Chen Doudou closed his eyes and took a moment to feel the change. His mind seemed to be working much more smoothly than before. With a light chuckle, he said, "My spiritual power has doubled. It might be no weaker than a Soul Emperor's now."
Bibi Dong excitedly rubbed the Three-Eyed Golden Lion's head. "Holy crap! Who'd have thought you'd be useful after all, Goldie?"
Normally, that kind of treatment would have earned a snarl and furious resistance from the Auspicious Beast.
Yet the Three-Eyed Golden Lion only gave Bibi Dong a complicated look. She neither dodged nor resisted.
That was because, in the memories they had just shared, Bibi Dong had been the only person to give Chen Doudou a mother's love when she was little.
And during the exchange of memories, she had been Chen Doudou.
Mother's love...
The Three-Eyed Golden Lion frantically searched through her memories for the meaning of those words, only to discover that she was an orphan.
An orphan with no mother, at that.
Was that... a very warm feeling?
She lowered her head and stared at her paws, then looked at Chen Doudou, who was talking with Bibi Dong. The envy and complicated feelings in her heart burned like a wildfire.
Bibi Dong set the Auspicious Beast down and waved her away. "All right, hurry up and go. If you try anything funny again, I'll pluck all that golden fur off and knit it into a sweater."
The Three-Eyed Golden Lion shuddered. She instinctively wanted to argue, but her gaze drifted toward Chen Doudou despite herself.
She hesitated. Instead of fleeing at once, she took a few little steps and edged over to Chen Doudou. The golden eyes of hers held no trace of their earlier ferocity; now, they were cautious and tentative.
"Human, I... can I come see you again?"
The Three-Eyed Golden Lion's voice was faint as a mosquito's buzz.
"Huh?"
Chen Doudou looked at her with an odd expression.
The Auspicious Beast wanted to see him?
The problem was, he wasn't Huo Yuhao.
He wasn't some child of destiny, either.
Chen Doudou looked the golden lion up and down, suspicion stirring in his heart.
This didn't make sense.
It was understandable for an Auspicious Beast to be drawn to a child of destiny, but he was just an ordinary second-generation god.
Wait.
Chen Doudou suddenly thought of something, and his face turned pale with alarm.
Could this girl... have some kind of strange fetish?
Was she really into being mistreated?
Had Bibi Dong dangling her by the scruff just now somehow made her develop feelings?
When Chen Doudou still hadn't answered after a long while, only staring at her as if she were a pervert, the tiny spark of hope in the Three-Eyed Golden Lion's heart went out.
Her proud head gradually drooped, and her massive body seemed rather forlorn.
"Of course... an Auspicious Beast like me, who does nothing but eat and sleep, must be terribly boring to a human like you, with all those colorful memories."
The Three-Eyed Golden Lion didn't press him further. She silently turned around, transformed into a streak of golden light, and ran toward the depths of the Star Dou Forest.
"Auspicious Beast, where did you run off to?"
The Scarlet King, a three-headed hellhound, was dozing on a rock. Seeing the Auspicious Beast finally return safe and sound, he let out a sigh of relief and asked, "If Di Tian finds out you were wandering around again, he'll lecture you for ages."
The Three-Eyed Golden Lion didn't bound over to play with the Scarlet King as she usually did. The sparkle of her usual liveliness had faded from her eyes, replaced by a solemnity that didn't belong to her.
"Scarlet King..."
The Three-Eyed Golden Lion suddenly spoke. "Can you tell me about humans?"
"Humans?"
The Scarlet King froze. All three of his heads wore the same puzzled expression. "What's there to say about those weak, greedy creatures who do nothing but scheme against each other and plunder?"
"No, that's not it."
The Three-Eyed Golden Lion shook her head, recalling the scenes in Chen Doudou's memories. "I want to know... how most humans live."
The Scarlet King snorted in disdain. "Humans are far beneath us. Apart from cultivating quickly, all they know how to do is scheme against each other and fight over resources. They'll even betray their own kind for profit."
"But..."
The Three-Eyed Golden Lion interrupted him, her gaze distant. "But the humans I saw weren't like that."
She remembered a baby held in its parents' arms, cherished without reservation.
She remembered a boy slinging an arm around his companion's shoulders, laughing after a successful prank.
She remembered a warrior who would do anything for his companions in battle.
"They seem to make you feel so warm."
The Three-Eyed Golden Lion murmured to herself. "I can't quite describe it... but it feels so comfortable, like you don't want to leave."
The Scarlet King was so startled by her words that all three heads drew together. "Auspicious Beast, have you gone crazy? Warmth? That's the most hypocritical mask humans wear! Every one of them is up to no good. Soul Masters especially—when they see a Soul Beast, all they think about is how to kill it and take its Soul Ring!"
"No, that human called Chen Doudou is different."
The Three-Eyed Golden Lion shook her head firmly, Chen Doudou's innocent face appearing in her mind. "He wouldn't kill me. There wasn't a trace of greed in the way he looked at me."
"Chen Doudou? Who's that?"
All three of the Scarlet King's heads simultaneously filled with murderous intent. "Auspicious Beast, did a human see you? I'll go kill him right now!"
"You're not going!"
The Three-Eyed Golden Lion sprang to her feet, golden light blazing around her. For the first time, she showed hostility toward the Scarlet King. "If you dare lay a single hair on his head, I'll tell Di Tian—and I'll never speak to you again!"
The Scarlet King froze.
He looked at the Auspicious Beast, who had done nothing but eat and sleep for as long as he could remember. For the first time, he saw something in her eyes that could only be called curiosity.
No, it looked more like... envy.
At the same time, somewhere in a hidden cave beneath the Star Dou Forest.
A giant golden-striped silkworm curled up in a corner, trembling. In disbelief, it muttered, "Is it me who's gone crazy, or has the whole world gone mad? That woman... wasn't she the one who fought that man back then?"
Sky Dream Ice Silkworm felt as though it was starting to doubt the meaning of its entire existence.
It had actually seen Bibi Dong?!!
That terrifying woman who had once turned the whole continent upside down.
That woman who had soared across the sky with the Angel God in a single day, ascending to godhood in broad daylight!
What it found even more unbelievable was that this woman of utterly exalted status had become the guardian of a human child, like some kind of nanny.
Just who was this human brat?
Sky Dream Ice Silkworm couldn't figure it out, but it seemed to have stumbled upon a tremendous opportunity.
"Heh heh heh..."
A feverish light suddenly burst from its tiny eyes. "I think I've found a human who can bear my million years of spiritual power!"
The more it thought about it, the more excited it became, wriggling its fat body around the cave.
"With my help, he can definitely become a god! Then I can fly up to the Divine Realm and become a phoenix too. Heh heh heh! Chen Doudou, you're my benefactor!"
Sky Dream Ice Silkworm had already made up its mind.
It would go find Chen Doudou and become his spirit-type Soul Ring.
And it wouldn't just go to him—it would offer itself up, a million-year Soul Beast, like a head of cabbage on sale.
Before you continue