Three-Eyed Golden Lion

The Lake of Life, located in the Core Circle of the Star Dou Great Forest, inherently contained supreme life force. If soul beasts cultivated at its edge, their rate of advancement would multiply. It was precisely for this reason that the shores of the Lake of Life always gave birth to Hundred-Thousand-Year, or even older, soul beasts—and every single one of these soul beasts was a formidable existence.

At this moment, on the shore of the Lake of Life, a soul beast was sleeping soundly.

This soul beast was about three meters long, eight feet tall at the shoulder, and covered in a layer of bright golden fur.

Its entire body seemed to be made of translucent crystal, giving it a strange, ethereal texture.

Its overall shape resembled a lion, but its four paws were like dragon claws, each one treading on a ball of golden flame.

Its mouth was also slightly longer than that of a lion-type soul beast, and beneath its fur, there seemed to be fine, dense golden scales.

In addition to its normal two eyes, it actually had a third eye—a vertical pupil.

The two normal eyes flickered with gold, while this vertical pupil emitted a red light. A red tinged with an eerie strangeness.

It lay there carelessly, exposing its furry belly without any guard, showing not the slightest concern about being ambushed by other soul beasts.

And in truth, no soul beast dared to court death by provoking it.

First, because of its deep background.

Second, because it was an auspicious beast—the Three-Eyed Golden Lion.

An auspicious beast was born with intelligence no less than that of humans. In any soul beast habitat where it existed, the growth rate of all soul beasts doubled, the chance of a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast breaking through its bottleneck doubled, and even for more powerful soul beasts, the effect was the same.

That was the auspicious beast. It simply didn't play by the rules.

And precisely because the auspicious beast could bring good fortune, all soul beasts deferred to it, doted on it, and granted its every request.

It could be said that in the Star Dou Great Forest, the auspicious beast was the darling of all.

With such a Little Ancestor, no one dared to disturb its sleep, right?

Yet, even though there was no sound at all, the Three-Eyed Golden Lion suddenly woke up. It lifted its large head and gazed into the distance in one direction, its golden eyes revealing a human-like surprise and confusion, while the vertical eye on its forehead flickered with specks of eerie red light.

"This aura... it's that guy. How is that possible? He's still alive?" The Three-Eyed Golden Lion spoke in human tongue, its voice crisp and pleasant.

It rolled over and stood up, stretching like a big cat with a huge yawn, then trotted lightly in the direction it had sensed.

And so, the Three-Eyed Golden Lion swaggered out of the Core Area and entered the Mixed Area. Any soul beast it encountered on the way either prostrated itself in submission or fled for its life.

Coincidentally, it ran into a Cyclops in the Mixed Area.

When the auspicious beast arrived, the Cyclops's face turned pale with fear, and it immediately turned tail and ran.

It wasn't surprising that it was so terrified—Cyclops were one of the auspicious beast's favorite foods.

Seeing its cowardly look, the Three-Eyed Golden Lion grinned. Originally, this Cyclops hadn't been its target, but since the Cyclops happened to be going the same way...

The Three-Eyed Golden Lion declared that since that was the case, This Auspicious One wouldn't stand on ceremony.

"Owww!"

The Three-Eyed Golden Lion let out a strange howl, watching the Cyclops flee in panic. Its three eyes rolled around mischievously, revealing a human-like glee.

As for the Cyclops, it was utterly miserable. Driven by its will to survive, it ran like the wind, its two hairy legs blurring into afterimages.

Lin Ye, who was searching for soul beasts, felt the disturbance. It came from the ground—a vibration, like an earthquake.

The ground shook more and more violently, as if the mountains were moving and the earth was splitting.

At the same time, he sensed something approaching rapidly. A large flock of birds was startled into flight from the forest ahead.

The commotion grew louder, and Lin Ye soon saw clearly what was coming. It was a Cyclops, ten meters tall, covered in thick black fur, with a triangular loincloth woven from vines covering its private parts.

When it came to soul beasts, Lin Ye could be considered well-versed, so he naturally recognized the beast before him.

The Cyclops was rather unique. Apart from the single eye on its forehead, it looked much like a human in other respects—just taller, bigger, and hairier.

Its intelligence was somewhat lacking, not comparable to a true human.

They would weave clothing from vines to cover their lower bodies.

The Cyclops's attribute was the rare Chaos, which was not clearly defined and could change at any time.

It might suit any soul master, or it might suit none. Using it as a soul ring was purely a matter of luck.

The Cyclops showed no intention of detouring. Seeing this behemoth charging like a tank, Bing Di made her move.

A flash of green light passed, and the once lively Cyclops was instantly frozen into an ice sculpture. Through the thick ice, the Cyclops's terrified expression could be seen.

At that moment, the Three-Eyed Golden Lion also caught up.

Lin Ye only felt a blur before his eyes, and when he looked again, a beautiful soul beast had appeared in front of him.

Three eyes, golden fur, and that top-tier soul beast world appearance—this was definitely the Three-Eyed Golden Lion, no mistake.

Speaking of the Three-Eyed Golden Lion, its fate could be considered quite tragic.

As the Emperor Auspicious Beast, it bore the fortune of the Star Dou Great Forest and possessed the rare Golden Dragon Bloodline, making it supremely noble.

But it was precisely this nobility that harmed it.

Because of this, it had caught the eye of Xiao Biesan.

After a scheme was laid, the Three-Eyed Golden Lion sacrificed itself to Huo Yuhao, and its fortune and bloodline were all taken away.

This indirectly benefited the Tang Family.

While Lin Ye was sizing up the Three-Eyed Golden Lion, the Three-Eyed Golden Lion was also observing Lin Ye. Its first words were, "You bastard—you're still alive?"

Lin Ye: "..."

What kind of talk was that? What did it mean, "still alive"? Was he supposed to be dead instead? Whose kid was this, speaking so rudely?

But his mind turned quickly, and he soon figured out the gist of things.

His future self had traveled back to an earlier era, met the Three-Eyed Golden Lion, but hadn't revealed the time travel.

That meant the Three-Eyed Golden Lion mistakenly believed he was someone from that era—someone from a thousand years ago.

And a human's lifespan was at most a few hundred years.

By that logic, in the Three-Eyed Golden Lion's mind, he should have long since died of old age.

And the truth was exactly as he analyzed.

At this moment, the Three-Eyed Golden Lion was full of confusion. What was up with this guy? Not only hadn't he died of old age, but he'd even become young again. It even suspected that the person before it wasn't the one it knew.

"You're Lin Ye, right?"

Lin Ye blinked. Should he admit it? His future self had bullied this creature. If he admitted it now, would it try to bully him back? Right now, he was no match for the Three-Eyed Golden Lion.

Lin Ye's hesitation immediately confirmed his identity to the Three-Eyed Golden Lion.

If he truly didn't know it, then Lin Ye should have shown confusion—confusion about who it was, or even curiosity about why a spirit beast could talk.