Target Search

Chen Ping knew his own Martial Soul Quality very well.

The Willow Staff was the sort of handy thing fathers used to discipline their sons. It hurt like hell when it hit, but it could not even leave behind a lingering injury.

To put it bluntly, a staff was a blunt weapon. It might knock someone down, but killing someone with it would be a real struggle.

Even the farmers in the village who awakened sickles or hoes at least had some iron on their Martial Souls. Smashing one into someone's head could still split it open.

The Willow Staff belonged to the type whose base stats, when compared to Plant-type Soul Beasts, were slightly higher than the Blue Silver Grass Martial Soul—but only by an utterly negligible amount.

But while the Blue Silver Grass Martial Soul at least truly had the potential to switch to the Support System, the Willow Staff Martial Soul genuinely had only one path: becoming a Power Attack System Soul Master.

Chen Ping had originally intended to hunt an Iron Armor Pupa.

That way, he could obtain a Soul Skill for instant hardening, while also slightly improving the hardness coefficient of his Martial Soul. At the very least, when he struck someone, it ought to be capable of injuring their muscles and bones.

But after Chen Ping unlocked Movement Meditation, he felt that perhaps he ought to reconsider.

Before I unlocked Movement Meditation, I had to stand my ground and trade staff strikes and blade blows with you. Now that I've unlocked Movement Meditation, if I'm still fucking trading staff strikes and blade blows with you, wouldn't that mean I unlocked Movement Meditation for fucking nothing?

After walking for most of the morning, Chen Ping had essentially entered the Outer Region of Star Dou Forest.

Breathing in the fresh scent of the nearby forest vegetation, Chen Ping looked at his four-digit Scholar Points—already nearing five digits—and felt his spirits soar.

"System, spend!"

"Use Scholar Points to deduce which Soul Beast's Soul Ring would best suit me for Soul Fighting in combination with Movement Meditation. Send me the location directly."

The next instant, a bill for thirty thousand Scholar Points in analysis fees popped up before Chen Ping.

Chen Ping: .

He knew it. He was still a poor bastard through and through.

"Set the target to Soul Beasts in the western Outer Region of Star Dou Forest. The requirement is a Soul Beast that can grant my Martial Soul a Soul Skill with effects similar to 'poison tempering' or 'poison infusion.'"

Chen Ping frowned and added conditions bit by bit. "Absorbing the Soul Ring should preferably increase my own agility to some extent and add a certain degree of toughness to my Martial Soul."

"Prioritize vine-type Plant-type Soul Beasts and tree-type Plant-type Soul Beasts, such as Poison Arrow Trees. For animal-type Soul Beasts, prioritize crustaceans and snakes."

At a time like this, the Soul Beast knowledge Chen Ping had learned under the system's urging finally came in handy.

Before the system began searching for Chen Ping, he could use his own understanding of Martial Souls and Soul Beasts to narrow down the broad categories.

This reduced the Scholar Points the system would consume during its search.

Previously, Chen Ping had spent five thousand points to customize a simplified copy of "Five Years of Soul Hunting, Three Years of Simulations" from the system.

That was the foundation that allowed Chen Ping to make a living outside by selling Soul Skill combination plans and Soul Beast hunting recommendations.

Besides the system's help, being able to talk with others without giving himself away—and even offer a few insightful pointers from a higher perspective that left them sincerely convinced—was all thanks to Chen Ping grinding through Five Three himself.

As Chen Ping filtered the criteria one by one, the system's workload for the search instantly shrank by an unknown number of times.

The cost dropped directly from thirty thousand points to a little over two thousand. Chen Ping wanted to add a few more restrictions.

But unfortunately, that was all the knowledge he had in his head. He simply could not narrow it down any further, so he had no choice but to give up.

Chen Ping had always been curious about where his system came from.

But while the system was willing to answer other questions, it remained extremely evasive about its own origins.

Whenever Chen Ping asked about it, the system tried to muddle through by asking whether he wanted to watch some hot dancing.

Chen Ping was not overly fixated on it either. He was certain this system could not possibly be Tang San's handiwork.

With Tang San's hidebound personality, if he could create a system capable of researching damage calculation formulas for Douluo Soul Masters with him, Chen Ping would wash his hair while standing on his head right on the spot.

And although the system had only activated after many years, it had indeed given him considerable help. That was enough.

Watching another two thousand-plus Scholar Points vanish in a flash, Chen Ping felt a little pained.

According to the system, his Martial Soul was somewhat strange and required points to analyze before a definite conclusion could be reached.

As for how many points it would take—ten thousand.

Money-grubbing bastard!

Chen Ping cursed inwardly. After waiting for quite a while, the system finally finished its search.

Chen Ping began browsing the recommended options the system had found. The results on the first page alone nearly made him lose his composure.

Recommended Soul Beast to Hunt: Demon Eye Magic Tree

Attributes: Wood, Poison, Mental

Age: 1,101 years

Location: North of the Outer Region of Star Dou Forest, west side of Big Butt Mountain, within Howling Wind Valley

Possible Soul Skills after hunting: Poison Staff, Potent Toxin, Paralysis Toxin, Multiple Staffs, Wood Demon Dance

Th-this was right?

No, this was not right, was it?

Why did the Soul Skills it produced look so familiar to him?

Chen Ping gave a bitter smile. Were the Soul Skills produced by the Demon Eye Magic Tree good? They were too good!

After reading the first recommended Soul Beast, he could barely tear his eyes away.

Chen Ping knew without even looking that compared to the Demon Eye Magic Tree, the Soul Skills produced by the other Soul Beasts further down could probably only be described as trash.

But leaving aside the fact that the Demon Eye Magic Tree's age far exceeded the limit of the Soul Ring he could absorb, Chen Ping also had to carefully consider its race.

Just because Huo Yuhao had once killed a Thousand-Year Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear in Star Dou Forest in the Original Work did not mean there was no risk in hunting the offspring of a Fierce Beast's kin.

Chen Ping did not know how dangerous it would be to kill a Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear from Bear Lord's race.

But behind the Demon Eye Magic Tree race stood Ten Thousand Demons King, the Fierce Beast of the plant type.

Even Tang San's Blue Silver Emperor Martial Soul, after activating Senluo Vientiane, could turn all the Blue Silver Grass across Star Dou Forest into his scouts while using Blue Silver Grass to hide himself.

Would Ten Thousand Demons King, with several hundred thousand years of cultivation, fail to keep watch over one of his offspring growing in the Outer Region?

Chen Ping found that unrealistic.

In any case, this Demon Eye Magic Tree was not going to grow legs and run away, so Chen Ping was not in too much of a hurry.

Even if he wanted this fellow's Soul Ring, he would at least need to make thorough preparations first.

After all, this was a Thousand-Year Demon Eye Magic Tree.

Even without Ten Thousand Demons King monitoring it, without any guards arranged by him, even if it were just standing there all alone, it would not be easy to deal with.

Perhaps the Demon Eye Magic Tree's combat strength was not as outrageous as that of a Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear. A Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear with only several hundred years of cultivation could grab a Ten Thousand Year Level Soul Beast and beat it senseless.

But a Thousand-Year Demon Eye Magic Tree's actual combat strength was probably, no matter what, not inferior to that of an ordinary Ten Thousand Year Soul Beast.

With a thought, Chen Ping removed all Soul Beasts over five hundred years old from the analysis results.

Although he had never neglected training his body, he had awakened the system too late.

Even now, the limit of the First Soul Ring Chen Ping could absorb was only within five hundred years.