Reborn as Huo Yuhao, but also in Battle Through the Heavens

Chapter 52 Oh no, the Soul Palace has caught a zombie!

"Corps? Damn, Yuhao, you're not going to create a zombie crisis or something like that in this world, are you?" Xiao Yan's body trembled violently, and his voice rose a few decibels.

"Heh, just say you're scared." Huo Yuhao snorted lightly. "Now that even the spiritual imprint can't be found, he was most likely killed by someone."

Even so, Huo Yuhao still mobilized his mental energy to the fullest extent, repeatedly washing over Qingshan Town and its surrounding area like a tide, not letting go of any suspicious fluctuations.

Just now.

"Young Master Yan, Young Master Yuhao, it really is you!" A young man dressed as a guard, with spiky hair, thick eyebrows, and big eyes, called out to the two people standing at the entrance of Wan Yao Zhai.

"Who are you?" Upon hearing the other person's address, Huo Yuhao withdrew his mental probe and quickly searched through the memories of the Xiao family members, confirming that he had never seen this person before.

"My name is Payne. I'm an intern who joined the Xiao family's guards four months ago."

The young man, with a serious expression, walked up to Xiao Yan and Huo Yuhao and stood ramrod straight: "The patriarch instructed me to come to Qingshan Town to find the two young masters."

"Pfft! What the hell are you yelling for?" Xiao Yan spat a mouthful of water back into the water bottle, not even noticing that the bottle had fallen from his hand. He wiped his mouth, looking utterly incredulous.

My name is Payne.

"Ahem, Payne, right? I need to ask you for a favor." After confirming that the other person's face didn't have any tacky, non-mainstream steel bars, Xiao Yan coughed a few times.

"Young Master Yan, please speak."

"Don't use that tone when you say your name next time." Xiao Yan forced himself to suppress the urge to hum a poem from the Book of Rites.

"yes!"

"You've come at the perfect time; we're heading back tomorrow."

"I've been here for a month now, staying at the post station on the east side of town."

"Why did Father send a guard like you, whom we've never seen before, to find us?" Huo Yuhao noticed something unusual.

"Because I'm very proactive," Payne replied with a serious expression.

"Ability to act?" For some reason, Huo Yuhao had a bad feeling.

"I knocked on the door of every household in Qingshan Town and asked them if they had seen the two young masters."

Huo Yuhao recalled the townspeople's strange reaction earlier—they weren't just bowing their heads and hiding; they were clearly snickering. Huo Yuhao's vision blurred, his voice trembled, and with his last hope, he asked, "What...how did you ask?"

"Hello! I am a guard from the Xiao family. Have you seen the two young masters of our Xiao family who eloped?"

"puff!"

……

Deep within a secluded valley surrounded by mountains, stands a grand black hall exuding a chilling aura. This is a branch of the Soul Hall in the Northwest Continent.

"Protector Xue, look what I brought back!" A man in black robes rushed into the main hall, his arms tightly wrapped around a body, his tone unusually excited.

"Oh, it's a person? You've brought back a girlfriend, kid?" In the main hall, the Soul Palace Protector, shrouded in black smoke, joked.

"No, Protector Xue, this person is a man."

"Changed your taste? Now you like boyfriends?" Protector Xue teased again. Then, the black smoke around him rippled slightly, as if he were turning his attention to the body that had been brought back.

"A dead person? No..." Protector Xue's expression turned serious. He quickly floated to the side of the body and used his soul power to envelop it.

"At first, I also thought he was dead, but he can still move, and even use his battle aura. And you would never guess..."

Before he could finish speaking, a giant hand formed from thick black smoke suddenly reached out, precisely grabbed the black-robed man's neck, and lifted him off the ground!

"You bastard! This corpse has a soul mark on it! How dare you bring him into the branch hall!"

The Soul Hall member's face flushed red, and he struggled to breathe, saying with difficulty, "You... listen to me, I've been... enveloped in soul power all the way here..."

