Having found a secluded tree hollow, Lu Shi slumped to the ground and began to carefully take stock of her gains.

Current remaining soul weight: 224G

[Current remaining unabsorbed soul weight: 195G]

[Current remaining monster soul weight: 564G]

...

The soul weight has steadily reached a high level, and there is still a large amount of unconverted soul weight.

A level 5 Storm Leopard King gave me a total of 563G of soul weight, awesome!

It seems that a perfect closed loop really is perfect!

Lu Shi straightened her back, feeling sore all over; she was in very poor condition. She needed to rest and recover some magic power before she could go rescue those four burdens.

Hopefully they can hold on.

...

I rested for less than four hours before dawn.

Lu Shi regained some of her strength, quickly got up, cast Wind Track, and headed towards the outer edge of the Monster Forest.

This time, she rushed to the rescue and didn't hunt the monsters in the central region again. When she saw the other students and teachers at the magic high school, she used Shadow Cloak and Wind Track to quietly avoid them and wasn't discovered by anyone.

Once again, we crossed the yellow line and returned to the outer perimeter.

Faced with the Tier 1 and Tier 2 magical beasts on the periphery, Lu Shi didn't even have the will to fight.

In just two days, Lu Shi entered and exited the central region of the Monster Forest, experiencing several life-or-death crises. Although dangerous, the gains were equally enormous.

I've now become a high-level mage. Although I can't cast high-level offensive spells, I have a large reserve of soul mass, which I can unleash at any time, easily mastering a high-level spell.

However, saving lives is the priority.

Lu Shi transformed into a gentle breeze, continuously searching the area under his team's responsibility.

Suddenly, she stopped; she had made a new discovery.

Three Swiftwind Wolves, reeking of decay, lay on the ground. Corroded by shadow magic, their corpses were so sparsely cared for that no other magical beasts would even attempt to gnaw on them.

Lu Shi covered her nose and slowly approached.

Upon closer inspection, it became clear that these three Gale Wolves were killed by the shadow magic of their own clones after they self-destructed.

How could a mere three Tier 1 Gale Wolves force the clone to self-destruct?

Puzzled, Lu Shi unleashed a phoenix flame from her right hand, burning all three wolf corpses to ashes without leaving a trace.

With a sway of his body, he continued his search for his four burdens.

...

On the outskirts of the forest, in front of a mountain wall, five students were surrounded by a large pack of swift wolves. They stood with their backs against the wall, facing the wolves.

Wu Lie raised his right hand, tracing star trails. Magic surged forth, and a fireball shot out, forcing a Gale Wolf back.

Behind him, Zhou Rui looked terrified, clutching her left hand, with blood dripping from her arm.

On one side, Long Fang and Zheng Zu were desperately pouring magic into the stone walls on the left and right to maintain the defensive line and prevent the pack of swift wolves from rushing in.

Behind the four of them stood a boy, trembling all over, with a blue light flashing beneath his feet, seemingly ready to flee at any moment.

"Zhang Qinglan, think of something quick! You're the one who lured these wolves here!" Zhou Rui turned around, grabbed Zhang Qinglan's clothes with her right hand, and said angrily.

"What does this have to do with me? I was just passing by. It's yourselves who are useless, and your practical instructor, that Teacher Lu, is also useless." Zhang Qinglan shouted angrily, slapping Zhou Rui's hand away. Her voice trembled slightly as if she had recalled something terrible.

“It wasn’t a copy… Teacher Lu stopped all the wolves, and we died yesterday. It was you who attracted so many more. It’s all your fault for coming here and harming us.” Zhou Rui continued to pat Zhang Qinglan’s body with her right hand, her voice full of blame.

"So what if we die? We're all going to die sooner or later anyway." Zhang Qinglan was on the verge of collapse, her voice trembling.

"Stop arguing. There are more and more Gale Wolves. If this continues, we're all doomed." Wu Lie swung another fireball, repelling a Gale Wolf.

His face turned ashen as he stared at the dozen or so Gale Wolves gathered before him.

"What's going on? Why are there more and more Gale Wolves?" Zheng Zu asked anxiously.

The stone wall has cracked several times and is now on the verge of collapse, so their repair efforts are becoming increasingly slow.

"I don't know. I don't know anything." Zhang Qinglan covered her head and shook it desperately.

"Oh no, I'm out of magic!" Long Fang suddenly shouted.

The magic of an earth mage is missing.

One of the stone walls quickly crumbled.

A dozen wolves seized the opportunity to rush into the defensive line and surround the five people.

The wolf pack didn't tear them apart immediately; instead, a huge, blue wolf king emerged from the pack.

