The Unrivaled Tang Sect

When gazed at from afar, a fog seemed to linger around the palace. The buildings that surrounded the palace were lined up neatly, just like the pattern a brick wall had. The area that they occupied seemed limitless to the naked eye. The two words "Duke"s Mansion" were carved into the fifty-foot tall archway that stood in front of the entrance.

This enormous mansion that occupied an area of over 2 kilometres didn"t belong to a city. Instead, it was a singular building located fifty meters northwest of the capital of the Star Luo Empire, Star Luo City. From this you could see that the owner of this mansion held an honored position within the Star Luo Empire.

During the current time of day, the bright and beautiful sunlight would shine on the sparkling glazed roof tiles, causing a layer of dazzling gold to cover the entirety of the Duke"s Mansion. You could even vaguely see this scene atop Star Luo City"s city walls.

The back door of the Duke"s Mansion"s northern area noiselessly opened, and a skinny figure quietly snuck out.

The figure was a youth that appeared to be around eleven or twelve. His stature was reasonably proportioned, and he was wearing a grey cloth shirt that was simple but clean. He also had a small bundle of cloth on his back. His short black hair appeared neat and tidy. A determined look, which was filled with an intensity that surpa.s.sed all of his peers at the same age, was present on his handsome face.

After softly closing the back door of the Duke"s Mansion behind him, the youth rapidly ran a few steps forward. However, he suddenly stopped to look back at the Duke"s mansion, his deep blue eyes br.i.m.m.i.n.g with hatred.

“Mother, watch me from the land of the deceased. No matter how hard I have to work, there will be a day when I return, and trample everything here underneath my foot. Therefore, I"ll honour you by changing my surname to yours—Huo. From now on, my name will be Huo Yuhao.”

After finishing his sentence, he turned to face the Duke"s Mansion, and gazed at it deeply. Then, he turned around and walked away without any second thoughts.

He didn"t head towards Star Luo City, which was located to the southwest of the Duke"s Mansion. Instead, he went north. His tiny figure gradually disappeared into the distance as the strong midday sunlight shone on him. Although his body was skinny, the way in which he"d left didn"t give off a helpless feeling at all.

There were wide roads on all sides of the Duke"s Mansion. Huo Yuhao continued to run forward, his eyes gradually turning redder and redder.

“Mother…” The unwilling and unresigned look that his mother had had as she pa.s.sed away unconsciously appeared in Huo Yuhao"s mind, causing him to tightly clench his teeth.

I have to become stronger! Mother taught me that a person can only rely on themselves. One can only live a better life if they are strong.

Scenes from Huo Yuhao"s memory unceasingly flashed through his mind.

Huo Yuhao"s mother had been one of the Duke"s personal maids, and had grown up together with the Duke. A personal maid only existed for the simple sake of serving her master, but Huo Yuhao had quietly appeared within his mother"s belly one night, twelve years ago.

She was pregnant for ten months, before she finally gave birth one day.

Despite what ident.i.ty Huo Yuhao"s mother previously had, he was still the son of the Duke. Therefore, although his treatment within the palace couldn"t be described as good, it still wasn"t too bad. His mother no longer remained a maid, and relied on her child"s n.o.bility to obtain a courtyard for herself.

As such, everything should"ve continued without any trouble, but who could"ve known that disaster would arrive so soon?

The Duke went to war as a representative of the Star Luo Empire, leaving all of the Mansion"s internal affairs to the Duke"s wife. The Duke"s wife already had two sons and a daughter, and she treated anything that could affect her children as things that needed to be suppressed. Things were quite good for Huo Yuhao and his mother while the Duke was in the Mansion, but when he left, the Mansion became the world of the Duke"s wife. Furthermore, she was the favourite daughter of the Star Luo Empire"s current emperor.

