A Discussion of Soul Hunting

The results of the monthly assessment left the entire Bluestone Town Junior Soul Master Academy quiet for three days.

News that the strongest student in Class B had been knocked flat by a single palm strike from a Class C newcomer without even a Soul Ring spread through every class as if it had grown wings. Wherever Long Tian went, people stole glances at him, their eyes filled with curiosity, resentment, and a trace of unease they could not quite explain. Chen Hao had not shown his face in the courtyard since that day. Supposedly, he had taken sick leave to recover at home, but everyone knew the burn on his abdomen had long since scabbed over. What had really been injured was probably his face.

Zhao Xiaopang became Long Tian's most loyal follower, telling everyone he met, "That's my brother, Long Tian." The way Shitou and the other children in Class C looked at Long Tian changed too. Before, they had been numb to the idea that "we're all trash in Class C anyway." Now they had a glimmer of hope-Class C could win too.

Long Tian himself did not take it too much to heart. He continued to rise early and cultivate every day, study basic theory under Teaching Assistant Sun during the day, and work out how to balance his two dragons alone at night. The only change was that Mr. Wang began calling him to the second floor of the lecture hall from time to time, privately teaching him things he could not learn in class, such as the composition of Soul Rings, the types and distribution of Soul Beasts, and the Soul Hunting grounds best suited to beginners.

One afternoon, Long Tian was summoned to Mr. Wang's room again.

The ginkgo tree outside the window had shed all its leaves, and cold, pale sunlight filtered through its bare branches. Mr. Wang sat behind his desk, steam rising from the teacups in front of him. He pushed one cup toward Long Tian, picked up the other, and took a slow sip. For a long while, he said nothing.

Long Tian waited with the teacup in his hands, knowing his teacher had something to say.

Sure enough, Mr. Wang put down his cup and spoke. "You've reached level ten. And by defeating Chen Hao, you've proved that your Light Dragon Power has some practical value in a real fight. Ordinarily, it would be time for you to hunt for your First Soul Ring."

Long Tian's eyes lit up. A Soul Ring! He had waited a long time for this day.

"But," Mr. Wang continued, raising a finger as he changed tack, "your situation is unusual. You have Twin Martial Souls, and the two Martial Souls are independent of each other. In principle, you need two Soul Rings-one for the Radiant Sacred Dragon and one for the Shadow Sacred Dragon. But you're only level ten right now. If both dragons take on Soul Rings at the same time, your body won't be able to bear the strain."

Long Tian blinked. "Then should I give one Martial Soul a Soul Ring first?"

"You could, but which one would you choose? If you give it to the Radiant Dragon, the Dark Dragon will suppress the Radiant Dragon. In time, yin and yang will fall out of balance, and your meridians will suffer. The same applies if you give it to the Dark Dragon. Unless..." Mr. Wang pushed up his glasses. "You find a Soul Beast whose Soul Ring contains both light and darkness attributes. That would kill two birds with one stone. Both Martial Souls could absorb the same Soul Ring at once, so you wouldn't have to decide which comes first or worry about the period of imbalance in between."

Long Tian understood only part of it. "Is there a Soul Beast like that?"

"Very few." Mr. Wang stood and walked over to a landscape painting on the wall, then tapped it with a finger. "The nearest Soul Hunting grounds to us are in the Heavenly Wolf Mountain Range. Deep in the mountains lives a Soul Beast called the Yin-Yang Twin-Pupil Python. According to the records, its Soul Ring possesses both light and darkness attributes, making it suitable for your situation. But these pythons are vicious by nature. Even a young one has seven or eight hundred years of cultivation. It won't be any easier to deal with than that Ironback Wolf of Chen Hao's."

Seven or eight hundred years. Although Long Tian had only recently begun learning about Soul Beasts, he knew what that meant. The optimal Soul Ring age for a Soul Master of his level was around four hundred years. Absorbing a Soul Beast's seven-hundred-year Soul Ring was extremely risky. One small mistake and the Soul Ring would backlash, severing his meridians inch by inch at best and killing him on the spot at worst.

But after a moment's silence, he looked up. "Sir, I want to try."

Mr. Wang turned and studied him for a long time. There was consideration and worry in his gaze, which finally gave way to a soft sigh. "Think it through. I won't stop you, but you can't make this trip alone. I'll go with you. We'll leave early tomorrow morning. Bring some rations and a change of clothes. The round trip to the Heavenly Wolf Mountain Range will take at least five days."

Long Tian nodded firmly. "All right."

"One more thing." Mr. Wang walked back to the desk, took a small, heavy cloth pouch from a drawer, and tossed it into Long Tian's arms. Long Tian opened it and found twenty gleaming silver Soul Coins inside, shining softly in the dim light.

