The venomous resentment in Dai Huabin's eyes was almost overflowing.
Huo Yuhao! That lowly commoner dared to mock his White Tiger Duke Manor as "soft-footed cats" in public!
Even more hateful was that he had secured second place in the freshman tournament, surpassing him.
He didn't dare touch Gu La, but Huo Yuhao… he must die!
Using a special communication channel exclusive to his family, he bypassed possible surveillance from the academy and sent out an encrypted letter.
The objective was clear: when Huo Yuhao left the academy premises, eliminate him at all costs.
He mobilized one of his trusted subordinates—a Shadow Tiger martial soul Soul Emperor. Dealing with a mere one-ring Soul Master would be more than sufficient.
Huo Yuhao remained completely unaware. He was immersed in his cultivation and efforts to earn tuition while improving himself.
He had grown somewhat familiar with Gu La, but occasionally remembered Gu La's disrespectful words about the Tang Sect, still harboring some resentment. However, it was mostly a sense of being belittled, motivating him to prove the value of the Tang Sect.
He had no idea that the shadow of death already loomed over him.
Outside the academy, at the edge of a secluded grove.
Gu La blended into the shadows like a ghost. With a slight thought, he switched to his Celebi form.
Beneath his feet, the green-gold sixth soul ring silently illuminated, exuding profound fluctuations of time and life—Sixth Soul Skill: Ancestor of the Forest!
In an instant, Gu La's figure, aura, and even the "causal relationship" of his existence underwent subtle changes.
He was no longer "Gu La," but transformed into another temporal avatar of death—Du'an.
His skin turned as pale as paper, his gaze deathly cold, and his body enveloped in faint gray currents of death energy.
A massive, grotesque scythe wrapped in soul-harvesting spectral light floated behind him, and a faint outline of an ancient, majestic golden pyramid, its walls adorned with countless faces of tormented souls, emerged intermittently.
An overwhelming aura of death and judgment spread out, subtly suppressing the vitality of the surrounding vegetation.
"The Death Scythe... the Sun Pyramid... the perfect cornerstone of the God of Death."
This was the power of Celebi's sixth soul skill, enabling him to flawlessly borrow the appearance and martial soul abilities of his avatar while retaining access to his own skills.
As Gu La felt this borrowed power, a chilling smile curved his lips. He gazed at Huo Yuhao, who was innocently walking toward the grove, seemingly preparing to train somewhere.
"The timing is about right." Gu La murmured. He wasn't purely indulging in malice; Huo Yuhao harbored some resentment toward him due to Tang Ya, though not to the point of enmity, but that trace of ill will provided Gu La with a "reasonable" excuse to act. There must be cause and effect; otherwise, he wouldn't have touched Huo Yuhao.
However, Huo Yuhao wouldn't need it anyway, as becoming a god required waiting a few years to reconcile with the capricious princess and her Sea God father-in-law before using it. It might as well be temporarily sealed away.
More importantly, he was curious about how the face of the God King Father-in-Law, carefully selecting a "son-in-law" for his daughter, would react to such an unspeakable "accident." And what kind of wrath would Dai Huabin, the fuse, face from both Huo Yuhao and the Tang family? Would Huo Yuhao ever forgive Dai Huabin?
From a man's perspective, Gu La didn't believe Tang San could resolve Huo Yuhao's hatred unless the Sea God's methods were truly extraordinary. Gu La planned to observe closely.
"For now, consider it adding spice to this divine script orchestrated by the God King." A cruel glint akin to a cat playing with a mouse flickered in Gu La's eyes.
After selling his grilled fish, Huo Yuhao had just stepped into the shadow at the edge of a narrow alley.
"Roar!"
A deep growl erupted like thunder, and a ghostly black shadow shot down from the treetops with lightning speed. The hood concealed his face, making his features indistinguishable.
It was the Shadow Tiger Soul Emperor dispatched by Dai Huabin. Dark claws materialized in his hands, tearing through the air with a sharp whistle, aiming straight for Huo Yuhao's back.
