Chapter 42

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

She stood at the edge of the training grounds without a thermos in hand or a training log to flip through. There was none of her usual lazy smile on her face—not exactly stern, but serious enough that Tang Wulin instinctively straightened up.

"Tomorrow is the weekend. You two are coming out with me. We're going to the Soul Beast Hunting Grounds north of East Sea City—to hunt soul beasts." Lu Menge paused, taking in their varying degrees of surprise. "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?"

"Yes. Since the two of you reached four rings, your fourth Soul Ring was granted directly when the Golden Dragon King's seal was released, while your first three rings came from blood essence conversion. You have 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 not loud, but every word landed heavily. "Using Soul Rings in real combat is not just about soul skills—the conversion of a Soul Ring's own power, judging the probability of soul bone drops, matching soul beast types to environmental affinities. I can teach you all that knowledge, but you will 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 said yes nor refused. Yet the fingers hanging at her side curled slightly.

"Gu Yue." Lu Menge turned to her, and her tone softened slightly. "You are the Silver Dragon King. All soul beasts originate from the same source as you. Do you think hunting means merely killing a soul beast and absorbing its Soul Ring? You need to understand the true form Soul Rings take within soul beasts. You need to extract soul power samples from them yourself, assess the age of soul bones, and complete power conversion before a Soul Ring dissipates. Those techniques are listed in Class Zero's curriculum, but you cannot learn them from textbooks. I taught you theory for three years. Now it is time to teach you practice."

She looked back at them, the setting sun reflected in her amber fox eyes. That light was not gentle. It carried a determination that had been suppressed for a long time.

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

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

Tang Wulin asked no more. He merely nodded and rolled up his wrist guards before putting them into his backpack.

Gu Yue was silent for several seconds before turning toward the dorms. 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 zone."

Gu Yue nodded once and continued walking.

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

This hunting ground was an official hunting zone designated by the Federation. The outer region was home to hundred-year and thousand-year soul beasts, while the core zone held beings over ten thousand years old. The morning mist had not yet fully dispersed. Sunlight filtering through the leaves scattered into flecks of gold, and the air was thick with damp earth and the faint scent of distant beasts.

Lu Menge walked at the front. She had traded her white coat for dark, fitted clothes suited for movement, tied her long hair into a high ponytail, and, unusually, wore flat combat boots. Tang Wulin had known her for so long that he could count the number of times he had seen her in flats on one hand. She held a hunting-ground map and pointed out various traces along the way. "Those claw marks in the mud were left by a Unicorn Wind Wolf. They're fresh. Its body length is around three meters, and its cultivation is about 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 onward. She did not speak quickly, but every sentence was packed with useful information. "This kind of wolf's Soul Ring is suitable for agility-attack Soul Masters. A thousand-year ring can provide acceleration-type soul skills or wind-blade ranged attacks. A ring newly past a thousand years has weaker energy, but lower absorption risk. Beyond four thousand years, though, the quality is excellent, but berserk backlash becomes possible—the absorption risk is several times higher."

Tang Wulin matched those details with Xie Xie in his mind. Xie Xie was an agility-attack Soul Master, and his Light Dragon Dagger happened to lack a wind-attribute acceleration soul skill. He had complained during their last training session that his engagement speed was still not fast enough.

Walking at Lu Menge's side, Gu Yue suddenly spoke. "Soul Ring age and soul bone drop probability do not have a linear relationship."

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

Gu Yue took those words in through her ears and stored them in her heart.

The three continued deeper into the hunting grounds. Lu Menge gave them a 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 unfolded the map beneath an ancient tree and pointed at a red-marked area on the outskirts of the core zone. "You won't actually hunt today. Watch first. Learn first. This afternoon—you'll choose a target yourselves, and I'll assess it."

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

Tang Wulin was crouched on the ground examining a string of hoofprints from an even-toed soul beast. He looked up at her words. "Sister Lu, are these tracks from a thousand-year Ironclad Savage Bull? Their stride looks longer than usual."

Lu Menge walked over, lowered her gaze, and gave a correction. "Not a thousand-year one. At most, eight hundred years. Ironclad Savage Bull hoofprint spacing is indeed positively correlated with body size, but you ignored its gait. This bull's hind hooves landed outside its front hooves, meaning it took an extra step with its rear legs to maintain balance while turning. A thousand-year Ironclad Savage Bull would not need that extra step—it has enough core strength to twist directly through the turn."

