Douluo Continent, Huo Yuhao, the villain from a parallel world

However, he did not completely refuse to work for the Holy Spirit Church. Occasionally, he would take on some tasks that did not violate his principles, thus maintaining a semblance of harmony.

One of those missions was to retrieve a carving knife from Xingluo City.

That carving knife was precisely the purpose of his trip.

“I remember that carving knife,” Huo Yuhao squinted, searching his memory for relevant details.

"It should still be in the Star Luo Auction House. It has failed to sell several times. The starting price has been lowered again and again, but even so, it will still cost 100,000 gold coins to win it."

100,000 gold coins.

Huo Yuhao was a little helpless. He didn't even have ten gold coins, let alone 100,000.

"Then let's borrow some from the Holy Spirit Cult."

Huo Yuhao remained calm as he strode into the city gates of Xingluo City.

Chapter 14 Chaotic Storm

Xingluo City West, the working-class district.

After passing through the wide and bustling main road of Xingluo City, the further west you go, the narrower the streets become, and the lower and dilapidated the buildings on both sides become.

The street-facing shops gradually transformed into densely packed residential buildings, and the road surface changed from smooth stone slabs to a bumpy gravel road.

The air was filled with an indescribable, murky odor, a mixture of sewage, garbage, and cheap cooking fumes.

This is the western working-class district of Xingluo City, the most densely populated and diverse area in the entire capital.

People from all walks of life gather here, and the faces of those coming and going change every day. No one knows anyone else, and no one cares about anyone else.

For those who need to conceal their whereabouts, this is the ideal hiding place.

Huo Yuhao walked through several narrow alleys without pausing for a moment.

His route seemed to be etched in his mind, turning left and right before finally stopping at the end of an inconspicuous alley.

The alleyways are lined with dilapidated houses of varying heights, with peeling paint and piles of debris and garbage in the corners.

At the end of the road was a half-open wooden door, covered in dust, looking like it hadn't been cleaned in a long time.

It was exactly the same location as I remembered.

Huo Yuhao stepped forward, reached out, and knocked three times on the wooden door—two long knocks and one short knock.

There was no response from behind the door.

He knocked three more times, and it was still two long knocks followed by one short knock.

A moment later, a sound came from behind the door, and then the wooden door was pulled open a crack from the inside.

A face with a pointed snout and sallow complexion peeked out from the crack in the door, and a pair of small, mouse-like eyes warily scanned Huo Yuhao.

When he saw that the person standing outside the door was a plain-clothed boy who looked no more than eleven or twelve years old, a hint of contempt and impatience immediately flashed in his small eyes.

"Where did this brat come from? What are you banging on? Get lost!" The man waved his hand impatiently, as if shooing away an eyesore of a fly.

Huo Yuhao didn't speak, but simply raised his right hand.

A faint, inky black light appeared on his palm.

Although the light was faint, it exuded a chilling aura.

The hand that was about to close the door froze in mid-air.

“You…” The man with the pointed mouth and monkey-like face changed his expression slightly, and the contempt in his small eyes was instantly replaced by surprise and doubt.

He looked Huo Yuhao over carefully again before opening the door a crack and saying in a low voice, "Come in."

Huo Yuhao withdrew his hand, stepped over the threshold without expression, and went inside.

The interior space was more spacious than he had imagined, and it had obviously undergone some degree of renovation.

The walls of several adjacent houses were knocked down, connecting them into one area.

The room was sparsely furnished, with a few old tables and chairs placed haphazardly, and several dusty wooden boxes piled in the corner.

The windows were covered with thick black cloth, completely blocking out the sunlight. Only a few dim oil lamps flickered weakly in the corners.

Besides the man with the pointed face who opened the door earlier, there were three other people in the room.

One was a short, stout, bald man with an oily face, sitting behind a rickety table, flipping through a worn-out ledger.

One was a thin, middle-aged woman with high cheekbones, holding a dark purple crystal ball in her hand, the surface of which was shimmering with a faint, eerie light.

The last one was an old man in a gray robe with a gloomy face. He was leaning against a recliner in the corner of the wall, his eyes half-closed, as if he was resting.

Four pairs of eyes simultaneously fell on Huo Yuhao.

The man with the pointed mouth and monkey-like cheeks quickly walked to the old man's side and whispered a few words in his ear.

The old man in the gray robe slowly opened his eyes, his cloudy, yellowish eyes scanning Huo Yuhao up and down before his brows furrowed slightly.

"Boy, which branch are you from?" The old man in the gray robe asked in a hoarse and deep voice, like two rusty pieces of iron rubbing against each other.

