"Kid, are you here by yourself? Where are your parents?"
Soul Hunting Forest, entrance.
After checking the Soul Hunting Warrant, the guard looked at Lin Chen in confusion.
A six- or seven-year-old child entering Soul Hunting Forest alone?
Was he kidding?
Did he think this was a shopping mall, where he could come and go as he pleased?
Lin Chen smiled. "They're hiding nearby."
The guard understood at once, but couldn't help feeling a little speechless.
His parents sure had a lot of nerve.
The kid was so young. Even if they wanted to toughen him up, there was no need to do it like this.
What if help didn't arrive in time...
Never mind. Why worry so much? He wasn't their child.
If anything really happened, they'd have plenty of time to cry about it.
"Go on in."
The guard stepped aside, and Lin Chen entered Soul Hunting Forest without a hitch.
Stepping into Soul Hunting Forest felt like entering a primeval forest. Towering trees blocked out the sunlight, and the light grew noticeably dimmer, as though dusk had fallen.
Before long, Lin Chen encountered his first Spirit Beast.
It was a lizard covered in armor, no more than half a meter long.
"Red Earth Lizard, a defensive Earth-type Spirit Beast, about twenty years old."
The moment Lin Chen saw it, he had already judged its general characteristics. That was because the Soul Beast Encyclopedia contained not only the traits of various Spirit Beasts, but also three-dimensional images.
The Spirit Beasts in the encyclopedia felt as though Lin Chen had seen them all with his own eyes.
He didn't need to compare anything. One glance was enough to recognize them.
Lin Chen paid the Red Earth Lizard no mind and continued deeper into the forest.
There were plenty of Spirit Beasts in Soul Hunting Forest, but none of especially high quality. Along the way, Lin Chen came across all sorts of strange and unusual creatures.
Although they were all in the Soul Beast Encyclopedia, encountering them in person was still a novelty—much like the difference between monsters in a movie and ones encountered in real life.
Before long, Lin Chen reached the core region.
Soul Hunting Forest was nothing like Star Dou Great Forest or other places where Spirit Beasts gathered. Hundred-Year Soul Beasts ruled here, while thousand-year-old ones were extremely rare.
After entering the core region, Lin Chen gradually grew more cautious.
With his strength, he could handle a one-on-one fight. But if he ran into a pack of Hundred-Year Soul Beasts and had no way to escape, he'd have no choice but to die at their hands.
Lin Chen was walking along when he suddenly stopped, instinctively releasing his Martial Soul.
The moment the Sky Thunder Whip appeared in his hand, a violent aura of thunder surged through the air.
"Whoosh!"
Almost at the same time, the sound of something cutting through the air came from behind him on the right.
A foul, bloody gust followed.
Lin Chen pinpointed its location by sound. The Sky Thunder Whip in his hand moved like an extension of his arm, lashing toward the right rear like a swimming dragon and striking the attacking Spirit Beast squarely.
"Crack!"
A sharp report rang out, followed by the Spirit Beast's agonized howl.
Lin Chen turned around, and only then got a clear look at his attacker.
It was a black leopard more than three meters long. A bloody streak marked its right cheek, and the fur around it looked scorched, singed at the edges.
"Shadow Leopard, around four hundred years old."
Lin Chen immediately assessed it, but neither its attribute nor its age was suitable.
"Roar!"
The Shadow Leopard glared at Lin Chen, circling nearby without daring to approach. That whip strike had clearly put it under considerable pressure.
"Get lost!"
With a sharp shout, Lin Chen flicked his wrist. The Sky Thunder Whip cracked through the air.
He hoped to scare the beast off. His overall strength might not be low, but his Soul Power Level was a serious weakness, and running himself down would only put him in greater danger.
Who would've thought the beast wouldn't take the hint? Instead, it thought Lin Chen was afraid of it.
It pushed off with its hind legs and lunged forward in an instant.
"You're asking for death!"
As Lin Chen retreated, the Sky Thunder Whip in his hand swept out.
Not a strike—a coil.
The Sky Thunder Whip kept growing longer, like a slender giant python, and coiled toward the Shadow Leopard at lightning speed.
The Shadow Leopard was an agility-type Spirit Beast, with no shortage of speed or reflexes.
With a single leap to the left, it easily dodged.
At that moment, Lin Chen flicked his wrist, changing the whip's momentum. Its length snapped toward the direction the Shadow Leopard had dodged.
"Crack!"
The Sky Thunder Whip struck the Shadow Leopard, lashing it until its skin split and flesh tore.
"Roar..."
The Shadow Leopard howled in pain and tried to retreat, looking for another opening.
Lin Chen had no intention of giving it the chance.
He twisted the wrist holding the whip, and the Sky Thunder Whip swept toward the Shadow Leopard like a vortex. Streaks of purple lightning wove into a purple net that surged toward the beast.
The net covered a huge area—so huge that the Shadow Leopard couldn't possibly escape in time.
"Crackle!"
The lightning net enveloped the Shadow Leopard, instantly jolting its body rigid.
It was like a statue, toppling stiffly to the ground.
Lin Chen flicked his wrist, and the Sky Thunder Whip swept out again. Its sharp tip, like a scorpion's tail, pierced the Shadow Leopard's eye with pinpoint accuracy.
"Pfft!"
The tip punched through the Shadow Leopard's skull, ending its life.
"Hum!"
A bright yellow Spirit Ring rose from the Shadow Leopard's corpse.
"One third?"
Lin Chen felt the Soul Power in his body and found that he'd used up a third of it. That meant he could unleash Heavenly Thunder Strangling three times at full strength.
Not bad. The cost was much lower than he'd expected.
Lin Chen withdrew his Martial Soul and turned to leave.
The hard part of hunting a Spirit Ring wasn't killing a Spirit Beast. It was finding one.
Finding a Spirit Beast with attributes and an age perfectly suited to oneself in a vast forest was no easy task, especially in Soul Hunting Forest.
There simply weren't many kinds of Spirit Beasts here, and most weren't very high in quality.
Lin Chen spent three whole days searching.
Over those three days, he was attacked by Spirit Beasts several times and even encountered a pack. Fortunately, each incident ended in a close call.
He did come across Spirit Beasts with thunder attributes, but either their quality wasn't good enough or they weren't old enough. In any case, he never found one that met all his requirements.
Just as he was wondering whether he should head to Star Dou Great Forest...
Things finally took a turn.
Lin Chen stood on a branch, gazing toward a clearing in the distance.
A Spirit Beast was in the clearing.
It was a giant python more than eight meters long, its body covered in deep blue scales. It looked somewhat bulky, and lay on the grass, basking in the sun.
Deep Blue Thunder Python: a thunder-attribute Spirit Beast with a trace of Thunder Dragon blood in its veins.
In Douluo Continent, any Spirit Beast with ties to dragons—even one with only a trace of dragon blood—was top quality, at least high-tier.
A Deep Blue Thunder Python under a thousand years old grew one meter every hundred years. At eight meters long, this one was around eight hundred years old.
In both age and quality, the Deep Blue Thunder Python was an excellent match for Lin Chen's needs.
But hunting it wouldn't be easy.
The Deep Blue Thunder Python wasn't very fast, but its defenses and resistance to thunder were both formidable. Breaking through its defenses wouldn't be easy for Lin Chen.
And that wasn't even counting the powerful Soul Skill possessed by Hundred-Year Deep Blue Thunder Pythons.
Before you continue