Pope Palace.
"Teacher, have all the Soul Beasts on the continent really disappeared?"
"That can't be true, can it?"
Hu Liena stared at Bibi Dong in disbelief, her eyes wide as she refused to believe that what her teacher had told her had actually happened.
She had heard a little about the disappearance of the Soul Beasts before, but she hadn't expected it to be this serious.
"Yes. Not only have the Soul Beasts on the continent disappeared, but the Sea Soul Beasts in the oceans have all vanished, too."
Bibi Dong nodded, her face betraying no emotion.
Even she hadn't expected the situation to be this serious.
At first, she thought something had happened only to the dozen or so Soul Hunting Forests where Spirit Hall raised Soul Beasts. She hadn't expected every Soul Beast to disappear.
Now that things had come to this, she was no longer as anxious.
If only the Soul Hunting Forests raised by Spirit Hall had been affected, she would have had a great deal to deal with.
She would have needed to find the culprit, limit the blow to Spirit Hall, and calm the people inside...
In short, there would have been plenty to worry about.
But things were different now.
Since all Soul Beasts had disappeared, every sect and faction on the continent would have to face this. Everyone had suffered, not just Spirit Hall.
The only thing that displeased her was that she could no longer level up quickly by absorbing Soul Rings.
She was only at level 98. She was just one level away from becoming a Peerless Douluo.
Breaking through from level 98 to 99 wasn't easy.
Her Second Martial Soul still had room for two more Soul Rings. But even if both were Hundred Thousand Year Soul Rings, she wasn't confident they would help her break through to level 99.
Now, though, there weren't even any Ten Thousand Year Soul Rings left, let alone Hundred Thousand Year Soul Rings.
If only she'd known, she would have absorbed two high-quality Ten Thousand Year Soul Rings and then cultivated for another ten or twenty years. That would probably have been enough to break through.
She had only wanted to break through sooner and have a few more Hundred Thousand Year Soul Rings.
Who didn't want to look impressive?
Unfortunately, there was no point regretting it now.
"How could this happen..."
"My brother and Yan were about to reach level 50, and I thought I'd be able to break through next year..."
"Does that mean we can't become Soul Kings anymore?"
Once Hu Liena got confirmation from Bibi Dong, her eyes instantly reddened, filled with hurt and unwillingness.
"Don't worry. You can still become Soul Kings."
Seeing that Hu Liena was about to cry, Bibi Dong hurried forward to comfort her.
"Really, Teacher?"
At Bibi Dong's words, Hu Liena stopped crying at once and looked at her teacher in delight.
"Yes. Although all the Soul Beasts disappeared overnight, as long as Soul Power still exists on the continent and animals and plants are alive, Soul Beasts can't truly go extinct."
"Just like humans, Soul Beasts come about through awakening. Some powerful Soul Beast species are born with Soul Power, so their entire species consists of Soul Beasts."
"But most Soul Beasts awaken from ordinary animals and plants."
"These are the lowest-ranked Ten-Year Soul Beasts. They can even be called One-Year Soul Beasts!"
"Before, no one would ever absorb a Soul Beast like this. It wouldn't evolve a Soul Master's Martial Soul, nor would it produce a Soul Skill!"
"Its only use is to give a Soul Ring to a Soul Master who has reached a bottleneck, allowing them to break through to the next level!"
"The powerful Soul Beasts on Douluo Continent are gone now, but these lowest-ranked One-Year Soul Beasts can awaken at any time."
"We've already discovered a Blue Silver Grass that just awakened Soul Power in one of our Soul Hunting Forests within the Heaven Dou Empire."
"That Blue Silver Grass has already been protected."
"Since we've found one awakened Soul Beast, there will surely be more."
"With Spirit Hall's resources, searching for some One-Year Soul Beasts won't be a problem. You'll definitely be able to break through."
"It's just that your future paths may not take you very far!"
Only because she was speaking to Hu Liena was Bibi Dong willing to patiently reassure her and tell her about Spirit Hall's latest discovery.
"Really?"
"Then that's good. As long as we can break through, that's all that matters!"
After hearing her teacher out, Hu Liena wasn't upset at all that the Blue Silver Grass was low-ranked. Instead, she was a little delighted.
What could she do? Compared with being unable to break through, she'd take a One-Year Soul Beast.
Still, even as she felt relieved, Hu Liena couldn't help finding the situation absurd.
Since when had the Soul Master World been so eager to get its hands on a One-Year Blue Silver Grass?
She was sure that if Spirit Hall dared to reveal the Blue Silver Grass's location, countless Soul Masters would rush to fight over it.
The thought made Hu Liena want to laugh.
But when she remembered that she was one of them, she couldn't laugh at all.
"Nana, I'm glad you can see it that way."
Bibi Dong was relieved to hear that Hu Liena wasn't unwilling to accept it.
"Teacher, didn't our Spirit Hall just promote a new elder?"
After receiving her teacher's praise, Hu Liena's eyes suddenly lit up. She had thought of Lin Yue.
Other people in Spirit Hall might not know what Lin Yue's Soul Skill was, but as Bibi Dong's disciple, she did.
Bibi Dong had once told her about it as an amusing story.
"Can't his Martial Soul contain Soul Beasts? Are the Soul Beasts that elder contained before still there?"
Hu Liena grew more and more excited as she spoke.
Bibi Dong's eyes lit up too when she heard Hu Liena's words.
Before this, she had been so busy dealing with the disappearance of the Soul Beasts that she hadn't even thought of Lin Yue, the elder of their Spirit Hall.
When all the Soul Beasts disappeared at once, she'd immediately assumed that the ones Lin Yue had contained had vanished along with them. She hadn't given it another thought.
But now that she considered it carefully, the Soul Beasts Lin Yue had contained were inside his Martial Soul Space. Surely they hadn't mysteriously disappeared like the others.
"Nana, go to the Elder Hall and bring Elder Lin Yue here for me."
Once she realized this, Bibi Dong immediately ordered Hu Liena to fetch Lin Yue.
"Yes, Teacher!"
"I'll go right away!"
At Bibi Dong's words, Hu Liena replied excitedly and hurried off toward the Elder Hall.
"Soul Collector Douluo... Lin Yue..."
"You should have quite a few Soul Beasts in your space, right?"
"It looks like my Soul Rings are taken care of."
Watching Hu Liena disappear, a faint smile appeared on Bibi Dong's face.
It was the delight of getting back what she thought she'd lost.
Now all that remained was to see whether the Soul Beasts in Lin Yue's space were still there, and how strong the strongest Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast among them was.