The Great Star Doo Forest is a vast, primeval forest characterized by its diverse terrain due to its vast area. Thanks to its predominantly tropical climate, this region boasts immense diversity, from wetlands and swamps to valleys and plains. This forest borders two great kingdoms, the Heaven Doo Empire and the Star Luo Empire. The Star Doo Forest also boasts a dense vegetation that bears an unparalleled plant diversity, making it undoubtedly one of the most beautiful regions in the entire world. However, what attracts people from all over the continent here is not the stunning scenery or the adventure of its depths. Rather, what attracts them is the opportunity: the chance to become stronger, to break through their limits, and to ascend to a higher rank. But the world is fair. The opportunity to become stronger could at any moment turn into a deadly trap that turns you into nothing more than soil fertilizer.
But even knowing this, many people are still willing to try. These people are Soul Masters, people who cultivate the Martial Spirit. The Martial Spirit is a special ability that awakens at the age of six. Everyone possesses their own Martial Spirit.
spirits vary from person to person, but only those with soul Power can cultivate. The level of Soul Power upon awakening determines a person's cultivation talent and cultivation speed, and to some extent, it also determines their prospects and future. As long as a person possesses at least Level 1 soul Power upon awakening their Martial soul, they can cultivate.
When a person reaches Level 10, their cultivation improvement stops, so to break this limitation, one must absorb a soul Ring. The soul Ring is a special energy body created after the death of a soul Beast. This ring carries an Innate Skill from the beast. A Soul Master can absorb the ring from the Soul Beast they killed and gain that Innate Skill. They will also gain a portion of the Spirit Beast's power in the form of Attributes, enhancements, or other forms. So, after this explanation, it should be clear what all these people came for.
These people came to the Star Dou Forest to hunt Spirit Beasts and improve their strength. Of course, if they encounter a stronger monster, it will end up as food in their stomachs, because Spirit Masters are usually weaker than monsters of the same level, so the risk of hunting a Spirit Beast is extremely high. Therefore, Spirit Masters gather at the edge of the forest and form teams to hunt Spirit Beasts. The hunted monster could be for a member of the team or a client requesting that soul ring for a certain reward.
It simply sounds similar to the adventurers and guilds in Japanese novels. The difference here is that there are no guilds, and the client must accompany the team on the hunt. To obtain a Spirit Ring from a monster, you must be the one who killed the monster or at least dealt the final blow. Due to years of work and Spirit Beast hunting, some people stayed and established towns on the edge of the forest. The towns have grown over the years and now include shops for purchasing supplies and taverns for Spirit Masters to drink, as well as stalls selling monster bodies or wild plants, and, most importantly, hunting party houses.
Hunting party houses are homes rented or built by hunting parties, where members can live or retire.
On the west side of the city, there was a somewhat dilapidated hunting lodge. The wood looked old and worn, but it was unexpectedly clean. Laughter and shouting could be heard from inside the house. Inside, a group of four people, three men and a woman, could be seen gathered around a table, drinking beer and eating. "Boss, what should we do? The bastards from the Blue bull Team have taken all our business no one come to us ." A middle-aged man looked furious. His hair and beard were red like blazing fire. His body was muscular, and his skin was bronzed from prolonged exposure to the sun. "You must be patient, Old Yan. I heard that the Blue bull leader has broken through to the Soul Ancestor level, and even his deputy soul power has reached rank thirty-sixth . We are not their opponents now. If we attack them recklessly, we might get killed and won't even leave behind a decent corpse. So stop being reckless, or we will all die because of you ." The other man said to the person named Yan. The man looked to be in his mid-twenties. His hair was blue and his eyes were green. His build was thin, and he didn't look like a fighter. He looked more like a weak noble. He held a fan, covering half of his face with it, and smiled.
"Huh? What did you say? Do you want to die, you bastard?" the fiery red-haired man said angrily. Fire began to ignite in his body, and his hands transformed into leopard claws. Red fur grew from his arms, and two soul rings, one white and one yellow, appeared behind him. The noble man seemed annoyed by Yan's rudeness and looked at him with disgust. "I'm not a barbaric like you. I'm a Auxiliary System Soul Master. My job is to strengthen the team and improve our strength and chances of success. Without me, you won't be able to escape from the deep sea turtle last time."
Yan looked a bit embarrassed. "He then said stubbornly, 'Hmph. Even if you don't help me, it's not as if I'll die.'" "Yes, you won't die, but you will be seriously injured and Being seriously injured in the Star Dou Forest is equivalent to death," the blue-haired man said. Yan didn't refute what the blue-haired man said, but he looked increasingly angry. Just as his anger was about to explode, he heard a woman's voice in the room. "Yan, Chi, stop fighting. The leader is already thinking about how to handle this matter. If you continue to disturb him, you will be punished." The woman said with a smile.
