Targeting Shrek Academy!

Meanwhile, the group from Shrek Academy was also moving swiftly through the forest.

Xuan Zi walked at the front, his expression still unpleasant. Clearly, he was still angry about what had happened earlier. As he walked, he guzzled wine and grumbled under his breath.

"That old bastard Du Busi is getting more and more arrogant. And those two little brats beside him don't look simple either. Especially that black-haired one—he actually didn't change expression under my pressure... Interesting."

Ma Xiaotao followed at Xuan Zi's side. Hearing that, she frowned.

"Elder Xuan, do you mean that black-haired boy who looked only twelve or thirteen? What was so special about him? From his Soul Power fluctuations, he was at most around Rank 30. He was still just a child."

"A child?" Xuan Zi sneered. "Xiaotao, you can't judge people by appearances alone. That brat's Soul Power may be low, but there's something... off about him. And the one in white beside him is even less simple.

He looked about your age, yet his Soul Power fluctuations were at least at Soul King level, perhaps even close to Soul Emperor. A Soul King that young—aside from Shrek, only the Body Sect could raise someone like that."

"A fifteen-year-old Soul King?" Xi Xi's eyes widened in shock. "Th-this is too monstrous, isn't it? Senior Brother Yueheng, when you were fifteen, you were only a four-ring Soul Ancestor, right?"

Dai Yueheng's expression darkened somewhat, but he still nodded.

"Yes. That guy's talent is indeed terrifying. And judging by his stance just now, he should have reached a Soul Power bottleneck as well. He probably came to the Star Dou Great Forest this time to hunt his sixth soul ring."

"A sixth soul ring?" Gongyang Mo frowned. "A fifteen-year-old Soul Emperor? Th-this can no longer be described as merely 'genius.' He's a monster. If he's allowed to grow, he'll definitely become a great enemy of Shrek in the future."

Chen Zifeng said coldly, "Then we should find an opportunity to cripple him. This is the Star Dou Great Forest. A couple of deaths would be perfectly normal."

"Nonsense!" Xuan Zi shouted sternly. "Chen Zifeng, remember this: Shrek is the leader of the righteous path, not Evil Soul Masters! Don't ever say something like that again!"

Chen Zifeng lowered his head, not daring to argue, but a trace of defiance flashed through his eyes.

Ling Luochen had not spoken the entire time and merely walked quietly. Yet her gaze drifted now and then toward the direction Dai Tu had left in, a hint of confusion flashing through her ice-blue pupils.

"Luochen, what's wrong?" Yao Haoxuan noticed her unusual behavior and asked softly.

Ling Luochen shook her head. "Nothing. I just feel that... that black-haired boy was somewhat strange."

"Strange? How was he strange?"

"I can't explain it." Ling Luochen's voice was soft, like shards of ice colliding. "I just feel that... he shouldn't have been like that. The way he looked at us, especially the way he looked at Senior Brother Yueheng... was very cold. Cold as if he were looking at dead people."

Dai Yueheng was stunned for a moment, then laughed, his smile full of disdain.

"Luochen, you're overthinking it. What waves could a Rank 30 Soul Grandmaster possibly make? He was probably frightened by Shrek's reputation and didn't dare meet our eyes."

Du Busi had left.

Before leaving, he set up a dark green Soul Power barrier around Dai Tu and Long Aotian.

"I left a spiritual imprint on the barrier. If you encounter danger, I'll sense it immediately and arrive within three breaths."

Du Busi stood outside the barrier, looking at his two disciples. There was a rare seriousness in his emerald-green eyes.

"Remember, don't force yourselves. Find a suitable soul beast and cripple it, leaving it barely alive for Dai Tu to absorb. The energy of a ten-thousand-year soul ring is extremely violent. Do not lose focus during absorption. If you feel that you can't endure it, withdraw immediately. Staying alive is what matters."

"Yes, Teacher." Long Aotian bowed respectfully.

Dai Tu nodded as well. "Understood, Teacher."

Du Busi looked at them once more, then his figure flickered and vanished from the spot as though he had never appeared. Only the dark green barrier quietly flowing beneath the sunlight proved that everything just now had not been an illusion.

"Alright, Teacher's gone. Now we can cut loose."

Long Aotian stretched lazily, his bones cracking loudly like popping beans. Rolling his wrists, excitement gleamed in his amber eyes.

"Junior Brother, should we search separately, or..."

"Together." Dai Tu cut him off and raised a hand, pointing to his eye.

A scarlet glow quietly lit up deep within his left eye. The shuriken pattern of the Mangekyō Sharingan silently emerged and slowly began to turn.

The demonic red light spread through the morning mist, dyeing everything around them with a faint bloody hue.

"My eyes can see details within a thousand meters, and they can sense Soul Power fluctuations as well." Dai Tu's voice was calm. "Splitting up is inefficient. We'll search together. I'll lead the way, and you strike."

Long Aotian's eyes lit up. "Sure. With those eyes of yours, finding soul beasts will be much easier. Let's go!"

The two moved through the forest, one behind the other.

Dai Tu walked in front with his Mangekyō Sharingan fully activated. His scarlet pupils swept over every inch of ground, every leaf, and every shadow in the forest.

Within a thousand meters, every rustle of grass, insect chirp, birdcall, and flow of Soul Power appeared directly in his mind like a high-definition image, without the slightest omission.

The feeling was strange—like a god's-eye view, or like... having the entire map revealed.

Dai Tu could even see a nest of newborn Wind Shadow Martens hidden inside the hollow of an ancient tree three hundred paces away. The mother marten guarded her young vigilantly, a Lightning Rabbit she had bitten to death hanging from her mouth.

In a swamp five hundred paces away, an Iron-Armored Crocodile lurked beneath the mud, exposing only its pair of cold eyes as it watched a Water Spirit Deer drinking at the shore.

On a cliff eight hundred paces away, a pair of Golden Feather Eagles were building a nest. The male eagle carried over a thick branch while the female carefully secured it with her claws.

Everything was crystal clear.

So this is the Mangekyo's power of perception... Dai Tu sighed inwardly.

When he had watched Naruto in his previous life, he had always thought the Sharingan's perception was nothing extraordinary—at most, stronger dynamic vision that could see through the trajectories of ninjutsu.

But after truly possessing these eyes, he finally understood what it meant to "see through all things."

It was not merely his sight. His hearing, smell, touch, and even his perception of Soul Power and life aura had all been enhanced hundreds or thousands of times.

"Junior Brother, there's a soul beast ahead!" Long Aotian's voice suddenly rang out, carrying a hint of excitement.

Dai Tu came back to his senses and looked in the direction Long Aotian pointed.

About twelve hundred paces away, in a forest clearing blooming with little white flowers, a soul beast was leisurely grazing.

It was a deer.

Its entire body was snow-white, without a single stray hair, as though it had been carved from the purest white jade.

It was not large, no more than five feet long and three feet tall at the shoulder, and it looked somewhat frail.

Yet the pair of antlers atop its head were exceptionally gorgeous. They were not shaped like the branching antlers of an ordinary deer, but like two exquisite, translucent little trees, their branches spreading outward and their leaves crystalline, gleaming with a warm emerald-green light beneath the sun.

A faint green halo lingered around the antlers. Wherever the halo reached, the grass beneath its hooves grew especially lush, the little white flowers bloomed especially brilliantly, and the air was filled with a refreshing sweetness carrying the fragrance of vegetation.

"An Emerald Spirit Deer." Dai Tu softly spoke the soul beast's name.