"Gao Ren, Gao Ren, are you listening to me?" The Auspicious Beast waved a hand in front of Gao Ren's eyes, her little face puffing up like a steamed bun in anger. "You're not showing me any respect!"
"Hmm?" The Scarlet King bristled and glared in support.
Scarlet King: How dare you disrespect the Auspicious Beast! You've got some plump little guts!
Only after the two soul beasts made a fuss did Gao Ren snap out of his daze.
"Ah, I'm really sorry. Auspicious Beast, I was thinking about a question just now." He raised a question to conceal the real reason his mind had wandered. "Doesn't your Star Dou Great Forest only have five great ferocious beasts?
"I counted them: your Star Dou Great Forest has Di Tian, ranked first; Bi Ji, ranked fourth; the Myriad Demon King, ranked fifth; Xiong Jun, ranked sixth; and the Scarlet King here in front of us, ranked eighth...
"So who is Zi JI? And who are those 'other female ferocious beasts'?"
Faced with that question, the Auspicious Beast came up with an explanation in a flash:
"Zi JI is Di Tian's junior, a Hell Demon Dragon, one of the Pureblood True Dragons... You humans don't know about her because there are pitifully few Pureblood True Dragons left. Di Tian was afraid something might happen to her, so he never let her take part in a Beast Tide. (Just take that as the explanation for why Zi JI never appeared in the original Douluo II.)
"As for the human forms of the other female ferocious beasts, Di Tian showed them to me with his spiritual power. They're all ferocious beasts he's met before."
"So that's how it is. No wonder your human form is so pretty!" Gao Ren played dumb and nodded in affirmation.
I wonder how her current appearance stacks up against the future Goddess of Light... She even used the Silver Dragon King's human appearance as a reference, so they should at least be evenly matched, right?
"Gao Ren, you're not bad yourself. So far, I haven't seen a single male at Shrek Academy who's more handsome than you."
"Really?"
"Of course!"
Listening to the two little troublemakers chatter away and lavish praise on each other, the Scarlet King finally couldn't take it anymore. He coughed, then said:
"Little troublemaker, stop chatting. We know you're both good-looking. Hurry up and tell Gao Ren what you came here for."
"Oh, right! Business! Business!" The Auspicious Beast had been so excited to see Gao Ren that she would have almost forgotten if the Scarlet King hadn't reminded her.
Then the Auspicious Beast told Gao Ren that Di Tian also liked the Overlord Drumsticks.
Before Gao Ren could offer his opinion, Xuan Zi stroked his beard and said, "To think even the renowned Beast God likes A-Ren's Overlord Drumsticks."
The moment Xuan Zi spoke, the Scarlet King's PTSD from yesterday's negotiations at the Sea God Pavilion flared up. He hurriedly said:
"Auspicious Beast, didn't you have gifts for Gao Ren?"
At that, the Auspicious Beast immediately took several glittering golden bones out of her Storage Soul Tool.
"Ten-thousand-year light-attribute Soul Bones!" Xuan Zi recognized the bones' true nature at a glance.
These light-attribute Soul Bones had all been left behind by light-attribute soul beasts hunted in the past.
Years of accumulation had allowed the Auspicious Beast to easily assemble a set of Ten Thousand Year Soul Bones covering all six body parts... In truth, during her recent hunts, the Auspicious Beast had simply thought about which beasts could drop Soul Bones, and whichever ones died would drop them.
Seeing how generous the Auspicious Beast was, Xuan Zi couldn't be bothered to interrupt and bargain for more benefits. He decided to follow the strategic policy of maintaining friendly relations with the Star Dou Great Forest.
After all, with Gao Ren's share of the sales at Shrek Academy, an entire year's earnings would at most buy one Ten Thousand Year Soul Bone.
That money might mean little to Shrek Academy, but for a child like Gao Ren, who wasn't even seven yet, it was unquestionably a fortune.
Xuan Zi: My disciple's Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring and Soul Bone set is getting closer and closer!
"Gao Ren, these are my gifts to you." The Auspicious Beast pushed the set of Ten Thousand Year Soul Bones in front of Gao Ren. "Di Tian has always treated me very well.
"So when I learned he liked your drumsticks too, I volunteered to come here.
"I hope you'll do me a favor and supply our Star Dou Great Forest with a few more of your drumsticks."
"How about doubling the number of drumsticks I provide each day?" Gao Ren offered an amount his body could still handle. "Any more than that, and I feel it might affect my body to some degree."
"Then let's settle on that amount." The Scarlet King nodded. A steady supply mattered more than anything else. Even if something happened to him, nothing could be allowed to happen to Gao Ren.
"It's settled, then." Gao Ren put away the Soul Bones the Auspicious Beast had given him.
He planned to hand these Soul Bones over to Elder Lin's Treasure Gathering Pavilion to sell, then add "Soul Bones blessed by the Emperor Auspicious Beast" to their item descriptions as a selling point.
Once the two sides had settled their business, the Auspicious Beast clamored to explore the human city.
It was her first time leaving the Star Dou Great Forest, and she was immensely curious about everything in the human world.
Seeing this, Gao Ren and Xuan Zi, as the hosts, personally took the Auspicious Beast and the Scarlet King around Shrek City.
Since soul beasts had no concept of a curfew and didn't necessarily have to go home at night, the Auspicious Beast got to see Shrek City both by day and by night.
Silver Dragon King: ?
Why hasn't my Pure World Overlord's Leg arrived yet?!
In the end, Di Tian had to make a phone call through his Reverse Scale, which the Auspicious Beast was carrying, before she finally went home, reluctant to leave.
Compared with the world of soul beasts, the human world was simply far too rich and colorful.
Six months had now passed since the Auspicious Beast's first visit to Shrek Academy.
During that time, Gao Ren's soul power level had risen from twenty-eight, which he had reached after the ten-thousand-year Purifying Water Swan's Sacrifice, to thirty.
Tomorrow would be the day he headed to the Star Dou Great Forest again.
Unlike last time, he had been invited as a guest.
Moreover, the invitation had come jointly from the Auspicious Beast and Di Tian!
They had invited Gao Ren and Xuan Zi into the Great Ferocious Land, a forbidden zone for humans!
"Teacher, has Sister Xiaotao still not come out?"
"No." Xuan Zi, seated opposite Gao Ren, shook his head.
Ma Xiaotao hadn't come out in a long time. She had been hiding in her room in the Inner Court, cultivating.
As for why she had become like this, that was a question for Her Ladyship the Auspicious Beast.
The Auspicious Beast's visits to Gao Ren at Shrek Academy worked much like cross-dressing: there was only never doing it, or doing it countless times.
Once she had broken past that first "one," the Star Dou Great Forest had become much more accepting of her visits to Shrek Academy.
Then the Auspicious Beast began visiting Shrek Academy more and more often, going from once a month to at least once a week.
Later on, the Scarlet King sometimes didn't even stay with her anymore, acting like a parent dropping off and picking up a kindergartner.
One evening, while Gao Ren was out with the Auspicious Beast, he happened to run into a drunken Ma Xiaotao.
Then Ma Xiaotao and the Auspicious Beast got into an argument, and naturally, the reason for their dispute was Gao Ren.
Before you continue