Attribute Infusion (4k)

After Wang Rui left, Tang Ya held her roast chicken and muttered quietly to Beibei, "I only thought they were together because they seemed pretty in sync..."

"Their clothes are worlds apart. One look tells you they're not from the same social class. They probably just happened to meet, like us." Beibei shook his head with a smile.

Tang Ya's eyes lit up. "If that's the case, how about bringing Little Brother Huo into the Tang Clan? He dared to come alone to the outskirts of Star Dou Great Forest, so Little Brother Huo must be a soul master too!"

"You don't just want to recruit him into the Tang Clan because his grilled fish is delicious, do you?" Beibei asked irritably.

"How could that be?" Tang Ya's thoughts had been exposed, and her pretty face flushed.

"Come on, Xiaoya. Look into my eyes, put down that chicken wing, and say it again."

"Hmph... Can you really bear to let me never eat grilled fish this delicious again?" Tang Ya asked pitifully.

"You little glutton." Beibei reached out and scraped Tang Ya's nose, then said seriously, "I don't think the chances are high. There really were Soul Power fluctuations around Little Brother Huo, but he seemed very interested in Beast Sect just now."

"How would we know without asking? Beast Sect is powerful, but our Tang Clan isn't bad either. We've been passed down for over ten thousand years, and our first-generation sect master was Lord Sea God himself!" Tang Ya said. "The Tang Clan also has powerful cultivation methods and hidden weapons..."

Her voice grew softer and softer until she could no longer continue.

"We'll go find him later and ask. Then we'll know." Beibei sighed softly.

"Mhm!" Tang Ya nodded hard. "Once I finish eating, we'll go right away!"

To avoid drawing Beibei and Tang Ya's attention, Wang Rui had deliberately chosen not to leave in the same direction as Huo Yuqing.

At that moment, he sat atop a towering tree, his forehead protector pushed up onto his head to reveal the blood-red Eye of Destiny, which was constantly rotating.

He was examining his own fortune.

The fortune of the Three-Eyed Golden Lion resembled a beautiful, enormous vortex, driving the overall fortune of Star Dou Great Forest into faster rotation.

Countless threads, varying in thickness and color, extended from Wang Rui's body. Each represented karma between himself and another individual, linking Wang Rui to the beings with whom he had formed bonds.

More than ten years ago, after Huo Yuqing was born, a ribbon formed from luminous mist-like fortune had connected her and Wang Rui.

Just now, that mist-like ribbon between them had solidified, becoming a karmic thread far more durable than the others.

Yet only two such sturdy karmic threads were attached to Wang Rui. One connected to Huo Yuqing, while the other, just like the karmic thread on Tang Ya, drifted toward the intangible rift in the sky.

The other end of that karmic thread was connected to the Golden Dragon King, who had been sealed in the Divine Realm—the source of half of Wang Rui's bloodline.

Though Wang Rui himself was reluctant to admit it, the Golden Dragon King truly could be considered his biological father.

Wang Rui focused the Eye of Destiny on the karmic thread linking them. His field of vision seemed to drift along that thread at once, and the scene around Huo Yuqing appeared in his mind.

At that moment, a crack had already split open in the ground beneath Huo Yuqing's feet, and a round, plump white head was pushing out from the fissure.

—The million-year soul beast Brother Sky Dream had made his grand entrance!

However, the Wind Baboon, Huo Hang's fated archenemy, did not appear.

But that was nothing.

Everything had long since become different from the original story.

If Tang Ya and Beibei caught up, he would have to find a way to help Huo Yuqing explain things away. But that was no difficult matter for an Imperial Auspicious Beast.

Now it was his turn to make an entrance.

Wang Rui leaped down from the treetop. His form flashed, turning into a streak of golden light as he raced toward Huo Yuqing.

Huo Yuqing felt as if she were dreaming.

On her way deeper into the forest, a gigantic silkworm that called itself a million-year soul beast had suddenly burrowed out of the ground.

The silkworm told her, "Kid, you are the chosen child"—Tian Meng did not know why the Auspicious Beast insisted he say that, but doing as the Auspicious Beast said could not be wrong—"so today, I've decided to offer myself up as your million-year Wisdom Soul Ring."

Anyone would think they were having a daydream, right?

"But why did you choose me?" Huo Yuqing stared warily at the terrifying soul beast before her.

"Heh, human kid. You're not very old, but you sure are cautious." Sky Dream Ice Silkworm shook his head as he commented.

"Mr. Ice Silkworm, although I'm young, my mother told me that there's no such thing as a free lunch in this world. If you want something, you must give something in return." Huo Yuqing forced herself to remain calm. "You're offering me such a huge benefit. What do I need to give in return?"

The benefit before her was simply too enormous, too enormous to put her at ease.

A million-year soul ring! It was even stronger than the legendary hundred-thousand-year soul rings, and infinitely better than the ten-year soul ring she had expected to obtain!

