One hour went by before the Ice Bear King had his fill. More than a third of the dried meat inside the granary had disappeared…
Huo Yuhao only made his move at this moment, and he used his extrlarge storage soul tool to store the rest of the dried meat. He could feed those bears for two or three meals with that. Feeding bears was truly a difficult task!
They had their fill, and Huo Yuhao sent all three bears into his spectral demiplane to rest. This time, he didn"t even erect any borders. With the Ice Bear King around, his aura itself would ward off most of the undead creatures.
Little Bai changed back into his original body once they entered the spectral demiplane.
Big Mao and Second Mao immediately grew silent when they were still wondering why Little Bai could eat so much. They were all bears, and while the Darkgolden Terrorclaw Bear"s bloodline was considered superior to that of the Ice Bears, the Ice Bear King was so much older than they were! He was as powerful as a Savage Beast. Therefore, the two little bears naturally became little brothers to the big bear.
The Ice Bear King loved these two little bears. He had countless little brothers back in the Extreme North, and now that he finally had little brothers to boss around after he left, how could he not be happy?
Huo Yuhao didn"t care about how the three bears were messing around inside his spectral demiplane as he snuck out of the granary and went towards the city center.
Huo Yuhao had to find evil soul masters if he wanted to get any information about the Holy Ghost Church. He realized when he was scouting earlier that many soul masters inhabited Heaven Dou City"s royal palace, which had originally belonged to the Heavenly Soul Empire. There were quite a few with formidable soul power undulations amongst them.
Huo Yuhao paused as he came near the royal palace, and he turned around as he turned into a relatively darker street by the side. He turned a few more corners, and then vanished into a shadowy corner.
Huo Yuhao didn"t attempt to enter the royal palace directly. There were many powerful individuals here, and the palace"s defenses were undoubtedly the tightest. He would likely run into some spiritual barriers if he went in too hastily. If he was discovered, he couldn"t be sure if there were powerful soul masters who were adept with spiritual power.
Huo Yuhao concentrated his spiritual power, and he channeled his Ultimate Ice soul power to readjust his body"s temperature. His body temperature quickly became one with the air around him, and he squinted a little as he used Spiritual Detection on the royal palace once more. This time, he was entirely concealed with Imitation.
Huo Yuhao had many formidable offensive soul skills, using his Ultimate Ice or his spiritual power. However, he only had one true divine skill in his a.r.s.enal – and that was Imitation.
Imitation allowed him to conceal himself, and he could even change the way he looked. In addition to the support from his powerful spiritual power, he could devise entirely unpredictable and mutable battle tactics.
Huo Yuhao"s Imitation and Xu Sanshi"s Xuanwu Displacement could both be said to be divine skills that were complementary to their martial souls.
Huo Yuhao"s other soul skills were important, but they were relatively less important than Imitation, because his other soul skills could be subst.i.tuted with other soul skills.
Huo Yuhao"s spiritual power entered the royal palace once more, and he quickly locked on to a small lake near him. This lake was undoubtedly manmade, and its water was so clear that the bottom could be seen. It wasn"t very deep – barely more than a meter – and there were many exotic flowers and plants growing around the lakeside. This was like a garden inside the palace.
This dark and shady corner where Huo Yuhao chose to hide himself evidently wasn"t a casual choice; he came to this place because he was eyeing this lake beforehand.
There were soldiers patrolling the royal palace, but the chances that they would patrol this secluded corner were a lot lower. After all, there were many soul tools monitoring this area, and the patrols were comparatively targeted at blind spots, and the most important places.
This is the place. Huo Yuhao activated his Eye of Destiny, and strengthened his Spiritual Detection once more. He adjusted his senses to their most sensitive states as he observed everything that was happening around the lakeside. Only when he confirmed that there was nothing wrong around the lakeside did he jump over the wall and enter the royal palace.
The royal palace"s walls were almost completely covered by oscillation detectors and thermal detectors. The opportunity that Huo Yuhao chose to enter was right after an oscillation detector swept over. These oscillation detectors rotated horizontally, and Huo Yuhao could never discover their rhythm without Spiritual Detection. He was making perfect use of this rhythm in this moment. Following that short window of time after he jumped over the wall, he dashed and arrived by the lakeside with a few ups and downs before he discreetly submerged himself in the lake"s water.
None of the surveillance soul tool would target the water, and that was the reason why he was absolutely safe there. Furthermore, Huo Yuhao could do a lot of things underwater.
Huo Yuhao held his breath as he controlled his body to sink to the lakebed. The water wasn"t deep, and if it wasn"t already dark, he could be very easily discovered within the clear and transparent water, but discovering him under the cover of darkness was far too difficult.
