On the outskirts of Dragon City, along a forest path leading to a nearby village, Ye Zhilan walked with a light gait, dressed in a water-blue gown. Two guards arranged by her sect followed behind her. She was responding to a request from an elder in the village to treat several villagers who had been injured during a soul beast hunt.
Just as the trio reached a secluded corner dense with trees, a sudden change occurred!
A figure darted out from the side like a ghost, accompanied by a foul stench, lunging straight at Ye Zhilan! The attacker was a sallow-faced, lecherous-looking middle-aged man, and the soul power fluctuations radiating from him revealed his cultivation to be at the level of a Soul Emperor! He had clearly planned this ambush, his target clear: the seemingly weak and vulnerable Ye Zhilan.
"Little beauty, come have some fun with me!" the Soul Emperor sneered. His five fingers curled into claws, accompanied by a sharp, biting wind as he reached for Ye Zhilan's shoulder, intending to subdue her. He clearly mistook her for a defenseless support-system soul master, his eyes filled with the smugness of one who was determined to win.
Not far away, in the shadow of an ancient tree, Gu Yuena stood silently, her silver hair and purple eyes calm. This was, naturally, her "handiwork." Using her powerful divine sense, she had influenced the mind of this opportunistic, wicked Soul Emperor, amplifying his evil thoughts while masking the presence of herself and the guards behind Ye Zhilan, directing this "attack." According to her plan, she would "coincidentally" pass by next, intervene to "save" her, and thus gain a logical reason to approach Ye Zhilan.
However, the scene that followed completely exceeded her expectations.
Facing the sudden assault, there was not a hint of panic on Ye Zhilan's face; instead, her willow-leaf brows furrowed slightly, a flash of disgust crossing her features. She did not even release her martial soul. Just as the Soul Emperor's sharp claws were about to touch her clothes, her seemingly delicate right hand pressed forward with casual grace!
There was no flashing soul ring, no surging soul power, only a vast, condensed bloodline power that felt capable of splitting mountains and shattering rocks, mixed with a strange, vibrating force that erupted instantly!
"Bang!"
A dull, heavy thud echoed, like a strike against thick leather!
The smug grin on the Soul Emperor's face froze instantly, replaced by sheer horror and agony! He felt an irresistible, massive force surge from the seemingly soft palm, followed by a bizarre, vibrating energy that penetrated his body, instantly disrupting the flow of his soul power!
"Pfft—!"
Before he could even let out a scream, his entire body was sent flying like a kite with a broken string. He vomited blood, his chest bones shattered, and he slammed heavily into a tree over ten meters away, sliding down limply. It was clear he was breathing his last.
All of this happened in the blink of an eye! Only then did the two guards behind Ye Zhilan react, drawing their martial souls in shock and anger, only to find that their target had already been effortlessly dealt with by their young lady.
"Young Lady, are you alright?" the guards hurried forward.
"It's fine, just a bothersome fly," Ye Zhilan said, flicking her hand as if dusting off a speck of dirt, her tone calm. Her physique, tempered by immortal herbs and her own cultivation, was now no weaker than a power attack system battle soul master of the same level. Combined with the Mountain Splitting Force passed down by Yu Yuanchen, which utilized bloodline power, it was not difficult to severely injure a careless Soul Emperor caught off guard.
However, the matter was not over.
Just as the Soul Emperor collapsed, severely wounded, another change occurred! The ground at Ye Zhilan's feet arched slightly, and a dark red shadow shot out like a lurking viper, instantly wrapping around the dying Soul Emperor's body!
It was a dark red vine as thick as a bowl, covered in hideous thorns—it was her life-bound vine guard, the Star Eater!
"Ugh—ah!" The Soul Emperor let out one final, shrill scream. The vine tightened abruptly, and a terrifying crushing force erupted. Accompanied by the sound of bone fractures that set one's teeth on edge, the powerful Soul Emperor was strangled to death in just two or three breaths, his life force completely extinguished!
