Huo Yuhao was apologetic as he said, “I"m sorry! I couldn"t stop myself after going into cultivation. I only just woke up.”
Nan Qiuqiu was speechless, and silently thought to herself – it"s already very difficult for me to enter deep meditation, but this guy can do so at any time and anywhere he wants. It"s really frustrating!
“Alright. It"s good that you"re awake. How"s it? What have you gained?”
Huo Yuhao replied, “My soul power should have improved. I feel good. This is all because of Aunty. I have gained significant rewards from my venture into the Earthdragon"s Sect secret location this time. In the depths of that cold spring, there was something called Manifold Mysterious Ice Essence. For soul masters like me that cultivate Ultimate Ice, it"s extremely helpful. This is why I"ve benefited greatly this time.”
Nan Qiuqiu said, “That"s great then. Talking about it, thanks for the last time.”
Huo Yuhao was a little perplexed as he asked, “Thanks? What"s there to thank me for?”
“Thanks for abusing me, ”Nan Qiuqiu snapped.
Huo Yuhao was confused as he asked, “What? Abusing you? What are you talking about?”
Nan Qiuqiu snorted and replied, “You"re really so forgetful. Have you forgotten that you used your spiritual power to exert pressure on me? I didn"t have any feeling when I woke up the second day, but I"ve regained some sensation over the past few days. My spiritual control seems to have strengthened. It must be your doing. That"s why I"m thanking you.”
Huo Yuhao smiled and said, “I took seven days during my deep meditation this time. What has happened in the outside world?”
After hearing his question, Nan Qiuqiu straightened her face and nodded before replying, “For some unknown reason, the Sun Moon Empire brought a legion of troops and stationed them outside Dragon City.”
“A legion of troops?” Huo Yuhao was also astonished. Dragon City was basically the most northern part of the Heavenly Soul Empire, and it was also the largest city in the northeast of the Heavenly Soul Empire. Why did the Sun Moon Empire send troops here? Moving east from here, it"ll already be the Dou Ling Empire. Don"t tell me they"re making their move on the Dou Ling Empire before they"ve even occupied the entirety of the Heavenly Soul Empire?
“How many of them are there? Are there soul engineers?” Huo Yuhao asked.
Nan Qiuqiu shook her head and answered, “I"m not clear on the details yet. My mother and I are afraid that the other party has soul detectors. This is why we only watched from afar and didn"t dare to get too close. However, the troops appear to be very orderly, and there"s at least twenty thousand of them. I"m not sure if there are soul engineers. There should be some. Even a normal legion of the Sun Moon Empire will have some soul engineers to perform surveillance and aid the rest of the legion.”
Huo Yuhao nodded and said, “Since it"s so timely, I"ll go take a look too. I"ll go see what their plan is, and send a message to the Heavenly Soul Empire and Dou Ling Empire.”
“Alright. We"ll leave after you finish checking them out?”
Huo Yuhao answered, “Yes. We"ll see how it goes. Although there are only twenty thousand people in this legion, their fighting strength will be fairly great if they"re a soul engineer legion. I"ll need to find out their motives first before we talk about anything else.”
“Alright. I knew that you weren"t reliable.” Nan Qiuqiu twisted her lips.
Huo Yuhao was helpless as he smiled. “I"m hungry, Qiuqiu.”
“……”
When Huo Yuhao woke up from his cultivation, it was already noontime. Even he didn"t know how much his soul power had increased. It was at least Rank 75 or 76. He was fairly confident about this. Otherwise, he would have absorbed all the Manifold Mysterious Ice Essence for nothing.
After having some food, he silently left the city. Even though nighttime was the best time for him to perform his surveillance, he still had to get a grip on what was going on first.
Nan Shuishui was no longer in Dragon City. She had left Nan Qiuqiu behind to protect Huo Yuhao and left for Shrek Academy with the last batch of resources from the Earthdragon Sect. Regarding Huo Yuhao, she was very relieved. In Dragon City, there was hardly anyone who could threaten him, given his cultivation.
The gates of the Earthdragon Sect weren"t sealed just because of the arrival of troops. It was just the same as it was when Huo Yuhao first came.
According to Nan Qiuqiu, this Sun Moon Empire legion was stationed outside the city. As for their motive, it was unclear.
Huo Yuhao changed into an ordinary cloth shirt and used his Imitation to slightly change his appearance. He now looked like an ordinary person and snuck out of the city. To prevent drawing attention to himself, he didn"t leave the city through the northern city gate. Instead, he left from the eastern city gate. After leaving the city, he made his way to the northern city gate.
He unleashed his Spiritual Detection and started to scan the air.
Very soon, Huo Yuhao discovered that the number of aerial surveillance soul tools in the sky above the northern city gates had greatly increased.
Just by simply scanning around, Huo Yuhao was astonished to discover that the number of aerial surveillance soul tools outside the northern city gate was more than a hundred.
