"The pass is valid, but... with a ragtag group of old, weak, and disabled people like you, you think you can enter the Soul Hunting Forest?"
The guard captain responsible for checking passes eyed them sidelong, his gaze sweeping over the three of them.
One was a stiff-faced middle-aged man who looked like he only knew how to cram from books.
One was a kid in a tattered work-study uniform, carrying a strange metal case.
And the last was... a wolf that walked upright, wore a ragged hat, and looked utterly down on his luck?
What kind of circus act was this?
"This is none of your concern."
Yu Xiaogang's face turned cold as he tucked away the Spirit Hall Elder's pass, which bore three engraved symbols.
Though he'd been meek and submissive in front of Qin Feng, in front of outsiders, he was still the aloof Grandmaster.
"Hmph. You can't save someone who's bent on getting himself killed."
The guard captain waved them through, muttering under his breath.
"Damn it, work-study students these days really don't know their place. They bring a pet and think they can come here to get themselves killed."
Just then, a commotion rose from behind them.
"Move aside! Out of the way! Don't block Young Master's path!"
Several lavishly decorated carriages stopped at the checkpoint. Their curtains were pulled back, and several youths in elegant silk outfits jumped down.
The one in front had hair slicked back until it gleamed. A translucent jade pendant hung from his waist, and he held a folding fan. He looked like a total dandy.
"Well, well, isn't this the freeloader 'Grandmaster' Yu Xiaogang?"
The dandy recognized Yu Xiaogang at a glance and broke into an exaggerated sneer.
"What's the matter? Couldn't hack it at Notting Academy, so you're planning to become a Soul Beast's snack?"
"Look at that wolf beside him. It's skinnier than a bundle of firewood. Even a Soul Beast would think it wasn't worth the trouble of chewing."
The followers behind him burst into shrill laughter.
Yu Xiaogang's face turned livid, and he clenched both fists.
This was Xiao Chenyu, the son of Nuoding City's lord and a notorious wastrel at the academy.
Normally, Yu Xiaogang would have turned on his heel and left long ago.
But today, he glanced at Qin Feng beside him.
Qin Feng was crouched on the ground, fiddling with the metal case in his hands, as if he hadn't heard the taunts at all.
"Hey, you beggar!"
Xiao Chenyu saw that no one was paying him any attention and felt his pride take a hit. He snapped his fan shut and pointed it at Qin Feng.
"I'm talking to you, Young Master! Don't you know the rules?"
Qin Feng finally lifted his head.
He adjusted the goggles he'd just made on the bridge of his nose. His gaze was as calm as if he were looking at a paramecium.
"Brother Wolf, measure the noise level around us."
Grey Wolf pulled a trumpet-shaped device from who knew where and waved it at Xiao Chenyu.
"Beep beep! Warning! High-frequency noise source detected. Intelligence quotient below average. Recommend ignoring."
Grey Wolf reported with mock seriousness, his dead-fish eyes full of amusement.
"What did you say?!"
Xiao Chenyu roared with anger. Soul Power surged around him, and two Soul Rings, one white and one yellow, rose from beneath his feet.
A Soul Grandmaster!
For someone his age, he did have reason to be arrogant.
"I'll rip that mangy wolf's mouth off!"
Just as he was about to attack—
Qin Feng stood up. Somehow, a dark pipe had appeared in his hand, pointed straight at Xiao Chenyu's forehead.
"Take one more step, and I'll turn that shiny bald head of yours into a sieve."
Qin Feng's voice was quiet, but it carried a chilling menace.
It was the same killing intent that had just blasted a Titled Douluo into the air.
A chill shot from the soles of Xiao Chenyu's feet straight to the crown of his head, and his body instinctively froze.
That black pipe... gave him an extremely dangerous feeling.
"This is the entrance to the market. Private fights are strictly forbidden!"
Only now did the guard captain call out, unhurriedly. Clearly, he'd been hoping to watch a show, but it hadn't gone as planned.
"Hmph! You're lucky this time!"
Xiao Chenyu seized the chance to back down, withdrawing his Martial Soul as he glared viciously at Qin Feng.
"Once we're in the forest, you'd better hope I don't run into you. Otherwise..."
He made a slitting motion across his throat, then swaggered into the forest with his men.
Qin Feng put away the barrel and didn't even glance at them.
"Let's go. We're wasting time."
"Our materials warehouse is waiting for us to take inventory."
