Douluo Continent: Huo Yuhao Returns from the Wasteland

Chapter 3 Beginning · 3

In the woods outside the Starry Sky Forest, a campfire was lit, the flames crackling as they burned the branches inside.

A wisp of smoke drifted into the sky, while several fish, skewered on branches and stuck into the ground beside the campfire, were roasting over the fire. The oil seeped from their skins, sizzling and releasing a fragrant aroma.

Smelling the aroma of the grilled fish in front of him, Huo Yuhao paused what he was doing, then flipped the fish over. He then took out a piece of dry rations from his pack, tied it with a branch, and placed it by the campfire to roast.

Just now, as the pain subsided, the boy stood up from the stream and couldn't help but laugh at his disheveled appearance on the water's surface.

That wasn't self-deprecation; he genuinely found it funny. During his years in the wasteland, he experienced a lot, saw many things he had never seen before, and learned a lot. But most importantly, he learned to maintain a good mindset.

At this moment, Huo Yuhao was no longer the sensitive and timid boy who came from the Duke's mansion with a heart full of anger.

He immediately and calmly faced what was happening before him, without being confused by panic, and without losing control of his emotions or going to extremes because of a single word or something he saw.

Of course, he still remembers the vow he made in his heart at his mother's grave after leaving the Duke's mansion.

He didn't say that after having memories of those years in the wasteland, he would take them lightly or give up on them. Instead, he had a new idea in his mind, something he wanted to do after seeing a more expansive world.

But for someone who has just experienced such pain and stood up from the stream, there is one more important thing to accomplish.

This isn't about how the pain affects me, nor is it about future plans; it's about solving the immediate problem of being hungry.

All that he had gone through had taken a heavy toll on him. Just looking at the faintly reddish stream in front of him, he could guess how much blood he had lost during the process.

Besides being hungry, his clothes were also soaked, and at this moment he looked more like a miserable water ghost crawling out of the water.

If it weren't for that, I wouldn't have been able to help but laugh when I saw that.

Therefore, Huo Yuhao immediately washed himself in the stream, caught a few fish with a harpoon, and then went ashore. He took out the change of clothes he had prepared from his pack and put them on. Then he lit a campfire.

Feeling the warmth from the campfire, he took out the keepsake his mother had left him, which was also a dagger that the man had given to his mother.

The boy merely glanced at it, then, without any expression on his face, pulled the dagger from its sheath.

After witnessing so many things in the wasteland, I've come to understand many things and questions that I previously thought I knew or heard from my mother.

So when he saw the dagger again, nothing happened to him. Even though the dagger in his hand was a soul tool, Huo Yuhao now planned to use it to clean up the fish he had caught.

Bleeding, scaling, gutting, and removing the fishy line were all done with practiced ease. Finding plants from the surrounding grass to remove the fishy smell and enhance the aroma, stuffing them into the fish's belly, and sprinkling some coarse salt to marinate them were also done with practiced ease. Then, they were roasted by the campfire.

After doing all that, looking at the campfire in front of him, Huo Yuhao's thoughts inevitably wandered a bit.

He had just discovered that his body was still in the same state it was in when he was eleven years old and had not been out of the Duke's mansion for long.

The changes that occurred during those four years in the wasteland, when I turned fifteen, did not affect me now; of course, the pain I experienced before was not included in these changes.

This made Huo Yuhao wonder if the four years he spent in the wasteland were really just a dream.

If that's really the case, then this dream was far too real. The scenes, the people and events I experienced, and the battles all felt so real that I couldn't sense any artificiality.

Just as the boy was pondering these things, his right index finger suddenly bent unconsciously.

Upon seeing this, a smile appeared on his lips, and he stopped thinking about the question.

Because he already had the answer; the way he just made the gesture of pulling the trigger with his right hand explained everything.

Perhaps he still can't explain how he got to the wasteland, or why so little time has passed here since he returned, but that action just now has already told him that everything there was real.

He himself did not intend to indulge in any sentimentalism, just as the captain said when he left Mojave: the wasteland would not wait for him to dawdle and be sentimental, and the same was true in Douluo Continent.

Then, while watching the fish grill, the boy began to prepare for what would happen next.

Huo Yuhao couldn't explain the cause of the pain he had just experienced, nor did he know what the consequences would be.

However, judging from the current situation, there were no serious aftereffects, and he found that after experiencing that pain, his Spirit Eye Martial Soul seemed to have undergone some changes.

Besides, after activating the Martial Soul, the Spirit Eye can increase its power, producing a silver-white light with a hint of gold, allowing the user to see further and observe with greater detail.

After taming the violent soul power within his meridians, the overall speed of soul power circulation increased significantly, and he felt more relaxed than before.

And at this moment, her face and whole body seemed to be much whiter than before, and at first glance, she even looked a little better.

The boy couldn't offer a reasonable explanation for this; he could only tell himself that he had broken through some of his own limitations after experiencing that situation.

It's like being extremely tired the first time you march through the wasteland carrying equipment, but then you gradually adapt and can even run faster than the first time.

Of course, Huo Yuhao knew that this explanation was somewhat far-fetched, but he couldn't find a correct explanation at the moment.

As for why his face had turned pale, the boy was certain that it was because he had lost so much blood and was now anemic.

These questions didn't linger in Huo Yuhao's mind for long. After all, even without finding a reason to explain them, these questions weren't the most important thing right now.

He still remembered that he came here to obtain a spirit ring in the Star Dou Great Forest.

Now, he needs to make some preparations for his next move.

The fish was still grilling by the campfire, while the boy looked at the things he had prepared in his pack and sighed helplessly.

Based on his experience in the wasteland, looking at what he had prepared, he realized that it was basically a suicide mission to the Star Dou Great Forest, because the only thing he had that could actually fight was this dagger.

If it were me, fresh out of the Duke's mansion, with nothing but a burst of energy and no combat skills, plunging headlong into the Star Dou Great Forest, even if I encountered a soul beast, let alone obtain a soul ring, whether I could survive would depend entirely on luck.

Although there wasn't much useful stuff around him, he couldn't just rush into the Star Dou Great Forest with only a dagger.

Therefore, Huo Yuhao quickly picked up some fist-sized stones from the stream, then found some cloth in his pack, tore it into strips, tied them to the stones, and threw them further.

At the same time, he took the tree branch that he had found and used as a harpoon, and modified it with the dagger in his hand so that it could be used as a spear.

After the spearhead is sharpened, it is placed over a campfire to heat it, which increases its hardness.

He learned all of this in the wasteland. That's how the people in those tribes made weapons. If it weren't for the limited materials around him, he would have liked to make a stone spear or a simple bow and arrow for self-defense.

Looking at the completed spear in his hand, the boy for some reason thought of the words spoken by ordinary soldiers in Caesar's Legion in the wasteland: "What firearms and fancy tricks are not as good as our Legion's broadswords and spears."

Although Huo Yuhao disagreed with that statement, this was truly the only option he could have at that moment.

Then, he smelled the aroma of grilled fish and realized that the grilled fish in front of him was ready to eat.

Of course, he wasn't the only one who smelled this odor; there were others as well.