The Star Eater vine loosened, and the Soul Emperor's corpse was already unrecognizable. The tip of the vine, as if possessing a life of its own, gently rubbed against Ye Zhilan's ankle, conveying a sense of intimacy and satisfaction before slowly retreating into the ground and disappearing.
Ye Zhilan frowned slightly, not out of pity, but because she disliked such bloody scenes. She raised her hand and cast a soft green light onto the corpse, dissolving it to avoid polluting the environment. Throughout the process, her expression remained indifferent, as if she had done something trivial.
Not far away, Gu Yuena's purple eyes widened, her beautiful face filled with disbelief!
She was not shocked by Ye Zhilan's ability to defeat a Soul Emperor—given Ye Zhilan's status and her relationship with Yu Yuanchen, having a trump card for cross-level combat was not strange. What truly shook her to her core was that dark red Star-Eating Vine and the way Ye Zhilan controlled it!
With the vision of the Silver Dragon King and the perception of a peak God King level (even if her strength was currently limited), she saw through the essence at a glance!
This was not a simple soul skill summoning, nor was it a forced mental control, but rather a... deeper, almost instinctual symbiotic contract!
Under this contract, a marvelous balance was formed between the Star-Eating Vine (Star Eater) and Ye Zhilan. The Star-Eating Vine provided Ye Zhilan with powerful combat strength, bizarre attack methods, and the vast soul power reserves unique to soul beasts (which could act as a supplement when Ye Zhilan's soul power was exhausted); meanwhile, Ye Zhilan's cultivation growth and the leap in her life level would be fed back directly through this contract, driving the Star-Eating Vine's cultivation to grow at a speed far exceeding natural cultivation!
"This... what is this?!" A raging storm surged in Gu Yuena's heart. She had lived for endless years and had seen humans hunt soul beasts to obtain soul rings and soul bones, seen soul beasts devour human soul masters to improve their cultivation, and seen a very small number of humans sign equal or master-servant contracts with soul beasts. But a model like this, where a soul beast was almost transformed into one's own "life-bound object," with synchronized cultivation growth, shared life and death, and mutual benefit, was something she had never heard of!
In particular, she clearly sensed that the intelligence of that Star-Eating Vine seemed extremely faint, more like a pure, instinctual consciousness, which made the formation of this "contract" almost devoid of any resistance, smooth to an incredible degree! And Ye Zhilan's Sacred Heart Immortal Begonia Martial Soul seemed to possess a natural, almost "royal" command and affinity for this type of plant spirit beast, which was the key to facilitating all of this!
An unprecedented thought, like lightning flashing in the dark, instantly illuminated the heart of Gu Yuena, who had been anxious about the future of her race!
"Why... must soul beasts and humans be enemies?"
Once this thought emerged, it could no longer be suppressed.
She had always been thinking about how to make soul beasts stronger, how to resist human expansion, and how to break the shackles that prevented soul beasts from becoming gods. She viewed humans as threats, as competitors, as objects to be wary of or even fought against.
But the relationship between Ye Zhilan and this Star-Eating Vine opened a brand-new door for her!
If... if this marvelous "contract" relationship could be promoted?
It didn't need to be all soul beasts; it only required a portion of soul beasts with excellent talent and potential to form similar symbiotic contracts with human soul masters who were kind-hearted and gifted!
Human soul masters would gain powerful assistance, additional soul power sources, and even special soul beast abilities; while the contracted soul beasts could use the human soul masters' cultivation speed—which far exceeded that of soul beasts—to break through their own racial talent barriers and achieve rapid growth in cultivation! Even... when a human soul master broke through to the God level, could the soul beast acting as their "life-bound contract beast" also use this to break the curse of being unable to become a god?
Just thinking about tens of thousands of human genius soul masters growing together with their contracted soul beast geniuses, and being able to produce a large number of powerful beings equivalent to ten-thousand-year or even hundred-thousand-year levels within a few decades or a century... Gu Yuena felt a suffocating excitement!
