"B-Boss, that wench did this!"
A gasp rang in the wilderness. Surrounding a crackling campfire, a group of four individuals sat next to each other while chatting and having a lively discussion. They had their camps set up next to a wooden carriage with a horse tied next to it. The group wasn't far from the road and in a distance, like a dark, shadowy beast, the group could observe a forest.
Setting up a campfire in a spirit forest is always dangerous so the group had settled outside the forest. Out of the four individuals, one of them was a woman with short black hair and a set of light green eyes. Her most distinguishing feature, however, was her thick eyebrows. Next to her, hugging her waist a thin youth with a pleasant smile. His pale skin was basked in the light of the campfire.
"Say aaaahhhh!" The man paid no attention to the third individual complaining to a burly man and picked a piece of tofu over a large leaf and brought it close to the woman's lips.
"Aaahmmm!" The woman giggled and bit on the tofu.
"So good~!" She mewled and leaned on the youth's body.
"Of course, I, your grandfather has the stinkiest tofu!" The man proclaimed proudly while the expression of two other men turned disgusted. However, the girl only blushed and buried her head against the man's chest while the two snuggled under one blanket.
"Yeah..." her whisper could only be heard by the pale-skinned youth with greyish hair and a smile instantly stretched across his lips.
"Boss! Tell them to stop... they are so good to each other but whenever I present my heart to a maid, she only stomps on it! Just this morning, that pretty babe with blue hair stole my coin pouch! That's my entire savings!" The man with short, prickly hair sobbed. He had a wide set of eyes and a squarish face but despite his honorable facial features, his words somehow irked the woman.
"What Babe, this and that? You don't even remember her name and you cry wolf! No wonder you can't find a woman!" She stuck her tongue out.
"Jun'er! Don't tell me who's nasty and who's not! We share a wall, remember? When the two of you... uh... I can hear all of it! The things you admit and do... hrrr," the man trembled, and the woman's— Jun'er— lips trembled.
"You!" She shouted while pointing at the man.
"Oscar, say something!" She turned to look at the man next to her but he could only smile awkwardly.
"Let's just buy a courtyard of our own," he stated.
"Huh?"
"Ah?"
"Tch..."
Three different reactions to his words instantly occurred. The sobbing man looked dumbfounded and clicked his tongue in annoyance. Jun'er blushed and looked away. Meanwhile, the extremely bulky and stacked man pursed his lips.
"Say, Brother Zhao, do we really need to enter the forest at night?" The sobbing man instantly changed the subject, unwilling to hear more of the couple's proclamations.
"Hey! We were talking about Oscar and me getting a courtyard!" Jun'er hissed.
"Yes, we need to enter the forest now," Brother Zhao spoke up. Although he looked calm, he glared at the grey-haired youth before glancing towards the short-haired youth.
"Feng Long, you can finally absorb your third ring. Jun'er also needs to find her fourth ring. The two of you have martial souls with compatibility to spirit beasts that hunt at night. During the daytime, stronger spirit beasts will be hard to find since they have good hiding locations," Zhao stated and stood up.
"Not only that, but if you want to find the woman who stole your belongings then pursuing without too many breaks is the only way. She must have run into the Devil Pond Forest from Nuoding City since other forests on the way are already turned into hunting grounds regulated by Spirit Hall."
As he said, he stretched his arms as his thick biceps made the three of them gulp audibly.
"Brother Zhao... you wouldn't kill her, right?" Feng Long inquired with a troubled expression.
"If she doesn't annoy me," Zhao stated casually and the group finally moved. They left the carriage at the outskirts of the Devil Pond Forest.
"We will need to be careful. Out of all the outer ponds, the ones occupied by Five-spotted Antelopes, Hare Brained Chimps, a Flock of Mesmerizing Beetles, and Violent Jawed Wolves are the most dangerous. Jun'er, do you really want to get the spirit ring of the Violent Jawed Wolf? We will be facing the entire pack of them, you know..." Feng Long grumbled.
"Don't worry, with me here, we can take care of the entire pack even if it includes multiple thousand-year-old wolves."
"With my tofus, we all will have higher stamina than others," Oscar smirked and Jun'er nodded.
