Within the Divine Realm, ten thousand miles of the Star River flowed silently. Occasionally, an ignorant meteor would attempt to draw near, but before it could touch that pure land, it would be quietly pushed away by a soft yet unshakable invisible power, dissipating into the void.
The Beast God stood atop the clouds, Her golden pupils resembling two eternal suns. They pierced through layers of dimensional mist, precisely locking onto a corner of the Ribi City People's Hospital: the exhausted fancy rat, Zhizhi, was greedily sniffing the scent on her owner's pillow, letting out a tiny, contented sigh full of safety.
"The clamor ends; the world is still," the Beast God breathed softly, Her voice ethereal and detached from mortal concerns.
That nearly imperceptible flicker of relief vanished like a shooting star, replaced by the supreme indifference of the deity overlooking all living things. "Since thou art returned to thy place, the rest... shall fall to the Reckoning."
Her figure blurred like a fleeting streak of light, vanishing from the Divine Throne in an instant.
At almost the exact same moment, the misty iridescent clouds at the periphery of the Divine Realm were smashed to pieces by a brute force.
Thud! Thud! Thud! Heavy footsteps surged like crashing waves, shaking the surrounding celestial herbs and exotic trees.
The Wealth Devourer's massive head squeezed in first, Its tongue lolling out, looking exactly like a giant Golden Retriever that had just finished wrecking a house and was eager to claim credit from its owner.
Having just finished "processing" the mountain-like piles of gold ingots, It was filled with anticipation for The Great One's praise. Even a simple pat on ahead would be enough to make It soar with joy.
However, Its wide eyes, full of happiness, only caught the final fading afterimage of the Beast God.
The Wealth Devourer froze completely. It stared with rounded eyes, Its expression one of utter disbelief: I worked my tail off and came back, and The Great One... actually left me behind?
It tilted Its head, Its huge brain filled with massive question marks.
Nearby, the Nightmare Beast was elegantly grooming Its cloud-like fur. Seeing this fellow looking like It had been abandoned by the entire world, It deigned to offer a rare word of comfort: "The Great One has serious business to attend to and has no time for you right now. Go on, play somewhere else."
The tail that the Wealth Devourer had been wagging in hopes of praise instantly went limp. Its massive face turned so sour It could have hung several bottles of beer on it; It looked like nothing more than a giant, deflated blob of golden slime.
—This is worse than no comfort at all!
It slumped toward the side of the Divine Throne, spreading Its body out like a massive mound of golden mud, letting out a sigh of extreme depression.
A Divine Beast in depression, waiting for attention online... but no luck.
Meanwhile, by the edge of the Karmic Pool.
The Beast God stood with Her hands behind Her back, Her robes fluttering in the celestial wind.
"The debts of the past shall be settled at this very moment." Her voice was icy, each syllable resonating with the laws of heaven and earth.
—Since the Karmic Pool is now full, I shall use this object as the vessel to sever all ties. Gold is heavy, much like the human heart. Once they receive this wealth, the protection I once afforded them shall be paid in full—we are even.
However, as She looked down into the pool, two gold ingots—absurdly massive—instantly commanded all of Her attention. Even the Beast God, who had witnessed the birth and death of universes, couldn't help but twitch the corner of Her lips in resignation. "This... what should be done?"
In the pool, the two ingots were colossal; they stood four or five meters high and were as wide as a boutique villa, their entire forms radiating a blinding divine brilliance.
"Could it be that the fool Wealth Devourer, took the easy way out and used raw divine power to force out... this so-called 'Jumbo' version?"
If the Wealth Devourer were present, It would surely cry foul. It had followed the dimensions specified by The Great One; these two... were merely "accidental byproducts" of using a bit too much strength.
The Beast God slowly closed Her eyes, opening the Eye of Karma to sweep across the entire Blue Planet. She was searching for the nations that, during the dark years, had extended a warm hand to living beings or granted life dignity within their laws.
"St. Bernard Nation, Golden Lion Unicorn Nation, Three Golden Lions Nation, Black Eagle Nation, Red Lion Nation, Federal Eagle Nation..."
As the Beast God spoke, Her words became law. With every nation named, a golden rift appeared in the void—a divine decree engraved upon the will of the plane. The world in Her eyes now was not a map, but countless crisscrossing lines representing the breath of life and karma.
Among these lines, the ones belonging to these nations were the most "smooth", lacking the "twisted tremors" caused by extreme agony.
Her gaze lingered briefly on the Black Eagle Nation and the Golden Lion Unicorn Nation—the wailing of living beings there was the weakest, and the foundations of their civilizations had not been completely corroded by bloodshed.
"The greatest of their kind," She said, looking at the two giants in the pool with a solemn expression. "As it stands, these two nations shall each receive one. The karma is settled; the rest is of no concern."
The Beast God gestured toward the two jumbo ingots, and they flew out of the pool.
As they broke the surface, the purifying divine spring water clinging to them instantly washed away the violent aura left by the Wealth Devourer, shattering into a sky full of spiritual light.
In the pool water, a lotus petal as holy as snow floated quietly, the legal spiritual energy within It almost condensing into substance. The petal swayed gently in the golden light, forcibly suppressing the last trace of violent malice within the ingots until it was extinguished. Divine grace is like the sea; it brooks no impurity.
Then, with a wave of Her sleeve, countless streaks of light emerged in the void. "To the remaining nations, grant one hundred thousand pieces each. That should... suffice?"
Wealth, to Her, was but shifting sand found everywhere in the Divine Realm; to the BluePlanet, it was karma enough to change fate.
She looked down at the azure planet and flicked Her finger. "Since the mortals of this world are so obsessed with wealth, then I shall bestow upon ye... a fortune so vast it shall drown the heavens."
