"When you were at the Rose Hotel, you had a woman in each arm, and even bragged about it to me."
"Today, I'll let you relive that old dream."
Zhu Zhuqing turned her head and coldly instructed the guards beside her, "Go to the pigsty again and bring me another one!"
"Find one about the same size as this one!"
"They have to make a pair of sisters!"
"Don't!"
Dai Mubai let out a despairing scream inside his heart!
What were they going to do?!
Rumble—
It didn't take long for the ground to tremble.
Just as expected, the guards pushed over another cage.
"Get in."
Zhu Zhuqing flicked a finger, and another packet of pink powder scattered inside.
Click!
The iron gate swung open, and a second sow was shoved inside.
By now, the cage was packed to the brim.
At that moment, a scene surfaced in his mind: back at the Rose Hotel, he had held a pair of twin sisters in his arms and reveled in pleasure.
And now—
This was karma!
Retribution in this very life!
"Kill me! Just let me die—"
But!
How could Zhu Zhuqing let him escape so easily?
"Pour water on him. Wake him up."
Zhu Zhuqing's voice was cold.
Splash!
A bucket of icy salt water was thrown straight over Dai Mubai!
"Ah!!!"
Agony seared his wounds. Dai Mubai woke with another scream, forced to face the twins once more.
Douluo Continent.
Outside the Rose Hotel in Suotuo City.
The twin sisters Dai Mubai had once kept were staring at the Sky Screen. Their faces were deathly pale, and their whole bodies trembled.
"Sister—"
"That Young Master Dai really got it on with pigs—"
"And two of them, no less—"
"Who'd dare admit they'd ever been involved with Young Master Dai now? That's disgusting!"
"Come on! Hurry and throw away everything Young Master Dai gave us! What awful luck!"
Outside the Xiao Clan's gate.
Watching the unspeakable scene inside the cage, the last trace of hatred in Zhu Zhuqing's eyes vanished along with Dai Mubai's wretched state.
She realized she wasn't as exhilarated as she'd imagined. Instead, she felt a calm that came with being free at last.
"So the person I once cared about and hated was nothing more than this."
Zhu Zhuqing shook her head and gave a self-mocking laugh.
She turned around. The Purple Cloud Wings on her back snapped open, and she shot into the sky, flying toward the vast blue heavens.
"Dai Mubai, rot away in that pigsty."
"As for me—"
"I'm going to follow the boss and see the wider world!"
The images on the Sky Screen shifted.
[ Ding! The transformation of the "Soul Beast Realm" in the Douluo Plane remains incomplete. ]
[ The Sky Screen has decided to randomly select another Soul Beast with a "special ability" for cross-world career guidance! ]
[ Target locked: Star Dou Forest's core region—Emperor Auspicious Beast, Three-Eyed Golden Lion! ]
[ Destination: Battle Through the Heavens Plane, Central Plains, Pill Region—Holy Pill City, Danta Square! ]
Douluo Continent, Star Dou Forest.
"Roar?!"
The Three-Eyed Golden Lion had been basking in the sun beside the Lake of Life, enjoying the worship of countless beasts, when the ground suddenly vanished beneath her.
Her fur, brilliant as golden crystal, stood on end. Before her third eye could release the Light of Destiny, an irresistible spatial force swallowed her whole!
"Your Majesty!"
Scarlet King had only just recovered from the shock when he saw the empty patch of grass. He let out a heart-wrenching wail. "It's over! The Auspicious Beast is gone!!"
"Boss Di Tian's away, and now the Auspicious Beast is gone too. I'm done for! I won't be able to keep my head!!"
At the same time, in the Battle Through the Heavens Plane.
Holy Pill City, Danta Square.
Today was Danta's annual high-level alchemist examination.
Thousands of stone platforms stood in orderly rows across the square. Thousands of alchemists from all over the Central Plains were sweating as they controlled their flames and refined medicinal ingredients.
The air was thick with the fragrance of herbs and the acrid stench of scorching.
On the high platform at the center of the square, the Three Great Heads of Danta looked down with furrowed brows.
"The talent this year is poor."
Xuan Kongzi sighed. "That Little Demoness from the Cao Clan hasn't even made a move, and everyone else is already blowing up their cauldrons far too often."
"Especially those promising alchemists refining High-grade Seventh-rank Pills. They've followed every step correctly, but they're always just a little short on luck. They fail right at the last moment."
In alchemy, success depended seventy percent on skill and thirty percent on luck.
Sometimes, in the instant a pill formed, one needed that tiny bit of elusive good fortune.
Just as Xuan Kongzi lamented how hard it was to find good fortune—
BOOM!!
Space suddenly split open above the square!
A dazzling ball of golden light plummeted like a meteor, landing squarely in the middle of the examination grounds—in the area with the highest rate of cauldron explosions!
