Shadows dashed out continuously from the structures inside the royal palace. There were soul masters and soul engineers, but they couldn’t do anything even if they were outside. How were they to face such a sinister change in the weather?
Several intelligent soul engineers immediately realized that the problem was probably in the sky. Everyone flew separately into the air to investigate.
However, they quickly ran into trouble once they actually went up into the sky. The further they went, the stronger the blizzard was, and fierce gales blew as their flying-type soul tools couldn’t support them any further. Many soul engineers were directly blown back down, and they fell to their certain and miserable deaths.
Three elderly men appeared on a relatively tall roof inside the royal palace at the same time. One of them was the evil Titled Douluo that he had seen before. The two other elderly men seemed a lot more normal, and nine soul rings flickered on each of their bodies.
These were three Titled Douluo!
Huo Yuhao was still hidden within a dark and shadowy corner, but he could observe everything that was happening around him with Spiritual Detection.
There was no doubt that this blizzard came from the Ice Bear King, and his execution was very similar to how it was back in the Extreme North.
The Ice Bear King quietly left Heaven Dou City before he followed Huo Yuhao’s instructions as he took to the skies from a place where the surveillance soul tools above Heaven Dou City couldn’t reach. He went more than four thousand meters above into the sky, far higher than the aerial surveillance soul tools could reach, before he flew above the royal palace and threw this blizzard towards the ground.
This was the strength of top-tier individuals. The Ice Bear King wasn’t yet like an Ultimate Douluo, but his strength was comparable to that of a Rank 96 or Rank 97 Transcendent Douluo. Furthermore, even though his control over ice and snow wasn’t at the level of the Ice Empress and the Snow Empress, who could control Ultimate Ice, it was sufficient for his blizzard to reach one hundred degrees below zero.
That was a very frightening number. The blizzard’s strength became a lot weaker as it came down from the sky, but it could still reach thirty to forty degrees below zero. That was an enormous threat to normal people.
“What’s going on, Hallmaster Jing?” An evil soul master lowered his voice and asked.
The person standing in the middle of the three elderly men was, surprisingly, someone who Huo Yuhao was very familiar with – Jing Hongchen, the Illustrious Virtue Hall’s hallmaster.
Yes – Jing Hongchen wasn’t in the Illustrious Virtue Hall during the tremendous explosion in Radiant City. He wasn’t the only one that wasn’t there – his two grandchildren weren’t there either. They were heavily injured during the grand competition, so they were receiving treatment from the royal palace’s imperial physician. Jing Hongchen was protecting them by their side, and he was looking over his grandchildren. It was because of that that they managed to avoid the disaster.
Still, the great explosion had dealt a heavy blow to Jing Hongchen. The Illustrious Virtue Hall was completely ruined, and his entire life’s worth of blood and sweat was buried beneath rubble just like that. In addition to his grandchildren being heavily injured, he fell extremely sick because of these blows, and even his cultivation took a hit. Following Xiao Hongchen’s gradual recovery, and in addition to the fact that Xu Tianran still relied heavily on him after ascending to the throne, his emotions were slowly able to recover.
Jing Hongchen remained here as leader of Heaven Dou City after they conquered the Heavenly Soul Empire’s capital.
Heaven Dou City was considered one of the most popular large cities in the Douluo Continent. Furthermore, it was positioned in the Heavenly Soul Empire’s central and northern region that was lying towards the west. They could use this place as a stronghold, and this was thus a very important transition stop for storing food and transporting soldiers. This place held very important strategic importance for the Sun Moon Empire’s invasion against the continent.
Xu Tianran personally gave the order for Jing Hongchen to hold down the fort here, which also displayed that Xu Tianran had sufficient trust in him.
The war was started a little hastily. That was the reason why the Sun Moon Empire’s Illustrious Virtue Hall was still being reconstructed. The Sun Moon Empire had to bear a great burden by starting this war, and even though they had gained the upper hand under Ju Zi’s appropriate battle strategies, their supply lines had been stretched longer and longer with the passage of time. They needed soldiers to stand guard over the territories that they had conquered from the Heavenly Soul Empire, while they had to fight back against the Heavenly Soul Empire’s scattered attacks in their conquered territories, as well as against the reclusive sects, who were hidden away in the dark. They expended a lot of resources and men every day, and that was the reason why the Sun Moon Empire had channeled and mobilized as much resources and power they could into this war. Jing Honchen was a Class 9 soul engineer who was loyal to Xu Tianran, and he was naturally given an important responsibility.
However, the Holy Ghost Church was starting to become increasingly outrageous within the Sun Moon Empire. Their Supreme Leader had requested that a soul master from the Holy Ghost Church to take a position of vice-city leader in any large city that the Sun Moon Empire had conquered.
The Sun Moon Empire’s senior commanders expressed their strict opposition to that request at first. However, the Holy Ghost Church was just too powerful, especially because they had two Ultimate Douluo. They were very useful for the Sun Moon Empire’s invasion, so Xu Tianran had no choice but to accommodate their demands. He knew that the Holy Ghost Church was a little too large for efficient organization, but he had no choice, because he wanted to expand his territory.
