That Grudge Ran Deep!

Ye Lin's second punch came down.

Then the third.

The fourth.

The dull thud of fist against bone echoed rhythmically through the forest clearing.

At last,

the Darkgolden Terrorclaw Bear's limbs twitched a few times, and its golden eyes finally closed.

A purple Spirit Ring slowly rose from the Darkgolden Terrorclaw Bear's corpse.

Its purple was a whole shade deeper than the Phoenix-tail Crested Serpent's Spirit Ring, rich and intense.

Ye Lin sat cross-legged and closed his eyes, slowly drawing out his Soul Power to guide it.

The purple Spirit Ring slipped over his body in an instant.

The moment it settled around him,

Ye Lin felt something scorching and heavy pour in through the top of his head.

It hit far harder than either of his previous Spirit Ring absorptions. His bones creaked faintly, his muscle fibers tightened and loosened in the heat, and a faint red mist rose from his skin.

The wind scattered it, only for fresh heat to rise again.

But he soon realized the assault on his body was not the hardest part to endure.

What truly made his scalp prickle was something else surging out of the Spirit Ring.

It had no shape or color, yet it carried a vicious malice.

It was the Darkgolden Terrorclaw Bear's grudge.

Ye Lin was startled. He had not expected to encounter a soul shock after all.

Yu Xiaogang had once said that soul beasts below ten thousand years generally had weak Spiritual Power and could not produce such a shock.

But this Darkgolden Terrorclaw Bear's grudge was too strong.

Its rage and unwillingness to die had been forcibly compressed into the Spirit Ring,

forming a psychic assault normally found only in ten-thousand-year soul beasts.

Being beaten to death by Ye Lin had driven its grudge to the extreme.

He silently said to himself,

Kill if you must, but don't make it suffer. Sorry. I didn't mean to.

Yu Xiaogang's words flashed through his mind: "Even if you encounter a soul shock, there's no need to be afraid."

"The eye technique I gave you can greatly strengthen your Spiritual Power."

"Even the psychic shock of a ten-thousand-year soul beast would be no match for you."

"And I believe that technique's psychic attack can scatter it completely."

"There's no rush. The plan is for you to absorb a Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring as your fourth Spirit Ring. You certainly won't reach level forty before I reach level fifty."

"I'll try it first when the time comes. Then we'll know whether it works. It's for your safety, too."

Ye Lin calmly added in his mind,

Teacher, it looks like you won't get to test it for me. I'm doing the experiment for you first.

He activated the Purple Demon Eyes. His invisible Spiritual Power gathered into a sharp point and stabbed toward the grudge.

The instant Ye Lin's psychic attack struck,

the mass of resentment burst apart from its center like water cleaved by a blade, scattering into countless tiny fragments.

They floated like scraps of paper blown on the wind. Their structure had broken down, leaving only a chaotic jumble of psychic residue.

Ye Lin did not let those fragments go.

His Spiritual Power spread like a net, gathering them one by one and slowly wearing them away.

With every fragment he erased, he could feel his Spiritual Power growing a little more solid,

as though repeated strokes against a rough whetstone had smoothed its edge and made it sharper.

Beating up the Darkgolden Terrorclaw Bear had brought on a soul shock, but it had unexpectedly strengthened his Spiritual Power.

Elsewhere in Star Dou Forest,

Xiao Wu slowly rose from the ground.

A purple Spirit Ring flashed beneath her feet, then withdrew into her body. She rolled her shoulders and looked up at the mountainous figure beside her.

The Titan Giant Ape sat next to her, its enormous body like a silent hill in the moonlight.

It drew its gaze back from the distance and looked at Xiao Wu.

Xiao Wu walked up to it and tilted her head to meet its moonlike eyes. Her tone was lighter than before.

"Er Ming, are you still thinking about that Titled Douluo?"

The Titan Giant Ape snorted out a blast of hot air and gave a low growl. "Sister Xiao Wu, I'm still furious. If it weren't for your safety, I'd have fought him properly."

It paused, then added,

"He'd better not let me see him again. I'll beat him up."

"Does he think being a Titled Douluo means he can do whatever he wants here? He even dared to hit me."

"Does he think I, Er Ming, have no pride?"

Xiao Wu reached out and patted the thick knuckles hanging at its side.

"All right, don't be angry. You'll get another chance. Once I'm out, I'll find out who he is for you."

The Titan Giant Ape lowered its head.

"Sister Xiao Wu, you're still going back out?"

Xiao Wu nodded.

"I chose to take human form, so I have to live among humans. It's the only way I can cultivate. There's no avoiding it."

"Besides, that Titled Douluo was only passing through. I'll be careful once I leave and do my best not to let anyone discover me."

"Help me find the others and take me back to them."

The Titan Giant Ape was silent for a moment and did not try to persuade her again.

It lowered its head, slowly extended one hand, and opened its palm before Xiao Wu.

Xiao Wu stepped onto it.

Once she was steady, the Titan Giant Ape rose slowly and strode toward the forest.

Before long, it reached a suitable spot, set Xiao Wu down, and pointed her in a direction.

Xiao Wu hurried over the fallen leaves toward the firelight. After about the time it took to drink a cup of tea,

the trees ahead began to thin, and she could make out a campfire flickering between their roots.

She pushed aside one last clump of low bushes and emerged from the undergrowth.

"Who's there?"

Flender was the first to stand. His gaze rested on Xiao Wu for an instant,

then he took a step toward her.

"Xiao Wu! You're back! Where's the Titan Giant Ape?"

Xiao Wu brushed bits of leaves from her clothes.

"I don't know what happened either. The Titan Giant Ape carried me for a while, then there was this incredibly loud bellow. It made all the trees around us shake."

"Then it suddenly dropped me, roared, and ran toward the sound. I have no idea why."

"I lay there for a while and realized I'd just reached level thirty. There happened to be a suitable thousand-year soul beast nearby that had been stunned by the noise, so I absorbed its Spirit Ring."

"Then I figured out which way to go. I thought I'd leave Star Dou Forest and wait for you at the academy, but I ran into you instead. What a coincidence."

Everyone fell silent for a moment.

Dai Mubai was the first to nod, playing along perfectly. "What matters is that you're safe. You're safe."

Ma Hongjun chimed in. "Right, right. Glad you're back."

Xiao Wu acknowledged him, then looked at Ye Lin, who was absorbing his Spirit Ring.

"Brother Lin is absorbing a six-thousand-year Terrorclaw Bear? I thought he was aiming for one around five thousand years?"