Chapter 3: Human Encounter
Huo Yuhao narrowed his eyes, wary and cautious of strangers, he unsheathed the White Tiger on his side and pointed it towards the couple.
"Who are you?!" he coldly asked the two, gripping his dagger tight as a clear warning for them to stop in their tracks.
His journey to this point hadn't been an easy one. While he had encountered some friendly and kind travelers that helped him out, there were also those with malicious intent and attacked him despite carrying stuff of almost no value.
Well, except the dagger. But they hadn't known about it until he brought it out and severely cut them and escaped.
So when he saw the couple in front of him, his natural instinct was to protect himself and keep his guard up.
The two quickly halted, sharing a brief glance at each other, they held their hands up to show to Huo Yuhao that they meant no harm to him.
The youth gently smiled and said, "We mean you no harm little brother. I'm Bei Bei and she's Tang Ya."
Tang Ya kindly smiled at Huo Yuhao and waved her hand at him, "Hello little brother. I'm sorry if startled you but," A greedy, hungry look appeared on her face, staring intently at the roasting fishes. "I just couldn't help but rush over to such delicious smelling food.
"Xiao Ya..." Bei Bei let out a helpless sigh.
Tang Ya's beautiful eyes widened as she angrily retorted, "What did you just call me?"
"...Fine, Teacher Xiao Ya, that should be fine, right?"
Tang Ya stared at him coldly and said, "That's the way that it should be. You should pay attention to your status." Although she wasn't that old, her gaze was filled with a charming look. The onlooking youth couldn't help but have his expression turned blank.
She turned to look back at the speechless Huo Yuhao and asked,
"Little brother, are you selling those roasted fish? It smells so good! The smell alone makes it well above some big shot restaurants. How do you make it?"
Huo Yuhao didn't know how to react.
'Who acts so casually when being pointed with a dagger?!' his eyes couldn't help but become blank. This was certainly the most weird conversation he'd ever had with someone. He let out a sigh and lowered the dagger.
'Well, at least they don't seem like they want to attack. Especially that big sister, she's like the most honest person I've ever met.'
Huo Yuhao sheathed his dagger and replied, "I am not selling these roasted fish. I made them for myself for dinner."
Tang Ya's eyes sparkled with excitement as she said, "Oh, can we join you for dinner then? I promise we won't cause any trouble."
Huo Yuhao hesitated for a moment. He couldn't deny that he was craving some company after such a long and lonely journey. Plus, they seemed harmless enough. "Sure, you can join me," he finally agreed.
The three of them sat down around the fire, and Huo Yuhao shared his roasted fish with Bei Bei and Tang Ya and he took out the rest of the fish he caught. They were all silent at first, enjoying the delicious meal. Tang Ya couldn't help but express her satisfaction with every bite, making Huo Yuhao smile.
After they finished eating, Bei Bei finally spoke up. "Little brother, where are you headed? We noticed that you seem to be traveling alone."
Huo Yuhao paused for a moment, unsure if he should trust them with his destination.
Bei Bei noticed his hesitation and decidedly dropped the topic, "It's fine if you don't want to talk about it, I was just curious."
"Thanks, brother Bei." Huo Yuhao said.
Pak! Huo Yuhao blinked his eyes and turned towards where Tang Ya was and slightly blushed at her...posture.
"This is simply too tasty. I've never eaten such a delicious roasted fish before. Little brother Huo Yuhao, how about I hire you as a chef, okay?" Tang Ya laid down on the grass, and stretched in satisfaction. Her curves were completely exposed, but she didn't seem to mind at all. Bei Bei scratched his head whilst looking at her, but didn't do anything about it.
"Do you have any money? Teacher Xiao Ya?" Bei Bei crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow.
"Eh… I-I'll have money in the future!" Tang Ya was slightly embarrassed as she sat up. She glared at Bei Bei, seemingly unhappy at him for ruining her plans.
Huo Yuhao shook his head and stood up, "Brother Bei, Sister Tang, I'll have to leave first."
