Qian Renxue?

"Ding! The system is at your service. The host's personal status panel is now open:

Host: Mu Chen

Martial Soul: Emperor Dragon Sword
Soul Power Level: Level 23 Soul Grandmaster
Soul Skills: Silver Light Falling Blade, Annihilation Slash

Other: Nine Dragon Hairpin (the host can currently use two hairpins), Shadow Movement Technique, God-tier Cooking Skill
Current Cool Points: 2000

" Mu Chen looked over his personal status panel and found it fairly decent.

"Grandpa Sword, my Soul Power has already reached Level 23. My second Soul Skill is called Annihilation Slash. It can ignore all physical defenses and possesses extremely powerful killing force."

Mu Chen said this, but he noticed that Sword Douluo's expression seemed off. His face was somewhat grave.

"Grandpa Sword?

Grandpa Sword?" Mu Chen called out several more times before Sword Douluo finally came back to his senses. "Mm, it's an extremely powerful second Soul Skill. Even Soul Ancestor-level Soul Masters cannot match your current attack power if we speak solely of offense.

But, Little Chen, we may have run into trouble."

As Sword Douluo spoke, he summoned his Seven Kill Sword Martial Soul again and scanned their surroundings.

"No way, even you think it's troublesome?"

Mu Chen tensed up as well, swiftly summoning his Emperor Dragon Sword and vigilantly watching the area around them. Yet after a while, he found no movement at all.

Instead, Mu Chen noticed that something within the enormous Dark Gold Dreadclaw Bear's corpse seemed to be glowing.

"Grandpa Sword, could that be a Soul Bone?" Mu Chen asked, pointing at the corpse.

"How could that be? Soul Bones are rare treas—"

Before Sword Douluo could finish, his eyes fixed on the bear's paw in astonishment.

Damn it. I was so focused on protecting Little Chen that I overlooked this corpse.

No way, no way. It was only a two-thousand-year Soul Beast!

Sword Douluo flicked his sword, and a dark golden paw bone appeared before them. Long claws gleamed upon it.

Sword Douluo: I lost. I lost completely.

"Little Chen, fuse with this Soul Bone. It's an External Soul Bone second only to a Hundred Thousand Year Soul Bone, an exceptional Soul Bone. It comes from the paw bone of a top-tier Soul Beast, the Dark Gold Dreadclaw Bear—the most useful, most powerful, and rarest part of it.

Your luck can no longer be described as merely good. I'm starting to get jealous. Is your Martial Soul the Goddess of Luck or something?" Sword Douluo shook his head helplessly.

Still, luck was undeniably part of one's strength.

"What about the trouble nearby?" Holding the Soul Bone, Mu Chen looked toward Sword Douluo.

"Don't worry about it for now. They probably aren't here for us," Sword Douluo said, giving Mu Chen some reassurance.

Mu Chen then merged the Dark Gold Dreadclaw Bear's paw bone with his palm. The bone quickly transformed into a pool of golden liquid and fused into Mu Chen's left palm.

A surge of heat flowed into Mu Chen's palm. Overwhelmingly domineering energy filled his hand, and intense pain made him grit his teeth. With his eyes closed, he silently endured it. His left hand clenched tightly on instinct, and sweat streamed down his face, but Mu Chen still gritted his teeth and held on.

Only after quite a while did Mu Chen open his eyes, exhale, and wipe the sweat from his forehead.

With a thought, his left hand began to enlarge, and long claws emerged from it, each roughly half a foot in length and incredibly sharp. Mu Chen looked at the tree before him, swung his claws, and effortlessly severed the waist-thick tree in half.

"Little Chen, let's go!

I keep feeling that someone is nearby. It makes me uncomfortable." Seeing that their trip had ended successfully, Sword Douluo nodded and led Mu Chen toward the forest's outskirts.

After they had walked for some distance, a sharp glint flashed through Sword Douluo's eyes. He then said, "The Soul Beasts here are only around a hundred years old. Go wait alone at the place outside where we got off the carriage. I have some trouble to deal with."

After saying that, Sword Douluo vanished from where he stood, leaving only Mu Chen behind.

"Strange. What kind of trouble could make even Grandpa Sword so wary?

Forget it. I should leave first. My strength is still too low. If I happen to run into a ten-thousand-year Soul Beast, I'll be done for."

Mu Chen muttered. Just as he was about to leave, the system's voice suddenly rang out in his mind.

"Ding!

System notification: Qian Renxue, one of the original story's important characters, has appeared in Sunset Forest."

"Qian Renxue?

Why would she be here?" Mu Chen was somewhat puzzled, but then he sighed. In the original story, she was also a pitiful person.

Her father had raped Bibi Dong, resulting in her birth. Although she possessed a god-tier Martial Soul and innate Level 20 Soul Power, the relationship between mother and daughter was extremely terrible.

During the most beautiful years of her life, she spent her time imitating and replacing another person. Yet she unfortunately fell in love with Tang San, a love that had been doomed from the start to bear no result.

Sigh... Even so, Tang San destroyed her plan in the end, causing it to fail, and she was forced to flee in defeat.

When she was about to become a god, her grandfather, who loved her most, sacrificed himself. She lost the person who loved and treated her best in the world. Even after becoming a god, she was still decisively rejected by Tang San.

In the end, during the divine battle, she was defeated by the resurrected Tang San. Her mother also took a fatal blow to protect her, and she lost every member of her family.

Her strength remained forever at Level 89, a Soul Fighting Douluo. She could never break through again and ultimately died alone in old age.

Those who loved her died to fulfill and protect her, while the one she loved did not love her, feared her, and even wanted to kill her.

Though she possessed the immensely powerful god-tier Six-winged Angel Martial Soul and beauty capable of toppling kingdoms, her entire life was a tragedy. What a pitiful person she was.

In the original story, Mu Chen had considered her a deeply pitiful and tragic person. Yet now, he had actually encountered her in Sunset Forest.

Qian Renxue should be around sixteen years old now, right? She should have already begun infiltrating or be about to replace Xue Qinghe.

But why had she appeared here? Then the trouble that made Sword Douluo wary should be the Spirit Hall experts protecting Qian Renxue.

They were at least Titled Douluo-level experts. Otherwise, the three Soul Fighting Douluo teachers from Heaven Dou Royal Academy would not be enough.

Leave?

Or stay and take a look? After thinking for a moment, Mu Chen ultimately decided to go take a look.

His small figure vanished from the spot and headed back into Sunset Forest.