Failed Heavenly Forging

What great tribulation? Huo Yuqing looked at the woman in confusion.

A roar rumbled from the black tiger's throat beside her. Strangely, Huo Yuqing could actually understand what she was saying.

"Mom, please, even if it's for me and the Imperial Auspicious Beast..."

"I'm sorry, my precious. Mommy will always love you." The woman cupped the black tiger's head and kissed it gently, then rubbed the Imperial Auspicious Beast's head. "Imperial Auspicious Beast, of course I believe in your plan, but now I have something I want to accomplish even more."

"If you love me, why do you insist on leaving?!" The black tiger roared. "Why?!"

"I..." The Three-Eyed Golden Lion was about to say something when the tallest man, dressed in black robes with black hair, suddenly spoke and cut her off.

"Tiger Empress, you know this, don't you?" His tone was extremely calm, and his face showed no expression, yet an intense pressure radiated from his body. "If I wanted to, I could find the Lord and ask her to forcibly seal your great tribulation."

"I know." The purple-haired woman smiled, staring fixedly at the black-haired man. "But I know you. You wouldn't do that."

The black-haired man stared at her for a long time before speaking with difficulty. "Yes. I wouldn't."

"The research into soul spirits is only one crucial step away from completion! Within two hundred years, this final hurdle will definitely be overcome!" The Imperial Auspicious Beast seemed to have sensed something. He spoke urgently, his words rapid, his voice even trembling. "If you're willing to wait until then, you may even have a chance at immortality!"

"Imperial Auspicious Beast." The black-haired man spoke calmly. "Respect her choice. For hundreds of thousands of years, Tiger Empress has always been willful. She has always been this way. She has never changed, and she will not change for anyone."

"..." The Imperial Auspicious Beast opened his mouth as if he wanted to say something, but gave up and lowered his head dejectedly.

"Mom, don't do this. Don't force me to hate you..." the black tiger choked out, huge tears falling from her eyes. The silver-haired middle-aged man standing beside her sighed and stroked her back.

"Tiger Empress, you..." He looked pleadingly at the woman with short purple hair.

Tiger Empress shook her head. "Little Dragon, you are my daughter's contractor. Though you are human, I watched you grow up. You're practically half a son to me. Humans have always matured faster than soul beasts. My daughter's temperament is not yet mature, so I'll have to rely on you to take better care of her."

Huo Yuqing widened her eyes. That silver-haired middle-aged man was actually from the Beast Sect?

"Yes, of course." The silver-haired middle-aged man lowered his head.

"A-Yun, you're always like this," said the woman clad in purple scale armor. "Will you never change for those who love you?"

"Is this your first day knowing me, Zi Ji?" Tiger Empress shook her head. "All feasts must come to an end. I have things I must do as well."

Then she turned, focusing intently on the purple lightning roaring in the sky, and revealed a somewhat arrogant smile. "I will use my great tribulation to complete this greatest of works."

Something resembling a long black staff appeared in her hand.

The instant the long staff appeared, the surroundings seemed to darken with it. Yet Huo Yuqing inexplicably felt that it was alive. It was breathing, anticipating, and rejoicing.

Even with her Spirit Eyes open, the girl could not distinguish what material it was made from. The surface of the black staff seemed smooth, yet it did not reflect even the faintest trace of light. Looking more closely, she found fine, intangible patterns on the staff. Those patterns seemed blacker than black, like lightning spreading through the sky, or something naturally cracking apart.

After staring at those patterns for only a moment, Huo Yuqing felt a stabbing pain in her eyes, as though even her soul would be drawn into them.

"Stop looking." A gentle voice came from above her head. "At least, don't look so closely. Your cultivation is too low."

Another Imperial Auspicious Beast appeared behind her.

"What... is going on?" Huo Yuqing asked in shock.

"This is my memory," Wang Rui answered. "I originally wanted to take you out directly, but I never expected you to fall into this memory... It's good that you stayed to watch. I also hope there can be one more person who remembers her."

"That Tiger Empress is your...?" Huo Yuqing asked hesitantly.

"My adoptive mother." Wang Rui lowered his head and gently rested his chin atop Huo Yuqing's head. "Except under extremely special circumstances, most soul beasts can only live another thousand years after reaching Hundred-Thousand-Year Cultivation unless they take human form. After those thousand years, they must undergo their first tribulation to continue living.

