Breaking the Star Barrier and the Absolute Defense Barrier one after another had completely unraveled the Star Luo National Academy's battle tactics and strategy, and had subsequently changed the entire situation.
Dai Yueheng walked over to Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong and, lost in thought, bent down to support the two of them.
As that moment, a pair of hands flashed before him, and Bei Bei's face appeared in front of Dai Yueheng's eyes with a grin. "Let me do it, senior."
Dai Yueheng was momentarily stunned. He instantly recovered from his mildly dense state of mind and agreed as he took a step back.
"Give him to me." A pair of searing-hot hands reached out and snatched Huo Yuhao from Bei Bei's hands just as he was helping him up. Huo Yuhao was clamped under her armpit as they leapt off the competition stage almost immediately vanished from everyone's eyes.
The corner of Xue Sanshi's, who was standing next to Bei Bei, mouth twitched a little as he heaved a sigh and said, "I feel bad for him. However, I have to thank him as well. Xiaotao hasn't sought me out even once since he arrived."
"Shrek Academy has defeated Star Luo National Academy in the first group battle round of the Semifinals." The Heavenfiend Douluo's indifferent and chilly voice rang out as he announced the results of the battle.
On Shrek Academy's side, Dai Yueheng and Bei Bei had suffered varying degrees of injuries. As for Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong, they could be said to be used to the exhaustion from competing, as their cultivations were simply too low. Ma Xiaotao had had to endure the toxic backlash from channeling her evil fire, and had only managed to forcibly suppress the evil fire with Ling Luochen's help. However, she needed Huo Yuhao's Ultimate Ice to completely recover, which was why she'd snatched him away.
However, the Star Luo National Academy's situation wasn't that great either. Princess Jiu Jiu was injured, and Huang Heyun, their frontline assault-type soul master, had absorbed an enormous amount of soul power and had severe internal injuries. He would most likely not be able to fight again for a long time. Dugu Shangshan, another assault-type soul master, as well as the Windfire Duo, had been heavily wounded by the piercing strike that Ma Xiaotao had unleashed when she'd triggered her Evil Phoenix. If not for the Heavenfiend Douluo's timely intervention, all three of them would have perished beneath the scorching heat of her phoenix flames. The Gigant Eagle soul master was even worse for wear, as his wings, which he relied heavily on, had been torn apart. His wings being severely damaged meant that his origin as a soul master had also been hurt. It could basically be said that not a single one of the Star Luo National Academy's seven main team members would be able to continue in tomorrow's single-elimination match at their peak condition. Furthermore, they'd already lost the first round, thus they would have to defeat Shrek Academy in the single-elimination round and the 2-2-3 round if they wished to turn the tables.
"How did Yuhao and Wang Dong do that, Teacher Wang?" Dai Yueheng eagerly probed Wang Yan the moment he stepped off the competition stage.
Wang Yan glanced at him, then shook his head. "I didn't see the situation onstage. How would I know?"
Ling Luochen thought about it, then muttered, "It was most likely a martial soul fusion skill. Their Golden Road seemed to counter Princess Jiu Jiu's barrier. Afterwards, they used another combined soul skill. That soul skill was unique, and contained a frightening aura of raw power and majesty; I can't even begin to describe the force behind that strike. However, I know that they were the ones who broke through the weakened light barrier. Could it be that the two of them possess a second martial soul fusion skill?"
Wang Yan eyed Ling Luochen deeply as he lowered his voice and said, "We shall not discuss this any further. Let's head back."
Dai Yueheng frowned and said, "Are we not going to watch the epic battle between the Imperial Profound Academy and the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy?"
Wang Yan shook his head and replied, "Can't you tell from today's competition? The Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy will never use the tactics that they have specially in store for us before they're actually facing us on stage. Watching them will simply be a waste of time—we might as well hurry back and recuperate. Even though we probably won't receive much resistance from Star Luo National Academy in the single-elimination rounds, we can't be too careless."
