Just as Dai Mubai, Tang San, Yu Xiaogang, Ma Hongjun, and the others were busily analyzing the name "Bitter Sea Realm"...
[Second perspective: Star Dou Great Forest, Emperor Auspicious Beast, Three-Eyed Golden Lion (15,000 years)]
At that moment, the Three-Eyed Golden Lion, the future Wang Qiu'er, stood dazed on a barren stretch of rocky ground.
Her beautiful eyes, like the purest golden amber, were filled with bewilderment and panic.
"This... this isn't right, is it?"
She stiffly turned her neck, looking around in disbelief.
Behind her lay a lush primeval forest of towering ancient trees. The branches and leaves of those enormous trees, which had grown for hundreds and thousands of years, overlapped, blotting out the sky and sun. Vines hung like curtains, and moss covered everything like velvet...
But before her...
Was an entirely different sight.
A stretch of rubble-strewn ground had appeared abruptly, without a blade of grass growing on it. The earth was a dark red, almost like dried blood.
Only a few enormous trunks, long dead and of indiscernible age, still stood...
An indescribable air of desolation, deathly silence, and antiquity seeped from this land, forming an eerie contrast with the vigorous life behind her.
It was as though an invisible boundary clearly divided life from death, flourishing growth from barrenness, the present from eternity.
And directly ahead of her stood a familiar stone stele.
This stone stele was at least several hundred meters tall, its imposing form reaching the heavens, ancient and weathered. Several archaic seal-script characters were inscribed upon it-Desolate Ancient Forbidden Land!
"This stele... I'm doomed, doomed, doomed!"
The Three-Eyed Golden Lion had watched the Heavenly Screen's live broadcast!
She had seen with her own eyes how that unlucky fellow called Long Aotian had mistakenly entered this so-called "Desolate Ancient Forbidden Land" and, within just a few steps, gone from a young man to dust in the world!
The tyranny of that time-stripping power was still fresh in her memory.
Although she was a Soul Beast, an Emperor Auspicious Beast, and possessed a lifespan far longer than an ordinary human's, theoretically reaching hundreds of thousands of years or even longer.
But could something like "time" be measured by common sense?
"Why... why am I so unlucky?!"
For a moment, Qiu'er wailed inwardly, and a mist of aggrieved tears swiftly welled up in her golden eyes.
Her head, originally held high with excitement and anticipation, now drooped slightly.
She had only just left the Star Dou Great Forest and arrived in this mysterious, fantastical Shrouding the Heavens World. Her original intention had merely been to seek novelty, to see a broader world, and to satisfy her yearning and curiosity about the world outside.
But she had never expected...
That her "starter village," or rather, her spawn point, would be the deadliest of death zones!
"Am I going to die as soon as I get here? Boohoo~"
For a moment, Qiu'er was at a loss, afraid to advance and afraid to retreat.
Meanwhile, on the Douluo Continent, in the Sea God Pavilion.
When the archaic seal-script characters spelling "Desolate Ancient Forbidden Land" appeared on the Heavenly Screen, the entire Shrek Academy fell deathly silent.
"This is bad."
Yan Shaozhe stood beneath the Golden Tree, his expression utterly grim.
As dean of the Martial Soul Department, his understanding of the Star Dou Great Forest far surpassed that of others.
The Emperor Auspicious Beast-she was the symbol of the Soul Beast Clan's fortune, the true "princess" of the Star Dou Great Forest.
And now she had gone to the Desolate Ancient Forbidden Land...
Everyone had witnessed Long Aotian's fate with their own eyes.
Going to that place meant death.
After all, when time rolled over you, no matter how heaven-defying your talent or how peerless your splendor, you would ultimately be nothing more than a handful of dust.
"How could she be so unlucky?"
"She only just went to the Shrouding the Heavens World, and she fell into a death zone like this..."
Xuan Zi also lowered his wine gourd, his face grave. "If the Emperor Auspicious Beast dies in the Shrouding the Heavens World, Di Tian will go mad."
