At those words, the entire scene fell deathly silent.
The remaining elders of the Ancient Void Dragon Clan were all prostrated on the ground, trembling so badly they dared not even raise their heads.
This was the power of absolute strength. This was the Heavenly Palace's domineering might!
In a corner, Di Tian stared at the old man who was like a god and had gone completely dumbfounded.
"An Eight-Star Dou Saint..."
"What did that even mean?"
"That North Dragon King, who nearly crushed me just now, wasn't even an ant in front of this old man?"
"And this old man was only a Grand Elder of the Heavenly Palace?"
"Just how powerful was that Heavenly Palace?!"
Just then, Tiancezi seemed to notice the trembling Handyman in the corner.
He casually pulled a purple fruit, rich with a heady fragrance, from his sleeve and tossed it to Zi Yan. But in midair, a few drops of juice accidentally spilled, landing right on the plate in front of Di Tian.
"A reward for you."
Tiancezi glanced indifferently at Di Tian, as if looking at an ant he happened to find pleasing.
Di Tian stared at the few crystal-clear drops of purple liquid on the plate. They radiated an aroma so potent that even his Black Dragon bloodline roared madly in response. Without hesitation, he lunged forward, stuck out his tongue, and licked the plate clean like a dog!
Boom!!!
The purple liquid entered his belly, and black light blazed around Di Tian as his cultivation, which had stood at eight hundred and ninety thousand years, surged in an instant!
Nine hundred thousand years, nine hundred and fifty thousand years, nine hundred and ninety-nine thousand years!
A million-year divine beast!
"Roar!!"
Di Tian let out an ecstatic roar and immediately prostrated himself on the ground, kowtowing furiously to Tiancezi. "Many thanks for the reward, Ancestor! Many thanks for the Heavenly Palace's reward!!"
On the Sky Screen, the image froze on Beast God Di Tian's face, brimming with obsequious delight, and the trace of purple juice still clinging to the corner of his mouth.
As the terrifying aura of his cultivation surged past nine hundred thousand years, then nine hundred and fifty thousand years, and finally reached a million years, the entire Soul Beast Realm of Douluo Continent was thrown into unprecedented shock.
Far North, Ice and Snow Temple.
The cold wind howled, and snow swept through the air.
This was a forbidden zone for humans, a realm ruled by bitter cold, and the home of another group of top Ferocious Beasts on Douluo Continent.
Inside the magnificent Ten Thousand Year Black Ice Hall, the temperature was below absolute zero.
Heavenly Snow Woman, Snow Empress, stood quietly before the ice-crystal throne.
She possessed a beauty no human could hope to match. Her long white hair fell to her ankles, every strand crystal-clear, as if carved from the purest ice and snow.
Her deep-blue eyes usually held a distant chill and haughty aloofness.
Beside her stood Ice Jade Empress Scorpion, Ice Empress, charming and adorable but quick-tempered. She wore a long, jade-green dress, and her twin tails swayed gently in the cold wind.
But now, the two rulers of the Far North seemed frozen in place, staring fixedly at the Sky Screen without moving for a long time.
"A million years..."
It was only after a long while that Snow Empress's cherry-blossom lips parted. Her voice remained cool, but it trembled faintly. "In a single instant, just because he licked clean a few drops of juice someone had spilled..."
"That fellow Di Tian crossed a chasm we couldn't overcome in hundreds of thousands of years, and even reached the threshold of becoming a divine beast?"
Snow Empress slowly raised her delicate hand and looked at the six-pointed ice crystal gathered in her palm.
To cultivate to seven hundred thousand years, she had guarded this frozen land through countless days and nights.
Every tribulation had been a narrow escape from death;
every breakthrough had been a struggle against the heavens for her life.
She had believed this was the true meaning of cultivation, the glory of defying heaven.
But today, that higher-dimensional world had told her she was wrong. In this world, there was a kind of cultivation called being a dog for the powerful.
And there was a kind of opportunity called the powerful's leftovers.
"This is absurd. It's simply absurd!!"
Ice Empress, standing nearby, finally couldn't take it anymore. She stomped hard, and the jade-green scorpion tail behind her lashed wildly, stabbing a series of deep pits into the solid black ice. "Sister! That was Di Tian, the Beast God!!"
"How could he—how could he do something like that?!"
"Prostrate himself on the ground and lick a plate like a dog? What happened to his dignity as the Black Dragon King? What happened to his pride?!"
"I, Ice Empress, would rather die—I'd jump from this Ice God Temple—than lick someone else's plate for a little power! Disgusting! It's so disgusting!!"
Ice Empress's face flushed with rage, her eyes full of scorn and fury.
Snow Empress, however, did not echo her.
She only watched Di Tian on the Sky Screen. Though his face was humble, an overwhelming, terrifying aura radiated from him.
Even through the screen, that aura made her feel an oppression that reached down to her soul.
"Bing'er..."
