Stepping off the flying car, Xie Xie and the others began to carefully examine the statues in the plaza.
They had already heard numerous legends about the Silver Moon Douluo, so their attention was quickly drawn to the statues of Xiao Hongchen and Meng Hongchen.
Wang Jinxi frowned and asked, "Who are these two?"
"I know!" Xie Xie said excitedly. "I heard that from 20, 000 to 10, 000 years ago, the championship of the Continental Soul Master Competition was always held by Shrek Academy. It wasn't until 10, 000 years ago that the Sun Moon Empire broke Shrek Academy's glory twice and became the champion."
Although there were rumors that Shrek Academy's first defeat was due to a legendary evil soul master, the second defeat couldn't be explained away with such an excuse, right?
"The members of those two championship teams received the praise of the entire Sun Moon Empire. Later, the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy even designed statues for them. The statues in the plaza should be those of their younger days. Among them, the representatives are the first-generation Golden Toad Douluo Xiao Hongchen and the Ice Toad Douluo Meng Hongchen."
"Is this intentionally provoking Shrek Academy?" Wang Jinxi clicked his tongue and then laughed. "What would it feel like if Shrek Academy students saw these statues?"
Zhang Yangzi shrugged. "Probably not very pleasant, but it has nothing to do with us."
Halfway through his sentence, Zhang Yangzi thought of a certain figure and sighed inwardly, not continuing further.
It wasn't entirely unrelated, as his friend was planning to join Shrek Academy. He wondered what it would be like when the two of them met again. It would probably be a case of the world changing while people remained the same.
The plaza was bustling with people, as soul masters and tourists of all kinds moved through the crowd. The sound of footsteps and conversations intertwined into a lively clamor. The sunlight slanted onto the statues, casting a flowing golden edge on the metal and stone surfaces, causing many passersby to stop and look up.
Huo Yuhao also gazed at the statues, feeling a sense of emotion.
His relationship with these two wasn't particularly deep. After all, they had only truly gotten to know each other when they were in their forties or fifties. It was impossible to form a deep friendship, and if it weren't for their shared interest in soul tools, they wouldn't have had any connection at all.
But in that era, aside from the people of the Spirit Pagoda and the spirit beasts, those he was relatively familiar with were the few from the Illustrious Virtue Hall.
'But to be honest, I knew them long before they knew me. I still remember Xiao Hongchen laughing heartily during the Soul Master Competition, claiming that he was unmatched among his peers.'
Although whether he was truly unmatched among his peers was still up for debate.
At the entrance of the academy building, a female teacher spotted Huo Yuhao's group. Her eyes lit up, and she quickly approached them.
"Are you the students recommended by the Spirit Pagoda?" The female teacher's gaze swept over the group, lingering on Huo Yuhao for a moment longer. "My name is Lin Qinghan. Welcome to the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy. Come with me to the main building for registration."
She had recently heard rumors from the headquarters of the Spirit Pagoda. After all, it was a public incident where Huo Yuhao and Ji Wufeng had fought in the Spirit Pagoda plaza. Many people who had come to the Spirit Pagoda for business had witnessed their battle.
It was said that the two had fought so fiercely that it seemed like the sun and moon had dimmed, and even the Spirit Pagoda's tower master had been alarmed.
At the Soul King level, they were already on par with titled Douluo? It was hard to imagine. She had initially doubted the truth of the rumors, but the person who told her this was her good friend, Zhao Yao. She didn't think there was any problem with it, but it felt even more suspicious.
Thinking of her friend's personality, Lin Qinghan felt a bit speechless.
"What about the test?" Xie Xie was still a bit confused.
"There's no test," Lin Qinghan replied casually. "The Spirit Pagoda and the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy have been cooperating for many years. A little favor doesn't matter. With your talent and age, you'll have no problem getting in. We'll skip the troublesome procedures."
She paused for a moment, then looked at Huo Yuhao and the other two. "The Illustrious Virtue Hall is close to the academy, but it's a restricted area. You'll need to go through some formalities, so it'll take a bit of time. A researcher will take you there later. For now, you can wait in my office. I have some soul tool books there that you can read if you're impatient."
"Alright," Huo Yuhao nodded and followed her footsteps.
Xu Xiaoyan and the others also followed, feeling a sense of amazement.
Is this what it feels like to have connections?
It's unexpectedly nice.
Upon entering the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy, Xie Xie's first impression was that it was filled with a sense of technology, not disappointing his expectations.
The main hall was nearly thirty meters high, with numerous holographic screens floating in the air, displaying various data and three-dimensional models in real-time. Dozens of oddly-shaped soul tool elevators moved up and down through transparent tubes, and occasionally, students could be seen flying past on hoverboards.
"See you later," Xie Xie said.
