How Do You Propose to Deal with This?

The sun had barely risen when Jiang Mingyang hurried to the market and bought enough dried food and water to last him a hundred days.

Of course, living on dried food for a hundred days would leave anyone malnourished.

He also bought common ointments, herbs, antidotes, and poisons.

He put all the medicines in the Space Soul Tool at his waist. The food went into the bracelet Space Soul Tool on his wrist.

In fact, Jiang Mingyang had two Space Soul Tools. His adoptive father, Jiang Tian, had given him the belt when he became a Soul Grandmaster. It held roughly twenty-four cubic meters.

The other was the bracelet Qian Renxue had slipped onto his wrist when she kissed him goodbye. It held thirty-six cubic meters.

He bought plenty of other things that would help him survive. By the time he finished, he had spent the entire morning at the market.

Jiang Mingyang drove his Thousand-Mile Horse and carriage toward Sunset Forest.

In less than an hour, he reached a point five kilometers from the forest's outskirts and unhitched the horse.

He turned the Thousand-Mile Horse toward town and gave its rump a hard slap.

Stung, the horse bolted. Jiang Mingyang watched it disappear into the distance.

Before long, Jiang Mingyang reached the edge of Sunset Forest.

With the forest just ahead, people usually made one last attempt to recruit companions here.

More Soul Masters passed through this spot than the town, making recruitment easier.

Jiang Mingyang gauged their Soul Power. Most were Soul Elders, a few were Soul Ancestors, and he even spotted a Soul King.

They might have looked weak as a whole, but they were more than strong enough.

On the outskirts of Sunset Forest, Hundred-Year Soul Beasts and most thousand-year Soul Beasts stood no chance against a group attack.

Higher-ranked Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts and the stronger, unusual thousand-year Soul Beasts generally ruled the inner forest or lived deep in its core. They almost never appeared on the outskirts; centuries could pass without a single sighting.

Groups stood at the forest's edge, shouting for recruits.

Jiang Mingyang did not stop. He had come to test himself, and recruiting companions would defeat the purpose.

On the first day, Jiang Mingyang stayed on the outskirts. Most Soul Beasts he encountered were under five hundred years old, though a few were over a thousand.

After a day of fighting, he had crushed nearly everything in his path. He decided to push toward the near side of the inner forest.

On the second day, Jiang Mingyang entered the inner forest.

The vast majority of Soul Beasts here were over a thousand years old. The few younger ones were Hundred-Year Soul Beasts with exceptionally powerful bloodlines.

Jiang Mingyang could overpower most of them and crush a few outright.

He planned to venture deeper into the inner forest the next day. Just then, a chill swept over him.

He whipped around. About ten meters away, a Ten-Thousand-Wall Demon Tiger roughly four meters long was lunging at him.

Jiang Mingyang immediately began charging his Third Soul Skill, Holy Light Sword Art. The tiger's paw came down, but his body turned transparent. Its strike passed through him, and it landed behind him.

As soon as he finished charging, Jiang Mingyang spun around and unleashed three swords of light from the ground with his Third Soul Skill, sending them straight at the tiger.

He then used his Second Soul Skill, Bring in the Wine, to dash away from it. Each dash carried him about five meters.

Jiang Mingyang quickly turned and poured his full strength into his First Soul Skill, leaving almost no space between its swords of light.

Yet the Ten-Thousand-Wall Demon Tiger chose to take the blow head-on. And so, without a doubt, a mighty demon tiger met its end.

It was not that the tiger had been arrogant. Unlike other tigers, the Ten-Thousand-Wall Demon Tiger had armored plates along its back and a powerful bloodline.

Its attacks were formidable, but what truly set it apart was its defense.

That tiger had probably intended to withstand Jiang Mingyang's First Soul Skill, close the distance, and kill him in a single strike.

The tactic had likely worked well against other Soul Masters. Against Jiang Mingyang, though, that was all it amounted to.

In Sunset Forest, the Ten-Thousand-Wall Demon Tiger was unquestionably a top-tier Soul Beast.

Some were even said to live for thirty thousand years. Adults measured about two meters long, then grew another meter every thousand years. After ten thousand years, they grew a meter every ten thousand years instead. The one Jiang Mingyang had killed was probably around two thousand years old.

"Roar... roar..." The sound carried through the forest.

Jiang Mingyang's expression changed. That was unmistakably a Ten-Thousand-Wall Demon Tiger, and judging by the depth of its roar, it was far from young.

It sounded close, too. Jiang Mingyang hurriedly ran the other way.

He had not gone far when he realized the tiger was drawing closer. It seemed to be heading straight for him.

When it was about a hundred meters away, Jiang Mingyang had no choice but to turn and fight. One glance at the tiger was enough to make him spit. "Pah! What kind of luck is this?"

The Ten-Thousand-Wall Demon Tiger before him was over twelve meters long. That meant it was more than ten thousand years old.

The tiger gathered its strength and spat a spherical blast of light nearly a meter across. Jiang Mingyang immediately charged Holy Light Sword Art, his Third Soul Skill, and made his body intangible.

Once the blast passed through him, he sent three swords of light at the tiger. It roared, its eyes turning bloodred.

It lunged. Jiang Mingyang hurriedly used Bring in the Wine, his Second Soul Skill, to dash sideways twice.

He had no choice. The tiger could make countless mistakes, but one swipe of its paw would probably finish him.

A tiger over ten meters long could likely strike with tens of thousands of pounds of force, even without a Soul Skill.

Once he had moved aside, Jiang Mingyang stepped backward through the Seven-Star Steps and chanted, "Nine Heavens Profound Fiend, become Divine Thunder. O blazing might of heaven, be drawn by my sword."

Thunder suddenly cracked overhead. Divine Thunder poured into the Tianya Sword as though it were a lightning rod.

Even with a shield protecting him, the lightning drawn into the sword injured Jiang Mingyang.

Jiang Mingyang fixed the tiger with a fierce stare. "If I use the Divine Sword Thunder-Control Art, how do you propose to deal with it?"

He unleashed the Divine Sword Thunder-Control Art.

The mighty demon tiger fell. Grievously wounded, Jiang Mingyang hurried toward the edge of the forest.

In his youth, the Grand Ancestor journeyed through Sunset Forest. There he encountered a wicked tiger, nearly a thousand zhang away. Merciful by nature, the Grand Ancestor feared it would bring calamity to the world. He summoned thunder from the nine heavens and slew it with a single stroke.

"Grand Ancestor Annals — Hidden Dragon Volume"