It was true that the soul skill that Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong had used to overcome the Star Barrier was a new martial soul fusion skill that they'd been experimenting with. To be more accurate, it was their second martial soul fusion skill.
Their combined abilities would only get stronger and stronger as their cultivations increased. This was especially true regarding their compatibility while using their Haodong power. This meant that their energy consumption when using their martial soul fusion skills would be much lower than usual.
At the same time, ever since Huo Yuhao had fused with the Life Gold, his physical willpower endurance had been greatly boosted, which had been the most important part of their ability to use two martial soul fusion skills in a row.
Huo Yuhao would have never experimented with activating two martial soul fusion skills in a row on his own had Electrolux not told him that he could do so. This was because failure would mean his death.
Unleashing a martial soul fusion skill meant that two individuals martial souls and soul powers were being seamlessly fused together, and in turn releasing a different kind of soul skill. However, there was always a single person directing this how it was released.
There was no question that Huo Yuhao was the main director of the Golden Road and the second soul skill, thus it was natural that he had to endure more. When he'd obtained the Ice Jade Empress Scorpion's bones, enduring the Golden Road no longer proved to be much of a problem. In light of his fusion with the Life Gold, and in addition to his increase in cultivation, using a second martial soul fusion skill right after the first had become he and Wang Dong's current limit. Wang Dong had fallen unconscious because of this, as Huo Yuhao had extracted all of Wang Dong's soul power whilst being pushed to the limits of his own soul power.
Their second martial soul fusion skill was the product of fusing their other two powerful martial souls: the Ice Jade Empress Scorpion and the Clear Sky Hammer.
The Spirit Eyes were the main director in the fusion between the Spirit Eyes and the Radiant Butterfly Goddess, which meant that it was a fusion between spiritual power and light power in addition to the Purple Demon Eyes' mighty power, with their Haodong power as the source of activation. Comparatively, the Golden Road was a powerful martial soul fusion skill that leaned towards control rather than destructive capabilities.
What about their other two powerful martial souls, the Ice Jade Empress Scorpion and the Clear Sky Hammer?
There was no question that both entities were the pinnacle of offense and destructive capabilities. One was an Ultimate martial soul, and was known as one of the Extreme North's Three Heavenly Kings. The other held the reputation for being the most frightening assault-type martial soul in existence. Their fusion could only mean one thing: devastation.
Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong's second martial soul fusion skill had a corresponding name to the Golden Road.
Blaze Amidst the Frost, the Heavenly Emperor's Hammer!
The Ice Empress, as an Ultimate Ice martial soul, became the main controlling power as the Ultimate Ice's elemental destructiveness fused impeccably with the Clear Sky Hammer's pure cataclysmic power. The result was a illusion of Huo Yuhao's mature figure as it ripped through space with a terrifying strike. The devastating power produced in that single instance was already far greater than their combined might using their Haodong power.
Perhaps it was because their martial souls' compatibility rates were so high, but their level of success during their experiments with martial soul fusion skills in the past few days had been so high that even they hadn't been able to believe it.
In theory, two soul masters with twin martial souls should be able to unleash four mighty martial soul fusion skills. In fact, they'd already achieved electrifying success with the other three besides the Golden Road. This was the most important reason that Wang Yan had been willing to send the two of them out in the semifinals group battle round. If he hadn't, their combined strength wouldn't have been able to compare to He Caitou and Jiang Nannan's strength without any special abilities.
The outcome proved that Wang Yan's decision was right: Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong's two powerful martial soul fusion skills had been the key part in Shrek Academy forcibly turning the tide. Even though Huo Yuhao's Spiritual Detection Sharing's power had been greatly weakened, he'd become Shrek Academy's spark once again in this battle.
However, Huo Yuhao was currently in trouble, as Ma Xiaotao was dragging him back to the Grand Imperial Star Hotel.
Ma Xiaotao rushed into her room like a gust of wind, then slammed the door shut with a bang and locked it.
