— 3rd POV —
In the middle zone of the Dou Forest, the most dangerous part besides the core zone.
Not minutes ago, the calm place was disturbed by the struggle of a couple of soul beasts
And Ray, intervening to help a certain deer. This drew the attention of many parties in the vicinity.
Shortly after the gate Ray used disappeared, three people landed in the open space, just in time to see the last spark of the gate vanish.
They stopped in place, trying to wrap their shock. The leader of the group, an old man in tattered clothes who gave the feeling of being homeless despite his suffocating aura, signaled them to investigate the place.
"Look around and see if you can find anything," he said in a lazy tone as he strolled over to the blood pool not far away. Despite his appearance, the other two executed his order immediately.
after all, the man in question was the Titled Douluo, Xuan Zi.
The man with short black hair and long bangs that covered his entire right eye was the dean of the Martial Soul Department of Shrek Academy, Yan Shaozhe.
Nodding at Xuan Zi, he took the lead and started to investigate the remaining mist.
On the other hand, the only lady in the group, with dark green hair neatly bundled up, skipped over to a tree covered in blood and scorch marks.
"What do you think happened?" Xuan Zi used his spiritual sense to probe the mist while trying to figure out what had happened here.
A while passed, and the woman returned to his side along with Yan Shaozhe.
"From what I've seen, a fight broke out, probably between beasts. But a third entity interfered, killing one of them. Looking at the blood around—" Shaozhe pointed at the two different blood pools "—and if you notice, there's a healing effect on that mist. That entity probably healed the survivor of the fight."
"Is this some kind of mineral? I don't think I've come upon something like this before." The lady handed a crystal-like object the size of a thumb to Xuan Zi.
Observing it for a second, he turned back to the lady for an explanation.
"I found a couple of those in the cave below the tree," she said, pointing it out. "It's some kind of crystal, not metal as far as I know. And looking at the traces of the fight, it belonged to the one that was protecting its cave — or whatever was in its habitat."
"And why do you think it was protecting something?" Shaozhe looked at her with confused eyes, and she just smirked at him.
"Looks like your eyes have become dull, Shaozhe," she teased. "The fighting traces left behind clearly show that one side was only fighting to protect something inside there." She pointed at the tree. "But soul beasts hardly value places over their lives, so my guess is it was protecting a newborn."
"Elder Xuan, I also sensed, although weak, a high-level light attribute in that mist. And probably, the third party has some space-manipulating ability. Otherwise, it's impossible to get out of here without us noticing — and that probably explains the space energy we sensed before." Shaozhe just scoffed and turned to Elder Xuan.
"That's probably the best conclusion we have for now," Elder Xuan nodded, looking around one last time before starting to float.
"Let's head back. We came here because of this pure light element we sensed. Let's take these crystals to Old Mu and see what he has for us."
Flying in the direction of Shrek City, Elder Xuan's thoughts were drifting somewhere else.
'Having the ultimate light element — and it's probably a soul beast, since no sane human would heal a soul beast. Whatever it is, it will definitely cause a storm in the future.' With that thought, he sighed and took a sip from his jar to ease his mind.
Meanwhile, Ray was now in the middle of an open field with grass covering the ground as far as the eye could see. At the far end of sight, a colorful mist rose in a dome shape from all directions.
The two beasts were stuck in place with surprise as the breathtaking view greeted them.
The moment they got out of the gate, the deer and her child sensed pure and dense Heaven and Earth energy. On the right side of the field where they stood was a mountain forest spreading all the way to the horizon, while a sea stretched on the left side. meeting in this open field with a small sandy beach.
Still, the most unique part was the colorful mist-like barrier, as if cutting this place off from all directions and the outside world.
The only light here came from the bright glows in the mist that mimicked the sun, stars, and moon rotation.
The giant deer looked around and said, "Where are we now? I can sense some life signals in the water and forest, but not that strong."
The deer spread her spiritual sense and, surprisingly, there were no soul beasts here — only normal beasts, and the strongest so far was a little over 10,000 years in strength.
"and the land is almost empty of any kind of sentient creature!" She looked at Ray, who had brought them here, only to find him playing with her child, ignoring her question.
So she went over and smacked both of them on the head with the end of her tail.
"Ouch! What's that for?" After getting hit, Ray turned his head to her. She looked at him and her child with a "behave yourself" expression, causing the latter to hide behind Ray.
Seeing this, Ray sighed and began to explain. "This is Plana, and it's a sub-dimension. I've had a connection to it since the time my Martial Soul awakened, and only I can determine who can enter or not. By the way, you're the first two entities I've brought inside."
As Ray ended his explanation, he sat down on the grass. The young deer took the chance to rest his head on Ray's lap while his body supported Ray from behind, earning a gentle petting.
Ray just petted his head with a smile and continued speaking where he left off. "So as I was saying before, the first way won't have any disadvantages to both parties, and both will get equal benefits."
The deer took in the view in front of her without talking, then looked at Ray — he wasn't looking at her, still smiling and playing with her child.
A human child that knew her species — and from the look of it, he wasn't acting but genuinely enjoying his time. What surprised her most was how close her child was to him.
Don't take that cute look of hers as being easy to get close to. On the contrary, her kind has a keen instinct when it comes to others' intentions. Forget tackling someone or even playing with them — anything that gets close usually ends up crushed to death, that is, if it can get close enough in the first place.
Noticing that even she had become easygoing in Ray's presence, to the point that he was allowed to play with her child without triggering her motherly instincts, the deer sighed, thinking, "Something's really wrong with me today."
She sat next to Ray, looking at the sea and the colorful mist on the horizon. "You humans have names, right? What's yours?"
Ray looked at her for a moment before going back to petting. "It's Ray. My name is Ray Light."
She nodded and continued, "So, Ray, what are the benefits I get from your deal?"
Ray scratched his head and said, "Well, if we go by the normal contract and according to my calculations, I have enough potential to push you back to your prime and add a couple of centuries to your age. And that's just a calculation — I don't want to brag, but I honestly don't know my potential limits."
Well, according to the scan calculation, that's with only a small portion of my bloodline awakened — and without knowing how it will react to my first integration with a normal soul ring, let alone the stunt I'm trying to pull, Ray thought, planning how to convince her to take the bet.
As a matter of fact, the crystal element of the deer had very high synchronization with his martial soul's materials — and that was just a feeling, nothing proven by research yet.
From the moment he met her, he knew for sure that this creature was the best beast partner he could get.
That's why he intended to ask her to be his permanent partner, based on the divergence of the method he had just explained.
But instead of an equal exchange of benefits, they would share everything for life. Of course, that raised the risk. but it also increased the reward.