Converging Paths

"Wind Baboon..." Huo Yuhao muttered. He recognized the creature the moment he laid eyes on it.

"Not bad, Yuhao. You actually recognize it."

Bei Bei walked over to the Wind Baboon's carcass and added, "A century-old Wind Baboon. They have violent temperaments and are suitable for wind-attribute assault-type soul masters."

"However, they are troublesome for the average soul master. A century-old Wind Baboon is enough to pose a lethal threat to anyone below the first ring."

As Bei Bei recalled the textbook definition of the Wind Baboon, Huo Yuhao's thoughts drifted back to the first time he had stepped into the Star Dou Forest in his previous life.

The first soul beast he had encountered was also a Wind Baboon, though that one had only ten years of cultivation.

Yet, even that ten-year soul beast had nearly cost Huo Yuhao his life.

The Star Dou Forest, a Wind Baboon... coincidences were beginning to pile up once again.

Huo Yuhao shook his head. How could there be so many coincidences in this world? He shouldn't overthink it; he needed to stay steady and secure his first soul ring.

With his connections to the Martial Soul Hall, there would be plenty of opportunities to return to the Star Dou Forest in the future.

Seeing Huo Yuhao's expression, Bei Bei assumed the boy was feeling nauseated from seeing a living creature decapitated for the first time, so he quickly gestured for Wang Hong to clean up the carcass.

"Are you alright, little brother Yuhao? My apologies."

"Thank you, Big Brother Bei Bei... I'm fine, just thinking about something." Huo Yuhao forced a smile, though to Bei Bei, it looked like the boy was simply pushing himself.

Still, seeing that Huo Yuhao didn't look too distressed, Bei Bei let the matter slide. Afterward, however, he specifically instructed Wang Hong not to clear path-blocking soul beasts in front of Huo Yuhao.

The group continued deeper into the Star Dou Forest, and in a corner hidden from their sight, a gaze was fixed intently upon the three of them.

"Yo-ho-ho, a spirit-type soul master without a soul ring. Brother has finally found a treasure!"

Although the Star Dou Forest was not under the jurisdiction of the Martial Soul Hall, given the organization's strength, creating a map of soul beast distribution in the outer regions was not a difficult task.

Bei Bei's target this time was a lightning-attribute sub-dragon soul beast that lived in the outer reaches of the Star Dou Forest. While they were rare, they were still much easier to find than the spirit-type soul beasts Huo Yuhao required.

Lightning-attribute sub-dragon soul beasts generally fed on fish, so their goal was to find a river with a strong enough current, where there was a high probability of their target appearing.

Unknowingly, Huo Yuhao felt that the path they were taking was increasingly overlapping with the one from his memories.

In the blink of an eye, over an hour had passed.

After pushing through another cluster of bushes, they followed the sound of water to a river that, while not flowing particularly fast, was visibly teeming with many fish.

"Let's set up camp in this area, Lord Bei Bei." Although he was asking, Wang Hong had already begun to act, taking a tent out of his portable Soul Tool to start setting it up.

Bei Bei sat on a rock by the river with Huo Yuhao to rest. Walking through a primeval forest for over an hour was exhausting, even with Wang Hong clearing away soul beasts and obstacles.

Especially considering Huo Yuhao was only a six-year-old child.

"Want some water?" Bei Bei took a bottle of water from his Soul Tool and handed it to Huo Yuhao.

He didn't stand on ceremony, twisting off the cap and taking small sips.

With his cultivation technique assisting him, his physical exertion was not as great as Bei Bei had anticipated; he could certainly walk for another hour if needed.

Watching the schools of fish swimming past in the river, an inexplicable impulse welled up in his heart.

"Big Brother Bei Bei, would you like to eat grilled fish?"

Huo Yuhao's sudden question left Bei Bei a bit confused, but he nodded nonetheless.

"Grilled fish... I've had it a few times at the academy's snack street after Xiao Ya took me there. But we don't have any tools to catch fish, and if I use my martial soul directly, the flavor will be greatly diminished."

The tips of Bei Bei's fingers sparked with faint golden electricity, and Huo Yuhao immediately understood his intent.

"Haha, that won't be necessary."

"Lord Wang Hong, do you have anything sharp and long?" Huo Yuhao called out to Wang Hong, who was busy setting up the tent.

The next moment, a wooden spear was tossed over.

In truth, he had originally intended to throw a regular spear, but remembering that Huo Yuhao was only six years old, he had swapped it for one made of wood.

Huo Yuhao caught it steadily, weighed it in his hand, and after confirming it felt comfortable to use, he walked to the riverbank.

He never would have imagined that the first time he used his martial soul after his rebirth would be to catch fish.

Come to think of it, when he met Big Brother Bei Bei and Big Sister Xiao Ya in his previous life, it was also by a river while grilling fish. Could this be some sort of destiny?

Silver and blue light began to swirl in the depths of Huo Yuhao's eyes. As the two colors intertwined, his vision underwent a qualitative leap in that instant.

Even Huo Yuhao hadn't expected the difference between having Innate Full Soul Power and simply cultivating from level one to ten to be so vast.

If using the Spirit Eye at level ten in his previous life meant seeing things slow down and gaining clearer vision, then what he saw now, with his Innate Full Soul Power, was even more exaggerated.

Everything he saw was far slower than in his memories; he could even use his Spirit Eye to observe the minute muscle movements of the fish in the water.

This was something he had only been able to achieve in his previous life after obtaining the soul ring from Brother Sky Dream.

"This is the difference between a genius and the mediocre..." Huo Yuhao sighed inwardly, though the thought didn't last long. After all, he was the very genius he was describing.

With every thrust, Huo Yuhao could precisely locate the fish's true position beneath the water's surface, ensuring that he didn't damage the fish's overall structure once he struck.

In his past life, he would often ruin the good meat on the fish, but now, every time a fish was tossed up, Bei Bei couldn't even tell at a glance that they had already been killed.

What precise motor control... no, it was the credit of those Spirit Eyes of his.

What Bei Bei saw was not just those nearly pristine fish; he saw the potential within Huo Yuhao's eyes.

Even without a spirit ring, he could achieve this level of operation with spirit power alone; if he were to have a spirit ring to assist him, the role he could play in battle could not be summarized in a few simple words.

Suppose Huo Yuhao were now holding the most ordinary dagger, facing a spirit master using a defensive spirit skill—what percentage of a chance would Huo Yuhao have to defeat him?

Bei Bei could be certain that, at the very least, his answer would be over ninety percent.

Precise operation and instantaneous judgment—these were the mandatory lessons left behind by Pope Chen Mo in the textbooks.

This was also the ability that his great-grandfather required Bei Bei to master; unless you possessed the power to defeat an opponent in a single blow, these two abilities—precise control and instantaneous judgment—were what helped you seize the initiative in battle.

Imagine this: the moment you prepare to use a spirit skill and your arms have just been raised, a dagger has already slipped through an imperceptible gap at an incredibly exquisite angle, arriving before your eyes and piercing into your pupil.

Before your eye is even pierced, you wouldn't even realize that the opponent had thrown that dagger.

Through his observations, Bei Bei was convinced that, at the very least, the current Huo Yuhao could absolutely achieve this.