Journey to Sunset Forest

Over the next while, Flender, Dumbledore, and Samuel Oak discussed each other's worlds for a bit longer before going their separate ways.

After all, it was already late at night, and they each had all kinds of things to do tomorrow.

Needless to say, Flender had to obtain his seventh Spirit Ring. Because of his Martial Soul Avatar Bone Armor, he had decided to push past the usual limits when absorbing it.

In Flender's Douluo world, when Spirit Masters activated their Martial Souls and transformed, armor or objects formed from Soul Power would appear around them. Their appearance changed as more Spirit Rings were absorbed, and each possessed abilities unique to its owner.

True Body Armor was the preliminary form of the Bone Armor True Body.

Like Soul Beasts, Spirit Masters possessed Spirit Bones.

When a Spirit Master's cultivation reached Spirit Emperor, the Bone Armor Prototype formed;

at Spirit Saint, the Bone Armor True Body could be activated;

at Spirit Douluo, Bone Imprinting occurred;

when one reached Title Douluo, had Divinity enter the body, and absorbed a complete set of Spirit Bones, one could unleash the full strength of the Bone Armor True Body.

The amount of Divinity determined the number of innate techniques possessed by the Bone Armor True Body. The former was directly proportional to the latter.

Spirit Rings not only provided Spirit Masters with skills, but also nourished their Spirit Bones.

Correspondingly, the six Spirit Rings were responsible for the growth of the six Spirit Bones in the head, torso, and four limbs.

At level sixty, after obtaining six Spirit Rings, the Bone Armor Prototype had already formed.

The seventh Spirit Ring was the key that served as a switch, activating the Spirit Bones and ultimately revealing—the foundation of a Spirit Master, the externalized form of the Martial Soul—the Martial Soul Bone Armor True Form.

At the same time, the quality of the seventh Spirit Ring directly determined the quality of the [Martial Soul Bone Armor True Form].

Simply put, Flender's seventh Spirit Ring would determine the capabilities of the Martial Soul Bone Armor True Form, his greatest weapon upon becoming a Title Douluo.

Generally speaking, the limit for an ordinary Spirit Master's seventh Spirit Ring was around fifty thousand years. Flender had originally planned to take a gamble and see whether he could obtain a sixty- or seventy-thousand-year Spirit Ring to lay a solid foundation.

But given the current circumstances, Flender decided to go crazy and push directly for eighty or ninety thousand years.

A Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast was still too far out of reach. Aside from those two who had taken human form, even if Flender wanted one, he might not be able to defeat it, and it would be difficult to absorb anyway.

He would first settle for an eighty- or ninety-thousand-year one as a transition. In the future, he could consider a hundred-thousand-year one.

According to the inherited knowledge Flender had obtained, Ring Washing was not difficult.

The current Speed Clan possessed such a secret technique. Although it had side effects, Flender knew some secret techniques without side effects. Their only drawbacks were severe backlash and an absurdly massive resource cost.

In the Ancient Era, people had gone unimaginably mad in their pursuit of strength and godhood.

Dumbledore had even more to deal with: collecting Horcruxes, locating the Basilisk, clearing his name, bringing the real culprit to justice, breaking the Three Unforgivable Curses...

Every matter was more important than the last. In the time ahead, Dumbledore was prepared to run himself ragged.

It was just that Professor McGonagall might have to suffer a little. Dumbledore likely would not be able to handle the school's administrative affairs for some time.

Though in the past, Dumbledore had seemingly avoided such matters whenever he could.

The odds of encountering Dumbledore at Hogwarts were like Schrödinger's Cat. Before you saw Dumbledore, you never knew whether he was there.

As for Professor Oak, he planned to restart Pallet Town's summer camp and properly build a foundation for outstanding young people of the future like Red, Xiao Lu, Blue, Gold, and the others—especially wild cards like Red and Gold.

He also intended to contact Agatha and tell that old woman to stop using violence alone to solve Kanto's pollution problems. That was the lowest of strategies.

Most importantly, he had to find Arlan and rescue the two young people, Blue and Ah Yin.

Searching for Celebi to travel through time and save his beloved Pokémon was understandable. Even Samuel Oak himself might have done the same in that situation.

But forcing his own desires upon several innocent families was Arlan's problem.

Professor Oak absolutely could not stand by and watch his former friend walk toward ruin.

