High above the crumbling cityscape, the heavens themselves seemed to weep under the suffocating pressure of the clash. The afternoon sky was a chaotic tapestry of dark, abyssal rifts and blinding, holy light. Di Tian hovered within the eye of the spiritual storm, his black robes whipping wildly against the gale. He raised his Dark Dragon Sword, the blade drawing in the surrounding light like a vortex of despair. He prepared to unleash a devastating wave of purple-black flames, a tide of abyssal fire meant to engulf Bibi Dong and reduce her venomous form to a shower of gray ash.
Just as the dark flames began to lick at the edges of the blade, a sudden anomaly pierced his focus. It was not a physical strike, nor was it a blast of holy fire from the Grand Enshrinement. Instead, the clear, undeniable mental voice of the Golden Auspicious Beast echoed within his vast spiritual sea. The telepathic plea cut through his blinding battle-lust like a cleansing spring breeze sweeping through a blood-soaked battlefield, carrying a resonance of pure destiny that he could not ignore.
SWISH!
Di Tian forcibly halted his swing mid-air. The sudden redirection of his immense momentum caused a violent gust of wind to rip across the sky. The gale scattered Bibi Dong's toxic spiders, blowing the corrosive green mist into dissipating wisps that faded into the clouds.
The Beast God frowned slightly, the dark scales on his cheek shifting. His golden eyes narrowed into dangerous slits as he processed the strange, audacious request transmitted by the golden-haired girl waiting in the shadows below.
'That little human wishes to parley?' Di Tian thought, a mixture of profound arrogance and faint curiosity swirling in his ancient mind.
To Di Tian, humans were fleeting insects. They were mayflies whose lives extinguished like candles in a rainstorm. Engaging in a conversation with a young hatchling in the middle of a death match was a laughable concept, an insult to his supreme status. He was a beast who had walked the earth for hundreds of thousands of years; he did not negotiate with prey.
Yet, the fact that the Golden Auspicious Beast herself acted as the messenger for this request gave him pause. Her destiny was tied to the very heartbeat of the star forest. For her to speak on behalf of this human signaled that this red-haired youth held an unusual, profound significance in the tapestry of fate.
Deciding to humor the request, if only to understand the depth of the girl's delusion, Di Tian lowered his dark blade. The suffocating sword intent that had threatened to slice the sky in twain vanished instantly. He closed his palm, dispelling the massive blackhole he had summoned behind his back, letting the twisted spatial coordinates snap back into their natural alignment.
BOOM!
The Beast God actively disengaged from the aerial battle. He propelled his body downward with such explosive speed that it generated a massive, deafening sonic boom. A ring of white vapor exploded in the sky where he had just hovered, the sound barrier shattering under the sheer physical force of his descent. He fell toward the earth like a black meteor carved from the abyss.
The sudden, violent withdrawal left Bibi Dong and Qian Daoliu suspended in the sky. Their ultimate attacks struck empty air, the holy fire and jade-colored slashes sailing harmlessly into the distance as they stared in sheer bewilderment.
"He is retreating?" Qian Daoliu murmured, his voice laced with confusion.
His six golden seraphim wings flapped gently, keeping him aloft as he lowered his blazing holy sword. His chest heaved from the immense exertion required to maintain his defensive dome over the city. He had expected a grueling war of attrition, a battle that would last until the sun gave way to the moon, not an abrupt, silent withdrawal.
Bibi Dong wiped a smear of dark, corrupted blood from her chin with the back of her hand. Her pink eyes tracked the descending black comet with a mixture of deep suspicion and lingering battle-frenzy. Her breathing was ragged, her Death Spider carapace cracked in several places, but the venom still dripped from her lances, sizzling as it hit the air. She did not trust the sudden retreat, her paranoid mind searching for a hidden trap within the shadows.
CRASH!
Di Tian landed heavily in the center of the ruined market square. The impact shattered the remaining cobblestones, sending a shockwave of dust and debris rippling outward in a perfect circle. The sheer weight of his arrival forced the surrounding human elders—Golden Crocodile Douluo and Azure Luan Douluo—to take a cautious step back, their defensive instincts screaming at the proximity of such an overwhelming entity.
He stood tall amidst the settling dust. His black robes snapped in the wind generated by his landing. He projected an aura of absolute, undisputed supremacy, his posture reflecting the pride of a creature who bowed to nothing beneath the heavens. He slowly turned his head, looking directly toward the shadowed alleyway where the red-haired youth stood.
"It seems the little hatchling wishes to have a word with me," Di Tian announced.
