Chapter 44.1
Chapter 44.1: Perfect Fusion, The Red Soul Ring
“Yuhao, you’ve grown… up. You must… become… an unrivalled hero… like… your father. But, mother… might not be able… to see that day… come. Mom has… to go, and you… have to take… care of yourself… Good child… don’t cry… Mother’s going to heaven, and… I’ll always… be watching you. I don’t… hate your father, truly. If… there’s a single person… I don’t hate within this White Tiger Duke’s Mansion… it’s actually… only him…”
“Mom… wasn’t lucky, I had… no way… to continue… living on… with your… father. I… wish that… I could have… stayed by his side… and seen him everyday… like how it… was in the past! Maybe… I never had a spot… in his heart… but… I don’t regret it. Yuhao… you look… a lot like me… If you can’t… become a… soul master… in the future, then… learn a craft. As long as you’re safe… your mom can also… smile… in the underworld…”
“Mom, mom——” Yuhao howled inwardly. A stubborn conviction suddenly rose up in his heart, and in this instant, it was covered by the longing and grief he felt. Mom, there will be a day when I’ll complete your wish. I will make that man kneel in front of your grave and beg you for forgiveness.
Mom, for mom, I must become strong, I have to become strong. No matter what, I have to hold on. I’m not a coward, I’m Huo Yuhao. I’m my mom’s son, and for mom, I must bravely live on. I can’t become a person like the White Tiger Duke, I have to surpass him!
This inward howl became an indescribable energy that suddenly exploded within his spiritual world. All the cracks that had appeared due to him approaching his limit were healing at an astonishing rate, and his spiritual sea was re-coalescing. Though it was still undulating violently due to the pain he was feeling, its core was abnormally sturdy. It was much sturdier than it previously was.
The Skydream Iceworm was utterly astonished. Huo Yuhao had actually endured the pain that even the Ice Empress found difficult. Just how much willpower did he need to do this?! In this instant, not only did the Skydream Iceworm feel admiration towards Huo Yuhao, he even felt a trace of fear. He knew that he had chosen the right person, but this small Huo Yuhao might not be someone he could control in the future. He might only be able to serve as his intelligent soul ring.
Two agonizing hours slowed passed, and the alternating jade-green and dark-green gradually stabilised. Finally, the color of Huo Yuhao’s bones ended up an abstruse jade-green that was identical to the Ice Jade Empress Scorpion’s tail. However, an earth-shaking, heaven-flipping transformation had also occurred in Huo Yuhao’s body.
Nourished by a large amount of nutrients, Huo Yuhao’s bones had grown noticeably. His shoulders had widened somewhat, and he had grown by a little bit. Furthermore, his muscles, tendons, fascia, veins, and internal organs had become much sturdier. A jade-like luster had appeared on his skin, radiating a noble aura within this snowy world.
His eyes had been open the whole time, and now the jade-green light within them faded slowly. His deep blue pupils had become even more abstruse following this.
If you were to use a word to describe the current Huo Yuhao, then ‘metamorphosed’ couldn’t be any more fitting.
When he had left the White Tiger Duke’s Mansion in the beginning, he had only been a low-ranked soul master with an ordinary amount of talent who wasn’t taught by a teacher. You simply couldn’t see any prospects from him. However, he was now a full-fledged super-genius who had the number one torso bone in the world. Furthermore, he was about to become a young soul master who had twin innate martial souls.
As the pain gradually faded, Huo Yuhao’s body loosened up. The Ice Jade Empress’ tail which was stabbed into his spine slowly pulled back, placing Huo Yuhao on her back.
The abstruse light in Huo Yuhao’s eyes gradually became one of exhaustion. Having been devastated by pain for such a long time, his body and mind had already reached their limit. The only thing keeping him up was the stubborn conviction within the depths of his heart. Now that his fusion with the soul bone had ended, the most important foundations had been laid. Following that, a strong wave of exhaustion swept towards him, and a sleepy feeling overcame him. Just like that, Huo Yuhao fell into a deep sleep while still on the Ice Jade Empress Scorpion’s back.
After nearly a full hour had passed, the Ice Empress’ exhausted voice rang out slowly, “Skydream.”
“I’m here. How are you feeling?” The Skydream Iceworm asked, deeply concerned.
The Ice Empress snorted, “I’m fine. Although a fella like you is a piece of trash, you have good eyesight.”
“Hehe.” The Skydream Iceworm was already used to being scolded by the Ice Empress, “To tell the truth, I didn’t think that Yuhao would be this strong. He was able to persist due to the stubborn convictions he holds in his heart. This experience has opened up a brilliant road for his future growth. Let’s quickly start fusing your martial soul with his body. Now that you’ve discarded the most important origin of your body, your spiritual origin will get damaged if we waste too much time.”
