Chapter 449: Chapter 449: Forty-Eight Levels of Spirit Power in One Year! Since I’m Here, I’ll Make the Best of It (Side Story)
Across the vast icy plains,
the Titan Snow Demon King’s crimson eyes fixed on Huo Yuhao.
"Are you ready, Huo Yuhao?"
Seated cross-legged upon the snow, Huo Yuhao took a deep breath and nodded firmly.
"Roar!" The Titan Snow Demon King howled toward the heavens.
At that moment, the wind and snow of the Extreme North seemed to respond, converging toward Huo Yuhao.
A tornado of wind and snow that connected heaven and earth took shape.
At the core of the vortex,
the Titan Snow Demon King’s towering body erupted with brilliant silver radiance.
The overwhelming energy within it surged forth, transforming into a visible torrent of silver-white light that poured into Huo Yuhao.
This power was far too domineering!
It violently forced open his meridians, scouring his limbs and bones!
Veins bulged at Huo Yuhao’s temples; he nearly fainted in an instant.
But he clenched his teeth, blood spilling from the corners of his mouth.
His consciousness held firm to the last inch of clarity in his spiritual sea. With sheer willpower as a dam, he guided the raging torrent of energy, accepting this heaven-defying blessing.
No one knew how much time passed.
Gradually, the wind-and-snow tornado exhausted its force and dissipated into the void.
At the center of the storm,
the Titan Snow Demon King was nowhere to be seen.
Only the howling wind and snow remained, half-burying a small figure beneath the white expanse.
Rustle... Rustle...
The cold wind swept by,
blowing away the snow and revealing Huo Yuhao beneath.
His face was calm. A faint rosy hue, like dawn’s glow, touched his cheeks.
A Spirit Ring—entirely crimson, inscribed with eight golden patterns—rotated slowly beneath him.
At the same time,
a crystalline, ice-like torso bone radiating terrifying fluctuations of power emerged from the fading light and merged into his body.
Power! Unprecedented power filled his entire being!
Unable to contain himself, Huo Yuhao let out a long howl. Behind him, a phantom of the Titan Snow Demon King beat its chest and roared.
The muscles in his right arm bulged and coiled, as thick as an adult’s waist.
He threw a punch toward the frozen ground beneath him.
Boom!
A deafening crash echoed.
The ice plain split apart.
A crack over ten meters long spread outward from his fist, branching wildly.
Huo Yuhao looked at his raised fist, then at the crisscrossing fissures in the ice, his heart surging with emotion.
He was only Level Twenty!
Yet with pure physical strength alone, he likely already rivaled his Level Thirty self from his previous life!
"Not bad, not bad!"
Skydream Ice Silkworm said with satisfaction.
"As expected of the Titan Snow Demon King—a being capable of contending with dragonkind. Ultimate Strength and Ultimate Ice are both top-tier attributes!"
After a pause, he urged,
"Let’s go. Time to hunt your second Spirit Ring!"
"Alright!"
Suppressing the excitement in his heart, Huo Yuhao’s eyes burned with eager fighting spirit.
The Titan Snow Demon King’s Spirit Ring and Spirit Bone had each granted him two formidable Spirit Abilities.
Although his Spirit Power level remained at Twenty,
he was confident—
even against a high-tier thousand-year Spirit Beast, he dared to clash head-on.
"First Spirit Ability—Titan Frostfall Fist!"
Frost and snow burst forth around Huo Yuhao’s fist as he unleashed a punch carrying immense force.
Where the fist wind passed, a thousand-year Ice Silkworm didn’t even have time to struggle before being shattered into fragments under the combined assault of ice crystals and overwhelming strength.
Skydream Ice Silkworm nodded in approval.
"Yuhao, even though you’re retracing your cultivation path, the second Spirit Ring for your Spirit Eyes Martial Soul is still most compatible with an Ice Silkworm that enhances spiritual power!"
"Just like in your previous life, your body is still relatively weak right now. My vast ocean-like power is sealed within your spiritual sea."
