Below the green cliff, on a flat open space, a campfire was burning brightly.
Orange flames licked at the several pieces of succulent meat placed above the woodpile.
These pieces of meat were the most exquisite parts, cut from the inner thigh of that two-thousand-year-old Ironclad Earth Dragon. Both the quality of the meat and the traces of blood and qi it contained far surpassed those of ordinary wild beasts.
Huo Yuhao sat by the campfire, holding a sharpened wooden stick in his hand, slowly turning the roasting meat.
His mental energy had already been projected outwards, controlling the heat to an almost exacting degree, with the degree of heating of every inch of the meat surface under his precise control.
As the surface is grilled to a crisp and golden brown, the rich oil inside gradually melts, seeping out along the meat and dripping onto the embers below.
With a series of soft sounds, bursts of bright sparks rose up, and the rich aroma of meat immediately spread across the open space on the breeze.
With a flick of his wrist, Huo Yuhao evenly sprinkled several simple seasonings, ground from locally sourced ingredients, onto the surface of the roasted meat.
The spices and oils are fully blended at high temperatures, which brings the enticing aroma to a whole new level.
Long Batian squatted downwind among the rocks, helping to add firewood.
He kept glancing at the sizzling roasted meat, swallowing several times in a row.
Although he had already enjoyed several meals of high-grade dragon meat from this unfathomable senior in the past few days, he still couldn't suppress his instinctive urge to eat it every time it came out of the oven.
But he was very well-behaved, suppressing his cravings and obediently shrinking to one side, not daring to move even slightly.
In contrast, the grass in the distance seemed much more lively.
Long Zhantian and his Luo Sanpao were rolling around in the knee-deep grass, having a great time.
After being fed Dragon Blood Pills for the past two days, Luo Sanpao's appearance has undergone a dramatic transformation.
It has long since shed its bloated and comical appearance, resembling a pig, and is now covered with a layer of bright yellow, fine scales that gleam with a majestic, dragon-like quality in the sunlight.
A pair of small, exquisite dragon horns were forcibly protruded from its originally protruding, rounded forehead, and a pair of palm-sized fleshy wings rose up on both sides of its back.
Although its fleshy wings were not enough to support it in flight, the flapping motion it made each time it ran gave it a rather imposing appearance.
Even its four short, thick legs were stretched and deformed, with sharp, thick dragon claws growing from its toes.
This little guy, who has completely shed the characteristics of a useless martial spirit, is now a fine little dragon beast, with its mouth open, trying to bite the tree branch that Long Zhantian threw.
Huo Yuhao turned his head, his gaze sweeping over Long Zhantian's side, before turning back to look at Long Batian's feet.
Long Batian's dog, Luo Sanpao, was dozing off on its master's shoe.
Despite consuming the same high-purity Dragon Blood Pill for two days, Luo Sanpao's transformation was somewhat disappointing.
Its body shape has indeed become more proportionate, no longer resembling a ball, but no dragon horns have grown on its forehead, only two bulging fleshy lumps.
The limbs were only sparsely covered with a few scales, and most of them were still the original short hair.
The most comical part is its back, where a row of uneven bony scales stands upright. It not only lacks the majesty of a dragon, but also resembles a large, deformed hedgehog.
It looks completely out of place, like a pig and a dragon at the same time, with a comical, bizarre quality.
Two identical resources were allocated, yet they yielded drastically different results.
A faint blue fluorescence quietly appeared in Huo Yuhao's eyes.
The mental simulation unfolded instantly in his mind, with countless golden rays representing the flow of soul power and the origin of martial soul intertwined to form two complex structural diagrams.
He filled the model with all the experimental data he had collected over the past two days and carried out the most precise calculations and comparisons.
This series of arduous feeding tests finally led him to a complete underlying conclusion.
Those Dragon Blood Pills that have been purified and refined by the Cauldron of Creation and are of extremely high quality can indeed forcibly enhance the activity of the martial soul's origin to a certain extent.
However, this external stimulus is not without limits.
It produces vastly different effects depending on the foundation of the martial soul itself.
Just like Long Batian, whose innate soul power was only half a level, his meridians were narrow, and his martial soul origin was as weak as a candle flickering in the wind.
Even if the Dragon Blood Pill fed in is a perfect one without any violent impurities, its immense medicinal power cannot be retained at all.
In his deductive model, after Long Batian consumed the Dragon Blood Pill, the activity of his Martial Soul Origin could only be increased by 10% to 20% from its original level.
Any medicinal power exceeding this threshold will dissipate along the damaged martial soul pathway, wasting away in the air.
However, Long Zhantian, who has two and a half levels of innate soul power as a foundation, is in a completely different situation.
That superior foundation gave his martial soul an extremely strong ability to absorb energy.
The effects of the Dragon Blood Pill were completely locked inside the Martial Soul, forcibly increasing its activity by more than 60%, and no matter how many times it was calculated, this increase would not be less than 50%.
