The Golden Tortoise Shell slightly raised its head, a hint of distrust in its eyes, and said,
"Really?"
"Whatever makes you happy."
"If anything happens, just use my old tortoise shell, it's rock hard!"
Tianmeng Ice Silkworm tapped the Golden Tortoise Shell's head hard in the Sea of Spirit, saying,
"Yuhao will definitely be fine!"
"Don't say such unlucky things."
"And you, don't get distracted, study alchemy seriously!"
"Look at our team, aren't you the only one slacking off all day?"
"Everyone is working hard, as a member of this team, and you're a member of the Destiny Clan, how can you be so lazy!"
"Even a tortoise should have the ambition to take flight!"
How could the proud Destiny Clan withstand such provocation?
Flames ignited in the Golden Tortoise Shell's golden eyes as it lowered its head and continued studying alchemy.
Because it lacked spiritual attributes, it found learning particularly difficult, often taking several days to memorize a single inscription.
Meanwhile, Tianmeng Ice Silkworm and Ilex had already begun perfecting their inscription systems.
The Golden Tortoise felt the gap between them was even greater than the difference between an ant and Emperor Tian
; it was overwhelmed by the numbers.
To accelerate its learning, Tianmeng Ice Silkworm used its Tianmeng Processor to compile a huge pile of exercises,
including mathematics and alchemy.
After all, to construct a complete formula, rigorous calculations were necessary to ensure the inscriptions were correctly positioned.
The Golden Tortoise only regretted that its parents hadn't passed on its spiritual attributes!
And those damned numbers, always playing hide-and-seek with it.
Often, when solving problems, it would rack its brains only to finally solve the known conditions.
The Golden Tortoise's evolved Xuanwu form had two heads, a turtle head and a snake head, both wanting to tear the problems in front of it apart.
However, due to the watchful eyes of Tianmeng Ice Silkworm and Ilex, it dared not do so.
Huo Yuhao ignored the Golden Tortoise's words, looked towards the distant entrance to the Cataclysmic Mountain System—the Cataclysmic Mountains—and walked straight towards it.
There are no large-scale cities built around the Disaster Mountain Range, only some small towns.
These towns primarily rely on the risky mining of mineral resources from the Calamity Mountain Range to transport to Star Luo City in exchange for money.
Perhaps due to the thunderclouds, rare metals are abundant here.
This has given rise to a profession similar to gold prospectors in his previous life, but instead of prospecting for rare metals.
Huo Yuhao didn't plan to rest in the town; there was no need.
His purpose for this trip was very simple: to obtain information about the Golden Lion Mastiff.
Unique trees grew at the entrance to the Calamity Mountain Range.
The trunks of these trees were black, seemingly able to absorb all light. Their branches grew extremely twisted and irregularly, forming black palms that oppressed the minds of visitors.
Because of the presence of these trees, Huo Yuhao felt a sense of oppression as soon as he stepped in.
How to describe that feeling?
It was like Tang San learning the Shadow Clone Technique, surrounding you and smiling at you.
"Blackthorn Tree: Grows in mountainous areas with poor lighting. The heartwood inside its black trunk is highly nutritious and edible. Through evolution, the branches of the Blackthorn Tree have become twisted to protect itself..."
Fortunately, his recording ability kicked in, completely exposing the trees.
Huo Yuhao spread his mental energy, capturing every change around the forest.
Unknown soul beasts detected by his mental energy were carefully examined and recorded in his catalog.
The outermost soul beasts were relatively common, mostly low-level ones like wind wolves, grass pigs, mandrake snakes, and horned horses.
As the terrain rose higher, the Blackthorn Trees gradually thinned out, and normal trees came into view.
Here, some rarer soul beasts began to appear occasionally.
These rare soul beasts were mostly gem-type and astrological-type soul beasts.
Huo Yuhao maintained the principle of "since I'm already here," thoroughly investigating any soul beasts he hadn't seen before with his mental energy.
As he added the spirit beasts to the encyclopedia and saw the increasing variety of species, a sense of accomplishment welled up within him.
The moon hung high in the sky, countless stars twinkled on the black screen, and the brilliant Milky Way stretched across the heavens.
Huo Yuhao lit a campfire in a cave and roasted the fish he had just caught.
