Qiu'er

A figure emerged within the azure light.

It was a woman of breathtaking beauty. Her emerald hair cascaded behind her in waves, and her green eyes shone like emeralds. Her exposed arms were snowy white, like tender lotus roots, and a pair of wings that seemed carved from gemstones spread behind her. A pale green dress perfectly traced the alluring curves of her body.

"Hello, human. My name is Bi Ji! What business do you have with Di Tian?" the woman asked softly.

"Hello, Senior Bi Ji. My name is Huo Yuhao. I've come to see Di Tian to resolve the grievances between humans and beasts!" Huo Yuhao replied.

"Resolve the grievances between our two races? Human, you're too young. You lack that ability. And now that you've entered the territory of the Soul Beast Lineage, I fear you may not leave with your life." Bi Ji shook her head.

"To verify whether I have that ability, Senior, you need only ask the one who carries your race's fortune!" To Bi Ji's surprise, the boy showed no panic even here, in the heart of the beasts' territory.

"He does indeed have that ability. Bring them in!" A gentle voice came from the sky.

And so Bi Ji led Huo Yuhao and Snow Girl to the shore of a small lake whose waters were as clear as azure crystal. Standing beside it was a middle-aged man who looked about forty, dressed in black robes, with stern features and a lock of golden hair falling from his forehead along one side of his face.

Beside the middle-aged man stood a peculiar soul beast, over three meters long and eight feet tall at the shoulder, covered in brilliant golden fur. Beneath that fur lay fine, densely packed golden scales.

The soul beast's entire body was translucent. She resembled a lion, but her four paws were like dragon claws, each resting on a ball of golden flame. Her muzzle was somewhat longer than that of a lion-type soul beast. Most striking of all, besides her two ordinary eyes, she had a third eye with a vertical pupil.

Merely seeing this beast reminded Huo Yuhao of that day in his previous life, when a girl in Rising Sun City had slowly closed her eyes in his arms, letting her long, curled lashes settle against her lower eyelids, then gently lifted her head and said to him, "Kiss me."

"Human, I can sense your true nature. You are the son of the plane of the Douluo Continent—and one in whom it has invested everything, not a temporary tool. My name is Di Tian, and I am the guardian of the Soul Beast Lineage. Do you know what appearing before me means?"

Looking at the bewilderment flickering in Huo Yuhao's eyes, then at Snow Girl, who had accompanied him, the middle-aged man spoke coldly after introducing himself.

"Of course it means that this Lake of Life won't have to dry up in the days to come! Your Highness, prince of the light dragons and black dragons, I bear neither malice nor ambition toward your Dragonkind!"

"Your Highness should be able to tell that I'm not a body cultivator. What could someone like me gain from your Dragonkind, who cultivate the Bloodline Power?"

"But once this Lake of Life dries up and the divinity of the one within it dissipates, I fear someone else will gladly take both her life and your Dragonkind's legacy!"

Although the Lake of Life in this era was brimming with spiritual energy, Huo Yuhao had truly reached the Supreme God realm of the emotional domain in his previous life. At a glance, he could see countless strands of Blue Silver Grass stretching from the direction of Shrek Academy in the Heaven Dou Empire, already woven into the laws of this plane's heaven and earth, entangling the Lake of Life.

Within the Lake of Life lay half a divine seat. Regardless of its nature, any divine seat needed one of two things to sustain its existence: immense faith power or immense life energy.

The half-divine seat within the Lake of Life had little faith power to sustain her. Her existence depended entirely upon the lake's immense life energy.

"What do you mean by that?" Di Tian's expression darkened.

"Senior Di Tian, you were once the captain of the guard before the Dragon Throne, an existence at the level of a First-Level God. Can't you see how much the Lake of Life's water level has fallen over the past ten thousand years?"

"Only after she appeared did that trend ease slightly!" As he spoke, Huo Yuhao pointed at the three-eyed soul beast beside Di Tian.

