Putting his thoughts aside, Huo Yuhao looked at the Snow Empress, who was still deep in thought.
If he had to choose between, on one hand, making the Snow Empress his Soul Spirit together with the Ten-Thousand-Year Mysterious Ice Marrow, and on the other, winning the entire Extreme North under the Snow Empress at the peak of her power, most Soul Masters on the continent might have chosen the former—but he chose the latter!
You could hide for a time, but not for a lifetime.
No matter how far he kept himself from the heart of every conflict, some things simply could not be avoided forever.
The feud with the White Tiger Duke's Estate, Tang San's schemes both open and hidden—these would all have to be faced sooner or later.
Compared to the original Huo Yuhao, he had no mentors from Shrek, no powerful backing; everything he had, he would have to win for himself.
And before Electrolux recovered, the only powerhouse he could win over was the Snow Empress!
Only by giving up could he gain. Since those fortuitous opportunities could not bring about a qualitative leap, then trading them away for shelter in his frailest hours was worth it.
By now, the Snow Empress had thought it through as well. She gave Huo Yuhao a somewhat complicated look. "Tianmeng didn't teach you to say this, did he? Is this deal your own decision?"
Huo Yuhao did not answer.
Seeing this, the Snow Empress studied him for a moment, then shook her head helplessly. "Very well. I truly do need the Ten-Thousand-Year Mysterious Ice Marrow. As for the protection you need..."
At that, the Snow Empress raised her jade hand and lightly tapped Huo Yuhao's brow with her index finger, leaving behind a snowflake-shaped mark.
"With this mark, you can move freely throughout the Extreme North, and you can also reach me through it."
As the sovereign of the Extreme North, even setting aside that the Ice Empress was with the boy, she would not stoop to deception.
So, seeing the Snow Empress give her promise so readily, Huo Yuhao did not hesitate either. "The Ten-Thousand-Year Mysterious Ice Marrow is at the Earth Dragon Sect. If you don't believe me, I can come with you as a hostage."
"Then come along with me."
The Snow Empress gave Huo Yuhao one last look. As she wrapped them both in wind and snow, a strange premonition rose in her heart.
Perhaps, with this youth carrying out the God-making Plan, it really might succeed.
That day, the Earth Dragon Sect was sitting peacefully at home when disaster dropped from the heavens.
A sect that did not even have a single Super Douluo had no power to resist the Snow Empress at all. They could only hide far away, watching helplessly as the Snow Empress turned the Earth Dragon Sect upside down and dug out every last bit of the Ten-Thousand-Year Mysterious Ice Marrow.
With that Ten-Thousand-Year Mysterious Ice Marrow, the Snow Empress's Origin wounds swiftly recovered. What was more, drawing on the experience of her earlier failure, she successfully condensed the Yin-Yang Complementary Twin Soul Cores.
From then on, the seven-hundred-thousand-year Lightning Tribulation could no longer do anything to her. The Snow Empress had broken free of her original fate entirely.
Naturally, Huo Yuhao became an honored guest of the Extreme North as well!
The Snow Empress granted Huo Yuhao every convenience, stepping in whenever he fell into danger and shielding him from a great deal of trouble.
Even Princess Tang, because of this, no longer pestered him. After all, no matter how shameless Tang San was, he could hardly cast his own daughter into the heart of the Extreme North.
With no more worries at his back, Huo Yuhao drew on the resources of the Extreme North to cultivate the Ice Empress Martial Soul as his main focus, and his progress was astonishingly swift.
Yet he did not abandon his gifts in the Spirit Eyes Martial Soul and in Soul Tools either. He often used the Spirit Eyes' second soul skill, "Disguise," to alter his appearance and went to study at various academies.
At the Continental Soul Master Academy Tournament, he watched from the sidelines as a student of a small academy. He saw Shrek fall in the semifinals, saw Elder Xuan fly into a towering rage over it, yet utterly powerless to change the outcome...
On the eve of the Mingdou Tournament, Huo Yuhao talked the Snow Empress around, and together they slipped into Mingdou and "persuaded" away a number of frustrated, unrecognized talents among the Soul Masters and Soul Engineers.
