Four Years Later

A martial soul was a Soul Master's most important secret. The dean did not ask, but they were not enemies, so he could share his soul skill.

Lu Shi reached out, and a cluster of red flames rose into the air. "My second soul skill is Explosive Flame Slash, usable at both long and close range."

With that, the flames suddenly swelled. With a wave of his hand, a flame-wrapped shockwave directly sheared a nearby large tree in half.

"Good, very powerful!"

The dean nodded in satisfaction. A casual strike with that much strength was excellent; this trip had not been wasted.

Lu Shi certainly did not tell the whole truth. The soul skills he had acquired were not limited to just one; he also had Flamethrower and a support skill that boosted all attributes by fifty percent.

Returning to the inn, a few days of high-intensity alertness left both of them exhausted. After a good bath, Lu Shi slept straight through to the afternoon of the next day.

Opening his eyes once more, Lu Shi felt completely refreshed and clear-headed.

Checking the Lava World, the Flame Spirit Eagle had already woken up, and its injuries were fully healed.

With nothing to do, it perched atop the crater and cultivated without a single moment of rest.

Even without magma for it to swallow, it could still absorb external soul power.

Wasn't this just an oversized power bank?!

Lu Shi pondered how he usually converted his soul power into magma and stored it in the Small World. When his soul power was exhausted and he urgently needed recovery, he could have the Flame Spirit Eagle swallow some to restore his soul power!

A wave of delight washed over him.

When he shifted his gaze to the Small World where the Mandala Snake resided, Lu Shi discovered that the entire space had expanded.

It had extended outward by about half its previous space, and the variety of plants in the forest had also increased.

It could actually change as I grew stronger!

Lu Shi was once again struck with awe.

Four years later.

Lu Shi was a thirty-level Soul Master, graduating from the Notting City Junior Soul Master Academy a month early.

He had constantly failed to find a suitable third soul beast.

Therefore, he came to the Star Dou Forest alone, hoping to try his luck.

For a Two-Ring Soul Master, even traveling alone through the outer perimeter of the forest was, in the eyes of others, no different from courting death.

Not to mention that encountering human Soul Masters could lead to being ambushed and killed; even running into soul beasts meant he couldn't beat them.

However, Lu Shi was no ordinary Soul Master.

Over the course of four years, his Mandala Snake and Flame Spirit Eagle had both promoted to Thousand-Year Soul Beasts, bringing their soul rings up to purple as well.

Coupled with his strength as a two-ringed master who could crush three-ringed ones, he was safe, at least in the outer perimeter.

In the canopy layer, Lu Shi sat on a rough branch, leaning his back against the tree trunk. Before him surged a green sea of trees, the life accumulated over untold millions of years rolling tumultuously here.

"I've been searching for a whole week, so why haven't I even seen the shadow of a suitable soul beast?"

He scratched his head.

The third soul beast had to be a tiger, and it had to be a white tiger at that.

There was a type of top-tier soul beast that must be a white tiger to evolve into one—a creature that commanded six major attributes: evil, wind, lightning, space, time, and strength—

The Dark Demon Evil God Tiger.

A sixty-thousand-year Dark Demon Evil God Tiger was enough to force the Titan Giant Ape and the Sky Azure Bull Python to join forces to resist it.

That showed how formidable its strength was.

Lu Shi shoved the last bite of dry rations into his mouth and got up to continue exploring.

The advantage of the Star Dou Forest was its immense size, allowing one to find almost every kind of land-based soul beast here.

The disadvantage was also its immense size. With such a rich variety of soul beasts, one could search for several months consecutively without finding a soul beast that was a perfect match.

"No need to rush. There should still be a month before Shrek starts school."

If he truly couldn't find one, he would just go look for an ice-type or healing-type soul beast, saving the fourth soul ring for a white tiger.

Going to Shrek was mainly to get the Eight Spider Lances. As a soul bone, it was simply too special.

