Two Overlords of the Star Dou Great Forest

Time flew by in the blink of an eye.

In the blink of an eye, two years had passed.

The outskirts of the Star Dou Great Forest.

"Jiang Li, hurry up!" The girl walking ahead turned back and urged the boy behind her.

Her silky black hair was neatly braided into a scorpion braid that hung below her calves.

She wore a small pink top that tightly hugged her developing figure. If her chest was not yet particularly full, then her slender waist, so slim it could be grasped in one hand, would make countless women envious.

Her long, taut legs were wrapped in white trousers, displaying perfect golden proportions. Though she looked young and her face still carried a trace of childishness, her round little hips already had a certain allure.

"What's the rush?" the boy replied absentmindedly to her urging.

The girl puffed out her cheeks and said angrily, "It's been so long since I came out. This is my first time returning to the Star Dou Great Forest. Da Ming and Er Ming must miss me terribly."

The two were Jiang Li and Xiao Wu, who had graduated from Notting Academy this year.

Jiang Li had graduated normally after six years of schooling, while Xiao Wu was a year younger than him.

Therefore, Xiao Wu had applied for early graduation on the grounds that she had already met the requirement for graduation from an elementary Soul Master academy: being a Soul Master above Level 10 with one Soul Ring.

However, Jiang Li had not come to the Star Dou Great Forest with Xiao Wu this time to visit the forest's two great overlords, the Azure Bull Python and the Titan Giant Ape. He had come to obtain a suitable third Soul Ring.

In fact, Jiang Li's Soul Power had already reached Level 30 last year, making him eligible to obtain his third Soul Ring. However, he had not chosen to acquire it immediately.

Instead, he had quietly collected something in Notting City called Whale Glue, whose uses would only become widely known across Douluo Continent ten thousand years later.

It was a miraculous substance produced in the brains of whale-type Soul Beasts. Long-term consumption could strengthen a Soul Master's physique, allowing them to withstand Soul Rings of greater age while absorbing them.

Since no one yet knew Whale Glue's effects, Jiang Li's collection process had gone smoothly and cost very little.

However, Notting City was an inland city near the outskirts of the Star Dou Great Forest and far from the sea. Whale-type Soul Beasts were sea Soul Beasts, so he had not managed to collect much.

With graduation approaching, Jiang Li had also given up on the idea of continuing to lie low and build up his strength in Notting City.

After obtaining his third Soul Ring in the Star Dou Great Forest and gaining a certain amount of strength, he planned to head for Heaven Dou City, the main city of the Heaven Dou Empire.

Of course, a large part of that was because Qian Renxue had been urging him from behind the scenes.

So, letting Xiao Wu return home for a look was really just incidental.

Meanwhile, deep within the Star Dou Great Forest.

Beside a small lake, a giant ape as enormous as a mountain crouched there.

Though it sounded a little absurd, the giant ape's face was filled with expressions that seemed to belong only to humans.

It was one of the Star Dou Great Forest's overlords, the Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast known as the Titan Giant Ape.

Roar!

A thunderous roar burst from the Titan Giant Ape's mouth. Its massive fists repeatedly pounded its chest, producing deep, muffled booms.

"Da Ming, stop sleeping! Something happened!" The Titan Giant Ape's earthshaking voice rang out, sending ripples across the tranquil lake.

Just then, water suddenly splashed as a huge head emerged from the lake.

It was a bull's head, at least four meters in diameter. Its enormous eyes gleamed like lanterns. Yet strangely, behind that massive head was not the body of a bull, but an enormous dark blue-green snake body several times thicker than the trunk of the largest tree in the world.

Though most of its body remained submerged beneath the water, the portion exposed above the surface was already terrifying enough.

It was the other overlord of the Star Dou Great Forest, as famous as the Titan Giant Ape—the Azure Bull Python, whom Xiao Wu called Da Ming, while she called the Titan Giant Ape Er Ming.

"What is it, Er Ming?"

A stream of breath shot from the Azure Bull Python's nostrils like a sharp blade, flying straight toward the Titan Giant Ape.

It seemed that if the Titan Giant Ape failed to provide a satisfactory answer, the Azure Bull Python would show him exactly what waking up angry meant.

"Didn't you feel it?"

That single puff of breath naturally did nothing to the Titan Giant Ape. Anxiety covered his face.

"Ah, the aura of the scale I gave Sister Xiao Wu has appeared on the outskirts of the Star Dou Great Forest."

"But I don't seem to sense Sister Xiao Wu's aura. Have I slept for so long that Sister Xiao Wu has already become a Level 70 Soul Sage?"

Still somewhat groggy after being awakened by the Titan Giant Ape, the Azure Bull Python sensed his own aura and revealed a flicker of joy in his lantern-sized eyes.

Hearing that, the naturally hot-tempered Titan Giant Ape leaped up and gave the Azure Bull Python's head a resounding smack.

"Da Ming, what are you thinking? It's only been five years since Sister Xiao Wu left! How could a Soul Master possibly increase their level that easily?"

The Titan Giant Ape simply could not understand how this fool in front of him was an overlord-level Soul Beast on equal footing with him.

And this fool was even ranked ahead of him as Da Ming, leaving him to be called Er Ming.

"Wait!" Only then did the Azure Bull Python react. "It's only been five years?"

"Sister Xiao Wu?! Damn it!!!"

After a Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast took human form, it had to raise its Soul Power to Level 70 before it could completely conceal the aura that marked it as a Soul Beast.

And only five years had passed. No matter how talented she was, reaching Level 30 in Soul Power would already be the absolute limit.

Yet Xiao Wu's aura had now vanished. The only thing that had appeared in the Star Dou Great Forest was the item that he and Er Ming had given her when she left, so they could identify her.

Didn't that mean Xiao Wu had most likely been killed outside?

They had once failed to protect Xiao Wu's mother, causing Xiao Wu to lose her mother. This time, they had actually lost Xiao Wu as well.

At that thought, the Azure Bull Python flew into a rage. "Damn humans, I'll make you repay this blood debt with blood!!"

The Azure Bull Python was furious, but the naturally violent Titan Giant Ape was even more enraged. He grabbed the Azure Bull Python and said, "Da Ming, let's go! We'll go out together and turn the human world upside down with slaughter!"

The Azure Bull Python only wanted to kill whoever had murdered Xiao Wu and avenge her, while the Titan Giant Ape wanted revenge against the entire human world.

Yet the Azure Bull Python did not stop him, because their fury desperately needed an outlet.

As for who the target was? That was not important. As long as any living creature appeared before them, even a Soul Beast, it was guilty!

Because they were the undisputed two great overlords of the Star Dou Great Forest!

Thus, the two overlord-level Soul Beasts, the Azure Bull Python and the Titan Giant Ape, set off in a grand procession toward the outskirts of the Star Dou Great Forest.

They even triggered a sizable beast tide.

And their target was Jiang Li and Xiao Wu, who were currently in the outskirts of the Star Dou Great Forest!