Huo Yuhao"s mother had grown up beside the Duke, resulting in her being heavily doted upon by him. Thus, she was always envied by the Duke"s wife. Once the Duke left, she immediately became the main target for the Duke"s wife. Using the excuse that Huo Yuhao"s mother had contracted an infectious disease, she chased them to the servant"s wooden sheds, which were located at the back of the mansion. Furthermore, she cut away all their current sources of income. Huo Yuhao was only two when this happened.

Huo Yuhao"s mother didn"t have a healthy body from the start, thus the arduous lifestyle that they had to live in caused her body to gradually collapse. What"s more, the servants under the control of the Duke"s wife would frequently suppress her, causing her to suddenly die from her illness when Huo Yuhao was ten.

Four thousand years ago, the Douluo Continent collided with the Sun Moon Continent, which had drifted over due to the Western Ocean. This resulted in the Douluo Continent"s landma.s.s being greatly expanded, but also caused the frequency of wars on the Douluo Continent to increase.

The Douluo Continent had originally been divided into two countries ten thousand years ago—the Heaven Dou Country, and the Star Luo Country. However, the Douluo Continent had now been split into three countries. Of the two, the Star Luo Empire still existed, but the royal family had changed. They had fortunately pacified all of their kingdoms at that time, allowing the entire Star Luo Empire to remain united, and thus resulting in them becoming the strongest force of the three.

However, the Heaven Dou Empire was split due to the discord amongst its strong kingdoms. In the end, it was split up into the Heavenly Soul Empire and the Spirit Dou Empire.

The Sun Moon Continent that had drifted over from the west had both a vast surface area and plentiful resources. It was slightly smaller than the Douluo Continent, but it only had a single country, which was the Sun Moon Empire.

War broke out between the two continents almost as soon as they collided. The three countries of the Douluo Continent all dispatched allied armies to fight against their common enemy. After nearly twenty years of war, they finally managed to defeat the Sun Moon Empire. From that point on, they unified the two continents under the Douluo name. The Sun Moon Continent no longer existed, only the Sun Moon Empire within the Douluo Continent was left.

However, the Sun Moon Empire wasn"t fully invaded even though it was defeated. They relied on their natural advantages, as well as the conflicting views of the three empires of the Douluo Continent, to gradually form a stable, deadlocked situation between the four parties. However, wars still occurred every year.

Due to the frequent amount of wars that the Duke had to partic.i.p.ate in, he spent very little time within the mansion. Due to the Duke"s wife deliberately concealing the matter, Huo Yuhao"s mother was gradually forgotten by the Duke. When the Duke asked about her, his wife merely said that Huo Yuhao"s mother had fallen ill.

Huo Yuhao"s mother had suffered many bitter hardships as she brought him up. When he was six, he carried out the awakening of his martial soul within the Mansion.

Martial souls were an something that everybody on the Douluo Continent possessed. Although the Sun Moon Empire had developed in a different way compared to the other three empires, martial souls were still one of their fundamental concepts.

Everyone would naturally have a martial soul that could be awakened at the age of six. A martial soul could be anything, from a tool to an animal. Beast-type martial souls were referred to as "Beast Souls", while all other martial souls that weren"t Beast Souls were collectively known as "Tool Souls". However, there were naturally some martial souls that possessed mutations. Thus, they were exceptions to this rule.

After the awakening of one"s martial soul, a small amount of people would have a special power along with their martial soul. This power was called "soul force". Only people who possessed soul force had the ability to cultivate, and to become the n.o.blest profession on the Douluo Continent—a soul master.

Soul masters were separated into nine different ranks. From lowest to highest, they were: Soul Scholar, Soul Master, Soul Grandmaster, Soul Elder, Soul Ancestor, Soul King, Soul Emperor, Soul Sage, Soul Douluo, and t.i.tled Douluo.

Soul masters would increase in power as their soul rank increased. If one managed to reach the highest level of the t.i.tled Douluo rank, one would have the terrifying ability to both move the mountains and seas, as well as even shift the stars.

