Douluo Continent: I Can Summon Heroic Spirits

Chapter 108 Arrival at the Stars; The Predicament of the Plane Lord

In the vast, dense forest north of Xingluo City, a thin, frail figure struggled to move forward through the mud and thorns, using the dappled shadows of the trees as cover.

Huo Yuhao has been away from Xingluo City for a full day and night.

Unlike his ordinary runaway from home in the original timeline, this time, Huo Yuhao did not set off with aspirations for the future.

Unlike the original timeline, Huo Yuhao's mother passed away on her sickbed, which gave Huo Yuhao a long time to accept it.

Huo Yun'er's personality and her love-struck mind towards Dai Hao would prevent her from giving Huo Yuhao any education on hatred, which is also the key reason why Huo Yuhao was able to easily let go of hatred in the original work.

Of course, since your mother is in Tang Buddha's hands, you can't refuse to let her go even if you want to.

But the situation is completely different now.

Huo Yuhao and his mother were not only safe and sound, but they were even already dreaming about the future, waiting for Huo Yuhao to become a Soul Master...

Now, what was once a beautiful story has turned into a bloody tragedy, which has brought Huo Yuhao's hatred to a peak never before reached in the original work.

Huo Yun'er was gentle and forbearing throughout her life, and kind to everyone. Apart from the high and mighty Duchess of White Tiger, she never made enemies with anyone.

And the mother's obvious poverty would never have attracted even the most foolish mountain bandits.

Moreover, this place is so close to the White Tiger Duke's mansion, which bandit would dare to run wild under the nose of the Star Luo Commander?

Therefore, all possibilities point to the Duchess.

Huo Yuhao knew perfectly well that since the other party had already turned a blind eye and ambushed his mother on the way, there was no way they would leave him, this potential threat, alive.

In his original plan, he would have slipped away unscathed, but now, facing the ever-present threat of being hunted down, he dared not set foot on the wide, flat official road.

He could only plunge headlong into this perilous wilderness like a frightened young animal, which greatly slowed down his escape.

The bundle contained some Soul Coins, a rough map of the Star Luo Empire's surroundings, a few dry rations, two changes of old clothes, and—the White Tiger Dagger, the self-defense weapon that Duke Dai Hao of the White Tiger had given to Huo Yun'er years ago.

Despite its rather tacky name, in the original timeline, it did indeed protect Huo Yuhao during his novice period.

The reason why Huo Yuhao brought these things is also very heartbreaking.

The woodshed in the Duke's mansion was drafty, cramped, dirty, and offered no security or privacy whatsoever.

In the Duke's mansion, the mother and son not only had to endure the targeting of the Duchess and Dai Huabin, but also had to guard against those wicked servants who changed sides with the wind.

Even without their master's orders, the subordinates would come to cause trouble from time to time, and theft was commonplace. If they weren't careful, even a slightly better piece of cloth would be taken by those wolfish servants.

Therefore, after Huo Yuhao exerted all his strength and finally cultivated his soul power to level nine, the mother and son began to secretly prepare for him to obtain his first soul ring.

This time, when he went out to look for his mother who had not returned for a long time, due to the vigilance he had developed from being suppressed for a long time, he dared not leave these precious supplies in the unguarded woodshed.

This caution, however, saved his life just a few hours later. If he hadn't brought the map, the rations to sustain his strength, and the White Tiger Dagger for self-defense, he certainly wouldn't have survived in this desolate wilderness, let alone escaped the assassins sent by the Duchess.

"Whoosh—whoosh—"

The heavy breathing sounded particularly jarring in the silent forest. Huo Yuhao's congenitally weak body had finally reached the brink of collapse after a day and a night of escape.

His legs felt as heavy as lead, and his clothes, torn by tree branches, were covered in blood. Finally, he stumbled and collapsed completely onto the muddy ground covered with decaying leaves.

"Now—it should be far enough, right?"

Although he wanted to close his eyes and rest for a moment, as soon as he closed his eyes, the scene of Huo Yun'er's death would reappear before his eyes.

Huo Yuhao was a somewhat obsessive person to begin with, and now his extreme grief and deep-seated hatred became fuel, burning wildly in his brain.

I can't stop, I can't die yet. I must avenge my mother...

During his long and desperate escape, Huo Yuhao did have moments of wavering.

"Should we seek refuge in the Star Tower?"

