First Battle

Ye Kai swiftly closed in on the Wolf King. The Wolf King had not expected this weak-auraed human to dare charge at it first. Instead of retreating, it extended its claws and pounced at Ye Kai.

Ye Kai ducked beneath the pounce, grabbed the Wolf King's claw, and flung it into a Gale Demon Wolf behind him. The latter's advance was interrupted by the Wolf King's impact, and both were sent flying backward into a large tree.

Before he could pursue them, the remaining Gale Demon Wolves surrounded him as well. Their sharp fangs glinted as they swore to tear Ye Kai to pieces.

Soul Power surged through Ye Kai's body. He threw an upward punch into one Gale Demon Wolf's enormous jaws, and the tremendous force not only manually shut its mouth but even drove its sharp teeth through its upper and lower jaws. At the same time, it sent the Gale Demon Wolf spinning two and a half times through the air before it fell to the ground, howling nonstop.

Then Ye Kai brought his hands together and slapped them against the ground. As his Soul Power erupted, several tree stumps suddenly rose before the Gale Demon Wolves.

Though they tried to slow down, the tree stumps had appeared too suddenly. The charging Gale Demon Wolves crashed into them one after another.

By the time the Gale Demon Wolves regrouped and prepared to attack Ye Kai again, they discovered that he had vanished from sight. In his place stood a large tree.

"Awooo!" The Wolf King, which Ye Kai had been the first to throw out of the battle, was standing in the distance and spotted Ye Kai being lifted into the air by a tree. It hurriedly commanded the pack.

But it was already too late. Ye Kai had launched his attack from above.

As the old saying went, wolves had heads of bronze, tails of iron, and waists of tofu. Using the speed of his descent, Ye Kai smashed a kick into the lower back of a Gale Demon Wolf. It howled as it was driven into the ground, unable to move. Ye Kai then used the momentum to slam into another Gale Demon Wolf's abdomen, flipping it onto its back with all four paws in the air.

His small frame proved useful at this moment. Ye Kai was completely hidden beneath the Gale Demon Wolf's belly. Even if it lowered its head, it could not bite him, much less attack with its limbs. It could only let Ye Kai do as he pleased against its soft abdomen.

The Wolf King returned to the battlefield at that moment. Green Soul Power coiled around its sharp claws as it swiftly pounced toward Ye Kai.

Ye Kai twisted aside to evade it. Just as he was about to kick the Wolf King in the belly as well, he caught sight of its tail sweeping toward him from the corner of his eye.

In that flash of lightning, Ye Kai chose to trade injury for injury. He brought his arms together to block the tail while simultaneously launching a kick at the Wolf King.

Although the struck area did not hurt much, the tremendous force still sent the lighter Ye Kai flying. His kick, meanwhile, landed squarely on the Wolf King's front leg.

With a crack, the Wolf King's front leg bent at a ninety-degree angle, and it collapsed to the ground, unable to stand.

Ye Kai shook out his arms, then charged toward the remaining wolf pack.

Without the threat of the nine-hundred-year Wolf King, the remaining Gale Demon Wolves were no match for Ye Kai. He easily knocked them all to the ground. However, Ye Kai did not deal any killing blows; he merely injured them enough to strip them of their ability to move.

Ye Kai then used his Martial Soul to drag all the Gale Demon Wolves together before turning to Ghost Douluo. "Ghost Elder, how about using this nine-hundred-year Gale Demon Wolf?"

Ghost Douluo considered it for a moment before finally agreeing to Ye Kai's suggestion.

A nine-hundred-year Soul Ring also exceeded the absorption limit for Rank 20. Even if Ye Kai's hypothesis was truly viable, if the Soul Ring's age exceeded the limit by too much and Zhang Lingyu's healing failed to repair the damage in time, causing the prisoner to explode, they would not be able to tell whether the hypothesis was unworkable or the healing was insufficient.

Thinking this, Ghost Douluo said to the tightly bound prisoner beside him, "If you can absorb this nine-hundred-year Gale Demon Wolf's Soul Ring, I will let you go."

The prisoner was utterly dumbfounded upon hearing this. You might as well just give me a knife and let me die quickly.

Ye Kai paid no attention to the prisoner's thoughts. Emerald-green motes of Soul Power drifted from his palm, healing the Gale Demon Wolves other than the Wolf King. However, most of their injuries were too severe, and it took more than half of Ye Kai's Soul Power to heal them completely.

"Your Wolf King has become our target. As for you, leave quickly." Once Ye Kai had finished healing them and released their bindings, the remaining thirteen Gale Demon Wolves swiftly fled into the distance.

After finishing the healing, Ye Kai did not hear the system prompt.

