"My God! What kind of martial soul is that? Why are your soul skill effects so outrageous? Was I just too ignorant? Or is there something special about the Sealed Nether Wraith?"
"Who knows? Maybe I was just lucky. By the way, Tian Meng, hurry and raise the age of my other Soul Rings while we have the chance. Push them straight to the limit I can withstand."
"Alright, leave everything to me. I guarantee I'll handle it beautifully."
Because of the Sealed Nether Wraith, Soul Beasts rarely appeared here. Even though the Sealed Nether Wraith was now dead, no Soul Beasts would come over for a while. Rather than wait for another opportunity, it was better to settle everything now. There was enough time for Jiang Yue to raise the age of his Soul Rings.
Otherwise, after leaving the Star Dou Forest, it would not be easy to find another quiet, deserted place like this. No one knew whether some powerful Soul Master might be hiding in some remote corner. Before he became strong enough, Jiang Yue had no intention of revealing his outrageous Soul Ring configuration.
As the saying went, being half a step ahead made one a genius, but being a full step ahead made one a monster. Acting too far beyond common sense was no different from walking around with a loudspeaker and announcing, "I'm carrying a huge secret."
The best disguise was to make oneself look like someone within the range of what ordinary people could understand.
Closing his eyes again, Jiang Yue's consciousness completely sank into the Sea of Spirit. Sky Dream Ice Silkworm twisted his body as he continuously mobilized the power he had sealed within Jiang Yue. Strands of origin energy drifted out from one of the many golden spheres floating above the Sea of Spirit.
Having released part of his sealed power, Sky Dream Ice Silkworm felt much lighter. Joy radiated from his entire silkworm body so clearly that it needed no words.
Outside, the Silkworm Shedding's Simulation skill temporarily failed, and the several Soul Rings on Jiang Yue's Passionate Sword martial soul revealed their true forms.
Purple, purple, purple, black—four Soul Rings floated silently behind Jiang Yue. The first two purple Soul Rings were similar in shade, making it obvious that their ages were close. The third purple ring, however, was much deeper in color than the first two, though it had not yet reached the Ten Thousand Year threshold.
Since the fourth ring was already twenty thousand years old, only slightly below the sixth Soul Ring of most Soul Emperors, it was not the primary target of this enhancement.
Strands of peculiar platinum light emerged across Jiang Yue's body, gradually enveloping the entire Passionate Sword. Then, among the Soul Rings behind him, the third purple Soul Ring reacted first. Its color deepened further, becoming a genuine dark purple.
Looking closely, an inconspicuous black dot deep within the Soul Ring was gradually expanding. Once it had swollen to a certain size, it suddenly spread outward, dyeing the entire Soul Ring black.
Third Soul Ring, ten thousand years!
The first two Soul Rings improved quickly as well, ending in only a few minutes. Since those two rings were still somewhat far from ten thousand years, Jiang Yue did not manage to advance them into Ten Thousand Year Soul Rings this time. They merely became dark purple.
It was obvious at a glance that those two Soul Rings were not far from ten thousand years either. Next time, Jiang Yue would have only black Ten Thousand Year Soul Rings left.
Purple, purple, black, black—two Thousand-Year Soul Rings and two Ten Thousand Year Soul Rings. This was Jiang Yue's current Soul Ring configuration.
For anyone else to have such a configuration, they would need Twin Martial Souls and would have to wait until their level was high enough to cultivate a second martial soul. Yet Jiang Yue had achieved it with his first martial soul. For all of this, he had Sky Dream Ice Silkworm to thank.
It had to be said that Sky Dream Ice Silkworm's combat ability might not have been much, but he truly was covered in treasures!
Before Jiang Yue could admire the Soul Ring configuration of his Passionate Sword for more than a moment, the Silkworm Shedding took effect again, simulating his Soul Rings back into the yellow, purple, purple, black configuration—an over-aged configuration that people could still accept.
"What a shame. If you had obtained the Living Gold earlier, your current physical condition would definitely be able to withstand four Ten Thousand Year Soul Rings."
"But this is fine too. Your Soul Ring configuration already crushes everyone else's anyway. Two purple and two black rings are not bad. Sooner or later, you'll have nothing but Ten Thousand Year Soul Rings, or even nothing but Hundred Thousand Year Soul Rings."
"When we go back this time, we have to let that so-called dean of Shrek Academy get a good look. Even without relying on anyone else, we can kill Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts. Who cares about the measly rewards he withheld?"
"Hehe, I didn't expect you to hold such a grudge, Tian Meng."
"Of course! You're the host I chose. We just want to get rich quietly, but that doesn't mean some lousy dean can bully us!"
"When the chance comes, once I've fused with you, we'll show the world what a Million-Year Soul Ring is!"
"Mm, there will definitely be a chance!"
