Humans and Soul Beasts

[At the thought, Ah Yin's gaze grew exceedingly complicated, and the slender vine holding the booklet unconsciously tightened a little.]

[Her spirit form floated half a step closer. She raised her eyes to you, hesitated a moment, and asked softly, "...In the future, could I teach this secret technique to other soul beasts who want to transform?"]

[You paused slightly, then the corners of your lips lifted, the smile in your eyes warm and gratified.]

[She had not blindly accepted your gift, nor had she focused solely on resolving her own crisis. Instead, her first thought had been to weigh things from her people's standpoint, considering her kin's future and where they might find a home.]

[This showed that your guidance had not been wasted.]

["Of course." You chuckled, your tone frank. "This secret technique was tailor-made for transformed soul beasts in the first place. Now that I've placed it in your hands, what you do with it is naturally entirely up to you."]

["But in that case..." She lightly bit her lip, a trace of struggle flashing through her eyes. "Wouldn't you be... betraying your own people?"]

[You shook your head slightly, your smile undiminished. "In my view, humans and soul beasts should never have been natural enemies."]

[Ah Yin looked puzzled.]

[You explained patiently, "Soul beasts nourish the mountains and rivers, improve the environment, nurture natural treasures, and maintain the spiritual energy networks and ecological balance of the entire continent."]

["Take the Blue Silver Grass covering these mountains. In many barren places, treacherous mountains and hostile waters where humans struggle to settle and survive, they can sink their roots deep, anchoring soil and water and gathering faint traces of spiritual energy. Day after day, they nurture a little life in lands where nothing grows."]

["Humans, meanwhile, have agile minds and powerful creativity."]

["Tens of thousands of years ago, humans were still ignorant, eating raw flesh and drinking blood, sharing the wilderness with beasts and drinking in wind and snow alongside the vegetation. Now, however, they have built towering cities, created cultivation methods, and developed countless crafts and trades. Through their own wisdom, they have explored step by step and forged a brilliant civilization uniquely their own."]

["Though the two may compete for survival, at their root, their relationship should be one of mutual support and coexistence."]

[As you spoke, you took two thin books from your Storage Soul Tool-the Sustainable Development Path for Soul Masters and Self-Created Soul Skill Origin Cultivation Theory, which you had written in childhood-and gently offered them to her.]

[Ah Yin formed two new vines and carefully supported the books. Blades of grass turned the pages as she lowered her eyes to read closely, the surprise in her eyes growing ever stronger.]

["From the perspective of humanity's long-term development, every species is a priceless treasure of the world to us, a living, nonrenewable repository of knowledge accumulated over hundreds of millions of years."]

["Their innate skills, survival habits, evolutionary wisdom, bloodline origins... these are precious riches that no book or ancient text can reproduce."]

[You pointed to the Transformation Breath Concealment Technique you had given her earlier. "This breath concealment technique is a method I deduced through studying and unraveling the mechanisms behind several soul beasts' innate abilities."]

["Humanity's greatest treasure has never been brute force, but our minds and wisdom. When facing the world's other living beings, what we should do is observe, understand, learn, and even protect-not treat them with hostility, slaughter them, and plunder them without restraint in the crudest, most barbaric ways."]

[Ah Yin stared at you blankly, the grass blades hovering above the pages, having forgotten to turn them.]

[She had lived through long ages and grown accustomed to the two peoples' bloody feuds, to a fate of either hunting or fleeing. This was the first time she had heard such a view.]

[She could clearly sense that you favored neither humans nor soul beasts. Instead, you stood within a broader vision, looking down from a more detached perspective upon the endless flourishing of life on this continent.]

Seeing this, Su Yi shook his head outside the simulator.

This was no "detached perspective." Even standing entirely on humanity's side, as long as the timescale stretched far enough, the conclusion would be exactly the same.

Killing the hen for its eggs and draining the pond to catch its fish would ultimately cut off one's own path forward. Allowing life to recover and flourish, living and thriving together-that was the way to lasting prosperity.

["The soul masters of today haven't realized any of this yet." You sighed softly. "They lack a long-term perspective, as well as reverence for nature and the world."]

["Only when soul beasts dwindle day by day and the earth's gifts have been squandered to the last will people finally realize-"]

["What they've lost was never merely soul rings and soul bones, but the very foundation on which their survival depends."]

[You recalled this continent's predetermined ending-]

[Soul beasts teetered on the brink of extinction, and the survivors, like dogs driven from their homes, were forced to migrate to another planet to eke out their remaining existence.]

[As for humanity, without the so-called "ten-thousand-year plan" elevating Douluo Planet into a quasi-Divine Realm, they too would ultimately perish with their dying planet.]

Outside the simulator, a trace of melancholy also passed through Su Yi's heart.

How similar the course of his previous world had been-

People had gone from their initial reverence for nature to the arrogance of "conquering nature," before finally awakening and seeking coexistence with it.

Yet the price had been the permanent disappearance of countless species, a loss that could no longer be undone.

At the same time, he had to admit-

Though Little Scumbag had behaved inhumanly, and his "ten-thousand-year plan" had been absurdly stupid and steeped in selfish calculation from beginning to end,

the "ten-thousand-year plan" had, objectively, indeed helped Douluo Planet ascend, sparing it an end of decline and death.

[Ah Yin remained silent for a long time before speaking softly, a little lost. "Then what should we do... to make humans realize all this sooner?"]

