"A thousand-year one — a thousand-year soul beast just appeared! Should we warn her to teleport out?" one staff member looked anxiously at Wu Zhangkong. After all, the odds of a thousand-year beast appearing in the beginner Spirit Ascension Platform were about the same as encountering a ten-thousand-year beast in the inner zones of the original Star Dou Forest. This alone showed just how incredibly lucky Gu Yue was.
"Wait and see," Wu Zhangkong said calmly, his eyes locked on the screen.
A thousand-year Crystal Bear — extremely rare and precious, even in ancient times.
This Crystal Bear was a variant of the Terrorclaw Bear, but a weaker mutation. After mutating, its strength actually dropped compared to the original. The variant Ice Crystal Bear that Gu You had fought once belonged to the same type, but for some reason, it carried a much stronger ice attribute. Some even theorized that, perhaps long ago, a Crystal Bear had accidentally crossed into the Extreme North and tried to settle there, giving rise to this unique lineage. In any case, ancient species like these were now extinct — the one Gu You knew of might be the only survivor, or at most the second one left in the world…
When Gu You had faced it before, the Crystal Bear showed a terrifying special ability: any opponent it struck would begin to crystallize, and another blow could shatter them completely.
Only powerful soul power could resist this crystallization — or you'd have to cut off the affected area quickly to avoid permanent damage.
However, the Crystal Bear had one key weakness: it could only fight in close range, with no long-distance attacks.
Among the Zero Class students, Gu Yue might not be the strongest individually, but her mastery of elemental control was outstanding. Especially with her space element abilities, in terms of pure control and ranged attack, even Gu You might not match her.
Wu Zhangkong firmly believed that soul masters grow the most under pressure — and he wanted to see just how far his only female student could go when facing the threat of a thousand-year Crystal Bear.
As expected, when the Crystal Bear charged, Gu Yue didn't panic at all. A yellow soul ring lit up under her feet, and her aura instantly grew stronger.
First soul skill: Elemental Tide.
In the next instant, a flash of green light made her body lighten — then silver light flickered, and she vanished on the spot. Space teleportation.
The Crystal Bear's lunge missed, crashing into a giant tree.
Gu Yue didn't confront it head-on. She turned her back to the thousand-year Crystal Bear and sprinted away, flinging her hands behind her. Circles of green light formed small tornadoes — not strong enough to hurt the Crystal Bear, whose defenses were too solid, but enough to kick up clouds of leaves, blinding its sight. Gu Yue seized the chance to teleport again, switching directions, and dashed away at full speed.
---
"Beautiful — such sharp reactions," Long Hengxu said with genuine admiration.
Wu Zhangkong gave a slight nod. What pleased him most was Gu Yue's calm judgment. Faced with a threat, she quickly assessed whether she could withstand the enemy, chose her response, mapped out an escape route and method — all of this in a split second. It sounded easy, but it was incredibly difficult to execute. Gu Yue wasn't just steady — she was smart.
---
"Is there even a soul beast anywhere? I'd settle for spotting a bug at this point!" Gu You shouted in frustration, stomping through the forest. He couldn't figure it out — sure, his bloodline gave him some pressure over beasts, but it shouldn't scare them all away! Why hadn't he encountered even a single soul beast yet?
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"How's Wang Jinxi doing?" Long Hengxu asked one of the staff.
"No life-threatening injuries, but his spirit has taken quite a shock. Poor kid — such bad luck. That Man-faced Demon Spider was just too brutal. Even when he hit the emergency button, it was too late," the staff member sighed.
Long Hengxu nodded. Wu Zhangkong walked over, frowning. "What's going on? Why are the soul beasts spawning so sparsely around one of my students?"
Sparse?
The staff member froze. What probability? The Spirit Ascension Platform was designed as a true-to-life simulation of the ancient Star Dou Forest, built carefully to match historical records. Where and what beasts appeared had all been arranged meticulously. If a student wasn't encountering anything, that was just… luck.
"Not even a bug," Wu Zhangkong added quietly.
Not even a bug?
The veteran examiner, who'd overseen countless Spirit Ascension Platform runs, was stunned. He hurried to the monitoring room, pulling up window after window of the platform's live feeds. When Wu Zhangkong came in to point it out, the examiner finally saw the anomaly around Gu You.
On the large outer map, it showed that whenever Gu You entered an area, all nearby soul beasts within a hundred meters — whether hundred-year or thousand-year — would instantly flee.
What the hell?
The examiner's face turned pale. He quickly instructed a nearby technician to forcibly use backup platform energy and simulate a hundred-year Man-faced Demon Spider near Gu You.
But even then, once the spider materialized and sensed Gu You's aura, it immediately turned and bolted, putting distance between them.
The examiner looked at Wu Zhangkong, and Wu Zhangkong looked back. Both of them shook their heads helplessly. Neither had any clue.
"What's his name? I'll pull his Spirit Ascension Tower records and investigate everything on file," the examiner said urgently. This was an unprecedented anomaly in a thousand years.
"Gu You," Long Hengxu answered, stepping forward. Wu Zhangkong narrowed his eyes slightly. It wasn't like this was some top-secret hidden identity, but still — it felt a bit uncomfortable handing over his student's personal data so easily. But there was no other choice. If Gu You couldn't kill any soul beasts in the platform to advance his spirit rings and gain combat experience, no amount of Spirit Ascension Platform time would help.
"Got it. You all keep watching — I'll be right back." The examiner hurried away.
Everyone else stayed put. Wu Zhangkong continued focusing on Gu You's screen, while Long Hengxu turned to check on Tang Wulin.
"What a little monster! He actually overpowered a hundred-year Bipedal One-horned Dragon," Long Hengxu marveled. Wu Zhangkong glanced over at his words.
Tang Wulin and Xie Xie had teamed up to take down the Bipedal One-horned Dragon. Wu Zhangkong was surprised — but only slightly. He knew exactly how much power Tang Wulin had. Under the boost of his golden scales, a single punch carried over two thousand jin of force. Who could rival that?
The Bipedal One-horned Dragon, a dragon-type soul beast, was a branch of the earth dragons known for their raw physical strength. Among earth dragons, it ranked near the top, capable of sprinting at high speed through rugged forests and excelling at jumping and ramming attacks. Although it lacked long-range skills, it had a relentless, never-give-up temperament. Once it locked onto a target, it would chase them to the death.
(End of Chapter)
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