Di Tian: With the Mystic Bird in hand, let us thank our sponsor, Xuan Zi!

Inside the cave.

After confirming repeatedly with the Three-Eyed Golden Lion that the fruits really were for him, Lin Mo could hardly wait to pick up a Vitality Fruit and take a bite.

The flesh melted in his mouth, and the juice flowed sweet and refreshing down his throat.

At that moment, Lin Mo felt a gentle warmth surge through his body like a tide, rapidly spreading into his limbs and bones. The taut muscles and bones throughout his body gradually relaxed.

His fatigue quickly faded, and the Soul Power he had expended earlier was instantly restored, like a withered tree in spring. Even his state of mind grew much more tranquil.

He was warm all over, as though soaking in a hot spring.

Wonderful! Absolutely wonderful!

"Phew-"

Lin Mo let out a long breath, feeling lighter than he ever had before. The ten-thousand-year Vitality Fruit lived up to its reputation.

Seeing the Three-Eyed Golden Lion take another ten-thousand-year Vitality Fruit in her mouth and nudge it toward his hand, Lin Mo hurriedly waved her off. "I can't eat any more. I really can't."

His cultivation was only at level thirty. After eating one ten-thousand-year Vitality Fruit, he could already feel his whole body swelling slightly. If he ate another, he was afraid he would "burst" on the spot.

The Three-Eyed Golden Lion circled Lin Mo a few times, looking him over from left to right, then said earnestly:

"Little bird, you need to eat more. You're too skinny."

Lin Mo looked down at himself.

He was twelve years old, 1.65 meters tall, and weighed fifty kilograms. Even among his peers, he was fairly well-built.

However, when Lin Mo looked up at the Three-Eyed Golden Lion before him, who was over three meters long and two meters tall at the shoulder-

He fell silent.

True enough. In front of this great golden lion, he really was no different from a bamboo pole.

The kind she could crunch up in two bites.

"Little bird, you're so skinny. Have those humans been bullying you?"

At that moment, the Three-Eyed Golden Lion suddenly spoke again, her tone noticeably more agitated and filled with undisguised disgust. "Humans are all so cruel! Even crueler than us Soul Beasts!"

"Every day, lots of humans come to the Great Star Dou Forest to hunt and kill us, and they even take our bones!"

Hearing this, Lin Mo timidly raised his hand.

"Um... is it possible that I'm human too?"

He chose his words carefully. "Besides, with the way we humans cultivate, if we want to become strong, we have to hunt Soul Beasts and obtain Soul Rings."

"Not all humans are bad."

"Only those who try to wipe you Soul Beasts out are bad."

To be honest, if the Three-Eyed Golden Lion hadn't shown that she liked him and had a favorable impression of him, Lin Mo would never have dared say any of that. He had taken the risk of speaking to test her.

To test just how much this great golden lion before him would tolerate from him.

The Three-Eyed Golden Lion's fluffy tail swept out sharply, whipping a groove into the ground with a smack:

"Little bird is different from them!"

"And little bird, you're so skinny. Those humans must have been bullying you!"

Real coldness and killing intent appeared in the Three-Eyed Golden Lion's beastly eyes. "Don't be afraid, little bird. Tell me who bullied you, and I'll have Di Tian deal with them!"

"No, no!"

Lin Mo waved his hands repeatedly.

"I really haven't been bullied. You don't need to... wait, who did you say?"

Lin Mo's expression abruptly froze.

"Di-Di Tian?!"

No way, right?

It couldn't be the one who headed the Great Star Dou Forest's ten great Ferocious Beasts-

"That's right!"

The Three-Eyed Golden Lion held her head and chest high, her voice full of pride. "Di Tian is a Ferocious Beast with eight hundred thousand years of cultivation. He's the strongest, strongest, strongest Soul Beast of all! He's very good to me, little bird, so don't you worry!"

Lin Mo looked expressionless, but his legs were actually shaking like sieves.

His lips trembled as he clung to his last sliver of hope and asked in a quavering voice, "So... this place couldn't be..."

"The core area of the Great Star Dou Forest, could it?"

The Three-Eyed Golden Lion tilted her head and thought for a while, then nodded. "If we go by what humans call it, then this really is the core area of the Great Star Dou Forest. It's also my home."

"Crack-"

A crisp sound seemed to ring out in the air.

Lin Mo turned to stone and cracked on the spot.

Meanwhile, at Shrek Academy, in the Sea God Pavilion.

"Bang!"

"What did you say?!"

Yan Shaozhe slammed his hand on the table, making the entire tabletop, made from thousand-year-old wood, shudder.

"You lost the Mystic Bird?!!"

His usually refined and gentle face was now filled with barely suppressed fury. He didn't even care that Xuan Zi was his senior as he scolded him. "You were supposed to hunt a Soul Ring, so why did you insist on making it some kind of training exercise?!"

"Don't you know how important the Mystic Bird is?!!"

"If I hadn't just made a breakthrough and my cultivation realm weren't unstable, I would have taken Lin Mo to hunt a Soul Ring myself and stayed by his side every step of the way."

"As soon as he finished absorbing the Soul Ring, I would have returned to the academy immediately!"

"And look what you did!!"

The more Yan Shaozhe spoke, the angrier he became, his chest heaving violently.

"Do you have any idea what would happen if the Mystic Bird fell into the hands of the Holy Spirit Church or someone else with ulterior motives?!"

"That's enough, Shaozhe. We'll discuss punishment later." Mu En's aged, deep voice rang out. He raised a hand to stop Yan Shaozhe. "The most important thing right now is to find that child Lin Mo and bring him back."

He turned to Xuan Zi.

Xuan Zi felt that when Mu En's gaze fell on him, it was as though a mountain were slowly bearing down on him.

"Xuan Zi," Mu En said mildly, "first tell us how that child Lin Mo went missing."

Yan Shaozhe likewise stared fixedly at Xuan Zi, his clenched fists cracking.

Xuan Zi was silent for a long while before he slowly spoke, his voice strained. "It was this old man's... carelessness."

"I..."

"I was distracted by fine wine and roast meat, and that was how the child Lin Mo went missing."

"Xuan Zi!!"

Hearing that answer, Yan Shaozhe flew into a complete rage and directly scolded him by his full name. "What were you thinking?! What kind of place is the Great Star Dou Forest? How could fine wine and good meat appear there for no reason?!"

"It was such an obvious trap, and you still fell into it, huh?!!"

Every word Yan Shaozhe spoke was like a knife.

Xuan Zi lowered his head in guilt.

Yes, if he hadn't been so careless and gluttonous, how could he have fallen for such an obvious trap? How could he have let Lin Mo go missing?

"Xuan Zi..."

Mu En slowly sighed and looked at him, frustrated that he had failed to live up to expectations. "The last time you led a Soul Hunting team, you also left because of your gluttony. As a result, eight of the twelve inner-court students on that Soul Hunting team died."

"Eight whole students!"

"They were all inner-court elites painstakingly trained by Shrek, and they were children of Shrek Academy!"

"Haven't you learned enough from that lesson?"

Those words struck Xuan Zi's heart like a heavy hammer.

Mu En's voice grew heavier. "I know you feel guilty, so all these years, I let you exile yourself and punish yourself."

"But judging by today, it hasn't done any good at all."

A deathly silence fell over the hall.

Xuan Zi lowered his head in shame.

At the thought of the eight disciples who had died because of his carelessness, he couldn't stop two streams of muddy tears from slowly sliding down his deeply wrinkled cheeks.