Moreover, human lifespans were short while soul beasts lived long. Over time, it would inevitably lead to situations where the humans died but the soul beasts remained. These soul beasts would become the elder-level figures in these families, and in the future, they might even be able to incite humans and soul beasts to form an alliance to fight against the God Realm.
This was by no means a fantasy! Soul beast cultivation took ten thousand years, while human geniuses could become Titled Douluo in a few decades! If this time difference were utilized well, what a terrifying force it would be!
Admittedly, the human need to hunt soul beasts for soul rings still existed, and the survival of the fittest was a law of nature. As a member of the Dragon race, she understood the cruelty of the jungle law even better and did not care about that. Those low-level soul beasts that were hunted were, in the long history of the soul beast race, part of natural selection.
As long as the core, elite soul beasts with potential could rise rapidly through this method, the overall strength and high-level combat power of the soul beast race would surely usher in an explosive growth period! It would be enough to occupy an absolute advantage in the potential racial competition of the future, and perhaps... counterattacking the God Realm would no longer be an unreachable dream!
In comparison, investigating the burial site of the Ice Fire Dragon King, while important, seemed... something that could be put aside for now? After all, that concerned her individual recovery, while the path before her concerned the future of the entire soul beast race!
Gu Yuena's gaze focused on Ye Zhilan again, and her eyes had completely changed. From an initial target for investigation, she had become... a treasure containing infinite possibilities! A key that could change the fate of soul beasts!
"Must approach her! Must figure out how this 'contract' is achieved! Can it be replicated? Can it be perfected? Can it be promoted?" Gu Yuena's heartbeat accelerated slightly. Her original simple "approach-investigate" plan had instantly upgraded into a grand project concerning the fate of her race.
She watched Ye Zhilan finish cleaning up the scene and continue walking toward the village with her guards, biting her silver teeth as she made up her mind.
The previous "hero saves the beauty" plan had clearly failed, and it had seemed very clumsy. She needed a more natural way that was less likely to arouse suspicion.
"It seems... I must change my identity, change my approach, and truly integrate into her life." A flash of determination crossed Gu Yuena's purple eyes. She looked at her own perfect body, which was so out of place with its surroundings, and began to ponder how to play a more "reasonable" role.
An orphan girl who had lost her way, was homeless, had a special affinity for plants, and perhaps possessed some "peculiar abilities"? Perhaps... she could "accidentally encounter" her while she was practicing medicine in that village?
The simple-minded Silver Dragon King was now filled with thoughts of how to "learn" and "perfect" that marvelous method of contracting. Her purpose for approaching Ye Zhilan had quietly shifted from "investigating Yu Yuanchen" to "studying Ye Zhilan herself." As for the clues about Yu Yuanchen and the Ice Fire Dragon King... for the moment, they seemed less urgent.
Her figure slowly merged into the shadows, and she began to meticulously plan her "new identity" and "accidental encounter" scenario. Outside Dragon City, a storm of thought triggered by a single vine was quietly changing the trajectory of a supreme being, and perhaps, it would also quietly change the future landscape of the entire continent.
The forest path returned to tranquility, as if nothing had ever happened. Only the faint smell of blood in the air and the slightly warm vine bracelet on Ye Zhilan's wrist signaled the brief but deadly conflict that had just occurred.
Ye Zhilan felt something, looked up in the direction where Gu Yuena had disappeared, and a flash of doubt crossed her beautiful eyes. But sensing no malice, she shook her head and continued walking toward the deep valley. She did not know that the ability she had inadvertently displayed had already caused a raging storm in the heart of a supreme being, and would quietly change the future fate of her and Yu Yuanchen.
An undercurrent centered on the "Way of Beast Taming" began to surge quietly. And the Master of Soul Beasts in the Star Dou Great Forest had officially cast her gaze toward this new path, full of unknowns and hope.
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Translated by: randomtranslator.com
Proofread by: GodKun-Chan