"Great Elder Grandpa, hello!" Na'er, already fully in character, called out sweetly, sizing up Di Tian with curious eyes. "You look so amazing!"
Di Tian's pupils shook violently, his heart seizing in his chest.
The way his liege had just addressed him was more than his heart could bear.
His own master, calling him grandpa. No one could understand the terror in that.
Di Tian very nearly lost his grip on his human disguise. The phantom outline of dragon wings behind him almost tore free of its restraints.
He forced down the storm raging in his chest and stiffly stretched his face into a smile uglier than crying, his voice hoarse. "Miss Na'er is too kind."
His mind raced, and he hastily stepped aside to clear the doorway. "Please, come in. The soul spirit is already waiting for Young Friend Arthur."
Arthur and Gu Yue walked into the main hall. Na'er tried to follow, but a beautiful woman caught her by the arm.
Bi Ji held back her laughter with effort. "Miss Na'er, best not go in there. Those are the Young Master's orders."
"Tch." Hearing it was Gu Yue's request, Na'er pouted, clearly displeased. "Fine. She'd better not try anything. I'll be watching closely."
Bi Ji stole a glance at Na'er's puffed cheeks and sighed inwardly. How could her liege be this adorable.
And then there was Di Tian, scared witless just moments ago. She'd nearly burst out laughing right there.
Outside, Di Tian was still in the corner "collecting himself," the dragon scales beneath his black robe still radiating a faint chill.
The lingering aftershock of that "Great Elder Grandpa" hadn't faded, and the moment he looked up to see Bi Ji leading Na'er over, his whole body went rigid, instinctively shrinking back.
Inside the main hall, Arthur looked at the ball of light before him.
"What is this?"
"This is the Three-Eyed Golden Lion."
The ball of light suddenly contracted, golden radiance cascading down to reveal the creature curled within.
Its whole body was covered in crystalline golden scales, faint golden flames licking beneath its four paws, the vertical eye on its brow shut tight, its eye corners tinged with an eerie crimson. It was none other than the legendary auspicious beast of the Star Dou Great Forest, said to be an imperial spirit, the Three-Eyed Golden Lion.
"The Three-Eyed Golden Lion?" Arthur frowned. Hadn't it died out ten thousand years ago?
He asked, "I once saw records of this in the ancient texts of the Spirit Pagoda. The Three-Eyed Golden Lion is an auspicious beast of the Star Dou Great Forest, gone for ten thousand years. How is it here, and how has it become a soul spirit waiting to be absorbed?"
"There are actually ancient texts recording this?" Gu Yue turned her head in surprise, then explained. "The auspicious beasts of the Star Dou Great Forest did indeed pass into death ten thousand years ago."
"This is a newly born one."
Gu Yue's slender hand brushed lightly over the ball of light, golden radiance swirling in her palm, her tone carrying a note of gravity. "After the auspicious beast of ten thousand years ago died, the Star Dou Great Forest gave rise to a new one."
"It's just," a flicker of complexity crossed her eyes, "the fortune of the Star Dou Great Forest is no longer enough."
"The new auspicious beast couldn't be fully born. It had no choice but to exist in the form of a soul spirit, forging contracts again and again with soul masters."
"Generation after generation of soul masters, contract by contract, it climbed all the way to the hundred-thousand-year tier."
Gu Yue said, troubled, "And yet it still hasn't been born. It only exists passively."
Standing before the ball of light, Arthur could clearly sense the faint but stubborn pulse of life within the Three-Eyed Golden Lion, as if it were struggling against some formless shackle.
"Passive existence?" Arthur thought for a moment. "You mean it doesn't have a complete consciousness, just piling up strength through contracts with soul masters and the passage of time, until it reached the hundred-thousand-year tier?"
"Yes, and no." Gu Yue shook her head.
"It has consciousness, but it's as if wrapped in thick fog, unable to awaken on its own. The fortune of the Star Dou Great Forest has run dry, and it can't sustain the beast's full birth."
"All it can do is drift along in this 'unfinished' form, drawing energy from its bonds with soul masters, yet never able to cross that final threshold."
"You want me to absorb it, meaning" Arthur realized something.
"Exactly. Fortune!" Gu Yue's eyes gleamed. "You may not know this, but you carry an unprecedented amount of fortune in you."
"When we first met, you didn't have much fortune to speak of. It's only since then that it's grown stronger and stronger."
"And now" Gu Yue couldn't help but glance toward the crown of Arthur's head, where an immense fortune invisible to any but the divine spread out like a vast expanse of stars.
If the Douluo Continent held ten measures of fortune in total, Arthur alone carried eleven, the extra measure squeezed out grudgingly by the plane's own consciousness.
Even Gu Yue didn't know what exactly had happened to Arthur. When she'd first made the pact with him, he hadn't had nearly this much fortune. She'd simply wanted to try.
But now it seemed the auspicious beast, with Arthur's help, would absolutely succeed in being born and surviving!
"My fortune?" Arthur rubbed his chin. It made sense that his fortune ran strong these days, seeing as he'd practically become the doting father figure of the entire Douluo plane.
Still, he'd never actually felt his fortune directly before.
Just then, the Three-Eyed Golden Lion within the ball of light seemed to sense something. It let out a soft, faint cry, and the vertical eye on its brow slowly cracked open, an eerie crimson light shooting straight toward the point between Arthur's brows.
In that instant, Arthur felt his sea of consciousness roar to life, countless points of golden light surging in from every direction, the very fortune he'd never noticed before, now actively drawn forth by the auspicious beast, giving him a sensation like commanding his own limbs with perfect ease.
And on top of that, the Three-Eyed Golden Lion was already an extraordinarily powerful soul beast in its own right.
"In that case." Arthur's expression turned serious as he looked at the Three-Eyed Golden Lion. "Let's sign the contract!"
The instant Arthur's words fell, he took the initiative, releasing a thread of spiritual power that gently touched the surface of the ball of light.
The warm barrier of energy dispersed like ripples on water, revealing the curled-up body of the Three-Eyed Golden Lion within.
The vertical eye on its brow opened fully, its eerie crimson light meeting the crimson dragon mark on Arthur's brow from across the distance. The faint golden flames beneath its four paws suddenly surged, as if answering his invitation.
Gu Yue instinctively took a half step back.
She could see clearly: the vast fortune above Arthur's head came pouring down like a breached dam.
It intertwined with the withered fortune of the auspicious beast, forming a dazzling bridge of gold, binding the two sides firmly together.
The Three-Eyed Golden Lion within the ball of light let out a powerful roar, no longer the feeble sound from before, but one brimming with life and joy.
It slowly stretched its body, growing ever more radiant as it was nourished by the fortune flowing into it, golden energy swirling around it like a stream of light, pouring along the bridge of the contract into Arthur.
At the same time, Arthur's fortune and the power of heaven and earth flowed back in the opposite direction, merging into the beast's origin.
"Hmmmm!"
A pillar of golden light burst through the roof, shooting straight into the sky, dyeing the entire heavens gold.
This was the true omen of an imperial auspicious beast being born into the world.
"It worked! It's finally alive!" Excitement flickered in Gu Yue's eyes, her voice trembling.
"Next, it's my turn to break through." Arthur raised a hand to stroke the Three-Eyed Golden Lion's soul spirit resting on his shoulder. The spirit nuzzled affectionately against his cheek, radiating joy and gratitude.
Behind him, three black soul rings appeared.
Above them, a soul ring unique to the auspicious beast was slowly beginning to condense.