The strategy that Xu Tianran had in his heart was actually very simple – he wanted to continue using the Holy Ghost Church to expand the Sun Moon Empire’s territory, and with the passage of war, the Holy Ghost Church’s strength would undoubtedly be expended continuously.
The Holy Ghost Church was an organization of evil soul masters. Evil soul masters were indeed powerful, but at the same time, powerful evil soul masters had their own problems – the problem of replenishing their numbers.
The Holy Ghost Church only attained the scale that they were at today after accumulating their strength for thousands of years in the darkness. This wasn’t done within one or two days. Once they had sustained too many deaths and losses, their overall strength would be continuously weakened.
As the Sun Moon Empire dominated more territory, their national strength only became stronger, while the Sun Moon Empire’s royal family would have more soul masters and soul engineers to command. When the time came, the Sun Moon Empire would become increasingly stronger, while the Holy Ghost Church would become continuously weaker, and Xu Tianran wouldn’t be afraid that the Holy Ghost Church would turn against them. Furthermore, the two Ultimate Douluo were powerful, but they were already more than two hundred years old. They were very near the human limits, and who knew when these two would just pass away from old age. What Xu Tianran was truly afraid of were these two Ultimate Douluo.
The result of Xu Tianran accommodating the Holy Ghost Church in Heaven Dou City was another Titled Douluo from the Holy Ghost Church here together with Jing Hongchen. This Elder’s title was Nightmare, and he was rare soul master who was adept with illusions. His martial soul was the Nightmare Demon, a soul beast that had very poor fighting skills, but extremely powerful illusory powers. That was the reason why his martial soul was very rare.
The Nightmare Douluo hadn’t unleashed his true powers when Huo Yuhao faced him that day. Both soul masters and normal citizens would enter a dream-like state when struck by his illusory attacks. If that happened, then the Nightmare Douluo could kill that individual, and he could even control them in battle. The final result was that the person who was put into a nightmare would die regardless, while all that resentment and fear after death was most beneficial for the Nightmare Douluo’s cultivation.
The Nightmare Douluo once sent an entire village into a nightmare due to some private benefit a long time ago, and he became a public enemy. He was chased down by many soul masters, but his illusions were far too powerful, and he finally broke out while killing many of the soul masters who were chasing him. He all but disappeared in the end, and vanished off the grid. He was then recruited by the Holy Ghost Church.
The Nightmare Douluo wasn’t much of a threat to top-tier soul masters. Illusions were hardly effective against Transcendent Douluo, but if his nightmares were used against normal citizens or soldiers, then the destruction that he could cause could even surpass that of a Class 9 stationary soul cannon shell. Therefore, his status in the Holy Ghost Church was relatively high, and he was one the few who were consecrated by the Holy Ghost. His status was even above an Elder. Back when the Sun Moon Empire was attacking Heaven Dou City, the Nightmare Douluo had used his formidable illusions to confuse many soldiers on the city wall. He made them attack and murder each other, which created an incredible opportunity for the Sun Moon Empire, and he had remained after the city was broken.
The Nightmare Douluo today didn’t kill as much as he did back then. At his level, normal citizens and even low-tier soul masters and their resentment inside a nightmare were no longer enough to aid his cultivation. He needed soul masters at a certain standard so that he could improve. More accurately put, the more powerful a soul master’s spiritual power, the stronger the resentment after dying under his nightmares. That kind of resentment was the most beneficial for him.
“Speak, Hallmaster Jing!” The Nightmare Douluo’s face darkened as he pushed Jing Hongchen to speak.
Jing Hongchen frowned and said, “I can only conclude that this isn’t something created by soul tools. This should be a soul master’s ability, and this person has to be a Transcendent Douluo to bring such an enormous blizzard down upon us. I’ll take a look up in the sky. I’ll leave this place to the two of you.”
“Wait,” the Nightmare Douluo hurriedly stopped Jing Hongchen, “Hallmaster Jing, if you discover that Titled Douluo with formidable spiritual power, you have to notify me. We will try our best to capture him, and as long as we capture him, I’ll do anything for you if you need me in the future.”
Jing Hongchen glanced at him and nodded. “Alright.” With that, he flew high into the sky. The powerful winds in the blizzard weren’t enough to block him, as he was a Class 9 soul engineer, and they could only reduce his speed.
The Nightmare Douluo was furious after Huo Yuhao had escaped the other day, but he couldn’t find any traces of him at all. However, he had felt very excited after that day – Huo Yuhao was a spiritual-type soul master, and if he perished under his nightmares, then that soul master’s resentment would be extremely beneficial for him. From his perspective, Huo Yuhao should be a spiritual-type Titled Douluo. He was very clear that his nightmares and illusory abilities were insufficient to directly kill a spiritual-type Titled Douluo. However, he would have a much higher chance of success after severely injuring that person, while the resentment produced after killing them would be the same. This person’s death could even help his soul power, which had been stagnant for a long time, improve once more.
