"Yuhao!"
The baby silkworm's voice was faint and weak, like a person who had just woken up mumbling in a dream.
But Huo Yuhao heard it clearly. It was the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm's voice, exactly the same as in his previous life.
"Brother Sky Dream, it's me."
The baby silkworm blinked, then blinked again.
Then he sprang upright, nearly tumbling off Huo Yuhao's finger.
"Yuhao! It really is you! How did you get so small?
"No, wait, how did you turn into a child?
"No, no, where is this? How did I get here?
"Weren't we-"
He fired off a string of questions in one breath, then confused himself and stopped on Huo Yuhao's fingertip, his little eyes darting around in bewilderment.
Huo Yuhao watched him, the corners of his mouth curving slightly.
Tian Meng was still Tian Meng. He hadn't changed a bit.
"It's a long story."
He sat cross-legged in his Sea of Consciousness and let the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm settle on his knee. "A lot happened while you were asleep."
Huo Yuhao then recounted what had happened in the fewest words he could.
He had traded all his cultivation for a chance to cross over to the Holy Demon Continent, in order to find the fragments of Electrolux's divine consciousness and resurrect his teacher.
His soul had suffered grievous damage as it broke through space, and he had lost all his cultivation. Only the Blade of Life and his six Soul Spirits remained in his Sea of Consciousness.
But all the Soul Spirits had fallen asleep, and only the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm had been roused ahead of the others by the strange phenomenon during the awakening.
The Sky Dream Ice Silkworm fell silent for a long time after hearing the story.
"Sigh, this body really is weak. But it doesn't matter, Yuhao. Brother will always support you. Elder Yi burned his divine consciousness to save us back then, so of course we should come here to find him.
"Besides, we haven't lost the memories of our previous lives. We cultivated step by step from weakness until we became gods. Even though we've come to the Holy Demon Continent, we still have the courage to start over.
"Becoming a god? Which one of us wasn't a god?"
The more the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm spoke, the more excited he became, a hint of pride on his face.
Seeing this, Huo Yuhao couldn't help laughing.
The two chatted for a long time afterward, discussing the Holy Demon Continent, the Knight Temple's powerhouses, and Huo Yuhao's current cultivation, among other things.
After hearing Huo Yuhao out, the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm spoke up in support:
"Yuhao, they're just shortsighted. Cultivating both magic and martial arts is the best path for you. But that new grandpa of yours is too strong, so I'll have to keep out of sight!"
Huo Yuhao smiled and said:
"Don't worry, Brother Sky Dream. My Sea of Consciousness still contains some God King-level Spiritual Power from my previous life. As long as no god personally descends into this world, they probably won't notice anything unusual about my Sea of Consciousness.
"As long as we don't deliberately communicate near those Ninth Tier powerhouses, there won't be a problem."
"Mm, that's good. Then Brother can recover his body in your Sea of Consciousness from now on!"
The Sky Dream Ice Silkworm felt no burden about using Huo Yuhao's Spiritual Power to restore his body. After all, once he grew stronger, he could be a great help to Huo Yuhao.
"Brother Sky Dream, while you're in my Sea of Consciousness, help the Ice Empress, Snow Empress, and the others if you have time. It'll be good for us if they recover sooner."
Huo Yuhao looked at the blue and green orbs of light as he spoke to the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm.
Hearing him, the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm cast a gentle glance at the orb of light containing the Ice Empress, then patted his chest and assured Huo Yuhao:
"Yuhao, leave that to Brother."
The two chatted for a while longer before Huo Yuhao returned to his bedroom and began cultivating.
While cultivating, he unexpectedly discovered that he could use the four Soul Skills the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm had given him in his previous life again. He was overjoyed.
If each of his Soul Spirits could grant him Soul Skills upon awakening, he would have many more ways to fight his enemies.
Now he looked forward to the Snow Empress and Ice Empress awakening even more.
But when he used Spiritual Detection, he didn't sense a Soul Ring appearing. This led him to guess that perhaps Soul Rings would no longer appear because the laws of heaven and earth differed between the two worlds.
That was a good thing for Huo Yuhao.
If he had Soul Rings, he would have to find a way to conceal them. Without them, he was spared a great deal of trouble.
The Knight Temple did not have many books on ice-attribute magic at present, so he planned to focus on mental magic and supplement it with ice-attribute magic when he studied magic in the future.
That way, he could also make full use of his time.
In the days that followed, Huo Yuhao grew busy again, practicing knight skills during the day and meditating and tempering his Spiritual Power at night.
When it was time to practice magic, he also cultivated ice-attribute and mental-attribute magic.
As for Necromancy, he had always wanted to learn it, but had never had the chance.
Just like that, half a year passed in the blink of an eye.
During those six months, Huo Yuhao had not stopped cultivating for a single day.
His progress had been steady. He had mastered every knight skill below the Fifth Tier, and had even begun dabbling in a few Fifth Tier skills.
As for Spiritual Energy, although his cultivation speed had dropped considerably after he broke through to the Fourth Tier, he could still gain seven or eight points of Internal Spiritual Power every day, even while training so intensely.
Huo Yuhao knew this was because of the surrounding environment.
To polish his foundation, he had even reduced the time he spent cultivating Internal Spiritual Power, using it instead to study the ancient elven language and certain branches of the Magic Temple, such as potioneering and alchemy.
Huo Yuhao felt that in his previous life on the Douluo Continent, he had not only practiced pill refinement, but had also been first-rate at making Soul Tools.
He felt he could bring both abilities to new heights on the Holy Demon Continent, so he had also begun studying them in secret.
Late one night, Huo Yuhao was training in the trial grounds.
There was no one else around. Few people usually came to the Retribution Knights' training ground, and at this hour it was completely deserted.
Iron sword in hand, he practiced the Fifth Tier knight combat skill Yang Haoyu had taught him. Ice-blue Spiritual Energy flowed over the blade, and every slash left a pale blue arc in the air.
What he did not know was that in a stone chamber above the trial grounds, a fist-sized crystal ball hovered in midair, a faint light flowing across its surface.
His figure was clearly visible in the crystal ball, every movement magnified several times, every minute detail laid bare.
At that moment, three people were in the stone chamber.
Yang Haoyu sat on a stone stool with his arms crossed.
Long Tianyin stood beside him, brow slightly furrowed as he watched the image in the crystal ball.
There was also a tall, middle-aged man with a stern face. His features bore some resemblance to Long Tianyin's, but his bearing was sharper, his edge fully exposed, and he seemed to have some trouble controlling his aura.
He was Long Xingyu. A few years ago, he had passed the Divine Throne of Doom and Slaughter's trial and become a Divine Seal Knight. After stabilizing his cultivation, he had just emerged from seclusion, formally becoming the Knight Temple's third Divine Seal Knight.
"Uncle Yang, this Fifth Tier sword technique," Long Xingyu said in a low voice. "Who taught it to him?"
"I did," Yang Haoyu said. "He thought it over and made some changes to it himself."
Long Xingyu's brow twitched. He modified it himself? Was his comprehension that good?
He watched as Huo Yuhao reached the middle of his practice in the crystal ball. The instant his blade fell, ice-attribute Spiritual Energy condensed along its path, forming a strip of ice on the ground to restrict his opponent's movements.
Then came the next move. His sword swept upward, and Spiritual Energy burst from its edge, scattering into several fine shards of ice.