Huo Yuhao felt his heart immediately go cold. Right! If ordinary people could master the use of soul tools—even if it was only the lowest-ranked Soul Ray—then an army of over tens of thousand soldiers equipped with soul tools could be created. How terrifying would such a thing be!?
"Senior brother, then can you explain why our Tang Sect declined? In any case, ordinary people aren't able to use soul tools yet. However, our mechanical hidden weapons don't need soul power!
Bei Bei, who was attempting to fly, sighed when he heard Huo Yuhao's words. "They're trying to overcompensate. Furthermore, the army's best long distance weapon is still the bow and arrow. Our hidden weapons have quite a short range of effectiveness, while their cost of production is very high due to the quality of the materials we use. As such, the army naturally wouldn't equip itself with our weapons. In the past, we mainly sold our hidden weapons to large-scale sects. However, they've since switched to soul tools."
Huo Yuhao suddenly felt a flash inspiration flit through his mind, but he wasn't able to tell just what this inspiration had been about.
"Yuhao, come here. Let's test out our flying-type soul tools. The process should be relatively smooth. Here, I'll help you up." Once he'd finished, He Caitou grabbed Huo Yuhao's arm, then released two beams of white light from the flying-type soul tool on his back, which propelled the two into the air.
The feeling of one's feet leaving the ground was somewhat mystical, yet was also terrifying; after all, this was Huo Yuhao's first time flying.
Ma Xiaotao's had already begun to help Xiao Xiao fly on the other side, albeit with some screeching on Xiao Xiao's part.
To use a flying-type soul tool, one first had to gather one's thoughts, then needed to channel their soul power from their back into the core formation of the flying-type soul tool in order to produce a propulsive force. The contraption had a few buttons on it for the sake of adjusting its wingspan. However, a larger wingspan didn't necessarily mean a that one would fly faster; that was determined based off the change in one's turbulence. As long as the user was able to maintain a high amount of forwards momentum, they wouldn't fall down.
As Huo Yuhao was a soul engineer, controlling such a soul tool didn't pose a challenge to him. Right now, all he needed to do was learn how to control his balance.
However, he couldn't really calm down at the moment; he was currently distracted by the astonished voices of both the Skydream Iceworm and the Ice Jade Empress Scorpion, who were currently engaged in a conversation in his mind.
"The humans actually have something like this. Isn't this equivalent to simply putting on a set of wings?" The Ice Empress asked, astonished.
The Skydream Iceworm replied, "The reason that humans—not soul beasts like you and I—are ruling the continent, is mainly due to the disparity in our creativeness! When I was in the Great Star Dou Forest, I saw even more powerful soul tools. Those weapons were truly terrifying; even hundred thousand year soul beasts didn't dare to take them head-on."
The Ice Empress said in a somewhat lonely voice, "The life of a human is truly much more colorful than that of a soul beasts. I've lived for nearly four hundred thousand years, yet I only have ice and snow in my memories."
The Skydream Iceworm hurriedly consoled her, "Aren't things different now? Isn't this proof that you've made the right decision? We'll definitely see more interesting things as we watch Little Yuhao grow up! Unfortunately, we can't just spoil him. If we could, I'd have considered making him more powerful quicker."
The Ice Empress sighed. "This is rather good, I guess. Only, I'm not to sure how the Snow Empress is faring. Her situation isn't much different from my previous one. Actually, she might be in an even more dangerous position than I was. I'm afraid that she won't be able to make it past her next bottleneck!"
The Skydream Iceworm replied, "Why don't we head back and retrieve Snow Empress as well?"
"If you're trying to die, don't bring me along," The Ice Empress unhappily said, "don't tell me that you think you can persuade her. At that time, if it weren't for the fact that you'd trapped me and threatened my very existence, do you think that I'd have chosen this sort of passive route that I can't control? The Snow Empress can control her desires even more than I can. Furthermore, she's the true master of the Extreme North. It's impossible for her willing to in a state like this, where she'd be attached to a human."
The Skydream Iceworm laughed mischievously. "That isn't completely impossible! If she were to fall in love with me, she might risk everything to be together with me."
"Have you no shame!? Don't blame me for not telling you this! When the Titan Snow Devil King tried to ask the Snow Empress out, do you know what happened? All of the bones in his body, including his skull, were crushed by her! It took him over a thousand years to recover his strength. And that's only because the Snow Empress decided to leave him a trace of his life due to the wisp of the Ice God's bloodline he possessed. If you want to be crushed into a gallon of juice by the Snow Empress, you'd best get far away from this place first."
"Eep, I was just joking, just joking! The only person I love is you. Who cares about some Snow Empress? She's just some fleeting clouds, some fleeting clouds!" The Skydream Iceworm said in an extremely resolute tone.
