Even after crashing heavily to the ground, the two Dominator Vanguards had only Lin Feng's death order in their minds.
They clung desperately to the Nether Owl's wings, opening their fang-filled jaws and madly biting toward its most vulnerable neck.
But between a thousand years and ten thousand years lay an insurmountable chasm.
The Nether Owl was completely enraged. With an angry screech, it swung its steel-bladed claws. Two miserable dragon roars rang out as the two Dominator Vanguards were instantly torn to pieces and died on the spot.
But in the next second, the Nether Owl's scarlet pupils suddenly contracted.
The corpses of the dragon soul beasts it had shredded did not leave behind even a trace. They directly turned into specks of dark purple light and vanished into thin air.
Its nourishing meal had disappeared just like that. Instantly enraged, it threw back its head and let out a sharp, piercing shriek that shook leaves loose from the surrounding trees.
Again!
The three dragons it had hunted in the outer region earlier had also turned into fluorescent light and disappeared after dying.
Mother had been right. These cunning dragons were all hard to kill, each with bizarre abilities.
Using those brief few seconds of delay, Lin Feng rode the remaining Dominator Vanguard and plunged into the depths of the forest, his figure instantly vanishing behind layer upon layer of treetops.
After turning back and confirming that the Nether Owl had completely disappeared and was no longer pursuing him, Lin Feng let out a heavy breath of stale air he had been holding in for ages and fiercely wiped the cold sweat mixed with grass clippings from his face.
"Finally shook that damned bird. That was way too close. I almost thought this future Number One Support God would die here young and turn into a pile of bird droppings."
Having learned his lesson, Lin Feng no longer dared to let the Dominator Vanguard fly high into the sky, keeping it low to the ground instead.
He had thought the sky a hundred meters above the ground would avoid the soul beasts below and be the safest route. Who could have expected that the skies of Star Dou Forest were no less dangerous than the ground?
When he looked around at the endless, gloomy sea of forest before him, where even the trees all seemed to grow exactly the same way, the heart that had just settled sank again.
"Where is this?"
A bead of cold sweat slid from his temple to his chin as he muttered in panic:
"It's over. I'm really done for now... Where the hell am I?"
He stood there and spun around several times, studying the sun and the direction of the trees for a long while, but in the end, he had no choice but to accept that cruel reality.
He was lost in Star Dou Forest.
And worse than being lost, the duration of Wrath of the Dominator had already entered its countdown.
Once the Dragon Soldier disappeared, for the next full twelve hours, he—a Support System Soul Grandmaster with no frontal attack power whatsoever—would have to survive alone in Star Dou Forest, where ferocious soul beasts were everywhere.
Lin Feng jumped down from the Dominator Vanguard's back.
Without the protection of the dragon Bloodline pressure emanating from the Dragon Soldier, he immediately felt as though countless eyes were watching him in the dark forest, malice closing in from every direction.
He clenched his back teeth so hard they cracked.
"Damned bird, don't let me run into you again. Next time, I'll pluck you clean and roast you alive."
"Calm down! Calm down! It's not the end yet!"
He forced himself to stop spiraling.
He knew all too well that in a place filled with danger, panic was the deadliest thing. It would only make him misjudge the situation and walk himself into a dead end.
He took several deep breaths in succession. The cool forest air filled his lungs and finally suppressed his panic as he leaned against a thick tree trunk and quickly assessed the cards he still held.
"My frontal attack power is practically zero right now. Any thousand-year soul beast that pops out could easily deal with me, but it's not like I have nothing to save my life with."
"Thornmail, Resurrection Armor, Red and Blue Buffs. If something really happens, I may still have a chance to fight. It's not too bad yet. I'm not at the end of the road."
"The biggest problem is that I don't know which way to go. I have to find people first. Only if I run into another soul master team here to hunt soul rings will I have a chance to ask for directions and get out of this perilous primeval forest."
