Returning to the Star Dou Great Forest felt almost like coming home to Jodio. He had visited roughly once a year for the past three years: once to hunt for a Spirit Ring at level ten, again at level twenty, and once more to help Ma Hongjun and Oscar hunt for theirs. This made his fourth visit.
Even so, it was nothing compared to how often he had come here in the future. After he and Tang San had first gone up against each other, Jodio had thrown caution to the wind and made plenty of trips to the Star Dou Great Forest to recruit allies. But Gu Yuena had refused to take the bait. She simply would not help him. What could he do? He was his side's strongest fighter, and even he had lost more often than he won. That made a head-on confrontation harder still.
That old geezer Mu En had been a terror in a fight against his own side, only to turn timid once he switched sides. Damn it, he had gone hard against Jodio before. Just because he suspected Jodio of approaching Little Huo with bad intentions, he had opened with a killing move. Well, Jodio had had bad intentions, so he could hardly blame him.
But what came later was hard for Jodio to take. When they fought Tang San, Mu En had done even less than that old black dragon. The old black dragon had genuinely dared to go all out. He was not part of the Sea God's Pavilion, after all, so he had fewer reservations and used every vicious move he had. Ah, forget it. Mu En had fought alongside Jodio until he died in battle. There was no need to settle too many scores afterward.
At the thought, Jodio fell silent, the light fading from his eyes. If only I'd had Crazy Diamond back then. Even Gold Experience would've done. Old Mu, your temper stank. You treated Little Huo like your own grandson and treated me like the Demon Sorcerer treated his son Drago. But at least you were willing to help me to the very end. Just wait. Just wait!
"This is the true path," Jodio said, looking with renewed resolve toward the forest in the distance.
"Hm?" Flender looked down at him, puzzled.
"The secret of Stands lies within it. Obsessing over power only traps you. True strength is hidden in the most precious arrangements. Whether it's the Saint's Corpse or Heaven's Secret..." Jodio murmured to himself.
"Little Jo, what kind of Spirit Ring are you hunting this time? Another healing one?" Flender asked. Gold Experience was not as strong in a fight as Jodio's other two abilities, but its secondary abilities were genuinely useful. Flender had changed his mind again. Healing was the way to go!
"Let me work it out..." Jodio focused his mental energy inward, seeking an answer from his Martial Soul, the Stand Arrow. When the haze cleared, what appeared before him was, astonishingly...
"Sharp fangs and claws, a spirit that soars like a rainbow," Jodio said without thinking.
"Teacher, let's look for a horse-type Spirit Beast or a snail-type one. An armadillo or pangolin would work too," Jodio said.
"What, planning to take a defensive route?" Flender asked jokingly.
"Teacher, have you heard the secret of the circle?" Jodio asked, raising a finger.
"A circle? Do Teacher Shao Xin's candy beans and Teacher Lu Qibin's Star Luo chess pieces count?" Flender asked curiously.
"Then have you ever seen a perfect circle?" Jodio asked with a smile.
"Silly boy, a perfect circle doesn't exist. Even I know that," Flender said with a smug laugh. People on the Douluo Continent might not be keen on studying, but Flender did have a habit of collecting old odds and ends and reading old books. Over tens of thousands of years, at least a few scientifically minded people had written books, and Flender had managed to read and understand some of them.
"What about a circle that's perfect in another sense?" Jodio asked.
"Perfect in another sense?" This time, Flender had no idea what he meant.
"Look at this shape. Its spiral can continue inward without end. It grows smaller with every turn, but never vanishes, nor does an unstable shape cause it to stop early. It's an infinite spiral. I call it the Golden Spin."
Jodio used Stone Free to sketch the general shape of the Golden Spin for Flender. With his smattering of mathematics, Flender barely followed the explanation, but he still did not understand why Jodio had brought it up. Could the Spirit Beast they were about to hunt, and the Spirit Ring it would grant, have something to do with this circle?
"It does. The Spirit Ring I'm after is closely tied to circles. Teacher, there are no restrictions on the beast's attributes this time. It just needs some connection to circles. Of course, the more ways it relates to circles, the better. A ranged attack would be ideal too," Jodio explained.
"Even a hundred-year beast?" Flender asked teasingly.
"A thousand-year beast would still be better. You know how it is, Teacher. If my third Spirit Skill came from a hundred-year Spirit Ring, people would laugh at me," Jodio answered honestly. The effect would be much the same, even if its power and six attributes were weaker and it needed more time to grow. But if his third Spirit Ring was yellow, everyone would mock him—especially his peers!
"Little Jo, with a Martial Soul as powerful as your family's, surely you can't be the only one left? The others could have survived by seeking protection from another great family," Flender said.
Flender had wondered about this for a long time, but he had been too embarrassed to keep asking. He was afraid it would upset Jodio. Yet Jodio seemed unusually resilient and easygoing, as though he did not care about the subject at all. He even made horrifying dark jokes about it with Ma Hongjun and the others. That was why Flender had finally asked.
"Well, that's because we crossed someone really formidable," Jodio said. He meant Father.
"Someone formidable?" Flender grew solemn. He pictured a Titled Douluo.
"Yeah, extremely formidable. One battle practically wiped out the entire direct Joestar line," Jodio said with a helpless shrug. Father's Made in Heaven had been a Stand on an entirely different level. Then again, fate had played a cruel part too. If it had been Jotaro from Part Three, he probably would have beaten Father into a second DIO before time resumed.
"What a bastard," Flender said. How could a Titled Douluo be so wicked as to bully such a simple, kind family? Well, all right, Jodio's usual behavior was hardly exemplary. But at least Little Jo respected his teachers, cared for his classmates, and was generous to others.
"Oh, there's a Rainbow Snail over there!" Jodio cried, pointing at a pond.
"That's a hundred-year Spirit Beast, and it's actually an Illusion Fox." Flender took one glance and looked away. The Rainbow Snail was a wondrous Spirit Beast said to live only in the deep sea. Supposedly, it lived alongside three Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts: the Abyssal Sponge, the Giant Voracious Starfish, and the Noise Octopus. It was exceedingly rare and was said to produce a Spirit Bone without fail. But that was only a legend. Who could venture into the great pineapple in the deep sea, anyway?
The Illusion Fox, meanwhile, was a Spirit Beast that liked to disguise itself as other Spirit Beasts. It was so useless that almost no Soul Master would hunt one. Only someone as absurd as Shi Nian would. Clearly, Little Jo still needed to sharpen his eye. The battle-hardened Flender remained a mountain he had yet to climb.
"And Teacher, did you know? The Golden Rectangle is a discovery that could turn the entire continent upside down. Soon you'll be cheering its arrival and marveling that you taught a genius among geniuses, a king among kings," Jodio said with a grin.
"Haha! Then I'll look forward to it!" Flender replied with a hearty laugh.
Before you continue