Let the Dead Remain Dead

Tightly gripping the girl's hand behind him, pushing through the noisy crowd, the youth surged forward against the tide of people.

What he held tight was the reality he already had; what he sought was a dream so shattered it felt unreal.

In the sea of people, Ma Xiaotao quietly watched the boy pulling her through the crowd. She could feel that his heart, usually unshaken even if Mount Tai crumbled before his eyes, was now in turmoil.

"What's your name? Innate Soul Power level five? No wonder they bully you."

"Be my little brother. From now on, I'll have your back!"

"Chen Fu, come quick! I've avenged you!"

He was clearly the weakest in the class, but for some reason, standing by his side always gave Ma Xiaotao a strange sense of security.

"Evil Fire Phoenix?"

The youth silently wiped the bloodstains from his face, looked up at the teaching building gleaming in the sunset, and a flicker of disappointment passed through his calm eyes.

"Thanks."

He uttered a word of thanks, then limped away into the sunset, fading from the girl's memory.

"Release the first protocol and restore the regional psychic network."

After much trouble, Chen Fu, amidst the agony of Soul Masters who had lost their network, failed to catch up to that figure.

[Protocol Deactivated]

[Regional Network Recovery Procedure Initiated, Initializing... Initialization Successful]

The invisible net once again enveloped Shrek City, centered on Chen Fu.

Ignoring the crowd swept up in the joy of regaining the network, Chen Fu spread his hand and projected a model of a Soul Power city.

With Chen Fu's assistance, [Youlan] quickly located a person matching the characteristics through the nearby Soul Masters' Battle Soul Instruments. Chen Fu then pulled Ma Xiaotao and quickened his pace along a shortcut, soon intercepting them.

"Who are you?"

[Silence Protocol Activated]

Chen Fu reached out to stop the beautiful woman wandering aimlessly, staring at a face he knew all too well. At this moment, he instead calmed down.

"Huh?"

The woman, startled by the sudden block, was taken aback—clearly her first time encountering such a situation.

"Huh you!" Once she saw the face of the one blocking her, the woman couldn't help but show some surprise.

"Hey, Chen! It's me! I, I, my name is Jiang Nan!" The woman seemed to think for a moment, then blurted out her name.

With a thunderous crash, Chen Fu felt his head explode, his vision going black. His steps faltered, and Ma Xiaotao, who had been watching him closely, quickly steadied him.

Bang!

The Melting Ring and bloodline erupted with a terrifying roar. An unimaginable monstrous force pierced through the woman's arm, gripping her neck like a steel vise and slamming her to the ground, cracking the bluestone slab in several places.

"Three-Eyed Golden Lion! What do you think you're doing?!"

Chen Fu suppressed his emotions, leaning close to the woman's ear and growling. Aside from the initial bewilderment, he had now realized that in this world, the only one who could know his past life's lover's appearance and name and recognize him was that one—the Three-Eyed Golden Lion, possessor of the Eye of Destiny!

The Great Dao has fifty paths, and he firmly believed he was the one that escaped!

What nonsense whispers, what damn Soul Rings—I've already mapped the path to godhood; who needs your meddling?! A bunch of fossilized trash!

And now you want to use Jiang Nan to influence me?! Control me?! Or just disgust me?!

"Ah!"

The Three-Eyed Golden Lion was startled and tried to break free, but the gap in Soul Power Level made it impossible for her to resist Chen Fu's control, as his Physical Body had also begun to defy understanding.

"Reform your appearance!"

Forcing down the urge to crush the Three-Eyed Golden Lion's throat, Chen Fu tried to speak calmly, but his trembling arm, veins bulging, made the death threat clear to her. He simply couldn't bear to have someone who looked exactly like his once most beloved, yet wasn't her, appear by his side. He wouldn't feel joy—only fury!

This was desecration! An insult! A degradation of the feelings they shared!

Even if she had truly died, let her rest in that beautiful memory, not be dug up like a weaning failure to show how pathetic one is!

Eternity is the greatest enemy of progress!

"B-but... once chosen, there's... no changing it..." The Three-Eyed Golden Lion finally understood the reason for Chen Fu's rage, but when she had formed her appearance back then, she had followed her instincts completely, and the final form was something she herself had never seen.

