The reason for their disappointment was very simple — this was a simulated world. Even if it was a 10,000-year Soul Bone, it wouldn’t be of any use, not to mention a skull bone.
If they were in the normal Soul World, they could still use it to exchange for Soul coins. But this was the test venue; it was completely different from the normal Soul World and should belong to Shrek Academy. They wouldn’t be able to bring this thing out and couldn’t absorb it to become their battle power — it was totally useless.
The trio looked at this Gold-eyed Leopard skull, and their eyes reddened slightly. If this existed in reality, how amazing would it be! There was a high chance that this skull possessed the Gold-eyed Leopard’s innate ability, Gold-eyed Stare! It was a superpower that allowed one to control his or her enemies instantly.
“I feel like crying,” Qian Lei felt the same way as before when he rejected the early admission into Shrek Academy.
The corners of Liu Feng’s mouth twitched, “I’d rather this thing didn’t appear at all.” He was the beneficial owner of a Soul Bone and naturally knew how much improvement it would be for a Soul Master. The strength of his right arm was almost thrice of his left arm now! Even if he didn’t have Lan Xuanyu’s enhancement, his attack power was relatively strong, too.
Lan Xuanyu lifted his hand and took that gold skull that was still stained in blood. He knitted his brows and suddenly returned the skull to the Gold Silk Ape, then turned to Qian Lei, “Tell it that it needs this thing and ask the ape to keep it.”
Qian Lei was stunned, “What do you mean?”
Lan Xuanyu glanced at him askance, “Human-like soul beasts could possibly fuse with a Soul Bone, too. The Gold Silk Ape belongs to this category which means that it could also use this piece of Soul Bone. It’s useless for us anyway, it’s better to just give it to the ape.”
Qian Lei translated with a helpless expression. The Gold Silk Ape looked at Lan Xuanyu in a daze and pointed at the skull, then pointed at itself.
“The ape asked if it could fuse?” Qian Lei translated.
Lan Xuanyu replied, “Tell it what I just said, it should be able to.”
Qian Lei translated again.
The gaze of the Gold Silk Ape towards the trio turned gentler, the ferocity and violence just now disappeared gradually. It suddenly nodded firmly and took the Soul Bone.
The hair on its back was clearly more sparse now. This Gold Silk Ray was the source of its power, after all, and it was already hurt from releasing large amounts of it previously. It also ate the 1,000-year Purple Zoysia; it wouldn’t be able to handle the effects of the drug very soon.
“Let’s protect it,” Lan Xuanyu pulled Qian Lei and Liu Feng a few steps back.
An indiscernible change of the gold halo began to appear on the Gold Silk Ape’s body like it was entering deep sleep.
“Protect it? How long does it need? Our time is limited,” Qian Lei whispered.
Lan Xuanyu narrowed his eyes, “We’ve already killed four 1,000-year soul beasts — it would be very hard for others to surpass this rate of progress. There’s no harm in waiting; if it doesn’t recover in a day, we will leave. If it completes the fusion, it would be a jackpot for us.”
From the way the Gold Silk Ape treated them just now, it was apparent that it had already approved of these three people. If it could assist them later, then their test scores would be guaranteed.
Liu Feng and Qian Lei were very trusting of Lan Xuanyu, and they had also killed four 1,000-year soul beasts as their base already. Hence, all three of them stayed and Liu Feng was responsible for conducting reconnaissance of the situation around them, while Lan Xuanyu and Qian Lei protected the ape.
After Qian Lei summoned a couple of times with Lan Xuanyu’s enhancement, he completed his Summoning Replicate and his strength recovered to its peak condition.
What surprised them was that the replica this time was actually the Emerald Demon Bird again. That’s right, he summoned the Emerald Demon Bird once again, and Qian Lei could even tell that it was the same one he summoned before.
This was definitely a good thing, but the Emerald Demon Bird was extremely ferocious in nature and might even turn against its summoner. When they first summoned the Emerald Demon Bird, it nearly charged towards the Gold Silk Ape. Luckily, Qian Lei used all his force to stop it.
“This Emerald Demon Bird is addicted, huh? It was very satisfied with those two Ground Fire Scarlet Dragons, huh! But I’ve a question — if this Emerald Demon Bird was summoned from somewhere else with soul beasts around, then in this simulated world that we are at with simulated soul beasts, would there be a use for it to eat their brains?” Lan Xuanyu asked doubtfully.
