Star Constellation Great Forest, Core Area.
If Baili Du is unwilling, no one in this world can discover him—not even those Ferocious Beasts with their incredibly keen noses.
Without alerting any Soul Beasts, he simply stood there quietly, gazing at the lake before him.
The lake was not particularly large; one could see the opposite shore at a single glance. The surface was as smooth as a mirror, and the pale green water resembled a piece of the finest natural jade, shimmering with a green light brimming with life. Surrounding the water, ancient towering trees pierced the clouds. A faint mist drifted over the lake, and the humid air carried the characteristic fragrance of vegetation.
This place was overflowing with the aura of life; the Life Force here was so potent it was at least several times stronger than the outside world. It was like the cradle of life itself, as if every living being in the Star Constellation Great Forest had been nurtured here.
"The Lake of Life... it really has been a long time since I last saw it..."
The lake he beheld contained the most sacred Water of Life in the Star Constellation Great Forest, the source that gave life to all its creatures.
This is good stuff! While it was of no use to him now, it would be of great benefit to the current Huo Yuhao!
Crouching down, he used a large leaf to gently scoop up a handful. The emerald-green liquid sparkled like jade, radiating a dense aura of life.
However, as if remembering something, Baili Du's expression turned a bit strange, and his movements even hesitated slightly.
Others might not know, but how could he not? This Water of Life was formed from the life energy emanating from Life Gold, acting as a powerful tonic for any living creature.
But... this also seemed to be the bathwater of his sister-in-law, the recognized number one beauty of the Douluo Continent and the Dragon God's half, Silver Dragon King Gu Yuena...
Bathwater?
Baili Du looked at the lake water in the large leaf with a bizarre expression. He had drunk it back in the day... was he really going to give it to his current self to drink?
Shaking his head to dispel these strange thoughts, Baili Du's gaze sharpened. His eyes turned a substantive gold as his vision pierced through the Lake of Life, landing upon the giant silver dragon slumbering within the space at the bottom of the lake.
Narrowing his eyes slightly, he thought: "Sister-in-law, it has been a long time since we last met."
The giant dragon lay on the ground in a comfortable sleeping posture. Her silver scales were as translucent as crystal, possessing a singular beauty. Even the terrifying cracks upon them did not diminish this aesthetic; instead, they added a touch of fragile grace.
Baili Du used his Divine Consciousness to carefully probe the Silver Dragon King's injuries, and he was secretly appalled.
He knew Gu Yuena had been recovering, but he hadn't expected the injuries to be this severe! Right now, she likely didn't even possess the cultivation of a Divine Officer.
It's no wonder the Silver Dragon King did not emerge in this era; in terms of frontal combat power, she was currently inferior even to Di Tian.
He had also struggled to crawl out of the Spacetime Turbulence and the Reincarnation Hurricane, but regarding peak strength and physical toughness, he had been a Half-step Supreme God King—stronger even than the Golden Dragon King of that time. Although he had been weakened to his current state as a Second-Class God, at least his powerful Divine Consciousness remained intact, unlike the Silver Dragon King, whose Mental Power had regressed to the level of earthly Spiritual Sense.
Looking at his still-slumbering sister-in-law, Baili Du couldn't help but let out a bitter, sarcastic laugh.
That brat Tang Wulin really has all the luck. If it weren't for Gu Yuena, he would have been torn to shreds by Di Tian and the others long ago... Then what "Ten-Thousand-Year Grand Plan" would Tang San have played? His dear son would have been finished right then and there.
From the standpoint of a leader, Gu Yuena was absolutely, categorically unqualified.
But from the standpoint of a lover, she was many times stronger than Tang Wutong.
Frankly speaking, if the twelve-year-old Huo Yuhao had seen the true faces of both the Silver Dragon Princess and the Goddess of Light at the same time, he certainly wouldn't have spared a half-second's glance for the Goddess of Light.
Thinking this, Baili Du shook his head. It was just a pity that he and Gu Yuena truly had no common topics, even though they were both people who had been schemed against by Tang San their entire lives.
Suddenly, Baili Du felt a pang of bitterness and distress.
He still remembered the scene after Di Tian was resurrected by Lan Xuanyu in the Dragon God Realm.
He had expected a long-awaited reunion between old friends, but the result was...
At that time, Tang San had already committed suicide to follow his "sword sheath" Xiao Wu into death. The highest combat power of the Tang Family was Lan Xuanyu. Backed by this Lord Dragon God, Di Tian—along with the other surviving Ferocious Beasts who had turned into Soul Spirits, such as Bi Ji and Zi Ji—began to condemn Huo Yuhao.
They didn't need any other reason; the fact that the Spirit Transmission Pagoda created by Huo Yuhao became the ultimate culprit in the destruction of the Soul Beasts was enough for these Great Beasts to stand on the moral high ground and berate him...
No one cares if you saved them; people only hate the one who took away their hope and confidence...
Then Gu Yuena, the former Co-Lord of Soul Beasts, joined in. Since Gu Yuena was there, there was no reason for Tang Wulin not to join... After all, it was the Spirit Transmission Pagoda and the Holy Spirit Cult that masterminded the destruction of Shrek and the Tang Sect. In their eyes, Spirit Ice Douluo Huo Yuhao, as the founder of the Spirit Transmission Pagoda, was to blame.
Huo Yuhao wanted to defend himself, wanting to say things like "at least Soul Spirit technology preserved the intelligence of many Soul Beasts," but soon even his wife, the Butterfly Goddess Tang Wutong, joined the ranks of her younger brother and sister-in-law. She even said, "You shouldn't have created the Spirit Transmission Pagoda back then; how good would it have been to just focus on developing the Tang Sect?"
Powerless to refute, he could only take all the blame on himself. Shortly thereafter, the Spirit Transmission Pagoda was merged into Shrek Academy and vanished from the history of the Douluo Continent.
A major source of Power of Faith that originally belonged to Emotion God King Huo Yuhao disappeared just like that. He could only split the faith from Shrek and the Tang Sect with three generations of the Tang Family. But as one can imagine, how much faith could a man not named Tang actually receive?
From then on, Soul Spirit technology was completely controlled by Shrek Academy. It could be said that in that era, Shrek Academy completely dominated the Soul Master world through two channels: "Education" and "Soul Power Upgrading." Combined with the Tang Sect, who were already in their pocket, the so-called Douluo Federation existed in name only.
Because all the high-ranking officials of the Douluo Federation graduated from Shrek Academy, making them choose between the "Federation" and the "Academy" was no difficult task...
Baili Du took a deep breath. The version of himself that was still alive was no longer Dai Yuhao—no longer that weak and incompetent Dai Yuhao!
If in the future Gu Yuena truly stands before him to stop his revenge, he will not hesitate to swing his scythe at this "number one beauty of the Douluo Continent."
Ultimately, everyone in the Tang Family and everyone standing on their side is his enemy.
Baili Du stood up with the simple cup filled with the Water of Life and prepared to leave, muttering to himself: "I will make up for the things that need to be done in this era. But if you Soul Beasts still end up like that in the end, you really can't blame me..."
His figure vanished from the Core Area as if he had never been there.
...
A long time later.
Within that dark, sunless silver space, a pair of giant purple vertical pupils slowly opened...