"Alright, boss," Huo Yuhao and the other two separated from Xie Xie and entered Lin Qinghan's office.
The automatic door slid shut silently, cutting off the noise from outside.
"Don't be so tense," Gu Yuena finally looked at Lan Fuzi, who had been silent the entire way, feeling a bit speechless. "We're not going to eat you."
"..." Lan Fuzi gave a smile that was uglier than a cry. "I understand. Please give me a little more time, and I'll calm down soon."
Gu Yuena: "..."
Who would believe that?
As they chatted, Huo Yuhao walked over to the bookshelf in the office and took out a soul tool book from the corner, flipping through it.
But as soon as he opened it, Huo Yuhao's face darkened. He flipped back to the table of contents and saw the book's real title and some of the headings.
-Raising Young Spirit Ice, He Fell in Love With Me
Chapter 1 — A Rainy Night Encounter with a Future Legend
Chapter 2 — The Fluttering Feeling When He Calls Me Sister
Chapter 3 — The Sweet Troubles of a Genius Boy
...
Final Chapter — Pinned to the Wall by Him After He Grew Up
"..."
Huo Yuhao's forehead twitched. He felt like he wanted to annihilate both the book and its author through humane means.
The most murderous chapter yet.
"Pfft, hahaha!"
Tian Meng Ice Silkworm in the spiritual sea laughed so hard that it rolled around. "Yuhao, don't be mad. You're a famous figure from 10, 000 years ago. This kind of thing is unavoidable, unavoidable... I can't, hahaha!"
Bing Bing and the other spirit souls also showed expressions of speechlessness.
Huo Yuhao took a deep breath and silently placed the book back on the shelf.
Gu Yuena, who was standing nearby, saw this and asked curiously, "Yuhao, aren't you going to read it?"
"It's nothing. I've already read this book's content at the association," Huo Yuhao said with a straight face. "This author is too off the beaten path. It's not a viable route."
Gu Yuena blinked, glanced at the book, and nodded lightly.
At that moment, hurried footsteps came from outside. Lin Qinghan walked into the office with a sweat on her forehead. Seeing that Huo Yuhao and the other two didn't have any books in their hands, she finally relaxed.
Good, good.
She had been busy with the start of the semester and almost forgot about certain books. If they were seen by the younger generation from the Spirit Pagoda, aside from other impacts, it would be a bit awkward.
Lin Qinghan forced a professional smile. "The formalities are done. A researcher from the Illustrious Virtue Hall will be here soon."
Before she could finish her sentence, the office door opened, and a researcher wearing the Illustrious Virtue Hall's standard white lab coat stood at the entrance. His eyes lit up when he saw Huo Yuhao.
"Researcher Huo Yuhao, I've heard so much about you. Your split-core engraving method..."
The researcher realized his mistake and cleared his throat, straightening up.
"I'm Xu Mo, a third-level researcher at the Illustrious Virtue Hall. I'll be taking you on a tour. Please follow me."
Lin Qinghan watched as the three of them left with Xu Mo. She quickly walked over to the bookshelf and put a few books into her storage ring.
She couldn't just leave them on the shelf next time. Some of these books were unique copies she had found while organizing the library. She didn't know who the author was, but if someone found them, they might not be able to read them anymore.
...
Although the Illustrious Virtue Hall was an independent organization, due to historical reasons, it had a deep relationship with the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy, similar to the relationship between the inner and outer courts of Shrek Academy. The two were located close to each other.
If students successfully graduated from the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy, they could take the Illustrious Virtue Hall's entrance exam.
Following Xu Mo through the connecting corridor, they soon arrived at the main building of the Illustrious Virtue Hall.
The cold light of metal flowed through the space, giving the entire hall a futuristic technological feel. In the center was a massive metal sphere with a diameter of over five meters. Its surface was covered with a faint blue soul power ripple, and as it slowly rotated, the intricate core array inside could be seen. The soft light emitted by the sphere enveloped the entire space in a unique technological beauty.
"This is the Celestial Dome Master Control System of the Illustrious Virtue Hall. It's responsible for coordinating the soul power supply within the building," Xu Mo explained while tapping on a floating control panel. The metal sphere immediately projected a three-dimensional structure of the building.
Huo Yuhao looked at this massive object and keenly noticed that the arrangement of the core arrays was somewhat familiar, it was clearly an improved version of the linked soul tool array, but on a scale hundreds of times larger.
"Now, we'll be teleporting. Please prepare yourselves."
Lan Fuzi was confused for a moment, then suddenly understood.
A strong spatial fluctuation came, and the surrounding scenes twisted like water waves. Before she could react, the scenery before her eyes had completely changed, they had been teleported to an entirely different space.
