Within the ancient formation, the fluctuations of power within Tong Jia gradually weakened and rapidly dissipated.
"What's going on?!" He opened his eyes and sensed his own condition, unable to contain his panic. "Could it be that the formation has failed? But it was working perfectly just a moment ago..."
A faint mechanical sound echoed, and the previously pitch-black square gradually lit up with lights from the corners. The leaders of several major beast tribes, who had been hiding in the darkness, transformed into human forms and gathered outside the formation.
A scene from years ago was replaying itself, and after a brief moment of panic, Tong Jia quickly regained his composure. He looked around at them and sneered, "For the second time, you lowly beasts dare to deceive me for the second time!" His red pupils were filled with chilling murderous intent and rage, and his clear and lively voice turned low and eerie. The current Tong Jia was entirely different from the one who had appeared before everyone earlier.
"It's really you, Xuan Yuan Hong," the leader of the Snake Tribe was the first to step forward, drawing the weapon hanging from his waist. "See your current identity, who's the real lowlife!"
A vague red light floated above the formation, and Tong Jia suddenly transformed into a human form and let out a roar that cut through his wrist.
Faint bird cries came from above, and the mechanical sounds resumed. Tong Jia's steady body suddenly swayed, and he collapsed to the ground. The blood that had flowed to the ground turned into mist and disappeared into the air. He narrowed his pupils and looked up at the sky, shouting, "Who tampered with my formation!"
Three flying creatures descended into everyone's sight, and Ya Yi and Jin Qiu jumped down from the backs of these creatures. They looked at Tong Jia, who had fallen in the center of the ancient formation, with puzzled eyes.
"It's me," Dong Fang Shu, the last one to land, passed through the crowd and entered the formation, manipulating the formation disc once again. "Tong Jia, it's useless. There won't be another chance for soul transference."
"Why can you..." Tong Jia began to speak but stopped halfway. The fierce expression on his face disappeared, and he reverted to his usual harmless and innocent look. He looked puzzled and bewildered, "Oh, why is everyone here? Xia Ya, Jin Qiu, come here quickly. I picked a lot of green thorn fruit on the mountain last time, and I've kept them for you."
Ya Yi turned her head to avoid his innocent gaze, and Jin Qiu clenched his fists tightly, unable to stop himself from stepping closer. "Jia Jia, did Xuan Yuan Hong take over your body? Don't worry, I'll drive him out of your body."
The leader of the Tiger Tribe wanted to intervene but was stopped by a feather dart thrown by Dong Fang Shu.
Jin Qiu's steps became increasingly urgent, and he soon entered the formation. He looked at Tong Jia and said with a soothing tone, "Dong Fang Clan Leader and the others don't want to harm you. Just endure it a little longer. Once we drive the villain away, everything will be fine. I..."
Suddenly, a large swath of red light flashed above the formation, and the mechanical sounds resumed. Dong Fang Shu and Jin Qiu had no chance to struggle; they were immediately enveloped in the red light, forming a cocoon.
"Hahaha, fools!" Tong Jia's innocent look was replaced by a triumphant one after achieving his goal. He exclaimed with excitement, "Although there are only two, it's enough. Once I absorb their power, all of you, you ants, will go to hell!"
Ya Yi's expression changed dramatically. She wanted to rush forward to save them but was blocked by the leader of the Turtle Tribe.
"Tong Jia!" She felt both pain and hatred in her heart. Struggling and shouting, she asked, "What does our decades-long friendship mean to you? Dong Fang Clan Leader and Jin Qiu watched you grow up. How can you bear to harm them? Stop it, please!"
"Decades-long friendship?" Tong Jia cut his wrist again, revealing a bloodthirsty smile. His tone was full of contempt and disdain. "You ants dare to talk to me about friendship? If it weren't for your deception last time, I wouldn't have wasted these decades!"
Ya Yi clenched her fist and asked, "Do you think these decades were a waste?"
Tong Jia looked at her as if she were a joke, sneered, and then walked toward the cocoon that contained Jin Qiu, after a sinister laugh, he said, "So, it's all a waste... Since that's the case, I'll consider these decades as raising a pet that bites people." He raised his head, charged forward, infused all his beastly power into the heart of the formation, and lashed out with his whip. "Jin Qiu, this is his true face. Wake up!"
