Divine Beast Creator

A streak of black light flashed, and War Qi Chen only felt his vision blur, and the scenery around him instantly changed to something else.

This was a spherical space. Underfoot lay a deep-violet, fleshy-textured ground, this surface cutting straight through the sphere’s center. Above his head, a spherical Barrier was constantly letting gray mist flow down along its walls; a hemispherical shell covered this entire space.

Opposite War Qi Chen, red smoke gradually condensed into a human form. Staring at that "self" dressed almost exactly like him, War Qi Chen frowned slightly.

His Spirit Beasts were forcibly summoned out. This sudden anomaly terrified them; they clung tightly to War Qi Chen’s side. Across from them, the War Qi Chen in crimson from head to toe swung his battle staff, pointed at War Qi Chen, and the ground bulged. The same Spirit Beasts as War Qi Chen’s drilled out of the earth, baring their fangs and snarling at him.

"Defeat another self? Is it really that simple?"

War Qi Chen felt something was off, yet couldn’t pinpoint what. After a brief thought, he chose to feint and lure the other side into making the first move. However, just as he was about to act, a fragment of hopeless memory suddenly surged into his mind.

It was ruined Maomu City, that nightmare-like wasteland in the flames of war resurfacing in sharp clarity before his eyes once more.

"So that’s... how it is!"

He’d thought so—this thing couldn’t be that simple. But to reflect the humiliating memories of the past? That really did ramp up the difficulty.

War Qi Chen forcibly suppressed those impulsive emotions. With a swing of his battle staff, he charged forward with his Spirit Beasts.

"Looks like this really is a Stele formed naturally by the world itself. It’s just—why did it appear here?"

Looking at the Spirit Beasts being forcibly summoned out, Feng Yuan muttered under his breath. At this moment, the words on the Stele had turned deep purple, flickering with a gloomy light. Feng Yuan didn’t approach War Qi Chen, who was still standing in place with his hand on the Stele; he knew very well that the guy should have been pulled into a mental space.

Leaving everything else aside, forcing Spirit Beasts out of the Spirit Beast Space was something that, aside from the rules of nature, nobody else could do—not even Divine Beasts. The appearance of this thing also allowed Veronia to relax slightly. At the very least, this wasn’t some kind of trap.

Not long after, War Qi Chen let out a muffled groan, and a savage aura rose off him. Cotton nervously hopped to Xing Bo’s side, meowing anxiously. Feng Yuan watched War Qi Chen, and instead of attacking immediately, he spoke.

"So you’ve obtained a new stance?"

"You could say that. Rather than say it’s mine, it’s more like it belongs to all of us together."

He suddenly swung his battle staff, a blood-colored aura rising. In an instant, the Spirit Beasts beside War Qi Chen changed form. Their general silhouettes remained, but the details were completely different. For example, the Star Tree: the brilliant stars that used to dot its crown had turned into a blood-red Star River, its leaves had become scarlet, and deep-violet mysterious patterns had appeared along its trunk.

No one needed to ask; they could all guess that his Star Tree had likely shifted into a type with extremely strong offensive capability.

"Was the challenge difficult?"

After a brief silence, Feng Yuan asked. Anything that involved changes in power definitely had a difficulty to it, but he had no idea just how hard it was. War Qi Chen thought for a moment and answered.

"It’s a battle against your own mirror image. But during the fight, certain bad memories surface and interfere with your thinking."

Even with his fairly solid control over his emotions, he couldn’t completely avoid being affected during the clash. If it were Qi Chen and the others in there, he honestly wasn’t sure they’d be able to keep their reason.

"Mm, I see."

After pondering for a bit, Feng Yuan said,

"In that case, we shouldn’t try it. As for me, that thing probably wouldn’t react. As for Qi Chen and the others... Qi Chen himself should be fine, I’m just worried about..."

If the test took past memories as a weapon, Qi Chen probably wouldn’t be hit that hard. Feng Yuan had some understanding of the guy’s past: it hadn’t been perfectly smooth, but there weren’t any huge upheavals either—he was just like an ordinary, average person.

In that situation, even if memories were used for interference, the effect would likely be limited. But Qi Chen’s emotional control wasn’t particularly strong, so Feng Yuan had no intention of letting him try.

As for Dou Yanlan?

