The wind and snow in the far north were as fierce as ever.
Huo Yuhao stepped onto the thick snow, spreading his immense spiritual power along the ice field, carefully searching for the spiritual imprint he had left behind.
After refining the seeds of nature, his perception of the energy of heaven and earth had long since transcended the purely spiritual level, and the wind and snow of the entire ice field were actively guiding him.
Relying on the faint resonance of that mental connection, he quickly pinpointed the location.
He raised an eyebrow and looked toward the depths of the far north.
In just a few days, the Mirror Beast did not remain in place to digest the medicinal effects, but instead crossed the outer defense line and plunged into the more dangerous core area.
Huo Yuhao didn't linger. He activated his soul power and soared into the air, speeding along the path guided by his spirit.
The number of spirit beasts along the way dwindled, and the snow on the ice became as hard as steel.
He only stopped on a leeward slope of an ice valley when the surrounding snow gradually turned a deep, dark blue and the temperature dropped so low that even the blood of an ordinary Soul Master would freeze.
Behind a huge ice rock not far away, lay a soul beast with a crystal-clear body covered with fine silver scales.
That was his goal for this trip.
But when Huo Yuhao scanned the other person's body with his mental detection, the corner of his mouth twitched.
This was quite different from what he had expected.
I originally thought that if I threw two perfect Nine-Turn Profound Ice Pills, even if the soul beast's absorption and conversion rate was terrible, I could still stack it up to seventy or eighty thousand years of cultivation.
However, the soul power emanating from this Mirror Beast is currently just over 50,000 years old.
This wave of empiricism is truly harmful.
It seems that relying solely on bodily sensations to estimate energy conversion is ultimately too hasty. Without a systematic formula and accurate data as a reference, such a health plan is simply a matter of being completely in the dark.
A soul beast with 50,000 years of cultivation has long since developed intelligence that is no less than that of an ordinary human.
Sensing the approaching aura of an unfamiliar Soul Master, the Mirror Shadow Beast did not hesitate for a moment. Its silver scales shone brightly, and the surrounding light twisted and refracted rapidly. Its body disappeared from the spot.
Dozens of ice blades, formed from refracted light, completely blocked Huo Yuhao's escape route from all directions.
Since we're here to get the Soul Ring, there's no need to be polite.
Huo Yuhao didn't even bother to dodge; the walnut-sized tricolor crystal in his dantian spun rapidly.
The ultimate wood serves as fuel, the ultimate fire as the furnace, and the ultimate water as the quenching pool. The three forces of law constantly collide and recombine within this miniature, cyclical system.
He quickly retrieved his memories of facing the God of Destruction in that pure white space.
That suffocating will to destroy was replicated without reservation by the mental simulation, and along the derivative trajectory of the three-colored soul core, it was forcibly transformed into a purple energy filled with ultimate destructive desire.
He raised his hand, his fingers pointing like a sword, and swung it horizontally forward.
The violent purple airflow transformed into a fan-shaped blade of air, directly slicing through the refracted ice blades and tearing a semi-transparent ripple in the air.
The Mirror Beast, hidden behind the refractive field, let out a sharp screech, its massive body forced to reveal itself. It slammed its thick forelimbs into the ground, erecting more than a dozen thick ice walls in an attempt to block the attack.
But the simulated destructive power was extremely domineering, carrying an overwhelming force that shattered the ice wall and the snowstorm behind it.
Huo Yuhao used his toes to push off the ground, transforming into a blur as he actively went to meet the attacker.
The two forces clashed back and forth in the wind and snow, with ice shards and purple energy remnants constantly colliding.
The Mirror Beast, relying on its bizarre refraction and displacement, attempts to find a weakness, constantly creating incredibly realistic reflections of itself around it.
Even an ordinary Soul Master, or even a high-level Soul King, would find this kind of combined attack of illusion and reality troublesome.
However, Huo Yuhao kept his mental detection active the whole time, calculating the soul power fluctuations at each of the opponent's landing points perfectly.
More than ten rounds passed in the blink of an eye.
Huo Yuhao gradually figured out the opponent's attack rhythm. Too lazy to delay any longer, he spread his five fingers and pressed his palm down forcefully.
The destructive power within his body surged skyward under the guidance of his spirit, splitting into dozens of spears crackling with purple lightning patterns in mid-air.
Before the Mirror Beast could launch its next refraction attack, the spears, accompanied by a mournful whistling sound, rained down like a torrential downpour.
The spear pierced precisely through the Mirror Beast's limbs and spine, pinning its massive body firmly to the ice.
The Mirror Beast had no chance to struggle; its life force vanished in the blink of an eye.
Huo Yuhao withdrew his five fingers to disperse the aftershocks, looked at the shattered ice in front of him, and sighed.
