Douluo Continent: Starting by controlling the Holy Maiden of the Holy Spirit Cult

Chapter 3 I, Huo Yuhao, possess the potential to become a god.

"The Holy Spirit Cult!"

Huo Yuhao was shocked. He never expected that people from the Holy Spirit Cult would appear in this place, and that they would be high-ranking members of the Holy Spirit Cult!

The Holy Spirit Cult is one of the absolute final villains in the original work. Even from Huo Yuhao's perspective of modern social values, these guys cannot be whitewashed. Heaven knows how many murders this organization, composed of pure evil soul masters, has committed over the years.

Based on the negative information about Tang Shenwang in the original work, the emergence of the Holy Spirit Cult is closely related to Tang Shenwang's early destruction of a secret realm called the City of Slaughter. Without the City of Slaughter, an easy prison for evil spirit masters to enter but difficult to leave, evil spirit masters began to operate throughout the continent. The Angelic Martial Soul, which inherited the sacred attribute in the Spirit Hall ten thousand years ago, was the greatest nemesis of evil spirit masters. However, it lost its divine status in the final battle with Tang Shenwang. The number of Angelic Martial Soul inheritors who have survived is extremely small, and some have even degenerated from the divine-level Martial Soul of the Six-Winged Angel, capable of achieving godhood, into ordinary top-tier Martial Souls like the Holy Angel and the Prayer Angel, possessing only some sacred attributes or simple healing abilities.

The times have shaped you. You may not seek to benefit the common people, but at least you cannot bring disaster to the masses.

Reading books is one thing, but actually facing them is another. Even though the Douluo World is considered to be at the bottom of the fantasy world in terms of combat power, Huo Yuhao is still not much of a match for the black-clad man in front of him, who is likely Zhongli Wu, the leader of the Holy Spirit Cult, unless he has a nuclear weapon that has also traveled through time with him.

"Junior Huo Yuanjia, may I ask your name, senior?" Huo Yuhao could only silently inquire about the Tang God King and Tang Ritian's family genealogy, his mind racing, and he calmly gave a false name.

"Not bad, not bad. My surname is Zhongli. I never expected that this trip would bring such a big surprise to our sect." The man in black patted Huo Yuhao's shoulder and clicked his tongue in praise.

"It really is you, you old bastard!" Huo Yuhao sighed inwardly. He never expected to fall into the hands of the big boss. He hoped that he could escape the clutches of this old devil as soon as possible and not be brainwashed by the Holy Spirit Cult into a human being that was neither human nor ghost.

"May I ask, senior, why was I called an evil soul master just now? But my martial soul is just a pair of eyes." Huo Yuhao was genuinely puzzled. The timeline of Huo Yuhao learning necromancy from Ilex in the original story was clearly a year earlier. Apart from the fact that his spirit eye had strangely absorbed a large number of souls just now, his current abilities probably didn't deserve the title of Holy Son of the Holy Spirit Cult. At most, he could be considered half an ordinary evil soul master.

"It's not surprising that the Holy Son is still inexperienced and doesn't know how to assess his own strength." Zhongli Wu seemed quite satisfied with the young man before him, and he became more talkative without realizing it. "The Holy Son's martial soul is a second awakening. I have had the good fortune to hear of geniuses with full innate soul power, and I also know of the legendary peerless prodigies at the innate level 20. However, the innate level 30, which is beyond the comprehension of ordinary people, is something I have only witnessed today."

Innate level 30 soul power? Huo Yuhao was completely confused. He clearly felt that he should only have level 10 soul power.

"You haven't cultivated your soul power for very long, so you can't sense your actual strength. Ancient records from the Spirit Hall state that soul power cultivation doesn't stop because you haven't acquired a soul ring; it continues to accumulate. Your innate soul power exceeds the level 20 limit for godhood, so your spirit has given birth to a self-generated soul ring—the first of its kind in tens of thousands of years. You only need to hunt a suitable soul beast, and this self-generated soul ring will become a truly powerful soul ring with skills, matching your absorption time limit." Zhongli Wu patiently explained to Huo Yuhao. At this point, he couldn't help but praise Huo Yuhao: "Truly worthy of being our sect's holy son, you have the potential to become a god!"

Just as the two were talking, those evil soul masters at the Title Douluo level had already eliminated all the members of the Shrek Supervision Group, leaving only the "Holy Maiden" Ma Xiaotao, who was engulfed in evil flames and unconscious.

Compared to when Huo Gua first met her in the original novel, Ma Xiaotao's stunning beauty still showed a hint of immaturity, and she was still the fiery little devil.

"The Holy Maiden possesses a rare Evil Fire Phoenix Martial Soul. With just a little spiritual guidance from the Holy Son, her evil nature can be completely transformed into a world-destroying Dark Phoenix. The first generation of Shrek Academy actually inherited this Martial Soul." Zhong Liwu grabbed Ma Xiaotao's fair wrist to feel it, then sneered.

