The Blazing Lion King was the ruler, the leader of the Blazing Demon Lion species.
But what did this Golden-Haired Lion King mean?
Xiao Yan raised an eyebrow and carefully read the description above.
This was a Soul Beast nearing ten thousand years of cultivation. It ruled over an entire Blazing Demon Lion pack, which included no shortage of Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts. Yet every single one of them submitted to this thousand-year-old Golden-Haired Lion King.
"So, the Golden-Haired Lion King is a bloodline mutant that's reverted to its ancestral form. It commands Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts despite having only a thousand years of cultivation. What a fearsome presence!"
Xiao Yan's eyes widened, but he saw that Xiao Yulü's face had gone deathly pale as he stared at him in disbelief.
"You want to hunt that Golden-Haired Lion King? I'd advise you to value your life and leave it alone."
"Oh? And what does that mean?"
Xiao Yulü seemed to be recalling something terrifying. He murmured,
"Although the Golden-Haired Lion King has only a thousand years of cultivation, its actual combat strength is far greater than that of an ordinary Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast. And it commands an entire pack. If you want to hunt it, you'll have to deal with the whole pack first."
"And that pack... has nearly a hundred Hundred-Year Pyroar, more than ten thousand-year Blazing Demon Lions, and a full three... Ten-Thousand-Year Blazing Demon Lions."
"I wanted to choose this Soul Beast when I went Soul Hunting, but... even when my family sent out another Soul Saint, we were helpless against so many Soul Beasts."
"The might of a beast tide is truly terrifying."
Hearing this, Xiao Yan couldn't help nodding. He now felt a good deal of wariness toward the Golden-Haired Lion King.
Even though he was very strong now, nearly on par with a Soul King, this was an opponent even a Soul Saint found troublesome. No matter how powerful his attacks were, could he really take on that many Soul Beasts?
No, he couldn't. Even if a thousand lions stood still and let Xiao Yan kill them, they'd tire him to death.
After careful consideration, Xiao Yan could only reluctantly put aside the Golden-Haired Lion King's information. Though the beast was weaker than the Great Sun Rainbow and the others he'd seen, it was still far beyond what Xiao Yan could handle right now.
He could only settle for second best and choose a Blazing Fire Ant that could provide a status-buff Soul Skill.
As usual, he refined a batch of pills before setting out. His already meager savings took another hit, but fortunately, once Xiong Hui and Xiao Yulü made the Purple Sun Pill famous at the Freshman Tournament, he'd be able to start selling pills and making money.
After saying goodbye to Xiao Yulü, Xiao Yan once again set off for Sunset Forest.
Alone once more.
Compared to Xiao Yulü's lavish setup, surrounded by attendants and escorted by a Soul Saint from his family, Xiao Yan's Soul Hunting trip seemed shabby and austere.
He was quite happy with it, though.
Without outsiders interfering, he could experiment freely with the powers and knowledge that didn't belong to this world.
Sunset Forest.
Compared to his previous visit, the sulfurous smell here had faded considerably. It was no longer so scorching hot.
Xiao Yan ventured deeper with practiced ease. Thanks to the information provided by the Xiao Clan, he soon found the Blazing Fire Ant nest.
It was a massive mound of earth, a full ten meters tall, its surface riddled with countless holes. Blazing Fire Ants, each about the size of a fist and red all over, streamed in and out, carrying all kinds of food.
Not a blade of grass grew around the mound. The ground was pitted and gouged by the ants' acid, and a pungent smell hung in the air.
"Tsk. They're all Soul Beasts with less than ten years of cultivation. Their quality is too low for me."
Xiao Yan smacked his lips and watched from afar, hidden behind a huge boulder.
Blazing Fire Ants were social Soul Beasts, disciplined and utterly fearless of death.
Precisely hunting one ant from right under an entire colony's nose without provoking the others into a Beat Up was no easier than snatching a tooth from a tiger's jaws.
