Re-entry into Sunset Forest

The Blazing Lion King is the monarch that leads the Blazing Demon Lion species; it is a ruler, a chieftain.

However, what exactly is this Golden-Haired Lion King?

Xiao Yan raised an eyebrow, carefully examining the description above.

This is a soul beast with nearly ten thousand years of cultivation. It commands an entire Blazing Demon Lion tribe; while the tribe is not lacking in ten-thousand-year soul beasts, every single one of them submits to the control of this thousand-year Golden-Haired Lion King.

"So that's it. This Golden-Haired Lion King is an existence with ancestral bloodline mutation. To command ten-thousand-year soul beasts with only a thousand years of cultivation—how truly majestic!"

Xiao Yan's eyes widened, only to see Xiao Yulü's face turn deathly pale as he looked at him in disbelief.

"You want to hunt this Golden-Haired Lion King? I advise you to cherish your life and not go provoking it."

"Oh? And what does that mean?"

Xiao Yulü seemed to recall something terrifying, muttering:

"Although this Golden-Haired Lion King only has a thousand years of cultivation, its actual combat power is significantly stronger than an ordinary ten-thousand-year soul beast. Furthermore, it commands an entire soul beast tribe. If you want to hunt it, you must first deal with the tribe it commands."

"And that tribe... it has nearly a hundred-year Flame Lions, over a dozen thousand-year Blazing Demon Lions, and a full three... ten-thousand-year Blazing Demon Lions."

"I wanted to choose this soul beast when I was hunting for my soul ring, but... even when my family dispatched a Soul Saint, we were powerless against so many soul beasts."

"The might of a beast tide is truly terrifying."

Hearing this, Xiao Yan couldn't help but nod, feeling quite wary of the Golden-Haired Lion King.

Even though his current strength is formidable, comparable to a Soul King, this is an existence that even a Soul Saint finds troublesome. No matter how strong his attack power is, could he really fight so many soul beasts?

He couldn't. Even if a thousand lions stood still for Xiao Yan to kill, he would be exhausted to death.

After careful consideration, Xiao Yan could only reluctantly put down the information on the Golden-Haired Lion King. Although this guy is weaker than the Great Sun Rainbow and others he has seen, it is not something the current Xiao Yan can afford to tangle with.

He had no choice but to settle for the next best thing and choose a Blazing Fire Ant that could provide a status-buff soul skill.

Following his usual routine, he refined a batch of pills before heading out, which made Xiao Yan's already meager savings even worse. Fortunately, once the Freshman Tournament was over and Xiong Hui and Xiao Yulü spread the fame of the Purple Sun Pill, he would be able to start selling pills to make money.

After bidding farewell to Xiao Yulü, Xiao Yan once again set foot on the road to the Sunset Forest.

Once again, he was all alone.

Compared to the luxurious configuration of Xiao Yulü, who was surrounded by people and escorted by family Soul Saints, Xiao Yan's soul-hunting journey appeared shabby and simple.

However, he himself enjoyed it.

Without interference from outsiders, he could test the powers and knowledge that did not belong to this world without any scruples.

Sunset Forest.

Compared to his previous visit, the scent of sulfur here had faded quite a bit, and it was no longer as hot or high-temperature.

Xiao Yan navigated the familiar path deep into the forest, and with the intelligence provided by the Xiao Clan, he soon found the nest of the Blazing Fire Ants.

It was a massive earthen mound ten meters high, its surface covered in dense, tiny holes. Countless fist-sized, crimson Blazing Fire Ants moved in and out, transporting various types of food.

The area around the mound was barren, the ground pitted and scarred by formic acid, emitting a pungent odor.

"Tsk, these are all soul beasts under ten years. The quality is too low; they aren't suitable for me."

Xiao Yan clicked his tongue, hiding behind a giant rock to observe from afar.

Blazing Fire Ants are social soul beasts, strictly disciplined and fearless of death.

To precisely hunt one of them under the noses of an entire tribe without triggering a siege from the others—the difficulty is no less than pulling teeth from a tiger's mouth.