In his eyes, at the tender age of ten, the people in the Star Tower were the only remaining kindness in this cold world.

They had pulled their mother back from the brink of death, and if they were to beg for help covered in blood, those kind people would certainly not refuse them.

But it was precisely because of this that Huo Yuhao gave up on the idea.

That was the only light left in his life; how could he drag it into the abyss with his own hands? In his view, the Star Tower was, after all, a newly established force in the Star Luo Empire.

In this turbulent capital, simply carrying out aid to civilians has already touched upon the interests of too many local powers, making progress extremely difficult.

If I were to seek refuge there, and direct the Duchess of White Tiger's fury directly towards the Star Tower, it would inevitably implicate countless innocent good people.

In the simple understanding of this ten-year-old boy, the Duchess of White Tiger represented the White Tiger Duke's Mansion, as well as the empire's greatest marshal, his biological father, Dai Hao.

He had no idea that the duchess was so eager to kill him because she didn't want Dai Hao to return, and that this action was definitely not an official act of the ducal mansion.

From childhood, he grew up listening to the illustrious war achievements and great deeds of Duke Dai Hao of the White Tiger. In his heart, Dai Hao was an extremely contradictory figure. He resented his biological father who was indifferent to the life and death of him and his mother, but subconsciously, he still regarded that cold-hearted man as the embodiment of a powerful soul master.

Such a powerful Soul Master, if he were to attack the Star Tower...

Hatred did not change Huo Yuhao's kind nature, so in order not to implicate the Star Tower, Huo Yuhao chose to embark on a journey of escape alone.

"Yuhao, although your martial soul did not inherit the White Tiger and your innate soul power is low—it is definitely not bad. As long as you are willing to work hard in your cultivation, you will definitely become an excellent soul master in the future."

His mother's gentle expectations echoed in his ears.

Huo Yuhao has always been an obedient child. He cultivated desperately and should have broken through the threshold of level ten recently, just like in the original timeline.

However, now, because Huo Yuhao's martial soul is the Spirit Eye with the spiritual attribute, as his main martial soul, his martial soul is closely related to his own emotions. The mental stimulation of his mother's tragic death in front of him, which is enough to drive an ordinary person crazy, will not make him awaken a mutated martial soul similar to the Kaleidoscope Spirit Eye, but it will also allow him to break through the last bottleneck and reach level ten ahead of schedule.

At the same time, this caused a certain change in his Spirit Eye Martial Soul. Even Huo Yuhao himself may not have noticed that his Martial Soul talent was no longer the pitiful first-level innate soul power. Although it looked the same, his Spirit Eye Martial Soul had lost some of its clarity and agility and gained a touch of intimidating ferocity.

However, even though the situation has changed, Huo Yuhao still followed the same path as in the original story, and his choice was still the Star Dou Great Forest.

He knew very well that revenge required power.

In this world, to gain power, becoming a powerful Soul Master is essential. Therefore, his immediate priority is to absorb a Soul Ring and take the first step towards becoming a powerful Soul Master.

Star Luo City and the White Tiger Duke's Mansion are located in the northern part of the Star Luo Empire, while the Star Dou Great Forest is located in the northern part of the Star Luo Empire.

Huo Yuhao leaned against the rough tree trunk, panting heavily. When the burning pain in his lungs subsided slightly, he felt his strength had finally recovered a little. He gritted his teeth, struggled to support his thin body, and took heavy steps to continue walking into the depths of the dense forest.

Ten days later.

Huo Yuhao's once handsome face now bore the marks of hardship. He carefully held the simple paper map in his hands, repeatedly checking the location.

"We're almost there!"

The aura ahead grew increasingly profound and vast, and he concluded that he was very close to the Star Dou Great Forest, the largest habitat for soul beasts on the entire continent.

Compared to the original timeline, this trip took him four days longer. But this was unavoidable, as this time he was being hunted across the continent by the Duchess, and the conditions for setting off were many times worse.

An eleven-year-old boy managed to evade numerous dangers, traversing most of the Star Luo Empire alone, and travel a long distance to the outskirts of the Star Dou Great Forest to hunt soul beasts.

This was certainly partly due to good fortune, but it also proved his terrifying willpower, which far exceeded that of ordinary people.

Even though the journey was a hundred times more arduous than in the original timeline, driven by hatred, people often unleash more potential, and Huo Yuhao arrived at his destination safely.