Huo Yuqing desperately wanted this power so that she could avenge her mother. Even if this million-year soul ring was bait and a cliff lay beyond it, she would still jump for the sake of revenge.

But she was still afraid. She wanted to know what exactly was hidden behind this incredible stroke of fortune.

"You need to become a god." Another voice suddenly cut in.

A strange soul beast entered Huo Yuqing's field of vision.

At first glance, it looked like a lion with Dragon clan traits. Its body was over three meters long, making it appear especially small beside the enormous silkworm.

Its body was covered in fur like golden crystal. A thick mane surrounded its neck and tipped its tail, shifting gradually from gold to fiery red, its ends seeming to burn with illusory flames.

Even more strangely, a blood-red third eye grew in the center of its forehead.

As this soul beast walked through the dim forest, it was like a blazing sun descending upon the woods, illuminating everything around it.

At that moment, the forest was astonishingly quiet. Even the sound of the wind had vanished.

"Hello. I am the Imperial Auspicious Beast of Star Dou Forest. For now, you could say I am the king of this forest." Wang Rui lowered his head to look at her and spoke softly.

Huo Yuqing looked directly into the beast's brilliant golden eyes. She knew she should not stare into a wild beast's eyes like this, as it could be seen as a provocation.

Yet, strangely enough, those calm golden beast eyes soothed her, and her panicked emotions gradually settled.

It was as if she trusted this strange soul beast by nature.

"Star Dou Great Forest will provide you with the finest resources, including but not limited to hundred-thousand-year soul rings and soul bones. We will help you rise to the pinnacle of Douluo Continent, then break through the limits of this world and become a god." Wang Rui spoke, his voice sounding somewhat ethereal and distant, making his words particularly convincing.

"All you need to do is, after becoming powerful, join the soul beasts' side and openly support them. Of course, this will not put you in a difficult position. The Soul Beast clan will not do things like slaughter humans. We merely need you to stand behind the soul beasts and deter human poachers. Then, after becoming a god, help me with one matter... As for what it is, you are still too weak. Knowing too much would not benefit you. But I can guarantee that it will absolutely not exceed your capabilities. In that respect, I am fairly reasonable."

What kind of condition was that? Half of Huo Yuqing's unease faded, only for the other half to rise again. This request was practically no request at all—she had clearly been prepared to sell herself completely.

She almost wanted to scream again. Why did this Imperial Auspicious Beast trust her so much?

She wanted to avenge her mother, but she had only dared to dream of cultivating diligently, becoming a Titled Douluo decades later, and returning to Duke's Mansion. Becoming a god was far too distant. In ten thousand years, the only person said to have become a god was the legendary Sea God Tang San!

Yet from what the Imperial Auspicious Beast was saying, it seemed as though she was guaranteed to become a god!

"I... My talent is very poor. My Innate Soul Power is only a little over rank one," Huo Yuqing said hesitantly.

She did not truly want to turn down such an opportunity, but for some reason, she feared disappointing the trust of the Imperial Auspicious Beast before her.

"I'm betting that you can become a god," Wang Rui said calmly. "Will you make me lose?"

Huo Yuqing stared at him. A belief suddenly arose in her heart, as if, so long as those golden eyes watched her and their owner trusted her, she could accomplish anything.

"I won't make you lose!" The girl gritted her teeth and spoke firmly.

She vaguely heard the Auspicious Beast let out a low purr like a large cat.

As expected of Huo Hang! Wang Rui happily flicked his tail, sighing inwardly. Eleven- or twelve-year-old Huo Hang had not yet been corrupted by Shrek and the Tang Clan. She was both obedient and easy to win over.

Sky Dream Ice Silkworm stayed to one side, looking at Huo Yuqing, then at Wang Rui. He was clearly another main character in this scene, yet he somehow felt as though he had no presence at all.

"Why does it feel like I just ate a chunk of Ice Marrow?"

The silkworm was confused.jpg

"Good. Hold out your hand."

Huo Yuqing hesitated briefly, then held out her hand.

A translucent, spindle-shaped azure-gold crystal about two finger joints long floated onto her palm. The crystal slowly rose upright and stabbed deeply into her fingertip.

Blood instantly flowed out, but instead of dripping downward, it silently fused into the crystal.

Then, the beautiful azure-gold crystal floated up again, lightly landing on Huo Yuqing's forehead before silently merging into the girl's brow.

"Do not resist," Wang Rui said in a deep voice. "This is Gold of Life, a metal condensed from extremely pure life force. It can improve your physical constitution."

A strange, warm aura spread from where the crystal had entered, flowing through every meridian in Huo Yuqing's body.

An unprecedented sense of comfort spread throughout her body. Huo Yuqing felt as though every smallest part of her body had been immersed in warm water, every cell greedily absorbing that gentle, pure power.

