Chapter 3: External Soul Bone, Second Martial Soul Echo Mechanism
"I heard the echo of Strong Luck!!"
Just moments ago, Huo Yuhao also heard the bell ring once again and felt the "Strong Luck" echo inscribed on his second martial soul. However, he didn't check it immediately—he already had a good grasp of how this echo mechanism worked.
Seeing how excited Tianmeng was, he didn't want to spoil the mood.
He first turned his attention to what the million-year soul beast—Tianmeng Ice Silkworm—had brought him. This beast hadn't wasted its origin power to open a second martial soul slot for him, so what abilities had it granted instead?
He could already feel the changes in his body and improvements in his aptitude. Now, under the influence of the "Strong Luck" echo and the unconscious consumption of the luck he had accumulated over the past eleven years, would the soul skills and soul bone truly bring him a pleasant surprise?
It didn't take long for Huo Yuhao to understand all the soul skills and soul bone abilities that Tianmeng had bestowed upon him.
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Primary Martial Soul: Spirit Eyes
First Soul Ring (Million-Year Quality; currently appears as a 500-year level):
- [Spiritual Detection Sharing]: Grants omniscient vision within a certain range. The detection range expands with increased spiritual power. All perceived information—sights, sounds, thoughts—can be shared with nearby allies.
- [Spiritual Compression Impact]: Concentrates spiritual power into a single point to deal direct damage to all soul-bearing beings.
- [Spiritual Interference Domain]: A domain skill that disrupts the enemy's mental state. Within this domain, it can twist space through spiritual fluctuations, suppress enemy spiritual power, and interfere with their souls.
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External Soul Bone – Ice Silkworm's Shedded Skin (Skin Type)
Active Ability (Soul Skills):
- [Ice Silkworm Metamorphosis]: Cocooned in silken threads, the user undergoes rebirth like a butterfly breaking free. Upon emergence, all conditions are restored to their peak. Usable once every three days. The cocoon cannot be broken unless by an ultimate elemental attack; all other energy-based attacks are either absorbed or reflected.
- [True Form of Ice Silkworm]: While active, spiritual power is tripled, and spiritual power consumption is greatly reduced.
Passive Ability:
- Near-complete immunity to ice-based damage and an extremely high affinity with ice elements.
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"Overpowered!"
Even though Huo Yuhao had mentally prepared himself, he couldn't help but be amazed upon fully comprehending the abilities Tianmeng had gifted him.
He understood clearly that the remaining origin power Tianmeng had wasn't nearly enough to achieve all this, let alone bestowing domain-level skills while also retaining an external soul bone with two powerful active soul skills.
With the limited origin power Tianmeng had, just preserving a soul bone would've been impressive. Yet, what he received surpassed every expectation.
There was only one explanation: under the influence of "Strong Luck," he—the so-called "Child of Destiny" of the Douluo Continent—was now finally reaping the benefits of the luck accumulated during his eleven years of silent suffering.
Do people truly understand how rare a "Child of Destiny" is on the Douluo Continent? One appears only once in ten thousand years!
Of course, while the benefits were immense, the accumulated luck had now been largely consumed by the "Strong Luck" echo. Only a small amount remained.
But Huo Yuhao didn't mind. This kind of luck was not a one-time resource; it could be replenished.
Moreover, during those early years—when "Huo Yuhao" was constantly mistreated and abused—his luck had barely manifested, or was extremely weak at best. He knew in his heart that as he grew stronger, the true power of his destiny would only increase.
More importantly, the "Strong Luck" echo wouldn't activate like this again. It would no longer randomly apply his luck to change events without his control.
Just like "Destiny," "Strong Luck" had now been engraved into his second martial soul. From now on, even if he wanted to invoke "Strong Luck," it would only respond during life-or-death situations or moments with significant long-term consequences, not ordinary events like this one.
And now that he had experienced two bell echoes, Huo Yuhao fully understood how the Echo Mechanism worked.
The "Destiny" echo had been triggered when he inherited everything from the original Huo Yuhao. The original's lingering regrets and hatred at the moment of death briefly surged to an emotional extreme, reaching an echo threshold.
The "Strong Luck" echo was triggered because he was born a Child of Destiny in this era, and also obtained two powerful cheat-level allies—Tianmeng Ice Silkworm and Electrolux. When Tianmeng sacrificed herself, his originally bleak future opened up into one of infinite possibilities. At that moment, his mindset—his faith—swinged from one extreme to the other, triggering the "Strong Luck" echo.
"Extremes"—Huo Yuhao had grasped this keyword.
Echo felt more like a result than a trigger. His second martial soul, End-Time Bell, seemed to awaken an echo mechanism whenever he experienced an intense emotional peak, when some belief or desire of his reached a critical threshold.
That belief could be anything: an obsession to win, or an overwhelming desire for something.
With "Destiny" and "Strong Luck" now etched into his martial soul, it followed logically that more types of echoes were possible. Each would have a different trigger condition and would subtly differ from the End-Time Bell's domain mechanism.
Once acquired, these echoes would merge with the End-Time Bell, becoming part of the martial soul's foundational structure—not just soul skills, but something even more profound: martial soul attributes, akin to innate talent.
The power of each echo would depend on his overall strength, personal qualities, and some mysterious variables.
Having thought all this through, Huo Yuhao felt a deep sense of relief.
But even though he now understood the echo mechanism, he wouldn't deliberately chase extreme events to trigger them—that would be counterproductive and only push future echoes further away.
What he needed now was to let go of that mindset, to forget about it—only then could more echoes possibly appear.
"So, how was it? Wasn't the ability I gave you amazing?!" Tianmeng chirped excitedly. "Even I thought it was unbelievable. At the time, I just felt this mysterious force acting through me, and suddenly I was doing things I never could before!"
"Oh! And I heard that strange bell sound too—it said something like, 'I heard the echo of Strong Luck!' That has to be connected to your second martial soul, right?"
After all, Huo Yuhao had previously shown her his second martial soul—a giant, blood-red bell. With the two ominous bell tolls earlier, it was hard not to connect the dots.
Huo Yuhao nodded. "You're right, Tianmeng. Those bell sounds are directly connected to my second martial soul."
He then gave her a detailed explanation of his theory, which only made her even more excited.
"I knew it! Yuhao, you always find a way to surprise me. With this powerfully strange second martial soul, you're wielding a god-tier martial soul—or maybe something even stronger! That means my future plans have a much better chance of success!"
She then happily launched into her long backstory and shared her god-making plan with him. She even talked about going to the Extreme North to involve the Ice Empress, once his soul power met the requirements.
Tianmeng saw unlimited potential in Huo Yuhao. Now that their Destiny was fully intertwined, she didn't want to hide anything from him and risk losing his trust later.
"Don't worry, Tianmeng," Huo Yuhao reassured her. "When the time comes, I'll help you persuade the Ice Empress to become my second martial soul's wisdom soul ring."
"Aww, naughty Yuhao~ Shouldn't it be big sis helping you instead?" Tianmeng teased.
"Alright, alright—you're always right," he replied with a smile.
Tianmeng Ice Silkworm technically had no gender, though for some unknown reason, she insisted on calling herself "big sis." Huo Yuhao didn't mind.
As for the Extreme North... he had his thoughts about that place.
But let's not get into all that messy drama.
Tianmeng loved the Ice Empress, but the Ice Empress loved Snow Empress—yet the Ice Empress wanted to devour Tianmeng.
If someone wrote out that triangle, it would be enough to make a soap opera look tame. Huo Yuhao had no interest in watching that love-hate buffet unfold.
(End of Chapter)