People who were between the first and tenth rank of soulforce fell underneath the category of Soul Scholar. When someone's martial soul was awakened, their innate soulforce would signify their talent towards becoming a soul master. As such, a person with greater talent would have a greater cultivation speed. If one had tenth-ranked soulforce after their martial soul had awakened, they would be a gifted person with 'innate full soulforce'. That person would thus be referred to as a genius soul master. A genius soul master would have great accomplishments in his life as long as his martial soul wasn't too bad.
Although Huo Yuhao was the son of the Duke, he hadn't inherited a powerful martial soul from the Duke. If he had, the Duke's wife would've had to report his martial soul to the Duke, regardless of whether or not she liked him. From then on, Huo Yuhao and his mother's destiny would've also changed.
Unfortunately, an extremely rare mutation appeared in Huo Yuhao's martial soul.
He possessed the 'Spirit Eyes'.
Outside of the two main categories of martial souls, there was an extremely tiny subcategory that were known as 'Body Souls'. The martial soul that they awakened would be a part of their body, such as an arm, or a leg.
Almost all Body Souls were extremely strong, but the probability of them appearing was extremely small. It could be said that they were existences above both Beast Souls and Tool Souls, and because of this, they were greatly valued whenever they appeared.
Unfortunately, Huo Yuhao's martial soul was an exception to this.
His Spirit Eyes martial soul had naturally appeared in his eyes. Furthermore, it was also an extremely rare spiritual-type martial soul. Under normal circumstances, Huo Yuhao should've become greatly valued. Unfortunately, there were two points that had restricted his development. When he'd awakened his martial soul, his innate soulforce had only been at the first rank. Thus, it could be said that his talent was quite poor, which meant that his cultivation speed would definitely be extremely slow. The second point that had restricted his development was even more fatal; not only were spiritual-type martial souls rarely seen, spiritual-type soul beasts were also extremely rare.
Whenever a soul master's cultivation reached the tenth soul rank's bottleneck, they would need to kill a soul beast that was compatible with their martial soul, and then would need to use its soul ring to break through it.
Not only were soul rings required to breakthrough a bottleneck, but they would also give soul masters a skill. This was also one of the origins of a soul masters strength.
Combined, these two factors practically doomed Huo Yuhao to have no achievements during his lifetime.
However, he was still the Duke's son in the end. Thus, he still managed to obtain a simple soulforce cultivation method.
Even the children of some servants within the Duke's Mansion were capable of reaching the tenth soul rank, and could become soul masters within three years of awakening their martial soul.
However, Huo Yuhao had reached the age of eleven this year. He'd already cultivated for five years, yet his soulforce had only barely reached the tenth soul rank. Furthermore, he'd worked three times harder than his peers!
After his mother passed away, Huo Yuhao stayed in the Duke's Mansion for another year. He was still young, so he didn't have any source of income whatsoever after rashly leaving the Duke's Mansion. Thus, he could only suppress all of his grievances and hate with his heart. And, due to the oppression that he'd had to suffer through, his mind had matured much more than his peers.
His mother had told him that the only way for him to be outstanding was to become a soul master. Even if he only became an ordinary soul master, his status would still be much higher than that of other ordinary people on the Douluo continent.
Yesterday, Huo Yuhao had finally managed to raise his soulforce to the tenth rank; this was with his extremely poor talent, and after five years of bitterly hard work. This was also the day that he'd planned to leave the Duke's Mansion.
He needed a soul ring. Even a low-tier ten year soul ring would be fine! That way, he'd have the chance to become a true soul master that possessed his own personal skill.
On the Douluo Continent, soul beasts were ranked according to the number of years that they'd lived for. The strength of their soul rings was closely related to this, as well as their overall power.
Generally speaking, soul beasts were separated into ten year soul beasts, hundred year soul beasts, thousand year soul beasts, ten thousand year soul beasts, and hundred thousand year soul beasts.
Soul masters would have to personally kill a soul beast in order to obtain a soul ring from it when it died.
Huo Yuhao knew that, if he continued to stay in the Duke's Mansion, he simply wouldn't have a chance to obtain a soul ring. Practically no one there was willing to help him. Due to this, he rashly decided to leave the Duke's Mansion, even though he knew that it was an extremely dangerous thing for him to look for a spiritual-type soul beast by himself. After all, a newborn calf wouldn't be afraid of a tiger.
Huo Yuhao quickly arrived at the main road as he walked towards the north. Although he was young, he'd already made preparations for the sake of obtaining a soul ring. Besides a set of clean clothes, he'd also brought some dry rations in his bag, as well as some money that his mother had obtained via hard work. He also had a dagger in his bag. But most importantly, he had a simple map of the continent.
Both the Duke's Mansion and Star Luo City were located in the north-central region of the Star Luo Empire, and the area that Huo Yuhao chose to hunt for a soul beast in was the Great Star Dou Forest that bordered the northern area of the Star Luo Empire and the Tian Hun Empire. Various types of soul beasts lived within the forest, which was almost as big as a province. Furthermore, there were no lack of supreme existences inside of the forest.