Ye Kai: "?"

The system's voice sounded in his mind. "Ding. Soul Beasts below ten thousand years do not provide Healer Points.

Ten-thousand-year Soul Beasts provide 1,000 Healer Points. For every additional ten thousand years, the reward increases by 1,000 Healer Points.

At the same time, to prevent the host from exploiting bugs to farm Healer Points, any creature injured and healed by the host a second time within one year will no longer provide Healer Points."

"I'm so sour."

This damned system did not leave even a single loophole. Ye Kai had planned to go back and spar with Xie Yue and Yan every day, then farm Healer Points. That plan had been completely shut down. Still, he could spar with others and heal them instead.

Having completed the experiment, Ye Kai looked toward Ghost Douluo. He did not know what Ghost Douluo had done, but the prisoner had already dealt with the Wolf King and begun absorbing its Soul Ring, while Zhang Lingyu was treating him with all his strength.

Seeing the pained expression on the prisoner's face and the blood constantly seeping from his body, Ye Kai spread out his Spiritual Power and carefully observed the prisoner's condition alongside Ghost Douluo.

After nearly two hours, the prisoner finally completed the absorption. He collapsed to the ground, drenched in sweat. Zhang Lingyu, standing nearby, seemed to be in decent condition, as though he had not expended too much.

Ghost Douluo asked directly, "How much did it consume?"

Zhang Lingyu withdrew his Martial Soul and answered, "About thirty percent of my Soul Power."

Zhang Lingyu's Martial Soul, the Golden Purple Flower, was merely an intermediate Martial Soul, not even a high-grade one. If it had been a more advanced healing-type Martial Soul, the consumption would surely have been far lower.

Ghost Douluo looked at the prisoner on the ground. "Go. I keep my word."

The prisoner scrambled up from the ground and ran toward the edge of the Soul Hunting Forest without saying another word.

Ye Kai said nothing. He believed Ghost Douluo would not do something as damaging to Spirit Hall's reputation as releasing a Fallen.

Ghost Douluo explained as if casually, "What I said was that I would let you go. I never said Spirit Hall would let you go."

Ye Kai understood immediately. Someone had likely been waiting outside the Soul Hunting Forest for quite some time.

Ghost Douluo then looked at Ye Kai. "You did well just now. Unless necessary, do not slaughter Soul Beasts recklessly. Otherwise, one day, Soul Beasts will eventually be killed to extinction."

Soul Beasts took far too long to grow. Aside from Soul Beasts with noble bloodlines and those like the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm, which madly consumed heavenly treasures to increase their cultivation, ordinary Soul Beasts naturally gained cultivation at a one-to-one ratio with age. In other words, a thousand-year Soul Beast had truly lived for a thousand years.

Of course, if both parents were high-age Soul Beasts, their offspring would also receive a cultivation bonus. Otherwise, there was simply no explaining why the hundred-thousand-year Little Rabbit's intelligence had truly become that of a six-year-old after taking human form. Soul Beasts already possessed intelligence after ten thousand years, and the Sky Azure Bull Python was clearly not stupid either. It could only be said that the setting's plot-device nature was painfully obvious.

As long as humans had sufficient talent, they could reach eight rings and become Soul Douluos in seventy or eighty years. That meant that within eighty years, one human had to kill at least two hundred-year Soul Beasts, two thousand-year Soul Beasts, and four ten-thousand-year Soul Beasts. Every year, thousands upon thousands of humans came to hunt. Coupled with Soul Beasts preying on one another, the number of high-age Soul Beasts had steadily declined.

By the era of The Unrivaled Tang Sect, even the Star Dou Great Forest had seen its Soul Beast population fall and its territory shrink due to unceasing hunting. Even later, when the Soul Beasts moved to another planet, it was the same. This warped cultivation system had kept Soul Beasts constantly facing the threat of extinction.

Even after Huo Gua introduced the Spirit Pagoda, it only treated the symptoms rather than the root cause, temporarily slowing the rate at which Soul Beasts were hunted. Things improved only slightly after the Spirit Ascension Platform, Artificial Soul Spirits, and Artificial Soul Bones appeared later on.

As a member of Spirit Hall's upper ranks, Ghost Douluo naturally saw the Negative Effect of indiscriminately slaughtering Soul Beasts. Thus, he highly praised Ye Kai's actions just now.

Whether it was kindness or genuine deep consideration, it was no easy feat. At such a young age, most people would be blinded by the growth of their strength and overlook such matters, yet this boy had managed to reach this point.

But then Ghost Douluo thought again. This trip had been for the sake of verifying the hypothesis this boy had proposed, and he could not help but sigh inwardly. His Majesty really picked up an extraordinary child.