Target Search

Chen Ping had a clear idea of the quality of his own martial soul.

A willow wood staff was just the sort of handy thing a father used to discipline his son. It hurt when it struck, but it could barely even leave a hidden injury.

Put plainly, the staff was soft and flimsy. It might knock someone down, but beating someone to death with it would take some doing.

Even the farmers in the village who awakened sickles or hoes at least had a piece of iron on their martial souls. A blow to someone's head could still split it open.

If its base stats were measured on the scale of plant-type soul beasts, the Willow Wood Staff ranked slightly above the Blue Silver Grass martial soul, but only by an utterly insignificant sliver.

Yet the Blue Silver Grass martial soul at least offered a genuine possibility of switching to a support role. With the Willow Wood Staff martial soul, becoming a power attack system soul master really was the only path available.

Chen Ping's original plan had been to hunt an Ironclad Cocoon.

Not only would that give him a soul skill for instant hardening, but it would also slightly increase his martial soul's hardness. At the very least, a blow ought to be able to damage tendons and bones.

But after Chen Ping unlocked movement meditation, he felt he might be able to revise his plans.

Before I unlocked movement meditation, I traded blows with you head-on, staff against blade. If I still fucking trade blows with you after unlocking movement meditation, then what the fuck did I unlock it for?

After walking for most of the morning, Chen Ping had more or less entered the outer region of the Star Dou Forest.

Breathing in the fresh fragrance of the surrounding woodland, Chen Ping checked his academic genius points-a solid four-digit sum already approaching five digits-and felt his spirits soar.

"System, time to spend!"

"Spend academic genius points to work out which soul beast would produce the soul ring best suited to combining movement meditation with soul fighting. Send me its location directly."

The next moment, a bill for thirty thousand academic genius points in analysis fees popped up before Chen Ping.

Chen Ping: ...

He knew it. He was still a pauper through and through.

"Set the targets to soul beasts in the western part of the Star Dou Forest's outer region. They must be able to provide my martial soul with a soul skill that has an effect like 'poison coating' or 'poison application.'"

Frowning, Chen Ping added further conditions one by one. "Ideally, absorbing the soul beast's ring should increase my own agility to some extent and add some toughness to my martial soul."

"Prioritize vine-type and tree-type plant soul beasts, such as Antiaris Toxicaria. For animal-type soul beasts, prioritize shelled creatures and snakes..."

At this point, the general knowledge of soul beasts Chen Ping had studied under the system's prodding came in handy.

Before the system ran its search, Chen Ping could use his own understanding of martial souls and soul beasts to narrow down the broad categories.

That reduced the academic genius points consumed by the system's search.

Previously, Chen Ping had spent five thousand points to commission a simplified edition of Five Years of Soul Hunting, Three Years of Mock Tests from the system.

That was the foundation on which Chen Ping made his living selling soul skill combinations and soul beast hunting recommendations.

Beyond the system's assistance, the fact that Chen Ping could talk to others without exposing his ignorance-and even offer a few pointers from a commanding vantage point that won their wholehearted respect-was thanks to his own work grinding through that study guide.

As Chen Ping filtered the options with one condition after another, the system's search workload instantly shrank by who knew how many times.

The cost dropped straight from thirty thousand points to a little over two thousand. Chen Ping wanted to add a few more restrictions.

Unfortunately, he only had so much ink in his belly. He really could not narrow it down any further, so he had to leave it at that.

Chen Ping had always been very curious about the origins of his system.

The system was easy to talk to about other matters, but it remained deeply secretive about its own origins.

Whenever Chen Ping asked about that subject, the system tried to act cute and muddle its way through, asking whether he wanted to watch a sexy dance.

Chen Ping was not particularly obsessed with the matter. He could be certain of one thing: this system absolutely could not be Tang San's handiwork.

With Tang San's stubborn devotion to antiquated ideas, if he could create a system capable of discussing damage formulas for Douluo soul masters with him, Chen Ping would wash his hair while standing on his head.

Besides, although the system had taken years to activate, it had genuinely helped him a great deal. That was enough.

Watching another two thousand-plus academic genius points vanish in a flash, Chen Ping felt a pang of pain.

According to the system, there was something unusual about his martial soul, and he needed to spend points on an analysis before it could reach a definite conclusion.

As for how many points... ten thousand.

Money-grubbing bastard!

Chen Ping cursed inwardly and waited quite a while before the system finally finished its search.

Chen Ping began browsing the recommended options the system had found. The results on the very first page nearly made him lose his composure.

[Recommended soul beast to hunt: Demon-Eyed Tree]

[Attributes: wood, poison, mental]

[Age: 1,101 years]

[Location: northern outer region of the Star Dou Forest, west side of Big Butt Mountain, within Whistling Wind Valley]

[Possible soul skills produced after hunting: Poison Staff, Deadly Toxin, Paralyzing Toxin, Multi-Staff, Wood Demon Dance...]

Is... is this right?

This can't be right, can it?

Why do these soul skills you listed look a little familiar?

Chen Ping gave a wry smile. Were the soul skills produced by a Demon-Eyed Tree good? They were fantastic!

After reading the first recommended soul beast, he could barely tear his eyes away.

Even without looking, Chen Ping knew that compared with a Demon-Eyed Tree, the soul skills produced by the other soul beasts farther down the list would probably qualify as rotten fish and putrid shrimp.

But even setting aside the fact that the Demon-Eyed Tree's age far exceeded the limit of the soul ring he could absorb, its species alone gave Chen Ping reason to weigh his options carefully.

Just because Huo Yuhao had once killed a thousand-year Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear in the Star Dou Forest in the original story did not mean hunting the offspring of a ferocious beast's own species carried no risk.

Chen Ping did not know how dangerous it would be to kill a Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear of Xiong Jun's species.

But standing behind the Demon-Eyed Tree species was the Myriad Demon King, a plant-type ferocious beast.

Even Tang San's Blue Silver Emperor martial soul could turn all the blue silver grass in the Star Dou Forest into his eyes and ears after he activated Myriad Manifestations, while also using the blue silver grass to conceal himself.

Could the Myriad Demon King, with several hundred thousand years of cultivation, really fail to keep watch over one of his offspring growing in the outer region?

Chen Ping did not think that was realistic.

In any case, this Demon-Eyed Tree was not about to sprout legs and run away, so Chen Ping was not particularly impatient.

Even if he wanted this fellow's soul ring, he would at least need to make every possible preparation first.

After all, this was still a thousand-year Demon-Eyed Tree.

Even without the Myriad Demon King watching over it or any bodyguards he had arranged nearby, it would not be easy to deal with, even standing there all alone.

A Demon-Eyed Tree's combat strength might not be as outrageous as a Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear's-a Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear with only a few hundred years of cultivation could seize a soul beast just over ten thousand years old and beat it senseless.

But the actual combat strength of a thousand-year Demon-Eyed Tree probably would not fall below that of an ordinary ten-thousand-year soul beast, no matter how he looked at it.

With a thought, Chen Ping removed every soul beast older than five hundred years from the analysis results.

Although he had never neglected training his body, he had ultimately awakened the system too late.

Even now, the upper limit for the first soul ring Chen Ping could absorb was only five hundred years.