Everything Was Our Doing

After a long while.

Lu Yuan opened his eyes and looked at his six Soul Rings.

He had already raised his first and second Soul Rings to the Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring level. His fifth Soul Ring had originally been an Eighty Thousand Year Soul Ring, but he had now raised it to one hundred thousand years as well.

His sixth Soul Ring had come from Infernal Delicate Apricot's sacrifice and was a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Ring.

Lu Yuan evenly distributed the remaining spiritual essence among his first, second, third, and fourth Soul Rings.

Looking at his four black and two red Soul Rings, Lu Yuan nodded in satisfaction and said to Xiao Xiao and Gu Qiu'er, "Well? Tian Meng's spiritual essence is useful, isn't it?"

Xiao Xiao's eyes gleamed as she nodded her little head nonstop.

"Mm-hmm! Brother Lu Yuan, you're amazing! You actually came up with such a method!"

Gu Qiu'er gave a haughty snort. "Hmph, what's so great about it? You're just copying Lord Bear and the others."

Lu Yuan withdrew his Soul Rings and stood up. "I teach you, and you're still unhappy about it? Sigh, I should've known better and taught Xiao Xiao in private. Then you wouldn't have had to be upset!"

Xiao Xiao, never one to avoid stirring things up, nodded eagerly from the side. "Huh? Great, great! Brother Lu Yuan is the best!"

She knew Gu Qiu'er's personality too. Of everything about her, her mouth was the most stubborn.

Gu Qiu'er stomped her foot and stubbornly snapped, "Who needs you to teach me? Something this simple, I'd learn it at a glance!"

Lu Yuan smiled. "Really? If I hadn't told you, would you have known to take Tian Meng's essence?"

Gu Qiu'er was left speechless and could only turn her head away to ignore him.

Just then, a voice suddenly rang out.

"It's Little Yuhao!"

Tang Ya and Bei Bei appeared among the trees not far away.

Tang Ya pointed at Huo Yuhao, who was still unconscious on the ground, and cried out in alarm before dragging Bei Bei over.

Tang Ya patted Huo Yuhao's face and anxiously called, "Yuhao! Yuhao! What happened to you?"

Bei Bei looked at Lu Yuan and the other two with great vigilance.

The three of them had powerful auras and were clearly no weaklings. Yuhao had fainted here—could it have something to do with them?

But... Yuhao was only a little Soul Scholar!

He had not even obtained a Soul Ring yet. Why would they attack him?

Tang Ya also raised her head and looked at Lu Yuan's group.

She was deeply puzzled as well. Why were Lu Yuan and the others here, while Huo Yuhao had happened to faint in the same place?

Recalling Lu Yuan's earlier claim that they were from the Abyss Cult, Tang Ya's heart tightened.

The Abyss Cult... could it be an Evil Soul Master organization?

She asked directly, "You... are you Evil Soul Masters?"

"Did you injure Yuhao to drain his blood, vitality, and Soul Power?"

Hearing this, Lu Yuan, Gu Qiu'er, and Xiao Xiao all froze. They looked at one another, utterly dumbfounded.

Lu Yuan blinked. "Yes, yes, of course. Not only did we injure him, the war Spirit Hall started ten thousand years ago was our doing too."

Seeing this, Gu Qiu'er added, "That's right. The collision between Sun-Moon Continent and Douluo Continent thousands of years ago was our doing too!"

Xiao Xiao looked at Lu Yuan, then at Gu Qiu'er. After thinking for one second, she said, "Um... uh... the Heaven Dou Empire splitting into two nations was something we provoked, and the Tang Sect's decline was our secret handiwork too!"

Lu Yuan smiled faintly. "Every disaster that befalls the continent in the next ten thousand years can be blamed on us too."

Tang Ya and Bei Bei: "..."

Tang Ya said angrily, "Bastards! Do you take us for fools?"

"Aren't you fools, though?"

"Hahahaha!"

Lu Yuan and the others burst into loud laughter.