She looked Tang Wulin in the eyes. "You do not judge a soul beast's cultivation by a single trait. You look at the connections among every detail. A soul beast will not tell you how old it is, but its hoofprints, tooth marks, even its droppings—they will speak."

Then she turned to Gu Yue. "This afternoon, you'll be responsible for analyzing the soil and bite marks on leaves and branches. The Silver Dragon King's instinctive perception combined with firsthand observation should let you learn faster than anyone. But only if you are willing to approach and look—not stand far away and sense it. Perception can tell you what it is. Only getting close can tell you how it lives."

Gu Yue fell silent briefly, then stepped forward and crouched down, pressing her fingers beside a row of fine bite marks in the soil. She did not sweep the area with draconic spiritual sense. Instead, she looked with her eyes—the edges of the marks had serrated tears, indicating they had been left by the molars of a herbivorous soul beast, not the canines of a carnivore. She stood and nodded once to Lu Menge.

That afternoon, they advanced into a dense forest at the edge of the core zone.

The trees here were thicker than those outside, their canopies blocking out the sky. Only scattered fragments of gold leaked through gaps in the leaves. The air carried an ancient, weighty presence—not the pressure of a soul beast, but the land itself breathing.

Lu Menge stopped before an ancient tree so large that several people would have to join hands to encircle it. A deep claw mark scarred the trunk, slashing from three meters above the ground all the way down. Its edges had healed long ago, but the scar was still darker than the surrounding bark. The mark had not been left by an ordinary soul beast—its width, depth, and lingering aura all pointed to the same answer.

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

Tang Wulin's breathing 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 overwhelmingly offensive soul beast, the pinnacle among bear-type soul beasts. Its Terrorclaws could tear apart the armor of defensive soul beasts at the same level. A Darkgolden Terrorclaw Bear over ten thousand years old had combat power comparable to a human Soul Saint. And from the depth of the mark and the degree of healing in the bark, Tang Wulin could tell that this bear's cultivation was 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 keenly than humans did—within this Darkgolden Terrorclaw Bear slept an exceedingly faint draconic bloodline. It was not a pure-blooded dragon, but a descendant of an ancient crossbreed between dragons and bear-type soul beasts. That trace of bloodline was so faint it was nearly imperceptible, but a dragon's aura 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 ancient pressure from the Nine-Headed White Tiger seeped out from her fingers, making the bloodline resonance slightly clearer. "Its Darkgolden Terrorclaws contain draconic hybrid blood. Somewhere in its ancestry, one branch mingled with a dragon branch—not a true dragon, but a drake. Yet that bloodline makes it stronger than its kin and harder to deal with. Such hybrids are extraordinarily rare in the soul beast lineage. They retain the explosive power and defense of bear-type soul beasts while inheriting some draconic traits. Can either of you tell me what the greatest enhancement from that draconic hybrid bloodline is?"

Tang Wulin spoke first. His tone no longer carried the eagerness of a boy answering a question, but the instinct of a holder of the Golden Dragon King martial soul toward his own bloodline. "The hardness of its Terrorclaws. Ordinary Darkgolden Terrorclaws already approach the strength of dragon claws. After hybridization, their bone density would be closer to that of a true dragon."

"Correct. Its Terrorclaws are its strongest weapons, but also its greatest weakness—because among the hybrid dragon Terrorclaws is a core bone, a variation of a dragon phalanx. That bone is the hardest and most brittle part of its entire body. Break that core bone, and the Terrorclaw will crack apart from within. But at the same cultivation level, the chance of breaking a dragon phalanx variation is minuscule. Unless—" Gu Yue turned to Tang Wulin, a faint glimmer flashing through her black eyes. "You use the rank suppression of the Golden Dragon King martial soul itself—or use purer draconic bloodline power to resonate with that already weak draconic bloodline within it, making it lose control at the moment of attack. To suppress it, you need direct-line Dragon God bloodline resonance—you alone are not enough. I'll do it."

Listening to their analysis one after another, the layer of seriousness Lu Menge had suppressed for so long finally eased a little in her eyes. Back when she had fought beside the Dragon God on the battlefield of the God Realm, the Dragon God's tactical deductions before battle had followed this same rhythm.