This kind of power, which completely strips away life and leaves no room for anything else, is indeed ridiculously strong.
No wonder that God of Destruction can sit firmly in the position of the supreme god-king in the divine realm. Even a mere glimpse of his true form can create such a one-sided crushing situation.
A deep black soul ring slowly rose from above the Mirror Beast's corpse, exuding a sense of resentment and unwillingness.
Huo Yuhao didn't delay and immediately sat down cross-legged, guiding the soul ring to fall onto himself.
The immense soul power, mixed with the beast spirit's resentment before its death, surged into his meridians like a flood bursting its banks.
Huo Yuhao frowned even more deeply.
He completely ignored the resentment clashing around him, and with his overwhelming mental power, he directly shattered those chaotic emotional fluctuations.
Those violent soul forces couldn't stir up much trouble in front of Titan God Blood's exaggerated physique.
The energy infusion was too forceful, and Huo Yuhao's skin inevitably developed thin cracks, from which blood seeped out.
Without even blinking, the three-colored soul core in his dantian changed its operating trajectory once again.
When the ultimate water and the ultimate wood converge, the purple energy that symbolized destruction dissipates directly, replaced by a pure and enduring life force.
The emerald green light flowed through his meridians throughout his body, even shining through his skin, making the surrounding ice and snow appear vibrant with life.
The cracks in the skin were quickly healed by this life force as soon as they were torn open, and the hidden injuries left by the violent soul power inside the body were also completely purified and washed away.
The meridians, which were originally overburdened, underwent a rapid transformation under the influence of this life force.
Violent destruction and ultimate repair constantly clash deep within the meridians.
This tug-of-war, involving both destruction and repair, lasted less than half an hour before it came to a complete end.
The black soul ring, which was at the level of 50,000 years, settled down completely and floated steadily beside Huo Yuhao.
He slowly opened his eyes, sensing the new information that had appeared in his mind, and a smile appeared on his lips.
Image neurons.
A purely passively triggered divine skill.
This thing can not only simulate the properties of the opponent's soul power, but also perfectly replicate the internal structure of the martial soul and the specific effects of the soul skills at the mental level, and directly analyze and reconstruct them for its own use.
This is blatant robbery.
As long as your mental strength can keep up, you can turn the opponent's trump cards into your own tactics in the blink of an eye.
Besides this outrageous passive soul skill, the enormous energy contained in his 50,000-year soul ring also propelled his cultivation level to another level.
His soul power level naturally broke through to level 45.
Huo Yuhao stood up, stretched his limbs, and felt the abundant soul power within his body and the ever-renewing three-colored soul core circulation.
All the groundwork and accumulation in the early stages have finally made up for the shortcomings.
Next, it's time to deal with that long-abandoned piece of living gold.
If it can be successfully refined and a second spiritual sea opened up, then Master Elex's fragmented divine consciousness can be truly nurtured and restored.
The path in the inner courtyard was covered with a layer of scattered fallen leaves.
Ma Xiaotao walked back to her residence step by step, step by step, through the fallen leaves.
Several familiar students from the inner academy greeted her along the way, but she didn't even raise her head, as if she hadn't heard them at all.
She pushed open the door and slumped into a chair as if all her strength had been drained.
She had just returned from the Sea God Pavilion.
Old Master Mu's words were still echoing in her mind.
That brat who always had a calm face and calculated everything so clearly actually left without a word.
They didn't even leave a goodbye.
She had never met such an unreasonable person in her life.
Even if they didn't say it outright, their many shared experiences of life and death together made them true friends.
Now they can leave whenever they want, without even leaving a trace.
But the feeling of disappointment only lasted for the time it takes to drink half a cup of tea.
She was never the kind of sentimental person who liked to complain or blame others.
Directness and passion are her true nature.
Since that person has chosen their own path, all she has to do is keep up with them.
Ma Xiaotao walked to the basin, scooped up some cold water and splashed it on her face, then grabbed a towel and wiped her face haphazardly.
Cool water droplets dripped down her cheeks, completely clearing her mind.
Huo Yuhao is too outstanding.
Whether it's the abnormal talent of the three-colored soul core or the endless stream of trump cards and tricks, they have completely broken the rules of common sense.
Even though she was known as Shrek Academy's number one genius, she paled in comparison to this kid.
If you want to truly gain a foothold by his side, those vague and ambiguous relationships are completely useless.
We must become stronger, even stronger.
Her soul power has now reached level 74.
With the ultimate fire after complete transformation, even if one only cultivates step by step, one can reach the threshold of Title Douluo by the age of forty at most.
But that's not enough.
Too slow.
