After finishing the advancement assessment, Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong returned to the dormitory together. Nothing else happened along the way.
Because the advancement examination process for second-year students was complicated, and the number of participants still quite large, there was no way to finish in a single day. Thus, the students were granted an extra day of rest.
"Ugh, the more I think about it, the angrier I get! Why did Director Du deduct five points from me? I clearly deserved full marks!" Wang Dong grumbled the moment they got back, her voice full of dissatisfaction toward Du Weilun.
Under Yuhao's influence, she had already developed a subtle resistance toward authority — and in her heart, she couldn't accept this unfair deduction. After all, she was convinced her tactical decisions had been flawless. Her soul bone didn't just enhance her body and soul power; it provided far more profound support.
"As long as you know it yourself, that's enough," Yuhao replied lazily. "Whether you gain or lose five points won't increase your rank or get you expelled."
He gave her a sidelong glance. "Go cultivate. I'm going to sleep. Wake me for dinner. Good night."
Wang Dong's brow twitched. "All you ever do is sleep, sleep, sleep!"
Though she too liked to sleep — her soul had suffered damage after all — even she found Yuhao's habit strange. He could nap endlessly and still somehow progress in cultivation. That was the most inexplicable part.
"Can't you teach me? How do you even sleep like that? I want to raise my soul power while sleeping too. Regular cultivation's exhausting!" She leaned beside his bed, shaking his arm.
"You can't learn it," Yuhao murmured, yawning. "But I can teach you how to sleep better. Interested? If you learn this, you'll have more time to train — and you won't bother me again."
"Deal!" Wang Dong's eyes lit up instantly. Opportunities to take advantage of Yuhao were rare. Normally, every time she asked for guidance, he'd demand food, drinks, or small favors in return — her little stash of savings was barely surviving.
"Read more, watch less, snack less, and sleep more," Yuhao joked, before turning serious.
"Here's how you start — like this, then this, and finally like that."
He explained the method he'd pieced together from scattered texts in the Shrek Academy's outer court library — techniques related to mental relaxation and deep meditation, which he'd refined into a process that allowed spiritual power to subtly nourish the soul during sleep.
Through sleep, one could let the mind enter its deepest state of rest, concentrating all mental power within the spiritual sea, thereby unconsciously tempering and restoring the soul.
Though the effect was slow and imperceptible in the short term, it was better than nothing. After all, the soul was the hardest part of a being to touch or heal.
And in Wang Dong's case, her soul had been torn apart by Tang San.
As a descendant of divine beings, she should have inherited some measure of divinity — the "energy-form" of a god's body. But perhaps because Tang San and Xiao Wu's divine thrones were incomplete or unstable, Wang Dong's physique was entirely mortal — only slightly purer in body and spirit.
Such a body lacked the self-healing power of true divine souls. The tearing had left hidden trauma; the resulting imbalance of soul and spirit had in turn damaged both her mind and body.
Though she had once absorbed celestial essence and even drunk the Water of Life — something only first-level gods could partake in — she was still severely weakened after arriving on the Douluo Continent. Her injuries were invisible but profound.
If not for that Water of Life, Tang San's brutal "operation" would have killed her outright.
Now, the only way her fragmented soul could recover was through the slow growth of her own soul power. Perhaps, when she finally reached energy conversion — when her body became divine — her spirit might truly mend.
But since the soul also influenced the body, that damage slowed her cultivation dramatically. Expecting her to reach godhood through her own efforts was nearly impossible.
The greatest issue, however, was that her damaged soul could not maintain a stable form. Its structural integrity had been destroyed, making it susceptible to external interference.
Thus, whenever Wang Dong cultivated alongside someone else, even a faint mental influence could reshape her soul's form — bending it to perfectly "fit" with the other's.
It was as if, while normal souls were solid blocks that could only touch partially, hers was like a pile of crushed dust that could mold itself around any other shape.
This was why her and Yuhao's utterly mismatched martial souls could fuse perfectly in the original story.
