Chapter 38: Meeting Liu Yuan Again, Skydream Iceworm Breaks Down
The core region of the Far North was a desolate wasteland of eternal frost, yet the battlefield painted a starkly different picture. The colossal corpse of a Ten-Thousand-Year Ice Gorilla lay slumped in the snow, its crushed throat still radiating a faint, residual heat. Wisps of white steam hissed as hot blood met the freezing air, carrying the heavy metallic scent of slaughter.
Du Busi crossed the shattered ice in a few massive strides. The towering Master of the Body Sect stopped in front of Liu Yuan, his deep green eyes narrowing. He scrutinized his disciple from head to toe, his gaze burning with the intensity of a man observing a completely unrecognizable monster.
Du Busi had lived a long time. He knew the absolute limits of human cultivators. Soloing a Ten-Thousand-Year soul beast as a mere three-ringed Soul Elder was a feat that defied the heavens. By all logic, Liu Yuan should be sprawled on the ice, his soul power completely drained, his spiritual sea on the verge of collapse.
Yet, reality stood in stark defiance of logic. Liu Yuan's robes were torn to shreds, his skin painted with the crimson blood of the ape, but his posture remained perfectly straight. His breathing was slow, deep, and rhythmic. Those terrifying Double Pupils shone with a sharp, spirited light, lacking even a trace of the exhaustion expected from a life-or-death struggle.
"Good lad. Tell me honestly." Du Busi's voice was a low, rumbling baritone, his expression unusually grave. "How much of your soul power and mental strength do you actually have left?"
Liu Yuan closed his eyes for a brief moment. He directed his focus inward, sensing the dense, swirling vortex of soul power within his dantian. He then checked the deep origin energy of his Double Pupils resting calmly within his Sea of Consciousness.
Opening his eyes, he met his master's gaze and answered with absolute calm. "Master, I should still have about thirty to forty percent remaining."
"Thirty to forty percent?" Du Busi's jaw slackened. A sharp intake of freezing air rushed past his teeth. He was completely dumbfounded.
What did that consumption ratio even mean? The sheer intensity of the battle that had just concluded would have thoroughly drained a five-ringed Soul King. Yet Liu Yuan, a mere Soul Elder, had not even brushed against his absolute limit!
"You brat... you are truly a monster." Du Busi shook his head, a rough, disbelieving laugh escaping his lips. "When I first took you in as my direct disciple, it was because your innate potential measured at the Gold grade. But looking at you now... I realize Gold grade was simply the absolute limit of the testing artifact, not the limit of your talent!"
Reaching into his spatial tool, Du Busi pulled out a fresh set of thick robes and tossed them over. Beneath his gruff exterior, a storm of turbulent emotions churned in his chest. "If you possess this level of combat prowess with only three rings... then once you break through to the Titled Douluo realm, I fear there won't be a single soul under the heavens capable of suppressing you."
Liu Yuan caught the robes and began stripping off his ruined garments. A faint, pragmatic smile touched his lips. "This is all thanks to Master's guidance. That, and the deep effects of the Body Sect's secret medicinal baths and body-strengthening pills."
"Don't feed me that polite nonsense." Du Busi waved a massive hand dismissively. "Medicines are dead objects; people are living. Plenty of disciples have soaked in those baths and swallowed those pills over the centuries. Yet, out of the entire continent, you are the only one who has ever forged such a terrifying foundation."
While master and disciple conversed, the howling winds of the Far North masked a hidden presence. Roughly five to six hundred meters away from the bloodstained battlefield, behind the crest of a thick, jagged ice slope, a small, thin figure lay flat against the freezing snow. He held his breath, burying his presence as deeply as possible.
It was Huo Yuhao.
Just moments prior, Huo Yuhao had completed the most critical turning point of his entire life. With the direct assistance of the Skydream Iceworm, he had successfully subdued the Ice Empress—one of the Three Great Heavenly Kings of the Far North. She had become his second Martial Soul, granting him an unfathomably powerful four-hundred-thousand-year soul ring. Simultaneously, his primary Spirit Eyes had finally secured a second soul ring.
By all rights of survival, he should have fled this perilous core region the very second his breakthrough concluded. However, the sheer magnitude of the devastating battle that had just taken place was impossible to ignore. The shockwaves had rattled the glaciers. Driven by an overwhelming curiosity, Huo Yuhao had carefully extended his Spiritual Detection to observe the distant aftermath.
Invisible threads of spiritual power fanned out across the wasteland, feeding a crystal-clear, three-dimensional image directly into his mind.
Initially, the blinding snowstorm and the sheer distance obscured the combatant's facial features. Huo Yuhao could only sense the lingering, terrifying remnants of soul power and the brutal, gory state of the massive ape's corpse. His heart pounded against his ribs. He simply could not believe what his detection was showing him.
'Three soul rings... one yellow, one purple, and one black?'Huo Yuhao's eyes widened in sheer horror.'A three-ringed Soul Elder actually engaged in brutal melee combat with a Ten-Thousand-Year soul beast? And... and he snapped its neck with his bare hands?!'
A chilling numbness crawled across Huo Yuhao's scalp. He had witnessed the supposedly peerless talents of Shrek Academy's inner and outer courtyards. Yet, compared to the ruthless youth standing amidst the gore, those so-called geniuses looked as fragile as newborn infants.