People who were between the first and tenth rank of soulforce fell underneath the category of Soul Scholar. When someone"s martial soul was awakened, their innate soulforce would signify their talent towards becoming a soul master. As such, a person with greater talent would have a greater cultivation speed. If one had tenth-ranked soulforce after their martial soul had awakened, they would be a gifted person with "innate full soulforce". That person would thus be referred to as a genius soul master. A genius soul master would have great accomplishments in his life as long as his martial soul wasn"t too bad.

Although Huo Yuhao was the son of the Duke, he hadn"t inherited a powerful martial soul from the Duke. If he had, the Duke"s wife would"ve had to report his martial soul to the Duke, regardless of whether or not she liked him. From then on, Huo Yuhao and his mother"s destiny would"ve also changed.

Unfortunately, an extremely rare mutation appeared in Huo Yuhao"s martial soul.

He possessed the "Spirit Eyes".

Outside of the two main categories of martial souls, there was an extremely tiny subcategory that were known as "Body Souls". The martial soul that they awakened would be a part of their body, such as an arm, or a leg.

Almost all Body Souls were extremely strong, but the probability of them appearing was extremely small. It could be said that they were existences above both Beast Souls and Tool Souls, and because of this, they were greatly valued whenever they appeared.

Unfortunately, Huo Yuhao"s martial soul was an exception to this.

His Spirit Eyes martial soul had naturally appeared in his eyes. Furthermore, it was also an extremely rare spiritual-type martial soul. Under normal circ.u.mstances, Huo Yuhao should"ve become greatly valued. Unfortunately, there were two points that had restricted his development. When he"d awakened his martial soul, his innate soulforce had only been at the first rank. Thus, it could be said that his talent was quite poor, which meant that his cultivation speed would definitely be extremely slow. The second point that had restricted his development was even more fatal; not only were spiritual-type martial souls rarely seen, spiritual-type soul beasts were also extremely rare.

Whenever a soul master"s cultivation reached the tenth soul rank"s bottleneck, they would need to kill a soul beast that was compatible with their martial soul, and then would need to use its soul ring to break through it.

Not only were soul rings required to breakthrough a bottleneck, but they would also give soul masters a skill. This was also one of the origins of a soul masters strength.

Combined, these two factors practically doomed Huo Yuhao to have no achievements during his lifetime.

However, he was still the Duke"s son in the end. Thus, he still managed to obtain a simple soulforce cultivation method.

Even the children of some servants within the Duke"s Mansion were capable of reaching the tenth soul rank, and could become soul masters within three years of awakening their martial soul.

However, Huo Yuhao had reached the age of eleven this year. He"d already cultivated for five years, yet his soulforce had only barely reached the tenth soul rank. Furthermore, he"d worked three times harder than his peers!

After his mother pa.s.sed away, Huo Yuhao stayed in the Duke"s Mansion for another year. He was still young, so he didn"t have any source of income whatsoever after rashly leaving the Duke"s Mansion. Thus, he could only suppress all of his grievances and hate with his heart. And, due to the oppression that he"d had to suffer through, his mind had matured much more than his peers.

His mother had told him that the only way for him to be outstanding was to become a soul master. Even if he only became an ordinary soul master, his status would still be much higher than that of other ordinary people on the Douluo continent.

Yesterday, Huo Yuhao had finally managed to raise his soulforce to the tenth rank; this was with his extremely poor talent, and after five years of bitterly hard work. This was also the day that he"d planned to leave the Duke"s Mansion.

He needed a soul ring. Even a low-tier ten year soul ring would be fine! That way, he"d have the chance to become a true soul master that possessed his own personal skill.

On the Douluo Continent, soul beasts were ranked according to the number of years that they"d lived for. The strength of their soul rings was closely related to this, as well as their overall power.

Generally speaking, soul beasts were separated into ten year soul beasts, hundred year soul beasts, thousand year soul beasts, ten thousand year soul beasts, and hundred thousand year soul beasts.

Soul masters would have to personally kill a soul beast in order to obtain a soul ring from it when it died.

