Chapter 73

The ground within the Hearthwood Forests was still. The spirit beasts within had resettled into their old habitats after having to flee for their lives three days ago. Everything had returned back to how it belonged, and life was flourishing once again.

As the sun rose up to the highest point in the sky, a familiar but foreign presence briefly swept over the beasts in the vicinity of a nondescript grove of trees. Moments later, a loud 'thud' was heard by these same beasts, accompanied by a shake of the ground. This mysterious event was repeated many more times, each thud progressively becoming louder and accompanied by a bigger shake. Finally, with this event occurring for almost forty minutes, a crack was formed in the earth. This crack seemed to be a sign as the thudding grew exponentially louder and more powerful before finally, a massive boom sounded in the forest. Simultaneously, dirt, rocks, dust and shattered tree roots flew in every direction as a shadowed figure moved out from the ground.

This shadowed figure was slowly revealed kneeling in a cool fashion once the debris settled. This figure was exactly Huo Yuhao who had finally finished absorbing the Life Goddess' Orchid.

As he kneeled, Amra's voice rang out in his mind, "It is great that you have finally awoken Yuhao, but you could have just gone incorporeal…"

As soon as Yuhao heard this, he collapsed, half exhausted from having just forced his way through nearly four hundred metres of solid and aged rock, stone and dirt, and half embarrassed that he didn't think of doing that in the first place. While Yuhao was lying on the floor exhausted, he willed his consciousness to enter his mind. As he was unconscious, he was not aware of all of the changes that had taken place. This doesn't even include the fact that he had no idea how long he was unconscious for.

When he arrived inside, he was greeted by seven beings, some he recognised and some he didn't, sitting on stone chairs in a circle. The seven beings were all fairly humanoid, with three of them being male and the others female.

Xue Nu, or the Snow Empress, was someone he did recognise. She had the same white hair, blue eyes, fair skin and slender figure as she has always had. She was wearing a white and purple kimono that had its edges and shoulders lined with fur.

Bing Bing, or the Ice Empress, was another he did recognise. She had already taken her 'human form' several months ago. In this form, she had beautiful green hair, amber eyes and a short stature. She was wearing a green and white version of the Shrek Academy's student uniform.

The third female was the cute and lovely 9-Tailed Illusion Fox named Kunou. She had the same reddish-brown hair as her spirit beast form, two fluffy fox ears on her head and her distinct, nine fox tails jutting out from just above her bottom. She was wearing a purple and red, silk kimono that she always adored.

The fourth and last girl reminded him of someone however he couldn't quite put a name to the face. She had long, flowing, opal white hair that cascaded down to the middle of her back, bold, yellow eyes, as well as an attractive and refined face. She was wearing a white dress that reached her calves.

Noticing Yuhao's penetrating and curious gaze on her, she slightly turned away. Kunou walked over to Yuhao and stood on her toes. Yuhao leaned down a little, allowing the little fox to whisper in his ears, "That is Daydream, Yuhao. She decided to take on a human form, just like the rest of us did."

Yuhao nodded and warmly patted Kunou's head in appreciation. He turned back to face the now recognised Daydream, as he simply and cheekily said, "You have chosen a good humanoid form."

To go along with it, he gave her a thumbs up.

"Hmph", Daydream grunted as she turned her back to him. As she did, her voice barely carried to him, "Didn't want your feedback anyway…If you are going to be called everyone else by their names, you can call me Meng Tian now."

Yuhao smiled at her playful attempt at being prideful, "Very well…Meng Tian."

With the four girls now recognised, he turned his gaze to the only male he did somewhat recognise. While he is still unaware in regards to what the orchid did, seeing this person in their humanoid form gives him some idea on one of the effects.

The man had pure, white hair and misty grey eyes. His entire body was quite slender, which seemingly matched well with his pale skin. He was wearing a long black cloak, that had many fragmented shadows running through it. From Yuhao's perspective, if he held a scythe, he would resemble what he expected Thanatos to look like prior to meeting him in his last life. This man was one of the original Yuhao's greatest mentors, Yi Lai Ke Si, or more commonly known as Electrolux.

"I am glad to see that you have been somewhat healed, my friend," Yuhao said, nodding respectfully to the creator of his still unused, Necromancer pseudo-spirit.

Electrolux nodded appreciatively back to him, "Thank you for helping me recover so far."

Yuhao smiled as he turned to the last two beings in his mind. Using simply common sense and reasoning, Yuhao knew that these two were Amra and Shiva. Unlike the other beings who took relatively younger forms, these two took older looking forms.

The person on the right, who was obviously Amra, had his pale-gold hair down to his shoulders and was equipped with a large, bushy beard and moustache. His uncovered face showed visible wrinkles, emphasising his age, and piercing golden eyes; however, his build was still heavily muscled and solid. He was wearing a leather vest and pants for some reason, which created an overall image of him being a battle-hardened elder.

Likewise, Shiva had also seemingly decided to go for a battle-hardened elder as he was wearing a kind of lightly scaled armour across his entire body. He also had somewhat of a wrinkly face that worked well with his unique, red and blue eyes. Unlike Amra however, his white hair, which contained some black streaks, only reached to his lower neck and his beard was neatly trimmed.

"I see you two have also decided to take humanoid forms?" Yuhao rhetorically asked.

Amra shrugged, "Everyone else was doing it so I decided to give it a try. It isn't like I have to stay as is anyways. The old fart here didn't want to be the only want in their beast form, so he changed as well."

Shiva shot him a challenging look that Amra returned.

Yuhao walked over and sat down on the eight stone chair that appeared at some point in the circle. "Okay…well now that, that is sorted, would anybody be able to fill me in on how much time has passed?"

"It has been about three days since you first started absorbing the orchid," Meng Tian said.

"THREE DAYS? Really?! That means we only have a day to go until we have to be back at Shrek," Yuhao exclaimed.

He leaned against the chair's back as he sighed, "At least I can teleport straight back there. Thank god for that…"