Gu Yuena recently felt that she was being a bit disgraceful--no! Disgraceful to dragons.
She was clearly the Co-Sovereign of Soul Beasts, but lately, she felt as though her subordinates were not as obedient as before. On the surface, they remained completely deferential, but she could clearly see the "quiet quitting" hidden in their eyes.
The land Soul Beast and Sea Soul Beasts shared the same origin. Paradoxically, though she held the title of "Co-Sovereign of Soul Beasts" as the Silver Dragon King, her authority was only somewhat nominal among the land Soul Beast. The Sea Soul Beasts were not under her jurisdiction, nor could she control them.
During the previous divine war, when the new Sea God clashed with the Sea God High Priest Chen Xinjie, Skadi had unleashed a stream of water imbued with the true intent of the ocean toward the Soul Beast collective led by Gu Yuena. However, Gu Yuena failed to decipher the pheromones hidden within the seawater. Relying on a crude calculation of her spiritual power, she mistakenly interpreted it as an "invitation." Subsequently, carrying the final "hope" of the Soul Beast, she dived headfirst into the deep sea.
The coordinates of the Sea Soul Beast city, Aegir, were originally concealed within that stream of water, but she had carelessly overlooked them. Consequently, once they entered the sea without guidance, they became completely lost. Left with no other choice, they resorted to highway robbery against a passing ten-thousand-year Shadow Shark, which reluctantly guided them toward Aegir.
Looking down upon this underwater city from above, Gu Yuena and the assembly of Soul Beast were utterly stunned. A soft, gentle radiance diffused through the deep sea, rendering the grand contours of the architecture hazy yet majestic. The Seaborn traversed the area in an orderly fashion, transporting minerals, nutrients, and even condensed flesh and blood, gradually filling out this grand city.
"So these are the Sea God's retainers? Such a tiny thing is actually quite useful?" The short-tempered Xiong Jun ignored the crushing pressure of the deep sea and snatched up a small Seaborn. This creature looked like a fish, yet it was absolutely not a fish. He poked it with his finger, his eyes brimming with curiosity.
The other Soul Beast gathered around as well. This was an existence capable of altering the Soul Beast' fate of fearing heaven's tribulation; they could not help but be curious.
"Put it down, Xiong Jun," Di Tian's voice sounded at the appropriate moment. "This is the Sea God's handiwork, manifested from her divine blood."
During the previous divine war, he had discerned some of the underlying principles. That Sea God had actually integrated her own flesh and blood into the ocean, while also dispersing a significant amount of divine power. Although this was intended to compensate the Douluo Planet, Di Tian recognized the prototype of the Sea God's Light on the Seaborn at a single glance.
The impact of such boundless life force on the Douluo Planet was entirely predictable. Fortunately, the Sea God was benevolent and allowed most of the divine power to return to heaven and earth, though the greatest benefit was ultimately reaped by the Sea Soul Beasts.
"The host has arrived." Di Tian gazed at the three figures emerging from the city, though he did not see the Sea God.
He took half a step back, yielding the front position to Gu Yuena--it was appropriate to let this Co-Sovereign of Soul Beasts step forward to receive them. The rest of the Soul Beast immediately lined up according to their strength. Di Tian stood firmly half a step behind Gu Yuena, his aura not weakening in the slightest.
"Where is your Sea God? Have her come out to meet me." Gu Yuena still maintained the haughty demeanor of the Dragon Clan, adhering to the protocol of "king to king, emperor to emperor." Feeling that the three individuals before her lacked the proper status, she demanded to know the Sea God's whereabouts.
However, the leading man merely swept a calm glance over her before turning to Di Tian. His tone was indifferent. "If the Soul Beast race truly intends to have a child act as their Co-Sovereign, then there is no need to hold these talks. Di Tian, what do you think?"
Gu Yuena felt as though she had been struck by lightning. No matter what, she possessed the combat power of a First-Class God and a half-step God King! Even if she had not fully recovered after being severely injured, now that she had returned from her healing, she still possessed God-level combat power. Was she not even qualified to meet this transformed Sea God?
Di Tian, however, was completely forthright. In his human form, he was a majestic middle-aged man with black hair draping over his shoulders. Stepping forward, his attitude was neither submissive nor overbearing. "Ever since my lord's birth, her spiritual consciousness has been fragmented. It was only after a journey to the Douluo Divine Realm that her spiritual consciousness re-aggregated. It is inevitable that her disposition resembles that of a child. I ask for Lord Hai's understanding."
The moment these words were spoken, it was equivalent to directly selling out his own lord. Furthermore, by following the other party's lead, it solidified the claim that "Gu Yuena is a child." He signaled Gu Yuena with his eyes to suppress her anger, then fully shielded her by standing in front of her to interface with the man.
