To Succeed, First Go Mad-Kill the Wolf King and Seize Its Soul Bone!

Standing atop a jutting boulder, Jiang Hao waved a flag and shouted, "Brothers, we might be a bunch of weaklings right now, but the moment we spot a Soul Beast, we'll call everyone over. Tool Martial Soul users, bash it with your Martial Souls. Beast Martial Soul users, get in there and wrestle it. Whoever kills it gets to absorb the Soul Ring!"

Cheers erupted across the clearing and inside his head at Jiang Hao's simple speech.

"Hold on, you rotten Main Body. What about us support types?"

The speaker was the Clone who had awakened the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda. Jiang Hao had already placed him in the first tier of Clones to cultivate. "We'll hunt one for you when we find a suitable one. The rarer the Martial Soul, the less we can afford to waste it."

"What's that supposed to mean? Are the rest of us with sickles and hoes free to waste our Soul Ring slots?"

Jiang Hao said, "Keep squawking and I'll put you on the self-destruct squad."

Jiang Hao pointed at the Clones who had yet to awaken their Martial Souls.

"Fine! Don't forget, we can become Titled Douluo too. You rotten Main Body, once I become one, I'll call myself Hoe Douluo. Let's see who dares disrespect my hoe then."

As luck would have it, the Clone with the hoe Martial Soul slammed his hoe into a tree trunk. The whole tree shuddered. A Spotted Cat fell from high above and swiped him across the face.

The moment the Spotted Cat appeared, knives, forks, swords, halberds, hoes, and clubs rained down on it. A white Soul Ring slowly rose from its body.

"That died a little fast, didn't it?"

"Hmph! My Steel Blade must have nicked an artery. A blade this sharp could easily kill it by accident."

"Nonsense. My Iron Hammer Martial Soul smashed its skull in." A Clone brandished an Iron Hammer that looked remarkably like the Clear Sky Hammer.

Jiang Hao said, "Who killed it? You struck so fast you even snatched a ten-year Soul Ring. I wanted to study it first. Come on, someone absorb it! We can't waste it."

The Clones froze, looking from one face to another.

"No idea! There were so many of us, we just went into kill-stealing mode."

"Wasn't me. My hammer missed and hit the dirt."

"Then it definitely wasn't me. It died before my blade even went in. How could I have killed it?"

"Who knows? With that many people swinging, how could anyone tell what hit it?"

The Clones all backed away, leaving Hoe Bro exposed at the front. A Spotted Cat barely a dozen years old, not even a hundred-year Soul Beast, had been mobbed by twenty or thirty people wielding heavy weapons. It would have been strange if it had survived.

"Forget it. You absorb it, Hoe Bro!" Jiang Hao pointed straight at the stunned Clone. "I want to test who gets credit for a Soul Beast we kill together. Absorb it and see if there's any rejection."

He had seen it clearly: Hoe Bro had been slapped aside before he had time to deal any damage. There was no way he had killed it.

Hoe Bro did not want a white Soul Ring, but he could not refuse. Jiang Hao was the Main Body. He sat cross-legged and slowly drew the ring toward himself. The instant it approached, the absorption was complete.

When it was over, Hoe Bro felt an itch in his hand. A slender steel claw grew out between his fingers.

An External Soul Bone? And one for the hand?

Everyone around him stared enviously, wishing they had absorbed that Soul Ring instead. The Main Body certainly would not redistribute something as valuable as an External Soul Bone; whoever absorbed it owned it. They had kept a Soul Ring slot free, only to miss out on an External Soul Bone with enormous room to grow. Anyone would feel they had lost out badly.

"It worked!"

"Looks like there's no restriction on absorbing Soul Rings from beasts we kill. Mine went smoothly. And my First Soul Skill isn't bad either: Three Hoe Strikes! Every third swing of my hoe triggers an extra swing. That third strike costs no stamina or Soul Power, and it deals two hits at once. I'm going for speed. Every Soul Ring I get from now on will boost it. I'll aim for thirty swings in a second. Even Tang San wouldn't withstand my Three Hoe Strikes then."

