"Alright, Xiaoyang, it's already late. Have something to eat and rest. We'll head back tomorrow."
Glancing at the night sky, Huo Lie spoke to Mu Yang.
His nephew had always been frail and low in energy since childhood. After spending the morning riding in a carriage and the afternoon trekking through the forest, it was now late at night. Huo Lie didn't want him to get too tired.
After eating some dried meat prepared for the soul-hunting trip, Mu Yang turned and walked into a nearby tent to rest.
As for keeping watch?
Even if Mu Yang volunteered, Huo Lie wouldn't allow it.
What a joke. A mere one-ring food-type rookie keeping watch? He'd probably get carried off by a passing soul beast.
The next morning, after finishing their hunt, Huo Lie and Mu Yang set off back toward Blazing Fire City.
"Howl—howl—howl—"
They had barely been traveling for half an hour when a series of wolf howls echoed from ahead.
Even with his weak strength, Mu Yang could sense the intense fluctuations of soul power coming from the front.
Clearly, a wolf pack was engaged in battle. Whether their opponents were other soul beasts or human soul masters, Mu Yang couldn't tell.
"Let's go take a look!"
Without much hesitation, Huo Lie grabbed Mu Yang under his arm and, with a light step, dashed forward swiftly.
Since there were only wolf howls and no other beastly roars, the wolves' opponents were likely not soul beasts but human soul masters.
Since the disturbance was in the direction they were heading, and with his strength allowing him to dominate the Sunset Forest, Huo Lie didn't mind investigating.
If any human soul masters were in trouble, he could lend a hand.
However, before they arrived, the commotion quieted down. One side had clearly succumbed to the other.
When Huo Lie and Mu Yang reached the scene moments later, they were greeted by the sight of a pack of twelve fire wolves, each two to three meters long, feasting on the mangled corpses of two soul masters.
The bodies were bloodied and unrecognizable, but their attire indicated one was male and the other female.
Seeing the gory scene, Mu Yang felt a wave of nausea.
"Beasts! How dare you act so brazenly?!"
With a furious shout, Huo Lie put Mu Yang down. His One-Horned Fire Dragon martial soul activated, and surging fire-element soul power flared around him. Rings of soul power illuminated him as several blazing fireballs quickly formed and were launched with precision toward the wolves.
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
A series of deafening explosions followed, and the twelve fire wolves were obliterated on the spot.
From the perspective of a soul master, soul beasts were considered a renewable resource, but their regeneration took an exceedingly long time—thousands of years for higher-level ones.
To maintain balance, many soul masters avoided unnecessary slaughter unless it was unavoidable.
However, soul beasts that killed and consumed humans could not be spared if encountered.
After annihilating the fire wolves, Huo Lie glanced at the two corpses on the ground and shook his head.
After some thought, he gathered his fire-element soul power and struck the ground repeatedly, digging a deep pit.
At this moment, Mu Yang noticed a necklace-like soul tool around the neck of the female corpse.
"A storage-type soul tool!"
Suddenly, a solution to a problem that had troubled him for a long time flashed in Mu Yang's mind. He suppressed his discomfort and walked up to remove the necklace.
Seeing that Huo Lie hadn't noticed him, Mu Yang stealthily injected a sliver of his soul power into the now-unowned storage tool, completing the binding process.
He quickly retrieved several sheets of paper filled with writing from his own storage bracelet and placed them inside the newly acquired necklace.
After completing this operation, Mu Yang undid the binding on the necklace and walked over to Huo Lie, who had finished digging the pit.
"That pair had a storage-type soul tool," Mu Yang said, handing the necklace to Huo Lie.
Huo Lie raised an eyebrow and glanced at the storage bracelet on Mu Yang's wrist before nodding and tucking the necklace into his pocket.
He could tell Mu Yang already had a storage tool, so there was no need for him to take another one.
Besides, having avenged the pair and burying their remains, he considered the necklace and its contents his rightful reward.
Of course, Huo Lie understood that those who couldn't even handle a pack of thousand-year fire wolves likely didn't possess anything valuable. The contents of the storage tool might not even match the necklace's worth.
However, what Huo Lie didn't know was that the once-ordinary necklace now contained something that would bring him a tremendous surprise, thanks to a certain someone's little trick.
After burying the bodies, Huo Lie and Mu Yang resumed their journey.
By the time Mu Yang returned to his home in Blazing Fire City and washed off the dust from the hunt, it was already dinnertime.
At the dining table, Mu Yang, Mu Xiyue, and Huo Lie shared a meal.
As for Huo Wu and Huo Wushuang, they had gone to Blazing Fire Academy after Mu Yang awakened his martial soul.
The academy had a simulation training ground suitable for fire-attribute soul masters, and since it was located outside the city, the two usually stayed on campus.
Not just them—Huo Lie, as the academy's principal, also stayed there most of the time.
Mu Xiyue, one of the academy's vice principals, often returned home to personally cook for Mu Yang.
Fortunately, the Huo family was wealthy and had many servants. Otherwise, with his guardians frequently absent, young Mu Yang might have even struggled to eat properly.