Standing behind him, Gu Yuena felt thoroughly mortified. Listening to the conversation between the two regarding the laws of the Divine Realm and how Soul Beast could not attain godhood, she grew increasingly bewildered. When she fled from the Divine Realm, her spiritual consciousness had been completely shattered, and she had slept in the Lake of Life on the Douluo Planet for tens of thousands of years before re-condensing her awareness. Even so, this cognitive gap was simply too vast.
She could not remember the details of the Dragon God War clearly, retaining only a vague recollection that the Divine Realm possessed five Great God King who were all her enemies. Her mission was to lead the remaining Soul Beast to revive their race. Yet looking at it now, she actually knew less than Di Tian--this fellow, who had been demoted from a divine beast to a Soul Beast, understood more than she did as the "half-body of the Dragon God."
Gu Yuena obediently shut her mouth and stood quietly at the back, listening to the dialogue between the two.
"According to the memories extracted from the divine consciousness of the Sea God Tang San, the Law dictating that Soul Beast cannot attain godhood was personally established by your Dragon God." The man's voice was calm, yet every word pierced the heart. "Strictly speaking, we can no longer be considered Soul Beast."
"The Dragon God had already descended into madness back then; no one could fathom his thoughts." Di Tian's voice sank. "This matter is a debt my Dragon Clan owes to the Soul Beast race. My apologies." He understood this Law better than anyone else--after all, he had once been the Dragon God's closest captain of the guard.
"Then you should also understand that the so-called 'revival of the Soul Beast' is fundamentally a joke." The man pressed on step by step. "The internal structure of your race remains a food chain where the strong prey on the weak. The lower-level Soul Beast possess absolutely no wisdom and act entirely on instinct. Your ability to command them relies on strength, not on an intrinsic cohesion within the 'Soul Beast race'--this point marks a fundamental difference from the Sea Soul Beasts of my race."
He paused before continuing, "Furthermore, the only large-scale beast tide in human history was merely forced out because the Auspicious Emperor Beast died and the Soul Beast' providence dissipated. Afterward, the Soul Beast were nearly wiped out entirely, and the land Soul Beast still failed to unify, did they not?"
Di Tian fell silent. As the "Beast God" reverently Titled by the Soul Beast, how could he not understand? He was able to control the situation only because he was the strongest--from the past to the present, it had always been so. However, his drive had long since dissipated.
He was no longer the Black Dragon Clan patriarch who could summon the clouds and rain, nor was he one of the Nine Dragon Kings who commanded the winds and clouds under the Dragon God's command. The true dragon lineage and God-level bloodline of the Golden-Eyed Black Dragon King allowed him to rival other hundred-thousand-year Soul Beast within just ten thousand years. Now, even with his cultivation deliberately suppressed, it had reached nine hundred ninety thousand years, accumulating enough energy to sustain the requirements for attaining godhood ten times over--yet he ultimately never took that step.
Was he suppressed by the rules of the Douluo Plane? No. He was lost. He did not know what he should fight for. Why did the Dragon God establish the rule that "Soul Beast cannot attain godhood"? He had once been the Dragon God's most trusted captain of the guard, a divine dragon controlling darkness. But after falling to the Douluo Continent from the status of a supreme powerhouse, was he supposed to be absolutely nothing?
He was not suppressed by the laws of heaven and earth; to him, those were of little consequence. What truly weighed down on him was the Dragon God's declaration that "Soul Beast cannot attain godhood."
With the power of ultimate darkness, the profound mysteries of the mutual complement of Yin and Yang, and the divine skill personally bestowed by the Dragon God, the Dragon God Claw... logically speaking, he had absolutely no reason to fear the likes of the Abyssal Sovereign.
But his drive had dissipated. Even if he attained godhood, what then? For the revival of the Dragon Clan? Yet the Dragon Clan was fundamentally destroyed by the Dragon God's own hands. For Gu Yuena? As he had just said, she was merely a child who had not grown up.
If he truly released all of his accumulated cultivation and energy, he might not necessarily lose to this "half-body of the Dragon God"--the so-called bloodline suppression was merely self-deception. She had merely split the status of the Dragon God, without inheriting the Dragon God's true will.
Gu Yuena's anomalies, the tacit approval of the Divine Realm... over hundreds of thousands of years, he had countless hours to ponder these things. But now, the man before him tore away all his disguises, throwing these questions buried deep within his heart ruthlessly back in front of him once more.
Should he behave as he did in the past, casting aside the pride of a dragon king, abandoning all his persistence, and sacrificing everything for that "Little Dragon God" who did not revere the Dragon Clan but only cared for humans, just to contend against the cosmic lightning tribulation left behind by the Dragon God? Or rather... should he become himself once again?
Di Tian gazed at the deep-sea city before him, and then at the silent Soul Beast beside him. For the first time, a light other than confusion flickered within those golden dragon eyes.
The lord being plotted against by a God King? The emergence of a Dragon God in the universe who was not a "dragon"... none of this mattered anymore. Ultimately, he fought neither for the revival of the Soul Beast nor for the revival of the Dragon Clan.
The true Golden-Eyed Black Dragon King had already died the very moment the Dragon God War came to an end.