Douluo Continent: I, Huo Yuhao, am the Master of Spirit

Chapter 8 Heavenly Soul Empire
"Brother Danzo, we're about to enter the Heavenly Soul Empire," a young merchant guild guard reminded Huo Yuhao enthusiastically.

Huo Yuhao rode a tall white-scaled horse, with a simple balancing soul tool installed on its back, allowing even a novice like Huo Yuhao to easily control the horse.

During this time, Huo Yuhao successfully became acquainted with some members of the Dingyi Chamber of Commerce.

These chamber of commerce members frequently travel between the original Douluo Three Kingdoms, and some have even been to the Sun Moon Empire.

They knew most of the mainland, including many places that were not described in detail in the original work.

For example, in the central part of the Star Luo Empire, there are the Tiger Fury Mountains, the Tiger Might Mountains, and the Tiger Roar Mountains. These three mountain ranges form a core delta, which is an important gathering place for soul beasts in the Star Luo Empire, mainly tiger-type soul beasts.

To the south of Beiming City, where they were located, lay a vast mountain range known as the Disaster Mountain Range, which consisted of the Disaster Mountain Range and the Cataclysm Mountain Range.

That mountain range is prone to various natural disasters throughout the year. It is said that a Soul Master once ventured deep into that mountain range and encountered a peculiar lion-dog-like Soul Beast.

The soul beast was six meters long, covered in brilliant golden fur, and shaped like a giant lion, but its face was a black dog-like face like that of a demon.

That Soul Master was a level 96 Super Douluo, whose Martial Soul was the Terror Armor Rock Bear. Judging from the name, you could tell that he was a Title Douluo who excelled in strength.

In his perception, this soul beast was only 30,000 years old, and with his Super Douluo cultivation, he could easily kill it.

So at first he didn't take this soul beast seriously and just released soul power fluctuations in an attempt to force it back.

Unexpectedly, this angered the other party, and the soul beast unleashed its unique domain. Within the domain, it lost its mind and clashed head-on with this Super Douluo.

Incredibly, this Super Douluo was severely injured by the opponent, and half of his body was almost blasted into mincemeat by some kind of enormous force.

If it weren't for his soul bone skill that allows him to teleport long distances, he probably would have really died there.

After that, virtually no high-level Soul Masters ventured into that mountain range.

The guild member who told Huo Yuhao this story said that it was best to just listen to it, because the story was too old and its authenticity could not be verified. Many people did not believe that a 30,000-year-old soul beast could defeat a Super Douluo.

Furthermore, that spirit beast lacked dragon-like characteristics, indicating it didn't possess dragon blood. How could a lion-dog type spirit beast accomplish something even dragons would find difficult?

However, Huo Yuhao knew that this story was probably true.

Upon hearing the description of the spirit beast, he realized that it was the golden-haired lion mastiff, an extinct spirit beast from the Legend of the Dragon King.

The golden-haired lion mastiff is the ancestor of all canine spirit beasts. In the original work, Tang Wulin, who was level 90 and had the bloodline of the Golden Dragon King, was almost killed by a ten-thousand-year-old golden-haired lion mastiff, which shows how powerful this kind of spirit beast is.

This was precisely Huo Yuhao's purpose in getting acquainted with these chamber of commerce members: to learn about the various secrets of the continent and extract useful intelligence from them.

For example, he now knows that there is a golden lion mastiff that is over 30,000 years old in the Cataclysmic Mountain Range. If he needs it in the future, he won't have to run around everywhere.

Soon, the convoy passed through the North Bright Canyon ahead, and on the other side of the canyon lay the territory of the Heavenly Soul Empire.

During his journey through the canyon, Huo Yuhao saw many abandoned military fortifications. Judging from the degree of oxidation and damage to the metal, they had probably not been maintained for thousands of years.

Huo Yuhao turned around and asked the enthusiastic merchant guild guard, "Brother Li, this place should be a strategic location as it is the border between Tianhun and Xingluo. Why are these fortifications so dilapidated?"

"And there isn't a single army stationed on either side of the canyon?"

Upon hearing Huo Yuhao's question, Li Fei pointed to the west and said, "Brother Danzo, you may not know this, but almost all of the Star Luo army is currently located in the Mingdou Mountains."

"Only some key passages along the border with the Heavenly Soul Empire are military camps set up."

"The high-level military preparedness against the Heavenly Soul Empire was lifted a thousand years ago. It is said that it was the powerful figures from Shrek Academy who persuaded them to focus their efforts on defending against the Sun and Moon Empires."

Huo Yuhao nodded thoughtfully.

Leaving the Beiming Canyon, a vast expanse of lush grassland comes into view.

The green waves surged and rolled in the wind, with a few unknown butterfly-like spirit beasts occasionally fluttering among the leaves, like stars leaping from the blue waves.

Huo Yuhao, who had never seen such a sight in his previous life, was stunned. The rich aroma of soil and grass in the air made him feel as if he were in a dream.

Or rather, even in his dreams, he wouldn't have dared to imagine such a beautiful scene in his previous life.

Seeing Huo Yuhao's intoxicated expression, Li Fei couldn't help but say, "Every time I pass through here, I feel awe. My hometown is in the eastern desert of the Star Luo Empire. That place is all sand and rocks. Sometimes you can't even see a bird for hundreds of miles!"

