Chapter 94: Ye Lingling's Urgent Push for Marriage
Ten days later.
Outside Heaven Dou City, in the Sun and Moon Forest.
At dawn, the forest that was originally tranquil had instead become a scene of utter chaos. Shouts from humans, explosive sounds from soul skills, and the mournful wails of soul beasts echoed together, startling flocks of birds into flight and resounding through the skies.
Moving gradually inward from the forest's outer perimeter, the ground was littered along the way with soul beast corpses of all sizes. Each of them was at least a thousand years old, with some even reaching the ten-thousand-year level.
If someone were to carefully count them, they would discover that the total number of soul beast corpses exceeded several hundred.
At this moment, deep within the Sunset Forest.
Zhou Chen held Dugu Yan's jade-like arm and quietly observed the great battle before them.
Several hundred meters away, a middle-aged man who appeared to be in his fifties was locked in combat with a colossal python over thirty meters long, its entire body covered in dark green scales.
This giant python was a ten-thousand-year soul beast, the Ink-Scaled Python, and judging by its length, it was already close to fifty thousand years old.
The middle-aged man's martial soul was a dark red Ghost Vine, and seven soul rings pulsed rhythmically around his body.
That was right—this man was none other than the former headmaster of Notting Academy, Max, who had been bestowed the Green Light Art by Zhou Chen.
Two days earlier, Max had led the remaining three hundred-plus soul masters of the Ziwei Palace to Heaven Dou City.
Under the effects of divine crystals, they had collectively advanced in rank and then entered the Sunset Forest to hunt for soul rings.
All the soul beast corpses on the forest's outskirts were the handiwork of these people.
As for Max, who had only recently become a Level Seventy Soul Saint, he had directly surged to Level Eighty under the influence of the divine crystals.
The Ink-Scaled Python he was about to kill would become his eighth soul ring.
Not far from where Max was battling the Ink-Scaled Python, Wang Sheng and Xiao Chenyu each occupied a corner, ready to enter the fight at any moment to support Max.
The reason they dared to involve themselves in a battle between an eighty-level expert and a fifty-thousand-year soul beast was naturally because they, too, had advanced with the help of divine crystals.
At present, both of them had rapidly risen from the mid-fifties and broken through Level Seventy, becoming unstoppable Soul Saints.
It was not just the two of them. Nearly all several hundred soul masters of the Ziwei Palace had increased by around twenty levels.
The Heavenly Pivot Guard and the Heavenly Balance Guard, a total of two hundred sixty people, had all risen from around Level Thirty Soul Elders to Soul Kings above Level Fifty.
Over these ten days, they had already come to the Sunset Forest three times.
The first two visits were to hunt their own soul rings, while this time was to help the more than three hundred auxiliary and low-tier soul masters brought by Max obtain their soul rings.
At this moment, within a radius of a thousand meters, the area was completely sealed off by two hundred Soul Kings of the Heavenly Pivot Guard, making it difficult for even a mosquito to fly in.
"When I first met Headmaster Max, he was only a Level Forty-Two Soul Ancestor. I never imagined that in just over six years, he would already be on the verge of becoming a Soul Douluo."
Watching the intense battle between man and serpent, Zhou Chen sighed with emotion.
Hearing this, Dugu Yan glanced at Zhou Chen and teased him with amusement. "Why do you sound so old and world-weary these days, like my grandfather?"
"Do I?" Zhou Chen said somewhat awkwardly.
He was clearly a vibrant and handsome youth full of vigor.
Boom!
A violent collision rang out as, at the center of the battlefield, Max, Wang Sheng, and Xiao Chenyu struck simultaneously. The ground within a hundred meters churned violently, and amid flying dirt, the massive body of the Ink-Scaled Python was completely flung away.
Bang!
The shattered remains of the Ink-Scaled Python crashed heavily to the ground, smashing out a huge crater.
At this moment, the python's thirty-meter-long body was reduced to only half, blue-black snake blood splattered everywhere, and its enormous head stuck out half its tongue, emitting weak, hissing whimpers.
"Sigh, how cruel."
Zhou Chen remarked with apparent compassion.
Hearing this, Dugu Yan shot Zhou Chen a sideways glance, rolled her eyes, and said nothing.
Someone as decisive and ruthless as Zhou Chen would actually pity these soul beasts? Hmph, what a liar.
Possessing the Heaven-Seeing and Earth-Hearing Technique, Zhou Chen could see Dugu Yan's expression even without turning his head.
He truly was lamenting these soul beasts.
In just ten days, the Ziwei Palace had hunted nearly a thousand soul beasts, almost clearing out a small region of the Sunset Forest.
With such large-scale slaughter, it was no wonder that soul beasts would be nearly exterminated twenty thousand years later, during the era of the Legend of the Three Dragon Kings of Douluo.
Perhaps he should think of a way to obtain artificial soul spirit technology from the system that did not require killing soul beasts, and establish the Spirit Transmission Pagoda ten thousand years in advance.
That would greatly help his upcoming plan to head to the Star Dou Great Forest and conduct a transaction with a certain Silver Dragon girl.
In the end, Zhou Chen was not truly pitying the soul beasts—he was simply acting for his own interests.
Sigh, he was just that shallow of a person.
While Zhou Chen's thoughts were running wild, Max had already slain the Ink-Scaled Python and begun absorbing the soul ring.
At this moment, his entire body was enveloped in green light, especially above his head, where a faint green halo was almost taking shape.
This was an inevitable phenomenon after cultivating the Green Light Art.
Before long, Max suddenly stood up and let out a long howl toward the sky, as his eighth black soul ring slowly rose above his head.
He was now a Level Eighty-One Soul Douluo.
Feeling the surging power within his body, Max was almost intoxicated by it.
Fortunately, he still remembered Zhou Chen's presence.
Turning around, Max, along with Wang Sheng and Xiao Chenyu, leapt several times and arrived before Zhou Chen, bowing respectfully. "This subordinate has not failed his mission and has broken through to Soul Douluo."
"Headmaster, you are too polite."
Zhou Chen replied with little sincerity before continuing, "Let us go. We will return to Heaven Dou City and hold a grand banquet to celebrate the headmaster's breakthrough to Soul Douluo."
"Many thanks, Palace Master."
Max bowed once more.
Zhou Chen calling him headmaster was a gesture of respect, but a smart person like Max would never truly regard himself as Zhou Chen's headmaster.
"Chenyu, send the signal and have everyone return to Heaven Dou City in batches."
Zhou Chen issued the order.
"Understood."
Xiao Chenyu nodded, took out a small cylindrical tube from his robes, and lightly tapped it. A streak of purple light shot into the sky with a piercing shriek.
In the blink of an eye, a firework shaped like the Big Dipper exploded high above.
Upon seeing this signal, all Ziwei Palace soul masters still lingering within dozens of li of the Sun and Moon Forest began heading toward Heaven Dou City.
One hour later.
Zhou Chen returned to Dugu Bo's residence in Heaven Dou City together with Dugu Yan and Max.
Meanwhile, Xiao Chenyu and Wang Sheng led the several hundred soul masters of the Ziwei Palace back to Heaven Dou City in multiple groups to avoid drawing the attention of various factions.
Just as the three of them reached the entrance of the residence, they suddenly noticed a slender and graceful figure dressed in black, her face veiled in black gauze, already waiting there.
It was Ye Lingling.
"Zhou Chen, you have dragged this out for several days already. When exactly are you going to the Ye Family to see my mother? When are you going to get engaged to me?"
(End of Chapter)
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