19: C19 Heading to the Sunset Forest,
Suddenly, a foul odor filled the room…
The stench was all too familiar—anyone would recognize that smell.
Xiao Wu’s struggles ceased entirely.
She lay motionless on the ground, her face, which had been lifted, now turned toward the floor.
She didn’t make a single sound.
“…”
This was Fang Yuan’s first time kidnapping someone, and he hadn’t thought things through completely.
After a long silence, he asked, “…Did you…?”
Xiao Wu didn’t respond.
She buried her face and played dead.
Although when she was still a soul beast living in the Star Dou Forest, she could relieve herself wherever she wanted without much sense of shame,
now that she had transformed into human form and been exposed to human society’s concepts of propriety and shame, she naturally couldn’t accept the fact that she had done such a thing in front of someone.
In the end, Fang Yuan had to adjust the way the ropes were tied so Xiao Wu could barely clean herself up.
Time passed.
Three months had gone by in the blink of an eye.
During this period, aside from necessary activities like sleeping and eating, Fang Yuan had basically been cultivating nonstop.
With this extreme method of squeezing every possible moment for cultivation,
Fang Yuan had successfully reached level twenty.
He only needed to obtain a soul ring to become a quasi-Great Soul Master at any time.
Fang Yuan had no token, wasn’t a noble, and wasn’t a student of any soul master academy.
He couldn’t enter the soul beast forest maintained by the Spirit Hall.
He could only go to dangerous wild forests, canyons, mountains, and other places to find suitable soul rings to hunt.
Fang Yuan was in the Heaven Dou Empire, and this was only his second soul ring.
He didn’t want to travel two months to the Star Dou Forest at the border of the two empires just to hunt a hundred-year soul beast.
He set his sights on the Sunset Forest instead.
First, there were soul rings suitable for him there.
Second, Fang Yuan was starting to miss the immortal herbs in the medicine garden.
His Radiant Phoenix martial soul had flight capabilities.
He could completely bypass the poisonous miasma Dugu Bo had set up on the periphery and enter the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well to harvest the immortal herbs.
Meanwhile, on the other side,
Dugu Yan was on the verge of losing her mind.
After verifying the authenticity of the immortal herbs, Dugu Yan was able to bring her grandfather to the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect—but A Yuan wasn’t there.
Dugu Yan nearly turned the entire Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect upside down searching, but she couldn’t find that clear, crystal-clear child who resembled a celestial being.
Ning Fengzhi had also helped Dugu Yan investigate the parents of Fang Yuan from her previous life.
In this life, they didn’t have a six-year-old son named Fang Yuan—only a three-year-old daughter.
It was as if the Fang Yuan of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect had never existed in this world.
There wasn’t a single trace of his presence.
Dugu Yan went from initial disbelief and persistent searching to now being on the verge of madness.
Just as she was beginning to wonder whether she had truly imagined a lover who didn’t exist,
Dugu Yan saw those missing person notices…
“I knew it—A Yuan exists.
This time, I’ll find him first and protect him properly.” Dugu Yan stared excitedly at these notices.
Her originally alluring, captivating eyes widened, taking on a look like a snake locking onto its prey, ready to hunt.
Watching his granddaughter finally regain her spirits—yet seeming even more unhinged—Dugu Bo was deeply worried.
He even suspected that the immortal herbs Yan Yan had consumed were problematic, causing her to become like this.
For a moment, the joy Dugu Bo had felt from resolving his granddaughter’s Azure Phosphorus Serpent poison faded considerably.
Forget it.
For now, the priority was to stabilize his granddaughter and keep her from reverting to her previous state.
Thinking back to how desperate and crazed his granddaughter had been when she learned that Fang Yuan didn’t exist, Dugu Bo felt a chill of fear.
At that time, he had almost thought his granddaughter might self-destruct.
That look was all too familiar—he himself had been in that same state after losing his son and daughter-in-law.
If Yan Yan hadn’t needed caring for, he might have followed them as well.
A hundred miles east of Heaven Dou City lay a vast primeval forest—dense vegetation, towering ancient trees, a habitat for high-level soul beasts.
Though not as perilous as the Star Dou Forest, it still possessed a raw, untamed beauty.
Fang Yuan thus arrived at the outskirts of the Sunset Forest, bringing along his bound hostage Xiao Wu.
Xiao Wu looked at this unfamiliar forest with disappointment.
It wasn’t the Star Dou Forest.
If it had been the Star Dou Forest, she might have been able to find Da Ming and Er Ming to rescue her.
Having spent every day with Fang Yuan during this time, Xiao Wu had, for the sake of escaping, finally managed to calm down and began cultivating diligently.
She had now reached level sixteen, and her soul ring had automatically formed upon reaching that level.
First soul skill—Waist Bow: instantly increases waist strength by 100%.
It was a skill perfectly suited to the Soft Bone Rabbit’s characteristics.
However, this skill clearly couldn’t help her escape or defeat her kidnapper.
Waist Bow was only useful in close combat.
Right now, she was tied up like a pretzel—her limbs bound together, her body bent backward.
Moving was difficult enough, let alone using Waist Bow.
Xiao Wu even had a suspicion: did this guy know what her soul skills were, which was why he tied her up this way?
She wasn’t wrong.
Because Fang Yuan knew Xiao Wu’s soul skills and her body’s flexibility, he had specifically researched binding techniques to ensure she couldn’t use Waist Bow to break free and counterattack.
As soon as they entered the Sunset Forest,
Fang Yuan began searching for a suitable soul beast while moving toward the direction of the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well.
In the wild, the advantages of a flying-type soul master were fully displayed.
Fang Yuan could fly high into the sky, spotting dangerous soul beasts in advance, or fly away when encountering danger.
As long as he didn’t encounter a flying-type soul beast of similar caliber, or one whose strength far surpassed his, Fang Yuan could easily escape.
After a rough and bumpy journey,
Fang Yuan finally encountered a soul beast with compatible attributes—a seven-hundred-year-old Radiant Hou.
Its fur was golden, with antlers like a deer’s on its head, and a thick, long mane around its neck.
Majestic and imposing, it was covered in scales that refracted colorful light in the sun, dazzling and brilliant.
In the forest, the Radiant Hou was an extremely conspicuous presence.
Fang Yuan spotted it at a single glance.
Beasts also had keen senses.
While Fang Yuan was observing the Radiant Hou, it immediately noticed him as well.
Then it let out a deafening roar—the sound waves shaking leaves from the surrounding trees.
The Radiant Hou had clearly decided that this human cub would make a nice little dessert after its meal.