"This is why I brought you here." She put away both the map and the 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 suppression power of the Golden Dragon King martial soul and the limits of the Silver Dragon King's elemental coordination. For Soul Masters of the same level to hunt a ten-thousand-year Darkgolden Terrorclaw Bear, they would need an entire elite team with flawless coordination—and you are fighting as a pair. Your training classes and forging room have maximized your individual combat strength over the past few years, but the Soul Beast Hunting Grounds are not a training ground. Soul beasts will not follow your rhythm. Today's true lesson is combat coordination. Not a duel—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. There was no discussion of formations, no assignment of main attacker or support attacker—their practical combat classes over the years had made needless tactical talk unnecessary.

The deeper they went into the dense forest, the stronger the aura of draconic hybrid blood became. It was faint, mingled with the scents of earth and moss, but both the Golden Dragon King and Silver Dragon King bloodlines sensed it—beneath a cliff less than half a kilometer ahead. Tang Wulin pushed aside a patch of bushes while Gu Yue silently condensed a Water Mirror on his left, reflecting the blind spot around the cliff wall's bend into the edge of his vision. They stopped almost simultaneously.

That Darkgolden Terrorclaw Bear, cultivated for several tens of thousands of years, was drinking from the stream. It was larger than the ordinary Darkgolden Terrorclaw Bears described in the records, its shoulder height nearly reaching a full story. Its dark-golden fur gleamed with metallic luster beneath the sun. Most eye-catching were its foreclaws—its left claw was embedded in a streamside boulder, while its right claw was slightly raised. Five Terrorclaws gleamed with cold dark-golden light, each over half a meter long. The claw tips had scraped the stone surface, leaving five fresh cracks through which stream water seeped. A faint, thin dark-golden pattern could be seen along the back of its claws, extending from the wrist to the tips, half-hidden by fur.

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

Gu Yue struck first. Her fourth Soul Ring lit up, and an extremely thin streak of silver light shot from her fingertips. It was not an offensive soul skill, but the Silver Dragon King's primordial pull. The silver light precisely struck the base of the third Terrorclaw on the Darkgolden Terrorclaw Bear's left forepaw. The Silver Dragon King bloodline resonance instantly activated that faint draconic bloodline within it. Neither too early nor too late—at the exact instant it was about to lunge, its left forepaw stumbled against the streamside rock, exposing a fleeting opening in its chest and abdomen.

Tang Wulin unleashed his fourth soul skill at the same instant. The Golden Dragon Spear solidified from golden light. He did not summon a second spear. Instead, he gripped it with both hands, fully unleashing the Golden Dragon King bloodline pressure. The spearpoint struck the base of the third Terrorclaw on the Darkgolden Terrorclaw Bear's left forepaw. The power of the Golden Dragon King's direct bloodline poured through the spearpoint and into that dragon phalanx variation, and an exceedingly faint crack sounded from within the bone.

Dragon God Armament: Golden Dragon Spear displayed penetration power beyond that of an ordinary soul skill in this strike. The suppression of draconic bloodlines over drake hybrids was not merely a matter of rank, but an innate restraint based on bloodline purity. Once cracks formed in the core bone, the Terrorclaw could no longer maintain its gathered force. The Darkgolden Terrorclaw Bear let out a deep growl and swept its right claw sideways. Tang Wulin dodged backward, while Gu Yue's Water Mirror instantly opened between them, completely sealing off the blind spot behind and to his right that the impact had exposed. An Ice Spear followed—not aimed at the bear's vital point, but precisely blocking its route of escape to the left.

"Tang Wulin, the core bone in its left forepaw has cracked—hit that point again!"

"Got it!"

As Tang Wulin answered, Golden Dragon Head erupted from the ground. Its dragon roar made the Darkgolden Terrorclaw Bear stagger for another beat. It clearly did not dare to put force into its left forepaw when it landed—the crack in the core bone had already affected its ability to charge the Terrorclaw. Golden Dragon Skybreak followed, a bolt of golden lightning striking down from the phantom dragon head and hitting the same spot on its left forelimb. The Darkgolden Terrorclaw Bear's massive body swayed. Its left forepaw finally lost all ability to exert force, shifting the weight of its entire front half and exposing even more of its chest and abdomen.

"Now!" Gu Yue withdrew the Ice Spear. Seven Water Mirrors lit up at different angles simultaneously, her silver hair whipping wildly within the elemental storm. Her draconic aura surged to its peak in an instant—not an attack, but the final bloodline pressure of the ruler of dragons upon an ancient hybrid. The stream flowed backward, and fallen leaves flew in reverse. At last, the Darkgolden Terrorclaw Bear let out a long, unwilling howl. The patch of fur on its chest and abdomen was torn open by the dual 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 when it collided with Gu Yue's Ice Spear at the final moment.