[You shook your head, your gaze calm and far-reaching. "It isn't about 'making humans' realize it. It's about bringing both peoples to a consensus."]

["If it's only one side's wishful thinking, it will ultimately be no more than flowers in a mirror and the moon on water, incapable of truly resolving the resentment between them."]

[Ah Yin's eyes dimmed, and her leaves drooped a little unconsciously.]

[The blood-deep hatred accumulated over tens of thousands of years had long since been carved into both peoples' very bones. How could setting aside their misgivings and communicating honestly be easy?]

["Their resentment runs so deep that reaching a consensus will probably be very difficult..." Her voice grew quieter. "Could it be that both sides must taste the bitter fruit of their own actions before they finally awaken?"]

[Seeing her dejection, you could not help speaking gently. "You needn't be so disheartened. Perhaps the key to reconciling the conflict between the two peoples lies with you instead."]

[Ah Yin froze, then looked up blankly. "Us?"]

["Yes, you." You nodded slightly, your tone certain. "Transformed soul beasts possess human emotions and desires, can integrate and coexist with humans, and can have children with them. In terms of bloodline and continuation, you can already be considered human."]

["At the same time, your origins stem from soul beasts. You retain your cultivation memories and bonds with your people, produce soul rings and soul bones after death, and can also be accepted and acknowledged by your kin. Thus, you can still be considered soul beasts."]

["Beings who can empathize with human nature while deeply understanding the standpoint of soul beasts, who can move freely between the two peoples, are natural bridges for communication."]

["If transformed soul beasts could all enter human society bearing the mission of reconciling the two peoples, using themselves as a buffer to dissolve divisions and deepen connections, perhaps they really could lead both sides to set aside old grudges and reach a true consensus."]

[You paused, your voice gentle, yet every word carried weight. "Perhaps this is the greatest significance of the innate gift of soul beast transformation existing in this world."]

[Ah Yin's heart shook violently, and for a moment, she forgot how to speak.]

[In truth, under your subtle influence, she had remained hesitant at the threshold of transformation until today.]

[She had yet to understand-]

[After transforming, would she be human or a soul beast? Would cultivating a human form from a beast's body and entering human society count as betraying her own people? Between humans and soul beasts, which side would truly have a place for her?]

[Yet you told her that this had never been a choice of one or the other. Whether she advanced or retreated, she would have somewhere to belong.]

[Your words were like a bright lamp, illuminating the confused fog within her heart.]

[You had no idea what towering waves these words had stirred in Ah Yin's heart.]

[In truth, beyond eliminating the mortal danger of Ah Yin transforming and entering human society, you had created this secret breath concealment technique to try to find a path to stable survival for soul beasts trapped between being hunted and heavenly tribulations.]

[The cultivation system for soul beasts in this world was fundamentally deeply warped.]

[In the vast majority of cultivation systems, cultivation was meant to break free of the shackles of lifespan-the higher one's cultivation, the longer one's life.]

[To live longer, one could only keep improving.]

[Yet this continent was the exact opposite. Every increase in a soul beast's cultivation brought it one step closer to its next heavenly tribulation. Moreover, those tribulations were far fiercer than normal, frequently leaving only a sliver of hope for survival, with body and soul alike destroyed.]

[To live safely and long, they instead had to deliberately slow their cultivation.]

[Even more fatal was that the Divine Realm and the Dragon God had long since joined forces to lock down the upper limit of soul beast cultivation-unless the Dragon God emerged, beasts could not become gods within the Divine Realm.]

[This meant that soul beast cultivation was plainly a matter of approaching the abyss with every step, its ending already sealed.]

[Even transformation and cultivation would most likely fail to break through the shackles barring godhood. But at least, with the Breath Concealment Technique to protect them, they would no longer need to live in fear of their identities being exposed. They could experience a complete human life on equal and dignified terms.]

[Of course, you did not tell Ah Yin these secrets.]

[While you were lost in thought, Ah Yin's spirit form suddenly floated forward and gently embraced you.]

[Her slightly cool lips placed a soft kiss on your cheek, carrying the distinctive freshness of plants and Ah Yin's own tender shyness.]

[You froze, having never expected her to suddenly make such an intimate gesture.]

[Just as you were about to raise your hands in response, Ah Yin had already dissolved into blue motes of light, scattering like fluttering fireflies and drifting back into her true body.]

[You touched the cheek she had kissed. A trace of cool, fresh moisture, like that of plants, still lingered on your skin.]

[You shook your head with an amused laugh, braced both hands behind you, and gazed up at the sky as you hummed a little tune from home.]

[The words were indistinct, the melody distant and lingering.]

[A breeze brushed past, sending layers of tiny ripples through the Blue Silver Grass covering the mountains.]

[One of her tendrils, however, had quietly wound around your little finger, softer than before, tighter than before.]

[Meanwhile, far away in a mountain gorge outside Nuoding City, beside a waterfall, a scruffy, stubble-covered middle-aged man reclining against a blue-gray rock suddenly felt his scalp itch.]

[He unconsciously scratched the back of his head, frowning as he muttered, "Strange... why does my head keep feeling so heavy lately?"]

[He shook his head hard, dismissing it as an illusion caused by excessive grief over losing Ah Yin's true body. Lifting his wine flask, he took another swig, then spoke gravely to the youth practicing his hammer technique nearby. "Little San, keep going."]