“Little Yuhao, I am willing.”
“I would rather be an eagle with broken wings than a caged canary dying in captivity.”
“I cannot choose to be born into the Angel family with sinful blood, but I can choose how I die!”
In the necromantic demiplane, upon hearing Huo Yuhao’s words, Ye Guyi’s face showed no trace of despair.
On the contrary, her expression was calm and composed.
For as long as she could remember, she had lived in this world filled with malice toward her as a member of the Angel family.
Aside from the days spent with her parents and Sister Mengdi, every day she felt nothing but her own incongruity with the world.
Until this young man appeared in her life, illuminating the darkness.
“Yuhao, do you know?
The day we met, I was as wary of you as I was of everyone else.”
Looking at the young man before her, who was so taken aback by her resolute answer, and at Snow Lady’s suspicious expression, Ye Guyi continued:
“Even the moment I was teleported into this demiplane, I still harbored a sliver of suspicion toward you: with so many undead spirits, were you an evil soul master intending to harm me?”
“But the pure light energy here made me realize quickly: if you wanted to harm me, I would already be dead.”
“Thinking back on these days, you’ve saved me more times than I can count, intentionally or otherwise.
With you treating me this way, what more could I possibly want in this life?”
Ye Guyi had made peace with it.
If fate decreed that she would be destroyed by the Holy Spirit Church, or even if at the moment of death she could not even manage a one-for-one exchange, she would accept it.
Twenty thousand years ago, the Angel God had left a commandment on the mortal realm for their priests: love life, love your neighbor, love your enemy.
Even though the church had been gone for twenty thousand years, and the Spirit Hall was no more, and they had been scattered among the nations of the world like toys tossed about, they had always kept this covenant.
At the deepest core of Ye Guyi’s heart, a question always lingered: “If the world harbors an instinctive aversion to Angels, yet Angels are to love the world—isn’t that too cruel for those born as Angels?”
But the Angel God’s throne had been gone for ten thousand years, and this question would never have an answer.
All Ye Guyi felt was that Huo Yuhao treated her well—unlike the rest of the world, which regarded her with revulsion, save for her parents and Sister Mengdi.
Without a word, Huo Yuhao led Ye Guyi out of the necromantic demiplane.
In truth, the reason Huo Yuhao brought Ye Guyi out of the demiplane was concern for her basic needs of food, clothing, and shelter.
Ye Guyi’s cultivation level was still far from the seven-ring Soul Saint stage, where body and martial soul merge, allowing one to sustain oneself like an Angel without eating or drinking.
She was a living person who needed sustenance—unlike Huo Yun’er, who was a soul.
If Huo Yuhao frequently opened the necromantic demiplane to deliver food and drink to her, such actions would undoubtedly be akin to waving a flag and offering his head to the Tang family, who were constantly watching the Douluo Continent.
And Huo Yuhao could not bring himself to kill her, nor allow her to starve to death and remain here as an undead spirit.
“Sister Guyi, this is Teacher Xuan.
He’s a strict instructor.
Get ready for the new student test next!” The next day, after leaving the demiplane, Huo Yuhao introduced Ye Guyi to Xuan Ziwen.
“Yuhao, is this the young lady you mentioned who has some proficiency in soul tool crafting?” Xuan Ziwen looked Ye Guyi up and down.
“She may not be as skilled as I am with soul tools, but when it comes to learning, she can endure hardship!” Huo Yuhao scratched his head and said to Xuan Ziwen.
Though Ye Guyi was indeed a resilient person and reasonably competent in the field of soul tools, her true strength lay in soul master cultivation.
On that front, she could be considered a promising talent among the various Douluo nations.
But to someone like Xuan Ziwen, who was devoted to soul tools, there was nothing that particularly caught his eye.
“Girl, he says you can endure hardship?” Xuan Ziwen raised an eyebrow and looked at Ye Guyi, seemingly speaking to himself.
“Being able to endure hardship is indeed a virtue.
But if you intend to delve deep into the field of soul tools, you must be mentally prepared: if you truly lack talent, then as long as you’re willing to endure hardship, you’ll have an endless amount of hardship to endure.”
“Come with me.” After discussing precision control in soul tool mechanics with Huo Yuhao, Xuan Ziwen then led Ye Guyi away.
Huo Yuhao knew that Xuan Ziwen was probably taking Ye Guyi to Laboratory No.
3 to test her aptitude for soul tool crafting—just as he had done with Huo Yuhao in his previous life.
If this were the era of the Spirit Hall, Sister Guyi, you might have been the young lady of the Spirit Hall.
In this era, you have to start just like me, who walked out of that dark wood shed—first living under someone else’s roof at the Pingfan Alliance, and then enduring countless trials and tribulations.
Such is the way of fate!
“Yuhao, you don’t want to face that Divine Maiden, do you?” In the empty classroom, watching Huo Yuhao assemble a formation plate, Snow Lady asked, recalling how he had avoided mentioning the tournament ever since she had defeated Chen Zifeng, the strongest publicly known member of the Shrek team.
“Yes!
Because I believe in avoiding trouble where possible!” Huo Yuhao nodded.
“It’s just a pity that today’s contestants are destined to suffer calamity.” These words, however, Huo Yuhao kept to himself.
That day at the Mingdu Arena, in the spectator stands, the Shrek Academy contingent—except for Xiao Xiao, who was of commoner origin—wore expressions of utter venom.
If their gazes could kill, the entire Sun Moon Empire would have been reduced to ashes.
Because after Ma Xiaotao, Dai Huabin, and Zhu Lu had lost to Huo Yuhao, and Chen Zifeng had lost to Snow Lady, that morning Xu Sanshi had also lost to the siblings Xiao Hongchen and Meng Hongchen.
If not for the backlash from forcibly enhancing their cultivation with drugs, which made it impossible for them to break through to the eighth ring in their entire lives, even Huo Yuhao at the ninth ring in his previous life would have found them formidable opponents.
Their strength was naturally beyond Xu Sanshi’s ability to match.
“These Sun Moon Empire commoners are born evil—all of them deserve death.
I’ll find a chance to kill them all sooner or later.” In the stands, Chen Zifeng, who had already lost control of his bowels, thought venomously.
Having started as a commoner himself, he had become completely twisted.
Like Chen Zifeng, after learning that the referee Jing Hongchen and the siblings Xiao Hongchen and Meng Hongchen were family, the Shrek contingent all believed that Xu Sanshi’s defeat was due to the referee cheating.
That morning, when Xu Sanshi was thrown off the stage in a disgraceful heap, Bei Bei, who had been calming the agitated Tang Ya, slapped his thigh and cursed: “Damn it, these Sun Moon dogs are just too despicable!”
Regardless, the afternoon match was one the Sun Moon Empire was sure to lose.
At this moment, the Shrek contingent was brimming with confidence.
Because that afternoon, the one stepping onto the stage was none other than the noble and incomparable Divine Maiden.
“I heard from Grandfather that you are the daughter of a god?” On the spacious stage, seeing Tang Wutong standing before her, Meng Hongchen couldn’t help but ask.
Recalling the envy in her grandfather’s voice when he spoke of gods, Meng Hongchen was filled with curiosity.
According to her grandfather, the one before her was the daughter of the world’s master.
In what way was this noble Divine Maiden stronger than she, a mere daughter of man?
With this thought, Meng Hongchen asked: “We’re both girls—I want to know where someone of such noble blood as yours is smarter and stronger!
Come on.”
Tang Wutong, seeing her superiority questioned, showed no anger.
She smiled and said: “Being fixated on becoming smarter and stronger shows you still don’t understand how to be a woman.
A woman doesn’t need to be too clever!”