Because of Haiyuan City's geographical location, Lu Jingming had only two options for hunting soul beasts: either head to the ocean to hunt sea soul beasts or go to the Mingdou Mountain Range.
But sea soul beasts were not suitable for Lu Jingming, as the vast majority had water and ice attributes—attributes that didn't match well with his twin martial souls, Black Abyss and White Flower.
The Mingdou Mountain Range would have been a good option since it wasn't too far from Haiyuan City.
However, recently the border situation between the Star Luo Empire and the Sun Moon Empire has grown tense, and small-scale skirmishes have broken out.
White Tiger Duke, Dai Hao, led an elite force and successfully invaded a border town of the Sun Moon Empire.
Currently, both sides were locked in a fierce battle in the Mingdou Mountain Range. In this chaos, it was not a good time to hunt soul beasts there.
When Lu Jingming received this information, he was genuinely surprised. He hadn't expected the Sun Moon Empire to be so weak at this stage, allowing their border city to fall so easily. What was even stranger was that the Sun Moon Empire hadn't deployed their powerful soul devices.
After Changli analyzed it in detail, he finally understood. The current ruler of the Sun Moon Empire was, as in the original, He Caitou's father and He Caitou himself was still the crown prince, Xu He.
He Caitou's father belonged to the conservative faction. Under his rule, even though the Sun Moon Empire possessed advanced soul tool technology, most of the soul devices that could play a key role in war were strictly forbidden from being used.
Moreover, White Tiger Duke's personal guards—the White Tiger Army—were extremely strong; apart from the ten major soul master legions, their fighting power was unrivaled in the Star Luo Empire.
Because of the Sun Moon Empire's conservative military strategy, failing to use their soul tool advantage, their army was relatively weak, allowing White Tiger Duke to successfully invade their border city.
Lu Jingming didn't comment much on He Caitou's father's decisions, but he speculated this was likely why, when the Sun Moon Empire underwent major changes a few years later in the original story, it didn't cause massive upheaval.
After all, the Sun Moon Empire had deep foundations—the Five National Guardian Hands, the Imperial Consecration Hall, and the Illustrious Virtue Hall were no pushovers.
Without the support of these powers, in the original story, even if Xu Tianran's father colluded with the Holy Spirit Cult, it would not have been easy to seize power.
In this world of extraordinary power, high-level combat force could tip the balance of imperial succession.
Without the tacit approval of the powerful Silver Moon Douluo Kong Deming, Xu Tianran's father could never have succeeded in usurping the throne.
The current situation in the Sun Moon Empire had caused discontent among many high-level officials, and they were eager to support a stronger emperor to change things.
Although Lu Jingming had the protection of the peerless sword immortal Jingliu, so he didn't need to worry about his safety, he still preferred to avoid trouble if possible. So, he finally decided to go to the Star Dou Great Forest to get his first soul ring.
After all, he wasn't from any academy, and he didn't agree with sayings like "those who avoid trouble are useless."
In his view, such talk was just bullying the weak while fearing the strong. When faced with real power, they would all bow their heads anyway.
At this moment, Lu Jingming and Jingliu were flying high in the sky, thousands of meters up. The fierce wind howled, but couldn't penetrate the bluish soul power shield around them.
Lu Jingming lay in Jingliu's arms; though he could smell her faint fragrance, the experience was not pleasant—the light armor she wore made what should have been a soft embrace cold and hard.
The Star Dou Great Forest was east of Haiyuan City, and to get there, they had to pass over Star Luo City.
However, Jingliu flew at over three thousand meters above ground, well above the detection range of the Star Luo Empire's anti-air mechanisms.
Thus, Jingliu didn't even bother to take a detour, flying straight to their destination.
As they passed over Star Luo City, a powerful aura in the city sensed Jingliu's soul power fluctuations.
But this person, after judging the situation, chose to ignore it. After all, anyone able to fly freely at such altitude was no ordinary soul master; since Jingliu was just passing through, there was no need to stir up trouble.
After Star Luo City, they flew over White Tiger Duke's residence. Looking down, Lu Jingming naturally thought of the protagonist of this world, Huo Yuhao.
Both of them were Star Luo Empire nobility, so it wasn't hard to learn about the White Tiger Duke's household as long as it wasn't confidential information.
After some investigation, Lu Jingming hadn't heard of Dai Yuhao but did learn about Dai Yueheng and Dai Huabin.
Dai Yueheng was five years older than Lu Jingming and had just joined Shrek Academy, while Dai Huabin was only four, two years younger than Lu Jingming. This confirmed that Lu Jingming was in the same age group as Bei Bei and Xu Sanshi.
Through this understanding of the White Tiger Duke's residence, Lu Jingming finally confirmed the timeline of his current world.
At this point, Huo Yuhao was still a young child, not yet awakened his martial soul, and his mother was still alive.
But Lu Jingming was certain that the god king of the Divine Realm had already set his sights on Huo Yuhao, the child of destiny of the Douluo Continent.
After all, the moment Huo Yuhao's mother died, that god king took her soul with perfect precision, bringing it to the Divine Realm.
It's not hard to guess that, perhaps from the moment Huo Yuhao was born and the fate of Douluo Continent subtly shifted, the god king had already noticed him and begun close observation.
At this stage, Lu Jingming had absolutely no intention of exposing himself to that god king's gaze, nor did he plan to approach Huo Yuhao.
It's vital to remember: that god king was anything but magnanimous. "Vindictive, ruthless, unscrupulous"—these words described him perfectly, given his origins in an assassin sect.
To him, Lu Jingming was an unstable variable. Having already claimed Douluo Continent as his private domain, he would never tolerate unpredictable factors like Lu Jingming.
The options before Lu Jingming were either to be carefully schemed against and erased, or, like Huo Yuhao, to be shackled and made into an obedient dog.
So, before he had enough strength and confidence, Lu Jingming firmly decided not to expose himself to that god king's notice.