Chapter Nineteen: Flames

The small grove where the two of them stayed was carefully chosen by Huo Yuhao. Not only was it located by the shore of the Sea God Lake, but it also seemed rarely visited—almost like a forbidden zone within Shrek Academy.

“It’s getting dark.”

Wang Dong stretched lazily, his face filled with relaxation and satisfaction. “Ah~ It really is more comfortable to have a special meal!”

Huo Yuhao, packing up their things, glanced at Wang Dong’s somewhat rounded belly. “If you keep eating like this every day, one day you’ll end up as fat as a ball.”

He had just devoured ten grilled fish in one sitting. If one didn’t know better, they might think his martial soul was a gluttonous beast.

“Nonsense!”

Sensing Huo Yuhao’s gaze, Wang Dong blushed and quickly tugged down his shirt. “I just have a big appetite. With all the training I do, there’s no way I’d get fat so easily!”

Self-deception.

Huo Yuhao looked at him with disdain. As the cook, he knew exactly how much Wang Dong used to eat—three or four fish were enough to fill him up, unlike now, when no amount seemed enough.

Just then, Huo Yuhao’s hand froze suddenly, a faint sting rising from the center of his brow.

Danger?

Focusing, he followed the source of that ominous feeling and saw a small, fiery red dot flickering on the shimmering surface of the lake, rapidly growing larger as it sped straight toward them.

“What are you looking at?”

Wang Dong turned toward Huo Yuhao’s gaze, his eyes widening in surprise. “Is that... an Inner Academy senior?”

It was said that the Inner Academy disciples were fanatical cultivators who rarely left their quarters, spending all their time training on Sea God Island. Many were so dedicated that they remained single into their thirties.

Whether the rumors were true or not, this was the first time they had ever seen someone from the Inner Academy.

“This doesn’t feel right.”

Huo Yuhao frowned deeply. “That person is coming straight for us!”

The approaching senior didn’t release his martial soul but was enveloped in strange, fierce flames, radiating a terrifying aura of menace and killing intent.

“What?”

Wang Dong was startled. As he looked again, the attacker suddenly accelerated, covering dozens of meters in an instant to reach the shore nearby. The strange flames surrounding him blazed with intense heat as he charged forward.

Faced with this terrifying force, Wang Dong unleashed his martial soul, only to find the edges of his butterfly wings instantly catching fire, the entire wing surface twisting and curling under the scorching blaze.

His martial soul suffered a severe blow. Before Wang Dong could even speak, he let out a painful groan and lost consciousness.

“Wang Dong!”

Huo Yuhao’s face darkened like iron, his eyes shining with unprecedented brilliance as a deep, powerful soul force surged forth. “Stop—right now!”

The overflowing soul force resisted the flames’ erosion, bursting into the raging firestorm and suppressing all the wild, red sparks.

The entire blaze suddenly stilled, calming down.

“Hm?”

The fiery attacker seemed momentarily stunned, then unleashed even greater power.

Six soul rings—two yellow, two purple, and two black—appeared behind him in perfect combination. The overwhelming soul force transformed into a torrent of raging red fire, tearing apart Huo Yuhao’s soul force in an instant.

“Pfft...”

Huo Yuhao’s vision dimmed, blood spurting from his mouth and nose. The terrifying burning sensation spread rapidly through his brain, shattering his already hazy consciousness.

“Damn it!”

Within his spiritual sea, Tianmeng’s eyes grew icy cold. “Looks like I’ll have to handle this personally.”

But just as he was about to unleash his power and take control of the body, the gray sphere and golden fragments above his head suddenly lit up together.

Boom—

With a thunderous roar within the spiritual sea, Huo Yuhao’s body suddenly steadied in reality, emanating an unshakable aura as he opened his eyes.

One eye burned with golden flames, the other swirled with gray mist.

Having regained control of the body, Elder Yi touched his golden fiery eye and croaked with a hoarse voice, “Interesting.”

Then he picked up the wooden staff Huo Yuhao usually leaned on and calmly glanced at Ma Xiaotao, as the staff’s surface began to shimmer with black, white, and gold veins.

“Roar!”

Though the man before her radiated immense power, the maddened Evil Fire Phoenix paid no heed. It instantly possessed her martial soul, charging forward with a scorching aura far surpassing that of an average Soul Emperor, determined to burn everyone in front of it to ashes.

“Too bad, I’m not good at fire-based magic.”

Elder Yi sighed softly and slowly traced a complex red-gray magic circle in the air. In the blink of an eye, it unfolded into multiple layers of strange transformations.

“Fire Element Silence.”

He whispered, and the entire shore of Sea God Lake seemed to freeze. The vitality in the air briefly faded.

Ma Xiaotao, who had surged forward with murderous intent, instantly lost her flames. Like a candle being snuffed out, the raging evil fire vanished abruptly, leaving only a few wisps of gray-black destructive energy dissipating quietly.

Without the support of power, she naturally fell unconscious, her body tipping and plunging into the water.

“Is that thing called a martial soul?”

Watching Ma Xiaotao gradually lose her beastly traits, Elder Yi fell into thought. “What an intriguing power system.”

This system, rooted deep in the bloodline, allowed one to embark on the path of cultivation upon awakening. It seemed to have a higher ceiling. If enough beneficial soul rings were found, the innate martial soul might even evolve or mutate, offering greater plasticity.

“But this child actually discovered a way to release soul control elements on his own.”

Elder Yi then looked at his palm with admiration. “If you were in that world, you’d definitely be a magic prodigy.”

Having never encountered the realm of magic, to be able to create such an expansion... Unfortunately, most of his magic was considered a calamity by the world—necromancy, unsuitable for teaching others.

Thinking this, Elder Yi touched his golden flaming eyes again.

This child worshiped such a bright and holy deity; indeed, necromancy would not be appropriate to teach him.

“Big bug.”

“Ah? …Yes!”

Tianmeng the Ice Silkworm suddenly tensed.

“When this child reaches a point where cultivation cannot advance further, you can try guiding him to explore inner spiritual energy cultivation methods. That might help him.”

“Then why not now...?”

“Not yet. He still needs to grow more.”

Elder Yi smiled, cutting him off, then withdrew control of the body and transformed back into a gray mist, hovering high above the spiritual sea. The golden divine avatar returned with him.

Outside, Huo Yuhao collapsed heavily to the ground.

“Swish—”

Several streams of light shot out from the direction of the Sea God Pavilion, landing hurriedly nearby.

“Outer Academy students!”

The leader, a man in white, frowned deeply, raising both hands to lift the two up from the ground. “Fortunately... no life-threatening injuries, though their souls have been wounded. It’s probably due to their martial souls being damaged.”

“So it seems Xiaotao still has some resistance. She hasn’t completely lost consciousness.”

One companion pulled Ma Xiaotao from the water, face full of joy. “If that’s truly the case, can she participate in this year’s Soul Master competition?”

“We’ll see.”

The leader pinched the bridge of his nose, troubled. “As for these two Outer Academy students, Teacher Li, you know what to do.”

“Understood!”

The Soul Saint in white nodded.

It was nothing more than a carrot and stick approach—letting them choose between expulsion or confidentiality.