Setting Out for Soul Hunting

"Let's go!"

After Yu Xiaogang and Lu Yi finished packing their luggage, they stepped outside and saw Flender waiting by the wall. Yu Xiaogang spoke to him irritably.

"Hey! Coming!"

Hearing Yu Xiaogang's words, Flender answered and promptly followed behind him.

Lu Yi shook his head helplessly at the sight. Flender's words had not truly hurt him, but there was nothing he could do if his teacher did not believe him. Flender would just have to suffer a little, then.

After hiring a carriage in the city, Lu Yi and the others set off for the Star Dou Great Forest.

"Say, Xiaogang, shouldn't Xiao Yi's first Soul Ring be easy enough to find in the Soul Hunting Forest? Why are we going to the Star Dou Great Forest?"

Looking at the Soul Hunting Forest around Nuoding City on the map, Flender drove the carriage and asked Yu Xiaogang inside the cabin in confusion.

"Xiao Yi's Martial Soul has a weak bloodline; it is only an ordinary carp. If he wants to obtain a powerful soul skill, he needs to hunt a Soul Beast with a powerful bloodline for its Soul Ring."

"Besides, our target this time is a six-hundred-year-old top-tier water-element Soul Beast. There are no Soul Beasts of that age in the Soul Hunting Forest!"

Yu Xiaogang's voice came from inside the carriage in response to Flender's question.

Earlier, in Yu Xiaogang's room, Lu Yi had held Twenty-Four Bridges Bright Night and suddenly felt guilty. At the same time, in order to absorb a Soul Ring beyond the normal age limit during this Soul Hunting trip, he had told Yu Xiaogang that Whale Rubber could enhance one's physical constitution.

After personally witnessing Lu Yi casually lift his cabinet, which was filled with bottles and jars and weighed over a hundred jin, with one hand, Yu Xiaogang readily believed him. After all, what eight-year-old child could lift something weighing over a hundred jin with one hand?

However, after hearing the age of the Soul Ring Lu Yi wanted to absorb, Yu Xiaogang did not agree. Instead, he firmly insisted that Lu Yi's Soul Ring had to be around six hundred to seven hundred years old.

He even used the example that the total Soul Power of a four-hundred-year Soul Beast plus that of a five-hundred-year Soul Beast did not necessarily equal the total Soul Power of a nine-hundred-year Soul Beast. He also explained that top-tier Soul Beasts exerted greater pressure on Soul Masters than ordinary Soul Beasts, trying to persuade Lu Yi.

In the end, unable to argue against his teacher, Lu Yi could only agree to Master's demand.

A six-hundred-year first Soul Ring still exceeded the normal limit, anyway. As for his second Soul Ring, it had to be over a thousand years old when the time came. No one could stop him.

"This... Xiaogang, that Soul Ring is more than two hundred years beyond the limit in your Soul Ring age-limit theory!"

Hearing Yu Xiaogang's words, Flender stopped driving the carriage altogether. He turned around, leaned into the cabin, and spoke to Yu Xiaogang.

"Xiao Yi's Martial Soul is special. My Soul Ring age-limit theory does not apply to him."

At Flender's words, a trace of conflict flashed through Yu Xiaogang's eyes. In the end, he chose to trust his disciple. Lu Yi was a person with his own ideas, and his Martial Soul Evolution had relied entirely on Lu Yi's theories. Yu Xiaogang believed that Lu Yi would not do something without confidence.

Besides, it was only a six-hundred-year Soul Ring. If something went wrong, Flender could simply interrupt Lu Yi's absorption. At worst, Lu Yi would be unable to cultivate for a few months.

"Fine, fine. You two are master and disciple, so I can't interfere, all right?"

Seeing that Yu Xiaogang had no intention of saying more after that one sentence, Flender assumed he was still angry over his earlier dismissal of Xiao Yi's talent. He could only leave those words behind and withdraw from the carriage cabin.

Hearing Flender's words, Yu Xiaogang came back to his senses. Looking at Flender's departing figure, he was about to speak, but in the end, he merely opened his mouth and said nothing.