"Alright, this is the Star Dou Forest. There may not be many Soul Beasts nearby because of the Sealed Nether Wraith, but it's dead now, and its aura has faded considerably. This place is no longer safe. We should leave quickly."
"Once I get you out, I can go back to sleep. I've been busy for days, and I'm getting tired. I need to rest properly for a while."
As soon as he finished speaking, Sky Dream Ice Silkworm immediately wrapped Jiang Yue's entire body in his Mental Power, perfectly blending him into the surroundings.
With a slight push from his legs, Jiang Yue landed on a tree branch and moved away from that silent place.
The moment he left that region, the auras of surrounding Soul Beasts gradually grew more numerous. Only then did Jiang Yue feel slightly more at ease. Having no Soul Beasts around was certainly safe, but that area had been far too eerie. A little life was better for one's mental health.
Yet after advancing for only around fifteen minutes, the number of nearby Soul Beasts began decreasing again. Jiang Yue had initially thought his luck was so good that he had encountered another Sealed Nether Wraith.
But that was obviously impossible. The birth conditions of a Sealed Nether Wraith were special. How could two of them appear so close to each other?
Even the Star Dou Forest at night should not have been this quiet. After all, quite a few Soul Beasts liked to be active at night.
"Tian Meng, what's going on? Is there some danger nearby?"
"Tian Meng? Tian Meng?!"
After waiting for a while without receiving any response from Sky Dream Ice Silkworm, Jiang Yue immediately called out loudly for him.
That abruptly pulled Sky Dream Ice Silkworm's thoughts back to reality.
"What?! Why did this ancestor come to the Mixed Zone?! And she's heading straight this way!"
"Jiang Yue! Find somewhere to hide right now! Don't make a single sound!"
Jiang Yue did not understand what had happened, but he could hear the terror in Tian Meng's voice. After Sky Dream Ice Silkworm simulated his aura and blended him into the environment, he barely even dared breathe, afraid of making any noise.
In the pitch-black forest, a point of light appeared in the distance. It gradually grew larger, and the surroundings became brighter and brighter. In the end, that point of light became like a sun, illuminating the entire area as brightly as day.
When the light dimmed slightly and revealed the Soul Beast within, Jiang Yue, hidden in place, widened his eyes.
Because the one who had come was the Emperor Auspicious Beast, the Three-Eyed Golden Lion!
Fine, Sky Dream Ice Silkworm had not been wrong. She truly was a living ancestor, and the kind who absolutely could not be allowed to have even the slightest problem.
Now Jiang Yue understood why Sky Dream Ice Silkworm had suddenly been so shocked. After all, Jiang Yue's own reaction was not much better.
If there was anyone in the Star Dou Forest who absolutely could not be provoked, then the Three-Eyed Golden Lion before him would undoubtedly take the title. She carried the Fortune of the Soul Beast race, and Di Tian had looked after her as she grew up. Calling her Di Tian's daughter would not be an exaggeration. She was the entire Star Dou Forest's darling.
It was nighttime, and this was the Mixed Zone. Logically speaking, the Three-Eyed Golden Lion should not have appeared here at this time.
Light-attributed Soul Beasts generally did not choose to go out at night.
What terrified Jiang Yue most was not merely the Three-Eyed Golden Lion's sudden appearance. It was that her status was noble and her significance extraordinary, so a Ferocious Beast generally followed at her side!
Most of the time, Scarlet King followed the Three-Eyed Golden Lion. Though Scarlet King had only three hundred thousand years of cultivation and ranked merely eighth among the Ten Great Ferocious Beasts, in Scarlet King's eyes, Jiang Yue was an ant that could be slapped to death at any moment.
Not to mention that the Three-Eyed Golden Lion herself possessed combat strength comparable to an ordinary Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast. Looking at it that way, Jiang Yue felt his current situation was extremely dangerous. Yet there was nothing he could do except silently pray to the Three-Eyed Golden Lion.
"Hm? The feeling of destiny is nearby. Why is there nothing here?"
The Three-Eyed Golden Lion sniffed the air, her gaze sweeping over the surroundings without overlooking any place that might contain clues.
Unwilling to accept this, the Three-Eyed Golden Lion gathered power into her third eye, hoping that the Eye of Destiny would give her an answer.
But her current cultivation was nowhere near sufficient for her to freely control the Power of Destiny. She could only vaguely sense a general direction and a rough area. Anything more specific was beyond her ability to determine.
She looked east and west, but found nothing. Forget anything capable of moving—even a plant-type Soul Beast was absent. This irritated the Three-Eyed Golden Lion. She had not run all the way out from the core area just to stare at some rotten trees.
Sky Dream Ice Silkworm's million-year-level Mental Power was unimaginably terrifying. No matter what the Three-Eyed Golden Lion did, she could not possibly find Jiang Yue's location, much less make him reveal himself.
