The Soul Beasts Vanished from Sunset Forest

When Yan Jingzhe emerged from Sea God Pavilion, it was already afternoon.

He walked back along the bluestone path, planning his next steps as he went.

Xian Lin'er was watching over Huo Yuhao, so nothing could go wrong there. Mu En had recovered most of his strength, and Sea God Pavilion did not need his attention for the time being.

Over in the God Realm, Tang God-King was probably focused entirely on the Child of Fortune by now. After all, Huo Yuhao had yet to join the Tang Sect.

Now was the best time to head to the Icefire Yin Yang Well: take what he needed and leave. As for whether the Hundred-Thousand-Year Immortal Herbs inside would cooperate? Well, he knew a thing or two about throwing punches.

After all, he had coveted that place for a long time.

In the original novel, the Icefire Yin Yang Well was home to countless heavenly treasures: the Singular Velvet Sky Chrysanthemum, Narcissus Jade Muscle Bone, Infernal Delicate Apricot, Octagonal Mysterious Ice Grass, Lovesick Heartbreak Red... Every single one of them was a supreme treasure that could stir up a bloody storm if taken outside.

The Icefire Yin Yang Well lay deep within Sunset Forest. He had coveted that treasure ground for a long time, and he was determined to claim the Immortal Herbs within. But the Icefire Yin Yang Well was not the only place he wanted to visit. He also wanted to see for himself—see what had become of the Soul Beast habitat that had once stood alongside the Great Star Dou Forest.

With that thought, Yan Jingzhe possessed the Light Phoenix. Golden wings spread behind his back, and with a flash of golden light, he vanished into the clouds.

The three great Soul Beast habitats were the Great Star Dou Forest, Sunset Forest, and the Far North.

This had once been common knowledge to every Soul Master on the Douluo Continent.

But now, that common knowledge was outdated.

The three great Soul Beast habitats had become two.

Because Sunset Forest was gone.

Yan Jingzhe flew through the high skies as the night wind howled past his ears. He looked down at the rapidly retreating earth below, memories from before his transmigration surfacing in his mind.

In the original first Douluo novel, Sunset Forest had been a true paradise for Soul Beasts. Though its area could not compare to the Great Star Dou Forest, it had no shortage of Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts. There had even been several Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts.

It had been a haven for Soul Beasts and a forbidden zone for human Soul Masters.

Then Great God King Tang arrived.

The Sea God and the Asura God, two godhoods descending upon the world.

Before ascending to the God Realm, that god who had risen from the Douluo Continent did one final thing.

He "cleansed" Sunset Forest.

According to the current accounts of the major empires, the Soul Beasts of Sunset Forest had gone on a rampage and threatened the surrounding human cities. Tang San, the Tang Sect Master, stepped forward and single-handedly quelled the Soul Beast unrest, eliminating a menace for the continent.

But Yan Jingzhe, who knew the original novel by heart, knew the truth.

What Soul Beast rampage? What eliminating a menace for the people? How long had Sunset Forest existed? It had not rampaged early, nor had it rampaged late, but it just happened to rampage while you were there? What a load of bullshit.

Tang San had only one reason for doing this—the Icefire Yin Yang Well.

To Tang San, that treasure ground was nothing more than his private vegetable garden. He did not want any Soul Beast or human to approach it.

So he wiped out all of Sunset Forest.

Not a single Soul Beast was spared.

In his words, those Soul Beasts all possessed dark attributes and had already earned the right to die.

Whenever Yan Jingzhe thought of this, he found it rather amusing. A dignified God King with two godhoods actually feared Soul Beasts threatening his Immortal Herb garden? In the end, it was nothing more than possessiveness. He wanted that treasure ground all to himself, and no one else was allowed to touch it.

And that so-called poisonous miasma...

Yan Jingzhe narrowed his eyes slightly as the thought crossed his mind.

He roughly knew its source.

The sky gradually brightened. A pale white glow appeared on the eastern horizon as dawn slowly drove away the night.

Yan Jingzhe had already flown for nearly six hours when the outline of a continuous mountain range finally appeared ahead.

Sunset Forest had arrived.

