Volume 18, Chapter 159.1: Xenophobia, Bullying, and the Sovereign Descends

Huo Yuhao’s expression grew solemn and gloomy. His eyes narrowed into slits, and a cold light flickered through them.
I just want to learn here, yet you guys just had to force my hand. Huo Yuhao knew that the best thing for him to do would be to find Xuan Ziwen and let his teacher resolve his predicament. However, he knew that doing so would mean lowering his head to the four of them; a moment of timidity and cowardice like that would probably lead to even more bullying in the future. How could he focus on studying if that happened?
He heaved a sigh and mumbled exasperatedly under his breath, “You guys forced me.” He raised his right hand once he’d finished speaking and pressed it to the lab door. A pale golden radiance flickered in his eyes and one white, one purple, and one black soul ring—quite the peculiar combination—gradually rose from his body. This was the true color of his Spirit Eyes’ soul rings, but whether or not others would believe what this was a different story. After all, not many people believed that the colors of one’s soul rings could be changed at will.
Xuan Ziwen had asked Huo Yuhao if he could use his Spiritual Detection to probe into metallic objects, to which Huo Yuhao had answered that he could, but only to a certain extent. This was a huge breakthrough he’d achieved in his two years of cultivating Spiritual Detection, and he’d come up with a name for it: Focus.
He could focus his energy on a single point to increases its penetrative power and analytical abilities to a truly formidable level. Huo Yuhao’s target of choice was naturally the lab’s access control soul tool.
His gaze quickly concentrated on a single point. He raised his right hand that he’d just pressed against the door and pointed his index finger at a certain spot. Dark golden light sparkled the next moment, and a sharp blade extended from his fingertip and pierced into the alloy door.
One had to admit that the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy didn’t skimp with the mechanisms they used to protect their laboratories. The door was at least half a foot thick, and was incredibly tough. Huo Yuhao had the ability to break it down, but it would consume too much of his soul power to do so. He had several things he needed to do after this, thus he didn’t want to expend too much energy.
It wasn’t easy for his Darkgolden Terrorclaw to drill through such a tough alloy. His Darkgolden Terrorclaw released an ear-piercing sound as it ground through it, and was accompanied by intermittent sparks. However, he was gradually making progress thanks to the Terrorclaw’s extraordinary sharpness.
He drilled about two inches in before violently jabbing his finger inwards, causing the access control soul tool to instantly explode in a shower of sparks. Huo Yuhao immediately withdrew his Darkgolden Terrorclaw when this happened, and the door opened before him.
The best method to open a door guarded with a soul tool was to destroy the soul tool guarding it. It hadn’t been too difficult for him to find the crucial formation arrays.
“Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep…!” the sound of an alarm rang out. The four inside of the lab all turned to stare at him with dumbfounded expressions on their faces. Not even in their wildest dreams had they expected Huo Yuhao to break down the door; they’d never even suspected that he had the ability to do so.
The shrill alarm continued to ring, but Huo Yuhao pretended to not hear anything and stepped into the laboratory. He didn’t even look at the four of them as he sauntered towards the place that he’d just been cleaning previously.
“Stop right there!” the young girl exclaimed in both fury and shock. “You dare to damage our lab! Have you already forgotten what we just told you? ‘If we see you inside one more time, we’ll beat you up again!’”
Huo Yuhao stopped in his tracks and gradually turned around. His expression was full of regret and pity as he said, “I gave you guys one last chance after opening the door. Since you have refused to take it, then I’m sorry. I suspect you guys are intruders, and Ju Zi is your accomplice on the inside. I will take all of you down and hand you guys over to teacher Xuan.”
“Where did this little bastard come from? Who do you think you are? Don’t you think you’re punching above your weight? Take us down? You?” the tall youth that stood in front of everyone exclaimed indifferently. Ju Zi was also indignant, and only the relatively good-looking youth revealed an expression of astonishment, but didn’t react much.
He had already decided what he was going to do once he broke down the lab door. He wanted to give these fellows a show of strength, did they really think he was that easily bullied?
Golden light flashed from his eyes, and one white, one purple, and one black soul ring appeared on his body.
The four of them were slightly taken aback when they saw his soul rings. Three rings wasn’t much in their eyes, but the colors of Huo Yuhao’s three soul rings were simply too peculiar.
Just as they were momentarily off-put, Huo Yuhao’s first and third soul rings lit up at the same time.
Huo Yuhao’s pupils immediately turned white, and a circle of white light subsequently expanded from his body. The lab’s entire atmosphere twisted and contorted. When Ju Zi and the others looked at him again, they felt as if everything around them had turned blurry and obscure.
