In desperation, Su Mo used Frog Home. The yellow Soul Ring on his body flashed, and the two instantly vanished before tumbling onto the ground in the alternate space.
Thud!
Feeling her back hit the ground, Xiao Wu thought she was going to die. Yet after waiting a few seconds, she discovered she was still alive.
Aside from a little pain in her back, her body was completely unharmed.
"Huh? I'm still alive?!" Xiao Wu's bewilderment was tinged with delight.
"Ahem... let go!"
Su Mo knocked away Xiao Wu's hand, which was still locked around his throat.
After getting up, he felt no shame whatsoever about using Xiao Wu to cushion his fall. After all, a moment earlier, this fool had nearly gotten him killed.
"Don't celebrate too soon. We're Schrödinger's cat right now, in a superposition of being half-dead and half-alive," Su Mo said, dousing her excitement with cold water.
Xiao Wu didn't understand. "What do you mean?"
"Once we leave this space, we'll reappear in the same spot. When that happens, we'll still inevitably fall."
"Then what do we do?" Xiao Wu immediately panicked.
"What do we do?" Su Mo gave a wicked grin. "Go out, of course!"
With that, he grabbed Xiao Wu by the scruff of her fate and left the alternate space.
The next instant, the two reappeared in midair.
The collapse around them had yet to fully subside. Beneath their feet lay a dark, fathomless cavern, like a gaping maw ready to swallow all light.
"Aaaaaah..."
Xiao Wu squeezed her eyes shut in terror, flailing her limbs wildly as she tried to grab something, only to catch nothing at all.
That only deepened her terror.
She screamed for a while, yet never felt herself falling. Opening her eyes, she discovered that she was still suspended in midair.
She looked toward Su Mo and saw two little wings emerging on his right leg.
It was none other than the Blue Silver Emperor's Soul Bone Skill-Flying over Grass.
"You can fly, and you still scared me?" Xiao Wu looked ready to burst into tears, staring straight at Su Mo with misty eyes.
Unfortunately, Su Mo was a man of steel when it came to romance and ignored her outright.
Seeing that, Xiao Wu bared her teeth at Su Mo. She wanted to get angry, but didn't quite dare.
Her timid little display was rather adorable.
Su Mo took a couple more looks, then prepared to fly upward.
Suddenly, he stopped. Within his Spiritual Detection, a faint pulse of life came from the bottom of the cavern.
Upon probing more closely, he discovered that it was a stalk of blue silver grass.
And its age wasn't low, either.
"Brother Sky Dream, I've shared the hotspot with you. Check how old that stalk of blue silver grass is."
Tian Meng took a look and said, "Two thousand years. It really would make a suitable first ring for the Infinity Gauntlet. Besides, your ultimate wood comes from the Blue Silver Emperor bloodline, so absorbing a blue silver grass Soul Ring might be even better."
"I think so too." Su Mo quite agreed.
Although two thousand years fell short of his Soul Ring absorption limit, that wasn't much of a problem. At worst, he could exchange gratitude for some extra years to make up the difference.
Having made up his mind, Su Mo flew toward the bottom of the cavern.
Upon drawing near, he saw that the blue silver grass was pinned beneath a huge rock, its main stem broken in two. Clearly, it wasn't going to survive.
Su Mo landed at the bottom, set Xiao Wu down, and immediately finished off the blue silver grass.
A purple ring of light slowly emerged.
Xiao Wu showed no discomfort at the sight. After all, strictly speaking, blue silver grass was also on her menu.
Su Mo assigned Tian Meng to keep watch, then followed Tang San's steps.
He sat cross-legged and drew the Soul Ring toward himself.
This was his first time absorbing a Soul Ring like an ordinary Soul Master.
The previous two times, either his frog had forcibly absorbed it or Tian Meng had sacrificed himself. The former had been an awful experience; the latter had ended before he felt much of anything.
The Soul Ring absorption went smoothly.
Su Mo opened his eyes and immediately sensed the effects of his Soul Skill.
