As the "Minister of Darkness," Miss Na Nali was clearly very busy. After delivering the gifts to Huo Yuhao and the others, she hurriedly left the Illustrious Virtue Hall.
Huo Yuhao and the other two watched her leave, then headed to the residence arranged by the Illustrious Virtue Hall.
As they walked, Gu Yuena asked the question in her heart through a spiritual message.
"Yuhao, did you leave a contingency on that Blood-Eyed Evil Soul Master earlier?"
Huo Yuhao nodded slightly, but didn't explain in detail.
Seeing this, Gu Yuena understood and didn't ask further.
Since Yuhao chose to remain silent, she knew when to stop and was willing to wait for him to tell her when the time was right.
The Illustrious Virtue Hall had prepared a spacious and bright suite for the three of them, with three bedrooms, a main and secondary living room, and functional rooms like a crafting room.
The interior was elegantly decorated with soft tones, exuding a comfortable atmosphere. The center of the main living room is adorned with a delicate sofa, next to which is an antique tea table with a set of exquisite tea utensils placed on it.
Huo Yuhao quietly released his spiritual power, carefully scanning every corner of the room. After confirming there were no abnormalities, he turned to Gu Yuena and Lan Fuzi and asked, "What do you think?"
Gu Yuena didn't respond but instead turned her head to look at Lan Fuzi.
The latter was stunned for a moment before hurriedly saying, "I think this place is fine as a temporary resting spot, but we shouldn't stay in the Illustrious Virtue Hall for too long… Otherwise, I'm afraid I might cause trouble for the two of you."
Among the four major factions of the Federation, the Illustrious Virtue Hall had the fewest top experts, as it was primarily a research-oriented organization.
However, its research achievements were the most advanced in the entire Federation. Some soul tools might have effects beyond expectations, and staying in the Illustrious Virtue Hall for too long could lead to unforeseen accidents.
Lan Fuzi was worried that he might unintentionally reveal something and cause trouble for the two gods, leading to their deaths.
"Then let's leave it there," Huo Yuhao nodded, and the three of them began organizing the books they had brought from the Illustrious Virtue Hall.
As he read through them, Huo Yuhao suddenly came across a strange soul tool book, and his thoughts paused.
The outer cover was normal, but there were clear signs of rebinding… It seemed he had seen something similar earlier.
Huo Yuhao had a bad feeling. Just as he was about to reach for the book, a fair, jade-like hand took it before he could.
Gu Yuena revised at Huo Yuhao with slight confusion, wondering why he had suddenly become distracted, but she didn't dwell on it. She casually flipped through the soul tool book, her eyes quickly scanned the pages.
In an instant, a flush of crimson spread from her delicate cheeks to her ears, and her amethyst eyes flashed with a hint of shyness and anger.
She slammed the book shut, her fingers tightening unconsciously, slightly deforming the book. She changed at Huo Yuhao, her red lips pursed as she sent a spiritual message, "Yuhao, did you have a lot of female companions you were close to ten thousand years ago?"
Huo Yuhao's eyelids twitched. "…May I first ask who the author of that book is?"
"There's no name," Gu Yuena's finger lightly tapped the spine, where the author's name should have been, but it was empty.
"The content?"
Gu Yuena's ears turned red again. She turned her head away and handed the book to Huo Yuhao, her voice low, "Take a look at yourself. Although it's somewhat veiled, it contains rumors about you and the first-generation members of the Spirit Pagoda, including Angel Douluo and your disciple Su Tong…"
Huo Yuhao took the book and read for a while, his face gradually darkened.
This book was about the development of soul tools from ten thousand years ago. Upon closer inspection, it did include some information about the history of soul tool development, mostly related to him. However, the text was filled with the author's wild "artistic embellishments."
It was less of a historical record and more of a storybook… or perhaps a piece of unofficial history?
—This book should have been part of the carefully curated collection of the Illustrious Virtue Hall's heritage. How did it end up here? What does it have to do with the development of soul tools in the Illustrious Virtue Hall?
'Wait, back then, I invited Su Tong to delete some official records, so…'
Huo Yuhao read for a while, then suddenly thought of something, his heart skipping a beat. He asked Snow Empress through a spiritual message,
"Su Tong's method of deleting my information wasn't…"
"The one you taught her, blocking is not as good as diverting."
Snow Empress's voice was calm, showing no emotion.
Deleting information about Spirit Ice directly was a complicated task. After all, as the first-generation Pagoda Master, his achievements and symbolic significance were immense. Even Su Tong, as his disciple, couldn't easily handle it. Direct deletion might lead to negative rumors.
In such cases, using unofficial history to cover up official history was a good solution!