The woman looked to be in her early thirties, with wavy brown hair that reached her back. She wore black leather clothing and brown leather armor that accentuated her curvy body. She had clear blue eyes. The two men stopped fighting upon hearing her voice. The man named Chi looked at the woman with a deep gaze, then covered his mouth with the fan. "Okay, as you wish, deputy Leader su" Yan also looked at the woman, but his gaze was different from Chi's deep gaze. It was filled with heat and greed, and as if he was thinking of something. Yan suppressed his gaze and also replied, "Humph, you're lucky Chi. Next time, you won't be so lucky."
Chi ignored Yan's words and looked toward the center of the room where a middle-aged man sat, sporting a thick beard and wearing brown leather armor that covered his chest and revealed his thick arms. His body was massive and muscular, and his skin was bronzed like Yan's, except it had more scars. He held the wooden beer cup in his hand, but he didn't drink. He seemed to be in deep thought. He shifted his gaze slightly toward Yan and Chi when he heard the commotionand said "Yan, stop making trouble." Yan looked at the man and said, "Commander, I'm not making trouble. It's that bastard Chi who's provoking me." Chi looked at Yan and said, "I'm not provoking you. I'm just pointing out your foolish decision and preventing you from leading us to our doom." Yan grew angry and said loudly, "But I haven't said anything yet." Chi looked at him and said with a smile, "It's better to stay that way."
Yan was about to go crazy. "You son of a—" Before he could finish, Chi interrupted him, "You don't need to continue. We all know what you mean. You want to attack the Blue Bull Little Squads , or trying to lure monsters to kill them, right?" Yan remained silent, as that was what was really on his mind. But he simply couldn't swallow his anger. He wanted to attack Chi to show him who's the boss.
Before he could say anything, he heard a voice filled with anger, "Yan, what did I just tell you? Stop making trouble." Yan looked at the man and knew he would be in trouble if he didn't give an answer to calm his anger. He quickly said, " boss, I didn't do anything you know I'm a fire type Spirit Master, so it's only natural that I get a little angry. It's Chi's fault that he's provoking me, but if the boss wants, I can swallow my anger and ignore it." The others looked at Yan in surprise. They didn't expect this idiot to be using his brain at a moment like this. The boss also looked surprised, but he looked at Yan and said, "Hmph, I don't care about your stupid fights with Chi, but the next time I say stop, you must stop. Do you understand?" Yan looked at the man and felt a fire burning in his chest. He thought, "This bastard, how dare he? If he wasn't stronger than me." I would have killed him a long time ago." Yan had been thinking these things, but he didn't dare say them. Instead, he replied in a humble voice, "Yes, Boss."
The Boss nodded in satisfaction upon hearing Yan's response and turned to Chi. "And you, Chi, stop provoking Yan," Chi replied. "I'm just correcting Yan's thoughts. I don't want his thoughts to affect the team, Boss. After all, the purpose of having an Auxiliary System Spirit Master in the team is to improve the team's strength and help them achieve their goals. So, everything I do is for the team." The leader looked at Chi and said, "Um, right." Chi felt pleased upon hearing his leader's response and smiled arrogantly. But his smile froze upon hearing the rest of the words.
"An Assistant Spirit Master should strengthen the team members, but leading the team and correcting its members' thoughts is my job. Your job is to reinforce us and hide behind us. You can leave the rest to me. Just focus on doing what you have to do." After the leader finished speaking, Chi remained frozen for a while. If someone didn't look carefully, they wouldn't notice. The veins in his hand popped out from how tightly he was gripping the fan after a few moments. He opened the fan and covered the lower half of his face with it, saying, "As you wish, Commander." The Commander smiled, "Good."