"Roar!!"
A clear, melodious cry rang out, half dragon's roar and half lion's growl, yet brimming with supreme majesty!
The golden light faded.
A mighty Soul Beast, three meters long and seemingly cast from gold, stood before them. Strange scales covered her body, and a third eye sat on her forehead!
The Three-Eyed Golden Lion!
She had barely landed and had yet to figure out what was going on when she felt waves of heat rolling over her. Countless eyes were fixed on her.
"Foolish humans!"
The Three-Eyed Golden Lion spoke in the human tongue, an aura of pure light and flame erupting from her body. "I am the Auspicious Beast of the Star Dou Forest! Who dares drag me here?!"
She instinctively tried to unleash Judgment of Fate and teach these insolent humans a lesson.
Yet the instant she appeared—
Something incredible happened!
Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!
The dozens of alchemy cauldrons around her, all on the verge of exploding, suddenly steadied.
The medicinal liquids that had been volatile and on the brink of losing control touched the faint golden auspicious aura emanating from the Three-Eyed Golden Lion. Miraculously, they fused together!
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
One after another, pill tribulations gathered in the sky!
"It worked? It really worked?!"
A Seventh-Tier alchemist, his face smeared with soot, stared dumbfounded at the round, plump pill in his hand. Even a Pill Pattern had appeared on it. "My hand clearly shook just now. That cauldron should've exploded—"
"How did it suddenly work? And why's the quality even better than I expected?!"
And it wasn't just him!
Within a hundred meters, every alchemist's success rate had shot up to one hundred percent!
Some Sixth-Grade Pills had even mutated directly into Seventh-rank Pills!
The entire square fell silent.
Everyone shifted their gaze from the pills and fixed it on the golden lion in the middle of the square, who was bristling with fury.
An Auspicious Beast! A living, breathing good-luck charm!
On the high platform, Xuan Kongzi, Xuan Yi, and Tian Lei Zi instantly appeared in the middle of the square!
Xuan Kongzi's eyes, which had seen the vicissitudes of the world, now shone like ten-thousand-watt bulbs as he stared at the third eye on the Three-Eyed Golden Lion's forehead.
"This fluctuation—"
"It isn't Dou Qi!"
"Her very presence can directly influence reality and increase the success rate of alchemy?!"
"How is she a Soul Beast? She's the alchemists' own blessed ancestor!!"
"Roar! Old man, what are you staring at?"
The Three-Eyed Golden Lion bristled under Xuan Kongzi's feverish gaze and bared her teeth. "Believe it or not, I'll use the Light of Destiny to make you unlucky for the rest of your life!"
"Unlucky?"
Far from getting angry, Xuan Kongzi burst out laughing. His kindly smile made him look like a wolf grandmother trying to lure Little Red Riding Hood. "Now, now, little one. No need to get so worked up."
"You said you're an Auspicious Beast, right?"
"You've got an extraordinary build, and it seems you're destined to join Danta!"
As he spoke, Xuan Kongzi casually pulled out a handful of Eighth-Tier Pills and held them up to the Three-Eyed Golden Lion's mouth, as if feeding a dog. "Hungry? Here, have some candy."
Eighth-Tier Pills?!
The Three-Eyed Golden Lion twitched her nose.
They smelled wonderful! A million times better than the raw meat and spirit fruits in the Star Dou Forest!
The energy inside them was so rich that every pore in her body seemed to cheer!
"Hmph. Don't think a few pieces of candy can buy me off."
The Three-Eyed Golden Lion said she didn't want them, but her body told the truth.
Her tongue flicked out, and she swallowed the pair of Eighth-Tier Pills in one gulp!
Crunchy! Tasted like chicken!
BOOM!
The immense medicinal energy unfurled inside her, and her cultivation began climbing by leaps and bounds!
"So delicious—"
The Three-Eyed Golden Lion's third eye narrowed to a slit, and her tail wagged of its own accord.
"Tasty, isn't it?"
Elder Xuan Yi came over too, smiling as she produced a bottle of High-grade Seventh-rank Pills. "As long as you stay at Danta, you can have as many of these little beans as you want."
"Not only will we keep you well-fed, we'll build you a golden den. Someone will brush your fur and give you massages every day."
"You'll only have one job—"
Xuan Yi gestured to the alchemists around them, who were all gazing at her eagerly. "When they're refining pills, just sit beside them."
"If they want to pet your head or rub against your paws, just don't bite them."
That was it?
The Three-Eyed Golden Lion was stunned.
In the Star Dou Forest, she had to stay on guard against humans hunting her and was responsible for suppressing the flow of fortune.
Here, all she had to do was sit and let people pet her—and she could eat Eighth-Tier Pills for every meal?
"Deal!"
