Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast

After Elder Chen finished speaking, he strode deeper into the forest without the slightest hesitation.

An Chen froze for a moment, then quickly followed, lowering his voice. "Elder Chen, that ten-thousand-year soul beast is in there..."

"I know." Elder Chen did not slow down. "You'll be fine if you follow me."

An Chen opened his mouth but did not try to persuade him further.

He glanced back at the way they had come, calculating inwardly. If we really run into that ten-thousand-year soul beast, there's no way we can escape. I can only gamble on whether Elder Chen is as strong as Grandmaster. Otherwise, I'll have to see whether this Big Iron Pot is sturdy enough.

The two walked for roughly another quarter of an hour, and the light between the trees grew increasingly dim.

Suddenly, the bushes ahead rustled. A pitch-black snake slithered close to the ground at tremendous speed, nearly blending into the shadows.

"Shadow Snake." Elder Chen's eyes lit up as he lowered his voice. "Shadow Attribute. Judging by its size and length, it's around two hundred years old. Perfect for you."

An Chen held his breath. The Shadow Snake seemed to sense something, abruptly raising its head and flicking its tongue before twisting its body and darting deeper into the forest.

"Chase it!" Elder Chen barked, taking the lead. He might have looked like an old man, but he was not slow when he ran.

An Chen gritted his teeth and followed. The Shadow Snake moved incredibly fast, weaving between bushes and tree roots as they chased after it. The trees around them grew denser and taller, their canopies nearly blotting out all the light.

Just as An Chen was about to run out of strength, an incomparably heavy pressure suddenly surged from ahead.

All the hairs on his body stood on end, and it felt as though a boulder were crushing his chest.

The Shadow Snake seemed to have encountered its natural predator. It abruptly drilled into a crack in the ground and vanished in the blink of an eye.

From deep within the forest ahead came a low, hoarse cry, like rock grinding against rock.

Elder Chen suddenly stopped, his expression changing slightly before an irrepressible delight surfaced in his eyes.

"So it's actually this..." An Chen followed his gaze, his breathing catching.

In the clearing ahead, an enormous lizard lay coiled among jagged rocks. It was over twenty feet long, its entire body covered in crystal-like scales that gave off a cold, faint gleam in the dim light.

Its limbs were thick and powerful, its claws stained with dirt. It slowly turned its head, its pair of vertical pupils sweeping coldly toward them.

The pressure of a ten-thousand-year soul beast crashed down like a mountain. An Chen's legs went weak, and he could barely remain standing.

Elder Chen stepped in front of him, yet his expression was remarkably calm, even carrying a trace of eagerness. "I never expected to encounter one. A mutated Crystal Scale Basilisk—earth attribute plus spiritual attribute, and an inferior dragon species." Elder Chen slowly raised his right hand, and an ancient book appeared in his palm.

The book's cover was yellowed with age, embroidered with countless birds and beasts in golden thread. As Soul Power flowed into it, those images seemed to come alive, slowly moving between the pages.

At the same time, seven Soul Rings appeared around him in sequence: yellow, yellow, purple, purple, black, black, black.

An Chen's eyes widened. That was a Wuhun? Elder Chen's Wuhun was a book!?

What appeared in Elder Chen's palm was a codex recording the forms of countless beasts, like an encyclopedia of soul beasts.

"This is my mutated Wuhun, the Myriad Beasts Codex," Elder Chen explained to An Chen.

As soon as he finished speaking, Elder Chen's Second Soul Ring flashed. The Myriad Beasts Codex flipped open by itself, its pages rustling as they turned to a certain page.

An earthy yellow glow poured from the page, gathering before An Chen into a massive Stone Armor Bear.

The Stone Armor Bear was covered in grayish-brown rock armor and stood nearly twice the height of a man. When it landed, the ground sank with a heavy thud as it firmly positioned itself before An Chen.

"This is a thousand-year earth-attribute Stone Armor Bear with extremely strong defenses," Elder Chen said in a deep voice. "I'm having it protect you. Don't run around."

Before An Chen could react, Elder Chen had already strode toward the Crystal Scale Basilisk. "It wasn't easy to come across such a rare soul beast, and it's even ten thousand years old. It would be a waste not to imprint it into my codex."

Sensing Elder Chen's approach, the Crystal Scale Basilisk let out a low growl. Its thick tail suddenly swept sideways, scattering shattered stones everywhere.

Elder Chen neither dodged nor retreated. The Myriad Beasts Codex flipped again, and chains formed from Soul Power shot out from the book, winding toward the Crystal Scale Basilisk.

The Crystal Scale Basilisk roared in fury, then plunged its huge body into the ground and burrowed underground, leaving behind only a bottomless hole.

Elder Chen raised his brow. His Soul Rings flashed once more, and a cyan glow surged from the codex in his hand, gathering at the mouth of the hole beneath him into a large cyan bird. He leaped onto its back and chased after it.

Rumbling sounds came from underground, growing more distant.

In the clearing where the battle had just taken place, only An Chen and the enormous Stone Armor Bear remained.

An Chen swallowed, looking at the dark hole by his feet before glancing at the Stone Armor Bear guarding his side. For a moment, he felt dazed.

That guide who usually smiled warmly and seemed to be nothing more than an academy professor—what exactly was his background?

Before he could recover, the bushes behind him suddenly shook violently.

A completely black leopard sprang from the shadows beneath the trees. It was nearly twice the size of the Shadow Wolves at the forest's edge, with long limbs and taut muscles. Its dark green vertical pupils locked tightly onto him.

It was a Shadow Leopard!

An Chen's pupils suddenly contracted. It had the Shadow Attribute, but he did not know its exact age.

The Stone Armor Bear let out a low roar and lumbered forward, blocking An Chen with its massive body.

The Shadow Leopard stopped, warily circling the Stone Armor Bear as it searched for an opening.

An Chen forced himself to calm down. He remembered the descriptions from the original work he had read before transmigrating: Shadow Attribute soul beasts like Shadow Leopards excelled at ambushing from the shadows, and their eyes were their greatest weakness.

The Stone Armor Bear struck first with a swipe of its paw. The Shadow Leopard nimbly dodged, then pounced fiercely at An Chen from the side.

An Chen had been prepared. He rolled across the ground to evade the claws, and with a thought, summoned his Big Iron Pot.

The Shadow Leopard's claws scraped across the pot's surface with a piercing metallic screech. It was jolted back a step, surprise appearing in its eyes.

It had apparently not expected this weak human to pull out such a strange defensive object.

The Stone Armor Bear seized the chance and lunged forward, slamming a paw into the Shadow Leopard's waist and abdomen.

The Shadow Leopard howled miserably as it was sent flying. It rolled twice across the ground, struggling to get back to its feet.

An Chen's eyes lit up. The chance was here! He charged forward carrying the iron pot, used all his strength, and viciously brought it down on the Shadow Leopard's head.

Bang! Bang! Bang! The Shadow Leopard's skull was smashed deeply inward by the iron pot. Its limbs twitched a few times before it went completely still.

An Chen collapsed beside the corpse, panting heavily. The iron pot in his hand had long since dissipated from exhaustion.

A bright yellow glow slowly rose from the Shadow Leopard's corpse, gathering in the air into a yellow ring—a hundred-year Soul Ring.

An Chen panted hard as he looked at the Soul Ring, an indescribable emotion rising in his heart.

This hundred-year Shadow Leopard had just been beaten to death by him with an iron pot.

In truth, the main reason was that the Shadow Leopard had misjudged the power of the thousand-year Stone Armor Bear's paw strike.

He looked at the yellow Soul Ring floating above the Shadow Leopard and took a deep breath.