"My Martial Soul will have greater attacking capacity with the spirit ring of Violent Jawed Wolf. Why wouldn't I want its spirit ring?" She scoffed at Feng Long.
"The Violent Jawed Wolves hunt near their ponds at night so the pond itself will be unprotected," Feng Long muttered, "Let's seek our luck there. If there aren't any thousand-year-old wolves protecting the pond then we can set up traps for the hunting pack of the wolves."
Everyone nodded at Feng Long's words.
As they stealthily moved within the forest, they didn't move into the core region directly but instead, they curved around the perimeter of the forest towards the base of Violent Jawed Wolves.
However, the moment they tried to scout the region, they fell extremely stunned.
"This place... is completely emptied?" Feng Long gasped in shock.
Jun'er's mood also plummeted.
"Boss Zhao, you don't think that Spirit Hall has already made their move in the Demon Pond Forest, too, right?"
"Of course, not," Zhao scoffed, "Others think that Spirit Hall hasn't made a move on the Demon Pond Forest but during the first they tried to restrict it, they failed. And they didn't try it subsequently because of the high number of damages..."
"Damages?" Oscar inquired curiously.
"Brother Tofu, why do you think Spirit Hall is guarding more and more forests around the various cities of Star Luo and Heaven Dou Empire?" Feng Long inquired.
"To stop evil cultivators from massacring the spirit beasts in hope of finding spirit bones," Oscar replied.
"Well, that is only one part of the answer. Spirit Bones are rare and Dark Cultivators do love a great slaughter, one with a reason is practically their aim in life. However, aside from restricting the Dark Cultivators, the reason why the two Empires allowed the Spirit Hall to exist in the first place, the Spirit Hall is also trying to vie for more resources and strength to compete with the two Empires.
Brother Tofu may not know but I was part of Spirit Hall before meeting all of you. The Spirit Hall has come into an agreement with the six major clans and the two imperial families of the Douluo Continent to be the guardian of spirit forests. They say it is to nurture the beasts inside and allow young ones to gain a better experience.
However, the Spirit Hall doesn't want to cause damages to its roots by losing men in this endeavor since it competes with the Two Empires in the shadow!"
Oscar nodded slowly, digesting the information.
"So, it's like you three and how you compete for my stinky tofu..."
*Bang*
Zhao instantly knocked on top of Oscar's head as he yelped in pain.
Over the next hour, the group continued to walk and tried to find the tracks of wolves until the four of them stopped quite far away from one particular pond. Cold sweat emerged from their backs, including Zhao.
*Flutter*
Surrounding this outer pond was a great horde of spirit beasts. Too, great. Five-spotted Antelopes lied down and slept silently while the calves of their young ones played with the cubs of their most hated species— Violent Jawed Wolves. The wolf cubs were small and furry with innocent gazes as they would run along with the lithe calves of the Antelopes that had yet to grow their horns. Flying mid-air was a flock of giant beetles that were collectively surrounded by a beautiful bluish aura. Their glowing blue wings indicated that these were actually one of the most poisonous species of the forest— Mesmerizing Beetles!
The strangest thing was that all these beasts existed around each other without tearing everyone apart. Adult Wolves would drink from the pond and then shoot into the forest. The surrounding beasts in the thicket were actually other beasts covering the adjacent four ponds!
One-half of the forest was filled around a single pond!
But while this situation was clearly extraordinary, the thing that stood out the most was a carriage next to the pond.
"Boss... we need to leave. Anything that can have such a reaction is... not a good thing for us," Feng Long whispered as his palms were clenched with sweat trickling down his forehead.
The group of four could not afford to provoke this situation.
"There is no ten-thousand-year-old spirit beast..." Zhao whispered.
"Because they all can collectively tear apart tens of ten-thousand-year-old spirit beasts," Oscar gulped.
Zhao pursed his lips. He glanced at the carriage and revealed a reluctant expression.
"I... may be able to check the situation inside the carriage, or at least, get close to it," Jun'er opened up and Oscar's expression changed greatly.
"Xiao Jun!" He hurriedly whispered, "We don't need to be hasty on this matter."
"Yeah," Feng Long nodded somberly.
Even Zhao reluctantly nodded.
"I..." Jun'er wished to speak when the group heard a few twigs around them snap apart.
