Chapter 49: Borders

Early in the morning.

As per the arrangements made by the staff at Dino Technology, Wang Che first rode the maglev train to the soul pet base of Skyheart City.

He rode the off-road vehicle again and entered the border of Skyheart City through the artificial forest behind the soul pet base.

The army-green off-road vehicle drove through the lush artificial forest.

Wang Che sat in the front passenger seat and breathed in the refreshing air of the forest.

In the sky, there were many artificially raised flying-type soul pets. Beside them, there were a few emerald-green deer running along with the off-road vehicle.

Occasionally, he could see researchers from the soul pet base studying in the forest while recording data.

“This place is not bad, right?” The staff member who was driving smiled and said, “However, this is not the wilderness. It’s an artificial forest. Many soul pets have been tamed and are very docile.”

Before Wang Che could answer, the green caterpillar behind him cried out excitedly.

To a worm, the Great Forest was a natural home.

This place was quite attractive to it.

“Your green caterpillar seems to be very excited,” the staff member glanced at the green caterpillar behind him and commented.

If he had not seen it with his own eyes, he would not have believed that this green caterpillar could win the championship in the Enlightenment Cup.

“It was born just a few months ago and hasn’t seen much of the world,” Wang Che said.

“Young people nowadays are getting more and more powerful.” The staff sighed, “A green caterpillar born a few months ago can actually be nurtured so well.”

“You’re too kind,” Wang Che said modestly.

“Hmm, this green caterpillar of yours should have worn that mechanical meteorite armor, right? Looking at its size, it doesn’t seem to have changed much. If it cultivated quickly, wouldn’t its cultivation be about 150 years old by now?”

The staff member guessed from his experience, “The bottleneck at a hundred years is not a small hurdle for the green caterpillar.”

He felt like he was trying his best to evaluate it higher.

After all, this green caterpillar had 70 years of cultivation when it participated in the competition.

Breaking through the hundred years hurdle would take half a month or longer.

“Yes, it’s around there.” Wang Che replied.

“That’s really impressive.” The staff immediately gave a thumbs up before remembering, “Oh right, I’ll take this opportunity to tell you about this wilderness adventure.”

“When we leave the border, there might be many wild soul pets. Wild soul pets are relatively not so docile. Some soul beasts even have offensive abilities. For example, the Small Fire Sparrow and the Tail Sparrow in the sky; the Mad Hairy Bear and the Night Thief Rat on the ground; or the Life Tricker Bees and the Poison Eye Butterfly in the forest… They are all rather troublesome.”

“You guys learned it in high school, right?”

Wang Che nodded slightly.

Most soul beasts were kind to humans.

A small number of soul beasts were easily angered and irritable because of their nature. If they were not careful, they would be attacked.

However, generally speaking, as long as one did not provoke them, these soul beasts would not take the initiative to attack humans.

“The goal of your wilderness exploration is the Floating Forest outside the border.”

The staff member smiled and said, “This is a piece of Soul Earth. The so-called Soul Earth is an area of land that contains intense soul power fluctuations. You should not know the reason yet, but this is related to the otherworldly invasion of those Soul Demons and Dark Beasts from back then.”

“To put it simply, the Soul Earth is the scar left behind from the war back then. Countless human experts died here, as well as the Dark Beasts and Soul Demons. As time passed, countless corpses gradually transformed into nutrients, turning all these into fertile lands.”

“Countless rare resources were born within.”

With that, Wang Che understood.

“However, at the same time, due to the battle back then, the space there was shattered. Although most of it has been repaired, the space is still unstable.”

As the staff member spoke up to this point, his expression was solemn. “The unstable space, coupled with the aura of those Dark Beasts and Soul Demons, caused the soul beasts inside to be extremely violent and lose their minds. They have strong offensive abilities and attack anyone they see.”

“It’s very dangerous.”

“Your teacher should have told you if he was responsible.”

“However, you have the protection of powerful professional Contract Soul Masters for this trip. As long as you don’t go deeper, your safety can be guaranteed.”

“As for what you can obtain in the Floating Forest, it will depend on your luck and strength.”

Wang Che nodded. He was already prepared.

With the current situation of the green caterpillar, it was best to learn another soul skill.

Or perhaps, in terms of physique, strength, speed, and defense, it would focus on strengthening one of the aspects.

Its strength was already decent.

With a soul skill like the Rumbling Tail Strike, it could maximize its strength.

The Soul Armor Haki had been modified. If it could cultivate the armor into the Martial Soul Armament that Wang Che had imagined, not only would its physique, strength, speed, and defense increase, but its reaction, perception, and other aspects would also increase greatly.

With Wang Che’s improved design, the subsequent Martial Soul Armament would become a powerful combat state.

It was similar to the ‘Ultra Instinct’ of a certain world.

Of course, to reach that level, this child had to go through a lot of training.

As a trump card, this move was enough for the green caterpillar to use within the realm of a thousand years.

At the same time, it also had an attribute soul skill—Raging Flame Strike.

Therefore, Wang Che’s current plan for the green caterpillar was to focus on strengthening one aspect when it was not using the Martial Soul Armament.

He was planning on choosing either speed or defense.

That would become its outstanding attribute.

It would be best if there were natural treasures that could improve either aspect.

After all, the potential of the green caterpillar was limited. If it relied on cultivation methods to train, the increase would be limited.

Without eating some natural treasures, there was really no way to continue breaking through the upper limit.

One had to know that some powerful soul skills not only had a requirement on soul power cultivation but also had a harsh requirement on one of the attributes of a soul pet.

Otherwise, it would not be able to learn it.

“By the way, you have three companions on this trip,” the staff casually said. “They are the champions of the other three cities in the West Peak Continent.”

Wang Che was already prepared and was unsurprised.

After all, there were many cities in the West Peak Continent.

The Enlightenment Cup was held in every city.

The staff member explained the basic situation in detail.

Then, the staff member chatted briefly with Wang Che for a while before arriving at the gathering point at noon.

What surprised Wang Che was that there were many people at the border.

Moreover, they were all Contract Soul Masters.

“These are all Contract Soul Masters from the nearby cities, organized to explore the wilderness. There are students from universities, Contract Soul Masters from major clubs, major businesses… and many wild groups.”

The staff gave a simple introduction.

This place was like a small gathering spot.

What surprised Wang Che were the huge wall more than a hundred meters tall.

This was because Wang Che had never seen such huge walls in the far away Skyheart City.

However, the huge walls could be said to be tattered.

“These walls were built during the war. Now, the Soul Demons and Dark Beasts have long been defeated… In fact… heh, it’s only used to resist some soul beasts that have gathered in the wilderness. It’s to prevent them from entering Skyheart City and destroying the ecosystem.”

The staff sighed, “The traces left behind are all shadows of the war back then… Let’s go. There’s a military base nearby. You’ll all depart together from the base.”