This exponential gap is an absolute barrier set up by innate foundation.
Huo Yuhao did not stop his deductions.
He mobilized his mental power and added another crucial time variable to his mind.
The age of a Soul Master.
As the age index continues to rise, the golden curve representing the malleability of the martial soul begins to plummet in the model.
This is a cruel law that applies everywhere.
The older a Soul Master is, the more solidified the structure of their meridians and the origin of their Martial Soul becomes, and their activity gradually decreases.
The younger the age, the less fully formed the bones and meridians are. When external force is used to stimulate them, the origin of the martial spirit is like a dried sponge meeting water, which can easily produce benign changes and evolution.
Once this golden window of development has passed, the foundation is completely fixed.
At that time, the origin of the martial spirit will completely turn into a stubborn, smelly rock.
Even if you manage to get the essence blood of a 100,000-year-old ferocious beast and force it down your throat, you'll only burst the host's body, and you won't be able to make your martial soul evolve in the slightest.
This conclusion is reasonable.
Huo Yuhao dispelled the pale blue fluorescence in his eyes, quite satisfied with the results of this experiment.
Once he understands these underlying logics, he will be able to provide the most accurate dosage and solutions when encountering situations that require modifying bloodlines or reshaping martial souls, thus avoiding wasting resources on futile efforts.
The faint crackling sound coming from the campfire interrupted his thoughts.
The meat on the grill was thoroughly cooked, with oil dripping onto the embers and emitting an enticing aroma.
Huo Yuhao used a large leaf from the tree next to him as a cushion to take down a few skewers of grilled meat and casually handed one to Long Batian, who was squatting next to him.
"Eat."
Long Batian quickly stood up, respectfully accepted the wooden stick with both hands, and repeatedly bowed his head to express his gratitude, even speaking in a very low voice.
Upon smelling the aroma of meat, Long Zhantian immediately abandoned Luo Sanpao and sprinted over.
Without even washing his hands, he snatched the fattest piece of earthworm meat from his brother's hand and bit into it with his mouth wide open.
The delicious meat juices instantly overflowed, smearing his mouth and face, and even his chin was covered in oil.
Watching the boy eat so carelessly, Huo Yuhao grabbed a clean blade of grass and casually wiped the grease from the corner of his mouth.
Although this kid is about to turn twelve, he is clearly being overprotected by his older brother.
In this dangerous wilderness, they lacked even the most basic vigilance when eating, appearing completely incapable of taking care of themselves.
Huo Yuhao secretly drew a simple portrait of the two of them.
These two brothers may indeed be unpopular in the Tianlongmen, even marginalized to the point where they can only fend for themselves outside, but their family conditions are definitely not bad.
In the past, at home, there were always people who took care of my food and daily life, arranging everything perfectly.
If they were truly orphans from the lowest rungs of society who couldn't even get enough to eat, they could never develop such a carefree, innocent, and carefree nature.
When Long Batian saw Huo Yuhao personally wiping his younger brother's mouth, fine beads of sweat immediately appeared on his forehead.
Fearing that his younger brother's rude behavior would offend this decisive senior, he hurriedly bent down and bowed repeatedly to express his gratitude, his demeanor revealing a cautious and respectful attitude.
Huo Yuhao waved his hand, indicating that he didn't need to be so reserved.
Long Zhantian swallowed the piece of meat in his mouth, his cheeks still bulging, and his oily lips parted into a big smile.
He tilted his head back, his clear eyes staring intently at Huo Yuhao's aloof and handsome face, his eyes sparkling with pure curiosity and envy.
"Senior, you are so gentle, your skills are so good, and you take such good care of people."
Long Zhantian blinked, his tone full of heartfelt admiration.
"And he's so handsome, being your child must be so wonderful, right?"
"..."
Huo Yuhao's hand, which was holding the kebab, froze completely.
His eyes twitched slightly as he looked down at Long Zhantian's innocent and carefree face, momentarily at a loss for what expression to make.
This inexplicable Super Junior upgrade has really caught him off guard.
He silently gripped the wooden stick in his hand, took a deep breath, and forcibly suppressed the urge to open his mouth and complain.
This kid probably doesn't understand the situation at all.
I'm only thirteen years old this year, just over a year older than you two little brats.
It's just that his body was enhanced and developed a bit by the blood of the Titans, and coupled with his two lifetimes of human experience, his temperament looks a bit more calm and weathered. How did he suddenly skip generations and reach an age where even his children can run errands?
The piece of ironclad earth dragon meat, roasted to a crisp on the outside and tender on the inside, was ultimately stuffed into Long Zhantian's mouth by Huo Yuhao with a blank expression.
This kid's bizarre remarks completely ended the atmosphere of chatting around the campfire.
After eating and drinking their fill around the fire, Huo Yuhao casually used a branch to pry open a section of firewood that was almost completely burned.
