The Soul Beast That Had Already Died? (Please Subscribe First)

The Soul Beast That Had Already Died? (Please Subscribe First)

The Land of Great Peril in the core region of the Star Dou Forest was also known as a forbidden zone of life. On every version of the Star Dou Forest map, this area was always marked in blood red.

There was no other reason—it was simply too dangerous. Six of the Ten Great Ferocious Beasts dwelled in the Star Dou Forest. This was not a place any force in the human world could casually provoke.

Especially after the Body Sect had slaughtered Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts within the Star Dou Forest, provoking the forest into launching a beast tide, the human world had become even more wary of it.

No one in the human world knew what it looked like now. No one knew what kind of hell it was.

Yet little did they know that the Land of Great Peril's true appearance was completely at odds with the name humans had given it. The scenery here was beautiful, and the lake water was clean and translucent, almost like air itself. Without looking closely, one could hardly tell the lake was even there.

Beside the beautiful Lake of Life, a "little sun" lying prone on the ground and constantly radiating streams of golden light slowly pushed itself up on all fours, opening its still-dazed eyes.

This special soul beast resembled a lion. It was over three meters long and nearly two meters tall. Beneath its four dragon-claw-like paws burned clusters of golden flame. Its entire body was covered in golden fur with a crystalline texture, and beneath that fur seemed to lie a layer of fine golden scales.

Whether in appearance or in reality, this soul beast's cultivation had not reached the level where it could act so freely at the Lake of Life. But what did that matter? It possessed the most noble and unique status among all soul beasts in the world—the Emperor Auspicious Beast Three-Eyed Golden Lion!

The Emperor Auspicious Beast was the symbol of fortune for the soul beast race. Only one Emperor Auspicious Beast could exist during any given era. Wherever it lived, the growth speed of all soul beasts would double, and their chances of breaking through the Hundred-Thousand-Year bottleneck would rise as well.

Because of this, no matter how powerful a soul beast was, it would only bow obediently before it and would never harm it.

Any soul beast that caught its eye as food would not even dare resist. All it could do was flee.

The Three-Eyed Golden Lion, which had been sleeping, suddenly woke with a start. Its golden eyes were filled with unease, while the third crimson eye on its forehead flickered with an unusual light.

It could not forget. The Three-Eyed Golden Lion simply could not forget the scene it had seen in its dream. It had felt as though it had experienced it personally—the sensation of its flesh and soul completely dissipating without reserve, the suffocating feeling of death. Even after waking from the dream, it could not forget it, and its body trembled slightly.

The instincts it had been born with told it that was a sacrifice, and the most brutal kind at that—a sacrifice that gave up even the soul without holding anything back.

It was clearly only a dream, yet it remembered it with absolute clarity. The power of fate that had radiated from the sacrifice in the dream also told it that the one being sacrificed was itself.

Other soul beasts or humans might not take dreams seriously, but it was different. It truly possessed the power of fate and could truly sense fragments of fate vaguely.

It would be absurd not to take this seriously.

After waking, the Three-Eyed Golden Lion remained silent for quite some time before finally deciding to try sensing its own fate.

A layer of golden film gathered at the center of the crimson eye on its forehead, and the scene before it instantly changed. A golden path representing its fate appeared before its eyes, branching into several paths that others would never be able to tell were good or bad.

Although the Three-Eyed Golden Lion could not see fate's exact form, it could vaguely sense the fortune or misfortune of those branches. Perhaps this ability could be called seeking fortune and avoiding disaster?

Just as the Three-Eyed Golden Lion began to think it had been overthinking things, the golden path suddenly split, pointing in two entirely different directions. This unexpected development left it at a loss. It was the first time it had encountered such a situation.

"Is this... my fate tribulation?"

Unlike ordinary soul beasts, the Three-Eyed Golden Lion could not increase its age through cultivation. It could only endure the passage of time and slowly grind its cultivation upward. It now had fifteen thousand years of cultivation, while its combat power was comparable to that of an ordinary Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast.

For ordinary soul beasts, possessing even one ultimate attribute was something worth thanking the heavens for. Most soul beasts could not even touch the threshold of an ultimate attribute. Yet the Three-Eyed Golden Lion was born with the dual ultimate attributes of ultimate light and ultimate fire, as well as a spiritual attribute.

Moreover, the Three-Eyed Golden Lion would never face a heavenly tribulation. It only had one fate tribulation in its life. If it passed, everything would go smoothly thereafter. If it failed, it would die and vanish.