The Three-Eyed Golden Lion flopped onto the ground without a shred of dignity, baring her belly as she purred in contentment. "Come on! Pet me wherever you like! You can even rub my fur bald, as long as you give me pills!"
And so, Danta gained a new legend.
If you saw a group of Eighth-Tier masters, or even Ninth-Tier grandmasters, lined up at the alchemy square with all kinds of rare pills in hand, reverently waiting to pet a golden lion on the head, don't be surprised.
They were there to share in her good luck.
"Line up! Don't push!"
At that moment, the Three-Eyed Golden Lion was lying on a specially made white jade platform, surrounded by piles of jade bottles.
She chewed Seventh-rank Pills like roasted beans, lazily holding out one paw. "Next!"
An Eighth-Tier alchemist stepped forward excitedly, gingerly took hold of her paw, and shook it vigorously. "Auspicious Beast, bless my Yi Shi Pill so it forms successfully! This Eighth-Tier Bodhi Pill is an offering for you!"
The Three-Eyed Golden Lion accepted the pill, then patted the man on the head with her enormous paw. "Granted! Go on!"
The alchemist treasured the blessing like a priceless relic and rushed back to refine his pill.
The result—BOOM!
The pill was complete! A supreme-grade pill!
"Miraculous! Lady Auspicious Beast is miraculous!!" The whole crowd cheered!
Douluo Continent, Star Dou Forest.
Scarlet King watched the Three-Eyed Golden Lion on the screen, eating with grease all over her mouth while countless powerful figures treated her like an ancestor.
Then he looked at the ten-year-old Wind Baboon he'd just caught, intending to serve it to the Auspicious Beast for lunch.
Scarlet King silently let the Wind Baboon go.
"What's the point of babysitting her anymore—"
"That's the kind of life an Emperor Auspicious Beast is supposed to live—"
"Here, she's just suffering alongside a bunch of poor wretches like us."
"Lady Auspicious Beast, please don't come back."
"If you can, could you send some of those Sugar Beans back?"
"Even the crumbs you leave behind look like they'd give me more cultivation than I have!"
Battle Through the Heavens Plane, Pill Region.
The Auspicious Beast's private palace, in the heart of Holy Pill City.
The Three Great Heads of Danta had built this palace overnight with the help of Dou Zun experts skilled in earth-attribute techniques. It was crafted entirely from warm, lustrous jade, and was extravagantly luxurious.
At that moment, inside the palace.
"Crunch, crunch—"
The Three-Eyed Golden Lion was sprawled on a soft couch covered in thousand-year-old Fire Fox fur. With her forepaws, she hugged a jade bottle bigger than her head and tipped the pills into her mouth as if they were Sugar Beans.
Those weren't ordinary Sugar Beans.
They were peak seventh-tier Transformation Pills.
And eighth-tier Imperial Extreme Pills!
Out in the world, each of these pills could cause a bloody storm.
But here, they were just her snacks.
"Burp."
Finally, after swallowing who knew how many hundreds of pills, the Three-Eyed Golden Lion let out a burp rich with the fragrance of medicine.
A hazy light suddenly flashed in her once-languid golden eyes.
"So hot—"
"My body feels like it's about to burst."
Hum!!
A dazzling golden pillar of light erupted from her body, blasted through the palace roof, and shot straight into the sky!
The sky, which had been clear and cloudless for miles, suddenly filled with multicolored auspicious clouds!
Faint dragon roars and phoenix cries sounded from within the clouds as countless golden petals drifted down over all of Holy Pill City!
A wondrous sign—auspicious light coming from the east!
Danta Square.
Xuan Kongzi, who had been giving a lesson to his disciples, saw the heavenly spectacle and jolted so hard that the teacup in his hand shook. "This aura—"
"It's the Auspicious Beast! Is she about to transform?!"
"Quick! Activate the Mountain Protection Array! If anyone dares disturb the Auspicious Beast's transformation, I'll wipe out their entire clan!!"
In an instant, every powerful figure in Danta rushed out and surrounded the Auspicious Beast's palace so thoroughly that not even a fly could get in.
Inside the palace.
The golden light gradually faded.
The enormous golden lion had disappeared.
In her place was a breathtakingly beautiful young woman, curled up on the fur-covered couch.
She looked about seventeen or eighteen, her skin fair as snow, yet tinged with a faint blush.
A cascade of wavy golden hair spilled down her back to her ankles, each strand seeming to flow with sunlight.
Her features were so exquisite she could hardly be human, especially her eyes.
Her pupils weren't those of an ordinary human. They were still golden and slit like a beast's, radiating wildness and nobility.
On her smooth, full forehead, a golden vertical mark flickered faintly. It was the sealed form of her third eye, adding a mysterious, bewitching allure.
She slowly opened her eyes and looked down at her flawless human body.
So this is what humans look like?
The young woman raised a jade-white hand and gently clenched it.
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