Chapter 118: It's Normal to Accidentally Kill Someone in a Hurry to Save Them, Right? (2)
After passing the spotted cat, the three of them continued deeper into the Soul Hunting Forest, searching for a suitable hundred-year soul beast for Xiao Wu and Wang Sheng.
Unfortunately, the Soul Hunting Forest is a place where soul beasts are artificially bred.
Even in the largest Soul Hunting Forests, the soul beasts are no more than ten thousand years old.
In this small Soul Hunting Forest near Notting City, even hundred-year-old soul beasts are extremely rare!
So, finding a suitable soul beast for Xiao Wu and Wang Sheng was no easy task.
As they continued searching deeper into the Soul Hunting Forest, time flew, and night fell.
At that moment, the setting sun hung high in the sky, surrounded by the orange glow of dusk, and the faint sunset cast a layer of twilight over the land.
During the ongoing search, Su Mo finally found an ideal hundred-year soul beast for Wang Sheng—a two-hundred-year-old Earth-Shaking Tiger.
"Stay put. I'll subdue this Earth-Shaker. Only come when I call you, understand?"
Hiding in the dense forest, watching the Earth-Shaker lazily sunbathing on a large rock nearby, its tail swishing like a whip, Su Mo whispered to Xiao Wu and Wang Sheng beside him:
"Got it!"
Both nodded.
Among them, Wang Sheng was the most excited.
Because this Earth-Shaker was the soul beast that would soon become his.
A soul ring from a hundred-year-old soul beast, and a tiger like the Earth-Shaker—it was without a doubt the most suitable soul ring for him!
After instructing Xiao Wu and Wang Sheng, Su Mo immediately summoned the Martial Spirit of the Tree of Life Staff, and three soul rings—"yellow, yellow, and purple"—rose beneath his feet, surrounding his body.
Then, pretending to activate his three soul ring abilities in succession and buff himself,
Su Mo gripped the Tree of Life Martial Spirit tightly, stomped the ground, and dashed out of the forest toward the Earth-Shaking Tiger not far away.
As Su Mo charged out, the Earth-Shaking Tiger, lazily basking on the rock, was also drawn by the commotion. It turned its head, opened its bloody mouth full of sharp fangs, and roared fiercely at Su Mo before leaping off the large rock.
Su Mo soon reached the Earth-Shaking Tiger.
As the tiger roared fiercely, Su Mo felt a stifling wind hit his face.
"Roar!"
As it roared, the Earth-Shaking Tiger realized this human dared challenge it. It grew savage. With a glare in its eyes, it lunged at Su Mo!
Here it comes!
Seeing the Earth-Shaker pounce, Su Mo's eyes sparkled. At that moment, he suddenly twisted and dodged to the side.
The tiger pounced into empty air.
Before it could react, Su Mo leapt onto its back, grabbing its nape with one hand and holding the Tree of Life Staff with the other. With a sneer, he smashed the Martial Spirit hard against the Earth-Shaker's head.
"Roar!"
Feeling the blow to its head, the tiger howled in pain, thrashing violently to throw Su Mo off.
But it was no use!
Still, the Earth-Shaking Tiger didn't give up. Roaring in pain, it activated its innate skill: Earth-Shaking Wave!
In an instant, the tiger pounded the ground with its front paws, sending out waves of yellow energy from the center, shaking fallen leaves, branches, stones—everything around it.
Even tall trees shook violently, and leaves flew.
Su Mo, riding the tiger, felt the tremors of the Earth-Shaking Wave.
But he gripped the tiger's neck tightly with his legs clamped to its sides, and used soul power to shield himself. He didn't budge at all.
Thus, while Su Mo sat atop the Earth-Shaking Tiger, he repeatedly smashed its head with the Tree of Life Martial Spirit, inflicting serious damage. The tiger couldn't do a thing.
In the end, Su-style tiger taming beat it to death.
"Come!"
After subduing it, Su Mo called Xiao Wu and Wang Sheng, tossing a sharp dagger to Wang Sheng.
"Kill this Earth-Shaker. Don't let it suffer any more."
Seeing the Earth-Shaking Tiger bleeding from all seven orifices, Su Mo felt a mix of emotion.
As someone who loved Pokémon as a child in his past life, Su Mo didn't hold much prejudice against soul beasts. He believed they were born to be resources for soul masters.
But unfortunately, soul masters must absorb soul rings from soul beasts to advance, a major barrier. As a result, soul masters and soul beasts could only be enemies.
Though that wasn't necessarily the only path.
If the soul system developed by Huo Yuhao in Douluo II was improved, it might change the relationship between soul masters and soul beasts.
However, Su Mo couldn't do that,
Since that system was built on the undead magic system of the Undead God Ilex.
And to gain Ilex's help... would take ten thousand years!