Her body was like a pile of burning coal at this point, while her skin was covered in a seductive pink layer due to the evil fire's adverse effects within her body. The dull red color in her eyes had grown a shader darker, and her flowing red hair was so bright that it appeared to be dripping with blood.
She shook Huo Yuhao with all her might and exclaimed in a hoarse and trembling voice, "Get up, you can't sleep now!"
Huo Yuhao had expended too much soul power, and his body had endured too great a hit from his martial soul fusion skill. He'd been unconscious since the match. Therefore, simply shaking him a few times wouldn't wake him up, but Ma Xiaotao's situation was extremely dire at this point.
She'd forcefully suppressed the evil fire within her body with the help of Huo Yuhao's Ultimate Ice the last time around, and this had changed her attitude towards battle, as she felt as if she could just let herself go. She'd begun to develop a change in mindset, as if she'd forgotten the pain once the scars were healed. This was even more due to Huo Yuhao being by her side. In fact, she'd begun to be a lot less watchful about controlling that evil fire within her body.
Recently, she'd felt the evil fire within her body beginning to stir again, but she hadn't hurried to ask for Huo Yuhao's help in suppressing it. She intended to ask for his help after they'd completed the rest of the competition.
She'd triggered the evil fire within her body of her own volition in today's competition. This had caused her phoenix flames to reach a petrifying level that she was no longer able to control, even if she wanted to suppress it in certain situations. Even though Ling Luochen's ice element was powerful, the gap in their cultivations was too great. Her normal ice element couldn't even compare to Ma Xiaotao's evil phoenix flames. This in turn led to her not being able to control the evil fire within her body when she returned to the hotel.
Fortunately for her, Huo Yuhao's body was ice cold, and his body also contained the Ice Empress' bones. Ma Xiaotao was still able to retain a trace of her rationality by hugging him ever so tightly. However, she couldn't even tell that the peaks on her chest were currently being pressed out of shape as she squeezed their bodies tightly together.
"What now? What should I do? This fellow just won't wake up."
Ma Xiaotao grasped Huo Yuhao's body impatiently as the evil fire surged periodically within her body. She could acutely feel that she was about to lose control completely. This hotel was inside a bustling district, and she was afraid of the lives that would be lost the moment she went berserk.
Chapter 111.2: Blaze Amidst the Frost, the Heavenly Emperor's Hammer!
As Ma Xiaotao held onto Huo Yuhao as tightly as she could, she darted into the bathroom. She immediately turned on the shower, then plunged both Huo Yuhao and herself underneath the cold water.
Even though the water was cold, it began to sizzle like burning charcoal that had been doused with water once it encountered her boiling-hot body. Thick, dense steam instantly permeated the entire bathroom, covering it in a layer of blurriness.
Ma Xiaotao felt a wave of comfort course through her body once she'd soaked herself inside of the cold water. She heaved a faint sigh of relief, then grit her teeth and started to gradually inject her soul power into Huo Yuhao's body.
She didn't know what else to do. Her half-dazed, unstable state of mind had made her irrational, and caused her to completely forget about Huo Yuhao's current situation. Even though she was trying her best to suppress it, the hysterically simmering evil fire found its way into Huo Yuhao's body and immediately began to wreak havoc.
If this was Huo Yuhao before he'd absorbed the Life Gold, just this alone would've been enough to cause him grave injury.
However, his passageways were able to endure much more than before. Although his entire body began to tremble violently under this riling stimulation, his passageways still managed to force down the small stream of evil fire that was flowing into his body.
Huo Yuhao finally came to from his unconscious state because of this. Two arms tightly wrapped around his body were the first things he felt—alongside the two extremely soft and springy peaks that were pressed against his chest.
What's happening? Huo Yuhao was stunned momentarily, then felt the wave of uncontrollable evil fire surging throughout his own body.
