The Three-eyed Golden Lion stomped her foot angrily. "Di Tian!"
Since her cultivation soared and broke through to the 150,000-year level several years ago, the Star Dou Great Forest Ferocious Beasts—who already treated the Three-eyed Golden Lion as an extraordinary treasure—now doted on her even more.
Previously, she could still take a stroll in the Mixed Zone to find some food. Now, they wouldn't even let her leave the Core Area. Furthermore, the two great Ferocious Beasts, the Bear Lord and Scarlet King, were permanently assigned to protect her. This made the naturally restless Three-eyed Golden Lion quite irritable.
In her eyes, it was completely unnecessary. How could she possibly be in danger?
Back when the Three-eyed Golden Lion only had the strength of a 10,000-year soul beast, she could rival a 100,000-year soul beast. Now, with 150,000 years of cultivation and mastery over three Ultimate attributes—Ultimate Light, Ultimate Fire, and Ultimate Strength—only Di Tian in the Star Dou Great Forest could steadily defeat her; even the Bear Lord couldn't beat her.
A tall, middle-aged man dressed in black appeared from the black mist surrounding the Three-eyed Golden Lion, his stern gaze fixed upon her.
"The Lord has already spoken; now is not the time for you to go out. For the future of the entire soul beast race, stay here in the Core Area to cultivate. It won't be too late to go out and play once we have ruled the human world."
"Now, get back there obediently!"
The Three-eyed Golden Lion instantly lost her spirit. Even Di Tian, who had always doted on her, was using such stern language; it seemed there really was no way.
Force her way out? That definitely wouldn't work; she would clash with Di Tian.
Just as the Three-eyed Golden Lion and Di Tian were staring each other down, refusing to back down, a cold yet pleasant voice rang out, though it was laced with a hint of helplessness.
An ethereal, transcendent silver figure abruptly appeared before the two. "Forget it, I will take you there myself."
Hearing this voice, the Three-eyed Golden Lion's eyes immediately lit up, and her dragon tail swept excitedly back and forth across the ground.
Giving Di Tian a provocative wink, the Three-eyed Golden Lion rushed over to the silver-haired woman's side and nuzzled her. "Thank you, Lord!"
...
At this moment, Huo Yuhao and Zhang Lexuan were moving forward cautiously near the Mixed Zone, holding hands.
After using Spiritual Detection to guide them and carefully avoid multiple soul beasts, Huo Yuhao sighed from the bottom of his heart: "...We haven't seen a single soul beast with less than a thousand years of cultivation along the way. The Star Dou Great Forest has actually become this powerful!"
Zhang Lexuan replied via mental power transmission: "It was about four years ago. For some unknown reason, the cultivation of soul beasts throughout the Star Dou Great Forest suddenly surged several times over."
"For us soul masters, this is naturally a good thing, as it means higher-level soul beasts can provide higher-grade soul rings for soul master advancement."
At this point, Zhang Lexuan gave a bitter smile. "We 'top students' from Shrek naturally thought so too. About three years ago, twelve Inner Court disciples entered the Star Dou Great Forest under the leadership of Elder Xuan to obtain soul rings. But we soon lost track of where Elder Xuan had gone and encountered a 100,000-year soul beast..."
Huo Yuhao's heart tightened and he pursed his lips. He had only heard bits and pieces of this from Ma Xiaotao and didn't know the full story.
Then, with a heartbroken voice, Zhang Lexuan told Huo Yuhao the complete source of her pain over the last three years—including why she left the Inner Court to become a class teacher in the Outer Court.
"Do you know, Yuhao? This incident was indeed caused by Elder Xuan's inaction as the leading teacher, but in my view, more of the problem lay within ourselves." As she spoke, Zhang Lexuan's grip on Huo Yuhao's hand tightened. "We 'top students' of Shrek Academy were too naive, too conceited... We thought the Star Dou Great Forest was merely a place to provide soul rings for soul master advancement, believed we were invincible among our peers, and lost the most basic respect for this ancient great forest..."
"..."
Huo Yuhao didn't know how to comfort Zhang Lexuan, so he could only squeeze her hand back with equal strength. At the same time, he asked a question in his Spiritual Sea that he had always wanted to ask.
"Brother Skydream, and Old Turtle, what do you think about soul masters and soul beasts?"
The first to respond was Skydream's lazy voice. "That is for you humans to decide."
After a short pause, the Golden Tortoise added:
"Though it might sound a bit ethereal... in my view, perhaps the battle between soul beasts and you humans is the proof of our existence."
"Proof of existence?"
"Yes..." The Golden Tortoise had clearly thought about this for a long time; its voice was deep but exceptionally fluent. "The soul rings and soul bones left after a soul beast dies are the proof that we once existed."
"Though I still don't understand why soul beasts seem to be 'set up' to become the most important link in a soul master's advancement, I believe that becoming a soul ring or soul bone is better than being just a corpse after death, letting time rot you away until no one remembers you... This can be considered a way of extending life in another form."
Skydream interrupted the Golden Tortoise just in time. "Let's not talk about that. Yuhao, fate chose you, perhaps in the hope that you can make some change to all of this..."
Frankly speaking, Huo Yuhao didn't quite understand the Golden Tortoise's words—or rather, the way soul beasts thought was fundamentally different from humans.
As of now, Huo Yuhao had never killed a soul beast to obtain a soul ring; at most, he had fought virtual soul beasts in the Douluo World for practice. Furthermore, he shared a deep bond with Soul Spirit partners like Skydream and the Golden Tortoise.
Back when Baili Du taught him the Soul Spirit technique, he had excitedly asked, "Can this ability resolve the conflict between humans and soul beasts?" At that time, Baili Du's expression became very unpleasant.
That was the first time he had seen Baili Du look so grim... He didn't give a clear answer, only saying one thing:
["There is nothing in this world that is completely untainted. No matter how well you do, someone will jump out to criticize you."]
He was young then and didn't understand; now that he was a bit older, he could only barely grasp it.
Better... not to make the Soul Spirit technique public for now. Currently, he didn't have the power to resolve the conflict between humans and soul beasts.
As he thought this, Zhang Lexuan suddenly stopped. The hand holding Huo Yuhao's became ice-cold.
Huo Yuhao instinctively looked forward. That was...
A fragment of red clothing. Beside it was a poop-green Shrek school badge and a storage soul tool belt that was broken in half.
Next to them was a long saber cracked down the middle, lying limply on the ground.
This... this is...