Douluo, my clone Groudon

Chapter 385 Destroying Divine Sense, the Yin-Yang Eye of Ice and Fire
In the dark cave, the three-eyed golden lion nervously scratched at the withered leaves on the ground, its golden vertical eyes fixed on the human at the cave entrance who was concentrating with his eyes closed and whose body was radiating strange energy.

"Human, what do you want to do with me after you captured me?"

The Three-Eyed Golden Lion finally couldn't help but ask again, her voice trembling slightly. As time went on, she became a little scared.

Gula did not answer immediately.

He was spending most of his time communicating with and misleading the myriad plants of the Starry Forest through Sherabi's authority over the forest.

The Demon King's search order swept across the area like invisible ripples, but Gula precisely interfered with the responses of these low-intelligence plants, creating the illusion that the auspicious beast's aura was still lingering somewhere or had already dissipated.

This requires extremely precise control, so that he cannot be distracted.

Seeing that Gula ignored her, the Three-Eyed Golden Lion carefully stood up and tried to sneak silently towards the cave entrance.

However, she had only taken a few steps when a hand covered in dark gold armor precisely gripped the back of her neck, and an irresistible force rendered her immobile.

"Don't move." Gula's voice came through the mask, calm yet carrying a chilling sternness.

The three-eyed golden lion whimpered pitifully and obediently lay back down on the ground.

She could sense that this human was different from Di Tian and Chi Wang. He seemed completely unaffected by her identity as a mythical beast, and his indifference made her dare not act rashly.

Especially when her gaze fell upon the Titan Bear spirit on Gula's shoulder, which had shrunk in size but still exuded a suffocating aura of soul power, she became completely obedient—this was the first time a "soul beast" had been indifferent to her, this auspicious beast, and even carried a faint sense of intimidation.

She idly fiddled with the withered grass in the cave, sniffing the faint, almost imperceptible scent of the leopard-like spirit beast lingering in the air, her mind wandering to the fate of its original owner.

In the end, her gaze returned to Gura.

Just then, Gula seemed to have temporarily stabilized the plant's external feedback and opened his eyes to look at her.

“Now we can talk,” Gula said.

The Three-Eyed Golden Lion immediately stood up, forcing himself to remain calm as he stared directly at Gula: "What are you going to do? If you endanger the Star Dou Great Forest, Di Tian will never let you off!"

"Don't worry," Gula said calmly, "I'm not interested in the fortune of the Star Dou Great Forest."

The three-eyed golden lion opened its three eyes in surprise. The creature actually knew that auspicious beasts represented the fortune of the forest.

The more she knew, the less she dared to make a move against her, which gave her a little more confidence.

"Then what do you want me to do? With your strength, even the Crimson King is no match for you, so what difference would it make if I joined in?"

Gula did not answer directly, but instead raised his hand and gestured.

A miniature version of an ancient tree, still radiating a rich aura of life and light, with branches and leaves as if cast in gold, appeared beside him; it was the spirit of the Golden Ancient Tree.

It shone brightly. Although it had absorbed a massive amount of strange plant seeds collected from the Star Luo Empire, its essence seemed to still be stuck at a certain bottleneck, unable to truly revert to its ancestral form and transform into the legendary ancient tree of life.

"Golden Tree!" The three-eyed golden lion recognized it, even more surprised. "Where did you find it? Wasn't it said there was only one in the world? How did you do that? Why can you control them and even absorb them into your body? No... they seem to be in a spirit state!?"

The questions were giving Gula a headache.

“More or less.” Gula replied briefly, his gaze fixed intently on the three-eyed golden lion. “I want the golden tree to revert to its ancestral form and become the progenitor of all plants, capable of differentiating everything. This requires your power of destiny.”

The Three-Eyed Golden Lion was shocked by Gura's ambition, but then shrank back:

"I... I can't do it. I can't actively activate the power of destiny. I can only passively influence the surrounding fortune to make the soul beasts cultivate faster."

Gula reached out and gently stroked her smooth, lustrous fur, but his tone left no room for doubt: "It's alright, I'll make you do it."

He pointed his fingers like a knife and carefully cut off a small tuft of golden hair from the three-eyed golden lion, then threw it into the cave.

This can be used to create bait that misleads Di Tian's tracking.

Next, he took out a piece of animal hide and used his mental power to imprint a message on it, which roughly meant, "Borrow the auspicious beast for a while, and return it intact in three days without harming it in the slightest." He then left it in a conspicuous place in the cave. He did not want to cause a catastrophe that would sweep across humanity because of himself for the time being.

