Despite being a cute young girl, when paired with Skydream's words, she gave Huo Yuhao a strangely unreliable feeling.
"Alright, Sister Skydream, aside from your physical body, try out your current power."
After all, this was an improved version of the Soul Spirit Contract. Huo Yuhao had not conducted an actual experiment yet. Although his deductions suggested Skydream would retain the vast majority of her power, the actual situation had to be verified through Skydream's testing.
The still-gloating Skydream blinked. After restraining herself slightly, she reached out a hand and began tentatively condensing her power. A mass of slightly chilly mental power coalesced for a good while before Skydream dispersed the energy at her fingertips.
"Roughly... maybe at the level of an ordinary Titled Douluo or Super Douluo?"
Skydream blinked. What she currently commanded was the amount of mental power she possessed before becoming a soul spirit, but it was only the volume of mental power, and there was some loss. Furthermore, during her attempt, she discovered that this power was a non-renewable resource—the recovery speed was terrifyingly slow.
Skydream relayed her findings to Huo Yuhao. Huo Yuhao nodded, then summoned his silver soul ring back to hover in his palm.
After hosting the soul core, this soul ring could almost be treated as a Titled Douluo that lacked a body, soul skills, and other soul rings, possessing only soul power recovery and storage functions.
But if that were the case... A hint of inquiry flashed in Huo Yuhao's eyes as he looked toward Skydream.
"Sister Skydream, don't move. It might hurt a little, so bear with it."
Phase three of the plan: The Soul Spirit Hosting Method.
The current Skydream could be viewed as a Titled Douluo who had cultivation but no soul rings, no soul skills, and not even the ability to recover soul power.
Such a Skydream could, at most, serve as a one-time Super Douluo combat force. However, if she were to host Huo Yuhao's soul ring and soul core...
"Wait... Yuhao, what are you trying to do?!"
At this moment, Huo Yuhao held the silver-glow soul ring in one hand. His azure eyes were illuminated by the silver light, which harmonized with the gold in the depths of his pupils, revealing a radiance belonging to "Wisdom."
However, Skydream's intuition gave her a sudden, bad premonition.
Something was wrong! The cowardly Skydream instinctively took two steps back, about to say something, but in the next heartbeat, Huo Yuhao grabbed her hand. With his other hand, he pressed the silver-glow soul ring directly into her body.
"Ah—! Eh?" Skydream blinked and touched her chest. "...It doesn't hurt."
The pain Huo Yuhao mentioned didn't come; instead, it was a strange sense of fulfillment.
Skydream touched her lower abdomen, feeling that soul ring—and the soul core within it—spinning slightly, rapidly replenishing the mental power she had just consumed.
With Skydream's own soul power cultivation and mental power, combined with the soul ring's soul power storage and the soul core's mental power and soul power recovery, she was now—aside from lacking the visual display of nine soul rings and their attached soul skills—entirely equivalent to a Rank 97 or even Rank 98 Super Douluo!
Of course, regarding Skydream's actual combat effectiveness, if she could exert Rank 95 power out of that Rank 97 or 98 strength, Huo Yuhao would already consider it a huge improvement for Sister Skydream.
Mm... another trump card added.
Watching Skydream experiment with her abilities with a look of wonder, Huo Yuhao smiled.
Things were going more smoothly than expected.
The Gu Yuena trump card was meant to guard against a certain shameless Sea God personally taking the field.
Skydream, on the other hand, was to prevent threats from within the Douluo world, such as Long Xiaoyao or Ye Xishui.
Though still slightly lacking, if Huo Yuhao were to take control of Skydream's body—combining his own God King level control with the Eye of Destiny—at the very least, Huo Yuhao no longer had to worry about threats below the level of a God.
As for threats from actual Gods? He just needed to cling tightly to Sister Nana's leg... Huo Yuhao thought silently to himself.
Meanwhile, in the room belonging to Gu Yuena upstairs, Gu Yuena was "watching" Skydream in the basement as she hugged Huo Yuhao while shouting excitedly. She felt strangely displeased.
After a long time, Gu Yuena closed her eyes and withdrew her gaze.
Just a mere worm.
Gu Yuena murmured in her heart, though every time she recalled Skydream hugging Huo Yuhao without letting go, her hand would unconsciously tighten.
...
Two years later, the outskirts of the Star Constellation Great Forest.
In a deserted area of the perimeter, Huo Yuhao looked calmly at the young girl sitting on a boulder nearby. Two silver-glow soul rings naturally floated and rotated around him, recovering his depleted soul power in an instant.
If the amount of soul power possessed by Huo Yuhao's main body was 1 unit, then a single silver-glow soul ring stored 100 units.
Furthermore, since each silver-glow soul ring was originally a 10,000 Year Soul Ring, Huo Yuhao could mount four soul skills onto the soul ring in addition to hosting the soul core.
When using soul skills mounted on the silver-glow soul ring, the soul power consumed would be drawn from the soul ring itself.
However, because the soul core's soul power recovery speed was staggering, given Huo Yuhao's current consumption, even if he kept Spiritual Detection active constantly, the drain on soul power was almost negligible.
Slightly calming his emotions, Huo Yuhao looked up at the silver-haired girl sitting on the boulder, swinging her fair legs, and spoke softly:
"Continue."
Gu Yuena looked at Huo Yuhao calmly and nodded slightly. In the next instant, countless fireballs, ice spikes, and wind spheres appeared, locking onto Huo Yuhao.
Huo Yuhao looked up calmly as one of the silver-glow soul rings beside him began to transform, slowly turning into a silver-white long blade which he gripped in his hand.
This was training—training for the limits of his own physical endurance.
Although the method of using soul rings to host soul cores was a massive success, allowing Huo Yuhao to take a huge step forward in soul power quality, his physical fitness remained an unavoidable weakness despite his body being constantly modified and strengthened by the Seed of Emotions.
Several hours later, Huo Yuhao was panting, kneeling on one knee. His exposed skin showed a faint red hue—a side effect of his body being unable to withstand the excessive fullness of soul power.
Propping himself up with one hand, he slowly injected the excess soul power into the ground beneath him. Only after a good while did Huo Yuhao recover slightly.
The girl in the white dress appeared before him at some point. She leaned down and squatted directly in front of the kneeling Huo Yuhao, reaching out to poke his cheek.
"How do you feel?"
"I'm fine..."
"But you look like you're about to die," Gu Yuena said expressionlessly.
She didn't quite understand why Huo Yuhao pushed himself so hard.
Over the past two years, Huo Yuhao had practiced and researched almost without pause. Every training session, he would bruise himself all over, refusing to stop until he reached his absolute limit.
She had watched it all, and because of that, she was even more confused and puzzled.
And, as expected, this guy was going to lie to her again...
"I'm okay—"
Before Huo Yuhao could finish, Gu Yuena reached out and picked up his exhausted body.
"I'm taking you back to rest."
"I can walk by myself..."
"Hmm?"
Her voice remained calm, but it carried a hint of unquestionable authority.
Feeling the emotions radiating from Gu Yuena through the Seed of Emotions, Huo Yuhao ultimately said nothing more and nodded in silence.
Better to just let nature take its course...