"Y-Yuhao...." Wang Dong'er, Ma Xiaotao and others came running into the room, looking extremely concerned.
"Yo." Huo Yuhao, sitting upright on a white comfy bed, casually lifted his right hand and waved at them with a smile, but that didn't ease the concern and worry etched on his friends' faces.
A few hours had passed since the intense ordeal that had left Huo Yuhao in a spare room they had in the Star Luo Grand Hotel—Elder Xuan would've transported him towards the hospital if Huo Yuhao hadn't stopped him.
His insane regenerative capabilities had started working on regenerating his severed left forearm.
However, the damage done by a God couldn't be easily resolved.
Right now, his appearance took a sudden and drastic changes. For one, his skin turned a shade whiter—a deathly pale skin color similar to a corpse, and his long black hair with strands of different hair colors turned completely white as snow.
Though he still retained his handsome features, one couldn't deny that he looked like someone near death!
Though considering he can use Necromancy....having this sort of appearance shouldn't be too unexpected.
"Yuhao! Oh thank Sea God, you're... alright..."Wang Dong'er was the first to rush to his side, her eyes wide with fear, and her voice trembling as she spoke and trailed off.
Ma Xiaotao, Xiao Xiao, Wu Feng and Ning Tian quickly crowded around him while the others were a step behind.
"Yuhao....y-your arm? Huh?" she whispered, her gaze locked on his bandaged left arm. She was momentarily confused, she heard from Elder Xuan that Huo Yuhao's arm was cut off so why...?
Curious, she reached out her hand to touch it, but was quickly stopped by Huo Yuhao.
"Don't," Huo Yuhao warned, his voice suddenly serious, stopping Wang Dong'er's hand midair with his right hand.
As he gently pulled her hand back, his left bandaged left arm began to tremble and several sharp ice spikes erupted from beneath the bandages, tearing it into pieces, radiating an intense cold.
The temperature in the room dropped sharply, and a thin layer of frost began to form on the floor and walls around Huo Yuhao's bed.
Wang Dong'er gasped, her eyes widening in shock as she pulled back instinctively. "Yuhao! What's happening to your arm?!"
She and the others stared at Huo Yuhao's left arm in shock. Instead of a human limb, Huo Yuhao's left arm had transformed into a jagged, crystalline structure, radiating an intense cold that seemed to freeze the air around it.
Sharp spikes of ice protruded from the surface, pulsing with an eerie emerald glow. The arm no longer looked human—it was more like a weapon forged from pure, uncontrollable ice.
"Tsk. It's acting up again."
Huo Yuhao narrowed his eyes, annoyance crossing his face as he looked down at his transformed left arm and unhesitatingly shattered the crystalline arm into pieces.
"Yuhao! What are you doing?!" Ma Xiaotao gasped, her eyes wide with shock as she saw Huo Yuhao's left arm shatter into jagged fragments of ice.
Wang Dong'er recoiled in disbelief, her hand instinctively reaching out toward him but stopping short, unsure of how to react.
"What are you doing?!" Xiao Xiao asked, her voice filled with both anger and confusion. "Your arm!"
Huo Yuhao winced slightly but remained calm. "It's fine," he said flatly, flexing the remaining part of his arm and they were shocked to see an emerald glow from his stump as bone, blood and flesh started regrowing. "I have a pretty powerful regeneration. As long as my head and heart remain intact, I can easily regrow limbs within minutes."
"Wait, what? When did you get that ability?!" Wang Dong'er exclaimed, she and the others looking utterly dumbfounded at Huo Yuhao.
He was already the most monstrous genius in their generation, with strength that had no equal with people around his age, and he had a ridiculous healing factor that could restore limbs in a small amount of time?!
"Busted! You're too busted! I demand a bit of justice in the world!" Xu Sanshi remarked childishly, some nodding in agreement.
Huo Yuhao sheepishly scratched his cheek.
"Yuhao," Wang Yan approached, looking concern. "What happened? Wang Dong'er and Ma Xiaotao said that after you absorbed the Ice Jade Scorpion soul bone, you suddenly went out of control and encased the entire room in ice."
Huo Yuhao was surprised. "Elder Xuan didn't explain anything?" he said.
Wang Yan shook his head, "No. Elder Xuan only said that you were injured; specifically that your arm was severed. We didn't manage to get any information from him before he disappeared, saying that he needed to take care of a few "rats"."
Huo Yuhao nodded in understanding and leaned back against the bed, letting out a small sigh. "Well, it's kind of complicated," he started, glancing at his regrowing left arm. "After I absorbed the Ice Jade Scorpion soul bone, something....unexpected happened."
"You all know that I went to the Extreme North in order to not only train, but to also awaken my second martial soul. Well, I haven't told the full story..."
Huo Yuhao trusted everyone in the room, but telling them the whole story about the Ice God's Bone, Skydream and Ice Empress wouldn't help them understand the complexity of his current situation, and it might put them at unnecessary risk.
So, he went with a white lie.
"When I awakened my second martial soul....I encountered something, something ancient and powerful—the remain of a God, a femur to be exact."