He slowly descended from the sky and landed atop a mountain peak. From there, he could overlook the entirety of Sunset Forest.

In the morning light, a vast forest spread out before him. From afar, it was lush and vibrant, no different from an ordinary forest. But Yan Jingzhe's eyesight far surpassed that of ordinary people, and he could see what was hidden beneath that green expanse.

There were no birdcalls in the forest, no insects chirping, no signs of any living creature moving about.

It was utterly silent.

Like a massive graveyard.

"Tang San, you really deserve to die."

Yan Jingzhe sighed with mixed feelings, then leaped down from the peak and swept toward the depths of the forest.

The moment he entered the forest's edge, a faint sweet, fishy odor slipped into his nostrils. It was the smell of poison, accumulated over countless years and seeped into every inch of soil and every leaf.

Yan Jingzhe released a thin layer of Holy Light Flame over his body, dispersing the poisonous gas around him. He slowed down and carefully observed his surroundings.

The trees here grew abnormally lush, even taller and sturdier than those in the Great Star Dou Forest. But a closer look revealed that not a single tree was normal—strange tumor-like protrusions covered their trunks, their leaves were so dark they were almost black, and their roots twisted across the ground like snakes.

This was the result of prolonged corrosion by poison.

Ordinary trees would have died long ago. Those that survived had all mutated. They no longer grew merely to live; they had become part of the poison's circulation system—absorbing poison, releasing poison, turning the forest into an airtight poison jar.

The deeper Yan Jingzhe went, the denser the poison became.

Eventually, the poison in the air became dense enough to be seen with the naked eye. It was an eerie jade-green, like thick fog blanketing the entire forest.

At such a concentration, even a Soul Saint-level expert would not last more than fifteen minutes inside.

Yan Jingzhe's Holy Light Flame sizzled like cold water poured into hot oil. He could feel the poisonous gas frantically corroding his protective flame. Although it posed no threat for now, even he found the constant drain somewhat troublesome.

He quickened his pace.

After passing through a dense stretch of poisonous miasma, the terrain ahead suddenly opened up.

Yan Jingzhe stopped.

He saw it.

A sea of flowers.

An endless expanse of jade-green flowers stretched from beneath his feet into the distance, carpeting the entire valley. Each bloom was the size of a palm, its petals an enchanting jade-green with faint fluorescence glowing along the edges. At the center of every flower, its stamens were deep purple, like cold eyes staring at intruders.

Yan Jingzhe stood at the edge of the flower sea in silence for a long time.

Just as I thought.

Jade-Phosphor Seven-Extinction Flowers.

The poisonous miasma of Sunset Forest had not formed naturally. It was released by this field of Jade-Phosphor Seven-Extinction Flowers. These flowers were not wild; they had been planted here in a specific arrangement, forming an enormous poison formation.

And there was only one person in the entire Douluo Continent capable of growing something like this.

The Poison Douluo from ten thousand years ago, Dugu Bo.

But such a vast sea of Jade-Phosphor Seven-Extinction Flowers could not possibly have been created by Dugu Bo alone. This had already surpassed the limits of human capability. Only a god could have done it.

Dugu Bo had merely been the executor. The true mastermind behind it all was Great God King Tang.

Yan Jingzhe crouched down and reached out to touch the nearest Jade-Phosphor Seven-Extinction Flower. Its petals were icy cold, and a fine layer of fuzz covered their surface. It felt like touching a dead person's skin.

He closed his eyes and used his spiritual power to sense the sea of flowers.

His spiritual power passed through the soil and sank deep underground, where he "saw" the flowers' roots. Every Jade-Phosphor Seven-Extinction Flower had an exceptionally developed root system that extended dozens of meters into the earth. Like a massive net, they connected the underground of all Sunset Forest together.

These roots did not merely absorb nutrients. They continuously released toxins into the underground waterways, which spread with the current to every corner of the forest.

It was a perfect closed-loop system.

The Jade-Phosphor Seven-Extinction Flowers released poisonous gas, the poison killed all living things, the corpses of those living things decayed into nutrients, and the flowers absorbed them and converted them into even more poison.

Day after day, year after year, the cycle repeated.