"Ah! No, no, no! I'll try to find a way!"

Feeling the almost tangible killing intent in Chen Fu's calm eyes, the Three-Eyed Golden Lion didn't even need the Eye of Destiny to see her near future and quickly changed her tune.

But really, she had no choice...

Sigh...

A faint sigh quietly echoed in everyone's heart. A beam of sacred light descended from the nine heavens, enveloping the Three-Eyed Golden Lion.

Releasing his grip on her throat, Chen Fu looked up at the high heavens for a moment, then said nothing.

The matter of the Soul Rings was considered settled.

As the light faded, the Three-Eyed Golden Lion's appearance changed slightly—her smooth long hair turned golden. Though it still bore sixty or seventy percent resemblance to the original, Chen Fu didn't care.

There are plenty of similar faces in the world, but to perfectly replicate the one in Chen Fu's memory and even share the same name—that was something he could not tolerate.

"Sorry, I was a bit impulsive. Also, from now on, you'll be called Golden Scale."

Chen Fu had basically confirmed that the Three-Eyed Golden Lion had become a pawn of certain entities—besides the one who had been persistently trying to sell him something, there was another existence he hadn't known about before, also watching him.

Seeing Chen Fu's outstretched hand, the golden-haired girl didn't dare refuse. She could only take it and stand up, not daring to speak.

Ignoring the cowering Golden Scale before him, Chen Fu pulled the silent Ma Xiaotao along and walked toward Lin Pavilion.

A god had already placed him on the chessboard, and Chen Fu felt no sense of safety at all.

[Purge Protocol Deactivated]

The noisy clamor of the streets once again filled everyone's ears.

"Um... Old Xuan came to pick me up. I'll head back first, okay?"

Feeling the oppressive silence along the way, Ma Xiaotao spotted Old Xuan on the street, who had come to ask about the invisible mental net shrouding the sky above Shrek City. She felt like she'd seen a lifeline.

Releasing his grip on Ma Xiaotao's hand, Chen Fu's thoughts were in turmoil.

"I'll tell you another time, when there's a chance."

This girl didn't ask anything else. She just followed silently, giving him enough quiet space.

Watching Ma Xiaotao drag Old Xuan away by force, Chen Fu swept his gaze toward the Three-Eyed Golden Lion, whom he had forcibly renamed Golden Scale, startling her into a shiver.

This guy was a freak. The Golden Dragon Martial Soul-boosted physique couldn't gain any advantage before him.

"What are you doing here?"

The black dragon in the Star Dou Great Forest hadn't mentioned this.

"I... I was curious about the human world, so I came out to take a look."

"I'm not familiar with other places, so I came to Shrek City."

The Three-Eyed Golden Lion's pride had been shattered the moment she was slammed into the bluestone slab.

Other Soul Masters might hesitate to kill the Imperial Auspicious Beast, but Chen Fu was truly prepared to convince the black dragon Di Tian.

"Sorry, I scared you."

According to the Record of Soul Beast Transformation, soul beasts were always very ignorant and naive about transforming.

Though he was surprised that the Three-Eyed Golden Lion had transformed with ten thousand years of cultivation—likely the work of that Lord of Soul Beasts—Chen Fu was more concerned with the result of the transformation.

"As compensation, I'll help you break through to Soul Emperor within a year."

The raw material of a soul beast transformation was right before him. If Chen Fu couldn't seize it, he'd wake up in the middle of the night and couldn't help but slap himself.

The breakthrough in energy technology during the [Banished Immortal] research, supplemented by verification with soul beast transformation materials, seemed to have cracked open a door to the essence of Soul Power.

"Regarding this conflict, scholars throughout the ages have always judged it as three parts praise to seven parts blame, because it opened a mad era—both the epic of humanity's rise and the beginning of a turbulent age. On this, this writer would like to say: any discourse that ignores historical reality is nothing but bullshit."

--Gleanings from Old Gods (II)

It's normal for characters' personalities to show slight differences, because the people they face are different. For example, the Three-Eyed Golden Lion, who prides herself on her strength, or Ma Xiaotao, affected by the evil fire, and so on.