"Teacher Zhao, you know you've crossed the line before. But Spirit Hall doesn't really care about you anymore. Otherwise, would you still dare to come strolling around Heaven Dou City? I'll talk to Xiao Zhang later—maybe they can have your wanted notice revoked."
Qin Ming stood between Flender on his left and Zhao Wuji on his right, laughing openly.
A voice suddenly came from behind.
"Are you… Flender?"
The sound startled him. Flender immediately turned around.
"Erlong?!"
His excitement was unmistakable—his voice even trembled slightly.
Qin Ming and Zhao Wuji exchanged puzzled looks. Qin Ming leaned toward Zhao Wuji and whispered, "Teacher Zhao, do you know her? I feel like there's something between her and Dean Flender."
Zhao Wuji shook his head, glancing at Flender, who was already talking animatedly with Liu Erlong.
"I don't know her either," Zhao Wuji replied. "But one thing's certain—there's definitely history between Flender and this woman. I've never seen him this out of control before."
Qin Ming nodded in agreement.
"Flender… it's been a long time," Liu Erlong said.
Looking at the familiar, calculating face in front of her, a deep sense of nostalgia welled up in her heart.
Flender smiled gently, eyes full of warmth.
"Erlong, nearly ten years have passed, and you're still just as beautiful."
Liu Erlong smiled faintly. How could she not understand Flender's feelings?
But in her heart, the only man had always been Yu Xiaogang—and that had never changed.
Her gaze shifted to Qin Ming behind Flender. She remembered him clearly: the strongest spirit master of Heaven Dou Royal Academy's Second Team. During the decisive top-ten-to-top-five match, it was Qin Ming's performance at the critical moment that carried the team forward. Without him, they would never have made the final five.
She asked curiously, "Flender, are you working at Heaven Dou Royal Academy now? I remember you used to talk about opening an academy in some small town."
Flender was deeply moved. He hadn't expected that Erlong would still remember his old dreams after all these years.
"No," he replied quickly. "Zhao Wuji and I opened an academy in a small town in the Balak Kingdom. There aren't many students, but quite a few have done well. For example, Qin Ming—he placed in the top five of the Elite Tournament!"
"Qin Ming?" Liu Erlong asked in surprise. "Wasn't he part of Heaven Dou Royal Academy's Second Team?"
Flender gave an awkward cough.
"Well… for various reasons, our academy wasn't officially registered with the Balak Kingdom, so we didn't qualify for the Elite Tournament. Fortunately, someone helped Qin Ming transfer temporarily to Heaven Dou Royal Academy's Second Team so he could compete. As his dean, I still feel a bit guilty about that."
---
Hurricane Forest
Tang Zhen led a Spirit Hall team from Heaven Dou City into Hurricane Forest, bringing Qiangu Yuan with them.
Their goal was simple: hunt a suitable spirit beast so Qiangu Yuan could absorb its spirit ring and advance to Spirit Douluo.
Before long, they found an appropriate target just outside the forest's core region.
Under Tang Zhen's command, the group moved swiftly, suppressing the spirit beast in a short time and allowing Qiangu Yuan to absorb the ring.
After the absorption was complete, Tang Zhen looked at Qiangu Yuan's excited expression and couldn't help teasing him.
"So, Old Yuan—how does it feel to be a Spirit Douluo?"
Qiangu Yuan summoned his martial soul, the Coiling Dragon Rod. Two yellow, two purple, and four black spirit rings rose beneath it—eight rings in total.
He was clearly satisfied, yet he still let out a sigh.
"I wonder if I'll ever reach the level of a Titled Douluo in my lifetime."
Then he continued, "The greatest advantage of our Qiangu family is that once we reach the Titled Douluo realm, we can absorb a dragon-type spirit beast's ring, seal its soul, and make it serve us."
Qiangu Yunying was exceptional in every way—but her martial soul was a mutated Flame-Seizing Spear. As for whether she would be able to absorb and control a dragon soul upon reaching her ninth ring, Qiangu Yuan honestly didn't know.
---
The Core of Hurricane Forest
At the center of a vast lake stood a towering ancient tree.
Half-submerged in the water was an enormous tiger nearly ten meters tall, its body seemingly wreathed in flames.
This was the Crimson Flame Roaring Tiger Emperor—a hundred-thousand-year spirit beast and one of the two overlords of Hurricane Forest, one that had yet to undergo human transformation.
In its eyes, humans were nothing more than children.
"Crimson Flame," a voice asked, "how are you feeling? Was what that human spirit master taught you really true?"
The "Crimson Flame" being addressed was another emperor-level spirit beast—one with 190,000 years of cultivation, approaching the two-hundred-thousand-year threshold.
The human spirit master it referred to was one of the Spirit Hall experts who had ventured here previously—the weakest among them, a mere Spirit Emperor.
Chi Yan slowly opened his eyes. His fiery red pupils were calm and steady as he looked at the massive tiger head before him.
"What he taught me was true," Chi Yan said. "I only understood it after my human transformation. It turns out that human spirit masters cultivate in a way fundamentally different from spirit beasts."
"But for now, it's useless to me."
He continued calmly, "I haven't awakened a martial soul yet. Without a martial soul, I can't condense a spirit ring and become a so-called spirit master."
The Crimson Flame Roaring Tiger Emperor grew anxious.
"Then what should we do? If you can't awaken a martial soul, you'll never condense spirit rings—and your strength will remain capped like this! You'll never recover your peak power!"
Chi Yan fell silent for a moment before speaking again.
"I intend to enter the human world."
"While awakening a martial soul and cultivating like a human spirit master, I can also gain a deeper understanding of their world—identify the most talented among them and wipe them out."
"The number of spirit beasts killed by humans only decreases once clans and factions are established. Especially those with the potential to become Titled Douluo—we can't let any of them survive."
"The news that Hurricane Forest harbors a hundred-thousand-year spirit beast has already spread. Human spirit masters keep coming here in waves, trying to hunt us. I won't allow that."
Unlike Xiao Wu—the traitor to spirit beasts—Chi Yan's goal was to completely cut off humanity's supply of spirit master geniuses.
If he could successfully hide in the human world and cultivate all the way up—
No, even reaching the Spirit Saint realm would be enough. At that point, he could perfectly conceal his identity as a spirit beast. Even Spirit Douluo or Titled Douluo experts wouldn't be able to discern his true strength from his aura.
By then, within the spirit master world of the Douluo Continent, the rising Crimson Flame could silently slaughter countless prodigies.
For the spirit master world, this would be an unprecedented disaster.
If the younger generation collapsed, there would be no successors. And then—whether the spirit beast race could rise again would remain an open question.
Of course, all of this assumed that the Star Dou Great Forest—and figures like Di Tian—remained asleep.