Douluo: Pick up a Firefly at the beginning

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Meteor glanced at the mirror-shaped soul tool in Luan Yu's hand, then looked at the small scout-type soul tools zipping through the forest like they owned the place. He couldn't help clicking his tongue—weren't these basically the same as unmanned recon drones from his old world? The only difference was that the ones Luan Yu released floated thanks to soul power.

In this world, soul power was basically a universal fuel—everything ran on it.

Soul skills here were absolutely wild. Some of them could even mess with fundamental concepts, like straight-up reviving the dead. No joke.

And the fuel for all these broken abilities? Soul power.

It made sense that Luan Yu, being a Level 9 Soul Engineer, could easily control more than ten scout tools at once without breaking a sweat. If she really pushed it, unleashing a hundred at once probably wouldn't be an issue.

That's the difference with soul engineers. Their soul power might not be as high-quality as soul masters', but they've got it in bulk. Loads of it.

Problem is, in actual combat, quantity means jack if the quality's trash. A soul master's power could shatter a soul engineer's energy like paper. That's why soul engineers tend to fall apart if a soul master gets too close—they just can't handle direct confrontation.

The Sun Moon Empire's soul tool tech was seriously next level. Compared to Meteor's original world, both had their strengths, just headed in different directions.

According to Luan Yu, the Sun Moon Empire had something called a "Level 9 Fixed Installation Soul Cannon Shell." One of those things could wipe out a small city in an instant. Two of them? Bye-bye to a medium-sized city. Ten of them could erase the largest of cities.

And paired with a Level 9 Soul Launcher, these things could launch precise attacks from halfway across the continent—assuming they weren't intercepted. Honestly, that was already comparable to missiles from Meteor's world. With how fast soul tool tech was developing, it wouldn't even surprise him if they eventually came up with something on par with nukes.

A single Level 9 Fixed Soul Cannon Shell could even kill a Title Douluo head-on. That was one of the main reasons the Sun Moon Empire could suppress the original three Douluo nations, despite having way fewer high-level soul engineers compared to the number of Title Douluos the other nations had.

Now Meteor was starting to get why Tang Sect's hidden weapons had fallen out of favor. When it came to versatility and large-scale warfare, soul tools just blew hidden weapons out of the water. Sure, some hidden weapons were ridiculously powerful—like, "can hurt a god" level—but if those had actually been passed down, the Tang Sect probably wouldn't have declined so hard.

As the group moved deeper into the forest, they left the outer perimeter behind and started heading toward the inner region of the Evil Demon Forest. The soul beasts here were clearly stronger—hundred-year beasts were everywhere, and they'd occasionally spot thousand-year ones. But under the pressure of Luan Yu's Title Douluo aura, the soul beasts all scattered like rats.

Two hours later, they were close to the inner circle. Luan Yu waved her hand and changed their direction, leading them to circle along the edge of the inner area. Once you actually entered the inner zone, ten-thousand-year soul beasts would start showing up. Those things had high intelligence—some could even talk—and even with a Title Douluo's aura, they'd still come up to test you. After all, they could tell the difference between a human Title Douluo and a hundred-thousand-year soul beast.

This borderline zone was actually perfect for finding low-age but high-bloodline soul beasts—exactly what they were here for.

Once they entered that region, Luan Yu immediately withdrew her aura and carefully hid her presence. Against ten-thousand-year soul beasts, that pressure wouldn't scare them—it'd attract them. So she ditched her earlier showy behavior, suppressed her soul power, and used her soul tools to scout ahead. The whole team went full stealth mode.

For Meteor and the other kids, this was their first time in a soul beast habitat. They were buzzing with curiosity but didn't dare wander far from Luan Yu. Among them, only Liu Ying had the ability to protect herself. Meteor, while physically enhanced thanks to inheriting Liu Ying's body constitution, had zero combat experience.

I mean, you couldn't expect much from someone who spent most of their life stuck in a hospital bed. No way he'd have combat instincts. Right now, he was basically relying on raw strength to get by—he might be able to punch his way through a hundred-year soul beast, but anything stronger? Forget it.

Even Liu Ying, without transforming into Sam, probably could only take on a thousand-year soul beast. Ten-thousand-year ones? She'd either have to run or transform.

Let's be real—their bodies were only six years old. No matter how good the base is, there are rules to this game!

Xu Tianzhen and Ye Guyi had been super nervous at first, but after seeing every soul beast get scared off by Luan Yu, they slowly got used to the creepy atmosphere of the forest.

They weren't expected to hunt soul beasts themselves yet, but it was still important to build experience. First things first, though: they had to get their soul rings. Training could wait until they were done with that.

The Evil Demon Forest was ruled by the Evil Eye clan. Once you entered the inner zone, there was a good chance you'd run into one. Evil Eyes were spiritual-type soul beasts, meaning they'd likely notice the group. And killing one? Totally not worth it. No one here needed a spiritual-type soul ring, and doing that might attract an even scarier Evil Eye Tyrant. Way too risky.

So for now, Luan Yu kept them moving near the border between the inner and outer regions, searching for a suitable soul beast. But this wasn't something you could rush. Hunting a soul beast always took time and luck. Plenty of soul masters came home empty-handed and had to make multiple trips before finally succeeding.

Of course, that was mostly just bad luck.

The Evil Demon Forest was huge—second only to the Star Dou Forest and the Extreme North. Meteor and the others were already prepared to spend several days here.

They walked cautiously, sticking close together, when suddenly—boom!—a chaotic wave of soul power surged from up ahead. Luan Yu frowned. Was there a soul beast battle going on?

Meteor and the others had already awakened their martial souls and possessed soul power, but none of them had sensed anything beforehand. Liu Ying, despite her combat experience, didn't know enough about soul power detection to notice either.

Luan Yu motioned for everyone to hide behind a large tree. Then she sent out a scout-type soul tool to check out the disturbance.

Curious, Meteor and the rest watched the mirror-shaped soul tool in her hands. A moment later, the feed started coming in, and they could see what the scout tool had picked up—two soul beasts locked in fierce combat.

It was a wide clearing, littered with craters and shattered trees—clear signs of a brutal fight.

In the middle of the battlefield, two extraordinary-looking soul beasts faced off.

One of them was massive and built like a tank, its body covered in metallic, gleaming scales that looked insanely tough. They even reflected light in a way that made the creature faintly visible even in the shadows. Its head looked like a lion's, with eyes like glowing red rubies that burned with a cold light. Its nose was high and proud, and its jaws were wide, filled with razor-sharp teeth that sparkled like they could slice through steel.

"....."