The mountains south of Blue Silver Forest are even more desolate than the forest itself. The trees are sparse, the ground is covered with a thick layer of moss and gravel, and occasionally you can see a few trails worn by wild animals winding through the valleys and disappearing behind the distant ridges.
The Shadow Clan sent four people to search for a herbivorous Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast. The four were found crouching behind a rock on a mountain ridge.
Ying Qi was at the front, Ying Ba searched for traces on the ground on the right, Ying Jiu held a marking needle to record the path, and Ying Shi kept watch from a high place at the rear.
They had been searching this area for two whole days, avoiding the routes of human Soul Hunting, bypassing areas densely populated with Soul Beast, and advancing southward along the ridgeline.
"There are traces," Ying Ba said in a low voice, pointing northwest, "Near the stream. There are fallen marks in the bushes, not from wild animals, but from a large Soul Beast passing by."
Ying Qi looked in the direction he was pointing, her pupils contracting slightly. The way the bushes had fallen was indeed unusual—
The broken branch didn't look like it was broken by brute force; it looked more like it was pushed open, flattened, and then released by some soft force.
He had seen similar tracks before: when large herbivorous Soul Beast passed by, their bodies wouldn't directly crush the bushes, but rather they would push the branches aside with their bodies, leaving behind relatively neat tracks.
"These marks were left by a herbivorous Soul Beast, and it was quite large," Ying Qi said. "Let's go, follow it and take a look."
The four moved silently along the ridgeline, their footsteps making almost no sound.
The Shadow Clan's ability to conceal themselves is among the best in the Soul Master World. Even when moving quickly in open areas, they can use light and shadow and terrain to blend themselves into the background.
After following for about half an hour, a shallow lake surrounded by cliffs appeared at the end of the valley.
The Shui Qing, its surface as calm as a mirror, with low shrubs and scattered wildflowers growing along the shore.
On the grassy shore by the lake, a deer with a pale golden sheen was grazing slowly with its head down.
It is several times larger than an ordinary deer, with towering antlers and a warm, lustrous sheen at the forked ends.
Its fur reflected a soft gold in the sunlight, and each step it took was as light as walking on water, leaving no obvious footprints on the soft grass.
Ying Qi stared at it for a long time, then slowly exhaled.
The creature drinking water before them was the Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast they had been searching for—the most stable and suitable Soul Beast for their purpose— the Sacred Heavenly Deer.
He had seen a description of this kind of Soul Beast in the clan's records—extremely rare, possessing life attributes, gentle in nature, and almost never attacking other creatures.
It is precisely because of their gentle nature that they easily become targets for Soul Hunting. And this 100,000-year-old Sacred Heavenly Deer is an extremely tempting candidate for Soul Ring for any Soul Master.
Fortunately, the four's goal was not to hunt it. Ying Qi remembered the instructions Feng Lingtian had relayed by Bai He: find a suitable Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast, negotiate with it, and ask it to guard the Blue Silver Forest.
He turned and whispered to Ying Ba, Ying Jiu, and Ying Shi, "You three stay here and don't move. I'll go down and try."
"Seventh Brother, are you alone?" Ying Ba frowned. "That's a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast."
"If it wanted to attack, the four of us couldn't stop it," Ying Qi said. "But it showed no intention of attacking. I could tell—it knew we were tracking it, but it didn't speed away."
He was right. As the Sacred Heavenly Deer lowered its head to graze, its ears twitched slightly twice, precisely pointing towards the ridge where they were hiding—it had already spotted them, but hadn't reacted.
Ying Qi emerged from behind the rock and slowly walked down the hillside.
He didn't deliberately conceal himself, but he also didn't approach quickly, maintaining a leisurely pace that gave the deer enough time to observe him and determine whether he posed a threat.
He stopped about twenty paces from the lake.
The Sacred Heavenly Deer raised its head, its golden pupils gazing at him quietly. There was no hostility or wariness in its eyes, only a calmness akin to curiosity.
Ying Qi didn't speak. He stood there, staring at the deer for a moment, then took something from his robes and placed it on the grass in front of him.
It was a Yu Feng Token Sub-Token. He didn't push it forward, but simply placed it there, took two steps back, and stood still again.
The Sacred Heavenly Deer lowered its head, gazing at the faintly glowing Sub-Token. The Sub-Token retained the aura of the Blue Silver King —gentle, profound, and imbued with the unique vitality of vegetation.
Ying Qi knew that this deer could sense things. The perception of Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast far surpasses that of humans. It could tell that the aura did not represent a threat, but rather a request from the entire Blue Silver Forest.
"The 80,000-year-old Blue Silver King has left the Blue Silver Forest for a more suitable place to recuperate, so the Blue Silver Forest now needs a Guardian."
Ying Qi spoke, his voice soft and his tone calm, "If you're willing to help with this, the Pill Pavilion can give you the opportunity to transform into human form—"
Elixirs, protection, and cultivation resources—everything is provided. The Pill Pavilion has a way to help you overcome the bottleneck of 100,000 years.
Furthermore, before leaving, the Blue Silver King promised that the Guardian could consume Blue Silver Grass Blue Silver Grass, but they must be given sufficient time to regrow and must not be over-exploited.
The Sacred Heavenly Deer stood still, its golden pupils reflecting the shimmering water, quietly watching him as if in thought.
After a long while, it lowered its head and gently touched the Yu Feng Token Sub-Token on the grass with the tip of its nose. Then it raised its head and nodded very slightly in the direction of Ying Qi.
Ying Qi looked at it, and her tense shoulders slowly relaxed.
He bent down to pick up the Yu Feng Token Sub-Token, put it in his pocket, and then said to the deer, "See you in the Blue Silver Forest in three days."
The Sacred Heavenly Deer did not respond, but it turned and walked into the depths of the lake, its steps light, its golden form reflecting a soft trail of light on the lake's surface.
Ying Qi turned and returned to the ridge, where Ying Ba, Ying Jiu, Ying Shi greeted him, "Seventh Brother, did it agree?"
"Um."
"It's that simple?"
Ying Qi didn't answer. He glanced back at the shallow lake, knowing full well that this promise couldn't be won with just a few words.
The Blue Silver King's entrustment, the Pill Pavilion's promise, and the scent of plants on the Yu Feng Token Sub-Token —if any one of these were missing, the deer would not agree.
"Let's go," he said. "Go back and tell Elder Bai He that things have been taken care of."
The four of them returned along the ridgeline, the setting sun casting four long, slanted shadows behind them.
In the southern part of the Blue Silver Forest, a golden deer stood by the lake, gazing in the direction they had left, its eyes warm and serene.