Di Tian felt a chill in his heart. An ultra-divine artifact...
He had heard of such things. To put it bluntly, an ultra-divine artifact was more precious than life itself to a god—even to a God King at the very peak of the godhood hierarchy.
Whether the unknown deity who bestowed the power of such a treasure upon the Auspicious Beast was benevolent or malevolent remained to be seen. Were they fattening the sheep just to slaughter it?
The silver-haired woman looked up at the sky. "If it weren't for the Auspicious Beast's evolution, my awakening would have taken at least another ten thousand years. Fortunately, this power of fate was dense enough to help me recover a portion of my strength. I can now briefly exert god-level power."
"Though I do not know if they are friend or foe, I believe that deity at least harbors no ill will toward us soul beasts."
"Sovereign, this..."
The silver-haired woman gave a wry smile. "If he truly wanted to act against you all, even I could not stop him. Furthermore, I am certain he has already discovered me, yet he did not strike."
Di Tian was startled. The Sovereign has already been discovered?
The silver-haired woman turned around, her purple crystal-like eyes flashing with a sharp, divine light. "Forget that for now. Di Tian, take advantage of this period where the power of fate is boosting the strength of Star Constellation, and continue to amass power! Prepare for the final war against humanity!"
"No matter the price, we will reclaim the world that belongs to us!"
"Yes!"
...
Time flew by like a white stallion passing a crack; in the blink of an eye, more than a month had passed.
Thanks to the "keen insight" of Elder Xuan Zi, Zhang Lexuan's proposal to have Huo Yuhao promoted directly to the Inner Court was shelved. It was demanded that he earn the treatment of a Core Disciple by winning the championship in the Freshman Competition.
Mu En raised no objections to this, stating that he also wished to further observe Huo Yuhao's character before making a final decision.
However, there were perks. At the very least, the most expensive cafeteria in the Outer Court was now open to Huo Yuhao for free.
Little Huo was not one to be polite; every time, he ate as much as he possibly could. He didn't eat that much in one sitting—roughly half of the cafeteria's entire food supply...
Girls who originally had a favorable impression of Huo Yuhao began to keep a respectful distance from this guy who could out-eat a pig.
It is worth mentioning that, thanks to Zhou Yi, the number of students in Freshman Class 1 had plummeted to just over seventy in a single month. Anyone who dared talk back to Zhou Yi or defy her was expelled!
Nearly half of those twenty-plus students were ruthlessly expelled for trumped-up reasons—including a certain "little princess" from the Clear Sky Sect dressed as a boy.
When had the little princess ever endured such treatment? Without a word, she called for backup.
The background of this "famous Shrek teacher" was merely an 8th-rank soul engineer like Fan Yu, whereas the background of this Clear Sky princess was arguably the strongest in the history of the Douluo Continent.
Although the two Sect Masters had been heavily injured by someone and were temporarily immobile, the foundational power of the Clear Sky Sect remained. After the matter escalated, the Shrek Academy leadership stepped in under pressure, severely reprimanding Zhou Yi and demoting her to assistant homeroom teacher, replacing her with Wang Yan. Only then did she restrain herself slightly.
However, rumors whispered that among the students expelled by Zhou Yi, someone had emptied their family fortune to put a price on her limbs... though assassinating an Outer Court teacher within Shrek City remained a daunting task, especially since Shrek Academy was famously protective of its own.
Lan Xuanyu and Wang Dong had requested several times to transfer to Huo Yuhao's Class 10, but they were blocked by the homeroom teacher, Zhang Lexuan. For a time, the two—each harboring their own secret motives—could only wait for the class reshuffle following the Freshman Competition.
Perhaps considering Huo Yuhao's young age and the potential bad influence, Ma Xiaotao's visits became much less frequent. Every Wednesday and Friday night became their "secret chamber time."
With Huo Yuhao's help, Ma Xiaotao's control over the evil fire became increasingly proficient. Even when Huo Yuhao stopped using Ultimate Water to assist, she could effectively prevent the fire from eroding her mind.
The only price was... within her original Evil Fire Phoenix martial soul, the Dark attribute portion was becoming increasingly dense.
Of course, Shrek Academy's standards for an "evil soul master" were quite flexible; they certainly wouldn't classify Ma Xiaotao as one. They dared to hunt down Zhang Peng, who possessed the Dark Scorpion Tiger martial soul, calling him an evil soul master at every turn, but they wouldn't dare say a word against the Dragon King Douluo Long Xiaoyao, who possessed the Darkness Holy Dragon martial soul.
See? In this world, it's all about background and strength.
Huo Yuhao ignored these matters for now. Today was the weekend, and he was sitting on his bed, holding a blue-silver box. This was the item Baili Du had left him, a universal device from the era of the Great God Circle: the Douluo World.
The item in little Huo Yuhao's hand was the terminal for this system. Within it, Baili Du had collected data on experts from various periods of the Douluo Continent and Other planes, leaving them for Huo Yuhao for combat training and reference.
Naturally, there was no fear of death within the Douluo World, and the experience gained after battle would be transferred to the user. It was essentially a massive "cheat" Baili Du had opened for him.
After tapping a few times on the terminal's projected screen, Huo Yuhao lay obediently on the bed and allowed his consciousness to sink into the Douluo World.
[Direct Connection!]
...
Every time he entered this Douluo World, Huo Yuhao marveled at Baili Du's unfathomable power. Looking around, it was a world teeming with life; everything was identical to reality.
He was currently in the middle of a lush forest surrounded by trees. Wisps of sunlight filtered through the dense branches, adding a touch of vitality to the woods.
Though he knew this was a virtual space, he couldn't tell how dense the pixels were. Even a random small stone by his feet was extremely detailed; the clarity was overwhelming.
But... Huo Yuhao sighed. He extended his index and middle fingers, overlapped them, and swiped downward. A familiar item appeared: a data box.
Name: Huo Yuhao (Changeable)
Level: 36 (Soul Elder)
Martial Soul: Spirit Eye, Deep Blue Glazed Dragon, Holy Demon Angel
Attributes: Spiritual, Water (Ice), Lightning, Light, Darkness
Life Force: 5500
Mental Power: 5001 (Early Spirit Abyss Realm)
Strength: 4700
Added Value: 1000
Weapon: Locked
Divine Position: Locked
...
Stage: 2
[Overall Evaluation: Rookie. Keep practicing.]
Though he didn't know what Baili Du based those numerical values on, he assumed they weren't arbitrary.
But that evaluation was really something...
Huo Yuhao clenched his fists: "Hoo... no matter what, I'm clearing Stage 2 today!"
If one is to use a "cheat," it must be done reasonably; one cannot simply shove good things into Huo Yuhao's hands and be done with it. He who wears the crown must bear its weight. To obtain a power-up or a treasure, one must possess the vessel to hold it. Even for another version of oneself, Baili Du knew the consequences of a shaky foundation better than anyone.