"My God! It's a Tier 3 Gale Wolf King!" Wu Lie couldn't help but exclaim.

The Gale Wolf King glanced at the five people, then raised its head and howled.

Waaaaah...

As the wolf king howled, all the Swiftwind Wolves also raised their heads and howled.

The sound was shrill and extremely frightening.

"Stop howling!"

A bolt of lightning struck the Gale Wolf King precisely. The level 3 wolf king trembled all over and lay prostrate on the ground, with electricity flowing through its body.

Immediately afterwards, a ball of phoenix flames enveloped the wolf king.

In just over ten seconds, it was completely burned to a pile of black ash.

A gust of wind blew by, and it vanished without a trace.

Lightning strikes, electrocution, and phoenix flames.

They directly reduced a Tier 3 magical beast to ashes.

No one, human or animal, dared to move.

Lu Shi stepped on the wind tracks, like a fairy descending, and landed in front of the five students.

"Don't you know that showing off will get you struck by lightning?" Lu Shi said calmly to the wolf king who had turned to ashes.

The five students were stunned when they saw Teacher Lu appear out of nowhere.

Zhang Qinglan, in particular, looked at Lu Shi with a ghostly expression and stammered, "You, didn't you self-destruct when you were covering the rear yesterday?"

"Self-destruct?" Lu Shi asked in confusion.

Wu Lie scratched his head, seemingly wanting to say something but then stopping himself.

Lu Shi immediately realized that the one that self-destructed was a clone.

"Oh." Lu Shi quickly tried to cover it up: "Classmate, you've misread it. I didn't self-destruct."

“I didn’t see wrong, I even heard the sound of a self-destruction,” Zhang Qinglan said confidently, trying to get the other four people to testify.

No, you're mistaken.

The four of them spoke at the same time, leaving Zhang Qinglan stunned.

"Now is not the time to dwell on this," Lu Shi said magnanimously, waving her hand. "The problem now is dealing with these wolf cubs."

Purple light flashed in his hand, and the power of lightning gathered.

Lightning began to fall from the sky.

A thunderbolt struck, engulfing the four Gale Wolves and instantly killing them.

Seeing this, the other Gale Wolves howled and scattered in all directions.

Lu Shi withdrew his hand, clapped it, put his hands behind his back, and stared at the direction where the Gale Wolf had fled. His eyes were deep and he exuded the demeanor of a master.

"Teacher Lu," Wu Lie said timidly as he stepped forward, "These Gale Wolves are all charred by lightning; their limbs can't even be cut off. What a pity!"

"Stingy," Lu Shi replied casually, tossing her backpack to Wu Lie.

When Wu Lie opened it, the first thing he saw was the claws of a Tier 5 Storm Leopard.

"This, this is a Tier 5 magical beast?" The five students gathered around, staring at the enormous beast claw, all exclaiming in surprise.

"Yeah, this time Class 3 won't be at the bottom," Lu Shi said casually.

“Yes!” Zhou Rui said happily.

Just as the five students were cheering.

Lu Shi asked Zhang Qinglan, "Where is your teacher, Wen?"

She knew this student was one of the five people led by Wen Tianming, and she also knew that Wen Tianming was being chased by three level 3 Storm Leopards. But later she encountered the three leopards again, but she didn't see Wen Tianming again. She was very concerned about Wen's whereabouts.

“I don’t know where Teacher Wen is either.” Zhang Qinglan lowered her head and said in a low voice, “That night, Teacher Wen left the campsite with two girls and never came back. The three of us boys didn’t dare to stay in the central area, so we prepared to return to the outskirts the next day.”

After a pause, Zhang Qinglan's expression turned horrified as she continued, "On our way back, the three of us passed through a valley inhabited by a large pack of Gale Wolves, numbering in the hundreds. In our panic, we were discovered. Zhang Ye and Liu Minrui were instantly torn to shreds. I'm a wind-type, so I barely managed to escape. But a dozen or so Gale Wolves, led by a Tier 3 wolf king, relentlessly pursued me. And then I encountered..."

As she spoke, Zhang Qinglan glanced at Zhou Rui and the other three.

"What did you see? Why are you being chased like this?" Lu Shi asked, puzzled.

"We saw that the pack of Gale Wolves were kneeling and worshipping an object like humans. They looked very devout," Zhang Qinglan recalled.

"What object?" Lu Shi asked, very curious.

“It’s a shiny object. It looks like… it looks like… a mirror,” Zhang Qinglan said slowly.

“A mirror?” Lu Shi repeated, then muttered to herself, “Could it be… the Kunlun Mirror?”