Then, the youth finished changing his clothes. As the battle's lingering aura dissipated, he turned his head, his profile cutting through the swirling snow.
Huo Yuhao's breath hitched. It felt as though a bolt of lightning had struck his spine, freezing the blood in his veins.
"Liu... Liu Yuan?" The name slipped past Huo Yuhao's lips in a subconscious, trembling gasp. He instantly slapped a hand over his mouth, his eyes blown wide with shock.
Never in his wildest dreams could he have imagined this. The absolute monster who had just slaughtered a tyrant of the Far North core region—a cultivator who had already shattered the level thirty bottleneck and possessed an impossible black ten-thousand-year soul ring—was actually Liu Yuan! The very same Liu Yuan he had briefly encountered back in the Star Dou Great Forest!
'He is already past level thirty?'Huo Yuhao's thoughts spiraled into chaos.'No, that's not right. Judging by the sheer, overwhelming physical strength he used to crush that Ten-Thousand-Year soul beast, his actual combat power eclipses even high-level Soul Ancestors!'
A bitter, suffocating wave of frustration washed over Huo Yuhao's heart. It gnawed at his pride. After all, they were exactly the same age. They both possessed eye-type Martial Souls.
Yet the gap between them was an impossible chasm. Huo Yuhao knew his own limits better than anyone. If he were forced into a one-on-one confrontation with a Ten-Thousand-Year soul beast right now, there would be only one outcome: a gruesome, miserable death. Forget ten thousand years—if he faced a mere five-thousand-year soul beast in single combat, could he even survive? Huo Yuhao clenched his fists in the snow. The answer was a definitive, humiliating no.
Deep within Huo Yuhao's Sea of Consciousness, an eerie, suffocating silence had fallen. To speak the absolute truth, the Skydream Iceworm felt infinitely worse than his host.
Back during their initial encounter in the Star Dou Great Forest, the million-year soul beast had instantly recognized the terrifying truth. Liu Yuan was not just a genius; he was the absolute, perfect "superior vessel" compared to Huo Yuhao.
While both youths possessed eye-type Martial Souls, placing Huo Yuhao's Spirit Eyes next to Liu Yuan's primordial Double Pupils was like comparing a flickering candle to the blazing sun. In terms of sheer origin quality, Huo Yuhao would be crushed into insignificant dust.
Because of that, the Skydream Iceworm had spent countless days drowning in bitter regret, agonizing over the fact that he had bound himself to Huo Yuhao before ever laying eyes on Liu Yuan. Over the recent months, however, Huo Yuhao had shown decent growth. Skydream had slowly forced himself to accept his fate, burying his lingering disappointment...
But now? Staring at the impossibly outstanding, blood-soaked youth standing victorious on the ice, Skydream's mental defenses completely shattered. His heart bled all over again.
'Heavens above...'the giant worm wept internally.'If only Brother could choose again! Even if the heavens collapsed, Brother would choose him without a second thought! What a waste... what an absolute, tragic waste!'
Beside the weeping worm, the newly integrated Ice Empress also focused her senses on Liu Yuan. A ripple of genuine shock echoed through the spiritual sea.
"This human is incredibly bizarre," her cold, imperious voice murmured, tinged with disbelief. "The origin aura he possesses is deeply peculiar, and his physical combat prowess is ridiculously overbearing for his cultivation level." She paused, her spiritual gaze shifting. "Wait. Skydream, do you and Yuhao actually know this monster?"
The Skydream Iceworm miserably recounted the events of the Star Dou Great Forest, explaining how he had bound himself to Huo Yuhao just before Liu Yuan appeared.
This confession instantly ignited the Ice Empress's fury.
"You absolute idiot! Why were you in such a desperate rush?!" she scolded, her voice cracking like a glacier. "Do you have any idea what kind of heaven-defying fortune you missed out on?! If you had chosen him as your vessel, I dare say our chances of ascending to godhood would have increased by at least twenty percent!"
The Skydream Iceworm curled into a pathetic ball within the spiritual sea, sighing repeatedly in utter misery. "Sigh... it's all my fault for being too impatient, Bingbing. Brother was just too blind..."
While Huo Yuhao was distracted by the chaotic scolding match between the two colossal entities in his mind, the atmosphere on the battlefield abruptly shifted.
Du Busi, who had been casually conversing with Liu Yuan, suddenly stopped. His deep green eyes narrowed into dangerous slits. With a sharp, predatory snap of his neck, the Super Douluo locked his gaze directly onto the distant ice slope where Huo Yuhao lay hidden.
At the exact same moment, Liu Yuan's Double Pupils violently contracted. Two terrifying beams of divine light pierced through the howling wind and blinding snow, sharp as unsheathed blades.
"Who's there?"
Master and disciple instantly pinpointed the faint spiritual fluctuation leaking from the snowbank. Without another word, Du Busi kicked off the ground, using nothing but his monstrous fleshly body strength to shatter the glacier beneath him. Beside him, Liu Yuan directly activated the Qilin Precious Technique. Lightning crackled around his form as he vanished into a blur, both of them surging toward Huo Yuhao's hiding spot with lethal, overwhelming speed.
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