Clearly, the branching fate line before it left confusion in the Three-Eyed Golden Lion's clear eyes. It did not understand what was happening and could only attribute it all to its fate tribulation.

Suddenly, the Three-Eyed Golden Lion turned toward a certain direction. Something there seemed to be drawing it in, and it echoed one of the branches of its fate line from afar.

Its curiosity was immediately piqued. It moved on all fours toward that direction, walking slowly at first before gradually picking up speed. In the end, the Three-Eyed Golden Lion became a "little sun" darting between the trees.

It only wanted to quickly see what exactly could resonate with its fate line. As for danger? Could there be any soul beast in the entire Star Dou Forest capable of threatening it? Its strength was comparable to that of an ordinary Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast, and it was not afraid of humans at all.

Elsewhere, Jiang Yue continued weaving through the sea of trees, passing one soul beast territory after another. Without a team holding him back, he advanced at an unprecedented speed with Sky Dream Ice Silkworm's assistance.

Even some high-level soul masters likely could not move as quickly as Jiang Yue within the Star Dou Forest. After all, they had no way to conceal their traces like Sky Dream Ice Silkworm could.

Jiang Yue had a terrible headache. If he went another day or two, he would reach the boundary between the mixed zone and the core zone. Yet he had not encountered a single spiritual-attribute soul beast suitable for him. This was ridiculous!

It was not that Jiang Yue had gained nothing. Earlier, he had encountered a spiritual-attribute soul beast over forty thousand years old. If its age had not exceeded his limit by so much, and if Jiang Yue had been more confident, that soul beast would probably have already become his soul ring. "Tianmeng, haven't you found a suitable soul beast for me yet?"

"Don't rush. You humans have a saying: haste makes waste. Brother has been searching with his spiritual power this whole time, hasn't he? There just hasn't been any response."

"Wait, Jiang Yue, brother has sensed a spiritual-attribute soul beast! And its age is right within the range you can absorb!"

"Really? I found one right after asking?"

Jiang Yue immediately stopped, nearly falling straight off the thick branch beneath his feet.

He had searched for so long without finding anything, yet he found one the moment he casually asked. It felt somewhat unreal.

But soul beast hunting was like that. Luck was far more important than strength. With good luck, one could encounter a suitable soul beast immediately. With bad luck, unless one turned the entire Star Dou Forest upside down, one simply would not find the soul beast one needed.

"You really did find a Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast suitable for me?"

"According to brother's detection, it has around twenty thousand years of cultivation. With your body having been strengthened by Living Gold, absorbing it should not be a problem. The process might just be a little painful."

"I was mentally prepared for that long ago. Tianmeng, lead the way! I've been in the Star Dou Forest for so many days! Today, I have to settle my fourth soul ring!"

An unprecedented gleam flashed through Jiang Yue's eyes. This was probably his first time hunting a soul beast independently. An old man had taken him to obtain his first soul ring, while the Lord of Maple Leaf City had helped him obtain his second and third. This hunt was about to end, and he could already see the "trophy." How could Jiang Yue not be happy?

The direction Tianmeng indicated was not far from Jiang Yue's current location. As he advanced, the number of soul beasts around him gradually began to decrease. By the time he was less than a kilometer from his destination, there were almost no soul beast auras left nearby.

There were not even many flying soul beasts in the sky. All kinds of soul beasts seemed to be deliberately avoiding this area, and the unusual sight made Jiang Yue deeply uneasy.

The Star Dou Forest should not have been this quiet no matter what. Even if Di Tian, the ruler of the Star Dou Forest, descended here, there should not have been no soul beasts at all. It was as though something filthy was lurking there.

This strange scene made Jiang Yue somewhat suspicious. Had Sky Dream Ice Silkworm accidentally led him the wrong way? There were no traces of soul beasts here at all.

"Tianmeng, are you sure it's here? This place looks strange. Why are there no soul beasts around?"

"Don't worry, brother definitely can't be wrong. But now that you mention it, it is indeed strange. The closer we get, the more brother instinctively wants to stay away. It's not fear—it's pure disgust, like this place is bad luck. What a strange feeling."

"Bad luck? You probably think the entire Star Dou Forest is bad luck, don't you? You suffered here for so many years, after all."

"Maybe. Has brother really become too sensitive?"

As he talked with Tianmeng, Jiang Yue drew closer and closer to the target.

