Although the group members were not very familiar with each other, they moved without any hesitation or dawdling.
Zhang Lexuan appropriately controlled the pace of travel, clearly taking into consideration the situations of Ning Tian, Mo Xuan, and Dai Luoli.
Both Ning Tian and Mo Xuan were support-type soul masters. Compared to battle soul masters, their physical condition was slightly weaker. And Dai Luoli was limited by his soul power cultivation level.
Wang Qiu'er appeared very quiet. From the side, one could see that her gaze was always extremely cold, as if she had put up an invisible barrier that isolated everyone else from her.
Xu Zihuang's peripheral vision glanced at Wang Qiu'er, his mind sinking into contemplation.
Back then, they had exchanged memories inside the Star Dou Great Forest. That meant Wang Qiu'er knew all of his past experiences.
However, given Wang Qiu'er's personality and standpoint, he wasn't worried that she would leak this information. Moreover, when he previously faced the Demon Empress and Lan Fozi's mother-daughter pair, through the ability of his Golden Dragon martial soul true body, he had seen an even more distant future.
At that time, he had already cultivated to the Title Douluo level and completely suppressed the Demon Empress from beginning to end.
From this information, it could be inferred that at least during his time at Shrek Academy, his identity had not been exposed.
While running, every time Wang Qiu'er's toes touched the ground, her body would spring up at an astonishing speed. Almost every place she stepped would leave a crack. Clearly relying on powerful strength to move forward, yet her movements appeared extraordinarily graceful.
Wang Qiu'er also seemed to sense Xu Zihuang's gaze. She slightly turned her head, and their eyes briefly met.
But in that very instant, the Golden Dragon bloodline inside Xu Zihuang was involuntarily activated, giving him a feeling of bloodline connection.
The same happened to Wang Qiu'er. Even the Golden Dragon bloodline power within her was suppressed by Xu Zihuang. Her delicate body trembled almost imperceptibly, and the indifference in her eyes melted away, replaced by a trace of complicated emotion.
Although the process had been extremely humiliating for her, Xu Zihuang's body truly contained her bloodline power. In a certain sense, the two of them could be considered to share the same bloodline.
As the Three-Eyed Golden Lion who had been favored by the heavens since birth, she had vaguely sensed very early on that one day she would encounter a calamity. And that so-called calamity would undoubtedly be related to the human in front of her.
Shrek City was not far from the Star Dou Great Forest. Even at this traveling speed, before noon that same day, they smoothly arrived at the edge of the Star Dou Great Forest.
Zhang Lexuan directed everyone to rest on the spot.
"Everyone rest first and adjust yourselves to your best condition. After resting for half an hour, we will enter the Star Dou."
Xu Zihuang leaned against a huge rock, sat cross-legged, and gave Ning Tian a slight signal.
In front of everyone, a trace of shyness appeared in Ning Tian's eyes, but she did not avoid it at all and sat down right next to Xu Zihuang. Because they were about to enter the complex terrain of the Star Dou Great Forest, she had changed into a form-fitting white outfit in advance.
Through the thin fabric, one could clearly feel the warm aura of the other person's body.
The others also began to rest separately.
Looking at the intimate actions between Xu Zihuang and Ning Tian, Dai Luoli's face turned bright red. Naturally, he did not dare to disturb them anymore. However, a beautiful figure involuntarily appeared in his mind, and he secretly made up his mind.
In the past, as the illegitimate son of the White Tiger Duke with average talent, he could never stand by her side. But now everything was different.
As long as he became a Title Douluo-level powerhouse, he could easily make up for the gap in status.
Xu Zihuang took the jerky and mountain spring water that Ning Tian handed over. The jerky was neatly wrapped in oil paper, fragrant and full of flavor. The mountain spring water was sealed in a bamboo tube from the plant-type soul beast Lone Bamboo, clear and sweet with the fresh fragrance of bamboo inside.
He immediately stood up and distributed the jerky and spring water to everyone.
"These pieces of jerky are made from the tenderloin of a ten-thousand-year-old Barbarian Bull. The taste is pretty good. Ning Tian and I deliberately prepared extra, so everyone, please have some."
Xu Zihuang first gave a portion to Zhang Lexuan.
"Thank you." A knowing smile appeared on Zhang Lexuan's beautiful face.
As the captain, the most important thing was to knit this temporary team together, making everyone close and cohesive. Only then, when facing battles after entering the Star Dou Great Forest, would they be more tacit and closer.
