Gu Yue Said Righteously, "I Brought Back All the Matter in This World! Why Do You Get to Keep It All to Yourself?"

"Dragon Might."

An old Soul Master with white hair and beard trembled as he spoke those two words.

"This is Dragon Might—no, it's more than just Dragon Might."

"Ordinary Dragon Might couldn't make martial souls feel this level of fear."

"This is bloodline suppression, a hierarchy crush, the aura of some primordial Ferocious Beast far beyond the limits of our understanding."

Before he could finish speaking,

a seven-colored pillar of light burst out from the testing room.

It pierced through every floor from the third level of the Spirit Pagoda to the top floor, shooting straight into the sky.

It exploded above Eastsea City, forming a seven-colored cloud that covered the entire city.

The sky was dyed with flowing auroras.

Even the sunlight was overwhelmed.

All of Eastsea City was shrouded in a dreamlike radiance.

Then, terror descended.

It was a fear without reason.

A deeper, more primal shudder etched into the very depths of one's genes.

Like a rabbit catching the scent of a wolf.

Like an antelope seeing the shadow of an eagle—

you didn't even know where the danger was.

Yet your body had already reacted before your brain could.

On the streets of Eastsea City, pedestrians suddenly stopped in their tracks.

Not one person—all of them.

The entire street seemed to have been frozen by an invisible hand pressing pause.

Men and women, young and old, Soul Masters and civilians alike, all stood rigid where they were.

Their expressions were astonishingly alike—

first confusion, then panic, and finally that instinctive trembling before a natural predator, seeping from the depths of their marrow.

Everyone sensed the fluctuation and turned toward the Spirit Pagoda in unison.

They had no idea what it was.

But they knew—

something was awakening inside the Spirit Pagoda.

The feeling could not be described with words.

It was like an ant suddenly realizing that a foot was descending above its head.

"What the hell did you do?"

Inside the testing room, Lin Yan's face had already turned black as the bottom of a pot.

He raised his head and looked through the window at the figures outside, seemingly frozen in place.

A dreadful premonition shot from the soles of his feet straight to the top of his head.

Something was wrong.

He suddenly turned, his spiritual power flooding into the Small World like a tidal wave.

The World Membrane was perfectly intact.

But within it, the basketball-court-sized Small World was shaking violently.

The earth cracked, the ocean boiled, and the clouds in the sky were churned into a vortex by an invisible hand.

And Gu Yue's consciousness—

Damn it—

most of that stupid dragon's consciousness was not in the real world at all.

It had sunk deep into the core of the Small World, desperately trying to pull something out.

It was the World Origin.

Within a tenth of a second, Lin Yan's gaze shifted from confusion to icy coldness.

The temperature in those impossibly perfect eyes, transformed by the evolution of his life essence, plunged below freezing.

He understood everything.

On the surface, that stupid dragon was helping him put on a show.

In reality, she had been taking advantage of his distraction to steal his World Origin.

Gu Yue was so startled by his low shout that all the scales on her body bristled.

The entire dragon reflexively shrank her neck, nearly burying her head in her own round belly.

"I don't know..."

Her voice was thin and weak, like a cat caught red-handed stealing food.

The tip of her tail twisted anxiously.

"I just wanted to get some Destiny Power, so our Soul Beast clan could have an easier time..."

She was telling the truth.

Though she had been working herself to the bone in the Small World these past few days,

and outwardly obeyed this beast in everything, the string in her heart had never relaxed.

This beast was too terrifying—

not because of his strength, but because of his heart.

Nine eras—he could destroy them just like that without even blinking.

She did not care whether those humans lived or died.

But the Soul Beast clan was her foundation, the bottom line she had to protect as the common ruler of Soul Beasts.

If this beast suddenly went mad one day and wanted to destroy another world, at least her Soul Beast clan would have the power to protect itself.

So, taking advantage of this opportunity to help him display a "God Rank martial soul," she had secretly guided the Destiny Power toward the Soul Beast clan.

She had calculated it well: she would only draw a tiny bit. He would never notice.

Who could have known that the moment she touched it, that mass of dazzling seven-colored Destiny Power would burst like a soap bubble?

Not only had it burst, it had directly pierced through the World Membrane and scattered into the entire world.

She desperately tried to gather it back, but the more she tried, the faster it dispersed.

In the end, she could only watch helplessly as those seven-colored motes merged into the heaven-and-earth energy of the real world.

"Destiny Power?"

Lin Yan frowned.

He quickly understood.

The so-called "Destiny Power" Gu Yue spoke of should have been the World Origin he had obtained through repeatedly destroying worlds before.

Most of that origin had been exhausted when he underwent the transformation of his life essence.

What Gu Yue had mobilized now was the entire amount accumulated over the few days since this new world had been born.

He did not necessarily have to rely on destroying worlds.

Natural death, the natural rise and fall of civilizations—those could also accumulate origin.

And for someone who possessed Time Authority, time was what he lacked least.

But this thing was actually called "destiny" in Gu Yue's words?

Time gave birth to life, and life gave birth to destiny.

The supreme laws were linked together, one ring after another.

Only, this "destiny" was completely different from what he had imagined.

It was not some illusory metaphysical concept dependent entirely on luck.

It was a more tangible power—one capable of interfering with reality and rewriting rules.

Gu Yue guiltily shrank her neck.

She knew she had caused trouble.

But even if she lost, she could not lose face.

She stiffened her neck and bared her teeth at Lin Yan, fierce on the outside but weak within. "D-Don't be mean to me! How was I supposed to know this thing would scatter the moment I touched it?!"

The more she spoke, the more justified she felt, and her voice even grew louder. "Besides, I brought back most of the matter in this world by working myself to death like a pack animal! I have a share too! Why do you get to keep it all to yourself?!"

The more she spoke, the more aggrieved she became.

Her purple eyes filled with a misty sheen.

Her chubby chin was raised high, making her look just like a little cat who had no right to be indignant, yet acted righteous anyway.

Lin Yan frowned even more deeply.

It was not that he was stingy.

The main problem was that the Destiny Power had scattered into heaven and earth, and no one knew what kind of mutation it might cause.

Though this thing had many uses, it was exceedingly rare and precious.

This era was countless times stronger than the previous nine.

Yet the World Origin it had produced was still pitifully scarce.

It was simply not enough to support his next transformation of life essence.

If it were only used to simply raise the level of Soul Rings, it would be an outrageous waste.

And Gu Yue was telling him that it was fortune, it was destiny—the kind that could change one's fate and increase one's luck.

He had some doubts, but he did not voice them.

Inside the Spirit Pagoda, everyone stared dumbfoundedly at the dragon phantom that had appeared behind Lin Yan.

Someone had already raised a communicator and shakily pressed the recording button.

The next instant, the whole world seemed to board a high-speed train and jolted violently.

They had arrived in another world.

It was a projection of the ages.

Fragments of memory etched into the deepest reaches of the River of Time.

At that moment, they were forcibly dragged out by the power of that dragon phantom and laid bare before everyone.