Lake of Life.
Not the Lake of Life on the Douluo Home Planet, but the vital vein formed from the accumulated life force of countless beings that had lived on Elf Planet for many years.
Beside it stood two giant trees that soared into the clouds.
The Elf Queen and the Elf Lineage lived atop one of those giant trees.
Di Tian stepped onto the lakeshore.
At that moment, the Lake of Life seemed to boil as life essence began erupting vigorously.
The churning at the center of the lake grew even fiercer, as though something beneath the surface had sensed Di Tian's approach and was about to awaken.
"Thump! Thump—"
The spraying splashes gradually turned into surging columns of water.
At a certain moment.
With a crash, waves from the lake struck the shore on all sides, and the treasure within the lake finally emerged after much anticipation.
A divine artifact formed from battle armor and a mecha linked into one.
Its helmet bore imposing dragon horns, its leg armor resembled dragon claws, and dragon-scale patterns were engraved across its breastplate.
Its overall color scheme was black and gold. Only its pair of dragon wings and cloak differed: the wing bones were black and gold, while the membranes and cloak were blood-red.
Ever since he had stopped serving as Gu Yuena's personal guard ten thousand years ago, he had gained much time of his own, as well as the inclination to understand and pursue other things.
For instance, the future survival of the Soul Beast Clan.
And human Soul Guidance Technology.
As for the former—the future survival of the Soul Beast Clan—he had no choice but to consider the road ahead.
Gu Yuena had indeed planted spiritual seeds in the human Soul Masters, but those required the Dragon God Core to control them, and Gu Yuena had taken the Dragon God Core into the ice with her.
Moreover.
There were enormous loopholes in its security logic.
Without the Dragon God Core, active control simply could not be triggered.
As for passive control?
Unless the Soul Beast Lineage faced a life-or-death crisis, the Dragon God Core's passive control would not activate.
In other words.
So long as soul beasts could still reproduce and survive, the restrictions Gu Yuena had set were fundamentally useless.
Were there not soul beasts within the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well? Would Tang Sect destroy the treasured land that supplied it with heavenly materials and earthly treasures?
Of course not.
As long as the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well remained, the Soul Beast Clan could continue reproducing and surviving.
That so-called passive control had far too many loopholes and possessed no real deterrent power.
The outcome proved it.
It showed just how weak the spiritual seeds' control over humanity was, and whether humans had found the logical loopholes in those spiritual seeds.
In the original timeline, Gu Yuena had clearly stated before the human allied forces and the soul beast delegation ten thousand years ago, "At the very least, leave Star Dou Forest to the Soul Beast Lineage."
"At the very least."
And what happened?
Humanity still drove out the Soul Beast Clan, even banishing them to an alien planet.
It was easy to imagine that humanity had never feared those so-called spiritual seeds.
His strength at the time had not been enough either.
Even if he cultivated diligently for ten thousand years and reached a level where an ordinary beast could fight gods, his strength would still not be enough.
He could only leave his homeland.
There was no other way.
He could only think of other methods to preserve the future survival of the Soul Beast Clan.
If strength was not enough, he could only talk about benefits.
Soul beasts still held advantages over humans: their lifespans were long, and after remaining in one place for a long time, their bloodlines would transform the surrounding environment. This was something humans did not possess.
Areas altered by the bloodlines of long-residing soul beasts were highly suitable for the growth of heavenly materials and earthly treasures.
Making use of this, he organized soul beasts to actively cultivate such treasures and carry out production.
In the original timeline, the cave where Tiger King Lan Hudie took Lan Xuanyu had been transformed by Di Tian. It was a place where the three elements of light, darkness, and life converged. It was suitable for both his and Lan Hudie's cultivation, and it could also produce heavenly materials and earthly treasures such as Life Crystals.
This was one of the fruits of the era of large-scale production.
They actively transformed their living environment, with soul beasts producing heavenly materials and earthly treasures themselves rather than waiting for nature to produce them passively.
Efficiency increased tremendously.
