Star Dou Great Forest

Star Dou Great Forest.

As the largest gathering place for soul beasts on the entire continent, it covered an area nearly equal to that of the Balak Kingdom.

Its territory spanned the borders of both the Heaven Dou Empire and the Star Luo Empire.

The vast forest gave rise to all manner of complex terrain—wetlands, swamps, cliffs, lakes, and more.

Thanks to such varied and complex terrain, the Star Dou Great Forest was home to an extraordinarily wide variety of soul beasts.

Aside from a few ice-attributed soul beasts that lived only in the Extreme North, traces of virtually every known soul beast on the continent could be found in the Star Dou Great Forest.

Thus, there had been a saying describing the Star Dou Great Forest since ancient times.

Any soul master, regardless of martial soul or attribute, could find the Soul Ring best suited to them here, so long as they were strong enough and lucky enough.

As the saying went, those who lived by the mountains lived off the mountains, and those who lived by the waters lived off the waters.

The flourishing of the Star Dou Great Forest, together with the development of the soul master system, had given rise to many prosperous trading towns nearby.

In one such town.

A convoy of carriages traveled down the town streets.

Before long, the carriages stopped in front of a residence.

Lin Rong stepped down from a carriage and glanced in the direction of the Star Dou Great Forest, sighing, "In the end, I still have to make the trip myself!"

After that day, Lin Rong had waited at his residence for another month, yet no news had arrived.

He had no choice. Time waited for no one, so Lin Rong could only make the journey himself.

Hopefully, this trip would turn his fortunes around and grant him what he desired.

Before the residence.

The captain of the Shadow Guard, who had long been waiting there, bowed deeply and presented a scroll with both hands.

"Duke, this map marks most of the places in the Star Dou Great Forest where bamboo and bottle gourd vines grow, as well as some locations suitable for their growth."

"There are soul power markings on the map. The more markings a location has, the more times the Shadow Guard previously searched it, and the more thoroughly it was searched."

"Therefore, Duke, it would be best for you to search the places with fewer soul power markings on this journey."

"Mm, you've worked hard." Lin Rong nodded slightly. After taking a glance at the map presented by the Shadow Guard, he put it away and instructed, "It's getting late. Have everyone rest early. Tomorrow morning, they will enter the Star Dou Great Forest with me."

"Yes, we understand," the Shadow Guards answered in unison.

At the same time.

In another small town within the Balak Kingdom.

Three travel-worn travelers checked into a shabby inn.

Of the three, the leader was an exceptionally burly middle-aged man, while the one beside him was a scrawny, scruffy old man.

Behind the old man followed a short man with a thick beard.

Though the man had such a thick beard, a closer look revealed that his face was youthful and handsome.

His pair of dreamy peach-blossom eyes, in particular, possessed tremendous lethality against young girls inexperienced in the ways of the world.

A thick beard, a handsome face, and those alluring peach-blossom eyes.

With such distinctive features, who else could he be but Oscar?

The scruffy little old man in front of Oscar was his master, the Food System Soul Saint Shao Xin.

Finally, the burly man leading the group was the famed Immovable Ming King, Zhao Wuji.

Oscar, who was just over nine years old, had broken through to Soul Power Level 20 two days earlier.

In order to obtain Oscar's Second Soul Ring, Zhao Wuji had brought him to the Star Dou Great Forest to hunt soul beasts.

Oscar was still under ten years old. Shao Xin was worried about letting him follow Zhao Wuji alone into the Star Dou Great Forest to hunt soul beasts, so he came along as well.

This made Zhao Wuji complain inwardly, "Shao Xin, you may be a Soul Saint, but you're still a Food System soul master with no combat ability."

"I had more than enough ability to protect Oscar by myself, but with an extra burden like you, do you know how much pressure I'm under?"

During this time, Zhao Wuji had also cursed Flender inwardly more than once. As the academy's dean, Flender did not even bother to lend a hand when the academy's disciples went hunting soul beasts.

Instead, he spent all day appearing and disappearing without a trace, all for the sake of finding an owner of a gifted avian martial soul and taking them as a disciple to inherit his legacy.

In the original work, Flender had luckily found Ma Hongjun, a disciple capable of inheriting his legacy.

But now, Ma Hongjun had been snatched away in advance by someone sent by Lin Rong.

Naturally, Flender was still running about in search of a successor who satisfied him.

Inside the inn.

Perhaps Zhao Wuji's resentful glare was too intense. With his back to him, Shao Xin felt a chill down his neck. He turned back with an apologetic smile and said, "Fine, I'll cover the hotel expenses, and I'll pay for tonight's drinking snacks too."

"So hurry up and put that look away. You're creeping me out!"

"Deal!" Hearing this, Zhao Wuji gave Shao Xin's shoulder a heavy slap with his broad palm. "Old Shao, you said it yourself. Then I won't hold back tonight!"

"No, you can eat more dishes, but don't drink too much." Shao Xin rubbed the shoulder Zhao Wuji had slapped painfully, speaking with a straight face. "If you get drunk, then once we enter the Star Dou Great Forest tomorrow, who's going to protect Xiao Ao and this feeble old man?"

After saying that, Shao Xin's gaze returned to Oscar. Boundless fascination mingled with the affection in his eyes, as though he were looking at a rare, priceless work of art.

"..." Shao Xin's words left Zhao Wuji speechless. Only after a long while did he retort, "Feeble? So you know you need my protection too?"

"If you know that, why did you insist on coming along to make trouble? Do you think Old Zhao is easy to bully?"

As he spoke, Zhao Wuji waved his fist, pretending to be angry.

Shao Xin had known Zhao Wuji for many years, so he could naturally tell whether Zhao Wuji was truly angry or merely putting on an act. Thus, he paid little attention to Old Zhao's raised fist and did not even turn his head.

But Oscar was different.

He had only lived at Shrek Academy for a little over three years, and he did not usually interact much with Zhao Wuji.

Therefore, seeing this, Oscar failed to realize that Zhao Wuji was only pretending to be angry and thought he had genuinely lost his temper.

Seeing that the situation was so unfavorable, Oscar's eyes rolled around, and he immediately came up with an idea.

So, Oscar spoke up at the right moment to smooth things over for his master, Shao Xin.

"Teacher Zhao, how about this?"

"Tonight, you can order a pot of wine and have just a cup with the drinking snacks."

"After we return from our soul hunt, you can have a proper, hearty drinking session. How does that sound?"

"Of course, you won't have to pay for the wine. My master will cover it."

Zhao Wuji had only been pretending to be angry, so he conveniently accepted the way out Oscar had offered.

At the same time, he felt rather envious of his old friend, Shao Xin.

Although Zhao Wuji looked like he was all brawn and no brains, beneath his rough exterior lay a thoughtful mind.

Thus, Zhao Wuji knew that Oscar had said those things to defend his master, Shao Xin.

That made him somewhat understand why Flender was so eager to find himself a disciple.