"Great. I'm counting on you for the next Soul Hunting mission, Hoe Bro. I believe in you."

"Three Hoe Strikes!"

His white Soul Ring pulsed as Hoe Bro charged ahead, swinging his hoe at the Mandala Snake.

Before long, they had encountered their first Soul Beast. Hoe Bro's mighty Three Hoe Strikes nearly scraped the slime off the hundred-year Mandala Snake. It whipped its tail around and slammed him into a tree behind him.

Was this where it ended? I haven't fulfilled my dream yet!

Hoe Bro slumped against the trunk, barely breathing, his life already flashing before his eyes.

"Tanks up front and take the hits! Ranged fighters, keep up your basic attacks! Don't stop the magic damage! Don't worry about conserving Soul Power—hit it with everything you've got!"

Four defensive Clones surrounded Jiang Hao with their Martial Souls. He watched more than twenty Beast Martial Soul users and twenty Tool Martial Soul users mob the Mandala Snake. Like African spotted hyenas on a hunt, they struck from every direction, filling nearly the entire clearing. This was the first Soul Beast they had encountered since the Spotted Cat.

They wore the snake down, swapping fighters in and out until it collapsed, utterly spent. Hoe Bro ended its life with four strikes.

"Who's absorbing this Soul Ring?"

The Blue Silver Grass Soul Masters and Beast Martial Soul users all threw up their hands, especially those with snake Martial Souls.

"Me! Pick me, you rotten Main Body! Don't you want to see Mother's Entanglement? I've got the Blue Silver Grass Martial Soul. I'm awesome!"

The Blue Silver Grass Clones fought hardest for it. They had already started attacking the Beast Martial Soul users who raised their hands, their Blue Silver Grass whipping out to bind the snake Martial Soul users tight. They had a huge advantage in numbers, often three or four to one. Everyone laughed at Tang San, but given the chance, who would not want to be a man as flashy as him?

