After the incident, Xiao Wu's position in the "hierarchy" among the students was fixated at the top in the academy.
Everyone would call to Xiao Wu in respect. She was delighted, nobody could oppose her.
Outside Nuoding City, a carriage was prepared. Liu Yan and Ying Xuan had gotten ready some supplies to head to the spirit forest to hunt for soul rings.
"Liu Yan, which teacher is accompanying us?" Ying Xuan asked, she had never hunted for soul rings herself before, she had only seen people hunt.
"I don't know actually… I think it was the bear martial soul teacher from the academy" he gave a simple guess. He didn't feel the need to keep thinking about it. All he had to do to find out is just wait for the person to appear.
"You mean… the one that has a mean old face?" Ying Xuan said softly, she was a bit blunt in terms of her comments.
"You know, Ying Xuan student, it's rude to talk about people behind their back" a voice sounded behind them.
Liu Yan turned around, there stood a tall and bulky man, scars across his forehead and face. Ironically, he wore small circular glasses which, in Ying Xuan's opinion, did not match his appearance at all.
"S-sorry." no matter how talented anyone was, if their current power level wasn't to match with someone, they would still be respectful.
If not, the fear of being attacked would be very high in the realm of Soul Land.
"I am Xin Xiong, just call me teacher Xin Xiong" the bulky man said. "The matter of hunting for soul rings is very dangerous. Even a normal 10 year soul beast could destroy a small village so… you better listen to my instructions and do not wander too far away from me, got it"
Liu Yan and Ying Xuan nodded before getting on the carriage.
On their way to spirit forest, "Have both of you thought about what soul beast or soul skill you want?"
Liu Yan and Ying Xuan began to think, they had forgotten to consider what their first soul skill should be.
Liu Yan suddenly remembered something, "Teacher Xin Xiong, do you know about the underground diamond beetles?"
"Oh? Underground diamond beetles? Yes, I have heard of them. Spirit forest has very few of them, due to them being hard to catch. Another reason is their low demand, soul masters with crystal related martial souls are normally auxiliary soul masters." he explained in details.
"Are you sure you want that as your first soul ring?" he inquired, very much so intrigued in Liu Yan's choice.
"Yes, teacher Xin Xiong, since my martial soul is a defense-assault type. The underground diamond beetles should be the most viable option right now" Liu Yan explained.
After much thought, Ying Xuan finally spoke up "I think the best chouce for me would be the paralysis porcupine"
"Oh? Another odd choice, you two really want to choose special soul beasts. The spirit forest only has 2 of those soul beasts. Thankfully they're much easier to find compared to the underground beetles."
Soon, they arrived at the entrance to spirit forest.
Stepping off, the first thing that they heard were people from soul master groups yelling out their requirements and asking for people to join them.
"Don't mind these people, they are soul master for hire that can help you hunt for soul rings. But they normally do not consist of the correct corresponding elements of each team." teacher Xin Xiong said, guiding Liu Yan and Ying Xuan.
"Correct elements of a team? What does that mean, teacher Xin Xiong" Ying Xuan couldn't help but ask.
"Correct elements to a team of soul masters means a team that consists of, one control type soul master, one auxiliary type soul master, one assault type, one speed type, one food type and one defense type. From the looks of it, most of them are just a random soul masters who decided to team up" he explained
Soon, they reached the entrance of spirit forest, teacher Xin Xiong showed a badge that showed his power level of Grand Soul Master to the guards and a letter approved by spirit hall.
"Alright, Liu Yan, since the soul beast you want is more difficult to find. We'll start with yours." Xin Xiong said before pulling out a map of the spirit forest, though it was a very vague one.
He pinpointed the entrance into the underground diamond beetles's nest.
As they made their way there, "remember, do not. I mean do not! Leave my side…" Xin Xiong said before continuing to lead the way.
The forest was eerily quiet. Occasional rustles of bushes and trees were common yet so frightening in the dangerous environment.
The map didn't help too much in finding the nest entrance. It took what seemed to be two hours before they located it.
The air within the nest was humid, sounds of dripping water could be heard. Liu Yan was anxious, his last encounter with a normal animal that could use little soul power had almost ended him and his dad's life.
They peeked around a corner and strangely, there were only eggs there. No guardian beetles around. They approached cautiously, Liu Yan went ahead and examined the eggs.
"Strange, there should usually be guardian or mother beetles around their eggs." Xin Xiong wondered, this was strange.
"Teacher Xin Xiong, some of the eggs are cracked here, and there seems to be some stolen too!" Ying Xuan suddenly realized. "There are also footprints too!"
"What?! Let me see" Xin Xiong immediately ran over and saw the cracked eggs and footprints.
"We are leaving now!" Xin Xiong said, urging Liu Yan and Ying Xuan to hurriedly leave.
"Why, teacher Xin Xiong?" Liu Yan asked, not knowing that the beetle soul beast species can enter frenzy mode.
