Hello everyone,
Thank you for your support! If you enjoy my work, you can check out my Patreon—there are 60+ early access and exclusive content. I update 5 advanced chapter from Monday-Saturday
www.patreon.com/c/FanficTranslator
I truly appreciate it!
**
"Given the current situation, we can only persevere and push through to leave the Soul Hunting Forest during the night."
As the captain of the hunting team, Wang Neng naturally could not allow everyone present to face a life-threatening crisis. Although traveling at night was dangerous, it was still better than being stalked by an uncertain soul beast.
It was best to avoid a soul beast that killed indiscriminately.
"Alright, we will continue moving in our original formation. I will report the situation here to Spirit Hall," Su Yuntao added.
With Xiao Gui, Tang San, and Xiao Wu protected in the center, Su Yuntao still left the rearguard position to Xiao Lin.
Although this might put Xiao Lin at a disadvantage, there was no choice—no one here was better suited to hold the rear than him. At this moment, no one wanted to speak, fearing they would draw the attention of that slaughter-loving Bullet Bee.
The group trekked in silence, moving at their maximum speed along the paths of the Soul Hunting Forest. Shi Dan, walking at the very front, hacked through the thorns and brambles, clearing the dense shrubs to make the path easier for those behind.
Under normal circumstances, a team of Soul Grandmasters cooperating in an attack still had a hope of defeating a thousand-year soul beast. Furthermore, Wang Neng, the captain of the hunting team, was a Soul Elder.
However, that was only under "normal" circumstances. For example, in the original timeline, Yu Xiaogang claimed he could help Tang San obtain his first two soul rings, only to nearly be killed by a four-hundred-year Datura Snake.
For a venomous Bullet Bee possessing terrifying speed, killing a person in an instant was far too easy. The poison attribute might be the weakest attribute on the Douluo Continent in some regards, but in terms of lethality against low-level soul masters, it was the most effective.
It could snatch a low-level soul master's life with the least amount of effort. This was also why Dugu Yan's grandfather, Dugu Bo, despite being the "weakest" Titled Douluo, remained the strongest control-system soul master.
In front of Dugu Bo, low-level soul masters died whether they came alone or in a crowd.
On the way, Xiao Lin noticed Tang San rubbing a mysterious powder between his fingers while they marched.
He quietly stepped forward to ask.
"Little San, what are you doing?" Xiao Lin was very curious; something Tang San focused on doing even while multitasking was definitely not useless.
"I'm making insect repellent—the most effective kind," Tang San replied, his hands not slowing down in the slightest.
"Since we know the soul beast might be a Bullet Bee, an insect-type, I need this to prevent it from harming us. I want to make us repulsive to it so it targets others instead."
In Tang San's heart, it was a case of "better a fellow traveler dies than I."
Hearing Tang San's words, Xiao Lin fell into a brief silence.
He wouldn't blame Tang San for this; he had no desire to be a hero himself. However, he couldn't help but think that if they could unite all the hunting teams in the forest, they might be able to kill the Bullet Bee in one fell swoop.
Xiao Lin shook his head inwardly.
What was the use of saying such things now? If they encountered other teams on the road, that was one thing, but they couldn't afford to waste time searching for them.
Buzz... buzz...
Suddenly, Tang San and Xiao Wu, both possessing sensitive hearing, caught the sound of insect wings vibrating.
"Not good! Enemy! It's the Bullet Bee!"
Tang San shouted immediately, summoning his Blue Silver Grass in an instant.
"First Soul Skill: Blue Silver Regeneration Bracelet."
The next second, after the yellow soul ring beneath Tang San's feet flashed, a bracelet woven from Blue Silver Grass appeared on the wrists of Xiao Lin, Xiao Wu, Su Yuntao, and himself.
Upon hearing Tang San's warning, everyone summoned their Martial Souls immediately.
"Battle Tiger Possession!"
"Lone Wolf Possession!"
