Outside the Sunset Forest, dawn glimmered through the spreading morning mist.
Lin Chen and his companions bid farewell to Sword Douluo, who had escorted them from the shadows. Walking shoulder to shoulder with Su Qingyuan and Yue Huaxi, he steadily made his way back to Heaven Dou City. Through their trials in the Sunset Forest, both women had broken through to the Soul Ancestor realm. Their auras were steady, their gazes firmer than ever. They could now hold their own, no longer the fledgling young soul masters they had once been.
Lin Chen kept his soul power contained, his cultivation as a rank forty-seven Soul Ancestor now fully consolidated. Within his dantian, the life blue silver emperor grass that had fused with the Emperor Grass Shard shone ever more brilliantly. Emerald-green and icy-white patterns intertwined across its leaves, its source power grew richer, and his control over the vitality of heaven and earth and the power of ultimate attributes became increasingly refined.
Along the way, no pursuers from Spirit Hall troubled them again. Intimidated by Sword Douluo, Ghost Douluo no longer dared to strike rashly. He could only hold back for the time being, secretly muster forces, and devise his next scheme, allowing the group to travel safely.
During the journey, Lin Chen often closed his eyes in concentration, sifting through the memories of the Emperor Grass Inheritance to trace the whereabouts of the second Emperor Grass Shard. Those memories clearly recorded that the second shard lay hidden in the heart of the Far North, lodged within the Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion, the foremost soul beast of the ultimate ice attribute.
The Far North lay at the northernmost edge of the continent, locked in ice year-round, with snow sweeping across ten thousand miles. Its environment was brutally harsh, its cold