Sensing that his grandfather was still worried, Tang Feng continued, "Don't worry, Grandpa. If I can't win, I'll run. I definitely won't push myself, and I won't enter the core region. I'll only stay on the outskirts of the forest's mixed zone."
Seeing Tang Feng's determined gaze, Yang Wudi knew he had clearly made up his mind and could only go along with him. "All right. True powerhouses often need to endure brutal trials. You've been steady and meticulous since childhood. I trust you'll take good care of yourself!"
"Thank you, Grandpa. I won't disappoint you." Tang Feng smiled.
Yang Wudi patted Tang Feng's shoulder. "I'll have someone prepare a carriage right away. Pack your gear today. We'll set off for Star Dou Great Forest tomorrow between seven and nine in the morning."
Tang Feng took his leave of Yang Wudi and turned toward the training grounds to say goodbye to his clan brothers one by one.
The next morning, between seven and nine, an unremarkable carriage quietly left the Breaking Clan's estate, its wheels rumbling as it headed toward Star Dou Great Forest.
Half a month later, the two arrived at a small town on the southern edge of Star Dou Great Forest.
As one of the main gathering places for soul hunters coming from the Star Luo Empire, it was bustling. Shops lined the town, and merchants and travelers streamed through without end.
Most eye-catching of all were the mission boards displaying Soul Hunting information. Crowds milled around them, searching for suitable missions.
Others would post their requirements for Soul Rings along with the payment offered, issuing new missions.
Tang Feng gave them a cursory glance and shook his head. Most were Soul Hunting missions below the Soul Elder level, with very few even involving thousand-year Soul Rings.
But on reflection, it made sense. High-level Soul Masters were all affiliated with major factions or sects, which assigned experts specifically to help them hunt for souls. Why would they need to come somewhere like this to post missions?
Take Tang Feng himself: every Soul Ring he had obtained had either involved a sect elder leading the party or Dugu Bo's help. Now, his grandfather was helping him.
At that thought, a sense of happiness welled up in Tang Feng's heart. At least in this world, he did not have to fight his way up from the very bottom.
They left the carriage in Soul Hunting Town, where services specifically looked after carriages for visiting Soul Masters, then headed straight into the forest's outer reaches to search for Soul Beasts.
Star Dou Great Forest covered an immensely vast area spanning two empires. It was the largest wild Soul Beast forest on the Douluo Continent, known as the cradle of Soul Beasts. It was extremely dangerous, especially its core region, which was practically forbidden territory for humans.
The moment he entered the forest, Tang Feng noticed how different it was. The air was fresh and natural, with the feel of a primeval forest. The terrain was quite complex, with no paths and weeds and thorny undergrowth growing thickly.
Rather than traveling along the ground, the two leaped through the large trees, rapidly approaching the ten-thousand-year Soul Beast zone.
Tang Feng carefully observed his surroundings, sharpening his sight and hearing to their utmost. He did not lower his guard just because Yang Wudi was there.
The wild Soul Beasts in Star Dou Great Forest deeply hated the human Soul Masters who hunted them to increase their strength. Apart from hunting for a Soul Ring, Tang Feng had come this time to hone his practical combat abilities and gain battle experience.
Thus, as long as Tang Feng's life was not in danger, Yang Wudi would not intervene.
The two continued deeper into the forest, passing beyond the range of hundred-year Soul Beasts and entering the area inhabited by thousand-year Soul Beasts.
Even the air seemed thicker in the territory of thousand-year Soul Beasts. Soul Beast remains glowing with a dim, dark-purple light lay everywhere, warning every intruder that this was a millstone of flesh and blood.
Tang Feng's steps paused briefly. His Golden Cudgel pointed diagonally toward the ground as his spiritual power spread outward like ripples.
A Crocodile-Toothed Beast was approaching from the southeast, its foul breath mingling with the stench of rotting flesh. Tang Feng's spiritual power soon detected it.
This kind of Soul Beast had a flat head and a protruding snout, with two tusks jutting from its lower jaw like curved blades. Blackish-brown scales covered its body. It stood three meters tall and five meters long, with roughly two thousand years of cultivation.
"Grandpa, leave it to me," Tang Feng said quietly, taking up his Golden Cudgel. When the beast came within ten meters, he abruptly launched an attack against it.
Tang Feng deliberately refrained from using the Clear Sky Hammer to hone his staff techniques. Besides, the Golden Cudgel was more than enough to handle a two-thousand-year Soul Beast.
The Crocodile-Toothed Beast's sense of smell was indeed keen. It let out a low roar and accelerated its massive body, its tusks gleaming coldly in the dim light like a short spear piercing the air.
Tang Feng did not retreat. Instead, he charged straight toward the Crocodile-Toothed Beast. The Golden Cudgel spun in his palm as the beast's foul wind rushed into his face, its tusks stabbing straight at his throat. It was even faster than he had imagined!
