Preparations

The joint hunt with the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Clan came to its eventual end. Its only purpose was to give an image of cooperation since the clan also represented the extended will of the Heaven Dou Empire. With the task done, the two groups separated. While Ning Fengzhi did return, Ja Sun and the others waited and strengthened their defenses.

"So? Did you find an awesome spirit beast for me?" Jun'er couldn't act patient any longer. Wagging her imaginary tail that would sprout during her spirit transformation, and her dark eyes wide with expectations, Jun'er caused Ah Yin to curse secretly as the woman was the living embodiment of puppy face.

"Give me some time. We're in the more grizzly section of the forest than canine," Ah Yin replied before closing her eyes and shutting Jun'er out. No spirit beast matched Jun'er's compatibility during the hunt but now they could search for it exclusively and it needed to be more explosive in growth.

Bibi Dong and Ah Yin soon came to understand that it wasn't either of the two that got a spirit soul but Hu Lana, causing the duo to secretly curse the seductive wench a week of diarrhea but aside from that, they were mostly curious which caused Hu Lana to expose the Charm Queen discreetly.

Ja Sun had already shown that this information wasn't strictly secretive to him but more of a need-to-know kind of information. If there is an opportunity to form another spirit soul, Ja Sun wouldn't hesitate because he wasn't providing anything out of his personal treasury. After all, even if he discloses everything about the spirit soul to others... what would it achieve aside from a personal sense of amazement?

None of them delved into arrays as deeply as he did.

None of them came to a realization that soul origins are in fact, the foundation of spirit souls.

And none of them can actually challenge his ideas in these areas and help him grow.

The group continued to explore the forest. The location of the Death Spider Emperor was already known but Bibi Dong wanted everyone at their best. Of course, she wouldn't be just going to face a 100000-year-old beast with the nine of them even if Ja Sun was capable enough to handle one at his best.

Bibi Dong had other plans, more long winding— as usual. But the things they could do now needed to be achieved personally.

It took two days of exploration even with Ah Yin's domain to find a spirit beast but this time, to feed their spirit souls, the group did steal the kills of various spirit beasts... and then proceeded to kill the said spirit beast all the while Ja Sun continued to slowly develop his knowledge about the soul origin.

If he could crack it, even though the cultivation of humans may remain the same, things would drastically change for the Spirit Souls. What Ja Sun wanted was to be able to crack and finally form the refinement method of the soul origin in a way that it could be completely devoured.

A 100% absorption rather than a meager 1% absorption like it usually is.

And his only inspiration was one encounter with Yu Xiaogang where his martial soul dropped the yellow crystal that held the entirety of the cultivation of his spirit rings.

'Yu Xiaogang... he dropped that yellow crystal and needed spirit rings. Like Spirit Soul, spirit rings also occupy a space within ourselves to feed one's soul origin. It can be argued that what his martial soul truly dropped wasn't only a piece of soul origin but the crystallization of spirit rings... crystallization of spirit rings...'

Ja Sun felt he had touched something. This was the same sensation when he tries to understand the laws related to his attributes within the Evil Sage's Third Eye. Just something...

New.

Something simple and complex at the same time or else the moment will not be so fleeting.

"Stuck again?" Ah Yin brought him out of his thoughts as they walked side-by-side. The destination was already marked as they moved to get Jun'er's sixth spirit ring.

"Just close enough..." Ja Sun groaned and shook his head, "But if I do crack it... the enhancement of spirit soul would be so much more efficient and no unnecessary spirit beasts will be killed..."

Ah Yin was aware that these thoughts didn't come out of kindness.

Imagine a situation where a spirit beast killed now could become a tyrant later.

Ja Sun wanted as many spirit beasts to live so that, possibly, they may be useful in the future rather than just take a life for that 1% accumulation of their entire cultivation.

But Ja Sun would need some time. Even Rakshasa— the creator of the Rakshasa Soul Devouring Technique— couldn't come up with a perfect solution and while arrays will most definitely be helpful in this scenario, Ja Sun needed appropriate inspiration to direct and form the arrays.

"Well, you can take all the time you need. The situation would have been urgent if the secret of the formation of spirit souls were to be known by many and it threatened to cause a major massacre of spirit beasts. Good thing you're greedy," Ah Yin smirked.

"I prefer to be called someone with a great vision," Ja Sun shrugged.