Even though Ju Zi and the others weren’t inside the Illustrious Virtue Hall, they were the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy’s sixth year students, and they could be considered the elites of their batch. How could they just sit back and let Huo Yuhao attack them?
Ju Zi’s reaction was the fastest. Uncountable oranges lunged towards Huo Yuhao’s slightly contorting figure, while the handsome youth beside her raised both hands and hurled out six hexagon-shaped golden boxes. A golden light screen wrapped around them and protected them inside itself, right before Huo Yuhao’s circle of white radiance hit them.
The four of them unleashed their martial souls at the same time, as powerful soul tools required sufficient soul power to maximize their effects. A giant cannon that was disproportionate to her body size suddenly appeared on the tiny young girl’s shoulder. This cannon barrel was even larger than He Caitou’s Giant Lightning Cannon, and it looked quite heavy. The tall youth flipped out more than fifty strange soul cannons of all kinds. Even though it wasn’t a soul tool fortress, he moved incredibly fast, and the number of soul cannons he was already displaying outmatched most soul tool fortresses.
It was a pity that they still underestimated Huo Yuhao’s abilities. The white circle of light effortlessly passed right through the layer of golden light, not impeded at all, and struck the four of them, just like that.
Their eyes immediately turned white, and an intense weakness coursed over their bodies. Their subsequent movements seemed to be slower than usual as dizziness, weakness in their legs, and fatigue caused them to stumble around. This was especially so for the young girl with the enormous cannon, who almost lost her balance.
It was right at this moment that Huo Yuhao suddenly vanished right in front of them, disappearing into the flurry of oranges that were still in midair.
Huo Yuhao had been tricked before, so he wouldn’t fall into the same trap again in the face of a similar attack. He was almost sliding across the ground when he slipped out, and he grabbed at the air above him again and again while he was sliding. He seized six actual oranges in the blink of an eye, and hurled them towards the golden layer of light.
Food-type soul masters were the most adept at materializing soul power, the food items that they produced were real, and actually had special effects.
Oranges contained moisture inside them, and he had now transformed them into solid ice. What could six oranges do against a Class 5 soul barrier?
Huo Yuhao gave them the answer.
These four students from the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy were outstanding enough. Even though they were struck by Huo Yuhao’s Mass Enfeeblement and their minds were under the influence of Spiritual Interference, they still managed to unleash their respective attacks. The handsome youth stepped forward and stood in front of Ju Zi as a pristine white light barrier rose from his body. He raised his right arm at the same time, and a fiery-red longsword instantly appeared in his hands.
Strength and burliness was not a characteristic of long-range soul masters. He was tall and lanky, yet he was a close-combat soul master. The close-combat soul tool in his hands was also clearly a special item.
The tall youth’s body erupted with soul rays and soul cannon shells, his judgement extremely accurate for his currently weakened state. He blanked the area Huo Yuhao was moving into and through with ranged fire. It was unfortunate for him that his mind was far too hampered by Spiritual Interference, and adding in Huo Yuhao’s accurate judgments via Spiritual Detection, Huo Yuhao simply shifted his position subtly as he surged past this shower of attacks.
The tiny young girl only stabilized herself at this moment, but she hesitated in firing her giant cannon. If she fired this giant cannon inside the laboratory, the cost would be… Just as she hesitated, Huo Yuhao arrived before the light barrier. This was a lab after all, and not some competition arena – the distance between both parties was not even ten meters before this!
“Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom!” Six vigorous explosions could be heard on the golden light barrier. The things that detonated were the six oranges that Huo Yuhao had tossed out before this – Ice Explosion!
However, it didn’t look like that from their perspective. The tiny young girl reacted in shock and fury as she shouted, “What are you doing, Ju Zi?!”
An enormous crack appeared on the golden light barrier after this series of explosions, and Huo Yuhao’s hands slammed ferociously against the light barrier in the next moment.
Fearsome energy spewed from his body like crashing mountains and tidal waves. Diamond ice crystals covered his large palms, and a faint green luster was shining from them. The golden light barrier wasn’t able to resist for even a single second, it was blown to smithereens under his hands with a string of shrill breaking sounds.
He used the Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track, and his figure appeared even more surreal and virtual under the incredible masking effects of his Spiritual Interference. He was beside the tiny young girl in a flash, and used the Controlling Crane Capturing Dragon technique to pull her in front of him… and directly into the path of the tall youth’s soul tool onslaught.