Chapter 42

Class Zero's practical combat class had just ended when Lu Menge kept Tang Wulin and Gu Yue behind.

She stood at the edge of the training ground, neither holding her thermos nor flipping through the training log. The expression on her face lacked its usual lazy smile—not quite stern, but serious enough that Tang Wulin instinctively straightened up.

"Tomorrow is the weekend. You two are coming out with me. We're heading to the Soul Beast Hunting Grounds north of Eastsea City—to hunt soul beasts." Lu Menge paused, watching the differing degrees of surprise on their faces. "This isn't an academy-assigned trial mission. It's my personal arrangement."

Tang Wulin had been removing his wrist guards, but his hands stopped. "Hunt soul beasts?"

"That's right. Since reaching four rings, your fourth Soul Ring was granted directly when the Golden Dragon King Seal opened, and your first three rings were converted from your blood essence. You've never personally hunted a single soul beast or obtained even one Soul Ring from one with your own hands." Lu Menge closed the training log. Her voice was quiet, but every word landed heavily. "Using Soul Rings in real combat isn't just about soul skills—the conversion of a Soul Ring's own power, judging the probability of soul bone drops, matching soul beast species to environmental affinities. I can explain all of that, but you'll never truly learn it on a training ground. You can only learn it through hunting."

Gu Yue stood beside Tang Wulin, her black eyes as calm as ever. She neither agreed nor refused. Yet the fingers hanging at her side curled slightly.

"Gu Yue." Lu Menge turned toward her, and her tone suddenly softened. "You are the Silver Dragon King, the origin shared by all soul beasts. Do you think hunting means nothing more than killing a soul beast and absorbing its Soul Ring? You need to understand the true form a Soul Ring takes within a soul beast. You need to personally extract Soul Power samples, assess the age of soul bones, and complete power conversion before a Soul Ring dissipates. Those techniques are on Class Zero's curriculum, but you cannot learn them from textbooks. I taught you theory for three years. It's time I taught you practice."

She looked at them again, sunset light reflected in her amber fox-like eyes. That light was not gentle. It carried a determination that had been suppressed for a long time.

"Gather at the academy gates at six tomorrow morning. Bring your own equipment. I'll prepare the food and water."

She did not ask whether they had any questions, because this was not a negotiation.

Tang Wulin asked no more. He simply nodded, rolled up his wrist guards, and put them into his backpack.

Gu Yue was silent for a few seconds before turning toward the dormitories. After taking a few steps, she stopped and looked back at Lu Menge. "How large is the hunting ground?"

"Three hundred square kilometers. Tomorrow, we'll focus on the outskirts of the core area."

Gu Yue nodded and continued walking.

The next morning, north of Eastsea City, Soul Beast Hunting Grounds.

This hunting ground was an officially designated Federation hunting zone. The outer region was home to century- and millennium-level soul beasts, while the core area contained beings over ten thousand years old. The morning mist had yet to disperse, and sunlight filtered through the leaves into flecks of gold. The air carried the scent of damp soil and the faint presence of distant beasts.

Lu Menge walked at the front. She had traded her white coat for dark, practical combat clothes, her long hair tied in a high ponytail. For once, she wore flat combat boots—Tang Wulin had known her for so long that he could count the times he had seen her in flat shoes on one hand. Holding a map of the hunting grounds, she pointed out various traces in the forest as they walked. "These claw marks in the mud were left by a Unicorn Wind Wolf. They're fresh. Its body length should be around three meters, with a cultivation of roughly two thousand years."

Tang Wulin crouched down to inspect them. The claw marks were deep and narrow, evenly spaced—indeed characteristic of a Unicorn Wind Wolf.

Lu Menge continued forward. She did not speak quickly, but every sentence was useful. "This type of wolf's Soul Ring is suitable for agility-attack Soul Masters. A millennium-level ring can provide acceleration-type soul skills or wind blade-type ranged attacks. At just over a thousand years, the Soul Ring's energy is relatively weak, but absorption carries little risk. Beyond four thousand years, the ring quality is excellent, but it may trigger berserk backlash—the absorption risk is several times higher than the former."

Tang Wulin mentally matched the information to Xie Xie. Xie Xie was an agility-attack Soul Master, and the Light Dragon Dagger was just missing a wind-attribute acceleration soul skill. Last time in the training ground, he had complained that his engagement speed was still not fast enough.

