"Hundred-year Netherworld Bamboo, I finally found you!"
A bamboo over twenty meters tall swayed gently in the wind, reflected in Lin Kong's feverish eyes. His breathing grew rapid, hot breaths of excitement streaming from his mouth and nose.
The hundred-year Soul Ring he had long awaited was right before his eyes. For countless commoner Soul Masters without backing, this was something they only dared imagine in their dreams.
After all, the Nuoding City Junior Soul Master Academy was just an ordinary academy. The city had no noteworthy clans or factions, and its headmaster, a Soul Ancestor in the forties, ranked among the strongest in the entire city. One could easily imagine how little substance the other experts had.
Most descendants of these experts awakened with level-three or level-four innate Soul Power.
As for the descendants of other Soul Masters, the vast majority had level-one innate Soul Power, or level two if they were a little better. These Soul Masters could never break through to level thirty in their lifetimes.
Was there any need for people like these to get a hundred-year Soul Ring?
No!
Even if the academy's teachers could form a team and enter the Soul Hunting Forest to obtain a suitable hundred-year Soul Ring for every student, no teacher would do so.
In a word: these students had such poor aptitude that giving them hundred-year Soul Rings would only be a waste.
But for Tang San, a Blue Silver Grass Soul Master with innate full Soul Power, the headmaster had personally gone out to help him obtain a suitable hundred-year Soul Ring as his second Soul Ring.
Only if you had potential and a future would others willingly lend you a hand. Otherwise, even carrying Gold Soul Coins, you would not get through the door.
This was precisely why Xiao Chenyu, the city lord's son, had been casually given a ten-year Soul Ring by his family.
A hundred-year Soul Ring?
You weren't worthy!
"You all think I'm unworthy of a hundred-year Soul Ring, and none of you are willing to help me. Then I'll get a hundred-year Soul Ring through my own strength!"
Lin Kong's eyes nearly spat fire.
He remembered something from before: his classmates had been boasting and chatting in class. Someone said he wanted a Soul Ring just over a hundred years old, and the others grew increasingly extravagant-two hundred years, three hundred years, a hundred-year Titan Giant Ape, a hundred-year Tyrant Dragon...
While everyone was happily boasting.
Tang San walked into the classroom with perfect timing, a faint sneer on his lips, and swept a contemptuous glance over everyone. His lofty, superior manner instantly doused their enthusiasm for boasting and sent them crashing back to reality. One after another, they lowered their heads in shame at their own inferiority.
The teacher entered next, had Tang San stand beside him, and announced that he had obtained his second hundred-year Soul Ring. After heaping praise on him, the teacher changed tack: the other students should cultivate diligently, strive to reach level ten by graduation, and then follow the teachers to obtain a ten-year Soul Ring...
At that moment, Tang San could no longer suppress the upward curl of his lips. That expression was seared deep into Lin Kong's memory.
"Tang San, my hundred-year Soul Ring is much better than your Mandala Snake Soul Ring!"
After squeezing those words through his teeth, Lin Kong closed his eyes and breathed deeply, over and over, regulating his emotions and letting calm reclaim his mind.
Lin Kong opened the bundle on his back and took out a packet of fuel. It was round overall, with a fuse that would burn once lit, eventually igniting the fuel in a burst of fierce flames.
In terms of combat strength, a hundred-year Soul Beast was roughly comparable to a Two-Ring Soul Grandmaster.
A Two-Ring Soul Grandmaster could not withstand a raging fire formed by large quantities of burning fuel. Standing still would certainly mean burning to death.
This was Lin Kong's method for hunting the hundred-year Netherworld Bamboo.
For a plant Soul Beast that had no legs and could not run, was there any possibility other than death amid a fuel-fed blaze?
No!
Lin Kong moved closer, coming within thirty meters. His brow gradually furrowed. What had he seen?
Several skeletal remains of Soul Beasts lay around the hundred-year Netherworld Bamboo, their heads pointing outward and their tails inward. They seemed to have been fleeing outward in their final moments, only to fail, of course.
