The Glory of the Sun and Moon in the Peerless Tang Sect

Keke stuck out her tongue at Xuan Ziwen shyly, but Xuan Ziwen's lips twitched slightly, and he did not say anything to blame her.

"Tianhuang, after using the Wind-Breaking Bow, what is the maximum range of your Thunderfire Arrow?"

"The effect is even better than I expected. The range should be at least four thousand meters, close to five thousand meters."

While Xu Zihuang and Xuan Ziwen were talking, Ju Zi, who had been keeping her eyes fixed on Xu Zihuang, couldn't hide the tenderness in her eyes.

She is now 100% certain that the one who saved her from the Soul Master squad of the Western Army Group of the Star Luo Empire was Yu Tianhuang.

However, Zi Mu, who was walking towards them, saw this clearly.

"Sigh." Zi Mu sighed softly in her heart, her eyes filled with even more bitterness.

Xuan Ziwen pondered for a moment, then said, "How about this? Our newly developed soul tool needs testing. Today, you, Ju Zi, and Ke Ke will take the new soul tool out for testing, and also test the power and maximum range of your Wind-Breaking Bow and Thunder Arrow in real-world conditions. Let's set up the test site in the Jingyang Mountains. The Jingyang Mountains are a major gathering place for wild soul beasts in our Sun Moon Empire. Although it can't compare to the Star Dou Great Forest next to your Shrek Academy, the overall quality of the soul beasts is not low. Using soul beasts for actual combat testing will make the data obtained more reliable."

Upon hearing Xuan Ziwen's words, Xu Zihuang hadn't yet reacted, but Keke was already amused.

"Finally, I have a chance to go out and gain experience. Teacher Xuan, you're so kind." Keke hurriedly handed the Wind-Breaking Bow and Thunder Rocket back to Xu Zihuang and grabbed Ju Zi's arm.

"And you get to eat Orange Sister's cooking again. Tianhuang, you're in luck this time. Let me tell you, Orange Sister's cooking skills are absolutely top-notch."

Xuan Ziwen said seriously, "Keke, this isn't a trip. There are many powerful soul beasts in the Jingyang Mountains. You must prioritize your safety on this trip."

"Teacher Xuan, let's choose the Mingdou Great Forest as our training location this time. I want to go home for a while," Orange suddenly said.

Upon hearing this, Keke's excitement vanished instantly, and she looked at Ju Zi with concern.

Xuan Ziwen also fell silent, and after a moment he nodded slightly.

"Alright. The journey is quite long. I'll give you a month. Come back after a month. But be careful in everything you do. The Mingdou Great Forest is full of mutated soul beasts, and those soul beasts are very aggressive. You'd better not go too far into it."

"Also, Tianhuang, please take good care of them for me."

Judging from Yu Tianhuang's terrifying soul ring configuration, his personal strength is definitely above that of Ju Zi and Ke Ke.

"Teacher Xuan, I will. I am your student now, and it is only right that I help each other, like Senior Sister Ju Zi and Senior Sister Ke Ke." Xu Zihuang nodded solemnly. His mind was as clear as a mirror.

He could tell that Orange's sudden decision was likely because of him. Her purpose was probably to confess what happened six years ago.

Zi Mu opened his mouth, but hesitated, feeling utterly dejected. However, he wisely refrained from expressing his desire to go along.

The fact that Ju Zi was willing to bring Yu Tianhuang, whom she had only known for a few days, home speaks volumes.

Finally, Xuan Ziwen made the final decision.

"Alright, let's not delay any longer. You all get ready and set off. When we return to the academy, Tianhuang, I will take you to study in the Mingde Hall. With your level, it's more than enough."

Chapter 261 Border Town

Xu Zihuang certainly couldn't just leave after a month-long training trip. So, beforehand, he found Fan Yu and He Caitou and briefly explained the situation to them.

Although Fan Yu was a little worried, he knew Yu Tianhuang's personality well and ultimately did not stop him. He only told Yu Tianhuang that if anything unexpected happened, he should flee immediately and prioritize safety.

With the storage soul tool, there's nothing to prepare.

Xu Zihuang took off his school uniform in the dormitory and changed into a close-fitting black and purple outfit before heading to Sun and Moon Square. This was the place where Jing Hongchen had led the Shrek Academy students to land, and also the meeting point Xu Zihuang had arranged with Ju Zi and Ke Ke.

It was still early. The golden sun rising from the east had not yet gone far from the horizon, its warmth gentle and soft. Mingdu was located in the central part of the Sun and Moon Empire, and the temperature was much lower than Shrek City, which was located in the south-central part of the continent, so this kind of clothing was just right.

Orange and Coco didn't keep Xu Zihuang waiting long. Their slender figures gradually came into Xu Zihuang's sight, their backs to the rising sun. Bathed in a few rays of golden sunlight, they seemed to possess an air of holiness and purity.