"Afterward, every time a soul beast's cultivation increases by another hundred thousand years, it must undergo another tribulation. At two hundred thousand years of cultivation, soul beasts can take on human form. You humans call such soul beasts Fierce Beasts. Tiger Empress... was a Fierce Beast nearing seven hundred thousand years of cultivation. This was her seventh great tribulation."

"She originally had a chance to survive... but as you saw, she was a willful madwoman. She had always been like that. That is why I hate her, and also why I love her." Wang Rui gave a bitter smile.

"When I was still a cub, I was merely the mascot of the Star Dou Great Forest. Back then, I had many ideas that sounded like madness, and Tiger Empress was the only one willing to patiently listen to me finish, then support me unconditionally—she thought it was interesting, and she wanted to do it."

"That was where her charm lay, and also what made her most detestable."

"You don't actually hate her, do you? You're just in too much pain," Huo Yuqing asked softly.

"Yes..." Wang Rui sighed. "Did you see the thing she was holding?"

The girl nodded.

"That was an alloy." Wang Rui raised his head, watching Tiger Empress fly toward the sky above the valley. "I gained knowledge from fate that did not belong to this era: forging metals, a hundred forgings for purification, a thousand forgings to create essence, Spirit Forging to grant metal life, Soul Forging to grant metal a soul, Heavenly Forging... merging in laws to forge divine artifacts."

Shock appeared in Huo Yuqing's eyes.

"It sounds unbelievable, doesn't it?" the Imperial Auspicious Beast murmured. "That was why the other Fierce Beasts did not believe it either. Only my mother spent several thousand years turning theory into reality. We forged Soul Forged metal with souls. And now, what she held in her hand was a piece of Spirit Forged metal with life."

The forging methods recreated and summarized by the soul beasts were not entirely the same as those mentioned in Douluo 3, but the final results were not too different.

"Then, she wanted to attempt Heavenly Forging." Wang Rui practically growled. "But in this era, Heavenly Forging was fucking impossible to succeed!"

"Why?" Huo Yuqing could not help asking.

"Your cultivation is too low right now. Knowing too much would not be good for you." Wang Rui shook his head. Then, catching the faint disappointment on Huo Yuqing's face, he hurriedly added, "Well, I mean, if you still want to know after you become strong, I'll tell you everything exactly as it was."

The girl looked at him in slight surprise, then smiled softly. "Then it's a promise. Tell me after I become stronger."

"Alright." Wang Rui nodded.

"I told her Heavenly Forging could not succeed, but she insisted on trying." He continued, his voice filled with bitterness. "If only I hadn't told her about Heavenly Forging back then—she was a madwoman. She wanted to use thunder and fire to temper that piece of metal, then fuse the trace of the Law of Destruction contained within her own Heavenly Tribulation into it."

Huo Yuqing thought of her deceased mother. She tentatively reached out and patted the Imperial Auspicious Beast's head. "It really is too cruel for those left behind, but it wasn't your fault."

They fell silent, watching from afar as Tiger Empress stopped in midair directly above the valley. She released her hand, and the black metal rod floated in the air.

The pitch-black clouds in the sky began to churn. Purple lightning, like enormous dragons with neither heads nor tails in sight, darted through the clouds.

The atmosphere in the air grew increasingly oppressive, and Huo Yuqing could not help holding her breath.

The Tiger Empress raised her head in midair and let out a long roar. Within that ear-splitting sound was a sense of unrestrained exhilaration and an indescribable anticipation.

A solid phantom lit up behind the Tiger Empress—a ferocious giant tiger, surrounded by blazing blood-red spectral flames.

"Is this a sacrifice???" the woman in the green dress cried out. "Has she gone insane?"

"She doesn't just want to draw down heavenly thunderfire—she wants to meld her own flesh, soul ring, and soul bone into it as well!!!" the Auspicious Beast from the memory screamed. "Damn it! Damn it! Damn it! Spirit Forging creates life—the metal already possesses life, so sacrificing herself to it is entirely possible. She's completely insane!"

Then, the tribulation lightning came pouring down.

