The scent of tea curled gently through the air.
The wrinkles on Língzūn's face slowly eased as he sipped his tea. He looked as if he had slipped into memories buried deep in time.
A faint, gentle smile touched his expression and his voice carried a distant echo.
"That happened a very long, very long time ago.
Back then, the Spirit Beast World was still in a wild and savage era. Countless spirit beasts lived in scattered tribes. They fought endlessly over land and resources. divine beasts with noble bloodlines held absolute authority, and ordinary spirit beasts with weaker bloodlines were nothing but cannon fodder, pieces on a cold battlefield.
The entire Spirit Beast World ran red with blood. Cries of pain filled every corner.
Today, one battle shattered a mountain. Tomorrow, another forced rivers to surge backwards. The divine beasts who controlled most of the power treated everything like a thrilling war game. The ordinary spirit beasts they used as pawns lived every day in terror, never knowing if they would survive until the next sunrise."
Yun Jin felt a chill ripple through her heart.
The Spirit Beast World of today was orderly and stable.
Spirit beasts with strong bloodlines still held higher status, yet ordinary spirit beasts possessed basic rights and protections.
In a world ruled by strength, even that was already rare.
The world Bai Ze described felt so far removed from the present that Yun Jin struggled to imagine it. That kind of savage age had to be unimaginably cruel.
Light flickered in Bai Ze's eyes as old memories surfaced. "At the time, I hadn't awakened my divine beast bloodline. I was just an ordinary spirit beast. My parents were the same. They barely counted as mid rank spirit beasts. In those days, low rank and mid rank beasts were always thrown onto the front lines. During a large tribal war, my parents were forced into the battle.
They never came back."
His voice stayed calm.
Yun Jin's heart trembled.
Bai Ze gave a small smile as if to console her. "You don't need to feel sad for me. That happened an incredibly long time ago. Of course I was heartbroken back then, but so many ages have passed that sometimes I can barely recall what the pain felt like."
Yun Jin fell silent.
A divine beast's lifespan stretched past one hundred thousand years at the very least.
Which meant Bai Ze had lived for at least that long.
One hundred thousand years.
Such an unfathomably long stretch of time. Even after all her worlds in her quick transmigrations, she hadn't touched anything close to that.
Bai Ze continued softly. "With both my parents gone, surviving became even harder. Back then, I didn't even want to stay alive. I was only a mid rank spirit beast. Even if I struggled to survive, so what? Once I grew older, I'd be sent to the battlefield anyway and walk the same path they did.
In that era, aside from divine beasts, every other spirit beast was born for the sake of dying."
Born only to die.
Bai Ze spoke so calmly, yet Yun Jin felt her chest grow heavier with every word.
She asked quietly, "But the Spirit Beast World is different now. Senior, your efforts weren't in vain."
A faint light rose in his eyes. "The credit isn't mine. After losing my parents, I drifted everywhere and soon faced a deadly crisis. She was the one who saved me.
She was a divine beast too, and from the strongest lineage among all divine beasts, the phoenix clan. But she wasn't like the others. She couldn't stand how divine beast clans treated everyone else, so she left her tribe and went searching for ways to stop the endless conflicts. She saved many innocent spirit beasts and created a sanctuary. I grew up under her protection along with many others.
As a super divine beast, she had privileges by nature. She could have stayed above the rest. I never imagined that someone who benefited most from the system would abandon everything to stand with ordinary spirit beasts like us.
She was powerful enough that even the divine beast clans, despite their anger, didn't dare touch her lightly.
As time passed, I grew stronger and eventually became one of her capable followers.
Until one day, she came to me looking troubled. She said the conflict between the two super divine beast clans, the phoenixes and the dragons, had reached a point where reconciliation was impossible. They had chosen the battlefield for their final war.
This war wasn't going to be fought only by ordinary spirit beasts. Even divine beasts and super divine beasts would join the battle. Once power on that level erupted fully, it could wipe out the entire world.
At that point, the land would be torn apart and life would be annihilated. The world might revert to its primitive state.
She had tried endlessly to persuade both sides to stop, but the phoenix clan had fought the dragon clan for tens of thousands of years. Their hatred had sunk too deep. They wouldn't listen to anyone.
At that time, based on personal strength alone, she had reached the very peak of this world. If she wanted, she could have ascended to the Immortal Demon Spirit Realm at any moment to avoid the disaster. She had no obligation to shoulder the fate of other beings.
But she still chose to intervene.
In that final battle, every divine beast and every ordinary beast lost themselves to bloodlust. Even the super divine beasts of both clans entered the fray. The battle tore the heavens and shattered the earth. The sun and moon dimmed.
I remember hiding inside a mountain cave, shaking while the entire world trembled.
She stood at the cave entrance, guarding us while watching the battlefield with deep worry.
That war lasted for three full months. Eventually, the Heavenly Dao of that small world couldn't withstand the force of the clashes and began to collapse. A massive tear opened in the sky. Countless stars fell.
It was the true end of days."
Bai Ze sighed quietly, sorrow flickering in his eyes. "At that moment, she turned back to look at me.
She said, 'Bai Ze, I'll fall here, but I'll also live on. These children will be yours to protect from now on.'
I panicked. I felt like I knew what she was going to do. I cried and begged her not to go. But she went anyway.
She returned to her original form and rushed toward the shattered sky. She was a super divine beast phoenix who had reached the peak of cultivation. She possessed a gift for divine healing unmatched by any other. She could have ascended to the Immortal Realm, the God Realm, and the highest realms beyond. But she didn't hesitate to burn herself, using her body to heal the Heavenly Dao.
The massive rift slowly closed. Her energy merged with the Heavenly Dao itself. From that moment, she was the Heavenly Dao and the Heavenly Dao was her. The divine beasts who caused the catastrophe faced divine punishment. Many fell and the rest sank into long slumber."
Língzūn spoke softly. "Many years passed. Guided by fate, I came to this mountain and awakened my bloodline. I transformed into a super divine beast, a baize. She never appeared again, but I knew she was still watching over me. Later, I discovered a strange power inside me. My spiritual energy could nourish springs, turning ordinary water into something that could help spirit beasts evolve. That was her gift.
For countless years after that, I stayed here and used my power to create spiritual springs so every spirit beast could have a chance to evolve. In time, this place became the holy mountain they speak of. A holy city rose at its base."