Unable to sway Tang San, Director Su could only let him kill the Mandala Snake and absorb the yellow soul ring that floated up from it.
The night passed as Director Su and Lu Yuan treated Yu Xiaogang's poison while keeping watch over his unconscious body and Tang San, who was wholly focused on absorbing his soul ring.
At sunrise, the sun brightened the eastern sky, and dawn's light spilled over the four of them. Tang San, who had finished absorbing the Mandala Snake's soul ring, and Yu Xiaogang woke one after the other.
The first thing Yu Xiaogang did upon waking was ask about Tang San's first soul skill.
Just as Lu Yuan had expected, Tang San awakened the soul skill Entanglement, getting exactly what he wanted, and openly displayed the changes to his blue silver grass martial soul.
Not only had it grown thicker and taken on a shape resembling the Mandala Snake, but it had also developed numerous poisonous markings.
Tang San flaunted his progress before Lu Yuan, but Lu Yuan showed no interest whatsoever, which infuriated him.
Then Tang San remembered that Director Su and Lu Yuan seemed to have seen him using the Tang Sect Hidden Weapons. Killing intent surged in his heart, but he was no match for Director Su yet and could only swallow it for now.
"Lu Yuan, you should give some serious thought to how you intend to walk your path as a soul master. Constantly relying on external things, especially the power of soul bones, will never work in the end. You'll walk yourself into a dead end."
As though suddenly seized by some illness, Yu Xiaogang began lecturing Lu Yuan. Tang San secretly nodded along beside him, his eyes full of disdain for Lu Yuan.
Lu Yuan's face was a picture of utter bewilderment. A moment later, he realized that when Tang San had seen Yu Xiaogang again, he must have told him, out of genuine confusion, how Lu Yuan had cultivated from Level 0.5 Innate Soul Power to rank ten in roughly a year.
Yu Xiaogang certainly could not have guessed that Lu Yuan had a cheat, so he could only explain the phenomenon by assuming Lu Yuan had absorbed a soul bone.
Director Su also caught the implication in Yu Xiaogang's words.
"Yu Xiaogang, what are you talking about? I personally examined Lu Yuan's physical condition. His soul power is unquestionably rank ten, and he hasn't absorbed any soul bone. If I'd known this would happen, I wouldn't have saved you. I'd have left you two, especially a useless fool like you, to face that Mandala Snake and fend for yourselves."
"Director Su, there's no need to explain anything to them." Lu Yuan held back the furious Director Su. Getting angry here would do nothing to this shameless master-and-disciple pair. Finding a suitable soul beast to kill for his first soul ring was more important.
"You-hmph! Who asked you to save us? Even without you, Little San could have driven off that Mandala Snake by himself."
Naturally, Director Su did not know that Tang San really had that ability. After his unpleasant quarrel with Yu Xiaogang, they went their separate ways.
Tang San and Yu Xiaogang left the Soul Hunting Forest, while Lu Yuan and Director Su continued searching for their target.
"Hm? Su Yuntao, Sisi, what are you two doing here?"
In the soul beast forest, Lu Yuan and Director Su encountered two familiar faces from the Spirit Hall Branch in Nuoding City: Su Yuntao and Sisi, both half-hidden in a thicket.
"Shh!"
Su Yuntao and Sisi gestured for the two of them to be quiet, then waved Lu Yuan and Director Su over.
Only after Lu Yuan and Director Su concealed themselves in the thicket did they realize they were on a hillside. Looking down from their vantage point, they saw quite a spectacle unfolding between soul beasts beside a small stream in the distance.
A thick but battered azure vine was locked in a strangling struggle with the dodder wound around its body. Beside the two plant soul beasts, a pink-and-white Rouge Fox had also joined the fray, seemingly hoping to profit as the fisherman while the snipe and clam fought.
"Sisi broke through to rank twenty, so I came with her to the Soul Hunting Forest to hunt a soul beast for her second soul ring. We happened upon this scene."
"That thousand-year azure vine seems to have been gravely wounded by another soul beast of the same level. Then the dodder and that Rouge Fox decided to take advantage of it. And you two want to watch the mantis stalk the cicada while you play the oriole waiting behind."
"Yes." Sisi nodded.
"That Rouge Fox is a little over five hundred years old. Its age is a bit low, but it's just right for the second soul ring of Sisi's fox martial soul," Su Yuntao explained.
One dying thousand-year soul beast and two hundred-year soul beasts-even Director Su, a Soul Elder, did not dare provoke such a lineup lightly.
After all, this was an internal battle between soul beasts. It was neither a huge affair nor a trivial one. If Director Su's appearance caused all three to unite against an outside enemy, even he would struggle to handle them.
"Lu Yuan, look at that dodder, the one that's over four hundred years old. Doesn't it look like your first soul ring?"
Director Su teased Lu Yuan.
"Director Su, you mean...?"
"Let's go with that one."
After Director Su settled on the soul beast for Lu Yuan's first soul ring, the four quietly watched the battle between the three soul beasts below.
When the dodder and azure vine had fought each other to the brink of death, the Rouge Fox stepped forward, hoping to kill two birds with one stone.
Unexpectedly, the two plant soul beasts suddenly united against their outside foe, extending their vines and swiftly binding the Rouge Fox, who had lowered her guard and could not react in time.
The Rouge Fox's body and limbs were instantly crushed and twisted beyond recognition. All she could do was let out agonized howls.
Suddenly, a sliver of light descended from the sky, instantly severing the dodder's and azure vine's tendrils and kicking up a cloud of grass and grit that obscured their vision.
With nothing left to support her, the Rouge Fox crashed to the ground. Tears glistened in her eyes as she lay sprawled there, her limbs broken.
Director Su's figure gradually emerged from the dust. With a flip of the bronze spear in his hand, he swept it fiercely across the portions of the dodder and azure vine rooted in the ground.
Bang!
The thick main stems of the dodder and azure vine were instantly slashed most of the way through, sending sap flying. Only a few green fibers that Director Su had deliberately spared kept their two halves connected, leaving them half-dead.
"All done." Director Su looked up at the hillside and shouted to Lu Yuan, Su Yuntao, and Sisi.
"You can come down, kill the soul beasts, and take their soul rings now."
Delighted, Lu Yuan and the other two slid all the way down to the stream amid a trail of dust and grit.
"Thank you for your help, Director Su."
Su Yuntao and Sisi bowed to Director Su in gratitude, then went to deal with the Rouge Fox, who was utterly powerless to resist.
"Here." Director Su handed Lu Yuan a deep-blue knife specially made for finishing off soul beasts.
"Lu Yuan, use this knife to sever the dodder's roots. Then follow the steps you learned in class for absorbing a soul beast's soul ring. Absorb your first soul ring and become a soul master."
"Mm." Lu Yuan took the blue knife from Director Su and walked toward the entwined dodder and azure vine, both already halfway through death's door.
Crack-
"Hm? Lu Yuan, you cut the wrong one. The thinner one is the dodder."
What Lu Yuan had finished off with a single cut was not the four-hundred-year-old dodder, but the azure vine, which was over a thousand years old.
Lu Yuan glanced at Su Yuntao and Sisi, his gaze deep and unreadable. They had already slit the Rouge Fox's throat, and Sisi was sitting cross-legged with her eyes closed, beginning to absorb the yellow soul ring of the Rouge Fox, which was not quite six hundred years old.
"There's no mistake."
Copying Sisi's posture, Lu Yuan closed his eyes and sat cross-legged, concentrating wholeheartedly on drawing in and absorbing the purple soul ring that had emerged after the azure vine's death.
"Lu Yuan!!!"