Xu Zihuang's doing this undoubtedly helped bring everyone closer together.
With such outstanding talent and strength, yet still paying attention to team coordination at this moment, Zhang Lexuan felt extremely gratified.
When Xu Zihuang handed the jerky and bamboo tube to Li Yongyue and Mo Xuan, both of them were extremely enthusiastic.
With Xu Zihuang's talent, he would surely become the leader of Shrek Academy's younger generation in the future. It was obvious that befriending Xu Zihuang would greatly benefit their future development.
Wang Qiu'er had her arms crossed, leaning against the trunk of a thick tree. Her pink-blue eyes carried a strange depth and emptiness, as if she were thinking about something.
After giving some to Dai Luoli, Xu Zihuang finally came in front of Wang Qiu'er.
Due to her personality, Wang Qiu'er did not exchange many words with Xu Zihuang. She simply took the jerky and bamboo tube, lowered her head, and said softly.
"Thank you."
Xu Zihuang returned to his original position and sat down. Ning Tian smiled at him and handed over the already opened bamboo tube.
While tasting the jerky, Li Yongyue greatly praised it. Then, as if thinking of something, he asked Xu Zihuang.
"Junior Brother Yu, there's something I've always been curious about. Dai's variant martial soul is called Blood Tiger, and his surname is Dai. He shouldn't have any relation with Dai Yaoheng, right?"
"Dai Yaoheng senior is Luoli's blood brother." Xu Zihuang replied with a smile.
Li Yongyue looked at Dai Luoli in surprise, and his gaze immediately changed.
"Dai Yaoheng is your brother? You're the son of the White Tiger Duke?"
The White Tiger Duke was not only the top nobility in the Star Luo Empire, but across the entire continent, he was among the very best.
"Mm." Dai Luoli nodded somewhat embarrassedly. He was only an illegitimate son; in terms of status and attention received, he was worlds apart from Dai Yaoheng.
Although his potential had now been fully activated, his mentality had not yet adjusted in such a short time.
Li Yongyue said forthrightly, "Since you're Dai Yaoheng's younger brother, just call me Big Brother Li from now on. Later, if we encounter a soul beast suitable for you, Big Brother Li will help you take it down hard!"
Not only because of Dai Yaoheng's relationship, but he also saw the close relationship between Dai Luoli and Xu Zihuang.
For a heaven-favored child like Xu Zihuang to value Dai Luoli so much, Dai Luoli must have some unique qualities. Building a good relationship early is never wrong.
"Thank you, Brother Li." Seeing Li Yongyue being so enthusiastic, the discomfort in Dai Luoli's heart finally eased a lot.
In comparison, Mo Xuan spoke very little. However, he also gave Dai Luoli a friendly smile. The two of them actually had some similarities in personality.
With this exchange, the relationship between everyone became much closer.
Zhang Lexuan watched all this with a smile on her face.
Only Wang Qiu'er remained as silent as ever, taking off her veil and eating the jerky in small bites.
However, her stunningly beautiful face instantly attracted everyone's attention. But considering Wang Qiu'er's coldness and arrogance that kept people a thousand miles away, no one came forward to strike up a conversation.
Wang Qiu'er frowned slightly. Ever since she transformed and left the Star Dou Great Forest to enter the human world, because of her appearance, she didn't know how many people had come to hit on her.
She was already used to people's reactions.
But Xu Zihuang's expression, which didn't seem fake and was calm as water, made her feel a sense of novelty and surprise.
Ning Tian withdrew her gaze from Wang Qiu'er, slightly frowning as she leaned close to Xu Zihuang's ear and moved her red lips.
"Tianhuang, do you think Wang Qiu'er's appearance is somewhat similar to Wang Dong's back then?"
Xu Zihuang looked at Ning Tian with deep eyes. If his feeling was correct, Ning Tian should already know about Wang Dong's female identity.
"Indeed, a bit similar. But her martial soul doesn't seem to have any relation to Wang Dong."
This was also what puzzled Ning Tian. Light flickered in Ning Tian's clear water-blue eyes.
"Could it really just be a coincidence?"
The half-hour rest passed quickly. Everyone had recovered to peak condition and stood up almost in unison.
Xu Zihuang glanced at Zhang Lexuan, understanding each other, and said:
"Next, I'll simply assign the formation after we enter the Star Dou Great Forest based on everyone's abilities. Wang Qiu'er, you take the front. Left and right flanks will be Senior Brother Li and Luoli. I'll be in the center, controlling, ready to support any of you at any time. Ning Tian and Senior Brother Mo Xuan will be behind me, looking for the right moment to provide auxiliary amplification to everyone. As for bringing up the rear, I'll leave that to you, Eldest Senior Sister."
