Elder's Order!

Early the next morning, An Chen woke up in a dormitory that sounded like a sawmills.

Today was a rest day, and Shitou and Qian Yiming were still fast asleep.

An Chen looked outside; the sky was not yet fully bright, and a layer of grayish-blue light filtered through the window.

He quickly finished washing up and strode toward the academy gate.

At the academy gate, early risers bustled about in a lively stream.

The most eye-catching thing at the gate was still a dark-cyan lacquered solid wood carriage with dark-cyan silk carriage curtains and two grayish-brown steeds. In the middle of the carriage body was a piece of silk cloth, as if concealing something.

Just as An Chen was about to look around for Elder Chen, the curtain of that carriage was pulled back.

"Hey, kid An, over here." Elder Chen sat inside, smiling as he called out to An Chen.

Hearing the familiar voice, An Chen snapped his head around, hurried forward quickly, and looked up at the carriage window.

"Elder Chen," An Chen acknowledged.

"Get in," Elder Chen motioned for An Chen to board.

An Chen got into the carriage and sat face-to-face with Elder Chen.

"Well, have you thought it over?" Elder Chen asked, looking at the somewhat slight and small-statured An Chen.

An Chen replied, "I've thought it over. A shadow-attribute soul beast it is. I thought about yesterday's wind attribute, but my body is too weak right now. I can't throw an iron pot very far either, so acceleration isn't very useful."

Elder Chen nodded. "Mm, indeed, but I still think the earth attribute and defense types are a bit safer."

He paused, then continued, "Of course, you can also give it a try. It's up to you."

Hearing this, An Chen nodded. "Let's go with the shadow attribute."

"Very well."

"Let's move." Elder Chen signaled the driver to set off.

"This is a kind of soul power cultivation method. On today's continent, it can be said to be at the very forefront," Elder Chen said, handing a book to An Chen.

Basic Meditation Cultivation Method. An Chen was secretly startled. He had read the Continent of Douluo before crossing over and knew this cultivation method was created by Grandmaster Yu Xiaogang.

While An Chen's mind raced at high speed, Elder Chen continued, "Although some of his ten major theories run counter to the millennium-long heritage of Spirit Hall—the group of titled douluos and elders in the Elder Hall all resist and reject them, calling them empty talk and fallacies, and moreover because of that old affair between him and His Holiness the Supreme Pontiff back then—the entire Spirit Hall publicly forbids the promotion of his doctrines."

He raised a hand to stroke his white beard, a trace of regret and appreciation hidden deep within his eyes, and lowered his voice further. "Yet privately, I have compared them by leafing through the texts in the scripture pavilion. This set of meditation methods is genuinely, solidly useful. Therefore, I am handing it to you; you must not let a third person know."

Elder Chen looked out the window and said leisurely, "His research on certain wuhuns is something even I cannot match."

An Chen nodded, understanding in his heart.

The Soul Hunting Forest of Tieyan City was nearby, and the carriage arrived after traveling for the space of an hour.

Along the way, An Chen skimmed through that cultivation method and found that it was indeed considerably faster than what the teachers taught in the academy.

The carriage slowly came to a halt, and the driver's voice came from outside the curtain: "Elder Chen, the Soul Hunting Forest has arrived."

Elder Chen lifted the carriage curtain, glanced outside, and said to An Chen, "We've arrived. Step down."

An Chen closed the Basic Meditation Cultivation Method, tucked it into his bosom, and followed Elder Chen out of the carriage.

At the entrance of the Soul Hunting Forest stood a stone guard post, with two rows of iron-grate gates tightly closed. Four city guards stood in front of the gates, wearing iron armor and with standard longswords hanging at their waists.

Beside them was also a man wearing the uniform of a Spirit Hall deacon, who was holding a booklet and registering something.

Here, An Chen did not see the bustling soul masters at the entrance of the Soul Hunting Forest from the original story, and he still felt puzzled in his heart.

Elder Chen walked in front, with An Chen following closely behind him.

"Halt," a city guard reached out to block their path. "The Soul Hunting Forest is under control recently; no unauthorized personnel are allowed to enter."

Elder Chen frowned slightly. "Under control? What's the situation?"

Before that city guard could speak, the Spirit Hall deacon nearby raised his head. Upon seeing Elder Chen, he hurried over, cupped his fists in salute, and said, "Elder Chen, why have you come?"

Elder Chen recognized him; this was someone from the Spirit Hall Branch in Tieyan City: "Little Zhou, what is going on?"

That deacon was named Zhou Ping, around thirty years of age, and his expression was somewhat solemn. "Elder Chen, a situation arose deep within the Soul Hunting Forest a couple of nights ago. It should have been a soul beast that was originally a millennium beast; it swallowed something unknown and broke through to the ten-thousand-year level. The commotion wasn't small, and the branch master had us seal the entrance and wait for superiors to send people to handle it."

