Chapter 49: The Meeting of Youths

"Yuhao, even when Mama is no longer around, you must live on well."

"Mama..."

The final words of his mother still echoed softly in his ears as the eleven or twelve-year-old boy had already embarked on a journey to a distant land.

Huo Yuhao turned his head to look back at the gradually receding Shing Luo City, his lively eyes brimming with hatred.

Mama, I will not only live on well, but I will surely seek justice for you!

He took out a simple map, which briefly depicted the terrain distribution of the Douro Continent and some key routes between nations.

However, this was already an obsolete map. Ever since the great disaster known as the Abundance Calamity that occurred four years ago, the Dou Ling Empire had fallen, and the Tian Hun Empire had annexed the original territories of the Dou Ling Empire, renaming itself the Tian Dou Empire.

Some sects and families that had once entrenched themselves in famous mountains and great rivers were either dead or wounded, and in the wilderness, Evil Soul Masters and Abominations of Abundance lurked at any time. It was far from being as safe as it was before the Abundance Calamity.

Much of the content on this map was no longer suitable for the present.

For safe passage, ordinary people mostly chose to hire a few Soul Masters to ensure their safety.

Yet Huo Yuhao had no other choice. He only had the valuables his mother had saved over the years by scrimping and saving, and this paltry sum was not even enough to hire a Second-Ring Great Soul Master.

He could only journey alone!

Fortunately, his luck seemed to be quite good; the road to the Star Dou Great Forest recorded on the map had not fallen into disuse, nor had he encountered any Evil Soul Masters.

It was just that one night, from afar, he caught sight of a monster resembling a goat, with eight eyes on its face and sticky tentacles instead of hooves and feet. Just a single glance made Huo Yuhao flee in terror.

Afterwards, Huo Yuhao even worried whether that monster had noticed him, and whether it would chase after him if it had.

It was only when the third day passed without any abnormalities occurring that he gradually set his mind at ease.

"Another eighty miles ahead, and we should be almost there."

Glancing at the map, and then at the massive forest in the distance whose faint silhouette was already visible, Huo Yuhao was overjoyed and immediately quickened his pace.

Yet the moment he took a step forward, his body began to protest.

"Rumble..."

Huo Yuhao's expression turned awkward, and he smiled bitterly, "Stomach, oh stomach, why are you staging a protest at a time like this?"

In order to obtain his first soul ring as quickly as possible, he had been traveling day and night recently without lingering in cities at all, and the food supplies on his person were nearly bottoming out.

Looking around, the vicinity consisted almost entirely of abandoned fields, which looked nothing like a place with food.

Suddenly, Huo Yuhao's sensitive ears twitched, and his eyes lit up instantly.

He heard the sound of water. How could he have forgotten? Since there were fields, there must be a water source, and where there was a water source, living creatures would definitely come to drink!

He immediately headed in the direction from which the sound of water came, and before long, a stream several yards wide appeared before his eyes.

The stream water was clear. Utilizing the advantages of his martial soul, Huo Yuhao immediately spotted the shadows of water birds in the nearby reed beds, but he did not impatiently rush to catch them. Instead, he first crouched down, wanting to drink a few mouthfuls of water.

Suddenly, a few splashes of water landed on him, and a pleasant voice reached his ears.

"Hey, young lad over there, do you want to drink my foot-washing water?"

Huo Yuhao raised his head and found that sitting on a rock in the middle of the stream not far away was an extremely attractive person. He was dangling his bare feet in the stream water, his collar half-open, revealing a fair chest, and at that moment, he was looking at him with a smiling expression.

For some reason, just by looking at this smile, Huo Yuhao felt the blood all over his body begin to boil, his face flushed red and his throat parched.

That person suddenly leaped forward and arrived right in front of Huo Yuhao, hooking his chin with an index finger, bringing his face close, and locking his dark green pupils with Huo Yuhao's pair of eyes.

Then he quickly widened the distance, retreated a meter away, and smiled, "Young lad, are you blushing?"

With just these few words, Huo Yuhao's sense of shame was maximized. He felt his head spinning a bit, feeling very heavy.

Seeing such an interesting scene, the person before him covered their mouth and chuckled, pulled out a gourd, tossed it into Huo Yuhao's arms, and said, "You wanted to drink water, right? Just opening your mouth to drink water from the wilderness—are you trying to make yourself unable to get back up?"

Huo Yuhao blankly drank a few sips of water, and then dumbly said, "I am a Soul Master; ordinary stomach bugs have no effect on me."

"Oh? Is that so?"

That person placed an index finger against their lips with a mysterious smile, "What if it's the water of an Evil Soul Master?"

The flustered reaction he anticipated from Huo Yuhao did not occur. Instead, the other party said with a deadpan expression, "Which Evil Soul Master out in the wild would go around claiming to be an Evil Soul Master? And..."

"And what?"

Huo Yuhao flushed red and stammered, "And Mama said Evil Soul Masters are all ugly monsters."

There was no need to spell out what this meant. Hearing this, the smile in the depths of that person's eyes grew even more intense as he tilted his head slightly and smiled.

"Let's get acquainted. You can call me Chun, or you can call me Chun, whichever you like, either is fine."

His voice finally allowed Huo Yuhao to discern that the person before him was a boy. Although the young Chun's words left him somewhat baffled, he quickly replied.

"My name is Huo Yuhao. Huo as in the rain character with wings, Yu as in spring rain, and Hao as in vast and mighty."

Chun nodded, "Mm, Huo Yuhao, we know each other now. So, can you help me with something?"

"What is it?"

"Help me cook a meal," Chun said with a smiling squint. "From the very first moment I saw you, I knew you were an expert at cooking."

Huo Yuhao was stunned, never expecting that the help the other party spoke of would be such a matter. Yet he said embarrassedly, "I don't have any tools, and I don't have any dried rations on me."

"Heehee, it doesn't matter if you don't have them; I do."

As he spoke, Chun produced from who knows where a complete set of cooking utensils—pots, bowls, ladles, and basins were all present, and there were even fresh vegetables glistening with dew along with live fish and a live sheep.

Huo Yuhao was dumbfounded, utterly unable to imagine just how large Chun's spatial soul tool was, and to think it could even store living creatures.

Looking at that live sheep, Huo Yuhao inexplicably felt a sense of familiarity.

The extremely easy-going young Chun came behind Huo Yuhao and pushed him, urging him with his words, "Hurry up, hurry up, I'm hungry!"

Hearing these words, Huo Yuhao cast all sorts of bizarre thoughts to the back of his mind and stepped forward to prepare dinner.

Faced with so many cooking utensils and various seasonings, Huo Yuhao didn't use a single one of them. It wasn't that he didn't need them, but rather that he had never come into contact with them before, so he had no clue how to use them, and simply set about making the barbecue he was most proficient in.

Brushing on a simple layer of oil, sprinkling a little bit of salt and seasoning, controlling the heat to slowly roast it, and grilling the outer skin until it turned golden brown—and it was done.

Opening his mouth wide and taking a big bite, Chun's eyes suddenly lit up, and he began to devour the food wolfing-style, praising between bites, "Yuhao, your skills are not bad at all. A simple barbecue can actually be made to taste this delicious."

Huo Yuhao touched his cheek and said bashfully, "It's nothing, it's just because I only know how to make barbecue, and practice makes perfect."

"Then who taught you? I'm sure she must be an extraordinary chef; if I get the chance, I must meet her."

As soon as these words were spoken, Huo Yuhao's once burning blood instantly cooled down. His expression turned desolate, and he muttered in a low voice, "It was my mother."

"She has already passed away..."

"...I will never see her again..."