“You filthy humans, don’t try to seduce us with your disgusting words. Stop resisting and we will grant you a peaceful death. If not, we will tear both of you to pieces.” The mermaid with the crown seemed to bear immense hatred for humans. When she was transmitting her spiritual intent, she had an intensely furious expression on her face.
Huo Yuhao replied, “My beautiful mermaids and mermen, if you have been tracking our movements, you will have realized that we have not harmed a single soul beast since we have entered the Ice Sea. We only wish to make a mutually beneficial exchange with you. We really don’t harbor any malevolent intentions.”
“Cut the crap! Kill them!” The mermaid seemed to have lost her patience as she pointed the long silver spear in her hands at Huo Yuhao and Tang Wutong. Instantly, a humongous net formed by their collective spiritual power was launched in their direction.
Huo Yuhao was enraged by their reaction to his words. Since entering the Ice Sea, he had been trying to control his emotions. He took care to make sure he did not hurt any aquatic soul beasts. But after being repeatedly attacked by the aquatic soul beasts, he had had enough. Even the nicest soul in the world had a limit for such things.
“Do you really think I’m scared of you?” Huo Yuhao flashed an angry stare as he hugged Tang Wutong with his left hand while lifting his right hand. An icy blue light formed in his hand.
A black dagger that radiated a cloudy glow appeared. An icy blue gem sparkled from the hilt of the dagger.
Yes, it was the Sigh of the Frozen Goddess, Morning Dew Dagger!
After appearing, the dagger caused the temperature of the surrounding water to plunge rapidly. This drop in temperature spread outwards at an insane speed. Other than the area where Huo Yuhao and Tang Wutong were standing, the seawater around them started to freeze rapidly.
By using his Ultimate Ice to activate the Morning Dew Dagger, Huo Yuhao was able to reduce the temperature of his environment to extremely low temperatures. But at the same time, the collective spiritual power of a hundred mermaids and mermen was about to hit them.
Their spiritual power was effectively at the same level as an Ultimate Douluo. However, Huo Yuhao did not fear it. He merely pumped in more Ultimate Ice power into the Morning Dew Dagger as he tried to expand the volume of the frozen area under the sea.
“Booomm!” When the spiritual power reached a distance that was about ten meters from him, a mysterious barrier was formed from Huo Yuhao’s body. The martial soul combination skill released by the merfolk collided with this barrier, and the skill disintegrated instantly. It was no longer able to cause any harm to Huo Yuhao or Tang Wutong.
“Th-This is impossible!” The mermaid with the crown cried out in disbelief. It was the first time that she had seen a human withstand the net that they had collectively formed with their spiritual power. This was simply unbelievable. Judging from Huo Yuhao’s aura, she felt that he was not supposed to be capable of that!
And while she was stunned, the space around her started to distort. A mermaid that was floating beside her suddenly disappeared, and was replaced by a proud and tall figure in an insidious fashion.
At this instant, the beautiful mermaid with the crown was still shocked beyond belief. The other soul beasts were still focused on the Ultimate Ice created by Huo Yuhao. No one would have thought that there would be a change in the situation right next to the mermaid with the crown.
Xuanwu Displacement! Yes, Huo Yuhao had executed Xuanwu Displacement—the soul skill which he had replicated from Xu Sanshi, and the technique which had saved his life countless times.
Eye of Destiny, Spiritual Shock!
After moving to the mermaid’s side, it was Huo Yuhao’s turn to strike!
He really did not want to harm any of the aquatic soul beasts. However, they were starting to threaten his safety. Most importantly, they were starting to threaten Tang Wutong’s safety. He could never and would never allow them to harm her! Thus, he was not planning to go easy on them.
Because everyone was focused on the rapidly expanding ice ball, no one would have thought that Huo Yuhao would leave it. They did not expect him to move closer to them.
Just when the mermaid started to sense the impending danger, Huo Yuhao’s spiritual shock hit her.
Because it was launched from the powerful Eye of Destiny at such a short range, one could only imagine its power.
The mermaid screamed in pain as her head was forced backwards. However, the crown on her head seemed to release a powerful blue glow which negated a fair bit of the impact from the spiritual shock. Nonetheless, she felt as if her head had exploded as her mind went completely blank. She momentarily lost all ability to resist .
Indeed, Huo Yuhao had gone easy on Tang Wutong when they were duelling—just as she had accurately pointed out. With his incredible control over his spiritual power, it was impossible for his soul skills to have any disjointedness. Right now, he was exhibiting his true power.
Upon releasing his spiritual shock, the star anise had already crept out of his shoulder. Its blue light expanded to its surroundings. It seemed as though Huo Yuhao’s body had been enveloped by a powerful icy blue glow.
Star Anise Icy Coagulation!
It was incredibly effective to execute Star Anise Icy Coagulation in the Ice Sea. Both Huo Yuhao and the star anise were surprised at the powerful effect of this soul skill. Upon releasing it, Huo Yuhao felt as though his body was about to burst. His incredible soul power seemed to be causing his body and its passageways to expand.