"What soul beast?" Elder Chen pressed.

Zhou Ping shook his head. "Unclear. We only sensed the pressure of a ten-thousand-year soul beast, and it didn't quiet down until before dawn. The branch master sent people inside to scout around a circle, and they only found some traces at the boundary between the outer and middle rings, as if it went deeper. Exactly which kind it is hasn't been investigated out yet."

Hearing this, An Chen felt his heart skip a beat. A millennium soul beast advancing to ten thousand years... No matter what kind of soul beast it was, ten-thousand-year cultivation was nothing to trifle with. No wonder he didn't see other soul masters here.

He instinctively glanced at Elder Chen beside him. Elder Chen looked to be in his fifties, and his soul power was roughly at the soul ancestor level, around the forties.

A thought flashed through his mind: in the original work, Grandmaster Yu Xiaogang also possessed rich theoretical knowledge, but his soul power was not high.

Even though Elder Chen might be stronger than the Grandmaster, he could at most be in the forties or so. For a soul ancestor to go up against a ten-thousand-year soul beast, wouldn't that just be sending themselves to their deaths?

He hastily tugged on Elder Chen's sleeve and lowered his voice. "Elder Chen, how about... we wait a while before coming? Anyway, I'm not in such a rush for this moment."

Elder Chen lowered his head to look at him, a hint of playful amusement in his eyes. "What? Scared?"

"No..." An Chen carefully sorted out his phrasing. "I just feel that since there's a ten-thousand-year soul beast inside and the situation is unclear, I'm just getting a first soul ring. There's no rush, and there's no need to take this risk."

Elder Chen stroked his beard and laughed. "You rascal." He waved a hand. "It's fine."

He fished a token from his bosom and handed it to Zhou Ping.

This token was a matte silver-white throughout. The front was engraved with the emblem of an angel's sword passing through a burning soul ring, and the back edge had a ring of fine, dense scroll patterns.

Zhou Ping's gaze swept across the token, his expression changed, and he hurriedly bowed slightly. "An Elder Token! Elder Chen, you..."

"Step aside." Elder Chen put away the token, his tone plain. "I'm just taking a student to look around the outer ring and find a hundred-year-level soul beast. With me here, what are you afraid of?"

Zhou Ping hesitated for a moment, waved his hand, and signaled the city guards to open the gate. "Elder Chen, if you insist on going... please exercise extra caution."

The iron-grate gate creaked open. An Chen looked at the token that Elder Chen had already put away at his waist, feeling somewhat surprised.

An Elder Token, the Elder Token of Spirit Hall, was not something just anyone could have.

Elder Chen's status in Spirit Hall was much higher than he had imagined.

"Let's go, what are you daydreaming about?" Elder Chen had already stepped into the forest.

An Chen quickly followed. The light inside the Soul Hunting Forest was much dimmer than outside; towering trees blotted out the sun, their crowns overlapping layer upon layer.

The forest was permeated with a damp earthy scent, mixed with a faint trace of a fishy stench.

As they walked, Elder Chen explained to An Chen, "The Soul Hunting Forest is usually divided into three tiers. The outer ring has soul beasts under a hundred years, the middle ring has those from a hundred to a thousand years, and the inner ring has those over a thousand years. That ten-thousand-year soul beast is deep within the inner ring, so we won't run into it as long as we don't go inside."

An Chen nodded, his gaze sweeping across the dim trees all around.

The two of them proceeded deep along the forest path. After walking for about the time of an incense stick, a rabbit with a metallic luster on its back bolted out from the bushes. It was about the size of a domestic cat, pitch-black all over, and a pair of crimson eyes watched the two of them vigilantly.

Elder Chen glanced at it and shook his head. "This is a forty-year iron-backed rabbit; it's not suitable."

Sensing the aura on Elder Chen's body, the iron-backed rabbit zipped back into the bushes with a whoosh.

Continuing forward, they encountered a wolf with dark-gray fur. Its size was no bigger than a stray dog, and it was lowering its head to gnaw on something. Hearing the commotion, it tucked its tail and fled.

Elder Chen shook his head. "This is an eighty-year shadow wolf. It actually fits the shadow-attribute soul beast you want, but the age is too low, so it won't do either."

An Chen couldn't help asking, "Elder Chen, how come they're all decades old?"

Elder Chen stopped in his tracks, squatted down, and swept his gaze across the ground.

There were a few irregular claw marks in the soil, nearly twice as large as the paw prints of an ordinary shadow wolf. The soil at the edges was turned up, and the shape differed from wolf claws, resembling the claws of a lizard.

He reached out to compare the size and said to An Chen, "These should be the traces left behind by that ten-thousand-year soul beast." He stood up and patted the dirt off his hands. "The soul beasts here have all been scared off. I'm afraid we won't find a suitable one in the outer ring."