"Hm?" Yue Guan let out a barely audible sound of surprise.
"What is it?" Gui Mei's voice was low and direct, as though it had come from the depths of the underworld.
Yue Guan didn't answer at once. His gaze was nailed to the thicket, while the petals of the golden chrysanthemum at his fingertips stirred without a breeze, giving off an even subtler probing ripple.
Several breaths later, he slowly shook his head. "Strange... I thought I sensed an extremely faint, discordant ripple in space just now, coming from that direction."
"But it's gone now. It might have been a residual fluctuation caused by the Black Armored Lion's Soul Power scattering as it died, or a natural phenomenon from some unusual plants in this forest."
Though he said that, he kept his gaze on that patch of forest far longer than on any other.
In the thicket, Yu Tiancheng felt as though even his blood had frozen.
At that moment, after maintaining his concealment at its limit for so long, his nerves had been stretched taut. A tiny hitch had appeared in the cycle of Soul Power within his body, so slight that even he had barely noticed it.
That hitch seemed to have triggered an instinctive response from his Time Dragon Emperor Martial Soul, producing an incredibly faint spatial ripple that vanished in an instant.
Damn it. It was my Martial Soul reacting on instinct. He cursed inwardly and tried even harder to suppress everything, emptying his mind as much as possible.
About half an hour later, Soul Power surged around Xie Yue, then gradually settled.
He opened his eyes, their brilliance shining, and slowly rose to his feet.
A deep black Soul Ring pulsed beneath him—his fifth Soul Ring. He had successfully absorbed it!
"Congratulations, brother!" Hu Liena smiled brightly, her expression radiant.
Yet just as she finished speaking, her own body gave a slight shudder.
A richer, more vigorous feeling of Soul Power surged without warning from deep within her, instantly spreading through her limbs.
The invisible barrier that had troubled her for so long, separating level forty-nine from level fifty, melted away without a sound at that very moment—as her brother successfully absorbed a Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring, and just as she was feeling her most relaxed and joyful.
Thanks to the training she had undergone in the forest over the past two days, as well as the subtle benefits brought by the diary, she had finally reached the threshold of level fifty.
"Hm?" The sudden, unmistakable sensation of a breakthrough caught Hu Liena by surprise. Then an even brighter smile bloomed across her beautiful face.
She could clearly feel that her Soul Power Level had firmly reached level fifty. All she needed was a Soul Ring, and she would truly become a Soul King!
Xie Yue immediately noticed the obvious change in his sister's aura. Surprise and genuine delight appeared on his usually stern face. "Nana, you..."
Hu Liena nodded with a smile.
Yan's eyes widened, then he let out an excited cry. "Nana, you broke through too? That's wonderful!"
Even Chrysanthemum Douluo Yue Guan and Ghost Douluo Gui Mei, who had been standing guard, turned their attention to her.
Approval flashed in Yue Guan's narrow eyes. "Not bad. You felt the breakthrough coming, and it happened naturally. It seems this trip to the forest has brought you quite a harvest."
The figure cloaked in black nodded slightly, acknowledging her achievement.
Xie Yue felt the power surging through him, now several times greater than before, and saw that his sister had broken through as well. A satisfied expression appeared on his stern face, and he nodded. Today had brought them two reasons to celebrate.
"The mission is complete, and Nana has successfully broken through. We shouldn't stay here. Let's go elsewhere and find a suitable Soul Ring for her," Chrysanthemum Douluo Yue Guan said calmly, shifting his gaze away.
The five of them began tidying up the area before preparing to leave.
Hidden nearby, Yu Tiancheng breathed a sigh of relief and planned to wait until they were gone before moving.
But just then, Hu Liena, fresh from her breakthrough, suddenly stopped. Her brows knitted slightly as she seemed to focus on sensing something.
After breaking through, her Spiritual Power seemed sharper, and her awareness of her surroundings had risen to a new level.
Then she lifted her head and let her gaze pass, seemingly casually, over the spot where Yu Tiancheng was hiding. There was a newly awakened Soul King's distinctly sharper sense of perception in her eyes.
"Nana, what's wrong? Is your Soul Power unstable after the breakthrough?" Yan asked with concern.
"No, it's stable."
Hu Liena spoke softly, her voice tinged with uncertainty. "It's just that my Spiritual Power was especially active at the moment I broke through. I thought I sensed another 'gaze' in this forest besides ours. It was faint, and it came from that direction."
She pointed once more toward Yu Tiancheng's hiding place.
Chrysanthemum Douluo Yue Guan and Ghost Douluo Gui Mei exchanged a glance. Their senses unfurled at once, sharper and more powerful than before, spreading like an invisible net over the surrounding area for several hundred meters, with particular attention to the place Hu Liena indicated.
Yu Tiancheng held his breath, curled up in the thicket, and nearly stopped his heart from beating.
A Spirit Master's senses were often unusually sharp right after a breakthrough. He hadn't expected Hu Liena to break through at that moment, much less for the resulting boost to her Spiritual Power to let her pick up on that almost nonexistent feeling of wrongness again.