"Just follow Tianhuang's arrangement. Everyone, prepare to enter the Star Dou Great Forest now." Zhang Lexuan nodded slightly.
She knew that Elder Song was secretly following them. But unless necessary, Elder Song generally would not take action casually. It was only natural for her, the one with the highest cultivation, to take the most dangerous rear-guard position. Moreover, her abilities were more suited for medium to long-range attacks. In this position, if danger appeared, she could also use her abilities to rescue.
After stepping into the interior of the Star Dou Great Forest, Xu Zihuang released his spiritual power to open the way. Wherever they passed, the bushes and flowers on the ground automatically parted. He also controlled the intensity of his spiritual power so that low-level soul beasts did not dare approach, but without alarming the more powerful soul beasts.
Among the top ten ferocious beasts, only a few had spiritual power that reached the tangible and qualitative level. In the outer area, mixed area, and even a small part of the core area's periphery of the Star Dou Great Forest, basically, no soul beast could detect his spiritual power.
Xu Zihuang reminded: "I've released my spiritual power to sense the surrounding situation. Move forward without worry. If any soul beast approaches, I'll notify you in advance."
Wang Qiu'er, who was walking at the very front, felt huge waves surging in her heart.
"Tangible and qualitative spiritual power?!"
Before she transformed, even her spiritual power had not reached such a level.
But immediately afterward came another wave of sorrow. They, who possessed noble bloodlines, still had less potential than the humans they once treated as food.
The others did not have Wang Qiu'er's level of understanding. Only Zhang Lexuan vaguely sensed something.
Xu Zihuang, using spiritual power to open the way, had an even better effect than when Zhang Lexuan led the team back then. Along the way, they didn't encounter a single soul beast attack. Maintaining a rhythm of advancing for one hour then resting for a quarter hour, before nightfall, the group had already passed through the outer area of the Star Dou Great Forest and entered the mixed area.
Without much hesitation, Xu Zihuang led everyone to continue deeper.
The soul beasts in the mixed area were mainly thousand-year level, with ten-thousand-year soul beasts also appearing. The soul beasts living in this area should be the most suitable for their goal on this trip.
Not long after entering the mixed area, Xu Zihuang, who had stopped to sense the surroundings with spiritual power, suddenly opened his eyes. Golden light shone brilliantly in his pupils.
"Be careful! A soul beast is approaching, very fast!"
A rare look of surprise appeared in Xu Zihuang's usually calm eyes. This soul beast's speed was faster than any soul beast he had ever seen before.
Zhang Lexuan, who subconsciously also released her spiritual power, felt it even more directly. Even with her tangible but not qualitative spiritual power realm, she was unable to capture the figure of this soul beast.
"Tianhuang, can you determine what kind of soul beast it is?"
Before Zhang Lexuan finished speaking, a strange, small whirlwind suddenly appeared from the front.
Wang Qiu'er, standing at the very front, instinctively felt a strong sense of crisis and was startled in her heart.
This was...
Xu Zihuang flashed forward and blocked in front of Wang Qiu'er. The long sword Shark Tooth and the short blade Whale Tooth simultaneously appeared in his hands. The golden patterns around his pupils shone brightly as he rapidly alternated swinging these two close-combat soul tools. The deep purple short blade Whale Tooth and the brilliant golden long sword Shark Tooth left dazzling afterimages in the air.
Every afterimage that passed created a series of sparks, and clanging sounds like metal colliding rang out continuously.
After a brief moment of daze, everyone quickly released their martial souls. But strangely, they still couldn't see the soul beast's figure at all.
Suddenly, Xu Zihuang spread both hands, retracting the short blade Whale Tooth and long sword Shark Tooth. The sparks and collision sounds stopped abruptly.
One circle after another of soul rings rose from beneath his feet. Among the six soul rings, five black and one red, the third one, a deep black soul ring, shone brightly.
Strange golden patterns extended outward from Xu Zihuang's body as the center. A brilliant golden halo silently covered a space nearly a thousand meters in radius.
Third soul skill: Time Disorder.
Moreover, with his astonishing control ability, the others were not affected by his third soul skill. Everyone looked around and finally saw the soul beast's appearance clearly in the air several hundred meters away.