"What's the Soul Skill?" Tian Meng was curious too.
"Mm... how should I put it? It's called Wood Element Control. In theory, I can develop any wood-type skill, but developing abilities requires comprehension." Su Mo wasn't sure whether that was a good thing or a bad thing.
Upon hearing that, Tian Meng exclaimed, "You're heading toward the Silver Dragon King's level!"
"As for comprehension, you've got a spiritual Martial Soul. With me helping you, you'll master ultimate spirit sooner or later. Your comprehension will only get stronger."
Hearing that, Su Mo's expression relaxed.
"Oh, right. You're level twenty now, so you can absorb another Soul Ring," Tian Meng reminded him.
Su Mo: "..."
He felt somewhat helpless, not because he was troubled about which Soul Ring to find, but because he didn't know where to hunt a Soul Beast that met his requirements.
With his current physique, his second Soul Ring would have to start at three thousand years at least.
But there were almost none in the Soul Hunting Forest.
Light-type and spiritual-type Soul Beasts were even harder to find.
Yet going to the Star Dou Great Forest was too dangerous, while the Sunset Forest was a little far away.
Was he supposed to absorb a low-age Soul Ring and then use gratitude to increase its age?
Although feasible, that method wasn't cost-effective.
Forget it. I'll take things one step at a time. Su Mo sighed inwardly and was about to call Xiao Wu over to head back, only to find that she was condensing a Soul Ring.
And she had already finished.
A purple Soul Ring slowly rose from beneath her feet.
"Brother, look! I'm a One-Ring Soul Master now too!" The moment Xiao Wu condensed her Soul Ring, she shared the good news with Su Mo.
"What Soul Skill?" Su Mo asked curiously.
Xiao Wu gestured excitedly. "I condensed a two-thousand-four-hundred-year Soul Ring. The Soul Skill is Teleportation. It lets me move instantaneously within a ten-meter radius, and the teleportation distance will gradually increase as I grow stronger."
"Hiss!" Su Mo sucked in a breath upon hearing that.
Does that make sense?
Where's your Waist Bow? Where's your Charm?
Oh! Xiao Wu condensed a thousand-year first ring? Never mind, then.
Once both of them had obtained their first rings, Su Mo prepared to leave the Soul Hunting Forest.
He would put off considering his second Soul Ring for now.
He would see whether his frog could bring him a pleasant surprise.
On the way back, Su Mo and Xiao Wu came face-to-face with two young men. One had long blue-green hair, while the other had short black hair. For some reason, both looked profoundly grief-stricken and resentful.
Upon seeing Su Mo and Xiao Wu, the two young men froze. The grief and resentment on their faces turned to astonishment, then wild joy.
"Sister Xiao Wu?" they said in unison.
Su Mo couldn't help staring blankly. Two young men were calling a six-year-old girl their elder sister?
"Are you Da Ming and Er Ming?"
Xiao Wu examined their auras and asked somewhat uncertainly.
"That's right, it's us! Sister Xiao Wu, thank goodness you're still alive!" The two young men hurried forward, crying rivers of tears and snot.
Su Mo: "???"
Holy fucking shit!
These two are Da Ming and Er Ming?
Have they transformed into humans?
Su Mo didn't think so. They had probably only assumed human forms.
Seriously, running into them here? My luck is rotten.
Is that damned heaven trying to purge me by physical means?
Outwardly, Su Mo remained composed, but he had already quietly activated Frog Home. The moment things looked bad, he would dive into the alternate space.
Naturally, the three beasts were delighted to reunite and lost themselves in conversation.
Da Ming and Er Ming told Xiao Wu how they had painstakingly tracked her from the Star Dou Great Forest to Holy Soul Village, then from Holy Soul Village to Nuoding City, and finally from Nuoding City to the Soul Hunting Forest...
"By the way, Sister Xiao Wu, we sensed your aura on a boy earlier. We thought you'd already been..."
At that point, Er Ming paused. "Huh? Why don't you have a Soul Beast's aura?"