Book 4: The Golden Road

Chapter 23.4: The Golden Road Amidst Withering Resplendence

“Do you think sorry will cut it? Do you think that being late is just a small matter? Let me tell you this. Being late represents laziness, and laziness at your age is something extremely serious. If you only have this reason to defend yourself, you can screw off. Tell me, I need a logical explanation.”

Only then did Huo Yuhao respectfully reply, “Teacher Zhou, please don’t be angry. This is what happened. Do you still remember what happened? When we met Huang Chutian’s team, they had a pair of twins who were called Lan Susu and Lan Luoluo.”

“Yes.” Zhou Yi replied.

Huo Yuhao continued, “During that match, we almost lost because the Lan sisters were able to activate a fusion skill. We were only able to forcefully block that powerful skill of theirs after working hard together. After that, we finally won that match and ended the round-robin tournament with a perfect score.”

“After we got back, we both envied the strength of their fusion skill. Thus, we decided to try it out and see whether our martial souls could fuse. The school doesn’t have a class that specialises in fusion skills, so we could only try it out by ourselves. However, who knew that our martial souls would fuse together on our first try? During the fusion process, we fell asleep on Wang Dong’s bed, and class had already started by the time we woke up. That’s why we were late yesterday.”

As Huo Yuhao continued his explanation, he clearly felt Wang Dong softly pinch the skin on his waist and twist it a hundred and eighty degrees.

He felt an intense sensation of pain, but he didn’t dare to show it. However, his expression immediately stiffened by a bit.

“A martial soul fusion?” Zhou Yi was stunned. She didn’t think that Huo Yuhao would actually give a reason like this. She subconsciously asked,: “Did you succeed?”

Huo Yuhao scratched his head and said, “We weren’t sure about it yesterday. Thus, we tried it out for a moment when you asked us to run around yesterday, and it seemed to work. Later that night, we went outside the academy to try out our fusion skill. We never thought that it’d actually succeed in one try. Furthermore, its strength seemed quite strong. However, this was the first time we’d activated a fusion skill, so our soul power was overdrafted. After releasing it, we directly collapsed in the forest, and we were already late when we woke up. Teacher Zhou, we were truly late because we were diligently cultivating. This was just an accident; I promise you that it won’t happen again.”

With that, Huo Yuhao quietly raised his head and stole a glance at Zhou Yi. However, he only saw Zhou Yi’s dumbstruck expression.

“You, you’re telling me that you actually succeeded when you tried to use a fusion skill?” Zhou Yi’s voice clearly rose in pitch. At the same time, she stood up with an astonished and excited look on her face.

Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong nodded simultaneously.

Zhou Yi excitedly said, “Quick, let me see. What’s your fusion skill?”

Huo Yuhao replied, “Teacher Zhou, we still have a match in the afternoon, and we’ll completely drain our soul power after using this skill.”

Zhou Yi unhappily said, “Your energy will be drained the most when you use it for the first time. It won’t be that draining when you use it in the future. If soul masters were to faint whenever they released a fusion skill, wouldn’t it become a suicidal move? Hurry up. I’ll be responsible for helping you recover your soul power, so it won’t interfere with your afternoon match. Come, just use it on me.”

Since Zhou Yi had already said so, Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong naturally wouldn’t refuse. The two faced each other, and Huo Yuhao spread his arms and hugged Wang Dong in a very natural manner. Although Wang Dong’s movements were still somewhat stiff, he didn’t push Huo Yuhao away. He shut his eyes and spread his arms as well, hugging Huo Yuhao.

In the instant their bodies touched, they each released their martial souls.

Their soul powers instantly fused, causing the Haodong Power to flow through their bodies. The two of them felt as if their bodies were fused together.

One second, two seconds, three seconds passed...

Teacher Zhou’s office was so quiet that even the sound of a needle dropping could be heard, but there were no other movements in the room besides the soul power undulations caused by Huo Yuhao’s and Wang Dong’s martial souls.

Zhou Yi widened her eyes as she stared at them. She was already prepared to defend against their attack, but the two of them were just standing there hugging each other without doing anything else. The corner of her eyelid was beginning to twitch.

The two of them could feel that something was wrong. In accordance with what had happened yesterday, their soul power should’ve quickly been drained! Then, a Golden Road Amidst Withering Resplendence should’ve been released in a single direction. However, nothing was happening at all.

“Just what the hell do you two think you’re doing?” Zhou Yi’s cold voice sounded as if it was spoken through clenched teeth. The two couldn’t help but feel a chill up their spines, and they subconsciously stopped hugging each other. An expression of shock instantly filled their faces.

Zhou Yi’s body was currently releasing killing intent; it was the second time Zhou Yi had given off this feeling towards the two of them. Old Lady Zhou was clearly about to blow up.