His voice was a deep, resonant rumble that demanded the attention of every soul present in the plaza. He stared directly at Zhang Tian, his golden eyes analyzing the calm, unbothered demeanor of the human who dared to summon him from the sky.
Hearing the Beast God's mocking declaration, Bibi Dong and Qian Daoliu immediately broke from their stupor. They folded their wings and descended from the sky like falling stars, landing swiftly and silently in the ruined square. They positioned themselves directly between Zhang Tian and the ancient dragon, their auras flaring to form a protective barricade.
The two Limit Douluos were visibly surprised by the unfolding scenario. Zhang Tian, a mere Spirit King, had actively sought to initiate a conversation with this extremely powerful monster. It was a brazen, seemingly suicidal move. A Spirit King speaking to a beast of this magnitude was akin to a single drop of water attempting to negotiate with a raging volcano.
Qian Daoliu gripped the hilt of his holy sword tightly, the knuckles of his aged hands turning white. His golden eyes darted between Zhang Tian and Di Tian, assessing the distance and calculating the time it would take to intercept a sudden strike.
The Grand Enshrinement knew the immense value of the young man standing behind him. This human was the companion and beloved partner of his precious granddaughter, Qian Renxue. He had seen the radiant joy in her eyes when she spoke of him, a happiness that had been absent from her life for decades.
'I cannot allow anything bad to happen to this boy,' Qian Daoliu thought, his protective instincts flaring with the intensity of a blazing sun. 'He is the anchor to my granddaughter's fragile peace. If he is slaughtered here, torn apart by the claws of this beast, I won't know how to explain his death to her. Her heart would shatter, and the light would leave her eyes forever. I must shield him, even if it costs me my final breath.'
As for Bibi Dong, her internal landscape was a chaotic storm of profound worry and possessive, violent affection.
To the public eye, this red-haired youth was merely the partner of her daughter, a political asset of the Heaven Dou nation. But in the deep, velvet-draped shadows of her bedchamber, Zhang Tian was her secret, dominant master. She cherished the intimate, degrading nights they spent tangled in the silk sheets more than she valued her own life. The memory of his heavy hands leaving bruises across her skin, the scorching heat of his seed flooding her womb, the way he commanded her submission—these sensations had rewritten her destiny, pulling her from the brink of madness.
The thought of this towering beast harming a single hair on Zhang Tian's head ignited a terrifying, maternal fury within the Supreme Pontiff's chest. The protective rage eclipsed her fear, burning away the pain of her sustained injuries. She would not allow the source of her salvation to be extinguished.
Bibi Dong stepped forward, placing her curvaceous body directly in front of Zhang Tian. Her pink eyes glared at Di Tian like a mother spider defending her fragile nest from a marauding predator. Her breathing was ragged, but her posture was a monument of lethal defiance.
"Listen to me closely, beast," Bibi Dong coldly uttered her threat.
Her voice dripped with venomous intent, lacking any trace of her usual diplomatic grace. It was a promise of absolute suffering, a vow carved from the darkest corners of her soul.
"If anything happens to him during this parley, or if he sustains even a slight injury from your claws," she warned, raising her dark green, venom-dripping lances toward his chest. "You can forget about returning to your precious forest. You will breathe your last breath upon these stones."
HISS!
The corrosive aura around her spiked dramatically. The toxic green mist poured from her carapace in thick waves, melting the stones beneath her boots into bubbling pools of acidic sludge. The smell of decay and potent poison filled the plaza, a physical manifestation of her murderous intent.
"Moreover," Bibi Dong added, her voice dropping to a terrifying, echoing whisper that promised a continent-spanning calamity. "I will personally lead my armies to the borders of your home. I will slaughter the entire forest and entirely get rid of the spirit beasts without showing an ounce of mercy. I will burn your ancient trees to ash, salt the earth, and ensure your kind becomes nothing more than a forgotten myth in the pages of human history."
Her words were not empty boasts thrown into the wind; they carried the heavy, undeniable weight of a leader capable of waging a war of extinction. The Spirit Hall possessed the military might, the legions of Spirit Masters, and the vast resources necessary to turn her threat into a bloody reality. She would gladly scorch the earth and bathe the continent in blood to avenge a single scratch on her beloved's skin.
Her absolute conviction made even Di Tian frown slightly. The dark scales around his eyes crinkled as he assessed the rabid, protective glint in the human woman's gaze. He had faced many human experts over the eons, but the sheer, suicidal intensity radiating from this woman was a rare sight. She was entirely willing to throw away her life and her city for the sake of the youth standing behind her.
Di Tian knew that this woman's foundational strength was incredibly formidable. He had tested her limits in the sky above. Her twin spirits, her mastery over spatial tears, and her lethal poison made her a walking calamity. She possessed a tenacity that bordered on madness.
