Dragon City is the largest city in the northern part of the Heavenly Soul Empire, near the far north, so it is rich in soul beast resources, attracting countless soul masters to gather here.
According to the economic development pattern of the Douluo Continent, wherever soul masters gather, the economy will definitely not be weak.
Soul masters and soul tools are the core of this world's development.
Moreover, the Earth Dragon Gate and the Heavenly Dragon Gate are located here. The Earth Dragon Gate is located in the north of the city, and its inherited martial soul is the Rouge Dragon. The main martial soul of the gate is the Earth Dragon, and the strongest member, Nan Shuishui, is a Soul Douluo. The Heavenly Dragon
Gate is located in the south of the city, and its inherited martial soul is the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon. The strongest member, Old Heavenly Dragon, is a Title Douluo, but whether he has reached the Super Douluo level is still a question.
Huo Yuhao arrived at this city covered in ice and snow. After a simple check, he passed through the square city wall characteristic of Douluo and entered the city.
Perhaps because of the dense population and the shelter of the city wall, it was much warmer inside the city than outside.
However, the temperature was still below -20 or -30 degrees Celsius. Such low temperatures seemed unsuitable for human habitation, yet, thanks to the abundance of soul beasts, this place had become the premier city of the Northern Territory.
Walking on the main road paved with warm firestones, Huo Yuhao exhaled a puff of white mist and unconsciously pulled his black trench coat, transformed from silkworm molts, tighter. In this freezing climate, only this thing could provide him with warmth.
The warm firestones on the ground, while supposedly having a heating function, were actually only for preventing the ground from freezing; their actual heating effect was less than that of starting a fire.
On the street, Huo Yuhao extended his spiritual power, constantly investigating the spiritual power levels of those around him.
If he detected anything unusual, he would have the Heavenly Dream Ice Silkworm mark the person with a spiritual imprint, and then conduct a more detailed investigation at night using his divine might.
There were quite a few soul masters here, and identifying someone as a soul master was very easy.
If someone dared to wear stockings and expose their thighs in this weather, they were definitely a soul master.
And the less they wore, the stronger they were!
Huo Yuhao headed towards the Dragon Gate in the north of the city. To his dismay, despite his mental power being stretched wide enough, he couldn't detect any mental power reactions at the Title Douluo level; the highest level here was only Soul Douluo.
"Could they have a mental shielding soul tool?"
"Are they that cautious?"
After much thought, only a mental shielding soul tool seemed possible. His current mental power was at the Spirit Abyss Realm, and he couldn't detect mental shielding instantly.
Tianmeng Ice Silkworm, however, could; as a high-level Spirit Domain Realm cultivator, mental shielding soul tools of this era were useless against him.
"Brother Tianmeng, you take over the mental detection. Once you find a suspicious target, immediately imprint it with your mental mark."
Upon hearing Huo Yuhao's words, Tianmeng Ice Silkworm allocated a portion of its computing power to take over the mental detection, then carefully examined every resident of Dragon City.
Although they didn't find the level nine Soul Master, they did find other interesting things.
"Huh?"
"Yuhao, there seems to be something underground to your north."
"It's a cave, very cold, and looks familiar."
"Ugh, my brain! That thing is the Ten-Thousand-Year Profound Ice Marrow Cave!"
"Good heavens, this place actually has such treasures!"
"Yuhao, we can't miss these Ten-Thousand-Year Profound Ice Marrow!"
"Ten-Thousand-Year Profound Ice Marrow is an absolute ice-type treasure, without exception!"
"To put it bluntly, if the Ice Emperor and Snow Emperor knew there was Ten-Thousand-Year Profound Ice Marrow here, they would definitely launch a beast tide to snatch it!"
"Because these Ten-Thousand-Year Profound Ice Marrow can definitely help them overcome their lifespan!"
Huo Yuhao heard the Heavenly Dream Ice Silkworm's joyful voice in his spiritual sea and looked north, towards the Earth Dragon Gate. The
Heavenly Dream Ice Silkworm was referring to the Ten-Thousand-Year Profound Ice Marrow Cave from the original story.
Huo Yuhao did indeed intend to take the Ten-Thousand-Year Profound Ice Marrow and the Ice Extreme Divine Crystal from beneath the Earth Dragon Gate. For ice-attribute soul masters, the Ten-Thousand-Year Profound Ice Marrow is undoubtedly a rare and precious treasure,
akin to a divine herb. Just hearing about it made Huo Yuhao's collecting instincts kick in. The Ice Extreme Divine Crystal possesses its own life force and is an extremely special rare metal, highly valuable for research.
Huo Yuhao calmed the excited heart of the Heavenly Dream Ice Silkworm, saying softly,
"The Ten-Thousand-Year Profound Ice Marrow doesn't have legs; it can't run away."
"But it's not good to act in broad daylight. We have no grudge against the Earth Dragon Sect, so it's not good to kill their entire family. Let's work quietly at night."
Daytime is too conspicuous.
If they make a scene, given the good relationship between the Heavenly Dragon Sect and the Earth Dragon Sect, the old Heavenly Dragon will definitely come to their aid. A fight would be difficult to manage, and Huo Yuhao didn't want to fight a Title Douluo, a Soul Douluo, and several soul masters all by himself.
Moreover, the noise of the battle could easily scare away that level nine soul master. If the opponent didn't even go to the base and fled to the Sun Moon Empire with the Snow Empress overnight, it would be a huge loss.
If they missed this opportunity, the next time they wanted to intercept Xue Di, they would have to break into Mingde Hall at night.
The two searched until the afternoon without finding the other's hiding place, but Tianmeng did detect the presence of a high-level soul tool through her spiritual power.
