The silence in the Dragon's Soul Arena was a thick, suffocating blanket. The roar of the crowd had died in their throats, replaced by a collective, stunned stillness. On the vast, circular stage, a tableau of impossible victory was frozen in time. The arrogant heir of the Heavenly Dragon Sect, Yu Tianji, stood with the tip of an ice spear resting delicately against his throat, his face a mask of pale, sweat-beaded terror. Opposite him, the boy who should have been an insignificant gnat stood as a monarch in his own frozen kingdom, his calm blue eyes holding the cold, ancient authority of a glacier.
Huo Yuhao withdrew the ice spear, letting it dissolve into a faint, cool mist that dissipated in the air. The Perpetual Ice Domain receded, the swirling snow vanishing, the thick layer of ice on the stage slowly melting back into water under the warm midday sun. The oppressive cold lifted, but a different kind of chill remained in the hearts of everyone who had witnessed the duel.
Yu Tianji stumbled backwards, his legs weak, and collapsed onto the damp stage in a heap of defeated pride and shattered arrogance. His two followers rushed onto the stage, their faces a mixture of fear and fury, helping their fallen master to his feet.
Huo Yuhao paid them no mind. He turned his back on his defeated opponent and walked calmly towards the edge of the stage, his gaze already fixed on the administrative chamber where his winnings awaited. The duel was over. The business was concluded.
He descended the stairs, the crowd parting before him like the sea before a prophet. No one cheered, no one jeered. They just stared, their eyes filled with a new, profound respect and a healthy dose of fear. Who was this boy? Where did this monster of a Soul Grandmaster come from?
Jin Xi and Xue Nu met him at the bottom of the stairs. Jin Xi's veiled face was tilted upwards, her ruby eyes sparkling with a possessive pride that was almost blinding.
"Well done, my little craftsman," she purred, her voice a low, satisfied hum as she linked her arm through his. "You were magnificent. The look on that arrogant lizard's face when his little lightning tickle went out… it was priceless. I believe that soul bone is thoroughly earned."
Xue Nu offered a rare, genuine smile, her serene sky-blue eyes holding a flicker of warm approval. "Your control of the Ultimate Ice attribute is becoming formidable, Yuhao. You have honored the power the Ice Empress has bestowed upon you."
Inside his Spiritual Sea, the two Soul Spirits in question were having a very different reaction.
'Did you see that?! Did you see it, Bingbing?!' Skydream's spiritual form was practically vibrating with vicarious triumph. 'My Imitation skill! It was flawless! We fooled them all! They thought they were facing two measly yellow rings! And then BAM! Ultimate Ice! A domain! He crushed that flashy lightning lizard like a frozen grape! My plan of creating him a god and ascending to godhood with him is a work of absolute genius! This boy is a great talent!'
The Ice Empress's ethereal form was a study in cold, regal composure, but Huo Yuhao could feel a distinct, almost imperceptible tremor of satisfaction from her. 'The boy has potential,' she conceded, her mental voice a cool, smooth current. 'His control is still crude, his power unrefined. But he did not hesitate. He did not falter. He used the abilities I granted him with… adequacy. It was a sufficient display.'
Coming from the proud Ice Empress, this was the highest praise imaginable.
They reached the doors of the administrative chamber. The wizened Soul Sage elder was waiting for them, his face pale, his hands trembling slightly. He looked at Huo Yuhao not as a child, but as an unknown variable of immense power, a potential storm on the horizon of his city.
'By the heavens,' the elder thought, his mind racing as he gestured them inside. 'I have presided over this arena for sixty years. I have seen Soul Kings and Soul Emperors battle. But I have never… never seen anything like that. A Soul Grandmaster with only two soul rings, yet possessing an Ultimate attribute. And a Domain-type ability? That is a power reserved for Soul Kings or Soul Emperor at the very least! A power that can change tides on a battlefield.'
His gaze flickered to the two veiled women who stood at the boy's side, their auras calm but deep as the sea. They had shown no surprise, no shock at the boy's display. They had expected it.
'This boy is no simple traveler,' the elder's mind concluded with a chilling certainty. 'That Class 7 Invincible Barrier was not a lucky find. It was his. And to wager it so casually… he either has more treasures just as valuable, or he was so supremely confident in his victory that he knew there was no risk. What kind of background could possibly produce such a monster?'
He considered, for a fleeting, foolish moment, the idea of refusing the wager. Yu Tianji was the heir of the Heavenly Dragon Sect, a pillar of Dragon City. To anger them would bring endless trouble to the arena, to himself.