"You can't go Soul Hunting empty-handed. There's a Soul Hunting Town at the foot of the mountains. Buy some beast-repelling powder, medicinal salve, and rope. They'll all come in handy. This is an advance on your academy allowance. It'll be deducted from your mission points later."

Long Tian clutched the pouch, feeling its weight in his palm and warmth spreading through his chest. He nodded hard, said, "Thank you, sir," and turned and ran out.

When Zhao Xiaopang learned that Long Tian was going Soul Hunting, he pestered him to let him come along. Long Tian used every argument he could think of to persuade him to stay and watch the dormitory, and Zhao Xiaopang finally agreed, though reluctantly. Before Long Tian left, Zhao Xiaopang pressed a packet of dry flatbread into his hands, saying his mother had sent it from home and he should eat it if he got hungry on the road.

Early the next morning, with dawn just breaking, Long Tian stood at the academy gate with a bundle on his back and waited. The late-autumn morning breeze carried a bone-deep chill. He hunched his shoulders and pulled the collar of his coarse blue-cloth shirt tighter. Before long, Mr. Wang came out through the side gate, leading a gray donkey. He too had a bundle on his back, and a short sword tucked behind his waist.

"Just you? Zhao Xiaopang didn't come?"

"I talked him out of it."

"Good." Mr. Wang nodded, swung himself onto the donkey, and pulled Long Tian up to sit behind him. "Let's go. We'll reach the town at the foot of the mountains before dark."

The gray donkey's hooves clopped along the main road as they headed northwest. Morning mist blanketed the fields, blurring the distant mountains into a haze of blue-green. Sitting on the donkey's rump, Long Tian watched the scenery on either side gradually change from farmland to barren slopes, then from barren slopes to increasingly dense mountain forests.

Along the way, Mr. Wang told him a great deal about the Heavenly Wolf Mountain Range in fits and starts. The range stretched for several hundred li, and most of the Soul Beasts kept in its outer reaches were young beasts around a hundred years old, suitable for junior Soul Masters to hunt. The farther in one went, the older the Soul Beasts became. Ferocious Beasts tens of thousands of years old even held sway in the deepest parts, and the rule in Soul Hunting Town was "don't enter the deep forest." The Yin-Yang Twin-Pupil Python's habitat lay in the middle of the range, near the edge of the deep forest, right on the line between safety and danger.

"When we get there," Mr. Wang said, glancing back at Long Tian, "you'll follow my orders in everything. If I say retreat, you run. Don't look back."

Long Tian gave a serious nod of acknowledgment.

When the afternoon sun had begun to sink westward, a small town built of rough timber and stone appeared in a mountain hollow. A crooked wooden sign stood at its entrance, bearing the words "Soul Hunting Town" in crude strokes, as though they had been written with a fire poker dipped in ink. There were not many people in town, and most were Soul Masters who had come from various places to hunt for Soul Rings. Some gathered in groups of three or five, while others traveled alone. Rough stalls lined the road, selling rations and medicinal salves or buying Soul Beast materials. The vendors' cries had the rough-and-ready vigor of the mountains.

Mr. Wang took Long Tian to an inn and secured them a room, then went to a general store to buy a few things-a small jar of beast-repelling powder, a coil of refined steel rope, a bottle of bleeding-stanching powder, and two bundles of torches. Long Tian watched the items being packed into the bundle one by one, and the nervousness in his heart slowly turned into a weighty sense of solemnity.

After nightfall, the two ate a simple dinner in the inn's main hall. Mr. Wang went to ask the innkeeper for recent news from the mountains, and his expression was somewhat grave when he returned. Long Tian leaned over and asked what was wrong. Mr. Wang sat down, took a large gulp of hot water, and lowered his voice. "The innkeeper said someone saw a large snake with black-and-white bands in the middle of the mountains a couple of days ago. It had at least six hundred years of cultivation. It's most likely the Yin-Yang Twin-Pupil Python."

Long Tian's grip tightened on his chopsticks.

"Are you afraid?" Mr. Wang asked.

Long Tian thought for a moment, then shook his head. It would certainly have been a lie to say he was not afraid, but he was more afraid that if he missed this chance, he would have to wait who knew how long to find another suitable Soul Beast. He felt his right hand. His palm was slightly warm, and the golden vortex in his dantian was turning steadily. On his left side, the dark vortex was unusually quiet, as if it were storing something up.

"Go to sleep," Mr. Wang said, patting his head. "We'll enter the mountains before dawn tomorrow."

The inn's bed was hard, and the bedding smelled faintly of mildew, but Long Tian soon fell asleep. In his dream, the golden dragon and the black dragon circled among the clouds again. This time, they no longer faced off against each other, but flew side by side in the same direction-toward the dark, dense forest deep in the mountains.

In the forest, a pair of vertical pupils slowly opened, one gold and one black, like two lanterns suspended in the darkness.