Even though he didn't know the results of the competition after he passed out, he was familiar with evil fire; it had once caused him unimaginably agonizing pain. He figured out what was going on almost immediately. Regardless of how the battle had ended, the Ma Xiaotao's evil fire had relapsed and was out of her control.
Dense steam obscured his vision, but he could clearly hear Ma Xiaotao's violent breathing. In addition to the fact that both of them were so intimately close, Huo Yuhao's young body also began to feel somewhat strange despite the pain he felt from the evil fire's torture.
"Xiaotao… let me grab… that milk bottle…" Huo Yuhao struggled to say.
Huo Yuhao didn't have much soul power left in his body when Ma Xiaotao began to inject evil fire inside. However, the Ice Empress' soul bone was still there, and reacted immediately by releasing an Ultimate Ice aura to resist the evil fire.
The extreme cold instantly made Ma Xiaotao feel like she'd just experienced rain after several long years of draught. As she heaved a long sigh of relief, she heard Huo Yuhao's voice.
Considering their circumstances and her current unstable state of mind she immediately misunderstood his intentions.
"You little bastard. You still want to take advantage of me at a time like this?" Ma Xiaotao was furious, and immediately attempted to push Huo Yuhao aside. However, the moment her body stopped touching Huo Yuhao's, the evil fire in her body began to rampage once more. She moaned, then hugged Huo Yuhao as tightly as she could once again.
Huo Yuhao yet again experienced the process of two lumps of soft flesh departing from his body and then being forcefully thrust back onto it. The encounter felt magical, but the agonizing sensation of evil fire flowing into his body made him grunt in pain. He subconsciously reached out to push Ma Xiaotao away.
Huo Yuhao wasn't that short anymore, but he was still a tad shorter than Ma Xiaotao was. He was stuck in Ma Xiaotao's iron grip, with even his arms trapped within hers, which meant that he was unable to raise them at all. When he reached out with his hands, he naturally pressed them against Ma Xiaotao's waist. Due to the force of Ma Xiaotao's forward momentum, Huo Yuhao felt his feet slip beneath him, and he immediately stumbled backwards – his hands slipped down as a result, and he ended up grabbing Ma Xiaotao's firm and perky butt cheeks.
Huo Yuhao's first felt something round in his hands, then intense heat, and finally that what he was holding was spongy…
"You…" The evil fire in Ma Xiaotao's body had seeped into her veins, thus she was ten times more sensitive than normal even though her body was scorching hot. She was at risk of losing control in her current situation, yet she was also at her most powerful. Her heightened senses were used against her opponents in normal times, so it was easy to imagine how she felt now that she was using them on herself. No matter how hardy and resilient she was, she was ultimately still an unmarried woman. Even though Huo Yuhao was still young, he definitely didn't look like he was only twelve years old. Ma Xiaotao grunted from his grab, and subconsciously hugged him even tighter, the evil fire she'd initially been trying to control instantly pouring into Huo Yuhao with more ferocity.
Heat waves akin to a volcano's eruption assaulted his body from all over before he could enjoy the exhilaration of what he'd grabbed.
This sudden flow of heat made Huo Yuhao feel like his entire body was melting. As his body was still weak, he was sent into a daze. His hands naturally didn't let go when this happened—instead, they squeezed even tighter, and his fingers sank into the spongy flesh of her buttocks. The two of them then maintained this dubious position.
Cold water continuously sprayed downwards, but it was quickly reduced to steam. The entire bathroom now resembled a giant steamer. Huo Yuhao's clothes had become soaking wet in an instant, and he felt like he was about to be cooked alive.
His Ultimate Ice's power would gradually reveal itself at times like this, and Ultimate Ice naturally countered the pressure that Huo Yuhao was withstanding from fire-type energy. The Ice Jade Empress Scorpion also retaliated as Huo Yuhao faced this shockwave from all over his body. Of course, even if he hadn't had a powerful entity like the Ice Empress, Huo Yuhao still wouldn't have just melted from this.