He felt two sharper, more precise waves of perception sweep over him—once, twice, three times...
Time seemed to freeze.
Just as Yu Tiancheng's heart leapt into his throat and he thought there was no way out, Chrysanthemum Douluo Yue Guan suddenly withdrew his senses.
"I can't detect any clear signs of life or fluctuations in Soul Power," Yue Guan said slowly, though his gaze remained sharp as it swept over the area. "But Nana has just broken through, and her senses are sharper than usual. Her feeling may not have come from nowhere."
"It may be some weak Spirit Beast skilled at hiding, or... something strange about the forest itself. Whatever it is, it bears no ill will—or it has already left."
He offered a fairly reasonable explanation, respecting Hu Liena's instincts while making a judgment based on what he had detected.
After all, to his senses, the area was almost suspiciously "clean," yet he had found no concrete evidence.
Hu Liena took one more long look at the spot where Yu Tiancheng was hiding. The doubt remained in her eyes, but she knew that if even the two Elders hadn't found anything, there was no point in pressing the matter.
She finally nodded. "Maybe. I was probably being too sensitive."
The five of them didn't linger. They turned and left, soon disappearing into the depths of the forest.
Yu Tiancheng waited another fifteen minutes. Only after confirming they had truly gone did he silently let out a long breath. He was nearly limp with relief.
Cold sweat had soaked through his undershirt and clung to his skin, leaving him chilled.
"That was way too close. Hu Liena actually broke through right there? What luck..."
Fear still gripped him, and Hu Liena's keen senses unnerved him.
"The boost to her senses from breaking through, combined with her already strong Spiritual Power, nearly got me caught. A Titled Douluo's probing and her instincts together—that's a deadly combination."
After resting for a while and making sure the area was safe, Yu Tiancheng sank his awareness deep into his mind and touched the black diary floating there.
What had happened today was too important not to record.
[Today was thrilling. I nearly lost my life in the Star Dou Great Forest]
The moment the words appeared, everyone who possessed a Diary Copy saw them appear in their minds at the same time, no matter where they were.
[First, I watched from afar as Shrek and Meng Yiran fought over the classic Phoenix-tail Crested Serpent]
[Meng Yiran really wouldn't back down, but unfortunately, she ran into the cheat-code king Tang San]
[She looked my way at the end. I nearly got caught]
Elsewhere in the forest, at Shrek Academy's camp.
As they stood guard beside Oscar, who was absorbing his Soul Ring, Ning Rongrong, Xiao Wu, and Zhu Zhuqing all shuddered at once.
What? Yu Tiancheng had been watching them just now?
Waves of shock rose in all three of their hearts, but they tacitly kept quiet. They only glanced around before burying their surprise and confusion.
At the Peerless Dragon Snake's temporary camp.
Meng Yiran had just reunited with Dragon Duke Meng Shu and was sulkily recounting the earlier fight when the diary entry suddenly appeared in her mind. Her violet eyes flew wide open.
"So it was him!" She nearly blurted it out, but immediately forced herself to hold back, her fingers tightening around her Serpent Cane without her realizing it.
No wonder she'd kept feeling watched. That guy had been nearby the whole time.
I knew a woman's sixth sense couldn't be wrong.
A complicated feeling welled up in her—annoyance at having been secretly watched, satisfaction at having her suspicion confirmed, and even more curiosity about that mysterious young man.
The diary continued to appear:
[That was the least of it]
[I actually ran into Hu Liena and the Golden Generation hunting in the Star Dou Great Forest]
[If it had only been the Golden Generation, that would have been one thing, but Chrysanthemum Douluo and Ghost Douluo were there too]
[Two Titled Douluo guarding the hunt for a single Ten Thousand Year Spirit Beast? That was ridiculously extravagant]
[Bibi Dong really spoils them]
Deep inside Pope's Palace in Spirit City.
Bibi Dong sat with her eyes closed on an ornate throne.
Her long eyelashes quivered slightly, and the corners of her beautiful lips lifted in a nearly imperceptible smile.
Spoils them? She silently repeated the words, a complicated, hard-to-read emotion passing through the depths of her eyes.
The diary continued:
[After seeing how skillfully they fought that Ten Thousand Year Spirit Beast, I didn't dare get involved]
[With two Titled Douluo nearby, I didn't want to stay a second longer]
[But Titled Douluo are the most powerful fighters on the continent]
[Just the Spirit Scan they released while standing guard was enough to make my life difficult]
[They were finally about to leave, and then Hu Liena had to make trouble]
[She insisted something was strange on my side, and they hit me with another wave of Spirit Scan]
[Thank goodness my cloak is powerful and I got lucky. They didn't find me, or today would've been my last day]
[Diary entry complete]
[Rewards will be settled together at midnight tomorrow]
After finishing the diary, Yu Tiancheng withdrew his awareness from it and let out a long breath.
Turning his frightening experience into words seemed to ease some of the tension in his heart.
He began planning his next move. After that close call, he decided not to venture farther into the forest for now, and instead to search for a suitable Spirit Beast near the edge of the Mixed Zone.
Safety came first.
Before you continue