Three-Year Agreement

Xu Mingxi plunged into the Star Dou Great Forest without looking back. The Star Crown Sect recalled most of its disciples, leaving only a few still out training, and Xu Mingguang was one of them.

The outside world was in turmoil. The Saintess of Spirit Hall believed she had found true love, while the abandoned son of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan began reading through countless books in Spirit Hall's Hall of Records, organizing information.

The Clear Sky Twin Stars roamed the continent, earning fame while also meeting the people they would love most in their lives. The Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect relied on Sword and Bone Douluo, and its business spread across the entire continent.

The Star Luo Empire was ambitious and wanted to conquer the entire Heaven Dou Empire. Spirit Hall mediated from the center, restraining the Star Luo Empire's expansion, and the whole continent entered a period of relatively stable development.

Three years later, the Sect Master personally set out, bringing the First Elder with him. The two Titled Douluo arrived at a small town on the outskirts of the Star Dou Great Forest. This was the place they had agreed on with Xu Mingxi back then.

The vast Star Dou Great Forest was like a man-eating Soul Beast. Every year, every day, people lost their lives here.

The two began a long wait. As the days passed one after another, the First Elder's face gradually turned ashen, and even the Sect Master's eyes faintly revealed a trace of pain.

Just when they thought the future of the Star Crown Sect had already died in the Star Dou Great Forest, Xu Mingxi walked out of the forest alone. The moment he saw the Sect Master and the First Elder, he could finally relax and faint.

The First Elder's eyes filled with tears. This was the grandson he had pampered for twenty years. He looked at the bright red bloodstains on Xu Mingxi's clothes, and at his disheveled hair, beard, and weathered face.

When the Sect Master lifted Xu Mingxi onto his back, the First Elder saw the centipede-like scar that stretched from his back all the way to his neck. He could no longer hold back. Tears flowed uncontrollably from the eyes of this nearly hundred-year-old man.

"Let's go. Back to the sect."

The two checked him over and found that Xu Mingxi had only fainted from extreme exhaustion. Only then did they wash him up, buy the most expensive and comfortable carriage in the small town, and bring the Star Crown Sect's Young Sect Master back to the sect.

What they did not know was that not long after they left, a group of burly men rushed out of the Star Dou Great Forest, searching with Xu Mingxi's portrait in hand, seemingly saying that he had stolen something from them.

The person drawn in the portrait was precisely Xu Mingxi after undergoing all that tempering: that rough, shabby appearance, with messy hair, an unkempt beard, a face covered in dust, and tattered ordinary soul master clothes.

Even if Xu Mingguang came, he might not necessarily have recognized him as the refined younger brother he once knew.

Xu Mingxi had been picked up by the Sect Master and the First Elder as soon as he left the Star Dou Great Forest. The people in the small town had never even seen him, let alone known where he had gone.

The burly man at the lead violently released his Martial Soul. Seven Soul Rings appeared around him, and his pitch-black Seventh Soul Ring lit up at once. With one hammer strike, the entire small town was directly razed to the ground.

The soul masters in the town fled one after another. Those who survived looked at the hammer in his hand, furious but not daring to speak. They watched as he completely destroyed the small town, then led his team away.

Across the continent, that rough Wanted Poster of Xu Mingxi began to circulate. Whoever found him could go to the Clear Sky Sect to claim a bounty of ten thousand Gold Soul Coins.

The instigator had long since ridden the carriage back to Starfall Mountain. During the journey, Xu Mingxi had once awakened from his faint, saw his grandfather sitting beside him, took a few bites of food, then fell heavily asleep again. These three years had truly left him far too exhausted.

A few days later, Xu Mingxi finally slept enough and woke up. After washing up, he changed into a high-collared soul master robe, covering the scars on his back and neck. Looking at the reflection in the water, he felt as if a lifetime had passed.

He greeted his mother, then walked alone through Fallen Star Mountain, looking at every blade of grass and every tree around him. Time seemed to have stopped within this mountain. Almost nothing had changed at all. The only ones who had changed were the members of the Star Crown Sect who grew up here.

Xu Mingxi walked into the Sect Master Hall. Ever since receiving word that Xu Mingxi had awakened, the Sect Master and the eleven elders had all arrived, aside from the Fifth Elder, who was outside protecting Xu Mingguang. They had been waiting for a long time.

They looked at Xu Mingxi, whom they had not seen for many years, and their expressions even went slightly dazed. He was completely different. The confidence and sharpness radiating from him inside and out even made these old fellows feel he was somewhat dazzling.

Xu Mingxi nodded in greeting to the Sect Master and the elders, until he saw his own father seated at the very end. Then he revealed a gentle smile.

With that smile, the exposed edge instantly drew back, all of it hidden inside his body. Xu Mingxi would absolutely never turn his sharpness toward the family and sect that had given birth to him, raised him, and nurtured him.

The Sect Master and elders felt deeply gratified. This was more like the heir of a sect. What had that been before? They just did not know whether Mingxi's Soul Power cultivation had fallen behind during these three years in the Star Dou Great Forest.

Xu Mingxi knew what the Sect Master and the elders were thinking. The Star Crown appeared, and six Soul Rings lit up above it. A Level 67 Battle Soul Emperor, reporting in.

It was good as long as his Soul Power cultivation had not fallen behind. This cultivation speed was even faster than when Xu Mingxi had been in the sect before. Everyone also did not ask about his Sixth Soul Skill. After leaving behind one sentence, they all dispersed.

Seven days later, the Young Sect Master Succession Ceremony would be held.

After returning home, Xu Mingxi was surrounded by his grandfather and his parents, enduring their concern while slowly recounting some of the better parts of his experiences over the past three years.

Over these three years, aside from hunting souls and traveling, Xu Mingxi had either been cultivating or on the way to cultivate. He had even squeezed his sleeping time to the extreme, and only then did he have his current Soul Power cultivation.

At first, he had gone alone to the small town outside the Star Dou Great Forest. After investigating for several days, he joined a Soul Hunting Mercenary Group with a fairly good reputation.

At the beginning, things had gone relatively smoothly. While training, he could also earn some Gold Soul Coins. Even when he reached Level 60, through a twist of fate, he encountered a Howling Moon Silver Wolf close to twenty thousand years old, and with the help of his teammates, successfully hunted it, obtaining his current Sixth Soul Ring.

But good times did not last long. During one hunt for a Ten Thousand Year Soul Beast, a Soul Bone dropped. As the Leader of the mercenary group, and also the only Soul Saint, he immediately turned hostile and tried to kill all the members.

Their mercenary group valued quality over quantity. Including Xu Mingxi, there were only six people. A power-attack-type Soul Emperor and a power-attack-type Soul King closest to the Leader were killed outright while unprepared.

The remaining three fled for their lives, but they were no match for him at all. Xu Mingxi was the last to be hunted down, and he only managed to escape with the aid of the nighttime environment. Even so, an indelible scar was left on his back.

As for the Soul Bone, of course it fell into the Leader's hands. Xu Mingxi thoroughly remembered him: that Soul Saint known as Giant Wing. The good-natured man of the past had transformed directly into a demon in the face of profit.