After conversing with Qian Daoliu for a long while.
Ning Rongrong arrived at the gathering place of the soul beasts. As soon as she stepped in, waves of terrifying auras rushed toward her.
Hundred-thousand-year soul beasts—if not for Bi Ji and Bear Lord keeping them in check, the ordinary civilians in this city would probably be devoured one by one.
This was not yet the era of Peerless Tang Sect, where hundred-thousand-year soul beasts had been hunted down for ten thousand years.
Who knew how many had died or been injured in the process.
In the current Star Dou Great Forest, it was not just the Ten Great Savage Beasts—there were still a great number of other hundred-thousand-year soul beasts.
"Take me to see Bi Ji and Bear Lord!"
A faint pressure spread out, maintained within a certain range.
A cat-type soul beast, sensing the oppressive aura, had its fur completely stand on end.
"Please… follow me."
Since the other party knew Bi Ji and Bear Lord, they were clearly an ally. This was a three-way cooperation, and hundred-thousand-year soul beasts were not lacking in intelligence. As long as it wasn't an enemy, that was fine.
There was no helping it—in human society, there were always malicious people who wanted to harm soul beasts, kill them for their rings and bones. How could they not be cautious?
It wasn't long before Ning Rongrong arrived at the residence of Bi Ji and Bear Lord.
As soul beasts that had survived a heavenly tribulation, they could all take human form, so there was no need to maintain their massive bodies like the cat-type soul beast from earlier.
As soon as she walked through the door, Ning Rongrong saw the savage beasts staring at her with tiger-like intensity.
Moreover, Dugu Yan was also there.
"Eh? Rongrong, why are you here?" Dugu Yan blinked.
"That's what I should be asking!" Ning Rongrong noticed that Dugu Yan's originally white hair had turned grass-green again. The corner of her mouth couldn't help but twitch slightly. It seemed a lot of things she didn't know about had happened again.
Today she had already sensed that Dugu Yan carried a very heavy murderous aura, yet it hadn't affected her own state.
Moreover, according to Ning Fengzhi,
Dugu Yan had reached Rank 95 Title Douluo and possessed three hundred-thousand-year soul rings.
One of them was probably the evolution of the Misfortune Poison soul ring, the eighth soul ring had been condensed in the Far North by borrowing the power of Bing Di's clan to form a hundred-thousand-year soul ring, and finally…
This hundred-thousand-year soul ring had absolutely no connection to Ning Rongrong or even the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Sect.
It was very strange.
According to the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Sect's intelligence, after obtaining this soul ring, Dugu Yan had entered the Barak Kingdom to take revenge for Dugu Bo—who had been severely injured, vomited blood, and fallen unconscious. She had fought one against three, forcing Tang San, Tang Chen, and Bo Saixi to retreat.
And she had successfully isolated Tang Chen.
This gave Qian Renxue the opportunity to slay Tang Chen, after which Qian Renxue carried Tang Chen's head, declared vengeance for Xue Qinghe, and successfully ascended to the throne of Heaven Dou.
"I say, Sister Yan, when did you get so close to the higher-ups of the Star Dou Great Forest?" Ning Rongrong looked somewhat helpless. Anyone who didn't know better might think Dugu Yan was a soul beast.
"Mm, a little something happened." Dugu Yan gave an awkward laugh. "But Rongrong's strength is the truly terrifying one—being able to kill the Abyss Spirit Emperor and Sickle Emperor, and on their home turf no less."
"Ah, everyone's been working hard. If this young sect master's strength were too weak, it might be a bit troublesome, right? Isn't that how it works?"
"Ahem." Seeing Dugu Yan and Ning Rongrong chatting back and forth casually while several nearby savage beasts stared wide-eyed and couldn't get a word in, Bi Ji gave a light cough. "Young Sect Master Ning, what brings you to us so late at night?"
"It can't be that you've taken a liking to one of our soul rings again, can it?"
"Bi Ji, we've met several times already." Ning Rongrong spread her hands. "Even my useless father is already a nine-ring Title Douluo. Why would I want your soul ring?"
"I came here today to ask about Xue Di."
"Xue Di…" Bi Ji fell silent. "Why are you asking about this?"
"Mainly because it involves intelligence on the Abyss rift. What I learned from my father and from Qian Daoliu's side is limited."
"Logically speaking, as fellow soul beasts, she might have told you more of the truth. That's why I came to ask."
"Then I'm afraid you'll be disappointed." Bi Ji sighed. "As you already know, Xue Di didn't side with us. Compared to the Star Dou Great Forest, she probably trusts you more."
"I see." Ning Rongrong did not refute.
