In the blink of an eye, three days had passed.
At this moment, in an inn within a small city, Huo Yuhao was softly bidding Huo Yun'er goodnight.
"Yuhao, remember to sleep early. Don't practice your cultivation too late; you're still at the age where you're growing..."
Huo Yuhao had changed his name; this was his own request.
Just like in his previous life, he disliked the name "Dai." Therefore, he chose to change his name to Huo Yuhao, only this time, he did it several years earlier.
After a moment of silence, Huo Yun'er had agreed to her son's wish.
"You should rest early too, Mother!"
Huo Yuhao spoke with a smile. After watching Huo Yun'er close her door, he finally relaxed slightly.
Raising his hand, he attached a negligible wisp of mental intent to the doorframe, then turned and walked into the adjoining room.
Three days ago, he had gone to cripple the Duchess, letting her experience true despair. Simultaneously, he had mostly figured out the utility of the two Seeds of Emotion and the Eye of Destiny that had reincarnated with him.
First, the Seeds of Emotion could perceive and absorb the emotions others produced toward Huo Yuhao. Whether these emotions were positive or negative, the seeds could take them in.
Afterward, the Seeds of Emotion would produce pure emotional power to feed back into Huo Yuhao himself, increasing his Soul Power cultivation or physical strength.
Furthermore, the body and Soul Power nurtured by this emotional power seemed to have birthed a passive Domain effect.
Any being that drew near him would find their own emotions more easily stirred by Huo Yuhao, and they would more easily generate emotional fluctuations because of him.
Simply put: those who like Huo Yuhao will like him more; those who fear him will fear him more. The emotions deepen, are harvested by the Seeds of Emotion, convert into more emotional power to strengthen his body, which in turn strengthens the Domain effect—a continuous cycle.
Moreover, once someone entered his Domain range, Huo Yuhao could use his Mental Power to a certain extent to modify and control their emotions.
Combined with the Eye of Destiny's ability to see the threads of all things, he could even silently modify a person's common sense and cognition.
As for the Eye of Destiny, which had become his Life-Bound Divine Artifact, he could currently use the abilities to "See the Destiny Threads of all things" and its innate "Destiny Shrouding." Other abilities were too great a burden for his current self and remained temporarily unusable.
When the servants went to the Duchess's room the next day and found her crippled by Huo Yuhao, the entire Duke's Mansion fell into chaos.
Taking advantage of the turmoil, Huo Yuhao used "Destiny Shrouding" to briefly reduce the attention on himself and his mother, then led her away from the Duke's Mansion.
Their destination was Shrek City.
—This was a decision Huo Yuhao had reached after careful consideration.
Firstly, his current strength was frail. Even if he exhausted his strength to trigger the power of the Eye of Destiny, he could at most kill a Titled Douluo. Naturally, he had to choose a city with good public security.
On the Douluo Continent, cities with good security were essentially the capitals of the great empires and Shrek City.
Among them, Star Dou City was the first to be excluded; after all, the Duke's Mansion was just outside the city and within its sphere of influence. The Douling Empire was too weak and was also filtered out by Huo Yuhao.
Finally, it came down to Heaven Dou City and Shrek City. He was more familiar with Shrek City, and its proximity to the Star Constellation Great Forest made it convenient for him to find Brother Skydream and Elder Yi.
As for Radiant City, he would absolutely not go there until he had sufficient strength. Currently, he did not have the confidence to face two Limit Douluos simultaneously.
Calming the thoughts in his mind, Huo Yuhao began to check his cultivation.
Rank 2...
Although that Duchess's Innate Soul Power wasn't high, the quality of her Martial Soul and her own bloodline were decent, and her cultivation was at the Soul Ancestor level.
The fear and dread generated after her spirit was tortured to the brink of collapse had, through the feedback of the Seeds of Emotion, boosted Huo Yuhao's cultivation directly from Rank 1 to Rank 2.
A portion of that emotional power was also used to fill the physical deficiencies of recent years and improve his innate aptitude.
Of course, there were drawbacks to this method.
Absorbing too much negative emotion would cause the growth of the Seeds of Emotion to lean toward the negative side. However, as long as he achieved balance before becoming a Soul Saint, there shouldn't be any major issues.
Thus, Huo Yuhao decided to first quickly raise his cultivation to Rank 10. Finding Brother Skydream and Elder Yi was the top priority.
Settling his mind, Huo Yuhao prepared to substitute tonight's sleep with cultivation.
The Mysterious Heaven Skill, fine-tuned by Elder Yi and adjusted by himself during his leisure time after becoming a god in his previous life, began to take effect.
While Tang San was selfish and narrow-minded, the Mysterious Heaven Skill was upright and peaceful, making it a perfect foundation to expand into a cultivation method more suited to Huo Yuhao himself.
If I spread the improved Mysterious Heaven Skill and Tang San sees it, wouldn't he provide enough resentment to boost me straight to a Titled Douluo?
The thought flashed through his mind but quickly vanished. A moment later, dots of golden light glowed on Huo Yuhao's body as he became fully immersed in cultivation.
Suddenly, however, the Eye of Destiny in his Sea of Consciousness was triggered. A strand of the power of destiny manifested naturally, touching Huo Yuhao's spirit. He subconsciously stopped his cultivation and opened his eyes.
His azure eyes turned a brilliant gold. The Eye of Destiny on his forehead appeared, opening a slight crack to lock onto the person nearby.
"Greetings, Senior."
Huo Yuhao spoke softly toward the empty space ahead, his tone unreadable.
After he spoke, all went silent.
Though the naked eye could see nothing, through the perspective of the Eye of Destiny, a silver-white dragon phantom stood exactly where he was looking. Countless illusory yet tangibly existing threads appeared around the phantom, entwining it.
The phantom paused slightly. After a moment of hesitation, an ethereal voice rang out:
"You know of me?"
"I have heard of the existence of the Co-lord of Soul Beasts, but this is the first time I have seen you."
He had heard of her existence from the Snow Emperor, and had mentioned the "Lord" spoken of by the Ferocious Beasts while chatting with Brother Skydream about his time in captivity.
Or perhaps, he had sensed her aura within the memories he once exchanged with Qiu'er.
The golden light in Huo Yuhao's eyes faded completely, and the Eye of Destiny on his forehead vanished along with it.
If he were facing a Limit Douluo, he might risk everything to trigger the Life-Bound Divine Artifact to go down together.
But facing the Co-lord of Soul Beasts—who, judging by her aura, was at minimum a Second-Rank God and likely a First-Rank God...
It would be a joke. If he made a move, he would likely be subdued on the spot, and the opponent could do whatever they wished with him!
Of course, Huo Yuhao was not one to wait for death. More importantly, his Seeds of Emotion had captured the emotions of this Co-lord of Soul Beasts—curiosity, doubt, amusement...
Pure and simple positive emotions; there was no negative intent like a desire to kill.
Inexplicably, she gave Huo Yuhao the feeling that she was... quite easy to trick.
Because of this, Huo Yuhao felt that, for the time being, there shouldn't be a problem.
Well... probably.