Snow Empress's voice suddenly turned distant, carrying a deep sense of helplessness. "You think it's disgusting because you've never been to that world."
"Look at Di Tian's eyes now."
"Is that humiliation? No. That's joy. That's relief."
"Those few drops of purple liquid may have been scraps, but they contained a source of power purer than all the Profound Ice Marrow in our Far North combined."
"If..."
Snow Empress paused.
"If that plate were set in front of me..."
"If a single lick could carry me through my next certain-death tribulation, could truly transform me into a god..."
"Bing'er, could you really refuse?"
"I..." Ice Empress was at a loss for words.
She looked at the enticing purple juice on the Sky Screen and remembered the terror she felt when facing her tribulations.
If she refused to lick it, she would die beneath the tribulation, leaving only a pile of dry bones.
If she did lick it, then though she would lose her dignity, she could live forever, become a god, and even go to that vast higher-dimensional world.
Ice Empress's throat bobbed violently.
She wanted to say she could refuse, but her body's instincts were screaming: I want to lick it! Let me lick it!
"Our Far North, which we're so proud of, probably wouldn't even count as an ice cellar in that world."
Snow Empress closed her eyes, and two lines of clear tears slid down her cheeks. "Here, we reign supreme and think ourselves noble."
"Little do we know that, in the eyes of the powerful in that world, we'd have to fight for the right to be someone's pet."
"Di Tian didn't lose his dignity."
"He won his future."
At that moment, the winds and snow in the Far North seemed to grow fiercer.
But in Snow Empress and Ice Empress's hearts, if they ever had the chance, they might kneel even faster than Di Tian and lick the plate even cleaner.
Elsewhere, deep in the sea, in the Demon Whale Sea Area.
This was the deepest part of Douluo Continent's ocean, a forbidden zone shrouded in darkness.
Not a single ray of light could pierce the ten-thousand-meter depths. Only terrifying pressure and undercurrents churned there.
The true undisputed ruler of Douluo Continent lived here: the Deep Sea Demonic Whale King, only one step away from becoming a god!
Rumble!!
The previously calm seabed suddenly erupted with a terrifying current, instantly unleashing towering waves across the sea!
A gigantic single eye snapped open in the darkness, glowing with a blood-red, savage light, like a blood moon sinking beneath the sea.
"Roar!!"
A roar suddenly pierced through ten thousand meters of seawater, killing every fish within a hundred-mile radius!
"Why? Why?!"
The Deep Sea Demonic Whale King's island-sized body writhed madly along the seabed. Every impact collapsed undersea mountains and sent magma surging upward.
He sensed the scene on the Sky Screen intently through his spiritual power. The Di Tian who had once been his equal, or even slightly weaker than him, had actually broken through to the realm he had dreamed of reaching!
"This king has cultivated for a full nine hundred and ninety-nine thousand years!"
"I've devoured countless Sea Soul Beasts, even Titled Douluo!"
"To become a god, to transform into a dragon, I've endured in this lightless seabed, while constantly keeping an eye out for that damned Sea God!"
"But what about Di Tian?!"
The Deep Sea Demonic Whale King's voice crashed like thunder, making the entire Demon Whale Sea Area tremble. "He only shoveled shit in that world for a few days! He only carried someone's plate! He only licked a few drops of juice nobody else wanted!!"
"And now he's become a god, with true Dragon Clan bloodline?!"
"How unjust is the Heavenly Dao!!"
"How absurd is this world!!"
At that moment, the Deep Sea Demonic Whale King was mad with envy.
He looked at the lofty Tiancezi, the Eight-Star Dou Saint who casually bestowed opportunities.
If Snow Empress and Ice Empress were still wrestling with their dignity, then the Deep Sea Demonic Whale King, a thoroughgoing pragmatist, had only one thought.
To take Di Tian's place!
"If the one carrying the plate had been me..."
The Deep Sea Demonic Whale King stopped thrashing. His immense body hung motionless in the water, greed glinting in his single eye. "My body's bigger than Di Tian's. I could do more work!"
"I can devour things. I could lick those plates cleaner than him, without leaving a single crumb!"
"I'm not afraid of losing face! I'm a demon to begin with! As long as I can become a god, as long as I can transform into a dragon..."
"Forget licking plates—even if I had to become a mount or a footstool for the Dragon Emperor of the Ancient Void Dragon Clan, I'd be willing!"
He hated that the Sky Screen hadn't chosen him.
He hated even more that he was stuck being some ruler of the sea on this low-dimensional Douluo Continent.
"Ruler of the sea? Heh..."
The Deep Sea Demonic Whale King looked at the armor and cultivation he had once been so proud of and suddenly thought they were nothing but a pile of trash.
"In that world, this body of mine might only count as a somewhat lavish seafood feast, wouldn't it?"
"If I could go to that Heavenly Palace..."
"I'd offer up my Whale Pearl, my Spirit Bone—just give me one mouthful of that juice."
