Chapter 496

In the underground of Sea God Pavilion, Tang Wulin let out a long breath and opened his eyes.

"As expected, it still doesn't work."

He failed again in condensing the second soul core.

Actually, with his strength, if he merely wanted to condense an isomorphic resonance second soul core, he would have already succeeded.

But his goal is to protect Huo Yutong; seeing that she is about to successfully condense the yin-yang complementary dual soul cores, how could he allow himself to fall behind?

Thus, over the past year or so, he has actually been trying to condense the yin-yang complementary dual soul core.

However, condensing this yin-yang complementary method is indeed quite difficult; even with all the assistance Huo Yutong has, she has been attempting to condense it until today without emerging from seclusion, which shows how great the difficulty is.

Although going to look for the Space Dragon King's dragon bones might bring progress, he is unwilling to do so.

During this past year or more, he has stayed in the room next to Huo Yutong's, cultivating, so that he can attend to her immediately if any problem arises.

Although the cultivation chambers used for seclusion in the underground of Sea God Pavilion are filled with the power of the Golden Ancient Tree, which can reduce the probability of qi deviation, what Huo Yutong is doing is after all not ordinary cultivation; Tang Wulin simply cannot abandon her to go outside to look for dragon bones, and staying by her side is more reassuring.

Of course, this does not mean that Tang Wulin has completely cut himself off from the outside world.

Before entering seclusion, he had specially notified the senior elders of Sea God Pavilion and his partners from Tang Sect; therefore, the tasks originally belonging to him in Sea God Pavilion are now being handled by Acting Pavilion Master Song Lao.

She comes here from time to time to tell Tang Wulin about the current situation outside.

This unprecedented massive defeat of the Ri Yue Di Guo completely shattered this powerful nation and its leaders.

All five Guardians of the State were wiped out, and nationwide there were originally only about twenty ordinary soul engineer legions, now fewer than five remain.

The father of soul engineers, hailed as the one closest to a tenth‑level soul engineer, the strongest of Ri Yue Di Guo, Kong Deming, died on the battlefield.

The Holy Spirit Sect was completely annihilated.

The number of high‑rank death soul engineers is countless.

The amount of fixed‑installed soul ammunition consumed is countless.

These losses cannot be recovered in decades or even centuries; Ri Yue Di Guo's war has truly caused a great depletion of its vitality, leaving it unable to recover.

Therefore, as the initiator of the war, the person who poured all of Ri Yue Di Guo's war power into the battlefield—the current emperor of Ri Yue Di Guo, Xu Tianran—naturally cannot escape blame.

Under the push of those with ulterior motives, the entire Ri Yue Di Guo is filled with denunciations of him.

He originally had a blemish from cooperating with the Holy Spirit Sect; now, under the deliberate cultivation of related parties, he has been completely portrayed as a collaborator with evil soul masters, attempting to utterly destroy Ri Yue Di Guo—a generation of evil monarch.

Under this immense pressure, Xu Tianran persisted for half a year, but eventually could not hold on and chose suicide.

Of course, whether this so‑called suicide was truly his own act or involved some other hidden agenda is not something Tang Wulin needs to consider.

He merely, upon hearing the news, immediately connected via his Natural Son martial soul to the plants within Tang Sect and informed He Caitou of this information.

That night, He Caitou, who rarely drinks, became unusually intoxicated, muttering repeatedly that "heaven has eyes."

Compared to Xu Tianran, the newly enthroned emperor of Ri Yue Di Guo is far less aggressive; facing the haughty original three nations of Douluo, as the war's initiator and defeated party, he had no choice but to sign a series of unequal treaties, which prevented Ri Yue Di Guo from being completely destroyed.

Perhaps because they witnessed the formidable strength of Ri Yue Di Guo's soul engineer legions during the war, the original three nations of Douluo, despite being victors, did not become complacent; instead, they grew more wary of Ri Yue Di Guo's soul technology and began demanding its most advanced soul technology from Ri Yue Di Guo.

Especially Ming De Hall, shortly after the war ended, was turned upside down by the Titled Douluos led by Bu Si Si, who took all transportable materials and soul implements back to the original three nations of Douluo for specialist research.

Of course, how they allocate these materials and soul implements, and whether they can actually comprehend Ri Yue Di Guo's cutting‑edge technology, is another matter.

