The carriage traveled along the official road for most of the day before finally reaching its destination around dusk.
Star Dou Forest.
Su Mo lifted the curtain and saw this legendary paradise of Soul Beasts with his own eyes for the first time.
The setting sun cast its afterglow over the forest, dyeing the entire sea of trees golden. Towering ancient trees stood in layers upon layers, stretching beyond sight. Now and then, birds swept over the treetops with clear, crisp calls. The distant roars of Soul Beasts drifted faintly through the air, low and far-reaching, lending the forest an air of mystery.
According to the records, Star Dou Forest was one of the oldest and largest gathering grounds for Soul Beasts on Douluo Continent. It stretched for thousands of miles, and even Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts dwelled in its depths. Countless Soul Masters hunted for Soul Rings here, and countless Soul Masters had also fallen asleep here forever.
But at that moment, bathed in the setting sun, this forest with its fearsome reputation was as beautiful as a painting.
Xiao Wu was the first to rush out.
"Wow—! The trees are so big! There's so much grass! It smells so good!"
"I'm finally back!"
She hopped and skipped through the woods, her braids flying, just like a rabbit let out of its cage.
No, she was a rabbit.
Tang San followed behind her warily, his eyes sweeping in every direction, one hand always resting on the Hidden Weapon at his waist.
Su Mo strolled along at an unhurried pace. The Big Black Ox walked beside him and had relaxed for once, its tail swishing merrily.
"Master." Tang San came over and asked quietly, "Where are we going next?"
Su Mo glanced at him and replied casually, "No rush. We have plenty of time. Let's wander around."
Tang San froze for a moment.
Wander around?
This was Star Dou Forest!
A place crawling with Soul Beasts!
Just wander around?
He scratched his head and warily scanned his surroundings, feeling sure that something would come charging out of the woods at any moment.
But strangely—
Nothing happened along the way.
Forget Soul Beast attacks; they barely even saw any Soul Beasts.
The one or two they occasionally spotted ran off from a distance, as if they'd seen something terrifying.
Tang San grew even more wary.
Something was wrong.
It was too quiet.
Far away, in a tree.
A Datura Snake was curled around a branch, trembling.
It was a mutated Datura Snake, with a trace of Auspicious Beast blood in its veins. It could see things that ordinary Soul Beasts could not.
For example—
Those four humans.
No, three humans and an ox.
But the little girl with the braids...
In its eyes, she was no human at all.
She was a gentle white glow, radiating a faint pressure that suppressed it from deep within its bloodline.
And that ox...
In its eyes, it was a dense black glow, as weighty as a mountain, pressing the breath from its lungs.
As for that fair-skinned child...
It couldn't see him clearly.
He was right there, yet everything around him looked blurred to the snake, as if shrouded by a layer of fog.
The harder it tried to see him clearly, the less it could.
And then there was the child with a bump on his head...
A strange aura surrounded him, cold and dangerous, as if he were hiding something sinister.
The Datura Snake curled itself into a ball, not daring to move a muscle.
It had lived for seven or eight hundred years and had never seen such a strange group.
Especially that little girl—
When she glanced this way without thinking, the Datura Snake felt a chill shoot from the base of its tail straight to its skull.
It wasn't because of her.
It was because of what lay behind her.
Deep in the forest, two terrifying wills swept over the area at the same time.
They were so powerful the snake nearly fainted on the spot.
A hundred thousand years.
They had to be a hundred thousand years old.
The Datura Snake buried its head in its body, wishing it had never existed.
Go, go, go...
Don't look at me, don't look at me, don't look at me...
Su Mo suddenly stopped.
He looked back.
Nothing there.
Still, he vaguely sensed that something was watching them.
But the gaze held no malice. It swept over them, then withdrew.
Su Mo turned away and continued walking.
Bringing Xiao Wu along had indeed been the right choice.
With her here, the two "relatives" deep in the forest would look after them in secret.
It would be hard to run into danger along the way.
The sky gradually darkened.
Su Mo found an open patch of ground and prepared to set up camp.
"I'll go gather firewood," Tang San offered.
"I'll go find something to eat!" Xiao Wu hopped away.
The Big Black Ox followed her—mostly because it was worried she wouldn't find her way back.
Su Mo stayed behind, clearing the ground and preparing to start a fire.
Before long, Tang San returned with an armful of dry branches.
A little while later, Xiao Wu and the Big Black Ox came back too.
Xiao Wu held a pile of wild fruit in her arms, her face alight with excitement. "Master! I found so many fruits!"
The Big Black Ox followed behind her, walking strangely.
It was limping.
Su Mo glanced at it. "What happened?"
The Big Black Ox didn't answer. It simply turned its rear toward him.
Su Mo looked down—
There were two small bite marks on the Big Black Ox's rump.
They were still bleeding.
Su Mo fell silent.
Tang San came over, took a close look, and concluded, "You got bitten."
The Big Black Ox rolled its eyes at him.
"Moo." (No kidding.)
Xiao Wu explained, "We saw a rabbit earlier. The Big Black Ox tried to catch it, but the rabbit suddenly turned around and bit it right on the butt."
Su Mo: "...A rabbit?"
Xiao Wu nodded. "Mm. It was a really big rabbit."
Su Mo looked at the Big Black Ox.
A six-hundred-year-old demon king.
Bitten on the butt by a rabbit.
The Big Black Ox turned its face away, pretending to admire the scenery.
Su Mo took a deep breath and held back his laughter.
"What happened to the rabbit?"
Xiao Wu lifted a plump rabbit from behind her. "Here! I caught it!"
The rabbit was still kicking, looking thoroughly indignant.
Su Mo looked at the rabbit, then at the Big Black Ox's rump.
"How about we roast it?"
The Big Black Ox whipped around, its expression complicated.
"Moo?" (Do you mean the rabbit or me?)
Su Mo ignored it.
The campfire was lit.
The rabbit had been cleaned and set over the fire to roast. Fat dripped onto the coals with a sizzling sound, and the aroma gradually spread.
Tang San stared at the rabbit and swallowed.
Xiao Wu stared too, her eyes sparkling.
Su Mo glanced at Xiao Wu and suddenly thought of a question.
Xiao Wu was a rabbit.
Would eating rabbit give her some kind of psychological hang-up?
He tentatively asked, "Xiao Wu, do you... eat rabbit?"
Xiao Wu looked puzzled. "Are rabbits not edible?"
Su Mo: "...They are."
Xiao Wu nodded and kept watching the rabbit over the fire, muttering, "It'd taste even better roasted with some carrots."
Su Mo fell silent.
He remembered all the online debates from his previous life—after Soul Beast Transformation, would they eat meat? Would they eat Soul Beast meat?
Now it seemed the answer was yes.
And they enjoyed it, too.
But he couldn't ask her directly about her origins, so he turned to the Big Black Ox and tried a different question.
"Old Ox, as a Soul Beast, do you get angry when you see Soul Masters obtain Soul Rings?"
The Big Black Ox raised its head, looking puzzled.
"Moo?" (Why would I be angry?)
Su Mo paused.
Xiao Wu laughed beside him. "Master, why would you ask that?"
Xiao Wu was curious too, as though Su Mo had asked a very silly question.