Huo Yuhao"s eyes gradually shone with pale blue colors after entering the water, and the temperature around him swiftly began to decline.
This small lake"s surface area was about five hundred square meters, and it was considered exceptionally scenic. Under Huo Yuhao"s control, the lower layer of the lakewater began to turn into ice.
In normal low temperatures, ice would definitely begin to form from the surface before it would spread downward. That was because ice had lower density, and would thus appear on the surface of the water.
However, ice began to spread from the bottom of the lake under Huo Yuhao"s forceful control. Furthermore, the ice was secured to the lakebed, and this caused the low temperatures to spread from the bottom up. A thick layer of ice appeared after some time, and the ice stopped forming when it was about ten centimeters away from the surface. Huo Yuhao"s body emerged from the surface, and he discreetly hid himself in a corner that wouldn"t be scanned by any surveillance soul tools.
From the outside, the lake was still full of water, and the water"s surface was still very calm. But anybody jumping into the lake would realize that the water was only ten centimeters deep, and everything below that was solid ice.
Only Huo Yuhao could achieve this level of control. Furthermore, he managed to vary the solid ice"s temperature in different areas, and that was something that typical people couldn"t accomplish.
If the temperature above the ice was too low, then the ten centimeters right below the water"s surface would quickly turn into ice as well. Huo Yuhao"s plan would be foiled if a patrolling soldier saw everything. On the other hand, if the ice"s temperature was too high, then the ice would be quickly melted by the water around it, and Huo Yuhao wouldn"t be able to do what he wanted. Therefore, he had to control the ice"s temperature very delicately.
Huo Yuhao"s understanding towards ice and water had become a lot deeper over the past weeks, and his control over ice and water became a lot easier and more casual.
Huo Yuhao wasn"t in a hurry to leave. He lay prostrate on the surface of the ice, and he pressed his left hand underwater as he held a Milk Bottle in his right hand. He absorbed soul power from the Milk Bottle as he continuously channeled Ice Explosion into the ice beneath the water.
Huo Yuhao could detonate any kind of ice. However, only ice that was infused with Ice Explosion would possess the greatest explosiveness.
He had used this method back then to surprise even the Darkness Holy Dragon, Long Xiaoyao. That was enough to show how formidable Ice Explosion was. This was also an attack that couldn"t be directly used, yet was almost considered a divine skill, which had an importance second only to Imitation.
Huo Yuhao continued for a full fifteen minutes before he stopped. He moved, and continued the same act. The lake"s surface was a little big for Ice Explosion, and infusing Ice Explosion into just one spot wouldn"t achieve the desired strength.
Another fifteen minutes pa.s.sed before Huo Yuhao stood back up, and he used Spiritual Detection to open a path as he snuck deep into the royal palace.
The various surveillance soul tools on the royal palace"s outer layer were greatest in number, and also the most sensitive. After all, prevention was better than a cure, and there were much fewer surveillance soul tools in the palace"s inner regions. There were many people inside the royal palace, so surveillance soul tools weren"t that practical. These soul tools would only become effective if they were searching for someone under certain special circ.u.mstances. If that happened, handheld surveillance soul tools would be sufficient.
Huo Yuhao continued secretly into the royal palace. He would stop every once in a while to inspect everything around him closely before continuing. At this point, he was most afraid of the formless spiritual barriers, and even he could only detect spiritual barriers from a close distance away. If his spiritual power touched a spiritual barrier, the person who was controlling the spiritual barrier would directly locate his position if they were strong enough.
Fortunately, spiritual barriers weren"t common at all. Huo Yuhao was about one-third of his way in as he pushed forward, and he still hadn"t discovered any spiritual barriers.
Huo Yuhao paused, and he stood in a dimly lit region between two pavilions. He briefly replenished his soul power and readjusted his spiritual power so that he was in peak condition before his eyes started to glow. Faint rose-gold colors flickered, and his Eye of Destiny opened on his forehead. All three of his eyes were radiating rose-gold hues, and that was especially so inside his Eye of Destiny, as a black whirlpool could be faintly seen – that was Huo Yuhao"s spiritual soul core, that belonged to his Spirit Eyes.
People who were familiar with him would immediately understand after witnessing him in this state that Huo Yuhao was about to use a spiritual-type soul skill with his full strength.
Huo Yuhao unleashed Spiritual Detection to its highest possible level in the next moment, and it spread in all directions with his body at the center. It only took a few blinks of the eye before he encompa.s.sed the entire palace.
The reason why he had to go deep into the palace was because of this. It would be harder to lock down his position if he was inside the palace, and the reason why he did this was to startle and alert his enemies.