The full-force strike of a Soul Emperor radiated killing intent, intent on ending the life in one blow.
Huo Yuhao's soul flew out of his body, instantly engulfed by the shadow of death, leaving him no time to react.
However, at this critical moment.
"Move together, don't give him a chance!" A voice as cold and dead as ice abruptly sounded beside the Shadow Tiger Soul Emperor.
The Shadow Tiger Soul Emperor was startled. He hadn't detected anyone nearby.
Even more terrifying was the deathly chill emanating from the voice, reminiscent of ice from the nine hells.
He instinctively assumed another person had been sent by Young Master Dai, but as he caught sight of the suddenly appearing scythe and the endless waves of death energy, a bone-chilling cold instantly froze his soul.
"Young Master actually conspired with evil soul masters? No! Someone is framing Young Master!!"
The Shadow Tiger Soul Emperor immediately realized, his liver and gallbladder shattered. He wanted to withdraw, to warn, but everything happened too fast.
At this moment.
"Damn it! How dare you touch my guy!"
The enraged roar of Tian Meng (Sky Dream) Ice Silkworm exploded within Huo Yuhao's spiritual sea.
An immense surge of spiritual power instantly took control of Huo Yuhao's body. His eyes turned a brilliant gold.
"Tian Meng's Finger!"
Huo Yuhao's right index finger instantly crystallized, resembling ice sculpture, carrying a soul-freezing terror. Ignoring spatial distance, it struck faster than expected.
With pinpoint accuracy, it targeted the forehead of the leading Shadow Tiger Soul Emperor—the terrifying eruption of Tian Meng Ice Silkworm's million-year foundation.
The Shadow Tiger Soul Emperor felt his thoughts freeze instantly, a terrifying chill erupting from the depths of his soul. His body and soul power were instantly frozen by absolute-zero extreme ice.
Maintaining his pouncing posture, he became a lifelike ice sculpture, his face forever frozen in horror and despair.
Just as Tian Meng Ice Silkworm took control of the body and unleashed the Heaven Dream One Finger to freeze the Soul Emperor.
Gu La, in the guise of "Du'an," moved. His target wasn't the Soul Emperor but Huo Yuhao's body, which had temporarily lost control.
Whoosh!
The shadow of the Death Scythe flashed like teleportation, without any earth-shattering noise, only a nearly imperceptible, concentrated grey line.
This grey line contained the purest essence of death and decay, cutting precisely like a scalpel, severing a crucial node representing male characteristics in Huo Yuhao's lower body.
"Ughaa—!!!"
As the extreme cold receded from his soul and control returned to his body, an indescribable, excruciating pain and emptiness, as if his life essence had been castrated, surged through every nerve of Huo Yuhao like a tsunami.
He let out an ear-piercing scream, clutching his blood-soaked lower body, collapsing on the ground like a spineless shrimp, convulsing and rolling in agony and despair that pierced to the marrow and soul.
Gu La watched coldly as Huo Yuhao writhed and screamed on the ground. The shadow of the Death Scythe flashed again, an invisible suction force sweeping past, forcibly stripping and devouring the frozen soul of the Shadow Tiger Soul Emperor encased in ice.
Then, his figure swayed, disappearing like merging into the shadows, leaving behind lingering death energy and desperate screams.
"What evil dares commit such atrocities at Shrek!"
A shout laden with soul power and fury roared like thunder from afar. Dean Yan Shaozhe of the Martial Soul Department arrived like a golden lightning bolt.
First, he saw Huo Yuhao writhing in pain on the ground, his lower body a bloody mess. The miserable sight made even the experienced Yan Shaozhe furrow his brows, a flicker of empathetic fear and pity flashing in his eyes.
He quickly knelt down, powerful light soul power flowing into Huo Yuhao's body, stopping the bleeding and alleviating the pain, temporarily stabilizing his condition.
Then, his gaze fell on the ice sculpture frozen in a pouncing stance, sensing the residual soul power fluctuations of the Shadow Tiger martial soul and the thick death aura deliberately left behind by Gu La.
Yan Shaozhe's face instantly turned ashen.
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