"Why aren't you two wearing your chainmail and running? Why're you two holding hands and romancing one another?"
Startled, the two hurriedly let go of each other, then ran back towards their dorm rooms. Their hearts were currently beating extremely quickly, and it naturally wasn't because of Zhou Yi's shout, but because of the strange change that had occurred to their martial souls!
The two rushed back to their dorms. As they looked at each other, they could see the trace of astonishment that was present in their eyes. Right, the matter that had just occurred was simply too unusual. Regardless of whether it was Huo Yuhao, who had studied a large amount of info with regards to soul masters after entering Shrek Academy, or Wang Dong, whose knowledge was expansive, this was the first time they had learnt of anything like this; this clearly exceeded the territory of ordinary soul masters.
Huo Yuhao couldn't help but say, "It seems like our nap last night wasn't for nothing!"
"Pah." Wang Dong glared at him. But then, he quickly raised his soft, slender hands and said, "Let's try again."
Huo Yuhao was also anxious to verify the matter that had just occurred to them. Hence, he hurriedly held hands with Wang Dong.
As the four hands joined together, the flow of soul power immediately restarted. Their soul power were completely different; The soul power that came from Huo Yuhao's Mysterious Heaven Technique was honest, moderate, gentle, and unconstrained, while Wang Dong's soul power was much more overbearing; it had a threatening and noble aura to it.
If Huo Yuhao's soul power could be compared to a gentle and honest youth, Wang Dong's soul power was a noble, aloof, and overbearing young mistress.
However, these two soul power with completely different temperaments had currently formed a cycle, flowing perfectly through their bodies. Furthermore, these two soul power were actually fusing quietly throughout this process, intimately sharing everything with each other. During this process, there were no conflicts during this process; it was just as if they had originally belonged to a single body.
Huo Yuhao was left in a slightly better state; after all, the soul power that came from his Mysterious Heaven Technique was extremely gentle in the first place. On the other hand, Wang Dong was filled with astonishment. He was fully aware of how domineering and fierce his soul power was, as well as how strongly it excluded other things from itself. But, his current situation had vastly exceeded his scope of knowledge.
During the brief moment where the circulation occurred, the two felt extremely relaxed and refreshed. Clearly, it would be much faster for them to cultivate in this state rather than cultivating individually. Furthermore, they clearly knew that this was just the beginning. Their soul power had fused so perfectly, so how could the benefits that arose from this be as simple as allowing them to cultivate together?
"Let's go, we should go run first. We can study this further after we get back tonight." Huo Yuhao took the initiative to let go of Wang Dong's hands. Then, he put his chainmail on and ran outside.
After listening to his words, Wang Dong was slightly startled, and his mouth slightly twitched for a moment. Huo Yuhao's words, in addition to how he had mysteriously hugged him for an entire night, caused a few traces of ambiguity to reluctantly appear in his heart. After making a fist behind his back, he put his chainmail on and caught up to him
They had already been running with chainmail for three months, so doing it now was a walk in the park for them. The two diligently ran till the bell rang, and only when Xiao Xiao came to the field to find them did they stop. When she arrived, Xiao Xiao informed them that Teacher Zhou had already left.
Huo Yuhao's entire body was covered with sweat, while Wang Dong, who had a higher cultivation, deliberately made it so that he wasn't sweating at all.
"How was it? Did Teacher Zhou say anything?" Huo Yuhao asked as he panted.
Xiao Xiao shrugged her shoulders. "Nothing much, really. She just cheered everyone up and gave us some encouragement. After that, she analysed the situation of our opponents. It's going to be extremely difficult for us to become champions. It seems like the round-robin tournament was only a rehearsal. On the other hand, our Shrek Academy's never lacked geniuses!"
As he looked at her somewhat worried expression, Wang Dong said, "What? Even our twin martial soul genius doesn't have any confidence in herself?"
Xiao Xiao curled her lips and said, "Confidence is something I naturally have, but I have to say that there are some people who're more talented than us. Teacher Zhou told us that out of the five teams which achieved complete victories, three had three-ringed Soul Elders. How confident are you againsts three-ringed soul masters?"
"Soul Elders?" The two simultaneously cried out with a look of inconceivability on their faces.
