The Ancient Void Dragon was extraordinarily sensitive to anything related to space, such as spatial restrictions, small worlds, and spatial barriers...
Following the pull of his martial soul, Li Mingzhu quickly reached the source of the spatial fluctuations.
Before him lay an empty plain with not a damn thing on it, apart from a few blades of wild grass swaying in the breeze.
The sight left Li Mingzhu deeply puzzled.
When he first felt the pull, Li Mingzhu had thought some treasure like void marrow was waiting for him to scoop it up.
Li Mingzhu thought, My martial soul is reacting most strongly here. I should have the right place!
Then Li Mingzhu activated Martial Soul Possession and fully expanded his domain, surveying his surroundings through that faint sensation.
Only after observing for a long while did Li Mingzhu begin to make sense of it. The space over the plain seemed completely different in strength from the surrounding space.
To borrow an expression from his previous life, it was "a round heaven over a square earth."
The plain was roughly quadrilateral, with four upright sides and a hemispherical barrier enclosing the sky above.
With Martial Soul Possession active, Li Mingzhu used his domain to discover numerous overlapping images on the plain, as though two worlds, one large and one small, had been layered together.
The plain Li Mingzhu saw was merely the surface. To see what was actually pulling at his martial soul, he would have to break through the spatial barrier over it.
After observing for a long time, Li Mingzhu understood completely. The plain was actually the entrance to a secret realm, and entering it required breaking through the spatial barrier at its entrance.
This spatial barrier could also be considered a spatial ward. With his Ancient Void Dragon martial soul and that faint spatial pull, Li Mingzhu could sneak straight through it!
Looking at the empty plain, Li Mingzhu knew he would gain nothing here, so he turned to leave the Soul Hunting Forest.
Although he could slip into the secret realm, he was only a One-Ring Soul Master right now. Who the hell knew what dangers lurked inside? How could his scrawny little arms and legs withstand them?
If he went in, never mind being imprisoned like Zhu Kun in Battle Through the Heavens-he would be lucky just to stay alive!
And so, Li Mingzhu's figure gradually disappeared from the area.
Li Mingzhu raced toward the Soul Hunting Forest's exit at full speed, no longer bothering to pay attention to the soul beasts.
Surely he couldn't run into another absurdly overpowered monster like the Sun Man-Eating Flower!
Nearly all the soul beasts with extraordinary bloodlines in the Soul Hunting Forest had died out a thousand years ago. The soul beasts here now had ordinary bloodlines. A Sun Man-Eating Flower appearing was a once-in-a-hundred-thousand-years occurrence, and it required no small amount of favorable timing and human influence.
Besides, as Li Mingzhu withdrew toward the forest's edge, he wouldn't encounter any high-ranking soul beasts.
Li Mingzhu glanced at the map in his hand. Seeing that the exit wasn't far away, he slowed down.
As time passed, night gradually fell.
The closer he came to the exit, the more the bustle and firelight of the market outside reached him.
After so much running around, Li Mingzhu was utterly exhausted. All he wanted now was to spend a night at an inn in the market.
It didn't take Li Mingzhu long to reach the forest's exit. He handed his Soul Hunting Writ to the guards stationed there, then proceeded to the market without incident.
He found an ordinary tavern in the market and heard calls drifting out before he even entered.
Li Mingzhu pushed the door open and walked straight to the counter.
The clerk sat behind the counter and greeted Li Mingzhu with a friendly smile.
"Will you be dining or staying the night?"
"A room!"
"And send some food up to my room afterward."
After registering him, the clerk said, "That will be eighty-five Gold Soul Coins in total."
"Holy shit, that expensive?"
Li Mingzhu scrutinized the clerk, trying to see whether the old bastard was deliberately swindling him!
Finding the clerk's expression perfectly normal and apparently genuine, he promptly paid.
After accepting the money, the clerk looked at the young child before him and seemed to feel a prick of conscience.
He leaned toward Li Mingzhu's ear and said softly, "Be careful, young guest. Don't wander around at night. There are people who'll rob you."
Seeing the clerk's suddenly serious expression, Li Mingzhu firmly committed the warning to memory.
Then an attendant led him to a guest room on the third floor.
He looked around the room and found it reasonably decent. At least he didn't feel as though he had thrown his money into the water.
Sitting on a square wooden stool, he thought about the clerk's words. Back at the counter, he had already sensed several gazes fixed on him.
Meanwhile, at a drinking table on the first floor.
"Boss, did you see that kid? He forked over eighty-five Gold Soul Coins without even blinking!"
A skinny, monkey-like man drew a hand across his throat.
"Boss, I followed him upstairs and found out he's alone," he said. "Why don't we make a move and let the boys have some fun?"
Their leader was a burly bald man with a centipede-like scar stretching from the corner of his eye down to his neck. He radiated menace.
After hearing him out, he took a sip of wine.
He pondered for a moment, then told the men around him, "Sixth, none of you are to touch him!"
The skinny man called Sixth looked at his boss in confusion. "Why, boss? He's a fat sheep ripe for the slaughter! Let him get away, and we won't find another!"
The bald man slapped Sixth on the back of the head, sending him stumbling.
Frustrated at his failure to shape up, he said, "You've followed me for so long, yet you still haven't learned to read a situation!"
"Think about it. Did that kid take his money out of a bag?"
"What could make Gold Soul Coins appear out of thin air, besides the Space Soul Tools high-ranking Soul Masters carry?"
"And that kid's so young, yet he dared to come here alone. He's probably not someone we should mess with."
"Boss, he's so young. No matter how tough he is, could he really beat all of us?"
"We could just grab his Space Soul Tool and let the boys get a look at that treasure!"
As he spoke, the monkey-like Sixth hunched his back and rubbed his hands together. His cloudy eyes kept roaming over the serving girl's body, and he repeatedly licked his thick lips, his ingratiating grin squeezing his face into layers of wrinkles.
"Grab it, my ass!"
Sixth's words enraged the bald boss so much that he kicked him flying.
"Do you think I'm worried about his age? What else would a child that young come to the Soul Hunting Forest for, besides obtaining a Soul Ring?"
"Who but a major power could raise a Soul Master that young?!"
"I, Ding Qiang, traveled far and wide in my youth. I've seen a thing or two!"
"Only people from those so-called Spirit Hall, Upper Three Sects, and Lower Four Sects have geniuses like that."
"Besides, the people from those sects are each more domineering and vindictive than the last."
"Back then, I watched a Soul Emperor from the Clear Sky Sect insist he wanted an opponent to hone his skills against. He used his sect's influence to force a Soul Saint into sparring with him. That Soul Saint had a flying martial soul. Once he flew into the air, the Clear Sky Hammer couldn't reach him at all."
"The two remained at an impasse for ages before finally calling a truce. The instant that Soul Saint landed, the Soul Emperor smashed him into meat paste with his Clear Sky Hammer."
"City folk are so underhanded! (Just playing with a meme.)"
Everyone drew a sharp breath after hearing that.
Unfortunately, that Soul Saint had no powerful backing. No one cared even after he died.
"Oh, right. I think that Soul Saint came from around here." (Feel free to guess.)
"It was precisely because the outside world was so dangerous that I came running back!"
"Besides, geniuses like him usually have elders or guardians accompanying them. If we dared to make a move, we probably wouldn't even know how we died."
"And you want to steal his Space Soul Tool? Are things like that meant for the likes of us? Watch out, or you'll bring disaster down on your own head!"
Before you continue