Douluo Continent: The Eye of Truth

Chapter 25 Eve of the Holiday

In the remaining semester after the formal class assignments, Huo Yuhao's cultivation gradually got on track. Apart from daily chores and unavoidable classes, Huo Yuhao spent almost all his time in the Shrek Academy's Soul Arena.

Because although only second-year students and above can participate in the Soul Arena competition at Shrek Academy, first-year students cannot freely challenge or arrange battles with others to engage in actual competition.

However, the spectator seats are open to students of all grades equally, except that a certain amount of gold soul coins is required to watch the game.

Huo Yuhao could have this part of the fee waived by using his status as a core disciple.

As core disciples, they are among the very few in each cohort of students.

With this identity, Huo Yuhao can enjoy a series of free foods at Shrek Academy, such as consuming nourishing foods made from the flesh and blood of low-level soul beasts, or exchanging for cultivation equipment and seeking special guidance from teachers.

There are also some additional privileges, such as the academy awarding scholarships to students every month. Although the amount of scholarships is not large, it can still be considered as an encouragement.

Meanwhile, some fixed facilities within the academy, such as the Soul Arena and the Beast Arena, can be freely entered or entered in advance by students with core student status, without paying tickets or making reservations.

Overall, having the status of a core disciple is quite convenient within Shrek Academy. Since the original owner of this body had already been targeted by Tang Buddha, Huo Yuhao didn't care too much anymore. After all, what he could get his hands on was what truly belonged to him.

For eight months, Huo Yuhao spent every day in the Soul Arena without participating in actual battles. Of course, due to the rules, Huo Yuhao himself was also unable to participate in battles in the Soul Arena.

However, most students from all grades knew about Huo Yuhao, since he was the only one who would come to the Soul Arena after school to hang out. Moreover, he always just watched without fighting or betting, which made him quite noticeable.

After being nourished and replenished by the flesh and blood of soul beasts, and combined with his improved cultivation techniques, with the continuous flow of soul power, he was able to further enhance his abilities.

Huo Yuhao's original body, which was thin and short due to malnutrition, has now been successfully restored. With sufficient nutrition and energy, he has even surpassed most of his peers.

After all, ordinary people don't have the ability to open up all the meridians in their body with their soul power, and nourish their bodies through a unified, self-circulating, and uninterrupted flow of soul power 24 hours a day.

With the widening and stabilization of his meridians, Huo Yuhao's cultivation talent has been greatly enhanced. In addition, with the existence of the soul power circulation, Huo Yuhao's cultivation speed is now no less efficient than that of soul masters who possess martial soul fusion skills.

After all, even the so-called Xuan Shui Dan, which is said to accelerate the cultivation speed of a Soul Master, is actually just a way to reduce impurities in the Soul Master's body by cleansing the marrow and refining the essence, thereby achieving a smoother, more efficient, and faster circulation of Soul Power.

After all his meridians were opened, Huo Yuhao's cultivation speed had long since overcome the disadvantages brought about by his innate physical deficiency of first-level innate soul power.

Of course, during this time, Huo Yuhao still managed to find time to go into the city and pawn his level-five soul tool, the White Tiger Dagger. With the money from the pawn, he used Bei Bei's connections to exchange it for a Xuan Shui Pill from Xu Sanshi.

Although Huo Yuhao no longer needs the so-called Profound Water Pill to assist his cultivation, he still needs to find a suitable reason and excuse for his cultivation speed.

With his current cultivation speed, the Xuan Tian Gong itself and the strangeness of his martial soul are no longer enough to conceal his abilities. Therefore, he needs some pills as a cover. As for whether others will have any doubts, he at least has a reason to deny it.

Of course, Huo Yuhao himself would not take the Xuan Shui Pill, because it was no longer necessary. Moreover, all medicines have some degree of toxicity, and Huo Yuhao was unaware of any other hidden dangers in the unsystematic pills of Douluo Continent.

Although he didn't eat it, he could still study it. Through the analysis of the Eye of Truth, Huo Yuhao easily analyzed the ingredients and effects of the Profound Water Pill.

