"Master, you're back!"
"Hmm."
Ye Guyi was so relieved that she almost took a step forward to hug him but quickly held herself back. Still, she smiled and looked excited, like a dog who saw her owner returned home after a long vacation.
Huo Yuhao nodded back at her with a look of satisfaction. Despite their initial interaction, with her wanting to kill him and Tang Ya, years of being his subordinate and taking care of his organization had shaped her up into an obedient minio—comrade.
There are no eternal enemies, only eternal benefits.
"Master, the others have escaped succesfully and will rendezvous at the first secret location."
"And the projects?"
"As for our classified research datas, I have successfully stored them into three storage soul tools. One is with me, the other two is with Ling Luochen and Xiao Xiao. They are ready to be destroyed with a press of a button; the explosion of one hundred and eight class 7 stationary spirit cannon shells are strong enough to wipe all life in a 3 kilometers radius. Even a Transcendent Titled Douluo couldn't possibly survive this!"
"So master, shall we leave for safety now?"
Huo Yuhao was silent for a while, his deep-blue eyes
"It's no use. They've completely surrounded us."
"Master?" Ye Guyi's eyes widened. "What do you mean...?"
"There are two powerful Titled Douluos accompanying the Clear Sky Clan young members; one Transcendent and the other a Limit. Moreover, on my way here I encountered a vast army of soul masters of various factions, with 4 Titled Douluos leading their respective forces."
"Wanna guess who they are and who they're heading for?"
Ye Guyi's face paled. "Master, a-are they...?"
"Yes. They're heading here; composed of mainly the Heavenly Dragon Sect(Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan), Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Clan, the Heavenly Soul Empire's royal army, and some minor sects that are allied to them."
"N-No way! With that many soul masters converging to our location... the others! Master! The others, the Akatsuki members are in danger!"
Huo Yuhao tilted his head at her and smirked, "Don't worry. They're all safe. I personally made sure to save them before they were caught by the enemy."
"Eh?" Ye Guyi was perplexed. How had he managed to secure them all so quickly?
Huo Yuhao raised an eyebrow at her and snapped his fingers.
"That—!" Ye Guyi felt a chilly and sinister aura that made her hair stand. She looked behind her to find a gray hexagram in mid air, glowing an aura of death and darkness similar to an evil soul master. But she could feel the innate buried light within.
This wasn't the first time she saw him use his Necromancy but it certainly wasn't a pleasant feeling.
'He's using that power again. Then, how he saved them was—'
"The Spectral Demiplane..."
"That's right," Huo Yuhao easily admitted, he had shown her the Spectral Demiplane before to see how someone with Holy-attribute martial soul could do in the world of undead left behind by his teacher. Since the Holy Angel martial soul has high levels of Holy and Light attributes, Ye Guyi was the perfect guine—ahem, partner to test out the Spectral Demiplane.
Ye Guyi blinked. "But how did you found them all so quickly?"
"I have my ways."
Huo Yuhao inwardly let out huge sigh of relief. If he hadn't sent out clones to the locations where his friends were then they'd all be in trouble. Fortunately he had the forethought to send out his clones to monitor the situation in the academy, Akatsuki Headquarters, Great Star Dou Forest, and Sun Moon Empire.
The moment he heard about the rumors, he quickly made a decision in which place he should go to first.
And obviously, it was the Akatsuki Headquarters.
He had friends in the academy, Great Star Dou Forest, and the Sun Moon Empire but they are teeming with powerful Titled Douluos and Great Beasts that can protect them for a while. While the matter of Shrek Academy going to war with the Great Star Dou Forest was concerning, since Di Tian or Qiu'er hadn't contacted him yet then it means that the situation hadn't reached a critical point where his personal intervention was immediately required.
The Akatsuki Headquarters, on the other hand, was different.
It was his own organization. Most of the members were still relatively young, and even though Zhang Lexuan was a Soul Douluo, she alone would not be enough to hold off the Clear Sky Clan's elite forces.
Huo Yuhao's expression remained calm as he stood in the crimson-lit command room. Outside, the labyrinth continued to shift and rearrange itself with heavy metallic groans, buying them precious time.
Ye Guyi was visibly relieved and asked him, "Master, what are your orders?"
Huo Yuhao smirked and crossed his hands behind his back.
"Our base was attacked, invaded, and we're being cornered by various forces with likely foul intent. What do you think is our next best move to do?"
"Retreat." Ye Guyi answered without any hesitation. "The enemy forces are composed mostly of powerful soul masters with around a dozen Titled Douluos and some with Transcendent level. We are completely outclassed and outnumbered. Staying here any longer would only result in unnecessary losses."
"That's correct. That's the right course of action. The true, common sense to do. And that's what they'll expect."
"Master?"
