Both the mother and the three men were in shock for several seconds when they saw the girl whom they were planning to help obtain a 100-year soul ring being kidnapped.
Everything had happened in a matter of seconds, and by the time they reacted to what had occurred, before they could give chase, the soul beast had already escaped, moving swiftly through the trees and bushes while carrying the girl. Although they tried to follow, the terrain was very rough; moreover, there were many trees and bushes blocking their view, making it impossible to see which direction Zhen Len had gone.
Tears began to well up in the mother's eyes before she started running in the direction where they had disappeared, but the bearded man stopped her.
"You can't go after them. If we move forward, we're likely to run into other soul beasts, so even if we do chase her, it will be impossible to find her quickly, and we might get lost in this forest. Also, if we continue down that path, 100-year soul beasts will start to appear more frequently."
The woman began to look more desperate the more she listened to the bearded man.
"But… but… she's my only daughter! I swore I would do everything I could to get her a 100-year soul ring… so she could become a respected and admired soul master…"
The woman couldn't stop crying, regretting having allowed a soul beast to take her daughter right before her eyes and for bringing her to this place with such unreliable mercenaries.
While this scene unfolded, in the forest, a girl could be seen clinging to a red fox with absolute terror in her eyes, afraid of falling due to the great speed at which they were moving.
The fox jumped across long distances with ease when it encountered small ravines. For a moment, the girl wanted to let go and fall; she preferred dying to being devoured by a soul beast. But each time she tried to jump off, fear gripped her more tightly, making her hold on to Zhen Len even harder.
After a few minutes, Zhen Len gradually slowed down so the girl wouldn't fly off and die due to carelessness.
He quickly threw the girl off, even though she was still clinging to him.
The girl, who landed on her back, looked at Zhen Len with a trembling voice as she crawled backward, but unfortunately her back hit a tree.
"P-please… don't… kill me… I'll do whatever you want…"
She knew it was useless to try and communicate with a soul beast, but no other solution came to her mind. She only had a small knife, which she was sure wouldn't even pierce the skin of such a terrifying soul beast, because she realized that the creature that kidnapped her must have surpassed 100 years or worse, could be a 1,000-year soul beast. She didn't even have a soul ring.
What mistake had she made? She wondered why, out of all people, she was the one kidnapped. It was her first time entering the Star Dou Forest and she had the bad luck to be captured and possibly eaten alive by a soul beast.
But to her surprise, instead of being eaten or killed, the soul beast sat one meter in front of her, and out of nowhere, fire began to appear and slowly take the shape of characters.
"[If you answer my questions correctly, I'll let you live]," was what Zhen Len had written. He could have found other ways to communicate, like creating a voice transmission tool soul, but he hadn't built one yet since he didn't expect to encounter humans so soon. Another option was to advance in spirit power rank to transmit thoughts via spiritual power.
Clinging to her last shred of hope, the girl didn't care how a soul beast could communicate with her.
"I'll answer all your questions… Just let me live," she said with a trembling voice.
Zhen Len slowly formed the fire characters again:
"[How has the blacksmith association been doing lately, and what happened to the Divine Blacksmith Zhen Len? What year is it in the Federation calendar? What do you know about the current Tang Sect or Shrek Academy? Why did you come to this forest to hunt a soul beast instead of simply buying a spirit soul at the Spirit Pagoda?]"
He went straight to the questions that interested him most at the moment. Although he knew the girl might not know some of the answers, he hoped to get at least some useful information. The girl, seeing a ray of hope, began to get nervous. She didn't know how to answer those questions and didn't even recognize some of the terms because she had never heard them before. But nervously, she began to respond with whatever seemed familiar to her, hoping it would appease the soul beast and make him let her go.
"I don't recognize many of the names you mentioned, but I'm very familiar with Shrek… people talk about them in stories a lot, because they were the ones who defeated the evil Spirit Hall and became gods around 50 years ago. Tang San became the Sea God and founded the Tang Sect, while his companions became gods alongside him."
Seeing that Zhen Len kept listening calmly without showing hostility, she grew a bit more confident in continuing to speak.
"We came to the Star Dou Forest because you need a special permit from the nobles to enter the hunting forests with low-year soul beasts, and that costs 20 gold coins per person. So our only option was the Star Dou Forest, because the other forests not controlled by nobles are much farther away. The same goes for martial soul awakenings. You have to pay 10 gold coins because only the nobles have the stones used to awaken martial souls, and if you're lucky, you might awaken one with 4 or 5 innate levels of soul power to get noticed by a noble."
Zhen Len's first thought upon hearing this was that everything had become pay-to-win, unlike in the future where, if you at least had talent, there were many opportunities to move forward.