Chilly air quickly spread from the Ice Empress' bones and protected his internal organs. The evil fire was powerful, but there was nothing it could do except be dispelled, as its adversary was Ultimate Ice.
Huo Yuhao's spiritual sea had been developed greatly ever since he'd ingested the Life Gold. Not only had his spiritual power been boosted, but his control over his own body had also become a lot better than before. Neither the Ice Empress, the Skydream Iceworm, or Electrolux could easily take over his body anymore.
However, the Ice Empress could still control the power that she had sealed within Huo Yuhao's body.
If the searing evil fire that invaded Huo Yuhao's body reached his heart, Huo Yuhao would be done for; how could the Ice Empress sit by and watch this unfold? The moment she felt that something wasn't right, she'd lifted a corner of her seal, causing the Ice Jade Scorpion tattoo on Huo Yuhao's back to glimmer into view. An icy aura instantly flowed through his body and forcefully dissipated Ma Xiaotao's dense, blisteringly hot phoenix flames.
The Ice Empress wouldn't have dared to attempt something like this last time, as Huo Yuhao's passageways had not only just suffered being baked beneath the waves of Ma Xiaotao's evil fire, but now had to sustain another rush of extremely cold air. It was possible that Huo Yuhao's body would directly crumble on the spot. However, it was different now, as Electrolux was no longer just a trace of divine sense now that Yuhao had absorbed Life Gold.
The Pearl of Life hidden within his spiritual sea began to glow with dense volumes of life energy at the same time as when the Ice Empress made her move, and was released alongside the energy that the Ice Empress had unleashed. This way, Huo Yuhao's passageways would possess a large amount of life energy and sustenance, in turn making it much harder them to break apart. His body was being refined by the clash of ice and fire yet again.
The entire process was actually quite quick, but Huo Yuhao had already gone through an extreme case of a twin tribulation of ice and fire. His body shivered from head to toe due to the cold, and he felt as his he'd been transformed into a water crystal once the heat receded and his entire body was frozen. His whole body felt as if it had become transparent.
Ma Xiaotao's felt something completely different; she felt that she'd discovered an avenue to vent the evil fire stuck inside her body, and immediately funneled her evil fire towards it with lightning speed. This process made her feel extremely relaxed and comfortable. However, right at that moment, Huo Yuhao's hands—which were still grasping her buttcheeks—turned cold, and two streaks of extremely chilly energy flowed through her hips and into her body.
This sensation was extremely peculiar. She didn't have a vast amount of life energy protecting her passageways like Huo Yuhao did, but her cultivation was enough that her passageways were resilient enough to resist the intense cold. The evil fire from before had flicked at her heartstrings continuously, and she'd had an instant and obvious reaction when Huo Yuhao had grabbed onto her butt cheeks. Her hips had also been burning up a moment ago, but when they turned ice-cold the next, the combination of heat and cold caused an inexplicable sensation to course throughout Ma Xiaotao's entire body.
"Mmmm…" Ma Xiaotao began to quiver vigorously. Even though she'd already found an avenue to release the evil fire within her body, she didn't let go of Huo Yuhao's body, instead hugging him tighter instead. The gasping sounds she'd been making became more intense as she struggled to break free from Huo Yuhao's hands by shaking her buttocks. However, at that very moment, a ferocious individual such as her suddenly felt like she didn't have a single ounce of strength in her body. Her hips began to contort while the continuous conflict between the chilly sensation and the intense heat inside of her body caused her to enter an unceasing state of convulsions.
"Why am I dealing with my evil fire like this?" Ma Xiaotao thought to herself in between her convulsions. Immediately afterwards, she bit Huo Yuhao's shoulder as her body's convulsions grew even more intense. Her face flushed red as the clash of ice and fire within her body that resembled nirvana finally caused her to let go of all her safeguards; she could no longer control her own emotions.
