A Farewell with Pen and Paper, Returning to Douluo

Late at night, on the back mountain of the Xiao Family, Luo Zixi and Xun'er lay together atop a large boulder, gazing up at the starry sky.

Not far away, Ling Ying, a Nine-Star Dou Emperor, was doing sit-ups and push-ups on the spot.

"Zixi Gege did very well today. Xun'er has prepared a very special reward for you."

Xun'er gently sat up, and Luo Zixi's attention was drawn to what she did next.

"Hm? A special reward?"

Could this little girl be planning to stuff him full of pills again?

But after seeing what Xun'er did next, Luo Zixi realized that he had been too materialistic after all.

Smack.

Without any warning, Xun'er lightly planted a kiss on his cheek.

"Hehe, now that I've stamped you, you're mine from now on."

Seeing Xun'er fooling around, Luo Zixi merely smiled and gently pinched her little cheek.

As for why Xiao Wu had been so quiet today—even when Xun'er kissed Luo Zixi, she had not shown herself—

That was naturally because Luo Zixi had already told her that they would be returning to the Douluo Continent tonight, and that he had come specifically to bid Xun'er farewell.

Over the past six years, Xiao Wu had also learned that this was not their original world, but another world with an entirely new cultivation system.

She knew that Luo Zixi had a way to return here after taking her away, but that would definitely be a very long time from now.

So no matter how jealous Xiao Wu felt, she did not intend to say it outright tonight.

After an unknown amount of time, Xun'er gradually fell asleep from exhaustion.

In the end, Luo Zixi did not dare tell this little glutton that he was leaving.

After draping his coat over her, Luo Zixi carried her back to her room.

Once he had settled everything for Xun'er in her room, Luo Zixi softly closed the door for her. Then, facing a certain direction, he said quietly, "Ling Ying, you old fellow, don't abandon your post again. You know Xun'er's temper. One slip-up, and you might really lose your job."

As soon as Luo Zixi finished speaking, he vanished from the spot. At the same time, the system's mechanical voice rang out in his mind.

Ding, Ling Ying's favorability -1%. Current favorability: 60%.

Hm? When did this old fellow Ling Ying's favorability rise?

Whatever. This old fellow would not dare kill him anyway. Whether his favorability was higher or lower, he did not give a damn.

"Xiao Wu, hide inside my Illusory Spirit Immortal Marsh and don't come out. We're leaving this place now."

Upon hearing Luo Zixi's words, Xiao Wu hid in the very center of the Illusory Spirit Immortal Marsh almost instantly.

As Luo Zixi had said, if she rashly left his body while they were departing this place, she would very likely be torn apart by space itself.

Luo Zixi silently recited in his heart.

"System, return to the Douluo Continent!"

Ding, dimensional traversal in progress. Destination: Douluo Continent.

Spatial passage successfully established! Traversing now!

Whoosh!

Luo Zixi instantly turned into a streak of white light and disappeared from his room.

Elsewhere, on the Douluo Continent, ten li outside Notting City.

As a streak of white light flashed, Luo Zixi returned once again to the place where his dream had nearly come to an end.

This time, nothing unexpected happened. He found that he had arrived at exactly the spot where he had left before.

Looking around, Luo Zixi discovered that the area was utterly desolate. Within a radius of ten li, it had become a pockmarked wasteland.

Looking at the massive crater beside him, one that seemed to have been smashed out by some enormous object, Luo Zixi knew that this must have been the aftermath of the battle between the two beast kings of the Star Dou Great Forest and Tang Hao.

When he turned back toward Notting City, it seemed not to have been affected. However, Luo Zixi could not be sure whether Tang Hao was still there, so he did not return to Notting City out of curiosity.

Raising his head to look at the stars in the night sky, Luo Zixi felt that the moon of the Douluo Continent tonight did not seem as full as the one in the Dou Qi Continent.

Inside Xun'er's room, she was fast asleep. Yet as her body shifted slightly, a carefully wrapped letter emerged from the gray-black trench coat draped over her blanket.

The tip of her delicate nose twitched faintly, as though she were having a sweet dream.

When the first ray of morning sunlight appeared, Luo Zixi, who had rested atop a tree branch all night, slowly raised his eyes to look over the sea of green around him.

This was the mixed region of the Star Dou Great Forest. The weakest creatures here were Thousand Year Soul Beasts, while the goal of his trip was the Soul Rings of Soul Beasts over ten thousand years old.

He was now a level forty-nine Soul Master, and what he needed were three high-quality Ten Thousand Year Soul Rings.

What? He was only a Soul Ancestor with just two rings, so he could not defeat Ten Thousand Year Soul Beasts?

You had to be joking. Did you even understand the sheer value of a Nine-Star Great Fighter?

Luo Zixi dared say that before the Dou Qi stored in his body ran out, slaughtering two Ten Thousand Year Soul Beasts would be effortless.

To him now, Soul Ring age limits were nothing but bullshit. He could increase them by one hundred years a day—thirty-six thousand five hundred years in a year.

But the higher the level of the Soul Ring, the greater the Soul Power feedback it gave him, and the faster his strength would grow.

The next moment, Luo Zixi's second ring quietly appeared behind him, and Xiao Wu poked her head out of the Soul Ring, rubbing her sleepy eyes.

"Where are we?"

Xiao Wu looked around in confusion, but she soon realized that the scenery felt strangely familiar.

"My little grandaunt, you're finally awake. This is the mixed zone of the Star Dou Great Forest. Why don't you help me find a Ten Thousand Year Soul Beast?"

Watching Xiao Wu crawl out of his second ring, anyone who knew she was a soul spirit would understand. Anyone who didn't might have mistaken her for some old mountain ghost.

Hearing Luo Zixi's words, Xiao Wu immediately perked up. Those Ten Thousand Year Soul Beasts in the mixed zone that loved sneaking into the core zone to cause trouble? She knew them like the back of her hand!

"Mm, heading southeast from here, about ten li away, there's a deep pond. Inside lives an Evil Shadow Flood Dragon that was around eighteen thousand years old. But the last time I saw it was a hundred years ago, so its cultivation should be close to twenty thousand years by now."

An Evil Shadow Flood Dragon nearing twenty thousand years old? The Soul Ring age was not exactly ideal, but fortunately, it was an extremely rare earth dragon with a darkness attribute.

Dragon-type Soul Rings were inherently far superior in quality to those of other Soul Beasts. The ring energy produced by a twenty-thousand-year dragon-type Soul Ring would definitely be no worse than that of an ordinary thirty-thousand-year Soul Ring!

"Xiao Wu, lead the way. Let's go kill that bastard."

Luo Zixi was already eager to try. After all, he wanted to see whether the power of a Nine-Star Great Fighter could blast a Ten Thousand Year Soul Beast to death!

Meanwhile, in the mixed zone twenty li outside the Star Dou Great Forest, two men and a woman advanced cautiously in a strange triangular formation.

Hidden in the shadows, a fair-skinned middle-aged man with effeminate features and orchid-like fingers watched their advancing formation with great satisfaction.