Ju Zi

In an unknown forest in the south of the Sun Moon Empire.

With abundant sunlight and rainfall, the trees grew especially lush. Millennium-old trees towering a hundred meters high could be seen everywhere.

Crackle, crackle— The dry wood in the campfire burned with a series of crisp pops, dispersing the morning mist in the forest.

Xu Zihuang, who had been sitting cross-legged before the campfire with his eyes closed in cultivation, slowly opened his eyes. A flash of brilliant golden light vanished in an instant, and his entire aura became exceptionally smooth and rounded.

"Finally, I've broken through to Level 23."

Nearly ten days had passed since they landed at Seaside City in the southwest of the Sun Moon Empire.

Along the way, the group had traveled through remote and desolate regions as much as possible using Flying Soul Tools, and no accidents had occurred.

They spent the day rushing onward with Flying Soul Tools at high intensity and cultivated at night. This had allowed Xu Zihuang's Soul Power, already at the peak of Level 22, to naturally break through to Level 23.

"Young Master." Seeing that Xu Zihuang had finished cultivating, Rong Jin hurriedly handed him a bowl of thick, rich meat soup. The Imperial Dragon Soul Mentor Corps Soldiers standing guard around the campfire swiftly gathered as well, gulping down simple dry rations alongside the soup.

Wang Xiao, also holding a bowl of meat soup, came over and sat beside Xu Zihuang. "Young Master, at our normal pace, we should reach the border between the Sun Moon Empire and the Star Luo Empire before dusk today. Then we'll pass directly through the outskirts of the Ming Dou Great Forest and enter the South Sea coast of the Star Luo Empire."

Xu Zihuang nodded calmly. This was the route they had already discussed.

The Ming Dou Great Forest was a Soul Beast Forest located where the southeast of the Sun Moon Empire met the southwest of the Star Luo Empire. Although the Soul Beasts in the Ming Dou Great Forest were far inferior in quality to those in the Star Dou Great Forest, where powerful beings gathered, its Rare Metal mineral veins made it abundant in mutated Soul Beasts. These mutated Soul Beasts were extremely aggressive and loved taking the initiative to attack humans.

For precisely this reason, the Ming Dou Great Forest had become a natural barrier between the Sun Moon Empire and the Star Luo Empire.

However, the twenty-odd people accompanying Xu Zihuang were all elites of the Imperial Dragon Soul Mentor Corps, and the vast majority possessed Soul Power cultivation above Level 60. On top of that, there was Wang Xiao, a top-tier Soul Douluo with Soul Power as high as Level 89, as well as Lin Long, who had just broken through Level 70 and become a Soul Sage. In the Ming Dou Great Forest, there were not many Soul Beasts capable of threatening them.

Everyone had long grown accustomed to military life. Breakfast was quickly dealt with. Not wishing to appear special, Xu Zihuang drained the meat soup in one gulp and took a slender, entirely dark-purple Flying Soul Tool from his Soul Tool.

Wang Xiao had specially prepared it for him. It contained special gemstones and Core Arrays capable of storing and replenishing Soul Power, making it usable even with Xu Zihuang's Soul Grandmaster-level cultivation.

Soon afterward, streaks of brilliant flaming light shot into the clouds. Yet in this remote ancient forest, no one noticed them.

At a cliff along the border between the Sun Moon Empire and the Star Luo Empire.

Caw, caw—

The setting sun was blood-red. Harsh cries swept across the sky as a large flock of fat red-eyed crows swooped down to peck at the rotting corpses on the ground.

From the edge of the cliff, one could see the ravaged town at the foot of the mountain. Charred wood chips gave off thick black smoke.

A girl of around eleven or twelve, her eyes bloodshot, drove away a crow that had caught wind of the scene. Perhaps she had exhausted all her strength. In the end, the girl used her delicate body to shield the raised little mound of earth and began sobbing softly.

"Father was forcibly conscripted to the front. He never came back from the war against the Star Luo Empire. Mother, how could you bear to leave Ju Zi behind too, making Ju Zi a homeless orphan..."

The crow perched on a branch tilted its head from side to side. Acting only on instinct, it hesitated for a moment before finally spreading its thick black wings and following its flock to enjoy this sudden feast.

Ju Zi rose to her feet again, her white dress covered in muddy yellow dirt. Her lively eyes were bloodshot, with large tears rolling down her cheeks. Her long black hair was a complete mess, and the pale calves exposed beneath her dress were crisscrossed with bloody cuts from thorns, making her look especially bedraggled.

Biting down hard on her lower lip, Ju Zi sobbed for a long while. The sorrow in her eyes was gradually drowned by hatred that was almost overflowing.

"War... War destroyed my home! Duke White Tiger Dai Hao! I'll make you pay blood for blood and cut off the lineage of your White Tiger Duke family!"

Just as Ju Zi was immersed in her emotions, more than a dozen figures suddenly emerged from the dense forest nearby. They all wore black armor, with a majestic white-striped tiger head on the left side of their chests.

The middle-aged squad leader at the front lightly touched the bloodstains lingering on a leaf by his feet with his right hand while assessing Ju Zi. "This blood carries the aura of only one person. It isn't from the defeated remnants of the Sun Moon Empire."