"I'll send you back to the outer perimeter first thing tomorrow morning."
He spoke calmly, as if he were talking about something trivial: "I'm going to the core area of the Meteor Dragon Canyon to find something. It would be inconvenient to bring the two of you along, so let's part ways here."
Upon hearing this, Long Zhantian, who had just been rolling around in the grass with Luo Sanpao in his arms, immediately stopped.
A clear look of disappointment crossed his oily face, and even the little dragon lying at his feet drooped its head.
Long Batian was also taken aback.
He silently clenched the hem of his clothes, and after a long while, he took a deep breath, forcefully suppressing the feeling of reluctance.
He was much more mature than his younger brother, and naturally understood that it was already an immense favor that this senior had protected them for six days and even provided them with high-level resources to help them modify their martial souls.
"Senior, are you going to the core area?"
Long Batian frowned slightly, hesitated for a moment, and then reminded him, "That place is not easy to enter now."
Huo Yuhao looked up at him.
"Although the Meteor Dragon Canyon is vast, its core area has always been personally guarded by the experts of our Tianlong Sect."
Long Batian explained honestly, "The sect has set up a defense line there, and outsiders can't get in at all. Even we inner disciples are not allowed to get close under normal circumstances."
Hearing this, Huo Yuhao was not surprised.
As the Douluo Continent has developed to this point, those ten-thousand-year-old soul beasts have long become strategic resources in the eyes of various sects and empires.
Especially for a long-established sect like the Heavenly Dragon Sect, there is an extremely strict control over the high-level soul beasts within its territory.
Perhaps each of these ten-thousand-year-old dragon beasts has been marked with a special mark, and there are even people who regularly track and record their life trajectories, all to prevent rogue cultivators or outside forces from sneaking in to make a quick buck.
He originally planned to wait until the two brats were gone before activating his mental detection to find a weak point and then use his spatial teleportation ability to sneak in silently.
For him, avoiding a few guards at the gate was no big deal.
But to his surprise, the young man in front of him actually had something to say.
Long Batian reached into his pocket and rummaged around for a while before pulling out a palm-sized black token, which he then handed over with both hands.
"Senior, you can try this."
The token was neither gold nor wood, and felt slightly cool to the touch. A lifelike coiled dragon was carved on its surface, and a small character for "jade" was engraved in the corner.
Huo Yuhao took the token and glanced at it.
This thing is exquisitely crafted and made of high-quality materials. It even has a faint soul power array pattern engraved inside to identify its owner.
This is clearly not something that an ordinary inner disciple could touch.
Huo Yuhao fiddled with the token, his gaze sweeping over Long Batian and Long Zhantian.
It seems that the backgrounds of these two kids are far more complicated than he had imagined.
Although he hadn't asked many questions in the past few days, he had pieced together a fairly complete picture of the brothers' situation.
In a place like Tianlongmen, where dragon-type martial souls are revered, if someone awakens a useless martial soul like Luo Sanpao, they will most likely be kept as a useless person by the elders of the family.
They will certainly not have to worry about food, clothing, or daily necessities, and will not be short of the treatment they deserve, but they will never devote any more resources or expectations to cultivation.
These two brats were clearly unwilling to just laze around and wait to die, so they took the keepsake left by their elders and sneaked into this dangerous canyon to hunt soul beasts.
With their touchingly low talents of 1.5 and 2.5 levels, if it weren't for a lucky break that they encountered him, they would probably have been killed by those two swamp horned dragons on the very first day.
He casually put the token into his storage soul tool.
Having a legitimate token as cover is much easier than sneaking in openly.
...
The next morning.
The miasma in the canyon had not completely dissipated, and a layer of damp, cold white fog shrouded the forest.
Huo Yuhao carried the two little devils across the rocky beach, retreating unimpeded to the outermost safe zone of the Meteor Dragon Canyon.
Mercenaries and low-level Soul Masters often appear in this place, and even the shadow of a ten-year Soul Beast is rarely seen. As long as you follow the main road, you can return to the nearby human town in half a day.
After stopping, Huo Yuhao took out two scrolls of parchment hastily written notes from his pocket and tossed them to Long Batian and Long Zhantian respectively.
"Take it."
His tone remained calm. "This is a training plan that I devised last night based on your physical data and the state of your martial spirits."
The two brothers quickly reached out and caught it.
"From now on, just follow the steps on this page."
Huo Yuhao pointed to the dense ink marks, "I have written down very clearly the daily meditation time, the route of soul power circulation, and the amount of qi and blood that need to be replenished."
"As long as you don't slack off and practice diligently step by step, achieving the goals I wrote above won't be difficult."
For him, these two little guys were excellent control subjects.
He has already laid out all the available resources and the optimal path he has deduced.
As for whether these two useless martial souls can continue to mutate in a benign manner according to the set trajectory without his intervention, this is not only a test for them, but also the key for him to verify whether this martial soul modification theory can be closed-loop.
