Douluo Dalu 2: Heavenly Eyed Douluo

"O-Oh! Xiaotao! You're alright!" Yan Shaozhe exclaimed in joy, a look of relief couldn't be hidden on his face as he walked up to his beloved disciple and hugged her, tears in his eyes.

"Wha—! Teacher! Stop!" Ma Xiaotao squawked in embarrassment as she struggled in her teacher's bear hug, her face turning red. "I'm not a kid anymore! Let me go!"

Yan Shaozhe ignored her protests, his voice cracking with emotion. "You have no idea how worried I was! Three days, Xiaotao! Three whole days without knowing if you were safe or if—"

"Teacher!"

Huo Yuhao ignored their interactions and went to greet Mu En and Xuan Zi. "Greetings to teacher, Elder Xuan."

Mu En nodded approvingly. "Good work, Yuhao. Looks like everything went well."

Huo Yuhao wryly smiled and said, "Well, not exactly..." He then explained to them about the rejection of purifying her martial soul entirely and how he went in another direction of helping her.

He of course omitted certain details that involve the matters between a man and a woman. That was a conversation between Huo Yuhao and Ma Xiaotao.

"Instead of Evil, Xiaotao's martial soul Phoenix has become of...Darkness? Is that what happened?" Yan Shaozhe and Xuan Zi were baffled by the results, except for Mu En. Who always seemed to know everything and acted calmly.

"How is that any different?"

Huo Yuhao made a so-so gesture and explained. "Eh, it's not totally dark or evil, nor is it good either. Her martial soul's attribute have attained a sort of... neutrality. A True Phoenix, so to say, in theory."

"In theory?" Xuan Zi and Yan Shaozhe, now sporting a red handprint on his face, frowned.

Huo Yuhao then asked. "Xiaotao? Can you please release your martial soul?"

Ma Xiaotao nodded and a piercing Phoenix cry was heard, the temperature in the room rose sharply. A pair of pitch-black Phoenix wings unfolded behind her back, with ember-like hues across, like burning charcoal.

Black flames with crimson hues exuded from her body, the pressure exuding from the heat was heavy and superior compared to even dragon flames. It was like the ruler of all flames!

Six soul rings appeared underneath her feet: purple, purple, black, black, black, black!

Their eyes widened in surprise.

"Her flames...! It successfully promoted to Ultimate Fire!"

They had expected it, but it was still a surprising result. The Ultimate attribute is extremely rare after all, with only four people, including Hup Yuhao, in the last ten thousands to have been recorded to be enrolled in Shrek Academy. And all of them are known to be extremely talented prodigies.

Both Yan Shaozhe and Xuan Zi were further surprised to see the changes to her soul rings.

"X-Xiaotao, y-your soul rings...?" Yan Shaozhe muttered.

"I-I don't know!" Ma Xiaotao was similarly dumbfounded.

Mu En nonchalantly hummed, stroking his beard. "It might be a result of the evolution of Ma Xiaotao's martial soul. I've heard cases like this; a change of their soul rings' colors, especially from the Body Sect who underwent the Second Awakening."

Huo Yuhao and Ma Xiaotao were surprised. "That can happen?"

Elder Xuan scoffed. "Of course! What? Do you seriously believed that at just rank 10 they managed to absorb a thousand year old soul ring?"

"That's true..." Huo Yuhao admitted, if it weren't for certain circumstances, he wouldn't be able to absorb soul rings older than the known average age limit.

"Her flames... I feel the element of darkness, as well as light? There's no presence of Evil, thankfully."

Yan Shaozhe scrunched his expression. "But, why are her wings and flames almost entirely black?"

"That's probably because the flames I used to help her martial soul was this," Huo Yuhao produced the black flames of Amaterasu at the tip of his finger in front of them.

"That's...!"

The pressure emanating from the black flame wasn't any weaker than Ma Xiaotao's, in fact, it was even stronger!

"Y-You....you have Ultimate Fire as well?! How?!"

Yan Shaozhe and Xuan Zi were dumbfounded once more. They couldn't make heads or tails of how this was possible! They quickly started bombarding Huo Yuhao with questions.

Huo Yuhao's answer to their questions was, "I don't know. It seems to have come from my martial soul."

Both elders stared Huo Yuhao straight at his eyes, seeing the sincerity, they could only take a step back and stare at the boy with twitching eyebrows.

The boy's talent was becoming more and more frightening.

Mu En on the other hand, didn't react strongly about it. He softly chuckled and said, "Hohoho. Well, congratulations are in order. Yuhao, for helping Ma Xiaotao's problem..."

Mu En bowed his head.

"You have my gratitude."

Xuan Zi softly smiled, lowering his head for a moment and raised his gourd to Huo Yuhao. "Thank you for your aid, Yuhao. You saved the life of a fellow schoolmate. When you feel that you're ready to handle alcohol, I'll gift you one of the best Immortal Wines I have in my personal collection."

"You have my gratitude as well, Yuhao." Yan Shaozhe added, a serious and emotional look on his face. Without any hesitation, with a 'kotong' sound, he dropped to his knees and bowed his head, pressed to the ground.

"Teacher!?" Ma Xiaotao exclaimed in shock. She didn't expect her teacher to go down on his knees and bow to express his gratitude.

