Without a word, gray mist began to spread around Huo Yuhao, and a suit of silver-white armor appeared on his body.
The lines of the armor were as sharp as ice crystals, with dark blue soul guide patterns embedded at the joints. The helmet's eye area was filled with a misty gray halo.
With this armor covering him, Huo Yuhao's aura had risen several levels.
"I don't believe it. You're just a Soul King. Even if you're a Battle Armor Master, so what? Since you've come before me, come with me!"
The evil soul master's face twisted ferociously as she suddenly lunged forward, her fingers forming claws. Blood-red soul power condensed into sharp blades, aiming straight for Huo Yuhao's throat!
A Soul King, even with the enhancement of battle armor, could at most rival a Soul Sage. There was no way he could block her attack.
However, just as her claws were about to reach Huo Yuhao's throat—
"Buzz!"
Five black soul rings rose beneath Huo Yuhao. The gray mist in his eyes suddenly boiled, as if an abyss had been awakened. A bone-chilling cold instantly enveloped the entire area.
Behind him, a massive vertical eye phantom silently appeared. Just being stared at by it, the evil soul master felt as if her soul had been locked onto by some entity, and her thoughts froze for a moment.
"Second Awakening of a Body Soul?!"
The evil soul master frowned slightly, but before she could react—
Ssssh!
A dark green light beam, only five meters thick, shot out from the vertical eye that had suddenly appeared on Huo Yuhao's forehead.
The light wasn't blinding, but it contained a terrifying energy that slightly distorted space. Wherever it passed, the blood-red claws were instantly pierced.
Destruction Light!
"...I underestimated you." The evil soul master's pupils contracted as she transformed into a streak of blood light, dodging the attack. Her right hand clenched in mid-air, and a slender blood-red sword materialized out of thin air.
Blood Prison: Thousand Eyes!
With a cold chant, countless crimson light dots suddenly appeared in the sky, centered around the evil soul master. At first, they were just scattered points, but in an instant, they expanded, they were actually thousands of cold, blood-red eyes, densely covering the sky, each one emitting a chilling glare.
"Whoosh whoosh whoosh—!"
Thousands of blood-red spears shot out from those ferocious eyes, weaving into a massive net of death that blotted out the sky.
The crimson light dyed the entire world red, and a violent wave of blood energy poured down toward Huo Yuhao.
Huo Yuhao took a step forward, and a curtain of stars appeared in front of him, blocking most of the blood spears. In a flash, he appeared in front of the evil soul master.
Instantly, the gray mist around him spread like a living creature. Wherever it passed, the blood-red soul power sizzled and corroded, as if encountering the scorching sun, and was forcibly devoured and disintegrated.
The evil soul master felt her soul power and mental power draining at a steady rate, and her heart sank.
A domain that erodes mental and soul power?
This kid's talent and strength... seemed to exceed her expectations.
But it was still fine. At least he wasn't a Limit Douluo disguised as a Soul King, as she had initially thought...
Even without her battle armor and her cultivation temporarily dropping to around level 90, with her experience as a Super Douluo, her physical strength, mental power, and soul power, he was no match for her.
The blood-eyed evil soul master secretly breathed a sigh of relief. While dealing with the attacks, she said in a deep voice:
"What's the point of staying in the Federation? Even if you have unparalleled talent, in three hundred years, you'll be nothing but a pile of dust. Surrender and join us. The Holy Church is the best soil for your growth!"
"..."
Huo Yuhao remained silent, only intensifying his attacks while mixing bloodline power into the death energy, affecting his opponent.
"Hmph," the evil soul master felt her irritation growing and snorted coldly, her eyes blazing with blood light. "You don't know what's good for you!"
She suddenly bit her tongue and spat a mouthful of blood essence onto the blood-red sword. The sword instantly erupted with a blinding blood light, and the patterns on its surface writhed like blood vessels. A fierce, murderous aura swept out.
"Blood Prison: Ten Thousand Souls Devour!"
The evil soul master pointed her sword to the sky, and countless vengeful spirits surged out from the blade, their shrill screams echoing through the heavens. The spirits transformed into ferocious ghostly faces, clawing and gnashing their teeth as they pounced toward Huo Yuhao. Wherever they passed, even the air sizzled and corroded.