Beastly power rushed into the formation, and the whip struck the cocoon. A roar of pain and rage suddenly emanated from the cocoon, and the red light dissipated. An adult giant tiger leaped out of the cocoon and pounced on Tong Jia, its sharp teeth looking dangerous and terrifying in the dim light.
Dong Fang Shu waved his hand, dispersing the red light that surrounded him, and looked at Jin Qiu, who had tackled Tong Jia but hadn't attacked yet. He casually added, "Before becoming Tong Jia, his name was Xuan Yuan Hong, and he had over twenty partners."
With a single blow, the giant tiger roared again, pushing Tong Jia away, and then ran out of the ancient formation, disappearing from everyone's sight.
"I didn't expect Jin Qiu to..." Ya Yi looked at Tong Jia, who was covered in scratches from the tiger's claws, with mixed emotions. She hesitated for a moment, then turned and chased after Jin Qiu, who had left in the opposite direction.
[The probability of Jin Qiu falling in love with the main character has dropped to 0%. Tenth soul flag removed. Congratulations, host.]
[Checking task completion status... Disturbed, check failed.]
[Checking the status of the soul flag... No abnormalities. Checking the soul transfer channel... Temporarily closed, unable to proceed. Please be cautious, host.]
Dong Fang Shu looked at the other side of the ancient formation, tightening his grip on the formation disc.
Gurgle, a small pebble rolled up to Tong Jia and coincidentally knocked down a piece of golden dragon scale he had secretly taken out.
"Is this what you rely on to transform into a dragon?"
A familiar voice, but not a familiar tone. Tong Jia hastily picked up the fallen scale, looking somewhat alarmed as he turned his head in the direction of the voice.
Ye Zhizhou approached slowly, crouching in front of him and ruffling his hair. He wiped away the dust and blood from his face and then forcefully took the scale that Tong Jia was clutching tightly. "I won't ask why."
Tong Jia's pupils contracted. He tried to resist, but the dragon pressure released by Ye Zhizhou left him completely immobilized.
"I've never been able to figure out the connection between the soul flag and the protagonist. Is the soul flag the protagonist? Or is the protagonist just a tool chosen by the soul flag?" He stood up, cut his finger, and let the blood drip onto the dragon scale, then placed it in front of Tong Jia. "Consider it a farewell gift for these decades."
The blood was quickly absorbed, and a sudden flash of golden light appeared on the scale. Tong Jia hurriedly held the scale close to his chest.
"Don't you have anything to say to me?" Ye Zhizhou took two steps back, discarded the standard long knife that had been given to him by Yu Mu, and took out the twin swords that Dong Fang Shu had crafted for him from his spatial storage.
The golden light gradually intensified, enveloping Tong Jia entirely.
"I have no regrets." Tong Jia slowly got up, raised his head, and looked at Ye Zhizhou through the golden light. Perhaps due to the lighting, his eye sockets seemed to have a hint of redness. "Little brother... no, Xiao Zhou, you came too late, too late..."
The golden light reached its peak, completely wrapping Tong Jia.
Dong Fang Shu stopped the actions of the leaders of various tribes, went to the formation's core, and squeezed out the blood that Tong Jia had dropped. Then he dripped the blood into the formation disc and crushed it. The mechanical sounds abruptly stopped, and faint sounds of things collapsing and breaking could be heard from the darkness. The red light that shrouded the formation in the sky completely disappeared, and the turbulent beast power within the formation also dissipated without a trace.
"Xiao Zhou." He walked up to Ye Zhizhou, wanting to shake his hand. "Tong Jia has already begun forcibly transforming into a dragon. Let's leave here first."
Ye Zhizhou avoided his hand and asked in a low voice, "Aren't you blaming me? I gave him the opportunity to transform into a dragon."
Dong Fang Shu was taken aback, withdrew his hand, and stared straight at him, asking, "Would you blame me for concealing Tong Jia's situation?"
"...Yes."
"I wouldn't." Dong Fang Shu reached out to him again, wanting to pull him away. "Let's leave this place first. Tong Jia's dragon transformation won't succeed..."
"He won't succeed." Ye Zhizhou didn't dodge him this time, lowered his head, and put the twin swords into his spatial storage. "The blood I dripped onto the dragon scale wasn't my own; it was Yu Mu's."
Dong Fang Shu frowned.