The pitch-black sky was illuminated by that violet-red lightning as though it were broad daylight! The violet-red heavens carried the oppressive might of the apocalypse, crushing the breath from everyone's lungs.

The nearly tiny figure in midair laughed loudly and flew straight upward, toward the lightning.

Almost at the exact instant she was struck by the tribulation lightning, the Tiger Empress twisted downward, raised a fist, and smashed it heavily into the metal staff floating in midair!

"Roar!" When her fist struck the metal staff, the clash of metal actually rang out like a tiger's roar! At that moment, the pure-black staff burst forth with dazzling blood-red radiance!

As that punch landed, the blood flames fused into the metal as well, and the phantom behind the Tiger Empress grew a little more faint.

"Haha, exhilarating! Again!" the Tiger Empress laughed, flying up once more to meet the heavenly tribulation.

"Rumble—"

Only then did the thunder from the first tribulation bolt finally crash down.

Bolt after bolt of tribulation lightning descended. No one had the mind to count how many strikes fell. All of them watched in awe as the Tiger Empress used her fists as forging hammers and her flesh and blood as the medium to shape that piece of metal.

Less than half the lightning within the clouds had dissipated, yet her body had already become nearly transparent.

At that moment, two violet-black spheres of light floated out from her body. They landed respectively before the Auspicious Beast in the memory and the black giant tiger, merging into their bodies.

When the next tribulation bolt fell, the nearly transparent Tiger Empress gave the people on the ground a relieved smile. Then, her entire body shattered beneath the lightning with a boom, turning into motes of light that fused into her creation.

"Buzz, buzz—"

A strange hum sounded.

Heaven and earth suddenly fell silent at that moment. Even the lightning within the clouds stopped churning.

A magnificent and noble purple radiance, yet one that seemed capable of annihilating everything, enveloped the metal staff. Enduring the stabbing pain in her eyes, Huo Yuqing vaguely saw that beneath the purple light, the metal staff had begun to take on the shape of a spear.

The silence between heaven and earth was unbearably oppressive, as if something incomparably terrifying was brewing.

The clouds churning with lightning abruptly darkened as well.

Then, amid the boundless silence, an unprecedentedly terrifying bolt of pure-black lightning descended with a deafening crash, carrying the power to destroy all things!

At that instant, it was as though even time had slowed.

The expression of the middle-aged man with black hair changed drastically. "Run!" he shouted sharply.

He grabbed the somewhat stunned Auspicious Beast himself. The woman in purple scales picked up the woman in the green dress beside her, while the silver-haired Beast Sect senior grabbed the black tiger as well.

At terrifying speed, the group fled in the direction away from the small valley.

Then everything vanished. Sound vanished. Light vanished. Huo Yuqing entered darkness once again and felt herself slowly falling.

When her feet finally touched solid ground, she discovered that she was somewhere else.

She was sitting on a crude stone bench. Behind her stood a rough little house made from rubble and wood, and behind the house lay layers upon layers of dense forest. Before her was a blazing bonfire, and the Auspicious Beast lay lazily on the other side of it, its tail lazily tapping the ground now and then.

"What is this—"

"That memory has ended," Wang Rui replied. "This is my Spiritual World. I know you have many questions, so we might as well stay here for a while."

"What was that final bolt of lightning?" Huo Yuqing asked urgently. "Did she succeed in the end?"

That was how it was. The Auspicious Beast had long since begun researching forging and Soul Tools. Of course, the methods and purposes of soul beast forging were not entirely the same as those of humans. After all, the Auspicious Beast only understood a little theory and had to slowly study everything.

From the perspective of her friends and family, Tiger Empress Dark Cloud was an absolute scumbag—a bastard, willful and self-centered to the end, a highly unconventional female character.

By the way, her daughter was Wenwen, An Wen, who had been mentioned earlier. Dark Cloud got together with Di Tian and came back pregnant. She was initially a little black tiger, but after awakening her bloodline, she became a Golden-Eyed Shadow Beast. However, aside from the three involved and the Auspicious Beast, no one knew.

Five hundred words short today. I went to see Spider-Man yesterday—I recommend everyone go watch it. If there isn't another sequel, I'll feel like a million spiders are crawling all over me...

And as usual, please vote and leave comments...