Seeking Soul Beasts

The two arrived at the town in front of the Soul Beast Forest.

The townsfolk glanced casually at the two poorly dressed, young children.

"Look at their clothes—no money. One's at level ten, the other at level five. Coming to this Soul Beast Forest means they've got neither cash nor connections."

The townspeople sized them up in a single look and lost interest.

After all, plenty of people like this came to the forest every year hunting for soul rings.

And kids like these were usually after their first soul ring. If they had any sense, they'd head to a low-level place like the Soul Hunting Forest, not somewhere this dangerous. So they must not even qualify for the Hunting Forest—meaning no backing.

Their clothes screamed poverty, and their looks didn't hint at noble blood. The townsfolk, used to this scene, simply ignored them.

Help them? Don't make them laugh. Everyone here was in it for the money; otherwise, they wouldn't be stuck in this town.

With no one bothering them, the two kids slipped into the Soul Beast Forest without trouble.

"Whoa!"

Xu Wenlong gasped. In his past life, he'd never even left his home province for various reasons. The only trip he'd taken was to visit relatives in the capital back in elementary school.

So facing these towering trees, he couldn't help but be awed.

The colossal trunks were rare on Earth in his past life. Each tree stood dozens of meters tall, a bit like that forest from the movie with the giant woman among the short people—except way bigger. And they'd barely entered, yet already spotted creatures he'd never seen on Earth.

"Whoa, so this is a slime. But it's nothing compared to the Slime King."

Xu Wenlong crouched down and poked the blue Water Slime on the ground, marveling.

"Still, it's so soft. Maybe I'll have Shocker Organization make some modifications later."

He thought to himself. Yeah, a slime.

"What's the Slime King?"

Zhen Jianwu asked curiously, but he also crouched down with delight and poked the Water Slime.

"So comfy!" ×2

The two got lost in the moment.

Even when the slime fought back, bumping them with its squishy body, it only made them feel even more comfortable.

Like a cute little kitten with its claws sheathed, patting you with its padded paws—what else could you feel?

After playing, they set off again.

"By the way, Wenlong, have you decided on a soul beast for your first soul ring?" Zhen Jianwu asked curiously. He knew that the best soul ring was the one that matched your martial soul.

Of course, if the age was higher, you'd go for the higher age.

Zhen Jianwu tactfully didn't ask about the soul ring's age limit.

Because in his eyes, and in the eyes of most academy students—even most teachers—the first soul ring was always a ten-year white one.

A hundred-year soul ring? Don't be ridiculous. Forget whether these two brats with no background or strength could even get one—a hundred-year soul beast wasn't something they could handle.

Sure, Xu Wenlong had piqued Zhen Jianwu's curiosity before, but he hadn't shown any real power. So Zhen Jianwu wasn't confident Xu Wenlong could take on a hundred-year soul beast.

"A soul ring? If there's a hundred-year Grasshopper-type soul beast, that'd be perfect. Or even an Insect Type would do."

(He suddenly thought of that Bilibili streamer, Ant Senior. Hilarious.)

Xu Wenlong remembered the three ten-thousand-year ants Tang San encountered in the original story. That was the ceiling for Insect Type.

In the second part, only one of the ten ferocious beasts was a tree type, and Tang San's first martial soul was the super-strong Blue Silver Emperor. So plant types were a league of their own on the Douluo Continent.

As for Insect Type? Don't joke. There were no hundred-thousand-year or higher existences.

Beast types were still stronger, each with some special skill.

But if high-age soul beasts were scarce, low-age insect types definitely existed.

After all, ten-thousand-year ones were hard to find, but hundred-year ones were crawling all over the Soul Beast Forest.

"Oh, that matches your Grasshopper Martial Soul perfectly, Wenlong."

Zhen Jianwu didn't object to Xu Wenlong hunting a hundred-year soul beast. He wouldn't strongly oppose anything Xu Wenlong wanted to do.

Because Zhen Jianwu figured Xu Wenlong had some trump cards. Of course, if Xu Wenlong tried to go for a thousand-year soul ring, he'd stop him.

Grasshoppers—locusts—were mostly herbivorous, though in the Douluo Continent's forest, they might turn carnivorous.

So the best place to look was in the grass where locusts hung out.

Thus, Xu Wenlong led Zhen Jianwu through patch after patch of grass, searching for locust soul beasts.

But whether it was bad luck or wrong direction, the highest locust soul beasts they found were ten-year ones.

"Why is that? Not a single hundred-year locust soul beast," Xu Wenlong wondered. After all this time, the best was still a ten-year locust.

"Hmm, I read in a book that most high-age soul beasts have territorial instincts. This forest, according to what I've read, has a ten-thousand-year soul beast as its strongest. So the forest is mostly divided into territories claimed by hundred-year soul beasts."

Zhen Jianwu repeated what he had seen from the tree.

"Right, if we're talking about soul beasts' territorial instincts, then in a forest with only one Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast, that beast must be deep in the forest, so the outer areas would be the territory of Hundred-Year Soul Beasts."

"By that logic, Ten-Year Soul Beasts wouldn't dare enter the territory of Hundred-Year Soul Beasts, so those Ten-Year Soul Beasts would gather around the edges of the Hundred-Year Soul Beasts' territory to forage," Xu Wenlong analyzed.

"In other words, as long as we walk to a place with fewer Ten-Year Soul Beasts, we've definitely entered the territory of some Hundred-Year Soul Beasts!" Zhen Jianwu extended his index finger in reply.

"Besides, even though soul beasts differ in minor categories, as the same species, their habits must be the same. So a Hundred-Year Locust would eat the same things as a Ten-Year one. The more scattered locusts there are around, the more likely there's a Locust Soul Beast at the center!" Xu Wenlong also extended his index finger, pointing it to the same spot as Zhen Jianwu's.

"Then that's definitely the place!"

The two recalled the various soul beasts they had encountered earlier, naturally including the places where Locust Soul Beasts roamed.

That reminded them of a spot where locusts were scattered all around—an obvious sign that it was the location of a Hundred-Year Locust Soul Beast.

So the two strolled over to the place they had deduced as the Hundred-Year Locust's lair.