Xiao Xiao smiled bitterly. "Exactly. Why else would I be so unconfident?"
"What did Teacher Zhou say?" Huo Yuhao asked.
"When she was talking about those three teams, Teacher Zhou didn't seem to be too happy about them. It looked like she had just obtained that piece of information. Previously, those three classes had never told anyone that they had students who were Soul Elders. Also, those three students are just like you; they're specially invited students." Xiao Xiao replied.
Hearing this, Wang Dong laughed and looked towards Huo Yuhao. "See, you're all specially invited students, so why is there such a large gap between you and them?"
Huo Yuhao was speechless for a moment before saying, "There's no use talking about this now, the key thing we need to do now is to think of how we can beat them."
"Right now, all we can do is to do our best and let destiny settle everything for us. Those three are the respective team leaders of their own teams, so it's obvious that they won't be easy to deal with. Think about it: they were able to break into the three-ringed realm before the age of twelve. Just how strong are their martial souls? Also, there's definitely a clan that's fully supporting them from behind, so their soul rings are definitely at their limit. Even if they aren't as perverted as Wang Dong, who got a thousand-year soul ring as his second soul ring, they shouldn't be too far off. In my opinion, even Teacher Zhou doesn't think it's looking too good for us. I think that we can only aim for fourth place," Xiao Xiao said.
Wang Dong snorted. "What if they have three rings? Are Soul Elders unbeatable? We have our advantages as well; You have your twin martial souls, and I haven't used all of my strength yet. In addition to Huo Yuhao's spiritual martial soul, the three of us might not lose to anyone else if we team up together."
Xiao Xiao said, "Do you think that I don't want us to become champions! Only the top three get a substantial reward; fourth place doesn't get any good rewards. However, our combined strength truly isn't as good as theirs. Think about it, the teammates of a Soul Elder-level student will at least be at the Soul Grandmaster level, just like us. We do have our own strong points, but the only way for us to have a chance is for the class monitor to break into Rank 20 and get another strong spiritual-type soul skill."
Huo Yuhao looked at Xiao Xiao, glanced at Wang Dong, then said seriously, "Don't be too worried for now. True, we might be weaker than our opponents, but if we lose all confidence now, we won't have any chance at all. Xiao Xiao, think about it. When we were facing the Lan sisters' fusion skill, weren't we put in a very difficult situation? But we still managed to achieve victory in the end. The fusion skill they used might not be weaker than a Soul Elder's soul skill; it could even exceed it in power. However, we still managed to overcome it. Different people have their own specialties, and likewise, we have our own. Our advantage lies in the fact that we haven't used all our strength, and we only have one objective. That is, to become champions."
Huo Yuhao's words seemed to have rekindled Xiao Xiao's confidence. She nodded her head lightly. "Fight! No matter where we get to, that'll be whatever we get. Let's do this!"
Huo Yuhao extended his right hand, and Wang Dong quickly placed it above his before Xiao Xiao could. Lastly, Xiao Xiao placed her hand on Wang Dong's hand.
"We'll definitely be champions."
Huo Yuhao said, "Xiao Xiao, it seems like I'll have to owe you roasted fish for a few more days. The coming knock-out round is simply too important to us, so no matter what, we have to do our best and use these few days to increase our cultivations. Even if we can only increase it by a strand, it'll increase our chances of victory by a large amount. Once the knock-out tournament is over, I'll take care of the roasted fish. I won't be setting up my store for these few days, so let's first concentrate on cultivating before talking about it."
Xiao Xiao giggled. "You'll have to pay interest for an owed debt. Class monitor, I'm blaming this on you anyway, so I won't pay you when I eat your roasted fish in the future."
Huo Yuhao chuckled. "No problem, I'll treat you to some fish."
Xiao Xiao said, "Teacher Zhou said that we'll have to gather at the Assessment Area before the bell rings tomorrow. Also, she told me to tell you that you're not allowed to be late. The first thing we need to do is to pray for luck. However, Teacher Zhou said that teams who achieved a clean sweep during the round-robin tournament will have some preferential treatment during the first two rounds of the knock-out tournament; we won't meet each other. This is the only good thing we got from the round-robin tournament. As long as we do what we usually do, there should be no problem for us to enter the top sixteen. After that, it'll just depend on us."