The Three-Eyed Golden Lion, unable to read, watched Gula finish all this and asked curiously, "Are we leaving the Star Dou Great Forest?"

“Yes.” Gula grabbed the back of the three-eyed golden lion’s neck, his eyes blazing with silver light, and his spatial power fluctuated violently.

Based on his perception of the similarities between parallel universes, he quickly located a unique location with exceptionally abundant energy—the Yin-Yang Eye of Ice and Fire.

The next moment, powerful spatial forces enveloped them, teleporting them over an extremely long distance.

At the same time, a subtle force of time distorted the teleportation trajectory, interfering with any spatial fluctuations that might be attempted to be tracked.

The three-eyed golden lion felt a blur before its eyes, and when it saw clearly again, it found itself at the entrance of an unfamiliar valley.

Ahead, vast expanses of alluring, emerald-green flowers grew rampantly, emitting deadly poisonous mist and weaving together to form a natural barrier of death—the Azure Phosphorous Seven Deadly Flowers Formation!

Just then, Gula's figure blurred, his armor fell away, and he transformed into a gentle-looking green-haired youth exuding a strong aura of life, becoming Mu Yi.

The aura of the Ultimate Wood was like that of an emperor reigning supreme. The Azure Phosphorous Seven Absolute Flowers in front of it felt the supreme pressure of this plant origin, and trembled in fear as if they had encountered their nemesis, automatically parting to make way for it.

“Let’s go,” Gula said.

The three-eyed golden lion watched Gula's transformation in astonishment, then hopped and skipped after him, extremely curious:

"How did your appearance change? Even your scent is completely different! Is this some kind of soul skill?"

Gula still needed her cooperation, and unusually patiently explained, "Well, you can think of it that way."

The Three-Eyed Golden Lion took a deep breath of the dense, almost impenetrable spiritual energy of the valley, then looked at the plants deep within the valley that exuded a powerful aura but seemed somewhat weak inside, and asked in confusion:
"Where am I? There are so many powerful auras here, but they feel a bit... unstable?"

“You’re not mistaken.” Gula nodded. “There are seven or eight 100,000-year-old plant spirit beasts here, but unfortunately they mostly rely on the environment here to grow, so their combat power is weak. After leaving here, they probably can’t even beat the 10,000-year-old spirit beasts outside.”

"Then what are you doing here?" The three-eyed golden lion seemed to have a million questions. To get her to cooperate, Gula patiently answered them one by one: "Absorbing energy."

Just then, the magical herbs in the valley finally discovered these two uninvited guests.

Each immortal herb shone brightly, radiating the aura of a ten-thousand-year-old soul beast, attempting to scare away the intruders.

"Human! You have trespassed into our territory. Leave immediately, or your life will be in danger." The fragrant and elegant fairy plant swayed its petals, issuing a warning.

"Shut up!" Gula snorted coldly, releasing the vast aura of the Ultimate Wood without reservation.

Like an invisible mountain, it instantly suppressed all the immortal herbs, dimming their radiance, causing their branches and leaves to droop, rendering them speechless, leaving only instinctive fear and trembling.

In a moment of desperation, the leading fragrant fairy activated the wisp of the sea god's divine will hidden deep within its body.

A dazzling golden light shot into the sky, and a divine pressure imbued with sacred majesty suddenly descended.

"Woo..." The three-eyed golden lion had never been able to withstand such pressure. It was so frightened that its limbs went weak and it lay on the ground trembling. Its pride as a mythical beast was completely gone.

A blurry yet majestic figure emerged from the golden light, his gaze sweeping over Gula: "Mortal, are you a disciple of the Tang Clan?"

This was Tang San's backup plan, to ensure that the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Eye would not fall into the hands of evil people.

Gula looked up and calmly replied, "No."

The divine sense shook its head, its tone carrying the indifference of a deity: "You have disturbed my slumber. Leave immediately and swear never to reveal the location of this place, or you will surely face divine punishment!"

Groudon slowly shook his head. Under the astonished gaze of the divine sense, he raised his hand and pressed down—this time, he quietly borrowed a trace of the earth's original power from Groudon's clone in another world. A terrifying power that seemed capable of annihilating all things and returning them to dust instantly acted on that divine sense.

