The sky gradually darkened, and the dense forest felt oppressively silent. Suddenly, Lu Jingming's heart skipped a beat as his keen spiritual senses detected a surge of soul power rapidly approaching—but more than one soul beast was coming. Ahead of the soul beast Jingliu had previously mentioned, another beast imbued with both light and flame auras was fleeing in a panic.
Lu Jingming was startled; by sensing its aura, he could tell this soul beast had reached around a ten-thousand-year cultivation.
This was a hunt—and the pursuer was the very soul beast Jingliu had said would be suitable for his soul ring.
Jingliu frowned slightly. She also sensed the fleeing beast. Although it met the age requirement, in her opinion, a creature that couldn't even stand against a soul beast of the same level and only knew how to run for its life was not fit to become Lu Jingming's soul ring.
So she simply informed Lu Jingming about the soul beast behind and ignored the one fleeing.
With a rush of wind and the sound of heavy footsteps, the beasts burst into view.
Lu Jingming narrowed his eyes and saw a gigantic soul beast—eight meters long, three meters tall at the shoulder.
Golden fur covered its body, marked with crimson flame patterns. Its eyes were a deep amber, its limbs wrapped in roaring flames, and the tip of its tail burned with dazzling light, radiating powerful waves of light energy.
The moment he saw the beast, Lu Jingming's pupils shrank sharply.
In the past two years, he had learned much about soul beasts—he was no longer the naive rookie from his first trip into the Star Dou Great Forest.
These distinctive features let him instantly recognize the beast before him as a Holy Flame Sky Tiger—a top-tier soul beast with light and fire attributes.
Yet at this moment, this mighty Holy Flame Sky Tiger was fleeing for its life, and the beast chasing it was actually of the same level!
Jingliu also turned, a trace of surprise flashing in her eyes.
She too recognized the Holy Flame Sky Tiger. Earlier, she could only sense its aura from afar and couldn't determine its species, resulting in her earlier misjudgment.
"Teacher, keep it!" Lu Jingming instantly reacted. For something to chase a top-tier soul beast of the same level into such a desperate flight, it could only be 'her'.
Besides, this Holy Flame Sky Tiger had the light attribute, which fit perfectly into her menu.
Whoosh—!
In an instant, a chill filled the air, and the temperature plummeted.
On the open grassland, an iceberg suddenly rose from the ground, encasing the Holy Flame Sky Tiger in solid ice.
Its eyes still held panic, clearly not yet recovered from the terror of being hunted before Jingliu froze it.
With Jingliu's action, the pursuing hunter seemed to sense a deadly danger and abruptly slammed on the brakes, landing on all fours and coming to a steady halt.
At the same time, an even more powerful and terrifyingly oppressive aura with a wild flame energy rapidly approached.
Lu Jingming focused his gaze and saw another soul beast before him, covered in golden fur with faint golden scales beneath, dragon claws at the ends of its limbs, those claws burning with golden flames.
When he saw the blood-red vertical pupil on the beast's forehead, Lu Jingming twitched and looked at Jingliu with frustration.
So this was the soul beast Jingliu had just said was suitable for him—the Emperor Auspicious Beast: the Three-Eyed Golden Lion.
Thinking of this soul beast's identity, Lu Jingming silently put away his Black Abyss. All his earlier boldness vanished into thin air.
He might have a chance against the Holy Flame Sky Tiger, but the Emperor Auspicious Beast? He couldn't possibly win.
Don't be fooled by the fact that both the Emperor Auspicious Beast and the Holy Flame Sky Tiger had fifteen thousand years of cultivation; the Emperor Auspicious Beast could challenge hundred-thousand-year beasts, equivalent to a Title Douluo's power.
With his current soul power, he'd be no match at all. The Emperor Auspicious Beast could slap him so hard it might beg him not to die. Of course, Jingliu wasn't wrong—if he could absorb the Emepror Auspicious Beast's soul ring, he'd gain extremely powerful soul skills.
But that's if he could kill it in the first place.
Not to mention the ferocious beasts and Silver Dragon King lurking in the shadows—the first to show up would probably be God King Tang San.
After all, the Emperor Auspicious Beast represented the destiny and luck of the Star Dou Great Forest, long marked by the God King.
Lu Jingming had no intention of causing himself massive trouble over a third soul ring by attacking the Emperor Auspicious Beast.
The Emperor Auspicious Beast glanced at the frozen Holy Flame Sky Tiger, a trace of ferocity in her eyes, then turned to Lu Jingming and Jingliu, her gaze full of curiosity.
She had never left the Star Dou Great Forest, and her range of activities was limited to the forbidden and core areas—places rarely visited by humans.
"Human, that's my prey," she said, her voice clear and melodious—hard to imagine coming from a beast over three meters tall.
The Emperor Auspicious Beast looked cool and majestic, but she was a girl; this huge contrast was rather amusing.
"Oh? How can you prove it's your prey? My teacher caught it!" Lu Jingming retorted boldly, looking at the majestic Emperor Auspicious Beast, itching to tease the darling of the Star Dou Great Forest.
The Emperor Auspicious Beast was at a loss, her not-so-bright mind spinning furiously.
Right! How could she prove that the Holy Flame Sky Tiger was her prey? Unable to come up with an answer, she just stood there, dumbfounded.
Luckily, a crimson figure arrived, breaking her mental impasse.
"Emperor Auspicious Beast, are you okay?" a deep, powerful voice sounded, as a massive soul beast entered.
It had three lion-like heads, was five meters long, and its dark red fur was surrounded by crimson flames.
It immediately looked at the Emperor Auspicious Beast, and seeing that she was unharmed, finally relaxed.
"Scarlet King, how can I prove that this Holy Flame Sky Tiger is my prey?" the Emperor Auspicious Beast asked, making Scarlet King instantly silent.
It had overheard the conversation between Lu Jingming and Emperor Auspicious Beast, but never expected Emperor Auspicious Beast would be so honest.
When it was with her, she'd never seemed this adorably clueless.
Lu Jingming was speechless too. The Emperor Auspicious Beast, before merging half of Tang Wutong's divine consciousness, was this simple-minded.
But this was a hard question for the Scarlet King. How could they prove the prey was theirs? Between soul beasts, who ever needed to prove prey ownership?
But now they were facing humans, not just other soul beasts. Scarlet King glanced warily at Jingliu and had already secretly notified Di Tian.
Just approaching Jingliu gave him a huge sense of crisis—a feeling he'd only gotten from the slumbering lord or Di Tian himself.
Facing a being beyond his ability, especially involving Emperor Auspicious Beast, he had to be cautious.