Having vented her feelings on the matter, the Ice Empress cast a cold glance at Skydream and the little Ice Silkworm both now huddled in opposite corners gave a quiet, satisfied sniff, and turned her attention away from them entirely.
"Yuhao," she said, "do you need me to return your Origin Energy through a Spirit Ring?"
They had anticipated this situation before the recultivation began. Huo Yuhao had entrusted the bulk of his Origin Energy to his various Spirit Souls for safekeeping, to be returned when each of them provided him with a Spirit Ring. The Ice Empress had reasoned that if Huo Yuhao was waking her now, it was because he needed her to provide one.
Huo Yuhao shook his head. "Not yet. Electrolux has advised me to absorb that Origin Energy later, when I make my push for rank one hundred. I agree it's the better approach. Since I'm starting over with innate full spirit power, my cultivation speed in the early stages won't be slow there's no need to spend that Origin Energy now."
"Push for rank one hundred?"
The Ice Empress started to speak, then stopped herself. When she did speak, her voice was quieter. "Yuhao… don't push yourself. We already have eternal life."
The God-Making Plan had always been about immortality at its core but after Electrolux fully recovered his memories, the path to immortality had already opened before them. There was no longer any need to risk everything for the sake of ascending to godhood.
A faint smile touched Huo Yuhao's mouth. "Don't worry. I know what I'm doing."
The Ice Empress studied him for a moment, recognized the look, and knew there was nothing more to be said. She pressed her lips together. "Fine. I'll add a Spirit Ring for you then— wait." She stopped. "Yuhao. Where is the Spirit Bone I gave you?"
She had been about to attach a Spirit Ring when she realized the Torso Spirit Bone she had previously given him was simply gone.
"Well… have you ever heard of a Spirit Beast carrying a usable Spirit Bone through recultivation?"
"Your situation is nothing like ours," the Ice Empress said, her brow creasing. "You can't even generate Spirit Rings on your own. This isn't a normal recultivation by any stretch. Without the Spirit Bone, your physical constitution will suffer it'll work against you."
"Ice Empress, you're forgetting I still have the Blade of Life's Guardian."
The Ice Empress blinked. Then it came to her.
She had nearly forgotten that particular divine instrument.
The Blade of Life's Guardian a carving knife forged from the Gold of Life, and nothing short of a divine instrument in the field of healing. Huo Yuhao had obtained it from an auction house. For years, no one had dared bid on it; dark intentions and curses had been poured into the blade, giving it the name of the Soul-Devouring Cursed Blade and a reputation for consuming its master. It was only because Electrolux possessed the ability to cleanse such corruption that Huo Yuhao had been able to claim it at all.
With the Blade of Life's Guardian present, as long as Huo Yuhao's Sea of Spirit remained alive, the blade would pour life force into him to heal any wound, no matter how severe.
Beyond that, the blade's constant nurturing accelerated Huo Yuhao's spiritual power growth threefold and steadily reinforced his body making it nothing short of a cultivation cheat code. It had not yet transformed into the Sword of Life, as it had not absorbed additional Gold of Life.
Huo Yuhao had originally obtained it to treat Electrolux's divine sense, and had made little personal use of it in the time since enough that the Ice Empress had nearly forgotten the blade existed.
"Even so," the Ice Empress muttered, "that's a separate matter. Ten-thousand-year Spirit Bones do you have any idea how many people spend their whole lives unable to obtain one? And you just… lost yours to recultivation."
"…Is that what you think of me? Completely unreliable?"
Huo Yuhao gave an exasperated laugh. "Feel out your own Origin Energy. The Spirit Bones were sealed together with it inside each of you."
A Spirit Beast undergoing recultivation carried no usable Spirit Bones into the process. With no way to know what recultivation would bring, Huo Yuhao had naturally not taken that risk. But Spirit Bones could not simply be extracted the way the Blade of Life's Guardian a physical object could. Doing so carelessly would damage his cultivation. In the end, it was Electrolux who had devised the solution: seal the Spirit Bones together with his Origin Energy inside each of the three Spirit Souls excluding Skydream two Spirit Bones per Spirit Soul.
After all, this was the man who had once removed his own heart to resurrect Long Haochen. Preserving a few Spirit Bones, Electrolux had said, was nothing to speak of.
"You could have said so earlier." With Huo Yuhao's prompt, the Ice Empress reached inward, sensed the anomaly, and gave him a quietly reproachful look before arriving at her own understanding. "These Spirit Bones can merge back into you at any time, can't they?"
"Correct but there's no rush. My condition right now isn't suited to a rapid increase in spirit power over a short period."