The three of them and a wolf crossed the enormous iron gate and entered the gloomy Soul Hunting Forest.
The moment they stepped inside, the stench of rotting leaves mixed with animal droppings hit them.
"Ugh—!"
Grey Wolf pinched his nose, looking disgusted.
"What a dump! It stinks worse than when I was catching frogs in the sewers!"
"Qin Feng, let's hurry up and catch what we need so we can go back. I want to take a bath—I want to use my automatic back-scrubbing machine!"
Qin Feng ignored his complaints and opened the metal case.
With a faint whir of machinery,
a disk-shaped device rose up, and the radar screen on top began to rotate as it scanned the area.
"Grandmaster, give me a direction."
Qin Feng stared at the screen, where countless dots were clustered together, and asked without looking up.
Yu Xiaogang was still annoyed about what had just happened, but the moment he saw the device, it caught his attention.
"What kind of Soul Beast are we looking for?"
"If you're looking for one suitable for your First Soul Ring, I'd recommend a plant-type one, or—"
"Who said I was looking for a Soul Ring?"
Qin Feng cut him off and pointed to a spot on the radar that was red-purple.
"I'm looking for something hard."
"The harder, the better."
"Preferably something with a high concentration of carbon in its bones, or skin covered in metal plating."
"According to the system analysis, there's a herd of Iron-Hide Savage Bulls two kilometers southeast."
"Their hides are natural bulletproof material, and their horns can be processed into high-strength keratin protein for composite bow limbs."
"And over there, thirty degrees west of north, there's a nest of Ghost Tigers."
"Ghost Tigers have extremely fast nerve conduction. Their nerves can be extracted and used as wiring for high-sensitivity sensors."
Yu Xiaogang's scalp tingled as he listened.
Other people came to the Soul Hunting Forest to obtain Soul Rings—a sacred rite of advancement.
But this kid...
He was treating it like an open-air building materials market?
Were Soul Beasts just walking bags of spare parts to him?
"Th-then let's head southeast first."
Yu Xiaogang wiped his sweat away, feeling as if his worldview had just been ground into the dirt all over again.
"Iron-Hide Savage Bulls have violent temperaments and extremely strong defenses. Even a Soul Elder would struggle to break through them. Shouldn't we—"
"Strong defenses?"
Qin Feng's eyes lit up.
He patted Grey Wolf on the shoulder.
"Brother Wolf, did you hear that?"
"Strong defenses mean dense materials."
"Perfect for testing that Molecular Oscillation Cutting Blade you made last night."
Grey Wolf chuckled and pulled a strange weapon from inside his shabby robe, which was far more than it seemed. It looked like a chainsaw, but its teeth vibrated so rapidly that it emitted a buzzing sound.
"Don't worry!"
"Forget Iron-Hide Savage Bulls—even Red Wolf's Frying Pan... Uh, that might not cut through it."
"Anyway, leave it to me!"
The three of them quickly headed toward their target.
Along the way, they encountered quite a few ten-year and even hundred-year Soul Beasts.
A ten-year Wind Baboon leapt down from a tree, baring its teeth as it tried to attack Yu Xiaogang, who had fallen behind.
"Bang!"
Before Yu Xiaogang could summon Luo Sanpao,
a steel pellet the size of a fingernail pierced straight through the Wind Baboon's forehead.
Qin Feng had casually fired it from a simple slingshot.
"Tch. This low-grade stuff isn't even worth extracting."
Qin Feng nudged the Wind Baboon's corpse with his foot, looking disappointed.
"Its brain's too small. It wouldn't even be good enough for a biological chip."
"Keep moving."
The cold, efficient way he'd killed it sent a chill through Yu Xiaogang.
He suddenly realized—
in this boy's eyes, life really was nothing more than a string of data, a pile of materials.
Was this... the coldness of science?
"Roar—!"
About half an hour into their journey,
a tremendous roar suddenly rang out ahead, followed by the thunderous crash of falling trees.
The cluster of dots on the radar representing the Iron-Hide Savage Bulls was in a violent uproar.
And several green dots representing humans were mixed in among them. They seemed to be in trouble.
"Well, looks like someone got here before us."
Qin Feng studied the screen, the corners of his mouth curling into an amused smile.
"And it looks like they've run into a serious problem."
"Come on, Brother Wolf."
"Let's go see what's happening."
"And while we're at it... collect a toll."
Before you continue