Wolf Bandits

"Boss Yu, why do we have to carry pots on the road?"

On the main road.

Oscar followed behind the group, panting and drenched in sweat, his steps growing heavier and heavier.

The little refined iron pot on his back weighed nearly a hundred jin.

Yu Chen carried two hundred jin of iron rings, his steps light and easy.

He turned to glance at Oscar. "Little Oscar, worn out already? You're our cook. How can you not carry a pot?"

"Boss... I think... you're about to lose your adorable little Oscar."

Oscar gasped for breath, barely able to get his words out.

"You still have the energy to act cute? Looks like this training isn't intense enough."

Yu Chen spoke with a smile.

"It's enough, it's enough! Boss, do you think everyone's a monster like you?"

Oscar's voice held both helplessness and envy.

Yu Chen smiled faintly and said nothing.

He had originally used that iron pot to temper his body.

But after he absorbed his second soul ring, all his plans had been thrown into disarray.

His soul power had shot up to level twenty-nine, and his physical strength had advanced by leaps and bounds, as though a force had suddenly erupted within him.

A three-hundred-jin load hardly registered anymore.

Yu Chen suspected that his second martial soul was the reason for all of this.

After absorbing his second soul ring, his right hand had also turned into a dragon claw!

That change had brought him an improvement akin to evolution.

The first sign had been an explosive increase in strength.

Before, traveling with the three-hundred-jin iron pot on his back had taken some effort. Now, he could lift it with one hand.

Next had come an increase in his bloodline power.

Yu Chen could clearly feel that his breathing had become steadier, more even and sustained.

While traveling yesterday, he had accidentally cut his arm. Yet within mere minutes, the wound had healed on its own, without even leaving a scar.

In the original story, Yu Tianheng's Dragon Transformation Skill could only turn one hand into a dragon claw after his soul power broke through level thirty.

But I'm only level twenty-nine, and both my arms can already take on dragon-claw form.

It's just as I suspected!

Yu Chen pondered silently.

My Dragon Transformation doesn't come from an external force. It's an innate ability of my martial soul. As my strength grows, my second martial soul will gradually reveal its true form.

I wonder how my second martial soul will change when I become a Soul Elder, then a Soul Ancestor.

Anticipation began to stir in Yu Chen's heart.

He was only one step away from absorbing his third soul ring.

Of course, he had kept his second martial soul hidden all along and had told no one about it.

Not even Ming Dashan.

It was his greatest secret. Until he possessed absolute strength, he would not reveal it to anyone.

"Little Oscar, hang in there a little longer. There's a village up ahead. We'll stop there to rest."

Ming Dashan, walking at the front, suddenly spoke.

He looked back at Oscar's flushed face and nodded in satisfaction.

He had originally only intended to teach Yu Chen some wilderness survival experience and show him the true face of the soul master world.

Instead, he had unexpectedly rescued someone and picked up a food-type genius.

Ming Dashan had never even heard of a food-type Soul Master with innate full soul power, let alone seen one himself.

Even Ming Dashan marveled at it. Geniuses with innate full soul power, normally seen once in a hundred years, were now springing up in clusters.

Yu Chen, Tang San, Xiao Wu.

And now Oscar had appeared as well.

Ming Dashan and Yu Xiaogang had been old friends for years. He had hoped Yu Chen and Tang San would carry on that friendship, supporting each other and eventually carving out a place for themselves in the soul master world.

But two and a half years had passed, and things had not developed as he had imagined.

Tang San and Xiao Wu spent every day together and were very close.

Yu Chen spent most of his time cultivating alone, coming and going by himself.

His relationship with Tang San was more like that of rivals. During the special training class, the two had competed in soul power, control, and precision, neither willing to concede to the other.

Ming Dashan had come to accept it.

Sometimes, finding a rival who could push you was even rarer than finding a friend.

And now that Yu Chen had met Oscar, a support partner, he would have a friend at the Intermediate Academy as well.

At last, Ming Dashan could lay that lingering worry to rest.

"All right, Principal Ming."

Oscar answered from behind, panting.

He tightened the straps, hitched the pot higher on his back, and gritted his teeth as he pressed on.

