see. Saving a life is a happy thing too!"
Long Tianyin thanked him with a smile. "Thank you for your efforts on this trip, Brother Yang!"
As far as Long Tianyin was concerned, it was just a child. What was there to be wary of? How could that be more important than his son's affairs?
After the two chatted briefly for a while, Yang Haoyu took Huo Yuhao into the Knight Temple.
Although the Knight Temple was underground, its passageways were all very spacious. Moreover, as the chief elder, Yang Haoyu had his own residence.
But it had been many years since he had raised a child, and he was not even sure whether Huo Yuhao still needed milk.
If he did, that would be rather troublesome.
But after he took Huo Yuhao back to his residence and found him some liquid food to eat, he breathed a sigh of relief.
Fortunately, the child was past the age of needing milk.
With that trouble out of the way, Yang Haoyu personally looked after Huo Yuhao.
What he had not expected was that Huo Yuhao, despite being a baby, neither cried nor fussed. Every day, he simply ate, drank, and relieved himself as usual, with nothing else requiring Yang Haoyu's attention. That saved him a great deal of worry.
And so, Huo Yuhao stayed at the Knight Temple.
With a powerhouse constantly guarding him at close quarters, Huo Yuhao did not dare behave unusually. He merely worked hard to get used to his body and stand up.
He managed to take that step and stand up not long after arriving at the Knight Temple.
But once he could stand, Yang Haoyu had him perform some basic training exercises, such as holding a stance and gripping a sword.
Huo Yuhao, who wanted to grow stronger, did not resist the request.
Just like that, more than five years passed. By his reckoning, Huo Yuhao was already eight years old.
Over those five years, ever since he had begun walking, he had been learning a knight's training exercises, and he had performed them very well.
Whenever he had spare time, he read books, specifically ancient historical texts about the Holy Demon Continent.
He had not forgotten that the purpose of this journey was to resurrect his teacher, Electrolux. But before saving him, he needed to know where Electrolux was now and what he had done.
In the ancient historical texts, he finally gained some understanding of the Holy Demon Continent and learned of the relationships among the Demon Clan, magical beasts, and humans.
He also learned that, before the Demon Clan descended, humanity had lived in a prosperous and powerful age known as the Glorious Era.
It was the most powerful period in humanity's recorded history.
Unfortunately, that Glorious Era had been crippled by his teacher, Electrolux. Even the pope had been killed, and his teacher had taken his head.
It was also because his teacher had led an undead army in a civil war against humanity that countless powerhouses had been lost and all manner of inheritances had disappeared.
Not long after the civil war ended, seventy-two Demon God Pillars descended from the heavens. Everywhere the demonic energy spread, everything transformed into members of the Demon Clan.
Under the leadership of the Seventy-Two Demon Gods, humanity suffered defeat after defeat and was nearly wiped out.
At that critical moment of life and death, a throne descended from the heavens and severely wounded the first Demon God Emperor, allowing humanity to cling to life. Ultimately, this led to the present standoff between the Six Great Temples and the Demon Clan.
After learning what had happened, Huo Yuhao was greatly shocked.
He had not expected his teacher to be so formidable, though he had also done some wrong things.
But he did not believe that his teacher, Electrolux, was a bloodthirsty man. There had to be a hidden story behind it, and he would have to investigate it himself.
It was also because he had learned this history that Huo Yuhao kept the purpose of his journey hidden in his heart. He did not even dare study Necromancy, for fear of becoming humanity's common enemy.
He also understood that resurrecting his teacher, Electrolux, in the future would be extremely difficult.
But difficulty was also a challenge, and this was a new journey for him as well.
(There should be another chapter today. It'll be late, but even if I post it after midnight, it still counts as today. Starting with the next chapter, the main story officially begins.)