Volume 18, Chapter 167.3: Bite
When he first met her Huo Yuhao didn’t expect that his desire to bite Ju Zi’s smooth skin would be fulfilled under these circumstances.
Panting heavily, Ju Zi pressed a clean towel against Huo Yuhao’s wounds.
Compared to the pains she felt in her heart, the pain in her hand was nothing. She actually felt like she was going to let Huo Yuhao die.
Although reluctant to do so, Huo Yuhao ceased biting into her hand. A bite mark was left behind, along with some redness on her skin, but only some redness as the skin wasn’t pierced.
Ju Zi retracted her arm and started speaking rapidly, “Quick seal your blood vessels! How are you feeling? Are your passageways damaged?”
Huo Yuhao spoke while circulating his soul power, “Don’t worry, I’m fine. I can just use my soul power to recover. However, a few passageways are completely damaged, and I need time to heal them.
Ju Zi let out a sigh of relief. “That’s good. At least it’s not too serious. You somehow managed to drag yourself back from the dead, you freak. It only took you a day and night to recover this far from your critical injuries.”
Huo Yuhao laughed bitterly. “Don’t compliment me like that when I’m in such unbearable pain.”
Ju Zi laughed. “Pain? I can’t tell from your expression.”
Huo Yuhao immediately displayed an exaggerated expression, “I’m tolerating the pain! Think about it. My entire back is stitched up right now. Why wouldn’t I feel pain?”
Ju Zi shuddered a little. That’s right! Huo Yuhao’s back was almost entirely full of stitches. With a little more than a hundred wounds his back was almost entirely covered in stitches by now. The same for his legs, really just his entire body seemed to have been ravaged by injuries. Only some of the parts not carrying soul tools appeared much better off.
Huo Yuhao smiled as Ju Zi fell silent, “I’m fine actually. I’ve experienced more painful things than this before. Let’s leave the mountain range after I rest a bit. The all-terrain exploration soul tool has been destroyed, so we have to end our experiments here. What about you though, is your hand in pain from my bite?”
Ju Zi retorted, “Am I that weak to you?”
Huo Yuhao chortled, “Yeah. It seems like your skin will tear the moment I touch it.”
Ju Zi’s face turned red. She took out a tangerine to stuff in his mouth, “Go and rest. I’ll leave you to it.” As she spoke, she escaped from the tent. The age gap between her and Huo Yuhao seemed non-existent when confronted with his maturity which exceeded the norms for his age.
The lingering fragrance left Huo Yuhao in a trance, but he soon recovered from it. His heart was occupied by someone else already. Although Ju Zi was a ravishing, attractive beauty, she definitely couldn’t compare to the Raiment of Light’s projection so deeply imprinted in his heart.
With the pieces of shrapnel removed from his back, and a period of rest, he could prop himself up.
His back wasn’t just simply in pain now. It was miserable and numb, the blood circulation in his back didn’t seem to be running smoothly either. Fortunately, most of his injuries were concentrated on his muscles. The circulation blockages in his passageways were mainly caused by some blood clots.
Huo Yuhao had lied about being in such a dire situation before. In fact, he was very afraid right now. If he was just a little slower or didn’t have the Hongchen’s Blessing, he would have died! Furthermore, the impact almost wreaked havoc on his spiritual sea. Skydream, the Ice Empress and Electrolux combined their strengths to unleash a spiritual barrier that protected his head. That explained why his back and legs were injured, but his head wasn’t.
His body’s damage could be easily healed by the Life’s Gold life power, not to mention that the Ice Jade Empress Scorpion’s skeleton would protect his internal organs. However, a blow to his head could kill him. Huo Yuhao wouldn’t have survived this time with luck alone.
He struggled to sit cross-legged, and even perspired from the constant pain. He focused, and circulated his power; the Mysterious Heaven Technique slowly circulating.
After his reaching Rank 40 soul power, Huo Yuhao didn’t fully experience the transformations to his body. This was especially so with the advancements in his soul skills and the enhancement of his spiritual power. It was important to know that almost all of his soul skills would improve as his cultivation increased. That being the case, his soul power would skyrocket after each new added soul ring. Over the past two years, his foundation remained untouched while his cultivation speed dipped considerably. His cultivation so far could be described as slow but steady.