"Someone with great vision wouldn't enjoy pain."

"On the contrary. Sweetness can sicken someone in the long run but pain is eternal. Might as well get pleasure from it."

"Brother Ka-ul... did you have to spread that statement to everyone with your mental energy?" Tang Yuehua questioned.

"That's like begging to be pounded!" Liu Erlong clenched her fist, licking her lips in excitement, too.

"As long as you can defeat me, of course," Ja Sun glanced at Liu Erlong, snorting.

"Why do Ah Yin and Sister Dong get to beat you so often then?" Erlong frowned.

"I don't hurt him..." Bibi Dong gave a weary sigh.

"Sure you don't. And Xan isn't sweetheart in bed either," Hu Lana mocked.

"Why me?" Xie Xan frowned, "Oscar's the one getting pegged?"

"Excuse you?" Oscar almost stumbled.

"In short!" Ja Sun interrupted, "You either beat me fair and square which means you're stronger, or I let you behind closed doors!" He crossed his arms and as if remembering something, he turned to Yuehua, "Oh, that brings me to you, Birdy. Do you like whips? Bibi's the poison specialist and Ah Yin is the bondage specialist. Although, I think Ah Yin can use whips, too—"

"Grrrr!"

A low growl attracted the unusually tense Jun'er who was silent till now, "It's here!" She squeaked, getting ready for the battle.

"Saved by the beast!" Bibi Dong glared at Ja Sun.

"He is a beast," Liu Erlong added with a contemptuous scoff while Yuehua buried her head behind Erlong's back in sheer embarrassment.

A dark shadow suddenly pounced towards the group only to be charged against by a dark blur.

With a loud thudding noise, the two beings separated. One of them was obviously Jun'er. The side of her face was covered in dark fur to turn her ears dog-like. A pitch-black bushy tail sprang from the base of her spine and the ends of her limbs layered with fur and formed into dark claws. Her eyes glowed in hunger as she looked at the spirit beast in front of her.

A dark greyhound almost four meters high with a light blue coating of inner fur that gave its body a velvety feel. Its piercing blue eyes stared into the direction of the group while baring its teeth.

Shadow Hound— an extremely territorial spirit beast that takes the natural nature and instincts of a canine to another level so much so that no other spirit beast can easily manage to survive alongside it.

With Jun'er's previous spirit beast being a 17000-year-old one, naturally, she wanted to crank it up a notch. This Shadow Hound was 31000-year-old and unlike Hu Lana's confrontation with the charm queen, Jun'er would have to exert herself but no one, even Oscar, was worried about Jun'er.

They trained hard. They have already achieved so much.

It was time to breeze through the results of their hardships.

Of course, Shadow Hound is notorious for its method to delve into the strange aspect of shadow and escape through any available spot so others silently secured the perimeters.

With its senses honed for years, the Shadow Hound seemed to have understood its current dilemma and grew more aggressive. Its body suddenly let out grey gas from its body and rushed towards Jun'er without any hesitation only for Jun'er to match its roar with one of her piercing howls.

Her fifth spirit ring instantly glowed and formed six devil dogs, each one as ferocious as the Shadow Hounds as the seven opponents shot in the direction of the hound.

Surprisingly, the seven of them passed through the hound as it dispersed into the grey mist that followed it only for one of the devil dogs to have its head smashed into the ground by the paw formed from the mist.

'Oh... the ability to disperse physical form into mist and converge it any part for the duration of it...' Bibi Dong assessed the skill, clearly impressed.

The battle grew ferocious by the second and although Jun'er received injuries, it only hardened her resolve to win.

She is the warrior in her group {oscar and her} and if she can't even win when it matters the most then all her talks about wanting to be the blade in their relationship and keeping Oscar safe as a support master would be for naught.

---

"Lucky," Jun'er hugged Oscar as he smiled, "Yeah, you are. Now say aaah."

He cooed, bringing a small chunk of tofu to her mouth as she gave a needful grunt, taking almost desperate sniffs before getting fed. Her expression melted into that of pure bliss as the couple went off to their realms of PDA.

"Ugh... and she spiked up to rank 63," Hu Lana muttered, a bit depressed that she can't just show off her spirit soul.

"She's lucky that she got Shadow Hound's Mist Displacement. It's a really handy skill," Bibi Dong complimented before hissing, "The two of you! Stop it this instant."

