Douluo Continent: The Spirit-Eyed Detective Huo Yuhao

"Hahaha..." Huo Yuhao laughed in a pretentious manner, and the demons and monsters around him also chuckled. "For ten thousand years, you have been organizing this soul-fighting competition that hurts people and kills them. These contestants are young and have bright futures, but they have to sign a death contract and die on the stage. Naturally, they have endless resentment and their ghosts will not leave. They want to drag you down to hell with them."

"This...this...so that's how it is!" Upon hearing Huo Yuhao's explanation, Xu Jiawei hurriedly tried to defend himself, "Why did this have to happen to me? All those emperors have done the Soul Fighting Tournament! Should I build an altar and perform a ritual to commemorate them?"

"This is only treating the symptoms, not the root cause. How can resentment and obsession be eliminated so easily?" Huo Yuhao shook his head, rejecting Xu Jiawei's idea.

"Then... does Your Majesty the King of Hell have a solution?" Xu Jiawei tentatively asked Huo Yuhao.

"A solution? Of course there is." Huo Yuhao stroked the fake beard he had conjured. "These resentments all stem from the Soul Fighting Tournament. Why not just make this tournament disappear completely?"

"Abolish the Soul Fighting Tournament..." Xu Jiawei muttered to himself, as if he had encountered some very unfamiliar term. He casually uttered the words that would make a tradition that had been passed down for ten thousand years in the Douluo Continent disappear into history.

"How about it? Can't you do it?"

“No, if it can eliminate the resentment of the dead and save my life, then it can be abolished. But the competition is starting tomorrow, and all the participants are already in place. How can we not hold it?” Xu Jiawei sighed.

Not only that, but there will probably be a lot of old-fashioned people shouting "the laws of our ancestors cannot be changed" to stop him.

"You can rest assured about that. Tomorrow I will send my representative on Earth to help you. Just follow his arrangements," Huo Yuhao said.

"A representative on the ground? May I ask who it is?"

"Huo Yuhao from Shrek Academy, you'll know once you meet him." Huo Yuhao directly stated his name.

"Huo Yuhao..." Xu Jiawei silently memorized the name.

"I've already told you the general situation. Now that the decision has been made, I'll add some lifespan to you and send you back to the living world."

"Thank you, Your Majesty the King of Hell." Xu Jiawei was immediately overjoyed. With this great man's help, what was there to fear?

"By the way, you'd better hurry. Your soul has been out of your body for so long, and those people seem to think you've died."

"what?!"

………………

Star Luo Imperial Palace

"Ah!" Emperor Xu Jiawei of Xingluo woke up with a start. As soon as he opened his eyes, he heard the Empress and a group of ministers wailing beside him. Even his Guardian Douluo Cheng Gang and the Healer Douluo Wang Xian'er stood aside with solemn expressions.

"His Majesty is alive! His Majesty is alive!" Upon seeing Xu Jiawei get up, the people in the palace cheered excitedly once again.

"What just happened to me..." Xu Jiawei rubbed his head, still feeling a little dizzy.

"Your Majesty, you stopped breathing just now, and your heart stopped beating!" the Empress cried.

"A miraculous recovery! A miraculous recovery! Your Majesty is truly blessed by the heavens!" the Healer Douluo exclaimed, speechless for a moment. She had treated many people on the verge of death, but the Star Luo Emperor had just appeared to be completely dead, yet he recovered on his own without any treatment. What else could this be but a miraculous recovery?

"This..." Xu Jiawei instantly recalled his soul journey to the underworld, and raised his hand to order, "Quick! Go and invite Huo Yuhao from Shrek Academy!"

………………

Watching the Star Luo Emperor leave, Wang Dong, dressed as a little ghost, looked puzzled: "That's not right, Yuhao, I remember you said that the soul leaving the body for a short period of time will not lead to the death of the physical body, right?"

"It's rare that you still remember. Yes, I lied to him," Huo Yuhao explained. "When the soul leaves the body, the physical body will still remain active, which is roughly similar to the state of a vegetative state."

"Then why is the Star Luo Emperor..."

"Of course, to make it look real, I deliberately put his body into a state of suspended animation, which is very close to death, with his bodily functions almost completely stopped. Even that Immortal Doctor Douluo couldn't tell the difference," Huo Yuhao said with a smile.

It was expected that the Healing Immortal Douluo wouldn't be able to figure it out; it wasn't that she lacked ability, but rather that the overall level of medicine on the Douluo Continent was limited.