Tang Wulin had no intention of inserting Shrek Academy into the fray; as Ri Yue Di Guo gradually weakens, Shrek Academy should return to its proper place as an academy.

Just as Tang Wulin was about to close his eyes and attempt again to condense the second soul core, his body suddenly shuddered and he turned his gaze toward the neighboring room.

He felt an extremely overbearing aura suddenly rise from within; he extended his spiritual power into it and then couldn't help but stare blankly.

Behind Huo Yutong, a sun and a crescent moon had silently appeared at some point.

The sun was a noble rose‑gold color, the moon a cold icy‑blue.

Under the mutual radiance of this golden sun and blue moon, Huo Yutong's bearing seemed to gain a touch of divinity.

She slowly opened her eyes; immediately after, the terrifying aura she had just burst out with was retracted by her, and the surroundings became calm, as if everything that had just happened were an illusion.

Then her gaze shifted, looking toward the direction of Tang Wulin's room.

Tang Wulin instantly felt the same sensation as when he faced the Evil Eye Tyrant Master—although a wall separated them, their gazes still met.

The next moment, Tang Wulin felt a soft body suddenly appear in his arms.

Huo Yutong materialized out of thin air in his embrace, her hands clasping his neck, her eyes filled with warmth.

"Wulin, I've emerged from seclusion; have you been staying here with me all along?"

"Mm, after all I said I would never abandon you again."

Tang Wulin brushed a strand of her hair aside, feeling curious.

"Have you also mastered spatial power?"

When Huo Yutong teleported to his side, the space around him visibly distorted slightly, exactly like the movement method of Long Xiaoyao before.

Obviously, like other Limit Douluos, she has learned to control spatial power.

"Mm."

Huo Yutong took one hand from Tang Wulin's neck, spread it before him, and a tiny spatial rift appeared in her palm.

"Only after obtaining the yin‑yang complementary dual soul core did I fully understand why Limit Douluos can all master spatial power: it is not because they have reached the Limit Douluo realm, but because they possess dual soul cores, and the spatial power they wield is actually a by‑product of the interaction between the two cores."

In other words, even if one's cultivation has not reached the Limit Douluo level, as long as one possesses dual soul cores like Huo Yutong, one can freely manipulate spatial power.

Conversely, even if one has reached the Limit Douluo realm, without dual soul cores one cannot control spatial power, just like the Snow Empress.

"Ah, that's how it is." Tang Wulin suddenly realized.

He asked curiously:

"Yutong, what level are you at now?"

Huo Yutong's spiritual realm has probably reached a terrifying degree; at least Tang Wulin cannot see through her cultivation.

Huo Yutong sensed slightly and said:

"Around ninety‑five; logically I could reach even higher—I could have easily surged to ninety‑eight, but Elder Yi siphoned off a considerable portion, I don't know what he did with it, saying he'll give me a surprise later."

"That's already high enough."

Tang Wulin couldn't help but smile bitterly.

Even reaching Honored Douluo doesn't guarantee becoming a Super Douluo.

Rather, Honored Douluo outside Shilake Academy generally find it hard to break through to Super Douluo, and only those Honored Douluo produced by Shilake Academy find the breakthrough easiest.

Huo Yutong, with this breakthrough of nine rings, immediately reached the Super Douluo level; if this were made public, who knows how many Honored Douluo struggling in tears would be filled with envy and have their defenses shattered.

The path an ordinary Honored Douluo would spend a lifetime to walk was instantly crossed by her; given her talent, she likely won't need much time to reach rank ninety‑eight and face the next bottleneck.

He took Huo Yutong's hand and asked concernedly:

"By the way, has the Evil Eye Tyrant Sovereign stopped causing trouble?"

When Huo Yutong had just entered seclusion and her aura hadn't yet stabilized, in order to react immediately should anything happen, Tang Wulin's attention remained fixed on her, not daring to waver in the slightest.

Soon after, Tang Wulin felt a powerful and evil spiritual aura rising from Huo Yutong, devouring her aura.

This was clearly not her own power, but the aura of the Evil Eye Tyrant Sovereign.

At that moment Tang Wulin had originally intended to step in and help, but Huo Yutong sent him a mental message saying "Stay calm, don't act rashly," so he refrained from acting immediately.