It seemed she wouldn't get any useful information from Bi Ji's side.
"Then what about intelligence on Di Tian and your lord?"
"Hmph, what do you want with Di Tian and our lord?" Before Bi Ji could speak, a humanoid phantom appeared. It had a pale face and a somewhat rigid, straight body.
"Ten Thousand Demon King, Demon-Eyed Demon Tree?"
Ning Rongrong sized up the phantom in front of her. Sensing an aura similar to Dugu Yan's, she roughly understood where Dugu Yan's ninth soul ring had come from.
A spirit soul, huh… That was something Ning Rongrong had casually mentioned once.
She hadn't expected Dugu Yan to actually do it.
However, when she had brought up spirit souls back then, she had also told Dugu Yan it was best not to spread the information. Since even her father didn't know about Dugu Yan's ninth soul ring, it seemed Dugu Yan had kept it very well hidden!
"That's right, it's me."
"Human, you caused my strength to drop by a hundred thousand years. Don't you have any explanation for me?"
"Ha, an explanation?" Ning Rongrong blinked. "We each serve our own master. Is that explanation enough?"
"I don't think Lord Ten Thousand Demon King wants to fight me, right?"
"Dugu Yan is one of my people. Even if I threw her onto the bed… ahem, no, that's not it."
Facing the subtle gazes of several savage beasts, Ning Rongrong quickly swallowed the rest of her words. She turned to look at Dugu Yan, whose entire face seemed to be steaming.
"No, Sister Yan, listen to me…"
"I'm not listening, I'm not listening."
Ning Rongrong: "…"
After a burst of awkward atmosphere, the tense standoff eased slightly.
The Ten Thousand Demon King gave Ning Rongrong a deep look and spoke: "You really are different from other humans, and very independent."
He emphasized the words "very independent" heavily.
"Thank you for the compliment. But isn't Lord Demon-Eyed Demon Tree the same?"
Dugu Yan had entered the Star Dou Great Forest alone to hunt soul beasts.
Given the Ten Thousand Demon King's condition, even injured, he wouldn't have been unable to escape. Moreover, the relationship between the two didn't seem bad—the Ten Thousand Demon King had likely offered himself voluntarily.
"Hmph, you're not bad." The Ten Thousand Demon King's voice was cold. Truthfully, he did not like humans.
As an existence that covered a quarter—or even a third—of the entire Star Dou Great Forest,
He had seen far too much of humanity and human nature. The soul masters who entered the Star Dou Great Forest displayed both good and evil in abundance.
He had offered himself to Dugu Yan only because she had been able to walk out of his illusion realm and because her character was acceptable.
Secondly, it was for Gu Yuena's plan. There was no choice—he couldn't recover in the short term. Otherwise, asking a soul beast of fifty… forty thousand years or more to sacrifice to a human would be insane.
Moreover, because he had been quite interested in Ning Rongrong, he had asked a lot about her.
So this questioning was merely out of curiosity.
"There has been no news from Di Tian or our lord. Whatever information we have, we learned from Bibi Dong and the others."
If not for the fact that Spirit Hall and the Star Dou Great Forest were on the same side,
He would even suspect that Bibi Dong, Qian Renxue, and Qian Daoliu had teamed up to take out the Silver Dragon King and Di Tian.
"It seems you don't have any more intelligence either." Ning Rongrong nodded. However, she did not mention what she had said to Qian Daoliu earlier about being cautious of Gu Yuena—she was worried about getting beaten up by the group.
Soul beasts were all big and dumb, and they were genuinely loyal to Gu Yuena.
"By the way, I'll be heading to the rift in Wind and Snow Valley later to see the sealed passage with my own eyes."
"The second half of the night might not be very quiet. Be on guard."
"I already mentioned this to my father and to Qian Daoliu earlier."
Ning Rongrong's body gradually grew faint and slowly disappeared.
"Wait." Dugu Yan said anxiously, "That place has power exceeding Limit Douluo. Rongrong…"
"Don't worry, Sister Yan—have you ever seen me do something without being prepared?"
After Ning Rongrong finished speaking, she turned into specks of light and vanished.
At this moment, Ning Rongrong's true body was still in Tian Shui City.
A clone possessing half her power had quietly entered the Far North.
She planned to travel around the continent, but if she didn't investigate the situation here clearly, she wouldn't feel at ease leaving!
A clone with only half her power—even if it got taken out, it wouldn't be a big deal.
In just ten short minutes, following the perceptions she had gathered during the day, Ning Rongrong arrived at the core of the Far North—or rather, Wind and Snow Valley, the starting point of all this calamity.
(End of chapter)