Departure!

Qing Hongyuan stood up, walked into the courtyard, and looked up at the night sky.

Moonlight spilled like water over the bluestone slabs, and the autumn breeze rustled through the bamboo leaves.

His Azure Snake Dragon Wing unfurled slightly behind him, the cyan feathers shimmering with a faint luster under the moonlight.

The goal for this trip to the Star Dou Forest was clear.

Grandmother's sixth Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Ring—a forty-thousand-year Wind Wood Dragon.

Grandfather's seventh Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Ring—a hundred-thousand-year plant-type.

Two targets, one after the other.

The difficulty had jumped straight from "high" to "extremely high."

A hundred-thousand-year soul beast was an existence on par with a Titled Douluo.

Although the Life Ancient Tree had extremely weak offensive power, its hundred-thousand-year level vitality meant that its defense alone would be enough to give them a headache.

Qing Hongyuan took a deep breath, suppressing the stray thoughts in his mind.

Thinking about it so much was useless.

He would deal with it when they got there.

After finishing up in the kitchen, Shen Wanqing returned to the accounting room and began to tally the family's liquid assets.

She didn't know how long they would be gone, so she had to ensure there were enough funds left for household expenses.

She checked the accounts entry by entry, closed the ledger once she confirmed everything was correct, and rubbed her sore, tired eyes.

Qing Mufeng returned to his room, sat cross-legged on his bed, and circulated the Azure Dragon Method.

Three soul rings rose from beneath his feet—yellow, purple, purple.

His soul power was stable at level thirty-four, just one step away from level thirty-five. The Whale Glue reinforcement had made his physique far superior to his peers, but there were no shortcuts for accumulating soul power; it could only be achieved through day-after-day cultivation.

He was not in a hurry.

Being in a hurry wouldn't help anyway.

The days passed one by one.

After being stuck at the peak of level fifty-nine for nearly ten days, Liu Yunlan finally made a breakthrough one morning.

That morning, the whole family was eating breakfast. Liu Yunlan was holding her porridge bowl when she suddenly froze.

The old lady closed her eyes, and the soul power within her body surged like a tide; the bottleneck was shattered in an instant like a thin sheet of paper.

Level sixty.

Quasi-Soul Emperor.

Liu Yunlan opened her eyes, looked at the porridge bowl in her hand, remained silent for a moment, and then smiled.

It wasn't a loud laugh, nor a simple smile, but a look of relief—the bottleneck that had held her back for years had finally been crossed.

"Congratulations, Grandmother," Qing Mufeng was the first to speak.

"Congratulations, Mother," Qing Hongyuan and Shen Wanqing said in unison.

Qing Zhengyue didn't speak, only looked at his wife, the corners of his mouth curling up slightly.

The old lady glared at him and continued drinking her porridge as if nothing had happened, though her hands were trembling slightly.

The joy of breaking through to level sixty did not last long.

That same day, Liu Yunlan locked herself in the medicinal herb room and began preparing the supplies they would need for the trip—Beast Repellent Powder, Detoxification Pill, Hemostatic Powder, Golden Sore Medicine, Calming Pill... She packed them bottle by bottle and jar by jar, filling the space in her storage ring bit by bit.

Qing Zhengyue also sought out Liu Yunlan.

"This is the list of medicinal herbs you need," the old man said, handing her a piece of paper. "I cross-referenced it with the Whale Glue medicinal bath formula that Feng'er wrote and added a few more ingredients. Starting today, add these to your medicinal baths to strengthen your constitution."

Liu Yunlan took the list, glanced at it, and then looked up at her husband, her eyes full of surprise.

"So many?"

"Your target for the sixth soul ring is forty thousand years," Qing Zhengyue said. "That's even higher than Hongyuan's thirty-thousand-year one. Your physique isn't as strong as Hongyuan's; if you don't put in the effort, how will you be able to withstand it?"

Liu Yunlan gritted her teeth and nodded.

"Fine."

She turned and walked into the medicinal herb room, starting to gather the herbs according to the prescription. For the sake of a forty-thousand-year soul ring, she was willing to try anything.