Lan Fuzi looked around and noticed that she was standing on a circular silver platform, surrounded by countless floating soul tool screens displaying complex data streams. "Is this spatial teleportation technology?"
Xu Mo smiled. "Yes, this is the Spatial Folding System developed by our Illustrious Virtue Hall. It's an improvement on spatial-type soul tools. The main body of the Illustrious Virtue Hall is underground, so there are no elevators or other means of transportation. We have to use spatial teleportation..."
Xu Mo noticed the calm expressions of the three and instantly realized that the Spirit Pagoda must also possess similar spatial technology.
He wisely chose not to continue the topic and instead explained, "I'm sorry, but the Hall Master is currently handling an urgent research project and can't meet with you right now. However, aside from studying, you've also come here for the Fire Host Clan, right? Today, there's a related research project. Please follow me."
As a researcher, he wasn't very interested in small talk. Although he was very curious about some of the techniques on Huo Yuhao, that wasn't something he should ask about now.
It was better to focus on the main task.
The four of them arrived at a metal door, which slid open silently, and a wave of heat hit Lan Fuzi, causing her to take a step back.
In the center of the lab, a massive fire wolf was performing an experiment as instructed, while seven or eight researchers nervously recorded data.
When they saw the fire wolf, a strange light flashed in Huo Yuhao's eyes, while Lan Fuzi felt a sense of surprise.
'A life form made entirely of fire elements, but without a trace of spirit beast aura?' Lan Fuzi was inwardly surprised.
Is it not a spirit beast?
When she came to the Illustrious Virtue Hall, she had temporarily taken over the position and hadn't received much information from Huo Yuhao. She didn't expect to encounter such a strange existence as soon as she entered the Illustrious Virtue Hall.
As a spirit beast herself, she was certain that there wasn't a trace of spirit beast aura on this fire wolf.
Lan Fuzi couldn't help but look at the expressionless Huo Yuhao and Gu Yuena, and the emotions in her heart gradually calmed down.
She suddenly felt that her earlier astonishment was a bit ridiculous, these two were living gods who had once held the authority of the Divine Realm. Compared to them, an otherworldly fire elemental life form was nothing.
As Gu Yuena looked at the fire wolf, she recalled the information Ditian had told her.
The Fire Host Clan, a fire elemental life form, an extraterrestrial race, had suddenly appeared on the Douluo Continent many years ago.
Thanks to the policies of the Spirit Pagoda and their powerful strength, they hadn't actively attacked humans, so no soul masters had attacked them.
However, this massive clan could only survive in lava. If they were away from the lava environment for too long, the weaker members of the Fire Host Clan would gradually die.
As a result, they had wandered around for a while, searching for a place to live, but it seemed they hadn't found anything. Until one day, the Fire Host Clan suddenly arrived near the Sun Moon Capital and sought out the War God Temple.
'Now that I think about it, Yuhao appeared in that era, didn't he?'
Gu Yuena glanced at Huo Yuhao and thought to herself.
Huo Yuhao himself looked at the fire wolf, his eyes flickering.
The Fire Host Clan, from the Falan World, lived in the Magma Red Sea. Every member of the clan was born with powerful combat abilities. Although they couldn't leave the lava regions, as long as they were in areas with lava, they were nearly immortal.
How did such a clan come to the Douluo Continent?
The answer lies in the Space-Time Turbulence.
The Space-Time Turbulence swept away a planet smaller than the Falan World and collided with the Falan World. Although the people of that world had resisted, human power had its limits, and they ultimately couldn't overcome this disaster.
The colliding planet shattered, and the main continent of the Falan World, the Fairy Continent, was also broken into several pieces. The Magma Red Sea, where the Fire Host Clan lived, was also affected, and large parts of it disappeared. Many spatial rifts were created, and the Fire Host Clan on the Douluo Continent was brought here by such a spatial rift...
The group waited quietly for the experiment to end, and Huo Yuhao was then arranged to come into close contact with the fire wolf under the Illustrious Virtue Hall's arrangements.
The fire wolf had already been informed by the Illustrious Virtue Hall's researchers that there would be visitors today. When Huo Yuhao appeared before it, it lazily shook its flame-like tail and didn't pay much attention.
However, in the next moment, an extremely subtle spiritual fluctuation came.
The fire wolf pricked up its ears and, out of a desire to cooperate with the research, cautiously accepted this spiritual connection.
In that instant, its fiery body trembled violently!
In the spiritual vision, Huo Yuhao showed it a memory of flames, an almost transparent, strange flame. Its outer appearance was a white incandescent color, but inside, it flowed with seven dream-like colors, as if a rainbow had been sealed within the flame.
That was... their Fire Host Clan's life-bound true flame, the Seven-Colored Lotus Flower, which only the royal family possessed!