Moreover, his target was a soul beast that could provide a status-amplification soul skill. Such soul beasts often held high status within the tribe; they were likely soldier ants, or perhaps even the Ant Queen.

Charging in directly would be no different than seeking his own death.

"If brute force won't work, then I must use my wits."

Xiao Yan reached into his robes and pulled out a small jade bottle containing several crimson pills.

This was the Purple Sun Flower Dew he had specifically refined for this operation. Using low-grade Purple Sun Flower as the main ingredient, he added several auxiliary herbs that could emit a rich fire-attribute aura, along with plenty of sugar.

This medicine provided little benefit to a soul master's cultivation, but to fire-attribute soul beasts—especially Blazing Fire Ants that loved sweets—it held a fatal attraction, no less than a peerless delicacy.

Of course, it was perfectly fine for humans to eat as a snack; after all, he had used a lot of sugar during the refining process, and the other ingredients were non-toxic.

Xiao Yan's plan was simple: use the Purple Sun Flower Dew to lure the Ant Queen out from the depths of the nest.

As long as the Ant Queen left the nest and lost the protection of the ant colony, that would be the best time for him to strike.

Xiao Yan took a deep breath, gathered his soul power at his fingertips, and flicked it gently.

A drop of Purple Sun Flower Dew traced a graceful parabola and landed precisely at the entrance of the ant nest.

The moment the flower dew hit the ground, a rich and peculiar fragrance rapidly permeated the air.

The once orderly ant colony instantly exploded into chaos.

Gwah! It's the sweet scent! It's the delicious sweet scent!

If I can offer this to the Ant Queen-sama, I can evolve into a soldier ant and won't have to do menial labor anymore!

Countless Blazing Fire Ants swarmed toward the entrance of the nest like sharks smelling blood, even trampling and biting each other in the process.

I don't care if you're my kin, don't you dare steal my prize!

The scene was, for a moment, utter chaos.

Xiao Yan waited quietly, his gaze locked firmly onto the entrance of the ant nest.

Ordinary Blazing Fire Ants couldn't catch Xiao Yan's eye, and he even looked down upon century-old soldier ants; he only wanted to lure out the Ant Queen.

This was because, according to Xiao Yan's deductions, only the Ant Queen was likely to provide a status-buff type spirit skill.

With the skills of the Little Fire Dragon at his disposal, he was in no shortage of offensive means; therefore, when choosing spirit skills, Xiao Yan leaned heavily toward buff-type skills.

For instance, his first spirit skill not only provided a buff but could also summon sunny weather, which suited Xiao Yan's tastes perfectly.

If one absorbed the wrong spirit skill, they would regret it for the rest of their life.

Look no further than the God King Tang San, whose first spirit skill was Blue Silver Entanglement; although it was a century-old spirit ring, could one really say that skill was useful?

It was useless. Blue Silver Grass would naturally entangle on its own later on, so adding an entanglement skill on top of that was completely redundant.

It would have been far better to choose a ten-year Lone Bamboo back then to increase the toughness of his martial spirit, and then pick a growth-type spirit skill—Attack +1, Special Attack +1—how much more useful would that have been?

Therefore, Xiao Yan's selection of spirit skills had to be cautious, cautious, and even more cautious; he absolutely could not just settle for any random spirit beast.

This was also the reason why Xiao Yan was so covetous of the Golden-Haired Lion King.

The portrait of that Golden-Haired Lion King looked quite familiar, reminding Xiao Yan of a certain existence known as the Golden Lion Mastiff.

"A thousand-year-old can command ten-thousand-year beasts, and a ten-thousand-year-old can rival a hundred-thousand-year-old"—the sense of déjà vu was so strong that Xiao Yan couldn't help but suspect whether the Golden-Haired Lion King had experienced an atavism of the Golden Lion Mastiff's bloodline.

After all, although this spirit beast was nearly extinct, the possibility of atavism wasn't zero; humans had evolved for so many years, yet hadn't they still produced the occasional throwback to an ape?