Lin Yan Poked Gu Yue with Chopsticks: "The Mushrooms Are Stewed to Mush, So Why Aren't You Cooked Yet?"

"Di Tian."

Gu Yue did not look at him, but some of the majesty returned to her voice.

"Did you sense it?"

Di Tian nodded, hesitation appearing on his face.

Yet he still spoke. "My Lord, I can say with absolute certainty that aura belongs to a pure Golden Dragon King bloodline. It's inside this academy."

Gu Yue turned her head and looked at him coldly.

"That's not what I meant."

Di Tian froze.

"I meant fate."

Gu Yue's voice sank.

"And memories."

Di Tian looked utterly confused.

He wanted to ask, but Gu Yue's expression kept shifting, as though she were desperately suppressing something.

The words reached his lips, then he swallowed them back down.

Seeing Di Tian's expression, Gu Yue understood.

Di Tian clearly had not received those memory fragments.

Only she had sensed them.

She waved a hand, her tone weary. "Forget it. You may leave."

Di Tian respectfully retreated to one side, but he did not vanish immediately.

He stood where he was, watching Gu Yue with deep concern in his eyes.

He had never seen his lord like this before.

Since the Silver Dragon King had awakened, she had never shown such fear.

But now, Di Tian could clearly see that her fingers were trembling slightly.

She was afraid.

Who was it?

Who could frighten the Silver Dragon King, ruler of the Soul Beasts and half of the Dragon God, to such an extent?

Gu Yue did not look at Di Tian again.

She paced over to a bench by the road and sat down, leaning back against it.

She began to think.

Though those memory fragments were incomplete, there were several things she could be certain of.

First, those memories were completely different from her real ones.

In her real memories, she had only recently awakened and was preparing to approach Tang Wulin and seize the Golden Dragon King's bloodline.

She had never destroyed any human civilization, nor had she ever devoured any world.

Second, judging from the level of civilization in those memories—

Bronze weapons, stone walls, primitive cities.

That should have been ancient times, not a warning of the future.

If it were the future, civilization would not have regressed to such a state.

Third—

Gu Yue's pupils contracted slightly.

"The past has been changed."

She murmured to herself, so softly that only she could hear.

"Or rather, another timeline has overlapped with this era, causing my memories to become confused."

As the embodiment of the Dragon God's wisdom, Gu Yue had always prided herself on possessing unparalleled intelligence.

There was no dragon in this world smarter than her.

And now, she quickly sorted out the framework of the logic.

"I still need to investigate what exactly I did these past few days."

Gu Yue's expression became exceedingly grave.

Those scrambled memories could be set aside for the moment.

Without more clues, idle speculation was useless.

But there was another matter that demanded immediate attention.

"Di Tian."

She spoke again, her voice regaining the majesty of the Silver Dragon King.

"Investigate how I obtained my admission slot at Eastsea Academy."

That backlash of karma had come too suddenly and too violently.

It could not possibly have happened for no reason.

Something must have linked her fate to that indescribable existence without her noticing at all.

Di Tian dropped to one knee, pressing his right hand over his chest. His voice was low and firm. "I obey your command, my lord."

His figure faded into the air and disappeared.

Elsewhere, Lin Yan finally pulled himself free from his despondency.

He lowered his head and looked into the pot.

Then he froze.

The soup in the pot bubbled away.

The mushrooms he had thrown in earlier had stewed into mush, turning the broth a rich milky white.

But that little silver-white dragon that should have been cooked—

Was floating spread-eagled on the surface.

Its belly faced the sky.

Its two tiny claws hugged a chicken mushroom larger than its own head as it gnawed away, its mouth glistening with oil.

Its stomach was swollen like a round dumpling.

It had been stewing for an entire hour.

The mushrooms had already turned to mush.

Why was this thing still not cooked?

Lin Yan's mouth twitched violently.

Gu Yue was happily gnawing on her mushroom when she suddenly felt a gaze land on her.

The scales all over her body bristled.

By reflex, she submerged half her body in the soup, leaving only half her head and a pair of watery dragon eyes exposed as she gazed pitifully at Lin Yan.

"Meow—"

She let out a soft, babyish cry.

Her voice was thin and gentle, like a newly weaned kitten begging for food.

Lin Yan expressionlessly reached out and lifted the transparent lid.

Steam billowed upward.

Scalded by the steam, Gu Yue instinctively tried to shrink back.

But she was soaking in the very center of the soup, surrounded by slick pot walls on all sides. There was nowhere to retreat.

She could only clutch the mushroom in her arms even tighter.

Lin Yan looked down at this soaking-wet fat dragon and fell silent.

An hour had passed, with the boiling water continuously heating it.

Forget being cooked—it did not even have a single reddened scale.

Instead, it had gotten fatter.

Gu Yue shuddered under his gaze.

She still had half a mushroom in her mouth, her cheeks puffed out like a hamster caught red-handed stealing food.

She hurriedly swallowed the mushroom and let out a wronged little "Meow."

Though she did not know why, after arriving in this world—

Not only had she failed to grow stronger, she had actually become weaker.

She had gone from the World-Destroying Dragon that devoured worlds to a chubby little dragon not even twenty centimeters long.

Her cultivation had fallen to a level below even a ten-year Soul Beast.

But no matter what, she was still the Silver Dragon King, ruler of the Soul Beasts, half of the Dragon God.

Even if her cultivation had fallen to rock bottom, the origin of her bloodline remained.

How could mere boiling water at one hundred degrees possibly cook her?

But that was precisely the most terrifying part.

A nearly imperceptible gravity flashed through the depths of Gu Yue's dragon eyes.

This human could not possibly be unaware that boiling water at one hundred degrees could not cook her.

Then why had he done this?

There had to be some tremendous hidden meaning behind it.

Gu Yue's mind began racing wildly.

She had inherited the Dragon God's astounding wisdom.

She never believed in coincidence.

And she believed even less that a supreme being capable of creating worlds and destroying eras would do something meaningless.

Gu Yue's gaze fell upon the mushrooms tumbling in the boiling water.

The toxins in these mushrooms were almost identical to the evil aura that had filled heaven and earth in that ultra-ancient time-space after her crossing.

That evil aura that seeped into everything, corroded the soul, and drove living beings mad within ultimate illusions until they slaughtered one another.

Could he want me to purify the toxins in the pot?

Once that thought surfaced, it became like a flood bursting through a dam, impossible to stop.

Gu Yue's pupils widened slightly.

Everything made sense now.

Why had he not killed her?

Because he needed her purification ability.

And the second possibility...

Another memory surfaced in Gu Yue's mind.

Before crossing over, she had once seen a news report from the human world—

<Teenager Accidentally Eats Highly Poisonous Mushrooms, Loses His Mind and Claims to Be the Creator God, Currently Rushed to Hospital for Emergency Treatment>.

At the time, she had scoffed inwardly.

What idiot gets hallucinations from eating mushrooms?

Wait.

Creator God.