It was precisely noon. The sun hung high, and the temperature was mild. The radio static, wails, and curses that had previously permeated the Blue Planet were forcibly silenced in an instant. As the magnetic fields of the "Cleansing Zones" stabilized, surviving electronic devices across the globe flickered to life.
The B.E.N. was hit first; massive LED curtains that had been dark for days began re-mapping high-dimensional imagery.
"Today, the Great Beast God issues an oracle. As Karma flows, those who have sown seeds of benevolence shall receive a 'Return Gift' from the myriad souls." Qinghong's voice was not loud, yet it possessed a soul-piercing divine power that thundered within everyone's mind.
Inside a shelter on the West Coast of the Bald Eagle Nation, former energy tycoon Bernard huddled in a cold corner.
Due to the drift of physical constants, his prized Tesla had become scrap metal, and the gold bars once hidden in his safe had become as soft as playdough, easily kneaded by hand. He stared at the screen, his parched lips moving: "Quick... choose me... I donated food... I saved stray cats too..."
However, the lens of Live Room E ignored these so-called "elites". Like a cold inspector, it bypassed bustling cities and solemn townships, diving straight into a place no one expected—a nearly forgotten slum.
Here, sewage flowed freely, and the streetlamps had long been dead. The camera zoomed in and stopped before a rickety, dilapidated wooden shack.
Beneath the eaves sat an old man named Nokia. He had lived in this mire for sixty years, never married, never saved money. His only property was half a hardened bun.
He had anonymously placed the gold previously granted by the Deity at a stray animal protection base, keeping only two Golden Ingots to buy food and medicine for his adopted "little ones" and to repair their dens.
—[Holy sht, first place is a beggar?]*
—[On what grounds? Did he do something world-changing?]
The global bullet chat exploded. Just then, the camera switched inside his home. In the center of the shabby living room, a local dog with a missing left hind leg sat dutifully at its master's feet. It was thin, with scruffy fur, and had only recently been given a bath by the old man.
Yet now, its entire body emitted a faint golden glow. It didn't bark; it simply wagged its tail nervously, its glassy eyes reflecting the old man who had spent a lifetime scavenging trash.
Nokia was a "madman", or so the neighbors thought. Most of the money he made selling trash went toward the cheapest scraps of meat and dog food.
Over a hundred strays in this slum survived because of his broken pot. This three-legged dog had been rescued by Nokia from a stinking ditch three years ago after its leg was crushed by a car. To set its bones, Nokia had sold his only possession: an old-fashioned television.
The old dog let out a "whimper" toward Qinghong on the screen. Qinghong's fingertips trembled; her heart, hardened by witnessing so much slaughter, felt a surge of bitterness.
Her hand, reaching for the White FruitButton of Karmic Purification, hesitated for half a second.
The dog lowered its head, pressing its wet nose against the old man's deformed, rheumatic ankle, gently nudging it.
That was its purest wish. It did not want eternal life; it did not want to rule over beasts. It only felt that the old man's leg hurt terribly whenever it rained. It hoped the old man's leg would stop hurting, and that the leaky house would be a little warmer.
"Granted."
This was not Qinghong's voice. It was the Beast God. With a single whisper, She instantaneously rewrote reality.
Nearly a hundred billion people across the Blue Planet witnessed through the broadcast what a "Miracle" truly meant.
A beam of golden light, brilliant as a raging sun, descended from the heavens like a heavy sword, piercing straight through the dark slum. The center of the light was Nokia's leaking shack.
BOOM!
There was no explosion, only a sound resembling a mechanical lock engaging. Within a 500-meter radius, the grey, damp air instantly became dry and fresh.
Then, the most terrifying scene occurred: despite the drift of physical constants, the transformer in this area—which had been paralyzed for half a month—emitted a "hum" and lit up. The streetlamp with half a missing shade emitted a stable, no longer flickering glow.
"A Logic-Stabilized Zone!" the B.E.N. think tank shouted, jumping to their feet. "Look at the data! Gravity, electromagnetic constants... everything in that area has returned to the values from before the Great Judgment!"
It wasn't just the lights coming on.
Nokia's originally hunched frame emitted a series of crisp "cracks" under the baptism of the golden light.
His hands, once calloused and severely deformed by rheumatism, smoothed out at a visible speed. As he tested his weight and stood up, the piercing pain vanished, replaced by a long-lost, powerful lightness.
Nokia stared blankly at his own hands.
At that moment, a litter of newborn kittens in the corner of the room let out faint cries. He turned his head; he did not hear a sound, but a stream of information surfaced clearly in his mind:
"Grandpa... hungry... wants water..."
Nokia was stunned. He turned his gaze toward a one-eyed cat he frequently fed at the door. The cat stared at him, its eyes filled with relief: "Great... Grandpa doesn't hurt anymore... Grandpa has become handsome."
[Resonance of Myriad Souls]
This was the first authority bestowed by the Beast God.
Any benevolent soul appearing on the Gratitude List gained a passive skill—Emotional Perception. This meant they became the only "bridges" on this planet capable of seamless communication with all living things.
In the bullet chat, the "villains" who had originally planned to steal Nokia's golden light backed down. As the camera panned, they saw the one-eyed cat standing at the boundary of the golden light, its pupils transformed into golden vertical slits. A vagrant who tried to approach within 500 meters to steal the "divine object" from Nokia's home was met with a single glare from the cat.
"Begone!"