Huo Yuhao said, "This is actually some good news. Right, before we do anything else, I'm sweaty, so I'm going back to shower before grabbing a meal."
Xiao Xiao said, "Then, I won't wait for you two. I'll go to the canteen first, see you tomorrow." After speaking, she waved towards the two of them and left.
Huo Yuhao turned towards Wang Dong, slightly furrowing his brows. "Seems like it won't be easy to get a good result in the knock-out tournament. Let's go back to the dorms, and after I shower and change, we can go eat. Then, we can go think about this issue regarding our martial soul fusion."
"Yup." Wang Dong nodded. However, he clearly seemed somewhat taciturn, to the point where he looked blank and lifeless; nobody knew what he was thinking. After returning to their dorm room, Huo Yuhao took a clean set of clothes as well as a towel and went to shower, while Wang Dong sat by himself on his bed.
"Thump." The door shut. Wang Dong subconsciously looked towards the door, gradually exposing a slightly complicated look in his blank eyes.
Earlier, he hadn't had any time to settle his debts with Huo Yuhao regarding the issue of sleeping together with him due to them turning up late for class. Now, Huo Yuhao had already seemed to have disregarded it as an unimportant issue, but Wang Dong was feeling completely differently.
I, I actually slept with him for an entire night. Moreover, it even seems like we've completed a martial soul fusion, and not a normal one at that.
Wang Dong himself didn't know how he was currently feeling; he felt that he was slightly confused, confused to the point where he didn't know what to do.
Time always flies by when one is distracted. Not long after he left, Huo Yuhao returned after a refreshing shower. As he entered, he brought a faintly fragrant smell with him that came after his shower. As he raised his head, Wang Dong saw his unusually bright pupils.
Huo Yuhao still hadn't noticed the change in Wang Dong's psyche. He beckoned, "Let's quickly go for a meal and study our martial soul fusion after coming back. Perhaps we'll have to rely on it if we want to get a good result in the end." The current him was completely focused on the freshmen assessment's knock-out tournament.
Wang Dong's somewhat perplexed emotions seemed to have found an objective. Nodding his head, he said, "Okay." Since the matter had already occurred, there was no use in thinking too deeply about it. He would first work hard during this assessment and get a good ranking before talking about it. When Xiao Xiao spoke about the appearances of the few Soul Elders, Wang Dong's fighting spirit had also been aroused.
He firmly believed that his talent wasn't lacking compared to those Soul Elder-levelled students. Only, he had been extremely lazy during his youth, and had been completely unwilling to cultivate, which was the reason why he was only at his current level. In his opinion, ranks didn't mean everything; by beating them, he could prove that he was the most outstanding student in Shrek Academy.
After thinking about this, his heart untangled itself. Following Huo Yuhao to the canteen, he immediately ate a gargantuan meal. Because they went to the canteen relatively late, there was practically no one left when they finished eating.
After returning to their room, Huo Yuhao locked the door, preventing anyone from disturbing them while they were cultivating. At the same time, he placed a 'Do Not Disturb' sign on the outside of the door. Every dorm room had this sign; and as long as a student hung it up, even teachers wouldn't easily disturb them, as this sign signified that the students inside were cultivating.
However, Huo Yuhao's formerly normal behaviour seemed to make the current Wang Dong somewhat embarrassed. But he quickly adjusted himself, and by the time Huo Yuhao turned around, he had already regained his composure.
"How're we going to start?" Wang Dong asked him.
Huo Yuhao replied, "We'll try to cultivate while holding our hands for a while first. This way, we can increase the effects and be more familiar with the fusion between our soul power. Then, we'll try to use the fused soul power to strengthen each and every one of our soul skills. Later at night, we'll leave the academy and test out our fusion skill there."
Wang Dong curled his lips. "You're actually quite orderly with your plans."
Huo Yuhao laughed. "Naturally. Don't forget, I'm the class monitor. Isn't being orderly something that should be extremely normal for me? Come." As he spoke, he walked over to Wang Dong's bed, intending to sit on it.
"What're you doing?" Wang Dong pushed his body away.
Huo Yuhao suspiciously asked, "I'm trying to cultivate! How are we going to cultivate if we don't sit cross-legged?"
