Fate Connection

"Grandfather, this is the Imperial Auspicious Beast, which is of vital importance to the Star Dou Great Forest. Please capture it and the Sky Dragon Horse quickly, but do not harm it. Its guardian beast will arrive soon; we shall have it trade a thirty-thousand-year-old Silver Hero Beast for them."

Xiao Hongchen took a deep breath and explained the situation to Jing Hongchen using sound-transmission-into-a-line; his stealth Soul Tool did not conceal his voice.

Jing Hongchen's brows twitched slightly.

Imperial Auspicious Beast—he had never heard this name before.

However, he did not ask. If his grandson said to capture it, then he would capture it.

His right hand swept over his storage Soul Tool, and a metal sphere the size of a fist fell into his palm.

The sphere was dark silver, its surface etched with dense, intricate sealing patterns. This was an eighth-rank binding Soul Tool: the Dragon-Trapping Prison.

Jing Hongchen pressed his fingertip 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 the core of the sphere. Each thread was as thin as a hair yet incredibly tough, woven from memory alloy specially crafted by Mingde Hall, capable of withstanding the full-force struggle of anyone below the Title Douluo level.

The threads intertwined into a net in mid-air, then wove themselves into cages. One layer, two layers, three layers—in the blink of an eye, they transformed into two cages, trapping the Three-Eyed Golden Lion and the Sky Dragon Horse separately.

Just then, a roar as scorching as magma erupted from the depths of the dense forest.

"Who dares touch it—"

A Soul Beast over five meters long, appearing exceptionally imposing, charged rapidly toward Jing Hongchen.

It possessed three identical, massive heads, each over a meter in diameter, with terrifying canine teeth radiating a reddish-gold luster.

This was the Three-Headed Crimson Demon Mastiff, Red King, a three-hundred-thousand-year cultivation beast ranked eighth among the Ten Great Fierce Beasts.

The moment Red King lunged out of the dense forest, the temperature of the entire woodland soared.

Fallen leaves ignited under its hooves, shrubs withered and charred at its sides, and the air was distorted by the high heat into layers of transparent heat waves.

All three heads opened their giant maws simultaneously, spewing three dark red fire beams directly at Jing Hongchen.

Jing Hongchen did not retreat.

A golden sphere of light enveloped him and the three members of the Xiao Hongchen party. The three fire beams collided violently with this golden shield, illuminating the entire woodland in a dark red hue.

With a "boom," a massive cloud of smoke rose, yet Jing Hongchen had not retreated a single step. The law of "no smoke, no damage" truly did not deceive.

Jing Hongchen had just activated his most reliable ninth-rank defensive Soul Tool: Red Dust Protection.

By actively triggering the core formation, it could generate an invincible barrier lasting fifteen seconds. Its defensive power reached three times the user's own cultivation level. After using Red Dust Protection, even if he stood still and let Red King attack, it could not break his defense—not to mention that he possessed more than just one piece of Red Dust Protection.

Red King's six eyes flickered.

This human did not dodge or evade, yet he had easily withstood its full-force strike.

"Human, you are indeed strong. But if you dare to harm the Auspicious Beast, we of Star Dou will surely fight you to the death, plunging your human world into misery."

"Who said I wanted to kill it? Find me a Silver Hero Beast with around thirty thousand years of cultivation to trade for it, and I will wait for you on the western outer edge of the Star Dou Great Forest. I will give you only two hours."

Red King was stunned. What kind of condition was this? Although the Silver Hero Beast was on the verge of extinction, it was absolutely incomparable to the Auspicious Beast.

"Fine, I accept your terms."

Once the words were spoken, it did not delay further. Its figure flashed, transforming into a streak of dark red light that vanished instantly.

Jing Hongchen did not look at the direction Red King had departed. Instead, he turned around, his soul power surging to envelop Xiao Hongchen and the others. The four of them rose into the air and flew toward the western outer edge of the Star Dou Great Forest.

The four people and two beasts soon landed on the western outer edge of the Star Dou Great Forest.

"Grandfather, please help me suppress the Three-Eyed Golden Lion so it cannot resist. I need to press my forehead against its third eye."

Xiao Hongchen intended to do as Huo Yuhao did in the original timeline: use the connection of fate to upgrade his Eye of Life into the Eye of Fate.

Jing Hongchen did not ask for the reason. Or rather, in his view, there was no need to ask.

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

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

It seemed that telling his grandfather about Electrolux from the start had been the right choice; no explanations were needed, no excuses had to be fabricated.

With a simple "Old Yi said so," his grandfather would never ask again.

Salute to the legendary scapegoat, Old Yi.

"Damnable human, how dare you! I will make you suffer a miserable death and endless misfortune!" The Three-Eyed Golden Lion roared in fury, struggling desperately.

Jing Hongchen raised his right hand, placing his palm atop the head of the Three-Eyed Golden Lion. His ninety-fourth-rank soul power formed a thick golden film of light, enveloping the Auspicious Beast from head to tail, suppressing it so thoroughly that it could not move, nor could it utter a single word.

Watching the Three-Eyed Golden Lion's three eyes, which seemed to be spitting fire, Xiao Hongchen leaned in slowly, pressing his forehead against its vertical eye.

Rings of strange, distorted light enveloped the bodies of Xiao Hongchen and the Three-Eyed Golden Lion. Between them, their bodies seemed to become transparent, with light flickering in and out of existence.

Xiao Hongchen felt as if his spirit had traversed the ages, his consciousness appearing within a dense, vast forest.

A golden-patterned colorful egg lay quietly on the ground.

A fine crack appeared on the eggshell, and with a click, a tiny claw reached out. Immediately after, a small head poked out, its golden fur clinging to its body, wet and matted. It was like a newborn puppy, struggling to break free from the shell, then turning back to eat its own shell, bite by bite.

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

The mucus dissipated in the light, and its body grew from a foot long to a meter in the blink of an eye, its golden fur becoming as transparent as crystal.

It tilted its head and let out a sharp, thin roar, and its forehead suddenly split open—the third eye, as if it could see through the heavens and the earth.

From this moment on, everything began to accelerate.

Countless lights and shadows surged in frantically, and ten thousand years of memories rushed past.

Xiao Hongchen knew these were the memories of the Three-Eyed Golden Lion, and he could only pray that his memories from before his reincarnation would not be seen by the Imperial Auspicious Beast.

But the connection of the Eye of Fate was bidirectional. As he looked into its past, it was also looking into his. The demonic red light within the vertical pupil of the Three-Eyed Golden Lion suddenly constricted; it had seen.

It was a completely different world.

Towering buildings stood like a forest of steel, metal boxes sped along gray ribbons, and people swiped their fingers across glowing thin sheets to control their entire world. There was no soul power, no martial souls, and no soul beasts.

It saw.

It saw the boy's entire life in that other world, from a beautiful childhood to the late-night studies of his youth, and finally, his departure from home to a distant place.

It saw the moment he was struck by a truck, his soul wrapped in a mass of silver-white sludge, passing through the barrier of planes to land inside a body with silver hair and heterochromatic eyes.

It also saw another life.

The boy with silver hair and heterochromatic eyes grew up in the Ming Capital, suffering the pain of losing his parents and relying on his sister and grandfather for survival.

The vertical pupil of the Three-Eyed Golden Lion trembled violently.

The various wonders belonging to the human world were also deeply stimulating this Imperial Auspicious Beast.