Throughout the day, Huo Yuhao had collected over a hundred unknown spirit beasts.
The vast majority were low-level spirit beasts, with only a small portion being high-level.
What puzzled Huo Yuhao was that he had already traversed more than half of the Haojie Mountain Range, and his spiritual power had almost swept through every corner of the area.
However, he didn't see a single ten-thousand-year-old soul beast. The density of soul beasts was quite high during the Douluo Continent II : The Legend of the Condor Heroes era
. Ten-thousand-year-old soul beasts weren't particularly rare; the Cataclysmic Mountains were quite large, it was impossible for them to be entirely devoid of them.
At this moment, the Heavenly Dream Ice Silkworm spoke up.
"Yuhao, there are two possibilities for not seeing any ten-thousand-year-old soul beasts."
"Either they've all been killed by humans, or there are beast king-level soul beasts clearing their territory!"
"This is very common in the soul beast world, whether in the far north or the Star Dou Great Forest."
Huo Yuhao pondered for a moment and said, "From what we currently know, very few soul masters come here to hunt soul rings." "
The Nine Treasure Glazed Tile School has long since shifted its focus to the Star Dou Great Forest."
"The Star Luo Star Crown lineage only has a few people; it's impossible for them to hunt so many ten-thousand-year-old soul beasts."
"Gem-type and astrological-type martial souls are extremely rare in the Douluo Continent."
"And the only one here that can be called a beast king is the Golden Lion Mastiff."
Huo Yuhao pondered for a while and asked Tianmeng Ice Silkworm,
"When a beast king soul beast clears its territory, will it choose to kill all other threatening soul beasts?"
Tianmeng Ice Silkworm stammered, unable to speak; he didn't know much about this.
The Golden Tortoiseshell, however, spoke up.
"I, Old Turtle, know this. I am the Beast King, and I used to have a good relationship with several other Beast Kings."
"Beast Kings usually subdue their territories by overwhelming them with strength.
Soul beasts that are willing to submit can continue to stay in their territories." "Soul beasts that are unwilling to submit are either killed or expelled."
"They will never exterminate the ten-thousand-year-old soul beasts in their territories."
"Beast King, Beast King, what kind of king is there without subjects?"
"I, Old Turtle, have heard of similar cases in the Cataclysmic Mountains."
"Dark Demon Evil God Tiger!"
"The Dark Demon Evil God Tiger hunts all soul beasts. There is no such thing as submission before it."
"Just like the evil soul masters among you humans, it devours these soul beasts to become stronger."
Huo Yuhao watched the oil dripping from the grilled fish, the branches crackling and popping.
His eyes were slightly unfocused.
"There is no Dark Demon Evil God Tiger here."
"The only one capable of doing such a thing is that golden-haired lion-mastiff."
"Why would it do that?"
The golden tortoise's golden head nudged the reluctant black snake head, urging it to continue working on its problems.
Then, his golden eyes looked up at the sea of consciousness and said,
"It sensed a threat and wanted to become stronger."
"Obviously."
Huo Yuhao picked up a grilled fish, took a bite, and chewed the flesh, saying indistinctly,
"A 30,000-year-old golden lion-mastiff, unless you're a Limit Douluo, you can't reliably kill it in close combat."
"There aren't even any 100,000-year-old soul beasts here, so who could threaten it?"
The golden hawksbill turtle shook its head, indicating it didn't know.
Tianmeng Ice Silkworm thought for a moment and said, "Is it possible that the soul beasts in the core area are threatening it?"
"I remember in the story, that Super Douluo also encountered it when entering the core area."
"That is, that golden lion-mastiff is running away!"
"It wants to escape the core area!"
Huo Yuhao's eyelids drooped; he wasn't quite sure what in the core area could make the golden lion-mastiff want to run away.
His hand had just touched the second grilled fish when he suddenly paused.
"Brother Tianmeng, someone's coming."
"My spiritual power senses a powerful aura; it should be a Title Douluo."
"Not yet at the Super Douluo level, far inferior to Lin Huiqun."
"Heh, their target is clear: the cave over here."
(End of Chapter)
Read 15+ chapters ahead at Patreon
patreon.com/TaroYamato