Just as the Daydream Ice Worm was performing its sacrifice, a thunderous roar suddenly erupted high in the sky, and the entire firmament darkened.
Attracted by the massive energy generated by the sacrifice, a stream of gray air tore directly through space, plunging down from the heavens toward the back of Huo Yuhao's head.
This was a remnant strand of the divine sense of Electrolux.
Feng Piaoling had been waiting for a long time, hidden beneath the ground exactly where Huo Yuhao stood.
The moment the sky turned black, Feng Piaoling lunged out, intercepting the space between the grayish-white light and Huo Yuhao's back.
At this moment, Electrolux's divine sense was on the verge of destruction and possessed little autonomous consciousness. After sinking into Feng Piaoling's body and seeing that he had opened his spiritual sea, the sense had no intention of leaving; it settled in naturally and fell into a deep slumber.
Sensing the changes within his spiritual sea, Feng Piaoling felt a great weight lift from his heart, and a smile of relief finally appeared on his face.
By now, the Daydream Ice Worm's sacrifice was nearing its end.
Because Huo Yuhao's constitution was too weak, and because the sacrifice was occurring while he was in the middle of absorbing a ten-year Wind Baboon soul ring, the Daydream Ice Worm was forced to divert more energy to stabilize the soul ring and apply seals for Huo Yuhao. It had no capacity to pay attention to the outside world.
Looking at the molted husk on the ground that the Daydream Ice Worm had not yet had time to reclaim, the corners of Feng Piaoling's mouth curled into an imperceptible arc. He collected it and stuffed it into a storage soul tool ring he had prepared in advance.
Then, he placed that soul tool ring inside another soul tool.
He repeated this process seven or eight times. After this "nesting doll" method, no matter how powerful the Daydream Ice Worm's spiritual power was, it would be impossible to locate its molted husk.
Having finished all this, Feng Piaoling vanished back into the ground.
Using the Grade 9 soul tool, the Spiritual Barrier, just now had consumed too much of his soul power and spiritual energy. Even though he practiced the Azure Lotus Sword Technique and the Heaven-Piercing Demon Eye—giving him exceptionally thick soul power and vast spiritual energy—he could not sustain it for long.
Before proceeding further, he had to act as if he knew nothing about the Daydream Ice Worm's sacrifice to create an alibi.
He still wanted to utilize Huo Yuhao's luck to find a suitable third soul ring for himself. He didn't want to turn hostile just yet.
Meanwhile, things were quite miserable on the Daydream Ice Worm's side.
"Too weak, too weak! Man, I'm so pathetic. Just how many seals do I have to apply for your tiny, weak body to withstand my million-year Wisdom Soul Ring? And of all the rings to absorb, you had to pick a Wind Baboon! Even a random ten-year spiritual-type soul beast would have been better!"
"Great, now you've gained an 'Airflow Observation' skill. Its only use is watching the air move. What's the point of that? Even an ice attribute would have been better. Now, I can't even increase the year-limit of your soul rings. This first ring is basically trash. I don't know if this will mess up my god-creation plan."
(Note: Adding a reasonable secondary setting here: Part of the reason the Daydream Ice Worm seeks spiritual-attribute soul masters is that its essence can only increase the year-limit of spiritual and ice-attribute soul rings.)
"Who did I offend to deserve this? If I'd known, I should have sacrificed myself to that cunning kid just now. At least his twin martial soul talent was right there."
The Daydream Ice Worm grumbled incessantly while expanding Huo Yuhao's spiritual sea and applying seals.
At the same time, by branding itself onto Huo Yuhao's memories, it learned about Feng Piaoling.
In Huo Yuhao's perception, Feng Piaoling had taken great care of him along the way and was the only person besides his mother who was truly kind to him. To avoid asking too much of this "good person," Huo Yuhao had rejected Feng Piaoling's kindness and chosen to absorb the ten-year Wind Baboon ring.
Learning this, the Daydream Ice Worm couldn't help but curse, "What an idiot!"
When the work was finally done and it prepared to reclaim its molted husk, the Daydream Ice Worm... or rather, the worm, was completely stunned.
"Where's my husk? Where is my giant molted husk? Without it, how am I supposed to take this kid to find Bingbing?"
At this moment, the Daydream Ice Worm felt its life as a soul beast had entered a period of unprecedented darkness.
Without the Ice Empress, it wouldn't say there was no hope of reaching godhood, but the probability would undoubtedly be slashed.
"Forget it. If there's really no other way, I'll just have to try finding other ice-attribute soul beasts."
Ultimately, the Daydream Ice Worm did not choose to abandon Huo Yuhao. Although it still retained its spiritual essence and could choose someone else, switching candidates would require paying a significant price. It wouldn't switch unless absolutely forced.
"Regardless, I'm finally free. You bastards who treated me like food, you won't get another chance!" The Daydream Ice Worm comforted itself, its voice gradually fading.
The spiritual power that had covered a hundred-mile radius retracted at an alarming speed and vanished.
At the exact moment the spiritual power disappeared, a white halo and a glowing white halo emerged silently beneath Huo Yuhao.
One was a ten-year ring, the other was a million-year ring in a sealed state. Although there were slight differences in appearance, ten-year rings vary in depth of color depending on their exact age. There was no need to worry about drawing suspicion.
The two white rings circled Huo Yuhao's body three times before fading and merging into his body.
Thanks to Feng Piaoling letting Huo Yuhao absorb the ten-year Wind Baboon ring early, the Daydream Ice Worm had been forced to use some of its own essence to forcibly boost Huo Yuhao's soul power to rank 20.
Now, Huo Yuhao was already a rank 21 Soul Grandmaster.
It could be considered a blessing in disguise. However, compared to what was lost, this rank boost—ten levels higher than the original story—was hardly worth mentioning.
Not long after, Tang Ya and Bei Bei sprinted toward the area at high speed.
They came to a halt when they saw Huo Yuhao lying unconscious on the ground, firmly protected by the scabbard of the Thunder Calamity Sword.
Just then, Feng Piaoling also "happened" to rush back, looking quite "disheveled."
"Were they attacked by a soul beast?" Tang Ya looked at the unconscious Huo Yuhao and then at the surrounding ground, which was riddled with craters from Fire Bullet Talismans, asking in surprise.
Bei Bei, meanwhile, looked at the nearby corpse of the Wind Baboon with the broken leg.
Logically, a ten-year Wind Baboon couldn't possibly threaten Feng Piaoling, a rank 30 pseudo-Soul Elder.
Then he looked at the craters blasted by the Fire Bullet Talismans and the protective barrier emitted by the Grade 4 soul tool scabbard.
In other words, they had likely encountered a much more powerful soul beast. Feng Piaoling must have just led that beast away.
"Mm." Feng Piaoling didn't pay them much mind, giving only a curt response. He reclaimed the Thunder Calamity Sword scabbard and sat down silently to one side, circulating the Azure Lotus Sword Technique to recover his soul power.
Tang Ya also filled in the blanks in her head: a scene where Feng Piaoling, to protect Huo Yuhao, single-handedly lured away a powerful soul beast. She stopped calling him a "dullard" in her mind. The way she looked at him softened, and she secretly resolved to pull both him and Huo Yuhao into the Tang Sect.