A soul ring materialized, and his deep blue eyes once again flowed with a golden luster.
「Spiritual Detection」 + 「Spiritual Sharing」
In most situations, these two highly functional soul skills can be used as a substitute for one another.
Just like right now.
As soul power began to fluctuate, Meng Hongchen was initially a bit confused. However, in the next instant, her gaze uncontrollably filled with shock.
From Meng Hongchen's perspective, the flow of time seemed to slow down. Everything around her became incredibly clear; wherever her gaze landed, countless pieces of information naturally surfaced and appeared within her mind.
She subconsciously looked at the youth beside her.
The boy's face was as refined as jade, his blue eyes brilliantly bright, looking at her with gentleness and a hint of a smile... Every detail was presented clearly in her mind without the slightest blur.
Meng Hongchen dazed for a moment, but a gentle smile played on the youth's lips. His clear voice pulled her back to reality.
"This is my first soul skill, 「Spiritual Detection Sharing」. It allows me to bring everything in the surroundings into my mind and see through the essence of things.
"How is it? Pretty impressive, right?"
The youth spoke softly, like a child showing off a prize.
Meng Hongchen opened her mouth, momentarily at a loss for words. After a silence, the girl suddenly leaned in close. Her icy blue eyes peered into the youth's suspiciously as she asked:
"Yuhao... you wouldn't use this soul skill to peek at me, would you?"
Huo Yuhao: ???
...
Master Xiao, who had been busy all day, suddenly snapped his eyes open, a sharp light flashing within them!
He... had succeeded!
Through his tireless efforts and his own outstanding talent, Xiao Hongchen had managed to grasp the basics in just a few hours.
Previously, whenever he used soul power to activate his martial soul's metal-control ability, there was always a significant loss.
But now, after Huo Yuhao's enlightenment and guidance, he clearly felt that the soul power consumed while using his metal control was decreasing... no, rather, the utilization efficiency of the soul power had improved!
He had done it!
As long as he continued to cultivate step-by-step like this, wouldn't surpassing Huo Yuhao be simple and effortless?!!
"Hahahaha! I've done it! I've succeeded! You, surnamed Huo, you—"
Xiao Hongchen held his forehead, laughing like one of the "Four Mad Laughing Legends" of a certain red-eyed clan. He was just about to deliver his customary mockery of Huo Yuhao, but when he looked over, he saw Huo Yuhao with his eyes closed. Invisible, intangible soul power enveloped countless metal shards, swirling them into various shapes.
Of course, that wasn't the important part. The important part was: Sister! Could you please show some restraint!
He saw Meng Hongchen cradling Huo Yuhao's other hand in her arms, her eyes fixed on him with a lingering gaze, completely unwilling to let go.
Hearing Xiao Hongchen's voice, the two paused. Huo Yuhao slowly opened his eyes, while Meng Hongchen looked at her older brother with dissatisfaction.
Brother, why did you interrupt me! Don't get in the way of me wooing this beautiful boy, okay!
"You, surnamed Huo, I'm warning you—keep your hands off my sister! Do you hear me!"
Huo Yuhao blinked, pointed at himself in confusion, and asked:
"Uh, me?"
Seriously, dude?
Look at who's making the first move here! Your sister started it! I'm innocent!
Huo Yuhao sighed... a deep, heavy sigh.
...
A few days passed.
After several days of initial acquaintance, Huo Yuhao successfully established a preliminary relationship with Xiao Hongchen and Meng Hongchen.
The advantage of his age allowed him to be accepted quickly. Furthermore, although Xiao Hongchen would occasionally get "red-hot" with jealousy over his sister, he was normal most of the time.
The two would exchange ideas regarding cultivation and soul tools. Even though Huo Yuhao would pretend not to understand and ask questions, Xiao Hongchen would answer in exhaustive detail.
Sometimes, if Xiao didn't know the answer, he would look up records himself or go straight to ask Jing Hongchen. He was determined to answer Huo Yuhao's questions without hiding anything.
However, every time he finished answering, Xiao Hongchen would arrogantly add, "Hmph, I mastered such simple questions a long time ago!" which was quite amusing.
Overall, Xiao Hongchen was a decent person, just with a peculiar way of thinking. Meanwhile, he seemed to have developed a strange obsession with Huo Yuhao.
As for the other, Miss Meng...
Huo Yuhao rubbed his forehead, his feelings complicated.
With the help of the Seed of Emotion, Huo Yuhao could clearly sense Meng Hongchen's feelings for him.
It was indeed "liking," but it was similar to a child finding a favorite toy, a soul tool master seeing a rare metal, or a soul master seeing a top-tier soul ring or soul bone.
Simply put, Miss Meng seemed to treat him like a life-sized, customizable doll.
But that was fine.
There were already so many others; if one more joined, he might truly be unable to handle it. As long as he didn't do anything unnecessary, no accidents should happen, right?
Back to the point.
Besides spending time with Meng Hongchen and Xiao Hongchen, Huo Yuhao also visited the library. Using the authority granted by Jing Hongchen, he checked out books covering Level 1 to Level 4 soul tool mastery and began flipping through them one by one.
The primary goal of this was to create the illusion for Jing Hongchen that he was studying hard, while also giving him a pretext to display knowledge and techniques that shouldn't belong to someone of his level.
The secondary goal was to understand the current state of soul tool technology in the Sun Moon Empire and see just how large the gap was between the empire and the three original nations of the Douluo Continent.
This was to prepare for the future actions of his "Master Skydream" persona on the other side.
Additionally, Huo Yuhao took a bit of time to visit the headquarters of the Water Sunset Alliance, one of the three major underground forces in Radiant City, to investigate the current development of the Holy Spirit Cult.
By sheer coincidence, he ran into the leader of the Water Sunset Alliance, Nan-Gong Wan.
Facing this spineless individual who had left a deep impression on him, Huo Yuhao thought for a moment and decided there was no need to let him go. He collaborated with the slacking, sleeping Skydream to take action.
Although Skydream, whose mental power cultivation was nearly equal to or even exceeded a Level 99 Limit Douluo, was not good at fighting, silently dealing with a spineless Level 93 evil soul master was a simple task.
After taking control of his mind, Elder Yi stepped in to brand him with a Slave Contract.
Once the restrictions were lifted, Huo Yuhao gave Nan-Gong Wan a moment to process the situation. After explaining the gist of his predicament, Huo Yuhao, upholding the spirit of practical experimentation, used the Slave Contract to award Nan-Gong Wan with a "Mental Lingchi" (Death by a Thousand Cuts) reward.
After enjoying this "reward" for an hour, Nan-Gong Wan wept bitterly as he swore his loyalty. He then handed over all sorts of intelligence regarding the Holy Spirit Cult and their personnel arrangements within Radiant City. He volunteered to act as Huo Yuhao's mole within the cult, providing him with all kinds of information.
Following this, Huo Yuhao visited the treasury of the Water Sunset Alliance, took some items he liked, and kidnapped over a dozen evil soul masters to serve as experimental materials for his "Purification" tests.
The entire trip to the Water Sunset Alliance could be described as a bountiful harvest.