A Fated Reunion

Even after being slammed heavily onto the ground, the two Dominator Vanguards had only Lin Feng's death command in their minds.

They clung tightly to the Nether Owl's wings, opening their fanged maws to bite frantically at the creature's most vulnerable neck.

Yet, the gap between a thousand-year and a ten-thousand-year soul beast was an insurmountable chasm.

The Nether Owl was thoroughly enraged. With a furious shriek and a swing of its steel-sharp talons, two shrill dragon roars echoed out; the two Dominator Vanguards were instantly torn into fragments, dying on the spot.

But the next second, the Nether Owl's scarlet pupils constricted violently.

The corpses of the two dragon-type soul beasts it had shredded left nothing behind, dissolving directly into specks of dark purple light and vanishing into thin air without a trace.

Having lost the potent nourishment that was almost in its beak, the creature flew into a rage, throwing its head back to emit a sharp, piercing screech that shook the surrounding leaves until they fell in a rustling shower.

It was like this again!

The three dragons it had hunted on the periphery earlier had also vanished into fluorescent light upon death.

Mother was right; these cunning dragons were all incredibly hard to kill, and their abilities were bizarre and varied.

Taking advantage of those few seconds of obstruction, Lin Feng rode the last remaining Dominator Vanguard and dove deep into the dense forest, his figure instantly disappearing behind layers of overlapping canopy.

Looking back to confirm that the Nether Owl had truly vanished and was not in pursuit, Lin Feng exhaled a long, pent-up breath of foul air, raising his hand to wipe the cold sweat mixed with grass clippings from his face.

"Finally shook that damn bird. That was dangerously close to the grave; I almost thought I, this future First Support God, would fall here at such a young age and end up as a pile of bird droppings."

Having learned his lesson, Lin Feng dared not let the Dominator Vanguard fly at high altitudes anymore, keeping it in a low-altitude glide.

He had assumed that flying a hundred meters above the ground would avoid the soul beasts below and be the safest route, but who could have guessed that the skies of the Star Dou Forest were just as perilous as the ground?

When he looked around at the endless, gloomy sea of trees where every trunk looked identical, the heart that had just settled back into his chest instantly froze.

"Where is this?"

A bead of cold sweat slid from his temple down his jawline as he muttered in a panic:

"It's over, I'm really done for now... where is this?"

He stood in place and spun around several times, trying to identify the sun's position and the orientation of the trees, but ultimately had to accept the cruel reality.

He was lost in the Star Dou Forest.

And even more fatal than being lost was the fact that the duration of Wrath of the Dominator had already entered its countdown.

Once the dragon soldiers vanished, he—a Support-type Soul Grand Master with zero offensive capability—would have to survive alone for twelve full hours in this Star Dou Forest, a place crawling with vicious soul beasts.

Lin Feng jumped off the back of the Dominator Vanguard.

Without the protection of the dragon bloodline's aura, he instantly felt as if countless eyes were staring at him from the gloomy woods, with malice coming from every direction.

He ground his back teeth together with a sharp click.

"Damn bird, don't let me run into you again. Next time, I'll pluck you clean and roast you."

"Calm down! Calm down! It's not the end of the road yet!"

He forced himself to stop his wild thoughts.

He knew all too well that in a place filled with crises, panic was the most lethal thing; it would only lead him to make wrong judgments and push himself toward death.

He took several deep breaths, the icy forest air filling his lungs and finally suppressing his panic, and leaned against a thick tree trunk to quickly calculate his remaining trump cards.

"Right now, my frontal attack power is practically zero, and any random thousand-year soul beast could crush me, but I'm not without life-saving measures."

"Thornmail, Resurrection Armor, Red and Blue buffs—if I really run into trouble, it's not like I don't have a fighting chance. It's not too bad; I haven't reached the end of my rope yet."

"The biggest problem is not knowing the direction. I must find people first. Only by encountering other soul master teams hunting for soul rings can I possibly ask for the way and walk out of this primeval forest filled with danger."

