His thoughts returned to reality. Ho Yuuhao called out toward the window:
"Good morning, night of… Xilu City!"
After a full night's rest, the pupil power of his Spirit Eyes had recovered quite a bit. There was still a faint swelling pain, but it didn't interfere with their use.
This time, Ho Yuuhao didn't use Kamui to head straight to Passion's headquarters office. Instead, he chose to walk.
Mainly because yesterday's long-duration Kamui teleportation had nearly made him throw up. His vision felt like it was dropping frames—extremely uncomfortable.
Walking around to calm himself down felt better.
All this time, he had been a hands-off boss. Xilu City's development had mostly existed only as written reports in his mind.
Honestly, even the Heaven Dream Ice Silkworm probably knew more about how fast Xilu City had grown—after all, it was the one handling the administrative documents.
Only now, walking the streets himself, did Ho Yuuhao truly witness Xilu City's rapid development.
It was completely different from the cursed city ruled by those "boiled nobles" back then.
Xilu City hadn't been ruined under Passion's control. There were no prostitutes, no street violence, no bloody gladiator fights, no addictive drugs, no casinos—none of the things Ho Yuuhao utterly despised.
Instead, it attracted merchant guilds who genuinely wanted to do business, along with large numbers of ordinary civilians.
Even many soul masters had come to settle here. Most of them were injured and simply wanted a place to spend the rest of their lives.
What shocked Ho Yuuhao was how young these soul masters were!
And their martial souls were at least mid-tier!
At a breakfast shop, Ho Yuuhao walked up to one such soul master and called out to the owner:
"Boss, double everything for this table. I'll pay."
The young soul master was clearly new to the world and had never encountered a social menace like Ho Yuuhao before.
He stammered:
"Uh… th-that's not necessary, thank you."
Seeing his reaction, Ho Yuuhao smiled.
"It's fine, little bro. Eat up. This is the first time I've run into you here."
"Just looking at you, I can tell you're fresh out of school. Interested in telling your big brother your story?"
The young soul master looked at Ho Yuuhao in confusion.
"You… know my story?"
Ho Yuuhao shook his head sincerely.
"No."
"But your face is full of stories."
In the end, the young soul master opened up.
His name was Zhou You. His martial soul was a Fixed-Range Ruler, with innate soul power level seven!
A genuine genius—no matter which academy he went to, he would've been treasured.
Unfortunately, he went to Shrek Academy.
And there, he met a teacher named Zhou Yi.
Upon hearing that familiar name, Ho Yuuhao immediately leaned back tactically—in solemn respect.
According to the boy, on the very first day of school, he was ordered to run a hundred laps.
His background was ordinary. He had barely managed to get a recommendation letter from the city lord and had almost no money. His nutrition simply couldn't keep up with such high-intensity training.
On top of that, he was an auxiliary-type tool soul master—his martial soul provided almost no boost to physical fitness.
Relying purely on talent, he barely made it to fourth year.
After that, hidden injuries accumulated in his body, his cultivation speed plummeted, and he was eventually expelled by Zhou Yi without even a change in expression.
Four glorious years of "Shrek tourism."
The soul masters who came with him were in similar situations—their hidden injuries made further progress impossible.
After struggling in vain, they chose to come to Xilu City and live out their remaining years.
Ho Yuuhao sighed and said to Zhou You:
"You've probably heard of Passion since coming here, right?"
"Go there. There are people who can help heal those hidden injuries."
Shrek was basically a talent-export factory—so many excellent seedlings, just thrown away!
No wonder the Holy Spirit Cult loved shopping at Shrek Academy.
After pointing the young soul master toward a path forward, Ho Yuuhao left the breakfast shop and continued toward Passion headquarters.
"Yuuhao, I know all the members of Passion. I don't think anyone there can heal hidden injuries, right?"
Heaven Dream Ice Silkworm sounded confused in the Sea of Consciousness. As the being behind Passion, every member had a file in his head.
He was sure no one had that ability.
Ho Yuuhao's forehead instantly filled with black lines.
"What about me?"
"Do I not count?"
Heaven Dream froze, then suddenly realized.
"Oh! Right, right—I forgot about you!"
The Golden Tortoise, seeing Heaven Dream looking half-asleep, couldn't help laughing.
"Haha—cough!"
Heaven Dream's eyes snapped wide open as he stared at the massive turtle.
"What are you laughing at?"
"Have you finished five years of alchemy and three years of simulation drills yet?!"
"There are still a hundred test papers here—go do them!"
"I'll personally check later. If you're not done, say goodbye to your shell!"
The Golden Tortoise instantly wilted. Both heads drooped weakly.
"Heaven Dream bro… turtles really die from this stuff."
"It's too hard."
"Let me sleep for a bit."
Heaven Dream walked over, knocked on the shell, and scolded loudly:
"Sleep, sleep, sleep—that's all you ever do!"
"How can you sleep at your age?!"
"Two hundred thousand years old is the prime grinding age!"
"Study properly!"
The Golden Tortoise quietly lifted its head.
"Heaven Dream bro… I'm only fifty thousand."
"I train one year and get four years' worth."
Heaven Dream Ice Silkworm's face shifted between red and green.
He felt that the turtle was indirectly mocking his talent.
After all, he had genuinely cultivated for a full one million years—though most of that time was spent flexing heavenly materials and earthly treasures.
By now, Ho Yuuhao had already entered Passion's office, listening to the bickering between one silkworm and one turtle.
He sat down and interrupted them.
"Heaven Dream bro, can you still sense the spiritual imprint in the Extreme North?"
Heaven Dream sat cross-legged atop the Golden Tortoise's shell, closed his eyes, and sensed it immediately.
"No problem. It's still there. Looks like there's no life around it."
"My imprint wasn't deliberately hidden. Any normal being would investigate it."
"If anyone touches it, I'll know instantly!"
Ho Yuuhao tapped the desk lightly. The zitan wood produced a crisp sound as he recalled original-record information about the Extreme North.
"The Extreme North…"
"Heaven Dream bro, tell me—yesterday, near the Lake of Death, if you launched a spiritual attack at that unknown area, could you forcibly break the barrier?"
Heaven Dream curled his lips upward, raised three fingers confidently.
"Of course!"
"No need to go all out. Yesterday's level of spiritual power would be enough."
"Give me three minutes and I'll pry that turtle shell open!"
"That barrier's strength lies mainly in concealment. Even my million-year spiritual power didn't detect it immediately!"
"Defense-wise, it's pretty average. Three minutes and it overloads."
Ho Yuuhao smiled.
"Then it can't be related to the Ice God."
"There's only one possibility left."
(End of Chapter)
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