Given Huo Yuhao's absurdly rapid advancement, by the time she turns forty, that kid will probably have already crossed the threshold of Extreme Douluo.
We must compress the timeline to thirty years old.
Not only do you need to break through level 90 before you turn 30, but you also need to get a 100,000-year-level configuration when you get your ninth soul ring.
Only this kind of solid, hard-core foundation is worthy of that guy.
Thinking of this, Ma Xiaotao was no longer sleepy. She turned around, walked to the bed, sat down cross-legged, and immediately entered a state of cultivation.
Crimson-gold phoenix flames surged out along the meridians, illuminating the entire room.
But just as her Fire Phoenix Martial Soul had completed one cycle, the surrounding air began to distort slightly.
The familiar moisture on Poseidon Island has completely disappeared.
The wooden bed and the mattress beneath him had also vanished without a trace.
Ma Xiaotao was taken aback.
She scanned her surroundings and found herself in a completely unfamiliar space.
There is no sky.
There is no land.
Everywhere you looked, there were rolling crimson flames.
Logically speaking, even a seventh-ring Soul Saint would be instantly dried out if surrounded by such a massive sea of fire.
Standing in the middle of this sea of fire, she not only didn't feel the slightest bit of heat, but instead felt that the meridians throughout her body were flowing smoothly to an absurd degree.
Just as she was about to release her martial spirit to investigate, the sea of fire in front of her suddenly parted to the sides without warning.
A blurry figure, hundreds of feet tall, slowly emerged from the depths of the churning flames.
The opponent's entire body was formed from pure flames of law, making it impossible to discern facial features; all that remained was an absolute pressure that commanded all fire.
"I am the God of Fire."
A vast and solemn sound echoed within this fiery space.
"Mortal of the lower realm, are you willing to undergo the nine trials of the Fire God?"
This statement is blunt and without any preamble.
If a normal person encountered such a situation, they would definitely feel that it was completely beyond the comprehension of ordinary people.
But Ma Xiaotao digested those words in less than three breaths.
She didn't even show the slightest surprise.
Has he been chosen by a god?
The top-secret files in Shrek Academy clearly state that ten thousand years ago, her ancestor Ma Hongjun was the successor of the God of Fire.
Unfortunately, that ancestor's foundation was insufficient, and he ultimately failed at the threshold of the Nine Trials of the God of Fire.
Now, the opportunity has fallen into her lap.
The path that her ancestors didn't finish walking, now it's her turn to walk.
Ma Xiaotao silently clenched her fists, raised her chin and looked at the divine figure in mid-air, a hint of absolute determination hidden deep in her eyes.
She will surpass what the ancient ancestors could not do.
As long as she can secure the position of God of Fire, let alone a thirty-year-old Title Douluo, even if that kid really becomes some kind of supreme being in the future, she will have the confidence to stand beside him.
I accept.
Ma Xiaotao didn't utter a single word of nonsense and readily agreed.
...
The realm of gods, a secluded and tranquil courtyard.
The atmosphere here lacks the solemnity of the central hall; instead, it exudes a sense of leisure.
The four gods—Earth God, Wind God, Fire God, and Water God—who were originally the main gods of the elements, gathered together in a rather casual manner.
The Water God picked up the teacup on the table, took a sip, and spoke with a hint of teasing.
"You're really brave, buddy."
He looked at the God of Fire opposite him and said, "Even a blind man could see the divine beast phoenix bloodline within that girl. How dare you disregard the rules and pass on the divine position to her?"
The Earth God sat to one side, his face full of worry.
"You know the temper of the God of Destruction."
He lowered his voice, "We've followed that lord for over ten thousand years. Don't you know his attitude towards soul beasts?"
The Earth God sighed, "You're taking too much risk by so openly choosing a mortal with the bloodline of a divine beast."
Vulcan leaned back in his chair and waved his hand dismissively.
"I'm just taking a gamble."
He pointed towards the lower realm, "Although the phoenix bloodline within that little girl is taboo, she and that little boy Huo Yuhao are connected."
He paused for a moment, a smile playing on his lips.
"Whether there are dates or not, I'll cast my line a couple of times. Anyway, if this matter is discovered, at most the girl's divine position will be revoked, and I'll just be locked up for a few more days." Even if tens of thousands of years pass, the God of Fire is confident that he can wait and take the gamble.
Vulcan slapped his thigh, his face full of longing.
"We've been in this realm of gods for hundreds of thousands of years, and all we do every day is attend meetings and space out. I'm really fed up."
"Once I relinquish the responsibilities of this divine position, I can be completely freed and go to another realm to have a good time."
As he spoke, he moved closer to the others.
"So, how about you guys also choose a successor?"