The Mysterious Heaven Technique overcame all obstructions and slowly filled his body, nourishing him. It stimulated the Life’s Gold life power to heal his body as well. Afterwards, Huo Yuhao divided part of his soul power to start removing the blood clots in his passageways. Then he used soul power to adjust his damaged passageways, moving them back into position and reconnecting them.
He’d entered a fairly stable state to recover quickly.
The trio was rather fortunate. They stayed in this place for two days, but the strongest soul beast they had encountered was only a thousand year soul beast.
Huo Yuhao recovered at an alarming rate. On the third morning, he walked out of the tent. He faced the rising sun in the east and started to cultivate.
Ke Ke smiled as she said, “Yuhao, I’m going to call you a monster in the future. You’re more of a soul beast than real soul beasts!” There was a sense of affection in her tone.
Huo Yuhao laughed and said, “Don’t call me that. That’ll reveal my background as a student from Shrek Academy, and I hope you haven’t forgotten that we’re a strong competitor to the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy. If you push me to the metaphorical wolves, I may end up dead.”
Ke Ke rolled her eyes and said, “Forget it. You’re a Soul Elder, and you’re unphased by Soul Kings like us. You’re afraid?”
Huo Yuhao corrected, “I’m an official Soul Ancestor now!”
Ju Zi put the tent away into her storage-type soul tool and said, “Alright, stop bickering. Let’s leave quickly. I’m more concerned about when this freak will be able to cook for us again.”
Huo Yuhao was still quite far from a complete recovery. However, since he could move freely, it was best to leave the Jing Yang Mountain Range as quickly as possible. Otherwise, if they ran into any strong soul beasts again, they would end up in danger.
Huo Yuhao laughed again and replied, “I can cook anytime. Let’s go.”
They could only rely on themselves to leave since the all-terrain exploration soul tool was destroyed. Although Huo Yuhao told them he could walk all by himself, Ju Zi and Ke Ke still put his hands around their shoulders as they dragged him out of the mountains.
Ke Ke wore a gloomy expression while they walked, “Blegh, Ju Zi. Will I be held accountable for destroying official academy property? The academy will spare me from paying for the soul tools, right? My savings will evaporate! You should know that I exchanged my scholarship money all for precious metals. But now I’m broke! Isn’t it tragic for a Class 5 soul engineer not to have any soul tools?”
Ju Zi snapped, “You still have the cheek to mention this? Just be poor. It’s better to be poor than to be a walking debt time bomb.”
Ke Ke revealed a dismal look. “Sister Ju Zi, lend me some money. Sister~”
As she spoke, she couldn’t help but turn to Huo Yuhao. Huo Yuhao started to break out in a sweat as he saw Ke Ke’s suddenly gentle gaze. “Don’t look at me! I don’t have any money. I was working while studying when I was at Shrek Academy. My soul tools all belong to Shrek Academy. I owe the academy a lot of money right now too.”
Ju Zi pursed her lips and said, “Shrek is so cunning. They have no intention of making you repay your debts. They’re doing everything possible to tie you down. Am I right?”
Huo Yuhao smiled and said, “I’m willing to be tied down. I’ll let you know that I’m an orphan. In my darkest hour, eldest senior brother and Teacher Xiao Ya brought me to Shrek Academy. Everything that I own now was given to me by the academy and the Tang Sect. My life naturally belongs to them, and this will never change.”
Ju Zi looked at Huo Yuhao and said seriously, “What if… I tell you that I can make the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy do even more for you than Shrek Academy ever did, would you stay here? You can list whatever conditions you want.”
Huo Yuhao was stunned, but he turned serious. Saying in a deep voice, “Senior Ju Zi, please don’t speak of such things again. I don’t want to lose a friend like you.”
Ju Zi laughed bitterly. “Although I expected this, it was still worth a try. But you were right. You’re from Shrek. It’s better if you keep a lower profile in the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy.”
Huo Yuhao nodded slightly. He previously felt a sense of crisis from Ju Zi, but was relieved to feel it vanish. He could subtly feel that this was because Ju Zi’s mentality changed.
They successfully managed to leave the Jing Yang Mountain Range. This mountain range wasn’t comparable to the Great Star Dou Forest. Showcasing this, when they reached the branching trail again, the concentration of soul beasts dropped significantly. Ju Zi used some soul tools to scare most of the remainder away, and they managed to leave the mountain range rather easily.
In an area unlikely to be threatened by soul beasts, they found a suitable place to set up a campsite. They rested here.