He Was the First

After a short rest, the three of them officially entered the Star Dou Great Forest, the most famous gathering place for Soul Beasts on Douluo Continent.

The moment they stepped into the forest, the light dimmed.

To Xuan Hao, it felt like entering a land of giants.

Back in the little woods beside Lan Yun Village, he had been king of the hill. Even the tallest trees were only a dozen or so meters high, and he could climb them to raid birds' nests.

But here?

Everywhere he looked, towering trees rose into the sky.

Some trunks were so thick that more than a dozen adults would have needed to link arms to encircle them. The trees often stood over a hundred meters tall, their dense canopies overlapping to blot out the sun. Only scattered rays slipped through the gaps, falling like pillars of light.

A thick layer of humus covered the ground, soft beneath his feet. Strange flowers and plants he had never seen grew everywhere, and even the air carried a peculiar scent of rich earth mingled with a faint trace of blood.

Once they were inside, Hu Liena finally regained her confidence as the "senior" of the group.

"Stop looking around. Stay close."

Walking beside Xuan Hao, Hu Liena pointed to a brightly colored vine. "That's a Ghost Face Vine. It may look pretty, but touch it and its thorns will paralyze your nerves in an instant. Then it'll wrap you up like a dumpling and use you as fertilizer."

Xuan Hao drew his neck in and quietly moved a little farther from the vine.

Seeing how little he knew of the world lifted Hu Liena's spirits. As they walked, she began explaining things to him.

"The Star Dou Great Forest is nothing like that little wood near your village. The terrain here is complicated, and with so much Soul Power in the air, plants grow incredibly fast. A path you make today might be sealed off by new shrubs in two days."

"There are no fixed paths here, and no ready-made signs. If a low-level Soul Master gets lost without knowing how to read the terrain and vegetation, he's basically dead. He'll never find his way out."

Xuan Hao listened obediently, nodding now and then.

Bibi Dong walked at the front without joining the conversation.

She held her scepter and appeared to be taking a leisurely stroll, but thorny brambles and obstructing bushes parted on their own when she came within a meter, as though welcoming the Queen.

Before they knew it, noon had arrived.

The deeper they went, the taller the trees grew. From time to time, low beastly roars sounded in the distance.

"Stop here."

Bibi Dong halted beside a huge, relatively flat rock. "The Mixed Zone is just ahead. Hundred-Year Soul Beasts are common there, and Thousand Year Soul Beasts appear occasionally. Rest here first. Eat something and recover your strength."

The walk had not been as exhausting as their earlier hundred-kilometer run, but with no path to follow, they had to push through the undergrowth. That had taken its toll.

Hu Liena sat obediently beside Bibi Dong and took two neat oil-paper packets from her Storage Soul Tool.

Inside lay evenly sliced, dark-red jerky. The meat was almost translucent and gave off faint ripples of Soul Power. An enticing aroma immediately spread through the air.

"This is tendon meat from a hundred-year Black Horned Bull." Bibi Dong picked up a piece and put it in her mouth. "It replenishes stamina and Soul Power quickly. It tastes good, too."

Beside them, Xuan Hao silently pulled something dark and rock-hard from his shabby cloth bundle.

It was the "special Soul Beast jerky" he had bought at the town's general store.

He looked at the fine meat in their hands, fragrant and appetizing, then at the thing in his own hand that resembled a strip of dried bark. The gulf between their worlds had never felt wider.

Crunch.

He bit down hard. His teeth struck the jerky with a sharp crack, as if metal had hit stone.

As he labored over the meat in his mouth—whether it came from a ten-year wild boar or a ten-year stray dog, he had no idea—Xuan Hao sighed inwardly.

When he bought the stuff, the shopkeeper, who had looked every bit the swindler, had offered him some earnest advice:

"Kid, going into the Star Dou Great Forest is no joke. If you want a Soul Ring, pack at least three days' worth of food! That's if you're lucky. If you're picky about your Soul Beast, wandering around in there for ten days or half a month is perfectly normal."

"And you'd better pay to hire a Spirit Hunting Group from town. Sure, it's expensive, but it's safer! Otherwise, even if you're lucky enough to find a Soul Beast, who'll guard you while you absorb the Soul Ring? Any ten-year Wind Wolf could come along and drag you off!"

Remembering that, Xuan Hao gave the rock-hard jerky another vicious bite.

His food might have been lacking, but at least he no longer had to worry about finding someone to guard him.