Since Spirit Ice didn't leave much information behind, the truth was easily overlooked in the various "unofficial histories." After that, Su Tong began cleaning up some information, and there was less resistance.
However, even though she had participated in this, she still felt that Su Tong had gone a bit too far in this matter.
'Yuhao, do you think I did a good job? —Su Tong'
Huo Yuhao's ears seemed to hear a clear, slightly teasing voice.
"…"
What could he say?
From the looks of this book, Su Tong didn't even care about her own reputation. This gift from a disciple across ten thousand years… he could only accept it.
If he ever got the chance, he would definitely settle the score with her!
While sighing inwardly, Huo Yuhao said to Snow Empress, "There are also rumors about you and me in here…"
He and Snow Empress had once knocked people out in the Mingdu City together. Although they had used their soul skills to conceal their identities, some people would inevitably suspect who the culprits were.
The fact that the Lord of the Extreme North was willing to work with the not-yet-fully-grown Spirit Ice Douluo on such a task was, in the eyes of some, worth writing a lot about.
"However, given the current situation, reality might be better than this book," Huo Yuhao stated to himself, his voice echoing in his spiritual sea.
"…"
Hearing this, Snow Empress's calm expression gradually softened, her face slightly reddening, and her eyes shifted, earning a glare from Spirit Ice.
High attack, low defense.
"Yuhao," Gu Yuena's spiritual message came through, "How long are you going to keep reading?"
Huo Yuhao looked up to see her with her arms crossed, her amethyst eyes fixed on him.
Huo Yuhao smiled wryly, "Yuena, when I was in power, the Deputy Pagoda Master was the ancestor of the Ji family."
Even a simple spar with Juechen could be turned into various bizarre historical accounts… He really wanted to ask those "fictional historians" a few questions.
"…?"
Gu Yuena's amethyst eyes broadened, "The book also mentions you and…"
She almost couldn't help but burn the book with fire.
What unofficial history? It's slandering Yuhao's reputation.
"Yes, not just Juechen," Huo Yuhao looked at Gu Yuena strangely, "The Lord of the Star Dou Forest, for the sake of the soul beast race's survival, also… ahem."
He didn't finish, but he knew Gu Yuena would understand.
"…"
The Lord of the Star Dou Forest from ten thousand years ago couldn't be referring to her, could it?
Gu Yuena's voice turned slightly cold, "Books like this should be destroyed."
"This is a book from the Illustrious Virtue Hall. We can't just destroy it. At least we need to inform the Hall Master."
Huo Yuhao stepped forward, his slender fingers clasping Gu Yuena's wrist and pulling her closer. He looked down at her slightly flushed cheeks and smiled, "By the way, were you jealous just now?"
"No."
Gu Yuena's ears turned red, and she raised her hand to push him away, but Huo Yuhao wrapped his arm around her waist.
"Ten thousand years ago… I couldn't make promises to anyone," Huo Yuhao whispered in Gu Yuena's ear, then put the book away, "So you don't need to worry about these things."
Gu Yuena's fingers twitched slightly, and a gentle ripple appeared in her eyes.
"Mm…"
She responded softly, her voice as clear as a spring.
Besides them, Lan Fuzi watched their interaction. Although she didn't hear their spiritual messages, she still felt something.
These two were definitely a couple in the Divine Realm, weren't they?
As both a couple and top-tier gods who could influence the course of a divine war, who in the Divine Realm could match them?
Perhaps she could investigate…
As he thought this, Lan Fuzi took out a book and immediately fell silent.
The title on the page had a few particularly eye-catching headlines:
"Spirit Ice Douluo's Night with the Ten Great Fierce Beasts, Becoming Siblings After Getting Drunk, Thus Bringing the Two Soul Beast Gathering Places into the Game."
"Shocking! The Untold Story of Spirit Ice Douluo and Snow Empress!"
"Is Su Tong, the Pagoda Master, the Daughter of Snow Empress and Spirit Ice Douluo?"
"…"
What does this have to do with the development of soul tools?
And the deeds of the first-generation Pagoda Master of the Spirit Pagoda, Spirit Ice Douluo, are this bizarre?
Lan Fuzi's eyes widened, and he began to study the book intently, completely unaware of Gu Yuena's increasingly cold gaze.
After a while, after sending Lan Fuzi to clean up, Gu Yuena looked back at the books on the table and sobbed.
The three of them had taken many books about the Illustrious Virtue Hall's soul tool development history. After all, the Illustrious Virtue Hall's collection was vast, and to find what was useful to them, it was necessary to read some of these histories to scientifically understand the Illustrious Virtue Hall's research progress.