"Teacher, please. You don't have to—"

"It's not just gratitude that I'm expressing. Yuhao, Ma Xiaotao isn't just my disciple—she's also like a daughter to me." Yan Shaozhe's voice trembled slightly, a rare crack in his otherwise composed demeanor. "You didn't just save her martial soul. You saved her future, her spirit, her very life. For that, I owe you more than words can express."

Huo Yuhao was taken aback by Yan Shaozhe's actions. The sight of the powerful Dean of the Martial Soul Department bowing so deeply shocked him to his core.

He wanted to stop him and help Yan Shaozhe to his feet, but then he might not be strong enough to move his body.

Huo Yuhao shook his head, placing his hand on his chest. "Dean Yan, please, there's no need for this! Xiaotao is my friend, my comrade. Helping her was something I would do without a second thought. You don't need to thank me like this."

Yan Shaozhe let out a long breath, his expression softening but remaining serious as he stood to his feet. "....Yuhao, do you still remember the benefits you'd get for becoming a disciple of the Martial Soul Department?"

Huo Yuhao's eyes shone with realization and nodded.

Yan Shaozhe then said. "I'll add another reward on top of it. I'll help you get another set of suitable soul ring and soul bone. You're in need of a new soul ring, right? Just right—you, Xiaotao, and a few others are in need of a soul ring. I'll accompany you and the others on a hunting journey to the Great Star Dou Forest, but I'll only help you, Yuhao."

"Yes, Dean Yan!"

After a bit of small talk, Huo Yuhao left them and walked towards his personal room that Mu En prepared for him. Ma Xiaotao was left behind because they wanted to see what her new abilities were.

Honestly, he really needed to get away from her for a moment.

He didn't know how to face her. Should he act casual as before? Or be close and intimate? She was his first!

Entering his room, Huo Yuhao immediately flopped on his bed and let out a sigh, his face red. "Why do I keep thinking about it? We'll have a proper talk about it later on."

To try and keep improper thoughts out of his mind, Huo Yuhao then thought about the results he got after the affair with Ma Xiaotao—illogical, but humans were always unpredictable as it surprisingly calmed Huo Yuhao down.

'I've always heard that dual cultivation would always bring great benefits for both parties, especially when they have either top-tier martial souls or bloodlines.' Huo Yuhao turned and laid on his back, deep in thought. He didn't like taking advantage of Ma Xiaotao, but he was also a realist.

His clones had covered all sorts of knowledge in Shrek Academy, and one of them was Dual Cultivation: an unorthodox method of cultivation that basically has two partners, or more, cultivate together through intimate acts. It was once known to be a great cultivation method for couples.

However, such a cultivation path became extremely rare. As long ago, it became somewhat frowned upon when certain individuals used it more.... forcibly onto unsuspecting victims, tainting its reputation. Making others either abandon it or destroy them out of some sense of righteousness.

As years passed and people matured with different perspectives, however, dual cultivation techniques aren't as prejudiced as they once were.

The point of it all, Dual Cultivation methods increases the cultivation of the practitioners by a lot compared to most.

However, Huo Yuhao felt no difference in his cultivation or anything else after evolving her martial soul and dual cultivating with her.

She's at a higher cultivation level than him and has a top-tier Phoenix bloodline and martial soul; so technically, shouldn't he get some increase in cultivation?

'Hmm. Let me check my body,' Huo Yuhao furrowed his brows and spread his vision throughout his entire body.

Huo Yuhao blinked in surprise.

'This is...?'

A few days later.

"Yuhao!"

Ning Tian and Xiao Xiao ran up to him excitedly, without any hesitation, they hugged him tightly.

"It's been so long since we met!"

"Ahh~ My Yuhao bar is filling up..."

Huo Yuhao hugged them back with a mild look of surprise. "Ning Tian? Xiao Xiao? You two broke through to rank 40 already?!"

Ning Tian is an auxiliary-type soul master who was around rank 35 when they entered deep meditation while Xiao Xiao was at rank 33. There's no way they could've achieved such quick breakthroughs, with stable auras, unless...

"You both are being trained by someone?"

Both girls nodded simultaneously. Ning Tian was the first to say, "I was trained by Elder Xuan for a while for my Myriad Dragon Cauldron before I was passed over to another elder that specializes in control-type soul skills and such."

Ning Tian then said, "I was trained under the academy's number one auxiliary-type Titled Douluo for a while before I went to Elder Gong so I can practice the Great Pagoda Art."

"Myriad Dragon Cauldron? Elder Gong?" Huo Yuhao asked, a bit confused.

"How about we talk about it on the way?" A soft voice sounded and Ma Xiaotao walked towards them. She sent a wink to Huo Yuhao.

Huo Yuhao lightly smiled at her. "Is everything okay?"

Ma Xiaotao nodded. "Yup~ Teacher and the other elders examined my martial soul for a while, and they didn't find anything wrong."

"That's good, that's good."

"Jiiiii."

Ning Tian and Xiao Xiao stared at them intently at the side.

'Something happened.'

'Something totally happened between these two.'

They telepathically communicated with their girl bond, which was basically just pure intuition.

"Alright everyone! Gather up together now!" Yan Shaozhe walked over gracefully with his hands behind him.

"We'll be heading towards Great Star Dou Forest."

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3/3 chapters of the week. See y'all next week! I'll be out to my grandparents(who are in a faraway island) for the next few days. That's right, I won't just touch grass but also sand and water!

Enjoy life everyone, you only live once!