"Alright, go do your thing. I'm actually going to sleep now." Yuhao waved her off, closing his eyes.
The "Soul Restoration Technique" he'd just taught came from his own synthesis of scattered knowledge, later refined under the guidance of Electrolux, the master of undead arts. It was authentic and effective — though to outsiders, it would seem like nothing more than Yuhao's clever intuition.
Entering his spiritual sea, Yuhao called out, "Elder Yi, what do you think of that soul bone? It feels completely different from the Hollow Demon Leopard one, but I can't quite pinpoint how."
Two glowing structural projections hovered in the air — one of each soul bone. Yuhao sat cross-legged, chin resting on his hand, studying their composition.
Meanwhile, the gray spirit sphere — the core presence of Electrolux — floated near him, as Tianmeng Iceworm extended his perception outward, examining the slumbering Wang Dong who had fallen peacefully asleep through the Soul Restoration technique.
After a while, Electrolux's aged voice emerged from the sphere.
"Mmm… no wonder you couldn't identify it earlier. I wasn't certain myself. But now, I'm about seventy or eighty percent sure."
"Oh? What is it?"
"It's a magic array — something not of this world. The runic patterns embedded within match fragments from the system of the world I once inhabited."
"In my world, magical runes harness the natural forces of the elements, and stabilized magic circles arrange those elements according to the caster's will — creating sustained effects."
"To this world, such a structure is alien. Here, people rely on soul power, drawn from their own bloodlines rather than the spirit of nature. But ultimately, both paths converge — mortals borrowing power from heaven and earth."
"Anyway, back to the soul bone. Unlike ordinary ones formed by condensed beast energy mixed with traces of a spirit's consciousness, this one contains no alien will — only pure energy. The inscriptions within, however, are foreign. I can't fully decipher them yet, but I can say with confidence: this so-called soul bone did not naturally originate in this world."
Yuhao nodded slowly. So, not from the Clear Sky Sect… that leaves Tang San.
Although Tang San was born of this world, his divine throne — the Shura God — was a top-level seat among gods, ruling over countless realms. Some of those realms even resembled magical worlds.
So, it wasn't surprising that something resembling magic had found its way here — whether through Tang San's design or divine influence.
"Elder Yi," Yuhao asked, "then is it possible for us to replicate such a construction — to artificially forge a similar bone?"
Electrolux was silent for a long while before replying, "Possible… but extremely difficult."
"Setting aside the technical side, where would you even find the energy required? Even without special effects, embedding such a crystal of power into a human body yields immense benefit. But the amount of energy needed is beyond anything you can access now."
"To form a true soul bone, you'd need pure, enormous, ownerless energy. But all such sources already belong to someone — every pure attribute and elemental concentration has a will attached."
Yuhao sighed softly. "So, we circle back to the same point — energy, attributes, elements."
"Let's start the research then. I have a few ideas… but I'll need to connect the pieces first."
Electrolux watched the boy sink into contemplation, and after a moment, released a cool wave of mental power. Yuhao's consciousness faded, returning gently to his body.
As he drifted off, Electrolux's aged voice murmured in the stillness:
"Rest well, child. Haste brings no gain. If you push too hard, you'll only destroy yourself."
Since arriving in this world, Yuhao's mind had never truly rested. His consciousness constantly hovered between the material and the spiritual, ceaselessly chasing strength.
That hunger thrilled him — the intoxicating pursuit of transcendence, something he'd never imagined as an ordinary man. Even if this chance came wrapped in divine malice, he embraced it.
But his heart, Electrolux knew, was fraying. The boy was doing too much, thinking too much, pushing too far — just as he once had.
Even the powerful needed rest. Without balance, obsession only led to madness and ruin.
So, the old spirit gently forced Yuhao into his first true sleep since coming to this world — a deep, peaceful slumber.
For the first time, with Electrolux's presence watching over him, Huo Yuhao slept soundly.
(End of Chapter)