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Nangong Wan cleared his throat and said, "Yes."
Afterwards, the answers from the Holy Spirit Church were quite standard. Huo Yuhao was a little surprised that these evil soul master elders all had lovers. He had never heard of any of these people having a family.
Strange names came out of the elders' mouths one after another, and the answers they gave were basically the same. Compared to the lovers they were talking about, these people valued their own lives more, and none of them were willing to die for their lovers.
"Can you bear to watch your lover die?" he asked in a calm voice.
Now it's Zhang Peng's turn.
Zhang Peng said calmly: "If he dies, we can just replace him with another one."
A calm voice: "..."
After a short silence, she said, "Sincerity and sincerity are the first test. You have passed it, but you treat your lover as a plaything. I will punish you with three lashes."
After three crisp whip sounds, three hideous scars appeared on Zhang Peng's back.
He groaned, but he passed the first round of the test.
Huo Yuhao carefully observed everyone's reactions when they were questioned, and made secret speculations in his mind.
The first level of sincerity in this calm voice is something like the existence of truth. As long as you say what you really think, you will pass.
Some people say they are willing to die for their loved ones, such as Cai Meir whom we saw earlier.
Some people said they were unwilling, such as the people from the Holy Spirit Church, and there was even Feng Ling who wanted to kill her lover with her own hands.
Both options can pass the assessment, the difference is that those who are unwilling will almost certainly be whipped a few times.
Even a Titled Douluo would be beaten to pieces by the golden whip.
If you do not answer truthfully, you will be reminded by a calm voice and threatened with death.
Judging from its methods, the death threat was not just talk, because an elder of the Holy Spirit Church had been beaten to a bloody mess with the whip and was barely breathing.
Finally, the golden beam pointed at Huo Yuhao, who was also the last person to be questioned.
"Do you have a lover?" asked a calm voice.
For a moment, whether it was Shrek, the Body Sect, or the Holy Spirit Church, all of them turned their eyes to Huo Yuhao.
Huo Yuhao paused and did not answer directly, but asked calmly.
"what is love?"
Ping Dan paused for two seconds, as if he had not expected Huo Yuhao to ask him such a question.
This seemed to be the first time in thousands of years that someone would respond like this.
"Do you have a lover? If you don't answer three times, the punishment is death."
Huo Yuhao still did not answer, but continued to ask: "What is a lover?"
The calm voice repeated again: "Do you have a lover? If you don't answer again, the punishment is death."
Huo Yuhao then said calmly, “No.”
The calm voice asked again: "Have you ever loved anyone?"
Huo Yuhao answered again: “No.”
The calm voice paused again, and suddenly said: "You clearly have someone you love in your heart, but you lied, so I will punish you with a whip."
After saying that, Huo Yuhao was also whipped on the back, and his back was hurt.
He snorted, frowned slightly, and said coldly.
"If you want to kill me, I can't resist you now, but I'm not lying."
Huo Yuhao was guessing what the ninth level of Pingdan’s voice was. He originally thought that the other party was a being that controlled some kind of rules, but it was obviously not the case.
The criterion for judging whether one has passed the test is whether one has answered the questions truthfully, but it also has its own preferences. Those who answered truthfully, such as those from the Holy Spirit Church, were punished to varying degrees.
"Yuhao!" Wang Dong subconsciously expressed his concern when he saw Huo Yuhao was injured.
Huo Qiuer watched calmly, trying to guess what Huo Yuhao was thinking.
The calm voice continued, "You cannot enter this valley without someone you love. Do you dare to say that you have never been attracted to anyone?"
"Is falling in love love?" Huo Yuhao still did not answer and asked again.
The calm voice said as a matter of course: "Isn't it?"
"Perhaps it is just a physiological instinct under the influence of hormones, or a strong desire packaged in a beautiful illusion. Can it really be called love?"
Huo Yuhao's tone was very serious.
The calm voice fell silent. She could feel that Huo Yuhao firmly believed in his words.
She said leisurely: "Love is giving, it is exclusive, it is meticulous, and it is reckless."
"Love is selfish, possessive, omnipresent, and the source of suffering."
"This is love. Life without love is incomplete. Do you understand?"
Huo Yuhao suddenly asked: "Why is it that only the love you think is love? There are a thousand kinds of love in the hearts of a thousand people. Why are you the only one who is qualified to define love?"
"In my heart, I think that I don't love anyone yet, and I have never loved anyone."
The calm voice asked again: "Why do you think so? Is it difficult to fall in love with someone?"
