The dean left the office with Xia Yan and submitted his application to the Academic Affairs Office,
then saw him all the way to the school gates,
and offered a few final words of advice. The dean said:
"I'll see you off here. Take care on the road."
Xia Yan said goodbye to the dean and left.
He walked to the outskirts of Notting City,
sunlight filtered through the gaps between the leaves, which rustled in the breeze,
and Xia Yan didn't look back as he quietly headed toward the main road.
The forest remained silent, save for the rustling,
when Xiao Wu stepped out from behind a large tree. Watching Xia Yan's retreating figure, she bit her lip and clutched the hem of her clothes, trying with all her might to hold back her tears,
but in the end,
they welled up all the same, blurring her vision.
Why?
Why had he kept it from her?
Why was he leaving?
Xiao Wu didn't know what she'd done wrong. Why did Xia Yan insist on rejecting her? He thought he'd hidden it well, but he couldn't fool her at all.
He knew she liked him, yet he kept rejecting her.
"Wah... why... don't you like me..."
"Am I really that awful..."
"I like you!..."
"I like you..."
Xiao Wu wiped away her tears, sobbing,
she liked Xia Yan. She really liked him...
On either side of the main road, green wheat fields had already sprouted ears, and waves of wheat rolled across them from time to time,
but Xia Yan never once looked back.
He knew Xiao Wu was following him,
but he could only leave. In this world of the strong preying on the weak, only power was an eternal truth.
Only by wielding power could he find the one and only sense of security.
He had to grow stronger. He had to!
When he reached a deserted plain,
Xia Yan summoned the Jade Green Bird and flew straight north.
Riding on the Jade Green Bird's back, with the wind howling in his ears, he headed for the Sylvie Grasslands in the empire's northwest. The grasslands bordered the sea and lay only a little over two hundred li from the Extreme North Snow Plains.
There was a Soul Master Academy in the Sylvie Grasslands, but none that could be considered outstanding.
Of course, Xia Yan had no intention of attending one.
He was going hunting—or rather, making money.
The Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda could appraise jade, so the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect had made its fortune in the jade trade. It later expanded into jewelry, ore, weapons, silk, auction houses, and a whole range of other businesses,
becoming the richest sect in the world.
Naturally, it also operated its own merchant caravans,
trading and transporting goods throughout its main markets, the Heaven Dou Empire and the Star Luo Empire.
The Douluo Continent was vast and sparsely populated. Between cities, provinces, and kingdoms lay boundless plains, hills, forests, and mountains,
with great stretches of wilderness.
It was only natural that merchant caravans would be plagued by bandits.
They could hire Soul Masters for protection, but bandits could be Soul Masters too—or Soul Beasts, or even creatures somewhere between the two—
Wolf Bandits.
The most infamous beings on the continent, and the greatest headache for travelers and merchants.
Human bandits who only wanted money were easy enough to deal with. You could always pay a little toll to pass,
but Wolf Bandits wanted no money. They wanted lives and women.
Wolf Bandits were a strange breed on the continent, born from the union of humans and a Soul Beast known as the Gale Demon Wolf.
Half human, half beast,
they were born with the Gale Demon Wolf's physique, speed, and some of its innate abilities, while also possessing a measure of human intelligence. Adults were extremely strong, about as powerful as a human Soul Master with two or three Soul Rings.
They were incredibly bloodthirsty, and their breeding drive and capacity were both immense.
They would mate with any creature they could mount: all kinds of animals, human men, and especially human women, whom they would abduct to breed.
That made them a truly terrifying species.
Their range wasn't especially wide, but they were by no means rare. Wolf Bandits had appeared in large numbers across at least half the provinces and kingdoms of the Heaven Dou Empire,
causing terrible losses.
So, to maintain public safety, the Heaven Dou Empire issued bounties on Wolf Bandits year-round, in addition to hunting them down.
And the richest sect in the world, the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, also issued bounties year-round to protect the people and cargo in its caravans.
The trouble was, ordinary Wolf Bandits were as strong as human Soul Masters with two or three Soul Rings. They were incredibly fast and could wield wind-element abilities.
They also traveled in packs.
Small packs numbered a dozen or so, while larger ones might have dozens or even more than a hundred.
They were extraordinarily dangerous, and they left no Soul Rings behind when killed. Those two facts alone were enough to deter most Soul Masters.
The empire's and the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect's bounties were indeed generous, but high-level Soul Masters didn't care for them and didn't want the trouble. After all, it wouldn't do to be told there were only ten, arrive to find a hundred, and get mobbed to death.
Low-level Soul Masters who wanted the reward had to band together.
But once they teamed up, they had to split the earnings. With everyone taking a share, the reward dwindled until risking their lives to kill Wolf Bandits was no longer worth it.
It was like risking their necks for pocket change.
So the bounties had limited effect.
But Xia Yan could rely on the Demon Suppressing Pagoda to minimize the danger, and he was even confident he could escape without a scratch.
That meant hunting Wolf Bandits would be almost pure profit.
Wolf Bandits could attack from a distance with their wind abilities, so Xia Yan planned to seek out packs of no more than ten.
Any more would be risky.
According to the reports, the largest Wolf Bandit pack to appear in the Sylvie Grasslands over the past ten years had been medium-sized, with around fifty or sixty members.
The rest had numbered twenty or thirty, or ten or fewer.
The most recent sighting had been six months ago: a pack of five. If nine-tenths of the caravan hadn't been agility-type Soul Masters, they would probably all have been killed.
Notting Academy was nearly twelve thousand li from the Sylvie Grasslands, a distance that could take Xia Yan across almost half the Heaven Dou Empire.
Along the way, he saw countless villages and towns.
He traveled in fits and starts,
and took ten days to arrive.
Xia Yan arrived in a bustling city in the Sylvie Grasslands,
then came to a thirty-meter-tall building shaped like a yellow Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda.
Three large characters had been carved above the entrance: Seven Treasure Pavilion.
The Seven Treasure Pavilion was, naturally, an enterprise of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect. It handled the sale of information, the posting and acceptance of bounties, and similar functions.
Xia Yan went inside.
The spacious, imposing hall held only a few dozen people. The ceiling ornaments were shaped like Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagodas, and the black-and-gold marble floor was so clean it could serve as a mirror.
When the people around him saw the young Xia Yan enter, their gazes gathered on him.
When he reached the counter, the receptionist smiled and said,
"Hello. How can I help you?"
Looks and strength often went hand in hand. The more striking a person's appearance, the more likely they were to be a Soul Master.
And Xia Yan was exceptionally handsome, with a tall, slender build and fair skin. She could hardly take her eyes off him.
He had to be a Soul Master!
Even if he was young, she still had to show him respect!
Xia Yan asked, "I'd like to know where Wolf Bandits have been sighted recently, in groups of five or fewer."
"Huh?"
She froze, then instinctively looked toward the entrance, only to find nobody there.
"Uh..."
"Please wait a moment. I'll find out for you."
The hall was spacious and quiet. Even though Xia Yan hadn't spoken loudly, the more than ten people nearby had heard him clearly.
A few people who knew each other exchanged glances.
Did I hear that right?
He was looking for Wolf Bandits?
Before you continue