"Yu Mu is from the Bird Tribe, and he can be considered a phoenix. Although dragons and phoenixes are both divine races, their bloodlines are mutually exclusive." Ye Zhizhou turned his head to look at him and gave a self-deprecating smile. "The soul flag is too unpredictable. How could I risk everyone's lives on a gamble with my own breath? If not for this, Tong... Tong Jia might have used the dragon scale to cause more trouble. It's better for me to help him." On his way back, he had been searching for plot information and recalling the details of his interactions with Tong Jia over the decades. Finally, he had figured out the key to the protagonist's transformation into a dragon in this world.
In the original plot, the protagonist successfully transformed into a dragon only after killing the reversion bloodlines of the four major tribes. So, the key to the transformation might not lie in the protagonist's own race but in whether the protagonist could seize a body with reversion bloodlines. In the original plot, the protagonist did indeed self-destruct, but it wasn't a suicide; it was to destroy his original body and then use the reversion bloodlines to shape his dragon form.
Combining four not-so-pure reversion bloodlines into a pure dragon body should be enough. Then the question returns to the beginning: why a dragon? Since even the body is newly formed, why a dragon?
If transforming into a dragon is likened to a candle, the reversion bloodlines are the wax, the ancient formation is the fire, then what is the wick? What is the wick? A dragon is a divine beast, and a divine body cannot be formed solely by patching things together. So, he speculated that the protagonist possessed something truly related to dragons, a wick that would allow him to fully utilize the reversion bloodlines.
Once he figured this out, he remained silent, restraining all his breath and watching Tong Jia intently from a corner. He observed Tong Jia's familiar face displaying unfamiliar expressions, saw him wanting to harm but being hurt instead, and then noticed him sneakily taking out a piece of golden scale.
The scent of their shared kind was so strong that he felt slightly alarmed even standing at a distance. He didn't know what Tong Jia intended to do with that scale, but he knew he had to stop it. There were people on the field he cared about, and he had to protect them.
Dong Fang Shu couldn't help but embrace him and sighed into his ear, "I'm sorry for keeping it from you. I was just worried..."
"I know." Ye Zhizhou returned the embrace, but his eyes remained fixed on the flickering golden light. "I'm not mad at you for keeping it from me, but I'm frustrated that you always try to shoulder everything on your own when things happen. Dong Fang, I'm your partner, not your child. I don't like it when you deceive me or mislead me under the guise of doing it for my own good. I understand you, but it still hurts."
Dong Fang Shu tightened his arms around him. "I'm sorry... I won't do it again."
"I don't believe your promise. Next time, when something happens, you'll still find it hard not to do the same." Ye Zhizhou gently pushed him away and reached out to touch the weakening golden light. "I've only infused limited beast power into the scale; Tong Jia probably can't hold on much longer."
Upon hearing this, Dong Fang Shu had to swallow back all his explanations and assurances. Together, they looked at Tong Jia, who had already reverted to his animal form after the golden light disappeared.
The leaders of various tribes couldn't hear their conversation, and when they saw the golden light disappear, they thought Tong Jia had successfully transformed into a dragon. They shouted for everyone to retreat, and some impatient individuals, ignoring Dong Fang Shu's previous warnings, rushed into the formation with weapons.
"Your decision to destroy the formation was correct." With the disappearance of the golden light, Ye Zhizhou reached out to hold the unconscious and heavily injured rabbit in his arms, materializing his psychic power into a cage to imprison him. His eyes flashed with a hint of confusion. "Without obtaining a body with reversion bloodlines, he indeed didn't self-destruct like in the original plot... But what should I do with him?"
[Currently checking the completion status of the mission... Mission completed, congratulations to the host. Currently confirming the soul transmission channel... The channel is open, no anomalies detected. Would you like to enter the next world?]
In his mind, he selected "no." He looked at the motionless Tong Jia in the cage, unsure of what to do.
"Not..."
A familiar voice, a weak tone. He was taken aback, his eyes meeting Tong Jia's as he suddenly opened them.
"Xiao Zhou, thank you... and it's not... a tool..." Tong Jia finished speaking, then suddenly stiffened his body and banged his head against the cage. There was a loud "thud," and the rabbit disappeared, leaving behind a puddle of flesh and blood. Immediately afterward, a not-so-large beast power spread out.
"Jia... No!"