It was an entirely cyan-black weasel, only about two chi long, with a slender body. The strangest thing was its pair of pitch-black claws shaped like sickles, gleaming with cold light.
At this moment, it was maintaining a spinning posture in mid-air, cyan-black sharp edges bursting from its claws. Wherever the edges passed, space itself seemed to be sliced apart. If one looked carefully, one would see that on the trunks of several giant trees with diameters exceeding two meters around them, cyan-black lines had been left behind.
What kind of soul beast is this?
The same question arose in everyone's mind. But Xu Zihuang, who had recently finished reading the records of various soul beasts in the Sea God Pavilion's library, recognized this soul beast.
Scythe Weasel, a powerful soul beast that lived in legends. This kind of soul beast would appear in the form of a whirlwind, using sickle-like, sharp claws to attack anyone it encountered. Its speed was so fast that it was difficult for the naked eye to catch.
The reason there were so few records in books was that almost no human soul masters who encountered them managed to leave alive.
But it also had a weakness: its body defense was extremely weak. However, since no one could catch its figure, even knowing this weakness, most soul masters were helpless.
Unfortunately, this Scythe Weasel had encountered Xu Zihuang, whose martial soul abilities countered it the most perfectly.
Xu Zihuang slowly raised his right hand. Four crystal thin needles appeared between the fingers of his right hand. Then he suddenly swung his right hand, and in the next instant, released his third soul skill, Time Disorder.
Boom, boom, boom—
As time flowed returned to normal, one giant tree after another that had been cut in half by the Scythe Weasel collapsed, creating loud rumbling sounds.
After the dust settled, the view in this area became extremely open. Looking far, on the trunk of a giant tree several hundred meters away, a strangely shaped weasel was pierced through all four limbs by four crystal thin needles and nailed there.
Its pair of sickle-like claws hung down powerlessly, and a sharp screech came from its mouth.
Zhang Lexuan reacted first and asked Xu Zihuang: "Tianhuang, what soul beast is this?"
"Scythe Weasel." Wang Qiu'er seemed to murmur, answering Zhang Lexuan's question.
"Scythe Weasel?"
Then Xu Zihuang narrated to Zhang Lexuan the information about the Scythe Weasel that he had read in the Sea God Pavilion library.
"This Scythe Weasel's cultivation should have exceeded ten thousand years. It's just right to serve as Senior Brother Li's sixth soul ring."
Zhang Lexuan naturally would not doubt Xu Zihuang's words. She immediately reminded softly, "Li Yongyue."
"Yes, Eldest Senior Sister." Li Yongyue respectfully responded and did not forget to thank Xu Zihuang.
"Junior Brother Yu, great kindness needs no words. In the future, if there's anywhere you need me, just say the word."
Whether in attribute or ability, this Scythe Weasel perfectly matched his martial soul Moon Blade. Such an extremely rare top-quality soul ring, what reason did he have to be picky?
It could be foreseen that after successfully absorbing this soul ring, his overall strength would definitely make a huge leap.
After saying this, Li Yongyue impatiently released his martial soul Moon Blade and ended the Scythe Weasel's life. While the soul ring was emerging, his whole body was trembling with excitement, scratching his head anxiously.
The pitch-black soul ring rose from the Scythe Weasel's corpse. Li Yongyue did not hesitate at all and sat cross-legged under the tree trunk, using his soul power to guide the soul ring and begin fusing with it.
Everyone very consciously stepped forward to surround him and protect him while he absorbed it.
Wang Qiu'er looked at Xu Zihuang with a strange expression as he withdrew the soul rings around him.
And Dai Luoli had even less need to be mentioned; his focus from beginning to end had been on Xu Zihuang's terrifying soul ring configuration, his gaze dazed.
"Luck was pretty good. We encountered a suitable soul beast so quickly." Zhang Lexuan smiled slightly, looking at Yu Tianhuang with great emotion in her heart.
"I didn't expect that in just five years, Tianhuang, you would have grown to this extent. I'm afraid it won't be long before your strength far surpasses mine. I'll leave the subsequent command to you as well."
"Eldest Senior Sister, you're trying to increase my workload." Xu Zihuang smiled bitterly and shook his head, but did not refuse.
Zhang Lexuan smiled without speaking.
On the other side, Ning Tian also smiled happily and stepped forward to hold Xu Zihuang's arm. At times like this, there was no need to maintain formation anymore; they only needed to stay alert to their surroundings.
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