Chapter 194.1: Manifold Frigid Jade Essence Bed
“Alright.” Huo Yuhao felt a little fearful as he channeled the Mysterious Heaven Technique to the best of his ability and absorbed the pure cold energy into his body.
The thin streaks of cold energy merged with Huo Yuhao’s soul power under the influence of his Mysterious Heaven Technique. His Ice Empress martial soul was released once again and his dark red four hundred thousand year soul ring glowed with four lines of golden light, smearing the entire room with golden-red light.
Huo Yuhao could see faint ice-blue mist rising from beneath him as the golden-red light shone. The Frigid Jade Essence Bed gradually became transparent, while the ice-blue colors were lustrous and glossy like jade. One could see subtle trickles of thick liquid sloshing around within, as if the entire thing was one delicious treat. Anybody looking it would have the urge to pounce on the jade essence bed to take a bite.
Huo Yuhao’s soul power continuously directed the icy energy, and his body suddenly quivered like he’d been shocked. He quickly jumped to his feet and took off his clothes and soul tools in a jiffy, tossing them aside before he returned to the Frigid Jade Essence Bed.
Huo Yuhao realized that the cold energy released by the Frigid Jade Essence Bed was like the power of heaven and earth. The Ice Empress’ energies within his body were also becoming stronger from the stimulation by the Frigid Jade Essence Bed’s cold air. If this continued, his clothes would be destroyed, and even soul tools forged with precious metals would be unable to resist. He would be devastated if his soul tools were damaged because of this. This was the reason why he took everything off. While he was shedding his soul tools, he suddenly recalled something that rendered him speechless. Ever since he was inspected by Jing Hongchen, he had never carried the Class 9 protective soul tool, Hongchen’s Blessing—he realized he wouldn’t have been injured by Zhao Yang if he had had that soul tool with him. Toiling to cultivate and researching every single day must have addled my brain. Wang Dong is right—I have to learn how to relax when it’s time to relax.
There wasn’t a thread of clothing left on Huo Yuhao’s body, and his body emitted an explosive power. His muscles were not the overly large and stiff kind—the lines of his body were smooth, and his muscle details were perfect, his shoulders were broad, and his back was wide. His skin seemed to radiate jade-like hues. He was channeling every inch of energy in his body, and his vast life energy couldn’t be covered as a result.
At this moment, the gigantic Ice Jade Empress Scorpion tattoo shimmered on his back, and Huo Yuhao’s skeleton exuded a vigorous azure-green aura. His Ice Jade Scorpion Left Arm Bone flickered with azure light, and this light intertwined with the golden-red radiance that was coming from his four hundred thousand year soul ring, as well as with the colors released by the Frigid Jade Essence Bed. The entire room was filled with these brilliant colors.
The enormous Ice Jade Empress Scorpion tattoo seemed to come alive at this point. A pair of golden eyes seemed to flicker across its long tail’s azure radiance, while Huo Yuhao’s entire skeleton glowed with a faint green light. One could see that the azure light was becoming stronger with every flicker.
The truth was, with his continuous training and improvements, along with the immense life energy from merging with the Life Gold, Huo Yuhao could’ve absorbed part of the powers sealed away by the Ice Empress to boost his own cultivation a long time ago.
The reason why he hadn’t done so was because he had discussed it with the Ice Empress, and they had decided that consolidating his foundations was more important. It was also better for him to conceal his own abilities—yes, conceal!
As an exchange student at the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy, every student from Shrek Academy had undergone strict investigations and interrogations when they first arrived—including himself. The Sun Moon Empire’s teachers naturally paid more attention to him as he was a special student with twin martial souls, and also because his performance in the last season’s Continental Competition was stellar.
Under such circumstances, Huo Yuhao would have received much more attention if he had revealed even stronger abilities—there was even a possibility that the Sun Moon Empire would attempt to destroy him at all costs. In the end, he was on their turf!
When Huo Yuhao had first arrived, he had forced his cultivation down to three soul rings. Even though his soul power allowed him to have four, he only had three – the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy immediately relaxed after discovering this fact during their investigations. This was in spite of him attaining his fourth soul ring at Jingyang Mountain, and thus becoming a Soul Ancestor; he didn’t attract much attention anymore.
Huo Yuhao dared to give his all in the exchange competition because he wanted to infuriate the academy’s students so that the exchange competition would end more quickly, but also because he was clear that Jing Hongchen wouldn’t be too wary of him because of his soul power, no matter how highly he might regard his abilities.