Then, they would open mutual trade with humanity.
Using heavenly materials and earthly treasures cultivated in the soul beast world, as well as fur, feathers, scales, armor, and other materials shed by soul beasts themselves, they would trade with humans for Federation Coins, light-industrial Soul Tools...
They would actively incorporate "mutual trade" into the Federation's political system and voluntarily pay taxes to the Federation.
Furthermore, they would make it clear that large-scale production of heavenly materials and earthly treasures could only be actively carried out by soul beasts; passive production was less than one percent as efficient.
This would prevent the disastrous consequence of inviting trouble by possessing treasure.
And if any soul beast was willing to voluntarily become a human Soul Spirit, it could enter Soul Spirit Paradise. He would never interfere.
That was also why, when he underwent the Godhood Tribulation in the original timeline, he had shouted, "May the Federation show favor and preserve my clan's survival."
It was no longer about his lord showing favor.
The Soul Beast Clan was one of the largest taxpayers in the Federation system. In the original timeline, it paid vast amounts of Federation Coins in taxes every year.
They used the binding of long-term interests to exchange for a long-term future of survival.
Only.
Long-term interests had bought them survival, but only survival.
They could not buy a bright future. Soul beasts could not return to their home planet to undergo tribulations, nor could they refuse the unreasonable demands made by the many powers of the Douluo Federation—such as watching him undergo the Godhood Tribulation as though he were a monkey, or using his corpse to help humans research Ecological Warships.
For nearly ten thousand years.
Aside from contemplating the future survival of the Soul Beast Clan, he had spent almost all his remaining energy understanding human Soul Guidance Technology.
He had traded rare metals with humans in exchange for a certain amount of Soul Guidance Technology.
Ten thousand years.
No matter how poor one's learning ability was, even water could wear through stone given enough time.
By the standards of humanity's Soul Guidance Technology system.
He was now a ninth-level divine craftsman forger, ninth-level mecha manufacturer, ninth-level mecha designer, ninth-level mecha repairman, and eleventh-level comprehensive Soul Engineer...
Just like the divine artifact before him, formed from battle armor and a mecha linked into one, it was the crystallization of Di Tian's ten thousand years of studying human Soul Guidance Technology.
An accumulation of ten thousand years.
It had been forged from nine Demon Stones more than one hundred thousand years old, including Dragon Pattern Black Gold, Deep Sea Sunken Silver Mother, and Cold Heart Iron Essence.
A divine artifact formed from Six-Word Battle Armor and a True God-Level Mecha linked into one.
Generally speaking, battle armor with more than five words and mechas above God Level were divine artifacts. They could only be nurtured by gods using divine power and Soul Power, not artificially forged.
Di Tian had previously possessed neither divine consciousness nor divine power.
But he had other methods.
The Dragon Clan also possessed artifact-forging techniques.
Back then, the Dragon God had been the foremost artifact-forging master in the entire Divine Dragon Realm. Breaking off a piece of bone, he could forge the top-tier divine artifact Golden Dragon Spear; snapping off a dragon horn, he could forge the Dragon Clan Dharma Blade.
Di Tian could do so as well.
He had continually used the Dragon God Claw to refine his own True Dragon Essence Blood, further tempering the top-tier Four-Word Battle Armor and Red-Level Mecha he had forged.
After nearly ten thousand years, they had finally reached Six-Word and True God level, and they were among the very best.
Unfortunately.
Divine artifact armor could enhance combat power, but it could not help soul beasts overcome the Godhood Tribulation.
A soul beast's Godhood Tribulation was the External Avatar Tribulation.
It was very special.
It manifested a projection identical to the original body. The more extravagant the original body's equipment was, the more extravagant the projection's equipment would be as well.
Therefore.
In the original timeline, he had not used it when undergoing the Godhood Tribulation.
Di Tian stroked the divine artifact armor and murmured:
"They have already been nurtured to the peak of Six-Word and True God level. I wonder whether the things brought back this time can let them advance to Seven-Word and Super God level?"
Before you continue