"You really cracked me up. You came to Star Dou Forest to hunt Soul Beasts, were weaker than the beast yourselves, and nearly got killed in return. Who can you blame?"

"It was already kind enough that we didn't finish him off and loot his body when we found him. What more do you want?"

Hearing this, Tang Ya and Bei Bei's faces turned bright red as they looked around.

Sure enough, they spotted the corpse of the Ten-Year Wind Baboon nearby.

This only made them more embarrassed.

Gu Qiu'er mocked, "Tsk, Shrek truly deserves to be Shrek. Your skill at slandering others is the best in the world."

Bei Bei immediately bristled at the mention of Shrek Academy and snapped, "You're not allowed to insult Shrek Academy like that! You don't understand Shrek Academy at all!"

Gu Qiu'er hooked a finger around a lock of her hair and sneered. "Is that so? Then do you understand our Abyss Cult?"

"This is already the second time you've slandered us!"

Bei Bei clenched his teeth. This really was hard to explain. They had indeed been the first to accuse the others.

"I apologize to you. But you must apologize to Shrek Academy as well!"

Xiao Xiao said, "I don't have to accept your apology!"

Bei Bei said in a deep voice, "Then what do you want?"

"You came to the forest to hunt Soul Beasts too, right? How about this? Don't hunt any. Just go home!"

Gu Qiu'er's eyes lit up as she chimed in, "That's right! This area belongs to us now. You can leave!"

Bei Bei and Tang Ya both widened their eyes.

What did they think this place was? They were claiming territory here?!

Tang Ya said angrily, "Why should we? This is Star Dou Forest, not your backyard. You say it belongs to you, and it belongs to you?"

Gu Qiu'er gave a cold snort and said disdainfully, "That's right, it is our backyard! If you want to hunt Soul Beasts here, you'll have to get past me first!"

As she spoke, Gu Qiu'er released her Martial Soul and Soul Rings.

The powerful dragon might of the Golden Dragon swept toward them as five Soul Rings slowly rose.

"A dragon-type Martial Soul? And she's a Soul King?"

Bei Bei was suppressed by the Golden Dragon's dragon might, and shock filled his heart.

How had these people cultivated? They did not look that old, so how were they already Soul Kings?

Forget it... they were not people he could afford to provoke...

Bei Bei had just been about to take Tang Ya and carry Huo Yuhao away.

At that moment, Huo Yuhao slowly woke up and sat up, clutching his forehead.

Tang Ya immediately looked at him, her eyes full of concern. "Little Yuhao, you're finally awake! Did these three ambush and hurt you just now?"

Huo Yuhao looked at Lu Yuan and the others, knowing full well that his fainting had nothing to do with them.

He had passed out solely because he could not withstand the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm's immense spiritual power. But this was his greatest secret, and he absolutely could not reveal even a hint of it.

He could only shake his head weakly and brush it off. "It has nothing to do with them. When I fought the Soul Beast alone, I exhausted too much of my mental energy. Then I absorbed a Soul Ring, and I couldn't hold on any longer before passing out."

Absorbing a mere ten-year Soul Ring was that difficult?

Looking at the lonely and helpless Huo Yuhao, Tang Ya felt the urge to recruit him. She said sincerely, "Little Yuhao, if you have nowhere to go, why not join our Tang Sect?"

"The Tang Sect?"

Huo Yuhao's entire body trembled, his emotions surging.

Although the Tang Sect had long since declined, it still held an irreplaceable place in the history books and legends of all Douluo Continent.

When he was young, his mother had often told him of the Tang Sect's supreme glory ten thousand years ago. It was the sect he had always quietly longed for in his heart.

Lu Yuan deliberately picked a fight from the side. "Recruiting someone into the Tang Sect now? Aren't you leading him astray?"

Tang Ya's anger instantly flared. "What nonsense are you spouting? Our Tang Sect is honorable and upright. Taking Yuhao in gives him a way forward. How is that harming him?"

"Then why don't you tell us what the Tang Sect can offer him now?"