Di Tian panted heavily, his chest heaving violently.
"I... I..."
He opened his mouth, only to find that he could not answer the question.
He had never asked himself that before.
Never.
For hundreds of thousands of years, he had worked tirelessly for the Dragon God's revival.
He had guarded the Silver Dragon King's awakening and fought for the future of the Soul Beast Clan.
But were those truly the same thing?
What, exactly, was he loyal to?
Suddenly, Di Tian recalled the future he had glimpsed, where his hundreds of thousands of years of loyal guardianship could not compare to the few years of love between The Sovereign and that human.
Di Tian's expression became strange for a moment.
His eyes in the upper half of his face were filled with sorrow and bitterness, while his mouth in the lower half forced itself into a defiant smile.
He gave a self-mocking chuckle.
Gradually, his breathing steadied, and light slowly returned to his eyes.
The emptiness, despair, and self-mockery faded away bit by bit.
In their place came an unprecedented clarity!
Di Tian raised his head, his gaze sweeping over the Dragon God and the Silver Dragon King on his left before moving to the densely packed Soul Beast Clan on his right.
His eyes sharpened, his gaze resolute, and he raised his voice in a clear shout:
"I, Di Tian, will forever remain loyal to the soul beasts!!!"
Outside the Sky Screen, the crowd had already erupted.
Countless people looked up at the scenes of Di Tian's tragedies playing across the Sky Screen, and discussions broke out all over the world.
"Good! Soul beasts deserve to die!"
Some clapped in delight, their voices filled with undisguised glee.
To them, soul beasts were prey for human soul masters, sources of Soul Rings and Soul Bones.
No matter how powerful Di Tian was, he was still a soul beast. His death was well deserved.
"Ah, Di Tian really did mistake his master."
Others shook their heads and sighed, their voices carrying a hint of sympathy.
"Hundreds of thousands of years of effort, only for it all to come to nothing. That's just too..."
But such sympathetic voices were ultimately few.
Most of the time, one's stance outweighed everything else.
No matter how tragic Di Tian's fate was, he was still a soul beast, not a human.
Sympathy?
That should not be humanity's attitude toward soul beasts.
"Serves him right!"
"Once a soul beast, always a soul beast!"
However, unlike the human world.
The Star Dou Great Forest was now suffused with an indescribable sorrow.
As fellow soul beasts, they could not have empathized more deeply.
Countless soul beasts with cultivation levels exceeding ten thousand years, having gained the beginnings of intelligence,
either silently mourned or cried out in grief toward the Core Area of the Star Dou Great Forest.
The entire Star Dou Great Forest was shrouded in sorrow.
By the Lake of Life.
Bi Ji came to Di Tian's side and took his arm.
She had seen every scene on the Sky Screen, every tragedy from Di Tian's future.
Now, the usually gentle and dignified Emerald Swan had reddened eyes, with tear tracks still drying on her face.
Only when Bi Ji took his arm did Di Tian snap out of his daze and turn to look at her.
Bi Ji did not let go. Instead, she stepped even closer.
She raised a hand and gently touched Di Tian's cheek, her voice soft.
"From now on... don't carry everything alone, all right?"
Di Tian looked at Bi Ji's face, his lips moving as he instinctively wanted to refuse.
But when he looked at the woman he loved, Bi Ji, the words reached his lips and could not come out.
"All right."
Di Tian took Bi Ji's hand and replied softly.
Hearing that, Bi Ji smiled happily.
The two strolled along the Lake of Life.
"Based on what the Sky Screen showed,"
Di Tian said, his usual composure restored to his voice.
"The Auspicious Beast came to harm because that human stole her fortune. From now on, we must strengthen our watch. The Auspicious Beast cannot take a single step out of the Core Area."
Bi Ji nodded without speaking.
Di Tian paused, his gaze turning deep. "As for The Sovereign..."
He fell silent for a moment.
"The Sovereign is still asleep. This time, I will not let her walk down that misguided path again."
Bi Ji looked up at him and softly hummed in acknowledgment, asking no further questions.
In the Core Area, at Xiong Jun's residence.
The Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear, who usually looked fierce and menacing,
now sat alone in his cave, silently watching the scenes on the Sky Screen.
Rather than taking pleasure in Di Tian's suffering, he felt as though he shared the fate of a hunted rabbit.
Even someone like Di Tian had ended up like this...
What path remained for soul beasts like them, who were inferior to Di Tian?
"Ah!"
Xiong Jun sighed, picked up a piece of dried meat that had somehow been left beside him, took a bite, and muttered,
"For the next ten thousand years, I should stop bothering that guy Di Tian."
He would never have said that before, not even if beaten to death.
But now, seeing Di Tian crushed by the future in the void,
he suddenly felt that the man he had envied for hundreds of thousands of years had not had it easy either.
In the Mixed Area of the Star Dou Great Forest.
Scarlet King had been watching the Sky Screen. When he saw the part about the Auspicious Beast's sacrifice, his expression suddenly darkened, and a hostile glint flashed through his eyes.
The Auspicious Beast... had betrayed the soul beasts?
His fists clenched unconsciously as a vicious aura rose from the depths of his heart.
But when he turned to look at the Three-Eyed Golden Lion beside him,
that scatterbrained imperial Auspicious Beast was intently gnawing on the brain of a soul beast, completely unaware of what was playing on the Sky Screen.
The hostility on Scarlet King's face instantly froze.
After being her nanny for ten thousand years, I've grown attached to her.
Scarlet King shook his head with a self-mocking smile.
The Three-Eyed Golden Lion seemed to sense Scarlet King's gaze. She raised her head and looked at him in confusion, unable to understand why he kept staring at her.
All her attention was on eating. She had not watched the Sky Screen at all and had no idea what had just happened.
Then, she lowered her head and looked at the beast brain she was gnawing on, suddenly realizing something.
So Scarlet King wanted some too?
A trace of hesitation flashed across the Three-Eyed Golden Lion's face before it turned into a pained expression.
She carefully broke off a small piece of the beast brain with her claws, carried it on top of her head, walked over to Scarlet King, and placed it by his feet.
"This is for you!"
There was a hint of reluctance in her voice. Pretending to be generous, she looked up at Scarlet King.
"I can only give you this much! There won't be any more!"
Scarlet King looked at the tiny blood-streaked piece of beast brain by his feet, then at the earnest little face of the Three-Eyed Golden Lion, and found himself speechless.
After a moment of silence, he picked up the piece of beast brain and put it into his mouth.
"Mm, it tastes pretty good."
Hearing that, the Three-Eyed Golden Lion happily swished her tail, then skipped back to continue gnawing on her beast brain.
The beast brain's original owner: ...
The Sun Moon Empire, Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineer Academy.
Inside a laboratory piled with blueprints and components, Xuan Ziwen stared fixedly at the Sky Screen before him.
His eyes, which normally focused only on Soul Tools, now shone with astonishing brightness.
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