Chapter 73.2: Third Martial Soul? Necromancy?
The Envoy of the Death God discovered—to his astonishment—that he wasn’t able to control his corpse slaves anymore. He hurriedly increased the output of his soul power and activated his various soul skills, yet they still didn’t react; he couldn’t even make them self-destruct.
Gradually, a pale light began to appear in the corpse slaves’ eyes. This light was actually a whitish flame, and as the flame progressively appeared in the eyes of every single corpse slave, it also began to circulate throughout their bodies. Unexpectedly, emotions began to appear on their previously rigid faces: suffering, hatred, and boundless rancor. They then turned towards the Envoy of the Death God and immediately shot towards him in a frenzy.
“No, this can’t be possible… this is impossible!” The voice of the Envoy of the Death God was filled with disbelief. He quickly turned around to scuttle away.
At that moment however, a purplish-golden light shot out from Huo Yuhao’s eyes. The Envoy of the Death God felt as if his head had suddenly been struck by an enormous hammer. This, combined with the panic he felt, caused him to immediately tumble head-first to the ground.
All of the corpse slaves he’d refined had been created utilizing the bodies of soul masters. Not only were they extraordinarily quick, but they were also impervious to blades, and possessed extraordinary strength. These twelve corpse slaves had taken more than half of his strength to refine, and they were his hidden trump card. However, at this moment, these corpse slaves seemed to have regained a portion of their former consciousness; how could they let him off?
All twelve of the corpse slaves launched frenzied attacks towards the Envoy of the Death God, who’d been temporarily stunned by Huo Yuhao’s Spiritual Shock. In fact, they attacked in frenzied manner that they didn’t even seem to take their own safety into account.
Electrolux’s voice rang out from Huo Yuhao’s mouth again and said, “A true necromancer controls spirits, not bodies. Even if you become stronger, a corpse shaman like you who can’t even touch upon the mysteries of soul control will never become a true necromancer,” He then directed his voice towards the corpse slaves, “since he’s killed you, this old man will give you an opportunity to gain revenge. Once you’ve completed your revenge, your souls will subsequently be purified.
“I don’t know how long it’s been since I’ve used necromancy. It’s so familiar, yet unfamiliar at the same time! But… I like this feeling. There seems to have been an unforgettable hatred carved deep into my heart in the past, yet I feel only tranquility now. My spiritual imprint seems to have been stimulated again. Little Yuhao, big worm, little scorpion, it seems I’ll have to enter another period of slumber. Oh, there’s one last thing I have to tell you all before I go: Power can be used for good, but if you use your power in an evil way on the pretext that you’re only doing it to an evildoer is inherently evil as well. Little Yuhao, I hope that you’ll be able to wash away your hatred by the next time I wake up. When your heart is free of hatred, and when you feel only joy and benevolence, I will truly become your third martial soul. Only then will you have the qualifications to inherit my art of necromancy.”
The grayness around them vanished, as did the gray light in Huo Yuhao’s eyes. The gray soul ring around him also dissipated and disappeared. His body swayed a bit, then he collapsed to the ground.
In this short period of time, the Envoy of the Death God was ripped apart by his twelve corpse slaves. His wretched screams could be heard from several hundreds of meters away.
His sinful life had finally ended as a direct result of his own sins; a person who played with fire would definitely be burned to death. As an evil soul master, his death had come at the hands of his own crimes.
Once the evil soul master had died, the corpse slaves slowly fell to the ground one after another. As they did, strands of white mist rose from their heads and faintly resembled human faces. However, their current expressions didn’t contain any rancor; only relief and appreciation was left within them. They stared at the fallen Huo Yuhao as they gradually vanished into the air, their expressions much more peaceful.
Once the imprisoned souls had been purified, the corpse slaves began to rot and disappear at an astonishing rate. In the blink of an eye, only bones were left.
“Boom—” A violent explosion rang out. Immediately afterwards, a figure soared straight into the air, then landed mightily, revealing Elder Xuan’s powerful figure.
Elder Xuan’s naked upper body revealed his bronze-colored muscles, and the terrifying aura he was currently emanating shot straight into the air once he appeared, causing the weather itself to change. This was especially so for the two spiralling horns on his head, which shone with an indescribably mysterious luster. Nine types of light seemed to flicker through them before transforming into a jade-white color.
With a flash, Elder Xuan appeared in front of Huo Yuhao’s eyes. The current situation, however, quelled the fury within his heart; the Envoy of the Death God had vanished, and had only left a large patch of bones on the ground. Furthermore, there was even a rotten smell present. However, Huo Yuhao had been thrown to the side.
Elder Xuan had originally thought that Huo Yuhao had encountered a calamity; after all, he was only human. However, he didn’t think that he’d still be perfectly alright. With his level of cultivation, he didn’t even need to touch him to verify his status. He could tell that, even though Huo Yuhao’s breathing was somewhat weak, it was still present. His heartbeat was still extremely healthy, and his signs of life were well-evident.
Despite this, there were no other signs of life in the surroundings besides Huo Yuhao. Elder Xuan’s face revealed a trace of doubt, then he carefully picked Huo Yuhao up and poured his soul power into him.
He quickly discovered that Huo Yuhao’s fainting hadn’t been due to physical trauma; he’d merely overdrawn his spiritual power. Furthermore, his soul power hadn’t even been overdrawn that much.
