Chapter 65: What If There Are No Soul Beasts?

"A thousand-year soul beast has appeared! Should we remind her to teleport out?" A staff member looked at Wu Zhangkong. In the Primary Spirit Ascension Platform, the appearance of a thousand-year soul beast was as rare as a ten-thousand-year soul beast appearing in the core region of the original Star Dou Forest. This alone proved just how lucky Gu Yue was.

"Let's wait and see," Wu Zhangkong stared intently at the screen.

A Thousand-Year Crystal Bear—this was an extremely rare and precious species, even in ancient times.

This bear was a variant of the Terrorclaw Bear, but it had undergone a weakened mutation. After the mutation, its strength was actually far inferior to that of the Terrorclaw Bear. The mutated Ice Crystal Bear in Gu You's mind also belonged to the same category, but for some unknown reason, it had gained a much stronger ice attribute. There was even a hypothesis suggesting that, in ancient times, a Crystal Bear might have accidentally traveled to the far north and attempted to settle there, leading to the emergence of a new mutated species. Whether this bear was the only one of its kind in existence or one of the last remaining specimens was uncertain.

During his battle against Zhan Kuang, Gu You had demonstrated that the Crystal Bear possessed a special ability—any opponent it attacked would experience crystallization in their body. A second strike would shatter the crystallized area completely.

Only powerful soul power could resist this crystallization. Otherwise, the only way to prevent further damage was to swiftly cut away the affected area.

However, the Crystal Bear also had a significant weakness—it could only engage in close combat and had no long-range attack abilities.

Among the students in Class Zero, Gu Yue might not have been the strongest in raw combat power, but her elemental control abilities were outstanding. She also specialized in spatial element manipulation. In terms of full control and ranged attacks, even Gu You might not be able to match her.

The greater the pressure, the faster a Soul Master could grow. Wu Zhangkong firmly believed in this principle. He wanted to see how far his only female student could go when faced with the threat of a thousand-year Crystal Bear.

As expected, Gu Yue showed no panic when the Crystal Bear attacked. A yellow soul ring beneath her feet flashed as her aura surged.

Her first soul skill—Elemental Tide.

The next moment, a green light flickered, making her movements light and agile. Then, with a flash of silver, she vanished from her original position—Spatial Transfer.

The Crystal Bear pounced into empty air, crashing into a large tree.

Gu Yue did not engage directly. She turned and fled, waving her hands behind her. Rings of green light formed into wind-attribute tornadoes—not to attack the Crystal Bear, as such attacks would do little to its defenses—but to scatter leaves everywhere. The swirling leaves disrupted the Crystal Bear's vision, giving Gu Yue an opportunity to teleport again and change direction, sprinting away.

"Brilliant! That was such a quick and intelligent response." Long Hengxu praised sincerely.

Wu Zhangkong nodded slightly in approval. He was most satisfied with Gu Yue's composure—assessing an enemy's strength, determining if she could counter it, choosing the best response, and executing an escape strategy all in a split second. These were easy to talk about but incredibly difficult to execute in real time. Gu Yue was not only calm but also highly intelligent.

"Where are the soul beasts? Even a bug would do at this point!" Gu You shouted in frustration as he roamed the primeval forest. He couldn't understand why he hadn't encountered a single soul beast. Even with his bloodline suppression from his martial soul, it was unlikely that every soul beast would simply run away at the sight of him.

"How is Wang Jinxi's situation?" Long Hengxu asked a staff member.

"He's not in any life-threatening danger, but he has suffered severe psychological trauma. That kid was really unlucky. The Man-Faced Demon Spider is just too brutal. He didn't even have time to press the emergency escape button," the staff member sighed.

Long Hengxu nodded. At that moment, Wu Zhangkong walked over. "What exactly is going on? Why is the soul beast refresh rate around one of my students so low?"

Low? The staff members were puzzled. There was no such thing as probability settings—this was a near-perfect simulation of the original Star Dou Forest. When it was first constructed, the Spirit Pagoda had meticulously recreated historical data, determining exactly where soul beasts should appear. If Gu You hadn't encountered any soul beasts, it could only mean one thing—he was extremely lucky.

"He hasn't even seen a single bug," Wu Zhangkong added.

Not even a bug? A veteran examiner, who had assisted countless Soul Masters in entering the Spirit Ascension Platform, was dumbfounded. He quickly entered the monitoring room and scanned the screens one by one. It wasn't until Wu Zhangkong pointed out Gu You's location that the examiner noticed something strange.

On the large-scale map, every time Gu You moved to a new location, the nearby soul beasts—within a hundred-meter radius—would flee, regardless of whether they were hundred-year or thousand-year soul beasts.

What the hell?

The examiner was shocked. He quickly instructed a staff member to manually force the release of a hundred-year Man-Faced Demon Spider near Gu You's position using a backup energy system.

But the same thing happened—the moment the Man-Faced Demon Spider materialized, it seemed to sense Gu You's presence and immediately fled in the opposite direction, putting as much distance between them as possible.

The examiner turned to Wu Zhangkong, who also looked back at him. Neither of them had any idea what was happening.

"What's his name? I need to check all the records he has registered with the Spirit Pagoda." The examiner took the matter seriously—this was the first time in a thousand years that something like this had happened.

"Gu You," Long Hengxu said as he walked in. Wu Zhangkong narrowed his eyes. While it wasn't confidential information, it still irked him that his student's data was being handed over so easily. However, he had no choice—if Gu You couldn't kill soul beasts in the Spirit Ascension Platform to enhance his spirit rings and gain combat experience, then no matter how many times the academy allowed him to enter, it would be useless.

"Got it. Keep observing. I'll be back soon." The examiner hurried away.

The others remained focused. Wu Zhangkong continued monitoring Gu You's screen, while Long Hengxu shifted his attention to Tang Wulin's situation.

"This kid really is a monster! That hundred-year Two-Footed Unicorn Dragon is actually losing in a contest of strength against him." Long Hengxu exclaimed in surprise. Wu Zhangkong followed his gaze.

Tang Wulin and Xie Xie had just teamed up to take down a Two-Footed Unicorn Dragon. While Wu Zhangkong was slightly surprised, he wasn't overly shocked. He had personally experienced Tang Wulin's strength—when enhanced by his golden scales, the boy could throw punches exceeding two thousand jin (over 1,100 kg) in force. Who else at this level could match that?

The Two-Footed Unicorn Dragon belonged to the draconic species and was considered one of the strongest among ground dragons. It had immense physical strength and was highly ranked in terms of brute force among terrestrial dragons. It was also incredibly agile in forested terrain, excelling at leaping and charging. While it had no ranged attacks, it possessed an unwavering "fight-to-the-death" mentality—once it locked onto a target, it would pursue them relentlessly until either it or its target was dead.

(End of Chapter)