“En. Protect me.” To Huo Yuhao, the crucial moment had already passed. After fusing with the Ice Jade Empress Scorpion’s torso bone, he had crossed a difficult level. With the torso bone as a foundation, his coming fusion with the Ice Jade Empress’ martial soul and soul ring would be much easier. This would mainly rely on the Ice Empress and the Skydream Iceworm’s strength in order to seal her energy and fuse it with Huo Yuhao. Thus, the most important task for the Ice Empress had just begun. Fusing her martial soul with Huo Yuhao while protecting her spiritual origin in order to not have it completely assimilated with Huo Yuhao so she could maintain her intelligence was the foundation of her plan to create God and attain immortality. She had never thought about a situation like this before, and it was simply impossible for her to have done any experiments in the past. It would be a lie to say that she wasn’t nervous. If she did anything wrong, she would lose her sense of self, and her consciousness would disappear eternally.
“Don’t worry, I’ll help you out. Ice Empress, I truly do like you. Don’t worry, for the sake of my own happiness, I’ll do all I can to help you. Come, let’s start.”
Strangely, the Ice Empress didn’t make a retort this time around. Right after that, a thick halo of white light blossomed from Huo Yuhao’s body, sweeping upwards and covering his body within it. The crystal-like sphere on the Ice Jade Empress Scorpion’s body dissolved quietly, turning into threads of icy mist that entered Huo Yuhao’s body through his skin.
Huo Yuhao was in too deep of a sleep. Furthermore, the Skydream Iceworm had already responsibly guarded his spiritual sea, ensuring that he remained in his sleeping state so as to not wake him up. The previous events had already tempered him enough, and the following stages of the fusion needed to be completed by him and the Ice Empress.
Huo Yuhao’s presence quickly vanished within the icy mist. In addition to that, the Ice Empress underneath him also vanished without a trace.
If an ordinary human were to have witnessed this scene, they would definitely have assumed that the Ice Empress’ body had melted. To the Ice Empress, however, this wasn’t a melting, but an combustion of her own body. Only by burning the origin of her body could she create an effect like this. Otherwise, with the toughness of her body, even the strongest weapons in the entire world couldn’t damage her easily.
A golden halo of light appeared noiselessly, drawing the white halo of light into Huo Yuhao’s body. The Skydream Iceworm was actually doing all he could to help the Ice Empress. While protecting Huo Yuhao’s spiritual sea, he even protected the Ice Empress’ spiritual origin. Furthermore, he was even helping the Ice Empress suppress her own power. He was multitasking, doing all three things at once. Due to the Skydream Iceworm’s powerful spiritual power, the Ice Empress’ fusion with Huo Yuhao went much more smoothly. However, this process still took a long time.
……
The cold wind was still as bitingly cold as ever. Large snowflakes covered everything as far as the eye could see within the icy plain.
Suddenly, a soft ‘Pu’ rang out. An arm jutted out from the thick snow, and right after that, a completely naked body crawled slowly up from underneath.
The contours of his body were extremely well-defined, and although his muscles weren’t especially big, they were flawless. After his white, gem-like skin dug out from the snow, it radiated with a unique luster due to the parallelism created by the surrounding white.
As he slowly opened his eyes, two different colors instantly flashed through his deep blue pupils. It was gold at first, but then it turned jade-green before settling on a somewhat terrifying white that completely covered the original blue.
A strange scene then occurred. The falling snowflakes suddenly moved away from a three-feet radius around his body the moment they approached him. Unexpectedly, a clean patch of earth around him had appeared within the world of ice and snow.
As the white within his eyes slowly faded away, an abstruse dark-blue gradually resurfaced within them. His pupils had changed color three times; this was quite miraculous.
He clenched his fists tightly, and immediately, his taut muscles released a sensation filled with power. He suddenly leapt into the air, reaching an astounding twenty feet. When he reached the peak of his jump, he let out a long, resounding roar towards the sky.
The rumbling sound waves caused by his roar reverberated through the air, scattering the falling snowflakes. His breathing immediately became unhindered, and under the circulation of his soul power, he was able to clearly see that his sternum, ribs, and spine were emitting a jade-green glow.
This scene seemed beautiful, yet terrifying. A person’s bones were suddenly emitting a light that could be seen through the skin; this was somewhat strange. At this moment, however, a halo of jade-green light suddenly spread out from his body, covering a ten-meter diameter around him in a jade-green light. It seemed as though the snowflakes within this area had increased in weight, causing them to fall to the ground with a crash. The moment they fell onto the piled-up snow, they cut out tiny holes, as if they were tiny knives.
However, that jade-green light only remained for an instant before vanishing quietly. Following that, his body collapsed to the ground.