Huo Yuhao knew that, if he continued to stay in the Duke"s Mansion, he simply wouldn"t have a chance to obtain a soul ring. Practically no one there was willing to help him. Due to this, he rashly decided to leave the Duke"s Mansion, even though he knew that it was an extremely dangerous thing for him to look for a spiritual-type soul beast by himself. After all, a newborn calf wouldn"t be afraid of a tiger.

Huo Yuhao quickly arrived at the main road as he walked towards the north. Although he was young, he"d already made preparations for the sake of obtaining a soul ring. Besides a set of clean clothes, he"d also brought some dry rations in his bag, as well as some money that his mother had obtained via hard work. He also had a dagger in his bag. But most importantly, he had a simple map of the continent.

Both the Duke"s Mansion and Star Luo City were located in the north-central region of the Star Luo Empire, and the area that Huo Yuhao chose to hunt for a soul beast in was the Great Star Dou Forest that bordered the northern area of the Star Luo Empire and the Tian Hun Empire. Various types of soul beasts lived within the forest, which was almost as big as a province. Furthermore, there were no lack of supreme existences inside of the forest.

If anyone else knew that the eleven year old Huo Yuhao had dared to enter the Star Dou Forest by himself, without a teacher accompanying him, they would definitely be stunned speechless. He was overestimating his own capabilities! Since he didn"t have any skills at all, he might not even be able to win a fight against a ten year soul beast!

The main road was perfectly straight, thus Huo Yuhao quickly walked along it, following the roadside. Although he was young, he was still a tenth ranked Soul Scholar. His physical strength was much greater than a normal adult"s.

Huo Yuhao gazed far into the distance as he walked forward. If one were to carefully look at him, they would see that his deep blue eyes had instantly become much clearer, and that there faintly seemed to be light flashing inside of them.

Ever since he"d awakened his Spirit Eyes, Huo Yuhao had discovered that his vision exceeded that of an ordinary person"s. At a relatively close distance, he could see many minute details that ordinary people were unable to clearly see; at a longer distance, the range of his vision was over twice the distance of an ordinary person"s.

The strength of his vision had also unceasingly increased in combination with his soulforce level. The changes that had appeared as his cultivation increased made his trust in his mother"s words increase. A soul master, I must become a soul master.

“Mother once said that I would become a control system battle soul master if I was able to obtain a soul ring. It"s not that my martial soul is bad, but that my talent is poor. Thus, I"ll just work harder and cultivate longer than other people do.”

Huo Yuhao cultivated as he advanced forward, supported by this resolute conviction. When he was thirsty, he"d look for some spring water; when he was hungry, he"d eat some of the rough biscuits that he"d brought along with him. Other than hurrying forward on his journey, he would sit down and meditate. The fact that he could actually advance three hundred miles in a single day—at his age—was nothing short of a miracle.

However, he only had seven silver soul coins and five copper soul coins him, which caused him to be extremely frugal with his money.

Ever since the war between the Douluo Continent and the Sun Moon Continent had ended, the continent had undergone thousands of years of changes. The currency used was now completely unified: one gold soul coin was equal to ten silver soul coins, which was equal to one hundred copper soul coins.

When he was young, his mother had sometimes quietly taken him outside of the Duke"s Mansion to look for some fruits and wild herbs in the forest to eat, simply for the sake of giving him a better meal than normal. Thus, the amount of plants that Little Yuhao recognised was fairly high. Many times, he couldn"t even bear to buy some cheap biscuits, so he had to resort to looking for some food in the woods beside the road as he travelled along.

Although Huo Yuhao had the guidance of a map, this was still the first time that he"d left vicinity of the Duke"s Mansion. Due to this, he couldn"t avoid losing his way a few times, and he had to continuously ask for the help of other people to find the correct route to his destination.