Huo Yuhao said calmly: "It is easy to say that you love someone and enjoy the happiness of love, but it is not so easy to bear the consequences and responsibilities of loving someone."
"If that's the case, it would be better if I had never loved in the first place."
The calm voice was silent again, then spoke coldly: "You are so eloquent and good at making arguments that you even managed to deceive your own heart. You have passed the first level of sincerity. But for your repeated contradictions, you will be punished with five lashes."
She could feel that Huo Yuhao was speaking from the heart, so she could only count him as having passed.
But these sincere words made her very unhappy, so she gave Huo Yuhao five whips.
Swah——
The clothes on his back were torn, and there were five claw-like scars. Huo Yuhao endured the pain and did not fall down. He raised his head slightly, and there was a hint of coldness in his eyes.
The actual power of the golden light whip was not great, but Huo Yuhao's martial soul and soul power were restricted, and blood continued to seep out of his back.
Huo Yuhao touched the wound on his back, his face solemn. It seemed that his guess was right. As long as he answered everything truthfully, he would be able to pass the test. As for whether he would be whipped, it all depended on the preference of that calm voice.
Xian Lin'er listened to Huo Yuhao's answer, frowned and clicked her tongue a few times.
She vaguely remembered that Yan Shaozhe could easily say the three words "I love you" to all the people he was ambiguous with.
Chapter 384 What is love?
"Yuhao."
Seeing the hideous wound on Huo Yuhao's back, Wang Dong from the Shrek team showed concern.
"Hiss... that whip didn't feel good. Yuhao whipped me five times at once. Oh no, it was six times..." Xu Sanshi said with some empathy.
He had just been whipped several times for his rude remarks, so he had the final say.
"The first round of sincerity is over. In five minutes, the second round of adventure will begin."
Huo Qiuer quietly walked to Wang Dong's side and asked, "What did you answer just now?"
Seeing that Huo Qiuer actually took the initiative to talk to him, Wang Dong was stunned and didn't react.
Huo Qiuer asked: "Who is your lover?"
Wang Dong hesitated for a moment, and then felt that there was no need to hide anything, so he answered truthfully: "My answer is the same as Yuhao's, no."
Huo Qiuer frowned slightly: "Did it ask you anything else?"
Wang Dong shook his head: "No more. What about you?"
"No." Huo Qiuer answered calmly, not hiding the confusion on her face at all.
She remembered very clearly that the calm voice had clearly said before that people without love in their hearts would not step into this valley to undergo the test, so many people from Shrek and the Body Sect did not appear here.
Some of them are young people like Xie Huanyue. Although early love is common in Douluo Continent, it is very normal for them not to be involved in love at this age.
As for those old people, they are no longer in the age of passionate love, and the feelings in their hearts have long faded.
Then there are the cultivation maniacs like Giant Fist Douluo, who seems to be only concerned with cultivation, fighting, and drinking in his life, and has no interest in falling in love at all.
Huo Qiuer also did not think that she had love in her heart, although she had developed a strong interest in Huo Yuhao.
Her reasons were very similar to Huo Yuhao's. She believed that this special emotion was completely different from "love".
But this made Huo Qiuer even more confused.
Leaving Huo Yuhao aside, why weren't she and Wang Dong excluded from this place because they had no loved ones in their hearts?
Huo Qiuer fell into deep thought. She gently raised her right hand and touched the center of her forehead.
It feels like... there's some more special reason hidden behind this.
All the members of the Holy Spirit Church successfully passed the first round of tests, and they all felt a sense of relief.
It seems that the message left by the former leader is indeed correct. As long as everything is done according to the instructions in the secret realm, we can leave the secret realm safely.
Among the three deans of Shrek, Cai Meir is already extremely upset.
She didn't know when Yan Shaozhe started to get together with Feng Ling. She actually started dating Feng Ling during their school days, when they were at the Soul Emperor level.
If it was anyone else, Cai Meir would just let it go and smile calmly, not taking it to heart.
But he is an evil soul master at the Super Douluo level!
She couldn't believe it, nor could she accept it. She gritted her teeth and swore that after she got out of here, she would find Yan Shaozhe and ask him face to face to clarify.
Unlike Cai Meir, Xian Lin'er and Qian Duoduo have calmed down a lot now.
"Old Qian, do you think I'm extremely stupid?" Xian Lin'er had a ridiculous expression on her face.
Qian Duoduo smiled and consoled her: "Lin'er, how could that be? You are smart..."
"Don't lie to me." Xian Lin'er quickly interrupted him.
"How could I lie to you?"
"Because I feel like a fool myself."
"...You finally found it." Qian Duoduo sighed with relief.