Amethyst Imperial Epiphyllum

Mu Qian really hadn't expected his luck to be this terrible.

Star Forest was vast, and Spirit Beasts didn't stay in one place. When he could only search in a straight line, he wasn't guaranteed to find a Spirit Beast suited to him.

There was nothing he could do about his bad luck. He could only backtrack a little and start searching sideways.

This time, though, Lady Luck seemed to have decided she was done playing with him.

Not long after he returned to the middle region, Mu Qian suddenly stopped and looked toward the dense forest to one side.

An abnormal gust of wind halted his steps. Along with the intense fluctuations of Soul Power, a sharp roar rang out in the distance.

Though his knowledge of Martial Souls was lacking, after all those years in the Far North, Mu Qian knew Spirit Beasts inside and out.

He immediately reached a conclusion.

A Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast... and one of the rarest kind, with a Mental Attribute.

His experience in the Far North told him that the Spirit Beast was at least thirty thousand years old.

His body was strong enough to withstand a thirty-thousand-year Spirit Ring. It was just that his current strength...

Even with the extraordinary power of the Yinglong Martial Soul, he still couldn't take down a Spirit Beast over thirty thousand years old on his own.

If it were a Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast, he could at least give it a try.

Mu Qian clenched his fists. His Martial Soul was extremely adaptable. Other than the Spirit Beasts with Ice and Fire Attributes whose rings he had already absorbed, he could fuse with any Spirit Beast as long as its age was suitable.

As for Soul Skills, he didn't know what a Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring would bring. In any case, the two Soul Skills he currently had were unrelated to the Spirit Beasts their rings came from. They were unique to the Yinglong Martial Soul.

It was similar to inherited Martial Souls like the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon. No matter what kind of Spirit Beast a ring came from, the Soul Skill gained was tied to the Martial Soul itself.

After weighing it all up, Mu Qian eventually sighed and decided not to gamble with his life.

"Forget it, Little Flower. Let's go." Mu Qian rubbed Little Flower's warm fur.

Little Flower had stayed right by his side the whole time. It nodded obediently, as if it could understand what Mu Qian was saying.

That surprised him a little. No matter how fast he moved along the way, Little Flower always seemed able to keep up.

And yet Little Flower was only a little over ten years old!

It seemed its bloodline was no ordinary one.

Mu Qian shook his head and prepared to leave.

But suddenly, another change occurred.

"Ying~"

From almost the same direction as the roar came a sharp birdcall.

The birdcall had an unparalleled penetrating force. Even with Mu Qian's Spiritual Power, he was momentarily dazed.

"This is... another Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast with a Mental Attribute, and it's also over thirty thousand years old!"

Mu Qian could no longer stay calm. Since when were there so many Spirit Beasts with a Mental Attribute?

Two had appeared at once, and from their auras, both were apex predators.

Had they gathered here?

"Little Flower, let's go take a look!"

Mu Qian could no longer restrain his curiosity. Before he had even finished speaking, he had already vanished from the spot.

Cultivation was a struggle to wrest fortune from Heaven and Earth.

Fortune favored the bold. If there had been only one thirty-thousand-year Spirit Beast, he might not have had the slightest chance. But if there were two...

He might be able to take advantage of the chaos.

From the looks of it, the two Spirit Beasts had somehow come into conflict. For Mu Qian, this was an opportunity he couldn't afford to miss.

If he gave up this time, would he have to give up again if he encountered the same situation later?

Hesitation and timidity weren't in Mu Qian's nature.

Thousand-Year Spirit Rings were no longer enough for him...

At the edge of Star Forest's Core Zone.

In a corner of the dense forest that had been unremarkable until now, a strange plant about twice the height of a person swayed in the wind, shining with a peculiar amethyst glow.

Its stems and leaves weren't especially lush. At its center, silvery-white leaves surrounded a delicate cluster of stamens, which were dotted with countless slender, amethyst-colored petals. Each petal was like a flawless gem, with a soft, lustrous sheen.

Its shape vaguely resembled an ordinary epiphyllum, but the regal air of a king among flowers was beyond anything an epiphyllum could match.

The strange glow from its petals didn't reach very far, extending only about a hundred meters in every direction.

In the vast Star Forest, that tiny patch of land was no more than a drop in the ocean. Yet two powerful Spirit Beasts had gathered within it.

They eyed each other warily, occasionally turning their gazes to the strange plant, their eyes filled with greed.

One looked like a bird of prey. Every feather on its body was like a razor-sharp blade, dark red like dried blood.

Its eyes were far too large in proportion to its body compared to those of ordinary avian Spirit Beasts, making it look extremely disproportionate. At that moment, a cold glint shone in them.

As for the other, the only word for its appearance was bizarre.

It was bizarre because it had four identical heads!

And... they were human faces!

No one knew how long the two Spirit Beasts had been fighting here, but in the end, the birdlike Spirit Beast was the first to fall. Fewer than one in ten of its blade-like feathers remained, and its body was covered in savage wounds.

The human-faced, snake-bodied monster was in little better shape. One of its heads had been sliced off by a blade, leaving a clean stump.

It threw back its head and roared, as if venting the joy of a victor.

"That's the Amethyst Imperial Epiphyllum!"

Not long after, Mu Qian's figure quietly appeared nearby.

He kept his distance, making sure to stay where the other Spirit Beast wouldn't notice him.

Dense trees beside him hid his figure. On top of that, the strange plant's glow seemed to block all Spiritual Power fluctuations, so the victorious Spirit Beast hadn't discovered him.

He recognized the species of the strange plant.

The Amethyst Imperial Epiphyllum was a plant-type Spirit Beast resembling an epiphyllum. It was also one of the rare Plant-type Soul Beasts with a Mental Attribute.

The Amethyst Imperial Epiphyllum was exceedingly rare. The Soul Master World had even considered it extinct at one point. But that wasn't what surprised Mu Qian most.

What had shocked him enough to speak aloud, nearly drawing the Spirit Beast's attention, was the age of this Amethyst Imperial Epiphyllum.

A hundred thousand years!

That's right, a hundred thousand years.

After spending so long in the Far North, Mu Qian could hardly mistake a Spirit Beast's cultivation level.

Over the past few years, Mu Qian had learned a great deal about Spirit Beasts from Snow Maiden.

A Mental Barrier shrouded the area ahead, so he couldn't sense the Amethyst Imperial Epiphyllum's condition.

However, the age of plant-type Spirit Beasts, including the Amethyst Imperial Epiphyllum, was easy to determine. One only had to look at their size.

They were rare because of their innate attributes.

For a special reason, they had powerful support abilities. Unfortunately, they had no means of defense or attack, so when they were still very young, herbivorous Spirit Beasts would eagerly devour them.

Under normal circumstances, even Thousand-Year Amethyst Imperial Epiphyla were rare during the most prosperous period of the species, let alone those ten thousand years old.

As for an Amethyst Imperial Epiphyllum a hundred thousand years old... none had ever appeared!

Even Snow Maiden had never heard of a hundred-thousand-year Amethyst Imperial Epiphyllum appearing!