Chapter 165: A Million-Dollar Evacuation! Huo Yuhao Sends a Message Back to Shrek Academy
Thirty miles north of Mingdu, a dense forest stood shrouded in the dead of night.
Dim moonlight pierced through the thick canopy of branches and leaves, casting fragmented shadows across a secluded clearing. Du Busi stood with his hands clasped behind his back. His broad, towering frame resembled an immovable stone monument anchored in the darkness. Surrounding him were several Titled Douluo, including Elder Chen and Elder Zhang.
These supreme powerhouses, figures who usually commanded absolute awe and reverence across the continent, now carried the heavy, acrid stench of scorched earth and fresh blood. Their robes were singed, bearing the unmistakable marks of the fierce feint-and-ambush operation they had just executed.
"Sect Master, why hasn't that kid Liu Yuan arrived yet?" Elder Zhang paced the perimeter of the clearing, his boots snapping dry twigs underfoot. "Calculating the time, he should have withdrawn from the first underground level by now." He rubbed his forearms. Having only recently broken through to the Titled Douluo realm, his muscles still twitched with residual adrenaline from the intense clashes against the Sun Moon Empire's elite forces.
"Those old monsters guarding Mingde Hall are not to be trifled with," Elder Zhang continued, his brow furrowed in deep concern. "If Jing Hongchen realizes it was a diversion and fully activates the underground defensive formations... Liu Yuan is only a five-ring Soul King. Trapped down there, he would be in grave danger."
Du Busi did not bother to turn his head. He merely let out a cold, dismissive snort. His emerald-green eyes, deep and unfathomable, remained fixed on the distant, glowing horizon of Mingdu. "If the disciple I personally taught lacks even the basic strategic sense to secure an escape route, then he does not deserve to possess a Gold-grade Body Awakening."
The towering Sect Master unclasped his hands, the faint trace of a smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth. "Patience. I have already locked onto that kid's aura."
The moment the words left his lips, the ambient space a dozen yards away began to ripple.
A subtle spatial distortion warped the moonlight, followed by a sharp tear in the fabric of the night. A dark purple stream of light shot out from the void fracture. Liu Yuan landed with a soft, muted thud, his boots sinking slightly into the damp forest soil.
He wore his sleek, pitch-black combat attire, blending into the shadows. Traces of violent elemental clashes lingered on his person—scorch marks blackened the edges of his sleeves, and a thin layer of biting frost clung to the hem of his coat. Yet, his breathing was perfectly rhythmic. His aura remained entirely undisturbed. Within his eyes, the Double Pupils shifted with a deep, abyssal depth, radiating the quiet satisfaction of a flawless execution.
The unnatural glow in his eyes faded as he retracted his ocular technique. He stepped forward, offering a crisp, respectful bow to the gathered seniors. "Master. Elders. This disciple has returned."
The collective tension in the clearing evaporated. The surrounding Body Sect Elders let out long, quiet exhales, the tight lines of worry smoothing out from their weathered faces.
Du Busi finally turned around. He closed the distance in two massive strides, raising a heavily calloused hand to clap Liu Yuan on the shoulder. The impact sounded like a muffled drumbeat.
"Good boy! You finally decided to show yourself," Du Busi boomed, his deep voice vibrating through the trees. "Well? Down in those subterranean rat holes, did you force that bunch of cowards from Mingde Hall to broaden their horizons?"
Liu Yuan offered a faint nod. With a casual flick of his wrist, a spatial fluctuation rippled from his storage Soul Tool. A heavy, dull gray lead box materialized in his grasp—the exact container housing the God-Sealing Platform. He held it out effortlessly, then tapped the storage ring on his index finger, his tone perfectly level.
"I have not failed the mission. This time, your disciple not only secured the hundred-thousand-year Soul Beast embryo that the Sun Moon Empire purchased at the Star Luo City auction, but I also cleared out the opposition." His voice held no arrogance, only the cold recitation of facts. "I dealt with two guarding eight-ring Soul Douluo and three Soul Sages who attempted to block my path. Before leaving, I took a brief detour to their core library. Every scrap of classified data, every high-tier Soul Tool blueprint—it is all in here. As for the energy core beneath Mingde Hall... it should be nothing more than a crater of slag by now."
A chorus of sharp gasps echoed through the clearing.
The Elders stared at the young man as if looking at a monster. Elder Chen stepped forward, his eyes bulging as he gripped Liu Yuan's forearm. "You killed two Soul Douluo? Inside Mingde Hall? A fortress layered with hundreds of lethal defensive formations?"
Elder Zhang swallowed hard, his previous anxiety suddenly feeling entirely misplaced. He had spent the last half hour worrying about Liu Yuan surviving the escape. He should have been praying for the poor souls stationed in Mingde Hall.
Du Busi stood frozen for a split second. Then, he threw his head back and unleashed a roar of laughter so thunderous it shook the leaves from the canopy above.
"Excellent! A flawless slaughter!" He slapped his thigh, his eyes burning with fierce pride. "Two Soul Douluo, three Soul Sages, and the entirety of their core research! Liu Yuan, the merit you have seized tonight will be carved into the grand history of our Body Sect! When that fat toad Jing Hongchen sees his precious vault, he will cough up three liters of blood on the spot!"
The Sect Master's laughter abruptly ceased. His expression hardened into a mask of absolute authority as his sharp gaze swept the perimeter. "The mission has been executed to perfection. There is no reason to linger in enemy territory. Those old freaks from the Sun Moon Empire are likely tearing the city apart looking for us right now. Move out. We evacuate at maximum speed and return to the Heavenly Soul Empire!"
