That night, the sky was full of stars.
In the thick darkness, the mountain range stretched like a massive dragon winding its way across the earth.
Deep within the forest, the campfire flickered.
Hundreds of figures gathered around the fire, holding something in their hands, roasting it over the flames.
The cold moonlight fell from the sky, faintly illuminating the faces of those figures.
These figures looked like wild men, each with a powerful build, and their height was well over two meters.
Under the hazy moonlight, their hair appeared gray, and their bodies were covered in thick fur.
Their lips protruded outward, revealing two large canine teeth, many times bigger than an ordinary human's, and their faces were painted with heavy oil.
These figures were the so-called "Wolf Thieves."
By the largest of the campfires, three wolf thieves with green fur sat.
The one with the largest build looked up at the sky.
Somehow, he felt that tonight the moon and stars were particularly bright.
Three hundred meters above the ground, the night sky was unusually dark, with thousands of stars twinkling within it.
If someone were to look up from the ground, they wouldn't be able to tell the difference between these stars and those in a regular night sky.
However, in this unnatural night sky, Lin Rong and the old steward were hidden, stepping on a massive blue dragon, blending perfectly into the night.
Looking down at the more than 300 wolf thieves below, Lin Rong softly murmured, "They're hiding here. It's easy to find them."
He had originally thought that with the life-sensing ability granted by the Nine-Turned Vine Dragon, finding these wolf thieves would be a simple task.
However, Lin Rong had overlooked one thing: he had never seen the wolf thieves before, so he wasn't familiar with the unique characteristics of their life energy.
Lin Rong had also tried using the scent of the Wind Devil Wolves to track down the wolf thieves.
But instead of finding the wolf thieves, he had stumbled upon a pack of Wind Devil Wolves.
In the end, after searching deep into the forest for seven days, he had finally found their location.
Once he located them, Lin Rong ordered the old steward to activate his martial soul's true form.
The Starry True Body transformed into a vast expanse of pitch-black night, perfectly blending with the already dark sky.
Especially tonight, as the stars twinkled, the countless stars within the Starry True Body did not seem out of place.
Looking down at the unguarded wolf thieves below, Lin Rong waved his hand, signaling the old steward to take action.
The old steward, receiving the command, activated his third and fourth soul rings, which lit up simultaneously.
Third Soul Skill: Cold Moon Starlight!
Fourth Soul Skill: Sunlight Starburst!
Two purple soul rings flashed more than ten times in the blink of an eye.
In an instant, a blurry image of the sun and moon appeared in the sky.
Dozens of moon-white and crimson beams of light shot down from above, like brilliant fireworks falling to the ground.
On the ground, the green-furred wolf thief looked up at the sky, trying to see the sudden appearance of the sun and moon images.
But before he could make sense of it, he was struck by a moon-white cold beam and frozen within a massive block of ice.
The moon-white cold beams and the crimson rays wreaked havoc on the earth.
On the ground, half of the wolf thieves were encased in ice, while the other half were temporarily blinded and disoriented after directly gazing at the rays.
"Explode!"
Amid the cries of pain, the old steward quietly spoke one word.
After the word was uttered, more than 150 ice blocks on the ground exploded from the inside out.
At the same time, over 150 wolf thieves, their bodies glowing with crimson light, erupted into flames upon hearing the word "explode."
The explosion of ice crystals mixed with the red flames, as the moon-white and crimson colors blended, created a stunning display.
Looking down at the scene of both beauty and carnage, Lin Rong couldn't help but murmur, "So beautiful. The soul skills of star-type martial souls are truly impressive!"
The old steward's third soul skill, Cold Moon Starlight, had been used when capturing the thousand-year-old Nine-Petal Ginseng King.
This was the first time Lin Rong had seen him use the Sunlight Starburst, his fourth soul skill.
Like Cold Moon Starlight, Sunlight Starburst was a single-target instant-release skill.
Upon activation, it immediately locked onto a target and released a crimson beam of sunlight. The target would inevitably be hit.
Once hit, the target would be stunned and blinded, and the power of the stars would flow through them, inflicting damage from the sun's fire.
Both Cold Moon Starlight and Sunlight Starburst were exceptional soul skills.
The sun and the moon both fell under the category of stars.
The old steward's third soul ring was obtained from a 1,500-year-old Cold Moon Flower, granting him the Cold Moon Starlight skill.
His fourth soul ring came from a 5,200-year-old Sunflower, granting him the Sunlight Starburst skill.
One day, one month; one yin, one yang.
When these two soul skills were used together, the explosion effect of the two skills would be greatly enhanced due to the conflict between the ice and fire.
Previously, when the old steward's soul power was not as high, the Cold Moon Starlight and Sunlight Starburst were both single-target instant-release skills.
Although he could use them multiple times in quick succession to act like a group-target instant-release skill, this drained his soul power too quickly.
After a few uses, his soul power would be exhausted.
However, now that the old steward's soul power had reached level 96, the energy consumption of these third- and fourth-level millennium soul skills was no longer an issue.
Now, whether these were single-target or group-target instant-release skills, it didn't matter.
Moreover, single-target soul skills were generally more powerful than group-target skills.
For Title Douluo, a millennium single-target soul skill was far more useful than a millennium group-target soul skill.
After all, for a Title Douluo, a group-target millennium soul skill was overkill for easily dispatching weak enemies and would rarely be useful against opponents of similar rank.
It was essentially a waste.
After a long while, the dazzling light from the Cold Moon Starlight and Sunlight Starburst slowly dissipated.
The vegetation and rocks that had been on the ground earlier were now gone, and deep craters appeared in their place.
The figures of the more than 300 wolf thieves had disappeared, leaving nothing but scorched earth, with no remnants of flesh or bone.
Only in the largest crater in the center did a faint, green glow appear.
Buried beneath the soil was a crystalline leg bone that emitted a soft, green light.
In the sky, Lin Rong saw the soul bone below, but he had no intention of descending to retrieve it. Instead, he focused on the bone and thought about having it fly to him.
The soul bone flew straight into Lin Rong's hand.
By now, Lin Rong's Heart Mirror—a product of his cultivation in the second realm of the Washing Marrow Sutra—had expanded from an initial radius of 10 meters to 30 meters.
Additionally, the Heart Mirror's range could now shift from a circular to a linear coverage.
Its linear range was 100 meters, over 300 feet.
Therefore, Lin Rong simply extended the soul bone's presence into the Heart Mirror's range, used his spiritual power to intervene in reality, and retrieved the soul bone from midair.
"Mission complete. Grandpa, we've been out here long enough. It's time to go back."