Douluo Continent: Angel Saint Huo Yuhao

Chapter 239 The Essence of World Operation~
Shopping and spending, spending money like water.

Despite being just a medium-sized coastal city, Huo Yuhao was truly amazed by the exaggerated consumption efficiency. The gold soul coins in his hand seemed to flow like water, and he even vaguely lost his sense of the reality of money.

This is different from the consumption of cultivation resources. After all, the latter is an exchange of tangible materials, and it involves extraordinary power, so it is normal for the price to be higher.

But now, the gold coins they throw out are only getting empty and useless things in return.

"So expensive."

The mythical beast twirled the candy with an unidentifiable flavor in its hand, feeling a pang of regret for its wallet.

Many Soul Masters perished in the Star Dou Great Forest, and their storage Soul Tools left behind were naturally confiscated by the auspicious beast Zhengyi and added to its own coffers.

But those mere million gold soul coins might not be enough to sustain such a frenzied spending...

"...And it tastes this bad?"

The mythical beast had barely taken a bite when its expression changed instantly, and it decisively shoved the food into Huo Yuhao's mouth: "It's your responsibility to handle it!"

"Is it so exaggerated?"

Huo Yuhao, who was chewing on a candy, frowned slightly.

"It definitely tastes better than cornbread..."

The mythical beast rolled its eyes in annoyance: "But you have to raise your standards a bit, right? We spent so much money to buy it, are you going to suffer instead of enjoy it?"

She genuinely didn't know what to say.

Huo Yuhao has been like an ascetic since birth, unwilling to spend a penny beyond cultivation-related matters, except for a slight expenditure on soul tools...

"I'm terrified of being poor."

Faced with her question, Huo Yuhao simply shook his head indifferently, his gaze sweeping across the entire street.

Those who could come and go here were either dressed in luxurious clothes or openly displayed their soul power fluctuations, enjoying the envious and fearful gazes of others.

Noble, Soul Master.

Apart from these two types of people, even ordinary businessmen do not have the right to squander money here.

Or rather... Soul Masters are actually a special form of nobility.

In the Sun Moon Empire, things are better. At least the empire will take the initiative to awaken martial souls for the common people. Many large cities can guarantee that all citizens can awaken their martial souls, and low-level soul masters of the first or second ring level can be seen everywhere.

If this were the Douluo Continent, a Soul Master would be practically equivalent to an angel from the upper realm. They could plunder ordinary civilians at will without paying too high a price, and as long as they didn't harm too many people, no one would bother them.

"Wait a minute...!"

The auspicious beast suddenly let go of his hand, turned around and ran back to the shop, took out a few candies and gave them to the children who were drooling outside the shop.

then…

"It's alright, just kneel down and kowtow!"

Under Huo Yuhao's exasperated gaze, the auspicious beast stood tall, ready to accept its first batch of human subjects: "Remember to be sincere! Sigh... hey hey—what are you doing?"

"I should also ask you what you're doing!"

Huo Yuhao smirked and forcefully dragged her across the street.

It's unclear which thread went wrong, but the auspicious beast always seems to act up at the most delicate moments, brutally shattering the emotions that had just surfaced within him.

"Because I don't want to cheat..."

The auspicious beast murmured with a hint of resentment, twirling the storage soul tool looped on its middle finger. Attacking by exploiting the opponent's weaknesses in their memories was indeed easy to achieve, but even she despised such a despicable victory. "What?"

"nothing."

The auspicious beast pushed off the ground and twisted its body to stand up steadily, but the view was dark and dim, completely unlike the dazzling light of the street just now.

Although they were only a few dozen meters apart, it was as if they were separated into two worlds. Strangely, although there were soul-guided streetlights everywhere, only about a third of them were active. Even the houses in the distance were like this, and in some places, candlelight was even reflected from the windows.

"strangeness…"

Huo Yuhao looked around and found that almost the entire city was like this, as if the soul-guided light bulbs were running out of power and could only light up a few necessary ones.

When I arrived just before sunset, I didn't notice anything amiss, but now the whole city seems incredibly eerie.

"If I remember correctly, the soul tools in the city need to be recharged periodically by soul masters, right?" The auspicious beast suddenly realized something. "Could it be that this city is short of soul masters?"

hum~
Huo Yuhao remained silent, opened his vertical pupils to illuminate his spiritual crown, and brought the entire city under the scrutiny of his spiritual radar. After surveying the city for a long time, he slowly withdrew the spiritual power that had surged forth like a tide.

"There are empty rooms in both the city defense camp and the residential buildings, which means that a group of people with soul power have been transferred away."

Somewhat weary, Huo Yuhao pinched the bridge of his nose, but couldn't give a rough number.

After all, Soul Masters are a minority group. It would be quite good if there were four figures of Soul Masters in a city with a population of one million. Such a small change in personnel would be completely overshadowed by the fluctuations in the city's transient population.

If they hadn't stayed there until night, they might not have discovered this.

"Should we ask someone about the situation?"

The auspicious beast turned its head and asked.

"Wouldn't it be easier to just grab a tongue?"

Huo Yuhao, however, looked towards the southeast of the city: "There happens to be a Soul Master Academy over there, and there's also a faint aura of an evil Soul Master."

That's... the scent of a holy servant.

To ordinary people, a holy servant who has not been baptized at the altar and has never eaten a human is almost devoid of any evil aura. Unless one has extremely high cultivation and comes into close contact with him, one cannot detect any problems at all.

But this obviously couldn't stop Huo.

—With a divine essence rooted in the sea of ​​spirit, even if it does not contain any divine power or consciousness, it will change his spiritual power through long-term contact, imbuing it with a faint divine power and light and fire attributes.

With this enhancement, Huo Yuhao became a searchlight for evil soul masters, hitting them every time.

……

Nanfeng Academy, located in the southernmost part of the Sun Moon Empire and also in the city of the same name with the lowest latitude in the entire Douluo Continent, has always been regarded as a tourist destination.

This is precisely why this college, located in a remote area, has solved a major problem in running the school: money.

With abundant financial support, even with a shortage of talent, they successfully equipped the academy with soul tools, and there were even two things that Huo Yuhao was extremely familiar with suspended in the air.

"A soul power detector? And it seems to be more sophisticated than the one in Dongyang City?"

Huo Yuhao narrowed his eyes and tentatively threw out a small ball of spiritual energy, but it was slightly blocked by the suddenly activated outer shell, giving the detector's core time to issue an alarm:
"In just six months, there have been related improvements... Was the Sun Moon Empire's scientific research capabilities really that strong?"

However, achieving this level is far from enough.

Huo Yuhao summoned his spear staff with a flick of his wrist, channeling the sound of the tide into a one-way wave, sending the soul power signal sent by the detector soaring into the sky: "Fortunately, I'm a cut above the rest..."

(End of this chapter)