The Star Dou Great Forest.
The slightly awkward atmosphere had persisted until now, growing stranger still as Ning Tian absorbed her third Soul Ring.
Aoyao and Wu Feng stared at each other, neither saying a word. They stood on opposite sides, keeping Ning Tian, who was absorbing her Soul Ring, loosely guarded between them.
Aoyao simply saw that Wu Feng had a poor attitude toward him and did not want to invite more trouble by speaking, while Wu Feng's feelings were far more complicated.
The Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Clan stood at the border between Heaven Dou City and the Lima Plain in the Heaven Dou Empire, not far from the Star Dou Great Forest. Traveling in a soul-powered carriage drawn by four hundred-year horned qilin horses, they had taken only two days to reach the forest's outer region.
Over those two days, Wu Feng's name had also appeared several times in Aoyao's diary, earning her two levels of soul power as a reward.
Compared with Ning Tian's rewards, a two-level increase in soul power seemed unremarkable, but Wu Feng was still very satisfied-with those two levels, her soul power level had now reached twenty-six. She was another step closer to becoming a three-ring Power Attack System Soul Elder, and another step closer to her goal of always staying beside Little Tian to protect her.
So Wu Feng was actually quite grateful to Aoyao.
It was just that...
Over those two days, she could clearly sense that Ning Tian's attitude toward Aoyao was unusual, even bordering on overly intimate.
Especially when they hunted a soul beast: Aoyao had drawn a strange flexible sword from his Soul Tool and driven the beast back with a single casual thrust, helping Ning Tian successfully kill it.
Afterward, a few unmistakable traces of affection had appeared in Ning Tian's eyes.
Wu Feng had seen them perfectly clearly.
That had immediately stirred a sense of crisis in her heart... yet she was powerless to do anything, forced to watch it all unfold.
It was an awful feeling.
Aoyao had not noticed Wu Feng's complicated feelings at all, much less realized that she had already dreamed up an entire cuckold drama in her head. At that moment, he was looking around at the Star Dou Great Forest.
[This is my first time coming to the Star Dou Great Forest in all my life. The largest gathering place for soul beasts outside the oceans really is huge... the only bit of bad luck was finding a soul beast suitable for Ning Tian too early. Now that I've helped Ning Tian finish absorbing her Soul Ring, what excuse can I come up with to stay here next...?]
[What a headache!]
[Speaking of which, the Star Dou Great Forest is so big. Where am I supposed to find Huo Yuhao? Just thinking about that brat Huo Yuhao getting Electrolux's divine consciousness fragment keeps me awake at night!]
[Looks like I can only try my luck...]
[Still, why does this forest keep feeling so creepy? It's like there's a pair of sleazy eyes spying on me from the shadows... don't tell me I've caught the attention of that bastard Tang San?]
[That makes no sense! After writing in the diary for several days straight, I've already received the Heavenly Secrets Concealment reward. The reward explicitly told me it could conceal me from Tang San's senses...]
[So... who exactly is spying on me from the shadows?]
As Aoyao wrote in his diary, he pondered the matter.
Logically, the hidden observer should have been an expert from the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Clan responsible for protecting Ning Tian. After all, Ning Tian was the clan's heir. Even if this was meant to give her experience, they could hardly be so careless as to believe that Wu Feng, with only two rings, and he, with ostensibly only level-ten soul power, could successfully carry out the hunt.
Someone had to be protecting them from the shadows.
Yet Aoyao kept feeling that something was off, with an indescribable sensation lingering in his heart.
If these were people from the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Clan assigned to protect Ning Tian, their attention should have been focused more on her than on him.
Could his little display just now have alerted those hidden observers to something unusual?
Connecting this with Sect Master Ning's sudden visit and decision to have him accompany Ning Tian to Shrek Academy, Aoyao immediately understood.
[I get it!]
[The strange phenomenon at the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Clan that day must have aroused Sect Master Ning's suspicions, and that sword strike just now confirmed them...]
[In that case, it looks like there's no need for me to keep playing the pig to eat the tiger... the rewards I've received these past few days really won't let me keep a low profile anymore!]
[Then, from this moment onward, the Saint of Lying Low is dead! Taking the stage next is "I don't eat beef"!]
Noticing the words appearing in the diary, Wu Feng turned to glance at Aoyao, her gaze growing even more complicated.
Gu Yuena's expression immediately turned strange.
Could the sleazy eyes Aoyao had mentioned in his diary belong to Di Tian?
She had instructed Di Tian to keep a constant watch on the humans entering the Star Dou Great Forest. Based on the information about Ning Tian and Wu Feng that Aoyao had mentioned in his diary, Di Tian had locked onto the three of them the moment they entered the forest.
Their every move had been under Di Tian's gaze all along.
To think that fellow Aoyao could actually sense Di Tian watching him...
Gu Yuena felt a sudden jolt of alarm, but then found it rather amusing.
If Di Tian learned that Aoyao had described him as "sleazy," he would probably make the fellow pay a painful price, wouldn't he?
Of course, she could only entertain that thought.
No, she could not even entertain it.
Bound by the diary's restrictions, Gu Yuena could not reveal its existence to Di Tian, much less tell him what Aoyao had said.
If she said it aloud, the diary would probably immediately judge it as inciting Di Tian to attack Aoyao... in her current condition, she could not withstand another punishment from the diary.
Besides...
The guesses this human named Aoyao made afterward were genuinely amusing to Gu Yuena.
His reasoning was completely wrong, and naturally, his conclusion was completely wrong too.
It seemed this human was not omniscient and omnipotent after all.
And he even said the help of us soul beasts wasn't worth mentioning...
At that thought, Gu Yuena's mood immediately brightened considerably.
The Three-Eyed Golden Lion lazily raised her little head. Noticing that her lord's mood had inexplicably improved, she showed little reaction, simply lowering her head again and continuing her nap.
She was already used to it.
Ever since that diary appeared and she came to her lord's dwelling, she had grown accustomed to her lord's mercurial moods.
Her lord's emotions seemed to be swayed frequently by the diary's contents.
A beastie like her, who understood only bits and pieces of most of the diary's contents-or none of it at all-simply could not understand why her lord's emotions changed so much.
Hmm...
Better to sleep.
Here with her lord, there seemed to be little else for her to do besides sleep.
Before you continue