Back at the Junior Academy, he had spent his days doing nothing but cultivating and sleeping.

No one had supervised him or pushed him. His days had passed in idle ease.

But after learning about Yu Chen's talent, he had begun to feel a sense of urgency.

Yu Chen would have level twenty-nine soul power at twelve.

At twelve, he would probably be level twenty-three at most.

A full six levels apart!

When he called him "Boss Yu," he meant it wholeheartedly.

As his underling, he couldn't drag his boss down, could he?

Even though he was already panting with exhaustion, Oscar had no intention of giving up.

Gradually.

The outlines of houses came into view.

"We're finally almost there!"

Oscar looked into the distance and shouted excitedly.

He felt a surge of strength well up in his body, restoring vigor to legs that had almost refused to move.

However.

Yu Chen frowned. "Huh? Something seems wrong!"

It was already evening. The villagers should have been lighting fires to cook, yet there wasn't a trace of cooking smoke.

A faint scent of blood drifted through the air.

If his second martial soul hadn't evolved, sharpening his senses considerably, he would never have noticed it.

Yu Chen turned to Ming Dashan, whose expression had also grown somewhat grave.

"Yu Chen, something seems to have happened in the village ahead. Let's get ready to take a detour."

Ming Dashan spoke.

He had smelled that faint trace of blood as well.

There were usually several possible explanations for a village being pillaged.

The first was a bandit raid.

Some remote villages had poor security, and roving bandits occasionally came to steal grain and money.

But this area lay in the heart of the Balak Kingdom, with troops stationed nearby. Ordinary bandits would never dare operate here.

The second was the appearance of soul beasts, but that was even less likely.

The third was the work of fallen soul masters.

Some soul masters used evil methods to increase their strength quickly, such as drinking human blood or drawing out people's life force to cultivate.

Such people were known as the fallen.

Once discovered, everyone would rise up together to kill them.

However, most fallen soul masters were far stronger in combat than others of the same rank. Ordinary soul masters could only flee if they encountered one.

"Uncle Dashan, let me send Xiao Bai over to have a look first."

Yu Chen spoke.

Light flashed in his palm, and a silvery-white figure darted out.

Her dragon body was slender and long, her scales silvery white. Her two wings were thin and translucent, scattering tiny motes of light as they beat.

After he acquired his second soul ring, the Xiao Bai Dragon's size had hardly changed, but her strength, speed, and spiritual power had all improved considerably.

Surveying the ground from a thousand meters in the air posed no problem for Xiao Bai.

"All right, then."

Ming Dashan replied.

The Xiao Bai Dragon circled Yu Chen once, then shot upward with a whoosh.

Her figure soon became a tiny white speck before vanishing into the dusk-lit clouds.

"Boss, your martial soul is amazing!"

Oscar craned his neck, his mouth hanging open and his eyes wide.

He had never seen such a strange martial soul. She could leave his body, fly, and even think independently.

Yu Chen said nothing, his gaze fixed on the direction where Xiao Bai had disappeared.

Before long, Xiao Bai flew back.

"Eeya! Eeya!"

She cried out while pointing a wing toward the village, bobbing her little head, her voice carrying a hint of excitement.

"What does that mean?"

Oscar scratched his head, unable to understand a thing.

Yu Chen listened for a while with a frown, then turned to the other two. "Xiao Bai says there's a pack of monsters with wolf heads and human bodies up ahead, looting the village."

"Wolf heads and human bodies? What are those?"

Oscar froze, unable to imagine what kind of monsters they could be.

Were they soul beasts?

Or humans?

At those words, Ming Dashan's gaze darkened.

During his time at the Intermediate Academy, he had read accounts of certain unusual soul beasts.

Gale demon wolves were lustful by nature. Sometimes, they abducted human women and forcibly mated with them, and they could produce offspring with humans.

These offspring possessed the physique and strength of soul beasts, as well as human intelligence.

They were more cunning and vicious than ordinary soul beasts.

They appeared in packs, burning, killing, and pillaging wherever they went, leaving no survivors. They were even more terrifying than fallen soul masters.

The entire soul master world across the continent hated these creatures to the bone. Anyone who encountered them had the right to kill them.

They had a particular name.

"Wolf Bandits."