Thank Goodness for the Blue Silver Emperor Right Leg Bone!

"Charm!" In his urgency, Zhu Wu hurriedly unleashed Charm, his eyes glowing purple.

The tiger's body instantly froze, standing there in a daze.

As expected, mental attributes are my strong suit. As Zhu Wu steadied himself, he kicked the tiger in the nose with all his strength, sending the Giant Tiger stumbling backward and crashing to the ground. At that moment, the Giant Tiger snapped awake from the pain and immediately scrambled up and fled.

It did not even spare Zhu Wu a glance. Realistic enough.

In the world of soul beasts, once one was injured, the scent of blood drifting through the air could easily attract other predators. Therefore, aside from those with particularly savage temperaments or truly low intelligence, soul beasts generally stopped when they had gone far enough. Zhu Wu understood this as well.

Not just in the world of soul beasts—even ordinary animals in his previous life mostly followed this rule of survival.

"Though its intelligence hasn't fully awakened, it has still lived for several hundred years. It has its survival instincts."

Shaking his head, he did not intend to pursue it. Instead, he withdrew his Martial Soul Possession, took Little White up into a tree, and sat on a branch to regulate his breathing while sinking into thought.

"My physical strength really is quite good. I can even contend with a strength-type soul beast like a tiger. In the human world, I'm probably already comparable to a strong-attack-type Soul Grandmaster." Soul beasts possessed constitutions far beyond those of humans. Though the Brindled Tiger was merely an average-bloodline strength-type soul beast with only six hundred years of cultivation, even a Soul Elder would not dare to trade fists and palms head-on with it. One careless mistake, and being disemboweled would be no joke.

"So compared to physical combat, mental abilities seem more likely to give me an advantage."

He could not help but think to himself.

"Mental Interference, Mental Shock, Mental Confusion—these are all abilities that won't cause backlash. If I can obtain them, I can use them to disrupt an enemy before closing in to attack. That would undoubtedly reduce the risks a great deal. And if my spiritual power becomes strong enough, a random illusion technique or Charm could control someone to death, or a single Mental Shock could blast the other side into a White idiot. That would be even easier."

"Even if my spiritual power isn't especially strong, the boost to perception and insight can still give me the initiative. For example, I could observe an enemy's body movements to predict their next move in advance, prepare a response early, or even turn defense into a counterattack and defeat them in one strike."

For some reason, Zhu Wu thought of the Sharingan from an anime in his previous life. When he was young, he had quite liked Itachi. Now, though, he only felt that the guy was a white-eyed wolf.

Knowing full well that his clan was being excluded and even deliberately targeted, instead of helping them resist, he thought, It's only one village. If it comes down to it, can't we just move? Yet Itachi's idea had been to slaughter his entire clan, including his parents.

What kind of bizarre thought process was that?

"Come to think of it, I have the Vajra Power Exercise to train my body and the Longevity Exercise to cultivate my spirit. I cultivate both body and mind. If I master mental abilities and further develop my Martial Soul's Illusion Transformation ability, wouldn't I become a super-enhanced version of Itachi? At worst, I could go fifty-fifty with Kakashi, right?" At that thought, he opened his eyes and rubbed his chin.

"The key is, how do I develop them? That's the problem!"

"Forget it. I should first become proficient in my existing Martial Soul abilities. I can't neglect close-quarters combat either. It could save my life at a critical moment, and physical combat is also a process of improving control over my body. For now, I can focus on observing opponents' movements and predicting their attacks. A towering building rises from level ground. I need to lay a solid foundation first."

With that thought, he calmed his mind and focused on recovering.

After some time, he opened his eyes, jumped down from the tree, and continued inward.

Before long, he encountered soul beasts again—a pack of Green Wolves, all over five hundred years old. Zhu Wu immediately took flight and ran.

Two fists could not beat four hands, much less a pack of wolves. He truly could not afford to provoke them, nor was there any need to.

At this stage, his task was to find soul beasts for one-on-one fights, sharpen his reaction speed, hand-to-hand combat ability, and bodily control, while also helping Little White search for herbs. As for everything else, it was best to avoid it whenever possible.

One versus many was something to consider after becoming more experienced.

At least, he had enough self-awareness to know that much.

Two quarter-hours later, he landed on the ground and came face-to-face with a five-hundred-year Wind Baboon.

It was a humanoid soul beast. At the century level, its abilities leaned toward close combat, but its attack power was not particularly strong. Zhu Wu immediately had a contest between men with it.

In the end, he narrowly won thanks to his excellent resistance to blows.

"Maybe I should first find soul beasts like Wind Baboons, ones with average offensive abilities and no attacks capable of killing in a single blow, and use them for practice to gain combat experience." His fight with the Wind Baboon had undoubtedly given Zhu Wu tremendous inspiration.

