Book 7: The Extreme North
Chapter 43.2: An Ordeal of Extreme Pain
Huo Yuhao faintly heard the Ice Empress let out a long sigh. Right after that, he felt an immense sensation of cold that instantly numbed his body and soul.
The ground Huo Yuhao was lying on suddenly shook, and he floated into the air, supported by a jade-green light. On the other hand, the Ice Jade Empress Scorpion’s main body rapidly flew over to his body.
An intense jade-green light wildly fluctuated towards the tip of her tail. When the jade-green light turned dark-green, the Ice Empress suddenly swung her tail, viciously stabbing it into Huo Yuhao’s tailbone.
Huo Yuhao’s body shook violently for a bit. He only felt as if his tailbone had instantly been run through by something. That sharp and pointed object pierced through his skin, muscles and flesh, and buried itself firmly into his skeleton.
This sort of pain that came from one’s mind was something that humans were simply unable to withstand. Huo Yuhao instantly widened his mouth, and his eyes protruded as if they were about to pop out of his eye sockets. His body started trembling violently, and the Secret Law Soul he held in his hands instantly tumbled to the ground.
Though Huo Yuhao had already prepared himself for the arrival of this pain, he was still a human! Even if his body was already numbed somewhat by the Ice Jade Empress Scorpion’s extreme cold, he instantly lost the ability to breathe.
In this exact moment, a golden dot of light suddenly lit up between Huo Yuhao’s eyebrows. The gentle golden light instantly covered his head, turning his spiritual sea gold as well. Gently and rhythmically, the golden light protected Huo Yuhao’s spiritual sea, which had started undulating violently. It resembled a mother’s hand as it gently pacified his soul, which was experiencing an amount of pain that had reached the limit.
The Skydream Iceworm had made his move. With the Skydream Iceworm’s help, Huo Yuhao’s body softened a little bit. However, the Ice Empress had already started the process of fusing her soul bone with Huo Yuhao’s body.
Another ray of jade-green light lit up, covering the Secret Law Soul. Immediately, the soul bone turned jade-green before dissolving at an astonis.h.i.+ng pace. After turning it into a fist-sized globe of liquid, the Ice Jade Empress Scorpion opened her mouth and inhaled it.
Originally, the Ice Empress had planned to harmonize her soul bone using the Secret Law Soul. That way, the amount of pain Huo Yuhao suffered would be greatly reduced. However, she now chose not to do so. This was because she wanted to test how much a measly human like Huo Yuhao could endure.
The results of that test astonished her. Though Huo Yuhao’s body had instantly reached the limits of what he could endure, the Ice Empress could tell from his body’s reaction that Huo Yuhao’s body was unexpectedly extremely durable, soft, with very few impurities within it. Most importantly, though his spiritual sea was fluctuating violently, it showed no signs of collapse. Even if the Skydream Iceworm hadn’t made a move, he would not have have been destroyed because of the pain.
A trace of admiration appeared in the Ice Empress’ heart. The amount of talent and potential humans had was truly incomparable, even to that of a n.o.ble soul beast. Naturally, she only felt feelings of admiration. If she were given the choice to become a human, she would definitely not be willing to do so. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have chosen to break through her limits during her hundred thousandth year of cultivation. Instead, she would’ve chosen to transform into a human and re-cultivate.
After all, no matter how talented humans were, their lifespans were just so. Even the strongest human beings had no way at all to compare with soul beasts in terms of lifespan.
After the liquid formed by the Secret Law Soul was absorbed by the Ice Empress, it was filtered into a wisp of green light that flowed into Huo Yuhao’s body. He only felt a gentle feeling of warmth resembling the Skydream Iceworm’s shedded skin that had previously protected his body, causing the previously intense pain to immediately decrease drastically. The spasming pain was still there, but he was feeling much better than before.
As this occurred, Huo Yuhao’s chest started moving up and down vigorously. He greedily gasped for the surrounding cold air in big mouthfuls. At this moment, his body started sweating profusely, even in this freezing cold region of the Extreme North, so much so that he nearly p.i.s.sed and shat himself. It was obvious how intense that surge of pain was.
After Huo Yuhao’s cotton clothes absorbed the sweat secreted by his body, they were instantly torn to pieces by the jade-green light. Only the Twenty Four Moonlit Bridges escaped the Ice Jade Empress Scorpion’s power, due to the Skydream Iceworm’s earlier warning.
Huo Yuhao’s naked body was very st.u.r.dy; his one year’s worth of bitter training in Shrek Academy hadn’t gone to waste. However, his current skin was astonis.h.i.+ngly white, making it practically identical to the snow on the ground. More astonis.h.i.+ngly, amidst his deathly pale skin, traces of jade-green light were slowly pouring into his spine, spreading throughout his torso.
The first place the jade-green light went to was naturally his spine. After that, the liquefied jade-green light slowly made its way upwards, causing Huo Yuhao’s ribs to turn into branches of jade-green light. Then, it slowly headed further up.
The terrifying, spasming pain in Huo Yuhao’s body followed wherever the jade-green light went. He did all he could to endure it, but his body’s reaction to it was still extremely violent. Only, he was simply unable to move due to the Ice Jade Empress Scorpion’s control.