It seemed like there was a soul engineer legion within this regular legion! Otherwise, there wouldn"t be so many soul tools.
After discovering this, Huo Yuhao was even more determined to carry out surveillance.
He quickly shifted his attention to the northern city gate. Around five to six kilometers from the northern city gate, Huo Yuhao made his way into a patch of forest.
From the fact that there was a forest outside the city, it was evident that Dragon City was a city that hardly had any wars. Normally, huge cities wouldn"t have any forests at all for dozens of kilometers around. There wouldn"t be a barrier blocking the view from the city like this forest.
Huo Yuhao wasn"t anxious at all as he peered into the sky. He was only going to carry out surveillance when night fell. Those aerial surveillance soul tools hadn"t detected him at all. After his soul core formed, Huo Yuhao"s spiritual power grew by another tier. Not only was it stronger, but it was also able to recover much faster. Even when he unleashed his Imitation using his Eye of Destiny, he was still able to last for a long time. Now that he had completed this round of deep meditation, his understanding of the origins of ice was much deeper too. His control over his own temperature was much stronger than before. Apart from oscillation detectors, there weren"t any soul tools that could detect his presence. No matter how tight the defense of this legion, it couldn"t possibly compare to that of the Ming Dou Mountain Range with the Death G.o.d around.
After cultivating for some time, the sky had already slightly turned darker. From afar, smoke could be seen rising, indicating that the Sun Moon Empire"s troops were cooking. It was time for dinner.
Huo Yuhao didn"t continue waiting. The change in the color of the sky and the rest that the troopers were taking during dinner was a rather good opportunity for him to carry out his surveillance.
He silently left the forest and fully unleashed his Imitation. He seemed to have fully fused into the air as he rapidly came closer to the northern city gates.
His spiritual power fanned out towards the military base at the northern city gates. Huo Yuhao wasn"t even very afraid of oscillation detectors since the effective range of any oscillation detector couldn"t compare to his Spiritual Detection. This was why he could avoid the oscillation detectors after performing his surveillance.
The spiritual barrier that the Death G.o.d Douluo could unleash wasn"t something that was found everywhere. If there was one here, he would consider himself unlucky.
Very soon, Huo Yuhao discovered the positions of some oscillation detectors and noted them in his mind.
At the same time, he also discovered that the troops were indeed as orderly as Nan Qiuqiu had mentioned. Even though it was already dinnertime, patrolling, surveillance and scouting was still being carried out diligently.
Huo Yuhao"s spiritual power extended into the military base. Very soon, he found some tents that were different from the others.
These tents were much smaller than the tents at the perimeter of the base. Each tent was roughly five to six square meters in size. For tents of such size, it was evident that they were only meant for single individuals. However, the quality of these tents was far superior to the tents on the perimeter. They were actually made of mature leather.
Such leather was very tough. By applying wood oil to it, it was able to repel water and fire. These tents were definitely top-quality. Huo Yuhao wasn"t surprised by their presence. However, he discovered that there were several hundreds of such tents when he scanned the camp with his Spiritual Detection. They were neatly arranged, and they were all dark-red. There were even dim golden patterns on these tents.
Observing more closely, Huo Yuhao discovered that these patterns were actually images of phoenixes.
He was shocked when he saw until here. He could roughly guess at the core of this legion now.
In the Sun Moon Empire, there were five strong soul engineer legions. Among them, the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineer Legion was the strongest, followed by the other four beast lord-ranked soul engineer legions. Together, they formed the Hand that Protects the Nation.
Huo Yuhao had faced w.a.n.g Yiheng"s Evil Tyrant Legion the most. w.a.n.g Yiheng had even perished under his and his partners" hands.
From how this soul engineer legion was equipped, it was likely that it was another one of the beast lord-ranked soul engineer legions, the Phoenix Soul Engineer Legion!
Among all of the Sun Moon Empire soul engineer legions, it was ranked within the top three. Why are they here? Don"t tell me that they"re really here to invade the Dou Ling Empire?
However, Huo Yuhao discovered some problems as he scanned the camp with his Spiritual Detection. Although this military base followed a very strict formation, there weren"t any soul formations present. This meant that this soul engineer legion had no plans to fight. In that case, their true motive was a big question mark.
It would have been fine if he didn"t encounter them. However, now that he had, he had to find out what they were up to.
As he thought until here, Huo Yuhao exploited the darkness and rapidly snuck into the base. He circ.u.mvented a few oscillation detectors and made his way deep into the base.
The rations of this army were rather good. Huo Yuhao could immediately smell meat soup not long after he entered. Some soldiers were already holding bowls in their hands and walking towards the mess areas. However, there was hardly anyone joking around. Even when they spoke to one another, they whispered. The quality of such an army might compare to that of the White Tiger Duke"s army.