In the end, the hundred-year Soul Ring went to a Blue Silver Grass Clone whose face was black and blue.

~~~~

"Yes! Yes! Yes! I did it! This Daoist did it! Mother's Entanglement!"

Jiang Hao looked at the first of his Clones to obtain a hundred-year Soul Ring. What should I call you? His Clones had never had names before.

"I'll call you Grass Bro. Grass Bro, let's see your First Soul Skill. Is it that one-in-ten-thousand Entanglement?" Jiang Hao teased.

Grass Bro put on the airs of a lofty master. "Insolent brat. You ought to know your place as an attendant!"

The icy words sent a shiver through Jiang Hao. "All right, all right. I nearly lost it there."

Grass Bro activated Mother's Entanglement, snaring some unlucky fellow beside him at random. Jiang Hao waved a hand for him to release it.

It seemed the Clones had no major trouble hunting Soul Beasts. Jiang Hao sent them out in groups of fifty, telling them not to stray too far while they hunted their own.

He dispersed more than two thousand Clones to roam the outskirts of the Star Dou Great Forest. Several with unusual Martial Souls stayed beside him. Apart from Grass Bro and Hoe Bro, who already had Soul Rings, there were four others.

One was Blue Bro, who had his heart set on obtaining a life-type Blue Silver Grass. Another was Pagoda Bro, who had yet to obtain a Soul Ring. The last two had particularly unusual Martial Souls. One had a longsword—undeniably cool, though Jiang Hao could not quite describe it—that carried a piercing chill. For now, he called him Ice Sword Bro. The final Clone was a heavyweight: his Martial Soul was the Hell Lord, the Martial Soul of Yan, the prodigy and supreme simp of the Spirit Hall Golden Generation in Douluo I.

Just as Jiang Hao was about to make his next move, Cannon Bro's voice rang out in his head. "Hurry up, boss! I can't hold out much longer! They've shown me three hundred-year Soul Beasts already, and I turned them all down. If I still don't release my Martial Soul and absorb a Soul Ring next time, I'm sure they'll kill me right here."

Cannon Bro's sudden voice in his head caught Jiang Hao off guard. I almost forgot about him. He's one of my main forces too. I'll have to reward him properly—buy him plenty of white radishes.

Time was running out. Jiang Hao led his Clones on the hunt. Once he had filled the team's Soul Ring slots, he would hurry back to take Cannon Bro's place, absorb his own Soul Ring in full view of everyone, then find another chance to slip away.

They soon found a suitable Soul Beast for Pagoda Bro: a gorilla. Jiang Hao did not know what kind it was, but killing it produced a Yellow Soul Ring. With the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect's Martial Soul, only the quality and age of the ring mattered, not the species of Soul Beast. Its skills always granted positive enhancements that did not conflict. After absorbing the ring, Pagoda Bro learned his Soul Skill: Nine Treasures Turn Into Glazed Glass—First: Enhancement! It boosted all elemental attributes by ten percent, with another ten percent for every ten levels of Soul Power.

Jiang Hao was pleased with a Soul Skill that enhanced every elemental attribute.

Flame Bro's Soul Ring was easier to find. Before long, they tracked down a Fire Lizard, and he absorbed its ring without trouble. The Hell Lord's First Soul Skill was Fire Shield. It wreathed him in flames and formed a shield with strong defensive power, while also providing a decent boost to his attacks.

They still could not find a suitable Soul Beast for Ice Sword Bro.

Meanwhile, the Clones who had gone out returned in wave after wave. Nearly half the members of each group had absorbed Soul Rings. They remained about five or six kilometers from the Shrek Academy students. Jiang Hao did not dare get close enough for Xuan Zi to notice them, or go so far that he could not reach them at once if something happened.

With Cannon Bro urging him again and again in his mind, Jiang Hao stopped hesitating. When the final group of Clones returned, he immediately transformed into one with a flying bird-type Soul Beast Martial Soul. He checked its Soul Ring Configuration. Its First Soul Skill, Thunderfeather Charge, increased flight speed by thirty percent for as long as its Soul Power held out. It was a decent skill, and the Clone had also gained thirty percent lightning resistance. The ring must have come from a lightning-type Soul Beast, though that attribute did not seem to suit this Martial Soul.

Some Clones had clearly been hunting Soul Beasts without a thought in their heads. Afraid someone else would claim a ring first, they had not even checked whether it suited them. That would weaken their fighting strength. If he summoned a whole swarm into battle only to find that all their Soul Skills did the same thing—running fast or flying high, with no useful combinations—they would be much less effective than a well-built force. That would be a loss for him too.

"Remember this. Don't be so reckless next time. Think about your role in the team before you hunt, and find a Soul Beast that suits it. When we have time, we'll stay here longer and train at our own pace. You'll find the right ones eventually. Don't lose heart."

Cannon Bro kept pressing him. Jiang Hao planned to get closer, make contact, and find a way to switch places with him.

Flying low and drawing on the scouting abilities of his mental-type Soul Masters and Blue Silver Grass Soul Masters through their shared mind, Jiang Hao soon approached the Shrek Academy group. Before he could get close, a fierce aura surged toward him in waves. He lost his balance and slammed against the trunk of a tree behind him.

At the soul-shaking howl of a wolf and Cannon Bro's agonized cries inside his head, Jiang Hao knew something had gone wrong over there.

Good thing I kept my guard up.

I've changed my mind!

Cannon Bro, hang in there. I'll replace you once it's over. Don't die, or I'll have a hard time explaining how I came back to life.

On the battlefield, Cannon Bro relied on his agility and his bottleneck, which had not budged past level ten, to scramble and roll clear of the shockwaves from both sides. "I—I've had it with the Main Body. This mission is way too dangerous! You'd better compensate me."

Cannon Bro roared in the Sea of Consciousness, his voice hoarse. A streak of blood flew toward him. He looked down and recognized the cold-faced senior who had taken him to relieve himself earlier.

Anger surged through Cannon Bro. He turned and saw that the Wolf King was holding its own against several Soul Emperors. It showed no sign of weakening or tiring.

This is a death trap! Damn it, couldn't Xuan Zi have brought us here himself?