Whatever the outcome, the fact remained that he had arrived ten thousand years in the future.
He glanced at Zhang Lexuan, who lay gravely wounded, then at the two unconscious girls nearby. Severed limbs littered the ground, along with a couple of Soul Bones.
"Clean up the battlefield!"
"Collect all the Soul Bones! Strip off every Storage Soul Tool!"
"Gather the bodies of all our fallen brothers!"
Looking at the three Soul Bones radiating pitch-black Soul Power, the five or six Storage Soul Tools, and the corpse of a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast—with a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Bone still inside—Huo Si swallowed frantically.
They'd struck it rich. They'd really struck it rich this time.
Their losses had been enormous, but the spoils were good too: a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Bone, a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast's corpse, three more Soul Bones, and five or six Storage Soul Tools.
Of course, none of that was the most important thing.
Huo Si lowered his head. His gaze lingered briefly on Zhang Lexuan, then shifted to the red-haired and blonde girls who were still alive.
He couldn't help recalling the names Zhang Lexuan had mentioned moments ago.
"Ruoruo, Wu Ming..."
"They must be Han Ruoruo, the Shrek Inner Court's Gold-Binding Rope user, and Wu Ming, the Golden Crow!"
"One Eight-Ring Soul Douluo and one Seven-Ring Soul Sage..."
Huo Si looked down at Zhang Lexuan, his eyes shining brighter and brighter.
An introduction to Zhang Lexuan automatically appeared in his mind.
Zhang Lexuan had suffered the tragedy of her family's destruction as a child. She had escaped only because she was hiding under a bed...
(Absurd. The powerful Soul Master who wiped out Zhang Lexuan's family somehow missed a child. I seriously suspect her memories were altered, and that Mu En was involved in a conspiracy.)
Later, Dragon God Mu En rescued her and chose her as his great-grandson's fiancée.
She had been just over ten years old and already a three-ring Soul Master. Later, she became a once-in-a-millennium genius of Shrek's Sea God Island and the senior sister of the Inner Court.
At twenty, she broke through to Soul Saint. In the Continental Advanced Soul Master Academy Tournament, she swept aside every opponent and claimed first place.
At around twenty-two, she broke through to Soul Douluo, with a Hundred-Thousand-Year Eighth Soul Ring!
In this era, apart from Huo Gua and Wang Dong's twin-soul fusion, she was the one true genius!
"This is the greatest gain of all!"
Two Eight-Ring Soul Douluos and one Soul Saint—all geniuses carefully selected by Shrek.
"Sir, we've collected everything. What should we do with these girls...?"
Looking at the girls with black, golden, and red hair, Huo Si swallowed.
A daring idea sprang into his mind.
All three were extraordinarily talented. They were guaranteed to become Titled Douluos. If Zhang Lexuan returned to Douluo I, she'd be strong enough to crush a whole crowd of Titled Douluos.
Even without breaking through to Titled Douluo yet, with a Hundred-Thousand-Year Eighth Soul Ring, she wouldn't fear an ordinary Titled Douluo in the slightest.
"Take them with us. We're withdrawing from the Star Dou Great Forest!"
The reckless idea in his mind grew even more reckless.
If he could bring all three under his control and gain their protection...
He'd saved them. He wasn't asking them to give themselves to him—he only wanted them to protect him. That wasn't unreasonable, was it? They owed him their lives.
Huo Si immediately activated the Plane Star Gate.
"Get ready to withdraw!"
At Huo Si's signal, the first special forces soldier stepped through the Plane Star Gate to act as the receiving party.
In the next moment, dozens of bodies of those who had sacrificed themselves for the Plane were transferred through.
"They all died protecting me..."
"Their contributions to the Douluo Plane must never be forgotten!"
"And I will never let their bodies be left behind in a foreign world!"
After regaining his Soul Power, Huo Si gestured for the last special forces soldier to step through the Plane Star Gate.
"Pioneer, I'll be waiting for your return in the Dragon Kingdom!"
Leaving those words behind, Chen Bin stepped through the Plane Star Gate.
Douluo Plane Research Institute
As the Plane Star Gate opened once more,
everyone at the institute rushed over at once.
"What happened? What's going on over there?"
The first special forces soldier through the Plane Star Gate had already begun explaining.
"After the Pioneer's Second Martial Soul gained its First Soul Ring, we were transported to another time."
"Oh, and the Planar Pioneer said it was ten thousand years in the future, on the Douluo Continent!"
"We encountered a powerful Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast. We fired all our missiles, but only managed to wound it. Fortunately, we came across a girl hunting Soul Beasts there. She was young, about the same age as the Pioneer, and already a Seven-Ring Soul Saint."
As he explained, everyone learned about Huo Si and the dangers they had faced.
"Where's the Planar Pioneer?"
"Why hasn't he come back yet? What about the people you were supposed to protect?"
Elder Gong glared at Chen Bin, who had come through last.
"Elder Gong, the Pioneer is..."
Before he could finish, the Plane Star Gate flickered repeatedly, then shut down completely.
"What happened?!"
Elder Long had just arrived and saw the Plane Star Gate close. He immediately grew anxious.
The entire Douluo Plane Research Institute fell into a tense atmosphere.
Meanwhile, Huo Si was facing another problem.
Deep in the Star Dou Great Forest, a noble Soul Beast with three eyes and golden fur lifted its head and stared toward the place where the immense power of destiny was gathering.
"One of my kind?"
"Impossible. Why do I sense a human's presence?"
Thud, thud, thud!!!
The Soul Beast moved incredibly fast. In the blink of an eye, it vanished into the forest and appeared before Huo Si.
"Human, how dare you hunt a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast!"
Huo Si stared at the talking Soul Beast before him, dumbfounded.
"You... you... the Three-Eyed... Three-Eyed Golden Lion!"
Huo Si had been about to take the Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast's corpse and Zhang Lexuan and the other two girls back with him...
But his Soul Power had run low, and when he turned around, he found himself face-to-face with the Three-Eyed Golden Lion, the Auspicious Beast of the Star Dou Great Forest.
"Human, who are you?"
"Why do you carry the same power of destiny as I do—and why... is yours even stronger than mine?"
Power of destiny?
Huo Si was baffled, but his immediate priority was to get out of the Star Dou Great Forest.
He immediately summoned the Plane Star Gate.
The moment the Three-Eyed Golden Lion saw the Plane Star Gate appear, the terrifying power of destiny engulfed it. Its eyes widened.
"A Martial Soul of destiny, and so much power of destiny! If it were bestowed upon my Soul Beast Clan..."
Madness flickered in the Three-Eyed Golden Lion's eyes. If it could steal the power of destiny from the human before it, then with that power, wouldn't it be able to break through to a hundred thousand years in an instant?
How did it steal someone else's power of destiny again?
The Three-Eyed Golden Lion thought for a moment, then quickly found a way in, guided by its memory of where the power of destiny was stored.
It darted toward Huo Si and, in the next instant, pressed itself against him.
"Don't worry. We're both masters of destiny. I won't kill you."
"I'll just borrow a tiny bit of your power of destiny to break through to a hundred thousand years. Just a tiny bit...!"
Huo Si stared at the Three-Eyed Golden Lion as its eyes glowed gold, the third eye on its forehead slowly opened, and it came rushing toward him.
Huo Si staggered backward. Even his Second Martial Soul lost stability and vanished.
"No... don't! You... stay away!"
Buzz!
As the Three-Eyed Golden Lion's third eye pressed against Huo Si, a beam of golden light pierced the Star Dou Great Forest, and the terrifying power of destiny was stirred!
Before you continue