Gu Yue walked at Lu Menge's side and suddenly spoke. "The relationship between Soul Ring age and soul bone drop probability isn't linear."

"Correct." Lu Menge glanced at her, a trace of approval flashing through her eyes. "Soul bone drop probability depends not only on a soul beast's cultivation age, but also on the method of hunting, the species, and even the environmental affinity at the time of the hunt. For the same type of soul beast at the same age, different hunting methods can alter the soul bone drop rate by dozens of percentage points. Soul beasts below ten thousand years have an extremely low chance of dropping soul bones, but it isn't zero. If you encounter a very young soul beast that drops a soul bone in the future, don't explain it away as 'good luck.' Behind luck, there must be hunting conditions you failed to notice."

Gu Yue took those words in and committed them to memory.

The three continued deeper into the hunting grounds. Lu Menge gave them a full morning of field instruction, breaking down the Soul Ring types associated with every kind of soul beast track, hunting techniques, and absorption precautions. Near noon, she spread out the map beneath an ancient tree and pointed to a red-marked area on the outskirts of the core zone. "You won't actually hunt today. First, observe. First, learn. This afternoon—you'll each choose a target, and I'll evaluate it."

She raised her head and looked at Tang Wulin. "Wulin, your first few Soul Rings all came from seal conversion, not external absorption. You have no experience whatsoever with Soul Ring attributes or soul skill formation. Gu Yue is much the same. You both need to make up this lesson."

Tang Wulin had been crouching on the ground, studying a string of hoofprints from an even-toed soul beast. He looked up at her. "Sister Lu, are these tracks from a millennium-level Ironclad Savage Bull? Their stride is wider than normal."

Lu Menge walked over, glanced down, and corrected him. "Not millennium-level. At most eight hundred years. An Ironclad Savage Bull's stride is indeed positively correlated with its size, but you ignored its gait—this bull's hind hoof landed outside its front hoof while turning, meaning it took an extra step with its hind leg to maintain balance. A millennium-level bull wouldn't need that extra step during a turn—its core strength would be enough to wrench its body around directly."

She looked at Tang Wulin. "Judging a soul beast's cultivation isn't about looking at a single trait. You need to see the connections between every detail. A soul beast won't tell you how old it is, but its hoofprints, bite marks, even its droppings—will speak."

Then she turned to Gu Yue. "This afternoon, you'll analyze the bite marks in the soil and on the branches. The Silver Dragon King's instinctive perception combined with direct observation should let you learn faster than anyone else. But only if you're willing to get close and look—not stand at a distance and sense it. Perception can tell you what it is. Only getting close can tell you how it lives."

Gu Yue was silent for a moment, then stepped forward and crouched beside a cluster of fine bite marks in the dirt, pressing her fingers near their edges. She did not sweep them with dragon spiritual sense. Instead, she looked with her eyes—the edges were torn in serrated patterns, indicating they had been left by herbivore molars, not carnivore fangs. She stood and nodded to Lu Menge.

By afternoon, they had advanced into a dense forest on the outskirts of the core area.

The trees here were thicker than those in the outer region, their canopies blotting out the sky. Only scattered flecks of gold leaked through gaps in the leaves. The air was filled with an ancient, heavy presence—not the pressure of a soul beast, but the land itself breathing.

Lu Menge stopped before an ancient tree that would require several people to encircle. A deep claw mark ran down its trunk, beginning three meters above the ground and extending all the way to the earth. Its edges had long since healed, but the scar remained darker than the surrounding bark. It had not been left by an ordinary soul beast—its width, depth, and lingering aura all pointed to one answer.

"Darkgolden Terrorclaw Bear," Lu Menge said in a lowered voice. "Over ten thousand years."

Tang Wulin's breath caught slightly. Darkgolden Terrorclaw Bear—he had read that name countless times in textbooks and heard Mang Tian mention it more times than he could count during casual conversations in the forging room. An extraordinarily powerful offensive soul beast, the apex of bear-type soul beasts, with Terrorclaws capable of tearing through the armor of defensive soul beasts at the same level. A Darkgolden Terrorclaw Bear over ten thousand years old possessed combat power comparable to a human Soul Saint. And this claw mark before him—judging from its depth and the degree to which the bark had healed, the bear's cultivation had to be at least several tens of thousands of years.

