Hunting for Spirit Rings, Meteor Forest

Not to mention Yu Xiaogang—even Tang San's own patience had nearly been worn away.

No matter how deep the bond between master and disciple, it could not withstand two years of running around. Wasn't there a saying that no filial son remained by the bedside of a long-term invalid?

The ancients had not deceived him.

According to the original story, Tang San would be level twenty-nine when he went to Shrek next year. His cultivation was likely only one or two levels behind that of the original, not a major difference.

But in the original story, Tang San had spent most of his time forging and making Tang Sect Hidden Weapons. That was not wasted time; at most, he had simply failed to use it in the most appropriate place.

Yet over these past two years, he had truly accomplished nothing. His cultivation had barely improved, his forging skills had stagnated, and he could hardly even find a chance to hammer some iron occasionally to keep his hand in.

How could he not be frustrated?

By now, he had even begun to regret it somewhat.

He had known full well that Yu Xiaogang had spent most of his life unable to achieve Martial Soul Evolution. What confidence had a greenhorn like him, unfamiliar with Douluo Continent, to help Yu Xiaogang evolve his Martial Soul?

But the boast he had made could only be forced through. Fortunately, Yu Xiaogang had "seen the light" and stopped dragging him down. Otherwise, their loving master-disciple relationship might truly have turned into a public display of filial piety.

How Tang San was doing aside, Chen Yumo was having the time of his life.

His cultivation steadily improved, and he had Tang San and Gangzi's antics to enjoy. In his cheerful mood, even cultivating the Bloodline Secret Technique became much smoother.

So much so that, when he saw Gangzi return to Nuoding Academy in a miserable state with broken legs, Chen Yumo laughed himself into developing Spiritual Detection. He had never even considered developing an ability in that direction, yet he had mastered the skill as naturally as water flowing into a channel.

Thanks, Gangzi.

Tang San, having resumed his normal life, also immersed himself in this long-lost atmosphere of cultivation. He did not notice that Chen Yumo had disappeared again.

He had gone hunting for a Spirit Ring.

Having already reached level twenty, Chen Yumo, who had always been brimming with energy, had no need to adjust his condition. With a Recurve Crossbow and level-five Fixed Soul Guidance Cannonballs in his Portable Space to maintain his abundant martial virtue, he naturally went straight to acquire a Spirit Ring as soon as he hit his bottleneck.

This time, however, Chen Yumo did not return to the Soul Hunting Forest he had visited before.

The Soul Hunting Forests enclosed by Spirit Hall and the two great empires could be considered rich in species, but they were ultimately Spirit Beast Forests cultivated by humans and did not contain particularly powerful Spirit Beasts.

Nor did they have any Spirit Beasts that met Chen Yumo's requirements.

The metal-attributed White Tiger Spirit Beasts he needed could only possibly exist in three places across Douluo Continent.

Star Dou Great Forest, Sunset Forest.

And Meteor Forest within the Star Luo Empire.

The first two needed no introduction. They were the two largest gathering places for land-based Spirit Beasts.

Star Dou Great Forest in particular contained all manner of rare, strange, and powerful Spirit Beasts, none of which would surprise Chen Yumo. Though Sunset Forest was smaller, before Tang San destroyed it, it had likewise been a Spirit Beast habitat rich in species.

Meteor Forest was not as famous as those two. It was even slightly smaller than Sunset Forest and held fewer species, but it was where the Star Luo Imperial Family specifically added Spirit Rings to their White Tiger Martial Souls. A great number of tiger-type Spirit Beasts from different bloodlines lived within it.

If Chen Yumo wanted to hunt a metal-attributed tiger-type Spirit Beast with a powerful bloodline, Meteor Forest was undoubtedly the right place.

After deciding on his destination, Chen Yumo traveled day and night, taking nearly half a month to enter the territory of the Star Luo Empire.

Compared with his last outing—a stroll right outside his doorstep that took only a day there and back—this journey truly counted as traveling far from home. And traveling far from home inevitably brought accidents, especially for a child like Chen Yumo who looked so easy to bully.

Even with Spirit Hall maintaining order across the continent, there would inevitably be idiots who came up asking, "Whose kid is this?" before trying to pick Chen Yumo up for themselves.

It was fine when he encountered ordinary people without Soul Power. The few groups Chen Yumo met could be scared away just by seeing his Spirit Rings. They did not even dare look back, and Chen Yumo could not be bothered to chase after them to uphold justice.

The problem was that he also encountered one or two groups led by Spirit Masters. The strongest among them was a Soul Elder with a white-yellow-yellow Spirit Ring configuration, even stronger than Gangzi.

If Chen Yumo had not been proficient in American Iaido, producing a Recurve Crossbow from thin air amid the man's stunned gaze before shooting an arrow through his head, he would have had no choice but to use Fixed Soul Guidance Cannonballs and injure himself nearly as badly as his enemy.

These incidents also made him take Simulation and Spiritual Detection seriously.

Spiritual Detection could be used to avoid danger, while Simulation could help him bypass trouble. Even though his spiritual power was still weak, it was already enough when dealing with people whose spiritual power was even weaker than his.

After emptying his magazine into that Soul Elder, Chen Yumo frequently used Spiritual Detection and Simulation during the rest of his journey to avoid trouble.

It had to be said—they were truly useful.

From the moment he began using those two spirit skills, he basically never encountered any trouble again.

The only drawback was that his travel speed slowed, as he needed to rest frequently to recover his spiritual power.

Using those two spirit skills for long periods still placed a considerable drain on him mentally.

But when he considered how using spirit skills could spare him plenty of trouble, and how repeatedly exhausting and recovering his spiritual power would help strengthen it, Chen Yumo endured the dizziness and mental exhaustion and persisted.

Another three days passed.

Having already entered the Star Luo Empire, he spent another three days reaching Meteor Forest.

He had encountered quite a few troubles along the way, but they had indeed helped Chen Yumo learn some things. Always burying himself in study at Nuoding Academy could easily turn him into someone like Gangzi—a giant in theory, a dwarf in practice. Taking a long journey had made him feel as though he had entered an entirely different state of mind.

Some things from the Encyclopedia also required practical experience to leave a deeper impression.

He had not forgotten his real task, either.

Hunting his second Spirit Ring.

Meteor Forest contained a great many tiger-type Spirit Beasts, and Spirit Beasts of this kind had extremely strong territorial instincts and exceptionally keen senses of smell.

After entering the forest, Chen Yumo had no choice but to use Simulation Spirit Skill for long periods to conceal his scent and hide his presence.

Alternating Simulation Spirit Skill with special medicinal powder, he entered Meteor Forest without any serious danger.

There were basically no powerful Spirit Beasts in the outer regions. So after adapting to Meteor Forest's terrain and environment and putting himself into a state of heightened wilderness-survival vigilance, Chen Yumo began slowly advancing inward.

According to the Meteor Forest map in the Encyclopedia, it was called a forest, but in reality, it resembled a vast mountain range more than anything else, with peak upon peak.

Only the very core of Meteor Forest was a ring-shaped valley, much like a meteor crater. It was assumed that, at some unknown point in the distant past, an enormous meteor had fallen from the sky and struck this place, which was how Meteor Forest got its name.

Chen Yumo was rather curious about the meteor crater at its core.

After all, in a fantasy world, something like Extraterrestrial Meteor Iron was incredibly high-end.

Who knew? Maybe he could pick up a piece.