By noon the next day, Du Hao and the others finally arrived at the Soul Hunting Forest.
"Finally! My poor butt." Du Hao jumped down from the carriage and leaned against the wheel, feeling as if his butt no longer belonged to him.
This ride had been even worse than the ox cart Old Jack had taken them to school in. At least that one hadn't jolted so ridiculously.
"All right, stop complaining." Zhu Zhuqing got down after him and stood to one side, smiling softly.
Flender had already stepped out of the carriage. Looking over at them, he teased with a grin, "I offered to fly you here, but you wouldn't have it. Happy now? You brought this on yourselves."
Truthfully, Flender hadn't wanted to ride in the carriage either. It was slower than flying, and it cost money... He hated spending his precious cash.
Hearing that, Du Hao didn't argue. And as for letting Flender fly them here? That was even more out of the question.
With Zhu Zhuqing and him, there were two passengers. Anyone could guess what position Flender would have to carry them in. It definitely wouldn't be pleasant.
"All right, enough dawdling."
With that, Flender turned and headed toward the entrance to the Soul Hunting Forest. "Once we've gotten your Soul Ring, we still have to help this girl beside you hunt for one.
"If you don't hurry up, I'll start charging you." His voice turned a little rueful at the end.
He'd never thought that he, Flender, would end up on the losing side one day—and at the hands of a boy, no less.
They'd agreed that he would help just one person get a Soul Ring.
He hadn't expected another person to join them along the way. If the boy hadn't promised to attend his academy, Flender would have taken the chance to charge them.
Du Hao and Zhu Zhuqing exchanged a smile, then hurried to catch up with Flender.
At the gate of the Soul Hunting Forest, Flender took out the Spirit Hall token Grandmaster had given him. With it, he easily led Du Hao and Zhu Zhuqing inside.
"Principal Flender, why are you walking so fast?" Hearing all kinds of Soul Beast cries around him, Du Hao called out to the figure ahead.
The moment he stepped into the forest, Du Hao felt the temperature drop noticeably.
Towering trees blotted out the sky. Beneath them, they could barely see any daylight. Only a few faint glimmers slipped through the leaves, bringing a trace of warmth.
All around them came a cacophony of calls. It was impossible to tell whether they came from birds, insects, or predators lurking in the shadows, their presence radiating danger.
"A-Hao, I feel like there are a lot of eyes watching us." Zhu Zhuqing warily scanned their surroundings.
She had thought that with Flender, a Soul Saint, there, she wouldn't feel afraid.
But after entering the forest, she realized she might have overestimated herself.
Walking through such a dangerous place, she couldn't shake the feeling that countless eyes were fixed on them.
"Don't be afraid. I'm here." Du Hao reached out and took Zhu Zhuqing's hand.
"Mm~" The little cat let out a soft murmur.
The warmth in his palm felt just like that winter day—so warm, so reassuring.
Flender looked back at the two of them and seemed to have discovered a whole new world. He clicked his tongue in amazement.
"If I remember right, this kid is only six, isn't he?" he muttered. Flender felt like he couldn't keep up with the times.
Were young people these days really so precocious?
"Xiao Hao, I'll search for Emerald Garlic from the sky. You two be careful down there. If you're in danger, call out and I'll come right away." As soon as he finished speaking, Flender summoned his wings and flew into the sky without waiting for a reply.
If he stayed, those two young lovebirds would probably start throwing dog food at him again. Better to leave while he could.
Watching Flender fly off into the distance, Du Hao took a deep breath.
"Zhuqing, let's head that way." He hoped the owl in the sky wouldn't get carried away.
If Flender flew too far, even if they really ran into danger, he might not make it back in time. Then they'd be completely done for.
At their current level, novice Soul Masters were no help at all when it came to Soul Hunting. Even if they released their Martial Souls, the most they could do was add a side dish for their opponent...
As for the only thing Du Hao had that could be called a weapon, it was a Hidden Weapon Tang San had given him earlier.
A simplified Godly Zhuge Crossbow!
The simplified version had less than half the power of the original, and its flaw was that it could only fire one bolt at a time...
But it had its advantages, too. After some improvements, the Godly Zhuge Crossbow's ammunition capacity had increased to twenty bolts. Though it could only fire one at a time, its power was still formidable.
It was even on par with modern firearms.
Why hadn't he reminded Xiao San to use gunpowder to make a real pistol back then?
That was because of the prompt that had suddenly appeared at the time.
"Option One [White]: Gunpowder is the key to advancing human civilization, but also a cruel lockpick! This era is not yet ready for such a thing to appear.
"Reward: None..."
"Option Two [Black/Red]: Gentlemen, I like battle. I like slaughter! I like all of this, returning to the most primitive...
"Prompt: Within five years, a world war event in the Douluo Continent world will be triggered with 100% certainty!
"Reward: Complete blueprints for modern weapons, one 100,000-year Soul Bone."
When he saw those options, Du Hao had felt like his whole world had collapsed.
What a joke! A world war!
And it was guaranteed to break out within five years! If it had been delayed by ten years, Du Hao might have gambled on it.
But five years... No, he'd pass.
No matter how much he cheated over the next five years, becoming a god would still be a stretch. It would be bad if the Spirit Hall suddenly declared war on the world before then.
As they ventured deeper, the surroundings grew more primitive. Towering trees clustered together, and the oppressive atmosphere in the air continued to intensify.
This showed they had entered the outer reaches of the forest's core. They weren't far from the core itself.
"A-Hao! Come over here, I found something!" Zhu Zhuqing's shout immediately caught Flender's attention as he patrolled overhead.
Flender dived straight down.
"What's going on?" After landing, Flender saw the two of them crouched near the roots of a large tree.
He walked over and took a closer look. In a corner by the roots, he spotted a crystal-green plant.
"Is this Emerald Garlic?" Comparing it with the pictures Grandmaster had shown him earlier, Flender recognized the crystal-green plant at a glance.
"But isn't it a little small?" The garlic looked less than a hundred years old—not even fifty, in fact.
Hearing Flender's words, Du Hao stood up. "Principal Flender, although Emerald Garlic is a rare plant-type Soul Beast, if we find one nearby, there are sure to be others in the area!"
Grandmaster had personally told him all of this before they set out. Du Hao remembered it clearly!
Flender immediately understood what the boy was getting at. "In that case, I'll go up and check whether there are any more nearby."
Without another word, he leapt into the air.
Using the tree they were standing by as the center, he began searching the corners around the neighboring trees!
They were lucky that Flender's Martial Soul was an owl and his eyesight was sharp. Any other reconnaissance Soul Master wouldn't have been able to search this efficiently.
Sure enough, it wasn't long before Flender's good news rang out from overhead!
"Xiao Hao! I found another one..."
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