After listening, Zhu Zhuqing fell into deep thought.
Meng Bei's offer was very tempting to her.
The 50,000-year Blue Feather Sky Eagle spirit bone was very suitable for her, and the improvement it would bring her was substantial.
In comparison, although the wing external spirit bone in her hand was more precious, it needed a very long time to grow, and time was exactly what she lacked.
However, external spirit bones were ultimately more valuable than ordinary spirit bones, so Zhu Zhuqing was still hesitating for a moment, unable to make up her mind.
Seeing that Zhu Zhuqing had already fallen into hesitation, Meng Bei basically guessed her thoughts. The little cat was definitely tempted, but facing such a major decision, she temporarily couldn't make the sacrifice.
Meng Bei didn't press aggressively either. He didn't lack external spirit bones—the system's quest reward had just given him an external spirit bone, he just hadn't taken it out yet.
The reason he wanted to exchange for the external spirit bone in Zhu Zhuqing's hand wasn't actually for himself, but for Rongrong.
Rongrong was an auxiliary soul master with very weak combat ability. In battle, she inevitably became a target for opponents and faced danger. If she could have flying ability, she could avoid most dangers through flight.
Meng Bei thought for a moment and said:
"Sister Zhuqing doesn't need to rush to decide. Such a major choice definitely requires careful consideration. Keep this Blue Feather Sky Eagle spirit bone with you for now. Come find me whenever you've decided."
After saying this, Meng Bei once again gave the spirit bone to Zhu Zhuqing.
Then he took the lead walking back.
Zhu Zhuqing looked at the spirit bone in her hand, hesitated for a long time, but still couldn't refuse.
She really needed to think carefully about whether to make the exchange.
The fire burned for half the night, destroying countless trees.
However, Sunset Forest wasn't an ordinary forest after all. There were countless powerful soul beasts in the forest, so when the fire spread to a certain extent, it was jointly extinguished by many high-level soul beasts and didn't cause irreversible damage to Sunset Forest.
Meng Bei and Zhu Zhuqing followed the charred traces back and soon successfully reunited with the main group without any incidents.
For some reason, after returning, Zhu Zhuqing didn't tell Dai Mubai about the spirit bone matter. Seeing this, Meng Bei cooperated by not saying much either.
Next, they still needed to hunt soul rings for Dugu Yan and Liu Erlong.
So the group continued deeper into the forest.
On the way, they happened to encounter Flender and the others returning.
In this forest, flame-related soul beasts were indeed hard to find. Flender and the others had searched for several days and finally found a thousand-year Fire Lizard in a cave. After killing it, Ma Hongjun obtained his third soul ring.
Then on their way back, they happened to encounter Meng Bei's group.
After the two teams met, they exchanged pleasantries. During this, upon learning that Liu Erlong needed to hunt for a soul ring, Flender immediately expressed his desire to help with the soul hunting.
Flender always had special feelings for Liu Erlong.
When he was young, he had once teamed up with Liu Erlong and Yu Xiaogang to adventure across the continent. During this period, both he and Yu Xiaogang fell in love with Liu Erlong.
Then Flender learned that Liu Erlong liked Yu Xiaogang in her heart, so to avoid damaging team unity, he demonstrated gentlemanly virtue, helping others achieve their goals, giving up the woman he loved to Yu Xiaogang, even personally raising money to hold a wedding for the two.
Later, due to various reasons, Yu Xiaogang (the Grandmaster) and Liu Erlong didn't end up together. Therefore, when facing Liu Erlong now, Flender's emotions were very complex.
Meng Bei couldn't say much about this.
Flender could give his beloved woman to someone else and even personally hold a wedding for her. Meng Bei, examining his own heart, knew he absolutely couldn't do such a thing.
If the same situation happened to Meng Bei, he would only have two choices.
One was to find a way to "take down" Liu Erlong first, making raw rice into cooked rice.
The other was to first find a way to cripple Yu Xiaogang, then make raw rice into cooked rice with Liu Erlong.
Compared to Flender's approach, if Flender could be called a gentleman, then Meng Bei was undoubtedly a thorough scoundrel.
However, Meng Bei didn't care—let him be a scoundrel.
Look at who Liu Erlong listens to now!
No matter how he thought about it, Flender couldn't understand why his third sister (Liu Erlong was ranked third by age when the Golden Iron Triangle teamed up) had changed so much, being extremely cold toward both him and Xiaogang.
Every time they talked, she was very sparing with words, as if she had nothing to say to them at all.
Could it be that after all these years, she was still brooding over what happened back then?
Both Flender and Yu Xiaogang were puzzled.
Ma Hongjun was quite boastful now that he had obtained his third soul skill, but he soon became dejected. The reason was that he learned even the weakest, Ning Rongrong, had already broken through to level 30, and calculating the time, she was even a day earlier than him.
And Xiao Wu, who was only two levels behind him when she first entered the academy, had now reached level 40 Soul Ancestor, a full ten levels ahead of him!
Ma Hongjun was directly discouraged by these successive blows, and even Flender became restless.
It was one thing for Meng Bei's cultivation speed to be heaven-defying—Flender suspected Meng Bei was using some method that damaged his foundation. But how was Xiao Wu also improving so fast? She had just broken through to Soul Elder a few months ago, and now she was already Soul Ancestor. This completely defied common sense!
If this continued, where was the chance of victory in his six-month agreement with Meng Bei?
Fortunately, Meng Bei soon took the initiative to explain the reason to Flender and the others, emphasizing the matter of Tang San taking away a hundred medicinal plants.
Now everyone's breathing became rapid.
Flender thought that given the relationship between the Grandmaster and Tang San, even if the two had misunderstandings, they were still master and student after all. Tang San wouldn't completely refuse to give face. There were 100 plants—asking for one or two for Hongjun and Oscar shouldn't be difficult.
Thus, everyone looked forward to meeting Tang San after returning.
In the evening, the team camped in the forest to rest.
With thoughts of repairing their relationship, Flender personally set up a tent for Liu Erlong to show his attentiveness.
However, although Liu Erlong accepted the tent, she only said a flat "thank you" and didn't even let Flender sit for a while before directly closing the tent flap.
Seeing this, Flender could only return with disappointment.
After Flender left, Meng Bei came to Liu Erlong's tent.
Meng Bei skillfully wrapped his arm around Liu Erlong's waist and criticized: "Why are you still wearing full leather armor? How can you rest properly like this?"
Liu Erlong explained: "We're still in the forest. I'm worried about encountering dangerous situations."
Upon hearing this, Meng Bei removed her armor without question, saying: "It's fine. If there's danger, I'll handle it."
Saying this, he threw the armor aside, revealing the delicate undergarments beneath.
"That's more like it!"
After speaking, he pressed Liu Erlong down.
"Xiaogang, why is Erlong's tent shaking?"
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