The girl's delicate hand was holding Di Tian's claw in place. The girl didn't even flinch. Her purple eyes looked up at him, serene and disappointed.
"Is that all the Beast God amounts to?" she asked softly.
For the first time in centuries, Di Tian felt disbelief. His strike should have reduced a Titled Douluo to a flesh pulp. Yet the fragile human before him hadn't even taken a step back.
He roared again, unleashing a breath of pure dragon destruction. The beam carved through the forest like molten lightning, turning everything in its path to ash — but when the smoke cleared, the girl was gone.
A sudden impact struck his abdomen. The Beast God staggered back several meters, scales cracking.
'How…? When did she move!?'
The girl danced through the battlefield like sunlight through broken leaves. Her movements changed fluidly — a claw strike that mirrored Bear Lord's, a spiritual roar like Zi Ji's, a pulse of green light that healed her in the blink of an eye.
Di Tian's eyes widened as he realized:
She was using soul-beast abilities, and not just mimicking — replicating them perfectly.
With each exchange, her aura grew brighter, heavier, more powerful. The beasts behind Di Tian began to tremble, their instincts screaming danger.
His patience shattered.
"ENOUGH!"
Darkness erupted around him. His claw shone with a dazzling rainbow glow — seven elemental colors intertwining, the power of the Dragon God's Claw. The very world seemed to stop as heaven and earth bowed to the might of the ancestral dragon. Space cracked, and thunder roared across the sky.
He swung the divine attack down toward the girl — but just as his claws were about to connect, a desperate voice reached his ears:
"Di Tian…! STOP!!"
It was Bi Ji. Her voice was trembling, laced with panic.
For a brief instant, his fury wavered — and the illusion shattered.
The golden-haired girl before him blurred, her figure melting into mist.
In her place lay Zi Ji, the Abyssal Demon Dragon, her body torn and bleeding, her aura faint.
All around him, the other fierce beasts lay sprawled on the ground — grievously injured, some barely breathing. The scent of dragon blood filled the air.
The truth hit him like lightning.
'We were never fighting her.'
Di Tian's pupils shrank. The realization froze him in terror.
The Dragon God's Claw was already half-formed — he forcibly stopped it, but the rebound was catastrophic. The backlash tore through his meridians, sending searing pain through every vein of his body. His enormous dragon form crashed into the ground.
Through the haze of pain, Di Tian saw her again — the same golden-haired, purple-eyed girl floating above him. She smiled softly, as if amused by a child's tantrum.
"You…"
His voice trembled with a mixture of fear, anger, and disbelief. The realization was suffocating — the Beast God, the mightiest soul beast alive, had been toyed with like a puppet.
Every memory of the battle twisted in his mind — the unprovoked fury, the blindness, the hallucinations. They had been manipulated, their senses rewritten without them even realizing.
Even he, Di Tian — bearer of the Dragon God's bloodline — had fallen into her control.
He forced himself up despite the agony, golden eyes blazing with defiance.
"I… will not be humiliated like this!"
Until he saw those shining purple eyes again.
At that moment, Di Tian felt the world collapse into silence. His consciousness spun, and the ground beneath him dissolved like mist. When he blinked, he was no longer in the Star Dou Forest but in a twisted realm of endless night and blood-stained earth.
Before him stood a herd of Soul Beasts—millions of them—creatures he had sworn to protect.
Then his claws moved on their own.
Slash.
The first fell.
Roar.
The second screamed before being crushed.
One, two… hundreds… thousands… tens of thousands.
Their cries turned into echoes that filled the heavens. The smell of blood dyed the air crimson. He screamed, yet his own voice was buried beneath the wails of those he slaughtered. His mind shouted no, but his body continued to kill.
Each time the last beast fell, the world turned dark—only for the scene to start again.
And again.
And again.
The Beast God, protector of all soul beasts, had become their eternal executioner.
He lost count of how many times he relived that nightmare. Centuries might have passed—or perhaps only seconds. His rage turned to horror, his horror to despair, and his despair to numbness.
When he finally opened his eyes, he expected freedom.
Instead, the same forest lay before him, and standing in front of him—bathed in golden light—was the same girl.
Her long hair flowed like molten sunlight, and her eyes gleamed with that same impossible purple that seemed to pierce through fate itself.
She looked down at him with calm amusement, as if he were a beast that had just learned its place.
"If my sword Caliburn tastes the blood of the Beast God," she said softly, her tone almost playful, "it will surely become a blade sung of through the ages."
A radiant sword appeared in her hand. Its blade shimmered like condensed daylight, and faint divine runes floated along its edge. She lowered it gently onto Di Tian's neck.
The steel touched his scales, drawing a single bead of blood.
Di Tian didn't move. He couldn't. His body trembled, but not from fear—he had simply lost the will to resist. After thousands of deaths in endless illusions, what was one more?
He was a fish laid upon the chopping block, waiting for the knife to fall. Her movements were unhurried, deliberate.
Suddenly the space seemed to tear apart and a huge silver claw tore through the air toward her.