Boom!
A pitch-black light pillar a full hundred feet wide tore through the void, directly piercing through a Star-Devouring Monster pouncing towards Die Qiu!
The surviving allied forces, numbering less than a few thousand, were stunned by this turn of events and couldn't help but turn their gazes towards the object that had pierced the Star-Devouring Monster.
It was a jet-black halberd, its body covered in hideous patterns, emitting a terrifying aura.
In the dust, a young man picked up the girl whose body was half-crystalized, the eight dark wings spread on his back looking like the wings of an angel.
It was as if he had heard Die Qiu's song, and even more so responded to Ju Zi's shout—her exclusive, partner of justice, the Demon King descending in angry ferocity!
In his past life, he failed to save the girl; this time, how could he bear to let her die in front of him again?
"Qiu'er, it's me."
"Hao?"
Die Qiu slowly raised the only arm she could still move, grabbing at the air in front of her.
Her eyes could no longer see, and she could not even feel his aura or body temperature.
"I'm here, Qiu'er." Huo Yuhao grabbed her hand abruptly, trying his best not to let his voice sound so shaky.
"I'm sorry..." Die Qiu spoke softly, "I can no longer sing for you..."
"I'm sorry... I have no time left." The smile on Die Qiu's cheeks appeared extremely sorrowful. Her nails dug deep into Huo Yuhao's palm, and the blood at the corners of her mouth continuously turned into crystals and dripped down.
Huo Yuhao gritted his teeth as he stared intently at Die Qiu. At this moment, he didn't want to be any savior of Douluo. He was originally just a very ordinary soul and didn't want to do anything like taking the salvation of heaven and earth as his responsibility. He only wanted to be with the person he cared about. Even if everything perished in the end, at least he would have no regrets!
Looking at Huo Yuhao, as if seeing through the surge in his heart, Die Qiu bit her lip and said with a sob, "But... I've always been so unwilling to lose..."
I've always been so unwilling to lose.
Huo Yuhao felt as if he had been struck by lightning. It was a familiar sentence. In that world from many years ago, in that kind of situation, the young girl had also spoken to him with red eyes, her simple, stubborn tone giving Huo Yuhao a sharp pain as if his heart were being torn apart.
"What exactly... do you mean by saying these things?"
Huo Yuhao trembled, repeating that sentence once more. He stared at Die Qiu and murmured, "Qiu'er... I beg you not to say anymore, okay?"
"If I don't say it... I will leave behind regrets." Die Qiu's beautiful eyes were red, water condensing within them. She gave Huo Yuhao a gentle smile, a smile as sorrowful as a snow lotus about to vanish on an icy mountain. Then she used her final strength to press against Huo Yuhao's forehead, her eyes slowly closing.
...
Back when Huo Yuhao first learned the truth from the Destruction God King and began to secretly plot against the Sea God Tang San, the God of Destruction and the Goddess of Life, in order to successfully cultivate Huo Yuhao into the successor for their god positions, had by a strange combination of circumstances and through the pull of souls in the unseen, drawn the remnant soul of a certain girl to the Douluo Continent. Then, they carefully nurtured it within the body of a certain Destiny Soul Beast that had transformed into her appearance.
Just as Tang San said in the original timeline, an Auspicious Beast that had only lived for fifteen thousand years would not have too much wisdom. That was why the Qiu'er Huo Yuhao had known all along was an emotionless, naturally dazed girl with that certain girl's appearance.
As the consciousness of the remnant soul continuously revived, the Auspicious Beast gradually gained the girl's personality, preferences, and feelings for Huo Yuhao.
This was not an occupation, but a fusion of memories and feelings.
The Auspicious Beast longed for the world of humans, and the girl wanted to see him one more time; the two were a perfect match.
Through the pull of fate, the Auspicious Beast finally found him with a group of Beast Kings while Huo Yuhao was using the Evil Eye Tyrant Spiritual Master to trigger chaos in the Holy Spirit Cult.