But what truly made Tang Wulin hold his breath was not the claw mark itself, but the aura filling the forest. Dragons sensed their own kind far more sharply than humans did—within this Darkgolden Terrorclaw Bear slept an exceedingly faint dragon bloodline. It was not a pure-blooded dragon, but the descendant of an ancient crossbreed between dragons and bear-type soul beasts. That strand of blood was so faint it was nearly imperceptible, but the aura of dragons could never be mistaken.

"It isn't an ordinary Darkgolden Terrorclaw Bear." Lu Menge raised a hand, her fingertips hovering above the claw mark. A thread of the Nine-Headed White Tiger's ancient pressure spilled from her fingertips, making that bloodline resonance a little clearer. "Its Darkgolden Terrorclaws carry dragon hybrid blood. One branch of its ancestors interbred with a dragon lineage—not a pure-blooded true dragon, but a draconic beast. Yet that thread of blood makes it stronger and harder to deal with than others of its kind. Such hybrids are extremely rare in the soul beast lineage. It retains the explosive power and defense of bear-type soul beasts while inheriting certain dragon traits. Who can tell me what dragon hybrid blood strengthens the most?"

Tang Wulin spoke first, his tone no longer carrying the impatient eagerness of a youth answering a question, but the instinct of a wielder of the Golden Dragon King Martial Soul toward his own bloodline. "The hardness of its Terrorclaws. Ordinary Darkgolden Terrorclaws are already close to dragon claws in strength. After hybridization, their bone density would be closer to that of true dragons."

"Correct. Its Terrorclaws are its strongest weapons, but also its greatest weakness—because among the claws of a dragon hybrid is a core bone, a variation of a dragon phalanx. That bone is both the hardest and most fragile part of its entire body. Shatter it, and its Terrorclaws will crack from within. But the chance of shattering a dragon phalanx variation at the same cultivation level is infinitesimal. Unless—" Gu Yue turned toward Tang Wulin, a faint glimmer flashing through her black eyes. "You use the Golden Dragon King Martial Soul's rank suppression—or use purer dragon blood to resonate with the faint dragon blood already in its body, throwing it into disarray at the instant it attacks. Suppressing its power requires direct bloodline resonance from the Dragon God's line—you alone aren't enough. I'll do it."

As Lu Menge listened to their successive analysis, the seriousness buried deep in her eyes for so long finally eased a little. Back when she had fought beside the Dragon God on the battlefield of the God Realm, the Dragon God's tactical discussions before battle had followed the same rhythm.

"This is why I brought you here." She put away the map and training plan, looking at the two Soul Masters who had already entered a combat state. "A Darkgolden Terrorclaw Bear over ten thousand years old has enough practical value to test the Golden Dragon King's Martial Soul suppression and the upper limit of the Silver Dragon King's elemental coordination. A team of Soul Masters at the same level would need an entire elite squad with flawless coordination to hunt a ten-thousand-year Darkgolden Terrorclaw Bear—and you are fighting as a pair. Years of training classes and time in the forging room have maximized your individual combat strength, but the Soul Beast Hunting Grounds are not a training ground. Soul beasts won't move according to your rhythm. Today's true lesson is—combat coordination. Not a duel, but cooperation."

Tang Wulin and Gu Yue exchanged a glance. Without another word, they turned at the same time and pursued the direction in which the claw marks extended. They did not discuss formations or assign primary and secondary attackers—their practical combat classes over the years had made lengthy tactical discussion unnecessary.

The deeper they went into the forest, the stronger the dragon hybrid aura became. It was faint, mixed into the smells of soil and moss, but both the Golden Dragon King and Silver Dragon King bloodlines sensed it—at the base of a cliff less than half a kilometer ahead. Tang Wulin pushed aside a patch of bushes, while Gu Yue silently condensed a Water Mirror to his left, reflecting the blind corner around the cliff wall into the edge of his vision. They stopped almost simultaneously.

