"Shady Merchant" Flender

The Hou Beast secretly glanced at Nan Li, looking utterly aggrieved. Those were its own horns—it naturally wanted them back! But it did not dare ask for them.

Forget it. They would grow back eventually anyway.

Nan Li toyed with the Cloud-Swallowing Fire Howl's Inner Core, casually watching the fire howl put on a long-suffering expression. Eventually? There probably would be no eventually!

The fire howl let out two cautious roars. As it shook its head and stared at the bead in Nan Li's hand, it pretended to be obedient and edged closer to her.

"Want it?" Nan Li casually tossed the blood bead up, caught it, tossed it again, caught it again...

The Hou Beast kept its eyes fixed tightly on the blood bead, terrified that something might happen to its treasure. After all, the Inner Core contained most of its cultivation!

Nan Li merely sneered and raised her dagger again before the Cloud-Swallowing Fire Howl's shocked gaze.

"Hiss—" A reddish-brown head poked out from the edge of the sandy crater.

In an instant, three pairs of eyes and eight pupils turned toward it at once.

"It's that Mane Lion Lizard from before." Seeing that the newcomer posed no threat, Dan Hong spoke rather casually.

Retracting her gaze, the Cloud-Swallowing Fire Howl met those Double Pupils once more.

Cold and dangerous.

Alarm bells blared in the Cloud-Swallowing Fire Howl's mind.

Nan Li said blandly, "It's useless, and I can't afford to keep it. Killing it saves trouble."

Dan Hong was slightly surprised, but as she recalled the Holy Land's records on Hou Beasts, she quickly remembered a line: Hou Beasts, though small in stature, can battle dragons, and upon victory, devour them... They resemble dogs and eat humans!

The small stature mentioned here was relative to dragons; it did not mean Hou Beasts were actually small. But that was not the important part. The important part was that this thing ate dragons—and people!

Creatures known as "dragons" were rare in the Star Dou Great Forest. Didn't that mean the Hou Beast could only eat humans? If they let it go, wouldn't the humans living near the great forest—especially ordinary people without Soul Power—suffer terribly?

While Dan Hong was still thinking, Nan Li had already opened her lowered eyes. With a flick of her wrist, the blade fell, sending the Hou Beast to heaven.

The Cloud-Swallowing Fire Howl unwillingly widened its eyes. Scalding blood gushed forth like fireworks celebrating victory and slaughter.

A faint hiss came from the edge of the sandy crater. Nan Li wrapped a Golden Feather in Companion Flame. She did not even need to throw it; the Double Pupils merely glanced toward the sound, and the Golden Feather shot precisely toward its source under the flames' control.

After a brief shriek, the Mane Lion Lizard's enormous body fell from the edge of the stone wall. The Golden Feather slowly flew back, scattering droplets of blood across the ground.

In the Star Dou Great Forest, scenes of the strong devouring the weak played out every day. It was nothing unusual for two violent Soul Beasts of the fire attribute to fight fiercely until they perished together.

And the human Soul Masters passing through became the final victors.

What a perfect script.

"That Mane Lion Lizard has cultivation of over ten thousand years. Your Soul Power progresses slowly, so its Soul Ring is perfect for you to refine and absorb." As the Soul Bone sank into her body, Nan Li turned her hand over and condensed Companion Flame, passing it to Dan Hong.

Then Nan Li leisurely folded her arms and looked at Dan Hong. "I can't exactly meet a school's graduation requirements every single time I enroll, can I? That would be so embarrassing."

As sunset gave way to moonrise, the stars faded before Yun Zhao.

A day and a night passed. With Nan Li's help, Dan Hong successfully refined and absorbed the Mane Lion Lizard's ten-thousand-year Soul Ring.

This was also thanks to the improvement in Nan Li's Soul Power cultivation and the purity of her flames after she absorbed the Chongming Bird Head Soul Bone. Only then could Dan Hong refine this ten-thousand-year Soul Ring.

Unfortunately, since neither of them had attempted to refine a ten-thousand-year Soul Ring before, Dan Hong absorbed only sixty to seventy percent of the power contained within the Mane Lion Lizard's Soul Ring. The rest dispersed back into heaven and earth.

Still, sixty to seventy percent of a ten-thousand-year Soul Ring's Soul Power was equal to one or two years of Dan Hong's cultivation.

As Jiang E Li put it, Dan Hong was a textbook case of someone with uneven talents.

She truly was gifted at making medicine, and her cultivation truly was slow.

Although Qian Renxue possessed innately full level-twenty Soul Power, she had spent years undercover in Heaven Dou, busy with worldly affairs in enemy territory and neglecting her cultivation. She was likely at the peak of the Soul King Realm now and would advance to Soul Emperor before long.

After Soul Beasts transformed into humans, their Soul Power progressed much faster than that of human Soul Masters. Dan Hong was about the same age as Qian Renxue, so ordinarily, their Soul Power cultivation should have been roughly equal. Yet that was not the case.

When Qian Renxue first went to Nuoding Junior Soul Master Academy, she had already been in the Soul King Realm for quite some time. Dan Hong, meanwhile, took another half year before condensing her fifth Soul Ring. Now, Qian Renxue had one foot in the Soul Emperor Realm, while Dan Hong had only just reached level fifty-five—and that was after refining the Mane Lion Lizard's Soul Ring.

Qian Renxue and Dan Hong were both around ten years older than Nan Li. At this rate, Dan Hong would only barely reach the Soul Emperor Realm before the Continental Advanced Soul Master Academy Elite Tournament.

"Now that this is settled, we should leave the Star Dou Great Forest as soon as possible and head to Shrek Academy." Seeing that Dan Hong was in fairly good condition, Nan Li immediately decided to depart. They had already delayed here for nearly two days.

Dan Hong nodded in agreement. After activating Martial Soul Possession, the two continued flying toward Suotuo City.

Several days later, Suotuo City, Balak Kingdom.

Two red-haired women stood outside a shop with an unusual round sign hanging above it.

To make traveling easier, Nan Li had neatly tied her scarlet hair into a ponytail, while Dan Hong had pinned her smooth long hair into a bun with a long hairpin.

"Is this a shop that sells items needed by Soul Masters?" Dan Hong looked up at the emblem identical to the one on Spirit Hall's token and casually asked.

"Want to take a look?" Seeing that she was interested, Nan Li walked into the shop.

The door was open, and the inside was somewhat dim. Yet the moment they entered, both women sensed the Soul Power fluctuations unique to Soul Tools.

The shop's layout was very casual. There was no counter, only a middle-aged man reclining in a wooden lounge chair and assorted objects casually hung across three walls.

But both Nan Li and Dan Hong knew that among those old, worthless-looking objects on the walls, some were Soul Tools rare even in the world of Soul Masters. The rest could hardly be ordinary items either.

Within the Sea of Consciousness, Jiang E Li covertly examined the middle-aged man in the lounge chair and revealed a strange expression.

Jiang E Li looked at the pair of square black-rimmed glasses perched on the man's hooked nose, then recalled the round sign outside. This was Suotuo City, too... Mm, it had to be Flender.

"Nan Li, this man is probably Flender, the headmaster of Shrek Academy. Be careful—Flender is a money-grubber. When it comes to business, he's an absolute unscrupulous profiteer..."

Nan Li had just marveled at the coincidence when Jiang E Li's next words left her speechless.

Shrek Academy was not even a proper academy to begin with. Could it really be so poor that it could barely afford to eat?