Vulcan began frantically urging, "Hurry up and get rid of your burdens, let's all get on the boat together, so that we can help each other if something goes wrong."
Fengshen rolled his eyes at him and shook his head nonchalantly.
"Don't try to fool us."
Fengshen immediately shut him down, saying, "You're a really bad guy. You want to commit a crime yourself, but you insist on dragging us down with you."
Gods: ...
Huo Yuhao stood on the edge of the mountain ridge, looking down at the huge rift valley that stretched for thousands of miles in front of him.
As far as the eye could see, there were steep, dark brown cliffs, and large swaths of gray miasma rolled in the bottomless ravines. There was even a lingering, oppressive, and heavy atmosphere in the air.
This is the famous Meteor Dragon Canyon within the territory of the Heavenly Soul Empire.
As the absolute territory guarded and actually controlled by the Tianlongmen for generations, this place has always been shrouded in mystery in the eyes of outside soul masters.
Legend has it that tens of thousands of years ago, the remains of an enormous dragon fell from the sky, smashing into the earth and creating this abyss that resembles a scar. As a result, this area has been perpetually filled with the aura of a raging dragon.
Countless years have passed, and the dragon energy that dissipated in the soil and undercurrents gradually permeated the surrounding plants and animals, giving rise to a large number of mutated species with diluted dragon blood.
This place naturally became a perilous and opportunistic haven.
This time, instead of going back to Shrek, he traveled all the way to this desolate wilderness, purely to try his luck.
According to his original plan, after finishing his trip to the far north, he should have found an absolutely safe place to go into seclusion.
He still held the piece of living gold he had acquired at the auction in his hand. His immediate priority should be to refine it as soon as possible to open up a second spiritual sea, so as to provide Elex with a stable place for his consciousness to recover.
But plans can never keep up with changes.
Just as he was about to begin processing the Gold of Life, Elex from the Sea of Spirit intervened and stopped him.
"Yuhao, your luck is at its peak right now, there's no need to rush into those tedious seclusion tasks."
An aged voice resounded in the mental network, carrying an undeniable confidence.
"This Life Gold is indeed a rare treasure, but since you hold such a supreme treasure as the Creation Cauldron of Heaven and Earth in your hands, why not go out and explore the outside world first, and find more rare and precious materials or high-level bloodlines?"
"I have carefully examined the characteristics of that cauldron. As long as you stuff all these opportunities into the cauldron and fuse them together with the origin of creation, the result will far exceed your current imagination."
When Electrolux said this, his tone even carried a rare hint of fervor.
"Moreover, I have been deconstructing and deducing the rules of martial spirits in Douluo Continent during this period of time, and I have already figured out some of the tricks."
"If you can find a sufficiently powerful dragon origin here, I am 70% confident that I can use the power of the Creation Cauldron to forcibly create a third martial soul for you."
After hearing these words, Huo Yuhao fell completely silent.
He created a completely new martial soul out of thin air.
This kind of thing, which sounds extremely counterintuitive, would be considered by an indigenous person to be something like "the other person has lost their mind."
But these words came from Elex's mouth.
This person is a demigod whose consciousness can be preserved across planes, and is also the core technical expert of the god-making project. Since the other party dares to make this request, it means that this matter has been completely tested in theory.
In the original work, Elixir did indeed create a Necromancer Saint God Martial Soul for him. Although it could not absorb soul rings, it was still a Three Lives Martial Soul, the key to controlling the Necromancer Demiplane.
So he changed direction without hesitation and headed straight for the nearest Dragon Canyon.
As for whether a real dragon actually fell in this place back then, Huo Yuhao had his own set of logical systems.
Logically speaking, most legends from tens of thousands of years ago are based on hearsay and have extremely low credibility.
However, the ancient information he possesses is far beyond what the sects of Douluo Continent can compare to.
As a transmigrator, he knew that when the Dragon God was defeated, almost all of his nine Dragon Kings were slaughtered, and even the remains of the Ice and Fire Dragon King were left in a treasure land somewhere on the Douluo Continent.
In addition, the Silver Dragon King, who inherited all the Dragon God's extraordinary wisdom, has been lying in wait deep in the Star Dou Great Forest to recuperate, and even the remains of the Light and Dark Dragon King have not been found.
Since Douluo Star had long been a refuge and burial ground for these ancient powerful beings, it was entirely reasonable for a real dragon king to have fallen into the Meteor Dragon Canyon.
Even if only half of the rumors are true, this place is absolutely worth the trip.
Huo Yuhao composed himself, leaped down the ridge, and landed steadily on the outer edge of the canyon, which was covered with dark moss.
As soon as I stepped into the woods, a soft rustling sound came from the bushes ahead.
Several dark figures, each the size of an adult cheetah, suddenly darted out from the shadows.