Better not. Feng Yuan knew her situation too well. Even though her emotional management was stronger than Qi Chen’s, her experiences were instead a massive weakness.

"The stance here should be Wrath—or rather, one that focuses on boosting offensive power. It’s just that I don’t understand..."

War Qi Chen thought of something as he spoke, looking over at Veronia. The emotion for this Trial was easy to guess, and precisely because of that he found it strange. If he remembered correctly, the emotion Veronia encountered back then should have been Sorrow, yet she’d been rejected by Wrath.

Can you only obtain one stance?

Returning to his normal appearance, War Qi Chen couldn’t quite figure it out. As he reverted, his Spirit Beasts also changed back in sync.

"So stances are centered on the Beastmaster? That’s pretty peculiar. What happens if your Spirit Beasts change?"

Seeing this, Feng Yuan said in surprise. War Qi Chen was slightly taken aback and replied,

"You have to challenge again. Newly contracted Spirit Beasts can only gain this ability through completing the challenge. It’s just... Wrath—is it the same as Sorrow?"

Noticing War Qi Chen looking at her, Veronia froze for a second, then quickly realized what he meant. After thinking it over, she said,

"Definitely not. But in that case, why was I refused? Could it be that this thing only lets you choose one?"

Even without seeing other Steles, she was convinced there had to be more out there, because emotions weren’t limited to Wrath alone. This thing shouldn’t exist as a single one, and stances especially shouldn’t only point in the offensive direction.

"Not necessarily. It might also be categorized into offense, defense, support—something like that."

Feng Yuan casually said. He didn’t know much about this kind of thing, and this wasn’t the right time to study it carefully. If they could use it to help Qi Chen and the others grow stronger, that’d be one thing—but sadly, they couldn’t.

"This Stele is actually quite important. It’s a shame we can’t leave a Spatial Beacon... Wait, maybe we can do this instead."

Veronia muttered to herself as she suddenly moved. Switching stances again, Crystal Queen Veronia struck directly at the space to the side. After a flash of red Thunder, this section of space was unsurprisingly pierced through. Staring at the forest on the other side, Veronia said,

"Guess our luck isn’t so good this time."

"You really..."

Feng Yuan covered his forehead, looking helpless. Veronia had blasted straight through the space—that in itself would’ve been fine, but she hadn’t held back at all. After the space was punctured, the attack crashed into the forest and triggered a massive explosion. Luckily, this forest didn’t seem to be near the city outskirts; otherwise it might have directly set off a war alert—or worse.

"Next up, we have to inform Gitalien."

Glancing at the Stele, Veronia said. Spreading his hands, Feng Yuan replied with a helpless look,

"You go ahead. We can’t keep tracking this anyway. That guy letting us discover this thing isn’t exactly a bad outcome."

Even though having his sleep disturbed at night was annoying, the significance of this Stele was no small matter. If the timing were better, Feng Yuan might well have persuaded Qi Chen to give it a try. As for Dou Yanlan... that’d be another conversation.

Feng Yuan wasn’t sure how deeply her childhood experiences had affected her. At the very least, until they were clear on things, Dou Yanlan really wasn’t suited to challenging something like this. Failure would be one thing, but having painful memories stirred up was definitely not good.

"Indeed. With this thing appearing, Divine Beasts and humans will probably start arguing again."

Veronia chuckled softly and said. Stroking his chin, Feng Yuan knew she wasn’t just talking nonsense. This thing worked on Divine Beasts as well, and both the power and the trials of stances were not simple matters. It wasn’t that Divine Beasts didn’t trust humans—it was that some humans were simply not worth trusting.

Once this fell into human hands, it was impossible to say what might happen.

But if they didn’t inform humans, they themselves didn’t have the strength to protect and manage it. Normally, things like this would be entrusted by Divine Beasts to the Alliance for safekeeping, to prevent malicious use.

Yet with the way the situation had been evolving lately, the Alliance had become unreliable. The Divine Beasts might not throw things at the Alliance the way they had in the past.

"Ah, I don’t have the energy to worry about that. Figuring out the mastermind behind all this is more important."

Sighing, Feng Yuan said helplessly. With this thing, he really was willing but unable. The matter with Qi Chen still wasn’t resolved, and for some reason, Feng Yuan kept feeling that things weren’t nearly as simple as they seemed.

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