then He ignored them and walked up the stairs. "Su Ling, come with me." The woman, Su Ling, smiled and followed the man. Yan looked at the scene before him, and the fire in his chest that had just been extinguished by Qi's insult flared up again. He was furious. He saw out of the corner of his eye that Qi had left and walked up the other side of the stairs. Qi didn't look angry, but he didn't trust that hypocrite. He heard the sounds of cups being stirred and looked to the side. He saw a young boy cleaning the table. The boy had coal-black hair, dark eyes, and white skin with a hint of tan. The boy looked kind and sensible as he calmly cleaned up the leftover food and gathered the utensils. Yan looked at this seemingly beautiful scene, but for some reason, he felt uneasy. Then he remembered something and asked, "Oi, little bastard, today is the day you awakened your fighting spirit right ?. What kind of rubbish did you awaken?" The child seemed surprised by Yan's words, so he pointed to himself. "me" Yan became angry upon seeing this and said, "Is there another idiot here? Of course I'm talking to you." The child looked scared and tremblingly replied, "a spear." Yan heard what the child said and looked thoughtful. "The same fighting spirit as your trash father, what is your innate soul power?" The boy replied, fear filling his face. "Five." Yan paused for a moment upon hearing his answer. "Five." Yan whispered, then frowned slightly and looked at the frightened child as if he had thought of something. He then smiled and said to the child, "Amazing, even trash like you can have such talent." Yan began to feel annoyed at the thought of his level three soul power. "So I'm not as talented as this bastard." The more he thought about it, the angrier he became. He looked at the trembling boy in front of him and saw his small body trembling in front of him. He felt happy and then said to the kid, "Finish cleaning." The child began to clean again, but in the midst of cleaning, Yan kicked the table and overturned it. The utensils were scattered everywhere, and soup and drink splashed all over the kid's body. The child began to tremble violently. Yan looked at the child's trembling body and felt overwhelmed with happiness. Even if this bastard was more talented than him, he could only tremble in fear in front of him. Yan wanted to hit the kid to vent his anger, but he remembered the leader warnings. The kid was the one who took care of the cleanliness of the entire hunting lodge. That was why this dilapidated place looked so clean. He also cooked. The kid's craftsmanship was surprisingly good, unlike his drunken father. More importantly, the kid was still working to pay off his father's debt. He had previously beaten the kid and broken his arm, which had caused the quality of the food to decline and the hunting lodge to turn into a damned animal stable. The kid hadn't worked in the next three months, so Yan and the others had to buy their food from other places. What was worse was that the food tasted much worse than the food the kid prepared, and it wasn't free like the child's food. Therefore, Yan received a severe reprimand from the team members for affecting their living quality . Yan had learned his lesson. As long as it didn't affect the child's duties, it didn't matter what he did, and the others wouldn't interfere
Yan looked at the kid lying on the ground and said, "Hurry up and clean up." The child didn't answer and started cleaning with his trembling body. Yan looked at this sight and smiled happily. He thought, "This child will never rise up after all. He was trained by Su'er, so even if he has great talent, he won't pose any threat. But we must be careful. After all, he has become a soul master. It seems I must have a talk with the others. The bastard's talent is unexpected." Thinking of this, Yan smiled and went upstairs, leaving the child to collect the utensils with his trembling hands. His hair was covering his eyes. The child grabbed the utensils and put them in the kitchen. He then grabbed a bucket filled with water and a rag and began mopping the floor. After cleaning the floor, he lifted the table and cleaned it. Then he began washing the utensils. His trembling hands didn't calm down during this entire process. He grabbed the edge of the table and pressed down on it. The table began to creak under the pressure. When it was on the verge of breaking, he let go, raising his hair and revealing his gentle face. But if Yan saw his current face, he would undoubtedly kill the boy. His expression was The boy was completely different from his usual fear. His expression was cold, without any trace of emotion, but his eyes betrayed his face. They held a raging anger, even madness, threatening to destroy everything at all cost even of the kid's own life.
After some deep breathing, the child calmed down, and the anger and madness disappeared from his eyes, replaced by apathy. After cleaning and preparing the ingredients for dinner, he went upstairs to rest a little before it was time to prepare dinner. The kid entered a room upstairs. The room was very simple, with a bed in the corner covered with some patchwork quilts, but they were good protection against the cold. There was no desk or anything like that, but a bunch of wooden boxes stacked on top of each other, occupying half the room. The only thing that kept the room from looking stuffy was the window above the bed, where outside light could enter.
The child put his ear to the wall, then the floor. After checking, he went under the bed and slowly pulled out some nails. After pulling them all out, he removed the board to reveal a secret space. There was a bulging piece of cloth wrapped around several items. The child opened it, and inside was a small notebook, several glass bottles with liquid in various colors, red, pink, green, and yellow, a few gold coins, and a Iron dagger.
The boy took a bottle with dark green liquid out of his pocket and placed it with the rest of the bottles. He then rolled up the cloth and moved it away to empty the space. He inserted his finger into a hole in the side of the inner panel. He pulled it out to reveal a small box welded to the inner panel. The boy opened the box to reveal a small black cloth. He unfolded the cloth to see a silver ring. The ring looked simple, without intricate decorations, as if it were just an ordinary ring that could be bought from any random street kiosk, but the engravings on it told otherwise. The boy breathed to calm himself and injected his newly acquired energy. After injecting the spirit power into the ring, the engravings glowed a little. Then the child felt the inner space of the ring. He seemed surprised by what he saw, then he began to tremble. This time, he wasn't trembling from anger, but from excitement. After calming himself, he pointed the ring at the objects on the cloth, then directed the spirit power into the ring. Suddenly, the cloth and what was inside it disappeared. The boy smiled happily, then continued trying on the ring. After some experiments, he took it off, then intended to put it back in its place, but after some thought, he put it back on his finger, then took out some gold coins and the cloth and put them back in their place after putting everything back .
The boy leaned back on the bed and began to think about the past.