She had tried to drag out the topic to show Zhen Len that she was committed to saying everything she knew, but when she finished, she got nervous again because she didn't know how to answer the rest of the questions.
So, after a brief pause, she resigned herself and said:
"As for the rest of the questions…"
She began looking to the side and muttered fearfully:
"I've never heard of the blacksmith association or anyone named Zhen Len. This is the first time I've heard of something called a spirit soul or the Spirit Pagoda. I also don't know anything about the Federation calendar…"
She shut her eyes tightly, expecting Zhen Len to attack her. She thought she'd be killed for not knowing the other answers.
But to her surprise, after waiting for almost a minute, nothing happened. Zhen Len was analyzing the little, yet important information he had received.
Realizing that he was in the past, he was filled with joy. Although it was the era when Tang San was beginning to scheme all over the place, at least the Divine Realm still existed, so becoming a god wasn't impossible like in Soul Land 3, where the Divine Realm was gone. Plus, he had an advantage over everyone on the continent because he was 20,000 years ahead in soul technology.
Even if it took him thousands of years to return to his previous level due to the slow cultivation of soul beasts, once he became human, his cultivation would progress at an incredible speed. With resources accumulated over millennia, reaching Hyper Douluo rank would be as easy as taking a walk.
He could also take advantage of many treasures intended for Huo Yuhao, although the one he was most interested in was Tianmeng. Not because he liked the worm, but because acquiring it would grant him the greatest trap in Douluo, second only to Tang Xuanyu's bloodline: Electrolux itself.
The only thing he slightly feared was Huo Yuhao's luck cursing him for interfering in his opportunities, but doing so would open a new path. If he could obtain the Snow Empress and the Ice Empress, he could possess both ultimate fire and ultimate ice.
He also considered how to attract the attention of the God King of Destruction or gain faith power. But then a crazier idea occurred to him: what if, instead of attracting the God of Destruction, he attracted the Goddess of Life? It might be simple. All he had to do was find those with the Nine Heart Flowering Apple martial soul, cultivate them over generations for thousands of years, and marry one of them when he became human. He would then provide her the resources to inherit the position of Goddess of Life, which would indirectly attract the God of Destruction.
The more Zhen Len thought about it, the more feasible the plan seemed. The only problem would be Tang San himself, or the bad luck of becoming the target of a powerful soul master before surviving those thousands of years. Also, he wasn't confident in creating an organization of humans to gather resources for him, because they cultivated too quickly and, seeing him as weak, would look at him with greedy eyes.
In the end, he decided to come up with many other plans and try them all, to have multiple chances at becoming a god, even if most failed. As long as one worked, he would have fulfilled his goal of becoming a God King. And if no other option remained, he'd have to settle for watching the Divine Realm become the Tang family's playground while he lived carefreely as a second-class god for all eternity.
He felt that, for now, he didn't need to worry too much about Tang San. He couldn't interfere openly in the mortal world, and at this moment, he should be stabilizing his cultivation as a God King while plotting for the Divine Realm to become his family's playground.
Once he finished thinking about more complex matters, he decided to leave the rest for later. He wanted to return to cultivation as soon as possible.
"[Thank you for answering these questions. As promised, I will let you live. Furthermore, I plan to reward you by helping you hunt a soul beast suitable for your martial soul. I know a lot about soul beasts and martial souls. Finding one compatible and helping you hunt it will be easy. I'll also return you to your mother. But as a condition, you must return alone once a year and tell no one what happened here, especially not about my existence or the words you saw. You will say that, while being kidnapped, another soul beast appeared and they fought over eating you. When one died and the other was mortally wounded, you absorbed its ring using the knife at your waist. People may not believe you, but stick to that excuse and you'll be fine.]"
Zhen Len found it relaxing to speak to a human after decades. He didn't trust her, but with his Eye of Truth, he could sense her emotions and vaguely read her thoughts. He'd also know if she returned alone or not next time, thanks to his great vision. If she tried to betray him or set a trap, he would find out quickly. So the risks were quite low for now, and he didn't really mind much if she didn't come back.
"Really?" the girl asked. She honestly didn't believe it at first and was sure she'd be killed. But seeing that he'd keep his word, and not only that also help her get a compatible 100-year soul ring it was like a blessing from heaven. She no longer saw Zhen Len as someone who had kidnapped and tried to kill her, but as her greatest benefactor.
"[Yes]"
"Awesome!" she shouted excitedly, even giving him a hug out of happiness, even though Zhen Len did this mostly to stay updated on human development and because he didn't like owing favors. Plus, he needed to prepare extensively for future events.