An hour later—
Following the stream, the trio entered a bamboo forest.
"Growing in clusters, dense and dark as ink… All of these are Ink Bamboo spirit beasts," the carriage driver explained to Tang San as he scanned the forest.
"Don't be fooled by the sheer size of this bamboo grove. Most of the Ink Bamboos here have less than ten years of cultivation."
"The deeper we go into the forest, the higher their age."
"Judging from the size of this grove, we should be able to find Ink Bamboos with at least four hundred years of cultivation at its core."
As expected, deep within the forest, the group found seven or eight Ink Bamboos around four hundred years old.
The driver carefully examined them, identified the one with the highest age, and cleared out the surrounding bamboo to isolate it.
Then he handed Tang San a lit firestarter and said:
"You can only absorb a soul ring if you kill the spirit beast yourself."
"Toss this onto the bamboo stalk and let the fire slowly do the work."
Tang San followed the instructions, tossing the firestarter onto the selected Ink Bamboo.
Soon, flames engulfed the entire stalk. It took several hours of burning before the incredibly resilient Ink Bamboo finally perished.
A deep yellow soul ring formed above the dying embers.
Seeing this, Tang Yuehua leaned down and reminded Tang San softly:
"Go on, Little San. Do as I taught you."
"Mm." Tang San nodded, then sat down in front of the soul ring, circulating his Mysterious Heaven Technique to begin absorbing the Ink Bamboo's ring.
In the shadows—
Tang Hao silently observed Tang San's absorption process. Satisfied that nothing unexpected would happen, he turned and quietly left the Spirit Beast Hunting Forest, heading back toward Holy Soul Village.
As a Titled Douluo, Tang Hao's speed was astonishing. Though not an agility-type Douluo, traveling at full speed, he could return from the forest to Holy Soul Village in less than a day.
Several hours later—
"Huh?"
Passing through Nuoding City, Tang Hao suddenly caught sight of something unbelievable. For someone so stoic, it was rare for him to react—but now he made a surprised noise.
Down the street, a six-year-old girl with a long trailing braid was skipping along cheerfully toward Nuoding Academy, unaware that a Titled Douluo was watching her from the shadows.
"A hundred-thousand-year soul beast in human form… appearing here? Is this fate?"
If Tang Yuehua hadn't come, Tang San would have enrolled in Nuoding Academy and—like this rabbit girl—become a work-study student. That's where Tang San and Xiao Wu's story would have begun.
Tang Hao hesitated internally, but in the end, hatred prevailed.
"Little San has gone with Yuehua. That means… he and this rabbit girl were fated to never meet."
"Ah Yin, I'm sorry. This rabbit could be a tremendous help to Little San. Spirit Hall is far too powerful an enemy—I have no choice."
Having made up his mind, Tang Hao acted instantly, snatching the braided girl from the street in a flash.
His movements were so fast that no bystanders could see what had happened.
The people around the street blinked in confusion. Hadn't there just been a little girl walking here a second ago?
Outside Holy Soul Village, in a secluded mountain cave—
Tang Hao looked at the unconscious girl, trying to justify his actions:
"Soul masters hunting spirit beasts is part of the natural order. Though you, like Ah Yin, have taken human form, you haven't reached full maturity—you're not truly human yet."
"I didn't intend for this to happen. You appeared in front of me—it's not my fault."
"Once Little San obtains your soul ring and soul bone, that bond between you two will be fulfilled in its way."
With that, Tang Hao stored the girl inside a soul tool capable of holding living beings, then stared silently in one direction for a long time before finally leaving the cave.
Nuoding Academy
Today was the start of the school term.
At the academy gates, a middle-aged man with a weary, downtrodden aura stood quietly, an odd sense of loss weighing on his heart.
"Was that just my imagination…?"
Yu Xiaogang murmured faintly to himself. Then he smiled bitterly and muttered:
"What was I even hoping for?"
Elsewhere in the academy, a plain-looking middle-aged man watched everything from the shadows.
Not long after, high above the clouds, a Sharp-Tailed Swift with just over a hundred years of cultivation soared rapidly through the sky.
If anyone could see closely, they'd notice a message tied to its leg—its flight direction aimed straight at Heaven Dou City.
A few days later — Lin Family Ducal Estate
Lin Rong lowered a letter in his hand. A burst of soul power surged from his palm, instantly turning the secret message into dust, scattering it into the wind.
"Grandpa Yu," he said calmly, "instruct the sentries to keep a close watch. If there's no emergency, one report per month will suffice."
"And also—start training more Sharp-Tailed Swifts."
"The Min Clan will never work for me, so this is where we must invest more effort."
"A fully developed and efficient intelligence network is critical to any force."
"Yes, Young Master. You can rest assured."
The old steward nodded and immediately began organizing the arrangements.
The Sharp-Tailed Swift was the fastest known flying soul beast on the continent, bar none.
Even the Emerald Demon Bird, renowned for its speed, couldn't match a Sharp-Tailed Swift at the same level of cultivation.
Of course, nothing comes without a price. Unlike the Emerald Demon Bird—which combined speed with terrifying offensive power—the Sharp-Tailed Swift's extreme speed came at the cost of nearly no attack capability.
The Min Clan, whose members possessed Sharp-Tailed Swift martial souls, were all pure agility-type soul masters.
While they lacked combat strength, they made ideal scouts and messengers.
Despite the Min Clan's high strategic value, no faction on the continent seemed to realize their full potential—proof that the people of this era were still far too narrow-minded.
Though the Min Clan had vast untapped potential, Lin Rong had no intention of recruiting them.
Why?
Because the clan leader Bai He was Tang San's great-uncle, blood-related to the Clear Sky Clan.
The so-called Four Single-Attribute Clans were:
Strength Clan (力之一族)
Defense Clan (御之一族)
Speed Clan (敏之一族, i.e., the Min Clan)
Breaking Clan (破之一族)
The Strength Clan's chief, Tai Tan, was a staunch loyalist to Tang Hao. The Speed Clan's leader was Tang San's blood relative.
That immediately ruled out half of the four clans.
To complicate matters further, Tai Tan had a deep friendship with the Defense Clan's chief Niu Gao, and Bai He was closely allied with the Breaking Clan's leader Yang Wudi.
If Lin Rong tried to recruit the Defense and Breaking Clans and later found himself opposed to Tang San, the ties to Tai Tan and Bai He might easily sway those two into betrayal.
So in the end, Lin Rong decided—he would not recruit any of the Four Clans.
Still, avoiding recruitment didn't mean avoiding all contact.
For instance, Bai He possessed something that Lin Rong was determined to obtain.
And from the Breaking Clan, there were things like their herbal compendium and detoxification pills—resources critical to his plans involving the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, a legendary land of treasures.
As for the Strength and Defense Clans, their value was considerably lower.
The Strength Clan specialized in forging, while the Defense Clan was known for construction. But these skills weren't unique to them. They were excellent at what they did, but far from irreplaceable.