Several days later, the group arrived at Star Dou Great Forest.
Gazing at the vast, primeval forest stretching beneath the sky, so immense it seemed to blot it out, even these Red Cardinal candidates—who had all visited for one reason or another—couldn't help but fall into thought.
This was the cradle of Soul Beasts, a holy land where powerful Soul Masters came to obtain Soul Rings.
It was also the slaughterhouse where Soul Masters across the Douluo Continent suffered the heaviest casualties.
Zhu Zhuqing gazed at the familiar outline of the forest.
Even though this wasn't the entrance she had used when she first fled, memories of the day she first met Gu Chensha still surfaced uncontrollably.
And with them came the words he had once spoken with a coldness that seemed to see through everything.
"People say Star Dou Great Forest is vast and boundless, but to Soul Beasts, it's nothing more than a crowded cage."
"Qing'er, do you know?"
"This complex stretch of land, encompassing wetlands, swamps, and Lake of Life, is no larger than Balak Kingdom, yet it must supply the Soul Ring needs of more than ninety percent of the continent's level-twenty Soul Masters."
"Can you imagine the brutal slaughter Soul Beasts must endure to survive in this cramped space?"
"I was naïve once, too."
"When I reached sixty thousand years of cultivation and became the Human-faced Spider Emperor, I let go of my old blood feud with the kind that had once ganged up on me. I went alone to the forest's core and proposed to its ruler that all Soul Beasts put aside their grudges and unite against humanity's hunt."
"I thought the greater good of our kind's survival could outweigh individual selfishness."
Gu Chensha's voice carried a self-mocking sneer, like an ice-tempered blade slicing through the fog of memory.
"But what did I get in return? Mockery, suspicion, and curses from them, calling me a freak whose mind had been tainted by humanity."
"They said the strong devouring the weak was simply the law of nature, and that the weak deserved to be devoured by the strong—even if the devourer was human."
"They would rather slaughter one another than join forces against their true enemy."
"That was when I finally understood. It wasn't that they didn't know humans were hunting them. They simply didn't care."
"To a powerful Soul Beast, the deaths of a hundred weak members of its kind are nothing!"
"On the contrary, fewer rivals mean more resources for its own survival."
"Humanity's hunt merely helped them weed out the trash."
"The so-called greater good of the species has always been a shackle the strong use to bind the weak."
"Whether human or Soul Beast, we were never one community."
"The strong will always reap the weak, and the weak will always tear one another apart."
"Strip away the finery, and all the strife, morality, and emotion in this world amount to nothing more than an exchange of survival and self-interest."
"If that's the case, what does the extinction of Soul Beasts have to do with me? And what do humanity's rise and fall have to do with me?"
"I nearly threw away sixty thousand years of cultivation for the empty promise of the greater good of my kind."
"From now on, I'll live for myself alone."
"Remember this, Qing'er."
"There's no one in this world worth entrusting your life to, and no emotion that can withstand the temptation of self-interest."
"While you're alive, you can rely only on yourself. Only strength is eternal truth."
"Trust no one but yourself. Rely on no one but yourself!"
When Zhu Zhuqing came back to herself, she had followed the others into the dense woods at the edge of Star Dou Great Forest.
Lei Xiang led the group, Li Moyue walked in the middle, and Zhu Zhuqing, a Speed Attack System Soul Master, brought up the rear.
Lang Taihui trailed far behind the group.
His figure was hidden among the dappled shadows of the trees, like a silent shadow.
This was his usual way of teaching, and the way Spirit Hall taught.
Soul Masters didn't grow through lectures, but through tempering in blood and fire.
He kept his aura perfectly concealed, so he wouldn't scare away nearby Soul Beasts, while remaining ready to sense mortal danger at the first moment.
For a Soul Saint like him, hunting a thousand-year Phoenix-tail Crested Serpent would be child's play. If he weren't here to hone these three disciples, he wouldn't have set foot in this outlying stretch of forest at all.
But at that moment, an almost imperceptible, sinister gleam shone in his murky eyes as he fixed them on the slender figure at the end of the group.
The forest was eerily quiet. Only the rustling of feet over fallen leaves and the occasional roars of Soul Beasts in the distance broke the silence.
According to Spirit Hall's scouting reports, a little farther ahead lay the regular haunt of a thousand-year Phoenix-tail Crested Serpent.
As the most powerful Soul Master organization on the continent, Spirit Hall knew the distribution and habits of the Soul Beasts in Star Dou Great Forest like the back of its hand.
Soul Beasts as valuable as the Phoenix-tail Crested Serpent had been marked out by scouts and specifically chosen to train newcomers.
"Crack!"
A sharp snap burst through the silent forest, startling several birds into flight.
Zhu Zhuqing's thoughts snapped back to the present. She immediately turned sideways into a defensive stance and circulated her Soul Power.
But when she looked up, she saw that Lei Xiang had suddenly stumbled, snapping a dead branch as thick as a bowl beneath his foot.
His whole body stiffened, and his face went deathly pale.
Zhu Zhuqing frowned slightly.
In his current state, so distracted he couldn't even keep his footing, could he really shoulder the responsibilities of a Power Attack System attacker?
She had never understood why Lei Xiang insisted he belonged to the Speed Attack System when both his Martial Soul and Soul Skills followed the standard Power Attack System path.
Because of him, she had once mistakenly thought Li Moyue was a Speed Attack System Soul Master, only to discover she was actually a support-type Soul Master.
Just then, a rank stench of wind came rushing from the bushes on the left!
Lei Xiang, standing at the very front, didn't react at all.
"Look out!"
Li Moyue screamed, and a yellow Soul Ring lit up around her.
Her Martial Soul was released in an instant.
Several dark green Ghost Vines burst from the ground, their stems covered in fine barbs.
"First Soul Skill, Ghost Vine Entanglement!"
Unlike a conventional entangling attack, the Ghost Vines didn't lash toward the enemy. Instead, they quickly wove together in front of Lei Xiang, forming a vine wall half a person tall.
The shadow slammed into the barrier and was held back for a moment.
But only for a moment!
The tough Ghost Vines snapped, and the shadow burst through the barrier, lunging straight at Lei Xiang's face.
Only then did Lei Xiang belatedly lift his head, but he seemed so terrified he could only stand frozen in place.
A gigantic, pitch-black centipede burst out, three layers of hard armor running along its back.
The Soul Power of a Soul Beast with at least eight hundred years of cultivation surged outward. Its sickle-like forelegs gleamed coldly as they chopped straight at Lei Xiang's head!
At the critical moment, a shadow flashed past like a ghost.
Zhu Zhuqing charged forward almost instinctively. The results of all those days of running with weights strapped to her body showed themselves in full.
Using her momentum, she turned sideways to dodge the centipede's forelegs, lightly touched one foot to its hard shell, and flipped through the air.
"Hell Spirit Cat, Possession!"
A yellow Soul Ring lit beneath her feet, and her Second Soul Ring suddenly flared.
"Second Soul Skill, Hell Hundred Claws!"
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