Chapter 47: Huo Yuhao's Crisis
By the shore of the Lake of Life, Lei Chen slowly withdrew his vast perception, a look of realization and amusement appearing on his face.
The actions of Shrek Academy and the Body Sect had not exceeded his expectations.
In the face of the ultimate temptation of breaking through level 100 and achieving Godhood, any so-called sect secrets or past friendships appeared pale and powerless.
Mu En and Du Busi were able to so quickly obtain the Purple Demon Eye and the Nine Aperture Glazed Heart—two secret methods that pointed directly to the limits of spiritual power—and chose without hesitation to spread them across the world alongside The Innate Secret Method. This 'enlightenment' and efficiency saved him quite a lot of trouble.
Because the Soul Master system of the Douluo Plane, no matter how ever-changing the Martial Soul may be, ultimately cannot be separated from the two cornerstones: the 'physical body' and the'spirit'.
The vast majority of Soul Masters stuck at a bottleneck and unable to break through are, at their root, either lacking the physical strength to carry more massive Soul Power, or lacking the spiritual power to control it.
Now, The Innate Secret Method provided a grand path to temper the physical body and forge a divine body, while the Purple Demon Eye and the Nine Aperture Glazed Heart completed the method of nurturing spiritual power to its peak. With both paths advancing together, as long as one has sufficient talent and perseverance, the Soul Master's future path will no longer have shackles.
The so-called bottlenecks will no longer be insurmountable chasms, but merely small thresholds that require patient crossing when accumulation is insufficient.
The divide between the mortal and the divine from level 99 to level 100 will also transform into a natural metamorphosis where success comes when conditions are ripe—when a mortal frame turns into a divine body and mortal consciousness sublimates into divine sense, the conversion of Soul Power into divine power becomes a matter of course.
"The physical body and the spirit are the two wings of cultivation. Only when both wings fly together can one soar through the nine heavens."
Lei Chen spoke softly to himself, quite satisfied with the development trend of the human Soul Masters.
The change in rules and the pointing out of the path had already sown the seeds of hope. Next, he only needed to wait quietly for more powerhouses to emerge from this fertile soil; in the short term, there was no longer a need for his excessive intervention.
Since that was the case, his consciousness, like an emperor inspecting his territory, naturally turned toward another important component of the plane—the Soul Beasts.
His thoughts swept across the vast Star Dou Great Forest, sensing the overall flourishing aura of the Soul Beast tribes under the nourishment of the Golden Ancient Tree and the Lake of Life. Especially the Imperial Auspicious Beast Wang Qiuer; with the assistance of the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, her cultivation progress was rapid, and the recovery of the Golden Dragon King's origin was faster than expected.
However, when his perception swept over that Far North Land covered in eternal wind and snow, a scene occurring there caused a clear look of surprise to instantly surface on Lei Chen's face.
In his 'vision', at the edge of the core circle of the Far North Land, a strange confrontation was playing out.
A youth who looked to be only in his teens, with Soul Power fluctuations of only level 20, was prostrating on the ice layer shivering. His face was frozen blue and purple, yet his eyes were filled with tension and anticipation.
Not far in front of the youth, a giant light shield resembling a silkworm cocoon was temporarily imprisoning a petite figure that emitted a terrifying aura—that was precisely one of the The Three Heavenly Kings of the Far North, the Ice Empress, the Ice Jade Empress Scorpion!
At this moment, although the Ice Empress's movements were restricted by that strange light shield, within her crystal-clear scorpion body, surging ice-attribute energy was violently roiling, impacting the light shield and causing violent ripples to spread across its surface. Clearly, this imprisonment could not last long.
What Lei Chen noticed even more was that the energy level emitted around the Ice Empress was significantly stronger than that of a common 400,000-year Soul Beast, having already reached the level of 490,000 years. This was clearly the benefit brought by the Ten Thousand Years of Mysterious Ice Marrow he had bestowed earlier.
While Lei Chen watched the scene, an exasperated spiritual fluctuation spread out from the youth's body, entering the Ice Empress's perception:
"Bingbing! Listen to me! This is a once-in-a-thousand-years opportunity! Give up that path of tribulation-crossing that is destined to be incredibly difficult, become this child's second Martial Soul, and we can obtain immortality in another form, exploring the mysteries of the world together!"
The source of this spiritual fluctuation was none other than the million-year Soul Beast hidden within the youth's spiritual sea—the Tianmeng Ice Silkworm.
Within the imprisoned Ice Empress's scorpion eyes, which shimmered with diamond light, there was only cold rage and disdain: "Shut up! You stupid worm! Who is your Bingbing! How dare you use such despicable means to plot against me!"
Her response was sharp and filled with killing intent: "Immortality? Merging with a waste like you to linger on the brink of death—that deserves to be called immortality? Simply laughable!"
"This Queen is now favored by the Plane Master, who bestowed divine objects upon me. My cultivation has greatly advanced, and the future path to Godhood is promising. Why would I destroy my own future to associate with a stupid worm like you!"
"As for this human brat..." The Ice Empress's gaze swept over Huo Yuhao, her eyes looking at him like a bug she could crush at any moment, "To dare step into this Queen's territory and participate in such a conspiracy... once I am free, the first thing I will do is use you to sacrifice to my flag!"
Huo Yuhao was startled by the Ice Empress's undisguised killing intent, and the Tianmeng Ice Silkworm's spiritual fluctuation was also filled with anxiety:
"Plane Master? What is that? Oh, Bingbing, why don't you understand? We Soul Beasts cannot cross the Heavenly Tribulation. Only by attaching ourselves to a human and nurturing them to become a God can we all ascend to heaven together!"
Seeing that the Tianmeng Ice Silkworm didn't even know what the Plane Master was, the Ice Empress no longer wanted to waste words with him. Her aura climbed to its peak, and the cocoon-like light shield emitted an overburdened 'crack' sound. At the moment it was about to shatter—
Lei Chen looked at this scene, which was familiar yet had completely deviated from its original track due to his intervention, and couldn't help but shake his head with a laugh.
"This kid Huo Yuhao... this luck of his, I really don't know whether to say it's good or bad."
He saw clearly that in this current situation, if no external force intervened, in the next moment, the Ice Empress would break free in her rage and absolutely would not hesitate to obliterate the Tianmeng Ice Silkworm's spiritual consciousness along with Huo Yuhao, the 'accomplice'.
The enraged strike of an Extreme North Heaven with 490,000 years of cultivation—let alone a little fellow like Huo Yuhao who didn't even have a second Soul Ring—even a Super Douluo might not necessarily escape unscathed. The current situation was, for Huo Yuhao, almost a certain-death scenario with no hope of survival.
But such a certain-death situation 'just happened' to be seen by Lei Chen, which was actually no accident.
Huo Yuhao's body gathered a large amount of the plane's providence, and Lei Chen had never withdrawn it. Although this providence could not directly bestow power, it could guide encounters in the dark, manifesting a silver lining of life in desperate situations. Today's matter was proof of that.
"Very well." A faint arc curled at the corner of Lei Chen's mouth. Since he had seen it, and since this kid still bore the title of the Child of Fortune after all, he couldn't really let him die so inexplicably in the Far North Land.
With his mind made up, Lei Chen's figure quietly faded by the shore of the Lake of Life.
The next moment, in the Far North Land, upon that ice plain where the wind and snow howled and killing intent overflowed, space rippled slightly, and a figure flowing with a faint seven-colored halo descended silently.