As Huo Yuhao spoke the command in his heart, the Mangekyō Sharingan displayed on the panel dissolved into a massive torrent of information. Guided by the Authority of [Fantasize], that torrent manifested into reality and shot straight into the center of his brow.
A crushing force slammed into his brain like a heavy hammer.
The surge of information rushed into his spiritual sea, scattering its points of light into disarray.
Then came the flood of negative emotions—
The disappointment of awakening with Spirit Eyes and innate Rank 1 Spirit Power.
The anger of being humiliated again and again.
The helplessness of watching his mother beaten by Dai Huabin's attendants while he was powerless.
And the despair that swallowed him when his mother finally died.
Those negative emotions tore through his Spiritual Sea, staining the once pure-white spiritual plane into swirling gray and crimson.
Screams. Wails. Roars.
They filled every corner of the Spiritual Sea.
At some point, Huo Yuhao's Spirit Eyes Martial Soul activated on its own.
A Martial Soul was the reflection of the soul—a part of the soul itself. It would always remain loyal to its master.
This was one of the core laws unique to the Douluo Continent.
Sensing the abnormal chaos in its master's spiritual sea, the Spirit Eyes automatically began circulating Spirit Power to suppress the invading emotions.
Spirit Eyes' Spirit Power clashed with the negative emotions in the spiritual Sea.
But even as a top-tier spiritual attribute Martial Soul, it could not withstand the endless flood of negativity.
The originally starry Spirit Eyes began staining blood-red.
Three tomoe, comma-like marks, appeared around the pupils and started spinning rapidly.
The tomoe spun faster and faster—connecting, merging—forming three connected lozenge-shaped blades.
A giant Mangekyō Sharingan manifested above the spiritual sea, its pattern identical to the transformation in his real eyes.
A dark, sinister aura coiled around Huo Yuhao's consciousness. If anyone from Shrek Academy saw this, they would brand him an Evil Spirit Master on the spot.
Even so, even as his eyes completed the transformation into Mangekyō, the Spirit Eyes Martial Soul refused to surrender, resisting the Mangekyō's invasion with everything it had.
It tried to awaken Huo Yuhao—whose consciousness had been dragged into illusion by negative emotions—but its strength was too faint to shake him.
At last, the Spirit Eyes, pushed to extreme disadvantage, chose to gamble everything.
It projected a massive image of itself inside the spiritual sea—then rammed straight into the Mangekyō Sharingan.
The Mangekyō, after all, was not a Martial Soul. It lacked that living spiritual instinct.
Within the Spiritual Sea, the Spirit Eyes projection did not continue fighting after the collision. Instead, it began to merge.
The Mangekyō, lacking spirit, could only yield to the Spirit Eyes' guidance.
The two powers slowly fused.
The Mangekyō's extreme Yin force was gradually neutralized by the Spirit Eyes' pure spiritual essence.
And the Spirit Eyes, in turn, gained the Mangekyō's enormous ocular power—along with the limitless potential of Yin Release.
Huo Yuhao did not know how much time passed.
He only remembered that once the fusion began, his consciousness was dragged into a sequence of illusions.
He was forced to relive the pain buried in the depths of his heart—unable to resist.
But soon, a new power manifested inside the dreamscape, transforming into a blade that fought at his side against those damnable demons in his heart.
When he finally cut down "Dai Huabin" in the illusion, the dream shattered.
Huo Yuhao opened his eyes—yet he wasn't back in the real world. He stood inside his spiritual sea.
The gray-red chaos was gone.
The spiritual plane now glimmered with an otherworldly starlit hue—
It reminded him of the "Color Out of Space" from the Cthulhu mythos of the Golden Age back on Earth.
The floating points of light began sinking downward, gathering into a vast golden ocean.
A spiritual sea—Spirit Ocean Realm!
At this point, on the spiritual level alone, Huo Yuhao could take on an average ten-thousand-year Spirit Beast one-on-one.