Their eyes widened in shock as Huo Yuhao continued, choosing his words carefully to keep certain details hidden for their safety. "I found it buried in a small cave in the Extreme North that I used as shelter. Initially I didn't know what it was, until I started poking around with it and found out about its true origins."
"....You know the owner of that bone?" Wang Yan whispered, the others listening attentively.
"Yes, I believe it to be the bone of the Ice God, the true owner of the Extreme North." Huo Yuhao responded, explaining. "After reading through some ancient records and...some other means, the Ice God was the only recorded deity to have ever existed in the Extreme North, and thus, the bone I found was the Ice God's."
Huo Yuhao then further explained about the Ice God's lore and their connection with possibly most of the Ice-Type soul beasts in the world.
"Woah..." Wu Feng muttered in awe before shaking her head, realizing something. "Wait a second, why are you bringing up the Ice God's Bone? Don't tell me..."
Huo Yuhao nodded with a wry smile. "I may have....offended the Ice God."
There was a moment of silence as everyone processed Huo Yuhao's words, their expressions shifting from confusion to shock. The weight of what he had just revealed seemed to hang in the air like the chill of his Ultimate Ice.
"Welp, it was nice knowing you Sect Master." Xu Sanshi said, turning around—but was quickly pulled back by the ear by Jiang Nannan. "Ow, ow, ow! I'm sorry, I'm sorry! It was a joke, a joke!"
"You offended the Ice God?!" Wu Feng repeated, her voice a mixture of disbelief and alarm. "How....how do you even offend a god?!"
Huo Yuhao let out a sigh, running his hand through his hair. "It's not like I did it on purpose. When I absorbed the Ice Jade Scorpion's soul bone, the power within it triggered a connection to the Ice God's consciousness—or whatever remains of it. The problem is that when I merged with the soul bone, the Ice God's Bone spurred and I also merged with a piece of the Ice God's essence."
"The Ice God wanted to take over my body, I didn't want that, so we...fought, I won, out of pure luck I might add. But pissing off a God doesn't come without any consequences." Huo Yuhao flexed his left arm around, clenching his hand and scolding hot flames appeared.
He played around with the fire on his palm before it disappeared, a terrifying chill surged and his arm turned crystal, before he shattered it once more.
"....Ah, so that explains the left arm." Wang Yan said after a brief moment of awkward silence.
"Yup~" Huo Yuhao nodded casually, seemingly indifferent that his left arm was cursed. He looked down at his stump and said, "Eh, y'know what, I'm just keep it like this for a while until I create a suitable prosthetic and then find a way to get rid of this problem that the Ice God left for me."
"Yuhao...." Ma Xiaotao opened her mouth, then closed it, not knowing what to say at Huo Yuhao's casualness of the whole ordeal.
"How are you so damn calm about this?!" Wu Feng threw her hands up, completely baffled by Huo Yuhao's relaxed expression. "You've been targeted by a God, essentially cursed to no longer be able to use your left arm, and that God is connected to your second martial soul that might fuck you over in the end! How are you still so calm?!"
"Because he's got a plan," Ning Tian snorted, raised eyebrow, as she stared at Huo Yuhao with a smirk. "Am I correct?"
Huo Yuhao nodded. "That's right, Ning Tian. You know me well."
Ning Tian smiled a little bit wider, Wang Dong'er held his hand, activating their HaoDong Power, and asked, "What do you plan on doing? They're a God, Yuhao! They're above Titled Douluos, Transcendent Douluo and Limit Douluo! A God!"
Huo Yuhao gently smiled, feeling incredibly touched. "I do have a plan, the most effective and straightforward one there is—I would simply become a God."
"Yuhao..."
He smirked at the look of surprise and disbelief on their faces, "What? Don't think I can't do it? Our predecessors did it, why can't I? Why can't we all do it as well?"
"Yuhao, that's..." Tang Ya, who had been silent for a while, spoke up. Her eyes held a complicated expression as she placed a hand over his shoulder. "That's impossible. For the last ten thousand years, except for the first generation Shrek Seven Monsters, there had been no other records of people ascending to Godhood."
"We're talented. You are incredibly talented, no one can deny that, probably someone that could equal the Shrek Seven Monsters—but that's only a possibility, nothing is certain, and Godhood is no easy matter."
Huo Yuhao looked back at her, contemplated for a short while and said, "And I didn't expect it to be. Plus, I don't have any other choice here now, do I?"
Tang Ya furrowed her brows and sighed, nodding resignedly. "....Yes, you're right. There's a chance for a failure, and there's also the chance for success." She paused for a moment and laughed.
"Seriously, why am I doubting you? Ever since I known you, you were always capable of creating miracles. Sorry for being pessimistic about it."
"Eh, it's alright. You were just looking out for me," Huo Yuhao smiled. "And that might've been voicing your doubt of success for Godhood. I'm assuming you want to become a God other than just longevity and great power?"
Tang Ya nodded determinedly.
"What are you going to do now?" Wang Dong'er asked.
Huo Yuhao shrugged, "I'm gonna rest for a while, leave the rest of the tournament to you guys and think about what kind of tools my prosthetic arm soul tool should have..."
.....
AN: I had a poll on what kind of aesthetic the prosthetic arm should be, and none of y'all would expect it. No spoilers~
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