Then, he looked into Huo Yuhao's calm, blue eyes, and that thought evaporated like mist in the sun. 'To anger the Heavenly Dragon Sect is to invite a political storm. To anger whatever hidden behemoth stands behind this boy… that is to invite annihilation. No. My arena is neutral. The wager was made. The wager will be honored. I will not involve myself in the wars of monsters.'
With a deep, respectful bow that startled his attendants, the elder retrieved the sealed container. He opened it with a special key, the potent auras of the two treasures within spilling out into the room.
He carefully, reverently, pushed the two items across the polished table towards Huo Yuhao.
"A victory well-earned, Young Master," the elder said, his voice imbued with a new, profound respect. "The spoils are yours."
Huo Yuhao nodded calmly. He first picked up the Invincible Barrier, the Class 7 Soul Tool he had wagered. Its familiar, steady power was a comforting weight in his hand. He then reached for the prize.
The moment his fingers touched the Solar Flame Devourer Dragon torso bone, a wave of gentle, sun-like warmth washed over him. He felt a deep, primal thrum of power from within it, a resonance of draconic might. He could feel Jin Xi's entire body tense beside him, her ruby eyes fixed on the bone with an almost hypnotic intensity.
He carefully placed both items into his high-grade storage pouch, the one taken from the fallen Titled Douluo. The business was concluded.
"Thank you for your impartiality, Elder," Huo Yuhao said with a polite nod.
"Of course, Young Master. The Dragon's Soul Arena prides itself on its integrity," the elder replied, bowing again.
As they turned to leave, the heavy wooden doors of the chamber burst open. Two young men in the red and gold of the Heavenly Dragon Sect, the same two who had followed Yu Tianji into the restaurant, stood there, their faces flushed with a mixture of anger and desperation.
"Wait!" the leader of the two followers snapped, his voice sharp and demanding. He pointed a trembling finger at Huo Yuhao. "You! That Soul Bone… you cannot take it! It is a treasure of our Senior Brother Tianji! It was a gift from his father, the Third Elder! You must leave it behind!"
Huo Yuhao stopped, turning slowly to face them. His expression was a calm, placid lake, but deep beneath the surface, a cold current was stirring.
"It was a wager," Huo Yuhao stated simply, his voice flat. "A wager he proposed. A wager he lost. The bone is mine."
"You think we will allow you to just walk away with a treasure of the Heavenly Dragon Sect?" the second follower sneered, trying to muster a bravado he clearly did not feel. "If you take that bone, you will be making an enemy of our entire sect! We will hunt you to the ends of the continent! You will know no peace!"
Jin Xi let out a sound that was halfway between a laugh and a predatory growl. "Are you threatening him? You, a pair of insignificant little lizards, are threatening my Yuhao?" A flicker of gold flashed in her eyes, and the two disciples felt a sudden, crushing pressure that made their knees weak.
Huo Yuhao raised a calming hand, silencing her. He looked at the two blustering, terrified disciples. He saw not a threat, but a minor, buzzing annoyance. He gave them a cold, dismissive smile.
"If the Heavenly Dragon Sect wishes to pursue me," he said, his voice a quiet, chilling whisper that cut through their bravado. "Then tell them… to do their best."
With that, he turned his back on them and walked out of the chamber, his two companions following in his wake, leaving the two disciples sputtering in a cloud of impotent fury and the arena elder sighing with the weary resignation of a man who could see a great storm brewing on the horizon.
They emerged from the echoing stone halls of the arena and back into the bright, chaotic sunlight of Dragon City. The crowd was still buzzing, their voices a low hum of speculation and awe, all focused on the mysterious young victor.
"We should leave the city now," Huo Yuhao said, his voice low as they walked, his pace quick and purposeful. "The followers will report back to their elders. Yu Tianji's father, the Third Elder, is a Soul Douluo. He will not take the humiliation of his son and the loss of a precious Soul Bone lightly. He will act, and he will act quickly."
"Hmph. Let him come," Jin Xi muttered, her hand still resting possessively on his arm. "I'd like to see him try to take back what is rightfully mine… I mean, yours."
"Her anger is understandable, Yuhao," Xue Nu added, her serene voice a calm counterpoint. "But your caution is wise. A direct confrontation with the leadership of a major sect within their own city is… strategically disadvantageous. It would be best to avoid it."
"My thoughts exactly," Huo Yuhao agreed. "We will head for the eastern gate. It leads to a dense forest. Once we are there, Xi'er's aura will protect us from the beasts, and it will be much harder for them to track us. From there, we can loop back south, towards Heaven Dou City. They won't expect us to double back."
His plan was sound, his mind already three steps ahead. They moved swiftly through the crowded streets, their new, elegant clothes making them stand out, yet their purposeful pace discouraging anyone from approaching. They were like three beautiful, dangerous currents flowing through the stagnant pond of the city.
