Sunset Forest

In the blink of an eye, several months had passed.

Heaven Dou Royal Academy's semester had ended, and the long holiday had finally begun.

Ning Chen stayed at his residence in the city for a few days before setting out for Sunset Forest.

He had yet to obtain his fourth soul ring, and this time, he intended to acquire it himself.

Publicly, Ning Chen's Soul Power had already reached level thirty-five. Such a cultivation speed was unmatched throughout Heaven Dou Royal Academy.

At this rate, breaking through level fifty in terms of his public strength before the Continental Soul Master Tournament seven years later would be no challenge at all.

Sunset Forest lay roughly a hundred li east of Heaven Dou City. It was not a particularly long journey, and at Ning Chen's current speed, he could arrive in less than half a day.

Although its area was far smaller than that of Star Dou Great Forest, it still contained no shortage of high-level soul beasts.

It simply lacked pinnacle existences such as Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts.

However, Sunset Forest was home to the Icefire Yin-Yang Well, one of the three great treasure basins formed from the essence of heaven and earth, a paradise for rare immortal herbs.

It was currently occupied by Dugu Bo, leaving others no chance to covet it.

While at Heaven Dou Royal Academy, Ning Chen had made ample preparations for this trip to Sunset Forest.

Through Xue Qinghe's channels, he had figured out when Dugu Bo traveled to Sunset Forest.

Dugu Bo would disappear from Heaven Dou City for a period every month or two at the shortest, or every two or three months at the longest.

Xue Qinghe did not know what he did during those disappearances, but Ning Chen understood that he must have been going to the Icefire Yin-Yang Well to suppress the toxins within his body.

Judging by the travel time, once Dugu Bo visited the Icefire Yin-Yang Well, he would not need to return for at least a month.

The time Ning Chen had chosen was precisely when Dugu Bo had just returned to Heaven Dou City from the forest.

Furthermore, the semester at Heaven Dou Royal Academy had now ended. Given Dugu Bo's temperament, he would certainly spend time properly accompanying his granddaughter, Dugu Yan. He would not return to Sunset Forest anytime soon.

After leaving Heaven Dou City, Ning Chen found a secluded spot. Once he confirmed that no one was nearby, he took something resembling a storage pouch from his waist.

After he infused it with Soul Power, a two-meter-long, half-meter-wide azure boat appeared in the clearing before him.

Strangely, the little boat did not truly rest on the ground. Instead, it hovered in midair like a flying vessel.

Its surface was covered in intricate cloud patterns, and flashes of light occasionally flickered across it, making it appear exceptionally mystical.

This was no ordinary boat, but a flying artifact Ning Chen had forged over the past few months while studying the Heavenly Craft Pavilion's Introductory Guide to Dao Refining: the Windrider Airship!

Although its grade was somewhat low, it had been expensive to make.

Moreover, since it was unrestricted by terrain, as long as it received enough Soul Power, traveling a thousand li in a day was nothing difficult.

At full speed, it could travel fifteen hundred li in a single day.

It was no worse than a Soul Emperor with a flying Martial Soul.

Ning Chen jumped onto the Windrider Airship and poured Soul Power into it. Then, he controlled it as it slowly rose into the air.

After ascending to a height of more than a hundred meters above the ground, Ning Chen did not immediately pilot the airship forward.

Instead, he linked his consciousness to the vessel and increased his Soul Power output.

The cloud patterns on the azure airship's surface seemed to come alive, and wisps of mist drifted out from them.

They gradually shrouded the airship's surface, making it resemble a drifting cloud of smoke.

This was the Windrider Airship's built-in concealment spell, the Minor Cloud-Mist Spell.

It could gather lingering, ethereal mist around the airship, making it look like a white cloud from afar.

Only after finishing this did Ning Chen control the Windrider Airship and fly toward Sunset Forest.

A faint cloud of mist could be seen in the distance, racing toward Sunset Forest at a speed that seemed slow but was actually swift.

In less than an hour, the Windrider Airship arrived before Sunset Forest.

After landing in a concealed location and putting away the airship, Ning Chen finally headed into Sunset Forest.

He had already equipped the three-piece Level-Four Soul Tool set.

The Earthguard Armor, Wind-Chasing Boots, and the Fierce Slash Blade in his hand.

The Starlight Bracer also emerged over his right forearm.

Although Sunset Forest was not as vast as Star Dou Great Forest and did not contain as many soul beasts, it had quite a few apex predators among soul beasts, such as Cave Demon Spiders and Man Faced Demon Spiders.

Thus, Ning Chen still decided that caution was best.

He had come here with two objectives.

The first went without saying: to find a suitable soul beast and obtain a soul ring.

The second was to locate the Icefire Yin-Yang Well occupied by Dugu Bo.

Ning Chen's Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda currently had three soul rings.

They were respectively his first soul ring, which enhanced strength; his second soul ring, which enhanced speed; and his third soul ring, which enhanced spiritual attributes.

The soul rings of Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda Soul Masters were generally quite similar.

However, most Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda Soul Masters chose a Soul Power-enhancing direction for their third soul ring.

Ning Chen had chosen a spiritual enhancement because, with the Nine Yang Divine Skill, he did not have much need for more Soul Power.

Therefore, he had chosen to bolster his relatively weaker spiritual attribute.

As for his fourth soul ring, he planned to hunt one that enhanced defense.

Ideal soul beasts would be those with outstanding defensive abilities, such as Plate-Armored Giant Rhinos and Black Tortoises.

Deep within Sunset Forest, Ning Chen had already wandered through the woods for three full days.

Over those three days, he had encountered many soul beasts, from thousand-year Netherworld Wolves to ten-thousand-year Cave Demon Spiders. He had evaded them all with the Windrider Airship's mobility and the Starlight Bracer's flexible adaptability.

Yet he had never found prey that satisfied him.

On the morning of the fourth day, Ning Chen entered the middle region of Sunset Forest.

The trees here grew increasingly thick and massive. He crouched on a horizontal branch of a giant tree, intending to rest briefly, when he suddenly felt a faint tremor from the ground.

The tremor was heavy and slow, as though some enormous creature were moving forward step by step.

Ning Chen's spirits lifted, and he quietly made his way in the direction from which the tremor came.

After passing through a dense thicket, the sight before him made his pupils contract sharply.

In an open forest clearing, a colossal creature was leisurely chewing the leaves and branches of an ancient tree.

It was a gigantic mammoth standing six or seven meters tall, its entire body covered in crystalline, diamond-like armor that refracted dazzling light beneath the sunlight filtering through the canopy.

Its two thick tusks curved slightly upward, their surfaces likewise coated in a diamond-textured shell, making them look incomparably magnificent.

This was actually a Diamond Mammoth, and one at least ten thousand years old!

Ning Chen held his breath as he carefully assessed the mammoth's cultivation.

Judging by the length of its tusks, its cultivation was around seventeen thousand years, making it perfectly suited to serve as his fourth soul ring.

Moreover, Diamond Mammoths were renowned for their defense. The defensive enhancement granted by its soul ring was exactly what he needed right now!