He also had to report the evil organization leaders in every region, preventing them from dragging the world down for their own selfish desires.

At present, Professor Oak had the most to do and the broadest scope of responsibilities, covering nearly every region of the Pokémon world...

Time passed in a flash. In the blink of an eye, a day had gone by.

Flender had already had everyone pack their luggage and set off for Sunset Forest.

Flender had originally planned to go with Zhao alone, but now that he had set his sights on an eighty- or ninety-thousand-year Soul Beast, he naturally had to be more cautious. Aside from Qin Ming, all five of them set out together.

There was a reason they chose Sunset Forest instead of Star Dou Forest—he did not know whether this manga world had incorporated the entire Douluo world setting.

The waters of Star Dou Forest ran deep. If killing a Soul Beast close to a hundred thousand years drew out a true Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast they could not defeat, they would be in serious trouble.

By comparison, due to factors such as climate, geography, and size, Sunset Forest was much gentler. At the very least, no Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast had appeared there so far.

As for that gorilla that had somehow charged from Star Dou Forest's Soul Beast homeland all the way to Sunset Forest... the Blue Silver Emperor had not yet revived at the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, so it was not much of a problem.

The only potential issue was Dugu Bo, that god of death. However, he did not reside permanently in Sunset Forest. Given the current timeline, he should be busy dealing with the poison inside his son, who would soon die. He had no time to care whether anyone was hunting Soul Beasts. Besides, Flender had intended to make contact with Dugu Bo anyway.

If he could resolve the poison afflicting Dugu Bo's family, he might be able to half-recruit him into his academy and perhaps gain access to the Immortal Herbs at the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well.

By common sense, if Dugu Bo knew the effects of the Immortal Herbs within the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, he could not possibly have allowed his family to end up in such a miserable state.

Yet judging from the manga, Chrysanthemum Douluo Yue Guan of Spirit Hall knew about those Immortal Herbs.

Knowledge that half a Title Douluo of the Heaven Dou Empire did not possess was known by a Title Douluo of Spirit Hall. The gap spoke for itself.

Previously, before taking in Tang San, Flender had never entertained any thoughts of touching the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well.

After all, he did not understand medicinal theory. The Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well was indeed a prime location for growing Immortal Herbs, but it was also a land of extreme poison.

Even Dugu Bo could not distinguish Immortal Herbs from poisonous herbs, much less Flender, who had no confidence in identifying them.

There was no need to explain how serious the consequences of randomly choosing and consuming herbs could be.

But now, with the inherited knowledge of the Ancient Era, Flender had the means to involve himself with the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well.

The only issue now was still Dugu Bo. Flender could not defeat him at present, and might not even encounter him. Even if Dugu Bo really was saving his son now, not the slightest rumor would leak out.

If anyone learned that Dugu Bo's Martial Soul had an innate flaw, half the prestige he had built over a lifetime would be destroyed, and everything would change.

As for curing the poison in Dugu Bo's body, even without using the Immortal Herbs within the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, Flender's Chat Group friends could provide help.

Phoenix tears could even cure the Basilisk's soul-damaging venom, and the medical technology of the Pokémon world needed no further explanation—Full Heal, Full Restore, and so on...

Though the differences between worlds might alter the effectiveness of treatment, having fallback measures gave him confidence.

Sunset Forest lay in the central region of the Heaven Dou Empire. Traveling there from Suotuo City in the south of the Balak Kingdom would take quite some time.

When Li Yusong and the other two heard Flender say that he needed them to accompany him to obtain a Spirit Ring, they naturally had no reason to refuse and happily joined him.

They traveled from sunrise to sunset, taking only a short rest at noon. Flender's group had decent cultivation and abundant Soul Power; at full speed, they would likely reach the edge of Sunset Forest in another day or two.

During idle moments on the road, Flender used the Chat Panel to pass the time. However, everyone seemed to be busy, so there was not much conversation.

The three had already shared their respective points in time, so Flender knew that Dumbledore was busy eliminating Voldemort while Samuel Oak was busy saving children and old men and women.

While bored out of his mind, Flender suddenly noticed that another group member had spoken.

[Fading Navy Veteran: What is this!? Where did you come from! Marine Headquarters will not tolerate your trampling!]

Oh? Flender raised his chin slightly. He roughly knew who this Navy veteran was.