Douluo Continent: The Martial Soul is actually Bibi Dong.

Chapter 42 Soul Beasts Cannot Be Extinct

"You guys did a great job last night!"

"A team needs to cooperate well to unleash its full potential!"

The next day, on their way to the Star Dou Great Forest, Zhao Wuji praised Su Mo and the others for their performance the previous night.

Clearly, although Zhao Wuji did not show up last night, he must have been secretly observing the conflict between Su Mo and the Canghui Academy.

After the conflict broke out between the two sides last night, Xiao Wu easily dealt with all the students of Canghui Academy by herself.

Then their team leader, Ye Zhi Qiu, stood up for his students, but unfortunately, he was defeated by the combined efforts of Su Mo and others, and ended up slinking away in disgrace.

In the original story, the Shrek Seven Devils faced Ye Zhi Qiu, who possessed the Soul King level. Ye Zhi Qiu was primarily defensive, with a very thick defense. In the end, Tang San and the others were unable to break through Ye Zhi Qiu's defense.

In the end, it was Zhao Wuji who stepped in just in time to stand up for Tang San and the others.

Last night was different, with Su Mo joining the group.

At first, even with Su Mo's Soul-Weapon Fusion state, the Soul-Hunting Spear couldn't break through Ye Zhi Qiu's defense. Later, Ning Rong Rong added auxiliary effects to everyone, and Tang San and the others attacked first, with Su Mo making the final move, which finally broke through Ye Zhi Qiu's defense.

"Su Mo is truly amazing. Without his final blow, we definitely wouldn't have been able to break through that turtle's shell!"

Ning Rongrong chuckled. She was still very excited, having helped defeat a Soul King!

"It's also thanks to Tang San's excellent command!"

Dai Mubai praised Tang San, believing that Tang San's role was the most significant.

"Yes, yes, it's all thanks to Third Brother's excellent command!"

Xiao Wu naturally and firmly supports Tang San.

Ma Hongjun and Oscar didn't say anything; they didn't care.

Only Zhu Zhuqing remained somewhat cold. Su Mo's level was clearly lower than hers, yet his combat power was so much stronger, making her increasingly dissatisfied with her own strength.

The group continued on their journey.

"Unless we encounter a soul beast over a thousand years old, I will not intervene. Everything depends on yourselves; this is also a trial for you!"

"Let's go in now. Dai Mubai and Tang San will lead the way, the rest of you stay in the middle, and I'll cover your retreat!"

After entering the Star Dou Great Forest, Zhao Wuji had Tang San and Dai Mubai lead the way.

Although Zhao Wuji knew that Su Mo's combat strength was also quite good, that was only when Su Mo used the Soul Weapon Fusion. In terms of actual strength, he still believed that Dai Mubai and Tang San were the strongest.

Moreover, Su Mo has a soul weapon fusion, and Tang San also has his hidden weapons. In his opinion, Tang San's hidden weapons are stronger.

If Tang San had used the same hidden weapon that hit him in the body last night, the battle wouldn't have been so difficult.

Su Mo naturally had no objections to Zhao Wuji's arrangements and was happy to relax.

Watching Xiao Wu jumping around happily in the group, Su Mo was also thinking about what was about to happen.

The Titan Giant Ape deep in the Star Dou Great Forest should have already smelled Xiao Wu's scent and will appear to take her away.

During his pursuit of Xiao Wu, Tang San was stopped by a human-faced demon spider, thus obtaining his first treasure: the Eight Spider Lances, an external soul bone dropped from the human-faced demon spider.

That's a treasure worth as much as a 100,000-year-old soul ring.

"That Eight Spider Lances would be perfect for me too!"

"Bibi Dong is currently my martial soul. As the Rakshasa God Bibi Dong, she can still use the abilities of the Death Spider Emperor and the Soul Devouring Spider Emperor. If I awaken the Rakshasa God martial soul in the future, I should be able to use their abilities as well!"

"Then the Eight Spider Lances are perfect for me!"

Su Mo secretly plotted to snatch the Eight Spider Lances from Tang San.

After all, the Eight Spider Lances do not yet belong to Tang San.

If Tang San had already obtained it, Su Mo wouldn't have taken it from him. But since it doesn't belong to Tang San yet, Su Mo won't be polite.

"Boss Dai, wait a minute..."

A few hours later, as they passed through a low-lying forest, Tang San suddenly called out to Dai Mubai.

"What's wrong?"

Dai Mubai was puzzled, but he still paused.

Later, everyone learned that under a leaf in front of Dai Mubai, there was a small, squirrel-like soul beast hiding, trembling with fear.

If Tang San hadn't called out to Dai Mubai, Dai Mubai, in his Tiger Claw form with his Martial Soul in possession mode, might have accidentally injured the little soul beast.

Seeing this, Xiao Wu quickly went over, hugged the little squirrel, comforted it, and then let it go.

"There are a lot of low-level soul beasts in this area, let's go around!"

"Soul beasts grow slowly, so try to avoid them if possible!"

"If we accidentally injure or kill any spirit beasts, this forest will be devoid of them within a few years!"

"There's another reason: in case of a battle, the noise might attract powerful soul beasts. It's better to be careful!"

Tang San then offered his suggestions.

"Let's take a detour!"

"You've got some good taste, kid!"

Dai Mubai praised Tang San endlessly.

"It's all thanks to my teacher!" Tang San said modestly.

