The Unrivaled Tang Sect

Huo Yuhao’s spiritual sea immediately began to shudder. Dense spiritual energy flooded through his Spirit Eyes and surged towards his spiritual sea, while the Mysterious Heaven Technique’s soul power began to twist and churn.

The vast spiritual fluctuations—as well as the shock from the frightening spirit and soul power—sent waves of pain through Huo Yuhao’s body. The power that was surging through him was unlike the tender unconscious soul beast—instead, it was filled with a crazed mania.

Far from being terrified at this, Huo Yuhao felt ecstatic. He might not have recognized this soul beast, but Elder Xuan surely had, which in turn meant that its cultivation definitely wasn’t greater than fifteen thousand years. Brother Skydream had told him that he wouldn’t have any problems absorbing such a soul ring, aside from having to seal a small portion of its cultivation. Furthermore, his spiritual power had been boosted by the encounter with the Three-Eyed Golden Lion to the point where he could now manipulate his second mental sea. Naturally, he wasn’t afraid of being unable to assimilate with the soul ring. Rather, the stronger the mania he felt the better, because this would signify the might behind the new soul skill.

While the Mysterious Heaven Technique’s soul power surged violently, Huo Yuhao remained as calm as ever. He controlled his spiritual sea so that it accepted the vast spiritual power pouring in, while simultaneously he slowly assimilated it and activated the Mysterious Heaven Technique to circulate it throughout his circulation paths. Even though his skeleton, passageways, and flesh were currently swelling and in agonizing pain, his facial expression didn’t change much. 

Elder Xuan cautiously observed from beside him. A minute passed, but Huo Yuhao’s expression had remained just as calm as before. His body appeared a little swollen, and purplish-black light flickered incessantly all over it, but Elder Xuan inwardly gasped in admiration. This level of discipline and endurance wasn’t something that a child should possess—even most of the inner core disciples couldn’t possibly do what he was doing now. No wonder he hadn’t been afraid of absorbing a ten thousand year soul ring. His body had been enhanced by several soul bones, and with the help of the spiritual seal that he’d talked about, it looked like there wouldn’t be any problems at all with this absorption.

“Wang Dong, Xiao Xiao, the two of you stay here to watch over him. I have something to discuss with Elder Mu.”

“Yes.”

Elder Xuan then strode into the Sea God’s Pavilion. What surprised him a little was that Elder Mu couldn’t have not detected their return, yet he didn’t hear a single sound. He swiftly approached Elder Mu’s room and gently knocked on the door.

“I’ve brought the three little fellas back, Elder Mu.”

“Come in.” Elder Mu’s voice was as placid as before, but it sounded a little downcast.

Elder Xuan pushed the door and walked in, but was immediately taken aback by what he saw. “Elder Mu—what’s happened to you?”

Elder Mu was lying quietly in his reclining chair. However, his face seemed a little gloomy and bleak—there was no vitality in his eyes. He now appeared extremely old, and half of his white hair had actually become a plain gray color.

Elder Xuan himself was a Transcendent Douluo, and naturally understood what these transformations meant for Elder Mu. His life energy was quickly leaking out, which would further reduce Elder Mu’s lifespan!

“Sit down, Xuan Zi.” Elder Mu was still as calm as ever. There wasn’t a single trace of emotion within his frail eyes.

Elder Xuan hurriedly sat down beside Elder Mu. He was incredibly alarmed when he saw Elder Mu and said, “This shouldn’t be happening! Your situation was still stable when we left. How did you consume so much life energy within such a short period of time?”

Elder Mu heaved a sigh and said, “Don’t worry, my time’s not up yet. But…” Elder Mu was the Master of the Sea God’s Pavilion, and even though he possessed the frightening power of an Ultimate Douluo, a mournful expression filled his eyes.

“That child, Xiaotao… she’s gone.” Elder Mu spoke arduously.

“What?!” Elder Mu was astonished. “How can that be? Wasn’t she under your seal? Furthermore, even if she had the ability to break your seal, you’re anchoring down the Sea God’s Pavilion—and the other elders are around too! How could she have vanished just like that?”

Elder Mu laughed bitterly and said, “That’s exactly the point—and it’s why I feel like I’ve let her down! We were too careless. Nothing was wrong with my seal at one point, and the only person to be let in to see it was the Hallmaster of the Illustrious Virtue Hall. Even though I’m not sure how, I’m sure that he definitely did something to my seal, or to Xiaotao, that gave her the ability to run away. The academy was invaded five days after your departure. The enemies were too powerful, thus the elders of the Sea God’s Pavilion had to fight them in order to keep them from damaging Shrek City. Xiaotao took this opportunity to escape—right under our noses.”

“The Body Sect?” Elder Xuan was flabbergasted. The way he saw it, only a select few groups in the Continent could force Elder Mu to show his hand in battle, and the Body Sect had stirred up trouble not long ago.

Elder Mu waved his hand and said, “It wasn’t the Body Sect. Du Busi may be headstrong, obstinate, and conceited… but he’s still an honorable man, like his elder brother. At least, he won’t do anything to the academy before my death. However, the fact that it wasn’t the Body Sect worries me even more—they were all evil soul masters, all eleven of them. Four were even Titled Douluo.”

