Douluo Continent: Dragon's Journey Across the World

Chapter 25 Golden-backed Wolf

The Star Dou Great Forest is the largest soul beast forest in the entire Douluo Continent, without exception. It is a place that all soul masters dream of yet fear.

The Star Dou Great Forest is extremely rich in soul beast resources. It contains almost all land-based soul beasts, and even some extremely rare soul beasts. It is also the only soul beast forest among the major soul beast forests on land that contains soul beasts of the 100,000-year level (except for the Frozen Forest in the far north).

However, the Star Dou Great Forest is also fraught with danger. Because there are too many soul beast resources, various soul beasts attack one after another, and it is impossible to defend against them. There are countless snakes, insects, rats and ants. Even if you encounter a soul beast that looks weak, it may cause fatal damage to people. Even titled Douluo are in danger of falling.

The entire Star Dou Great Forest is extremely vast, with a length and width of approximately one thousand kilometers. It is divided into multiple regions, with three distinct large regions from the outer layer to the core. These include a 200-kilometer outer region, a 500-kilometer mixed region, and a 200-kilometer core region. The 50-kilometer area in the center of the core region is known as the forbidden zone for life.

The outer area generally contains soul beasts under 10,000 years old, while the mixed area contains soul beasts of 100, 1000, and 10,000 years old, but not very old ones. The core area is mostly filled with soul beasts over 30,000 years old. No one has explored the forbidden zone of life, but it is estimated to be the Lake of Life.

With Yang Ping'an's current strength, he can only wander around the outer area at most, which is mainly inhabited by low-level soul beasts.

Yang Ping'an would never dare to enter the mixed zone, where there are countless ten-thousand-year-old soul beasts. Normally, ten-thousand-year-old soul beasts have the strength of a Soul King or even a Soul Emperor, which is far beyond what a mere Soul Master can provoke.

After entering the Star Dou Great Forest, Yang Ping'an quickly summoned the Purple Gold Mastiff, relying primarily on its sense of smell to explore the forest.

It must be said that there are indeed many soul beasts in the Star Dou Great Forest. In just half a day, Yang Ping'an had already encountered six or seven hundred-year-old soul beasts and two thousand-year-old soul beasts, and each of them looked powerful.

Thanks to the golden mastiff's keen sense of smell, Yang Ping'an barely managed to escape.

Even so, they encountered danger many times, being hunted by various spirit beasts. It's worth noting that some high-level spirit beasts have a relatively keen sense of smell.

After spending five days in the Star Dou Great Forest, Yang Ping'an, panting heavily, hid in a very lush tree. The tree was a hundred meters tall, with extremely dense branches and leaves that blocked out the sky.

In particular, the trees have a relatively strong life force, which can mask one's own aura.

Four golden-backed wolves were roaming around on the ground, seemingly searching for Yang Ping'an, their eyes filled with an extremely sinister light, as if they were hunting prey.

The golden mastiff had already been recalled back into Yang Ping'an's body. Although Yang Ping'an quickly climbed to the top of the tree using the wire, his arms were still trembling.

About half a day ago, the Purple-Gold Mastiff suddenly became excited in the Star Dou Great Forest, as if it had smelled something particularly pleasant. It quickly searched for a cave and found a newborn Golden-Backed Wolf inside.

Although this golden-backed wolf was just born, it looked exceptionally fierce, already displaying its ferocity even at birth. It truly deserves to be called a top-grade wolf-attribute soul beast.

Unfortunately, before Yang Ping'an and the Purple-Gold Mastiff could even think of what they wanted to see in the golden-backed wolf cub, a wolf howl came from afar, the sound seemingly filled with ferocity.

Yang Ping'an felt a chill run down his spine. He had probably stumbled upon a wolf's den, and then the Golden-backed Wolf had discovered him.

Ignoring the reluctance in the eyes of the golden mastiff, Yang Ping'an immediately took the mastiff and prepared to escape quickly.

Wolf-type soul beasts have an extremely keen sense of smell and a very fast reaction speed. After just one howl, multiple howls immediately echoed through the Star Dou Great Forest.

Yang Ping'an felt a chill run down his spine; it seemed he had stirred up a hornet's nest.

For the next few days, the seven golden-backed wolves relentlessly pursued Yang Ping'an. Even though Yang Ping'an managed to kill three of the weaker wolves with crossbow bolts and traps, the remaining four wolves became even more bloodthirsty, their eyes turning completely red. They were willing to risk their lives to hunt down Yang Ping'an.

There were a total of seven golden-backed wolves chasing Yang Ping'an this time, four of which were a thousand years old and the other three were a hundred years old, but all of them were over five hundred years old.

Especially the most magnificent golden-backed wolf, which was over four meters long and looked like a four-thousand-year-old soul beast.

Yang Ping'an was hiding in a huge Chinese toon tree. Chinese toon trees are generally quite unique, and they are a favorite of many herbivorous soul beasts, especially because of their rich life force and strong fragrance, which can block the Golden-backed Wolf's detection.

Yang Ping'an was exhausted. He was covered in cold sweat, his hands and feet were trembling, and there was even a half-foot-long scratch on his back. The wound was simply wrapped with a strip of cloth and a little bit of herbal medicine to prevent bleeding and to prevent the blood from attracting other soul beasts.

In just half a day, so many golden-backed wolves moved as fast as lightning, and they were even able to use tactics to surround and attack each other. It's almost unbelievable.

Yang Ping'an had just narrowly escaped death. Fortunately, he hadn't provoked the Gale Wolf this time, or he probably would have been doomed.

As for the three golden-backed wolves that were killed, one of them was killed by shooting it in the eye with a crossbow, but the crossbow also needed to be replaced with new arrows, and there was simply no time for that. Moreover, it was only effective against hundred-year-old soul beasts, while thousand-year-old golden-backed wolves could avoid fatal wounds when faced with crossbows.

On the other hand, they used traps to kill the wolf, but this could only kill the hundred-year-old golden-backed wolf that was chasing them from the front. The thousand-year-old golden-backed wolves on the other side were extremely cunning and highly intelligent, and they would not fall for the traps. They actually managed to avoid several of the traps they had recently dug.

The last one desperately used its soul bone skill to kill it, but it also left a wound on its back.

These four thousand-year-old golden-backed wolves were like a nightmare. They stayed in the tree for a full four hours before slowly leaving.

Yang Ping'an finally breathed a sigh of relief and simply ate some dry rations on the tree to recover his strength. With Yang Ping'an's strength alone, he dared not start a fire or cook in the Star Dou Great Forest; such actions would be suicidal.

Yang Ping'an hid in the tree for a full day and two nights before finally leaving on the third day.

Nighttime is the domain of wolves, and Yang Ping'an had no doubt about the strength and intelligence of this wolf king.

It wasn't until early morning of the third day that Yang Ping'an left in the opposite direction from the pack of golden-backed wolves, as he was not yet strong enough to take revenge on them.

Before leaving, Yang Ping'an unleashed a barrage of attacks on the golden mastiff, its small eyes looking rather aggrieved.

Finally, Yang Ping'an spoke in a sinister tone: "If you're going to look for one, find someone reliable, preferably one that's alone. Don't look for a group of soul beasts that I can't defeat."

(End of this chapter)