By working backwards to deduce the refining method of the Profound Water Pill and gaining insight into the original pill system of the Douluo Continent, Huo Yuhao could then find an opportunity to sell the Profound Water Pill elsewhere, which would allow him to recoup his investment.

Although the Xuan Shui Dan is a unique pill of the Xuan Ming Sect and is extremely precious, it is only worth a fortune. Every year, a considerable number of these pills end up in various auctions across the continent, but their production is very limited.

As for why the White Tiger Dagger was pawned instead of sold, it's because all the shops, big and small, in Shrek City are actually considered Shrek Academy's property.

Huo Yuhao's status as a core disciple can be verified by certain Soul Master-related industries, such as auction houses or pawn shops.

Therefore, considering his status as a core disciple, the pawnshop staff offered Huo Yuhao a considerable discount. Moreover, the White Tiger Dagger was only pawned at the pawnshop, and Huo Yuhao could retrieve it as long as he raised the principal and interest later.

Whether Huo Yuhao will retrieve it or not is another matter.

Now, Huo Yuhao's soul power is measured through the Eye of Truth, and it is around level 23.

It should be noted that this level 23 was achieved solely through the entrusted cultivation of the Heavenly Dream Ice Silkworm, without using the Soul Ascension Pill or through cultivation involving Martial Soul Fusion with Wang Dong. Huo Yuhao's speed of soul power cultivation is already quite astonishing.

As Huo Yuhao continued his training, his cultivation speed only increased.

Because soul power flows through the whole body, completing the soul power circulation is only the first step. As the soul power circulation becomes smoother, the meridians on which the soul power is attached will become stronger and more suitable for the circulation of soul power.

Moreover, the level of the soul power circuit that Huo Yuhao constructs will become higher and higher, and the effect will become better and better.

At least before level 70, Huo Yuhao believed that his cultivation speed would only be faster than that of a Soul Master with full innate Soul Power of the same level, and not slower.

What happens next is really hard to say. After all, the next step after opening the meridians is to condense the soul core, but the soul core is definitely not something that can be accessed at the moment. Therefore, how to transition before condensing the soul core is something that Huo Yuhao needs to continue to study.

After watching yet another utterly boring match, Huo Yuhao stretched, stood up, and prepared to leave.

Having spent several months in the Soul Arena, Huo Yuhao had thoroughly investigated the martial soul structure, physical organization, soul power circulation routes, and soul skill composition methods of most of the Soul Masters participating in the battles using his Eye of Truth.

This also includes some Soul Masters who are merely spectators but do not personally participate in the battle.

After all, although they did not use soul skills, soul skills are integrated into the martial soul in the form of soul rings. By seeing through their martial souls, Huo Yuhao spent a little effort to "disassemble" their soul skills.

However, Huo Yuhao certainly didn't have high expectations for the students in this Soul Arena, since it was already close to the end of the semester.

Most students are preparing for the holidays and have no interest in staying at the academy to participate in the Soul Battle. Nowadays, the Soul Battle Arena is filled with familiar faces.

Whether it's their physical skills or their self-created soul skills, they have all been recorded by Huo Yuhao, making it difficult to innovate.

"Yuhao, why are you here alone again? Aren't you tired of watching Soul Fighting every day?"

Xiao Xiao and Wang Dong's voices came over. The two of them were carrying bags full of food and snacks, and it was clear that they had just come back from the food street outside Shrek Academy.

Wang Dong naturally handed the snack in his hand to Huo Yuhao. Huo Yuhao took it casually, ate a few bites, and said, "Even the slightest tactical change can open up new directions and possibilities. How can coming here to find inspiration be considered boring for me?"

Having been in the same team during the previous freshman assessment, and having joined the Tang Sect together, Huo Yuhao, Xiao Xiao, and Wang Dong's friendship has grown even closer over the past eight months.

"Yuhao, you're level 20 now. Have you submitted a Soul Hunting application to Director Du? What's your target Soul Beast?" Wang Dong asked curiously.