The traditional treatment method for Soul Masters is to infuse healing-type Martial Soul life force—simple and brutal, even for the Healing Immortal Douluo. Because of this, medicine throughout the Douluo Continent is backward and primitive, so naturally, they couldn't see through Huo Yuhao's tricks.

………………

Before the start of the Soul Fighting Tournament,

Huo Yuhao was given the opportunity to meet the Star Luo Emperor alone.

"Elder Mu, are you sure this is okay?" Xu Jiawei asked into the communicator while sitting on the Star Luo Throne. The person on the other end was Mu En; it was Huo Yuhao who had called.

"Huo Yuhao's meaning is my meaning, and also the meaning of Shrek Academy's Douluo Pavilion." Mu En's voice came through the communicator, his tone very firm.

"See? Shrek Academy is genuinely interested in cooperating with Star Luo. You can't go wrong by listening to my arrangements." Huo Yuhao hung up the phone, looking confident.

"It seems to be true." Xu Jiawei nodded to himself. If it had been the day before, he would have thought he was crazy to have such faith in Shrek Academy and to have fully cooperated with Huo Yuhao, a young boy. But last night's experience made him believe it without a doubt.

He tentatively asked Huo Yuhao, "About Yama..."

"You mean this?" Huo Yuhao smiled and stretched out his hand, a trace of necromancy aura seeping out.

"It really is the aura of the underworld, exactly the same as last night. Very good, thank you for coming to help, envoy." Feeling the familiar, trembling aura, Emperor Xingluo was extremely excited and truly regarded Huo Yuhao as an envoy who had come to help guide the souls of the dead.

"What should we do? Should we really not hold this competition?"

"Haha, it's not that we're not going to hold it. First, let's change the name of this competition," Huo Yuhao laughed.

………………

Three hours before the start of the competition, the participants had already arrived at the arena one after another.

However, unlike usual, there was a large group of people unrelated to the competition handing out flyers in front of the arena.

These were adventurers whom Huo Yuhao had invited from the Adventurers' Guild the day before, using the power of his Gold Soul Coins, to act as promoters for the new tournament and to work on renovating the arena.

"The World's Number One Douluo Continent Games?" Xiao Hongchen looked at the banner hanging above the arena gate with a puzzled expression. "What is this? Have we gone to the wrong place?"

He was Xiao Hongchen, the captain of the Sun Moon Empire's reserve team. A handsome young man with bright eyes, a tall and straight figure, and an air of arrogance. Most striking were his hands, which were well-maintained and as white as jade; he seemed to take great care of them.

However, he couldn't care less about admiring his hands as usual at this moment. His brows were furrowed. He had come all this way to compete, but he had even gone to the wrong venue. Wouldn't that make him a laughingstock?

"The name is too long, let's just call it 'Battle Games'. It seems that the winners are determined by comparing data such as strength, speed, jumping ability, and soul power quality, and there are even soul guidance techniques involved," Meng Hongchen said, carefully reading the brochure.

"Didn't we register for the Soul Fighting Tournament? What's the Battle Games?" Captain Ma Rulong looked at the registration form repeatedly. "Did we register for the wrong thing? No way? This is such a big deal..."

"No, we shouldn't have come to the wrong place. What does the Star Luo Empire want to do?" Old Ma, who was in charge of leading the team, was also confused. There were signs in front of the venue, and the Star Luo Empire's competition venue was indeed here.

At that moment, a voice resounded throughout the entire venue.

"Welcome everyone to the World's Number One Douluo Continent Games, a brand-new competition jointly created by the Star Luo Empire and Shrek Academy! Just call it the Douluo Games."

Huo Yuhao's voice echoed through the broadcast, a flag fluttered, adorned with a pattern of nine interlocking rings of different colors. The large screen in the arena projected aerial footage of the newly arrived teams from various academies, each displaying a look of astonishment.

"Those are...unmanned aerial vehicles? They're so sophisticated!" Xiao Hongchen was a genius in soul guidance, so his eyesight was naturally exceptional, and he could tell that the drones flying in the sky were filming them.

"It has the logos of Shrek Academy and the Huo Group on it, so the Star Luo Empire must have bought it from them." Meng Hongchen saw the trademarks on the drone. In recent times, the Sun Moon Empire has attached great importance to the research on the Huo Group's technology, and its exchanges with Shrek City have become more and more frequent.

"Shrek City's soul guidance technology is not to be underestimated... The Star Luo Empire actually joined forces with Shrek to host this competition. What is it trying to imply? Doesn't the Star Luo Emperor fear Shrek? If they cooperate deeply, it might be detrimental to our Sun Moon Empire..." Old Ma, who was leading the team, thought to himself. Despite this, he still had more confidence in the Sun Moon Empire's soul guidance technology, after all, it was the foundation of their nation.