This energy was not forceful. Like a trickling stream, it seeped bit by bit into the girl's meridians, subtly expanding her frail channels and compensating for the flaws in her innate talent.

Dense azure light traveled once around Huo Yuqing's body before finally gathering at the girl's forehead.

Drawn by this power, Huo Yuqing's eyes suddenly became profound. Martial Soul Possession was completed in an instant, and flecks of azure-gold radiance appeared in her deep-blue pupils, like a brilliant river of stars.

The azure-gold light also slowly gathered between her brows, forming a somewhat illusory vertical eye.

Guided by instinct, Huo Yuqing somewhat blankly attempted to control that illusory third eye. The vertical eye opened, its azure-gold pupil rolling once within the socket before quickly closing again as if exhausted.

Wang Rui lowered himself, and in his Three-Eyed Golden Lion form, his enormous head stopped before Huo Yuqing.

In a daze, Huo Yuqing placed her hand on Wang Rui's head, her slender fingers sinking into the thick fur like golden crystal.

Guided by an unseen force, she pressed the azure-gold vertical eye newly formed on her forehead against Wang Rui's third eye.

At that instant, distorted light burst forth from the center of Huo Yuqing and Wang Rui's bodies, spreading outward without end, as if the fortune of the entire world had been stirred into turmoil.

In the unseen world of living beings, a vast and terrifying vortex of fortune formed with Star Dou Great Forest as its center.

Above the human empires, countless magnificent yet illusory bands of light shattered apart, turning into luminous mist that spread outward before being drawn toward the vortex above Star Dou.

In an instant, the cyclone above Star Dou expanded by a full third.

The overall fortune of Douluo Continent had neither increased nor decreased. Only the distribution of that fortune had silently changed at that moment.

—The Child of Destiny had made her choice, and the world's fate had set out upon an entirely different path.

This was not the Attribute Infusion forced by Taotie Douluo in the original story. This was a voluntary and fair exchange, driven by the pull of destiny between both sides. Naturally, the result was vastly different.

The fluctuations on the level of destiny ended in an instant, so quickly that they were nearly impossible to detect.

Wang Rui clearly felt a portion of his own Power of Destiny flow into the small human body before him. The latter's powerful fortune immediately flowed back in return, continuously blending with his own.

The Power of Destiny unique to the Auspicious Beast began to drain away, leaving Wang Rui feeling somewhat weak. Yet the fortune of humanity and the fortune of soul beasts slowly fused, forming an entirely new power.

It was more mysterious and more profound than Wang Rui's original Power of Destiny.

...It was like the origin of all things, the foundation of the world.

At that moment, Wang Rui felt his mind connect to heaven, earth, and all living things. No longer confined to humans or soul beasts, it seemed that with a single thought, he could command the winds and clouds in the sky, control magma erupting beneath the earth, and rewrite the destinies of every living being under heaven in an instant.

This was the very foundation of what was called "destiny." Wang Rui had successfully touched the threshold of the next stage of the Power of Destiny.

The threshold of advancing to godhood.

At that very moment, he once again sensed the enormous object deep within the earth—a beating, colorless, strong, vigorous—heart.

On the other side, Huo Yuqing also vaguely felt a mysterious, brand-new power merge into her body. But she did not understand the Power of Destiny, nor did she know what that new power was. She only directly felt that both her soul and body had undergone a kind of sublimation.

But the sensation lasted only a few seconds before Wang Rui and Huo Yuqing both felt an immense attraction where their third eyes touched, as though their souls were about to be drawn into each other's bodies.

After the world spun around them, the scene before both of them changed.

Yesterday, someone in the comments mentioned that the revival of soul beasts was pretty absurd, because soul beasts were not a unified whole to begin with...

Uh, I have to say, that's true. Soul beasts are not a unified whole.

For example, wolves eat rabbits. How are those two supposed to work together?

Let me explain a little more. I did write earlier that the Fierce Beasts among the soul beasts each had their own thoughts and ambitions. That part really was not written just to pad the word count... I thought I had made it pretty obvious, but maybe I'm inexperienced and did not convey it well enough...

But if soul beasts are divided and cannot unite, then in the end they can only become what they were in the original story: penned up as humanity's reserve resources...

And then there's the Silver Dragon King letting people off for love... emmm.

Even when Di Tian faced his tribulation, he could not return to Douluo. In the end, he could only rely on charity from humans.

Although Star Dou now has Beast Sect thanks to the Auspicious Beast, it is really just the Auspicious Beast forcing them to unite. Both internal and external troubles still exist—if they did not, what would I even write? There is even a huge landmine buried beneath Lake of Life that they cannot defeat anytime soon...

It has not been easy for Wang Rui to get this far. In the original story, Wang Qiu'er's status was basically that of a noble cultivation accelerator. She had no real power in her hands. At least Wang Rui has some actual authority...

Anyway... that's all for today's explanation, QwQ.

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