Twin Cyclops: "How Could You Be So Selfish?!"

Inside a cave in the Core Zone of the Star Dou Great Forest, Lin En lay on a jade bed carved from an entire block of Crimson Spirit Warm Jade.

This thing was extraordinarily expensive outside. Factions like Shrek Academy liked to use Crimson Spirit Warm Jade to make stored-value cards.

The Sun Moon Empire preferred to use this material for core formation arrays, because this jade could perfectly withstand the operation of formations below the sixth rank.

Among the Soul Tools he had looted from those corpses, quite a few introductory Soul Tool books he found had sung this material's praises.

His palm stretched slightly upward, shifting continuously beneath the faint light outside the cave. Tiger claws, dragon claws, bear claws, and more appeared in succession, yet they also blended together.

Ever since obtaining his third soul skill, Life-Eroding Metamorphosis, Lin En had been practicing it. He was gradually trying to fuse the bloodline memory cells within his body with his own bloodline, so those bloodlines would no longer run parallel to one another, but instead intersect and converge.

Blurring information was an extremely precise undertaking. It was like the Immune System's ability to distinguish friend from foe—once something went wrong, the consequences would be severe, resulting in all kinds of immune diseases.

At present, Lin En's limit was using three bloodlines alongside his own dragon blood to redefine friend and foe—a four-in-one fusion. Any more bloodlines than that, and he would be overreaching, likely to pull a muscle in the process.

The control precision of a soul skill was generally directly tied to one's degree of practice and spiritual power. With Lin En's current peak Spirit Sea Realm spiritual cultivation, this was as far as he could go.

If he wanted to further improve the precision of his soul skill, he could only continue practicing and raise his spiritual power.

And Lin En had an extremely fast method for increasing his spiritual power: cultivating the Nervous System Martial Soul.

In terms of grade, the Nervous System Martial Soul, like the Immune System Martial Soul, was a top-tier spiritual-attribute Body Martial Soul.

In the original work, Vina, the princess of the Heaven Dou Empire, possessed the Brain Martial Soul, a top-tier spiritual-attribute Body Martial Soul. Lin En's Nervous System was her absolute superior.

But when Lin En had chosen a primary Martial Soul to cultivate, he had selected the Immune System Martial Soul without hesitation rather than the Nervous System.

That was because the Nervous System was far more dangerous than the Immune System. Neither of these Martial Souls was harmless. Once they went mad, they could not distinguish friend from foe!

If something went wrong with the Nervous System Martial Soul, Lin En would truly drop dead on the spot, without even the strength to resist. The Immune System Martial Soul, at least, could still be regulated with dragon blood.

Even with a complete structural diagram of a Dragon Clan body, Little Sage had not dared to exert too much force when turning a human brain into a dragon brain. It had taken a full three years.

Before his strength reached the point where he had a complete safety net, Lin En would not choose to cultivate the Nervous System Martial Soul. For now, he would stop at developing a spiritual domain.

He did not want to truly return to an egg and lie dormant. Other dragons, at the very least, died in bloody battles where every strike drew blood. A dragon's fate began with the sword and could only end with the sword.

Closing one's eyes amid blood and fire was the greatest dignity and praise for dragonkind.

If Lin En died because his own Nervous System ran wild, he would be too ashamed to break from the egg and be reborn.

Even Xia Mi, the strongest Next-Generation Species, could not possibly accept such a humiliating death.

Although the Seven Sins that Norton, the Bronze and Fire King, had prepared for her was Lust, the shortest rib blade, he had to admit that Norton had judged her quite accurately. Still, at the very least, she had died beneath a sword.

He could only cultivate his spiritual power gradually from here on. The Nervous System Martial Soul had better wait; it was too dangerous.

The sunlight in the cave suddenly dimmed. Lin En turned over and saw Qiu'er walk in with an unhappy expression.

She lay beside the Crimson Spirit Warm Jade bed and said in a muffled voice:

"Lin En..."

"Can you not leave? Even if you have to go, can you take me with you?"

"You said we would be partners for life. You can't lie to me."

Lin En's mouth twitched. If he took Qiu'er out of the Star Dou Great Forest, no matter how good Di Tian's temper was, he would still go berserk. He would probably send Uncle Lin En spinning like a top with one dragon claw.

Sitting on the edge of the bed, he leaned down and gently rubbed Qiu'er's head, his voice soft.

"Di Tian is absolutely right. I'm not a Soul Beast. My path isn't here."

"Actually, if it weren't for you, Di Tian probably would have driven me away back then. In a sense, I'm also an enemy of Soul Beasts. I need to hunt Soul Beasts to grow stronger."

"Parting doesn't mean we'll never see each other again. I'll come back often, as long as you don't dislike me."

Qiu'er raised her head and shook it, though her voice remained somewhat dejected.

"I would never dislike you."

"It's just that you have to remember to come back and play with me!

