"Haa... Haa..." Huo Yuhao huffed, his breathing erratic. He gritted his teeth and lowered his hand, cold white air exiting his lips as he gazed upon the frozen bodies that were the leader and vice leaders of the Hand of Death.
The entire chamber had surprisingly been spared from the furious icy wrath of Huo Yuhao's attack. Well, he made sure of it of course.
He was angry, livid, of the whole situation but he still kept a focused mind. His bloodshot eyes went towards the unfortunate souls, laid down on the floor.
"I'm sorry... I wish I could've been more faster, stronger..." Huo Yuhao said, tears streaming down his face.
He took a moment to calm down and wipe his tears.
The emotions he had bottling up when he met his father, having forced Dai Huabin to his death and severely injuring the rest of his family, and witnessing all of this carnage had inevitably caused him to snap.
A person's psychology was a fragile thing, no matter how much they try to be tough; even soldiers and heroes aren't immune to the effects of trauma.
Huo Yuhao knew this quite well, he was only fortunate that he had a tougher mindset than his peers due to being a spiritual-type soul master and his experiences.
He let out a sigh and waved his hand, blowing away the ice covering the dead bodies.
He didn't want to cause more pain upon such tragic souls, even if they're already dead.
These girls deserved courtesy and a proper send off. Walking up to the cold dead bodies, signs of abuse all over the seven young girls that there were around 16 years old, Huo Yuhao coldly glared at the eyes of the three villains.
They were still alive, barely, not because he wanted to bring them alive for questioning(he can look into their memories after all) it was all part of how the jutsu works.
Ice Release/Style: Ice God's Sorrow. A jutsu that Huo Yuhao created after learning all the Ice Jutsus his Ancestor had taught him. The rank of this jutsu remained undecided as Huo Yuhao hasn't completed the jutsu yet to see its true might.
Ultimate Ice was used to seal the opponent, which makes it hard for most people to escape, but it only covered their skin, their interior would remain relatively intact from the extreme cold for a while(which is at least an hour for these three as they have the cultivation realm of a Soul King) but it's during that is when the true horror of the jutsu reveals itself.
This jutsu was created for the sole purpose of extreme punishment, which he had created for the Duchess in mind. The Ultimate Ice would slowly invade their internal bodies, like thin hair-like needles pushing into their muscles, meridians, bones; freezing them from the inside out, causing excruciating pain as it progresses.
They won't even feel numbness by their bloods freezing from the pain, as the pain is too intense and pervasive; Each passing moment would be an agony that felt like an eternity, a fitting punishment for the atrocities they had committed.
These scums of the land deserved far worse in Huo Yuhao's opinion, but he didn't have the luxury of time to enact more elaborate retribution.
"May you find peace."
Carefully wrapping each of the corpses in white cloth, Huo Yuhao then took them in his Shrek Guardian storage ring to bury somewhere peaceful, away from the land that cause them so much pain. After doing so, he then turned back to the evil soul masters and used his Sharingan to peer through their memory.
The memories within them are either repulsive or irrelevant, it looked as though he only took a second to filter through them, but to Huo Yuhao? It felt long excruciating hours.
But it was worth looking into their memories, because Huo Yuhao found crucial information that made frown and a bit pale.
"Fuck. We have to go back and warn the others!" He quickly rushed back towards where Tang Ya and Xi Xi were waiting for him, having done their respective tasks.
"Yuhao, you alright? Did you kill the leader?" Tang Ya asked.
Huo Yuhao nodded. "I did," it wasn't really a lie. If the cold doesn't kill them, the explosives would.
The explosives he brought along to bury every bandit here weren't the only ones, the leader had actually placed some as well in the walls long ago and the explosions he would use now would trigger them as well.
"But I also found some bad news. You have to follow me."
"What?"
A grim expression settled on Huo Yuhao's face. "The leader of this bandit group, who calls himself the Envoy of the Death God or Death God; he's an arrogant ass, he was receiving some help from another group. One much stronger and mysterious than any organization, it's actually the first I've heard about this group."
"What kind of group are they? To help an evil soul master in committing such atrocities, are they.... an organization made up of Evil Soul Masters?!" Xi Xi said, shocked.
"Maybe. The Death God didn't know much about the group, what he does know is that they mainly operate in the Sun Moon Empire and that this whole operation was mainly the idea of one of their own elders." Huo Yuhao moved as he relayed the information he got. The girls followed after him.
"The Death God was in a remote village in the empire, trying to do a similar criminal behavior in this place, when he was approached by someone called the 4th Vice Chief. He had impressed the old man with his capabilities, and he was then given a task: Make an incredible force or group and take over an area in the Ming Dou Mountain Range within a year, and he'll be officially invited to join their ranks as something called a Holy Servant."
"Bastard! So he's the reason for all this bloodshed..." Xi Xi angrily said, witnessing more of the gore the bandits had caused and even spat at one of the dead bandits on the ground.