This was the so-called "reading ten thousand books is not as good as travelling ten thousand miles". He felt like he"d learned a lot of things after only a few days. His mood had also improved a lot without the oppression and restrictions that were usually imposed within the Duke"s Mansion. The interesting things that he"d seen so far during his journey caused him to be endlessly excited. He was still young after all. After his body had recovered, he didn"t feel tired while travelling. On the contrary, it could be said that he was a bird who"d left its cage. This was the first time that he"d had fun after his mother"s pa.s.sing.

“I"ve been walking for six days, I should get there soon.” Huo Yuhao carefully inspected the paper map in his hands, and then looked in the direction where the trees by the roadside pointed to. He determined that he was already very close to the Great Star Dou Forest.

Huo Yuhao wiped the sweat off of his forehead as he walked into the woods by the roadside. As soon as he sat down in the shade of a tree, intending to meditate and recover his spirit power, the sound of flowing water suddenly began to reverberate through the air. This sound immediately caused Huo Yuhao to jump up in excitement.

The presence of water signified that he could improve his lifestyle!

Huo Yuhao quickly shut his eyes, and quietly listened for the source of the water. As someone who possessed a spiritual-type martial spirit, his six senses were much stronger than an ordinary person"s. This was especially true when he shut his eyes. When he shut his eyes, his other five senses would increase in strength by a margin.

He quickly identified where the sound of water was coming from, and carefully advanced through the forest. The reason why he was being so careful wasn"t because the forest"s ground was uneven, but because he was scared that his clothes would be torn by the brambles in the forest. These were clothes that his mother had personally made for him.

He found his target without walking more than two hundred metres, which turned out to be a small brook approximately three metres wide. The cold water within was so clear that you could see straight to the bottom, and it created both a relaxing and a refreshing feeling.

Huo Yuhao let out a happy cheer, rapidly took his clothes off, and then instantly jumped into the stream, which wasn"t even two feet deep. The last time he"d had a bath was two days ago. The past two days of travelling had covered his body in sweat, and taking a bath in this cold and clear water was simply a pleasure that couldn"t be any more relaxing.

After thoroughly bathing, a brilliant feeling was suffused throughout his whole body when he walked out of the stream. He inwardly thought,Since I"ve already arrived at the Great Star Dou Forest, I"ll simply have a good rest here.

He changed into a clean set of clothes, proceeded to washed his dirty clothes in the stream as well, and then hung them on a nearby tree branch. He then snapped off a tree branch that was approximately three feet long.

He used his right hand to pull a dagger from its sheath at his waist. The dagger was roughly forty centimetres long, and its scabbard was dark green in colour. The scabbard was made of tough leather, though he didn"t know whether it was leather from an animal, or from a spirit beast. He only knew that it was a present that his father had given to his mother. It had always been treasured by his mother, so much so that his mother had only given it to him the moment before she pa.s.sed away.

The handle of the dagger was about seventeen centimetres long, and didn"t have any gorgeous decorations on it at all—it gave people a simple and unadorned feeling. Not only did it feel natural to hold, it also felt exceptionally comfortable.

It also didn"t make any noise when it was unsheathed. The twenty-three centimetre long blade was just like limpid autumn water, and seemed to be transparent. Huo Yuhao couldn"t help but shiver because of the dense, cold air around the knife, even though he seemed to be somewhat used to it.

The "White Tiger Dagger". This was the dagger"s name, which his mother had told him.

As Huo Yuhao looked at the White Tiger Dagger, the excitement in his eyes instantly turned into a deep look of sadness. He seemed to see his mother"s figure in the blade"s reflection.

Holding the branch that he"d just snapped off in one hand, Huo Yuhao used the White Tiger Dagger to shave the front of it. When the blade, which was releasing a faint blue light, cut into the tree branch, it felt like cutting through tofu. After two or three cuts, the front of the tree branch had been sharpened.

He sheathed the White Tiger Dagger at his waist, and walked back towards the stream with the sharpened branch in hand.

