After leaving the Treasure Gathering Pavilion, Huo Yuhao and Xie Huanyue strolled along the road back to Shrek Academy, chatting happily.
Using the conversational techniques from his previous life, Huo Yuhao finally managed to learn about Xie Huanyue's background, which was never described in the original novel.
Xie Huanyue's father, Xie Long, was a descendant of a famous marshal from the original Heaven Dou Empire, Ge Long. After the Heaven Dou Empire split, he joined the army of the Heaven Soul Empire. After the war between the Sun Moon Empire and the original three great Douluo empires began, the Heaven Soul Empire, due to a depleted national treasury, increased taxes, causing the people in most regions to live in misery. General Xie Long pleaded on behalf of the people but was instead framed, forced to defect with a group of his subordinates, and formed a rebel army with considerable combat power, intending to overthrow the tyrannical rule of the current Heaven Soul imperial family.
As a descendant of a famous general, Xie Huanyue's family's legacy martial soul should have been the Great Power Demonic Ape. However, a mutation occurred when his martial soul awakened. In order to develop the potential of his mutated martial soul, he was ordered by his father to go to Shrek for advanced studies.
Due to General Xie Long's continuous years of warfare, the annual military expenses were not small, so Xie Huanyue himself was not wealthy, to the point where he couldn't even afford a single soul beast carcass.
"That's too much of a mutation, isn't it?" Hearing him talk about these things, Huo Yuhao couldn't help but feel abashed. An elephant and an ape are not even the same species, okay?
Xie Huanyue had a bitter look on his face. "If it were me, I wouldn't know what happened either. But my original martial soul was also an ape-type, just a rare one called the Gluttonous Divine Ape."
"Well, at least that's still an ape-type," Huo Yuhao nodded upon hearing this. "How did it later turn into a Rubber Elephant?"
"Sigh, it was all because of the martial soul problem, which made me able to eat too much. One day, I accidentally ate a fruit that my father brought back from the nearby sea," Xie Huanyue said sorrowfully.
"What kind of heaven-defying fruit can change your martial soul from an ape-type to an elephant-type?" Huo Yuhao found the crux of the problem and hurriedly asked with curiosity.
"Actually, my martial soul didn't change. It's still the Gluttonous Divine Ape. But that fruit made my body extremely elastic after my martial soul possessed me. All parts of my body can be stretched at will, and I can even mold myself into the general appearance of other martial souls, just like rubber," Xie Huanyue said, helplessly patting his belly. "And because of this, my stomach can expand without limit, leading to an even greater appetite, so I just got fatter and fatter..."
"Since then, I've consulted books and claimed to the outside world that my martial soul is the Rubber Elephant, because only this martial soul can explain the changes in my abilities."
The more Huo Yuhao listened, the more he felt that something was not right. This ability seemed familiar! But then he remembered the giant ape carcass Xie Huanyue had bought. "Could it be that this giant ape has a way to restore your martial soul to the original Great Power Demonic Ape martial soul?"
"Not that. I haven't even figured out the origin of that fruit," Xie Huanyue confessed honestly. "But this soul beast carcass has a trace of the Ancient Sun God Ape bloodline, which can cause my Gluttonous Divine Ape martial soul to evolve and completely solve this fat problem all over my body."
"I see. Need help?" Huo Yuhao finally understood the reason why Xie Huanyue bought this carcass. Thinking that he might need the support of more experts in the future, he decided to give him a hand.
"If you are a spiritual-attribute soul master, then you should be able to help me," Xie Huanyue had no intention of refusing any help and directly stated his attitude.
Huo Yuhao couldn't help but smile upon hearing this. He immediately activated his Spirit Eyes martial soul, and a formidable spiritual power surged towards Xie Huanyue.
"Far in the horizon, yet right before your eyes, fatty."
Feeling Huo Yuhao's powerful spiritual pressure, Xie Huanyue's eyes almost bulged out. He hurriedly reached out and grabbed Huo Yuhao's shoulder. "Good brother, help me out. As long as you can solve my martial soul problem, in the future, I will go through mountains of knives and seas of fire for you, without any hesitation!"
"Aren't we already partners?" Huo Yuhao smiled at him, his expression sincere.
Xie Huanyue suddenly felt his nose tingle. Since he had become this ghost-like figure, this was the first time someone had sincerely wanted to be his partner. He didn't say anything more; nothing needed to be said.
As the two talked, they had unknowingly returned to the academy. Xie Huanyue's dormitory was on the third floor. Due to his size, the academy had arranged a separate dormitory for him.
Xie Huanyue couldn't wait to open the bag and take out the ape carcass. Even with Huo Yuhao's extensive knowledge from his god's-eye view, he did not sense anything unusual about this carcass.
