Traces of Soul Beasts

Spirit City, Papal Palace.

A suffocatingly low pressure shrouded the entire hall, as though even the dust in the air had frozen in fear.

"Bang!"

A deafening crash echoed through the hall—the sound of a scepter striking the floor heavily.

"Trash!"

Bibi Dong stood atop the high steps, looking down at Chrysanthemum Douluo Yue Guan, who knelt below and trembled violently. Two cold flames of fury burned in her eyes.

"I told you to protect them in secret. Is this how you protected them?!"

"Four Soul Grandmasters barely over level twenty, facing a Beast Tide numbering in the thousands! If Xuan Hao, that mad brat, hadn't risked his life to activate his Golden Dragon Body and hold them off, buying the others time to escape, Spirit Hall would have lost an entire generation of promising talents!"

"Yue Guan, have you gotten too comfortable in your position as an Elder? Do you want to go to the Punishment Tribunal and have your hide loosened up?!"

Cold sweat dripped from Yue Guan's forehead like rain. He did not even dare raise his head as he trembled and defended himself.

"Please calm your anger, Your Excellency! This subordinate... this subordinate truly had his reasons!"

"At the time, Xuan Hao was absorbing a Soul Ring. This subordinate had already driven away all the thousand-year Soul Beasts within several kilometers, ensuring absolute safety. The reason I left... was because I sensed an extremely unusual aura!"

"An unusual aura?" Bibi Dong sneered. "That is your excuse for abandoning your post?"

"It... it was the aura of a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast!" Yue Guan said urgently. "And not the aura of a mature Hundred-Thousand-Year overlord. That aura was exceedingly faint, yet terrifyingly pure. It was like... like a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast that had only recently taken human form, or one in an extremely weakened state!"

The anger Bibi Dong had been about to unleash abruptly stalled. Her brows knitted tightly. "How could there be a transformed Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast in the Mixed Zone? Are you certain you did not sense it wrongly?"

"This subordinate would guarantee it with my life! There can be no mistake!" Yue Guan raised his head, his eyes filled with certainty. "Does Your Excellency remember back then... when we hunted Tang Hao and that transformed Hundred-Thousand-Year Blue Silver Emperor?"

"After that Blue Silver Emperor gave birth, her body was extremely weak and she could not completely conceal her aura. The unique fluctuations of her essence that leaked out... were exactly the same as what this subordinate sensed in the Star Dou Great Forest this time!"

"This subordinate thought that since that Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast dared appear in the Mixed Zone, it must have only recently transformed and would be frail. If we could capture it and offer it to Your Excellency, that would be a tremendous achievement!"

Upon hearing this, some of the anger in Bibi Dong's eyes faded, replaced by a deep, sharp gleam.

A Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast that had only recently transformed...

That meant she could obtain a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Ring, as well as a guaranteed Hundred Thousand Year Soul Bone, without expending much effort!

For her, who was at a critical stage in cultivating her Twin Martial Souls, the temptation was simply too great.

"So..."

Bibi Dong stared at Yue Guan and asked in a faint voice, "Did you capture that Soul Beast?"

Yue Guan's body instantly stiffened.

His facial expression was even uglier than crying.

"This subordinate... this subordinate had already locked onto its approximate location and felt that I was very close. But... but at that very moment, a Beast Tide suddenly erupted on Xuan Hao's side."

"This subordinate did not dare delay any longer and could only abandon the search and rush back to save them... and then..."

"..."

Bibi Dong took a deep breath and closed her eyes, her knuckles turning white from how tightly she clenched her fingers.

In other words, they had failed to catch the Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast. The cooked duck had flown away.

And Spirit Hall's four geniuses had nearly been wiped out because of this, especially Xuan Hao, who was still lying unconscious in bed.

What a... double loss!

"Good... very good." Bibi Dong laughed in extreme anger. "Yue Guan, you have truly given me a great surprise."

Yue Guan shuddered from head to toe, lying prone on the floor without daring to even breathe loudly.

Yet the thunderous punishment he had expected did not descend.

Bibi Dong remained silent for a long while before slowly opening her eyes.

Since it had been confirmed to be a transformed Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast, it could not have gone too far, much less recovered to its peak in such a short time.

"We will put this matter on record for now," Bibi Dong said coldly. "Since you discovered the clue, you will be the one to finish this."

"Take Ghostly Shadow with you immediately. The two of you will make another trip to the Star Dou Great Forest. Search carefully around that area for me!"