However, Wang Dong stood up and pointed at Huo Yuhao's bed. "We'll cultivate on your bed."
Huo Yuhao was speechless. "If you're not afraid of a sore butt, I have nothing to say."
Wang Dong clearly saw that Huo Yuhao's expression had turned somewhat unsightly. At this moment, Huo Yuhao was truly somewhat unhappy. In his opinion, the two of them had already been friends for a long time, but Wang Dong still continued to bicker and bicker on; this was very petty-minded to him.
However, Wang Dong insisted on doing it his way, so the two sat on Huo Yuhao's bed. The instant he sat down, Wang Dong felt somewhat gloomy; when compared to his fur mattress, this completely hard wooden board couldn't be considered comfortable in the least! However, he could only endure it. They had accidentally slept on his bed last night, and Wang Dong didn't want to let Huo Yuhao on his bed again.
Huo Yuhao was still a very magnanimous person. After feeling dissatisfied for a
short period of time, he had already regained his composure. In his heart, he thought, "Whatever. Different people have their own habits, but I should nevertheless respect everyone." Thinking this, the small trace of resentment in his heart disappeared.
As Wang Dong looked at Huo Yuhao, he noticed that Huo Yuhao was also looking at him, and his heart unknowingly felt somewhat hurried and apologetic. He hurriedly raised his palms. "Let's start. We'll follow your plan. We'll cultivate until dinnertime and see what happens."
Huo Yuhao had raised his palms as well, placing them opposite Wang Dong's. Once the two touched each other, their soul power were immediately attracted, causing them to fuse together. After a mere single circulation in their bodies, the two soul power completed the fusion process. Following that, a fused dual-attribute soul power was now flowing through their bodies.
Since discovering this odd matter in the morning, they hadn't had enough time to study it carefully. As they cultivated calmly now, a different feeling gradually appeared.
Just as they had previously felt, the increase in their soul power when the two cultivated with their hands held together was extremely quick. Simply put, their individual soul power were increasing at a rate that was equivalent to that of two people put together.
In other words, if the amount of soul power Huo Yuhao gained after cultivating for two hours was represented by one unit, and the amount of soul power Wang Dong gained after cultivating for the same time was represented by 1.2 units, when the two cultivated together, the mixture of their two soul power would be strengthened together, and not only would it increase the circulation speed of their soul power, but the amount of soul power they would each gain within two hours would be represented by 2.2 units.
This way, Huo Yuhao's cultivation speed would more than double, while Wang Dong's cultivation speed would nearly double. The person who benefitted more from this was undoubtedly Huo Yuhao, as Wang Dong's cultivation was higher than his. However, as their cultivation levels started getting closer to each other, the individual benefits they gained would be much more similar as well.
A doubling in cultivating speed to soul masters was completely astonishing! Huo Yuhao's original plan had been to try and get to Rank 20 before graduating his first year, but following his current rate of cultivation, there was a possibility of him getting to Rank 20 within three or four months. On the other hand, if Wang Dong cultivated with this speed all the way until the end of the year, getting to Rank 30 wasn't an impossibility.
After nearly six hours of cultivating, when the sky outside had gradually begun to darken, the two woke up from their meditative state. Their soul power returned to their own bodies, and the originally entwined soul power immediately separated. The two could clearly feel that their cultivations had increased at a much faster pace than they usually did.
Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong simultaneously opened their eyes, immediately noticing the surprise in the other's eyes. Regardless of where this martial soul fusion had come from, it was an extremely good thing for them! This was especially so for Huo Yuhao, as the increase in his cultivation speed was much greater than the increase to Wang Dong's; it could be said that he'd taken a small advantage from Wang Dong.
The two couldn't wait to start trying out their strengthened soul skills, and this time, they discovered a mystery within their martial soul fusion.
Every single one of their soul skills would be strengthened by an extremely large amount following the fusion, and it wasn't just as simple as '1+1=2'. Whenever they worked together to unleash a soul skill, not only would its might double, but the consumption of soul power it required would decrease by a half. In other words, the drain in soul power after the two types of soul power fused was extremely small. This was equivalent to an all-new type of high-level soul power after they fused.