They were less than a hundred meters from the towering arches of the eastern gate when the world seemed to slow.
The air grew thick, heavy, charged with an immense, oppressive power. The casual chatter of the street died away, replaced by a sudden, fearful silence. The very spiritual energy of the world, which had been a chaotic hum, now resonated with a single, furious, and draconic chord.
Ten figures descended from the sky, landing before the city gate with a force that cracked the stone paving, their bodies wreathed in the potent, intimidating auras of immense power. They formed a solid, unbreachable wall, blocking the path of escape.
Their leader was a man in his late middle-ages, his face a thunderous mask of pure, unadulterated rage. He had the same handsome, hawkish features as Yu Tianji, but they were hardened by age and absolute authority. A terrifying pressure, the unmistakable might of a Soul Douluo, radiated from him in palpable waves. This was Yu Tianji's father, the Third Elder of the Heavenly Dragon Sect.
Behind him stood nine other men, their faces grim and set. Two of them were also Soul Douluo, their auras deep and powerful. The other seven were all at the peak of the Soul Sage level, their seven rings—two yellow, two purple, three black—circling their bodies, a clear and undeniable statement of their sect's might.
They had brought out the heavy artillery. An entire elite enforcement squad, a power that could level a small city, had been dispatched to deal with a single boy.
"You," the Third Elder's voice was a low, rumbling growl, a promise of imminent violence. He pointed a trembling finger at Huo Yuhao, his eyes blazing with a father's fury. "You are the one who humiliated my son? You are the one who dared to steal a treasure of my Heavenly Dragon Sect?"
Huo Yuhao calmly met the Soul Douluo's enraged gaze. He stepped forward slightly, placing himself in front of his two companions.
"It was a fair duel," he stated simply, his voice steady. "And an honorable wager. Your son lost. There was no theft."
"A fair duel?!" the elder roared, his Soul Power flaring, making the air shimmer around him. "You think you can hide behind the rules of an arena after what you have done? You will hand over that Soul Bone now, and then you will come with me to kneel before my son and beg for his forgiveness. If he is feeling merciful, he might allow you to live… as a cripple."
The threat was absolute. There was no room for negotiation, no chance of a peaceful resolution.
Huo Yuhao let out a soft, almost pitying sigh. He turned his head slightly, his gaze meeting Xue Nu's calm, sky-blue eyes.
"It seems our journey has been delayed," he said, his voice quiet. "These men will be a persistent annoyance if we do not deal with them now."
He paused, a cold, hard resolve settling in his own eyes. "Xue Nu," he commanded, his voice no longer that of a boy, but of a leader giving an order to his most powerful general. "Freeze them. Do not kill them. I do not wish for an all-out war with their entire sect. But ensure they are… incapacitated. Make certain they cannot follow us."
Xue Nu gave a single, elegant nod. "As you wish."
She took a step forward, her serene presence a stark, beautiful contrast to the ten furious, powerful men before her.
The Third Elder let out a contemptuous laugh. "You send a woman to fight for you, boy? Her beauty is great, but it will not save you from my wrath!"
He and the other nine elders were about to unleash their Martial Souls, to overwhelm these three insolent youths with a tidal wave of draconic power.
They never got the chance.
Xue Nu raised a slender, pale hand. A power, so immense, so absolute, so fundamentally superior to their own, erupted from her.
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven…
Seven soul rings, each a brilliant, terrifying, soul-chilling blood-red, materialized around her, their light painting the faces of the elders in a crimson hue of dawning horror.
And then, an eighth ring appeared.
An orange-gold ring. A color that did not exist in their understanding of the world, yet its pressure was more profound, more terrifying, than any ring they had ever seen or imagined.
"A… all… hundred-thousand-year rings?!" the Third Elder stammered, his fury instantly extinguished, replaced by a mind-shattering, existential terror. "And… and what is that eighth ring? Impossible!"
The other elders were frozen in place, their minds unable to process the sight before them. This was not a Soul Master. This was a monster. A god. A legend made manifest.
Xue Nu did not give them time to recover from their shock.
"Fourth Soul Skill: Snowy Dance of Ultimate Ice."
Her fourth, blood-red ring flared. The world went white.
The domain exploded outwards. The temperature at the city gate plummeted to absolute zero. A furious blizzard of shimmering, razor-sharp snowflakes erupted, instantly engulfing the ten elders. Their vision vanished, their spiritual senses were scrambled by the swirling chaos of Ultimate Ice. They couldn't see, they couldn't hear, they couldn't even sense the person standing right next to them. They were trapped in a world of blinding white and soul-freezing cold.