The matter of Whale Rubber had yet to be verified. Mentioning it rashly would only make Flender worry and serve no other purpose. It was better to let Flender believe that Lu Yi's Martial Soul was special, so he would not be so anxious.

Seeing this, Lu Yi did not know what to say either. He simply played silently with the storage Soul Tool he had just received.

Lu Yi understood clearly that his teacher had wanted to explain things to Flender. However, the solitary nature he had developed over so many years could not be changed overnight. Lu Yi had no idea what to do about this sort of misunderstanding and conflict between old men.

Time slowly passed, and in the blink of an eye, a day had gone by. Lu Yi and his group finally arrived at the small town on the outskirts of the Star Dou Great Forest.

This showed that compared to Soul Masters traveling on foot, a carriage was indeed somewhat slower. In the original story, the Shrek Seven Devils had reached the Star Dou Great Forest from Suotuo City in less than half a day.

After returning the carriage to a carriage house in town, they found that it was morning, so there was no need to rest at an inn. Flender therefore led Lu Yi and Master straight into the Star Dou Great Forest.

"Xiaogang! Have you decided which Soul Beasts to target for Xiao Yi's first Soul Ring?"

In the outer region of the Star Dou Great Forest, Flender made no effort to conceal the aura of a Soul Saint. The Soul Beasts around them sensed Flender's presence and gave him a wide berth, so Lu Yi and the others did not encounter many Soul Beasts looking for trouble along the way.

However, once they entered the mixed region, Flender would need to restrain his aura. Since they were looking for a suitable hundred-year Soul Ring for Lu Yi, they could not scare all the Soul Beasts away.

Moreover, the mixed region was home to quite a few top-tier Soul Beasts that dared to challenge even Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts despite only being ten-thousand-year Soul Beasts themselves. They would not fear the aura of a Soul Saint like Flender. On the contrary, they might take it as a provocation and leap out to fight him.

"Our first choice is the Wave-Calling Azure Scale Fish. Our second choices are the Dark Tide Ink Scale Turtle and Thousand-Thread Water Spider Mother. If none of those work out, a Turbulent Vortex Conch will do as well."

Hearing Flender's question, Yu Xiaogang answered as he walked.

These were all high-quality water-element Soul Beasts capable of producing enhancement-type soul skills. During this time, Magikarp had eaten so much dragon meat, yet aside from growing larger, it showed no sign whatsoever of transforming into a dragon.

Master therefore speculated that Lu Yi's Magikarp might possess a high-grade bloodline comparable to that of dragons, and that it had devoured all those dragon bloodlines. To prevent dragon bloodlines from contaminating Magikarp's own high-grade bloodline, Master did not intend to let Lu Yi absorb Soul Rings from dragon-type Soul Beasts.

Soul Rings were things that would follow a Soul Master for life. No matter how faint a bloodline was, using the corresponding soul skill would inevitably resonate with it. This might cause Magikarp's own bloodline to become contaminated.

Lu Yi had no objections to this. As someone thoroughly familiar with Gyarados's information, he knew perfectly well that while Gyarados looked somewhat like a dragon and even had "dragon" in its name, it was a genuine Water- and Flying-type Pokémon.

As for enhancement-type soul skills, that had been Lu Yi's own request. The main reason was that skills such as Tackle and Water Blade, after his own improvements, were already comparable to hundred-year soul skills. Not to mention that after Magikarp absorbed a Soul Ring, its water-control talent would grow stronger and it might even share several Pokémon skills with Lu Yi.

Thus, a hundred-year offensive soul skill was truly as useless as a chicken rib to Lu Yi. Rather than letting such a useless offensive soul skill occupy one of his soul skill slots, he might as well acquire an enhancement skill to bolster his frail body.

Moreover, even a hundred-year enhancement-type soul skill would remain useful at the Titled Douluo level. After all, enhancement-type soul skills on the Douluo Continent granted absurd percentage-based boosts.

Lu Yi even planned for all of his thousand-year soul skills before obtaining a ten-thousand-year Soul Ring to be enhancement-type skills. Until then, Magikarp's shared skills would cover his offensive options.