Spring was the season when all things woke again. It was also the season when living things found mates.
On a grassy patch in the Star Soul Forest, two Softbone Rabbits stared at each other with deep affection. They were naked, stripped clean, facing each other with not a single hair left on their bodies.
"This is so moving!"
Beside the two rabbits, Wu Ling was practically drooling with emotion.
"Even in death, they wanted to die together. Such pure love moves me so deeply that I cannot help sprinkling on a little cumin."
After adding the cumin, Wu Ling adjusted the two Softbone Rabbits skewered on separate sticks.
"Come on, come on. Why are you so far apart? Get closer. Ember, cut some more Blue Silver Grass. This stuff burns out way too fast.
"And Azure, stop just standing there. I know I am not letting you eat, but I am not stopping you from smelling it. Come help me turn them. Do not let them burn."
"Can we not use firewood? Why does it have to be Blue Silver Grass..." Ember, who had been exercising his Spirit Power, was interrupted by Wu Ling. Since Wu Ling was the main body, Ember could only mutter complaints while cutting more Blue Silver Grass.
As the main body, Wu Ling naturally knew what Ember was thinking. He enjoyed the smell of roasting rabbit and smiled faintly. "At the end of the day, he is just a hot-blooded clone. Would he eat it? No. Even if he knew what relationship these two rabbits had, he would not feel it. This meal satisfies more than hunger. It satisfies the heart."
After assigning work to Ember and Azure, Wu Ling finally had time to pull out the map.
"We have been in the Star Soul Forest for five days, and the Elemental Spirit Cats and Elemental Vines are gone. Even the other Soul Beasts around here do not match the map. I know nature is brutally competitive, but this is too much.
"Especially that ten-thousand-year Earthrock Tortoise territory we passed. Even if it had only just entered the ten-thousand-year range, it was still a high-grade defensive Soul Beast. Killing it should have been troublesome even for a twenty-thousand-year or thirty-thousand-year Soul Beast. So how did it disappear?"
Ghost revealed himself beside him.
"Wu Ling, when an environment changes like this, there are usually two possibilities. Either a faction is hunting or capturing Soul Beasts over a wide area, or a top predator has appeared.
"Either way, the Silver Wolf's odds of survival are very low. You should prepare yourself. But do not be too disappointed. Most things in this world do not go the way people want. No one can guarantee that every Spirit Ring will be perfectly suited to them."
"I understand, Grandpa Ghost. I am just annoyed that my plan got disrupted."
Wu Ling had trained in martial arts since childhood. Of course he understood that the world would never turn according to his wishes.
But Wu Ling liked making plans. Once he made one, he would do whatever it took to carry it out. Even if it made him or someone else unhappy for a moment, the satisfaction of seeing a plan succeed made all of it worth it.
Of course, Wu Ling also knew how to adapt. Most of his old plans had been about what to eat each day anyway. If today's meal had to be postponed, he could always leave it to tomorrow's self.
While Wu Ling and Ghost studied the map and considered where to go if the Silver Wolf was truly gone, Ember's voice came from behind them.
"Main body, the rabbits are done."
"Good. Feast your eyes first. I am coming."
After saying that, Wu Ling turned back to Ghost. "Grandpa Ghost, let us eat first. If the Silver Wolf really is gone tomorrow, we will go deeper into the Star Soul Forest, to that eighty-thousand-year Eight-Origin Hydra.
"When the time comes, I will need you to hold back the serpent king while I find a suitable young serpent to hunt."
"All right."
Just that quiet answer calmed Wu Ling. It gave him a sense of security from the bottom of his heart.
"So this is the reassurance a Titled Sage gives. I wonder when I will reach that level."
Sitting by the campfire, Wu Ling and Ghost lifted the roasted rabbits.
The cooked rabbit was crisp outside and tender inside, with a golden surface and delicate meat that had none of the usual gamey smell.
Tearing the meat apart along the grain, they ate as they pulled. The thinner parts were crisp and refreshing, while the thicker parts were soft, chewy, and rich.
"Good," Ghost said after a few bites. "I did not know rabbit could be eaten like this."
The praise from his diner greatly pleased Wu Ling as the cook. Talking while eating was not polite, but he explained anyway.
"Of course. When eating rabbit, spicy or numbing-hot is the way to go.
"Nutritionally speaking, rabbit meat has three highs and three lows: high protein, high lysine, high digestibility, low cholesterol, low fat, and low calories. In simple terms, it is easy to digest and does not make you fat.
"Rabbit meat contains more protein than most meats, but its cholesterol and fat content are far lower. That is why people call it the vegetable of meats.
"And since these are Soul Beast rabbits, the nutrition and flavor are far beyond ordinary rabbits.
"If there were a hundred-thousand-year rabbit, I wonder how good it would taste."
Ghost did not understand every term, but he also felt there was no point asking about food theory when he did not cook. He simply continued eating seriously.
During the meal, a few hundred-year wolf-type Soul Beasts were drawn over by the smell of rabbit. Azure wiped them all out while wearing his usual listless expression.
"Ah. Today, it is you who die. Tomorrow, perhaps it will be me. Death is the end point of all life, and I was born right before the finish line..."
"Enough, Azure. Stop releasing that gloomy aura. Try being sunny like Ember."
Wu Ling interrupted Azure's verbal spellcasting and quickly finished his rabbit.
After the meal, Wu Ling used cultivation instead of sleep and passed the night by the fire.
The next morning, his biological clock woke him on time.
When Wu Ling looked around, Ghost had once again vanished from sight. He shrugged and withdrew Azure and Ember back into his shadow.
"Move out. Today, we find the target."
Six hours later, it was already noon, and Wu Ling had indeed found his target.
"The intelligence called that thing a Silver Wolf? Was the person who found it blind?"
In the clearing ahead of Wu Ling's hiding spot, three Golden Wolf Kings surrounded and protected a silver-white wolf like stars guarding the moon.
Its body was nearly three and a half meters long, lean and powerful. A crescent-shaped patch of silver fur marked its forehead, and its eyes shone silver.
"Judging by its size and markings, that thing is already ten-thousand-year. And not newly advanced either. It has to be at least a thirteen-thousand-year Silvermoon Wolf King."