"Scarlet King, after spending these past few months with Zeng Tian, what do you think of him?"
At those words, the Scarlet King's expression immediately grew solemn. After pondering for a while, he answered, "To be honest, in terms of talent, Zeng Tian is unmatched by anyone I have ever seen.
"Di Tian, you may not know this, but with my current strength, I can no longer keep him in check. His strength is improving at a terrifying speed.
"And his cultivation is still only at the ten-thousand-year level. Once he reaches a hundred thousand years, I doubt any soul beast besides you will be his match."
"Is that really true?!"
Di Tian was shocked to hear it.
How much time had even passed? He had only taken a nap, just a few short months, yet Zeng Tian's strength had already risen to the level of a three-hundred-thousand-year soul beast.
Never mind soul beasts-even the most terrifying prodigies among humans could not possibly improve at such a pace.
This Zeng Tian must still be hiding some secret I know nothing about.
Then Di Tian narrowed his eyes, stroked his chin, and asked in a low voice, "What about Zeng Tian's character? What is his temperament like, and what does he think of the current situation between humans and soul beasts?"
With Xiong Jun's example before him, he had to make sure any new member of his upper ranks would obey his orders-or at least not be a turncoat.
Zeng Tian certainly had enough talent, but talent alone was not enough. If his character was poor, the greater his talent, the greater the destruction he could cause.
"From what I have seen so far, Zeng Tian's character is decent. He is fairly straightforward, the type who draws a clear line between gratitude and grudges. He is particularly devoted to improving his strength and trains extremely hard.
"As for his attitude toward humans, perhaps because he has had contact with them before, he is rather wary and guarded, but so far he has shown no particularly strong aversion to them.
"Also, although he has never shown it openly, I can tell that sometimes there is something odd about the way he looks at other soul beasts-as though he were looking at fools."
Di Tian folded his arms, lightly tapping his left arm with the fingers of his right hand. After hearing the Scarlet King's assessment of Zeng Tian, he mused, "With his talent and rate of improvement, it is natural for him to look down on other soul beasts and be somewhat proud. That is no great flaw."
Soul beasts had a strict hierarchy. High-ranking soul beasts looked down on low-ranking ones, and those who outright despised them were far from rare.
Especially those with savage temperaments, such as Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bears, who would sometimes start slaughtering simply because another soul beast had glanced at them.
Compared with such soul beasts, the faint hints that occasionally slipped into Zeng Tian's gaze amounted to nothing at all.
Besides, Zeng Tian did indeed have the capital to back it up.
In Di Tian's view, Zeng Tian's original bloodline had not been particularly high-ranking. Even after his bloodline advanced and he gained ultimate fire, Di Tian did not consider it especially astonishing.
The auspicious beast, the Three-Eyed Golden Lion, possessed both ultimate fire and ultimate light, two ultimate attributes, and even had an exceptionally potent golden dragon bloodline. Yet her ultimate combat prowess only allowed her to fight hundred-thousand-year opponents at the ten-thousand-year level, failing to put any distance between her and Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bears.
Compared with them, Zeng Tian only possessed ultimate fire and lacked any top-tier bloodline. In terms of physical potential, he really did not amount to much.
Yet on that foundation, Zeng Tian had used his self-created skills to raise his combat prowess to a level that even the Scarlet King found troublesome. That clearly could no longer be explained by bloodline talent alone.
What was truly terrifying about him was his creativity.
Flame Charge alone could greatly increase the Scarlet King's combat prowess. If Zeng Tian created more special moves in the future, and soul beasts could make use of all those skills, just how far would their combat prowess rise?
With such terrifying comprehension, Zeng Tian could already be called an anomaly. It was perfectly natural for him to look down on ordinary soul beasts in his heart.
"As for his attitude toward humans, it is indeed a little weak. But we can guide him later. Correcting it will not be difficult."
Di Tian spoke calmly.
Wariness and caution were quite right. In his view, humans certainly warranted both.
But wariness and caution alone were useless.
Although Di Tian did not want Zeng Tian to become a brute like Xiong Jun who knew nothing but slaughter, neither did he want him to become a conservative who only knew how to defend and never attack.
What Di Tian did not know, however, was that Zeng Tian was by no means the conservative he imagined. If he truly decided to act, he would absolutely be more radical than even the radicals, because he understood humans all too well.
The only reason he behaved as the Scarlet King had described was that he was simply working on improving the auspicious beast and the Scarlet King.
After all, given the current circumstances on the soul beasts' side, launching a counteroffensive against humanity was basically impossible.
Setting aside the fact that humanity's strength could not be underestimated, humans improved far faster than soul beasts. If they were truly dragged into a prolonged war, the soul beasts could not remotely match humans in replenishing their fighting forces.
Even if the soul beasts truly suppressed humanity, how could they guarantee that the Divine Realm would not intervene? By relying on the Silver Dragon King Gu Yuena, who was currently lying in the Lake of Life with injuries that had not even healed?
Don't make your big brother Zeng laugh.
Rather than rely on Gu Yuena, they might as well wait for Zeng Tian himself to become a god. After all, he was a Pokémon. You soul beasts and dragonkind can't become gods, but what does that have to do with me, a Pokémon?
"Then what do you mean?"
Hearing the implication in Di Tian's words, the Scarlet King's heart jolted, and he asked tentatively.
Di Tian said evenly, "At the next gathering, bring Zeng Tian and the auspicious beast with you. I have something to announce."
"Yes, Di Tian."
The Scarlet King exhaled deeply. For Di Tian to say this now meant he had essentially already made his decision.
But among soul beasts, strength reigned supreme. Would Xiong Jun and the Myriad Demon King really accept it?
Meanwhile, Zeng Tian was still hard at work practicing his newly learned special move.
Thanks to his inherited memories, he would automatically comprehend certain special moves upon reaching the appropriate level.
Sometimes, when the conditions were met, he would even comprehend unexpected moves.
Zeng Tian's newly comprehended special move was called Fire Blast, one of the powerful Fire-type moves he had learned after Flamethrower surpassed lv10.
"Roar!"
A tremendous amount of fire energy gathered before Zeng Tian's mouth. With a slight movement of his throat, he fired a massive red fireball.
During its flight, the fireball spread out, taking the shape of the character 大. This shape spanned over ten meters across, and its target was none other than the auspicious beast nearby.
The auspicious beast had originally intended to block it. After all, she also possessed ultimate fire and had extremely strong resistance to flames, which was precisely why Zeng Tian had asked her to serve as his test target.
But when the 大-shaped mass of flames actually reached her, the auspicious beast's expression suddenly changed. She instantly activated Flame Charge, her body turning into a flash of golden light as she dodged out of Fire Blast's range.
Rumble-
With no auspicious beast blocking its path, Fire Blast flew straight on for several hundred meters and struck a towering rock wall behind her.