After entering the forest, Dai Mubai walked in front, clearing the way. He suddenly raised a hand to slap a rabbit to death, but Tang San immediately called out, "Wait..."
Dai Mubai heard him and turned to look at Tang San. "What's wrong?"
"There are more low-level Soul Beasts around here. Let's take another path!" Tang San knew that Xiao Wu liked rabbits, so naturally he didn't want Dai Mubai to kill it either. He continued, "Soul Beasts grow slowly. If we hunt them excessively, then in a few years, there won't be any Soul Beasts left in this forest."
"Mm, all right! Let's take another path," Dai Mubai said, agreeing with him.
Tang San continued, "Of course, there's another reason. If we kill a Soul Beast, the smell of blood might attract some powerful Soul Beasts. That would be bad."
Just then, there was movement up ahead. Everyone grew alert, and Zhao Wuji ordered, "Zhu Zhuqing, climb a tree and see what's going on."
Zhu Zhuqing jumped onto a branch as soon as she received the order. There was no denying that the jumping ability of a cat Martial Soul was excellent. And the wild beauty she exuded the instant she entered Martial Soul Possession was truly striking.
"It's a flying snake," Zhu Zhuqing said as she watched. "It's not very high off the ground, and it's six to eight meters long. There's a blood-red crest on its head."
After hearing her description, Zhao Wuji asked again, "What does its tail look like?"
"Its tail is fan-shaped."
Hearing Zhu Zhuqing's description, Zhao Wuji was delighted. "Excellent! Oscar, you're in luck. This is a Phoenix-tail Crested Serpent. We just don't know how old it is. Everyone, get ready. Let's capture it first."
"Zhuqing, check what color the snake's wings are," Tang San said, looking up at Zhu Zhuqing.
Zhu Zhuqing leaped farther ahead and confirmed, "They're light red."
Tang San was pleased. "Light red, six to eight meters long. This should be a Phoenix-tail Crested Serpent between 1,300 and 1,800 years old. Oscar, its age is just right."
Oscar was excited. "Really? That's great!"
Tang San began showing off his knowledge, explaining, "A thousand-year-old Phoenix-tail Crested Serpent is quite rare! Although its attacks are limited to Entanglement, it's extremely fast. In particular, its crest stores the nutrients it needs to escape."
Zhao Zilong immediately picked up Tang San's words. "Then let's hurry after it! Don't let it get away."
Zhao Zilong wanted to test how much stronger his Martial Soul had become now that his Trash Martial Soul, Blue Silver Grass, had changed into Blue Silver Grass with the Blue Silver Emperor Bloodline. From the system's description, he knew that his Martial Soul was no longer trash, but an intermediate Martial Soul.
Tang San added, "Mm, this kind of snake isn't very aggressive. Our main concern is stopping it from escaping. Snakes' natural enemies are birds of prey. Fatty, your Martial Soul is a phoenix, so it should be able to counter it somewhat."
"Sure! Leave it to me!" Ma Hongjun immediately promised.
Zhao Wuji grinned. "You know quite a lot, kid! All right, you'll lead this time."
Tang San nodded. Seeing the Phoenix-tail Crested Serpent fly over, he said, "Attack..."
A Soul Ring appeared on Zhao Zilong, and under the enhancement of his second Soul Skill, Heartbreak Poison, the blue Blue Silver Grass turned purple.
"Bamboo Leaf Sword Rain..." Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh! Countless Blue Silver Grass leaves shot out like flying knives, but the Phoenix-tail Crested Serpent was very fast and quickly dodged them.
Boom, boom, boom! Countless sharp Blue Silver leaves struck the tree trunks, each impact booming. After several waves of attacks, their powerful penetration and destructive force cut the tree trunks in half with Bamboo Leaf Sword Rain.
'Its power really has increased this much...' Zhao Zilong watched, unable to hide his surprise.