At those words, the people behind him could not help cursing their bad luck inwardly. If they had wiped out a defeated remnant force of the Sun Moon Empire, it would have been an enormous merit.

Only one youth among them, who looked no more than fifteen or sixteen, showed no change in expression. He stared venomously at Ju Zi's back.

"Captain, can I handle this person?"

The middle-aged squad leader frowned slightly. Thinking of the youth's past, he did not say much.

A girl from the Sun Moon Empire dying here—who would ever know? In his eyes, tending to his subordinate's emotions was far more important than the life of someone from the Sun Moon Empire. Moreover, this subordinate possessed excellent cultivation talent. There was no need to make him harbor resentment for no reason.

Never underestimate the malice in human nature, but there were also those who held fast to their final bottom line.

Just as the youth was about to step forward, an honest-looking man beside him reached out and stopped him.

"Forget it, Leng Jun. The war between our two nations shouldn't involve civilians."

"Shouldn't involve civilians?!" Leng Jun laughed in fury. "Do you know that the town where I was born was slaughtered by the Sun Moon Empire's army? My parents and older brother all died at the hands of those bastards! Everyone from the Sun Moon Empire deserves to die! Otherwise, why do you think I suddenly dropped out of Star Luo Royal Academy to join the White Tiger Duke's Western Group Army? It was to kill every last one of those bastards!"

With that, he wrenched his arm free from the man's grip and walked toward Ju Zi step by step, his expression icy.

"Hmph." A soft laugh sounded abruptly. Leng Jun turned back angrily toward a thin old man with a lecherous gleam in his eyes and a sleazy expression.

His cultivation was second only to that of their squad leader. Moreover, since he came from Star Luo Royal Academy, he had always disdained these old hands in the Soul Master team, whose cultivation was nearly impossible to advance any further.

"Bei Lao Liu, what do you mean?"

"Little Leng Jun, don't get angry. When it comes to tormenting those bastards from the Sun Moon Empire, I, Bei Lao Liu, am an expert. Give this little girl to me, and I guarantee you'll vent your anger soon enough." Bei Lao Liu gave a sinister smile, his old face carrying a hint of ingratiating flattery.

Leng Jun looked at Bei Lao Liu with contempt and warned coldly, "Put away those filthy thoughts of yours."

Though he was filled with hatred toward the people of the Sun Moon Empire, like the man who had stopped him earlier, he had his own bottom line. Even if that so-called bottom line was rather laughable.

Bei Lao Liu was clearly quite wary of Leng Jun. His eyes shifted, but still unwilling to give up, he added fuel to the fire. "The women in the town where you were born suffered plenty at the hands of those bastards from the Sun Moon Empire. Maybe this little girl's father was one of them. I'm only giving them a taste of their own medicine."

Neither of them deliberately lowered their voices, and Ju Zi had noticed them long ago. Seeing the white-striped tiger heads on their chests, she drove her nails deep into her palms. Especially after hearing Bei Lao Liu insult her father, she could no longer suppress the fury in her heart.

"Did you see it with your own eyes?"

Ju Zi's calm voice carried a faint tremble.

"What?" Leng Jun met Ju Zi's gaze head-on, his breathing catching slightly. In her hatred-filled eyes, he seemed to see a true reflection of himself.

"I'm asking whether you saw my father burn, kill, and loot in your Star Luo Empire with your own eyes?!" Ju Zi roared hoarsely. "My father was only the best cook in this town. His greatest joy was making delicious food for Mother and me. If not for your Star Luo Empire's invasion, Father wouldn't have been forcibly conscripted to the front, and Mother wouldn't have died from overwhelming grief."

Questioned by Ju Zi in this way, everyone fell into thought. Their hearts, numbed by long years of killing, were faintly stirred.

Taking advantage of this, Ju Zi pulled a dagger from her clothes and fiercely stabbed it toward Bei Lao Liu. With the aid of Soul Power, she moved incredibly fast.

"You little beast!" Bei Lao Liu had not expected Ju Zi to possess Soul Power above Level 20. In his panic, he hurriedly released his Martial Soul.

Black fur covered his entire body, and his arms became exceptionally long. Yet only three Soul Rings rose beneath his feet—one white and two yellow.

With a sweep of his ape-like arm, he blocked Ju Zi's thrusting dagger. The immense force was something Ju Zi, a Food System Soul Master, could not withstand. She stumbled backward several steps, missed her footing, and fell off the cliff.

The group snapped back to their senses in an instant. Bei Lao Liu awkwardly avoided Leng Jun's icy gaze and explained sheepishly, "You can't blame me. I just couldn't hold back my strength in time. Anyway, she was from the Sun Moon Empire. So what if she died?"

Before Bei Lao Liu had even finished speaking, a series of sounds like ice crystallizing rang out in succession. The squad leader, who had remained silent all this time, instantly changed expression and shouted, "Stay alert!"

But it was already too late.

Strange dark-red ripples enveloped the entire cliff without warning, and everyone's consciousness blurred at the same time.

The last thing they saw was a golden-eyed youth striding through the air with Ju Zi in his arms. With every step through the void, a wafer-thin Dark Red Crystal, like a mirror, condensed beneath his feet.

Endless fury brewed in his indifferent golden eyes.

Everyone keeps asking about the female lead, so I'll answer it all at once here. This book will have multiple female leads, and Ju Zi is confirmed for now.