If these two can really make a name for themselves, then his casual investment will not be a loss.
If we happen to run into each other again in the future, we can just check the progress then.
Long Zhantian lowered his head and held the roll of parchment, his eyes immediately reddening.
That face, which always wore a carefree smile, was now filled with undisguised emotion and sadness.
Long Batian, standing beside him, trembled slightly, his eyes welling up with tears. He bit his lower lip hard to keep himself from losing his composure in front of this elder he had just met.
Ever since their martial soul awakened and they became Luo Sanpao, a character everyone ridiculed, their lives plummeted to rock bottom.
Even if the elders in the family did not mistreat them on the surface, nor did they allow their fellow disciples to bully them at will, all the care, expectations, and undisguised affection that once surrounded them disappeared completely on the day of the awakening ceremony.
The sense of loss from being completely abandoned and treated like you're invisible is far more despairing than being beaten.
But now, this stranger, whom they had only known for six days, not only saved their lives and helped them hunt for soul rings, but was even willing to spend time and effort paving the way for their future.
This allowed them to truly experience once again the warmth of being cared for and treated with sincerity.
For these two teenagers who had struggled under the cold shoulder for four years, these short six days were undoubtedly the most precious experience of their lives.
"..."
The two brothers were at a loss for words.
Long Zhantian sniffed, wiped the tears off his face haphazardly, and suddenly looked up at Huo Yuhao.
"Senior!"
He pounded his chest, his voice trembling slightly, yet filled with an unprecedented determination: "I will definitely become exceptionally strong in the future, and I will absolutely not let you down!"
"I'll make those people from the Heavenly Dragon Sect who look down on us look at us with new eyes!"
These bold words echoed through the quiet forest, carrying with them a youthful recklessness and sincerity.
Huo Yuhao chuckled, took a step forward, and patted their slightly thin shoulders twice.
"Very energetic."
The outer perimeter of the core area of Meteor Dragon Canyon.
The hazy miasma thinned considerably here, and the terrain gradually narrowed. The steep, dark red rock walls on both sides resembled two sharp swords piercing the sky, completely blocking the road ahead.
The rock face is covered with traces of weathering and erosion over thousands of years, with countless thick, purplish-black vines clinging to it like dragons, exuding a cold and eerie atmosphere.
At the only entrance, there is an extremely sturdy stone checkpoint.
Huo Yuhao hid behind a giant rock covered in moss, his gaze sweeping across the ten-zhang-high stone gate, taking in the surrounding defenses.
A total of twelve guards dressed in Tianlongmen attire were scattered inside and outside the checkpoint.
The soul power emanating from these people was quite strong, with the lowest being a Soul Master of level 40 or above, and the team leader even touching the threshold of Soul King.
They not only held standard-issue spears in their hands, but also wore specially made jade pendants at their waists that could trigger warning arrays.
The defenses were well-prepared, with several patrol teams moving in crisscrosses, effectively sealing off almost every possible blind spot for infiltration.
Huo Yuhao reached back and pulled out the black token that Long Batian had given him.
This thing really saves him a lot of trouble.
But after stroking the dragon carving on the token with his fingertips a couple of times, he flipped his wrist and stuffed it back into the storage soul tool.
Using this thing to enter through the main gate inevitably means dealing with people from the Tianlong Sect and undergoing various questioning and checks, which could easily leave clues for being tracked.
Since you want to go in and find out what opportunities are inside, why not choose a more exciting and straightforward approach?
A faint blue fluorescence quietly shone in the depths of his eyes.
The invisible spiritual detection spread out silently along the ground like a giant net, completely enveloping the entire stone gate and the hundred-meter area behind it.
Under the perception of a mental power at the million-year level, those seemingly flawless defenses immediately revealed a dozen tiny blind spots created during patrol handovers.
He lightly touched the ground with his toes, activating the spatial attribute within his martial soul, and his figure blurred.
With a faint spatial ripple, he traversed hundreds of meters, penetrating the thick stone wall defense, and silently landed in a thicket of bushes behind the checkpoint.
This step was taken without even disturbing the airflow.
The guards with their spears only felt a gentle breeze brush past their ears, giving no one time to react.
After regaining his footing, Huo Yuhao calmed his breathing and continued walking deeper into the canyon.
The further you go in, the stranger the surrounding environment becomes.
The original gray poisonous fog was gradually replaced by a dark red miasma, and the air was filled with a slightly pungent earthy smell. The soil underfoot also became soft and damp.
The temperature rose without us even noticing.
Huo Yuhao walked along a dry riverbed for about half an incense stick's time before suddenly stopping.
Not far ahead, on an open field, three enormous soul beasts were lurking.
It was a three-headed dragon whose entire body was covered with hard, dark purple scales.
Each of them exuded the powerful aura of a ten-thousand-year-old soul beast, with bulging muscles covering their thick necks and a row of sharp bone spurs growing on their backs.