The Darkgolden Terrorclaw Bear, with cultivation of several tens of thousands of years, was drinking from the stream. It was larger than the ordinary Darkgolden Terrorclaw Bears recorded in the data, its shoulder nearly as high as a one-story building. Its dark golden fur glinted with metallic luster beneath the sunlight. Most striking of all were its front claws—the left claw was planted on a streamside rock while the right was slightly raised. Five Terrorclaws gleamed with cold dark-golden light, each over half a meter long. Wherever their tips passed over the stone, they left five fresh cracks, with water seeping from them. A thin dark-golden line could faintly be seen running from the wrist to the claw tips, half-concealed by fur.

Gu Yue lightly touched Tang Wulin's wrist, tapping once against its inner side with a signal only they understood. Tang Wulin nodded—the core bone was hidden at the base of the third Terrorclaw on the left forepaw, where the golden pattern was strongest. There was no mistake.

Gu Yue struck first. Her fourth Soul Ring lit up, and an extremely thin strand of silver light sprang from her fingertip. It was not an offensive soul skill, but a pull from the Silver Dragon King's Origin Force. The silver light struck precisely at the base of the Darkgolden Terrorclaw Bear's third left Terrorclaw, and the Silver Dragon King's bloodline resonance instantly activated the faint dragon blood within it. Neither too early nor too late—at the instant it was about to lunge with force, its left forepaw stumbled against the stream rock, exposing a fleeting opening in its chest and abdomen.

Tang Wulin's fourth soul skill activated at the same instant. The Golden Dragon Spear condensed from golden light. He did not summon a second spear; instead, he gripped it with both hands and unleashed the full pressure of the Golden Dragon King bloodline. The spearhead struck precisely at the base of the Darkgolden Terrorclaw Bear's third left Terrorclaw. The power of the Golden Dragon King's direct bloodline flowed through the spearhead into that dragon phalanx variation, and an incredibly faint cracking sound came from within the bone.

Dragon God Armament: Golden Dragon Spear displayed penetration beyond that of an ordinary soul skill in this blow. A dragon bloodline's suppression of a draconic hybrid was not merely a matter of rank, but an innate restraint based on bloodline purity. Once a crack appeared in the core bone, the Terrorclaw could no longer maintain its stored force. The Darkgolden Terrorclaw Bear released a muffled growl and swept its right claw across. Tang Wulin darted backward, and Gu Yue's Water Mirror instantly unfolded between them, completely sealing the blind spot behind and to his right that the impact had exposed. An Ice Spear followed—not to strike the bear's vital points, but to precisely block its route of evasion to the left.

"Tang Wulin, there's already a crack in the core bone of its left forepaw—hit that spot once more!"

"Got it!"

As Tang Wulin answered, a Golden Dragon Head burst from the ground. Its Dragon Roar made the Darkgolden Terrorclaw Bear's movements falter again. When its left forepaw touched the ground, it clearly did not dare exert force—the crack in its core bone had already affected the Terrorclaw's ability to build power. Golden Dragon Skybreak followed at once, golden lightning descending from the dragon head's phantom and striking the same spot on its left forelimb. The massive body of the Darkgolden Terrorclaw Bear swayed, its left forepaw finally unable to exert any strength at all. The weight of its entire front half was forced aside, exposing even more of its chest and abdomen.

"Now!" Gu Yue withdrew the Ice Spear. Seven Water Mirrors lit up from different angles at once, her silver hair dancing wildly in the elemental storm. Her dragon aura surged to its peak in an instant—not as an attack, but as the Dragonkind's sovereign delivering one final bloodline shockwave to an ancient hybrid. The stream flowed backward, and fallen leaves flew in reverse. At last, the Darkgolden Terrorclaw Bear let out an unwilling roar. The small patch of fur on its chest and abdomen was torn open by the combined penetration of the Golden Dragon Spear and Golden Dragon Skybreak. The crack in the core bone of its left forepaw widened until it could no longer support the Terrorclaw—the claw split in two from within during its final collision with Gu Yue's Ice Spear.

Lu Menge stepped out from the shadow of an ancient tree behind them, the hem of her white coat fluttering slightly in the wind.

"Stop. Don't kill it." Her voice was not loud, but it pierced the entire battlefield. "Freeze the crack in its core bone. Don't let the wound worsen. Gu Yue, use your Origin Force to heal it. When you used bloodline suppression on it just now, the hybrid dragon blood in its body already recognized you. It won't resist again."