Elder Xuan was anxious to learn about the whereabouts of the Envoy of the Death God, thus he took out a small bottle made of white jade and placed it beneath Huo Yuhao’s nose.
“Achoo!” Huo Yuhao suddenly awoke with a sneeze. A spicy smell had caused him to gradually awaken, but he still felt as if his head was quite heavy. His brain was also dizzy, and he currently wasn’t even able to use his Spirit Eyes to see everything in front of him clearly.
“Yuhao, what happened? What happened to that despicable evil soul master?” Elder Xuan asked impatiently.
Huo Yuhao was left blank. After calming himself down, images of what had happened began to appear within his mind. He’d been completely sober when he’d been possessed by Electrolux; moreover, he clearly understood what had happened earlier. However, he didn’t know what exactly Electrolux had done. He’d both used his spiritual power, and had even seemingly used the Skydream Iceworm’s spiritual power. It was because of this that he hadn’t even been able to speak up earlier. Even the Skydream Iceworm and the Ice Empress were still in a state of shock.
Following the recovery of his memories, a spiritual imprint that the aged Electrolux had left in his mind gradually began to appear. Huo Yuhao subconsciously followed the instructions left on that spiritual imprint and replied to Elder Xuan, “I… I don’t know either. After the Envoy of the Death God brought me here, he ordered his corpse slaves to bring up the rear and planned to use me as a hostage to run away. When I heard him, I knew that I was running out of time. Thus, I used all of my strength to release a Spiritual Shock. He instantly fell into a short daze, and both his mouth and nose began to bleed. At that instant, I took the opportunity to roll to the ground. When I did, I heard him let out a loud screech, then I felt my head go dizzy. He seemed to have lost control of his corpse slaves, which proceeded to attack him and tear him to pieces. When he died, those corpse slaves also fell to the ground. After that, I seem to have fainted.”
An enlightened look appeared in Elder Xuan’s eyes when he heard Huo Yuhao’s words. “An evil backlash! Serves him right. He got left off lightly. Alright, we’ll talk about this more later.”
At that moment, Huo Yuhao somewhat came back to his senses. With a somewhat hazy look in his eyes, he asked, “Elder Xuan, what’s an evil backlash?”
Elder Xuan carried Huo Yuhao through the cave he’d forcefully created earlier as he explained, “All evil soul masters have powerful and evil powers. For example, the bastard you saw earlier had the ability to control corpses. However, oftentimes the powers they use exceed that of what their bodies can withstand. Once this balance is broken, there’s a chance of a backlash occurring. Your Spiritual Shock earlier must’ve temporarily broken the connection he had with his corpses, in turn causing him to instantly experience a backlash. I didn’t think that it’d be you who’d kill him.”
Elder Xuan was definitely worthy of being called one of the peak experts of the Douluo Continent; his analysis was fundamentally correct. Even though Electrolux’s technique weren’t that simple, the overall results and effects it had achieved were still more or less the same. The only difference was that he’d paid more attention to purifying the souls of the dead.
“Oh.” Huo Yuhao replied, then sank back into a muddled state.
Elder Xuan quickly returned to the cave that the Hand of Death had stayed in with Huo Yuhao in tow. The smell of blood in the cave had become even stronger since he’d left.
The seriously injured students from the inner courtyard had all been gathered together once he got back. Besides the now-deceased Yao Haoxuan, the people who were in the worst condition were Gong Yangmo and Chen Zifeng. The two of them were currently lying on the ground, unconscious, but their bodies were badly mangled. Even though Xi Xi was also unconscious, her injuries were still somewhat lighter than theirs.
Although Ma Xiaotao, Dai Yueheng, and Ling Luochen were currently bleeding from their noses and mouths due to their heavy injuries, they were still able to maintain their consciousness.
Compared to the desperate state that the seven from the inner courtyard were in, the disciples from the outer courtyard were completely unharmed. They’d originally had the help of Huo Yuhao’s Spiritual Detection, and had been a decent distance away from the center of the explosions. The moment they’d felt that something was off, they’d been able to react.
Xu Sanshi had successfully used his Shield of the Xuanwu Turtle to protect Jiang Nannan, who had the weakest defense of the lot. Bei Bei had in turn released a large amount of thunder and lightning, blocking the poisonous flesh that had been sent flying towards them from the explosions. Xiao Xiao’s Threelives Soulcrush Cauldron had also played an important role in blocking a large amount of the explosion.
“Yuhao.” The moment he saw Elder Xuan return with Huo Yuhao in tow, Wang Dong immediately pounced towards him. The others from the outer courtyard also quickly surrounded him.
“I’m fine.” Huo Yuhao replied somewhat weakly. In spite of everything, Wang Dong hugged him, his tears surging uncontrollably.
When the Envoy of the Death God had captured Huo Yuhao earlier, Wang Dong instantly felt as though the most important thing in his heart had been ripped away. At that moment, he’d been sent into a foolish stupor. Before he’d come to, Elder Xuan had already left in pursuit. He’d wanted to chase after them, but he’d been stopped by Wang Yan. At that time, he’d felt his brain space out. He’d thought inwardly, It’s finished, everything’s over. Yuhao definitely won’t be able to escape now that he’s been captured by such a terrifying fellow. He didn’t think that Huo Yuhao would actually be brought back by Elder Xuan so quickly.