Li Hao's heart gave a sudden lurch.
Go forage in the Star Dou Forest?
What kind of international joke was that?
Was that really somewhere a newbie village resident was supposed to go? Wasn't it a slaughterhouse for Soul Masters and a hell for Soul Beasts?
He had a six-and-a-half-year-old body, Soul Power his daughter had given him for free, and one Martial Soul: a lousy fishing rod.
And with that setup, he was supposed to enter the Star Dou Forest?
He'd probably end up as an after-dinner sweet for the Soul Beasts.
"No."
Li Hao refused without a second thought.
The first rule of being a happy slacker was to stay far away from anything dangerous.
"Ugh..."
Xiao Wu's big eyes instantly filled with tears. Her little mouth puckered, and golden droplets quivered at the corners of her eyes.
"Daddy doesn't love Xiao Wu anymore... Xiao Wu just wants one bite... Just one..."
As she spoke, she held up one tiny finger, showing just how little she wanted.
The sight of her on the verge of tears made Li Hao's heart break.
What a sin!
Who could resist that?
This wasn't a raising sim. It was psychological manipulation! Precision psychological manipulation from a ten-thousand-year-old Soul Beast loli!
"Fine, fine. You win."
Li Hao raised his hands in surrender, looking utterly defeated.
"Promise me, we'll only go around the outskirts! The very outermost ring! We'll find the fruit and come back. Not one step farther!"
"Yay! Daddy's the best!"
Xiao Wu burst into a smile, threw her arms around his neck, and showered him with kisses.
Li Hao sighed helplessly.
So be it. He'd treat it as a spring outing with his daughter.
Besides, with Xiao Wu—a local rabbit who was a hundred thousand years old—with him, nothing too bad should happen on the outskirts... right?
Probably.
Li Hao brought along his livelihood: that plain, unremarkable Martial Soul, the Fishing Rod.
If they ran into a Soul Beast with a death wish, maybe he could trip it with the fishing line?
He could only console himself with that thought.
The father and daughter soon disappeared down the path leading to the Star Dou Forest.
The moment they stepped into the forest, the air changed.
It was damp and fresh, fragrant with soil and greenery, yet laced with a faint hint of danger.
Li Hao tensed at once, his palm sweating around the fishing rod.
But Xiao Wu, nestled in his arms, seemed to have come home. Her whole body relaxed.
"Daddy, to the left. There's a hundred-year-old Nether Wolf sleeping over there. Let's go around it."
"Daddy, there's a ten-year-old Datura Snake in that tree up ahead. It's in a bad mood, so let's go right."
"Daddy, that flower's poisonous. Don't touch it."
Li Hao was completely dumbfounded the whole time.
Holding Xiao Wu, he had become nothing more than an emotionless walking machine.
Left, right, straight ahead, stop.
Xiao Wu's senses made her a human radar in this forest, more outrageous than the map hack he used to play with in his past life.
Danger zones, Soul Beast locations, poisonous plants... She knew it all, clear as day.
"Our Xiao Wu is amazing."
Li Hao praised her from the bottom of his heart.
"Hehe, of course!"
Xiao Wu proudly puffed out her little chest.
With Xiao Wu's precise navigation, they dodged every potential danger without a hitch and found the bright-red berries in a thicket on the forest's outskirts.
Li Hao picked one, made sure it wasn't poisonous, then held it to Xiao Wu's mouth.
Xiao Wu took a big bite and happily narrowed her eyes.
"Sweet!"
Seeing his daughter's satisfied smile, Li Hao finally let out the breath he'd been holding.
Mission accomplished. Time to head home!
He picked a large bunch of berries, bundled them in his shirt, picked up Xiao Wu, and prepared to retrace their steps.
But just as he turned around—
RUMBLE—!
A deafening boom erupted without warning from deep within the forest!
The whole earth gave a violent shudder!
Li Hao stumbled and nearly fell.
Then an indescribable wave of terrifying energy swept toward them from deep in the forest like a tsunami!
It was domineering, destructive, and brimming with savage fury.