"Oh? Then I misunderstood you." The giant black smoke hand released its grip, and Protector Xue resumed his previous tone, even carrying a hint of "apology" in his voice. Protector Xue symbolically patted his shoulder: "Get up, I apologize to you."

"No, no." The member knelt down as soon as he landed, trembling with fear.

"What were you about to say?" Protector Xue wiped the mark off the corpse. The body, which had been struggling slightly, immediately became completely still, like a puppet with its strings cut.

"When my subordinates first saw this man, he was digging a hole for himself with a shovel, and it looked like he was planning to bury himself."

"This is interesting. Let me see. The original soul is burning in the form of flames..." Protector Xue fiddled with the corpse for a while, and said with some realization, "So that soul imprint was used to control him."

After saying this, Protector Xue mobilized his soul power and left a soul imprint on the soul fire of the corpse.

"Come on, want to walk around a bit and see?"

"Caw! Caw!" Several crows flew past outside the hall, cawing strangely. Inside the hall, there was no response.

……

At the entrance of Wan Yao Zhai in Qingshan Town, they finally managed to get rid of Pain and agreed to meet at the entrance of Wan Yao Zhai early the next morning. Afterwards, unable to bear the stares of the Qingshan Town residents, Huo Yuhao and Xiao Yan retreated back to Wan Yao Zhai.

Upon arriving in the backyard, Mr. Yao and Little Fairy Doctor were still sharing their experiences from the past few days. Seeing Huo Yuhao return, he looked up, scrutinizing him with a critical gaze. After a moment, he spoke, "Fairy Doctor already told me, Brother Huo, you plan to take Fairy Doctor to Canaan Academy, is that right?"

"Yes." Huo Yuhao nodded, meeting Mr. Yao's scrutinizing gaze. He usually loathed this kind of look, but Mr. Yao's gaze gave him a different feeling.

Soon, Mr. Yao's gaze shifted to satisfaction, relief, and a kind of closeness that Huo Yuhao couldn't quite understand.

"Alright, let's go then." Mr. Yao nodded and looked at Little Fairy Doctor again: "Fairy, you've grown up. You can make your own decisions from now on. You don't need to tell me everything. You don't find it annoying, but I do."

"Let's go, let's go. You can come back if you need anything, otherwise it's fine..."

"Uh, Mr. Yao," Huo Yuhao interrupted, "Xian'er means that you should come back with us."

"Me? Canaan Academy?" Mr. Yao held up a finger, pointing at his own nose in surprise, his face instantly displaying an expression that said, "Are you kidding me?"

"I'm sorry, I didn't explain clearly. What I meant was that Xian'er and I hope you can settle down in Wutan City." Huo Yuhao gave a somewhat embarrassed smile.

After some persuasion, Mr. Yao finally agreed to relocate the shop. Fortunately, he had already laid off all his employees, so he didn't need to ask for anyone else's opinion.

……

After resting for one night at Wan Yao Zhai, Huo Yuhao and his group set off for Wutan City early the next morning. The residents of Qingshan Town were astonished to find that Wan Yao Zhai, which had always been inconsistent in its operations, had completely "gone bankrupt" that day. Even its signboard had been taken down.

Along the way, Xiao Yan seemed to have found a new toy, constantly circling around Payne who was carrying the signboard of Wan Yao Zhai.

Without Xiao Yan's interference, Huo Yuhao was happy to have some peace and quiet. He only used part of his mind to explore the surrounding environment, while focusing most of his energy on deducing several formations in his spiritual sea.

Halfway there, Huo Yuhao suddenly stopped and raised his hand to signal everyone to stop.

"What's wrong?"

"There's a team following us," Huo Yuhao said, raising an eyebrow as he answered their questions.

"Someone's following us again? Which mercenary group is it this time?"

"It doesn't look like it." Huo Yuhao turned around and glanced at where the group of people were hiding. "They should be guards from some family."

Then, Huo Yuhao made a grasping motion with his palm, picked up a stone from the ground, and shot it out.