"Too Beautiful, Star Dou Great Forest" (Please Keep Reading, It's Really Important!)

Jiang Nannan left, taking her mother and some luggage Huo Yuhao had stuffed into her hands as she followed the caravan toward Shrek City.

The caravan was long, far longer than the Dingyi Merchant Association's convoy. At a glance, most of its people were commoners traveling with their families.

They were all heading to Shrek City to seek opportunities and a future.

It was the holy land of soul masters, the center of the continent, and naturally countless merchant associations gathered there.

The chances of earning a living there were much greater.

A military officer who often visited the Medical Hall had once let slip while chatting with Huo Yuhao that the Heaven Dou Empire especially hated seeing its citizens run off to Shrek City.

Shrek City nominally fell under the Heaven Dou Empire's jurisdiction, but its legislation, law enforcement, and taxation were all independently managed.

To put it bluntly, it was a country within a country, and this miniature nation was siphoning talent away from the three great empires.

Though they had plenty of complaints, the empires did not dare show them openly.

The three great empires even had to offer Shrek graduates high-ranking posts and generous salaries. As a result, many important positions within the empires were controlled by Shrek people.

They openly favored outsiders over their own. Whenever they discovered a child of suitable age with decent talent, they would directly sign contracts with them, help them obtain Soul Rings, and require them to study at Shrek Academy.

Huo Yuhao was not particularly surprised by any of this. People climbed upward, while water flowed downward.

That had always been the way of the world. Aside from the Star Luo Empire, which was genuinely changing, the other two were nothing but rotting corpses in tombs, slowly dying.

Under such circumstances, the Sun Moon Empire counted as advanced and civilized on the Douluo Continent.

"Purely competing to see who sucks less."

That was Huo Yuhao's assessment.

The Douluo Continent was a world of competing at being terrible. No one was better than anyone else; some were simply worse!

After Jiang Nannan's figure vanished beyond the horizon, Huo Yuhao finished packing up the Medical Hall as well.

He placed the Medicinal Herbs, a large number of books, and, most importantly, all his manuscripts into his Storage Soul Tool.

Huo Yuhao stepped out of the Medical Hall. After closing the door, he could not help feeling a little sentimental. This Medical Hall was the first property that had truly belonged to him across both his lives.

He gently lowered the sign outside, then pasted a sheet of paper onto the door.

"I, Huo Qiqiang, will be traveling the continent in search of the most delicious fish. My return date is unknown. Please do not worry."

After posting the notice, Huo Yuhao did not linger in Xuanfeng City. He left through the southern gate under cover of night.

As for why he had to leave at night, it was because he simply would not have been able to get away during the day.

Those soul masters would probably hug his legs and weep bitterly, refusing to let him leave. Once Huo Yuhao was gone, where would they find someone so cheap and so skilled in medicine?

Huo Yuhao's destination was clear: he would head south all the way, following the direction of Shrek Academy into the Star Dou Great Forest.

The Douluo Continent was extremely dangerous at night. Along the way, Huo Yuhao sensed quite a few nocturnal Soul Beasts prowling along both sides of the road with his Spiritual Power.

Any Soul Beast noticed by Huo Yuhao would be recorded in the Illustrated Record, which would then display its relevant habits and abilities.

This made it easy for Huo Yuhao to identify which Soul Beasts were dangerous. Whenever he encountered one that was particularly dangerous, he would usually go around it.

He did not want a battle to break out at night.

Fortunately, Xuanfeng City was not far away. After racing onward, just as the sky began to pale, an enormous Forest sprawled across the earth like a Primeval Beast.

The branches and leaves of nameless trees intertwined in layer after layer, making the fullest possible use of every ray of sunlight.

Every tree bore the history of countless unknown years.

After entering the Forest, Huo Yuhao reined in his Spiritual Power and tried not to disturb the surrounding Soul Beasts.

He then began wandering through the Outer Circle, recording Soul Beast species to increase his control over the Authority of [Comprehension] while searching for traces of the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm.

"Splash~"

Water splashed up from the river as Huo Yuhao lost track of how many times he had cast his line.

The bait he had prepared beside him had long since been used up.

He had baited the spot so many times and cast so many times, yet he had not caught a single fish.

If he had not seen fish blowing bubbles nearby, he would have suspected there were no fish in this river at all.

It had already been ten days since he arrived at the Star Dou Great Forest. His initial curiosity toward this primeval Forest had now faded into near numbness.

The scenery here was indeed beautiful, but living here was truly miserable. The fucking Star Dou Great Forest actually had mosquitoes.

Different types of mosquito Soul Beasts harassed Huo Yuhao in the morning, at noon, and at night.

Only then did Huo Yuhao remember that late summer was the outbreak season for mosquito Soul Beasts. He had arrived at just the right time.

"Truly too beautiful, Star Dou Great Forest."

"Better go look at Shrek Academy, the world's number one city, in the distance."

Huo Yuhao muttered nonsense listlessly as he swung the fishing rod again.

"Meow~"

Of course, Huo Yuhao was not alone. A ten-year Shadow Cat was squatting beside him.

The bond between man and beast had begun with a Grilled Fish. The cat had been injured and collapsed in a bush.

Huo Yuhao had been bored out of his mind at the time, so he healed it with Reversal Technique. At first, it kept hissing wildly at him.

It had even instantly activated its Spinosaurus form, but after eating Huo's Grilled Fish, the little cat immediately fell in line.

It became Huo Yuhao's loyal lackey on the spot, leading him to the locations of all kinds of rare Medicinal Herbs.

It even took the initiative to lure prey over for Huo Yuhao to hunt.

Huo Yuhao looked helplessly at the Shadow Cat beside him. How was he supposed to tell a cat that he had been completely skunked?

Suddenly, the fishing rod twitched. Huo Yuhao's spirits soared, and he even opened his Spiritual Eye.

"Damn, I finally got one."

"Come up!"

When the fishing rod rose from the water, a fish smaller than his palm was dangling from the hook.

A vein bulged on Huo Yuhao's forehead as he removed the fish.

He smacked its head a few times, then stuffed a pile of bait into its mouth and said:

"What is a kid doing out here?!"

"Go back! Call your parents over here!"

"The local fish are so rude. They do not even know to pay tribute!"

Then he tossed it back into the river and continued fishing with the air of a man turned to ash.

The Shadow Cat beside him grew a little anxious. After pawing at Huo Yuhao's clothes a few times, it leaped straight into the river.

Then, before Huo Yuhao's disbelieving eyes, it came ashore just one minute later with a fish longer than Huo Yuhao's leg in its mouth.

After placing the fish beside Huo Yuhao's leg, it plunged into the river again. Before long, it slapped two even bigger fish onto the bank.

The Shadow Cat then sat in front of Huo Yuhao as though asking for credit, wagging its tail and looking at him with obsidian-like eyes.

Huo Yuhao glanced at the fish beside him and tightened his grip on the fishing rod.

"I'm furious, shaking, and freezing. When will fishermen finally be able to stand tall?!"

Despite saying that, Huo Yuhao sensibly put away his fishing rod, crouched by the riverbank, and began building a fire to grill the fish.

Before long, the distinctive aroma of Grilled Fish filled the area, and the Shadow Cat beside him was practically drooling.

Far away, where Huo Yuhao could not see, faint ripples spread across the river's surface.

A dark golden, triangular pyramidal head emerged from beneath the water.

"What's that smell? Why is it so fragrant?"