At night, moonlight spilled across the empty streets, lending them a chill, desolate air.
Yu Xiaogang and Flender, both wearing black masks, walked beneath the watery moonlight and entered a bar in the marketplace.
The bar stood in stark contrast to the quiet streets outside. Inside, voices roared over one another, and the heavy smell of alcohol and tobacco rushed into their noses, making the newcomers, Yu Xiaogang and Flender, frown.
A huge cage stood in the middle of the bar. Countless patrons crowded around it, shouting wildly. Yu Xiaogang and Flender walked over and saw two Ten-Year Soul Beasts tearing into each other inside the cage. The scene was gruesome.
Yu Xiaogang recognized the beasts at a glance. They were both soul beasts called forest wolves, common throughout Sunset Forest. Now, Soul Masters had captured them to fight for gamblers' entertainment.
"Same old trick as ever."
Flender glanced at the beasts in the cage, unimpressed, and muttered a complaint to Yu Xiaogang beside him.
Yu Xiaogang nodded. Twenty years ago, when the Golden Iron Triangle had traveled the continent, they had visited Sunset Forest. Even back then, this bar had entertained its patrons with beast fights. Twenty years had passed, and nothing had changed.
That was only to be expected. The Imperial Capital was right on its doorstep, and the Imperial Family could easily extend its influence here. The bar still had to maintain a respectable appearance.
But in the taverns of some frontier towns they had visited, the entertainment was far darker than the beast fights before them.
Yu Xiaogang and Flender took only a glance before looking away. Then they walked farther inside and approached the bar.
A provocatively dressed woman greeted them with a smile, her voice dripping with sweetness as it flowed from her red lips.
"What can I get you, handsome? A good drink, or..."
The woman toyed with her hair and thrust out her chest. Her full breasts nearly spilled from her low-cut clothes, exposing a broad expanse of pale skin. A faint perfume drifted through the air, and the softness and allure of her mature figure were on full display.
Yu Xiaogang and Flender weren't taken in by the enchantress before them. After exchanging a glance, Flender took a Gold Soul Coin from his pocket and set it on the bar.
"Take us to the Black Market," Flender said calmly.
The woman had been all smiles at the sight of the Gold Soul Coin, but when Flender mentioned the Black Market, her flirtatious grin faded. She looked Flender and Yu Xiaogang up and down, then pocketed the coin. "Please, follow me."
Yu Xiaogang and Flender rose and followed her behind the bar, into the private room area.
Sensual moans drifted through the doors of the rooms. The woman paid them no mind, leading Yu Xiaogang and Flender farther in, to the room at the far left.
Two men in black stood inside. The woman stepped over and whispered something to them. They nodded, and one of them went to the fireplace and turned a hidden mechanism.
A series of mechanical clicks followed. The fireplace sank slowly, revealing an opening in the wall behind it.
"Please, go ahead!"
The woman gestured toward the opening, then went in first.
Yu Xiaogang and Flender followed her into the tunnel, and the three of them made their way slowly underground.
Torches along the tunnel lit their way. After following the woman down for some twenty or thirty feet, Yu Xiaogang and Flender finally reached the exit.
A natural underground cavern stretched out before them, broad as a football field.
After bringing them to the Black Market, the woman turned back toward the surface. Yu Xiaogang and Flender headed straight ahead, passed a row of stalls, and entered a small black hut at the very back.
An oil lamp was the hut's only source of light. Behind the counter, a stooped old man with graying hair was sorting through slips of paper. When he saw them enter, he immediately set aside his work and looked up.
Soul Power stirred faintly in his narrow eyes. After sizing up the newcomers, a smile suddenly creased his wrinkled face.
"Well, if it isn't Flender, the 'Flying Horn,' and Yu Xiaogang, the 'Wisdom Horn' of the Golden Iron Triangle. What a rare visit. It's been over twenty years, hasn't it?"
Yu Xiaogang and Flender exchanged a glance, their eyes tinged with helplessness.
The old man before them was nicknamed Old Ghost. Rumor had it he had a perfect memory: no one he had ever seen, and nothing he had ever witnessed, could escape his eyes.
"Old Ghost, we came to ask about a few soul beasts: the Thousand-Year Moonlight Wood, the Thousand-Year Thunder Leopard, and the Thousand-Year Thunder Fire Bird."
Yu Xiaogang asked, and Old Ghost furrowed his brow slightly at the names of the three soul beasts. He thought for a long while before his expression relaxed. Then he smiled and said, "It can't be easy, being teachers. You've certainly gone to a lot of trouble to find suitable Soul Rings for your students."
Old Ghost slowly rose from his seat and went to the cabinet behind him. He pulled open a drawer and began searching through it.
After a while, he shut the drawer and returned to the counter. Looking at Yu Xiaogang with a smile, he said, "Only you could've thought of these three soul beasts. They've been sitting here for quite a while. Go give them a try."
With that, he placed three slips of paper on the counter.
"How much?" Yu Xiaogang asked.
"I won't overcharge you. One hundred Gold Soul Coins per slip, so three hundred in total."
Yu Xiaogang and Flender exchanged a glance, then stepped up to the counter.
Flender was about to take out the money when Old Ghost suddenly spoke. "If you're willing to tell me something, I might even give you these three slips for free."
Old Ghost leaned forward slightly, a sly glint in his eyes.
"You've been to Dugu Bo's villa in Sunset Forest, haven't you? How about telling me where it is?"
Flender ignored him and took three bags of Gold Soul Coins from his Soul Tool, placing them on the counter.
Yu Xiaogang took the three slips, and the two of them turned and left the hut without hesitation.
Seeing this, Old Ghost had no choice but to put the three bags of Gold Soul Coins beneath the counter. He sighed. "Everyone's so tight-lipped about their intel. Business is going to get harder and harder."
Early the next morning, the Shrek Group left the hotel and entered Sunset Forest.
Following the information Old Ghost had given them, they chose the nearest location and headed toward a valley to the southwest.
By noon, they had entered the valley. They followed the valley floor onward, and after more than ten minutes, they reached its deepest point.
The ground here was scorched black, with not a blade of grass in sight. In the center stood a single black oil wood tree.
The tree was thick enough for two people to wrap their arms around. Its bark had long since dried and fallen away, leaving an exposed trunk with a lustrous sheen, almost like jade.
The oil wood stood some four or five meters tall. Its crown was enormous and had been shaped into a bird's nest.
A strange bird covered in golden-red feathers suddenly burst from the nest. It was only about one and a half meters long, small in stature but imposing in presence. Red light churned in its eyes, and it looked quite fierce.
This was one of the soul beasts the group had come to find: the Thunder Fire Bird.
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