Qian Lei shrugged, “How would I know? But I heard in the past that Soul World isn’t really considered an illusion; it could be said to be another dimension, one that our Federation created. The details should be a federal secret; there is no way for us to find out.”
Ever since the success of interstellar migration, the Federation had sufficient resources and technology in the last few thousand years and had also entered a major stage of development. As to what extent, only those higher-ups would know.
And Shrek Academy was among the few most important organizations under the Federation.
The Gold Silk Ape appeared to be asleep, the gold halo on its body was faint. The trio took turns to rest and recovered to their peak conditions very quickly.
As night fell, although they wouldn’t be hungry, the trio was still a little bored. After discussing, they decided that if the Gold Silk Ape wasn’t awake by the third morning, they would have to be on their way.
The other teams in the qualifier would definitely go all-out. Even though a 100-year soul beast wouldn’t give as many points as a 1,000-year soul beast would, if they killed a large number, it would still be the same. They weren’t sure of the situation of other teams so obviously, they had to work harder.
Although hunting other teams was most likely to be the fastest way to get points, but the Star Dou Forest was so big, it was possible that they wouldn’t meet any other teams before the end of the qualifier — then the loss would outweigh the gains, right? Therefore, they couldn’t place their hopes in this aspect.
A night of silence.
The next morning, the Gold Silk Ape still hadn’t awoken.
Lan Xuanyu did not hesitate and made a decision right away to get ready to leave. Before they left, they stacked up some tree branches around the Gold Silk Ape and encaged its body inside. This was the best they could do.
They were back on the road with Liu Feng leading the way as the three of them continued their journey forward carefully.
They didn’t move very quickly, but it was stable. They met some capable soul beasts along the way and killed it smoothly. They continued exploring deeper into the woods according to the strength of the soul beasts.
Two days went by in a flash and they were in there for four days already; the fifth day was about to come. Also, they were about to enter the last three days of the qualifier.
As a precaution, they didn’t hunt for 1,000-year soul beasts anymore and mostly looked for 10-year or 100-year soul beasts to attack. As they got deeper into the forest, they didn’t see any 10-year soul beasts anymore and the soul beasts were at least 100-year ones, they would also see 1,000-year soul beasts occasionally. Relying on Liu Feng’s speed and Qian Lei’s perception, they tried their best to avoid those strong ones and continued moving forward steadily.
“Xuanyu, we still have three days left. I wonder how many points we have. Seriously, Shrek doesn’t even let us see our total points, how do we know how hard we should work, huh!” Qian Lei complained.
Lan Xuanyu smiled, “We would work even harder if we can’t see the scores. Shrek Academy wants to see each person’s potential, I guess. I think our total score should be average or above average, but it wouldn’t be the top ten.”
Qian Lei got anxious. As someone who almost enrolled earlier, that desire to get into Shrek Academy even surpassed Liu Feng.
“What should we do? We wouldn’t be able to get into the next round if we’re not in the top ten!”
Lan Xuanyu said, “Don’t panic, it’s most important for us to maintain tip-top condition right now and wait for an opportunity. Before they announced the rules, they said that we could rob the points of other teams — they wouldn’t say this for nothing. It was the same during the first round of the qualifier; everything had a meaning behind it. Since this is the case, we will have to build up our strength. Once we encounter another team, it would be our chance.
Liu Feng nodded, “I agree, even if we have to panic, we should wait ’til the last few days to do so.”
Just as they were speaking, all of a sudden, there were some noises ahead like banging, groaning, and shouting.
The three people looked at one another. Without another word, Liu Feng quickly leaped up a tree as Lan Xuanyu linked them up with his golden-patterned Blue Silver Grass. With Liu Feng pulling them up, the trio were hidden in the huge canopy of a large tree.
Lan Xuanyu listened carefully and whispered, “Sounds like a fight, and there seems to be a human voice.”
Speak of the devil — they might have encountered other contestants.
A figure ran swiftly in their direction, and they could see very clearly from the top of the tree. When they saw who it was, they were taken aback.
They knew this person, and she was their classmate. She was very familiar, especially to Lan Xuanyu — it was actually Ye Lingtong!