Within the Luminous White Space, a man and a woman sat facing each other. On the low tea table between them sat two steaming cups of tea.
"Please, go ahead. According to your human customs, when discussing business, you have to sit at a tea table and drink hot tea. This is Century Dragon Breath Tea, unique to the core region of the Star Dou Forest. To Soul Masters like you, it's a rare treasure."
Gu Yuena extended her flawless white fingers and pushed the teacup toward Su Zhen. Only then did she pick up the tea in front of her and down it in one gulp.
"Why?"
"What?"
Su Zhen hadn't touched his tea. He lifted his head and stared intently at Gu Yuena's impossibly perfect face. In terms of looks alone, only Qian Renxue could match her. But unlike Qian Renxue's sacred, noble beauty, Gu Yuena had a colder, more dreamlike air.
At that moment, a trace of genuine confusion showed on her breathtakingly cold face.
"Why did you want to meet me? Why did you even have Di Tian secretly seek out my teacher and tell him the truth about how my family was destroyed?"
Ignoring Gu Yuena's bewildered expression, Su Zhen went straight to the question.
Earlier, when he had confronted Qian Daoliu in the Worship Hall, he had caught a trace of Black Dragon aura on him. Having worn Di Tian's reverse scale for years, he couldn't mistake that aura. This proved that Di Tian had visited Qian Daoliu before Su Zhen returned to the Worship Hall. Without his mistress Gu Yuena's permission, Di Tian wouldn't casually set foot in the human world, much less go straight to the Soul Master World's foremost sacred ground—the Spirit Hall.
What's more, when he had lost control in the Spirit Hall, the direction his Martial Soul yearned toward had been the depths of the Star Dou Forest, toward Lake of Life. The only being capable of making the Thunder Prison Qilin yearn for something and lose control was the Silver Dragon King, the progenitor of Soul Beasts. All these signs silently pointed to Gu Yuena wanting to see him.
"So you've stopped fixating on that? Before you came here, you kept thinking the destruction of Hound Village was your fault."
Gu Yuena looked at the cold, stern young man before her and let the confusion fade from her face, returning to her usual icy expression.
"This isn't worth agonizing over. Even if the Martial Soul I awakened caused Hound Village's destruction, Tang Hao and the Asura behind him are the true murderers. That fact can't be changed. Even if I'm guilty too, Tang Hao will be the first to face judgment—and I'll be the one to pass sentence."
As though a great weight had lifted from his shoulders, Su Zhen voiced the answer in his heart. At the same time, a thought surfaced within him.
I'll make every culprit behind Hound Village's destruction atone.
"Congratulations on seeing the heart of the matter. You're sharp—no wonder you possess an Auspicious Beast Martial Soul."
"What did you say? My Thunder Prison Qilin is an Auspicious Beast?"
Su Zhen keenly caught the words "Auspicious Beast" in Gu Yuena's statement, and they shattered his entire worldview.
"That's right. Your Qilin Martial Soul is an Auspicious Beast of the Soul Beast Clan. I mean that in the truest sense."
"But can a human really possess an Auspicious Beast Martial Soul? Aren't Auspicious Beasts the source of your Soul Beast Clan's fortune?"
Su Zhen was full of questions. The knowledge he had accumulated over two lifetimes was smashed to pieces by those two sentences. If his Martial Soul was an Auspicious Beast, why had awakening it in the X Star Dou Forest triggered a stampede of beasts? Shouldn't Soul Beasts respect an Auspicious Beast wherever it went?
"A human's Martial Soul can be anything that exists on Douluo Continent. Naturally, it can also be an Auspicious Beast of my Soul Beast Clan."
As though she had seen straight into Su Zhen's heart, Gu Yuena continued without changing expression.
"Auspicious Beasts are the true emperors of the Soul Beast Clan. Wherever they go, Soul Beasts prostrate themselves in worship, and they roam freely, just like the Three-Eyed Golden Lion. But though your Thunder Prison Qilin is an Auspicious Beast, it is also a Martial Soul. When an Auspicious Beast appears as a human's Martial Soul, every Soul Beast will covet you and want to devour you. If they consume you, they can evolve into Auspicious Beasts."
"Of course, possessing an Auspicious Beast Martial Soul has its advantages too: an immensely powerful Martial Soul, unparalleled cultivation speed, talent that reaches the very peak, and the ability to attract Soul Beasts nearing the end of their lives to offer themselves as sacrifices. They can bring unexpected opportunities to those around you. These are all benefits of possessing an Auspicious Beast Martial Soul."