Without hesitating, Huo Yuhao continued, executing the Star Anise Omnithrust.
With Huo Yuhao’s body as its center, countless ice spikes were released in every direction, and headed for the soul beasts around him.
The aquatic soul beasts that had been carefully selected to ambush Huo Yuhao and Tang Wutong were all fairly powerful. After their initial confusion, they had already regained their composure. However, it was too late. The ice spikes were already coming for them.
The aquatic soul beasts frantically tried to activate their defensive soul skills in an attempt to block them. However, they discovered much to their surprise that the ice spikes did not have any pointy edges. Instead, the tips of the ice spikes were shaped like a ball. Hence, upon colliding with their bodies, the spikes simply knocked the aquatic soul beasts away without piercing into any of them.
With the help of these two powerful soul skills, Huo Yuhao was now able to create a one-on-one situation with the mermaid with the crown.
Huo Yuhao’s Eye of Destiny radiated a rose gold spark. It seemed like he was really not going to go easy on her.
Weakness, Confusion!
Just when the mermaid was starting to recover from the spiritual shock, she started to feel giddy. Her spiritual sea was in chaos once again.
Huo Yuhao extended his left hand as he attempted to grab the mermaid’s neck. A layer of blue ice crystals formed automatically as they tried to block Huo Yuhao’s hand. It was apparent that this was her innate defensive ability.
Unfortunately, she was going up against Huo Yuhao—a soul master with Ultimate Ice.
As Huo Yuhao suddenly clenched his fist, a loud explosion could be heard.
The ice crystals instantly exploded as the mermaid within them let out a grunt of pain. Huo Yuhao’s left hand continued to stretch forward as he grabbed her neck. He injected his Ultimate Ice soul power into her body and prevented the soul power in her body from circulating. At the same time, he released five golden blades from his right hand which spun around her head.
“Don’t move a muscle! If not, I will kill her immediately!” Huo Yuhao’s icy spiritual intent was transmitted to every single aquatic soul beast around him.
As he passed this message to them, he retreated with the mermaid to the side of the ice ball he had formed from the Morning Dew Dagger.
Because ice was less dense than water, the ice ball was bound to float upwards. As Huo Yuhao controlled the mermaid and leaned against the ice ball, he floated up with it. The most important thing for him now was to escape from the sea into the world outside, which contained fresh air. That was the only way he could continue his fight with these aquatic soul beasts.
After being overwhelmed by the Star Anise Omnithrust, they saw how Huo Yuhao had controlled the mermaid with the crown after they had regrouped. And just as Huo Yuhao had expected, they did not dare to make a move after seeing how their leader was being held hostage.
The mermaid with the crown had awakened by now. She glared angrily at Huo Yuhao, and tried to use her spiritual power to attack him. However, she immediately realized her spiritual sea had been locked by Huo Yuhao. There was no way she could retaliate against him.
The truth was that the mermaid’s ability was actually not much weaker than Huo Yuhao’s. The main reason for her lack of success was that Huo Yuhao was able to curb her abilities to a large extent.
The collective spiritual illusion the merfolks had created was undeniably powerful. Even Huo Yuhao—a soul master who specialized in spiritual abilities—was tricked by it.
However, when it came to individual spiritual power, she was a lot weaker than Huo Yuhao. Her strongest ability was, in fact, nothing when compared to Huo Yuhao’s spiritual power. Because of this, her fighting power became a lot weaker. Hence, she had absolutely no chance against Huo Yuhao’s surprise attack.
However, the mermaid still could not wrap her head around how Huo Yuhao was able to fend off their collective spiritual attack. Even the leader of the entire mermaid race would not have been able to take the blow head-on. How was this human able to do it?
Of course, Huo Yuhao would never reveal how he did it. He was only able to pull it off because of the Three-Eyed Golden Lion’s Skull of Destiny. It pretty much granted him immunity against three spiritual attacks every day. And this immunity was absolute and unconditional.
Previously, he had relied on this ability to survive against the humongous spiritual blows from the Evileye Tyrant. It was the last thing that Wang Qiu’er had given him. Once again, it protected him at this critical moment.
As the ice ball continued its ascent, the other soul beasts kept a good distance from it. Huo Yuhao quietly let out a sigh of relief. They would be out of the ocean soon. Once they left the ocean, their chances of staying alive would be a lot greater. By holding the mermaid hostage, Huo Yuhao had a good chance of escaping the Ice Sea unscathed.
Previously, Huo Yuhao and Tang Wutong did not know how deep within the sea they were. As the ball continued in its ascent, they realized that their surroundings had only become slightly brighter. They were probably at least a couple thousand meters under the water. No wonder the pressure was so high! However, at the rate at which they were ascending, they should be able to leave the water before they ran out of breath.