One of the dragons casually swung its thick tail, smashing a deep trench into the hard black stone ground and sending a spray of pebbles flying.
This is a three-headed earth-dwelling dragon with extremely high bloodline purity.
Huo Yuhao didn't rush to go around, but stood still and observed carefully.
These creatures, in terms of both size and the solidity of their aura, are far superior to the low-level mutated dragons with mixed bloodlines on the outside.
What caught his attention even more was the dark red miasma that permeated the surroundings.
The blue light in his eyes intensified as he activated mental simulation, refining his perception to a microscopic level and rapidly building an analytical model in his mind.
Within those seemingly poisonous dark red mists, there were actually faint yet extremely pure special particles of qi and blood.
These particles floated slowly in the air, and as the three-headed dragon inhaled and exhaled, they entered its internal organs through its nasal cavity.
The images reflected by the model are extremely clear.
After these Qi and blood particles merged into Yalong's blood, they immediately attached themselves to his meridians and bones, carrying out a slow but irreversible repair.
They don't need to specifically seek out rare and precious materials. As long as they live here year after year, the extremely high-level dragon blood aura will subtly purify their bloodline.
Huo Yuhao's lips curled into a satisfied smile.
Just as he had predicted.
Whether the legend of the true dragon's fall in the Meteor Dragon Canyon is true or not is another matter, but this core area definitely holds a great opportunity that can change the fundamental structure of a soul beast.
Huo Yuhao didn't disturb the three earth-dwelling dragons. He used his mental power to cover his own scent and silently bypassed them from the side.
The deeper one goes, the stronger the dark red aura of blood becomes.
The aura was so thick that it was visible to the naked eye, turning into wisps of red mist that drifted through the forest, as if even the leaves of the plants were covered with a faint blood-red halo.
Huo Yuhao vaguely sensed that the speed of his soul power circulation had increased slightly under the influence of this aura.
As he prepared to continue his exploration, the edge of his mental detection suddenly fed back a violent and destructive wave.
He immediately stopped in his tracks, focused his mental energy into a single line, and probed towards the source of the fluctuations.
A thousand meters away, beneath a precipice, lurks a terrifying behemoth over fifteen meters long.
That was a Thunderwing Frenzy Dragon.
Its entire body was covered with fine, dark blue dragon scales, and it had a pair of large, leathery wings on its back. With each breath, visible purple-blue arcs of electricity would be emitted from its nostrils.
Its muscular limbs were deeply embedded in the soil, and its dragon head drooped slightly.
The air was filled with a pungent, burnt smell. The vegetation within a radius of several meters had long been charred into charcoal by the wandering power of lightning, and several thick ancient tree trunks were even emitting wisps of smoke.
Judging from its size and the intensity of the lightning surrounding it, this soul beast is definitely over 50,000 years old.
In the heart of this blood-rich core region, top predators like the Thunderwing Mad Dragon, which are inherently extremely destructive, are powerful enough to directly confront human Soul Douluo powerhouses.
Huo Yuhao restrained all his aura, even slowing his breathing slightly.
His purpose in coming here was not to hunt high-level soul beasts, so there was no need to provoke such a troublesome big guy.
He was planning a new route to avoid the cliff when a group of unfamiliar human soul masters suddenly broke into his mental network.
There were fifteen streams of energy, moving slowly and steadily toward him along a winding canyon path.
Huo Yuhao immediately expanded the range of his mental detection to completely pinpoint the group's movements.
The team's overall strength is quite astonishing.
A dozen or so Soul Masters, who appeared to be followers, had an average cultivation level of around level 50. They released their Soul Power and formed a barrier around the group to isolate them from the miasma.
Leading the procession were two elderly men, both over sixty years old.
The two old men were dressed in dark gray, powerful outfits, and judging from the solid soul power fluctuations they exuded, they were both Soul Douluo at level eighty or above.
What truly caught Huo Yuhao's attention was a middle-aged man surrounded by the two Soul Douluos.
The man was tall and wore a magnificent brocade robe embroidered with golden dragon patterns. He walked with a steady and powerful gait, his hands behind his back.
In his spiritual perception, it seemed as if a primordial beast was lurking within the middle-aged man's body, ready to awaken at any moment. This man was none other than a Title Douluo with a cultivation level of ninety-four.
Using the dense bushes as cover, Huo Yuhao silently approached, closing the distance between them to a point where they could hear each other clearly.
In the group, a young man who looked about seventeen or eighteen years old, whose appearance was somewhat similar to that of the middle-aged man, quickly stepped forward.
He wore an exquisitely crafted white robe, his brows furrowed slightly, and his tone carried a hint of hesitation and probing.
"Father, Batian and Zhantian have been missing for several days. Should we send a few more people back to look for them?"
The young man turned his head to look back at the road he had come from. "We can wait here a bit longer. The outer area isn't exactly safe either. It would be troublesome if we encountered a high-level dragon beast."