After taking a deep breath, his eyes immediately lit up. All of the minute details in the clear water were magnified within his eyes. He was now able to see the minute changes in the water"s ripples—even the small shrimps that lay in-between the cracks in the ground at the bottom of the river couldn"t escape the notice of his Spirit Eyes. Furthermore, everything seemed to slow down as he looked at it.

Suddenly, Huo Yuhao made a lightning fast move, and stabbed the sharpened branch he was holding into the stream.

“Pu—” When he raised his hand back up, and turned the tree branch upwards, a half-feet long mackerel had appeared on the tip of it.

To ordinary people, stabbing a fish was definitely something that required technique. However, this was something extremely easy for Huo Yuhao, who had the aid of the Spirit Eyes to help him accurately determine the position of the fish.

A single small fish was naturally not enough for him. After a few moments of casual labour, he"d stabbed ten mackerels that varied from seventeen centimetres in length, to thirty-three centimetres in length.

“This is good, it can last me for two days at the least. It won"t rot very easily if I roast it too.”

Huo Yuhao happily squatted down next to the stream, and used the White Tiger Dagger to gut the mackerels. The sharp White Tiger Dagger easily managed to cut through the fish, no matter if it was its scales, chest, or belly. This was no problem at all to Huo Yuhao, who"d been doing manual labor with his mother since he was young. The ten fish were all gutted after fifteen minutes.

He looked for some big leaves in the forest, and rinsed them off in the river. Then, he placed the gutted fishes on the wet leaves. After that, he found some dry twigs to use as firewood, and started a fire next to the stream after a moment of work.

Huo Yuhao only had salt available as a seasoning, but that was enough for something like roasted fish. He stuck the clean mackerels onto a thin branch, and rubbed some salt into their bellies. Then he took some leaves known as Purple Basil out of his bag, which he"d gotten in the forest a few days ago. He washed and separated the Purple Basil before pushing it into the bellies of the fish. Only after this did he start to roast the fish on the grill that he"d created using some thick branches.

It didn"t take long for an unusual smell to spread from the fire that he"d created. The smell was very heavy, and it contained a certain attraction that belonged solely to it. As Huo Yuhao slowly rotated the mackerels, they gradually turned golden. This, accompanied with that heavy aroma, was exceptionally enticing.

At first, he only roasted two of the fish, and set aside the others. If he had roasted too many of the fish in one go, it would"ve been quite easy for problems to occur while he was controlling the fire.

“How fragrant!”

A happy and delicate cry echoed out at that moment. The cry sounded both clear and pure, but it still startled Huo Yuhao.

He looked towards the source of the sound, and saw two people walking along the side of the stream. The person walking in front was a girl who looked to be around fifteen or sixteen, and had long black hair that was tied into a ponytail behind her. She wore a set of light blue, form-fitting warrior"s robes, which seemed to outline her budding and delicate body that was filled with youth.

She had phoenix-like eyes, which were both big and bright. She also had a raised nose, an almost perfect oval face, and a pretty and delicate face that was slightly happy as she fixed her gaze on Huo Yuhao"s roasted fish.

The person following behind her was a youth that seemed to be of the same age as her. His slender body was tall and straight, whilst his short, deep blue hair shone with a jade-like l.u.s.ter under the sunlight. Although he wasn"t old, he gave people a sort of scholarly feeling. His handsome face had a lazy yet warm smile on it, and his hands were rested on the back of his head. He also gazed in Huo Yuhao"s direction with an interested look. However, he wasn"t looking at the roasted fish, but at Huo Yuhao himself.

The girl ran towards Huo Yuhao in high spirits. A greedy, hungry look appeared on her face as she said, “Little brother, are you selling this roasted fish? It smells so good! How did you make it?”

It wasn"t that Huo Yuhao hadn"t ever seen beautiful girls before. While he was in the Duke"s Mansion, many of the servant girls had been very pretty, however none of them had ever come as close as the girl in front of him before. Furthermore, none of the girls in the Duke"s Mansion were comparable to the girl in front of him either. She wasn"t an absolute beauty that was perfectly flawless, but she had a sort of outstanding temperament.