What's more, his target was a Soul Beast that could provide a status-boosting Soul Skill. Such Soul Beasts usually held high positions in their colony. It might be a soldier ant, or even the Ant Queen.
Charging in would be no different from asking for death.
"If forcing my way in won't work, I'll have to outsmart them."
Xiao Yan took a small jade bottle from his clothes. Inside were several crimson pills.
He'd refined this Purple Sun Flower Dew specifically for the operation. Its main ingredient was low-grade Purple Sun Flower, supplemented with several herbs that gave off a strong fire-attribute aura—and a whole lot of sugar.
The medicine wouldn't do much to help Soul Masters cultivate, but it held a fatal attraction for fire-attribute Soul Beasts, especially the sweet-toothed Blazing Fire Ants. To them, it was an incomparable delicacy.
Of course, people could eat it as a snack, too. After all, he'd used plenty of sugar to make it, and the other ingredients were all nontoxic.
Xiao Yan's plan was simple: use the Purple Sun Flower Dew to lure the colony's Ant Queen out from the depths of the nest.
Once the Ant Queen left the nest and lost the protection of the colony, that would be the perfect moment to strike.
Xiao Yan took a deep breath, gathered Soul Power at his fingertip, and flicked it lightly.
A drop of Purple Sun Flower Dew traced a graceful arc through the air and landed precisely at the entrance to the nest.
The instant it hit the ground, a rich, strange fragrance quickly spread through the air.
The orderly ant colony erupted into chaos.
"Gua! It's sweet! Deliciously sweet!"
"If I offer this to her majesty, the Ant Queen, I can evolve into a soldier ant and stop doing odd jobs!"
Countless Blazing Fire Ants surged toward the entrance like sharks that had scented blood. Some even trampled and bit one another in their frenzy.
"I don't care if you're my own kind. Don't you dare steal my resources!"
The scene descended into utter chaos.
Xiao Yan waited quietly, his gaze fixed firmly on the entrance to the nest.
Ordinary Blazing Fire Ants didn't even catch Xiao Yan's eye. He was somewhat unimpressed even by the Hundred-Year soldier ants. All he wanted was to lure out the Ant Queen.
By Xiao Yan's estimation, only the Ant Queen was likely to provide a status-buff Soul Skill.
With Little Fire Dragon's skills, he wasn't short on ways to attack. So when choosing Soul Skills, Xiao Yan tended to prioritize buffs.
Take his first Soul Skill, for example. Besides providing a buff, it could also set up Sunny Day. It was exactly to Xiao Yan's taste.
If he absorbed the wrong Soul Skill, he might regret it for the rest of his life.
Just look at God King Tang San. His first Soul Skill was Blue Silver Grass Entanglement. Sure, it came from a Hundred-Year Soul Ring, but what good was that skill?
It was useless. Blue Silver Grass could entangle things on its own later on, so giving it an Entanglement skill on top of that did absolutely nothing.
He'd have been better off choosing a Ten-Year Solitary Bamboo back then, giving his Martial Soul a little more resilience, then getting a growth skill. Attack +1, Special Attack +1—how useful would that have been?
So Xiao Yan had to be extremely, extremely, extremely cautious in choosing his Soul Skills. He absolutely couldn't just pick any Soul Beast and call it a day.
That was also why Xiao Yan coveted the Golden-Haired Lion King so much.
The Golden-Haired Lion King's portrait looked remarkably familiar. It reminded Xiao Yan of a creature called the Golden Lion Mastiff.
A thousand-year-old beast commanding Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts; a Ten-Thousand-Year one rivaling hundred-thousand-year beasts. The resemblance was so striking that Xiao Yan couldn't help wondering if the Golden-Haired Lion King's bloodline had reverted to that of the Golden Lion Mastiff.
After all, although this Soul Beast was all but extinct, it wasn't impossible for one to revert to its ancestral form. Humanity had evolved for so many years, yet it had still reverted and produced a Big-Ape Orangutan.
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