From Huo Yuhao's eyes, a brilliant golden light shot out.
—Soul Impact!
The golden light collided with the vengeful spirits, creating a deafening explosion. A storm swept through the surroundings, lingering for a long time.
Seeing that Huo Yuhao had been able to contend with her for so long with his "weak" soul power, the evil soul master's brow furrowed slightly. After observing carefully for a moment, an incredible thought arose in her mind.
A Soul Core? He has a Soul Core?!
The difference in their soul power levels was vast. Without a Soul Core to absorb the external energy of heaven and earth to replenish his soul power, he should have run out of energy long ago!
A Soul King with a Soul Core... has that ever existed in history?
A flash of shock appeared in the evil soul master's blood-red eyes, quickly turning into greed. Her blood-red robe fluttered wildly under the surge of soul power, and she didn't seem to care about her deteriorating condition. "I never expected a mere Soul King to have a Soul Core... Huo Yuhao, you're even more valuable than I thought!"
"What's the use of the Federation, no matter how strong it is? Do they have true god-level beings? Our Holy Church does. Become our Holy Son, and you'll be the next god, immortal, overlooking the continent!"
Hearing this, Huo Yuhao's eyes flickered, and he thought, "Elder Yi, it's time. Switch."
The gray mist in his eyes suddenly boiled, as if a forbidden gate had been opened.
The evil soul master met his gaze and felt an unprecedented sense of threat, her heart filled with shock.
What is this?
Before she could react, she felt her thoughts suddenly freeze, the entire world seemed to have been paused.
Necromancy, Soul Control Flame!
At this level of exhaustion, the evil soul master had no way to resist Elder Yi's magic.
"Huo Yuhao" looked at the controlled evil soul master and asked in a low voice:
"Tell me everything about your goals and the Holy Spirit Church's god!"
"Our goal is..."
The evil soul master's expression was blank, but her pupils suddenly dilated, and her entire body trembled violently, as if she were about to explode.
"Huo Yuhao" narrowed his eyes, realizing that someone had placed a curse on her soul and martial soul origin, preventing her from revealing this information. Without hesitation, he used necromancy to suppress her soul.
The evil soul master then calmed down a bit and began to answer:
"Our goal is to find seeds for becoming peak powerhouses and to collect godhood fragments..."
"As for the god of our cult, I only know that it's a divine consciousness from the God Realm, reshaped into a body by the Master using a blood curse, and is currently in nirvana..."
"But no one knows if we can truly control it after it completes its nirvana. After all, it's a real god. So we need to balance its existence. Huo Yuhao, in my opinion, has the potential to do so, which is why I'm particularly excited..."
At first, even when hearing about godhood fragments, Tianmeng and the other soul spirits could remain calm. But when they heard about the divine consciousness, their expressions changed.
"Holy crap, a god's divine consciousness?" Tianmeng Iceworm's pupils trembled. "No way, even that fell down?"
"What's so surprising about that?"
The Evil Emperor snapped out of his thoughts and snorted coldly. "Don't just think about the benefits. Even divine artifacts and godhood fragments have fallen. What's so strange about a divine consciousness? And it might not have fallen, it could have fled, not daring to fight the Golden Dragon King, and came down on its own."
Huo Yuhao also remained calm. "Expected."
As the Evil Emperor had said, with divine artifacts and godhood fragments appearing, it wasn't strange for a divine consciousness to descend to the Douluo Continent.
The Golden Dragon King was alone. When he was killing, he couldn't confirm the state of every god, nor did he have the time.
And in that battlefield where gods were being slaughtered en masse, the myriad gods, each with their own thoughts, could have made any decision.
Fleeing the God Realm, finding a way to transfer their divine consciousness to the lower realm, or embedding it into a divine artifact... none of these were impossible.
When people are cornered, they struggle. You can't expect all the gods to fight to the death for the God Realm and the Golden Dragon King, can you?
Fortune and misfortune are intertwined.
The God Realm's calamity didn't bring him only benefits. The Golden Dragon King's slaughter of the gods wasn't done to benefit the lower realm.
The Golden Dragon King only killed. He brought benefits to the lower realm, but he also dug pits.
Clearly, the Holy Spirit Church of this era was one of the big pits the Golden Dragon King had dug…