The low-level dragon beasts, their bodies covered in hard, keratinous scales, opened their foul-smelling mouths filled with fangs and swarmed from three different directions in perfect unison, their sharp claws scraping against the rocks with a piercing sound.
Huo Yuhao didn't even pause for a moment. He simply raised his right hand and waved it forward. The spatial power overflowing from his fingertips transformed into several fine threads that were too dense to be seen with the naked eye, effortlessly slicing through the bodies of these dragon beasts.
The severed corpse fell directly onto the soil, dark brown blood flowing down the smooth cuts and pooling on the ground.
He stepped forward, glanced at it, and sighed helplessly.
The dragon blood in this ten-year-old dragon beast is so thin that it is almost negligible. At best, it can only be considered a mutated wild beast that has been slightly polluted by dragon energy. It is not even qualified for him to use the Creation Cauldron to refine it.
If there is any difference, it's just that these monsters are much stronger and have better physical defense than ordinary ten-year soul beasts outside, but that's all.
To obtain the truly valuable Dragon Origin, one must continue venturing deeper into the canyon.
There have been rumors that in the core area of this canyon, there are several true dragon descendants with cultivation of over 200,000 years and extremely pure bloodlines.
Huo Yuhao has always maintained an absolutely skeptical attitude towards such common and exaggerated rumors.
If the Heavenly Soul Empire truly harbored ferocious beasts that had existed for two hundred thousand years, given the natives' penchant for boasting about ranking the strong, those monsters would have long been listed on the continent's list of ferocious beasts and widely publicized.
However, the reality is that the super beings listed on the Beast Ranking, such as Di Tian and the King of Ten Thousand Demons, are all clustered in the core area of the Star Dou Great Forest.
This is enough to prove that even if there are really formidable characters in the Meteor Dragon Canyon, they would only live for a little over 100,000 years, and would definitely not reach the terrifying level of ruling a region.
Moreover, to be fair, this place was controlled by the Blue Lightning Tyrant Clan ten thousand years ago, and later the Heavenly Dragon Gate swept through it for ten thousand years. Even if there were 200,000-year-old soul beasts, they all died under the hunting.
After passing through the outer woodland, the miasma began to thicken at a visible rate.
Relying on the powerful self-purification ability of his three-colored soul core, Huo Yuhao completely ignored the impurities in the air that contained trace amounts of toxins and slowly entered the area where the hundred-year-old soul beasts were active.
He skillfully deployed his mental detection sharing, capturing the terrain and energy fluctuations within a radius of several kilometers in his mind.
He hadn't gone far when he stopped.
From God's-eye view of mental probing, less than five hundred steps ahead, outside a natural grotto, stood two boys who looked no more than eleven or twelve years old.
The two young men were dressed in very similar light blue outfits, with a dragon with outstretched wings embroidered in silver thread on the cuffs. Judging from their attire, they were most likely disciples from the Tianlong Sect who had come out for training.
But what made Huo Yuhao stop was not these two young men with low cultivation levels.
He narrowed his eyes, focusing his mental energy detection even more precisely on the area around the two people's feet.
There, each animal was tethered to a small, rather strange-looking creature.
These two little creatures looked somewhat like domesticated pigs, covered in a layer of soft, short, bright yellow fur, with unusually prominent noses, and were constantly sniffing the ground covered with pebbles and moss.
Whenever the bright yellow little beast walked near a seemingly ordinary rock, it would let out a rapid, low growl, prompting the two boys to rush over and dig.
It can accurately locate mineral veins and spiritual herbs hidden in the soil.
Huo Yuhao raised an eyebrow.
If he wasn't mistaken, this thing was definitely one of those extremely rare treasure-hunting soul beasts.
He was worried about not finding anything good in this canyon that stretches for thousands of miles when the people of Tianlongmen brought him a ready-made guide.
Although separated by hundreds of meters, the scene ahead was clearer than what one could see with one's own eyes under the God's-eye view of mental detection.
Huo Yuhao saw the true appearance of the two bright yellow little beasts, his gaze lingering for a moment on their protruding noses and short limbs.
That wasn't some wild treasure-hunting soul beast at all, but a materialized martial soul formed from soul power.
He had once browsed through some ancient sect secrets in the Shrek Academy library, which included a record of a rare, useless martial spirit.
This martial soul is a mutated inferior form of the top-tier beast martial soul, the Blue Lightning Tyrannosaurus. Although it barely retains a faint dragon bloodline, it has degenerated into a comical creature that looks like a pig and can only attack by farting.
It was Luo Sanpao.
The two boys in front of them looked alike, and even their height and build were exactly the same. They were obviously twin brothers born of the same mother. Because they were born from the same source, they had awakened the same mutated martial soul.