"Even one mouthful would do..."
A long sigh echoed through the deep sea.
It was the despair of a giant beast only half a step away from godhood.
Before long, the scene on the Sky Screen shifted again, changing to a different sight.
Battle Through the Heavens Plane, Great Gan Dynasty.
Imperial Garden of the Inner Palace.
This was a forbidden place within the mortal dynasty, and the spot where its spiritual energy was most concentrated.
The imperial garden was filled with graceful ladies and drifting fragrances.
The Empress, dressed in a phoenix robe and radiating dignity and splendor, was admiring the flowers and sipping tea with more than a dozen concubines.
At their feet, a few docile Fire Foxes lay sprawled, while several colorful Spirit Snakes coiled nearby. They were all spirit pets the women kept.
In the very center of the crowd, a young woman wearing a golden collar and a thin gauze dress knelt trembling on the cold cobblestones.
She was none other than Ning Rongrong, the little princess of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect!
"Your Majesty, is this the pet from another world that the envoy from the upper sect sent over?"
A noble consort in a pink palace dress covered her mouth with a fan, eyeing Ning Rongrong with scorn. "She's certainly tender-skinned, like a porcelain doll. But there isn't a trace of Dou Qi on her. She's as weak as a little chick."
"Heh, Sister, you don't know the whole story."
The Empress lifted her teacup and took an elegant sip. Her eyes held the detached indifference of someone who regarded human life as no more valuable than grass. "The envoy from the upper sect said that although this thing is useless, she's obedient and unusual. Keeping her around as a little amusement isn't a bad idea."
"Come, little thing."
The Empress extended a jade finger tipped with red nail polish and beckoned lightly. "Show the ladies a little talent."
"I heard that in your world, you were some kind of support-type Soul Master. Bring out that tower of yours and entertain My Blaze Cat."
Hearing this, Ning Rongrong bit her lip, tears of humiliation welling in her eyes.
She was the precious pearl of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect!
The treasure her father had held in the palm of his hand!
And now she was supposed to entertain a cat?
"I...I..."
Ning Rongrong wanted to refuse, but when she saw the Empress's eyes suddenly turn cold, and the gleaming whip in the guard's hand beside her, she was still afraid.
In the few days since she'd been tossed here like a piece of trash, she had learned just how cruel this world was.
If she didn't obey, she got no food;
if she dared to resist, they beat her half to death, then healed her with those strange potions so they could torment her again.
"Waaah..."
Crying, Ning Rongrong tremblingly raised her right hand and circulated her pitifully weak Soul Power.
"Seven Treasures turn out... glazed..."
Hum!
A delicate, dazzling seven-story pagoda appeared in her palm, radiating seven-colored light.
On Douluo Continent, it was a top-tier tool-type Martial Soul, a support artifact every Soul Master dreamed of possessing.
But here—
"Pfft!"
The concubines around her immediately burst out laughing.
"Hahahaha! That's hilarious!"
The noble consort pointed at the little tower, laughing so hard her branches swayed. "That's what she can do? Make a glowing toy?"
"This little bit of light isn't even as bright as the luminous pearls in my palace!"
"Exactly! There's not the slightest trace of energy in it. It's good for nothing but looking pretty!"
Just then, the lazy Tier 2 Magical Beast, a Blaze Cat at the Empress's feet, seemed to have its eyes dazzled by the light of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda.
"Meow!"
The Blaze Cat let out an annoyed yowl. Its fiery red fur bristled, and its body turned into a red Residual Shadow as it lunged at Ning Rongrong in an instant!
"Ah! No!!"
Ning Rongrong screamed in terror, instinctively trying to fend it off with her Soul Power.
But a Tier 2 Magical Beast was equivalent to a peak Soul Grandmaster on the Douluo Continent, and could even approach the level of a Soul Elder!
And it possessed terrifying fire-attribute attacks!
Ning Rongrong was an auxiliary-type Soul Master. Even at her peak, she wouldn't have been able to stop it, much less now.
Smack!
The Blaze Cat swiped a paw at the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda.
The pagoda, hailed as the world's greatest auxiliary Martial Soul, was instantly smashed to pieces and dissipated into specks of light!
Then, with its paw's momentum undiminished, the cat raked it viciously across Ning Rongrong's face!
Riiip!
"Ahhhhh!!!"
Ning Rongrong clutched her face and fell to the ground, rolling and screaming miserably.
Several deep, bloody gashes stretched across her delicate face, blood streaming everywhere!
"Oh, Little Red, why are you so naughty?"
But the Empress didn't scold the Blaze Cat. Instead, she picked it up tenderly and soothed it. "You didn't hurt your paw, did you?"
"This is His Excellency's pet. If its paw were injured, I'd be heartbroken."
And Ning Rongrong, her face covered in blood?
In their eyes, she wasn't even as important as the cat's paw.
Before you continue