Huo Yuhao hurriedly spoke, “Teacher Zhou, this was how we released our fusion skill yesterday! We don’t know what’s going on.”

Zhou Yi spoke with a chilly voice, “Are you trying to show off your gay love by hugging each other in my office? If I don’t TAKE CARE of you two today, I’ll…”

Without even waiting for Zhou Yi to finish her sentence, Huo Yuhao immediately sprung into action. He grabbed Wang Dong’s hand and instantly used his Spiritual Detection Sharing on Zhou Yi.

“Hmm?” Zhou Yi was just about to blow up from her anger, but everything around her suddenly became clear to her. Her perception rapidly expanded, and within the blink of an eye, everything within a hundred meters of her became a clear three-dimensional image in her mind.

Why did his range increase by this much? Zhou Yi clearly remembered that the range of Huo Yuhao’s Spiritual Detection was only thirty meters or so the last time he had used it. However, it had turned into a hundred meters this time around. The magnitude of this increase was simply too large.

As he looked at Zhou Yi’s slight confusion, Huo Yuhao hurriedly explained, “Teacher Zhou, do you remember what I said last time? I told you that my Spiritual Detection would evolve as my cultivation increases, and after your caring guidance during these three months, its range increased to around fifty meters or so. In addition to that, I’ve found a way of concentrating its effects in one direction only, allowing its range to increase even more. On the other hand, the hundred meters that you’re currently sensing wasn’t done by me alone. After Wang Dong and I fused our martial souls, our soul powers fused as well. The reason why my Spiritual Detection’s range increased by so much, to the point where it’s even doubled in range, was due to Wang Dong’s help. Doesn’t this prove that we can fuse our martial souls? We really managed to use a fusion skill last night. If you don’t believe us, we can bring you to the area we tested it out on. There are a still a few traces left there.”

After hearing Huo Yuhao’s words, Zhou Yi gradually calmed down; she knew that she had been slightly impetuous.

During these three months, she had seen Huo Yuhao’s performance in the academy. Even as she looked through her memories, there had never been a student who’d been more diligent than him. Furthermore, he was calmer than his peers, and had a few hints of maturity. Even if he wanted to lie to her, he’d never tell a lie that could be exposed as easily as this one.

This was a perfect example of the saying ‘everyone specialised in their own fields’. Although Zhou Yi was a teacher from Shrek Academy, she wasn’t too familiar with martial soul fusion skills. After all, these skills were truly too niche. After listening to Huo Yuhao’s explanation, she had already believed them. As such, the anger in her heart quickly dissipated.

Waving her hand, Zhou Yi said, “Fine. You can stop using your skill, I believe you two. Only, there’s definitely something that went wrong when you were trying to use your fusion skill. Wait in my office for a while, I’ll go bring a teacher who’s familiar with fusion skills. I’ll get him to dispel your doubts.”

Old Lady Zhou was always a person who made swift and decisive decisions. By the time she had finished speaking, she was already outside, and was walking with quick steps

Once she left, Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong simultaneously let out a sigh of relief. The two of them collapsed onto the sofa, and Huo Yuhao used his left hand to wipe away the sweat on his forehead. Wang Dong wanted to use his left hand as well, but he noticed that Huo Yuhao was still holding it.

“Release your hand.” Wang Dong unhappily freed his hand from Huo Yuhao’s grip. He then glared at him, “I’m blaming you for this. If it weren’t for you insisting on trying our fusion skill out, why else would we be caught by that Old Lady Zhou? We don’t really have any secrets now, do we?”

As Huo Yuhao leaned into the sofa, he chuckled, “Blame me if you want to, but this isn’t really a bad thing. We’ll be able to avoid doing things incorrectly if we have a teacher guiding our cultivation. Just when can you change this grumbling attitude of yours? I’m the only one who can tolerate you.”

Wang Dong humphed. “I only do it when I’m with you. If it were anyone else, I’d be too lazy to even complain. However, it’s worth it, since we saw Old Lady Zhou’s stunned expression. Hey, do you think Old Lady Zhou will continue to teach us after we finish the knock-out tournament?”

Huo Yuhao replied, “It’s hard to tell. Teacher Zhou’s teaching seems to be quite comprehensive, but she seems to place emphasis on a few different things. Only, we’re too young, and our cultivation levels are quite low, so we haven’t seen her specialties yet. In any case, we’ll find out after we get reassigned classes once the knock-out tournament ends. I’m hoping that we’ll follow Teacher Zhou. Although she’s somewhat strict, it isn’t really a bad thing for us. At the very least, she’ll continue to encourage us to diligently cultivate and learn.”