When the Douluo Three Kingdoms went to war with the Sun Moon Empire, Huo Yuhao looked on with cold detachment. Only after a certain Imperial War God was stopped by Tang San and forced into a ceasefire did he storm the White Tiger Duke's Estate and kill every last one of those who had humiliated him and his mother, bringing a close to the grudges of this life. For Dai Hao, whose hair had turned white overnight, he left behind nothing but a departing figure.
After that, Huo Yuhao devoted himself wholly to cultivation and to searching for suitable Spirit Rings. When his soul power reached its peak, he and Electrolux perfected the Soul Spirit Method and, riding that momentum, established the Spirit Pagoda.
The rallying power of an Ultimate Douluo was not to be underestimated—and, moreover, the talents Huo Yuhao had "physically persuaded" over the years were hardly few. As the foundation of the Spirit Pagoda, they were more than enough.
With the covert support of the Extreme North added to that, the various factions that had designs on the Soul Spirits could only swallow their ambitions and watch as the Spirit Pagoda gradually grew stronger.
"It's about time."
At the Spirit Pagoda's headquarters, Huo Yuhao looked at the cool, aloof woman standing below him and said in a low voice, "I'm going into secluded cultivation to comprehend a higher realm. From now on, you will lead the Spirit Pagoda, Su Tong."
Su Tong—whose martial soul was the Ice Sky Snow Maiden, an Extreme Ice Martial Soul—had been a Shrek student who flashed by only briefly in the original story. But here, when Su Tong had come to the Extreme North to hunt for Spirit Rings, Huo Yuhao had spotted her and simply snatched her away, pulling her into his own faction.
By now, Su Tong was already a Titled Douluo and one of the Spirit Pagoda's three Deputy Pagoda Masters. Though still a little green, with others to back her up, she was enough to bear the responsibility.
Standing below, Su Tong gazed at the figure above her, somewhat puzzled.
The Spirit Pagoda had gained a firm foothold on the continent, yes, but the importance of the Soul Spirits was plain for all to see.
As the number of Soul Beasts declined, the importance of Soul Spirits would only keep rising. By then, the standing of any faction that held the method of creating Soul Spirits would naturally rise with it...
If there were no Ultimate Douluo holding the fort, there would be no shortage of those eyeing the Spirit Pagoda, and she, a single Titled Douluo, could not shoulder such a heavy burden.
Seeming to sense Su Tong's unease, Huo Yuhao walked past her and said in a deep voice:
"Rest easy. I've already reached an accord with the Snow Empress of the Extreme North and Di Tian of the Star Dou Great Forest. No one will dare make trouble for you."
Huo Yuhao understood her unease. After all, unlike the original Spirit Pagoda, which had Shrek and the various Douluo nations standing behind it, the Spirit Pagoda he had built had none of that backing—only a single Ultimate Douluo who had appeared out of nowhere.
Without him, the Spirit Pagoda's strength would shrink by eighty percent.
But since Huo Yuhao was leaving, he had of course made his preparations.
As for the Snow Empress, needless to say. Di Tian had always fretted over the future of the Soul Beasts; even if he had gone to him with only the incomplete Soul Spirit Method from the original story, Huo Yuhao was certain he could bring Di Tian around to an alliance.
Not to mention that what he was offering was the Soul Spirit Method refined over decades by himself and Elder Yi—it would do the Soul Beasts' propagation and flourishing a world of good.
As he mused, Huo Yuhao's eyes narrowed slightly, and he strode out of the room.
Every piece had been set in place; now he only awaited the moment to come.
"After I'm gone, erase every trace of me in the Spirit Pagoda."
Su Tong watched, somewhat dazed, as Huo Yuhao left the room, her mind thrown into confusion.
Di Tian and the Snow Empress, joining the Spirit Pagoda? Didn't that mean that all of the Ten Great Fierce Beasts, save the Evil Emperor, had joined the Spirit Pagoda? How had the Pagoda Master pulled it off?