She sang the song they had heard together, reuniting with him in this different world.
The girl fulfilled her long-cherished wish and then offered her remnant soul to the Auspicious Beast, letting the Auspicious Beast take the identity of Die Qiu to stay by Huo Yuhao's side in her place.
In the end, in a sense, the Auspicious Beast became a second version of her. It inherited all of the girl's feelings for Huo Yuhao.
From then on, Die Qiu had always been by Huo Yuhao's side, following him through a thousand li to reinforce Heaven Soul, disrupting the Pride Sword Sect's sword discussion tournament, going deep into the Ten-Thousand-Year Profound Ice Cave, crashing the Sea God's Fate blind date event, participating in the Ming City tournament, and the final battle with Sea God Tang San...
In every segment of Demon King Huo Yuhao's journey, her figure was there.
"You, you you... you are!" Huo Yuhao's eyes widened sharply, his eye sockets red, unable to even say a complete sentence.
"Finally... this time I died in your arms..."
Distant memories surged out from the sealed depths of her heart. Die Qiu murmured to herself in her heart, and then the smile on her pretty face began to become warm. Her slender jade hands were no longer strong and were continuously becoming stiff.
"O flower blooming with dignity..."
"Ah... please tell me..."
"What did you see in the distance..."
The ethereal voice seemed to ring out accompanied by a folk song from another world, echoing leisurely in every corner between heaven and earth—the original Douluo Continent, the Sun Moon Continent, the Extreme North. Countless people raised their heads, looking toward that direction as if sensing something, an inexplicable sorrow surging out from the depths of their souls.
An indescribable luster abruptly erupted from Die Qiu's body.
Joy! A scene of a young man holding flowers and kneeling on one knee surfaced. The emotion of joy bloomed instantly, and that intense emotional fluctuation instantly merged with her divine consciousness and divine power, surging into Huo Yuhao's body.
Anger! The emotion of anger erupted; the scumbags of the chaotic world used the storm of public opinion to destroy her dignity!
Sorrow! Snow in June, endless sorrow burst forth. At this moment, the girl seemed to see herself again when she was helpless, jumping from a tall building just like that.
Happiness! Happy memories are always so beautiful; they reunited in a different world, the trials and tribulations they experienced together, the intermingling of heart and soul—how much happiness was that?
Hate! Hatred is a painful emotion. When Tang San tried to control her to become a tool of the Tang family to be sacrificed to Huo Yuhao, her hatred was sky-high. Hatred makes one go mad.
Evil! Evil and cunning—Die Qiu herself did not possess these emotions, but she had once felt the evil of the devils in the human world countless times. Among emotions, this is the darkest world. At this moment, it was as if the filthiest things in the depths of the heart were being ignited by this evil.
Six emotions, six eruptions! The blooming of emotions, the sublimation of the divine soul—
Two light phantoms appeared behind Die Qiu respectively, impressively the blooming phantoms of the two mermaid princesses, sometimes merging and sometimes separating. And between that merging and separating, a layer of six-colored halo also burst from Die Qiu's body. This halo became incredibly robust and was then entirely injected into Huo Yuhao's body.
Just then, a massive golden figure suddenly appeared behind that colored halo. The golden halo, as if appearing out of thin air, swallowed the previous six emotions into itself. An indescribable softness, unrestraint, wildness, and attachment instantly pulsed out.
That was... the power of love belonging exclusively to the Auspicious Beast!
She was no longer a soul beast and could not perform a sacrifice. Moreover, the sacrifice of one soul beast could not possibly resist the numerous Supreme God King-level Star-Devouring Monsters.
The only thing she could do was to thoroughly merge the inherited power of the Emotion God into Huo Yuhao's body!
From now on, the souls of the Auspicious Beast and the girl would reside forever in Huo Yuhao's spiritual sea, never to be separated.