The middle-aged man, who was at level 94, didn't even pause. His cold and stern face remained completely expressionless.
He snorted coldly, his tone revealing a chilling indifference to life and death.
"Looking for what?"
"Two useless people with useless martial spirits, they're no match for being dead."
The middle-aged man stared straight ahead at the fog, not even glancing back, and continued walking at a leisurely pace.
"The sect originally intended to take care of them peacefully for the rest of their lives, which would be fair to their blood ties. However, they did not expect that they would be so arrogant and insist on secretly following us."
His tone grew increasingly cold, "He even voluntarily deserted the main force and left the team. This kind of fool who is courting death has no one to blame but himself
Behind a dense thicket of bushes.
Huo Yuhao leaned against the thick tree trunk, silently listening to the conversation between the father and son in the distance.
A faint blue light shone in his eyes, and his gaze pierced through layers of dark red miasma, landing on the middle-aged man wearing a brocade robe with golden dragon patterns.
A level 94 titled Douluo, the Grand Elder of the Heavenly Dragon Gate.
Huo Yuhao now fully understood the origins of those two brats.
This old guy is the biological father of Long Batian and Long Zhantian.
No wonder those two little guys, who couldn't even handle a hundred-year-old soul beast, managed to run to the outer perimeter of the Meteor Dragon Canyon unscathed.
This was clearly achieved by hitchhiking through the safe passage opened up by the sect's main force.
That makes sense.
The two brothers left the group after reaching the outer area, probably because they had seen through their cold-blooded father's true colors and preferred to try their luck rather than continue to be subservient to others in this so-called sect group.
However, this had nothing to do with him; the two brats had already returned to the human town with the plan he had given them.
Huo Yuhao pulled himself out of his thoughts, narrowed the scope of his mental detection, and began to focus on observing the movement trajectory of the Tianlongmen team.
The group walked very steadily.
A dozen or so followers, all around level 50, formed a soul power barrier on the outer perimeter, resisting the pervasive miasma.
Two experts at the Contra level stood guard on either side, ready to eliminate any low-level poisonous insects that dared to act.
Occasionally, they would encounter a few thousand-year-old venomous lizards that couldn't escape in time. Before they could even roar, the Contra on the left would pierce their skulls with a spear without making a sound.
The technique was extremely swift, clearly indicating that the person had received rigorous training.
As for the level 94 elder, he always walked in the middle of the group.
He held a palm-sized compass in his hand, his gaze shifting between the compass and the surrounding mountain landscape.
Every so often, he would whisper instructions to the group to adjust their direction slightly.
Huo Yuhao easily saw through the team's movement logic through the mental feedback in his mind.
This group of people did not come to the core area to hunt high-level soul beasts at all. The compass in their hands was clearly marked with a special safe route that they had discovered through countless trials and errors.
This route, which avoids all the territories of large soul beasts, clearly points to a fixed location deep within this core area.
Nine times out of ten, it is the location of those sources that can emit the pure blood and qi.
This is a special opportunity that even a powerful sect like the Heavenly Dragon Sect, with its deep foundation, would carefully conceal and secretly send high-ranking members to develop.
Huo Yuhao's lips curled into a smile.
Since we're already here, it would be a shame not to see the true power of the Meteor Dragon Canyon.
He evenly covered his body with his mental energy, isolating himself from his own temperature and smell, and hung there hundreds of meters behind the Tianlongmen team.
The advance of the column was very slow.
The deeper you go into the canyon, the thicker the dark red miasma becomes, and the stronger the pungent, earthy smell in the air.
The density of soul beasts here has reached an outrageous level.
A casual mental scan across a cliff can reveal three to five enormous earth-dwelling dragons huddled together, dozing off.
Some were covered with thick, dark gold scales, and with each breath, they plowed two deep furrows into the ground.
Some of them exude a highly poisonous miasma, and even the rocks beneath them are corroded and pitted.
These overlords, who can occupy territory in the heart of the core area, have been around for at least 50,000 years.
There were even a few hidden auras deep underground. When Huo Yuhao scanned them with his mental probe, he could feel a slight stagnation. They were definitely terrifying beings that had crossed the threshold of 80,000 years.
Although the Tianlongmen team was led by a Title Douluo, they still walked on thin ice in the face of a group of soul beasts of this level.
Faced with such a thick-skinned, high-level dragon that possesses either poison or lightning attributes, even a level 94 elder would absolutely not want to cause any trouble easily.
If he were to accidentally disturb a hornet's nest and attract a dozen or so sub-dragons of fifty or sixty thousand years of age to attack him, this titled Douluo, with his formidable cultivation, would most likely be able to force his way out and escape unscathed.
But those Soul Douluos and Soul King followers he brought in probably won't even leave behind a trace of their bones.
