Soul Beast Looks

"This one!" Lu Mingfei asked expectantly.

"Too ugly." Huang Fei was expressionless.

"You judge soul rings by their looks too?"

"When I don't like the look of you, I call you ugly too. That has nothing to do with soul rings. I simply dislike it."

Huang Fei flicked her sleeve. "Let's go. Don't waste time."

Lu Mingfei could only obediently follow, silently lighting a candle for the Ice Dragon Beast whose looks had been rejected.

Back when he was at Cassel College, Nono often said his taste was questionable. Now even soul beasts were being discriminated against for their appearance. This world was too cruel.

When the next soul beast appeared, Lu Mingfei nearly thought he had encountered some kind of chimera.

It was a giant python with wings. The wings were feathered like a bird's, while its serpent body was covered in golden scales.

It was coiled around a towering ancient tree, its cold vertical pupils fixed tightly on the two people passing below.

"Winged Golden-Scaled Serpent, fifteen hundred years old."

Huang Fei raised her chin. "It cultivates both wind and poison attributes. If you absorb its soul ring, there's a high chance you'll gain a poison-type skill along with the ability to fly."

"That sounds really practical!"

Lu Mingfei was already getting anxious. "Lady Huang Fei, we've been walking for most of the day, and you haven't approved a single one. How long am I supposed to wait for this soul ring?"

Huang Fei turned around. Her violet eyes fixed on him, carrying a trace of exasperation. "Lu Mingfei, do you know what your biggest problem is right now?!"

"Uh... not being handsome enough?"

"It's that you don't understand your own martial soul well enough."

Huang Fei poked his chest with a finger. "Your martial soul is the Black Dragon King, the supreme bloodline of the Dragon Clan.

To you, an ordinary soul beast's soul ring is like...

Like serving fried rice from a roadside stall at an imperial banquet. Does it belong there?!"

"But... fried rice is pretty good too."

Lu Mingfei said quietly.

"Shut up and follow me."

So Lu Mingfei shut up again and honestly followed Huang Fei deeper inside.

Along the way, they encountered two more thousand-year soul beasts.

One was a Thunder Giant Python wrapped in crackling arcs of electricity.

The other was a gigantic dragon silkworm whose spun threads could slice through rock.

Huang Fei did not even spare them a second glance and walked straight past.

Lu Mingfei was beginning to question his life.

When he carried out missions at Cassel before, he could at least activate a cheat and blow the enemy away with one shot. If that failed, Lu Mingze was there to cover him.

But now, as a soul master, he could not even secure a soul ring. Who would believe that if he told them?

And Huang Fei's standards were far too demanding. She rejected this one and that one, making it feel like a blind date. She had to find one that was tall, handsome, rich, and had studied overseas...

Wait, soul beasts probably did not care about that.

As Lu Mingfei let his thoughts run wild, the fog ahead suddenly thinned, and his vision opened up.

He noticed that the dark red rock beneath his feet had turned deep brown. A strange, sweetly fishy scent filled the air. It was neither the smell of blood nor the fragrance of flowers, but somewhat like...

The distinctive scent of some large predator's territory.

Huang Fei suddenly stopped.

Lu Mingfei nearly crashed into her back and hurriedly stopped himself. "What is it? Something happening?!"

Huang Fei did not answer. Her gaze was locked tightly on the entrance to a valley filled with jagged boulders ahead.

Strange rocks were piled there like the back of a giant beast lying prone on the ground. Dark purple moss and unknown low shrubs filled the gaps between them.

At the center of the rocks, an enormous figure had its back to them, its head lowered as it gnawed on something.

Following her gaze, Lu Mingfei was startled.

What kind of monster was that?

Its body resembled a bull's, but it was absolutely not a bull.

Its entire body was covered in dark golden fur that gleamed like metal in the faint light.

Most bizarre of all was its face...

Lu Mingfei narrowed his eyes and looked carefully, only to discover that the creature did not have normal facial features.

Its eyes grew beneath its armpits. Two ghostly green eyeballs were embedded in its ribs, rotating without blinking.

The teeth protruding from its mouth were tiger fangs, sharp and densely packed, interlocking above and below. Together with that rather mismatched mouth, they made it look both ferocious and absurd.

Most exaggerated of all were the pair of enormous horns atop its head, curving more than halfway around.

Their tips glinted with icy light, and their surfaces bore some kind of natural pattern, like ancient totemic symbols.

At that moment, it had its head lowered, tearing into its prey with those tiger fangs. Yet the eyes beneath its armpits calmly scanned the surroundings, as though the vision from its ribs allowed it to see everything without needing to turn its head.

Countless images flashed through Lu Mingfei's mind before settling on a fragment of some distant memory...

He seemed to have seen a description of this creature somewhere before.

The Book of Mountains and Seas?

"Taotie..."

Lu Mingfei muttered, "That's a Taotie, right!"

Huang Fei abruptly turned toward him, surprise flashing in her eyes. "You recognize it?"

"Uh, I was just guessing."

Lu Mingfei scratched his head. "A sheep's body, eyes under its armpits, tiger fangs, humanlike claws, and bull horns... It looks a little like the Taotie described in books. But wasn't the Taotie in the books just one huge mouth? This thing even has a body!"

"That was merely an error that arose as legends changed over time."

Huang Fei's voice carried irrepressible excitement. "The true Taotie was the Dragon God's son, one of the Dragon God's nine sons.

Later generations passed falsehoods from mouth to mouth and simplified its image into a Ferocious Beast with only a mouth. In truth, Taotie has a complete body.

It was only because its greatest trait was its insatiable appetite that people gradually forgot its true appearance."

Lu Mingfei looked at the monster feasting in the distance and suddenly felt a chill down his back. "You mean... this thing is a dragon's son?!"

"More precisely, it is the hybrid descendant of a Taotie and a rare bovine soul beast. It is called a Godly Taotie Bull."

Huang Fei's eyes gleamed. "Look at its horns. Those are traits of bovine soul beasts, but its dark golden fur, the eyes beneath its armpits, and its tiger fangs and humanlike claws are all manifestations of Taotie bloodline."

Lu Mingfei tried to process the information. "So, it isn't purebred!"

"Whether it's purebred isn't important. What matters is that it has divine dragon blood in its body!"

Huang Fei grabbed Lu Mingfei's wrist, gripping so hard that he nearly cried out. "Lu Mingfei, do you know what that means?

Although this Godly Taotie Bull has only a little over a thousand years of cultivation, Taotie's divine dragon bloodline flows through its body. Its true combat strength is enough to rival that of an ordinary soul beast more than two thousand years old!"

"That strong?" Lu Mingfei sucked in a breath. "Then won't it swat me to death with one slap?!"

"With me here, it can't swat you to death."

Huang Fei released his wrist. Her tone had returned to calm, but the excitement in her eyes could not be concealed.