Huo Yuhao scanned the soul power fluctuations on the two people and quickly made an accurate judgment.
Level 10.
At the age of twelve, having only reached level ten at most, his talent is comparable to that of Huo Yuhao in the original novel.
Two teenagers, each holding a standard-issue short knife, stood back to back, peering warily into the surrounding miasma.
They had no elders leading the team, nor any other fellow disciples to look after them.
With two useless martial spirits that have no combat power, daring to come to a place like the Meteor Dragon Canyon to hunt century-old soul beasts and obtain the first soul ring, there is no other possibility but that they are marginal disciples who are not favored by the sect and can only fight for their own lives.
This kind of behavior from major sects has remained unchanged for thousands of years.
Disciples with no practical value can simply rot in the wild without anyone asking a question.
Just then, two abnormally frenzied energy reactions suddenly came from the edge of the mental detection network that Huo Yuhao had released.
Two low-level dragon beasts, each over 100 years old, are rapidly approaching.
Judging from the tracks they left through the forest, the two beasts were clearly following the scent of living people and flanking the two brothers from two different directions.
Huo Yuhao stood on the treetop without making a move immediately, but quietly watched the commotion below.
A level 10 useless martial soul master without any soul rings, if he encounters a hundred-year-old soul beast in the wild, his only fate is to turn into a puddle of excrement.
They are still two hundred-year-old soul beasts.
With their skinny arms and legs, these two brothers probably wouldn't be able to keep up with those two dragon beasts.
The bushes on the right emitted a series of snapping sounds.
A swamp hornedosaur, over three meters long and covered in dark green scales, suddenly appeared.
A strong, foul wind swept over them, causing the surrounding hazy miasma to churn.
The two brothers were forced back several steps by the force of the attack, but when they saw that there was only a hundred-year-old soul beast in front of them, they showed little fear on their faces. Instead, they revealed a somewhat inappropriate look of joy.
"Brother, it's a century-old Poison Swamp Ceratopsian!"
"If we join forces, we can definitely take down a mere hundred-year-old soul beast!"
This time, they've really dug their own grave, haven't they?
Huo Yuhao watched the two reckless reactions from the tree, losing all interest in even offering a word of warning.
These two probably thought that with the basic self-defense techniques taught by the Tianlong Sect, they could overcome the level barrier and challenge beasts with pure killing instincts.
The Swamp Diablos didn't give them a chance to get into position. With a powerful push off the rocks, it rammed into the two of them, its hard, dark green scales protruding from its massive hind legs.
The two brothers swung their short swords at the dragon's scales, but didn't even leave a white mark; the blades immediately curled up.
The immense recoil force sent the two men flying backwards along the hilt of the knife, like kites with their strings cut.
The swamp horde lashed its long tail, sending a gust of wind through the air as it struck the younger brother in the chest.
If they hadn't been wearing the tough and durable armor specially made by the Tianlongmen, this blow would have been enough to shatter his sternum along with his internal organs.
Even so, the boy coughed up a mouthful of blood and collapsed into the pile of rubble, too weak to even stand up.
In just one encounter, the two found themselves completely trapped in a perilous predicament.
"Luo Sanpao, hurry up!"
Seeing the Poison Swamp Horned Dragon open its fang-filled maw to bite its younger brother on the ground, the older brother shouted and scrambled forward, simultaneously activating his martial spirit to counterattack.
Upon receiving their master's command, the two bright yellow little beasts, with their short legs, charged at the dragon's head from the left and right, attempting to force it back with their weak impact.
The Swamp Diablos didn't even bother to dodge, and its large mouth turned around in one smooth motion.
Click.
The Luo Sanpao on the left had half of its body bitten off, its sharp fangs instantly piercing through its body formed from soul power.
Before it could even struggle, its entire body disintegrated into specks of yellow light.
Immediately afterwards, the dragon beast slammed down with its claw, crushing the other Luo Sanpao on the spot.
"puff--"
Both brothers coughed up a mouthful of blood at the same time, their already pale faces turning ashen, and their breaths becoming extremely weak.
Huo Yuhao sighed as he watched from the shadows.
This Luo Sanpao truly lives up to his reputation as a top-grade useless martial spirit as designated in ancient texts.
It's one thing to have no offensive or defensive capabilities in the early stages, but once this materialized martial soul is injured, it will directly reflect most of the pain and injury back to the soul master's body.
Even the faint toxins attached to the swamp horned dragon's teeth rebounded into the two brothers' bodies through the broken connection of their martial souls.
This is hardly a helpful martial spirit; it's a liability that could explode at any moment.
