The entrance to Soul Hunting Forest looked the same as last time. Nothing had changed.
The same dirt path, trampled into the ground. The same two crooked stone tablets. The same damp air, mixed with the smell of decaying leaves and earth.
Yu Xiaogang walked at the front, using a wooden stick to push aside the bushes and vines.
He was more cautious than last time. The territory of an eight-hundred-year Soul Beast lay much deeper in the forest than that of a four-hundred-year one, and was far more dangerous.
Although Plant-type Soul Beasts were generally not very aggressive, one at the eight-hundred-year level was no longer something to "deal with casually."
Tang San walked in the middle, keeping his Purple Demon Eye active the entire time.
His Purple Demon Eye had fully stabilized at the Micro Realm. His eyesight far surpassed that of ordinary people, allowing him to make out the veins on leaves dozens of paces away.
Huang Fei walked at the rear.
His Purple Demon Eye was already running quietly. But unlike Tang San, he was at the Mustard Seed Realm—not pushing it to its limits, merely keeping it at its most basic level of operation. Even so, that was enough for him to see everything within three hundred paces.
He did not need to search laboriously like Tang San.
The Purple Demon Eye at the Mustard Seed Realm had far greater perception than at the Micro Realm. No Soul Beast's life aura within three hundred paces could escape his notice.
After walking for about half an hour, Yu Xiaogang stopped.
He raised his left hand to signal for the others to be quiet, then crouched down and brushed aside the fallen leaves with his fingers.
Beneath them was a patch of pale-green slime, giving off a faint, fresh scent of grass and trees.
"Signs of a Life Ancient Vine."
Yu Xiaogang lowered his voice, dipped a finger into the slime, and held it beneath his nose.
"It's fresh, no more than two hours old. It's nearby."
Tang San immediately increased the power of his Purple Demon Eye, sweeping his gaze over every tree and every clump of bushes around them.
The Micro Realm let him see every groove in the tree trunks, but he found nothing unusual.
All those vines looked like ordinary plants. None showed any sign of being a Soul Beast.
Standing behind him, Huang Fei fixed his gaze on an old tree about two hundred paces to the front left.
Several arm-thick vines wound around its trunk. Their color was almost identical to the bark, making them impossible to distinguish at a glance.
But under the Purple Demon Eye at the Mustard Seed Realm, every leaf, thorn, and vein on those vines was crystal clear. He could even see the life energy slowly flowing within them, pale green like blood coursing through their bodies.
A Life Ancient Vine, around eight hundred years old.
Its age was somewhere between eight hundred and twenty and eight hundred and fifty years.
Huang Fei said nothing.
This was Tang San's fight.
He only needed to watch. If the need arose, he would step in, but until then, staying silent was the right choice.
Tang San took two steps forward, Blue Silver Grass already glowing in his hand.
He did not rush to attack, waiting instead for the perfect moment.
The Life Ancient Vine was a Plant-type Soul Beast. It sensed its surroundings not through sight or hearing, but through vibrations and scent.
At the Tang Sect, Tang San had learned how to conceal his presence. Although those techniques were meant for dealing with people, they worked just as well against Soul Beasts.
He slowed his breathing, softened his steps, and suppressed his Soul Power fluctuations to the barest minimum.
His body moved slowly, like a shadow stirred by the wind, closing in on the old tree without a sound.
Watching from behind, Huang Fei silently gave Tang San's concealment technique a score. It wasn't perfect, but for a seven-year-old child, it was already remarkable.
When Tang San was about fifty paces from the old tree, the vines moved.
Not to attack, but to test the air.
One vine slowly drooped from the trunk, its tip pointing toward Tang San as if sniffing for something.
A layer of clear slime beaded on its surface, catching the sunlight with a faint gleam.
Tang San didn't move.
He crouched where he was, his breathing all but stopped, his whole body as still as a stone.
His Purple Demon Eye ran at full power, fixed on every tiny change in the vine.
The vine hung in the air for about three seconds, then slowly drew back.
Huang Fei let out a quiet breath of relief.
If his Purple Demon Eye hadn't spotted the vine's retreat, he would never have noticed what Tang San had done—Tang San hadn't even made a sound as he breathed.
Breath Concealment.
One of the Tang Sect's signature techniques.
It didn't weaken one's aura. It made it disappear.
For a short time, it turned its user into a stone devoid of any sign of life.
This was the first time Tang San had used the technique in front of Huang Fei.
Huang Fei made a mental note of it.
Tang San continued forward.
Forty paces.
Thirty paces.
Twenty paces.
When he came within twenty paces, the Life Ancient Vine finally sensed something was wrong.
It hadn't sensed Tang San himself. It had sensed the places he had stepped—the passage of his aura and the traces he had left behind.
Plant-type Soul Beasts were exceptionally sensitive to soil, water, and scent. Tang San's aura had dropped to a bare minimum under Breath Concealment, but the faint vibrations left by his steps still registered with the Ancient Vine.
Three vines shot from the tree trunk at once, astonishingly fast, slicing through the air with three sharp whooshes.
Tang San immediately unleashed Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track.
His body drifted and twisted between the attacking vines like a leaf caught in the wind.
The first vine swept over his left shoulder, its gust brushing past his ear.
The second skimmed beneath his feet, missing his ankle by barely an inch.
The third came straight at him. He dodged to the side, and it whipped past his chest, tearing a slit in his clothes.
Tang San wasn't hit, but his rhythm was thrown off.
The Life Ancient Vine's attacks covered an enormous area. Those few vines were only a fraction of them; more were beginning to stir on the tree trunk.
Tang San acted at once, flinging out his right hand. Blue Silver Grass vines shot from his palm.
His vines tangled with those of the Life Ancient Vine.
Two shades of green—one pale, one deep—twisted together in midair, locked in a fierce struggle.
Tang San's vines were thinner than the Ancient Vine's, but their resilience was extraordinary. For the moment, the Ancient Vine couldn't break free.
Taking advantage of the opening, Tang San retreated several steps and steadied his breathing.
His Blue Silver Grass vines began to crack under the Ancient Vine's assault, but they also regrew quickly. New fibers sprouted from the splits almost at once.
Yu Xiaogang watched from behind, his brows tightly knit.
Tang San's response had been sound in terms of strategy: dodge the Ancient Vine's first wave of attacks, use Blue Silver Grass to hold it back, and buy time to recover.
But the problem was that Tang San was burning through his Soul Power too quickly.
Blue Silver Grass did have powerful regenerative abilities, but every regeneration cost Soul Power. If Tang San couldn't end the fight before he ran out, he would be forced onto the defensive.
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