"Pfft!" Like a bubble bursting, the seemingly powerful divine sense of the sea god was crushed and vanished without a trace before it could even utter a single word.

Whether Tang San, far away in the God Realm, would sense something or have doubts, Gula didn't care for the time being.

His icy gaze swept over the group of immortal herbs below, who were now silent as cicadas in fear: "Do you still want to resist?"

The fairy herbs were so frightened that their branches trembled and their leaves and petals shook repeatedly, indicating that they would never dare to do it again.

The three-eyed golden lion jumped up excitedly, its eyes filled with admiration as it looked at Gula: "You're so amazing! You can even deal with the divine thoughts of a god!"

Gula nodded slightly: "So, you need to cooperate. I won't let you suffer any losses."

The Three-Eyed Golden Lion nodded quickly. She was very clever and knew that the person in front of her was definitely capable of killing her without having to worry about Di Tian. Cooperating was the only option.

"how should I do?"

Gula turned his gaze to the two most energetic immortal herbs in the valley—the Blazing Apricot and the Eight-Cornered Ice Grass.

"Hand over the essence of your immortal herbs."

The two immortal herbs dared not disobey in the slightest. With immense heartache, they condensed their purest essence, nurtured for ten thousand years—a ball of fiery red gelatinous substance and a ball of icy blue droplets—and floated toward Gula.

Gula didn't even glance at them, and directly tossed the two priceless clumps of immortal herb essence to the Three-Eyed Golden Lion:

"Eat it together, then go soak in the center of the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well to absorb energy. Use your third eye to help me guide the Golden Tree to accumulate energy, understand?"

The three-eyed golden lion received the essence, felt the immense energy within, and nodded excitedly.

Without hesitation, she swallowed the two completely different essences of ice and fire. Her powerful soul beast physique allowed her to withstand the impact of the combined ice and fire.

She leaped into the center of the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well, where the red and blue energies converged and the energy was at its most violent, and began to absorb it frantically.

Gura also summoned the spirit of the Golden Tree. He didn't expect to complete the Golden Tree's ultimate evolution in one go, but he needed to take this opportunity to lay a solid foundation for it and store up a massive amount of energy.

"Prepare!" Gula shouted, and his fifth spirit ring lit up—"Ancient Memories!"

The golden tree's spiritual roots spread wildly, deeply penetrating the spring of the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well, like a thirsty beast, frantically absorbing the purest primordial energy from the place where the Ice and Fire Dragon Kings fell.

In this unique location of the treasure basin, the golden tree grows and solidifies at a visible speed, emitting an ever-growing aura of life and light.

The surrounding immortal herbs were unable to lift their heads under this oppressive force, and even had a faint instinctive urge to merge with and submit to it.

The Three-Eyed Golden Lion floated in the center of the spring, its third eye on its forehead fully open. Threads of invisible yet real power of destiny were mobilized, like golden threads, swirling around the Golden Tree, silently nourishing it and giving it the favor of the plane and a chance for evolution.

The light and shadow of the future flickered wildly in Gula's eyes. He could not directly "see" the ethereal power of destiny, but he could indirectly deduce the subtle influence of the power of destiny on the evolution of the Golden Tree by observing countless fragments of future possibilities, and make adjustments accordingly.

This process lasted for a very long time. The water level of the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well seemed to drop slightly.

When the energy absorption reached a critical point, the Golden Tree spirit shuddered violently, its size suddenly increased by a circle, and its light became even more dazzling. The energy level it contained suddenly broke through to the level of two hundred thousand years!
It has accumulated unimaginable amounts of energy, like a seed waiting to sprout.

However, it still shows no signs of fundamental evolutionary regression.

Gula was not disappointed; this was within his expectations. With a thought, he retrieved the now more solid and powerful Golden Tree spirit back into his body.

The three-eyed golden lion in the spring also opened its eyes. It absorbed a large amount of energy and successfully broke through to the 20,000-year level of cultivation.

If it weren't for the fact that the energy required to enhance both extreme attributes far exceeds that of ordinary soul beasts, the amount she absorbed would probably be enough to break through the 100,000-year barrier.

"Is it over?" The Three-Eyed Golden Lion asked excitedly, feeling the increasing power within its body.

Gula slowly shook his head, looking at her with deep eyes: "No, there's one more step. The most important step."

His gaze fell upon the vertical eye on the forehead of the three-eyed golden lion, which held the secrets of destiny.

The real goal is only beginning now.

(End of this chapter)