Huo Yuhao's lips curled into a despicable grin and all six of his eyes opened, freezing Ye Guyi in place from the sight of his new extra pairs of eyes.
"Ye Guyi, would you like to come with me to kill?"
She was momentarily stunned by the sudden change in his demeanor and the overwhelming pressure radiating from his six eyes. The pure, holy light of her Holy Angel Martial Soul instinctively flared up in response to the cold, predatory aura surrounding him. Yet after only a brief pause, Ye Guyi's expression settled into calm determination.
As the saying goes, "Having mounted the tiger, it is hard to get off." Though, in this situation, demon should be the right word...
She bowed slightly, her golden hair cascading forward.
"As you command, Master."
Huo Yuhao's grin widened. "Good answer."
He raised one hand, and the gray hexagram of the Spectral Demiplane expanded briefly before shrinking again. He placed a complex spiritual mark on her forehead—an emergency escape measure linked directly to the demiplane.
"If the situation suddenly changes that I couldn't protect you in time, this mark will automatically pull you inside. Stay close and follow my lead."
Ye Guyi nodded.
Huo Yuhao turned his head and muttered, "Now then, to start us off..." His Mangekyou Sharingan shifted quietly into the Rinnegan form and wrapped his arm around Ye Guyi's slim waist. Their bodies shone with a silver glow and they vanished on the spot.
"This is...?" Ye Guyi blinked at the sudden change of scenery, she held onto Huo Yuhao's clothes as she found herself in the sky. This wasn't the first time he held her so closely so she didn't pay attention to his touch. Instead, she stared at the two people looking at them in surprise.
"Who—" Tang Ruoxi started and Tang Haoran furrowed his brows and summoned his Clear Sky Hammer.
But Huo Yuhao was faster.
The sky turned to twilight of two extreme elements of Yin and Yang, while freezing dark-blue ice encased the Tang siblings in an instant.
Domain Expansion: Imperial Permafrost + Yin-Yang Twilight
'Cold!' Tang Ruoxi gritted her teeth as the extreme cold invaded her body. Even as a rank 97 Transcendent Douluo, the dual domain expansion that fused Ultimate Ice with the balancing forces of Yin and Yang made her soul power circulate sluggishly. Layers of dark-blue ice rapidly formed over her limbs, crackling as they tried to seal her completely.
"Hmph!" Tang Haoran's expression remained composed, but his eyes sharpened. The Clear Sky Hammer in his hand erupted with tyrannical force, shattering the ice around him in an explosion of golden-brown soul power.
"Too slow," Huo Yuhao smirked as he held up his hand and snapped his fingers.
"Absolute Zero."
In an instant, Tang Haoran and Tang Ruoxi completely became ice sculptures. Their faces and body were all covered in dark-blue ice. The temperature around them plummeted far beyond normal freezing, reaching a level where even soul power itself struggled to circulate.
But of course. This was Absolute Zero, a power considered to be divine-level as it lowers the temperature to the absolute zero, the lowest temperature that is theoretically possible, at which the motion of particles that constitutes heat would be minimal. Even normal Ultimate Ice cannot naturally reach this level without higher-level evolution or divine power.
Even a Limit Douluo couldn't do anything to fight back or escape when hit by Absolute Zero so suddenly.
A lot of people would be afraid or be pressured to fight against a Limit Douluo, but not Huo Yuhao. He already possess two soul cores that only Limit Douluos have, plus it has double attributes and uses the Yin-Yang Complement Technique, something that ordinary Limit Douluos don't have.
'Wasn't that a little overkill? Deploying two domains before unleashing an ultimate attack on them?' Skydream commented, feeling a little bad for those two.
'It's better to be cautious than be pulled into a long, drawn out fight that causes unnecessary risks.' Huo Yuhao hummed and used the deva path to pull the ice sculptures to his hands. He could small signs of life energy within them still, barely surviving only because of their high cultivation.
'Daikokuten.' His Kokugan gleamed, activating one of its abilities that stores the frozen Titled Douluos into a dimension where time does not flow.
He looked to his side to find Ye Guyi still looking dumbfounded at the sudden turn of events.
How could she not act this way? To her, even ordinary Titled Douluos are powerhouses that have the power equivalent to a God. And yet, right before her eyes, Huo Yuhao had easily iced them with a snap of her fingers!
Sure, she had "some" that he would be able to fight Titled Douluos but never to the point that he could easily defeat them. How long was he gone? A few months? Did he already become a Titled Douluo or something?!
Huo Yuhao chuckled at her expression and held her for now and looked down at the ruined manor below him.
"How unfortunate." He muttered and held his hand up.
"Heavenly Attraction of All Creation."
❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️
AN: I went with those final words since it fits well with the theme of the cultivation world. Even though Banshō Ten'in definitely sounds cooler.