"Remember, do not make a spectacle of it, do not alert the enemy, and do not disturb the two Forest Kings in the Core Zone. Search in secret. The moment you find any trace, report back immediately!"

"Yes! This subordinate will go at once!" Yue Guan was As If Pardoned. Not daring to linger, he scrambled and crawled out of the hall.

After dealing with Yue Guan, Bibi Dong rubbed her brow, reined in the killing intent around her, and turned toward the rear of the Papal Palace.

A faint scent of Medicinal Herbs filled Xuan Hao's room.

The room was warmly furnished. The window stood half-open, and a breeze stirred the white gauze curtains.

Xuan Hao lay quietly on the bed. Though his face was still somewhat pale, his breathing had become much steadier. He wore clean sleepwear, tucked tightly beneath the blankets, with only his delicate little face exposed.

At the bedside, Hu Liena was slumped over, her eyes swollen like rotten peaches from crying. She tightly clutched one of Xuan Hao's hands and sniffled from time to time.

Hearing footsteps, Hu Liena lifted her head. When she saw Bibi Dong enter, her tears burst forth once more.

"Teacher..." Hu Liena called out in a tearful, hoarse voice. "It's all my fault... If he hadn't tried to save us, Junior Martial Brother wouldn't have..."

Bibi Dong walked to the bedside. Looking at Hu Liena's guilt-ridden face, she let out a soft sigh and reached out to stroke her hair.

"Enough, stop crying. If you keep crying, you'll go blind."

Bibi Dong's voice was unusually gentle. "Didn't the healing-type soul masters already examine him? That brat's tough as nails."

She extended two fingers and rested them on Xuan Hao's wrist, sensing his condition briefly.

"The Golden Dragon Martial Soul gave him a physique and recovery ability far beyond ordinary people. Though several ribs are broken and his internal organs suffered some shock, none of it damaged his foundation."

Bibi Dong tucked the blanket around Xuan Hao, gazing at his face, which retained a trace of stubbornness even in sleep. A complicated emotion flickered through her eyes.

"Let him sleep well. After another two days of rest, this little troublemaker will be up and about again, collecting his Protection Fee."

Early morning, two days later.

Sunlight streamed through the window lattice into the room, and the air was filled with the faint, elegant fragrance of calming incense.

Xuan Hao struggled to open his heavy eyelids. The first thing he saw was Bibi Dong's breathtakingly beautiful face—still cool and aloof, yet unable to conceal her concern.

On the other side of the bed, Hu Liena was slumped against the bedside, breathing steadily. She had clearly kept watch for too long and only fallen asleep after she could no longer endure it.

"Awake?"

Seeing Xuan Hao open his eyes, Bibi Dong set down the book in her hands. Her voice was unusually soft. "How do you feel? Does it still hurt?"

Xuan Hao shifted slightly. His bones still ached faintly, but the tearing agony had subsided considerably.

"I'm alright..." Xuan Hao's voice was somewhat hoarse. "My head's just a little dizzy."

"That's the aftermath of Spiritual Power exhaustion. Lie still." Bibi Dong reached out and tucked in his blanket.

Just then, hurried yet soft footsteps sounded outside the hall.

"Come in," Bibi Dong said flatly without turning around.

The hall doors opened, and Yue Guan strode in. He glanced at Xuan Hao lying in bed and Hu Liena asleep beside him, his expression hesitant as though he wanted to speak but held back.

"Your Excellency, um..."

"Speak directly." Bibi Dong cut him off. "There are no outsiders here. Nothing is off-limits."

"Yes." Yue Guan bowed, then said gravely, "Your Excellency, I conducted a thorough search deep within that Mixed Zone. Although I failed to capture the target, I... found this beside a concealed pool not far from the center of the Beast Tide's outbreak."

As he spoke, Yue Guan took several bloodstained scraps of cloth from his Soul Tool.

The material and color of the cloth were unmistakably identical to the clothes Xuan Hao had worn that day.

"I found these scraps there, and there were obvious signs that the surroundings had been deliberately cleared." Yue Guan lowered his voice. "That location was precisely where the aura of that Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast was the strongest."

At those words, Bibi Dong's hand, which had been arranging Xuan Hao's blanket, abruptly froze.

She slowly turned her head toward Xuan Hao.

Under the impact of a Beast Tide of that scale, a level-twenty Soul Grandmaster—even with the Golden Dragon Body protecting him—would have been lucky to leave behind an intact corpse.

Yet Xuan Hao had not only survived, but had even given himself some basic bandaging before walking out to the outskirts, where Yue Guan found him.

What had happened during that blank stretch of time?