Using his external soul bone, the Wind Thunder Wings, Lin Yu sped through the skies, traveling from Nuoding Academy toward the Star Luo Empire, and soon arrived once again at the Star Dou Forest.
By now, Lin Yu's physical strength had become incredibly powerful. Even without activating any soul skills, his base physical body could rival that of a top-tier Beast Martial Soul Soul Sage!
Thus, Lin Yu had already decided that for his third martial soul, the Dual Pupils Martial Soul, he needed at least a 10,000-year soul ring.
Since this martial soul was tied to his eyes, a part of his body, Lin Yu reasoned that spirit-type soul rings would be the most compatible with it.
However, spirit-type soul beasts were difficult to find.
As Lin Yu mulled over the problem, a thought suddenly occurred to him.
There was, in the future, a soul master with a martial soul very similar to his own.
Why not use that person's soul skills as a reference?
That future soul master had a million-year soul ring from the Skydream Iceworm, but that was beyond Lin Yu's current reach.
After carefully thinking about it, Lin Yu finally pinpointed two types of soul beasts whose soul rings would suit him and would be relatively easy to locate.
The first was a Purple Spirit Wolf.
Attaching this soul ring to his Dual Pupils Martial Soul would likely grant him a group weakening-type soul skill, which was highly useful.
The second was a Silver Ying Beast.
Absorbing this soul ring should grant Lin Yu a replication-type soul skill, one that would allow him to copy an enemy's soul skill.
Since Lin Yu's Dual Pupils Martial Soul was far superior to the Spirit Eyes Martial Soul of Huo Yuhao, the future soul master he was thinking of, Lin Yu felt confident that absorbing the soul rings of the Purple Spirit Wolf and the Silver Ying Beast would result in soul skills even more powerful than Huo Yuhao's.
Having decided on the soul beasts he needed to hunt, Lin Yu unfurled his Wind Thunder Wings, activated his Dual Pupils Martial Soul, and began searching through the Star Dou Forest.
After several days of hunting, Lin Yu finally tracked down a 50,000-year-old Purple Spirit Wolf and a 60,000-year-old Silver Ying Beast. He successfully hunted both creatures.
After absorbing their soul rings, Lin Yu was pleased to obtain two powerful soul skills.
The first soul skill, which Lin Yu named Purple Spirit Weakening Aura, had the effect of significantly weakening all opponents within a certain range, causing a drastic drop in all their abilities.
This was an area-of-effect skill but could also be targeted toward a single enemy.
The second soul skill, which Lin Yu named Spirit Replication Eye, allowed him to copy an opponent's soul skill within his line of sight at the moment they activated it and stored it in his soul ring. He could then use the copied skill whenever needed.
As for how many soul skills his soul ring could store and for how long, Lin Yu had no way of testing it yet since there were no other soul masters nearby to experiment with.
Having acquired his first and second soul skills for the Dual Pupils Martial Soul, Lin Yu prepared to leave and head to the Star Luo Imperial City.
Meanwhile, elsewhere…
In a luxurious carriage, Zhu Zhuqing was accompanied by a Soul King from the Ghostly Duke Mansion as she finally reached the outskirts of the Star Dou Forest, after traveling from Star Luo Imperial City.
"Miss, we've arrived at the Star Dou Forest," the coachman called out as the carriage came to a stop at the forest's edge.
Zhu Zhuqing and the Soul King named Zach alighted from the carriage.
"So, this is the Star Dou Forest? It is vast," Zhu Zhuqing murmured, a hint of awe flickering in her normally cold gaze as she took in the sight of the expansive forest.
"Miss, we should head inside," Zach said, his eyes flickering with a strange light as he smiled at her.
Together, they entered the Star Dou Forest.
Within the Ghostly Duke Mansion, there was a well-established method for selecting soul rings for their Ghostly Civet Martial Soul users. Over the years, the family had developed an ideal soul ring configuration.
The first few soul rings had strict requirements regarding both the type of soul beast and the age of the ring.
For Zhu Zhuqing's first soul ring, the Ghostly Duke Mansion had instructed Zach to help her hunt a Phantom Spirit Cat that was around 300 years old.
If Zhu Zhuqing, a Ghostly Civet soul master, absorbed the soul ring of a Phantom Spirit Cat, she would acquire the first soul skill, Ghostly Thrust, which increased her speed and the penetrating power of her claws.
After entering the forest, Zach began leading Zhu Zhuqing in search of a Phantom Spirit Cat.
However, hunting small feline soul beasts was always troublesome.
On one hand, these creatures were quite small and difficult to spot. On the other hand, they were nocturnal, making it even harder to find them during the day.
Zhu Zhuqing and Zach had arrived in the Star Dou Forest near midday. After about an hour of searching, the sun was already high overhead.
"Miss, please wait here for a moment. I'll go hunt down some prey for lunch," Zach said seriously before swiftly disappearing into the forest.
However, instead of immediately hunting for food, Zach found a secluded spot. He took a stick of incense out of his storage tool, lit it, and then casually went off to catch some prey.
Meanwhile, in another part of the Star Dou Forest, a soul-hunting group had just entered the forest. Their leader held a cage with a mouse inside.
Suddenly, the mouse began squeaking excitedly, pointing in a specific direction.
"This way!" the leader's eyes lit up as he followed the mouse's signals, leading the group toward Zhu Zhuqing's location.
Meanwhile, Zhu Zhuqing and Zach had finished eating their lunch and were about to resume their search for the Phantom Spirit Cat when the soul-hunting group found them.
"Haha! I never expected to encounter a noble here. Today's our lucky day! Everyone, attack!" The leader of the soul-hunting group laughed sinisterly as he and his men, now dressed in black and masked, rushed at Zach.
Zach put on an impressive show, fighting valiantly before being quickly "defeated."
"Miss, run!" Zach shouted "desperately," grabbing hold of the leader's leg in a dramatic display of loyalty.
But Zhu Zhuqing remained calm and unfazed by Zach's theatrics.
As Zach was struck down, Zhu Zhuqing immediately bolted deeper into the Star Dou Forest, throwing a smoke bomb behind her as she ran.
The bomb exploded, releasing a cloud of smoke along with beast-attracting incense.
Using the smoke as cover, Zhu Zhuqing managed to gain some distance from her pursuers.
Along the way, nearby soul beasts, drawn by the scent of the incense clinging to the soul-hunting group, began growling and charging toward the hunters.
Since they were still in the outermost region of the forest, the soul beasts here weren't strong enough to pose a serious threat to the group of soul hunters, all of whom were at least Soul Grandmasters.
However, the distraction allowed Zhu Zhuqing to escape far into the forest.
Note: If you are interested you can read up to chapter 175 at
patreon.com/MythMosaic.