"No, this isn't right!"
According to the records in the books, this hundred-year Netherworld Bamboo was over three hundred years old. Because it possessed the darkness attribute, other powerful animal Soul Beasts had no desire to hunt it.
Soul Masters had no need for its Soul Ring, and Soul Beasts had no need to eat it to fill their bellies. That was why this hundred-year Netherworld Bamboo had survived all the way until now.
But now...
"Why would animal Soul Beasts try to eat this hundred-year Netherworld Bamboo?"
"Something's strange here!"
At that moment, a sense of danger instantly rose in Lin Kong's heart.
Run!
Run away, now!
Since the hundred-year Netherworld Bamboo before him could hunt other animal Soul Beasts, hunting a level-ten Soul Master like him would be as easy as reaching out and grabbing him.
Never mind whether there's anything strange about it!
Get away!
Stay alive!
That's what I should be doing most!
Lin Kong immediately began backing away step by step while facing the hundred-year Netherworld Bamboo. He dared not turn his back on it.
The numerous skeletal remains of animal Soul Beasts on the ground had already proven what happened to those who turned their backs on it.
At that moment, Lin Kong understood!
Martial Souls could mutate!
Of course Soul Beasts could mutate too!
Martial Soul mutations could be good or bad!
Soul Beast mutations almost always made them stronger. Otherwise, they would long since have died amid the cruel survival of the fittest.
The hundred-year Netherworld Bamboo before him had mutated, becoming far more terrifying than ordinary hundred-year Netherworld Bamboo and gaining the ability to actively hunt animal Soul Beasts. How outrageous!
Leave and spread the news. The appearance of such a terrifying Soul Beast in the Soul Hunting Forest will definitely stir up towering waves. This will count as a great contribution on my part.
Then someone will form a team to come kill this hundred-year Netherworld Bamboo. Perhaps, perhaps there's a sliver of a chance I can absorb its Soul Ring.
After all, once it's killed, its Soul Ring will dissipate on its own if no one absorbs it. Having someone try to absorb it would be making use of something otherwise wasted.
Just as that thought entered his mind, the hundred-year Netherworld Bamboo several dozen meters away changed.
Its prey was about to leave!
It grew anxious, unable to remain motionless any longer.
Rustle, rustle, rustle!
As its stalk swayed, the bamboo leaves rubbed against one another, producing a sound-an eerie sound that entered Lin Kong's ears. A trace of confusion appeared in his eyes. His retreating steps slowed, finally stopped, and then...
He took a step forward!
The next instant, a ghostly face formed from white markings abruptly appeared on the hundred-year Netherworld Bamboo's black stalk. The contrast made it look extraordinarily horrifying. The ghostly face opened its mouth wide and emitted an even stronger sound. Lin Kong's eyes grew more confused, his face twisted with pain, and his advancing steps quickened.
Then, across the ground within roughly twenty meters of the hundred-year Netherworld Bamboo, sections of bamboo rhizomes emerged one after another. They whipped and lashed about, smashing the Soul Beasts' skeletal remains, then churned the soil to conceal those traces.
So...
Just how many animal Soul Beasts had this mutated Netherworld Bamboo-or Ghost-Faced Netherworld Bamboo-hunted, and what age had it reached by now?
No one knew!
Lin Kong, the only one who knew, had already fallen under its control.
His eyes grew increasingly confused, his expression more pained, and his feet carried him toward the Ghost-Faced Netherworld Bamboo. He came within several meters of the bamboo rhizomes. In just a few more seconds, his fragile life would reach its end.
Thud!
His footing slipped, and Lin Kong pitched forward, his entire face smacking squarely into the ground. As dirt and gravel scraped against it, blood slowly began to flow.
At that instant... Lin Kong suddenly clenched both fists!
At that instant... the sound emitted by the Ghost-Faced Netherworld Bamboo grew even shriller and more terrifying!