"You look unfamiliar. Who sent you here?"

"What's it to you?" Huo Yuhao said indifferently.

As soon as he finished speaking, the atmosphere in the room immediately turned cold.

The short, stout man put down the ledger in his hand, a cold glint flashing in his eyes.

The crystal ball in the gaunt woman's hand paused for a moment, and she raised her head, staring at Huo Yuhao with a pair of cold eyes.

The man with the pointed mouth and monkey-like face stepped forward, a hostile expression on his face.

"You little brat, I don't care who you are, but when you come to my territory, you'd better learn to keep your tail between your legs."

The man with the pointed face and monkey-like cheeks spat as he pointed his finger at Huo Yuhao's nose, "A mere Soul Master, not even a Soul Venerable, dares to act so arrogantly here?"

The gray-robed old man didn't speak, but just stared coldly at Huo Yuhao.

A chilling wave of soul power began to emanate from his body. Although the wave was not strong, it was the mark of a genuine Soul Master.

Of the four people at this stronghold, the gray-robed elder was the only one who had reached the Soul Master level.

The other three are a man with a pointed mouth and monkey-like cheeks, a short and fat man, and a skinny woman, all of whom are Soul Masters.

The combined strength of the four of them wouldn't even amount to a grain of sand in a place like Xingluo City.

But it is precisely because they are weak that they have been able to lie low here for many years without being discovered.

Huo Yuhao looked at the four people in front of him, his face expressionless.

The four evil spirit masters all possess martial spirits that are geared towards reconnaissance, stealth, and intelligence gathering.

His combat abilities are not strong, and he has not committed too many murders, which is why he has been able to stay safely under the nose of the Star Luo Empire until now.

But that's it.

"Four." Huo Yuhao's voice was calm and undisturbed. "That should be enough."

The old man in the gray robe's expression suddenly changed.

He almost instinctively sprang up from the recliner, shouting, "Do it!"

However, it was too late for him to speak.

Huo Yuhao's eyes turned into the purest inky black in an instant.

It wasn't ordinary black, but a color like the entrance to an abyss, so deep that even light seemed unable to escape.

A terrifying mental wave emanated from him, sweeping outwards in all directions like a flash flood.

This is one of the four soul skills obtained after fusing with the Heavenly Dream Ice Silkworm Soul Ring.

Its name is Chaos Storm.

A dark mental storm raged through the small room.

Wherever the storm passed, the air was violently distorted, the dim oil lamps went out at the same time, and the whole room was plunged into complete darkness.

But within that darkness, countless jet-black lights surged wildly, like a silent, inky tsunami, engulfing everything in its wake.

The man with the pointed mouth and monkey-like face was closest to Huo Yuhao and was also the first to be caught in the eye of the storm.

He didn't even have time to scream before his expression was frozen in that moment forever.

Chapter 15 Gold Coins in Hand, Starlight Auction House (Please continue reading!)

His eyes widened, his mouth gaped open, and extreme fear lingered in his pupils before the light in his eyes completely vanished.

His body fell straight backward, crashing heavily to the ground, where he was no longer alive.

Because his soul had been torn to pieces by the storm.

The short, fat man's death was even more gruesome. He tried to mobilize his soul power to resist the storm as it struck, but his pitiful defense was as thin as a sheet of paper in the face of the chaotic storm.

The jet-black mental shock penetrated his mental world directly, crushing his consciousness to dust.

His obese body leaned back in the chair, his head tilted to one side in a bizarre posture, drool dripping from the corner of his mouth, his eyes empty like a shell from which the soul had been emptied.

The crystal ball in the gaunt woman's hand shattered into pieces when the storm hit.

She let out a piercing scream, but the scream lasted for less than half a breath before it stopped abruptly.

He gripped his hair tightly with both hands, his fingers almost digging into his scalp. His whole body convulsed violently a few times, then he collapsed to the ground, motionless.

Before she died, a distorted expression of extreme fear remained on her face.

The gray-robed elder was the strongest of the four and the only one who survived even a moment of the chaotic storm.

Blood kept gushing from his seven orifices, and he held his head tightly with both hands.

He let out indistinct roars, seemingly struggling with all his might against the force that was tearing his mental world apart.

His willpower was indeed much stronger than the other three, but in the face of this absolute chaos, his resistance only prolonged his suffering by a few seconds.

Soon, his arms fell limply to his sides, the last glimmer of light in his cloudy eyes slowly faded, and he slid off the recliner like a lump of mud to the ground.

Four corpses, four different ways of dying.

The only thing they had in common was their empty, lifeless eyes.