Fate Connection

"Grandpa, this is the Imperial Auspicious Beast. It's extremely important to the Star Dou Great Forest. Please capture it and the Sky Dragon Horse as quickly as possible, but don't hurt it. Its guardian, a Ferocious Beast, will be here soon. Have it bring us a Silver Hero Beast with thirty thousand years of cultivation in exchange."

Xiao Hongchen took a deep breath and used Sound Transmission to explain the situation to Jing Hongchen. The concealment Soul Tool hid them, but not their voices.

Jing Hongchen's brow twitched slightly.

Imperial Auspicious Beast. He had never heard that name before.

But he didn't ask. If his grandson said to capture it, then capture it they would.

His right hand swept across his Storage Soul Tool, and a metal sphere the size of a fist dropped into his palm.

The sphere was dark silver all over, its surface etched with densely packed sealing runes. It was an eighth-grade binding Soul Tool: the Dragon-Trapping Prison.

Jing Hongchen pressed a finger against the top of the sphere and tossed it toward the Three-Eyed Golden Lion and the Sky Dragon Horse. Countless dark-silver metal threads surged from its core. Each thread was as fine as a strand of hair, yet incomparably tough, drawn from a special memory alloy made by Mingde Hall. They could withstand the full force of anyone below the level of a Titled Douluo.

The threads crisscrossed in midair, weaving into nets, then into cages. One layer, two layers, three—within moments, they had formed two prisons, trapping the Three-Eyed Golden Lion and the Sky Dragon Horse separately.

Just then, an enraged roar, scorching as molten lava, burst from deep within the forest.

"Who dares lay a hand on it—"

A Soul Beast over five meters long and powerfully built charged toward Jing Hongchen.

It had three identical heads, each more than a meter in diameter, and its terrifying fangs gleamed crimson-gold.

This was the Three-Headed Crimson Demon Mastiff, Scarlet King, a three-hundred-thousand-year-old Ferocious Beast ranked eighth among the Ten Great Fierce Beasts.

The instant Scarlet King burst from the forest, the temperature across the entire clearing soared.

Fallen leaves spontaneously ignited beneath its hooves, shrubs withered at its sides, and the air warped into layers of transparent heat waves.

All three heads opened their jaws at once, spitting out three dark-red streams of fire that shot straight at Jing Hongchen.

Jing Hongchen didn't retreat.

A golden sphere of light enveloped him and the other three. The three streams of fire crashed into the golden shield, turning the entire clearing dark red.

With a boom, thick smoke billowed up. Jing Hongchen hadn't taken a single step back. The old saying that where there was smoke, there was no damage had never rung truer.

Jing Hongchen had just activated his signature ninth-grade Defensive Soul Tool, Red Dust Protection.

By actively triggering its Core Array, it could generate an Invincible Barrier that lasted fifteen seconds. Its defensive power was three times the user's own cultivation. With Red Dust Protection activated, even if Jing Hongchen stood still and let Scarlet King attack, it couldn't break through his defense—especially since Red Dust Protection wasn't the only one he had.

All six of Scarlet King's eyes twitched.

This human had neither dodged nor flinched, and had effortlessly withstood its full-force attack.

"Human, you are indeed powerful. But if you dare harm the Auspicious Beast, we of the Star Dou will fight you to the death and lay waste to your human world."

"Who said I was going to kill it? Find me a Silver Hero Beast with about thirty thousand years of cultivation and bring it here to trade for the Auspicious Beast. I'll wait at the edge of the western outskirts of the Star Dou Great Forest. You have only two hours."

Scarlet King froze. What kind of condition was that? Though Silver Hero Beasts were on the verge of extinction, they couldn't possibly compare to the Auspicious Beast.

"Fine. I accept your terms."

As soon as the words left its mouth, it wasted no time. Its body flashed, turning into a streak of dark-red light that vanished in an instant.

Jing Hongchen didn't look after Scarlet King. Instead, he turned around and enveloped Xiao Hongchen and the others in surging Soul Power. The four of them rose into the air and flew toward the western outskirts of the Star Dou Great Forest.

The four of them and the two beasts soon landed at the edge of the forest's western outskirts.

"Grandpa, please hold the Three-Eyed Golden Lion down and keep it from resisting. I'm going to press my forehead against its third eye."

Like Huo Yuhao in the original story, Xiao Hongchen planned to use Fate Connection to upgrade his Eye of Life into the Eye of Fate.

Jing Hongchen didn't ask why. Or rather, he didn't think there was any need to.

There was only one possible answer: Electrolux had told Xiao Hongchen.

Only that old monster from another world would know what the Imperial Auspicious Beast's third eye was for, how to borrow its power, and what would happen when their foreheads touched.

It seemed that telling Grandpa about Electrolux from the very beginning had been the right call. No explanations, no made-up excuses needed.

Just say Elder Yi told me, and Grandpa wouldn't ask another thing.

Respect to the legendary scapegoat, Elder Yi.

"Damnable humans! You dare?! I'll make sure you suffer a horrible death! May misfortune plague you!" The Three-Eyed Golden Lion roared furiously, struggling with all its might.

Jing Hongchen raised his right hand and placed his palm on the Three-Eyed Golden Lion's head. The golden film of light formed by his rank-ninety-four Soul Power enveloped the Auspicious Beast from head to tail, pinning it down so tightly it couldn't move or even speak.

Watching the fire in the Three-Eyed Golden Lion's three eyes, Xiao Hongchen slowly leaned in, bringing his forehead toward its vertical eye.

Strange, rippling halos of light enveloped Xiao Hongchen and the Three-Eyed Golden Lion. Their bodies seemed to turn transparent, their light flickering in and out.

Xiao Hongchen felt as though his mind had traveled across distant ages, his consciousness appearing in a dense forest.

A golden egg patterned with colorful designs lay quietly on the ground.

A fine crack appeared in the shell. With a snap, a tiny paw poked out. Then a little head emerged, golden fur wetly plastered to its body. Like a newborn puppy, it struggled free of the shell, then turned around and ate its own shell, bite by bite.

A pillar of golden light descended from the heavens, enveloping it.

The slime dissolved in the light. In the blink of an eye, its body grew from a foot long to a meter, and its golden fur became transparent as crystal.

It raised its head and let out a sharp cry. Its forehead suddenly split open—the third eye, as if capable of seeing through heaven and earth.

From that moment on, everything began to accelerate.

Countless images surged in madly, and memories spanning ten thousand years streamed past.

Xiao Hongchen knew these were the Three-Eyed Golden Lion's memories. He could only pray that the Auspicious Beast wouldn't see the memories of his life before reincarnation.

But the link formed by the Eye of Fate went both ways. As he saw its past, it saw his. The demonic-red light in the Three-Eyed Golden Lion's vertical pupil abruptly contracted. It had seen.

It was a completely different world.

Skyscrapers stood like a forest of steel. Metal-shell boxes raced along gray ribbons. People used their fingers to swipe across glowing thin screens, manipulating the whole world. There was no Soul Power, no Martial Souls, no Soul Beasts.

It had seen.

The boy's entire life in another world, from a happy childhood to late-night studying in his youth, and then his departure from home to travel far away.

It saw the instant he was struck by a truck, his soul wrapped in a mass of silvery-white sludge as it passed through the barriers between planes and fell into the body of a silver-haired youth with mismatched eyes.

It also saw another life.

The silver-haired, odd-eyed youth grew up in Ming Capital. After suffering the loss of his parents, he and his younger sister had relied on each other and their grandfather.

The Three-Eyed Golden Lion's vertical pupil trembled violently.

The many wonders of the human world were deeply stirring the Imperial Auspicious Beast.