After changing direction and continuing their journey, the group soon encountered a problem.

After everyone was on guard, Zhu Zhuqing went to a high place to observe.

"It's a flying snake!"

Upon hearing Zhu Zhuqing's words, Su Mo knew that they had encountered the same Phoenix-tailed Crested Serpent from the original story.

After a fierce battle, Su Mo and his group finally managed to subdue the Phoenix-tailed Crested Serpent, which lay on the ground barely alive.

However, just as Oscar was about to kill the Phoenix-tailed Crested Serpent, the Snake Woman Chaotianxiang appeared with her granddaughter Meng Yiran.

Everything remained the same as in the original story, without much change due to Su Mo.

After all, it wasn't Su Mo leading the team; it was Tang San and Dai Mubai leading the team, and it was still at this time after Oscar broke through level 30. It's normal for everything to happen as usual.

Despite the minor incident involving Meng Yiran, Oscar ultimately obtained his third spirit ring as he had hoped.

"Teacher Zhao, I just broke through level 30!"

Just as Zhao Wuji was about to lead everyone back, Tang San suddenly revealed that he had broken through to level 30.

In this way, everyone can only stay in the Star Dou Great Forest and continue to help Tang San find a suitable soul beast.

Unfortunately, after searching for a while, they still couldn't find it by nightfall.

The group could only find a safe place to rest in the Star Dou Great Forest, and would continue the next day after a night's rest.

"Sigh, even on the outskirts of the Star Dou Great Forest, there used to be many thousand-year-old soul beasts!"

"Now... sigh, I don't know if they've all run off to the depths of the forest, or for some other reason."

While everyone was resting, Zhao Wuji suddenly let out a sigh.

It just feels like finding soul beasts is harder now than before!

"Whatever the reason, it was caused by us!"

"Soul beasts may be ferocious, but we humans are far more ferocious!"

"Our teacher once said that although the number of Soul Masters is small, it only takes a few decades for a Soul Master to grow from the beginning of their cultivation to a powerful one. Within these few decades, a powerful Soul Master needs at least six Soul Rings. That means they need to hunt at least six Soul Beasts. Among these, there are those that are hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands of years old. The cultivation of Soul Beasts is much more difficult than that of humans; otherwise, they wouldn't classify strength according to age. Although they are numerous, if this kind of killing continues, the number of Soul Beasts will only continue to decrease, especially powerful Soul Beasts, where every one killed is one less. Many years later, it will probably be difficult to see any that are over a thousand years old."

"The bigger impact is the indiscriminate killing. A Soul Master only needs a maximum of nine Soul Beasts in their lifetime, but how many Soul Beasts does a Soul Master have to hunt in their lifetime? Not to mention others, even on our journey, when we encounter some ten-year and hundred-year Soul Beasts that attack us, we can't help but take them down. And those who make a living by hunting Soul Beasts will have their kill count increased exponentially. If this continues, the Soul Master profession will probably reach a point where there are no Soul Beasts left to use."

After hearing Zhao Wuji's remarks, Tang San, who had learned about this subject from Yu Xiaogang, shared everything he knew.

Upon hearing Tang San's words, Zhao Wuji, Dai Mubai, Ning Rongrong, and the others fell silent, seemingly mourning for the future.

Xiao Wu clenched her hands tightly. Hearing Tang San's words, she was more saddened than the others and felt despair for the future of the soul beasts.

"Impossible! No matter how many years pass, a Soul Master will never be without usable Soul Rings!"

Seeing the somber expressions on everyone's faces, Su Mo smiled faintly and refuted Tang San's words.

"Oh? Why?"

"Didn't Tang San just make it very clear?"

Upon hearing Su Mo's words, Zhao Wuji looked at Su Mo in surprise.

Tang San and the others also looked at Su Mo, wondering why Su Mo said that.

"I admit that Tang San is right about most of what he said, but I can't agree with the last point. In my opinion, soul beasts can't become extinct, and soul masters won't be reduced to the point of having no soul rings to use!"

"It's just that future Soul Masters might only have low-level Soul Rings available!"

"Take Blue Silver Grass, for example. There are countless Blue Silver Grasses on the Douluo Continent!"

"Soul beasts like Blue Silver Grass can never become extinct!"

"If those high-level spirit beasts are indiscriminately killed, their spirit rings won't be wasted if they aren't absorbed; instead, they will dissipate into the world and return to nature!"

"And the same applies after a Soul Master dies; their Soul Power returns to nature!"

"Once this soul power returns to nature, more soul beasts will naturally be born, and animals that originally had no soul power will be more likely to become soul beasts!"

"If the number of high-level soul beasts decreases significantly in the future, the number of low-level soul beasts will surge. Even if there is a period when there are too many powerful humans causing a shortage of soul beasts, it will be fine once those powerful humans die out!"

"That's why I said future Soul Masters won't be without any Soul Rings; at most, they'll just run out of high-quality Soul Rings!"

"But since neither of us has any, it's even!"

"In the future, there may be a large number of white-ringed Soul Masters, whose entire Soul Rings are white!"

"Then they will be very envious of our ancestors!"

Su Mo quickly shared his insights, and when he mentioned that all future Soul Masters would have white Soul Rings, he couldn't help but laugh.

"Haha, all white spirit rings!"

"That's hilarious!"

Ma Hongjun and the others laughed when they heard this.

……

(End of this chapter)