As he spoke, Huo Yuhao was about to turn to the next page of the book in his hand when his Spiritual Detection caught movement downstairs. He set the book aside and headed for the ground floor.
An Ya had just pressed the doorbell when the door swung open and Huo Yuhao stepped out, which caught her off guard.
"Yuhao were you heading out?"
"No. I sensed you coming and came to open the door."
Huo Yuhao shook his head. "Sister An Ya, you don't have to come every day."
He had declined Hua Yichen's offer to arrange live-in caretakers but in their place, An Ya had taken to visiting daily, wearing the unmistakable expression of someone making sure their investment hadn't slipped out the back door overnight.
There was also a Spirit Douluo stationed discreetly nearby, watching over his safety.
All of it clearly arranged by Hua Yichen.
An Ya produced her most winning smile. "Yuhao, you're my rice bowl. If I take my eyes off you for a day and you disappear on me, I'm out of a job."
She had been promoted from Spirit Transmission Master to Spirit Soul Research Intern, with a concurrent secondary role. Or rather, primary role: Huo Yuhao's semi-guardian. Someone upstairs had presumably reasoned that since she was the one who had presided over his Martial Soul awakening, he would feel comfortable around her, and arranged things accordingly. An Ya had not objected. Cultivating a good relationship with a heaven's chosen who had not yet reached his full growth was the kind of investment that paid dividends for a lifetime.
Besides, compared to the difficult children she had dealt with before, Huo Yuhao was quiet, mature, and genuinely easy to be around.
"Besides, I have actual business today Tower Master asked me to bring you this."
An Ya produced a ring and handed it to him. "It's a storage ring. Fifty cubic meters of storage space. Inside are cultivation resources from the Tower Master, along with some soul tools."
Huo Yuhao took the ring and swept it with his spiritual power. What he saw made him raise an eyebrow.
...
Inside the storage ring An Ya had delivered was an extensive collection of cultivation resources rare heavenly materials for strengthening the body, and pills for advancing spirit power. Alongside these were a formal invitation and a soul-powered communicator, the latter already preloaded with contact information for Hua Yichen, An Ya, and other Tower personnel.
Of everything inside, Huo Yuhao's eyes went first to the four pills.
Three Spirit Elevation Pills and one Soul Enhancement Pill.
The Soul Enhancement Pill had existed ten thousand years ago Huo Yuhao even had its formula. It could raise a rank-thirty Spirit Master's spirit power by one rank, which translated to roughly three ranks' worth of advancement for someone below rank twenty. Each Spirit Master could only consume one such pill in their lifetime.
As for the Spirit Elevation Pills…
"Directly increases a Spirit Soul's age. Available exclusively to core members within the Spirit Transmission Tower. Each pill increases a Spirit Soul's age by one hundred years."
Huo Yuhao read the accompanying documentation tucked beside the pills and rubbed his temple.
The Spirit Elevation Platform had always been oriented toward outside factions. For the Tower's own core members who needed to increase their Spirit Soul's age, there was evidently a considerably more straightforward method available. The Platform, for them, was less a cultivation resource and more an instrument for tempering younger disciples.
No powerful organization kept its best tools on display for outsiders. That was true of every faction without exception.
Having examined the pills that interested him most, Huo Yuhao picked up the invitation next.
It was for the Eastsea Auction House scheduled one month from now. A catalogue of auction items was included. Huo Yuhao found it on the second-to-last page: Ten-Thousand-Year Whale Gelatin.
Whale Gelatin was a rare substance produced in the brain of whale-type Spirit Beasts. Its benefits to Spirit Masters were considerable strengthening the body and fortifying the muscles, bones, and meridians' capacity to bear greater loads.
Even a thousand-year Whale Gelatin of exceptional quality could raise a Spirit Master's Spirit Ring absorption threshold by five hundred years. The effect of a ten-thousand-year variety needed no elaboration.
Combined with the three Spirit Elevation Pills, Hua Yichen's intent could not have been clearer.
After all, from Hua Yichen's perspective, Huo Yuhao's first Spirit Soul was a seven-hundred-year Ice Silkworm.
Huo Yuhao shook his head with a quiet smile. "A power faction really is something different from an academy."
The Spirit Transmission Tower was a faction fundamentally different in nature from Shrek Academy. When it came to cultivating its own gifted members, it held nothing back.
Ten thousand years on, and he was finally getting a taste of what it meant to be treated as a true genius.
With these resources in hand, he would be able to make the gains from absorbing the Ice Empress's Spirit Ring and Spirit Bones look far less extraordinary than they would otherwise appear.