On the other hand, taking Su Mo's dagger, Wang Sheng gritted his teeth and finished off the Earth-Shaking Tiger, who had cultivated for over two hundred years.
Then, Wang Sheng sat cross-legged and began absorbing the Earth-Shaker's soul ring.
After more than an hour, Wang Sheng successfully absorbed the soul ring and gained the soul skill Earth-Shaking Wave of the Battle Tiger, identical in effect to the Earth-Shaking Tiger's original move.
Once Wang Sheng finished, the sky had completely darkened.
And with the corpse of the Earth-Shaker lying there, its bloody scent in the night would surely attract many carnivorous soul beasts.
So Su Mo took Xiao Wu and Wang Sheng and left, looking for a suitable resting spot in the Soul Hunting Forest.
However, while Su Mo appeared to be looking for a place to camp,
he had secretly used the Death Scythe Martial Spirit's soul skill to control small animals as scouts to locate Grandmaster Yu Xiaogang and Tang San, who were also in the forest.
Thus, pretending to search for a campsite, Su Mo led Xiao Wu and Wang Sheng closer to where Yu Xiaogang and Tang San were.
Under the bright moon and stars,
Su Mo led them through the dense soul hunting woods, wandering among the cries of unknown soul beasts.
At the same time, under Su Mo's surveillance, Tang San and Yu Xiaogang had also camped in a nearby clearing.
After asking Tang San to scatter realgar powder to ward off snakes and bugs, Yu Xiaogang began quizzing Tang San on the soul beasts they had seen that day.
However, as Yu Xiaogang was questioning him,
just as Su Mo and his group reached a clearing nearby, they set up camp too.
After spreading realgar powder, Su Mo used dry branches gathered by Xiao Wu and Wang Sheng to light a fire and began roasting pheasants they had caught.
While Su Mo roasted pheasants over the fire,
on the other side, where Tang San and Yu Xiaogang were camped,
they encountered a Mandrake Snake that had cultivated for over 400 years, just like in the original novel.
Yu Xiaogang couldn't fight a hundred-year-old soul beast, let alone a 400-year-old Mandrake Snake.
So, upon discovering it, Yu Xiaogang could only flee with Tang San.
To buy time, Yu Xiaogang summoned his Martial Spirit Luo Sanpao, launching two soul skills involving gas attacks, trying to repel the snake and give them a chance to escape.
But his attacks weren't strong enough to even scratch its scales.
The snake quickly recovered and chased after them.
Yu Xiaogang tried to stall it with more gas attacks using Luo Sanpao,
but the snake was ready and dodged them with ease.
Just as Yu Xiaogang began to despair—
a loud shout came from the dark forest nearby:
"First Soul Skill: Battle Tiger Earth-Shaking Wave!"
With that cry, a wave of yellow-brown energy blasted from nearby, instantly striking the Mandrake Snake and knocking it unconscious.
"Hiss!"
As the snake cried out, a figure lunged at it, leapt up, and slammed a glowing green stick-like Martial Spirit onto the snake's head.
What a coincidence.
The blast had thrown the snake sideways in the air—
and as the green-glowing Martial Spirit struck, it hit the snake's scarlet eye directly, smashing it.
"No! Stop, don't kill it!"
Now that someone had helped him, Yu Xiaogang came to his senses. Seeing it was a 400-year-old Mandrake Snake—perfect for Tang San—he shouted in panic.
He was afraid the helper would kill it!
But it was too late.
Just as Yu Xiaogang shouted,
the figure holding the Tree of Life Martial Spirit not only destroyed the snake's eye but also released a burst of soul power that shattered its brain.
"Sorry, you shouted too late. I was in a hurry to save you and accidentally killed the Mandrake Snake. That's normal, right?"
After "accidentally" killing the snake with the Tree of Life Martial Spirit, Su Mo landed atop its corpse, shook off the blood and brains from his staff, and turned to look at Yu Xiaogang and Tang San with a faint smile.
His words sounded apologetic, but there was no trace of apology on his face.
It was him!
But seeing Su Mo had killed the Mandrake Snake, Yu Xiaogang and Tang San both looked displeased.
At that moment, Tang San had just drawn a white radish from the "Twenty-Four Bridge Moonlit Nights" soul tool at his waist to distract the snake, while reaching for the dagger given by his teacher to deliver a killing blow.
In other words, he didn't need Su Mo's help at all!
But Su Mo had killed the 400-year-old Mandrake Snake—the soul beast most suitable for him!
It was obviously intentional!
Yu Xiaogang and Su Mo had a grudge. How could Su Mo be so kind as to save them?
He only pretended to help, when in reality, he killed the Mandrake Snake to stop Tang San from obtaining its perfect soul ring.
(End of chapter)