NineClouds
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Entering Sunset Forest
🕑 Added 2025-04-08 11:53:31 +0000 UTC--- Chapter 37 ---
The next morning.
Ten people gathered outside the gate of Dao Academy.
They are Han Yuan, Liu Erlong, and the eight red-grade students.
They sported the academy's uniform: a long-sleeved, white shirt with red trimmings, a black circle like a brush stroke on the back and a "Dao/Path" symbol embroidered on its center, loose black pants with a matching sash, and a pale blue-silver cloak with grass blade-like patterns.
At first, Han Yuan wanted to create a uniform like a "certain" squad that likes to slay demons, but he didn't feel it matched this world's aesthetic, which led Liu Erlong and Han Yue to work their minds to make this new uniform. Each cloth was made of stained silks from 10,000-year-old Ice Silkworm, making it not only durable and breathable but also have some protection against spying ability.
Han Yuan shook the collar of his cloak and said, "Well, we don't have much time before sunrise. So, let's hurry up and use the carriage I've prepared for us."
"You prepared a big enough carriage for ten of us?" Liu Erlong was puzzled. "When did this happen?"
Han Yuan smiled, "Merchant Union's things. I have some connection with the blacksmiths in the Gengxin City, and they sent me a big, comfortable carriage to use around."
After feeding the 10-year-old red horses some fruits, everyone boarded the carriage, and Han Yuan ordered the energetic spirit beasts to start moving their hooves. What can he say? Spiritual power is versatile.
On the way to Sunset Forest, Han Yuan slowly checked the homework he had given to his students and was impressed by some of their choices as they were thoughtful and usable for their future selections.
Of course, some of these choices are childish and only put "rarity" and "strength" more than functionality.
Han Yuan's mouth twitched slightly, "Ye Shan, explain why you picked Mud Beast as your target. You should have realized the main attribute of your martial soul is the earth with solid quality while the Mud Beast is a water-type spirit beast."
"Not to mention, your "Rock Sword" martial soul is a heavy weapon. The Mud Beast is slow and always uses their mud slap to deter the enemy."
"Are you thinking of slapping mud around with your sword?"
"Do you want to weaken your martial soul's origin or something?"
Ye Shan was embarrassed as his face turned red. "Since my first spirit ring came from Rock Bear, I thought of a method to adjust my 1st spirit skill: fortifying with Mud Beast's mud manipulation."
"So far, I can only fortify my enemy through direct contact and want to use the "mud" as another means to bind them."
Ye Shan's choice is actually not bad. It suited his "Rock Sword" martial soul if he was a CONTROL-SYSTEM SPIRIT MASTER! YOU'RE A PURE STRENGTH SYSTEM SPIRIT MASTER, FOR GOD'S SAKE!
"Hehehe..." The other students laughed.
Han Yuan glared at them, "Who are you laughing at? Especially you, Du Buzi!"
"You chose Green Spirit Bear, Ghost Tiger, and Shadow Leopard because you only think they are suitable for your Spirit Body without realizing their trait lean more to speed than strength!"
"What?" Du Buzi froze on the spot.
Impossible! Did I really choose incorrectly?
I was thinking hard about those spirit beasts!
Liu Erlong watched their antics with amusement. They reminded her of when she entered the junior academy, so innocent and mischievous.
At that age, Liu Erlong wished she could play all day and not listen to the boring lectures of selfless teachers. However, as Liu Erlong matured, she realized the importance of being educated despite this world pushing the law of the jungle to the limit.
What a good time, that is.
Seeing Han Yuan acting like a teacher also amused Liu Erlong, making her heart flutter in excitement.
Han Yuan reviewed eight homework assignments and sighed, "Beside Ye Shan and Du Buzi, the rest are doing their homework decently, though there are some errors in your spirit beast's selections."
"Well, let's announce the two best performers for this homework."
"Hong Jia, your choice of spirit beast that uses airwaves to create a sonic attack is accurate. The bat-type spirit beasts like Golden-eared Blood Bat, White Killer Bat, and Human-faced Bat fit your "Bone Flute" martial soul."
"Yu Bai, you actually realize that the advantage of your "Thunder Snail" martial soul, which possesses water and lightning elements but likewise possesses a thick shell for means of defense, and thoughtfully selected Alligator-Snapping Dragon Turtle, Bone Armored Electric Eel, and Dragon-blooded Catfish."
"Congratulations, Hong Jia and Yu Bai, you performed the best amongst your fellow classmates."
"Here is your reward." Han Yuan handed a golden card to Hong Jia and Yu Bai's palms. The others immediately looked at the reward with envious looks.
Of course, the other six realized they performed worse than Hong Jia and Yu Bai and could only blame themselves for this loss.
They should learn more!
Unknown to them, time passes quickly, and they have already arrived at the west entrance of Sunset Forest.
The Sunset Forest is vast, very close to Heaven Dou City, home to many spirit monsters. Han Yuan and others could see a few mountains far into the distance from the west entrance alone.
On the surface, Sunset Forest might not be too different from the Star Dou Forest, but if one observes more, one could find trees and plants from cold regions here.
Perhaps the only similarity between Sunset Forest and Star Dou Forest is blue silver grass. Countless blue silver grass "thoroughly" covered both forests, showing how tenacious this weak plant is.
Of course, like any other forest, there is a decent-sized town for people to group and gather resources. It's like the Soul Hunting Forest, but on a much larger scale, like Star Dou Forest, and somewhat safer.
Sunset Forest is 'roughly' split into three layers, the outer, inner, and core areas, each with diverse and rare concentrations of spirit beasts. In the outer area, spirit masters will only find century-old spirit beasts and rarely millennium-one due to the unrestrained hunting by soul masters. In the inner layer, millennium spirit beasts started to appear but quickly became aggressive upon contact. The core layer is the "genuine" Sunset Forest, where countless spirit beasts over 10,000 years old ruled the land and built their colony, and few of the "kings" are rare and possess a nearly extinct bloodline that even Star Dou Forest doesn't have.
Today, Han Yuan and Liu Erlong planned to take the students of Dao Academy to the inner layer. After all, they are looking for spirit beasts around 1,000 years or slightly older.
"Before we enter the forest, I want to ask something." Han Yuan gave his students a calm look. "Du Buzi! What is the rule of hunting spirit beasts?"
"W-What, why me?" Du Buzi was dumbfounded.
He scratched his head and searched for an answer in his jumbled memory before replying slowly, "Err, always be careful with my surroundings, and don't lower my guard, ever. I shouldn't trust anyone outside my group and be wary of other spirit masters. Finally, I shouldn't slaughter spirit beasts wantonly and only pick the most suitable ones."
"At least you remember some of it." Han Yuan commented casually.
"I will add a few things you forget to say."
"Besides those, you must always use your full strength and never hold back, whether in conflict or hunting spirit beasts."
"While you're using full strength, hide some "secret move" until the proper time and counter your enemy with a surprise attack."
"Don't be arrogant and provoke others easily, and keep your head calm and cool."
"Last but not least, If you meet the "dangerous" foe, run as quickly as possible. Don't ever bother to do something heroic. You only have one life, cherish it."
"Understand?"
"Understood!" Du Buzi and others responded simultaneously.
Liu Erlong added, "You can also add these rules to your life, and they will keep you safe from many things."
"Yes, Dean!"
Han Yuan glanced at the sun that had risen to the sky and said, "Let's enter the forest. Our hunting will be long because we need eight spirit beasts with the right attributes and age."
Without further ado, they started exploring Sunset Forest.
At the same time, another group of youngsters led by a few spirit kings and one spirit emperor also entered the Sunset Forest.