Not only Zhao Zilong, but Tang San, Dai Mubai, and the others beside him were also surprised. They had seen Zhao Zilong's Bamboo Leaf Sword Rain yesterday and could only call its power average. They hadn't expected it to be so powerful today.
Sure enough! Yesterday, he hadn't used his full strength at all.
In that instant, Dai Mubai and the others all thought the same thing. After all, Zhao Zilong had been unhappy from the start about Fatty provoking Blue Sunshine Academy.
"First Soul Skill: White Tiger Fierce Light Wave..."
"First Soul Skill: Entanglement..." Tang San also used his Blue Silver Grass Martial Soul, but his face immediately turned pale. He could feel that his Soul Power had dropped to level 28, which startled him.
His expression grew somewhat ugly. His Soul Power had clearly still been level 29 yesterday. Why had it suddenly regressed in just one day?
Although Tang San was puzzled, he had no time to think it through while facing the Phoenix-tail Crested Serpent.
Then, with Tang San, Dai Mubai, and the others working together, and with Zhao Wuji's Gravity Squeeze, they finally captured the Phoenix-tail Crested Serpent.
Looking at the Phoenix-tail Crested Serpent lying on the ground, barely alive, Zhao Wuji said, "All right, Oscar, hurry over and kill it."
Xiao Wu felt reluctant and asked, "Do we really have to kill Soul Beasts?"
Hearing Xiao Wu's question, everyone else rolled their eyes, but Tang San was very patient with her. "The weak are prey to the strong. Soul Beasts eat people and can increase their age, while Soul Masters need to hunt Soul Beasts to obtain Soul Rings and become stronger. What's more, humans only hunt some of the Soul Beasts. Soul Beasts also kill one another; they all want to seize each other's Soul Power. This isn't something one person can change. Besides, if this Soul Beast were stronger than us, it would probably eat us too."
After hearing Tang San's words, Xiao Wu fell silent. Oscar walked over, preparing to finish off the Phoenix-tail Crested Serpent with one strike, when an old woman's voice suddenly called out, "Stop!"
Then they saw an old woman holding a Serpent Cane and a girl holding a Serpent Cane walking over. They were none other than Snake Grandma Chao Tianxiang and Meng Yiran.
Snake Grandma approached, looked at the Shrek group with displeasure, and said coldly, "This old woman is Chao Tianxiang." As she spoke, Soul Rings gradually appeared around her: yellow, yellow, purple, purple, purple, and black-six in total.
Seeing that the other party was only a six-ring Soul Emperor, Zhao Wuji curled his lips in contempt. Then seven Soul Rings appeared around him-yellow, yellow, purple, purple, black, black, and black-and he asked scornfully, "What do you want?"
Sure enough, after seeing Zhao Wuji's seven Soul Rings, Snake Grandma's expression turned somewhat unpleasant. She had intended to overwhelm them with force, but hadn't expected the middle-aged man to have higher Soul Power than her. She immediately backed down a little and said, "Greetings, respected Soul Saint. You can't give this Soul Ring to that child."
Zhao Wuji said coldly, "Why?"
"Because we found this snake first," Meng Yiran said, her voice cool. Hearing her voice, Zhao Zilong thought it sounded quite pleasant and looked her over carefully. Though she was not as beautiful as Ning Rongrong and her figure was not as good as Zhu Zhuqing's, she had a different kind of wild beauty from Zhu Zhuqing.
Oscar was very unhappy. The duck was already at his lips, and now someone wanted to snatch it away. He immediately protested, "Nonsense! When we caught it, we didn't see you anywhere."
Meng Yiran was about to say more, but Snake Grandma stopped her. "Don't get worked up, young man. You can look at the snake's belly. There are three marks where I struck it with my cane and injured it."
After hearing that, Tang San immediately looked over. Sure enough, there were three wounds. Snake Grandma continued, "My granddaughter has already reached level 30 and needs this Soul Ring very much. I ask you, Soul Saint, to hand this Phoenix-tail Crested Serpent over to us."
Before you continue