An Encounter That Wasn't So Pleasant

The Golden-Waisted Flying Swallow pointed him in the general direction, while the bloodstains on the ground guided him precisely. Before long, Zhou You caught up with the two closest Ghost Baboons and killed them.

Only the last one remained.

The Golden-Waisted Flying Swallow had kept watch on that Ghost Baboon's movements the whole time. Birds generally had excellent eyesight, and the Golden-Waisted Flying Swallow was no exception. From the air, it could see a tremendous distance.

So even though it was far from the target, it kept a firm lock on the last Ghost Baboon's position.

Seeing that Zhou You was free, the Golden-Waisted Flying Swallow let out a remarkably perceptive cry, then flew north, leading the way again.

Zhou You turned and continued his pursuit.

Before he knew it, he had gotten far away from the group. Although Zhou You noticed, the Golden-Waisted Flying Swallow was flying too fast and too far ahead, so he could only keep following.

In this forest, finding his way back on his own would be a little difficult.

When bloodstains appeared on the ground again, Zhou You knew the last Ghost Baboon was not far away.

There was nothing more to say. He sped up a little more and finally found the Ghost Baboon at the end of the blood trail.

Having lost too much blood, it had already collapsed to the ground and could only crawl forward.

Hearing the noise, the Ghost Baboon turned its head with difficulty. It still wore a fierce expression, but Zhou You could see the fear buried deep in its eyes.

It had already foreseen its fate.

Zhou You fell silent.

In this Ghost Baboon's eyes, he must have been a terrifying sight.

Actually, according to the principles of sustainable development, these Ghost Baboons should not have been killed. It was somewhat wasteful.

Perhaps he should have spared them and left them for other low-level Soul Masters who needed to hunt for souls, just as anglers released undersized fish.

But Ghost Baboons were too vengeful, and for the sake of peace on his group's journey ahead, Zhou You had no choice but to eliminate them.

From another perspective, though, this was also protecting the Ghost Baboon population. If they really came after the group for revenge, they would have to face Wei Lin, a Soul Saint.

That man might not have enough awareness to know when to stop. Wiping out the entire Ghost Baboon population would take no more than a wave of his hand.

As the thoughts crossed his mind, Zhou You reached the creature. He brought the umbrella in his hand down, its full 65-kilogram weight landing squarely on the Ghost Baboon's skull and smashing it to pulp, which mixed with the mud on the ground.

Though it looked a little cruel, this was the quickest way to give it a painless death.

A few seconds later, a white Soul Ring floated out of the corpse and drifted unsteadily toward Zhou You. He pushed it aside with his palm.

He raised his head and found the Golden-Waisted Flying Swallow perched on a treetop, just about to say something.

Suddenly, the bird dispersed without warning, its body turning into countless points of light that vanished into the air.

Zhou You froze. A moment later, he understood what had happened.

There were only two possible reasons: either Zhang Ping's Soul Power could no longer sustain it, or her Martial Soul was too far from her body to be maintained.

In any case, with Wei Lin there, it was unlikely anything would happen to Zhang Ping.

But that left him in a bit of a bind. Finding the way back through the forest was no simple matter.

Zhou You looked around, found a fairly tall tree, and climbed straight to its top to survey his surroundings.

He saw countless treetops crowded together, almost forming a single unbroken mass, indistinguishable from one another. As far as he could see, a sea of trees surrounded him, and he could not tell one direction from another.

He could only lift his head and use the sun's position to get a rough sense of direction. But this method was crude and could not pinpoint his destination as accurately as the Golden-Waisted Flying Swallow.

Still, it was not much of a problem. As long as he headed in roughly the right direction, the Golden-Waisted Flying Swallow should be able to find him nearby when Zhang Ping manifested her Martial Soul again.

At that thought, Zhou You felt a little more at ease. He dropped from the treetop to the ground and set off in the direction he had just found.

In truth, the greatest danger on this stretch was not finding the way, but whether he would run into other Soul Beasts while looking for it.

With his current strength, fighting Hundred-Year Soul Beasts was no problem. Thousand-Year Soul Beasts... he had never fought one and did not know how formidable they were. But Soul Beasts would not line up for one-on-one fights; the danger was that they would gang up on him.

No matter how strong he was, the Qi in his body was limited, and he could not squander it freely.

So Zhou You still needed to keep a low profile and maintain a sense of urgency. He spread out his perception, constantly sensing for signs of danger in his surroundings.

At one point, he suddenly stopped in his tracks, his whole body motionless.

His perception was telling him that something dangerous was here!

Zhou You slowly laid his right hand on the handle of the Heaven- and Earth-Harmonizing Umbrella. His five fingers gradually tightened, and he gave it a gentle twist, as though activating some mechanism.

The light nearly faded from his eyes, and his breathing grew faint. He focused all his senses on his hearing, his ears trembling slightly.

The next instant, cold light flashed! A clear sword ring followed.

—Clang!

A slender straight sword sliced through the air like a silver serpent dancing aloft. It traced a graceful arc, sweeping from in front of Zhou You to behind him in an instant!

At the same time, Zhou You circulated Acquired Qi inside his body. A stream of Qi transformed as it traveled along a special route through his channels, passing through the Three Yin Channels of the Hand and flowing out along his fingertips to form a thin Qi blade on the Umbrella Sword in his right hand.

A branch of Transformation of Objects—sword Qi!

Though the Iron Umbrella Sect wielded unconventional weapons, its techniques were fundamentally those of a proper "sword immortal." Zhou You was close friends with the Iron Umbrella Strange Hero and had learned a smattering of them.

Thanks to its "light as nothing" property, the Umbrella Sword's speed had nearly broken past its limits. Only when its tip reached its target did the hissing sound barely catch up with the blade.

Only then did Zhou You turn his head. In front of the sword tip was a furry...

Rabbit?

Zhou You stared fixedly at the target of his sword, a creature that looked no different from an ordinary rabbit. Stormy waves surged in his heart.

His perception was warning him frantically. More than a thousand years! Ten thousand? Or a hundred thousand?

According to Zhou You's perception, the rabbit possessed an extremely terrifying amount of Soul Power. Though it was somewhat rough and impure, its vast quantity was still enough to crush Zhou You with ease.

This was a qualitative change brought about by a quantitative change!

Yet what Zhou You had not expected was that the "rabbit" which gave him such an overwhelming sense of danger was also trembling at this moment.

It seemed to have been frightened by Zhou You as well. The beast did not move a muscle, as if completely frozen.

Man and beast stared at each other, big eyes glaring at small ones, and the atmosphere grew a little strange.

Some things did not need words; they could be seen in each other's eyes.

For a long while, neither side made a rash move. If the enemy did not move, neither would he. Zhou You's sword hand was as steady as a statue.

After the initial shock, the waves in his heart gradually subsided, and his thoughts began to race.

A rabbit, one with an incredibly high cultivation age. In the whole original story, only one kind of Soul Beast in the Star Dou Great Forest's little patch of land matched what he was seeing.

A Soft Bone Rabbit.

Zhou You instantly identified the rabbit's true identity: the original story's heroine, Xiao Wu!

But how did she come to be on the outskirts of the Star Dou Forest? Shouldn't she be living deeper in the forest at this point?

Zhou You's heart grew heavy. According to what he remembered, Xiao Wu was usually accompanied by two powerful guardians at this time, the Sky Azure Bull Python and the Titan Giant Ape, both hundred-thousand-year Soul Beasts.

Had they... come here too?