………………

After Huo Yuhao finished speaking, the Star Luo Emperor on the stage began to speak, "The world has suffered from the Soul Fighting Tournament for too long. I have observed that the tournament has been filled with killing and murder, causing the death of many talented Soul Masters from various countries. Now, I have discussed with Shrek City and decided to abolish the Soul Fighting Tournament and the life-or-death contract, starting with Star Luo. The tournament will be changed to a peaceful competition mode."

If anyone commits murder during the competition, the Star Luo Empire's court will try him for his crime.

Upon hearing this, some of the contestants in the audience were surprised, some were relieved, and some cheered.

"If they just abolish it like that, then what's the point of us coming here? Isn't the Star Luo Empire acting too unilaterally? Other empires haven't agreed to it yet." There were also many dissenting voices.

"Still disagree? You bunch of barbaric country bumpkins, do you even know what peaceful competition is? All of you combined couldn't beat me. Changing it to a competitive sport mode is to make your defeat less embarrassing." Huo Yuhao's unbridled words echoed in the arena.

"What?!" The entire audience was outraged. For a moment, no one cared about the match anymore; everyone was furious at Huo Yuhao's arrogance.

At the same time, they also discovered that Huo Yuhao seemed to be on Shrek Academy's team.

"This guy is even more arrogant than me..." Xiao Hongchen stared in shock at Huo Yuhao's incredibly arrogant appearance on the big screen.

"Am I wrong? Of course, I knew you wouldn't accept this, so to appease everyone, we've decided to have a final battle of spirits at the opening ceremony. All of you will fight against the seven members of our Shrek team. How about that?"

"That's incredibly disrespectful... What is this guy talking about?" Xiao Hongchen clenched his fists; he couldn't stand anyone being more arrogant than him.

"He actually dared to provoke all the contestants..." Meng Hongchen was so shocked that she couldn't speak.

"Alright, in that case, let's make this grand melee between the Shrek Seven Devils and all the participants the opening ceremony of the Battle Games, and also the closing ceremony to end the Soul Battle Tournament that has lasted for ten thousand years," Emperor Xingluo announced.

………………

The opening ceremony began.

Huo Yuhao led his team of seven onto the specially enlarged arena.

"Are these guys serious?!" Xiao Hongchen and all the contestants surrounded the arena. Because it was a huge free-for-all with a large number of participants, there were no rules outside the arena.

What followed was even more astonishing.

Huo Yuhao was the first to jump forward, holding something that looked like a communicator. The other members followed suit, lining up in an efficient manner, though they all looked somewhat troubled.

Then, the seven people simultaneously performed a unified, coordinated action, pressing the communicators in their hands.

After a flash of light, the seven people inexplicably changed into strange battle suits of seven different colors.

Huo Yuhao: "Blazing Crimson Blood Extreme Ice, Red Chainer."

Beibei: "Swift azure lightning, Blue Ranger."

He Caitou, “a resolute deep yellow fortress, the Coptis chinensis.”

Jiang Nannan: "A gentle, pure white idol, the White Legion."

Xiao Xiao: "A melodious dark green phoenix cry, a green-connected one."

Xu Sanshi: "The black Xuanwu that guards, the Black Lianzhe."

Wang Dong: "Pink butterfly wings of pure love, pink-linked ones."

"Where there is evil, there is the roar of justice! Shrek Squadron! Monster Rangers!"

……

……

……

"How embarrassing!!!" Wang Dong, dressed in a pink transformation outfit, shouted.

Chapter 108: The opening ceremony begins and ends.

"This is so embarrassing! It's so shameful! What kind of lines are these?!" Wang Dong yelled in frustration, but unfortunately, her expression couldn't be seen because of the helmet on her transformation suit.

"Wouldn't it be cool to announce your name when you come on stage?" As he spoke, Huo Yuhao quickly pressed the explosion button, and seven different colored smoke effects exploded behind the seven people. "Damn it, you pulled it, and the explosion effects were pressed too late."

"Although I felt a bit embarrassed at first, this uniquely styled battle suit is surprisingly cool." Beibei was very satisfied with her blue battle suit.

"This thing can even increase attributes! I feel like my strength has increased a lot!" Xu Sanshi clenched his fist; the battle suit even increased his soul power.

The battle suit is made from Huo Yuhao's million-year-old silkworm silk, and its defensive capabilities after processing are comparable to those of the silkworm molts of the Heavenly Dream Ice Silkworm.