(Only the spiritual level, of course.)
His consciousness soaked within the glowing sea. Peace washed over him, and the wounds left by negative emotions gradually healed.
He could feel his Spirit Eyes Martial Soul pulsing with vibrant vitality—clearly having evolved.
With a thought, he withdrew from the Spiritual Sea and returned to the real world.
He found an old cracked mirror, its edge chipped with spiderweb-like fractures, and held it up.
Facing the mirror, he activated his Spirit Eyes.
His Spirit Eyes had transformed completely.
Within the starlit pupils, three tiny tomoe—orbiting flecks of "star color"—circled the iris.
The three tomoe merged into a single rotating pattern.
And he felt it—
A new type of energy in his eyes.
An alien form of spiritual power.
Ocular Power.
He injected a trickle of Spirit Power into his eyes.
The transformation was instant.
Pale-cyan flames erupted from around his pupils, like the burning corona of a blue star.
The three tomoe spun wildly, linking into three rhombus patterns that rotated around the pupil.
Information blasted into his mind—techniques of Amaterasu, Tsukuyomi, Kagutsuchi, and even the third power, Susanoo.
And inside the depths of his heart, the surge of powerful emotion birthed new ocular techniques unique to him.
Left Eye Technique — Root Kingdom
Turns all negative effects afflicting him into dream-illusions.
Consumes massive Ocular Power.
Each use burdens the Martial Soul.
The burden cannot be converted into dream energy.
Right Eye Technique — Heavenly Sun Arrow
Condenses a giant golden bow using Ocular Power.
Fired arrows possess causal inevitability—they cannot miss.
Moderate Ocular Power cost.
Reading the descriptions, Huo Yuhao immediately understood their origin—
Root Kingdom was born from his despair—a denial of reality itself.
Heavenly Sun Arrow came from his burning desire for vengeance and the instinct to hunt down those who wronged him.
"The Eye that Reflects the Heart…"
Then—
"Hahahahahahahahaha!!"
He threw his head back and laughed wildly, for reasons even he didn't quite understand.
When he finally calmed down, he opened his panel again.
"Name: Huo Yuhao"
"Species: Human (Divine?)"
"Spirit Power: 15 (Rank 9)"
"Spiritual Power: 800"
"Martial Soul: Spirit Eyes — Mangekyō Form"
"Abilities: Amaterasu, Tsukuyomi, Kagutsuchi, Kamui, Root Kingdom, Heavenly Sun Arrow, Susanoo."
"Authorities:
[Dream]: Life's unique phantasms (2%)
[Understanding]: Desire to grasp the unknown (1.5%)
[Fantasize]: Distortion of reality (1.5%)"
"Draws: Random manifestation (0 uses remaining)"
"Closing: A supercar with a V8 engine... and you're burning soybean oil?"
Huo Yuhao's eye twitched at the closing remark.
It was absurd—
But not wrong.
His panel looked gorgeous—stacked with abilities that screamed "broken." If anyone saw it, they would definitely curse: "Which idiot designed this bugged-out monster?!"
But—
Though the mechanics and numbers were maxed out, his blue bar was not.
Rank 9 Spirit Power—with only 15 points—was a crippling flaw.
The abilities were powerful, but without fuel, he could barely cast them.
The newly evolved Spirit Eyes carried a reserve of Ocular Power, enough for a few uses. But once that ran out, he would need to convert Spirit Power into Ocular Power manually.
And while the fused Spirit Eyes Mangekyō removed the original Sharingan weakness of non-regenerating Ocular Power—
He still didn't have the Eternal Mangekyō.
He wasn't receiving infinite Ocular Power.
Once his current Ocular Power reserves were gone, it was all on his Spirit Power.
With only 15 Spirit Power, even if he converted all of it into Ocular Power, he might not be able to produce a single proper flame of Amaterasu.
So for now—
He needed to conserve his Mangekyō abilities.