Fortunately, Huo Yuhao was still in a daze, and the tribulation of ice and fire that he'd just experienced had affected his entire body from top to bottom. His organs and passageways were changing as a defensive mechanism, and his soul power had been swiftly replenished after the Ice Empress lifted her seal. It felt as if his entire body had entered a special state of meditation.
The two of them maintained their strange hugging position while they stood inside the bathroom, both their minds slowly becoming even blurrier.
The thick steamy mist inside the bathroom gradually dissipated, and eventually diffused outwards as layers of icy mist and plain traces of frost began to appear around them. The bathroom was extremely tranquil, with the only thing disturbing the peace being the faint light radiating from the Ice Jade Empress Scorpion tattoo on Huo Yuhao's back.
Neither of them knew how much time had passed. Ma Xiaotao was the first to slowly come to from her state of deep sleep. When she regained her senses, the first thing she felt was icy coldness. It was something that she'd never felt before, and she shivered uncontrollably.
This tiny movement of hers was small, but infinite tiny cracking sounds rang out. She exclaimed in surprise when she saw piece after piece of thin ice break off of her body and fall down to the ground.
Chapter 111.3: Blaze Amidst the Frost, the Heavenly Emperor's Hammer!
The ice wasn't the only thing that shattered into pieces. Her clothes, which had been roasted and frozen in turn and thus become extremely fragile, separated at the seams as well. Ma Xiaotao didn't have a single thread on her body by the time all the ice had fallen to the ground.
"Ah –" Ma Xiaotao gasped softly, but realized she couldn't move at all. She felt as if all the blood vessels in her body had been frozen solid, and her blood circulation was unbearably slow. She couldn't even sense a single trace of her phoenix flames, let alone the evil fire. It felt as if her entire body had gone into stasis, and she was just a statue made of ice.
Ma Xiaotao's movement shocked Huo Yuhao awake. A person waking up would naturally and subconsciously move his or her body, and the thin layer of ice over Huo Yuhao's body broke and drifted to the ground as well. He was in the same situation as Ma Xiaotao – besides the Twenty Four Moonlit Bridges around his waist, every other piece of fabric on his body broke apart and fell to the ground.
"Ah –" Huo Yuhao exclaimed in similar fashion before he immediately found that he could only see a patch of white before him.
"What are you shrieking about?! And you shouted even louder than I did, as if you just suffered a loss." Ma Xiaotao was furious.
Huo Yuhao finally saw the person before him clearly. How would one describe the scene before his eyes? Extreme perkiness, buxom, tender and delicate bright-red peaches, and… and… "Close your eyes!" Ma Xiaotao said indignantly.
Huo Yuhao recovered at once, and hurriedly covered his vital parts with his hands as he closed his eyes at once. However, what he just saw had been imprinted in the deep recesses of his mind. In fact, he felt as if he could see with more clarity with his eyes closed.
Ma Xiaotao was still panting faintly. She began to feel a touch of warmth as her blood flow started to smooth out. Her physical strength was far superior to normal people, after all.
She recited her mental cultivation technique in her mind and the phoenix flames within her body were gradually awoken. Ma Xiaotao realized, to her intense shock, that the suppression of evil fire in her body was far more complete than the last time. There seemed to be a black pearl within her soul power that was located in the center of her pubic region. Furthermore, her own soul power also became a lot clearer and brighter, and there wasn't a single vestige of evil fire to be found.
Ultimate Ice was so powerful! Ma Xiaotao finally comprehended how inappropriate it was for her to seek Huo Yuhao's help to suppress the evil fire, as Huo Yuhao's body was clearly exhausted, and he had overdrafted his energy back then.
"Hey, are you okay?" Ma Xiaotao asked softly.
"I'm fine." Huo Yuhao had a feeling as if he wanted to cry, but there were no tears in his eyes. A young virgin boy like him was simply just full of vitality and liveliness. He had some natural reactions subconsciously after seeing something he shouldn't have, and he felt like his hands were unable to cover him up any longer. All he could do was bend his body and point his buttocks upwards to avoid exposing his buffoonery as much as possible.
