Snake Lance: Where Is He? Where Did He Go?

After staying tense for so long and expending Soul Power, exhaustion washed over Ling Yun. He settled down in the cave and meditated to recover.

While he meditated, Snake Lance Douluo was going crazy.

"Where is he? Where did he go? Weren't you supposed to keep an eye on Dugu Bo's manor, you brat? Is this how you keep watch?"

"After such a short time, there should still be traces of his Soul Power aura. But there's nothing, nothing, still nothing!"

Snake Lance was on the verge of a breakdown!

He had secretly searched Dugu Manor, then asked some of the people nearby. There was nothing unusual about the manor.

If Dugu Bo had discovered Ling Yun and killed him on the spot, all Snake Lance could do was say what a shame! But Dugu Bo had clearly made no move. Could someone tell him what on earth was going on?

"Could the little fellow have already finished dealing with Dugu Bo and left?"

Snake Lance wasn't sure, but he couldn't rule out the possibility.

He began a thorough search, using his Soul Skill to comb through every nearby street and building. At last, he found a tiny clue.

A thousand meters from Dugu Manor, Ling Yun's Soul Power aura appeared again in a corner. It was faint—extremely faint—but to Snake Lance, it was a lead.

Overjoyed, he followed the faint trail, winding this way and that. Before long, Snake Lance was driven to distraction again.

Just as Ling Yun's aura neared a street crowded with vendors, it vanished once more. The place was teeming with people, and the Soul Power auras were a jumbled mess.

His tracking was useless.

"That restless brat! Making an old man like me run around in circles. Just you wait till I catch you!"

Snake Lance was so angry his teeth ached. Before coming here, he'd promised that nothing could go wrong. After arriving, everything had gone wrong.

He was a Titled Douluo, yet he couldn't even find a mere Soul Master. What a disgrace!

Now he'd end up with the label "unreliable," wouldn't he?

In fact, Ling Yun hadn't gone out of his way to hide himself. Once he was a thousand meters from Dugu Manor, he put away his Martial Soul, the Chaos Bead, and mingled with the crowd like an ordinary person. Then he left Heaven Dou City and headed for Sunset Forest.

The greatest hermits hide in the city; he disappeared into the sea of people.

Only after reaching Sunset Forest did Ling Yun use his Martial Soul again. Even if Snake Lance followed him there, he would lose track of him in an instant. Finding someone in a Soul Beast Forest wasn't easy even for a Titled Douluo. The outer reaches alone would be enough to keep him searching, like looking for a needle in the ocean.

And Ling Yun had already ventured deep into the territory of Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts.

Who would ever think that a child who wasn't even a Soul Grandmaster would dare to enter the range where Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts roamed?

After staring at the street for a while, Snake Lance returned to Crown Prince Manor in dejection to report.

After hearing his report, Qian Renxue waved a hand. "In that case, Uncle Snake Lance, go and get some rest."

"He must have sensed the danger and gone into hiding. The fact that even a Titled Douluo can't find him makes me more and more interested in him!"

"..."

Qian Renxue wasn't in a hurry. As long as he was alive, she would meet him again sooner or later.

Sunset Forest.

By the time Ling Yun finished cultivating, night had fallen.

Hunger gnawed at him. He held dry rations in one hand and wolfed them down, while the other held a gourd of water.

Once he'd eaten and drunk his fill, he activated his Soul Skill. The energy formed by the converging rays of light was immense, its cutting force unparalleled. He cut several stone slabs and blocked the cave entrance with them, leaving only a small air hole.

Then he took out an animal hide, spread it on the ground, and went to sleep in peace.

Outside, all kinds of insects chirped, and the roars of large Soul Beasts occasionally rang out. The cruel law of the jungle was even more pronounced at night.

Inside and outside the cave, the contrast was stark.

The next morning.

A piercing sound from the stone slabs outside set his teeth on edge. It was the sound of claws scraping across glass.

For once, Ling Yun had a nightmare and woke with a start.

"What the hell? What kind of Soul Beast is so nasty?"

Ling Yun peered outside through the hole. A five-meter-long lizard was sharpening its claws there.

Flame-like patterns marked its body, with lava flowing through them.

"Damn it, a Lava Giant Lizard!"

Lava Giant Lizards were among the stronger Soul Beasts. They liked living in lava and had maxed-out fire resistance.

That also proved there was a volcanic area nearby.

Lava Giant Lizards were skilled at controlling lava. They could unleash attacks like lava pillars and meteor showers of molten rock, and their scales had extremely high defensive power.

Their weak points were their eyes and mouths, but they protected both of them well.

They had another weakness, too: they were afraid of the cold.

Ling Yun decided to launch a sneak attack. In a head-on fight, he and this Lava Giant Lizard would split the odds three-seven.

The lizard would last three seconds; he'd be eaten until he was seventy percent full.

He was very glad he'd made enough stone slabs and that they were thick enough.

The hole was small enough that, because of the lighting, anyone looking in from outside would see nothing but darkness.

From inside, however, he could see outside very clearly.

The Lava Giant Lizard seemed quite pleased with the stone slab. It scraped its claws across it at a leisurely pace, clearly enjoying how good it felt.

The grating sound made every hair on Ling Yun's body stand on end.

"You dare torment me? You're dead! First Soul Skill, Sky-Filling Light Rain!" All the light from the Yin-Yang Mirror Martial Soul converged. The light from its yin and yang sides gathered at a single point, more condensed than ever before.

Red and white light fused, and a dangerous aura filled the air.

The whole process of gathering the light took less than three breaths.

Outside, the Lava Giant Lizard sensed the danger, which was coming from behind the stone slabs.

It instinctively released its Soul Power. Blazing flames erupted across its body, and lava flowed over its surface. The molten rock poured onto the ground, forming a lava pool in an instant and changing the terrain.

The Lava Giant Lizard reacted quickly, but Ling Yun's attack was faster. The highly concentrated beam shot out like a laser cannon and struck its eye. It reflexively shut its eye, but too late.

The beam of condensed yin and yang energy exploded. Its right eye was ruined, blood pouring out. The intense pain drove the Lava Giant Lizard mad, and it attacked the stone slabs.

The slabs shattered on impact.

Ling Yun darted deep into the side of the cave. His Chaos Bead Martial Soul appeared, concealing every trace of his aura.

The Lava Giant Lizard charged inside, searching the cave for its enemy with its one remaining eye.

Taking the opportunity, Ling Yun slipped out of the cave and ran for his life.

He hadn't expected the Lava Giant Lizard to be so tenacious, or its defenses so astonishing. He'd only ruined one eye.

By Ling Yun's estimate, the Yin-Yang beam should have gone through the Lava Giant Lizard's eye and pierced its brain.

Ling Yun glanced back. The Lava Giant Lizard had turned the cave into ruins, roaring in a rage.

Seen from far away, even the sky above the place had turned red, with pillars of lava shooting skyward one after another.

Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts were terrifying indeed!

Ling Yun had seen it for himself! He picked a direction at random, took off running, and fled! He had to find somewhere else to settle down.

Before long, he stopped in his tracks. His Chaos Bead Martial Soul had reacted: Dugu Bo had come to Sunset Forest.

"Hahaha... Heaven is helping me!"

Ling Yun was more excited than ever. Following the guidance of his Martial Soul, he kept track of Dugu Bo's movements.

Before half an hour had passed, Dugu Bo's position stopped changing. Ling Yun marked the direction and distance, then continued searching for a place to settle down.

When Dugu Bo left again, it would be time for him to make his move.