The female students of the Sun Moon Royal Soul Master Academy wear uniform short skirts, which are naturally unsuitable for going out for training.

Orange changed into a white, fitted outfit that perfectly accentuated her slender figure. The white outfit, combined with the sunlight, further highlighted her flawless, fair skin.

Keke changed into a light blue outfit. Although she wasn't as stunning as Ju Zi, she was still quite charming and lovely.

After a brief adjustment, Orange returned to her usual image: gentle, beautiful, and with a touch of lazy, naturally naive charm.

Looking at the smile on Orange's pretty face, Keke couldn't help but tease, "Orange, you're not really in love with him, are you? You're actually willing to bring him home."

"Who said we were going to take him home?" Orange gave Keke a playful glare.

"I just haven't been home for a long time, so I took the opportunity to train in the nearby Mingdou Great Forest."

Two-thirds of the border between the Sun Moon Empire and the Star Luo Empire is the treacherous Ming Dou Mountains, and the other third is the Ming Dou Great Forest, which is rich in mutated soul beasts.

The border town where Ju Zi originated is located in the southeast of the Sun Moon Empire, right near the junction of the Mingdou Mountains and the Mingdou Great Forest. Of course, some branches of the Mingdou Mountains extend deep into the Mingdou Great Forest, and spirit beasts also inhabit these branches.

Generally speaking, these branches also belong to the Mingdou Great Forest.

While the two women were talking, they had already walked up to Xu Zihuang.

Ju Zi glanced at Xu Zihuang and said meaningfully, "Tianhuang, you should know where the Mingdou Great Forest is, right?"

Feeling a sense of unease, Xu Zihuang nodded readily.

"Of course I know. I trained in the Mingdou Great Forest for a period of time before."

They left the Sun Moon Empire by circling around the Mingdou Great Forest, so there's nothing wrong with saying that.

Ke Ke couldn't help but feel somewhat surprised. The top five gathering places for soul beasts on the continent were the Star Dou Great Forest, the Demon Forest, the Far North, and then the Bright Dou Great Forest. Even the overall quality and strength of the soul beasts in the Jingyang Mountains, which Xuan Ziwen mentioned, were inferior to those in the Bright Dou Great Forest, barely ranking last.

If the Star Dou Great Forest gives the impression of being unfathomable, then the Bright Dou Great Forest is wild and ferocious. Neither the Sun Moon Empire nor the Star Luo Empire dares to station their armies on the mountains bordering the Bright Dou Great Forest, because for some unknown reason, the Bright Dou Great Forest is teeming with mutated soul beasts. These mutated soul beasts are extremely powerful and highly aggressive.

Therefore, the dangers of training in the Mingdou Great Forest are no less than those in the Xingdou Great Forest.

But when she thought about Yu Tianhuang's terrifying soul ring ratio, Keke felt relieved.

Orange continued softly, "The town where I grew up is near the Mingdou Great Forest. I'd like to take a detour home on this trip, so we can rest there before entering the Mingdou Great Forest to test the soul tools."

Xu Zihuang deliberately feigned a thoughtful expression, then revealed a warm smile.

"Senior Orange, it's up to you to decide. Didn't Teacher Xuan say that you're the team leader for this trip?"

Keke chimed in, "Alright, Sister Orange, let's set off first. The journey is long, and even if we travel at full speed, we might not be able to arrive before dark. By the way, Tianhuang, did you bring a flying soul tool? If not, I have some extras here."

"Senior Sister Keke, I've thought of everything." Xu Zihuang replied, taking out a delicate and small dark purple flying soul tool from her storage soul tool.

He and Ning Tian bought this at an auction. It's the most advanced flying soul tool in the Sun Moon Empire, although it's only level five.

"Not bad. They've even managed to get their hands on the most advanced flying soul tools from our Sun Moon Empire." Keke exclaimed, a hint of pride in her eyes.

As a citizen of the Sun Moon Empire, she felt genuinely proud of the strength of her motherland's soul-guided technology.

"Let's go then," said Orange, the team leader. The three of them, having activated their flying soul tools, immediately soared into the sky.

Two blue trails of flame shot out from the broken wings of Keke's flying soul tool on her back; the overall color of her flying soul tool was sky blue.

Xu Zihuang and Ju Zi's flying soul tools were purple and orange-red, colors they both preferred. Three pairs of broken wings unfurled in the air, heading straight southeast.

As Keke said, the journey was quite long. This trip almost traversed the southern part of the Sun Moon Empire, covering a distance of over two thousand kilometers. Moreover, the time needed for rest and recovery of soul power also had to be taken into account.

The three flew effortlessly through the air, their folded wings emitting a faint glow that formed a radiant sheen around their bodies. Even their hair remained largely untouched by the wind during flight.

Coco flew at the very front, occasionally letting out a gasp. Clearly, she'd been cooped up in the lab for too long and was finally getting out to let loose.