Huo Yuhao"s face turned somewhat red as he replied, “I-I"ll treat you both to a meal.”

The girl giggled in response. “Little brother, you"ve even become embarra.s.sed. Then, I won"t be polite.” As she talked, she stretched her hand out to take the roasted fish that Huo Yuhao had pa.s.sed over. She didn"t seem to care about what she looked like as she carefully ate the roasted fish, then let out a loud cry of “Hot!”.

At that moment, the youth that had been following the girl walked over. He had a helpless look on his face as he raised his hand and greeted Huo Yuhao. Then he said to the girl, “Xiao Ya, this little brother hasn"t even eaten yet, yet you"ve already started eating.”

Xiao Ya"s beautiful eyes widened as she angrily retorted, “What did you just call me?”

The youth immediately raised his hands in surrender, “Fine, Teacher Xiao Ya, that should be fine, right?”

Xiao Ya stared at him coldly and said, “That"s the way that it should be. You should pay attention to your status.” Although she wasn"t that old, her gaze was filled with a charming look. The onlooking youth couldn"t help but have his expression turned blank. Huo Yuhao, who was to the side, didn"t dare to continue looking. He pa.s.sed the other fish that he"d roasted to the youth and said, “Big brother, this is for you.”

The youth smiled and said, “Gentlemen shouldn"t take good things that belong to others. Little brother, you still haven"t eaten. Did you catch these fish in the river?”

Huo Yuhao nodded his head and said, “It"s not a problem, I can still roast more.” While he spoke, he handed the roasted fish to the youth. Then, he skillfully took two of the fish that he"d set aside, so that he could roast them on the wooden rack.

The youth gently smiled and said, “I"m Bei Bei and she"s Tang Ya. Little brother, what"s your name?”

“I"m Huo Yuhao.” He replied whilst carefully roasting the fish. During his journey, he"d met many travellers while sleeping outdoors, and had also received a lot of help from them. Thus, he hadn"t hesitated to give Tang Ya one of the fish he"d roasted when she asked. The past few days had taught him the fact that people had to mutually help each other while they were outdoors.

Bei Bei sat next to Tang Ya. The way he ate the roasted fish was much more graceful than Tang Ya"s. At the very least, his hands weren"t fully stained with oil.

By the time Huo Yuhao had finished roasting the second batch of fish, Tang Ya was already impatiently waiting. Under Bei Bei"s helpless gaze, she s.n.a.t.c.hed another roasted fish.

However, Bei Bei was unwilling to eat another fish, thus he motioned for Huo Yuhao to eat first. Huo Yuhao was already hungry, so he ate the other fish while continuing to roast more.

Although the seasonings used on the roasted fish were only salt and purple basil, the roasted fish"s taste was extremely delicious. And although the ten fish weren"t that big, their size together was still quite large. All of the fish were eaten by the three.

“This is simply too tasty. I"ve never eaten such a delicious roasted fish before. Little brother Huo Yuhao, how about I hire you as a chef, okay?” Tang Ya laid down on the gra.s.s, and stretched in satisfaction. Her curves were completely exposed, but she didn"t seem to mind at all. Bei Bei scratched his head whilst looking at her, but didn"t do anything about it.

“Do you have any money? Teacher Xiao Ya?” Bei Bei asked, splashing cold water on her idea.

“Eh… I"ll have money in the future.” Tang Ya was slightly embarra.s.sed as she sat up. She glared at Bei Bei, seemingly unhappy at him for ruining her plans.

Huo Yuhao stood up and said, “Brother Bei, Sister Tang, I"ll have to leave first.”

Bei Bei said, “Little brother Huo, this is the desolate countryside, and isn"t that far away from the Great Star Dou Forest where soul beasts wander. Just where do you intend to go?”