Tang Ya narrowed her eyes. "This is truly a valuable information, I think even the academy doesn't know the existence of such a group, but there's more, isn't there? You look agitated..."
Huo Yuhao glanced at her. "The Death God sent out a letter of his success to the 4th Vice Chief, and hd gotten reply saying that he would check the place out. And from my estimations, it seems like he'll be arriving here soon. And from what I've seen about the old man, he's strong. He's a Titled Douluo."
"What's the issue? We have Elder Xuan with us. One Evil Titled Douluo wouldn't pose a threat to us." Xi Xi said.
Huo Yuhao shook his head as he lead the girls into a deeper tunnel of the cave, passing through the chamber without sparing a glance, he stopped before a seemingly ordinary wall and punched it, easily caving in, revealing a secret tunnel.
However, a loud alarm sounded out throughout the cave and out, making the rest of the bandits clearly hear it and come running in.
Tang Ya frowned. "Yuhao, they-"
"Did your seedlings sprout?" Huo Yuhao suddenly asked.
She shook her head. "No, I did what you told me earlier. I had the seedlings on a timer, they'll sprout in five minutes."
Huo Yuhao nodded, "Good. Let's go, this tunnel was created by Death God and is also packed with explosives. As soon as we're out, I'm detonating them." he turned around and started towards the secret tunnel, the girls obviously followed.
"Wait, what's with the rush? Shouldn't we only cut down a few of them and leave the rest for the others?"
"No, no time. It'll be hard to hunt down the rest of the bandits out in the vast mountain. Let them come here, it's why I had explosives put all around the cave. Although it'll be unfair for our friends to not let them be in to kill these beasts, we have a much bigger problem."
"Think about it. Elder Xuan can handle the Evil Titled Douluo, but can we handle his subordinates that might be at least Soul Emperors? Or worse, a Soul Douluo? From I understand, Evil Soul Masters are much stronger than the normal Soul Masters. Even if we're Shrek, are we really confident enough to take on Evil Soul Masters with several years of experience in killing and fighting much stronger opponents?" Huo Yuhao said through gritted teeth, rushing out as fast as he could out of the tunnel.
The girls silently followed him with grave expression, now understanding Huo Yuhao's agitation.
The way ahead suddenly opened up into a wide clearing. Huo Yuhao immediately inhaled the fresh and clean air, clearing their minds.
"Wait, who are they?!" Tang Ya suddenly said, bringing up several dark-blue vines behind her.
Twelve human figures quietly knelt at the exit of the tunnel.
Just as Xi Xi was prepared to attack them, Huo Yuhao raised his hand to stop them.
"Stop. They're just corpse puppets of the bandit leader. You girls go on ahead, I'll deal with them myself."
"But..." Tang Ya turned him to argue, but stopped upon seeing the resolution in his eyes and sighed.
"Fine. But you better be quick! Senior Xi, let's go."
"Eh? A-Alright. Good luck Yuhao!"
Both girls leapt to the air and into a nearby tree, disappearing in a flash.
The moment the girls leapt to the air was when the corpse puppets' red eyes lit up and turned to the running girls, though their eyes were blank and lifeless, they were given a strict order by the master to not let anyone that wasn't him to get out of the tunnel.
Just as were preparing to move, a cold voice sounded out, "No, it's time for you unfortunate souls to be put to rest."
Huo Yuhao opened his eyes, revealing pale grey colored eyes that was filled with the vicissitudes of life, as though the owner could thoroughly understand everything in the world. It seemed it deeply understood the meaning of life and death, rebirth and transcendence.
A grey soul ring was slowly rising from beneath his feet, completely unlike any soul rings as complicated marks and symbols etched its surface, pulsating with an otherworldly energy.
The twelve people around them who were emitting cold auras immediately moved and pounced toward Huo Yuhao at lightning speed.
Huo Yuhao raised his right index finger, a faintly grey ball of fire was surged on the tip of his finger. When those corpses that the Death God had converted into humans came within three metres of his body, they froze.
Huo Yuhao expressionlessly gazed upon them, the grey flame on his finger pulsed like a heartbeat.
"Purify."
As he spoke, the flame atop his finger suddenly burned brighter. Shortly after that, that grey halo on his body was abruptly activated, encasing the twelve corpses within it.
Their deathly pale bodies started crumbling away into golden dust.
Huo Yuhao closes his eyes and used Body Flicker to catch up with the girls.
As soon as he left, a loud explosion was heard, shaking the entire mountain.
.....
AN: Holy Fuck. So, I was browsing through the Soul Land 2 gallery and I find out 1)the manhua raw is probably hundreds of chapters ahead as it shows pics of Huo Yuhao creating the Spirit Pagoda! 2)What the fuck is wrong with the Donghua models?! First it was Skydream, now it's Wang Qui'er's beast form! Dear lord...
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