"Granddaddy..." Jun'er whined, a bit sad by Bibi Dong's shout but the situation soon settled down.

"This is the last night of our aimless exploration. We take tonight as a chance to clear our heads. Our next target is going to be dangerous in many ways and maybe even fatal... So, I want all of you to promise me that no matter what, against the Death Spider Emperor, we all will survive no matter what."

"Of course," Xie Xan shrugged, quite confident.

"Ehm, now," Bibi Dong coughed, "Let's plan out the details. Of course, it's not just the nine of us. This is a hunt for spirit beast for the most likely successor of the Spirit Hall. Not only have I managed to procure a team of Holy Knights, but also two elders."

Her words surprised many except Ja Sun and Ah Yin.

Bibi Dong would be damned if she didn't try to have as many resources as possible to solidify her chances of hunting down the Death Spider Emperor. Going far enough to procure the services of two Titled Douluo level elders!

Of course, this also made sure that she couldn't hide her target from the upper level of the Spirit Hall but in reality, she didn't want to in the first place.

Not being able to hunt and absorb the Death Spider Emperor even after all this would simply prove that she was a failure and in the more likely instance of her success, Bibi Dong wanted to ride the momentum and seal the deal of her succession.

Of course, there was still the awkward part of her parentage since Bibi Dong was a half-human in a manner but that wouldn't stop her from achieving her goals.

Ironically, she wasn't taught to be a quitter by her master.

"So? You never did tell us who the elders are," Ja Sun questioned, causing Bibi Dong to smile.

"Of course, there are only two elders I trust more— Chrysanthemum and the Ghost Douluo."

Everyone took a deep breath, clearly raising their expectations of the next phase of hunting.

---

"How are your preparations?" Golden Crocodile looked at Yu Xiaogang. It wasn't easy for even personal disciples to enter the Elder's Hall within the Spirit City.

Nodding, Yu Xiaogang stated confidently, "I'm ready for my third trial."

"Good... two more to go after that," Golden Crocodile sighed softly.

If anyone from the previous team saw Yu Xiaogang, they would certainly feel surprised since the man was already a Spirit Emperor in this short duration.

"Master... is he also going to enter the trials?" Yu Xiaogang finally inquired, causing Golden Crocodile to blink and smile mischievously, "Hehe, I don't know what's gotten into Daoliu's mind but he's not having Ka-ul or most of his team enter the inheritance ground. He only got the chance for that Erlong girl but stated that he'd wait for her to reach rank 70 before letting her enter the Dragon's Final Breath."

While Yu Xiaogang let out a sigh in relief during the former portion of the statement, unwilling to have such an amazing opportunity fall into the hands of his opponent, the latter one made him scowl internally.

The thought of Erlong enraged and terrified him at all the same time.

While Yu Xiaogang believed himself to be Ja Sun's rival, he was easily put down, nay, smashed into the ground by Erlong.

"Don't doubt your strengths now. Anyway, remember, failure is success' sibling and they go hand-in-hand. Besides, just because she is stronger than you does not mean her potential is higher than yours, too.

But you need to work harder."

Seeing his master's tone taking a somber tone, Yu Xiaogang grew a bit confused.

"While you were dealing with your trial, Bibi Dong has made progress, too. She is actually trying to absorb the spirit ring of a 100000-year-old beast."

"What?!" Xiaogang gasped, "Does she want to die that bad?"

"Die? Boy, even if Qian Xunji was here, he would not have stopped her and of the father and son, Qian Daoliu is actually rather self-serving so he wouldn't really want someone he looks after as his daughter to die in a fruitless endeavor... but guess what, Bibi Dong managed to pull Chrysanthemum and Ghost for the hunt, paid off the elder's council under Xunji, and Qian Daoliu made not a single move this entire time!"

Golden Crocodile grew animated as he spoke, "Do you know what that means? It means that Bibi Dong has a secret that Daoliu is aware of that can help her absorb a crimson spirit ring! One of the two best treasures of the Douluo Continent!

This also means while your speed is breathtaking and have caught up to them, you will have to work harder and try to find another inheritance sight. It's completely based on luck. You've got the taste of the higher path, don't tell me you wish to settle."

"Of course, not!" Xiaogang gritted his teeth, causing Golden Crocodile to smile and nod.

***

Shoutout to Chase Alexander!

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