The changes in the (heaven and earth energy) caused by the complex core array couldn't escape the detection of a high-level Spirit Domain realm spiritual power.
Unfortunately, the other party might also possess a level nine shielding soul tool and several level seven or even level eight interference soul tools. With these soul tools working together, the two of them really couldn't find the other party's location for a while.
Huo Yuhao really wanted to catch him, slap him a few times, and ask him why he was carrying so many high-level concealment soul tools. He was as hard to catch as a rat in the sewers.
But what was certain was that the other party definitely hadn't left Dragon City; his caution suggested he was seriously injured.
From now on, as long as the two of them kept Dragon City locked down with their spiritual power, the other party, possessing a valuable treasure, would definitely be eager to leave.
Maintaining so many high-level soul tools would consume a lot of soul power; before the invention of sealed milk bottles, ordinary milk bottles couldn't sustain the operation of soul tools for long.
The other party left in a hurry, leaving behind a large number of ordinary milk bottles at their base in the Lake of Death. It's likely their high-level soul tool is being maintained by their own soul power. If they reveal even the slightest trace of their aura, Huo Yuhao and the Heavenly Dream Ice Silkworm can instantly lock onto them and unleash a powerful Amaterasu attack.
Currently, this level nine soul master is unaware that Bloodhounds are targeting him.
Unless Tang Sanzang cast a spell, there's no reason the other party could remain completely aloof.
Huo Yuhao was getting hungry; his soul power and mental strength were both good, but they couldn't completely replace food to provide energy.
People in this world, no matter how powerful their cultivation, always needed to eat; they couldn't achieve the fasting practices of the immortal cultivation system.
"You love me, I love you..."
A very familiar melody reached Huo Yuhao's ears on a street.
Even Tianmeng Ice Silkworm widened its eyes and exclaimed,
"Snow King Ice City has actually opened here?!"
"This expansion speed is a bit too fast!"
Huo Yuhao's eyes twitched as he looked at the snowman sign he'd brought from his previous life above the shop door.
A recording soul tool was playing the music, presumably recorded by Meng Hongchen, on a loop. A sign
at the shop entrance depicted Meng Hongchen holding milk tea, a forced smile, and giving a thumbs-up.
For him to make that expression, it seemed Meng Hongchen's soul tool was indeed very effective at educating.
Huo Yuhao now wore the expression of an old man on the subway with his phone still attached.
"Wait a minute? Nobody cares if they put up a sign claiming someone is a genius from the Sun Moon Empire in the Heavenly Soul Empire?!"
"That's a bit too lax!"
Then, thinking about how Xiao Hongchen's sign might have already spread throughout the world, Huo Yuhao's smile became harder to suppress than an AK.
"I have to hold it in, hold it in, but how can I hold back something so funny!"
Huo Yuhao couldn't help but laugh. He couldn't help it; Xiao Hongchen's expression was too hard to hide. He wondered what the other person's expression would be if they saw the sign.
"Ahem~!"
At the Sun Moon Empire's Mingdu Snow King headquarters, a boy with white hair and heterochromatic blue-green eyes was drinking milk tea when he suddenly coughed.
A girl with a side ponytail and blue eyes, who looked very much like the boy, tilted her head and looked at her brother, saying,
"Xiao, what's wrong?"
"I told you to take less drugs. Everyone outside says your head is all pointed now."
"Also, hurry up and drink it. We're going to Dongyang City to promote it soon."
Hearing this, Xiao Hongchen couldn't help but grip the milk tea cup in his hand, gritting his teeth and saying,
"Damn it! I, the number one genius of Sun Moon Academy, am now performing like an actor!"
"This is too much!"
Meng Hongchen smiled helplessly and said,
"If you don't want to do it, fine."
"Go talk to Grandpa."
"Right now, Kenlais and Snow King Ice City are his thorns in his side. If you go, you'll probably get a few soul-guided bullets."
"Besides, most of the money you use to buy medicine comes from Snow King Ice City."
Thinking of his grandfather's kind and gentle soul-guided bullets, Xiao Hongchen had to suppress his anger. When you're under someone's roof, you have to bow your head.
"Thirty years east of the river, thirty years west of the river. In the future, I'll definitely make Old Deng wear the Snow King suit and sing!"
He downed his entire cup of milk tea in one gulp, stood up, and said to Meng Hongchen,
"Alright, let's head to Dongyang City now. After the promotion ends, I need to focus on my cultivation."
"I must personally defeat Shrek Academy in next year's Continental Advanced Soul Master Tournament."
Meng Hongchen also walked to the door and said to Xiao Hongchen,
"Save your breath. After the promotion, Grandpa said he's going to send us to Xilu City in the Heavenly Soul Empire."
"Let us have a good chat with Rehu."
"The boss there has already found the way, we can go anytime."
"By the way, I heard Shrek City is right next to Xilu City. We can go there with Rehu to take a look."
Upon hearing this, Xiao Hongchen became interested and said to his sister,
"Xilu City?"
"Rehu's headquarters..."
"Interesting."
"I wonder if there are any powerful enemies there that can bring me, Xiao Hongchen, a surprise?"
"If not, let's go to Shrek City to take a look."
"I want to see what this so-called number one city of the Douluo Three Kingdoms is really like."
Meng Hongchen sighed and shook her head as she watched her brother start to act crazy again.
She was already used to Xiao Hongchen's behavior.
Based on her observation, whenever Xiao Hongchen got cocky, he would inevitably encounter a powerful figure who would teach him a lesson.
This pattern had happened countless times, but Xiao Hongchen remained unrepentant.
(Xiao Hongchen and Meng Hongchen are like their comic book counterparts—anime is an eyesore, and they're like garlic birds.)
(End of Chapter)
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