He realized that, other than himself, no spirit beast in the forest could realistically think of defeating her. The other Ferocious Beasts would fall to her venom. Whether they tried outnumbering her with sheer mass or matching their own strength against her corrosive domain, she would leave a trail of slaughtered beasts in her wake. She was a plague waiting to be unleashed upon his sanctuary.
Qian Daoliu stepped up beside Bibi Dong, moving to form an impenetrable wall of flesh and spirit power. His golden seraphim wings stretched wide, casting a warm, radiant light over Zhang Tian's figure, dispelling the encroaching shadows of the Beast God's aura.
"The Supreme Pontiff speaks truth," Qian Daoliu added. His voice carried a solemn, unyielding promise, the heavy resonance of a man making a sacred vow before the heavens.
"If you act treacherously against this boy, I will stop holding back my holy light to protect the city," Qian Daoliu declared. His golden eyes locked onto the Beast God, his killing intent condensing into a sharp, physical pressure. "I will abandon my defensive duties and focus entirely on your destruction. I will burn my life force to ensure you do not leave this square alive."
He raised his holy sword, the flames licking the edge of the blade turning a blinding, pure white.
"Moreover... the Spirit Hall will launch a true, unrelenting war against the Spirit Beasts," Qian Daoliu finalized his threat, aligning his holy authority with Bibi Dong's venomous promise. "We will march upon your home, burning your ancient sanctuary to the ground until nothing remains but smoke and silence."
Di Tian stood silently amidst the swirling dust. His ancient mind rapidly processed the extreme, protective reactions of the two strongest humans on the continent. He observed the way they shielded the red-haired youth, their auras blending together in a unified front of absolute deterrence.
'This little human's importance among these mortals seems to be equivalent to that of the Golden Auspicious Beast among our kind,' Di Tian thought internally, his golden eyes narrowing in profound contemplation.
The realization was somewhat shocking for the ancient dragon. To see two rival human leaders—individuals who historically despised one another and vied for total control over their faction—unite with such fierce, suicidal dedication to protect a single youth was an unprecedented phenomenon. Humans were naturally treacherous creatures, prone to betrayal and self-preservation. Yet, these two apex experts were offering their lives and their legions as a shield for this boy.
Well, Di Tian was slightly tense by their combined, world-ending threats. He was a creature of immense pride, but he was not devoid of strategic foresight. He recognized that a war of extinction, waged by the combined forces of the human pinnacle, would leave the forest a barren wasteland. Even if he managed to slaughter the Limit Douluos in a final, apocalyptic clash, the resulting damage to his home and the loss of his kin would be an unacceptable, devastating price to pay. The sanctuary he had protected for hundreds of thousands of years would be reduced to cinder.
He crossed his arms over his broad chest, the dark fabric of his robes shifting over his scaled skin. He projected a facade of bored arrogance to perfectly mask his internal calculations, refusing to show a sliver of weakness to the humans baring their fangs.
"Lower your fangs, humans," Di Tian scoffed. His voice rumbled like distant thunder rolling over a mountain peak, dripping with feigned disdain. "You bark loudly for creatures with such fragile bones. It isn't me who desires to talk to that little hatchling."
He uncrossed his arms and pointed a scaled, clawed finger toward the shadowed alleyway, directing the attention of the plaza toward the youth.
"It is that little human who begged for an audience with me to stop his city from turning to ash," Di Tian stated, shifting the narrative to maintain his superior footing. "If he wishes to speak, I will listen. But do not mistake my patience for fear."
Zhang Tian stepped around Bibi Dong. His movements were fluid and unhurried, lacking any trace of the paralyzing terror that gripped the surrounding elders. He placed a comforting, gentle hand on Bibi Dong's shoulder, his thumb brushing against her clothing. The touch worked like a soothing balm, immediately calming her raging aura and causing the corrosive green mist to recede slightly.
"Indeed," Zhang Tian stated calmly.
His voice was a steady, clear bell ringing through the tense silence of the plaza. His icy blue eyes met the Beast God's glowing golden gaze without a single tremor of fear. He stood tall, a mortal man staring into the abyss of ancient mythology, projecting an authority that rivaled the beasts of legend.
"Let us talk in the sky, Beast God," Zhang Tian proposed smoothly, gesturing upward toward the dark, churning clouds. "Away from the noise."
~~
A/N: Check out my other novels [Villain: Manipulating The Heroines Into Hating The Protagonist] and [Harem Master: Seduction System].
Also, check out 20 Chapters Ahead for this fanfic on my P.atreon.
Patreon link: https://www.patreon.com/c/evildragon04