After hearing Gu Yuena's explanation, Su Zhen's doubts vanished in an instant. Everything strange that had happened around him, including the Thunder Prison Hell Vine's sacrifice, finally made sense.
"Is this the real reason Asura wanted to erase me?"
Su Zhen thought of the deity behind Tang Hao—the true culprit who had destroyed his family.
"That's one way to put it. Because you awakened as an Auspicious Beast, the Star Dou Forest's fortune was cut nearly in half. If you're killed, the Soul Beast Clan will be all but doomed. Asura had always wanted to kill the Three-Eyed Golden Lion, but it had remained in the Star Dou Forest, protected by Di Tian and me, so Asura never found an opportunity. When you awakened an Auspicious Beast Martial Soul, Asura finally had a chance to wipe out the Soul Beast Clan."
"So you had Di Tian give me his reverse scale to keep Asura from noticing me?"
Ever since he had started wearing Di Tian's reverse scale, Asura had vanished from Su Zhen's surroundings.
"That's right. Di Tian's reverse scale can block the gaze from above and protect you to a certain extent. But that protection isn't absolute. Not everyone can conceal an Auspicious Beast's aura. A single reverse scale can only protect you until you become a Soul Saint. Once you reach Soul Saint and possess a Martial Soul Avatar, the reverse scale will stop working. By then, Asura will do everything in his power to eliminate you. However..."
Gu Yuena paused, then changed tack.
"Previously, the reverse scale would have protected you until you reached Soul Saint. But your Martial Soul seems to have evolved, and your Auspicious Beast aura has grown even stronger. Once you reach Soul Emperor, this reverse scale will be useless."
Su Zhen's heart lurched when he heard this. He was already level fifty-nine, just one step away from appearing before Asura. He had reached level fifty-eight while cultivating at the Crown Prince's Mansion in Heaven Dou City, then gained another level when his emotions ran wild in the Worship Hall and triggered Martial Soul Possession.
"You can help me, right?"
Su Zhen looked up at Gu Yuena, certain that the ruler of the Soul Beasts hadn't gone to all this trouble to meet him just to tell him a story.
"Of course. Your Auspicious Beast aura is leaking because it's incomplete. As long as you fill in the final piece of the puzzle, the gods above will never detect you again."
"The puzzle piece—is it the Emperor Auspicious Beast, the Three-Eyed Golden Lion?"
At Gu Yuena's mention of the missing piece, Su Zhen immediately thought of this Auspicious Beast, unique to the Star Dou Forest.
"Exactly. If you can unite with the Three-Eyed Golden Lion, the two scattered Auspicious Beast auras will merge into one, solving the problem of your aura leaking. And in the Star Dou Forest, you'll enjoy the same imperial treatment as the Three-Eyed Golden Lion."
"But what about the Emperor Auspicious Beast? It's the hope of your Soul Beasts too."
Su Zhen couldn't help asking. He truly couldn't understand why Gu Yuena would place her hopes in a human Soul Master like him rather than in the Three-Eyed Golden Lion they already had.
"Both of you are Auspicious Beasts. Whichever of you survives will consolidate the fortune of our Soul Beast Clan. The Three-Eyed Golden Lion is only five thousand years old. It's nowhere near enough yet. Putting all our fortune in you will allow you to lead the Soul Beast Clan to rise again much faster."
Besides, there isn't much time.
Gu Yuena spoke with firm conviction. She needed to cultivate a top-tier fighter who could help her in the shortest possible time. In her dreams, the future Asura God drove the Soul Beast Clan to the brink of despair.
"What do you need me to do?"
Su Zhen asked why Gu Yuena wanted to cooperate with him. No one helped others without reason, even if his Martial Soul was an Auspicious Beast.
"After you become a god, eliminate all the forces of the Asura God's faction, and help heal my injuries."
As Gu Yuena spoke, her eyes blazed with fury. If she hadn't still been gravely injured, and if acting rashly wouldn't have provoked the Divine Realm into surrounding her, she would have gone out and killed that bastard ahead of time. And the future Asura God had the Asura God watching him constantly.
"Fine. I agree. I need to take revenge on the one above, too."
Su Zhen nodded. He desperately needed the Soul Beast Clan's full support.
"May our cooperation go well."
They reached out and clasped right hands. Two people who both held a grudge against Asura had formed an alliance, forging themselves into a blade of revenge pointed straight at him.
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