Not fearing death did not mean seeking death.

Progressing step by step was the proper path.

As soon as he thought of it, he did it. After healing his injuries, Zhu Wu immediately set off.

From then on, the century-level soul beast area gained an unkillable cockroach that specialized in picking fights with medium and small soul beasts of average offensive ability, as well as a shameless herb thief.

With a goal in mind, coupled with his fearless, pain-defying drive, Zhu Wu naturally improved at a rapid pace.

"Hiss, again!" Wounds continuously appeared on Zhu Wu's body, then were continuously healed. Day after day passed in this repeating cycle, until four months later, deep within the century-level soul beast living area.

"Thank goodness for the Blue Silver Emperor Right Leg Bone." Zhu Wu gently touched the bone-deep wound on his chest and sighed inwardly.

After spending the first two months sparring with soul beasts that lacked strong offensive abilities, he had accumulated a fair amount of combat experience and was no longer the rookie he had been when he first entered. Because of this, he began seeking stronger and more aggressive soul beasts to fight. Just now, while in Martial Soul Possession, he had defeated a nine-hundred-year Saber-Toothed Wolf. It excelled in speed and was not lacking in strength either.

The key was that it possessed the Berserk skill. Its desire to attack had truly been intense.

The result, however, had not been ideal. Though he had won, he had also taken a claw strike solidly. The wolf's speed had indeed exceeded his expectations. Even his eyes had struggled to keep up, and by the end they had become somewhat dry. The moment he blinked, the wolf seized the opportunity.

And in the past two months, he had encountered this kind of battle many times.

"Ah, it seems I'll still have to rely on explosives to hunt my second soul ring."

Millennium soul beasts were a qualitative leap above century soul beasts. He did not believe he could defeat one in a one-on-one fight.

Besides, he wanted his second soul ring to have a top-tier mental attribute.

"So where is Tian Meng? Is he being watched too closely by Ferocious Beasts? Or has he simply not come to the Star Dou Great Forest to be captured yet? Or perhaps he can't escape because his cultivation hasn't reached a million years? I'm a mental-attribute Soul Master sitting right here, yet he hasn't come looking for me!"

"Or maybe he doesn't think I'm good enough?" Shaking his head, he activated the Blue Silver Emperor leg bone's ability to heal his injuries.

As the energy entered his body, a cool and comfortable sensation quickly spread through the wound. Looking down, he saw that it had already stopped bleeding.

"My Soul Power is already level nineteen. At my current cultivation speed, I should need at most another month to break through to level twenty. I can't keep wasting time in this outer century-level soul beast living area. Next, I need to venture deeper into the Millennium Soul Beast Living Area to search."

Thinking this, he quietly waited for his injuries to recover.

Half a quarter-hour later, his injuries had fully healed. After sitting down to regulate his breathing for a while longer, Zhu Wu turned his head and spoke.

"Little White, Martial Soul Possession!"

Before long, he transformed into the nine-hundred-year Saber-Toothed Wolf he had defeated earlier and ran deeper inside.

Recently, he had been traveling in this manner, transforming into different soul beasts as he searched for other soul beasts to fight. The reason was simple: he wanted to further understand his Martial Soul's Illusion Transformation ability. At the same time, he wanted to grasp the traits of different soul beasts and their methods of battle.

Switching to beast form for battle was also one of his Martial Soul abilities.

And if he wanted to familiarize himself with this style of combat, he naturally had to personally experience what it felt like to truly become a soul beast. Or even become the leader of a soul beast pack.

Not long ago, he had transformed into a Netherworld Wolf and successfully taken over as leader by challenging the former leader. He had experienced what it felt like to command a pack of soul beasts. He led them hunting and led them into battle, just like a true wolf pack leader. Then the female wolves in the pack kept rubbing against him and flaunting themselves before him whenever they could. In less than a few days, he could not take it anymore and ran away.

Moreover, at his current cultivation level, even transforming into a smaller soul beast species could not be sustained for long. He had to transform back and forth several times a day, which he found truly troublesome and a waste of time.

"I'll wait until my cultivation is higher and I can last longer, then find a soul beast pack and properly indulge my desire to be a leader."

Soon, sensing danger instinctively, he immediately stopped and transformed into a Cockscomb Phoenix-Tailed Serpent to fly up and investigate.

It was a millennium-level Scaled Armor Beast.

After sweeping his gaze over it and memorizing its appearance, he landed some distance away, transformed into a Scaled Armor Beast, and continued onward.

P.S. This was a transition chapter, and it was a bit watered down, but I felt it was necessary. I originally wanted to write about the protagonist and his Martial Soul teaming up to swindle soul beasts out of their herbs, but after thinking about it, I decided against it.