"Come on!" Tang Feng abruptly sank low and swept his Golden Cudgel across, intending to shatter the beast's head. But the Crocodile-Toothed Beast had exceptionally strong combat instincts. It tilted its head slightly, and the end of the cudgel slammed into the scales on its neck.
Clang!!!
Metal rang against metal. Scales shattered, and the tremendous force knocked the Crocodile-Toothed Beast three feet sideways, plowing two deep furrows into the ground.
But it did not die. Instead, the intense pain drove it into a frenzy, and it tossed its head and lunged again.
Rather than retreating, Tang Feng advanced, his Golden Cudgel whirling into layers of afterimages as he unleashed the first formal staff technique, "Thousandfold Waves"!
The first wave, the fifth, the tenth... The staff shadows piled atop one another like a raging tide, every blow landing on the same spot on the Crocodile-Toothed Beast's neck. By the thirtieth wave, the scales there had been completely pulverized, exposing the blood-red flesh and sinew underneath.
"Thirty-one, thirty-two..." Tang Feng counted under his breath, his gaze terrifyingly calm.
The Crocodile-Toothed Beast could no longer keep pace with the accumulating staff shadows. Its movements grew clumsier, leaving only instinctive snapping and biting.
When the thirty-sixth wave crashed down, the Golden Cudgel struck the shattered wound with precision. With a dull thud, the great beast's head snapped at a grotesque angle to its neck, and its three-meter-tall body crashed to the ground, making the earth tremble.
A purple Soul Ring slowly rose, but Tang Feng did not even look at it. He hurriedly smeared medicinal powder onto his clothes to conceal the smell of blood on him.
This powder gave off a scent like rotting grass, misleading other predators.
As they continued onward, the Soul Beasts they encountered grew increasingly older.
A three-thousand-year Wind Shadow Leopard ambushed him from the treetops, moving so fast it left only an afterimage.
Tang Feng had barely begun his staff technique when it circled behind him. Its claws tore through his protective Soul Power, leaving three bloody marks across his back. Tang Feng swept his cudgel backward, but the Wind Shadow Leopard used the wind from the swing to lightly dart away, vanishing into the depths of the dense forest.
"Tch." Tang Feng wiped the blood from his back, yet his eyes shone startlingly bright. "Speed-type Soul Beasts... really are troublesome."
Through the battles along the way, Tang Feng came to recognize his shortcomings more and more clearly.
Against strength-type Soul Beasts, he could overcome force with force; against defensive types, he could find an opening and kill them in a single strike.
But against agility-attack types alone, no matter how exquisite Tang Feng's staff techniques were, they were useless if he could not catch up.
I have to find a Soul Ring that can boost my speed, Tang Feng silently resolved. Otherwise, the next time I encounter something like a Wind Shadow Leopard, it won't just be three bloody marks.
Traveling and fighting like this, Tang Feng grew increasingly familiar with the forest's laws of survival.
By day, he cleared a path and scouted; by night, he guarded camp and meditated. His Golden Cudgel was stained with the blood of all manner of Soul Beasts, from hundred-year to thousand-year beasts, from sharp claws to venomous fangs. Every scratch was a mark of growth.
A month later, the blazing sun had scorched Tang Feng's skin dark, but his gaze was like quenched steel, growing ever sharper.
At noon, the two ventured deep into the volcanic belt in southern Star Dou Great Forest. The scorching air warped, and the smell of sulfur was as thick as congee that would not thin, choking his throat painfully with every breath.
The rock beneath their feet glowed dark red, and the magma flowing through its cracks pulsed like blood vessels.
At the edge of his spiritual perception, Tang Feng suddenly caught a scorching fluctuation of Soul Power. It was violent and swift, possessing both a dragon's majesty and fire's brutality, like a red-hot iron hammer smashing fiercely into his sea of consciousness.
"Found it!" Tang Feng's pupils abruptly contracted, and even his transmitted voice carried a trace of trembling.
The two immediately crouched low and slipped behind a huge rock scorched black beside the magma river. Looking out, they saw thick smoke billowing from the volcanic crater, and a dark-red figure gliding down from the rolling black clouds.
It was a Scarlet Flame Pterosaur, its wings spanning a full sixty feet, blotting out the sky and sun like a cloud of fire.
Dark-red scales covered its body, each seemingly formed from solidified lava, their edges gleaming with a black-iron metallic sheen. They opened and closed with its breathing, as though magma flowed beneath them.
Its dragon head was as hideous as an evil spirit, its single horn like a red-hot branding iron, sparks still dripping from its tip. Fangs interlocked in its mouth, and faint sulfurous fire-mist flowed in and out of its throat.
Strangest of all were its wings. Rather than membranes, they were translucent flame wings formed from pure fire and dark-gold bones. Every flap left ripples of distorted heat in the air, as though scorching wrinkles into space itself.
The pressure of a ten-thousand-year Soul Beast spread like collapsing mountains and a roaring tsunami. Not a blade of grass grew within a thousand feet, and even the magma river stagnated under it.