Huo Yuhao unceasingly told himself, Persevere, persevere. No matter what, I can’t give up. It was difficult for him to endure the pain, but he was currently completely focused on numbing his senses. The Ice Empress had told him that the thing she was most afraid of was his mind collapsing the moment he could no longer persevere. If that happened, all of their previous efforts would have been for naught. Since that was the case, all he had to do was to protect his mind. As for his body, he would just leave it to the Ice Empress; she wouldn’t just let him die, after all.
With this thought in his mind, Huo Yuhao stubbornly continued to numb his mind unceasingly. Astonished, the Skydream Iceworm discovered that the few tools he’d created to help Huo Yuhao protect his mind hadn’t been needed at all. The spiritual origin of the Ice Empress was currently residing in Huo Yuhao’s body, and she naturally noticed this miraculous scene. This was the first time that she had a whole new level of respect towards the Skydream Iceworm. Though the human the Skydream Iceworm chose was young, and his strength wasn’t worth mentioning, he actually had a willpower that was this tenacious. This was an immensely good thing!
The Skydream Iceworm stealthily revoked the influences he’d made towards Huo Yuhao’s spiritual sea, silently guarding him by the side. Huo Yuhao being able to withstand this pain by himself was naturally for the best, as this was an extremely good grindstone for his spiritual power. This would strengthen his willpower, causing enormously large benefits towards his future cultivation and growth.
By the time the jade-green light covered all the bones in Huo Yuhao’s torso, the jade-green light on the Ice Jade Empress Scorpion’s body began to dim.
The soul bone created by the Ice Empress’ main body was naturally the quintessential part of her strength. Though this process of reconstruction was painful, the future effects of this soul bone would vastly exceed that of Huo Yuhao’s other soul bones. This would bring enormous benefits to his growth.
Though the Skydream Iceworm was a million year soul beast, in terms of who could give Huo Yuhao the most well-rounded benefits, he would definitely lose out to the Ice Empress. The Ice Empress had a n.o.ble bloodline, and she was a natural monarch. Moreover, she had cultivated for such a long time. Thus, the increase in strength she could give Huo Yuhao would definitely be a comprehensive one. Naturally, Huo Yuhao could only withstand an extremely miniscule amount of her total strength, so a large amount of it had to be sealed away. As Huo Yuhao’s tolerance increased, the amount of strength she released would progressively increase. However, Huo Yuhao’s potential would reach an extremely astonis.h.i.+ng degree. To many soul masters, increasing one’s soul power during the later soul ranks would prove to be very challenging. However, the issue of having insufficiently strong soul skills would absolutely never occur to him. As for what he would grow to be in the future, even the Skydream Iceworm and the Ice Jade Empress Scorpion didn’t know.
Their method of creating G.o.d was completely unprecedented, even on the entire Douluo Continent. It had to be known that the Skydream Iceworm had used a full hundred thousand years of time to complete the basic preparations of this plan. Even if he had easily fused with Huo Yuhao, he had actually sealed up his spiritual origin and divided it into many pieces. This process had been completed at a much earlier time. Moreover, there were even more minute preparations he had to make. Even now, he was giving instructions and a.s.sistance to the Ice Empress while she fused with Huo Yuhao by relying on his powerful spiritual power. All of this had to be accomplished for the fusion to succeed.
Huo Yuhao’s body trembled incessantly. A layer of ice beads had already formed on his skin; that was created by his sweat freezing up. Traces of blood had already started seeping out from his seven apertures, causing the layer of skin underneath the ice beads to be completely red. The speed at which the blood within his body was circulating had already reached an astonis.h.i.+ng degree. If this were anyone else, they would’ve already exploded and died. However, the powerful spiritual origins of the Skydream Iceworm and the Ice Jade Empress Scorpion were currently protecting Huo Yuhao’s body.
The speeding up of his blood circulation was something that inevitably occurred due to him fusing with the Ice Empress’ soul bone. On the other hand, the two of them were protecting Huo Yuhao’s internal organs, meridians, flesh, and bones. This was equivalent to them covering his inner body with a layer of film. No matter how quickly his blood circulated, it couldn’t break through the defensive perimeter the two of them had created.
The intense undulations caused by Huo Yuhao’s blood, his pale skin, and his jade-green bones which could be seen from the outside sketched a terrifying image. Only, Huo Yuhao’s eyes were still golden. Though the Skydream Iceworm didn’t help him protect his spiritual sea, he still had to protect his martial soul.
As an intelligent soul ring, the Skydream Iceworm was the main martial soul of Huo Yuhao’s Spirit Eyes, as well as the person who would control everything related to the future Spirit Eyes. After the Ice Empress fused with him, she would control the Ice Jade Empress Scorpion martial soul. All in all, Huo Yuhao would become a true wielder of twin innate martial souls.
In the beginning, the jade-green lights were merely strands of string that covered his spine, sternum, and ribs. As time pa.s.sed, however, these strands of jade-green light started gradually expanding and widening, creating an outline of Huo Yuhao’s entire skeleton.
The pain Huo Yuhao felt began to change yet again. The previously spasming pain gradually transformed, and an alternating feeling of extreme cold and extreme hot began to spread throughout all of the bones in Huo Yuhao’s torso.