Ten days later, on the outskirts of the Star Dou Great Forest.
The dense primeval forest resembled a boundless green ocean, stretching from underfoot to the farthest edge of the sky.
Towering trees blotted out the sun, thick vines coiled around their trunks like giant pythons, and deep layers of dead branches and fallen leaves rustled beneath each footstep.
The air carried the damp scent of soil and the fresh fragrance of vegetation. Occasionally, low beast roars drifted from the depths, reminding everyone who entered this forest that it was the domain of soul beasts, with danger lurking on every side.
Ning Chen stood on the forest's outskirts, still alone.
He paused briefly at the edge of the Star Dou Great Forest, checked his bearings, then headed straight into its depths.
He had not come for ordinary soul beasts, nor did he intend to provoke the Sky Azure Bull Python or the Titan Giant Ape.
After Qian Daoliu had driven the two hundred-thousand-year overlords back into the Core Area, they were already like birds startled by the twang of a bowstring. If they did entangle him, he could simply conjure a phantom of the Myriad Treasures Spirit Realm Seal in his palm, open a Light Gate, and escape.
If he truly reached a dead end, he could activate the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda's ninth soul skill, Nine Treasures Invincible Divine Light, to block a blow. That would be enough to get away.
With those safeguards, he had nothing to fear. He opened his mind as he traveled, sweeping the surrounding auras with spiritual power enhanced by Wandering Through the Great Void, heading toward the strongest concentration of soul beasts' blood energy in the Core Area.
The farther he ventured, the stranger the primeval woods became.
Thousand-year-old trees interlaced into