It could actually directly absorb an enemy's soul power and life force to replenish itself. Combined with the Blue Silver Domain to extract soul power, it could achieve infinite endurance. After undergoing several evolutions, it possessed absolute suppression against insect-type soul beasts, and its native hardness could withstand god-level attacks, with an offensive power strong enough to break open the Deep Sea Demonic Whale King's defense.

It could be called terrifying!

Suddenly, a strange sound reached Lu Shi's ears. The opponent was closing in rapidly.

"?"

With a thought, a pale crimson long snake immediately appeared beside him.

One meter long and slender in shape, it still gave off an intensely oppressive aura.

A Thousand-Year Soul Beast—the Mandala Snake.

Hiss!!

The two moved forward in silence without a sound, human and serpent.

Rising to look over, he discovered a hazy figure within the woods.

The young girl's petite figure took panicked steps, her skin as white as snow, her small face exceptionally delicate, her eyes clear and bright, and her figure incomparably perfect—boasting a terrifying waist-to-hip ratio, with the scale of her chest exaggerated to the extreme, trembling as she moved and possessing a stark visual impact.

What was even more wondrous was that she had a slender, flexible tail growing behind her, alongside fluffy cat ears upon her head that formed an extreme contrast with her aloof temperament, making one's heart itch at the sight.

However, she was extremely flustered at this moment, closely followed by a pack of Gale Wolves whose leader, the alpha, was light cyan.

This was...

Zhu Zhuqing?

Lu Shi sighed inwardly, realizing that even though he had already prepared himself mentally, he was still shocked by her appearance.

She was truly far too pretty.

She was ten thousand times prettier than what he had imagined in his past life.

She was only twelve years old right now, and he simply dared not imagine how alluring she would be when she grew up.

His choice to come to the Star Dou Forest now actually carried a tiny bit of anticipation as well, which was to be able to run into Zhu Zhuqing.

Since he had allowed himself to encounter her, he naturally had to seize the opportunity.

Hah... hah... hah...

Deep in the woods, Zhu Zhuqing's Soul Power and physical strength were severely overdrawn; her face was pale, her hair disheveled and plastered to her face by sweat, and her vision began to blur. She had fallen several times along the way, yet she did not dare to stop.

The pack of Gale Wolves behind her was about to catch up.

She had originally thought that evading the assassins sent by her sister would bring her safety, but she had never expected to be targeted by a pack of Gale Wolves.

The alpha was merely a century-old beast, and under normal circumstances, she could easily shake it off by relying on her speed, but how could she have any Soul Power left after just shaking off the assassins?

In the outer perimeter area, hold on. Just hold on...

Zhu Zhuqing kept repeating it in her heart, yet she understood in her heart that she could not escape.

Not paying attention, a gnarled, protruding tree root on the ground tripped her, sending her tumbling to the earth.

The wolf leader seized the opportunity and immediately pounced forward, opening its great mouth to bare its fangs.

Zhu Zhuqing collapsed upon the ground, her body already reaching its limit. Let alone dodging, she could not even manage to stand up.

A trace of despair and pain surfaced within her eyes, while simultaneously, a sense of relief from release spread from the depths of her heart...

Perhaps... dying just like this wouldn't be bad...

There would be no need to face the slaughtering of siblings... no need to face the royal family...

Just as Zhu Zhuqing prepared to close her eyes and accept her fate, in a trance, she saw a black-haired youth descend from the sky.

...Was it a hallucination?

The moment he brushed past her,

the youth descended from the shadows, two Purple Soul Rings condensing behind him, his fist coated in biting flames and radiating a terrifying temperature.

The wolf leader wore a look of shock, its gray pupils reflecting that ball of fire as it rapidly expanded.

It failed to react in time.

Squish!

Explosive Flame Slash!

Even the skull of a century-old Gale Wolf could hardly withstand a single punch from him!

The wolf leader's entire head was blasted into smithereens.

The remaining pack of wolves shrank back in fright immediately, and just as they wanted to flee, they saw a scarlet figure flash past; within a breath, all of them had collapsed.

Seeing the wolf pack approach, Lu Shi changed his expression, a friendly look upon his face as he looked toward Zhu Zhuqing behind him.