Even the renowned Blue Silver Grass of the Tang Sect, used to block a knife, wouldn't have caused a Soul Master to end up in such a state.
The Poison Swamp Horned Dragon shook its head and strode towards the two brothers who were lying on the ground, unable to resist.
Rough claws stomped on the gravel, making a harsh scraping sound.
From the miasma not far away, the footsteps of another hundred-year-old dragon beast grew closer and closer, clearly preparing to come and get a share of the spoils.
The older brother tightly shielded his younger brother behind him, and looking at the gaping maw so close to his face, he closed his eyes in utter despair.
They haven't even dealt with one yet, and a second one is coming right away.
"..."
Overwhelmed by fear, the two brothers couldn't even utter a final word.
Just as that foul-smelling wind was about to touch their cheeks...
A tall figure suddenly appeared in front of them.
Huo Yuhao didn't even release his martial spirit; he simply raised his right hand, spread his five fingers, and pressed down on the enormous head of the Poison Swamp Horned Dragon.
The hundred-year-old dragon beast, in its frenzied charge, seemed to have crashed into an insurmountable iron wall.
The momentum of the forward rush was abruptly cut off.
Its large mouth, full of fangs, was less than half an inch from Huo Yuhao's palm, yet it could no longer move forward an inch.
The two brothers' tightly closed eyes trembled slightly, and they slowly opened them, their minds filled with despair.
The expected agony of being torn apart by wild beasts did not come, and even the nauseating stench of decay disappeared completely.
They looked up in bewilderment and discovered that the two arrogant, centuries-old dragon beasts had somehow transformed into two crystal-clear ice sculptures.
The thick layer of ice not only sealed off all life from the Swamp Horned Dragon, but also froze the surrounding gray miasma into tiny ice shards, which were falling down in a flurry.
A young boy stood beside the ice sculpture, nearly 1.9 meters tall, with well-proportioned shoulders and back, standing as upright as a pine tree rooted in the wind and snow.
His ice-blue hair fell smoothly over his shoulders, highlighting his already flawless facial features and making him incomparably handsome.
Those icy blue eyes were as deep as a frozen pool in the far north, exuding an aura of icy indifference, as if they had no interest in anything in the world.
But when his gaze swept over me and the corners of his lips slightly turned up, that aloof and cold aura instantly melted away, and he radiated a bright and cheerful vitality.
Her cold appearance and warm temperament blended together seamlessly. Despite her aloof and icy eyes that kept people at a distance, she exuded a reassuring warmth that made it impossible to look away.
Without a doubt, this is the savior who just saved my life.
Huo Yuhao casually withdrew his hand.
He hadn't even released his martial spirit; he had merely mobilized the ultimate ice within his three-colored soul core. The burst of cold air instantly froze the two hundred-year-old swamp horned dragons into lifeless blocks of ice.
The two brothers stared in disbelief at the boy who had appeared out of nowhere.
The younger brother couldn't help but swallow, his gaze fixed on the other's face, and he unconsciously murmured something.
"So handsome!"
These words, spoken offhand, seemed somewhat abrupt in this desolate wilderness.
The older brother, who was slightly older, was the first to recover from the shock of escaping death. He quickly reached out and pulled his younger brother up, and the two of them scrambled to their feet from the rubble-strewn ground.
Long Batian brushed the mud off his body, clasped his hands together, bent his body at a ninety-degree angle, and gave Huo Yuhao a very proper salute.
"Thank you so much for saving my life."
With his brother's gentle reminder, Long Zhantian finally realized what was happening and quickly bowed his head to express his gratitude, barely daring to breathe.
The two of them did not show much wariness towards this suddenly appearing, powerful stranger.
After all, this is the outer area of the Meteorite Dragon Canyon.
Although Tianlongmen nominally controls this dangerous area stretching for thousands of miles, this outer area has always been completely open to the outside world.
Within the Heavenly Soul Empire, many experts from other sects or independent cultivators would travel great distances to try their luck here.
Those mutated soul beasts with a trace of dragon blood naturally produce soul rings of slightly higher quality than those from ordinary wild beasts, making them top-tier items that many lower-level soul masters dream of obtaining.
It's perfectly reasonable to encounter other powerful individuals here.
Huo Yuhao's gaze swept over the two men's pale faces, then swept over the pool of blood left at their feet from the shattering of their martial souls.
"You two little rascals, are you here to hunt for your first soul ring?" He pointed to the two lifelike ice sculptures and raised his chin. "These mixed-blood swamp horned dragons are not suitable for your martial souls. Come with me, and I'll get you two decent ones while I'm at it."
Both of them were taken aback.
They looked at each other, completely baffled as to why this unfathomably powerful senior would show such kindness to two complete strangers.