Qing Mufeng had also been increasing his training during this time.

Every morning, before dawn, he would go into the bamboo forest to practice the Azure Dragon Wind Control.

Wingless flight, hovering, accelerating, turning, diving, climbing—he practiced every movement repeatedly.

His Wind Control was also being practiced in tandem—Wind Wall, Wind Blade, Wind Binding—moving from clumsy to proficient, and from proficient to instinctual.

His target for the fourth soul ring was ten thousand years. Although he had the blessing of the Azure Dragon bloodline, the gap between the ten-thousand-year level and his current five-thousand-nine-hundred-year level was significant, and he could not afford any issues with his physique.

Qing Hongyuan had been practicing with his Azure Snake Dragon Wing during this time.

His method of flight was different from Qing Mufeng's.

Qing Mufeng flew without wings, relying on his divine ability.

He relied on his soul skill to condense wings, which consumed soul power and required more practice to improve efficiency.

He flew circle after circle above the manor, from dawn until dusk, landing to rest when tired and continuing to fly once he had recovered.

Shen Wanqing was practicing the release speed of her support soul skill.

With the help of the Whale Glue, the release speed of her Jade Orchid had increased significantly, but it was still not enough.

She practiced repeatedly, starting from the soul power limit of a level 46 Soul Ancestor, challenging her own ceiling time and time again.

Finally, after a month, everything was ready.

Before dawn, five figures filed out from the back gate of the Qing Family Manor, silently vanishing into the mountain forest.

Zhao the Coachman was already waiting outside the back gate with that inconspicuous carriage, having been there for quite some time.

Qing Zhengyue walked at the very front, dressed in dark gray martial attire, his white hair tied up, the narrow-bladed long knife that had accompanied him for decades hanging at his waist.

Liu Yunlan followed closely behind, wearing deep cyan short-sleeved gear, her silver hair coiled atop her head, cuffs tightly bound, the cloth bag at her waist clinking softly.

Qing Hongyuan walked in the middle, dressed in black martial attire with a sword at his waist, the Azure Snake Dragon Wing on his back half-open, ready to be fully deployed at any moment.

Shen Wanqing walked beside her husband, having swapped her jade-colored long dress for neat, short-sleeved garments, her hair tied into a long braid hanging down her back.

Qing Mufeng walked at the end, wearing cyan robes and cloth shoes with thousand-layered soles, his hair tied back with a cyan cloth strip, revealing a smooth forehead.

A six-year-old child, the childishness on his face had not yet fully faded, but his eyes were steady in a way that did not belong to his age.

A family of five, all mobilized.

The destination—Star Dou Forest.

Zhao the Coachman flicked the reins, the black horse stepped out, and the carriage silently drove into the darkness before dawn.

The carriage sped along the main road for two full days.

On the morning of the third day, that familiar inn appeared in their field of vision—the Forest Post, the place where soul hunters entering and leaving the Star Dou Forest most often stayed.

Zhao the Coachman drove the carriage to the inn's backyard, fed the horse, added fodder, and then squatted against the wall, pulling out a dry pipe to light it, chatting idly with a few other coachmen.

His accent had shifted to the local dialect of this area, his demeanor natural and relaxed; no one would give him a second glance.

The five members of the Qing family left through the inn's back door, silently disappearing into the edge of the forest.

Before entering the forest, Qing Zhengyue stopped and turned to look at his family.

"Old rules," the old man's voice was low and clear. "Hongyuan, lead the way; Wanqing, stay in the center; Yunlan, bring up the rear; Mufeng, stay close to your grandmother. I will be responsible for vigilance. If you discover a soul beast, do not act rashly; observe first."

The four nodded.

Qing Zhengyue took one last look at his grandson: "Keep your Azure Dragon Pupil active the entire time, and report any abnormalities immediately."

"Understood."

Qing Zhengyue drew his long knife, the blade flashing with a cold light in the morning sun.

"Let's go."

Five figures vanished into the shadows of the dense forest.