Soul Hunting Forest

Grandmaster was in no hurry to leave the city. Instead, he led Tang San farther into it.

"Grandmaster, aren't we leaving the city? Why are you taking Tang San farther in?" Xiao Yan asked, puzzled.

Grandmaster said, "I'm going to prepare some things we'll need to hunt soul beasts."

As the sun gradually rose in the east, more and more pedestrians filled Nuoding City's streets. The city grew lively, with all sorts of vendors hawking their wares.

Grandmaster's preparations were simple. He bought four leather waterskins, along with some rabbit meat, flatbread, and fruit.

Finally, he bought a full twenty jin of white radishes.

"Teacher, why did you buy so many white radishes?" Tang San asked breathlessly, struggling to hold a large bundle of them.

At the sight, Mang Tianchi's mouth twitched. Remembering how Grandmaster's martial soul, Luo Sanpao, attacked, he hurried to buy several masks.

Grandmaster did not answer Tang San. A bitter tinge crept into his smile as he murmured, "Little San, I'll explain that later."

Once everything was ready, Dean Mang Tianchi hired a carriage in the city, and the group set off for the Soul Hunting Forest northeast of Nuoding City.

The carriage was spacious, with more than enough room for four or five people.

On the way, Grandmaster took a belt from inside his clothes and handed it to Tang San. "Little San, this is for you."

The belt was blue all over, with dark red stripes. Twenty-four milky-white jade stones were set evenly along its length, each round and about the size of an adult's thumb.

"Thank you, Teacher." Tang San accepted without any hesitation, reaching out to take the belt.

In his previous life in the Tang Sect, Tang San had seen elders give greeting gifts when taking on disciples. He believed Grandmaster's gift of this belt carried the same meaning.

As the saying went, a gift bestowed by an elder must not be refused.

Gifts bestowed by Tang Sect elders must not be refused; the Tang Sect's "ways of courting death," which called for killing people at the drop of a hat-Tang San remembered these things that benefited him with perfect clarity.

But when had he ever remembered that outer disciples of the Tang Sect were forbidden from secretly learning its inner disciples' cultivation methods?

Tang San had been twenty-nine when he leaped off the cliff and crossed into another world, and he had spent twenty years creating the Buddha's Fury Tang Lotus. In other words, he had already stolen the Tang Sect's secret inner manuals at the age of nine.

In fact, it might have happened even earlier!

Why say that? Because the Tang Sect's secret inner manuals certainly weren't cabbages lying around for anyone to take. They could not possibly have been left completely unguarded. And since Tang San had managed to remain undiscovered for twenty years after stealing them, he must have long since worked through the stages of "conceiving the idea-forming a plan-carrying out the theft."

Moreover, according to Tang San's own account, Old Master Tang had brought him back to the Tang Sect while he was still an infant in swaddling clothes. He had grown up there; the Tang Sect was his home. Yet this very person had gone and stolen its secret inner manuals before he was even nine.

Good grief, wasn't he an ungrateful wolf through and through?

The four-hundred-li journey was neither especially long nor especially short. It was not until noon the following day that they reached their destination-the Soul Hunting Forest.

Xiao Yan stepped down from the carriage, only to discover that the Soul Hunting Forest was nothing like he had imagined. It looked more like an enormous marketplace.

Cries rose one after another:

"We have a permit! Forming a group to hunt a hundred-year soul beast, a Wind Baboon! Four more needed!"

"Hunting strength-type soul beasts! Five people waiting for someone with a permit! Ten gold soul coins!"

"..."

There were many more calls like these.

The marketplace was terribly noisy, and Xiao Yan soon walked out of it. When he saw the great forest before him, a faint azure glow surged from his right hand.

"My martial soul seems to be reacting? What's going on? Could it be..." Xiao Yan froze for a moment.

An enormous steel fence encircled the Soul Hunting Forest. It stood at least ten meters high and looked extremely sturdy.

Outside the fence, more than a hundred soldiers patrolled the area.

At some point, a token had appeared in Dean Mang Tianchi's hand. A strange design was carved into the pitch-black token, composed of three images: a silver sword in the center, flanked by a black hammer and a blue dragon.

After glancing at the markings on the token, the soldier responsible for checking permits hurriedly ordered the others to open a passage, allowing Xiao Yan and his companions into the Soul Hunting Forest.

Once they entered the Soul Hunting Forest, Grandmaster's previously listless eyes suddenly brightened, and he formed a hand seal before his chest:

"Luo Sanpao! Come out!"

Two yellow soul rings rose from beneath Grandmaster's feet. A ripple of soul power spread from his body, and a purple light flashed as a creature resembling both a pig and a dog appeared before them.

Luo Sanpao had pale purple hair, large drooping ears, and a pair of big, deep-blue eyes. His body was about as long as his waist was around, making him look exactly like a dog even fatter than a pig.

Grandmaster had been born into the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan. His martial soul should originally have mutated from a Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon into a Golden Sacred Dragon. Unfortunately, his own aptitude was so poor, with only half a rank of innate soul power, that he simply could not withstand the tremendous energy of the Golden Sacred Dragon martial soul.

That was what had caused the martial soul mutation to fail, turning it into Luo Sanpao, who resembled both a pig and a dog.

It really did bear out his own words: there were no trash martial souls, only trash soul masters. Grandmaster's martial soul had not originally been a trash martial soul, but he himself was so useless that he had ultimately dragged it down with him.

The Golden Sacred Dragon had become Pig-Dog Luo Sanpao. He had thoroughly insulted himself.

Looking at the little dog before him, fatter than a pig, Xiao Yan could not hold back. His composure shattered, and he burst out laughing.

Hearing Xiao Yan's laughter, Grandmaster, whose pride was particularly strong, felt that he was mocking him. He asked sternly, "What's so funny?"

"Nothing, Grandmaster. I just think your martial soul is adorable." With that, Xiao Yan crouched down and gently stroked Luo Sanpao as though petting a dog.

"Xiao Yan, what are your thoughts on martial souls? What do you think a martial soul is?" Dean Mang Tianchi asked him.

Xiao Yan blinked and looked up at Mang Tianchi. "Dean, I think the martial souls of this world should be part of our bodies. Or perhaps they're our own selves, existing in another form."

Mang Tianchi was somewhat surprised by his answer. "For you to grasp that at your age is truly impressive. A martial soul is part of our body. More precisely, our physical selves and our martial souls are twins to begin with."

"And cultivating a martial soul means letting it grow alongside us. Only when, one day, you discover the true heart of this twin of yours and prove yourself to it through your actions-only when it accepts you completely-will you truly be able to unleash its power."

P.S. Please send monthly votes and recommendation votes.