Finally, Her gaze fell upon the East of the Blue Planet, where sunlight now flooded the land, teeming with vitality. Recalling the city full of streetlamps and the elder who dared to protect a rat in front of the B.E.N. President, the Beast God nodded slightly. "Long Nation deserves a reward—one hundred and fifty thousand."
—Though flawed, the sparks of their fire have not yet been extinguished.
The divine decree issued, the gold ingots fell into formation. From a distance, they looked like a golden rain falling across the heavens, waiting for the inscription of the sacred script.
Of course, for those nations that spent years finding pleasure in slaughter and treating life as mere grass, the Beast God offered only a cold sneer. Her eyes transformed into vertical slits, and Her golden radiance flared.
In the distance, the dark clouds that had absorbed the Wealth Devourer's violent energy seemed to sense the deity's killing intent, flashing violently.
Rumble—!!!
Thunder rolled—a death knell for those whose debts remained unpaid. As Her emotions ebbed and flowed, the stars outside the Divine Realm flickered in sync, causing the waters of the Karmic Pool to boil instantly.
Hearing the distant roar, She took a deep breath, striving to calm Her heart.
A Deity must not lightly stir to anger.
That was a memory from an era so distant it was nearly forgotten, a teaching buried deep within Her divine heart.
Once all the gold ingots were allocated according to Her will, She looked toward a corner of the Divine Realm and issued a decree:
"Come!"
A vigorous, powerful loong's roar tore through the silence of the Divine Realm.
With a flick of the Beast God's sleeve, a shimmering Golden Loong soared through the mists and surged above the KarmicPool. Its head was like a mountain, Its horns like pillars supporting the heavens; It lowered Its brow and bowed Its head, hovering respectfully before the Beast God.
"What are The Great One's commands?"
The Beast God pointed toward the allocated "debts". A strand of divine power entered the Golden Loong's brow, granting It the coordinates for every gold ingot to be delivered.
"Go," She commanded softly. "When this reaches them, our reckoning for the past shall be at an end."
The Golden Loong's body, kilometers in length, shuddered violently as It swept up a sky full of golden light, swallowing all the smaller ingots into Its belly.
As Its sharp claws gripped the two "Gold Mountains", the sound of breaking chains echoed through the void—a total severance of those two nations from their past sins, and the final settlement of divine grace.
Clutching the two ingots that weighed ten thousand tons, Its massive body transformed into a bolt of golden lightning. It smashed through ten thousand hectares of cloud-seas and dived straight down, Its target: the Blue Planet.
This interstellar delivery service felt entirely novel to the loong. A hint of playfulness even surfaced in its heart: Golden LoongExpress, mission guaranteed. Everyone, please sign for this heaven-sent fortune!
High in the void, It tumbled, soared, and ascended with abandon, stretching every scale in the thrill of weightlessness. Like a monarch surveying its territory, It basked in the glory of a "descent ceremony" that belonged to It alone.
At this moment in the Black Eagle Nation, the morning sun was rising, and the mist had not yet fully dispersed, carrying a lingering coolness.
The streets remained lively; most citizens were walking their beloved dogs in the parks, chatting and laughing about the recent miracles. This atmosphere of harmony between humans and nature was indeed worthy of that "Jumbo" ingot.
However, there was also a group of people with grim expressions and withered spirits. These were the former "abusers". Unable to close the consciousness of LivestreamRoom A in their minds, the demonic voices had rung in their ears all night, making sleep impossible. Seeing others joyfully receiving money and witnessing miracles, their jealousy exploded.
"Miracles? I see them as the devil's temptation!" a red-eyed man provoked snidely. "That money you're taking—you'll pay for it with your lives sooner or later!"
"Shut up. That is a reward for the virtuous. What would pieces of trash like you know?" a passerby retorted.
"You're asking for it!" The group was about to resort to violence.
But just as a fist was about to graze a nose, the gravity of the entire city seemed to double instantly. All malice was crushed in that moment as a world-shaking loong's roar poured down from the nine heavens! Everyone, whether good or evil, froze in their tracks.
A Golden Loong, stretching for kilometers, pierced through the clouds and circled above the city. Finding a sufficiently vast plaza, the dragon contracted Its belly.
BOOM!!!
The four-to-five-meter-high "Jumbo" gold ingot landed steadily, causing the earth to tremble thrice. Without lingering, the GoldenLoong didn't spare the lowly humans a single glance; with a flick of Its tail, It vanished into the horizon.
A few brave souls approached, trembling, to inspect it. On the surface of the incredibly pure gold, the ancient and profound unknown characters were engraved. Though they didn't know these characters, everyone who looked upon them had the meaning translated automatically deep within their souls:
"SETTLED."
The news ignited the global internet within ten minutes. Countless videos and photos occupied the headlines of every social media platform. Soon, sharp-eyed netizens discovered a terrifying pattern:
Nations receiving wealth were those with perfected animal protection laws or those that had recently displayed great love.
Meanwhile, the skies over nations known for long-term whaling, bullfighting, or public slaughter of living beings remained deathly silent. Forget gold ingots—there wasn't so much as a speck of gold dust.
The situation escalated rapidly, and world leaders convened emergency meetings. But the more they discussed, the heavier the atmosphere became.
"Settled..." One leader stared at the giant gold ingot on the screen, his hand trembling slightly. "The Beast God says it is 'settled', not a 'gift'. This means that from this moment on, She no longer owes these nations anything. She has protected the virtuous."
"Then what about us—the nations that received nothing?"
No one dared to answer. The aftershocks of the gold ingot's landing had not yet faded, but over the "empty-handed" nations, a black rift eerily tore open in the previously clear sky.
Not receiving money did not mean being forgotten; it meant that the Goddess's debt collection was already notched upon the bowstring.