But in this dangerous, remote mountain forest, not clinging to a readily available ally is definitely a sign of a madman.
Adhering to the simple principle of "why not take it if it's free," the two followed behind Huo Yuhao without hesitation.
...
Three figures, one large and two small, continued walking deeper into the canyon, their feet treading on the thick, dark moss.
As the miasma gradually thickened, visibility in the surrounding area decreased.
Huo Yuhao slowed his pace, spreading out his mental detection to search for suitable prey while casually trying to elicit information from the two brothers.
He also treated the two little ones while he was at it, and before long, he had figured out everything about them.
My older brother's name is Long Batian.
My younger brother's name is Long Zhantian.
These two names are incredibly domineering, exuding an arrogant energy that seems capable of turning the world upside down.
But in stark contrast to their imposing names are their appalling innate qualities.
Although they are twins born of the same mother, and both awakened martial souls, they are both useless martial souls called Luo Sanpao, but there is a significant difference in their innate soul power.
My brother's innate soul power is only a pitiful half level.
The younger brother's talent is slightly better, at level two and a half.
Based on the common practice of Soul Master cultivation on the mainland, even if Long Batian meditated day and night, he would definitely not be able to reach the level ten threshold at the age of twelve.
However, because these two are identical twins, their martial soul origins are almost completely the same, and even their auras are exactly the same.
After reaching level ten first, the younger brother, Long Zhantian, did not rush to hunt for soul rings to break through. Instead, he simply transferred the soul power he had accumulated every day to his older brother little by little.
He used this almost self-destructive cheating method to forcibly boost the other person's cultivation level, and by relying on their shared abilities, he managed to fill in that pitiful half-level talent.
This is why the two brothers can stand side by side here, together meeting the standard for obtaining the first soul ring.
After hearing this somewhat absurd explanation, Huo Yuhao paused almost imperceptibly.
This practice of helping one's brothers at any cost is absolutely incomprehensible and out of the ordinary in a major sect like Tianlongmen, which emphasizes the survival of the fittest.
Although these two are not particularly talented, their friendship is truly rare.
The two followed Huo Yuhao for about half an hour.
Huo Yuhao suddenly stopped and looked up at the steep cliff face full of rubble on his left.
From a godlike perspective of mental probing, he precisely pinpointed an energy fluctuation within a crevice in the rock wall.
It was a holy dragon that was nearly two meters long and covered with pale golden scales.
Although this beast has the word "dragon" in its name and its dragon blood is mixed up, it at least has a legitimate light attribute.
The year is exactly 212, making it the perfect time to give Luo Sanpao, who is at level 10, his first soul ring.
Without even saying hello, Huo Yuhao released a powerful mental force from between his eyebrows, which transformed into an invisible giant hand and reached out to grab the rock wall.
The Holy Light Dragon was dozing in its nest, not even realizing what was happening, when it was forcefully grabbed by the neck by this materialized mental force.
It flapped its short wings desperately, its pale golden soul power flowing wildly across its scales, but it couldn't break free from that invisible shackle.
Huo Yuhao clapped his hands. "Keep it for now."
While maintaining the suppression with his mental power, he turned around and continued to wander around the neighborhood with the two brothers, who looked completely dazed.
Since I promised to help, I need to equip both of them with the right soul rings.
He expanded the scope of his mental probe, meticulously analyzing the energy fluctuations in the area.
In less than the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, he caught a second Holy Light Dragon in a pile of boulders overgrown with bushes.
This one was slightly larger, around 230 years old, and its struggles were much more intense.
Huo Yuhao followed suit, using his mental power to pull the two hundred-year-old soul beasts, which were completely unable to resist, into the air and threw them side by side in front of Long Batian and Long Zhantian.
The pale golden scales scraped against the ground with a harsh, screeching sound.
Huo Yuhao calmly instructed, "Go ahead and do it," without even glancing at the prey on the ground.
The two brothers stared at the two Holy Light Dragons, which were pinned to the ground and could only whimper. Their hands, gripping their short swords, trembled involuntarily.
They swallowed hard, said no more nonsense, and walked to their respective soul beasts, swiftly slashing their blades into their vital points.
As blood gushed out, two bright yellow century-old soul rings slowly drifted away from the beast corpse, hovering quietly in mid-air.
Long Batian and Long Zhantian exchanged a glance, then sat down cross-legged, closed their eyes, and began to draw upon the power of their first soul rings.
Huo Yuhao stood to the side, arms crossed, his gaze fixed intently on every meridian along which the two were circulating their soul power.
His going to such lengths to help these two good-for-nothing kids, whom he had never met before, was certainly not just a spur-of-the-moment thing.
What he needed to do was collect experimental data on the two people's absorption of the same-origin soul