The Ice Empress snorted coldly. "Get your evil spiritual power away from me. The Snow Empress can undergo a metamorphosis utilizing her innate skill, and she's already managed to break through various calamities. If I'm not mistaken, she shouldn't be to far from her seventh calamity now. I hope that she succeeds."
While they spoke, Huo Yuhao had already begun to control his flying-type soul tool. The omni-assisting Spiritual Detection once again played a wonderful role in this: He was able to clearly detect the changes in turbulence in the air, and accurately react by changing the angle of his wings. It only took him a short while of testing to master flying in a straight line. Afterwards, he began attempting to glide through the air. On the other side, Xiao Xiao had already fallen from the air thrice. If it weren't for Ma Xiaotao, she would've been smashed into several pieces already…
Even Bei Bei, Xu Sanshi, Jiang Nannan, and the rest had trembled in fear when they'd first tried out their flying-type soul tools. Despite their experience, they still needed a certain amount of time to familiarise themselves with its usage.
Good things naturally couldn't be enjoyed by just a single person. The others were soon able to enjoy the aid of Huo Yuhao's Spiritual Detection. After an hour of practice, everyone was at least able to stay in the air. Once everyone had reached this point, they all naturally entered a state of meditation to recover their soul power, then took flight again.
For the sake of receiving the help of Huo Yuhao's Spiritual Detection, the outer courtyard disciples all gathered behind him. Wang Yan was now above them, while Elder Xuan had disappeared off to some unknown place again. With Ma Xiaotao in the lead, the seven from the inner courtyard opened up a path in the shape of a 'V' and flew straight ahead at full speed.
The greatest advantage of flying was the fact that one wouldn't be blocked by the terrain; instead, one could take the shortest path to one's destination. Huo Yuhao didn't know how his seniors were able to keep track of their bearings, but all he needed to do right now was maintain his Spiritual Detection in order to help out his teammates around him.
At this moment, Wang Dong and Huo Yuhao were practically inseperable. Wang Dong was flying beneath him, and had unfurled his flying-type soul tool's wings. On the other hand, Huo Yuhao had stretched his hands out and was currently holding onto his neck.
The moment they'd started to fly like this, they'd suffered questions from the others. However, the two of them naturally wouldn't talk about the Haodong Power. As a result, they both shook their heads mysteriously at the others' questions.
With the Haodong Power circulating through their bodies, their flight speed wasn't one whit inferior to that of Bei Bei, Xu Sanshi, Jiang Nannan, or He Caitou's. Unlike Xiao Xiao, who had a rope tied to her waist—which made her look like a kite as she was pulled along by Ma Xiaotao—they were able to fly by themselves.
The others were occasionally able to faintly see a faint golden light momentarily appear on Wang Dong's body. Afterwards, that faint golden light would gradually flow from his body to Huo Yuhao's.
—-
They were able to fly a total of five hundred miles in two hours, but this was their limit, due to the outer courtyard disciples with relatively lower cultivation levels. However, Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong had actually been able to persist without the assistance of any outside parties, much to the surprise of the inner courtyard disciples.
Due to their earlier hold-up, the sky had already begun to dim by the time that they landed to rest.
"This isn't good; we won't make it in time. This old man will carry you guys for a while." Elder Xuan's voice rang out as his leisurely figure materialized from the nearby forest, as if he'd instantaneously teleported there.
"However, before we set off, I'm a bit hungry. You guys should know what to do!" Elder Xuan walked over to Huo Yuhao with a smile on his face, then patted his shoulder with a somewhat encouraging look.
This time around, they didn't need Elder Xuan to divide them up. Everyone immediately took up their positions, while the cook, Huo Yuhao, had to enter the limelight again before he'd even had the chance to recover his soul power.
Besides the Haodong Power, a large reason that he and Wang Dong had been able to last for two hours was due to the latter's Golden Light left arm bone. If it weren't for the fact that they'd been able to continuously recover their soul power throughout the journey, they would've been exhausted already.
They weren't able to find any fish for dinner, but the smell of wild game couldn't be any easier for them to track. Combined with a few mountain berries and bamboo shoots, they once again enjoyed another sumptuous meal. The inner courtyard disciples were so pleased that they praised Huo Yuhao incessantly; with Huo Yuhao present, it was practically like they were on vacation.
It took another two hours for them to finish dinner, and it also took quite a while for everyone to recover their soul power afterwards. The sky had already turned dark by the time that everyone had fully recovered. Fortunately, the stars lit up the evening sky, so their sight wasn't impeded.