'Ah, the Snowy Dance,' the Ice Empress's voice echoed in Huo Yuhao's mind, filled with a nostalgic, sisterly pride. 'One of her three ultimate skills. So beautiful, and so utterly lethal. It has been a long time since I have seen it.'
The elders roared, unleashing their Soul Power in desperate, blind bursts, trying to fight their way out of the blizzard. It was useless. The snowflakes, each one infused with the power of Ultimate Ice, tore at their defensive soul barriers, draining their energy at a terrifying rate.
Xue Nu moved within the heart of her own storm, an untouchable, graceful phantom. Her first three soul rings, all a brilliant red, pulsed in a quick, elegant sequence as she prepared her final blow.
"First Soul Skill: Winter's Kiss," she whispered. A fine, glittering frost settled over the elders, not harming them, but making them sluggish, their movements clumsy and slow.
"Second Soul Skill: Glacial Path." The ground beneath their feet turned into a surface of impossibly slick, frictionless ice, their stances broken, their footing treacherous.
"Third Soul Skill: Empress's Gaze." She focused her will, and a wave of pure, regal spiritual pressure slammed into the ten men, staggering their minds, leaving them momentarily dazed and disoriented.
They were now slow, clumsy, and confused, trapped in a blinding blizzard of absolute cold. They were lambs for the slaughter.
Xue Nu raised her left hand, her expression serene, her movements as elegant as a dancer's. Her fifth soul ring, another blood-red marvel, flared with a soft, final light.
"Fifth Soul Skill: Empress' Palm."
All the ice in the air, all the swirling snow of her domain, all the profound cold of her very being, was instantly drawn into her slender, pale hand. It did not form a weapon. Her palm simply began to glow with a gentle, white light, a light so pure and so cold it seemed to absorb all other light around it.
She moved.
Her speed was a blur, even within the disorienting storm. She appeared before the first Soul Sage. Before he could even register her presence, her glowing palm gently, almost tenderly, touched his chest.
The effect was instantaneous and absolute.
The man froze. His eyes went wide, and then the light within them simply… went out. He did not turn to ice. He was not encased in it. He just… stopped. Every cell, every atom, every wisp of Soul Power and spiritual energy in his body was brought to a state of absolute zero, a perfect, crystalline stasis. He became a lifelike statue, his expression of dawning horror frozen for eternity.
Xue Nu moved to the next. And the next.
It was a silent, graceful dance of death. A touch, a flash of white light, and another powerful Soul Sage would be reduced to a perfect, frozen sculpture.
The three Soul Douluo, including the Third Elder, were the last. They felt their comrades' auras vanishing one by one, and a terror so profound it eclipsed all reason took hold. The Third Elder roared, unleashing a desperate, blind torrent of Blue Lightning from his body.
Xue Nu simply drifted through it, the violent lightning parting around her as if she were a ghost, her Empress' Palm untouched. She gently touched the Third Elder's chest. His furious roar was cut off mid-syllable. His powerful, raging body became a silent, frozen monument to his own arrogance.
In less than ten seconds, the battle was over. The blizzard subsided. The Snowy Dance of Ultimate Ice faded, leaving behind a clear, cold sky.
On the ground before the city gate stood ten perfect, lifelike statues of powerful Soul Masters, each one frozen in a posture of battle or terror, their expressions a permanent testament to their final, horrifying moments. They were not dead. Their life signs were still present, locked in a stasis from which they could not escape. Only an external force of equal or greater power could hope to thaw them.
The entire area was silent. The few city guards and civilians who had witnessed the impossible event from a safe distance were staring, their mouths agape, their minds completely broken by what they had just seen.
Huo Yuhao let out a breath he didn't realize he had been holding. He looked at Xue Nu, at the serene, elegant woman who had just effortlessly neutralized ten of the continent's elite masters, and felt a profound sense of awe.
"We should go," he said, his voice quiet, pulling them all back to the present. "It won't be long before the main sect realizes their enforcement squad is… unresponsive. The Patriarch of the Heavenly Dragon Sect is a Titled Douluo. I would rather not test your strength against one of his level today, Xue Nu."
She simply nodded, her expression once again one of tranquil calm, as if she had just been arranging flowers, not freezing the souls of powerful men.
With a final glance at the frozen statues, a grim warning left for all of Dragon City to see, the trio turned. They did not walk. They ran.
They shot past the stunned guards at the city gate, their forms a blur of motion, and disappeared into the dense, welcoming shadows of the eastern forest. The hunt was on, but for now, the prey had escaped the trap, leaving the hunters frozen in their tracks. Their path now led south, back towards the relative safety and anonymity of Heaven Dou City, their pockets full, their power proven, and their strange, wonderful journey just beginning.