The two of them dissected the ape carcass in no time, but unfortunately, they did not find a soul bone. Xie Huanyue didn't seem interested in the ape's flesh and blood, but directly pulled out the spinal column.
"In this spinal column, there seems to be a trace of an ancient exotic beast bloodline," at this moment, Bibi Dong finally sensed something, her voice solemn. "It's a very strong bloodline. Even the bloodline of the Dragon King in your memory cannot compare to it."
"That strong?" Huo Yuhao was instantly dumbfounded. It seemed this fatty had studied no small number of ancient texts. For him to discover such a heaven-defying benefit, perhaps this was what they called a fateful opportunity.
Xie Huanyue's movements were very adept. He directly broke off a certain part of the spinal column with force, and a drop of snow-white marrow mixed with blood threads fell into a prepared container.
Huo Yuhao hurriedly moved closer. The drop of marrow now lay quietly in the container, emitting a strange luster.
"Yuhao, in a moment, after I ingest it, I will completely relax my mind. You just attack me with your spiritual power. It's best if you knock me directly into shock!" Xie Huanyue's expression was rarely this solemn. "Don't consider any consequences!"
Huo Yuhao deeply understood the importance of this matter to Xie Huanyue and couldn't help but say, "This is a serious matter. How about I first ask a healing-type teacher from the academy to come and be a backup?"
Xie Huanyue shook his head and said, "I don't want to owe the academy too many favors. I won't be staying in the academy for long in the future. The glory and spirit of Shrek will only shackle me."
Huo Yuhao was amused to hear this. "If you succeed, you will definitely be able to shine brilliantly in the Continental Advanced Soul Master Academy Soul Dueling Tournament. At that time, you will be the hero of the academy. It wouldn't be surprising even if you became one of the Shrek Seven Devils. You know, you are now a level thirty-two Soul Elder. With your talent, you will definitely become a Soul Emperor before the age of twenty."
"I have no desire to be a hero. The biggest difference between me and a hero is that heroes share their meat with others," Xie Huanyue said, making a serious analogy.
"But I want to eat the meat!"
"Hahahaha!" Huo Yuhao almost convulsed with laughter upon hearing this. "Fatty, you're really something!"
"Yuhao, aren't you the same?" Xie Huanyue did not laugh along with Huo Yuhao, but looked at him seriously.
Huo Yuhao's smile slowly faded. The Xie Huanyue before him was definitely not as simple as he appeared on the surface. To describe this guy as having great wisdom appearing as foolishness was no exaggeration at all. Just by talking with him, Xie Huanyue could sense that Huo Yuhao was not interested in Shrek.
"Big Brother, you're one of us."
...
On the other side, in the rental room where Wu Feng and the other two girls were.
The two originally separate beds had been pushed together. The three girls' faces were all red. They looked at me, and I looked at you, without speaking for a long time.
"Let's talk about that guy Huo Yuhao," Ning Tian was the first to break the silence, casually tossing a stack of documents onto the bed.
Nanmen Yun'er and Wu Feng had also read them.
Yes, Huo Yuhao's official file, with his paternal bloodline concealed by the Duchess, had come back.
Huo Yuhao, a native of the Star Luo Empire. Martial soul: Spirit Eyes. Innate soul power of level one at awakening. His mother, Huo Yun'er, was a maid of the White Tiger Duke. He was of humble birth and had always worked with his mother in the Duke's Mansion until the mansion was destroyed in an unknown attack a year ago, after which his tracks were lost...
"In that case, this Huo Yuhao must have had some kind of fortuitous encounter after leaving the Duke's Mansion..." Nanmen Yun'er analyzed. A guy with only level-one innate soul power had no reason to have advanced to level twenty-nine at the age of eleven.
"Maybe he picked up a soul ring that someone else missed outside, which caused his martial soul to mutate. After all, his first soul ring is a thousand-year one," Wu Feng said casually. "There are so many organizations that hunt soul beasts on the continent. Maybe some soul beast that was beaten half to death happened to run into Huo Yuhao when he was out, and he just picked it up along the way?"
"There are too many secrets about Huo Yuhao, and also his constitution. If he had previously shown that ability to attract life energy, there's no reason he wouldn't have been captured and controlled by someone with ill intentions," Ning Tian summarized. "Including his current financial ability, appearance, and noble temperament, they are completely unlike what a servant's son should have."
"One can only say that in the year Huo Yuhao disappeared from everyone's sight, he was very likely taken a fancy to by some major power, and thus made a stunning debut."
---
Author's Note: Regarding the character of Xie Huanyue, his Rubber Elephant martial soul seemed too buggy in the early stages, which left a deep impression on me. And also his soul power level, level thirty-two before the age of twelve, completely crushed even the Tang San of that year. I thought, why not give him a whole story and let him truly walk into the protagonist group.