"Was it because of the Soul Spirits and the Contract-Release Method?" Su Tong murmured to herself, still shaken to the core.
Once her feelings settled, Su Tong thought back over Huo Yuhao's instructions and could not help but feel a wave of confusion.
Pagoda Master Huo Yuhao was a deeply mysterious Ultimate Douluo. He had left few traces in the world, and people knew very little about him—even his real name had never spread beyond.
The Spirit Pagoda was the place where he had left the most traces. If those traces were erased, then ten thousand years from now, people would likely remember only the title of the Spirit Pagoda's founding Pagoda Master—the Ice Spirit Douluo!
Huo Yuhao had just stepped out of the Spirit Pagoda when a figure came to meet him.
"You're leaving?"
The Snow Empress looked at Huo Yuhao and asked softly.
"That's right."
Huo Yuhao gave a slight nod and brushed past her. "All these years—thank you, Snow Empress. Until the time comes, we'll meet again."
Her back to the direction Huo Yuhao had gone, the Snow Empress stood there for a long while before departing amid the wind and snow.
To join hands in scheming for godhood, ten thousand years from now?
Very well. I'll wait for you.
"Elder Yi, I'm ready. We can begin."
In the Sea of Spirit, Electrolux slowly opened his eyes. "Yuhao, the rules of the Douluo Continent affect my magic as well. Your plan to prolong your life by turning into an undead creature may be obstructed because of it, subject to influences I cannot foresee."
Huo Yuhao smiled faintly, his gaze firm. "A small price—I've long been prepared to pay it. And to me, the most important thing this time is to shake off Douluo's fortune. I'm counting on you."
"Then I'll use the Life Gold to preserve your last spark of life. I begin now."
Seeing that Huo Yuhao's resolve was set, Electrolux did not try to dissuade him further. "You must first die once!"
Hearing this, Huo Yuhao produced the Life Guardian Blade and fused it into his chest.
This world had its fortune, and he was the Child of Fortune of this age. So even if the path differed, opportunities like the Life Gold and the Ice-Jade Scorpion Left Arm Bone had all ended up in his hands in the end.
A Child of Fortune...
Huo Yuhao suddenly felt a surge of emotion.
Even though he had turned down the Emotion God Position over these years and Princess Tang no longer appeared, he understood that that person could never fully look away.
The reason Tang San paid him such special attention was precisely because he was the Child of Fortune of the Douluo Continent; without that identity, Tang San likely would not even have bothered to spare him a glance.
Only through death—by casting off the identity of a Child of Fortune—could he make that person turn his eyes away!
And only then would there be a chance to put it to use.
Huo Yuhao's attention rested for a moment upon the mark at the deepest reaches of his Sea of Spirit, and then he finally looked away.
Electrolux's magic unfolded without a sound. Huo Yuhao struck the pose of one forcibly breaking through to Godhood, his eyes gradually filling with the pall of death—yet the conviction in his heart did not waver in the least.
Only when the day of the God Realm's disappearance arrived would it be... his era!
Meanwhile, in the God Realm.
Tang San noticed that the Child of Fortune of Douluo Star had vanished. He took a deliberate look, saw that Huo Yuhao had died, gave up on him entirely, and looked away.
That proud and lofty Child of Fortune—refusing the Emotion God Position was one thing, but to actually dream of forging a god position of his own?
Your fortune may indeed be greater than mine, but a few decades of foundation hardly make you worthy.
Hmph, after wasting his and Xiaoqi's time for so long, all he produced was this farce—he truly courted death!
"This Huo Yuhao is unfit for any great use, far inferior to me. It seems I'll have to make other plans."
A gleam of wisdom flashed in the Tang Godking's eyes. "Rong Nianbing hasn't found a suitable successor and will remain in the God Realm; he can be put to use. As for the Destroyer..."
This God Realm belonged to him.
The Destroyer opposed him at every turn—he had already courted death!
One day in the God Realm equaled one year below. While the Tang Godking here mulled over his grand design, on the other side, Huo Yuhao—now no more than a corpse—reopened his eyes decades later and slipped into the Undead Half-Plane...
Chapter 2