After some deliberation, Huo Yuhao and the girls decided to head back to the Lake of Life in order to seek guidance on the matter of the Spirit Soul Method.
What Electrolux had made was just a theory; an incomplete method filled with flaws that needed the help of an expert about soul beasts. The three high level soul beasts in the spiritual sea and dantian were a bit useless.
Skydream spent most of his lifetime and cultivation sleeping. While Snow Empress and Ice Empress stayed all their lives in the Extreme North, their knowledge about Ice-type soul beasts were unparalleled! But their knowledge about soul beasts were a bit average, at best.
Huo Yuhao himself had to refine the technique, finding that it lacked some details of an equal and comfortable relationship between the soul master and the spirit soul.
The original technique would've had some of the personality and memories of the spirit soul erased, so it would be almost completely obedient towards the soul master.
However, doing such a method would severely injure the spirit soul, lessening their combat power and creating future troubles for the soul master.
So Huo Yuhao added a function of "friendship", "trust" or something similar into the technique, erasing all the details about taking a chunk of the spirit soul's personality, which would increase the success rate immensely.
A contract between two souls, of a human and animal, has to be equal or there would be horrible consequences—an example is that the absorbed spirit soul might only respond to the soul master when sacrificing a hundred humans to it.
He recalled, from his previous lives', a certain pale person with a huge snake that always talked about needing a hundred human sacrifices.
Well, it shouldn't be a surprise. Although Electrolux might seem a good person and a teacher to Huo Yuhao, it shouldn't be forgotten, that this man had nearly driven his world's humanity to extinction.
Electrolux had created the method simply to help strengthen Huo Yuhao and to garner soul beasts in a similar situation with Ice Empress and Snow Empress, who were at the near end of their lives but weren't certain of getting through the Heavenly Tribulation.
Back when he was alive, he was a light magician and the Scion of Light. Of course he had a wonderful companion at that time, but everything changed when his lover and the whole world turned on him.
He became the Calamity Necromancer Electrolux, a lonely vengeance seeking Lich God.
So of course there was going to be some "flaws" when he made a theory of a method designed to be like the summoner magic system from his world. That magic worked on the basis of trust and mutual respect between the summoner and the familiar—something that Electrolux had some trouble in understanding.
The moment Huo Yuhao and the girls returned, they were met with a surprising sight.
"You're hurt!" Bi Ji exclaimed in shock.
Standing on the shore of the Lake of Life were Beast God and Bear Lord. Both Great Beasts that can fight against Limit Douluos, especially the former could even battle several Limit Douluos and come out as the victor.
Yet, they were injured.
Bear Lord had the worst. Sitting on the ground in human form with deep cuts running along his arms and chest, thick crimson blood dripping down. One of his eyes was swollen shut, and his breathing was labored. But terrifying of all was a fist-shaped dent on his sternum, leaking blood.
Di Tian stood beside him with his right arm exposed, a deep cut from his shoulder to his forearm with black blood running down from the wound. An azure light emitted from the cut. His expression was calm, but there was unmistakable fury flashing across his eyes.
Other Great Beasts gathered around them.
Di Tian glanced at Huo Yuhao, and raised an eyebrow at Jianxin's presence.
"I see. You all went to Jianxin and I'm guessing it was for the boy's fifth soul ring. But considering that she's alive, was there an unexpected development?"
Bi Ji marched up to him with a mixed expression of worry and anger, she then pointed at his face.
"That's not important right now! You're injured! Go sit your butt down, right now, so I can heal you."
At the side, Bear Lord stared at her incredulously and raised his hand.
"Um, what about me...?"
Wasn't he the most injured one here? So why was the least one getting treatment first?
"You can still speak, that means you're fine for a while." Bi Ji said without glancing at him, focusing entirely on healing Di Tian's arm.
Bear Lord's jaw dropped in disbelief.
Et tu, Bi Ji...? The kindest soul beast? What's with this unfair treatment?
