Early that morning, while most of Nuoding Academy's teachers and students were still asleep, two figures, one tall and one short, had already walked out through the academy gates. They were the celebrity idol Grandmaster and his little fanboy, Tang San.
"Teacher, where are we going to look for soul beasts?"
"We're going to the Soul Hunting Forest four hundred li outside Nuoding City. That's where the Heaven Dou Empire keeps soul beasts in captivity. We're sure to find a suitable soul ring for you there."
Grandmaster had changed into a relatively tidy outfit that day. At least he looked a little better than his usual unkempt self.
"Soul beasts can be kept in captivity?"
As far as Tang San understood, soul beasts were much like the wild beasts of his previous world, only stronger and more ferocious.
"Powerful soul beasts naturally can't, but weaker ones can. The soul beasts in the Soul Hunting Forest are generally under a thousand years old, mostly ten-year and hundred-year beasts."
Tang San already knew about soul beasts' ages, so he did not ask any further questions.
"However, before entering the Soul Hunting Forest, we need to buy a writ from the Spirit Hall Branch in Nuoding City."
"A writ?"
With that question in mind, Tang San arrived at Nuoding City's Spirit Hall with Yu Dashi.
Nuoding City's Spirit Hall was an enormous domed building. Its front alone was over a hundred meters wide, and it stood twenty meters tall, with three floors in total.
The entire building was brown, and the Spirit Hall emblem above its main entrance bore only a single longsword. From Grandmaster's earlier explanation, Tang San knew that an emblem with only one symbol meant that Nuoding City's Spirit Hall was of the lowest rank.
The two gatekeepers at the