Yan Shaozhe nodded. That was precisely what worried him...
After all, that old dragon had lived for nearly a million years and doted on the Auspicious Beast like a daughter.
If his precious goddaughter inexplicably died in another world, what would he do? Yan Shaozhe simply dared not imagine it.
"Let's hope there's a turn for the better!"
Xian Lin'er shook her head helplessly. "Or let's hope that old dragon doesn't truly go so mad that he vents his fury on humans..."
Meanwhile, in the core region of the Star Dou Great Forest, beside the Lake of Life.
There was Di Tian, the focus of the Shrek group's discussion!
"Roar-!!!"
A sky-shaking dragon's roar reverberated through the forest. Its terrifying pressure forced all the Soul Beasts within a hundred li to prostrate themselves on the ground, trembling.
Di Tian, the true ruler of the Star Dou Great Forest, the Golden-Eyed Black Dragon King, threw back his head and roared at the sky, his golden dragon eyes filled with anxiety.
"Auspicious Beast!"
Beside him, the Emerald Swan Bi Ji lightly covered her red lips, her eyes full of worry. "Di Tian, calm down..."
"Calm down?"
Di Tian smashed his fist into the ground, cracking the earth and churning the lake waters. "How am I supposed to calm down?"
"That's the Desolate Ancient Forbidden Land, the Desolate Ancient Forbidden Land with the power to strip away time..."
"Damn it! The Auspicious Beast... why did she have to appear there, of all places!"
After a long while, Di Tian closed his eyes, his voice hoarse. "The Emperor Auspicious Beast is blessed by our Star Dou's fortune. If she falls..."
"Then I will slaughter my way into-the Shrouding the Heavens World!"
And just as Di Tian was on the verge of going mad, and the entire Douluo Continent believed the Three-Eyed Golden Lion was certain to die-
An abrupt change occurred in the Heavenly Screen's picture.
"Huh? That's..."
At that moment, a tiny figure slowly walked out from the depths of the Desolate Ancient Forbidden Land.
It was a little girl who looked no more than three or four years old.
She wore floral-print cloth clothes washed pale and went barefoot, yet strangely, not a speck of dust clung to her little feet.
Her hair was somewhat disheveled, casually tied into two little tufts with a red cord. Most striking of all were her eyes, clean and pure, like the sky after rain, untainted by a single speck of dust.
She walked very slowly...
Yet, before the astonished gazes of the billions of living beings on the Douluo Continent-
She walked unharmed across the land that had once stripped Long Aotian of all his time.
She walked past the dead ancient trees.
She stepped over the dark-red sand and stones.
She even bent down curiously, picked up a rather rounded black stone, looked at it, then tossed it aside.
Throughout it all, nothing unusual happened.
There was no instantaneous aging, no turning to dust.
"Gasp! This... how is this possible?!"
At that moment, everyone on the Douluo Continent was utterly astonished. "Who is this little girl? She walked out of the Desolate Ancient Forbidden Land?!"
Just as everyone on the Douluo Continent was wondering who this little girl was and how she could have walked out of the Desolate Ancient Forbidden Land...
In the Shrouding the Heavens World, at the edge of the Desolate Ancient Forbidden Land.
The little girl who had walked out from the depths of the Desolate Ancient Forbidden Land had already reached the Three-Eyed Golden Lion, who was watching her with equal curiosity.
"Wow-"
The little girl stopped before the Three-Eyed Golden Lion and tilted her little head up slightly. Her large, clear eyes stared unblinkingly at the Soul Beast before her, golden all over, with fur as beautiful as flowing amber.
"What a pretty little doggy!"
Her voice was soft and sweet, carrying the innocence unique to children.
"Huh?"
The Three-Eyed Golden Lion's already tense body stiffened, and a trace of embarrassed annoyance instantly flashed through her beautiful amber-gold eyes.