"You bet! The strangest thing is, thousand-year Soul Beasts have even made it to the outer edge!
"My second cousin's great-uncle on my mother's side caught a glimpse of one from afar. He was so scared, he wet his pants!
"That was a thousand-year Soul Beast! They usually stay in the mixed zone. What are they doing out here?"
"I don't think this is simple. Something big must be about to happen. No one should go into this forest for a while!"
"Who could disagree? Staying alive is what matters. Staying alive!"
Hearing all this talk, Ye Feng froze with his teacup halfway to his mouth.
He couldn't help frowning.
Could he really be this unlucky?
He had gone through countless hardships and crossed mountains and rivers to reach the Star Dou Great Forest, only to be told there was a beast tide?
Was this some kind of joke?
Wait...
A flash of inspiration struck Ye Feng, and a terrible thought surfaced in his mind.
At this point in time...
In the original story, it seemed...
Could it be that Bibi Dong had brought Yue Guan and Gui Mei, her two lackeys, to hunt down Xiao Wu's mother?
Gasp!
That was extremely likely!
In the original story, it was because Ah Yin's identity as a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast had been exposed, leading the Spirit Hall to hunt her down, that the whole chain of events afterward had begun.
And Xiao Wu's mother was also a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soft Bone Rabbit. Around this time, Bibi Dong had hunted her down and turned her into a Soul Ring.
The hunting of a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast—one that had been close to the two overlords of the forest—was enough to drive every Soul Beast in the Star Dou Great Forest into a frenzy!
Otherwise, why would these Soul Beasts be acting like madmen, attacking people without rhyme or reason?
Gasp! It seemed he really had hit rock bottom with his luck!
What a pity. Xiao Wu, that little rabbit, wouldn't run out of the forest and go to school at Nuoding Academy for another two years.
If only he could catch her now...
Tsk, a hundred-thousand-year Soul Ring, plus a hundred-thousand-year Soul Bone. Wouldn't that be a one-step ticket straight to the top?
Ye Feng had always looked down on so-called human-beast romance.
Humans were humans, and Soul Beasts were Soul Beasts.
Falling in love with an animal that merely looked human, even having offspring with one—that was something only someone psychologically twisted and perverted could do!
Only the Tang family—Tang Hao and Tang San—could do something so outrageous!
The father married a Soul Beast, and so did the son.
Put nicely, it was love that crossed species. Put bluntly, wasn't it just mongrels mating?
That family was truly invincible in Douluo!
Now, the most immediate—and most deadly—question facing Ye Feng was whether he should enter the Star Dou Great Forest tomorrow.
For a moment, Ye Feng didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
Just as he was agonizing over it, an elderly voice spoke beside him.
"Young man, from the look of you, you're here to hunt for a Soul Ring, aren't you?"
Ye Feng came back to himself. It was the tea shop owner, an old man with graying hair and a face full of wrinkles.
"That's right, uncle."
Ye Feng nodded.
"Do you know how long this beast tide usually lasts before it ends?"
The old man's cloudy eyes sized Ye Feng up and down. He sighed.
"Young man, you're still so young. Let this old man give you a word of advice."
He draped a damp cloth over his shoulder and spoke with the air of someone who had seen it all.
"When these Soul Beasts go berserk, it'll take at least a week for things to calm down! Going in now is no different from looking for death!"
"Hunting for a Soul Ring is important, of course, but your life matters more. A few days won't make a difference."
"All right. Thanks for the warning, uncle."
Ye Feng replied politely.
He understood all that.
But...
He couldn't wait a week.
Time was precious. He couldn't waste a single minute or second.
Besides, crises often brought opportunities.
The beast tide was dangerous, but it also meant the Soul Beasts had been scattered from their usual territories. Some rare Soul Beasts that normally hid deep in the forest and were hard to find might have been swept to the outskirts.
The pure light-attribute Soul Beast he was looking for was already rare.
This beast tide might be his only chance!
Forget it!
Whether or not he could hunt one, he had to give it a try!
Take a gamble, and a bicycle might become a motorcycle!
Ye Feng drained the now-cold tea in his cup and took out several Copper Soul Coins, setting them on the table.
He stood up and took one last look at the outline of the forest, shrouded in twilight like the jaws of a giant beast.
Then, under the astonished gaze of the tea shop owner and everyone around him, he strode off without hesitation.
"Is that kid crazy? He dares to charge into a beast tide? Is he tired of living?"
"Look at that scrawny body. The Soul Beasts will have him between their teeth in no time! Kids these days really don't know the immensity of heaven and earth!"
"Tsk, another fool blinded by his own aura as a genius. Thinks he's the chosen one? The Star Dou Great Forest will teach him how to behave!"
"I bet he won't last an hour before he comes running out in tears—assuming he still has legs to run on."
"Run out? Dream on! My second cousin's great-uncle on my mother's side said not even a single hair was left of the people who went in yesterday!"
Ye Feng paid no attention to their idle chatter.
Their words were no more than cicadas buzzing in summer—noisy, but powerless.
An hour later, when he was only a few hundred meters from the forest's outer edge, he was instantly stunned by the sight before him.
Holy crap!
What kind of forest was this? It was a green, living wall!
The trees blotted out the sky. Every trunk was so thick it would take more than a dozen people to wrap their arms around it, and each one stabbed straight toward the heavens. They had to be at least thirty or forty meters tall!
It was more terrifying than any primeval forest he had ever seen in his previous life!
The rich scent of plants and trees, mingled with a faint trace of blood, washed over him.
The light was severely dimmed here, lending the place a gloomy, oppressive air.
He hadn't even truly stepped into the forest yet, but already he could see plenty of decades-old Soul Beasts in the shadows of the trees, watching him with curious or wary eyes.
At that moment, Ye Feng swallowed instinctively.
His heart began pounding faster, despite his best efforts.
Forget it. He was already here!
He carefully studied his surroundings. Most of the decades-old Soul Beasts were herbivores, such as Long-Eared Rabbits and Unicorn Sheep. Though they were curious about this uninvited guest, they showed no signs of aggression.
Only one leopard lurked behind a clump of bushes. Its body was covered in dark green markings, and its eerie green eyes fixed on him, brimming with undisguised killing intent and greed.
It was a ten-year Ghost Shadow Leopard, known for its speed and ambushes.
Ye Feng's heart tightened, and his right hand had already slipped to the Short Sword at his waist.
Just as he focused all his attention on guarding against the Ghost Shadow Leopard, it moved!
Without the slightest warning, the Ghost Shadow Leopard's body tensed and turned into a streak of blue-green shadow. It skimmed along the ground, silently pouncing from behind and to the side, its razor-sharp foreclaws flashing with deadly light in the gloom!
Too fast!
Any Soul Master who had just graduated would probably be too slow to react to such a swift ambush.
But Ye Feng wasn't!
Before you continue