"I submitted it a couple of days ago, but because it's close to the end of the semester, Director Du assigned me to the Soul Hunting Team for the final exams."

"It depends on luck. Currently, the confirmed ones are the Illusionary Eye Moth, whose innate soul skill is a mental illusion, or the Big-Headed Spirit Ape, which has soul skills such as mental amplification and concentration. I still prefer amplification-type soul skills among the first few soul skills."

"But after all, spirit-attribute soul beasts are really rare. If I really come across a suitable one, I probably won't be too picky," Huo Yuhao shrugged and said nonchalantly.

For him, the choice of soul skills was not that important, because from the beginning he never intended to rely on the nine soul skills of a Soul Master, who at most could only be a Title Douluo, to form his own combat system.

Before you have the ability to condense your own spirit rings, or before you are qualified to demonstrate the technique of condensing your own spirit rings, you can follow the laws of Douluo Star and randomly select a few spirit beast spirit rings that are not too outrageous to break through.

As long as Huo Yuhao has enough mental and spiritual power, he can freely create various soul power circuits and construct skill systems suitable for different battles by analyzing soul skills and soul guidance core arrays.

So if we have to say, the soul rings and soul skills attached to the main body's martial soul would be more suitable for Huo Yuhao if they were amplification type rather than function type soul skills.

Hearing this, Wang Dong nodded: "However, the entrance exam in the second year is a real-world test. Are you sure it's okay if you choose an amplification type for your second soul skill?"

Huo Yuhao shook his head: "If you choose your future just for the sake of exams, then you've put the cart before the horse. Exams can only be seen as a testament to your chosen path."

"If you already have a clear plan for your future, you shouldn't use so-called exams to constrain yourself or even distort your direction."

"Everyone knows that the later a Soul Master's cultivation progresses, the more the offensive and defensive Soul Skills attached to Hundred-Year Soul Rings and Thousand-Year Soul Rings become, and they even start to become useless."

"On the contrary, amplification soul skills that are not very useful in the early stages and have weak functionality may shine, since soul skills themselves will be strengthened as the user's soul power increases."

"As for offensive and defensive soul skills, Soul Saints, Soul Douluos, and Title Douluos often have better superior alternatives among their ten-thousand-year soul skills, so they naturally won't waste their soul power to use those low-level soul skills."

"However, amplification soul skills are different. The further you go, the more significant each point of amplification can be, the more it can widen the gap in strength between soul masters."

"And all you have to pay for this is a relatively weak transition period in the early stages. Now that soul tools have been introduced, think about it carefully: is it really necessary to choose an attack or defense soul skill that takes a hundred or a thousand years to develop, just in pursuit of immediate combat power?"

"Wouldn't it be better to spend a little money to buy a decent soul tool to arm yourself as a transition?"

"Although the acquisition of soul skills depends on luck to some extent, the source of the soul beasts that produce them can also largely determine the soul skills that a soul master obtains, which can be proven by a large amount of data."

"That's my opinion. It's getting late, let's head back soon, or would you like to go out for dinner?"

"The holidays are almost here, and we'll be separated soon. Anyway, I'm pretty confident about the entrance exams in the second semester. No matter what, passing shouldn't be a problem."

"Let's go, let's go! Of course we have to go out to eat! It's almost vacation time, so Huo Yuhao has to treat us this time!" Wang Dong's eyes lit up, and he quickly pushed Huo Yuhao towards the outside of Shrek Academy.

Xiao Xiao hurriedly followed and walked alongside them.

"Finally, I have the chance to fleece you! Hahaha, this grandpa is going to eat my fill this time!"

"Wang Dong, you never eat as much as Yuhao. Yuhao is already a head taller than you. How dare you say that?"

"What are you talking about! I just didn't show my strength before."

As the sun set, the three figures gradually disappeared into the brightly lit streets of Shrek City.

The three of them, including Huo Yuhao, are only twelve years old in physical age. Their carefree youth will only last for a few years, and it will pass in the blink of an eye if they are not careful.

Now, all three of them cherish this hard-won youthful period and the pure friendship between them.

(End of this chapter)