*Grrrr*
A fishy scent covered their surroundings and the group could observe flashing green eyes around them.
"Nobody move," Zhao whispered with a cold expression, "The Violent Jawed Wolves will only attack if we make the first move. We need to come up with a way to leave the forest before these wolves lose their patience..."
*Rustle*
Suddenly, the surrounding shrubs rustled softly. The blue river grass around the group came into life and instantly thickened before latching onto every wolf around them. Not only that, the method of constriction was quite stern as the vine-like river grass would ever wrap around the muzzles of wolves to stop them from calling reinforcement.
"This..." The four of them fell stunned as a figure slowly walked out of the bushes. She had flowing blue hair that easily reached her waist. A pair of bewitching blue pupils that shimmered with spiritual energy and supple, and fair skin. Her figure wrapped by a light blue dress-skirt that exposed her curving calves and the neck of her dress curved down her collarbones, instantly attracting Feng Long's fascination.
"Blue eyes... blue hair... and that's definitely Feng Long's coin pouch on her waist. Say, Feng Long... isn't she the one you kept complaining about?" Jun'er elbowed the short-haired youth.
"Don't disturb me, stinky," Feng Long mumbled, his eyes admiring the woman's figure as he would glance towards her large bosom stretching her dress, "I... forgive her!"
The three of them looked at Feng Long with a dark expression. Meanwhile, the blue-haired girl tilted her head.
"Ah, you... thank you for your coin. Do you want my help again?" The woman inquired curiously.
"Wait, what? Help? Miss, can you tell me how you know Feng Long?" Jun'er inquired.
"Is it really necessary?" Feng Long hastily stated as he sweated internally, "Let's leave! The wolves are restrained. We need to leave now!"
"He asked me to help massage his waist. So I used my spirit to bind his waist hard. But he had already paid me with his entire pouch before the massage so I left when he fell unconscious," the woman stated lightly.
"Feng. Long." Jun'er glared at the youth with her gaze spewing flames of anger!
"Sister Lord! Mercy!" Feng Long gasped as he revealed a bitter expression. But Oscar and Zhao could see the flicker of contentment in Feng Long's eyes... as if he thought that every pain he went through was...
Worth it!
"You," The woman looked at Zhao and frowned, "Let's work together. I'm interested in what's inside the carriage. My name is Ah Yin and my spirit is Blue Silver Empress, a control-type tool spirit. I'm Rank 42 Spirit Ancestor."
The group of four revealed a shocked expression.
"How... old are you?" Zhao inquired.
Frowning, Ah Yin scoffed, "More than tens of thousands of years, why? Am I too young to fight?"
"That's not what I meant," Zhao shook his head, "I'm Zhao Wuji, an assault-type beast spirit master. My Martial Soul is Vigorous Vajra Bear and I'm a Rank 41 spirit ancestor..."
Zhao Wuji mumbled the last part. He was already 21 years old and only then did he reach such a stage but the girl in front of him looked no older than 16!
"And these people?" Ah Yin looked at the remaining three.
"My name is Xiao Jun, an assault-type beast spirit master. My Martial Soul is Hell's Dog and I'm a rank 40 Spirit Elder." Jun'er introduced herself.
"I'm Oscar, an auxiliary-type food spirit master. My Martial Soul is a stinky tofu and I'm a rank 34 Spirit Elder."
"I... ehm," Feng Long shrunk his neck under Jun'er's stare.
"My name is Feng Long, a control-type tool spirit master. My Martial Soul is Yin Ghost Tree and I'm a rank 30 Spirit Grandmaster. I apologize for my existence."
"No defense or agility spirit masters," Ah Yin mumbled under her breath.
"Do you know what's inside that carriage?" Zhao Wuji inquired as Ah Yin nodded.
"Of course, I know what's inside. There's a spirit master inside the carriage but we can never get close to him unless someone draws away the attention of most of the spirit beasts," Ah Yin stated.
"A spirit master?" Oscar and others were shocked once again.
"Yes. Don't you feel it?" Ah Yin inquired curiously.
"Feel?" Feng Long inquired with evil flames in his heart as if hoping for something saucy.
"Yes. Our cultivation speed is enhanced."
"Huh?"