He was about to confront her about it when Scarlet King stopped him, placing a hand on his shoulder.
Scarlet King stared directly and shook his head, as if to say: "Don't reason with a woman in love, you'll just suffer more."
Bear Lord wanted to cry but didn't, he still had an image to maintain especially since there was a human amongst them.
It took a couple of hours for Bi Ji to heal both Di Tian and Bear Lord. As soon as she finishes, a deep frown on her face.
"These wounds, were they...?"
"Yes, it was the doing of those traitors." Di Tian calmly nodded, closing and opening his hand.
The expressions of the Great Beasts' turned ugly.
Huo Yuhao, Qiu'er and Jianxin didn't understand what they were talking about.
"By traitors... Who might you be speaking of, Lord Beast God?" Jianxin respectfully asked.
Though she was a Great Beast like them, she doesn't speak with most of them for countless years except with Bi Ji, Qiu'er, Scarlet King(cause he was the Auspicious Emperor's bodyguard and caretaker), and sometimes Myriad Demon King for some occasional exchange of insights of herbs.
Jianxin only bonded with them because they were the calm and civilized Great Beasts in the group. While Bear Lord, Zi Ji and other Great Beasts in hibernation have a fiery temper.
As for Di Tian? He was a brooder. Unless it was for something serious, he would never start a conversation with someone.
Bear Lord sneered, punching down on the ground and created a crater that sent pebbles flying. "Who fucking else?! It was that damn Bull Python who became a Dragon and the stupid Titan Giant Ape!"
"So they really were revived..." Bi Ji muttered in shock.
Di Tian nodded. "They did, and they now go by the names of Da Ming and Er Ming—the Dragon and Ape, respectively."
"Those two are back?! Why?" Jianxin asked, shocked.
Ten thousand years ago, almost all of the Great Beasts in the Great Star Dou Forest had undergone hibernation and Di Tian temporarily given the title of King of the Forest to two certain soul beasts — the Sky Azure Bull Python and Titan Giant Ape.
The following sequences we already know, so Jianxin and others were shocked to hear that they had returned.
"But how did they injure both of you? Even if they had revived, they couldn't be as strong as either of you unless they became Divine Beasts." Zi Ji said.
Even if both Da Ming and Er Ming were to reach the same cultivation as Di Tian, they would still be outmatched.
Di Tian's called the strongest soul beast in the world, not just because of his age/cultivation, but because of his bloodline, accumulated experiences, nearly divine abilities, and true divine items that would kill any soul beast with ease.
Both of those traitors know this, and unless they were suicidal, they wouldn't return to the forest without showing some sort of gift or apology but nope—they went and attack Di Tian and Bear Lord without any hesitation.
Di Tian growled,
"They're certainly at the level of a Great Beast, and a little stronger compared to before and in human cultivation terms—they would be around rank 97-98."
"But then how—"
"They had "Divine" help..."
Bear Lord spat. "Bastards had completely forgotten all relationships they had with us and came here with ill intentions!"
"What did they want?" Myriad Demon King asked, worried. He then arranged hundreds of his subordinates to monitor for intruders.
Both Di Tian and Bear Lord turned their eyes towards Huo Yuhao.
Huo Yuhao blinked.
Qiu'er blinked.
Everyone else blinked.
"M-Me? What would they want from me?!" Huo Yuhao nervously asked.
He was quite smart and he quickly connected the dots on who these traitors were, in fact, they were part of the most famous story in the Douluo Continent—the Saga of Tang San!
It was said that they were related to Xiao Wu, Tang San's wife, and are both hundred thousand year old soul beasts who sacrificed themselves to become Tang San's soul rings and soul bones.
If those two were looking for him, and since he had no prior history with them....then there's no doubt, Tang San was after him!
After all, didn't Huo Yuhao take over his sect and remade it as his own?
'If that's the reason, then he's a petty bastard! He's a God, who I'm pretty sure can interfere with mortal affairs considering those are two coming after me, so why would he just let his beloved sect rot away?' Huo Yuhao was dumbfounded, his eyes twitching.