The vagrant felt as if his brain had been struck by a sledgehammer. With a scream, he scrambled away in terror. Within a benevolent soul's domain, every cat and dog they raised became their Karmic Guard.
Before the crowds could recover from the shock, the crisp sound of hooves echoed from the horizon. The Auspicious Sentinel trotted through the air from the rainbow light, blue auspicious clouds blooming beneath every step. It landed before Nokia and lowered its head, gently tapping his forehead with one of its glowing horns.
"Karma follows its path; the kind shall not stand alone."
A celestial nectar descended. It was not rain, but liquefied water from the Karmic Pool within the Starry Divine Realm high in the void. These pale blue droplets fell upon Nokia and the other benevolent souls, instantly merging into their flesh and blood. Nokia's grey hair turned ink-black in an instant. His skin became ruddy, his wrinkles smoothed, and he looked at least twenty years younger.
This was not merely life extension. This was [Soul-Covenant Fortification].
Nokia didn't look in the mirror. He just poured water for the cat. His hands, once like dried bark, now showed thick, steady veins beneath smooth skin. The crippling frost in his joints was gone. In the middle of the wasteland, he had just become a permanent anchor of physical laws.
As long as he stood there, the rules within a 500-meter radius were ironclad laws. Even if the world outside collapsed or was swallowed by a black hole, he could still quietly drink tea and feed his cats in his small courtyard.
This scene stirred a tidal wave of shock within the B.E.N. President's command center and caused a resonance of fate within the "Cleaner" Fengxi amidst the ruins.
The B.E.N. President watched the screen as the old man clumsily peeled a sausage for a stray cat. He looked at his own supercomputer—now unable to power on and reduced to a hunk of scrap metal—and let out a hysterical roar.
"Send people! Take the most elite squad to that slum! Bring that old man here! If he won't come, seize him by force!"
"Mr. President, he cannot be seized," the secretary replied, face ashen, her trembling finger nearly poking the screen. "Look... the dogs around that old man... they've changed."
On the screen, those once-gentle, even timid stray dogs were now stationed with military precision at the edge of the golden light. Their auras became extremely violent and majestic. More bizarrely, every dog was connected to a visible, dazzling Red Thread.
The bullet chat was instantly flooded with comments about these threads:
—[What is that? Red threads? Why are there clear red threads appearing?]
—[So the Red Thread isn't just a mark of judgment, but a means of protection?]
Those in the know gasped behind their screens: "The Red Thread connects karma, but it's also a Power Transmission Conduit."
In the footage, some dogs grew to over three meters tall, their fangs glinting with a cold light comparable to alloy; others had eyes flickering with crackling lightning, as if they could turn anyone into ash the moment they captured a trace of malice.
The deity had granted the old man a life of tranquility, while simultaneously bestowing upon his animals the absolute martial power to safeguard that peace.
The President of the B.E.N. watched those guardian dogs, who now resembled divine beasts, his hands shaking so violently that scalding coffee splashed onto his expensive, wrinkled shirt. He remained unresponsive, as if he had lost the ability to feel pain. He realized that within that 500-meter radius, he—the president of the world's most powerful nation—was worth less than a scavenger.
Amidst a ruin shrouded in dust and smoke, Fengxi slowly raised her head. Having just demolished a base used by internet celebrities who carried out slaughter under the guise of "adoption", a cold sliver of solace flickered in her dual pupils. Her fair hand still clutched the pitch-black, calamity-scented fragment of the Nightmare Beast's horn.
At her feet, three abusers who hadn't even had time to beg for mercy were being forcibly swept away by a spatial rift torn open by the Golden Loong, sent straight to the SinSeizer's non-stop judgment live room.
"Look," the Golden Loong spoke in a muffled rumble, its whiskers swaying violently in the mountain wind. "This is the 'Return Gift' TheGreat One has granted them. From this day forward, kindness is no longer a useless act of self-motivation; it is the world's highest tier and the only hard currency capable of resisting physical collapse."
The Loong's eyes seemed to catch the movement of the B.E.N. special forces. It let out a cold snort. "Those 'VIPs' in the B.E.N. planning their robberies will soon realize one thing."
Fengxi tilted her head, her expression somewhat innocent and confused. "What thing?"
The Golden Loong's golden pupils reflected the greedy masses in the distance, its tone laced with divine mockery: "She does not grant charity; She grants the only 'Tomorrow' that you mortals once personally buried."
Fengxi thoughtfully stroked the Horn of Calamity. She turned around, the twin vortexes in her dual pupils churning frantically. "Since the 'Return Gifts' have been distributed, it is time to clear out the remaining pests hiding in the shadows, trying to cause trouble."
As the [Gratitude List] continued to update globally, more and more animal wishes were precisely realized. From a high-dimensional perspective invisible to ordinary people, countless shimmering "Karmic Puzzle Pieces" composed of pure spiritual energy were flying at high speed from every corner of the Blue Planet.
They pierced through the atmosphere, entering the Divine Realm deep in the sea of stars, finally embedding themselves automatically into a gargantuan, reshaping model of the world under sacred guidance. Each piece contained the most simple yet fervent hopes of the animals:
—Hoping their owners would no longer be tormented by illness;
—Hoping the polluted forests would sprout green buds once more;
—Hoping the child who fed them half a bun every day could have a warm sweater.
Until—an animal made a wish unlike any other, sending massive ripples through the whole world.