"Soft Bone Rabbit Possession!"
"Moonlight shines upon the Osmanthus Frost!"
Even Xiao Gui summoned her Moonlight Osmanthus, distributing a handful of flowers evenly among the group.
Only Xiao Lin refused the flowers. These Osmanthus flowers were "milk bottles" (healing), but they were also beacons. In the dim, pitch-black forest, the shimmering glow of the flowers was like a lock-on marker for the Bullet Bee.
However, just as Xiao Lin expected, no one present was foolish. They quickly put the flowers in their mouths, absorbing the life vitality. Only Xiao Wu dithered for a moment until Tang San gestured for her to eat.
Buzz!Buzz!
Slowly, just as the group tried to leave the area, the sound of vibrating wings grew so loud that even those without heightened senses, like Xiao Lin, could hear it. It was clear the attacker didn't want them to leave.
Leading them here might have been a trap set by the Bullet Bee.
What Xiao Lin didn't realize was that a silent fear was gradually eroding the psychological defenses of the hunting team and Tang San's group. Perhaps the first to break would be the weakest, Xiao Gui, or maybe the War Chicken Shi Dan...
In the past, Xiao Lin would have said that the fear of the unknown was the most terrifying.
But now, he wasn't so sure. Xiao Gui gripped Xiao Wu's arm tightly; her grip grew so firm that even Xiao Wu began to feel uncomfortable. Xiao Wu could only cast a helpless, pleading look toward Tang San.
"Slinking around in the shadows... does a thousand-year Bullet Bee really have such high intelligence?" Xiao Lin felt increasingly strange.
Generally, soul beasts with only a thousand years of cultivation rarely possessed high wisdom, and insect-type soul beasts were historically low-intelligence creatures. Compared to other powerful soul beasts, insects usually relied on pure base stats.
For instance, the Stone Strength Ant had decent strength but rarely lived past a hundred years. If a beast relied only on stats without wisdom, it shouldn't survive long in a forest of soul beasts.
At that moment, roughly a hundred meters behind Xiao Lin's group, a stooped old man in black robes was trailing them closely. Looking at him, aside from his filthy black robes, his face was painted with many eerie, multicolored patterns.
"Just a little bit more... as long as Little Bee kills all these people, I will have collected the blood of humans with twenty-one different types of Martial Souls..." The black-robed old man's face was flush with the excitement of impending success.
"Jie jie jie... cough cough!" He laughed with such manic excitement that he choked on his own breath, but that was a minor detail.
The old man then summoned a blood-red agate gemstone. This was his Martial Soul, a mental-system soul beast called Bloody Agate. He had been unable to break through to the level of Soul Ancestor for decades and had searched for countless methods.
It wasn't until recently that he accidentally discovered an ancient book at home. It recorded that one could use the blood and life force of different soul masters to condense a new Martial Soul, thereby allowing one's own Martial Soul to evolve and break through to Rank 41.
Desperate for success, he didn't consider the side effects mentioned in the text.
He entered the Soul Hunting Forest alone and took control of a Bullet Bee. He had been continuously using his Martial Soul to control the bee while employing secret methods to rapidly increase its cultivation age.
As long as the Bullet Bee finished off these last eight people, the blood and life force of twenty-one different Martial Soul masters would be collected. Finally, at the bee's stinger, a new needle fused from different Martial Souls would form.
This stinger would be the catalyst for the evolution of his Bloody Agate.
Regardless of the compatibility between the souls, the old man felt that as long as this first attempt succeeded, he could naturally continue doing it in the future.
"Evolve! Evolve!"
"Bullet Bee, go and kill those people over there!"
**
Hello everyone,
Thank you for your support! If you enjoy my work, you can check out my Patreon—there are 60+ early access and exclusive content. I update 5 advanced chapter from Monday-Saturday
www.patreon.com/c/FanficTranslator
I truly appreciate it!