As expected, not long after, the Evil Eye Tyrant Sovereign's aura completely dissipated, Huo Yutong's aura grew even stronger, and Tang Wulin finally put his mind at ease.

Upon hearing his question, Huo Yutong couldn't help but chuckle, revealing a strange smile.

"As for that, he really ended up in a sorry state."

She explained:

"The Evil Eye Tyrant Sovereign is indeed formidable; upon realizing his defeat was certain, he hid his core soul within the external soul bone he produced, hoping to seize me when I absorbed that external soul bone..."

In fact, the Evil Eye Tyrant Sovereign had also given this careful thought; he did not place his soul in his soul rings because he couldn't be sure of Huo Yutong's true cultivation level, nor whether she would actually need to absorb his soul rings, given that her combat power appears to be at the Ultimate Douluo level.

But by hiding his soul in the external soul bone, he eliminated that problem: any soul master, regardless of cultivation, who encounters an external soul bone will inevitably try to absorb it—unless it's truly unsuitable.

Huo Yutong and the Evil Eye Tyrant Sovereign certainly had no incompatibility, so she absorbed his external soul bone just as he had anticipated, and because she also took in his soul rings, he gained even more energy to attempt possession.

Upon discovering this, the Evil Eye Tyrant Sovereign was overjoyed; as long as he could successfully possess Huo Yutong, he would inevitably become a god.

However, once he entered Huo Yutong's Sea of Spirit, he was utterly dumbfounded.

Huo Yutong's spiritual power had long since evolved into divine sense; the vast gap in level left him unable to erode her at all.

What's more terrifying is that there are two mighty beings in Huo Yutong's Sea of Spirit.

One is Ilex, holding a transcendent artifact staff and looking at him gleefully.

The other is Shuangling Bian, the Ice God, who had just been awakened by his commotion and was glaring at him displeased.

At that moment, the Evil Eye Tyrant Sovereign even thought he was dreaming.

It would have been better to fight those two humans outside; at least then he could still see a chance to flee, but once inside Huo Yutong's Sea of Spirit, there was no hope of escape.

Consequently, events unfolded as expected: the Evil Eye Tyrant Sovereign was tormented in various ways by Ilex and Shuangling Bian, ultimately having his soul scattered and all the power within him completely taken.

The boost the Evil Eye Tyrant Sovereign gave Huo Yutong was mainly in the spiritual domain; as the world's most powerful spiritual-type soul beast, his enhancement to her is almost earth‑shattering.

After absorbing all of his power, Huo Yutong's Sea of Spirit expanded by about half, bringing her spiritual power to an unparalleled level.

Moreover, perhaps to facilitate possession, the Evil Eye Tyrant Sovereign placed all his memories within the external soul bone; Huo Yutong merely glanced through them and felt her understanding of spiritual control greatly increase.

If she encounters the Evil Eye Tyrant Sovereign again, she might defeat him relying solely on the power of the Eye of Fate.

Afterward, Ilex went to consult the newly awakened Shuangling Bian, while Huo Yutong, relying on the Eternal Mystic Ice Marrow and the origin power of various souls, successfully condensed a second soul core of the Extreme Ice attribute.

After hearing the full account, Tang Wulin also couldn't help but smile, feeling a twinge of sympathy for the Evil Eye Tyrant Sovereign.

Not to mention a narrow escape—Huo Yutong experienced neither danger nor risk; she was utterly safe.

He gently rubbed Huo Yutong's nose.

"Now my girlfriend has become the continent's top expert; so, my lady, could you please protect me and go look for the last piece of the Dragon King's bone?"

Seeing Huo Yutong become this strong, his sense of urgency grew as well.

He couldn't let her pull further ahead; he must hurry to catch up.

Huo Yutong proudly lifted her slightly raised chest.

"Of course no problem; I'll take care of your safety!"

In fact, she secretly felt guilty toward Tang Wulin, thinking she had wasted his time.

But she knew Tang Wulin absolutely did not want her to feel guilty, so she decided to hide that guilt.

Rather than waste time feeling guilty, it would be better to think of ways to compensate him.

The two then shared a brief moment of intimacy underground, after which they left the underground and returned to the surface after a long absence.

(End of chapter)