Bei Bei said, "Little brother Huo, this is the desolate countryside, and isn't that far away from the Great Star Dou Forest where soul beasts wander. Just where do you intend to go?"
Huo Yuhao shook his head, then grabbed his clothes that had already dried from the tree branch. He smiled and waved goodbye to the two after he'd packed his clothes into his bag. Afterwards, he turned around and left under Tang Ya's slightly astonished gaze.
"..."
"He couldn't really want to go into the Great Star Dou Forest, could he?" Tang Ya couldn't help but ask Bei Bei, gazing at Huo Yuhao's shrinking back as she pondered.
Bei Bei shook his head and said, "I can't be sure. I can vaguely sense that he possesses soul power, but it's very weak. It also seems that he's alone. This is truly somewhat strange."
Tang Ya hummed and her eyes brightened, as if she had a eureka moment, and said with a grinning expression, "Since he has soul power, why don't we recruit him into our Tang Sect?"
"....Don't tell me you want to recruit him because he cooked you delicious fish?"
Tang Ya's face turned red.
"Y-You...! Shut up! This isn't how you should treat your master!"
....
Huo Yuhao was naturally unaware of the conversion between Bei Bei and Tang Ya. He'd originally planned to bring some roasted fish with him, but that plan was out, as he hadn't wanted to expose his identity as a Soul Scholar, which was why he hadn't caught any more fish.
"Looks like I'll be eating more berries and fruits around the Great Star Dou Forest if I want to eat some more," he muttered as he checked his map again after marking the position of the small stream on his map. Who knows, he might have a use for it when he returned.
Although he had a good impression of Bei Bei and Tang Ya, he still decided to separate from them after he grew suspicious of them.
Even though Huo Yuhao was young, he still thought a lot about things. He could tell that Tang Ya and Bei Bei weren't ordinary people. Bei Bei had said that this was the desolate countryside, yet they both didn't even have any bags on them. Thus, he believed that it would be better for him to separate from the two.
After walking forward for a short time, a wooden signboard on the roadside caught his attention.
"You will enter the territory of the Great Star Dou Forest in 50 metres. There are soul beasts roaming around, so please be careful."
"I'm finally here," Huo Yuhao's eyes lit up in excitement and anticipation, though it soon changed into nervousness. He touched the White Tiger Dagger on his lower back and suppressed the uneasiness in his heart.
'Keep it together, Yuhao. For mother, and for your revenge, you have to take the risk and move forward!' Huo Yuhao let out a small breath and unhurriedly took a large stride of determination, his vision soon dyed in red and he saw numerous lights of all sizes before him, mostly white and yellow.
Another special feature of his mutated Spirit Eyes was that he could see the soul power of a living being, though he only saw it a couple of times because he didn't want to reveal his Spirit Eyes, he still understood the importance of this ability.
Not only could it help him distinguish a soul master's cultivation, but it can also help him locate any soul master and soul beast location in a certain distance of his vision.
Although he never used this ability before on soul beasts, Huo Yuhao knew how to distinguish between the ages of soul beasts due to the color of their soul power.
The color of the soul rings from soul beasts matched the color of their soul power: white soul power was for 10 year soul beasts, yellow for 100 year soul beasts, purple for 1,000 year soul beasts, black for 10,000 year soul beasts, and red for 100,000 year old soul beasts.
As Huo Yuhao was running in a straight direction, he felt a strange feeling appear in the back of his mind and halted. His Spirit Eyes immediately locked towards the direction of danger he was feeling and saw a bundle of white soul power hiding in the far left side of the road in front of him.
As an extremely rare spiritual-type mutated martial soul, his Spirit Eyes had a very strong ability to sense danger. The feeling of immediate crisis Huo Yuhao felt caused his senses to immediately sharpen.
He rapidly lowered his body to the left, used his right hand to quickly unsheathe the White Tiger Dagger from his waist, and jumped back the moment he saw the bundle of white soul power shot towards his direction.
A black figure flashed past the area he'd previously been at. The area where it had pounced was almost within Huo Yuhao's reach, which immediately allowed him to clearly see what it was.
.....
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