"No time to explain!" He grabbed both of them and started carrying them out when suddenly they heard the earth under them rumble.
Rumble
Just then, two underground diamond beetles burrowed out of the ground. Their eyes, usually green mixed with blue, was now crimson red.
Screeechh
Both the beetles screeched before charging. Intending to impale the humans that entered their nest and destroyed their eggs.
Xin Xiong immediately let Liu Yan and Ying Xuan's hands go. "Stay back!"
"Martial soul possession!" Xin Xiong yelled as two souls rings rose from his feet, one white, one yellow. His body grew even bulkier, his teeth sharpened as his fingernails grew into claws.
"First soul skill: Maul!" He yelled and charged to meet the beetles head on.
Slash, Pang
He wasn't successful, the beetle's armour was too thick, due to absorbing large ammounts of minerals.
"Eat this!" He slammed into the ground, throwing and punching rocks to the beetles.
One of them tipped over. But the other was nowhere to be seen.
Rumble
The missing beetle appeared behind Xin Xiong, its mandable ready to stab into his back.
"No!" Liu Yan yelled before aiming the Silent Kill Dart at the beetle. He fired and it hit right in the back underneath the shell.
Screech
It screeched again, Liu Yan and Ying Xuan collapsed to the ground, covering their ears.
The beetle's screech was loud and being in an enclosed environment worsened it.
"Shut up!" Xin Xiong took the chance and punched it to the floor.
The beetle caught his arm and struggled against it. That punch was aimed at its underbelly, if hit, it would die!
"Second soul skill: Frenzy!" Xin Xiong's yellow soul ring lit up, his eyes immediately turned red and the aura around him turned red as well.
He exerted more and more force, but the beetle held on. Suddenly, Xin Xiong pulled his hand, causing the beetle to fall towards him. Using his other hand, he punched it straight into the stomach, killing it.
The battle had ended, Xin Xiong looked at the still flipped over beetle and thought about killing it. But he remembered this beetle was Liu Yan's target.
"Liu Yan! Come here" Xin Xiong said while detransforming, looking more human again. He took out a knife from his pockets and handed it to Liu Yan.
"Kill that beetle over there. I assume you know the theoretical method on how to absorb soul rings?" Xin Xiong asked to which Liu Yan nodded.
Liu Yan approached and with the knife held in both hands, stabbed it straight in the underbelly. The struggles of the beetle ended abruptly and its limbs went limp.
Yellow energy flew out of its wound and formed a yellow soul ring.
Liu Yan smiled and sat on the ground cross-legged. Pulling the soul ring towards him with mental energy.
During the absorption process, Ying Xuan sat beside Liu Yan while Xin Xiong was resting against the wall, having used frenzy soul skill made him utterly exhausted.
He was only relaxed because soul beasts don't tend to wander into another soul beast's nest, especially underground ones.
In Liu Yan's mind, he was struggling to absorb the soul ring. It was 580 years old! Way past Grandmaster's estimated limit.
He had completed the first stage which was to absorb the energy. But now he was struggling to subdue the soul beast's resentment.
He dodged again and again, shooting Silent Kill Darts at it.
2 hours later, he had finally, tired out the resentment of the soul beast, which was constantly deteriorating due to being dead for so long.
He slowy opened his eyes, then to his shock, there sat Ying Xuan and beside her was… paralysis porcupine?!
Liu Yan looked at Ying Xuan with concern "Ying Ying, what happened while I was absorbing the soul ring?! Why is there a paralysis porcupine here?! Are you hurt?! Where is teacher Xin Xiong?!" He asked all the questions in a blur.
"Calm down, kid" Xin Xiong said as he stepped into view.
"While you were absorbing the soul ring, I was resting from exhaustion of using frenzy. Who knew that a paralysis porcupine would be so clueless as to try and kill someone without shooting out its spikes." He explained and laughed, it was funny to him.
"It… kind of ran into the knife I held at it…" Ying Xuan explained the rest.
"Huh? Something like that can also happen?" Liu Yan was baffled at this relevation.
"Wait, Ying Ying, that means you have absorbed its soul ring?" Liu Yan realised and asked.
"Yeah!" Ying Xuan stood up, "Martial soul possession" her eyes grew more sparkly and lively. Small crystal wings formed upon her back as a yellow soul ring rose from her feet.
"Alright, enough dilly dallying. The less tome we spend in a forest with soul beasts, the better." Xin Xiong said and ked them back to the entrance.
They had spent a whole 24 hours in the spirit forest.
As they were making their way back to Nodding City, Ying Xuan asked "Liu Yan, I forgot to ask but, what soul skill did you get?"
Liu Yan who was falling asleep opened his eyes a little bit, and explained briefly "My first soul skill is, to create something out of crystals".
A short explanation before he just went to sleep in the carriage. He had been exhausted and needed the sleep.
Ying Xuan looked at the sleeping Liu Yan, slowly leaned against his shoulder and fell asleep too.