If anyone else knew that the eleven year old Huo Yuhao had dared to enter the Star Dou Forest by himself, without a teacher accompanying him, they would definitely be stunned speechless. He was overestimating his own capabilities! Since he didn't have any skills at all, he might not even be able to win a fight against a ten year soul beast!
The main road was perfectly straight, thus Huo Yuhao quickly walked along it, following the roadside. Although he was young, he was still a tenth ranked Soul Scholar. His physical strength was much greater than a normal adult's.
Huo Yuhao gazed far into the distance as he walked forward. If one were to carefully look at him, they would see that his deep blue eyes had instantly become much clearer, and that there faintly seemed to be light flashing inside of them.
Ever since he'd awakened his Spirit Eyes, Huo Yuhao had discovered that his vision exceeded that of an ordinary person's. At a relatively close distance, he could see many minute details that ordinary people were unable to clearly see; at a longer distance, the range of his vision was over twice the distance of an ordinary person's.
The strength of his vision had also unceasingly increased in combination with his soulforce level. The changes that had appeared as his cultivation increased made his trust in his mother's words increase. A soul master, I must become a soul master.
"Mother once said that I would become a control system battle soul master if I was able to obtain a soul ring. It's not that my martial soul is bad, but that my talent is poor. Thus, I'll just work harder and cultivate longer than other people do."
Huo Yuhao cultivated as he advanced forward, supported by this resolute conviction. When he was thirsty, he'd look for some spring water; when he was hungry, he'd eat some of the rough biscuits that he'd brought along with him. Other than hurrying forward on his journey, he would sit down and meditate. The fact that he could actually advance three hundred miles in a single day—at his age—was nothing short of a miracle.
However, he only had seven silver soul coins and five copper soul coins him, which caused him to be extremely frugal with his money.
Ever since the war between the Douluo Continent and the Sun Moon Continent had ended, the continent had undergone thousands of years of changes. The currency used was now completely unified: one gold soul coin was equal to ten silver soul coins, which was equal to one hundred copper soul coins.
When he was young, his mother had sometimes quietly taken him outside of the Duke's Mansion to look for some fruits and wild herbs in the forest to eat, simply for the sake of giving him a better meal than normal. Thus, the amount of plants that Little Yuhao recognised was fairly high. Many times, he couldn't even bear to buy some cheap biscuits, so he had to resort to looking for some food in the woods beside the road as he travelled along.
Chapter 3
The Youth with the Spirit Eyes | Part 3
Although Huo Yuhao had the guidance of a map, this was still the first time that he'd left vicinity of the Duke's Mansion. Due to this, he couldn't avoid losing his way a few times, and he had to continuously ask for the help of other people to find the correct route to his destination.
This was the so-called 'reading ten thousand books is not as good as travelling ten thousand miles'. He felt like he'd learned a lot of things after only a few days. His mood had also improved a lot without the oppression and restrictions that were usually imposed within the Duke's Mansion. The interesting things that he'd seen so far during his journey caused him to be endlessly excited. He was still young after all. After his body had recovered, he didn't feel tired while travelling. On the contrary, it could be said that he was a bird who'd left its cage. This was the first time that he'd had fun after his mother's passing.
"I've been walking for six days, I should get there soon." Huo Yuhao carefully inspected the paper map in his hands, and then looked in the direction where the trees by the roadside pointed to. He determined that he was already very close to the Great Star Dou Forest.
Huo Yuhao wiped the sweat off of his forehead as he walked into the woods by the roadside. As soon as he sat down in the shade of a tree, intending to meditate and recover his spirit power, the sound of flowing water suddenly began to reverberate through the air. This sound immediately caused Huo Yuhao to jump up in excitement.
The presence of water signified that he could improve his lifestyle!
Huo Yuhao quickly shut his eyes, and quietly listened for the source of the water. As someone who possessed a spiritual-type martial spirit, his six senses were much stronger than an ordinary person's. This was especially true when he shut his eyes. When he shut his eyes, his other five senses would increase in strength by a margin.
He quickly identified where the sound of water was coming from, and carefully advanced through the forest. The reason why he was being so careful wasn't because the forest's ground was uneven, but because he was scared that his clothes would be torn by the brambles in the forest. These were clothes that his mother had personally made for him.
He found his target without walking more than two hundred metres, which turned out to be a small brook approximately three metres wide. The cold water within was so clear that you could see straight to the bottom, and it created both a relaxing and a refreshing feeling.
Huo Yuhao let out a happy cheer, rapidly took his clothes off, and then instantly jumped into the stream, which wasn't even two feet deep. The last time he'd had a bath was two days ago. The past two days of travelling had covered his body in sweat, and taking a bath in this cold and clear water was simply a pleasure that couldn't be any more relaxing.
After thoroughly bathing, a brilliant feeling was suffused throughout his whole body when he walked out of the stream. He inwardly thought, Since I've already arrived at the Great Star Dou Forest, I'll simply have a good rest here.
