After searching the Soul Hunting Forest for three consecutive days, Yang Pingan still hadn’t found a Spirit Beast that was too suitable for him.
Occasionally, he even encountered a few Thousand-Year Soul Beasts, but he was able to cleverly avoid them thanks to Purple Gold Mastiff’s keen sense of smell.
That day, Purple Gold Mastiff caught a familiar scent.
When the information reached Yang Pingan, he immediately felt a strange sensation.
According to the scent, it should be the middle-aged man he had encountered when he first entered the Soul Hunting Forest.
And from the looks of it, he was probably coming for Yang Pingan, likely intending to kill him for his possessions.
After careful consideration, Yang Pingan began to execute his plan.
The entire Soul Hunting Forest was only about ten kilometers in radius, not too large.
He would probably be found by these people sooner or later, so it was better to deal with them in advance.
If they encountered him while he was absorbing a spirit ring, that would be troublesome.
After some preparations, Yang Pingan slowed down his pace in the Soul Hunting Forest, walking openly and boldly.
Suddenly, five figures appeared in front of Yang Pingan.
From the situation, these five people had blocked his retreat, subtly surrounding him.
The thin middle-aged man revealed a sinister smile: “You little brat, after hiding for so many days, we finally found you. It wasn’t a waste of our three days.”
Yang Pingan looked at the thin middle-aged man with a gloomy expression: “I don’t need to hire you. What exactly do you want to do?”
“What do we want to do? You’re alone in the Soul Hunting Forest for several days; you must have a lot of money on you. Hand over your money obediently, and we’ll give you a quick death. Otherwise, we’ll make sure you wish you were dead.”
“Aren’t you mercenaries? You also enjoy robbing people on the road. I suppose you specialize in robbing those who hire you.”
“Of course! How could we let go of such a fat sheep? Helping you hunt Spirit Beasts doesn’t earn as much as directly robbing you.”
At this moment, Yang Pingan’s face was chillingly cold: “Don’t you evil scoundrels fear that Spirit Hall will come looking for trouble?”
The thin middle-aged man sneered: “Spirit Hall? We do everything without a trace; Spirit Hall won’t have any evidence to come after us.”
But before the thin middle-aged man could finish speaking, Yang Pingan exerted a little force under his feet, and the ground beneath the five men instantly gave way.
A trap had appeared, covered with various poisonous thorns that Yang Pingan had collected over the past few days.
The thin middle-aged man snorted: “You think such a small trick can deal with the five of us? That’s just wishful thinking.”
In this critical moment, the thin middle-aged man quickly activated his Spirit.
He was actually a two-ring Spirit Grandmaster, but unfortunately, his two spirit rings were one white and one yellow, and his Spirit was a black bear.
With a bear’s roar, he immediately activated his second Spirit Ability.
A massive bear paw slammed into the trap net, directly shattering it.
Just at that instant, something seemed to spray from the trap net, directly enveloping the five men.
When the five men emerged from the trap, they looked extremely disheveled, even covered in many unknown liquids, but it didn’t look like they were poisonous.
However, Yang Pingan had already taken the opportunity to slip away.
The thin middle-aged man was furious: “That kid is too insidious! If I, Lin Xiong, don’t kill him, I’m not a man.”
The other four also showed expressions of shared indignation.
However, just then, a rustling sound seemed to echo through the entire forest, as if some Spirit Beast was approaching.
As mercenaries, they naturally knew that a dangerous Spirit Beast was drawing near.
But in a short while, the eyes of the five men were filled with despair, because all around them were densely packed poisonous spiders, which should be one of the overlords of the Spirit Beast Forest: Ghost-Faced Spiders.
Ghost-Faced Spiders are a common type of Spirit Beast in the Soul Hunting Forest, known for their large numbers.
However, because they reproduce extremely quickly and their year-level is too low, many people are too lazy to hunt this type of Spirit Beast.
But now, a giant Ghost-Faced Spider appeared, which looked like a Thousand-Year Soul Beast, and among the numerous Ghost-Faced Spiders, there were also many Hundred-Year Soul Beasts.
The thin middle-aged man immediately understood that this was probably one of the overlords of this Spirit Beast Forest, especially with so many Ghost-Faced Spiders, it was like they had poked their nest.
What the thin middle-aged man didn’t know was that the trap net they had just broken with their Soul Power actually contained spider nests and spider eggs, which Yang Pingan had specifically stolen to deal with them.
This was Yang Pingan’s trump card: to use the numerous Ghost-Faced Spiders to eliminate these five people.
As long as they carried the scent of the spider nest, they would not escape death.
After Yang Pingan had distanced himself, screams echoed from within the Soul Hunting Forest.
Clearly, they were from the five people who had just been planning to deal with him.
Perhaps his luck had turned, as he truly found a very good target Spirit Beast.
That day, as Yang Pingan was carefully observing by a small stream, a group of Thick-shelled Turtles emerged from the stream.
One Thick-shelled Turtle, in particular, was very conspicuous.
Its entire body was dark gold, and its shell length reached 1.8 meters.
It also appeared significantly larger than the other Thick-shelled Turtles.
Yang Pingan couldn’t help but swallow.
Normally, a Hundred-Year Thick-shelled Turtle would only be about one meter long, and then grow twenty centimeters for every hundred years.
This Thick-shelled Turtle’s length reached a full 1.8 meters, meaning it should be around four hundred years old, definitely not exceeding four hundred and fifty years.
The age was very suitable.
Especially considering how unique this Thick-shelled Turtle was; normal Thick-shelled Turtles should be grayish-black.
This must be a one-in-ten-thousand Mysterious Gold Nether Armor Turtle that appeared among a group of ordinary Thick-shelled Turtles.
According to historical records, Thick-shelled Turtles occasionally undergo mutation, sometimes resulting in a Mysterious Gold Nether Armor Turtle.
However, the mutation rate is relatively low, and once it appears, it becomes the best choice for many defense-type Spirit Masters.
Although this Mysterious Gold Nether Armor Turtle was not a Gold Attribute Spirit Beast, it possessed extremely strong Gold Attribute properties, to the point where it was very close to the Gold Attribute.
After Yang Pingan summoned Purple Gold Mastiff, the originally relaxed Purple Gold Mastiff’s eyes became sharp, staring intently at the Mysterious Gold Nether Armor Turtle as if it were a formidable enemy.
This phenomenon had not even occurred when it encountered Thousand-Year Soul Beasts.
Yang Pingan crept along, slowly following the Mysterious Gold Nether Armor Turtle.
With his current strength, he probably couldn’t defeat this four-hundred-year Spirit Beast, especially since the Mysterious Gold Nether Armor Turtle’s defense was formidable and its strength astonishing.
Few Spirit Beasts of the same level could be its match.
Its drawbacks, however, were its extremely slow movement and relatively lazy nature.