Ma Xiaotao heaved a soft sigh of relief and didn't ask any more questions. Strangely, the bathroom just maintained this tranquil state.
The stiffness in Ma Xiaotao's body gradually vanished following the phoenix flames' circulation in her body, and an unprecedented relief and comfort coursed through her entire body, giving her indescribable satisfaction.
Ma Xiaotao really wanted to moan out loud to express her pleasure, and would have if Huo Yuhao hadn't been there.
Could it be because the evil fire had been entirely suppressed? Ma Xiaotao knew that the answer wasn't so simple. When her body wasn't so stiff anymore, she immediately felt something sticky between her legs that made her extremely awkward and uncomfortable. What disturbed her even more was the fact that her long and powerful thighs felt a little weak.
She cursed under her breath, and color returned to her pretty face. She glanced at Huo Yuhao and she had an epiphany as she watched his strange behavior.
She immediately raised her leg, kicked him in the chest and sent him tumbling out of the bathroom.
"Put your clothes on and wait for me outside. I'm not going to let you leave. You're not allowed to leave."
Ma Xiaotao's kick seemed heavy and hard, but it was a force that was meant to push him out, and not injure him. Huo Yuhao rolled once inside the bathroom, got on his feet and barreled outside as if he had just received divine forgiveness.
He hurriedly shut the door behind him once he was out of the bathroom and immediately started to pant in deep breaths.
Torture, this was torture. Besides feeling as if he was being tortured, all he felt was bewilderment. How many distracting thoughts could he have in his mind at such a young age? However, males and females were different, after all, and there was bound to be curiosity about the opposite gender. Still, seeing something that one shouldn't have seen would undoubtedly produce a certain measure of fear. Huo Yuhao swiftly put on some clothes he had stored inside the Twenty-Four Moonlit Bridges, and then he was stood just inside Ma Xiaotao's room feeling extremely unsettled. He really wanted to dart back to his own room, but what if Ma Xiaotao wouldn't forgive him for running off just like that?
Furthermore, what made him even more anxious and exasperated was the fact that he just recalled the incident where he grabbed onto Xiaotao's buttocks. He didn't just see them – he had touched them! What was that?
Ma Xiaotao wasn't nervous and stressed like Huo Yuhao was. She used her phoenix flames to melt the ice freezing up the water pipes and immediately switched on the shower tap. Flowing water rinsed over her smooth and impeccable skin, and this refreshing sensation instantly increased the invigorating feeling within her body.
She was already nineteen years of age, and she was far more mature than Huo Yuhao in terms of both mind and body. Even though she was still embarrassed about what had just transpired, her current thoughts and feelings were very different from his.
Ma Xiaotao reached up and touched her hot cheeks as she reminisced over her repeated experiences of the tribulations of ice and fire, and the feeling of her arrival at the pinnacle of bliss.
"What a little bastard. Could this be an attempt at revenge?" She immediately recalled Huo Yuhao's dilemma and predicament inside the Sea God's Lake – except, it was her this time.
"Whatever the case, I still have to thank him." Ma Xiaotao gasped once more as she checked the evil fire within her pubic regions. She thought about Huo Yuhao's panic and bewilderment and she slowly withdrew the smile on her face as she tapped herself on the forehead. What was that? A single episode could be called an accident, but this was the second time. "He's just a kid. I can't corrupt him like that."
Her thoughts stopped there as Ma Xiaotao quickly washed her body, dried herself and found a change of clean clothes before she stepped out of the bathroom.
Huo Yuhao was sitting on the sofa with his head lowered and both hands on his knees. His back was as straight as an arrow, and his appearance was just like a kid who knew he had done something wrong – even his face was flushed red.
Ma Xiaotao found his behavior extremely cute and amusing, and couldn't help but giggle at the sight.