He changed into a clean set of clothes, proceeded to washed his dirty clothes in the stream as well, and then hung them on a nearby tree branch. He then snapped off a tree branch that was approximately three feet long.
He used his right hand to pull a dagger from its sheath at his waist. The dagger was roughly forty centimetres long, and its scabbard was dark green in colour. The scabbard was made of tough leather, though he didn't know whether it was leather from an animal, or from a spirit beast. He only knew that it was a present that his father had given to his mother. It had always been treasured by his mother, so much so that his mother had only given it to him the moment before she passed away.
The handle of the dagger was about seventeen centimetres long, and didn't have any gorgeous decorations on it at all—it gave people a simple and unadorned feeling. Not only did it feel natural to hold, it also felt exceptionally comfortable.
It also didn't make any noise when it was unsheathed. The twenty-three centimetre long blade was just like limpid autumn water, and seemed to be transparent. Huo Yuhao couldn't help but shiver because of the dense, cold air around the knife, even though he seemed to be somewhat used to it.
The 'White Tiger Dagger'. This was the dagger's name, which his mother had told him.
As Huo Yuhao looked at the White Tiger Dagger, the excitement in his eyes instantly turned into a deep look of sadness. He seemed to see his mother's figure in the blade's reflection.
Holding the branch that he'd just snapped off in one hand, Huo Yuhao used the White Tiger Dagger to shave the front of it. When the blade, which was releasing a faint blue light, cut into the tree branch, it felt like cutting through tofu. After two or three cuts, the front of the tree branch had been sharpened.
He sheathed the White Tiger Dagger at his waist, and walked back towards the stream with the sharpened branch in hand.
After taking a deep breath, his eyes immediately lit up. All of the minute details in the clear water were magnified within his eyes. He was now able to see the minute changes in the water's ripples—even the small shrimps that lay in-between the cracks in the ground at the bottom of the river couldn't escape the notice of his Spirit Eyes. Furthermore, everything seemed to slow down as he looked at it.
Suddenly, Huo Yuhao made a lightning fast move, and stabbed the sharpened branch he was holding into the stream.
"Pu—" When he raised his hand back up, and turned the tree branch upwards, a half-feet long mackerel had appeared on the tip of it.
To ordinary people, stabbing a fish was definitely something that required technique. However, this was something extremely easy for Huo Yuhao, who had the aid of the Spirit Eyes to help him accurately determine the position of the fish.
A single small fish was naturally not enough for him. After a few moments of casual labour, he'd stabbed ten mackerels that varied from seventeen centimetres in length, to thirty-three centimetres in length.
"This is good, it can last me for two days at the least. It won't rot very easily if I roast it too."
Huo Yuhao happily squatted down next to the stream, and used the White Tiger Dagger to gut the mackerels. The sharp White Tiger Dagger easily managed to cut through the fish, no matter if it was its scales, chest, or belly. This was no problem at all to Huo Yuhao, who'd been doing manual labor with his mother since he was young. The ten fish were all gutted after fifteen minutes.
He looked for some big leaves in the forest, and rinsed them off in the river. Then, he placed the gutted fishes on the wet leaves. After that, he found some dry twigs to use as firewood, and started a fire next to the stream after a moment of work.
Huo Yuhao only had salt available as a seasoning, but that was enough for something like roasted fish. He stuck the clean mackerels onto a thin branch, and rubbed some salt into their bellies. Then he took some leaves known as Purple Basil out of his bag, which he'd gotten in the forest a few days ago. He washed and separated the Purple Basil before pushing it into the bellies of the fish. Only after this did he start to roast the fish on the grill that he'd created using some thick branches.
It didn't take long for an unusual smell to spread from the fire that he'd created. The smell was very heavy, and it contained a certain attraction that belonged solely to it. As Huo Yuhao slowly rotated the mackerels, they gradually turned golden. This, accompanied with that heavy aroma, was exceptionally enticing.
At first, he only roasted two of the fish, and set aside the others. If he had roasted too many of the fish in one go, it would've been quite easy for problems to occur while he was controlling the fire.
"How fragrant!"
A happy and delicate cry echoed out at that moment. The cry sounded both clear and pure, but it still startled Huo Yuhao.
He looked towards the source of the sound, and saw two people walking along the side of the stream. The person walking in front was a girl who looked to be around fifteen or sixteen, and had long black hair that was tied into a ponytail behind her. She wore a set of light blue, form-fitting warrior's robes, which seemed to outline her budding and delicate body that was filled with youth.
She had phoenix-like eyes, which were both big and bright. She also had a raised nose, an almost perfect oval face, and a pretty and delicate face that was slightly happy as she fixed her gaze on Huo Yuhao's roasted fish.
The person following behind her was a youth that seemed to be of the same age as her. His slender body was tall and straight, whilst his short, deep blue hair shone with a jade-like luster under the sunlight. Although he wasn't old, he gave people a sort of scholarly feeling. His handsome face had a lazy yet warm smile on it, and his hands were rested on the back of his head. He also gazed in Huo Yuhao's direction with an interested look. However, he wasn't looking at the roasted fish, but at Huo Yuhao himself.
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