However, they also discovered many "fictional historians" who wrote history and storybooks. (Wang Hongchen: Ancestor, didn't you say it was all history, no storybooks?!)
But after calming down, Gu Yuena could understand why some "unofficial histories" appeared. Some of the first-generation Spirit Pagoda members… had no descendants.
For example, Yuhao.
And the second-generation Su Tong also left no descendants. After passing on the position of Pagoda Master, she disappeared into the Extreme North, her whereabouts unknown.
In such cases, it was up to historians to fill in the gaps.
Compared to Gu Yuena, Huo Yuhao was relatively calm when faced with these "fictional" books.
He took out the soul bone that Na Nali had given him earlier and began to examine it.
It was a 100,000-year left leg bone from the Evil Demon Tiger Whale.
Another sea product…
In the spiritual sea, Snow Empress, seeing the soul bone, spoke up,
"Yuhao, keep this. When the time is right, if there's no better option, you can request to merge it with the two Fierce Beast leg bones. Don't absorb your original left and right leg bones."
Soul bone fusion, merging multiple identical soul bones to create a new one. This was rare in the soul master world, but the technology did exist.
The Spirit Pagoda had conducted a lot of research on this to study artificial soul bones.
However, this practice wasn't encouraged, so few people used it.
After all, who would use 10, 000-year or 100, 000-year soul bones for such a luxury? It's better to just absorb them.
However, Snow Empress wanted to accumulate more resources for Yuhao, even if it was just to increase the soul bone's age.
Hearing Snow Empress's reminder, Huo Yuhao's eyes flickered, and he nodded, putting the soul bone away.
He knew what soul bones Snow Empress was referring to.
The left and right leg bones of the Evil Demon Tiger Whale King, from the same Fierce Beast, were 390, 000 years old!
The Evil Demon Tiger Whale was one of the overlords of the sea soul beasts, stronger than the Demon Soul White Shark but weaker than the Deep Sea Demon Whale.
However, the Deep Sea Demon Whale's numbers were too few, and those with an age of over 300, 000 years were even rarer. Huo Yuhao only knew of the Demon Queen and the Deep Sea Demon Whale King, the latter of whom had already died.
Thus, these two soul bones were undoubtedly top-tier in terms of quality and age among sea soul beast soul bones.
The origin of these two soul bones also had a story.
In the past, some sea soul beast tribes contacted the Spirit Pagoda, wanting to join. However, during their migration, they encountered the Evil Demon Tiger Whale King's tribe, which came to hunt them, leading to a battle.
Then… there was no more.
The Evil Demon Tiger Whale King, sent to assist, was wearing a soul tool armor and was defeated. Although it didn't die on the spot, its injuries meant it wouldn't survive the next heavenly tribulation.
In that situation, the Evil Demon Tiger Whale King hesitated between life and death.
What it thought, no one knew, but it ultimately chose to become a soul spirit of the Spirit Pagoda and contributed two soul bones, requesting that its soul beast tribe also join the Spirit Pagoda… The Spirit Pagoda naturally agreed!
A 390,000-year Fierce Beast soul spirit, two Fierce Beast soul bones, and an Evil Demon Tiger Whale tribe, this was a big deal!
As for the Evil Demon Tiger Whale being called the evil soul master of the sea soul beasts, known for its love of killing?
What of it?
The Spirit Pagoda had raised evil soul tool users. As for the so-called evil soul beast tribes, the Star Dou Forest and the Extreme North had them too. One more or less didn't matter.
They could just install a neural link device and let you kill to your heart's content in a virtual space.
As for the Evil Demon Tiger Whale King's soul spirit, it was now likely placed in the last ten floors of the Spirit Pagoda's Soul Spirit Pagoda.
The Soul Spirit Pagoda had 108 floors, with the last ten floors guarded by Fierce Beast-level soul spirits, serving as the Spirit Pagoda's foundation.
As for its soul bones, due to their age and quality, they were given as rewards, requiring significant contributions to the Spirit Pagoda to obtain.
"Two top-tier Fierce Beast soul bones aren't easy to obtain, but after the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well trip, it should be fine. Yuhao can rightfully claim them."
Snow Empress thought to herself.
…
While Huo Yuhao and the others were familiarizing themselves with the Illustrious Virtue Hall, Xie Xie and the others were enjoying the spotlight.
The reason, of course, was their fame from two years ago.
"Xie Xie, how did it feel when you defeated Shrek Academy two years ago?"
After class, Xie Xie sat at his desk, watching the classmates who had quickly gathered around him, his mouth twitching.
What did it feel like?
What could it feel like to be a background character?
Ask a better question!