Huo Yuhao hurriedly stood up as if he had just been shocked. He didn't even dare to look up at Ma Xiaotao. His head was still lowered as he said, "Xiaotao, I… I made a mistake. It really wasn't on purpose. I… I messed up."
"That's enough. What's all this talk about messing up? The person saying sorry should be me." Ma Xiaotao tried to keep her tone as composed as possible as she stepped over to Huo Yuhao and touched his head. "Sit down."
Huo Yuhao was caught off guard by this amicable behavior. He had thought that she was going to rage at him, considering her typical short temper and fiery personality.
Ma Xiaotao pulled on Huo Yuhao to sit him down before she took a seat on the sofa opposite him.
"I'm sorry, Yuhao. The evil fire was already attacking my heart, and I dragged you back here in my dazed state and directly forced the evil fire into your body. Fortunately, I didn't cause any damage to you. You didn't do anything wrong – I was the one who made a mistake. I wasn't thinking straight through all my anger, and triggered my evil fire to attack them, except I forgot you were already exhausted and couldn't immediately help me suppress the evil hidden within my phoenix flames. Thankfully, you're okay. Otherwise I'd really regret this till the day I died."
Ma Xiaotao's tone was extremely serious and solemn, and her pretty face was full of sincerity.
Huo Yuhao stared blankly at her, but the anxiety and butterflies in his stomach had mostly receded.
Ma Xiaotao continued, "Luckily, nothing happened to you. I don't think you'll be able to explain what happened, and it's the same for me. The evil fire was affecting my mind and my rationality. As for what happened afterwards…" Her face turned red as she said this, and she hurriedly held back her emotions before she continued, "It was just an accident. Everything came about by accident, and I hope this won't disturb you or cause you any trauma. You're still young, and you're not at the age where you should pine after women, so don't think too much. What you should be doing is focus on cultivating – do you understand?"
"Yes, yes, I understand…" Huo Yuhao acknowledged repeatedly. He never expected Ma Xiaotao to give a speech like that. While he relaxed his emotions, he developed a certain level of reverence and admiration for this girl before him.
Ma Xiaotao watched his behavior and felt he was getting cuter by the second. She couldn't help himself, and giggled once more as she said, "Alright, that's enough. You don't have to be so prim and proper. Even though I almost messed up big time and I almost hurt you, you didn't lose out, did you? You're the first one to touch my body besides my family members – and it's not even the first time."
"I…" Huo Yuhao wanted to explain himself, but had no idea what to say as he blushed again.
Ma Xiaotao laughed and said, "It's okay. You're still young, and I don't mean anything else by it. You've touched my body, and that's it. You're still a kid, so I'm not about to bicker with you about this. You're almost eight years younger than me, and you can call me sister if you're willing to. This way, you can be considered my family, and my reputation and integrity won't be tarnished. The next time I need your help to suppress evil will therefore be right and proper. Of course, being my little brother is a good thing – I will take revenge on whoever dares to bully you by roasting him into a suckling pig. How's that?"
"Sister…" A sour sensation rushed into Huo Yuhao's nose, and tears poured out of his eyes instantly.
Tears were products of grief, but they were also products of when one was deeply moved. Ma Xiaotao's words probably didn't mean much to normal people, but it wasn't the same for him.
Huo Yuhao had been interdependent with his mother ever since he was a kid, and he had long been used to the hypocritical indifference in the Duke's Mansion. He had had no other kin besides his mother, who had always swallowed her anger.
He had met Bei Bei and Tang Ya when he first joined Shrek Academy, and that was when his icy heart began to gradually change, and the cold sensations in his heart slowly turned into warmth.
Even Wang Dong didn't know that Huo Yuhao's thoughts had been extreme and radical when he had first moved into the dorm with him, just that Huo Yuhao channeled this extremity into silent determination in cultivation and tried his best to improve himself. Huo Yuhao's hatred towards the Duke's Mansion was still very strong at that time, to the point where he wanted to end the White Tiger Duke's lineage and bloodline once and for all.