"A young lord with a hundred thousand years of cultivation?
What fucking bullshit!
A hundred thousand years of cultivation couldn't even withstand a single Terrorclaw strike from me!
What makes him worthy of being the young lord?
And who the hell is his father?!
I'm the one and only king of all Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bears under heaven!
If anyone dares call himself an ancestor above me, I'll rip his bear gallbladder out and chew it to pieces!"
Xiong Jun roared furiously, trying to conceal the wavering in his heart.
Yet which of the Ferocious Beasts present wasn't a shrewd old hand who had lived for hundreds of thousands of years?
They could see it perfectly clearly: Xiong Jun was rattled.
All this time, the reason the Ferocious Beasts of Star Dou Great Forest held themselves in such high regard.
Was that they firmly believed they represented the pinnacle and rightful lineage of all Soul Beasts in the lower realm.
Di Tian was the foremost True Dragon, Xiong Jun was the King of Land Combat, and Myriad Demon King was the ruler of Plant-type Soul Beasts.
But now, the appearance of the Sky Screen was like a merciless slap, striking every Ferocious Beast hard across the face!
Xuanwu Continent not only had humans, and human powerhouses who utterly eclipsed those of Douluo Continent.
Soul Beasts were also entrenched on that land.
Moreover, the completeness of their organizational structure and bloodline inheritance seemed to far exceed what the Soul Beasts of Douluo Continent could comprehend!
Back when Xuanwu Continent came alongside Douluo Continent.
Some of the Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bears on Douluo Continent had settled on Xuanwu Continent.
Xiong Jun knew nothing of this.
Or rather, he might have known at the time that some of his clansmen had mysteriously vanished, but he had long since put it out of his mind.
"All of you, be quiet."
The moment Gu Yuena said this, Myriad Demon King and Xiong Jun fell silent.
Gu Yuena said calmly:
"Di Tian, Myriad Demon King, there is no point in arguing over this."
"My lord..."
Di Tian bowed slightly, his expression respectful.
Gu Yuena raised her head, looking at Yu Chuanwu, whose entire body had undergone Dragon Transformation within the screen of light, and Bibi Xi, who was laughing wildly amid the sky-filling rain of poison, and said:
"Di Tian, you asked whether that 'Rift-Splitting Black Dragon King' was real?
I can tell you plainly: there is an eighty percent chance he is."
At these words, Di Tian looked as though he had been struck by lightning, saying in disbelief:
"My lord!
How could that be possible?
Among the Black Dragon clan, apart from me..."
"You are too fixated on this little mud pit called Douluo Continent."
Gu Yuena cut Di Tian off, her voice desolate.
"Di Tian, do you still remember 'Dragon Valley'?"
At the words "Dragon Valley," Di Tian's body jolted, and grief and reminiscence flashed through his eyes.
"Dragon Valley... of course I remember."
Di Tian's voice trembled slightly.
"It was a small plane Lord Dragon God personally created on the eve of the divine war.
It was intended as a burial ground for the mighty of our dragon race, preserving our pure bloodlines and heroic souls.
Later, the divine war erupted, the Nine Great Dragon Kings fell in battle one after another, and Lord Dragon God perished.
Dragon Valley then vanished into the void, its whereabouts unknown..."
"Correct."
Gu Yuena nodded slightly and said calmly.
"Dragon God created Dragon Valley to prepare for the worst and leave a spark of survival for the dragon race.
Even a small plane could preserve the bones and remnant souls of dragons.
Then could there truly be no dragon descendants elsewhere who escaped the Divine Realm's butcher's blade?"
Gu Yuena turned around and looked at Di Tian:
"The divine war back then was horrifically brutal. The gods of the Divine Realm encircled and slaughtered the dragon race, and countless dragon warriors detonated their Divine Bodies, shattering the void and overturning planes.
Amid such chaos, one or two grievously wounded, dying True Dragons could have fallen into the lower realm's seas through spatial turbulence.
Or some branch of the dragon race could have concealed its identity and found a peaceful place to rest and recuperate. Neither was impossible to begin with.
That Xuanwu Continent floated in the depths of the farthest seas, isolated from Douluo Continent for untold ages.
If a Pure-Blood Black Dragon truly underwent a rebirth over those long years and even propagated a 'Rift-Splitting Black Dragon' lineage, on what grounds could you declare it false?"
(PS: The settings concerning the Divine Realm and Dragon God contradict each other, so I'm taking bits from each. This book's version takes precedence.)
Di Tian lowered his head and sank into thought.
The bloodlines of the Nine Great Dragon Kings created by Dragon God held boundless mysteries.
If a branch really had hidden on that mysterious continent and evolved over the long years into "Rift-Splitting Black Dragons," it was indeed theoretically plausible.
Even so, the doubts in Di Tian's heart remained.
"My lord, what you said is absolutely right. A surviving bloodline is indeed possible."
Di Tian raised his head, his brows tightly furrowed, and said gravely:
"But there is still one glaring flaw I cannot make sense of."
"Speak."
"I once traveled to every corner of this world."
Di Tian drew a deep breath, his tone exceptionally certain:
"On this planet, apart from Douluo Continent beneath our feet, I discovered three other overseas continents of varying sizes in the distant eastern and southwestern oceans.
Humans and Soul Beasts lived there as well, though their civilizations were entirely different from ours.
But this so-called Xuanwu Continent alone is something I have never seen. I have never even sensed the slightest trace of its presence!"