Because of this, their current state couldn't be considered a martial soul fusion. It would be more accurate to call it a soul power fusion. However, Wang Dong made was speechless by the fact that it wasn't him, who had a stronger cultivation, who took the initiative after they fused.
When their bodies touched and their soul power fused, Huo Yuhao was unexpectedly left in the dominant position. As long as he willed it, the fusion would go ahead once he touched Wang Dong's body, regardless of whether Wang Dong cooperated or not. Also, the person who could use the fused soul power to activate the strengthened soul skills was Huo Yuhao. But if Wang Dong wanted to use this fused soul power, he would need Huo Yuhao's approval before doing so. The difference in who was dominant in this fusion was clear.
"Why would this happen? It's too unfair." Wang Dong said indignantly.
Huo Yuhao, speechless, said, "I don't know either! Don't worry, I'll definitely try my best to help you out when you need to use it."
Although he didn't say anything, Huo Yuhao was faintly aware that this had something to do with the Skydream Iceworm. Otherwise, why would he, who had a weaker cultivation, take the dominant position after the fusion occurred?
"Wang Dong, don't feel so upset. This new soul power of ours should also have a name, so let's just use your name to name it."
Wang Dong giggled. "Whatever. You wanna call it the Winterking Power? That sounds really bad. Why don't we use a word from each of our names? Let's call it the Haodong Power."
Huo Yuhao scratched his head. "It does kinda sound better."
Wang Dong stood up, rubbing his buttocks as he unhappily said, "This broken mattress of yours is too hard, let's cultivate on my bed later tonight. Since you've taken such a large advantage from me, you're treating me to dinner tonight." He raised his head slightly as he spoke. Then, he rested his head against his hands and walked out.
Huo Yuhao couldn't help but smile as he looked at Wang Dong's seemingly indifferent expression. This fella never admits his mistakes and always acts arrogant, but in reality, he has a good heart.
"So be it. In any case, I earned all my money from selling roasted fishes, so I'll eat your food if I run out of money." He started to chase after Wang Dong while talking.
Regardless of whether it was Huo Yuhao or Wang Dong, they both clearly felt a change in their relationship after the creation of the Haodong Power. Wang Dong was no longer a simple friend or classmate to him, he was a brother. He believed that Wang Dong thought so as well. As for whether that was true or not, only Wang Dong knew the answer to that…
While eating dinner, a trace of suspicion arose in Huo Yuhao's heart. This suspicion came from his understanding of the Skydream Iceworm; it previously said that it would give more of its Origin Energy to him once his body was able to endure it, which would allow his soul skills to reach their maximum levels as his soul rings increased in rank.
However, the strength of all his soul skills had increased after working together with Wang Dong to generate the Haodong Power, and although he could sense that he was near his body's limit, he was still able to endure. Since this was the case, why didn't the Skydream Iceworm strengthen his soul skills to this point?
"You idiot." Just as suspicion arose in Huo Yuhao's heart, the Skydream Iceworm's voice rang out in his mind.
"Bro, you weren't sleeping?" Surprised, Huo Yuhao immediately asked in his mind.
The Skydream Iceworm snorted. "I'm obviously awake. Do you think I like to sleep that much?"
Huo Yuhao secretly cursed to himself. If you don't like sleeping, how did you sleep for a million years?
The Skydream Iceworm said, "The answer to your worries is extremely simple. It's true that I didn't raise the rank of your soul ring to its limit, but that's because I can't allow you to become an inflated balloon. Let me give you an example. There's a type of fish called the Tiger Blowfish. Its body is filled with spines, and whenever it's in danger, it'll instantly inflate itself, expanding its body and releasing all of its spines. This makes it so that its predators are unable to eat it. It could be said that it allows its body to expand to its limit in a situation like that."
"Indeed, the attack power of the blowfish's spines is raised to its limits in a situation like this, but what if a needle stabs it? What would happen then? Likewise, you're the same. If I raised the strength of your soul rings to the maximum amount that you can endure, you'd be just like that balloon once you encounter a mishap during a battle or cultivation; you'd explode with a bang. Because of that, the 'maximum limit you can endure' I'm referring to is the limit at which you can completely endure it without any side effects. When your soul power fused with Wang Dong's earlier, the fused energy instantly improved your physiques. This is another great benefit that I helped you obtain when you two achieved a 100% fusion and thoroughly fused your two types of soul powers last night."