Unless Sky Dream Ice Silkworm voluntarily withdrew his Mental Power. But under the present circumstances, that was clearly impossible.
The two sides remained in the same area as time passed second by second. In the end, the Three-Eyed Golden Lion lost patience and left.
After the Three-Eyed Golden Lion left, Jiang Yue did not immediately depart. He remained there silently for about half an hour before cautiously taking a step beneath Sky Dream Ice Silkworm's Mental Power.
Seeing that there was no problem, Jiang Yue immediately fled at the fastest speed possible while Simulation remained active, heading toward the edge of the Star Dou Forest without daring to pause for even an instant.
Channeling his Soul Power and sprinting at full speed, Jiang Yue ran for more than an hour before slowing slightly. Just as he breathed a sigh of relief, he sensed something approaching from behind without needing Sky Dream Ice Silkworm to warn him.
Turning his head, he saw a familiar scene and a familiar figure. The Three-Eyed Golden Lion was following far behind Jiang Yue, moving neither too quickly nor too slowly. Her eyes seemed to be confirming whether there was something ahead that she could not see.
Having failed to find what she sought in the previous area, the Three-Eyed Golden Lion naturally could not simply leave. After circling around that region for a while, she had moved only a short distance away when the range sensed by the Eye of Destiny changed.
She followed that shifting range from afar. From the Eye of Destiny's perspective, the factor guiding one branch of her Fate Line lay in the area ahead, and its position was continuously moving toward the outside of the Star Dou Forest.
But strangely, no matter how she looked, there was only empty space ahead. There was nothing there. The Three-Eyed Golden Lion even suspected that some peculiar Soul Beast might be present.
Although she was extremely curious about the other end of the Fate Line, the Three-Eyed Golden Lion did not dare act recklessly. First, from her perspective, there truly was nothing ahead. If not for the fact that the Eye of Destiny could not be wrong, she would have already turned back to sleep at the Lake of Life.
Second, she feared that if something really was ahead, she might accidentally kill it in one blow. She still was not sure whether what the Power of Destiny was guiding her toward was her Destiny Tribulation, nor whether overcoming the Destiny Tribulation simply meant killing it.
This concerned her life. No amount of caution was excessive. That was why the Three-Eyed Golden Lion had continued following silently, intending to decide what to do once the other party revealed itself.
At the moment, judging by the other party's speed, it was definitely not very strong. It could not possibly be at the level of a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast, and perhaps did not even have eighty thousand years of cultivation.
"You've got to be kidding me! How long is this ancestor planning to follow us?"
"Jiang Yue, tell me honestly. Did you establish some connection with that ancestor somewhere without me knowing?"
"How could that be possible? I want to know what's going on too! You've been in my Sea of Spirit for years. If I could establish some connection with her, would you not know? We've been to the Star Dou Forest before too. Who knew she would chase us this time?"
"That's true. I watched you grow up, and apart from last time, you've never caused any dangerous trouble. So what exactly is going on?"
"We can think about the cause later. What matters most right now is how to get away. Her sudden appearance was not part of our original plan."
"Right, we have to quickly figure out how to escape. If she gets close to the Outer Zone and shows signs of leaving the Star Dou Forest, the strongest one in the forest might react. I don't have a physical body right now, and most of my power is still sealed."
"My current power can fool the Three-Eyed Golden Lion, but fooling Di Tian is nearly impossible. This can't continue. Sooner or later, we'll be finished. No choice—we can only use our trump card!"
"Listen, Jiang Yue. I still have a true trump card I can use. That power can instantly transfer you hundreds of li away. If I use it at full strength, even several hundred kilometers won't be a problem. Even if the other side is the Three-Eyed Golden Lion, it can absolutely guarantee your safety."
"It's just that I need to concentrate my Mental Power for a moment. Simulation will have to fail temporarily. Can you hold on?"
"First tell me roughly how long you need."
"A few seconds is enough for me to activate it. But be careful—don't let her swallow you in one bite. If she wants to swallow you, she won't even need two seconds."
Hearing Sky Dream Ice Silkworm's confident voice, Jiang Yue looked at the Three-Eyed Golden Lion relentlessly pursuing him from behind. In the end, he chose to trust Sky Dream Ice Silkworm.
That skill was probably the ultimate move Sky Dream Ice Silkworm had used to escape from beneath the noses of those Ferocious Beasts back then, right?
None of that mattered. What mattered was that Jiang Yue needed Sky Dream Ice Silkworm's skill to help him leave the Star Dou Forest. The ancestor behind him truly could not be casually provoked.
Of course, Jiang Yue did not intend to simply sit and wait for death either. He assumed a combat stance, both hands loosely clenched as though ready to grasp something at any moment.
Before you continue