Elder Xuan drew a cold breath as he listened. “Eleven evil soul masters—how is that possible? This, this…” Elder Xuan actually lost his composure.

Evil soul masters were far more powerful than normal soul masters. However, it was extremely difficult for them to become Titled Douluo—in fact, it was almost impossible. Yet, according to what Elder Mu had just said, there had been eleven of them! And four of them were even Titled Douluo! This was far beyond Elder Xuan’s knowledge.

Such a large party of powerful evil soul masters showing up at the same time had never happened before throughout the course of the Continent’s history.

“What I was most apprehensive about has come to pass: Not many evil soul masters have appeared in the past hundred years, and most that did had low cultivations. I always felt that something was wrong, but I never thought that the evil soul masters had come so far as to make their own organization.”

Elder Xuan’s eyebrows were tightly furrowed. “Evil soul masters are almost completely uncontrollable due to their element. How could they follow somebody’s commands and form an organization?”

Elder Mu heaved a sigh and said, “Discussing this now has no meaning. I did my best and managed to kill six of them, but ended up consuming a lot of life energy. However, only one Titled Douluo died. The most powerful of them was a Transcendent Douluo. I was tied down by them, thus I couldn’t kill the other evil soul masters. Fortunately, we didn’t suffer many losses. However, I’m deeply concerned with Xiaotao’s situation. The fire of ultimate darkness—if the evil soul master organization…”

Elder Xuan was stern as he said, “It must be the Illustrious Virtue Hall causing trouble. At the very least, they’re definitely connected to it. Elder Mu, do you want me to take some people to the Illustrious Virtue Hall to find her?

Elder Mu waved his hand and answered, “That would be useless. The Illustrious Virtue Hall would never actually cooperate with those evil soul masters, and they wouldn’t leave any evidence behind either. They most likely just used the evil soul masters’ strength to attack us. My life energy will run out in a year and a half, after which I will infuse myself within the Golden Tree and seal my soul imprint within. Whoever wants to cause trouble for Shrek Academy at that point—hmph!”

Elder Mu’s infuriated grunt wasn’t loud, but even a Transcendent Douluo like Elder Xuan felt his heart skip a beat.

“We have to nurture the younger generation as fast as we can. The evil soul master organization shouldn’t be mature yet, but when they dare to officially appear on the Continent, humanity will be in distress, and calamity will be upon us. Xuan Zi, you guys have a heavy load and a long road ahead of you. I feel sorry for Xiaotao, though…”

Elder Mu closed his eyes painfully, his face full of exhaustion and weariness.

Originally, Elder Xuan had been in a great mood. Both Huo Yuhao and Xiao Xiao had gained big rewards from this expedition. Especially Huo Yuhao, who’d absorbed the Darkgolden Terrorclaw Bear’s Right Palm Bone. Moreover, it was an extremely rare, external soul bone, which could evolve. However, Elder Xuan’s heart grew heavy, and he became nearly as despondent as Elder Mu.

Elder Mu contemplated for more than ten seconds, then said slowly, “Why did you bring back a soul beast for Huo Yuhao to absorb? How did their adventure go?”

Elder Xuan took a deep breath and cheered himself up, then explained their adventure in great detail.

Elder Mu’s focus was different from Elder Xuan, who placed more emphasis on the Darkgolden Terrorclaw Bear’s Right Palm Bone. When Elder Mu finished listening to Elder Xuan’s recounting of the events of the last dozen days, he appeared a lot more invigorated than before as he said, “An emperor beast… it’s actually an emperor beast. Yuhao said that he absorbed its memories? It seems like the archives’ records have some deeper meaning, and I guess that we finally have a piece of good news. We have to speed up this child’s nurturing. Bring him to see me after he has finished absorbing his soul ring. A ten thousand year Purplespirit Wolf—those guys inside of the Great Star Dou Forest are extremely generous when it concerns the emperor beast. The Heavenly Emperor’s word is worth more than all the money in the world. Thankfully, you all returned safely.”

However, no one expected Huo Yuhao to take as long as he did to absorb his soul ring. It took far beyond their projections.

The dark purple light gradually entered his body. But afterwards he just sat there, without moving an inch. A pale golden light flickered incessantly all over his body, while a vertical golden eye seemed to shimmer on his forehead. This strange scene made Elder Xuan invite Elder Mu to observe.

Elder Mu probed Huo Yuhao’s soul power fluctuations, then told everyone not to disturb him and to let him cultivate in peace.

Why was Huo Yuhao taking so long to absorb his third soul ring? Because it wasn’t as simple as just absorbing a soul ring.

The dark purple soul beast’s soul ring was extremely powerful, but it was a spirit-type in the end. It boosted Huo Yuhao’s spiritual sea, and raised the limit on his optimal soul ring age for his Spirit Eyes yet again. The Skydream Iceworm was very conservative with his estimates to ensure Huo Yuhao’s safety however, thus he only allowed Huo Yuhao to absorb around six thousand years’ worth of the soul ring’s power before sealing the rest.