No maintenance was needed. No intervention was needed. This sea of flowers would continue operating on its own forever.

Tang San's arrangement was simple, but effective.

He first used force to clear out every Soul Beast in Sunset Forest, then planted the Jade-Phosphor Seven-Extinction Flowers and sealed the entire forest with a poison formation. That way, the Icefire Yin Yang Well became an isolated forbidden ground that only the Tang Sect's core members could enter.

As for those Soul Beasts, those creatures that had lived on this land for countless years, they were nothing more than troublesome weeds in Tang San's eyes.

So what if they were exterminated?

Yan Jingzhe closed his eyes and drew a deep breath.

Not to calm himself, but because he did not feel much emotional turmoil at all.

He was not some saint who would shed tears over a tragedy that had already happened. But he was a transmigrator. He had read the original novel, and he knew what this world was supposed to have been like.

In the original novel, Sunset Forest had been damaged, but it had never been completely destroyed. The Soul Beasts were still there, and the Icefire Yin Yang Well remained a treasure ground brimming with life.

But now, everything had changed.

Because of Tang San.

Yan Jingzhe opened his eyes and continued forward.

The Holy Light Flame on his body burned more fiercely. The jade-green poison gas retreated before the sacred flame, giving off harsh sizzling sounds. Wherever he passed, the Jade-Phosphor Seven-Extinction Flowers automatically parted to either side, as though pushed aside by an invisible force.

It was not because he had done anything. These flowers instinctively feared the Light Power within him.

Light and life were one, while poison symbolized death. Before pure light, all darkness and death had to retreat.

After walking for fifteen minutes, Yan Jingzhe suddenly stopped.

He looked down at the ground beneath his feet.

Something was glowing at the roots of a Jade-Phosphor Seven-Extinction Flower.

He crouched down and pushed aside the dense flowers, revealing what lay beneath.

It was a bone.

A thick bone with a faint metallic sheen, at least as thick as an adult's thigh. Judging by its shape and size, it should have been the leg bone of a Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast.

The bone was covered in fine cracks. It had not been broken by force, but corroded by poison. The toxins had seeped into its marrow and completely eroded the Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast from within, leaving behind only this ruined bone.

Yan Jingzhe silently stared at the bone and reached out to pick it up.

It was light—absurdly light. Most of the bone matter inside had already been dissolved by poison, leaving it almost weightless in his hand. With a gentle squeeze, it crumbled into powder and sifted through his fingers.

Jade-green powder, like a malicious mockery.

Yan Jingzhe dusted off his hands, rose to his feet, and continued onward.

Along the way, he saw more bones. They were scattered among the Jade-Phosphor Seven-Extinction Flowers and half-buried in the soil. Some had corroded until only faint traces remained, while others still retained their rough shapes.

There were human bones, but far more belonged to Soul Beasts.

During the catastrophe that destroyed Sunset Forest, some of those Soul Beasts had tried to flee, some had tried to resist, and some had simply slept in their nests until the poisonous gas reached them.

None of them survived.

Yan Jingzhe did not know how long he had walked. In this jade-green sea of flowers, time and space had both become blurred. Only endless jade-green stretched before him, like a boundless sea of death.

At last, something different appeared ahead.

It was where the poison was most concentrated. The jade-green mist was as thick as liquid, flowing slowly through the air. At the center of that dense fog, two lights—one red and one blue—could vaguely be seen flashing in alternation.

The Icefire Yin Yang Well had arrived.

Yan Jingzhe stood before the dense fog and looked back at the sea of flowers one last time.

The Jade-Phosphor Seven-Extinction Flowers swayed gently in the breeze, rustling as though whispering among themselves. Those sounds gathered into an eerie hum that made one's skin crawl.

They did not care who had once lived in this forest, nor did they care how many years those Soul Beasts had lived here. They merely grew as they had been programmed to, releasing toxins and killing every intruder.

This was Tang San's legacy to Sunset Forest.

A graveyard covered in poisonous flowers.

Yan Jingzhe turned around, no longer looking at the sea of flowers, and stepped into the dense fog. Only a faint sentence drifted into the distance.

"Tang San, you had better hope I never become a god. Otherwise, I will settle every debt."