After all, the finest "Spirit Hunting Group" on the entire continent was sitting right across from him.

"Here."

Hu Liena watched Xuan Hao struggle with that piece of "dried bark," each bite looking like an attempt to gnaw through bone. She couldn't bear it any longer.

She held out her other, still-unopened packet of Black Horned Bull jerky, her eyes carrying a touch of helpless concern.

"Eat this instead. Stop chewing on that thing. My teeth hurt just watching you."

Xuan Hao paused. He glanced at the fragrant packet, and his throat bobbed despite himself.

But he quickly turned his head and stubbornly tore another piece from his own jerky. "No need," he mumbled. "Mine's good. Chewy. Builds strong teeth."

If he accepted food from her now, wouldn't he look pitiful?

"You..." Hu Liena's hand froze in midair. She was torn between irritation and laughter.

This brat would rather suffer than lose face.

She turned to Bibi Dong with a pleading look, as if asking, Teacher, what do I do with this stubborn mule?

Bibi Dong paid no mind to the little exchange. To her, what he ate was unimportant. What mattered was the boy's value.

She wiped her fingertips and looked at Xuan Hao. "Since I'm going to help you hunt for a Soul Ring while we're here, I need to understand your Martial Soul's characteristics first. I sensed yesterday that it was a Dragon Spirit, but I need a closer look to choose the most suitable Soul Beast for you."

"Release your Martial Soul and let me see it."

With serious business at hand, Xuan Hao stopped putting on airs.

He set down the jerky that had nearly broken his teeth, stood, brushed the dirt off his backside, and took a deep breath.

This time, he did not use Martial Soul Possession. He simply stirred the Soul Power within him, drawing out the restless pulse hidden deep in his blood.

Humm—

A low, majestic dragon's cry suddenly rang through the forest. It was not loud, yet it seemed to pierce straight into the soul, silencing the insects that had been chirping all around them.

Then a brilliant golden light rose behind Xuan Hao.

The light gathered into an enormous phantom above his head.

It was a Giant Dragon, golden from head to tail. Every scale looked forged from the purest gold and gave an impression of unbreakable strength.

Its body was thick, its limbs impossibly powerful, and its claws were especially sharp and heavy, as though one light squeeze could crush space itself.

What washed over them was no elemental aura. It was an overwhelming sense of absolute, pure, suffocating strength.

"This..." Bibi Dong's pupils contracted sharply. She could not hide her shock.

"A Golden Dragon?!"

"A Golden Dragon?" Hu Liena looked puzzled. "Teacher, what kind of dragon is that? Is it stronger than the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon?"

Bibi Dong stared at the phantom behind Xuan Hao. Only after a long moment did she slowly let out a breath, her expression deeply conflicted.

"The Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon? Before the Golden Dragon, even it would have to bow its head."

"The Golden Dragon is the legendary Ancestor of Strength. It commands strength at its very limit and is even connected to the Dragon God, who once ruled this world."

"I thought it was only a legend, or that it had died out completely in ancient times."

"But Teacher," Hu Liena asked, "even if it's a top-tier Martial Soul, why are you so surprised? Your Death Spider Emperor is a top-tier imperial Martial Soul too."

"Nana, you don't understand." Bibi Dong shook her head.

"According to theory in the Spirit Master World, some exceptionally powerful Soul Beasts cannot appear directly as human Martial Souls."

"For example, the nearly extinct Ancient True Dragons, or a top-tier Ferocious Beast like the Dark Gold Dreadclaw Bear."

Hu Liena blinked. "Why?"

"Because the human body is too fragile," Bibi Dong explained. "A Martial Soul and its host are one. The stronger a Beast Spirit is, the more it demands of its host's body. Creatures at the top of the food chain, like the Golden Dragon and the Dark Gold Dreadclaw Bear, have bloodlines that are far too fierce and violent."

"If a human awakened such a Martial Soul, even the brief surge of Soul Power during awakening would be enough to destroy that fragile body. The person might even burst apart and die."

"So in theory, a human cannot possess a Golden Dragon as a Martial Soul."

"At least, there has never been a recorded case in the history of Soul Masters on Douluo Continent."

"He is the first."

Hu Liena stared at Xuan Hao as though she were examining an ancient Ferocious Beast wearing human skin.

"No wonder you ran for so long without even getting out of breath..."

"So you're not human at all... No, wait, I mean your Martial Soul isn't human... That's not right either. Anyway, you're a monster!"