"In other words, whenever you soul powers fuse, the endurance of your bodies will also increase as a result of this fused soul power. And when you can sustain a stronger soul power, the strength of your soul skills will increase accordingly. This in itself is the secret behind a martial soul fusion. However, your martial soul fusion differs from that of ordinary cultivators, and you'll receive different benefits. During your fusion, your bodies will be constantly improving as a result of your fused soul power, so as long as you continue to cultivate together, there'll be a day when your physiques and cultivation speeds are the best in the human world."
"Naturally, this process in improvement is rather agonizingly slow. If you two can achieve a True Fusion in the future, then it's effects will be even better.?
Puzzled, Huo Yuhao asked, "What's a 'True Fusion'?"
The Skydream Iceworm seemed to turn blank for a moment before uttering, "Aih, I don't know. I've never tried it either. Okay, just continue trying things out with him. You'll receive enormous benefits from both your soul power fusion and your martial soul fusion. In the future, you'll slowly understand what I mean."
As he finished his sentence, the Skydream Iceworm stopped bothering to talk and disappeared.
"Oi, has your food gotten into your nose?" After looking at Huo Yuhao's daydreaming face for a long time, Wang Dong waved his hand in front of his face.
"Eh…" Huo Yuhao hurriedly rubbed his nose, but he then noticed that Wang Dong was smiling naughtily.
"What're thinking about? You looked like you were in a trance." Wang Dong said laughingly. He noticed that Huo Yuhao's blank expression was very funny to look at.
Huo Yuhao said, "I'm obviously thinking about our Haodong Power. I'm thinking about why our soul powers would fuse, and after some thought, there's only one possibility. That is, when our martial souls fused last night, our compatibility rate was extremely high; that's why something like this happened.
Wang Dong's eyes lit up, "Right! You make some sense. If that wasn't the case, why would something unique like this happen? Quickly eat, and we can go see whether we can release a fusion skill once we're done. But do you know how a fusion skill is activated?"
Speechless, Huo Yuhao said, "How would I know? Doesn't it just naturally come to you?"
Their two small eyes couldn't help but expose a trace of speechlessness and a bitter smile. Right, although the teachers did talk about fusion skills in their lectures, it was an ability that belonged to only an extremely small number of the population, so their teachers had just glanced over it, and never explained how it could be activated. After all, the number of people who could truly release a fusion skill was truly too small.
Wang Dong said, "Whatever, we'll go try it out tonight. If that doesn't work, we'll go find Teacher Zhou and see whether she knows of any ways we can go about this."
"Yup." While answering, Huo Yuhao kept crying out to the Skydream Iceworm in his mind. He believed that the Skydream Iceworm, with his million years of experience, would definitely know the answer to this question.
"Idiot, why are you disturbing me over a small matter like this? Just do whatever you did last night! You idiot." The Skydream Iceworm seemed to be just on the verge of sleeping, so it was very unhappy when Huo Yuhao woke it up. After mumbling for a bit, it disappeared again.
Just do whatever we did last night? After thinking blankly for a moment, he quickly understood what the Skydream Iceworm meant. Hugging?
After speeding through dinner, Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong quickly left the college with an excited and curious feeling in their hearts. Huo Yuhao hadn't sold any roasted fishes today, so as the two left through the academy's entrance, they bumped into many regulars who started to complain. Apologizing profusely was the only thing he could do, and he used the excuse of preparing for the ranking tournament to make his way through the crowd.
"We should speed up." Wang Dong softly shouted out, and once his feet touched the ground, he suddenly sped up, causing his body to fly out like an arrow that had left a bow.
If this had been three months ago, Huo Yuhao might not even have been able to see his shadow, but his three months of bitter training wasn't wasted on Huo Yuhao. After exerting strength in his legs, Huo Yuhao's speed similarly soared, and although he didn't look as graceful as Wang Dong, he absolutely wasn't slow. He rushed towards Wang Dong, and whenever he landed, he would leave a footprint in the ground
The explosiveness from his muscles flowed endlessly to his legs, and the flow of his internal soul power unceasingly replenished his lost physical strength.
