Hunting Time (Newcomer Asking for Votes TvT)

Hunting Time (Newcomer Asking for Votes!!! TvT)

Ye Wen gratefully bowed to the old guard, then led Ah Yin into the Soul Hunting Forest.

As he watched the two little ones leave, the old guard sighed, a trace of sorrow in his eyes. The younger guard beside him asked curiously.

"Why are you being so kind today, Old Li? Never seen you this eager to help people before."

"We commoner soul masters have it hard enough. I just can't bear to watch people suffer. Those two children have no one to rely on, so I'll help however I can."

Hearing that explanation, the young guard said nothing. He merely shrugged in boredom and continued standing watch without much thought. The two of them began chatting idly.

After entering the Soul Hunting Forest, Ye Wen and Ah Yin walked for nearly an hour without encountering a single Soul Beast. They could not help but relax and complain.

"This Soul Hunting Forest is really dead. We've walked this long and haven't run into a single Soul Beast."

"Yeah. I'm starting to wonder whether this is just an ordinary forest."

Rustle, rustle~

Suddenly, a sound came from a patch of Blue Silver Grass not far away. The two, who had just relaxed, immediately tensed up. They swiftly pulled Hand Crossbows from their Storage Spaces and warily stared in the direction of the sound.

But after quite some time passed, the grass remained completely silent, making Ye Wen wonder whether it had only been the wind.

"Better to test it and see."

For the sake of their safety, Ye Wen followed the principle of killing by mistake rather than letting anything go and pulled the trigger.

"Squeak, squeak, squeak—" A pained cry rang out.

Ye Wen secretly breathed a sigh of relief. Good thing he had not guessed wrong. Something really had been hiding in that patch of grass.

However, Ye Wen did not lower his guard. He quickly reloaded the Hand Crossbow in his hand and nocked another bolt.

Then, when he looked closely, he vaguely saw a white figure emerge from the grass. It was struggling frantically.

"A Needle Fur Rabbit less than a hundred years old? Good thing we found it. If it had ambushed us with its needle-like fur, we would probably have been seriously injured."

After confirming the target, Ye Wen directly pulled Ah Yin away. This low-age Soul Beast was unsuitable for him, and Ye Wen had no interest in its Soul Ring even if it died. Besides its rabbit meat, the rabbit had little value. From its species name alone, he could tell that its fur would be hard and prickly, so Ye Wen had no intention of taking it.

And to keep the Needle Fur Rabbit's cries from attracting other Soul Beasts, Ye Wen did not intend to stay there any longer.

After walking for a while longer, they finally reached the stream the old guard had mentioned. Ye Wen led Ah Yin up a tree in the distance, using its thick leaves to conceal them. He also took out the scent-masking powder he had prepared beforehand and sprinkled it over both of them.

Night was approaching, and the most dangerous time in the forest was precisely when darkness fell.

Watching the sun sink westward toward dusk, Ye Wen and Ah Yin calmly enjoyed the peaceful moment.

"Ah Yin, that rabbit at noon never provoked us, yet I shot it dead with an arrow. Does that make you uncomfortable?"

Ah Yin looked at Ye Wen strangely. "Why would you have such a strange thought?"

"I killed one of your kind in front of you. Don't you have any feelings about that?" Ye Wen explained.

"Not at all. Although I was a hundred-thousand-year Blue Silver Emperor before taking human form, I also grew step by step from Blue Silver Grass. As one of the lowest forms of life in this world, our race has suffered harm from the moment we sprout, even though we have done nothing.

"So, when I became a ten-thousand-year Blue Silver King, I understood the nature of this world: the weak are prey to the strong.

"Rather than hoping for the mercy of the strong, it is better to make yourself strong.

"So, Brother, you do not need to feel any psychological burden. And although humans saw me as a Soul Beast in the past, I do not see myself that way. The definition of Soul Beasts was never made by us Blue Silver Grass. It was a label you gave us. Although a Soul Ring appears after I die, just like it does for Soul Beasts, we have never considered ourselves part of them.

"And honestly, even if Soul Beasts went extinct, do you think our Blue Silver Grass race would vanish? Unless the world itself is destroyed, our Blue Silver Grass race will always exist alongside this land."

Listening to Ah Yin's explanation, Ye Wen smiled in relief. After all, shooting that Needle Fur Rabbit had been the first time he had taken a life since coming to this world, and he had subconsciously assumed it was one of Ah Yin's kin.

But upon thinking it over, that logic was wrong. How could grass possibly be related to a rabbit?

The guilt of taking a life for the first time, along with his guilt toward Ah Yin, had made Ye Wen realize that he had been acting somewhat strangely. But after hearing Ah Yin's explanation, he also realized that he had fallen into a mental trap.

After all, Ah Yin was Ah Yin. She was not that Thug Rabbit from the original story, who initially kept pleading with Tang San not to hunt Soul Beasts, only to turn a blind eye to Tang San's persecution of Soul Beasts after becoming a god. What an old green tea bitch.

"Eh! Brother, look. Isn't that the Soul Beast you wanted?"

Hearing Ah Yin's voice, Ye Wen turned his gaze in that direction.

A Soul Beast covered in fluffy wool like a sheep had appeared fifty meters away from them.

Ye Wen narrowed his eyes and examined it carefully. The Soul Beast before him was undoubtedly the Green Pouch Beast he had been searching for. The way to identify one under a thousand years old was by the sharp horn growing from its head. It gained one segment every hundred years, and the horn on this Green Pouch Beast had exactly four segments.

Although the distance prevented Ye Wen from determining this Green Pouch Beast's exact age right away, he could not let this opportunity slip by.

It was time—hunting time!!!

Ye Wen raised his hand and summoned his Hand Crossbow. With its sight and the training he had undergone these past days, a mere fifty meters was a guaranteed hit for him. Without the slightest hesitation, he fired.

The Green Pouch Beast's body stiffened before it collapsed to the ground.

Ye Wen's arrow had instantly pierced the Green Pouch Beast's eye, punching straight through both of its eyeballs. It was killed in a single strike, not even having time to cry out before suffering brain death and perishing.

After a while, a yellow ring of light solidified in midair, and a Hundred-Year Soul Ring suddenly formed.

However, the two did not rush to claim their spoils. Instead, they silently waited and observed from the tree. After all, sneaky ambushes were not their exclusive specialty. Some solitary carnivorous Soul Beasts loved lying in wait in places like this to prey upon weak, isolated Soul Beasts.