Therefore, they moved with extreme restraint. When they encountered lone soul beasts that they could not avoid, two Soul Douluos would join forces and use swift and decisive methods to end the battle within a few breaths, never lingering in combat.
Huo Yuhao was happy to have some free time.
With this group of people clearing the way and paving the way ahead, he only needed to follow the safe path they left behind, saving him the trouble of even making a move.
Four days passed in the blink of an eye.
The Tianlongmen team stopped at the edge of a huge, sunken basin.
Using a dead ancient tree as cover, Huo Yuhao turned his gaze forward.
The miasma ahead became extremely thin, replaced by a dreamlike, dark red glow.
In the center of the basin, there were no blackish-purple vines or any other vegetation, unlike the ubiquitous ones.
In its place was a strange blood pool, several tens of feet in circumference.
Surprisingly, the blood pool was not situated on the ground, but rather defied common sense by floating in mid-air, about ten feet above the ground.
The blood pool contained a viscous, dark red liquid, similar to mercury slurry.
Bubbles occasionally rose from the surface of the liquid, giving it a strange, gelatinous texture as it churned.
After the bubbles burst, wisps of pure blood energy rise up, floating in the air above the basin like a red veil.
All the free particles that Huo Yuhao sensed on the road these past few days, which could purify the bloodline of soul beasts, were emanating from this suspended blood pool.
The scene looked magnificent and dreamlike, but Huo Yuhao's brows furrowed even more.
He didn't sense any auspicious atmosphere; instead, he keenly perceived a chilling, lurking killing intent.
The two were more than a thousand meters apart.
However, Huo Yuhao could still clearly feel that the blood energy floating in the surrounding air seemed to have a certain self-awareness, and was trying to penetrate his skin little by little through his pores.
This force is extremely cold and carries an unreasonable corrosiveness.
Upon touching the skin, it transforms into countless tiny ice needles invisible to the naked eye, attempting to forcibly tear through the defenses and assimilate the blood and qi within the body.
Something's definitely not right here.
Huo Yuhao immediately activated the Heavenly Origin Technique, mobilizing the three-colored soul cores within his body.
The chill of the ultimate ice flowed through the body along the meridians, forming a fine ice crystal shield beneath the skin, blocking all the dark red particles that tried to penetrate the body.
He then rinsed the clothes with extremely hot water to completely remove the bloodstains.
Just as he finished cleaning the alien energy that had invaded his body, a strange fluctuation suddenly came from the depths of his spiritual sea.
An old and gentle voice echoed in his mind.
"Yuhao, be careful."
A wisp of Elix's divine consciousness rose from the Qiankun Creation Cauldron, his tone unusually solemn, "This thing seems to be connected to some laws that transcend the mortal realm."
It wasn't just Huo Yuhao, who was hiding in the shadows, who felt uncomfortable.
In the basin below, the Tianlongmen team was in no better shape.
This corrosive, chilling aura was pervasive, even causing the followers, who were around level fifty, to become unsteady on their feet, with fine beads of sweat appearing on their foreheads.
They could only desperately channel their soul power to barely maintain the protective barrier on their bodies.
Huo Yuhao ignored their predicament and focused most of his attention on the strange blood pool in mid-air.
To the naked eye, the thing was clearly suspended there, the dark red liquid churning and bubbling, and you could even see wisps of mist rising above it.
However, when he extended the scope of his mental detection, the model in his mind responded with nothing.
There was no physical form, no fluctuation of soul power; it was as if it were just a false illusion painted in the air.
This extreme disconnect between visual and mental perception causes a throbbing pain in the brain, with two completely contradictory perceptions constantly clashing in the mind.
That pool of blood seemed to be in a superimposed state between existence and non-existence.
In the center of the basin, the Tianlongmen team had come to a complete stop.
The two Soul Douluos, each with a cultivation level of over eighty, stepped past the Grand Elder and walked to the bottom of the suspended blood pool.
With two deep dragon roars, violent lightning power surged within the basin.
The two released their martial spirits at the same time.
Thick purple lightning coiled around them, and two enormous phantom blue lightning Tyrannosaurus Rex formed behind them.
Yellow, yellow, purple, purple, black, black, black, black.
The sixteen soul rings shone brightly, and the powerful Soul Douluo aura pushed away all the dark red mist that tried to get close.
Without the slightest hesitation, the two quickly formed hand seals, and their soul power surged out like a flood bursting its banks.
These soul energies intertwined in mid-air to form two enormous blue electric nets, which then enveloped the suspended blood pool.
As the electric grid came into contact with the surface of the blood pool, the originally calm and churning slurry suddenly began to boil violently.
The two Soul Warriors' faces turned bright red, their teeth clenched, as they forcefully used their soul power to peel away large amounts of dark red blood energy from the ethereal blood pool.
As soon as the blood essence that was pulled out left the blood pool, it twisted and deformed in mid-air, turning into dozens of dark red flying dragons more than a meter long.
They circled and flew over the basin, emitting silent roars.