Di Tian pointed at the continent's outline on the Sky Screen, growing somewhat agitated:
"As the Sky Screen shows, Xuanwu Continent is incomparably vast, fully half the size of Douluo Continent!
Such an immense landmass is no tiny island or reef. It is a colossal presence in the ocean that cannot be ignored.
Even if it remained hidden year-round in a far-off ocean region plagued by extremely violent storms, with my Divine Consciousness and the dragon race's sensitivity to the earth, there would be no possibility of missing it once I came within a certain distance.
Just how did it completely evade my senses for hundreds of thousands of years?
Could it really have popped out of a crack in a rock out of nowhere?"
Di Tian's words made several of the Ferocious Beasts present nod.
Bi Ji stepped lightly forward and spoke gently:
"Di Tian's words do make sense.
Though Douluo Star is vast, hiding a territory half the size of a continent without being detected.
Unless... unless all of heaven and earth were concealing it."
Zi JI also snorted coldly and agreed:
"If even Di Tian couldn't detect it, then what kind of terrifying barrier was placed around Xuanwu Continent?
Or does it not belong to Douluo Star at all?"
Faced with the Ferocious Beasts' confusion, Gu Yuena remained composed, even carrying a trace of the coldness of someone who had seen through to the heart of the matter.
"Di Tian, your failure to detect it was not because your cultivation of spatial law was inadequate.
Rather, it was because... the level of its existence exceeded the limits of what you could perceive."
At Gu Yuena's words, the air instantly froze.
Myriad Demon King said in astonishment:
"My lord, you mean..."
"Xuanwu Continent might not be an ordinary, lifeless landmass formed through changes in the earth's crust."
Gu Yuena's gaze shifted slightly.
"In my view, normal continental drift would never be like Xuanwu Continent.
It is about to approach Douluo Continent so quickly.
This speed defies common sense far too much."
"Moreover, since Xuanwu Continent can evade Di Tian's perception, a powerhouse must exist there.
Surely there couldn't once have been a barrier enveloping all of Xuanwu Continent?"
Di Tian's pupils abruptly contracted:
"My lord, are you saying... a 'God' exists on Xuanwu Continent?!"
"A God?!"
Xiong Jun's bear eyes widened. He sucked in a cold breath, all his fur standing on end:
"There's actually a real God on that continent?!
How is that possible!"
Bi Ji also looked horrified and said incredulously:
"My lord, that is absolutely impossible!
Ever since the Divine Realm was established, especially after the divine war, how stringent has the God Realm Committee's suppression and surveillance of the lower planes been?
Any lower-realm Soul Master who breaks through level one hundred and forms a divine core must ascend to the Divine Realm before long.
A true God's real body is never allowed to remain in the lower realm for long, lest it upset the balance of the plane."
Twenty thousand years ago, Angel God and Sea God had become Gods in succession.
Then, not long afterward, they had ascended to the Divine Realm.
All the Ferocious Beasts had witnessed it.
"Exactly."
Zi JI's brows knitted tightly.
"If a God existed on Xuanwu Continent, those hypocritical lackeys of the Divine Realm should have acted long ago to suppress them or forcibly summon them.
How could they tolerate a living God roaming freely in the lower realm?
The Divine Realm's five great Gods of Law Enforcement would never stand idly by!"
The Ferocious Beasts each voiced their views, their expressions filled with shock, doubt, and confusion.
Becoming a God meant ascending. This was an ironclad rule that no being could defy.
Seeing the Ferocious Beasts' panicked expressions, Gu Yuena felt great contempt for the God Realm Committee.
"Rules?
Rules are nothing more than chains the strong use to shackle the weak."
Gu Yuena stood with her hands behind her back and said coldly:
"The rules you speak of target human Gods, and are also a means for the Divine Realm to prevent the lower realm from slipping beyond its control.
But do not forget that humans are not the only ones in this world who can become Gods."
At these words, a thunderbolt suddenly flashed through Di Tian's mind, and his entire body began trembling violently:
"My lord, could you mean...
The God on Xuanwu Continent isn't a human God, but... but an existence like you?!"
"Correct."
Gu Yuena turned her head, activated her "World-Shaking Wisdom," and said with complete certainty:
"Like me, they should be a 'Soul Beast Clan God'!"
Those words struck like thunder from a clear sky, slamming into the depths of every Ferocious Beast's soul!
A Soul Beast... God!
Ever since Dragon God's defeat and death, that phrase had represented a path utterly severed by the Divine Realm, an absolute taboo!
After the Dragon God War.
The Divine Realm had altered the laws of all heavens, stripping every Soul Beast in the world of the right to condense a Divine Core and ascend to godhood.
No matter how many years a Soul Beast lived, even if it survived nine Heavenly Tribulations, its ultimate fate was to turn to ash beneath the tenth. The day it crossed level one hundred and became a God would never come.
This was the death curse the Divine Realm had fastened around every Soul Beast's neck!
(PS: But according to the later settings, Dragon God did this himself. Just absurd.)
Yet now, Gu Yuena had personally declared that a God belonging to the Soul Beast Clan was entrenched on Xuanwu Continent, which was approaching Douluo Continent!
"H-how... how is that possible..."
Xiong Jun stammered, his body trembling uncontrollably.
"The Divine Realm... didn't those false gods of the Divine Realm completely sever our path to godhood back then?
Even in our Star Dou Great Forest, even Di Tian is stuck at eight hundred and ninety thousand years, unable to advance an inch.
How could a Soul Beast from Xuanwu Continent become a God?!"