His Ultimate martial soul wasn’t that great for cultivation. In the history of the Continent, Ultimate martial souls were rare, but that didn’t mean they didn’t exist. However, the number of people who had been able to succeed and been able to become a Titled Douluo were few and far between – why? Because it was difficult for Ultimate martial souls to advance.
Huo Yuhao’s current age was a soul master’s golden age for cultivation. His body would grow much more slowly after he reached twenty years of age, to the point where his body might stop growing altogether. The fusion between his martial soul and his body would slow, and every soul master’s cultivation speed would stabilize in this phase.
Huo Yuhao’s soul power had only improved by about four to five ranks in his two years at the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy. With a speed like that, and even though he was still young, he would definitely be unable to reach Rank 50 at this rate by the time he was twenty years old.
Ultimate martial souls would only truly reveal their frightening aspects after reaching seven rings, and only then would they not be affected by their Ultimate nature’s slow cultivation speed. However, it was much harder to advance from Rank 50 to Rank 60 than it was to advance from Rank 40 to Rank 50. Jing Hongchen even did the math for him once – by his calculations, Huo Yuhao would need another eight years to reach Rank 60, and it would take some luck for him to reach Rank 70. Huo Yuhao was a prodigy, but Jing Hongchen didn’t find Huo Yuhao prodigious enough to poach him at all costs.
Huo Yuhao had made Jing Hongchen nervous before when he had suddenly entered deep meditation for six months after the exchange competition. However, Huo Yuhao’s cultivation didn’t improve at all when he surfaced from the deep meditation, and Jing Hongchen had stopped focusing much attention on Huo Yuhao since that moment.
If Jing Hongchen knew that there were several formidable powers sealed within his body, he would have had a different opinion.
At this point, both Jing Hongchen and the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy stopped paying much attention to the exchange students from Shrek Academy. From their perspective, only He Caitou, who had broken through Rank 60, was worth their attention. But He Caitou had always displayed integrity and honesty when he was doing research and forging soul tools, and he had never revealed his abilities at all, so over time, the academy began to relax.
Huo Yuhao believed he should wait until he returned to Shrek Academy before opening the Ice Empress’ seal to boost his soul power. At that point, his progress would skyrocket. He would give the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy a “pleasant surprise” during the next Continental Advanced Soul Master Academy Soul Dueling Tournament.
However, destiny wouldn’t change according to someone’s will. The opportunity before him was simply too good to let go. The Ice Empress couldn’t resist any longer, and thus released her seal, so that she could fuse part of her power with Huo Yuhao.
She had been waiting too long for this day.
The Ice Empress’ seal wasn’t solid, and she would actually have to resolidify it every now and then. However, this process consumed her origin power. She wasn’t like the Skydream Iceworm; her spiritual power couldn’t even compare to his. When she had merged with Huo Yuhao and become Huo Yuhao’s second martial soul, all the power that was sealed away belonged to Huo Yuhao, though they were the ones responsible for helping him seal it away. Releasing part of that power would greatly reduce the pressure on the seal.
This Frigid Jade Essence Bed would greatly boost the fusion effects and the safety of the process. How could she let this opportunity slip by?
Huo Yuhao naturally understood what the Ice Empress was thinking, so he accepted her suggestion. The truth was that Wang Dong’s ascension to Rank 60 gave him a lot of pressure. When they were cultivating together, he could clearly feel that seventy percent of the Haodong power came from Wang Dong, and he was pretty much ripping Wang Dong off. Even under such circumstances, his cultivation speed was still incomparable to Wang Dong’s. In terms of personal ability, Huo Yuhao would no longer be a match for Wang Dong the moment Wang Dong got his sixth soul ring. Wang Dong also had twin martial souls, and both of his martial souls were top-tier entities.
They were best buddies, so how could he be willing to have such an enormous rift between Wang Dong and himself? This was especially so after he entered the Clear Sky Castle today, and he was greatly affected by the fact that Wang Dong’s second uncle made it clear that he wasn’t worthy of being Wang Dong’s friend, even though didn’t say it explicitly. Huo Yuhao’s experiences as a child made him stubborn and unbending, and he couldn’t be bothered with anything else at this point.
Dense soul power rippled and sizzled, and this caused Huo Yuhao’s aura to transform. The iciness, the power, and the primal energy that came from the Ice Jade Empress Scorpion were all slowly rising within this tiny room.