Huo Yuhao stood beside Zhongli Wu, looking at the unconscious Ma Xiaotao without saying a word. He still had some goodwill towards this girl who was Huo Gua's sister in the original story and who ultimately took over Huo Gua's burden in the mortal world without hesitation. However, the fact that this crazy woman had tried to kill him just now made that goodwill vanish instantly.

If given the opportunity to communicate normally with Ma Xiaotao, he wouldn't mind trying to win her over, since her talent was quite rare even during the Douluo Continent II: The Legend of the Condor Heroes era.

"Holy Son, let's go back, back to the place that belongs only to us."

"Let the seniors arrange things as they see fit."

-

As described in the original work, the Holy Spirit Cult has an extremely complex relationship with the high-ranking officials of the Sun Moon Empire. Zhongli Wu is even equipped with a high-level flying soul tool from the Mingde Hall, which greatly facilitates the travel of Zhongli Wu and his group.

Huo Yuhao sat obediently inside the windproof shield of the flying soul tool. In his previous life, he had traveled by plane quite often, so he didn't have much of a problem with the flying machine in this other world. He looked quite content, which made Zhongli Wu and the others who had been observing him secretly admire him.

Super Douluo's flight speed, equipped with a flying soul tool, is extremely fast, comparable to the supersonic speed of special forces fighter jets in his previous life. The development of soul tools is indeed very fast. No wonder that by the time of Dragon King Legend, even mecha and Gundam-like things had appeared, Huo Yuhao thought to himself.

Through casual conversations with Zhongli Wu and others, Huo Yuhao also used his past life's rhetoric to elicit the reason why the Holy Spirit Cult leader appeared in the Star Luo Empire.

The Sun Moon Empire's army was stationed in the Mingdou Mountains, facing off against the Star Luo Empire's army led by Duke Baihu. Duke Baihu's formidable military leadership caused the Sun Moon Empire's army a lot of trouble. Zhong Liwu and his group's goal was to infiltrate the Star Luo Empire and try to capture Duke Baihu's relatives and friends as hostages, so as to catch Duke Baihu off guard in the event of a future war.

In the original novel, after Huo Gua left the Duke's mansion, the Duchess died young. In fact, it was the Holy Spirit Cult that secretly interfered, intending to distract the White Tiger Duke from the war. This point was not described in detail in the original text, but was simply mentioned by Dai Huabin. I didn't expect there to be such an inside story.

Unfortunately, the grand Duke's mansion was reduced to ruins by Huo Yuhao's art, and the Duchess, having repeatedly confirmed she hadn't left before Huo Yuhao's actions, successfully became nourishment for Huo Yuhao's Spirit Eye Martial Soul. Therefore, Zhongli Wu and his group's operation was a failure. Of course, this excludes Huo Yuhao and Ma Xiaotao, who were the only ones who benefited.

The forest before them was located further north, and as far as the eye could see, it was mostly coniferous forest. Moreover, from the air, one could see that many branches and leaves within this coniferous forest were dark gray, a dense, black mass, the lush forest presenting a color range from dark green to pitch black. Only this forest on the entire continent possessed such characteristics. Because this was the Demon Forest! Even before entering, a sense of oppression was already overwhelming.

The Demon Forest—without a doubt, Zhongli Wu had reached his destination. Any Soul Master with a modicum of common sense wouldn't attempt to fly over a forest teeming with Soul Beasts; that would be tantamount to suicide. However, Zhongli Wu and his group, confident in their strength, directly traversed the dense forest. Huo Yuhao was carried along, slowly descending from the sky until they landed on the ground.

Yes, the headquarters of the Holy Spirit Cult is located in the Demon Forest. If Huo Yuhao hadn't known this beforehand through his God-like perspective, no one could imagine that the Holy Spirit Cult headquarters, located underground on the outskirts of the Demon Forest, is a building that can almost be described as a palace. What an engineering feat this is!

Moreover, the Demon Forest holds a position in the Sun Moon Empire similar to that of the Star Dou Great Forest on the Douluo Continent. It is home to the Sun Moon Empire's most powerful soul beasts, including the Evil Eye Tyrant, ranked second among the ten most ferocious beasts in the world.

In the original work, Huo Gua obtained his seventh spirit ring from this place. At that time, he killed an Evil Eye Tyrant with 100,000 years of cultivation. Later, he was discovered by the Evil Eye Tyrant Ruler and could be said to have narrowly escaped death.

"Welcome, Lord Cult Master." The evil soul masters who had been lurking here had noticed Huo Yuhao and his group. When they saw Zhongli Wu and the others at the head, they quickly stepped forward to greet them.

"Send the order: everyone in the Holy Spirit Temple, assemble and join me in welcoming and cleansing the home of the Holy Son and Holy Daughter!"

(End of this chapter)