"Uuugh—!"
"Roar—!"
All around them, countless Soul Beasts cried out in terror.
Li Hao whipped around in shock. In the distance, flocks of birds burst from the trees, blotting out the sky.
On the ground, herds of Soul Beasts—whether a hundred or a thousand years old—fled toward the outskirts in every direction, as if they'd gone mad.
A massive stampede had erupted!
"Holy crap!"
Li Hao's scalp prickled. He clutched Xiao Wu and bolted.
He had only one thought: run! Get as far away from here as possible!
"Daddy, this way!"
Though Xiao Wu's little face had gone pale with fright, she immediately pointed out a direction.
Without hesitation, Li Hao changed course and rushed behind a massive boulder she'd indicated.
They had barely taken cover when the stampede thundered past, shaking the ground beneath them.
Li Hao held Xiao Wu tightly and didn't dare so much as breathe.
He was overwhelmingly grateful that he'd listened to his daughter.
With their tiny bodies, they'd have been trampled into meat paste in a second if the stampede had swept them up.
He didn't know how long it took for the earth-shaking commotion to finally die down.
Li Hao cautiously stuck his head out and surveyed the area.
The forest ahead had been utterly transformed.
Dense trees had been flattened in swaths, their broken trunks strewn everywhere. Some were still burning with purple-black flames.
The ground was riddled with enormous, web-like cracks. Purple-black poison gas seeped from deep, bottomless pits, and all the surrounding vegetation had withered completely.
The entire area was a wreck, as if it had been carpet-bombed.
What... what level of battle was this?
A Titled Douluo?
Or were two Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts fighting to the death?
Li Hao's heart pounded as he grabbed Xiao Wu and prepared to get out of there.
This place was too dangerous. Staying another second could cost them their lives.
But just then, Xiao Wu stopped him.
"Daddy..."
Her voice trembled a little as she pointed at the center of the devastated battlefield.
Li Hao looked where she was pointing.
In the largest crater at the heart of the battlefield, a gigantic snake-shaped Soul Beast lay in a pool of blood.
It was enormous. The part exposed above the crater alone was more than ten meters long.
Rainbow-colored scales covered its body, but most were now broken and peeled back, exposing bloody, mangled wounds beneath.
Purple-black blood seeped from all over its body, staining the earth beneath it a bizarre color.
Its life force was faint to the extreme, like a candle guttering in the wind, liable to go out at any moment.
"Daddy..."
Xiao Wu's eyes reddened again. She clutched Li Hao's clothes, her voice breaking into a sob.
"Save her... She's so pitiful..."
"She's about to die..."
Xiao Wu could clearly feel that the enormous rainbow serpent was suffering terribly, its soul wailing in anguish.
The sensation struck a chord deep within her.
But Li Hao froze.
He stared fixedly at the snake's form.
The rainbow scales, the enormous body, and that noble, domineering aura that still lingered despite its near-death state...
A name from another novel, one that existed only in his memories, surged into his mind.
Battle wings... terrifying indeed... thirty years east of the river...
No, no, no!
Queen Medusa!
Wasn't this the Queen Medusa from Battle Through the Heavens?
How had she ended up in the Star Dou Forest on the Douluo Continent?
Had the world's rules gone completely haywire?
Had he transmigrated into not the Douluo Continent, but some Qidian Universe crossover free-for-all?
Li Hao's mind was in chaos, his entire worldview rocked like never before.
His first instinct was to refuse.
Was he supposed to save Queen Medusa? With what?
Was he going to use his Level One Martial Soul Fishing Rod to give her a massage?
She was a genuine hard case, violent and ruthless. What if he saved her, only for her to turn around and devour him and his daughter?
But just as he was about to drag Xiao Wu away—
A long-familiar mechanical voice thundered in his mind!
[Detected a pure soul unit on the verge of death (Otherworld Projection: Queen Medusa). Healing conditions met.] [Warning: This unit's energy level is extremely high. Healing/evolution will trigger a massive energy tide. Host, choose with caution!]
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