"But don’t worry. Your physique is stronger in this life, so those seals will break faster—raising the age of all your Spirit Rings at an accelerated pace!"
"The sooner you become a God King, the sooner we can return to the Divine Star!"
At this moment,
within his sea of consciousness—
Besides Skydream Ice Silkworm,
there was now also the soul form of the Titan Snow Demon King.
"Huo Yuhao, I still have some ten-thousand-year Ice Marrow stored in my cave from all these years. It will greatly benefit your accelerated cultivation."
Skydream Ice Silkworm’s tiny eyes widened.
"Why didn’t you say so earlier?!"
The Titan Snow Demon King curled his lip.
"You didn’t ask!"
The northern gale swept across the Extreme North,
carving another ring of years into the glaciers. A year passed.
Huo Yuhao, clad in a brown fur coat, sat cross-legged amid the wind and snow.
He slowly opened his eyes. Spiritual light burst forth from their depths, and the wind and snow swirling around him obediently settled upon his shoulders.
Four Spirit Rings, deep and dark as ink, rose beneath him.
"In my previous life at this time, I was only Level Twenty-Six. Now I’m already Level Forty-Eight."
"After being enhanced by Brother Skydream’s energy, all four Spirit Rings have advanced to the ten-thousand-year level."
"Even without soul tools to assist me, my strength far surpasses that of my previous life."
He tilted his head up,
gazing at the sun, hazy behind the frigid mist, and murmured,
"The Spirit Master Tournament should be about to begin."
In his previous life,
on the eve of the tournament, the current generation of the Shrek Seven Monsters had been ambushed, suffering heavy casualties.
It was precisely that upheaval
that forced their reserve team to step up at the last moment, ultimately winning the championship through great hardship.
"It’s not arrogance to say—without me in this life..."
He gently shook his head, a faint smile touching his lips.
"Forget it. That has nothing to do with me anymore."
A year of wind and snow had not frozen his hot blood. Instead, it had tempered his will until it became ever clearer and more resolute.
Now, he had only one goal in his heart—grow stronger without cease, ascend to the Divine Star True Realm, and bow as a disciple before that existence.
"Yuhao, you’re still too slow!"
Skydream Ice Silkworm rolled around in his spiritual sea.
"This world is too boring. You can’t imagine how magnificent the Divine Star is!"
"Brother Zhexian is roaming the universe with the gods! Even God Kings from other worlds have been subdued!"
The Titan Snow Demon King rarely chimed in agreement.
"I also want to become a god. Yuhao, cultivate faster."
"Got it, got it!"
Huo Yuhao rose to his full height.
He stomped his right foot onto the ice plain. The muscles in his leg swelled abruptly, stretching the fabric of his trousers into sharp, defined lines.
Terrifying power erupted.
Boom! Boom!
The ice beneath his feet shattered apart.
His figure shot forward like an arrow released from a bowstring.
The snow blanketing the mountain range was startled by the commotion, surging downward as a towering white wave.
Yet—
before the torrent of avalanche,
the young figure in brown leapt and bounded like a snow leopard.
At times he ran upon the surging snow; at times he burst forth from beneath it, turning nature’s fury into a testing ground for his own control.
"Hahaha, how refreshing! How refreshing!"
His laughter echoed through the wind and snow, his brows filled with the unrestrained joy of breaking free from shackles.
Gales lashed his face, shattered snow cut like blades—yet he felt nothing but freedom.
Looking out, heaven and earth were nothing but endless white. Majestic snow ridges lay like crouching beasts.
The sharp, pure air flooded his lungs, washing away the gloom and struggle of his previous life, leaving only clarity and openness.
"Yuhao!"
Skydream Ice Silkworm and the Titan Snow Demon King sat on his shoulders, one on each side.
"If you met those acquaintances from your previous life again, what would you do?"
Huo Yuhao ran atop the surging snow waves, spreading his arms wide and letting out a long, unrestrained howl.
"Since I’m here, I’ll make the best of it!"
His cry split the clouds and cleaved the ice,
echoing for a long time across the Extreme North wilderness that now belonged to him...