At Du Busi's command, several terrifying auras erupted simultaneously. The ground cracked beneath their boots as the group transformed into streaks of blinding light, tearing through the sky and vanishing into the vast, protective cover of the night.
Meanwhile, deep beneath the capital.
Jing Hongchen and Kong Deming had finally realized the suburban skirmish was nothing but an elaborate decoy. By the time they tore through the sky and rushed back to the Mingde Hall headquarters, the sight awaiting them plunged the two supreme Soul Engineers into a suffocating, dead silence.
The once-pristine, hyper-advanced underground laboratory—the absolute pinnacle of the Sun Moon Empire's technological might—had been reduced to a mechanized graveyard.
Twisted alloy support beams jutted out from collapsed ceilings. Shattered power conduits sparked violently, hissing as they leaked volatile energy. Thick, scalding black smoke billowed from the lower levels, choking the air. The massive, multi-layered vault door guarding the core storage area, a zone considered an absolute forbidden ground, had been violently blown off its hinges, reduced to jagged shrapnel.
Jing Hongchen's rotund body trembled violently. He walked forward in a daze, his heavy boots crunching over the shattered remains of priceless, high-tier Soul Tools. He pushed through the lingering smoke and stepped into the vault. His eyes locked onto the center of the room.
The Ten-Thousand-Year Cold Iron platform sat completely empty.
The Hall Master's usually rosy, arrogant face drained of all color, turning a sickly, ashen white.
"No... No!"
A shrill, bloodcurdling howl tore from Jing Hongchen's throat. He whipped around, glaring at the surviving guards trembling in the corridor. Driven by sheer, unadulterated fury, his aura as a Class 9 Soul Engineer erupted. The sheer atmospheric pressure caused the air in the hallway to detonate in a series of sonic booms.
"Useless trash! What are any of you good for?!" he roared, his eyes bloodshot. "You let them walk in, slaughter your superiors, snatch the empire's greatest treasure right from under your noses, and completely hollow out the archives?!"
Beside him, Kong Deming stood in the center of the wreckage. The ancient, revered Soul Engineer remained silent, his wrinkled hands slowly tracing the deep, dark purple scorch marks etched into the reinforced alloy walls. His aged eyes narrowed, pooling with an extreme, murderous gloom.
"Jing Hongchen. Cease your pointless screaming," Kong Deming ordered, his voice dripping with glacial frost. "The priority is damage control. The perpetrators were undoubtedly from the Body Sect. During the skirmish at the border, they deliberately exposed their martial souls to draw us out."
"The Body Sect... Du Busi!" Jing Hongchen ground his teeth so hard they threatened to crack. He threw a vicious punch into the adjacent alloy wall, the sheer kinetic force punching a clean hole straight through the reinforced metal. "I will report this to the Imperial Family immediately. The Sun Moon Empire will wage war against them until the bitter end!"
Yet, no matter how much fury they vented into the ruined walls of Mingde Hall, it was utterly futile. The priceless blueprints, the classified data, and the peerless hundred-thousand-year embryo had already crossed the border, vanishing into the night like phantoms.
Meanwhile, within the student dormitories of the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy.
Huo Yuhao sat rigidly at his wooden desk, his face pale and entirely devoid of blood.
He had not even bothered to change out of his school uniform, the fabric still stained with soot and dust from the city's chaotic upheaval. Although he had successfully used the widespread panic to slip back into his room unnoticed, a heavy, suffocating weight pressed down on his chest. There was no joy in his survival.
Not only had he failed to secure the Snow Empress embryo—the one item capable of restoring the Ice Empress's origin—but his mind was trapped in a relentless loop. Every time he closed his eyes, he saw that terrifying figure standing amidst the destruction, wreathed in the oppressive glow of a blood-red hundred-thousand-year Soul Ring.
'Yuhao, stop dwelling on it,'the Tianmeng Iceworm sighed heavily within his Spiritual Sea. The million-year Soul Beast's usually energetic voice was laced with an unmatched sense of defeat and exhaustion.'That person... it was definitely Liu Yuan. His growth rate has completely shattered the boundaries of common sense.'
Huo Yuhao buried his face in his hands, his fingers digging into his scalp. "I know it's him," he muttered to the empty room. "The Soul Skill... the aura... it was exactly the same. But... Body Sect. Liu Yuan. How? How did he become so monstrously strong in such a short amount of time?"
He sat in silence for a long moment. Slowly, he lowered his hands, a sharp flash of determination cutting through the despair in his eyes. An event of this magnitude, involving a rival faction acquiring such devastating power and technology, could not be kept hidden from Shrek Academy.
He quickly formulated the message in his mind. 'Suspected Body Sect assault on Mingde Hall. A powerhouse, highly likely to be Liu Yuan, assassinated two Class 8 Soul Engineers and plundered a massive quantity of highly classified technological blueprints.'
Huo Yuhao reached beneath a loose floorboard and retrieved a carefully concealed long-distance communication Soul Tool. Taking a deep, steadying breath, he rapidly inscribed the secret missive. He detailed the sheer scale of the attack on Mingde Hall tonight, the theft of the embryo, and his personal assessment regarding the terrifying combat strength of the operative he suspected to be Liu Yuan. With a final pulse of soul power, he transmitted the message.
A harsh night wind blew through the open window, carrying the biting chill of the encroaching winter.
Huo Yuhao stared out into the pitch-black sky hanging over Mingdu. The transmission was sent, but it brought him no relief. Instead, an icy, lingering dread settled deep within his bones.
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