Battle Soul Master Sean

"So, you came back this time because you plan to spend the next six months in the Soul Hunting Forest?"

In the director's office, Su Lin and Xiao Wu sat obediently side by side on the sofa, but what they said struck Grant as utterly fanciful.

Two six-year-old children wanted to live on their own for six months in a forest prowled by Soul Beasts. To his ears, that was no different from fooling around.

Even knowing that Su Lin was precocious, sensible, and had ideas of his own, Grant still needed a reason to convince himself.

"I need a reason."

"Pikachu needs to fight." Su Lin held nothing back. Facing Grant, he naturally would not keep his guard up the way he did with others, so he volunteered some information. "My Martial Soul is special. Soul Beasts contracted to me can grow stronger by fighting powerful opponents, much faster than through meditation alone."

Beside him, Xiao Wu's eyes suddenly widened, and she instinctively turned to glance at Su Lin. Her lingering confusion instantly cleared up. No wonder this fellow dragged her off to the back mountain every week, finding all sorts of ways to ask for a spar. So he had been using her as a free sparring partner to grind experience!

She puffed out her cheeks and secretly reached behind him to pinch his arm, planning to make Su Lin treat her to a huge meal that evening.

Grant did not suspect anything upon hearing this. A Poké Ball Martial Soul was unprecedented to begin with, so a unique system of growth was only natural.

But understanding the reasoning did not lessen his worry in the slightest. "It's not that you can't go train, but there's no need to stay for six months. How about I arrange for a few Soul Grandmasters to accompany you? That would guarantee your safety too..."

Before he had even finished, he rejected his own suggestion.

Apart from him, Wealth Village had no high-ranking Soul Masters to speak of. To hire Soul Masters, he would have to recruit them through the Soul Master Guild in Nuoding City. However strict the guild's screening might be, people's hearts were ultimately hard to predict. Su Lin's Martial Soul was far too unusual. If someone grew covetous at the sight of such a treasure and harbored evil intentions, it would only be more dangerous. With this child's safety at stake, he would not take even the slightest risk.

Yet he truly could not rest easy letting two children live alone in the Soul Hunting Forest for an extended period.

After turning it over in his mind, Grant finally came up with a compromise.

"Here's what we'll do. I'll leave with you tomorrow. Rhode Town is right outside the entrance to the Soul Hunting Forest. I'll buy you a house with a courtyard there, and you'll normally stay in town. Whenever you go into the forest to train, you must bring my personal guards. They're all veterans the village has trained for over a decade, people whose backgrounds we know inside out. They'll only watch your backs in the outer ring, without interfering in your fights or getting in the way of your leveling."

"There's no need to go to all that trouble, is there...?" Su Lin could not help clicking his tongue. He really had only come back to let Uncle Grant know and replenish some supplies along the way.

After all, the Soul Hunting Forest was not a primeval hunting ground with danger lurking on every side like the Star Dou Great Forest. It was merely a beginner hunting ground jointly demarcated by Spirit Hall and the empire, an area under human management.

Even in the most dangerous inner ring, the oldest Soul Beasts were no more than a thousand years old. With Pikachu's current strength at rank twenty-three, he might not be invincible, but throwing his weight around in that forest really would not be much of a problem.

"It's absolutely necessary." Grant's tone was firm. "That's settled. Otherwise, I won't allow you two to enter the Soul Hunting Forest on your own."

"All right..." Unable to overcome his insistence, Su Lin finally nodded helplessly. "We'll follow your arrangements, Uncle."

Only then did Grant smile in satisfaction. "That's more like it. All right, it's getting late. You two go have dinner. I've already had Xiao Wu's room tidied up. It's right next to yours."

"Okay. Thank you, Uncle Grant."

"Uncle Grant is so good to you." As soon as they left the office, Xiao Wu spoke to Su Lin enviously. Some of the usual liveliness and mischief in her expression had faded, replaced by a faint, barely perceptible softness.

In Grant, she saw a shadow of her mother. During those years deep in the Star Dou Great Forest, her mother must have cared for her with that same meticulous attention.

"Uncle Grant really is a good person." Su Lin nodded, his tone earnest.

Six years was enough for a soul carrying memories of a previous life to see a person's true colors, especially when observing from a child's perspective. After all, no one would keep up a pretense day after day in front of a child whose mind had yet to mature.

As far as he could see, there was nothing to fault Grant for, no matter how he looked at him.

In Wealth Village, Grant was a leader praised by everyone. The Soul King who had left Bran Village had given up a bright future to return to his hometown, spending twenty years building a destitute village with nothing to its name into a town prosperous enough to enrich the surrounding area.

At the orphanage, he was also the patriarch all the children trusted, treating everyone equally regardless of their talent.

Even with children like Pang Hu, whose Martial Soul Awakening had failed, Grant had never neglected them because of Su Lin's presence.

He still paid attention to their growth and contacted families willing to adopt them. For those whom no one was willing to adopt, he would ask others to find reliable craftsmen or shopkeepers to take them on as apprentices. He even planned their future livelihoods well in advance, without the slightest trace of perfunctoriness.

After dinner, Su Lin took Xiao Wu for another stroll around the village. Only as the night grew deeper did they return to their rooms and settle down to rest.

Early the next morning, when the two stepped out of their rooms, Grant had already prepared everything and was waiting at the courtyard gate.

Taking in the arrangements before him, Su Lin could not help clicking his tongue again.

In the open space outside the courtyard, a lavish dark-purple carriage with exquisite decorations stood at the front, followed by five fully laden flatbed carts. Dry rations, medicinal herbs, tents, cooking utensils, and even changes of clothes had all been sorted and stacked neatly.

Twelve knights wearing leather armor, with sabers at their waists, stood in two rows on either side. Every one of them stood tall and straight with a steady bearing, clearly a well-trained veteran.

Anyone who did not know better would have thought some wastrel young master from a minor county-town family was heading out on a hunting excursion. Nothing about it looked like a trip to train in the Soul Hunting Forest.

"Little Lin, Xiao Wu, come here."

Grant smiled and beckoned to them. Once they approached, he turned sideways and drew forward a middle-aged man with a resolute face, introducing him:

"This is my captain of the guard. Just call him Uncle Sean. He's a rank twenty-seven Battle Soul Master, and his Martial Soul is the Iron-Spined Cheetah. He follows the Power Attack System path and counts among the notable figures around Nuoding City. He'll be leading the team this time."

"Lord Grant, isn't that form of address a little inappropriate?" The corner of Sean's mouth twitched. He had followed Grant for over a decade, and the village children usually called Grant Uncle. Having Su Lin call him Uncle too now always felt a little strange in terms of seniority.

"Hahaha, it's a trivial detail. No need to fuss over it." Grant waved a hand dismissively.