After flying for two hours, by noon, Ju Zi and Ke Ke's soul power was almost exhausted, so they decided to rest for a while.

Seeing Xu Zihuang sitting on the rock without any intention of meditating to recover his soul power, Ju Zi asked in confusion, "Aren't you going to recover your soul power?"

Xu Zihuang gazed down at the scenery of the southern part of the Sun Moon Empire the whole way. If it weren't for that palace coup, this would have been his fiefdom. He felt a pang of emotion.

Upon hearing Ju Zi's words, he didn't react for a moment and subconsciously raised an eyebrow.

"Restore soul power? My soul power has always been at its maximum."

Orange and Coco exchanged a glance, both seeing the shock in each other's eyes, and said in unison, "What a freak."

While Ju Zi and Ke Ke did raise their soul power to the Soul King level through medication and special methods, their soul power lacked resilience during its circulation. This was a side effect of being too eager for quick success. Without carefully experiencing the various changes during the soul power enhancement process, their accumulation and control of soul power were inferior to those of traditional soul masters from the Douluo Continent.

Then there's no way to compare her to Xu Zihuang.

Xu Zihuang's situation was still too abnormal; the soul power he consumed when using the flying soul tool and the soul power he recovered on his own were basically in a state of equilibrium.

This is something that even elite disciples of Shrek Academy's inner court, such as Bei Bei and Xu Sanshi, cannot achieve.

Therefore, his ability to sustain combat is naturally extremely terrifying.

His two top-tier martial souls and his ultimate martial soul gave him an astonishing foundation far exceeding that of ordinary people. His Soul King cultivation level already possessed a total soul power comparable to that of a typical Soul Saint, something unprecedented in the long history of Soul Masters.

It took Keke and Ju Zi more than an hour to restore their soul power to its best state.

In order to reach their destination before dark, they made do with some dried meat and dry rations and plain water for a simple meal.

Keke rested her chin on her hand, chewing the dry, tasteless rations with a bitter expression.

However, she didn't complain. As Ju Zi's closest confidante, she knew about Ju Zi's background. Her father was forcibly conscripted into the army and sent to the battlefield against the Star Luo Empire, never to return. Her mother also died from excessive grief.

The town where Orange was born was mostly reduced to ruins and only began to be rebuilt in recent years. A once bustling border town with thousands of inhabitants has fewer than a hundred survivors. And most of them are elderly people and women and children.

In the past, Keke would accompany Ju Zi home every year. This was also the period when Ju Zi was most depressed.

The three of them took to the air again. Perhaps because they were getting closer to their hometown where they had lived since childhood, Ju Zi seemed somewhat silent, her eyes dim, as if she were lost in reminiscence. Xu Zihuang and Ke Ke understood and did not disturb her, landing behind Ju Zi.

They were still over a thousand kilometers from their destination. The three of them stopped to rest for a while, and by the time they were about to reach their destination, the sky was filled with stars.

The night sky over southern China was as clear as ever.

By the bright moonlight and the dazzling starlight, one can clearly see the continuous, steep mountain range in the distance, and the boundless ancient forest that connects to the south of the mountain range.

It is the long and narrow Mingdou Mountain Range, which stretches for over a thousand kilometers, and the Mingdou Great Forest, the southernmost gathering place of soul beasts on the continent.

Because of the humid and hot climate, the trees in the Mingdou Great Forest appear much more lush and taller than those in the Xingdou Great Forest.

To the west, where the Mingdou Mountains and the Mingdou Great Forest meet, a few lights are faintly visible. This must be the small town where Orange lived in her childhood.

The orange flying at the very front suddenly stopped, maintaining its balance and hovering in the air.

“Let’s land here. The area where the Mingdou Great Forest and the Mingdou Mountain Range meet is inhabited by a kind of annoying flying soul beast called the Demon Vulture. They love to attack humans and birds that fly by.”

The Demon Vulture is a powerful flying spirit beast, known as the assassin of the clouds. It also lives in groups.

The group numbers in the hundreds, including a flock of thousand-year-old demonic vultures, which can even threaten the lives of ten-thousand-year-old soul beasts. Passing by so brazenly is indeed inappropriate.

The three landed in the mountains, less than twenty kilometers from the town in front of them. Although the mountain road was rugged, with their Soul King level cultivation, they could reach it within half an hour.

The silver moon moves gently, casting swaying shadows of trees. A gentle breeze caresses the face, and the cicadas sing incessantly.

The bright moon startles the magpies on the branches, and the gentle breeze awakens the cicadas in the middle of the night.

These two sentences perfectly describe the stunning scene before us.

If it weren't for the war, the people in this border town might still be living a peaceful and tranquil life.

Keke looked at Orange beside her and said with a charming smile, "Sister Orange, you'd better feed us well tonight. I'm counting on you to show off your skills."