Have You Eaten? No? Then Take a Hit from Me!

On Douluo Continent, no matter what kind of forest it was, once it reached a certain scale, soul beasts would emerge within it.

They could be insects, snakes, rats, even mosquitoes and flies, or they could be tigers, leopards, jackals, and wolves! It could be said that for people living on land, forests were the most dangerous places on the entire Douluo Continent.

Yet the wealthy Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Clan had enclosed a vast stretch of such dangerous land!

Glazed Tile Soul Hunting Forest

This was the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Clan's exclusive soul hunting grounds. Anyone ordinary who wished to poach here had to risk being captured and hunted down by the patrols.

The soul beasts here ranged from ten years to sixty thousand years old. Their varieties were those needed by the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda, as well as the many Beast Soul Spirits possessed by the clan's soul masters.

It could be said that as long as you were born into the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Clan, there was a very high chance that your martial soul could obtain every soul ring up to the sixth ring from this Soul Hunting Forest!

Led by Zhang Can, they passed through without any obstruction. Once the checkpoint guards learned that an elder had brought his grandson here to hunt for a soul ring, they immediately let them through.

As he entered the forest, Ning Wuque was seeing the world outside the clan for the first time.

The Soul Hunting Forest was not quite what he had imagined. The trees were not particularly dense, but most had trunks over twenty meters tall, and the soul beasts here were not especially numerous either.

After walking for nearly ten minutes, he finally spotted a group of deer-type soul beasts drinking by a river in the distance.

"Grandpa, when does my trial begin?"

"Don't rush. I'll take you to a safe camp first. The nest of the Dark Gold Terror Ant Clan is home to a great number of ant-type soul beasts. Finding a Black-Gold Ant with the right cultivation will probably take some time."

Zhang Can shook his head as he spoke.

Within the Dark Gold Terror Ant Clan, any Black-Gold Ant that broke through the thousand-year mark would inevitably evolve into a Dark Gold Soldier Ant. A rare few with exceptional talent could do so after four or five hundred years.

Thus, compared to thousand-year Dark Gold Soldier Ants, Black-Gold Ants that had just reached a thousand years were actually rarer.

Before long, Zhang Can brought Ning Wuque to a small camp within the forest. This was a rest stop for the patrols, stocked with a mixed incense that repelled small soul beasts, as well as abundant sealed supplies of various kinds.

After tossing Ning Wuque into the camp, Zhang Can vanished from his sight as though he had teleported.

When Zhang Can appeared again, he had already completed Martial Soul Possession. His once-hunched body had straightened, his height growing from one meter ninety to over two meters ten. He looked like a berserk old black bear!

Eight soul rings in the standard configuration of yellow, yellow, purple, purple, black, black, black, black pulsed around him. In one hand, he held a black-shelled ant too frightened by his aura to move.

It was precisely the soul beast corresponding to Ning Wuque's martial soul—the Black-Gold Ant!

"A twelve-hundred-year Black-Gold Ant. The trial begins once it attacks you on its own. Hold out for five minutes, and you pass."

With that, Zhang Can tossed the thousand-year Black-Gold Ant not far from Ning Wuque. Then he concealed his aura and vanished, hiding in the shadows to guard against any unexpected situations.

As Zhang Can's voice fell, Ning Wuque immediately entered a combat stance. His body, which had only grown to a little over one meter forty due to years of extreme exercise, tensed all over. He planted himself in place and faced his enemy head-on in a boxing stance.

He did not remove his protective gear. Although it would greatly reduce his speed, it also provided greater strength and defensive ability.

Zhang Can had said that holding out for five minutes would count as passing, but merely dodging for five minutes would not earn his approval or put his mind at ease.

What Ning Wuque had to do was fight the Black-Gold Ant head-on for five minutes and prove openly that he possessed the ability to absorb a thousand-year first soul ring!

"Kahh—"

A roar came from the Black-Gold Ant's mandibles. The giant ant, one meter thirty in length, slowly rose from the ground, while thread-like golden lines flowed across its shell like liquid.

Those were its blood vessels. Whenever a Black-Gold Ant needed to carry something roughly fifty times larger than its own body, the vessels floating beneath its shell would enter an overloaded state, creating the visual effect of flowing molten gold.

Enemy!

The moment the Black-Gold Ant rose from the ground, before it could understand what was happening, the two antennae on its head detected unfamiliar pheromones in the air.

It had no nose, and even its eyes were "blind," yet at this moment, a model of the surrounding environment was clearly reflected in its mind. It also saw Ning Wuque ahead, standing in a combat stance with neither his fighting intent nor hostility concealed!

In an instant, the battle lust ingrained in its bloodline was awakened. The Black-Gold Ant likewise took up a combat stance against Ning Wuque, propping itself up with its long forelegs, raising its head, and exposing its sharp mandibles.

"Kahh—kahh—"

I can't attack first. I can only defend.

Ning Wuque quickly made his judgment. Though he had never fought anyone in his life, and had not even watched a chicken being slaughtered in his previous life, his brain still reached a conclusion at once.

This thousand-year Black-Gold Ant was strong!

Without hesitation, Ning Wuque shifted into a defensive stance. His arms stood upright before him as his eyes fixed firmly on the Black-Gold Ant's every movement.

Soon, perhaps sensing the enemy's weakness, the Black-Gold Ant immediately launched an attack. Its six legs moved as it charged toward Ning Wuque like a runaway horse.

At the same time, it opened its mandibles. Its sharp serrated teeth gleamed with a metallic sheen. One bite would surely crush an ordinary person's head like a watermelon!

Faced with all this, Ning Wuque, who had never fought before, felt fear first! His body urged him to dodge the attack quickly, get away, and run as far as possible!

But he restrained himself. Fear was an instinct carved into humanity's genes, but courage was the anthem that said "no" to it.

Ning Wuque stood his ground. Even as tension shrank his pupils and threw his thoughts into chaos, he still gritted his teeth and thrust both arms against the sharp mandibles snapping toward him!

"Clang!"

A successful defense. The hardness of a level-six Soul Tool was far beyond what an ordinary thousand-year soul beast could break through. Metal collided with mandibles.

Ning Wuque and the Black-Gold Ant were both knocked backward in opposite directions, and the tremendous recoil left neither of them feeling good.

Ning Wuque especially felt both arms go numb. Every bone in his body seemed to be groaning in pain! The Black-Gold Ant's monstrous pincers had slammed into him like a speeding motorcycle.

But he endured it, quickly adjusted his posture, and prepared to receive the next attack!

His body, tempered through countless trials, and his will, forged through extreme hellish training, were helping him grow at a rapid pace!

This little pain and fear were nothing worth worrying about.

"Looks like you're nothing special either. Your attack is over. Now it's my turn—take my heavy punch!"

Seeing the Black-Gold Ant in the distance dazed in place after its brain had been rattled by the impact, Ning Wuque seized the opportunity and took the initiative to attack!