Almost all soul beasts that had reached ten thousand years of cultivation developed intelligence. Although that intelligence was pitifully weak compared to that of humans, from that point onward, soul beasts began to differ from mere "beasts."

At the same time, soul beasts gradually became capable of emotions as rich as humans'. Some of the higher-aged soul beasts Jiang Yue had encountered along the way occasionally revealed emotions.

However, from a spot ahead concealed by branches and leaves, Jiang Yue sensed extremely complex emotions—anger, resentment, fear, sorrow, pain, and countless others all mixed together. It was like an enormous dump for emotional garbage! Every kind of emotion could be found there.

The crucial part was that the intensity of these emotions was almost identical! There was no distinction between strong and weak at all. It was Jiang Yue's first time encountering such a situation. If these emotions were being emitted by a single soul beast, he would have doubted whether that soul beast's mind was still normal. This was obviously not normal!

Pushing aside layer after layer of leaves, the source of all those emotions came into view.

It was a soul beast without limbs, and it looked incredibly strange. Only a mass of semi-transparent grayish-purple mist floated in the air, with a dark-purple gem at its center that continuously glowed. Whenever it moved, rippling spiritual waves lingered in the air behind it.

It had no facial features. The grayish-purple mist continuously shifted and reformed—wolf, deer, snake, tiger. In only a few seconds, Jiang Yue saw several completely different soul beast forms appear on its body.

Calling it an unclassifiable monstrosity would be a compliment.

"Heh, so it's this thing. No wonder brother felt it was unlucky and wanted to stay away. If it's this, then it's not strange."

"Tianmeng, what exactly is that thing? I've never seen anything like it. It isn't even in Shrek Academy's soul beast encyclopedia."

"This thing is called a Sealed Nether Wraith. It's a very special spiritual-attribute soul beast. Sometimes, its birth is related to you humans as well."

"It is a special soul beast formed from the grievances and lingering souls of a large number of dead soul beasts. It cannot be born through normal means. Unlike other soul beasts, because it is an aggregate, it has no true self-awareness and cannot develop self-awareness, so its intelligence is pathetically weak."

"It can only slowly increase its age by absorbing the resentment and lingering souls of soul beasts before their deaths. Usually, forty-some thousand years is the limit of its growth. If its age grows any higher, it will collapse and dissipate on its own because its composition is too mixed."

"Just as you humans normally avoid graveyards and mass burial grounds, most soul beasts will absolutely avoid this thing whenever possible."

An aggregate of soul beast resentment? It really was a special soul beast.

Over these ten thousand years, many soul beasts had gone extinct. Their numbers were certainly far lower than they had been ten thousand years ago.

A secret-method soul bone required slaughtering one hundred identical soul beasts within an hour, and even then, activating the secret method only gave a ten percent chance of producing one. No one knew how many soul beasts had died because of secret-method soul bones alone.

Combined with the slaughter among soul beasts themselves, it was not strange for a soul beast like this to be born.

"Whatever its origins, as long as it has a spiritual attribute, it's fine. So how is its quality?"

"Well, brother doesn't really know how to describe it. This kind of soul beast is simply too rare. Usually, only one is born after several tens of thousands of years, and before long, it disperses on its own again."

"But brother can say for certain that it's better than over eighty percent of the spiritual-attribute soul beasts you've read about in books."

"Conventional physical attacks can't harm any part of this thing other than its core. Only attacks containing both spiritual power and Soul Power can affect that mist-like body. It's practically an opponent tailor-made for you!"

"As long as the core in its center is destroyed, the resentful souls on its body will dissipate on their own, and it will die."

After hearing Sky Dream Ice Silkworm's words, Jiang Yue summoned the Passionate Sword. He stomped fiercely on the branch beneath his feet, bending the entire branch into a slingshot that launched him forward.

Crack!

The scene he had imagined, of the Passionate Sword shattering the core in one slash, did not happen. Lion and tiger heads actually grew from the Sealed Nether Wraith's body, clamping their jaws tightly around the blade of the Passionate Sword.

The force was not great, and Jiang Yue easily broke free by exerting his strength. Yet the sight before him still struck him as strange.

Tianmeng had said it possessed no self-awareness, meaning that had been purely instinctive? That made sense. This soul beast was formed from the resentment and lingering souls left behind after other soul beasts died. If nothing else, its will to survive was certainly top-notch.

What was strange was that after blocking Jiang Yue's attack, the soul beast showed no intention whatsoever of taking the initiative to attack. It simply floated silently in the air without moving.