Huo Yuhao was the person least affected by the darkness. With the visual acuity his Spirit Eyes granted him, there wasn't much difference between nighttime and daytime to him.
"Here, fasten this to your waist." Wang Yan passed a long length of rope to Huo Yuhao. The rope had a specialised lock fashioned to one end of it, such that it could be fastened to a person's waist and thigh. The entire rope was over thirty meters long.
Huo Yuhao took the rope and fastened it to himself. He already knew that a rope such as this was meant to be used alongside a flying-type soul tool. When there were soul masters with different cultivation levels, using a rope like this would allow the soul master with the higher cultivation level to take the one with a lower cultivation level along with them, so as to increase the joint distance flown by the two people, thus allowing the two to maintain a quicker flying speed.
Huo Yuhao wasn't the only person to receive a rope; everyone else did as well, including Wang Yan. Once everyone had received a rope, the ends to all of them were handed to Elder Xuan.
"Little fellas, you'll have to do your best to protect yourselves in a bit. Once we ascend, everyone should maintain a forwards-facing position. Once I give you the signal, activate your soul power to prevent yourselves from being injured by the turbulence around us. Understood?"
"Understood."
Elder Xuan's going to make a move? Huo Yuhao's mind shook. He Caitou, who was behind him, rose into the air with him in tow.
Nobody could see what Elder Xuan had done, but a flying-type soul tool that was half as thick as Huo Yuhao and He Caitou's had appeared on his back. A set of dark-red wings quickly unfurled until they were about two meters or so wide, which wasn't considered too wide. However, there were twelve thrusters on the ends of his wings. It had to be known that the militarised versions of the flying-type soul tools, along with even Huo Yuhao and He Caitou's ones, only had two thrusters! Just what sort of flying-type soul tool was this?
Huo Yuhao quickly understood what these twelve thrusters signified. Once everyone had gotten into a forwards-facing position in the air, Elder Xuan's voice rang out, "Is everyone ready? Three, two, one, let's go!"
Following Elder Xuan's shout, all twelve thrusters on his wings simultaneously burst into life with blazing white light. Immediately afterwards, Huo Yuhao felt a large burst of force at his waist. Due to the enormous tension acting on him, the wings on his back automatically slightly withdrew. Afterwards, he wasn't able to clearly see his surroundings anymore.
At the same time, the ear-piercing whistles coming from the turbulence around him affected his hearing. After only a few short seconds, he found it somewhat intolerable. Merely relying on his soul power to protect his body didn't seem to be sufficient anymore.
Wang Dong was still holding on to his legs from below, but he wasn't in a much better condition either. Their Haodong Power circulated at high speed through their bodies, while the golden-reddish color coming from his left arm flickered unceasingly as it protected his own body.
Huo Yuhao didn't dare to be negligent; he immediately released the Ice Jade Empress Scorpion, which caused a resplendent layer of crystalline diamonds to cover the surface of his body. This was the Ice Empress' Armor.
Sure enough, the pressure that had envelop him immediately lessened the moment that he activated the Ice Empress' Armor. Huo Yuhao also tried to release his Spiritual Detection in order to check his surroundings, but to quickly discovered, to his astonishment, that he wasn't able to release his soul skill more than a foot away from him.
This… just what was going on?
"You're travelling too quickly. As such, your spiritual power is being severed and scattered the moment it leaves your body. Be a bit more obedient and don't try to do anything else. That human's really strong." The Skydream Iceworm gave Huo Yuhao a timely reminder.
The Ice Empress was somewhat unresigned. "He wouldn't even be my opponent if it was the previous me."
The Skydream Iceworm immediately changed his tone and said, "That's because my Bing Bing is awesome!"
"Shut up!"
As he was only using a defensive soul skill, the drain on his soul power wasn't too large. After using the Ice Empress' Armor for a period of time, Huo Yuhao switched over to a Class 2 Soul Shield, which had a decent amount of defensive capabilities. At the very least, there wouldn't be any problems with it protecting his body from the turbulent wind.
The pinnacle level of speed that Elder Xuan was travelling at made Huo Yuhao made it so that he was only able to sense a patch of pitch-blackness. Even raising his head to see the stars and moonlight was impossible. As a result, he could only do his best to protect himself. This was Elder Xuan's strength! Anybody could remain in equilibrium in mid-air using a flying-type soul tool, and the air didn't normally have much resistance at all. However, Elder Xuan was actually able to travel at such a terrifying speed by himself with so many people in tow! Just how could this be explained using the word 'strength' alone?
Previously, they'd travelled around four to five hundred miles in a timespan of two hours. Now, if they were to travel for two entire hours, would they really just stop at a thousand miles?