In the Star Dou Forest, meeting people is far more terrifying than meeting soul beasts!

The peerless Douluo moved at full speed, and in barely a dozen minutes, Qian Wushuang had already carried the two siblings across countless mountains and rivers.

He came to a steady stop ten thousand meters above a small town near the Star Dou Forest.

"Great-grandfather, look down there! It's an ant nest!"

Qian Renxue excitedly pointed at the dense cluster of buildings that looked just like an anthill and cried out.

Qian Wushuang looked in the direction Qian Renxue was pointing, and a trace of nostalgia flashed through his eyes.

"Xiao Xue, that's no ant nest. This place is called Soul Hunting Town."

"Soul Hunting Town?" Qian Renxue blinked her azure eyes. "What is it for?"

"This Soul Hunting Town, for soul masters who are about to enter the Star Dou Forest and hunt soul beasts..."

"...is an extremely important supply point and place to rest."

"Don't be fooled by its size. It looks like a small city, but it's actually just a town."

Qian Wushuang patiently explained the origins of Soul Hunting Town to the two little ones.

"There's nothing flashy or impractical in this town. It's filled with places that forge weapons, sell medicines, and provide food and lodging."

"Everything here serves soul masters and mercenaries."

"As the saying goes, those who live by the mountains make their living from the mountains, and those who live by the water make their living from the water. This Soul Hunting Town was built by relying on the Star Dou Forest."

At this point, Qian Wushuang sighed with emotion. "Back then, when this old man was your age..."

"This town was still only a newly emerging settlement, nowhere near as large as it is now."

"At most, it could only be considered a village."

"There are at least hundreds, if not thousands, of Soul Hunting Towns like this along the long boundary of the Star Dou Forest!"

Qian Wushuang spoke vividly, as though he had returned once more to his childhood, to the time when his father had brought him here.

Qian Renxue blinked her big, sparkling eyes, listening with great interest.

Qian Renheng, on the other hand, was not very interested in such things. He stared down at the ant nest below with little enthusiasm.

"Xiao Heng, Xiao Xue, look. There's still some time before the sun reaches the middle of the sky."

"Why don't we go stroll around Soul Hunting Town first?" Qian Wushuang lowered his head and asked.

"Yay, Great-grandfather! Let's hurry down and take a look!"

For Qian Renxue, who had lived in Spirit City since childhood and had never traveled far from home...

...this Soul Hunting Town, filled with marketplace atmosphere and rugged style, clearly fascinated her.

"Good! Then let's go down and walk around now. We can wait for that useless grandfather of yours while we're at it!"

Qian Wushuang did not hesitate. He immediately withdrew the three dazzling pairs of golden wings on his back.

Carrying the two of them, he turned into an inconspicuous streak of light and dove toward the open ground on the outskirts of the town.

Before long, the three of them had blended into the bustling Soul Hunting Town.

The moment they stepped through the town gate, a scent mixed with the aroma of ale and a faint tang of blood rushed toward them.

The streets on both sides were fairly orderly, and all kinds of rough shouts rose and fell one after another, endless to the ear.

"Come take a look, come have a look! Freshly forged standard refined-steel daggers, the best choice for hunting soul beasts!"

"Antidotes, antidotes!"

"Antidotes for sale! Ancestral secret recipe, cures a hundred kinds of poison, a common remedy for the poisonous miasma on the outskirts of the Star Dou Forest!"

"Not nine hundred ninety-nine gold soul coins, not ninety-nine gold soul coins—only nine silver coins!"

"Honored guests, anyone need a room? Hot water and soft beds, we've got everything! All rooms in our inn are ten percent off today!"

"Team-led hunts for hundred-year soul beasts! Ten gold soul coins per person! Gold-medal soul-hunting team, never failed once!"

"Looking for a party, looking for a party! Need a hundred-year agility-type soul beast, twenty gold soul coins! Please carry me, please carry me!"

As soon as she stepped into Soul Hunting Town, Qian Renxue was completely drawn in by the scene before her. This place was like a great marketplace, and everyone was extremely busy.

"Great-grandfather, what are those people shouting about forming teams doing?" Qian Renxue asked curiously.

"Those people..." Qian Wushuang's gaze was calm as he swept it over the people calling out to form teams, then explained, "Hunting soul beasts to obtain soul rings is no easy matter."

"Especially for soul masters without any background."

"Soul beasts are naturally powerful. Even if they haven't cultivated for long, they still possess great aggression! Hunting souls alone is no different from courting death!"

"This so-called team hunting means multiple people cooperating to hunt the soul beasts each of them needs, then obtaining their soul rings."

"They support one another and each takes what they need. Of course, there are also specialized soul-hunting teams."

"As long as you give them enough gold soul coins, they can take soul masters who need soul rings into the Star Dou Forest and help them hunt!"

"But that requires your own judgment. Those soul masters who wander around Soul Hunting Town year-round are no kind souls!"

"They might claim they'll enter the Star Dou Forest and help hunt soul beasts to obtain soul rings."

"But who's to say they won't turn around and rob you instead?"

At this point, Qian Wushuang sounded a little helpless. "Whether it's hunting souls in a team or hiring a soul-hunting squad..."

"With other people's help, compared to hunting alone, it's safer and more reliable."

"All you need to do is land the final blow on the soul beast yourself."

"For low-level soul masters with no background, this is the most common and most dependable way to hunt for souls."

"Great-grandfather, what if they run into soul-hunting squads that murder people for their money and squeeze them dry?" Qian Renheng asked thoughtfully.

He really had never imagined what the living conditions of these bottom-rung soul masters were like before. Hearing his grandfather put it that way, they seemed extremely harsh?

Qian Renxue also looked over when she heard that.

"What can they do? If they can beat them, they fight. If they can't, they run. If they can't even run away, then they accept their fate!"

Qian Wushuang explained calmly, "In Soul Hunting Town, the two great empires and our Spirit Hall still have some power to restrain people."

"But once they enter Star Dou Forest... who can control what happens in there? Whether they live or die is up to fate!"

"Of course, if they're lucky enough to survive, and even have evidence to bring a complaint to our Spirit Hall..."

"The fairest knight order in our Spirit Hall will still arrest those black sheep!"

Qian Renheng nodded slightly when he heard that. The two great empires and Spirit Hall were the key to maintaining the balance of the continent.

They still had some power to restrain people in Soul Hunting Town, but if someone entered the forest alone to hunt for souls, the danger was hard to imagine.

Not only did they have to guard against the dangers of soul beasts, they also had to guard against other people!

There was a saying that went well: in Star Dou Forest, running into soul beasts wasn't scary; what was scary was running into other soul masters!

After all, the human heart was hard to fathom. No one knew whether the soul master opposite them would make a move!

"You two, don't think too much. The world is so big that no one can manage everything," Qian Wushuang said, reaching out with his broad palm to stroke their heads.