What's even more amazing is that because his escape this time was much earlier than the original timeline, after going around in circles, he happened to arrive at the edge of the Star Dou Great Forest at a time exactly the same as in the original story.

Behind this seemingly coincidental event, there is naturally no shortage of divine intervention.

The Lord of the Plane was already feeling very aggrieved. Back then, Tang San forcibly gave him a "neighbor," Tang Hao. The Lord of the Plane didn't dare to complain to Tang San, but he still created the Chosen One, Huo Yuhao, in an attempt to break the deadlock.

Who would have thought that instead of breaking the deadlock, Huo Yuhao would end up as Tang San's right-hand man, while he himself would be completely stripped of his position as the ruler of the plane by Tang Hao ten thousand years later.

Now, the situation is even more out of control.

While the arrival of the Imagination Tree forcibly severed Tang San's monitoring of the Douluo Continent, it posed an even more deadly threat to the plane's ruler.

Tang San's true feelings are obvious to everyone.

The Lord of the Plane could be said to have watched Tang San grow up, so he naturally knew the details of this old Asura God's "connected" background and was also very clear about the other party's lingering attachment to Douluo Continent over the past ten thousand years.

Although Tang San hadn't completely broken ties with him yet, the threat was out in the open.

But the Imaginary Tree is different; it represents the absolute unknown.

Its origins are mysterious, and its status surpasses that of the rulers of planes. It appeared without warning, as if it had appeared out of thin air on the continent.

The aura rooted deep within the planet constantly emanates immense pressure. Therefore, the lord of the plane has raised its defenses against the Imaginary Tree to the highest alert level.

Of course, he couldn't let his guard down against Tang San either, since Tang Hao and the rest of the Tang family, including their two pets Da Ming and Er Ming, were still openly staying in Douluo Continent.

Immortals fight, mortals suffer.

Although the Lord of the Plane is not a mortal, he is not much better than these two mortals.

He knew very well that with his meager strength, which was not even at the level of a first-level god, he was simply unable to directly intervene in the battle between the Imaginary Tree and Tang San, the two supreme beings.

However, within his own little territory, he could certainly give the chosen one of destiny a smooth ride.

A million-year soul ring, a four-hundred-thousand-year Ice Emperor, the Gold of Life... In short, he has arranged as much as possible within the scope of what is possible.

Of course, Huo Yun'er's death had nothing to do with him; the Lord of the Plane was only responsible for paving the way for the chosen one.

The Lord of the Plane merely let things unfold as they were. As a plane consciousness that transcends all living beings, he had no so-called familial bonds, and naturally, he would not care about or pity the mental state of the chosen one of destiny.

This is just like ten thousand years later, when he made a final gamble for the survival of the plane, and was even able to choose the Hades Emperor Harossa, who represents death. He doesn't care at all what stance the chosen one of destiny has, whether he is good or evil.

However, in the original timeline, Huo Yun'er's death was probably not as logical as it seemed on the surface.

After all, this mother's soul was far too valuable to exploit, whether as a weakness to be manipulated or as a way to bestow favors upon Huo Yuhao in the future.

Therefore, the most important thing for the plane lord is simply to safely deliver the first cheat, the million-year-old Heavenly Dream Ice Silkworm, into Huo Yuhao's bowl.

Huo Yuhao dragged his tired body into the woods by the roadside. He had just found a shady, dense thicket and was about to sit cross-legged to meditate and recover his strength when the sound of gurgling water drifted into his ears on the breeze.

With his eyes slightly closed, Huo Yuhao calmed himself and listened intently to the direction from which the sound of water was coming. As a rare possessor of a spiritual attribute martial soul, his six senses were naturally far superior to those of ordinary people. Especially when he closed his eyes and actively isolated himself from visual distractions, his other five senses were amplified several times more acutely.

Following the sound, he locked onto his target within two hundred meters.

It was a stream about three meters wide, with crystal-clear water that rippled over the pebbles, releasing a refreshing and invigorating scent that brought extra comfort and coolness to the sweltering, dark forest.

Huo Yuhao untied his baggage, removed his coarse cloth clothes stained with sweat and mud, and slowly immersed his thin and withered body into the cool stream.

Even though he had already stepped into the Star Dou Great Forest, a place fraught with danger and teeming with ferocious beasts, Huo Yuhao felt a brief sense of security at that moment.

The nerves that had been taut for ten days finally relaxed a little in the cool stream.

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