He wouldn't have been so fast to jump to conclusions if it weren't for how obvious everything was falling into place.
Especially during his Heavenly Tribulation! The thought of "Restoring Tang Sect to its former glory"? Holy fuck, that was such an obvious trap in hindsight.
Well, it's not like someone from thousands of years ago would emerge and start to scheme against you for some personal reason....
A certain black Zetsu appeared in Huo Yuhao's mind.
"...."
'I mean, this is the renowned Tang San, the Hero of the Douluo Continent! Him and his fellow Shrek Monsters were all heroes, from the stories that my mom told me and from numerous books...'
Then, Huo Yuhao's wisdom from his past lives came to play.
The victorious writes history.
It's been ten thousand years since then, how would anyone know about Tang San and his friends' true personalities? From records? From his friends, family, and fans? From very biased people?
There might've been records, from skeptics, that detailed the true stories of Tang San and his friends.
But it was all erased and rewritten by people who worshiped the original Shrek Seven Monsters, all to fit a certain narrative.
That Tang San and the others were all perfect heroes that they could do no wrong. That their actions were noble and their violence justified.
But that kind of perfection? It stank.
No one got to the top without stepping on others. And in Tang San's case, it was the Spirit Hall.
Spirit Hall might've had its problems, but it was the last organization that would give commoners the chance to become noble soul masters.
Although in this time there were still public awakening ceremonies being conducted, those without much money wouldn't have the chance to follow their aspirations. After all, schools for soul masters cost absurd amounts of money unless you have a high-tier martial soul.
Without Spirit Hall to cling to for monthly allowances for commoners, they would be forced to either work their butts off to get enough money for the tuition or just simply give up.
And by the time they earned enough money, they would've wasted so much of their time, that they've passed the best time for them to cultivate—making them live a less than mediocre soul master life.
Spirit Hall were also pro-anti evil soul masters, during its era, the activities and existence of evil soul masters were practically nonexistent.
Realizing all of this made Huo Yuhao extremely wary that had anything to do with Tang San or any of his family and friends. Even Shrek Academy!
"Stronger. I need to get stronger!" Huo Yuhao muttered, his eyes glowing gold for a moment as he stepped forward. "Di Tian, I'd like to talk to you about something..."
No rest for the wicked.
Days passed.
After Huo Yuhao told Di Tian about the Spirit Soul Method, they went to work on making it work. And in just five days they made several breakthroughs that it was gradually making the technique perfect.
With Di Tian's unparalleled knowledge of soul beasts and Yuhao's own mastery over spiritual power and souls, the Spirit Soul Method was now ready.
Huo Yuhao let out a deep breath, feeling himself to be at his peak state. He decided against sending his clones back out of the world, out of fear that something might go wrong with the Spirit Soul Method.
Fortunately, to avoid any hostile interactions between the academy and the forest from breaking out, he had asked Scarlet King to send a letter to Xuan Zi that he was undergoing enlightenment.
He looked down to see the extremely complex arrays of magical circles under his feet with otherworldly languages inscribed across the cricles, the ancient language from Electrolux's world, he had created and felt slightly nervous.
'It's going to work,' He thought to himself and looked up towards Jianxin.
Now she stands before him, not as her human form, but her true form as the Yin-Yang Saint Crane! Standing at 12 meters tall, she didn't look any different from a normal crane until one saw her crown. Where there should be a red marking around the top of her head, there was a mysterious Yin-Yang Taiji Diagram instead.
Now in her true form, a bead of cold sweat dripped down Huo Yuhao's face. A heavy pressure emanated from her.
It didn't just affect his body, but also his soul!
Di Tian stood in between them, but out of the magical circle. The other Great Beasts were standing behind, all having various expressions.
Di Tian nodded at Huo Yuhao.
Huo Yuhao nodded back and said, "Alright. Preparations are complete. Let's begin!"
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5/5 chapters of the week