Soon, Ning Rongrong successfully absorbed the soul ring and obtained a defensive enhancement soul skill.
Meng Bei's quest was also completed at this moment, with his third soul ring's age increased by one thousand years.
Combined with the quest completed by Xiao Wu earlier, his third and fourth soul rings had now reached over 3,500 years and over 15,000 years respectively.
Both his soul rings and soul power received certain enhancements, but because his current strength was simply too powerful, this small boost only increased his soul power by about half a level, with little improvement in actual combat strength.
Next was finding a suitable soul beast for Zhu Zhuqing. During their rest at night, Meng Bei quietly went out with Xiao Wu.
Then he made up an excuse, saying they had encountered a suitable soul beast and he had hunted it with Xiao Wu, but didn't want to disturb everyone's rest so didn't notify the group. This explained Xiao Wu's fourth soul ring issue.
The group continued searching.
Soon, Zhu Zhuqing's third soul ring was also secured.
While scouting from above, Liu Erlong accidentally discovered a thousand-year Ghost Head Teal.
This was a medium-sized bird soul beast, only about half the size of eagle-type soul beasts of the same cultivation level. Its advantage lay in its extremely fast speed, moving like a ghost.
The reason this soul beast was called Ghost Head Teal actually had nothing to do with its speed. It was mainly because this soul beast often ambushed others from the air. When diving to attack, the Ghost Head Teal would tuck its most vulnerable head behind its wings in a recessed area. From a distance, it looked like a headless ghost bird, hence its name.
When Liu Erlong discovered this soul beast, it was hanging far behind Meng Bei's team, apparently considering whether to attack them.
Upon seeing it, Liu Erlong directly breathed out dragon flames. The Ghost Head Teal hurriedly dodged but still got singed, its wings catching fire as it fell crookedly to the ground.
Seeing this, Zhu Zhuqing immediately rushed toward where the Ghost Head Teal was falling.
After all, this was a soul beast being hunted for her, so as the beneficiary, she naturally had to be more attentive.
However, what she didn't expect was that after the Ghost Head Teal landed and rolled around on the ground, it accidentally ignited the surrounding trees, causing a large fire. The Ghost Head Teal then used the thick smoke to stumble away into the distance.
Seeing this, Zhu Zhuqing quickly gave chase while the flames were still small.
Meng Bei followed behind Zhu Zhuqing. By the time he arrived, the flames had begun to spread, though not too severely—just moderately.
Meng Bei ignored the flames and chased in Zhu Zhuqing's direction.
Dai Mubai and the others were delayed by another minute or two. When they arrived, the flames had completely spread, with fire reaching toward the sky and thick smoke billowing, blocking everyone's advance.
These flames originated from Liu Erlong's ultimate fire, with temperatures far exceeding ordinary flames. Now, except for Liu Erlong herself, no one else dared to force their way through.
"What should we do?"
Dai Mubai looked worriedly in the direction where Meng Bei and Zhu Zhuqing had gone.
Zhu Zhuqing's strength wasn't great—if she got trapped in the fire, it would definitely be extremely dangerous.
Ning Rongrong and the others also looked worried as they gazed at the raging flames.
Fortunately, Liu Erlong descended from the air at this moment and comforted everyone:
"Don't worry. I saw from above that Zhuqing and Xiao Bei have already left the fire's spread area. Everyone doesn't need to worry about them. With Xiao Bei's strength, he'll keep Zhuqing safe. I estimate they'll return once the fire dies down."
Hearing Liu Erlong's words, everyone finally relaxed temporarily.
Since Meng Bei and Zhu Zhuqing had already left the fire area, at least they didn't need to worry about being trapped by flames.
At this time, the flames grew more intense, and many soul beasts fled from the fire one after another.
Liu Erlong watched this scene, frowned slightly, and quickly said to everyone: "Children, we don't know how long this fire will burn. Let's all retreat a bit to avoid being affected by the soul beasts fleeing from the fire."
Everyone thought this made sense and quickly retreated several li away, waiting for the fire to die down.
Although Dai Mubai was still very worried about Zhu Zhuqing's safety, thinking of Meng Bei's strength put him much more at ease, so he also retreated with the group.
Meanwhile, on the other side, Zhu Zhuqing chased after the Ghost Head Teal.
The Ghost Head Teal rolled and tumbled for over ten li, but unfortunately, it was stained with Liu Erlong's ultimate fire. No matter how much it rolled, the flames wouldn't extinguish.
Finally, when the Ghost Head Teal was forced to stop, it was barely breathing. Half its body was charred by the flames, its flesh cracked open by the fire, and its bones were burnt to carbon—it looked extremely miserable.
Seeing this, Zhu Zhuqing quickly put the Ghost Head Teal out of its misery. After all, the torture it was enduring was simply too inhumane—even she couldn't bear to watch.
Meng Bei caught up at this moment.
Seeing the Ghost Head Teal's miserable state, he also shook his head repeatedly.
"Sister Zhuqing, I'll protect you while you absorb the soul ring!"
Meng Bei said.
Upon hearing this, Zhu Zhuqing nodded and sat cross-legged on the ground to absorb the soul ring.
Meng Bei silently guarded Zhu Zhuqing from the side.
During this time, for some reason, his gaze unconsciously moved from watching the surroundings to focusing on Zhu Zhuqing.
From top to bottom—a gourd-shaped figure.
It had to be said that compared to Xiao Wu and the others, Zhu Zhuqing indeed had her own outstanding qualities.
Meng Bei was currently focused on studying Zhu Zhuqing's tail after her martial soul possessed her body.
This tail grew from behind—he wondered what it would feel like to touch. Was it virtual or did it have real tactile sensation?
Meng Bei wanted to reach out and touch it—not for any other reason, just pure curiosity.
Of course, he also knew that this was a critical moment for Zhu Zhuqing's soul ring absorption, so he couldn't casually disturb her.
At this time, Zhu Zhuqing had successfully drawn the soul ring to her body and was now concentrating entirely on absorbing the soul power contained within it.
Because this Ghost Head Teal had endured extremely inhumane torture when it died, its soul power contained considerable resentment. Since Zhu Zhuqing hadn't consumed any immortal herbs, the absorption was somewhat difficult for her.
Meng Bei estimated it wouldn't finish anytime soon.
He walked around Zhu Zhuqing for a while. Her figure was indeed excellent, and after martial soul possession with cat ears as decoration, she became even more adorable. It would be nice if he could reach out and touch those cat ears—he wondered if they were as soft as Xiao Wu's.
As Meng Bei was thinking this, his gaze inadvertently swept over the Ghost Head Teal on the ground, and suddenly his spirits lifted!
In the Ghost Head Teal's charred wings, he saw a glimmer of ghostly light flash by.
That was!
Meng Bei thought of something and quickly stepped forward, tearing off the Ghost Head Teal's wings.
He peeled away the charred flesh from the Ghost Head Teal's wings, and among the layers of bones, a crystal-like purple bone was revealed.
It was a pair of connected wings, entirely deep purple in color, emanating powerful soul power fluctuations and waves of ghostly light.
"External spirit bone!"
Meng Bei looked back at Zhu Zhuqing, who was sitting with her eyes closed, completely focused on absorbing the soul ring. He fell into thought.
Just then, a system notification suddenly rang in his mind.
[Ding! Side quest triggered!]
[Side Quest: Return Spirit Bone - You accidentally intercepted an external spirit bone belonging to Shrek team member Zhu Zhuqing. For team harmony, please return the spirit bone!]
[Quest Difficulty: Normal]
[Quest Reward: Same type external spirit bone]
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