"If you can't make it in the human world, come back to the Star Dou Great Forest. If Di Tian won't let you stay in the Core Zone, the Mixed Zone will still be fine."

Qiu'er extended her little claw. A gentle layer of Soul Power covered its tip, softening what had originally been a sharp dragon claw.

"Pinky swear. If you lie to a beast, you can never eat Twin Cyclops brains for the rest of your life."

Watching Qiu'er act both awkward and childish, Lin En crouched down and linked pinkies with her.

"Alright, I promise you. If I lie to you, I'll catch you a hundred Twin Cyclopes! If I can't catch them, I'll suffer Heavenly Tribulation!"

Qiu'er turned her head and complained, "There aren't that many Twin Cyclopes in the Star Dou Great Forest. And I don't want you to suffer Heavenly Tribulation either."

Sometimes, getting along with Soul Beasts was much simpler than getting along with humans. Human society was too complicated. Having lived in three worlds for so long, Lin En knew very well that some people were not as refined and easygoing as they appeared.

Humans were creatures whose good and evil could never be judged by appearance. It was a virtue to maintain kindness toward others, but one must never let down one's guard. That was the bottom line for staying safe in the world.

This year in the Star Dou Great Forest had been Lin En's most carefree time. He did not need to think about so many things, and with Qiu'er by his side, that torturous loneliness had faded considerably.

But Lin En's path was not in the Star Dou Great Forest. In the end, he was not a Soul Beast.

After making their promise, Lin En took his Golden British Shorthair to catch fish in a stream within the Core Zone to cheer her up. Though it was called a stream, that was only by the standards of the beast kings of the Core Zone.

Compared to a human body, this stream could absolutely be called a river. Underground, it connected to the Lake of Life at the heart of the Star Dou Great Forest.

Because of this, the river water was rich in life force and possessed powerful nourishing effects. The trees growing along both banks were unusually enormous, and Soul Beasts made up as much as half the creatures there.

Among plants, that was nothing short of a miracle.

Qiu'er often came here to pick fruit. The nourishment from the life force had produced many heavenly treasures here. Lin En had picked quite a few purple ganoderma plants, including Ninth-Grade Purple Ganoderma.

It was the herb that had helped the thirty-year-old Gangzi break through to fifty years old. Though it was not as good as an immortal herb, its effects were gentle, making it an all-purpose medicinal catalyst.

Not only that, there were also large quantities of Dragon Scale Fruit. They had once appeared at an auction house in the third part, and their growth required watering with dragon blood.

The Dragon Scale Fruit here had been born from Di Tian's blood. This could be traced back thousands of years, to when the Evil Eye Tyrant Lord came to the Star Dou Great Forest to seize the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm.

The Evil Eye Tyrant Lord and Di Tian had erupted into a great battle. Di Tian was wounded, and the Evil Eye was defeated. A great deal of Di Tian's blood had fallen here, creating vast forests of Dragon Scale Fruit trees.

These Dragon Scale Fruits were undoubtedly of the highest quality. They could not be found outside even if one searched everywhere. Unfortunately, they did not taste very good—bitter and astringent—though they contained extremely abundant energy.

There was also an interesting story about this river. Qiu'er said that a few years ago, this waterway had basically been unmanaged, and beast kings often came here to drink.

But later, it was listed as a key observation zone, and ferocious beasts would come inspect it from time to time.

The reason was a giant turtle. A few years ago, a hundred-thousand-year Golden Tortoiseshell had burrowed through this waterway all the way to the Lake of Life. No one knew what it had done, but Di Tian had flown into a rage and nearly turned the entire Core Zone upside down.

The hundred-thousand-year Golden Tortoiseshell also possessed the power of fortune, and after living for so long, it was even more skilled at using that power than an Auspicious Beast. It had perfectly concealed its aura, and Di Tian had failed to find it.

Lin En recalled that such a Golden Tortoiseshell had indeed existed in the original work. After swallowing one-fifth of the Gold of Life in the Lake of Life, it had its life force absorbed in return by the Gold of Life and was near death.

Lin En simply could not find where the creature was. The power of fortune was just that unreasonable. If he could find it, there would be no need to even consider the Soul Devouring Carving Knife.

"Puff puff!"

A series of splashing sounds came from the distant river. Qiu'er was seriously catching fish, and with her powerful spiritual power, it was easy for her.

A cool breeze stirred the river's surface, sending emerald ripples spreading outward. Sprays of water fluttered beneath the sunlight like butterflies, leaving behind gorgeous rainbows.

The years were peaceful, cut off from the world. In his previous life, he had envied this kind of existence, yet he had been unable to leave social interaction behind.

The grass behind him also bent low, as though welcoming some great figure.

Lin En instinctively turned his head. A figure had appeared at his side, where no one had been moments before.

The figure wore a black robe and had long black hair, with a streak of gold at the forehead. Standing straight and imposing without anger, the figure did not deliberately release the aura of a powerhouse, yet left a profound impression nonetheless.