Chapter 140: The Tilting Scales

"I'd really love to see firsthand what kind of trouble you've stirred up over the years..." the tall, blond man murmured, as if talking to himself. Then, he chuckled lightly. "But in our current state, it's best we don't show up in front of my dear sister."

He fell silent for a moment, as if listening to something, then lazily spoke again: "I know, I know, you too."

Then, the man vanished. A golden radiance flashed, and in his place appeared a soul beast that resembled both a dragon and a lion.

The Three-Eyed Golden Ni shook its dazzling golden fur, and the fierce aura belonging to the Golden Dragon King instantly dissipated without a trace.

However, the wails echoing in his ears did not disappear along with the Golden Dragon King's power.

That voice, as if emerging from the void, was mixed with unwillingness and grief—like dried, forgotten bloodstains left behind in the river of time. It bore no clear meaning, only... the final cries of millions of dragons before their untimely deaths.

It was the last lament of fallen kin in their burial ground.

A formless guidance emerged before him—a responsibility that was both intangible and unbearably heavy. With the Golden Dragon King's power came a burden, settling upon the shoulders of the one who carried his bloodline.

Wang Rui gazed at the blurred horizon beyond the snowy plains, where the iron-gray sky and dark snow-capped mountains merged into one. A faint, invisible line appeared within his perception, leading him toward an unstable, isolated world.

The Dragon Tomb.

Well... this was an unexpected surprise.

A feline-like habit took hold of him, and Wang Rui couldn't help but lift a hind paw to scratch at his ear.

Truthfully, he was a little puzzled.

Did the Silver Dragon King also know the exact location of the Dragon Tomb? If she did, why had she never gone there? After all, the Dragon Tomb should contain remnants of the Dragon God's power, which could only aid her recovery. And from what Wang Rui understood of her current state, she was probably on the ninety-ninth day of her "one-hundred-day recovery period"—hardly so weak that she had to remain paralyzed at the bottom of Star Dou Lake. Sneaking off to the Dragon Tomb to accelerate her healing wouldn't be difficult at all.

Or perhaps... only the Golden Dragon King, who had borne the full weight of their race's hatred, resentment, and other negative emotions, could perceive the sorrowful cries of his fallen kin?

Or maybe... was it simply because I wanted to find the Dragon Tomb?

He flicked his ears, deciding not to dwell on the matter. Then, he raised his gaze toward Di Tian, who had remained silent all this time.

"So this is your plan, then?" Di Tian's golden eyes darkened slightly. "You are pouring everything into cultivating a god—not just so she can stand for soul beasts, but in truth, to send her to the Divine Realm to rescue the Golden Dragon King. And then... to restore the Dragon God to his rightful place."

Di Tian had once thought the Silver Dragon King's wariness was inexplicable, but now...

"Yes."

Di Tian watched as the Three-Eyed Golden Ni nodded with utter calmness, his own golden eyes reflecting an unfathomable depth.

The joy of seeing his old master faded like the ebbing tide, leaving behind a faint, bitter taste.

Di Tian could clearly tell that the Golden Dragon King and the Auspicious Beast were quite familiar with each other. Otherwise, the Golden Dragon King would never have taken such a risk to channel power down from the Divine Realm.

He did not know how the Auspicious Beast had managed to establish contact with the Golden Dragon King, who was trapped in the Divine Realm. But clearly, Wang Rui had kept this hidden.

For how long had he concealed it? A hundred years? A thousand? Or ten thousand?

For the first time in his hundreds of thousands of years of life, the Golden-Eyed Black Dragon King felt a rare sense of frustration.

Di Tian had watched the Auspicious Beast grow from a tiny cub into what he was today. As one of the oldest soul beasts in the Star Dou Forest, he had mentored more than a few younglings—but Wang Rui was, without a doubt, the one he valued most.

It was difficult for him to accept that he had never been truly trusted.

And yet, he also understood that he was not worthy of trust.

After all, until the moment he had personally witnessed the Golden Dragon King, Di Tian could never have truly made up his mind to stand against the Silver Dragon King.

Which meant that if Wang Rui had told him about the Golden Dragon King beforehand, that information would have reached the Silver Dragon King's ears.

At that thought, Di Tian felt an odd sense of relief—at the very least, the Auspicious Beast knew how to protect himself.

Aside from Wang Rui and the Silver Dragon King, the world knew nothing about the Golden Dragon King's plight.

Other than a few God Kings, no one had personally witnessed the Dragon God's fall. But the fact that the Divine Realm had reduced the Dragon God's stronghold—the Douluo World itself—to scorched earth spoke volumes.

The alliance of non-human races, once commanded by the Dragon God, had ultimately been defeated.

A young Di Tian, along with a few surviving true dragons, had barely managed to escape that catastrophe. They had only begun to catch their breath when a heavily wounded silver dragon, bearing traces of the Dragon God's aura, descended before the remnants of their race.

They had been filled with doubts, unsure of why the Dragon God's other half was a silver female, but with no means of learning the truth of that final, brutal battle. Under the Dragon Clan's rigid bloodline hierarchy, they had naturally accepted the information brought by the Silver Dragon King.

For a hundred years after her arrival, the power structure of the Douluo World had been forcibly reshaped by some great force. Humans developed "Martial Souls," and non-human beings capable of cultivation were turned into "soul beasts"—ensnared in a bloody cycle of slaughter, with no chance of reincarnation.

In the hundreds of thousands of years that followed, human gods continued to ascend—yet not a single non-human had ever stepped through that threshold.

The surviving soul beasts needed that silver banner to rally behind.

They obeyed the Silver Dragon King as their leader, but they had never truly united under her, for she had never seen herself as the Dragon God—nor had she taken on the role of guiding the non-human races.

It wasn't until the birth of the Auspicious Beast that a second voice emerged among the soul beasts.

For over ten thousand years, the balance within Di Tian's heart had been steadily tilting—until this final weight tipped the scale.

"I will conceal today's events from the Silver Dragon King," Di Tian murmured. "And if anything involving the Lord arises in the future, I will do everything in my power to assist you."

—

The Divine Realm.

A flash of ominous energy flickered in the sky. It was so subtle that most gods failed to notice, save for the God of Destruction, whose face darkened beneath his hood.

He abandoned his fight with Rong Nianbing and hurried toward the Forbidden Lands.

The Emotion God, who had just been knocked to the ground, dusted himself off and shrugged in his direction before heading toward the Forest of Life without a care.

When the God of Destruction reached the Forbidden Lands, he found that the golden double-tipped spear atop the five-colored sealed tower was missing.

Black, white, purple, and green—the four seals remained, tightly interwoven. Only the blood-red seal belonging to the Asura God had lost a piece.

—

In a distant Divine Realm, parallel to this one...

A ninth illusory halo finally solidified behind the Emotion God, marking his ascension to the rank of a God King.

At the same time, his forehead's third eye radiated a deep and mysterious brilliance, as chaotic yet boundless energy fused into its core.

A strange, inaudible hum spread outward.

In that moment, the Emotion God touched upon a domain no god had ever reached before.

And within that incomprehensible vision...

That man, the one he had always feared—

Seemed so... insignificant.

For the first time, he glimpsed endless possibilities.

(End of Chapter)