But... having just experienced the Blood Wolf Mercenary Group's ambush, he knew that sometimes human hearts were more dangerous than the soul beasts in the forest.
His survival instinct sent his mind racing, frantically calculating the odds of survival for every option. In the end, he gritted his teeth, and a trace of ruthlessness suppressed the worry in his eyes.
"I can't wait here to die. I still have to keep moving and look for a way out. Maybe I'll get lucky and run into someone."
Miserable wolf howls occasionally echoed through the forest, along with the strange roars of unknown soul beasts. Even the rustling of wind passing through the leaves seemed to conceal Infinity danger.
Lin Feng raised his eyes toward the bottomless dark forest ahead. A yellow and a purple soul ring suddenly rose beneath his feet as he chanted softly.
"Blue Sentinel Power!"
"Red Sentinel Power!"
Two halos settled firmly over his body. Then, two Thornmail Gold Coins engraved with thorn patterns flew from his palm and instantly merged into his body.
The attributes of his double Thornmail surged at once: 600% defense, 90% strength enhancement, and 140% maximum health.
Together with the Soul Power sustain and attack burn of the Red and Blue Buffs, confidence immediately welled up within him.
Feeling the power surging through his body, Lin Feng no longer hesitated in the slightest. With several quick flashes, his figure completely disappeared into the darkness of the forest.
One hour later,
Deep within Star Dou Forest,
Lin Feng gritted his teeth and ran for his life, darting wildly through tangled roots and impenetrable thickets.
His eight-year-old body was nearly falling apart from running, his childish face deathly pale, and his eyes full of utter despair.
"Wasn't Bad Luck Bear taken off the air ages ago?"
Still shaken, he glanced back and saw a thousand-year Ghost-Faced Beast Monkey with a gray-black body and twisted, eerie patterns on its face swinging rapidly through the treetops on vines.
Its round vertical pupils were filled with undisguised excitement and mockery. From time to time, it even snatched hard-shelled wild fruit from the trees and accurately hurled them at the back of his head.
It was obviously not trying to kill him immediately. It was playing with its prey.
Lin Feng shuddered from head to toe, instinctively clenched his buttocks, and frantically circulated the Soul Power in his body, raising his speed another level.
"This is cruel! There are tens of thousands of soul beasts in Star Dou Forest. What kind of rotten luck do I have to run into the most disgusting thing every soul master hates?"
Lin Feng ran until his lungs felt like they were about to explode, cursing this damned monkey and the Nether Owl from earlier in his heart.
The Ghost-Faced Beast Monkey was a notorious existence in the soul master world.
Not only was it cunning and cruel by nature, but its most sinister trait was its love of tormenting lone human soul masters. It did not discriminate between men and women, and its methods were utterly vile.
Even worse, it possessed extremely high intelligence. Afraid that its prey might kill themselves from humiliation, it would always bind their limbs first. Any human who fell into its hands would meet a horrifying end.
One kilometer away.
Snake Lance Douluo, who had been leaning against a tree trunk, suddenly frowned and swept his sharp gaze toward Lin Feng's direction.
His Title Douluo-level senses clearly caught two rapidly moving presences.
One beast and one human. The human's Soul Power fluctuations were pitifully weak—only a Soul Grandmaster.
"Strange. How did a mere Soul Grandmaster end up alone in the inner region of Star Dou Forest? Is he trying to get himself killed?"
He muttered to himself as a thread-thin wisp of Soul Power quietly spread outward to probe further.
But when his senses touched that familiar Soul Power fluctuation, Snake Lance Douluo first froze. Then his face filled with astonishment, followed by uncontrollable laughter.
"Hahaha! I searched everywhere only to find him without any effort."
"Fate truly works in mysterious ways! Who would've thought I'd run into that mysterious little fellow from Soul Recovery Pavilion here!"
"Young Master, we found something unexpected. We've run into that boy from Soul Recovery Pavilion. He's one kilometer away and is currently fleeing for his life from a thousand-year soul beast."
Before you continue