Gu Yue withdrew her Ice Spear and walked to the Darkgolden Terrorclaw Bear. The Silver Dragon King's Origin Force flowed from her palm, and faint silver light fell upon the cracked Terrorclaw. The fractures in the core bone slowly began to close on their own. The Darkgolden Terrorclaw Bear lay on the ground, releasing a low whimper from its throat—not submission, but a resonance unique to dragon bloodlines. Tens of thousands of years ago, its ancestors had been servants of dragons. Tens of thousands of years later, at this moment, it remembered the aura of its sovereign once more.

Tang Wulin withdrew the Golden Dragon Spear and stood behind Gu Yue. His breathing had yet to settle, and the hand hanging at his side hovered protectively near her back. His arm was numb with soreness. In his sea of consciousness, the Golden Dragon King said four words in an unusually serious tone: "Good coordination." He did not respond to the Golden Dragon King's praise. He merely watched Gu Yue's profile, wanting to say something but feeling that silence was better than any words at this moment.

Lu Menge walked over and crouched down to inspect the Darkgolden Terrorclaw Bear's injured left forepaw. She took out a simple medical kit she carried with her, helped it stop the bleeding and immobilized the wound, then stood and handed the kit to Tang Wulin. Her gaze passed over the stream, swept across the claw marks on the cliff, and the shattered rocks scattered over the ground. Her voice was soft, but every word carried more weight than her usual laziness.

"The most important thing you learned in the hunting grounds today was not how to hunt soul beasts. It was control. Together, you were able to render a Darkgolden Terrorclaw Bear with several tens of thousands of years of cultivation incapable of resistance without taking its life. That proves you possess something more important than the ability to hunt: judgment and restraint."

She dusted the dirt from her hands and looked at the two youths whose breathing had yet to fully calm. Her tone suddenly became light again. "When the dragon hybrid blood within it returns and reports to Di Tian, he'll be very happy. There are very few species that once interbred with dragons, and among bear-type soul beasts, only this lineage exists. Encountering it was fate. Today's training has concluded perfectly—let's go home."

Tang Wulin and Gu Yue stood side by side by the stream, watching the Darkgolden Terrorclaw Bear slowly rise and disappear into the depths of the forest, dragging its injured left forepaw behind it. Its figure swayed in the mountain wind, but the wound Gu Yue had sealed with Origin Force was already beginning to scab over. Gu Yue watched until it vanished completely among the trees. Her voice remained as calm as usual, but as she put away the Elemental Envoy's Soul Ring, her fingers lightly pressed against the side of her wrist. "Next practical combat class—the recoil from that strike with the Darkgolden Terrorclaw Bear's left forepaw was considerable. If you don't practice balancing your habit of redirecting force, you'll fall next time I seal the blind spot behind your right side."

Tang Wulin put the Golden Dragon Spear back into his palm, shook his still-numb right arm, and could not suppress the curve of his lips. "You clearly sealed all my blind spots. If its claws hadn't been so hard, I was planning to use Golden Dragon Body to take the hit and buy you time, but it ran into my spearhead first."

"I calculated it. Your spearhead would reach the core bone before its claw tip did." Gu Yue said no more after that. Yet as she walked back to camp beside him, neither of them took the initiative to put distance between them.

Lu Menge walked ahead without looking back, but her steps were so light that she seemed to be walking on clouds. She had brought them to the hunting grounds to teach them how to hunt, but even more so to let them reconfirm something on a real battlefield that could never be learned on a training ground—their places beside each other. Today's Darkgolden Terrorclaw Bear had been an unexpected delight. The presence of dragon hybrid blood had made this lesson more complete than originally planned. Still, she would need to contact Di Tian after returning—the dragon hybrid branch among bear-type soul beasts was still alive, and Di Tian had waited for that news for who knew how many years. She folded the hunting grounds map and put it into her backpack, already drafting tonight's secret message in her mind.

Behind her came Tang Wulin's low muttering and Gu Yue's brief replies, mixed with remarks such as "you pressed the finishing position too quickly" and "if your spear had been a little slower, the core bone in its left claw would have shattered sooner" as they reviewed the battle. Lu Menge smiled and did not interrupt them. The hunting grounds' sunset stretched their three shadows long.