Chapter 33: “so Beautiful, The Star Dou Great Forest”
Jiang Nannan left, taking her mother and some luggage Huo Yuhao stuffed to her, following the caravan to Shrek City.
The caravan was very long, far longer than Ding Yi Chamber of Commerce’s caravan, and at a glance, most people were commoners with their families.
These people were all heading to Shrek City to seek development and prospects.
That place was the holy land of Soul Masters and the center of the Continent, naturally attracting countless merchant associations to gather there.
The chance of making a living there was much greater.
A regular officer at the medical clinic had casually revealed to Huo Yuhao while chatting that the Heaven Soul Empire particularly disliked its citizens running off to Shrek City.
Shrek City was nominally under Heaven Soul Empire jurisdiction, but it was independent in legislation, enforcement, and tax revenue.
To put it bluntly, it was a country within a country, and this miniature nation was siphoning talent from the three empires.
Despite having complaints about this, the few empires didn’t dare express it openly.
Graduates from Shrek, the three empires had to grant them high official positions and generous salaries, leading to many important positions in the empires being held by Shrek people.
These people would blatantly favor outsiders, including but not limited to directly signing contracts with talented children of appropriate age once discovered, helping them hunt for soul rings but requiring them to study at Shrek Academy.
Huo Yuhao wasn’t too surprised by this; people head to higher places, water flows to lower places.
This was an unchanging truth since ancient times; apart from Star Luo Empire truly changing, the other two were just withered bones in a grave, slowly dying.
In this situation, the Sun Moon Empire was considered advanced and civilized on the Douluo Continent.
“Purely comparing who sucks more.”
This was Huo Yuhao’s evaluation.
The Douluo Continent was a world of comparing who sucks more; no one was better than anyone, only who sucked less!
After Jiang Nannan’s figure disappeared over the horizon, Huo Yuhao also packed his things at the medical clinic.
He put all the herbs, a large number of books, and the most important manuscript into the storage soul tool.
Huo Yuhao walked out of the medical clinic, closed the door, and couldn’t help feeling a bit sentimental; this medical clinic was his first property belonging to him in two lifetimes.
He gently took down the signboard at the door, then pasted a piece of paper on the door.
“This is Huo Qiang, heading out to the Continent for travels to find the most delicious fish; return date unknown, hope everyone doesn’t miss me.”
After posting the notice, Huo Yuhao didn’t linger in Xuan Feng City and directly left from the south gate of Xuan Feng City under the cover of night.
As for why he had to leave at night, it was because he simply couldn’t leave during the day.
That group of Soul Masters would probably hug his legs, crying and begging him not to leave; with Huo Yuhao gone, where would they find someone so cheap yet with such superb medical skills?
Huo Yuhao’s direction was very clear: head straight south, following the direction of Shrek Academy into the Star Dou Great Forest.
The Douluo Continent at night was extremely dangerous; along the way, Huo Yuhao’s spiritual power sensed many nocturnal soul beasts prowling on both sides of the road.
Any soul beast noticed by Huo Yuhao would be recorded in the illustrated record, then displaying related habits and abilities.
This allowed Huo Yuhao to easily identify which soul beasts were more dangerous, and he would generally avoid the more dangerous ones.
He didn’t want to engage in battle at night.
Fortunately, Xuan Feng City wasn’t far; after rushing along, when the sky began to show a fish belly white, a vast forest lay sprawled across the land like a primordial beast.
Nameless trees intertwined their branches and leaves, layer upon layer, making the maximum use of every ray of sunlight.
Every tree recorded the history of countless unknown years.
After entering this forest, Huo Yuhao restrained his spiritual power, trying as much as possible not to disturb the surrounding soul beasts.
Then he began wandering in the outer ring, recording soul beast species to improve Authority Control Level of [Understanding] while searching for traces of the Heavenly Dream Ice Silkworm.
……
“Plop~”
A splash erupted from the river surface; Huo Yuhao didn’t know how many casts he had made.
The bait he made nearby had long been thrown out.
He had hit so many bait spots and cast so many times, yet not a single fish was caught.
If he hadn’t seen fish bubbling nearby, he would suspect there were no fish in the river at all.
It had been ten days since arriving at the Star Dou Great Forest, from initial curiosity about this primitive forest to now almost numb emotions.
The scenery here was indeed beautiful, but staying here was real suffering; damn, the Star Dou Great Forest actually had mosquitoes.
Here, morning, noon, and night had different kinds of mosquito soul beasts harassing Huo Yuhao.
Only now did Huo Yuhao remember that the end of every summer was the outbreak period for mosquito soul beasts; he had timed it perfectly.
“So beautiful, Star Dou Great Forest.”
“Better to look at the world’s number one academy, Shrek Academy, in the distance.”
Huo Yuhao muttered listlessly, swinging the fishing rod once more with his arm.
“Meow~”
Of course, Huo Yuhao wasn’t alone; squatting nearby was a ten years Shadow Cat.
The bond between one person and one beast came from a grilled fish; this cat was injured and lying in some bushes.
Huo Yuhao was terribly bored at the time and healed it with reverse cursed technique; at first, it hissed madly at Huo Yuhao.
It even instantly shifted to thorny-back dragon form, but after eating Lao Huo grilled fish, the little cat immediately stood at attention.
It became Huo Yuhao’s lackey on the spot, leading him to locations of various rare herbs.
It even proactively lured prey for Huo Yuhao to hunt.
Huo Yuhao helplessly looked at the Shadow Cat beside him, wondering how to tell a cat that he had gone zero for everything.
Suddenly, the fishing rod twitched, and Huo Yuhao perked up, his Spiritual Eye even opening.
“Damn, finally got a bite.”
“Up you come!”
When the fishing rod left the water surface, a fish not even the size of a palm was hooked on the fish hook.
A vein popped on Huo Yuhao’s forehead as he took the fish down.
He slapped the fish head a few times, then stuffed a bunch of fish bait into its mouth, saying:
“What is a little child doing out here?!”
“Go back! Bring your family adult over!”
“The local fish are so rude; they don’t even know about offering tribute!”
Then he threw it back into the river, looking ashen and continuing to fish.
The Shadow Cat squatting nearby got a bit anxious; it pawed at Huo Yuhao’s clothes a few times before leaping into the river.
Then, under Huo Yuhao’s incredulous gaze, it came ashore in just one minute with a fish longer than Huo Yuhao’s leg in its mouth.
After placing the fish by Huo Yuhao’s leg, it dove back in fiercely and soon slapped two even bigger fish onto the shore.
Then the Shadow Cat squatted in front of Huo Yuhao like it was asking for praise, wagging its tail, its obsidian-like eyes gazing at Huo Yuhao.
Huo Yuhao glanced at the fish nearby and gripped his fishing rod tightly.
“So frustrating; when will us fishermen truly stand tall!”
Talk is talk, but Huo Yuhao wisely reeled in his rod and squatted by the riverbank to start a fire for grilling fish.
Soon, the unique aroma of grilled fish filled the surroundings, and the Shadow Cat nearby was drooling.
On the distant river surface where Huo Yuhao wasn’t paying attention, slight ripples appeared.
A dark golden triangular pyramid-shaped head emerged from underwater.
“What smell is that? So fragrant.”