Lu Menge emerged from the shadows of an ancient tree behind them, the hem of her white coat lifting slightly in the wind.

"Stop. Don't kill it." Her voice was not loud, but it pierced the entire battlefield. "Freeze the fracture in its core bone. Don't let the injury worsen. Gu Yue, use your primordial power to help it heal—when you suppressed it with your bloodline just now, that hybrid dragon vein inside it had already recognized you. It will not resist again."

Gu Yue withdrew the Ice Spear and approached the Darkgolden Terrorclaw Bear. The Silver Dragon King's primordial power flowed from her palm, and faint silver light fell over the cracked Terrorclaw. The fractures in the core bone slowly began to close on their own. The Darkgolden Terrorclaw Bear lay on the ground, a deep whimper rumbling from its throat—not submission, but a resonance unique to draconic bloodlines. Tens of thousands of years ago, its ancestors had served the dragons. Tens of thousands of years later, at this moment, it remembered the aura of its ruler once more.

Tang Wulin withdrew the Golden Dragon Spear and stood behind Gu Yue. His breathing had not yet fully steadied, and his hand hovered protectively behind her back. His arm was sore and numb, while the Golden Dragon King spoke four words in his sea of consciousness with rare seriousness. "Good coordination." He did not respond to the Golden Dragon King's praise. He only looked at Gu Yue's profile, wanting to say something but feeling that silence was better than anything he could say now.

Lu Menge walked over and crouched down, checking the injury to the Darkgolden Terrorclaw Bear's left forepaw. She took out a simple medical kit she carried with her, helped stop the bleeding and set the wound, then stood and handed the kit to Tang Wulin. Her gaze crossed the stream, sweeping over the claw marks on the cliff and the shattered stones scattered everywhere. Her voice was soft, but each word carried more weight than her usual lazy manner.

"The most important thing you learned in the hunting grounds today was not how to hunt soul beasts. It was control. The two of you worked together to incapacitate a Darkgolden Terrorclaw Bear cultivated for tens of thousands of years without taking its life. That means you already possess abilities more important than hunting: judgment and restraint."

She brushed the dirt from her hands and looked at the two youths whose breathing had yet to completely settle. Her tone suddenly turned light. "That trace of draconic hybrid blood in its body will report back to Di Tian after it returns. He will be very happy. There were very few species that ever mingled blood with dragons, and among bear-type soul beasts, this is the only branch. Running into it was fate. Today's training has ended 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. Its back swayed in the mountain wind, but the wound Gu Yue had sealed with primordial power was already beginning to scab over. Gu Yue watched it vanish completely into the tree shadows. Her voice remained as calm as usual, but when she put away the Elemental Envoy's Soul Ring, her fingers lightly pressed the side of her wrist. "Next practical combat class—the recoil from that blow of the Darkgolden Terrorclaw Bear's left forepaw was considerable. If you do not train your balance when redirecting force, you will fall next time I seal off the blind spot behind your right side."

Tang Wulin stored the Golden Dragon Spear in his palm and shook his still-numb right arm, unable to suppress the curve of his lips. "You clearly sealed off all my blind spots. If its claw had not been so hard, I had planned to use Golden Dragon Body to take the hit and buy you time. It just ran into my spearpoint first."

"I calculated it. Your spearpoint would reach the core bone before its claw tip reached you." Gu Yue said nothing more after that, but as she walked back to camp beside him, neither of them took the initiative to widen the distance between them.

Lu Menge walked ahead without looking back, but her steps were as light as if she were walking on clouds. She had brought them to the hunting grounds to teach them how to hunt, but even more so to let them confirm something on a real battlefield that could never be learned in training: each other's place. Today's Darkgolden Terrorclaw Bear had been an unexpected delight. Its draconic hybrid bloodline had made this lesson more complete than planned. But after returning, she needed to contact Di Tian—the draconic hybrid branch among bear-type soul beasts was still alive. Di Tian had waited an unknown number of years for this news. She folded up the hunting-ground map and placed it in 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 post-battle analysis such as, "You pressed the finishing position too quickly," and, "If your spear had been a little slower, the core bone in its left forepaw would have shattered sooner." Lu Menge smiled without interrupting them. The hunting ground's sunset stretched their three shadows long.