"But this is only the section of road you can see; after that, it's all mountains."

Huo Yuhao didn't continue talking to him. He slightly opened his spiritual power on horseback and carefully felt the wisps of breeze flowing around him.

This was the first time Huo Yuhao truly felt that he was living in a completely new world, a world full of vitality, a world that made him realize that it was nothing like the fixed ink on paper in his previous life. A silent transformation was taking place deep within Huo Yuhao's mind; if he were to open the panel at this moment, he would find that his original 800 points of mental power were slowly increasing.

[Understanding] The degree of control over authority has also reached 3%.

After a full day of travel, we are still 900 li away from our destination, Xuanfeng City, and we should arrive tomorrow afternoon.

The Heavenly Soul Empire was not as safe as the Star Luo Empire at night, so the caravan dared not travel rashly and could only spend the night in a valley.

In a secluded corner of the valley, Huo Yuhao and Xiao Xiao sat around a campfire, roasting food.

Li Fei, who had just set up his tent in the distance, walked over, and Huo Yuhao picked up a skewer of grilled fish from beside the campfire and handed it to him.

Li Fei wiped his sweat, sat down opposite the campfire, took a bite of fish, and began to chew.

Then his eyes lit up and he said, "Brother Danzo, your grilled fish is absolutely amazing! I've never tasted anything like this in all my travels."

Xiao Xiao nodded in agreement; she had never eaten such delicious grilled fish in the Chamber of Commerce.

"I agree! This is even better than the grilled fish at the God of Cookery in Tiandou City!" She shook her head and mumbled as she chewed the fish.

Huo Yuhao gently shook his head, indicating that he was being overly flattered. Then, as if he had thought of something, he looked at Li Fei and asked:
"By the way, aren't there any cities around here? We've been walking for so long and haven't seen a single one."

This question puzzled not only Huo Yuhao, but Xiao Xiao also stared at Li Fei with her bright, sparkling eyes, expressing her curiosity.

Although Xiao Xiao was a young lady from the Chamber of Commerce, she had basically never left home for various reasons, and she was also curious about the situation in the Heavenly Soul Empire.

Li Fei looked helplessly at the campfire in front of him and said:
"The Heavenly Soul Empire and the Fighting Spirit Empire used to be one country called the Heavenly Fighting Empire."

"When the two empires split, they fought for hundreds of years, which led to a decline in their national strength. After the war ended, the two empires were just about to recuperate when the Sun and Moon Empire came."

"That war that swept across the continent completely destroyed the economies of the Heavenly Soul and the Fighting Spirit Empires at that time."

"Prices in the Heavenly Soul Empire have skyrocketed, cities are full of refugees, and cannibalism has even occurred. As a result, a large number of residents have fled the cities to the more fertile Heavenly Dou Plain, where Shrek Academy is located."

"This resulted in the absence of cities on the borders of the Heavenly Soul Empire, with a large number of cities concentrated on the Heavenly Dou Plain. The cheap labor of civilians even made Shrek City one of the most prosperous cities on the continent!"

After explaining the reason to the two, Li Fei quickly finished the grilled fish in two or three bites, and without wiping the crumbs from his mouth, he stood up and said to Huo Yuhao:

"Alright, bro, I'm going to keep watch on the outer perimeter. You guys take over the inner circle."

After Li Fei disappeared into the darkness, Huo Yuhao herded Xiao Xiao, who was reluctant to stand guard with him, into the tent like chasing a chick.

"Tch, that old man has no humanity."

After making a face at Huo Yuhao, Xiao Xiao closed the tent and turned off the soul-guided lamp inside.

Huo Yuhao sat cross-legged beside the tent, entering a meditative state. At the same time, he subtly used his mental power to vibrate the surrounding air, emitting a silent, special fluctuation.

Then, these reflected waves are received to probe the surrounding area.

This move was something Huo Yuhao had recently figured out. In his previous life, he was at least a maintenance worker for planetary engines, so he could easily grasp the principles and methods of generating ultrasonic waves.

Ultrasonic waves are simulated by the resonance of mental and spiritual power. The reflected ultrasonic waves are received by mental power and then transmitted to the brain for analysis. Although this method is not as convenient as the mental detection in the original work, it has the advantage of extremely low spiritual power consumption and a long detection range.

The downside is that it requires the brain to process the large amount of information brought back by the sound waves precisely and quickly.

In other words, Huo Yuhao's martial soul is the Spirit Eye, and after evolving into the Kaleidoscope, he can have precise control over his mental power. It would probably take a normal person ten years to learn this technique.

In the latter half of the night, the moon was obscured by dark clouds at some point, and the campfire had long since burned out, leaving only a few embers glowing faintly in the valley.

Huo Yuhao's mental energy suddenly stirred, and his mental detection sound waves sensed something rapidly approaching from the eastern part of the valley.

"one two three………"

Huo Yuhao suddenly opened his eyes and looked towards the east side of the valley. In the pitch-black night, he could vaguely see birds being startled.

Without the slightest hesitation, Huo Yuhao shouted loudly to everyone in the valley:

"Attention everyone, there's an emergency on the east side of the valley!!!"

(End of this chapter)