But... having just experienced the siege by the Blood Wolf Mercenary Group, he knew that sometimes, human hearts were even more dangerous than the soul beasts in the woods.

His survival instinct sent his brain into overdrive, frantically calculating the odds of survival for every choice, until he finally gritted his teeth, the sorrow in his eyes suppressed by a streak of ruthlessness.

"I can't stay here and wait for death. I have to keep moving and look for a way out, trying my luck to see if I can run into someone."

From the forest came the occasional shrill howl of wolves and the eerie roars of various unknown soul beasts, while the rustling of wind through the leaves sounded like it hid endless danger.

Lin Feng looked up at the deep, dark forest ahead, and two soul rings—one yellow and one purple—suddenly rose beneath his feet as he chanted in a low voice.

"Blue Sentinel Power!"

"Red Sentinel Power!"

Two halos settled steadily onto his body, and immediately after, two gold coins engraved with thorn patterns flew from his palms, instantly merging into his body.

The stats from the double Thornmail surged instantly: 600% defense, 90% strength boost, and 140% maximum health.

Coupled with the soul power regeneration and attack burn from the Red and Blue buffs, his confidence surged from the bottom of his heart.

Feeling the power surging within him, Lin Feng didn't hesitate a moment longer; with a few flashes, his figure completely vanished into the gloom of the dense forest.

One hour later, Deep in the dense forest of the Star Dou Forest, Lin Feng gritted his teeth and gave it his all, frantically weaving through the tangled tree roots and impenetrable thickets.

His eight-year-old body felt like it was about to fall apart, his young face was deathly pale, and his eyes were filled with despair.

"Why hasn't the unlucky bear stopped filming yet?"

He glanced back, still shaken, only to see a thousand-year Ghost-Faced Beast Monkey with a grey-black body and twisted, eerie markings on its face swinging through the treetops behind him in hot pursuit.

Its pair of rolling, vertical pupils were filled with undisguised excitement and mockery, and from time to time, it would snatch hard-shelled wild fruits from the trees, hurling them with pinpoint accuracy at the back of his head.

It was clearly not looking to make a kill immediately, but rather toying with its prey.

Lin Feng shuddered all over, his glutes clenching instinctively as he frantically drove the soul power within his body, pushing his speed up another notch.

"What a disaster! Out of the tens of thousands of soul beasts in the Star Dou Forest, what kind of rotten luck did I have to run into the most disgusting creature that every soul master wants to see dead?"

Lin Feng ran until his lungs felt like they were about to explode, cursing both this damn monkey and the previous Nether Owl to the heavens in his heart.

The Ghost-Faced Beast Monkey was a notorious existence in the soul master world.

Not only was this creature cunning and ferocious by nature, but its most insidious trait was its love for toying with lone human soul masters, showing no preference for gender and employing the most base and despicable methods.

What was even more lethal was its high intelligence; fearing that its prey might commit suicide to avoid humiliation, it would always bind their limbs first. Anyone who fell into its clutches met a truly miserable end.

One kilometer away.

Snake Lance Douluo, who had been leaning against a tree trunk, suddenly twitched his brows, his sharp gaze instantly sweeping toward the direction of Lin Feng.

His perception at the Title Douluo level clearly captured two rapidly moving auras.

One beast and one human; the human's soul power fluctuation was pitifully weak, merely that of a Soul Grand Master.

"Strange? How could a mere Soul Grand Master come alone into the inner circle of the Star Dou Forest? Is he tired of living?"

He muttered to himself, a thread of soul power as thin as a spider's silk quietly spreading out to investigate carefully.

But when his perception touched that familiar soul power fluctuation, Snake Lance Douluo was stunned for a moment, his face instantly filling with astonishment, followed by an irrepressible burst of laughter.

"Hahaha! Truly, one finds what one is looking for without even trying."

"Fate is truly a marvelous thing! I never expected to run into that mysterious little fellow from the Soul Recovery Pavilion here!"

"Young Master, I have an unexpected discovery. We have encountered that boy from the Soul Recovery Pavilion; he is just a kilometer away, currently fleeing for his life while being chased by a thousand-year soul beast."