The evening air was very relaxing and refreshing, and the two of them currently felt like they were travelling in the wind. Without the constraints of the chainmail, the refreshing feeling all over their bodies allowed their speeds to reach their maximum levels.
In the end, Wang Dong's foundation was still much better than Huo Yuhao's, and thus he quickly widened the distance between them. When this distance exceeded 300 meters, he slowed down and waited for Huo Yuhao to catch up.
"Okay. As a control system soul master who doesn't specialise in front line combat, your speed is still passable." Wang Dong spoke with a haughty air as he looked at Huo Yuhao.
Huo Yuhao chuckled. "We're almost there. Let's go into the forest."
"Okay." Wang Dong nodded. After the two made sure there was no one around them, they simultaneously ran into the forest by the roadside. They only stopped after they were several hundred metres into the forest.
"Let's do it here. How are we gonna try it out?" Wang Dong asked.
Huo Yuhao replied, "Let's first test the recovery speed of our Haodong Power." He raised his hands as he spoke.
Wang Dong then joined his hands with Huo Yuhao's. After their practice in the afternoon, they were extremely familiar with the circulation of the Haodong Power. Just as they predicted, the Haodong Power they generated after fusing their soul powers increased the recovery speed of their physical strength, as well as their soul power, by a certain amount. However, this increase wasn't as significant when compared to the increase in their cultivation speeds.
"It's ordinary! However, it has its uses." After a brief moment, Wang Dong fully replenished his lost physical strength.
Huo Yuhao nodded before spreading his arms wide. "Come."
Wang Dong was stunned. His gaze towards Huo Yuhao immediately turned vigilant. "What're you doing?"
Huo Yuhao replied in a very natural manner, "Let's hug!"
"You…" Wang Dong's expression immediately changed. His face turned green before paling. "Huo Yuhao, I never thought you'd be someone like this. Do you actually think that I won't beat you to the point where you can't even take care of yourself?"
Huo Yuhao didn't know whether he should laugh or cry. "What're you even thinking about? You idiot, have you forgotten how we caused the martial soul fusion in the first place? Since we can already fuse our soul powers now, the simplest way for us to activate our fusion is to repeat what happened yesterday!"
Only then did Wang Dong understand what he had meant. He was immediately embarrassed to the point where his face turned bright red. Although it was already quite dark, Huo Yuhao's Spirit Eyes were able to clearly see things even if it was midnight; naturally, he saw Wang Dong's reaction clearly.
"You didn't even explain anything before you asked me to hug you. Are you purposely trying to embarrass me?" Wang Dong used his anger to disguise his embarrassment and awkwardness.
Speechless, Huo Yuhao replied, "I didn't know that your thoughts were this unhealthy. We're both guys, so what can we even do? Hurry up. Let's get this done early so we can continue cultivating later."
Wang Dong hesitated for a moment. "We're outside the city now, are you sure that we won't just fall asleep like yesterday?"
Huo Yuhao speechlessly replied, "It won't. Today's situation is different from yesterday's. Why are you acting so overly careful like a woman? I'm going to start now." As he spoke, he quickly took a step forward and hugged Wang Dong in a single movement.
Wang Dong's body stiffened. In the instant he was hugged by Huo Yuhao, he felt his mind go somewhat blank. Huo Yuhao's body was slightly sweaty due to his previous sprint, causing the faint smell of sweat to assault Wang Dong's nose.
Wang Dong's body was very soft, so hugging him was still as comfortable as last night. However, the current Huo Yuhao didn't have any thoughts of enjoying this feeling. In the instant he hugged Wang Dong, he immediately circulated his own soul power, activating his Spirit Eyes; in that same instant, Wang Dong came to his senses as well.
The large area of contact between the two of them caused the soul powers within their bodies to be quickly converted into Haodong Power. Huo Yuhao's eyes were especially bright due to the dim evening, and a faint golden light flickered within them.
After a brief moment of sluggishness, Wang Dong hurriedly activated his martial soul.
In that instant, a strange feeling came over the two of them. As they hugged each other, their released martial souls felt completely different to the soul skills they'd activated with the previous assistance of the Haodong Power.
Right as Wang Dong's ice-blue wings unfurled, both of their minds blanked out briefly.