"Though our Dragonkind is uniquely blessed by nature, you humans always come from behind to surpass us. That doesn't surprise us!" Di Tian spread his hands. "If I made you into tonight's dinner and fed you to her instead of hedgehog meat, the fortune of this plane's humans would pass to our race. But manipulating fortune is the work of petty villains, and it is certain to draw heaven's punishment. Aside from that, what can you offer our race? So get lost, human. Our two races truly have little common ground."

As the crown prince of the light dragons, Di Tian deeply agreed with the beliefs of his father, the Light Dragon King. He did not believe petty villains who manipulated others' fortune could ever stand in a hall of honor, nor was he willing to stoop to such deeds.

So long as Huo Yuhao was not targeting the Auspicious Beast of the Soul Beast Lineage, Di Tian had no desire to do anything to him.

"Senior Di Tian, why not look at what's happening within her Sea of Consciousness? Then you'll know what I can offer your Dragonkind." As he spoke, Huo Yuhao pointed at the three-eyed soul beast beside Di Tian.

"And forgive my impertinence, but if you are truly loyal to Dragonkind, Senior, you must not sit idly by while the Lake of Life's water level falls. You should know what will happen when the half-divine seat within it lacks sufficient life energy, her divinity dissipates, and she takes human form. Possessing her body, or inducing her to develop another personality that is easy to control-either can be accomplished with authority over the plane alone, without even requiring the authority of the Divine Realm."

At Huo Yuhao's words, Di Tian was initially skeptical. But when he extended his powerful spiritual sense into the Auspicious Beast's body for the first time, his face immediately turned ashen.

As a former First-Level God who had served before the Dragon Throne as the Dragon God's most trusted captain of the guard, Di Tian knew all too well what fluctuations of Divine Sense within the Auspicious Beast at this stage meant.

In this era, the Soul Beast Lineage could not become gods. Even Di Tian could not return to the divine level unless he was willing to abandon his soul beast body.

What did the presence of a completely unfamiliar Divine Sense within the Auspicious Beast mean?

It meant that she might have fallen victim to a hidden scheme sometime after she reached roughly five thousand years of age.

"Have you come here because you have a solution?" Di Tian stared intently at Huo Yuhao.

"First, ask her what she thinks of that female voice that often speaks to her!" Huo Yuhao replied. "By the way, what's her name?"

"Her name is Qiu'er. Her Majesty, who is recuperating in the Lake of Life, gave her that name when she awoke that day," Di Tian answered.

Seeing Di Tian suddenly acting strangely and bringing a human man over, Qiu'er was utterly confused. Meanwhile, the being who had appeared in her Sea of Consciousness not long ago, claiming, "I'm your Sister Tong," warmly urged her, "Leave here as soon as possible. It isn't safe here."

After bringing Huo Yuhao before Qiu'er, Di Tian looked at her anxiously. In all his countless years of life, the last time he had felt such agitation was during the God Star Ceremony that had ultimately become a bloody hell.

Why? Our Dragonkind has already relinquished divine authority, yet you still refuse to leave us alone? Fierce resentment welled up within Di Tian, but he forcibly suppressed it.

Huo Yuhao gazed at Qiu'er, dazed for a moment, before swiftly steadying his emotions and asking, "Qiu'er-may I call you that?"

Qiu'er nodded.

Huo Yuhao asked, "I want to know why you would rather trust a voice that suddenly appeared in your Sea of Consciousness than trust Senior Di Tian."

"Simply because that voice tried to ingratiate itself with you?"

For a moment, Qiu'er was speechless. She did not know how to answer that question.

Ever since she had come to life fifteen thousand years ago and gradually developed awareness and memories, she had known full well how kindly Di Tian and everyone around her treated her.

Yet she had believed that voice which had appeared in her Sea of Consciousness only a few years ago, claiming, "I'm your Sister Tong."

"I... I... I'm sorry. I shouldn't have hidden it from everyone, but I really wanted to see the world outside. She-Sister Tong-said the outside world was beautiful!" Tears suddenly welled in Qiu'er's eyes.

"And... she said that in the outside world, I would discover the one I loved!"

"And, and..." Qiu'er continued telling Di Tian and Huo Yuhao everything.

Bi Ji, Zi JI, and the others had already hurried over. As they listened to Qiu'er's account, every one of their faces turned ashen.