The terrifying pressure originating from the high-ranking dragon race, mixed with the chilling aura of the blood pool itself, poured down without reservation.
The dozen or so young inner disciples in the group were the first to be hit. As soon as they were hit by this aura, several of them immediately became unfocused and their bodies swayed uncontrollably, on the verge of collapsing.
"Calm your mind and focus!"
The elder standing at the very front let out a roar that was filled with powerful soul energy.
The voice was deep and authoritative, making the eardrums of every young disciple ache.
The teenagers, who had been in a daze, shuddered and snapped back to reality, hurriedly sitting down cross-legged on the spot.
Following the special techniques taught by their sect, they rapidly formed hand seals and began to forcibly guide the blood-red dragons circling in mid-air.
Huo Yuhao hid behind a withered tree, the pale blue fluorescence in his eyes subtly shifting.
He carefully observed this bizarre and elusive opportunity.
Dark red dragons flowed into the bodies of the boys through their breaths and pores.
The feedback from the mental health network is clear.
These teenagers, whose martial spirit origins were originally only average, are now becoming increasingly abundant at an incredible speed after coming into contact with that blood energy.
The fluctuations in their blood vessels became increasingly stable, and the faintly emanating dragon aura continued to rise, clearly indicating that they were undergoing a higher level of mutation and evolution.
This is why the Tianlong Sect is willing to risk everything to penetrate deep into the core area.
As long as these dozen or so teenagers can survive and leave, the core strength of the Tianlong Sect for the next few decades will be completely secured.
Huo Yuhao's gaze shifted slightly, moving away from the teenagers and landing on the two Soul Douluos responsible for drawing blood energy.
He frowned deeply after just one glance.
The two of them are behaving very abnormally.
Logically speaking, even if two Soul Douluos at level 80 or above consumed a great deal of soul power, they shouldn't show signs of depletion of life force in such a short time.
The two old men's hair, which originally had only some gray at the temples, was now rapidly turning a dull, pale white all the way up from the roots.
The muscles on their cheeks began to dry up and sag, their skin became loose and rough, and layers of brown age spots appeared one after another.
Even their once upright backs slowly hunched over, their hands holding the mudras trembled uncontrollably, and even their breathing became extremely heavy.
This is not simply a matter of overdrawing one's vital energy.
This is the power of time.
Huo Yuhao quickly made a judgment in his mind.
"Your perception is very sharp."
From the depths of the spiritual sea, Elex's ancient voice resounded, directly confirming his conjecture.
"This pool of blood does not belong to this current time and space."
Elex's tone was tinged with surprise and solemnity. He looked at the pool of blood and slowly said, "It may have been left in the distant past, or it may be anchored in the unpredictable future."
"What we are seeing now is merely its reflection, forcibly projected onto this spatial coordinate system through some clever means."
Huo Yuhao finally understood.
No wonder it's visible to the naked eye but intangible to the mind.
Because this thing, in essence, doesn't exist in the same time dimension as them at all.
"So when those two people forcibly crossed time and space to draw in blood energy, it was equivalent to forcibly stepping into a timeline that did not belong to them."
Elex continued, "They are imbued with the power of the laws of time, and the speed at which life passes is forcibly accelerated a thousandfold, making aging inevitable."
This is literally trading lives for resources.
The Tianlongmen group really went to great lengths to cultivate the next generation, even sacrificing the lifespans of two high-level Soul Douluos as firewood.
Judging from this situation, by the time this procession ends, these two old guys will probably be short of life left.
"..."
For a moment, Huo Yuhao looked at the horrific traction process below and didn't know how to evaluate it.
He was just an observer; he didn't intend to interfere with how long the Tianlongmen people were willing to cause trouble.
"Yuhao, you can try to make contact with him."
Elex's words echoed once more in the sea of consciousness, interrupting his thoughts: "To stabilize such a unique existence that transcends time and space in the mortal world, it is impossible to do so solely through the projection of laws."
"The source coordinates of this blood pool must contain a strange object capable of suppressing the nodes of time and space."
Upon hearing this, Huo Yuhao's mind immediately became active.
Something capable of suppressing the laws of time—if you could get your hands on such a rare item, it would be absolutely no less valuable than a 100,000-year-old soul bone.
Even if we don't get that treasure, the pure blood essence contained in this suspended blood pool is a truly valuable item.
If a portion of it can be safely drawn out, the Titan blood within him will definitely benefit, and his cultivation level will also be able to advance to a higher level.
However, the power of time that comes with it is a huge problem.
The withered and emaciated appearance of the two Contras below was still right in front of him. He didn't want to turn himself into a seventy or eighty-year-old man just because of his lust for a little bit of blood.
He lowered his breathing further and shrank his body into the shadow of the withered tree.
Let's hold back for now.
He wanted to see what tricks the Tianlongmen group would have up their sleeves in the face of this rapidly passing law of time.