Chen Jin withdrew his Soul Ring, his expression composed.
"I can't explain the reason to you."
Huo Wu looked at Chen Jin's calm face. Though countless questions filled her mind, she also knew that everyone had their own secrets.
Especially someone as powerful and mysterious as Chen Jin.
"All right. Since you don't want to say, I won't pry."
Huo Wu quickly composed herself.
She looked at Chen Jin, an unusual gleam flashing through her beautiful eyes.
"Since you're looking for a Soul Ring too, why don't we go together? I'm fairly familiar with this forest. Besides, I'd really like to see what sort of third Soul Ring a monster like you would choose."
Chen Jin considered it for a moment.
The Star Dou Great Forest covered an immense area. Searching blindly on his own would indeed be inefficient.
Having Huo Wu, who frequently ventured into the forest, lead the way would save him a considerable amount of time.
"All right."
Chen Jin nodded in agreement.
The two walked side by side through the dense woods.
Dappled sunlight fell upon the ground, swaying gently with the breeze.
Wrapped in red leather pants, Huo Wu's long, beautiful legs looked shapely and supple, her every step falling into a distinct rhythm.
She couldn't help stealing glances at Chen Jin beside her.
Chen Jin held himself straight, making no sound as he walked, his entire being exuding a noble, sacred aura.
He was completely different from every young Soul Master she had met before.
"Chen Jin, you said earlier that you left Shrek because your principles clashed with theirs."
Huo Wu still couldn't suppress her curiosity.
"What kind of clash in principles could make you give up on an academy?"
Chen Jin fell silent for a moment, his gaze resting on the empty space ahead.
"My Martial Soul is rather unusual. It's called the Evil Fire Phoenix."
"Evil Fire Phoenix?"
Huo Wu repeated the name, her brows drawing together slightly.
"That name sounds strange. What's special about it?"
"This Martial Soul possesses an extremely powerful evil fire. While granting a Soul Master tremendous explosive power, it also constantly erodes the host's mind and body.
"To cultivate smoothly without suffering the evil fire's backlash, you have to vent that evil fire by indulging yourself and releasing your desires."
Huo Wu froze as she listened.
Her pretty face reddened slightly as she understood what Chen Jin meant.
"Releasing your desires? You mean... through that sort of thing?"
"Yes."
Chen Jin nodded.
"But the people at Shrek believed this was merely another way to cultivate. As long as you could grow stronger, the means and the process didn't matter. They urged me to follow those desires and indulge myself."
Disgust flashed through Huo Wu's eyes.
"To think something like that happened. No wonder you left."
But Huo Wu soon looked at Chen Jin in puzzlement again.
"But on this continent where strength reigns supreme, plenty of people will stop at nothing as long as it makes them stronger.
"For Soul Masters, indulging their desires doesn't seem like such an unacceptable price, does it? Why would you rather face the danger of the evil fire's backlash than compromise?"
Huo Wu looked at Chen Jin.
As she understood it, Soul Masters were often willing to give up many things for power.
In many people's eyes, Chen Jin's insistence might have been an impractical kind of foolishness.
Chen Jin stopped walking.
Deep within his eyes, golden divine flames seemed to dance, radiating a nobility and dominance that made it impossible to look straight at him.
"If a phoenix stains itself with the mortal world's fires of desire, it is no longer worthy of soaring above the clouds of the nine heavens."
Huo Wu stood rooted to the spot.
Sunlight happened to slip through the gaps between the leaves, spilling onto Chen Jin's profile.
His features were sharply defined, his eyes clear and deep, revealing a strength of character beyond that of ordinary people.
Huo Wu's heart suddenly skipped a beat.
She stared blankly at Chen Jin, utterly lost in a daze.
In this world of Soul Masters filled with compromise and desire, she had never met anyone so pure, so proud.
For the sake of the purity in his heart, he would rather face eternal damnation than let even a trace of filth stain him.
At that moment, Chen Jin exuded a fatal allure in Huo Wu's eyes.
Throughout her life, as Blazing Fire Academy's favored prodigy, she had never lacked suitors.
Those young Soul Masters who proclaimed themselves geniuses all went to every possible length to please her.
Yet their eyes gleamed with covetousness for her beauty or longing for her background.
But Chen Jin before her.
To uphold the purity in his heart, he would rather face the agony of the evil fire's backlash than let even a trace of filth stain him.
Such strength of character, such spirit, was like a clear stream in today's filthy Soul Master World.
I... what's happening to me?
Huo Wu murmured to herself in a panic deep inside.
Her hands unconsciously clasped together, her fingertips paling slightly from the pressure.
She hurriedly lowered her head, no longer daring to meet Chen Jin's deep eyes.
A deep breath.
Another deep breath.
She drew the forest air, fragrant with grass and trees, into her lungs, trying to calm the restless heat within her.
Calm down, Huo Wu. You're a genius of Blazing Fire Academy. How can you lose your composure over a single sentence?
She admonished herself over and over in her heart.
Only after quite some time.
Did the burning heat in her face gradually fade.
Her wildly racing heartbeat finally steadied again as well.
Just as Huo Wu had put her inner turmoil to rest.
Suddenly.
A strange commotion came from deep within the dense woods in the distance.
Countless roosting birds took flight in alarm.
Their piercing cries instantly shattered the forest's silence.
Immediately afterward.
The ground began to tremble faintly.
Rumble.
A dull rumbling drew nearer from afar, accompanied by the sharp crack of snapping branches.
Chen Jin's gaze sharpened slightly, and he turned toward the sound.
Huo Wu instantly grew alert as well.
Red Soul Power silently flickered in her palm, and the Fire Shadow Martial Soul behind her showed faint signs of taking shape.
"Something's moving."
Huo Wu gave a quiet warning.
Before her words had faded.
The bushes ahead were violently torn aside.
Several enormous bodies charged out madly, trailing towering clouds of dust.
One was a Gale Leopard a full three meters long, its green fur covered in blackened scorch marks.
Behind it followed two Iron-Armored Boars, each as large as a small hill.
These Soul Beasts, which normally rampaged through the Star Dou Great Forest, now had eyes filled with utter terror.
They didn't so much as glance at Chen Jin and Huo Wu standing beside their path.
Their enormous bodies swept past the two.
Whipping up a fierce gust, they raced desperately toward the forest's outskirts.
Huo Wu watched the retreating Soul Beasts, the expression on her pretty face growing exceedingly grave.
"These Soul Beasts seem to be fleeing for their lives."
Huo Wu watched the backs of the two Iron-Armored Boars, her voice grave.
"Judging by that Iron-Armored Boar's size and the color of its armor, its cultivation is definitely no less than two thousand years."
"If even a two-thousand-year Soul Beast is this terrified, could they have encountered some terrifying being up ahead?"
Chen Jin didn't answer.
His gaze passed over the fleeing Soul Beasts toward the direction they had emerged from.
The air there was faintly distorted.
A scorching aura was slowly drifting toward them on the wind.
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