Huo Yuhao shook his head, then grabbed his clothes that had already dried from the tree branch. He smiled and waved goodbye to the two after he"d packed his clothes into his bag. Afterwards, he turned around and left under Tang Ya"s slightly astonished gaze.

“He couldn"t really want to go into the Great Star Dou Forest, could he?” Tang Ya gazed at Huo Yuhao"s shrinking back as she pondered.

Bei Bei shook his head and said, “I can"t be sure. I can vaguely sense that he possesses soulforce, but it"s very weak. It also seems that he"s alone. This is truly somewhat strange.”

Tang Ya stuck her tongue out and said, “Since he has soulforce, why don"t we recruit him into our Tang Sect?”

Bei Bei unhappily replied, “You can"t be wanting to recruit someone into the sect, simply because they cooked you some delicious fish?”

Tang Ya"s face reddened when her intentions were found out, and she stuck her tongue out at Bei Bei.

Bei Bei said, “This Little brother Huo has definitely experienced something in his life. I can see that his maturity exceeds his peers from his gaze alone. However, I don"t know what his talent is like.”

A happy expression suffused on Tang Ya"s face as she replied, “Since you"re putting it like this, does that mean that you"ve agreed?”

Bei Bei bitterly smiled, “Sect leader of the great Tang Sect, Miss Tang. Before you took me in as a disciple, the Tang Sect only had you, and you alone, as its leader. Therefore, since your ambition is to strengthen the Tang Sect, it"s only natural that we recruit suitable people. This Little brother Huo looks like a rather steady and calm person. If his talent is pa.s.sable, he"s a suitable choice. And from the clothes that he"s wearing, his family circ.u.mstances shouldn"t be too good. Thus, our Tang Sect can recruit this kind of disciple now.”

Tang Ya looked at Bei Bei with a slightly curious gaze as she said, “You"re actually quite crafty. I couldn"t tell that at all.”

Bei Bei stood up and brushed the dust off of his clothes as he replied, “This is simply called being astute, but calling me wise is fine too. Let"s go. Since we"ve eaten so many of his roasted fish, we should at least protect him for a segment of his journey, just in case he gets in danger when he encounters some soul beasts, no matter whether we recruit him into the Tang Sect or not.

Tang Ya also stood up and giggled. “You"re indeed quite smart this time, because your thoughts are actually identical to mine. Let"s go after I clean up a bit.”

Huo Yuhao was naturally unaware of the conversion between Bei Bei and Tang Ya. He"d originally planned to bring some roasted fish with him, but that plan couldn"t be realised, as he hadn"t wanted to expose his ident.i.ty as a Soul Scholar, which was why he hadn"t caught any more fish. His mother had taught him to talk with reservation when dealing with strangers. Although he had a good impression of Bei Bei and Tang Ya, he still decided to separate from them after he finished eating.

Even though Huo Yuhao was young, he still thought a lot about things. He could tell that Tang Ya and Bei Bei weren"t ordinary people. Bei Bei had said that this was the desolate countryside, yet they both didn"t even have any bags on them. Thus, he believed that it would be better for him to separate from the two.

After eating the meal, he"d already recovered from his prior exhaustion. He marked the position of the small stream on his map. Who knew, he might have a use for it when he returned.

After walking forward for a short time, a wooden signboard on the roadside caught his attention.

“You will enter the territory of the Great Star Dou Forest in 50 metres. There are soul beasts roaming around, so please be careful.”

Sure enough, he hadn"t gotten lost. He was finally about to reach his destination. In addition to his current feeling of excitement, Huo Yuhao also felt a trace of nervousness. He touched the White Tiger Dagger on his lower back and suppressed the uneasiness in his heart. Then, he took determined strides as he advanced forward.

Becoming a soul master was the only way out for him. This was the conviction that he held in his heart, and he"d never regretted his decision.

The air gradually turned cool and refreshing, and an extraordinarily serious feeling seemed to exist within it. The Great Star Dou Forest was like a soul beast that had its mouth wide open for young creatures. He would either have an opportunity…or be swallowed!