Douluo: Starting from the Nine-Curved Vine Dragon

Chapter 18 Star Forest

Star Forest.

As the largest gathering place for soul beasts in the entire continent, its area is almost equal to the land area of ​​the Barak Kingdom.

Its territory spans the borders of the Tiandou Empire and the Xingluo Empire.

The vast forest area has given rise to various complex terrains, such as wetlands, swamps, cliffs, lakes, etc.

Thanks to such complex and diverse terrain, there are extremely many types of soul beasts living in the Star Dou Great Forest.

Except for a few kinds of ice-attributed soul beasts that only live in the Far North, basically all the known soul beasts on the continent can be seen in the Star Dou Great Forest.

Therefore, there has been a saying to describe the Star Forest since ancient times.

Any soul master, regardless of his martial soul or attribute, as long as he is strong enough and lucky enough, can find the soul ring that suits him best here.

As the saying goes, you can rely on mountains to eat mountains, and you can rely on water to eat water.

The prosperity of the Star Dou Great Forest and the development of the soul master system have led to the emergence of many prosperous trading towns near the Star Dou Great Forest.

In one of the small towns.

A team of horse-drawn carriages drove through the streets of the town.

Soon after, the carriage stopped in front of a house.

Lin Rong got off the carriage, looked in the direction of the Xingdou Great Forest, and said with emotion:
"After all, I have to go there myself!"

After that day, Lin Rong waited in the mansion for another month, but still received no news.

There was no way out. Time waits for no one, so Lin Rong had to go there in person.

I hope this trip will turn out well and he can get what he wants.

In front of the house.

The captain of the secret guard who had been waiting here for a long time bowed and saluted, then presented a scroll with both hands.

"Your Excellency the Duke, this sub-map marks where most of the bamboo and gourd vines in the Star Dou Great Forest grow, as well as some places where they are suitable for growth."

"There are soul power marks on the map. The more marks there are in a place, the more times the secret guards have searched it before, and the more carefully they have searched."

"Therefore, it would be better for Your Excellency the Duke to search in places with fewer soul power marks."

"Well, thank you for your hard work." Lin Rong nodded slightly, took the map presented by the secret guard, took a look at it, put it away, and ordered:
"It's getting late. Let's rest early and follow me into the Star Forest tomorrow morning."

"Yes, we understand." The secret guards answered in unison.

……

at the same time.

Located in another small town within the Kingdom of Barak.

The three travelers checked into a simple hotel after a long journey.

Among the three, the leader was an extremely sturdy middle-aged man, and the one next to him was a thin and sloppy old man.

Behind the old man followed a short man with a thick beard.

The man had such a thick beard, but upon closer inspection his face looked very young and handsome.

Especially his pair of peach blossom eyes, which have extremely powerful killing power on those young girls who are not very worldly-wise.

A thick beard, a handsome face, and a pair of misty peach blossom eyes.

With such distinctive features, who else could it be but Oscar?

The sloppy old man in front of Oscar is his master, the Food-type Soul Saint Shao Xin.

Finally, the sturdy man in the lead was the famous Acalanatha Zhao Wuji.

Oscar, who is over nine years old, broke through to level 20 in soul power two days ago.

In order to obtain Oscar's second soul ring, Zhao Wuji took him to the Xingdou Great Forest to hunt souls. Oscar was not yet ten years old at the time, and Shao Xin was worried about him going to the Xingdou Great Forest to hunt souls alone with Zhao Wuji, so he followed along.

This made Zhao Wuji complain in his heart:
"Shao Xin, although you are a Soul Saint, you are just a food-type soul master with no combat ability."

"Originally, I was more than capable of protecting Oscar alone, but with you as a burden, I am under tremendous pressure, do you know?"

During this period, Zhao Wuji cursed Flanders in his heart many times. As the dean of the academy, he did not know how to help the disciples when they were hunting souls.

Moreover, the Shenlong is missing all day long, just to find a person with outstanding talent of bird martial spirit, so that he can take him as a disciple and inherit his mantle.

In the original novel, Flanders was lucky enough to find Ma Hongjun, a disciple who could inherit his mantle.

But now, Ma Hongjun was intercepted in advance by Lin Rong's men.

Flanders is naturally still looking for a satisfactory successor.

in the hotel.

Perhaps it was because Zhao Wuji's resentful gaze was too hot, Shao Xin, who had his back to him, felt a chill on his neck. He turned around, smiled apologetically, and said:

"Okay, I'll pay for the hotel and I'll also pay for the dinner tonight."

"So, quickly take away that look in your eyes, it's making me terrified!"

"Okay!" Zhao Wuji heard this and patted Shao Xin's shoulder with his big, broad hand. He said:

"Old Shao, this is what you said, so I won't be polite tonight!"

"No, you can eat more food, but don't drink too much wine." Shao Xin rubbed his painful shoulder from Zhao Wuji's pat and said seriously:

"If you get drunk, who will protect Xiao Ao and me, an old man who is powerless, when we enter the Star Dou Great Forest tomorrow?"

After saying these words, Shao Xin's gaze returned to Oscar again, his caring eyes mixed with endless obsession, as if he was looking at a rare work of art.

"..." Shao Xin's words left Zhao Wuji speechless. After a while, he responded:

"Weak as a kite? So you know you need my protection, too!"

"Since you knew that, you still had to come along and cause trouble. Do you think I'm easy to bully, Old Zhao?"

As he spoke, Zhao Wuji waved his fist in pretended anger.

Shao Xin and Zao Wou-Ki have known each other for many years, so he could naturally tell whether Zao Wou-Ki was really angry or just pretending to be angry. Therefore, he didn't care much about Zao Wou-Ki's punch and didn't even turn his head.

But Oscar is different.

He only lived in Shrek Academy for more than three years, and did not interact with Zhao Wuji very often.

Therefore, when Oscar saw this situation, he failed to realize that Zao Wou-Ki was pretending to be angry, and thought he was really angry.

Seeing that the situation was so bad, Oscar's eyes rolled around and he immediately had an idea.

So Oscar spoke up at the right time to smooth things over for his master Shao Xin:
"Teacher Zhao, how about this!"

"Tonight, please order a pot of wine and have a drink with some snacks."

"After we return from hunting souls, how about you have a good drink with me?"

"Of course, the money for the wine doesn't need to be paid by you, but by my master."

Zao Wou-Ki was just pretending to be angry and just walked down the steps Oscar handed him.

At the same time, he also envied his old friend Shao Xin.

Although Zao Wou-Ki looks strong and simple-minded, he has a delicate mind beneath his rough appearance.

Therefore, Zhao Wuji knew that Oscar said those words just now in order to protect his master Shao Xin.

This made him understand why Flanders was so eager to find a disciple.

(End of this chapter)