Surveying the surroundings, Gu You found a thick, wide tree branch and climbed up.
Meditating...
The life energy in the air surged into Gu You's body as though it were free. He hummed softly! His entire body was gradually enveloped by golden life energy.
His consciousness began to blur, and everything became pure—pure life energy.
"What is this?"
A golden ocean—an ocean of golden energy! But it wasn't ordinary sea water; it was water fully condensed from life energy.
Gu You's vision was a bit blurry, almost like a dream.
A piercing green light flickered far away in the center of the golden sea. Driven by curiosity, Gu You swam toward it. For some unknown reason, he found that he could swim.
On the way to the green light, everything around him became clear instead of blurry.
It was a seed! Yes! It was a seed. As Gu You got closer, he saw that the seed was golden-yellow with a hint of green. It was filled with life force. Upon sensing Gu You's presence, it happily rushed toward him.
In an instant, it had already merged into Gu You's mind.
The golden sea began to boil, as though it were being heated. Gu You felt like he knew what was happening, and he sat down to absorb everything around him.
Sea of Spirit
The seed suddenly appeared, gently landing in the waters of the area, rooting itself.
Some soul beasts that could swim felt the overwhelming life force and entered the water in search of it. The first to reach the seed was a small Ice Snake. The seed had already begun to sprout, growing to the height of a typical sapling.
The small Ice Snake bit at the sprout, driven by the instinct of soul beasts—especially those of the century-old level, who lacked intelligence and would eat anything they came across, unlike thousand-year soul beasts that would guard and wait until they were older.
Fortunately, Gu You arrived just in time. He grabbed the little Ice Snake and wrapped it around his hand.
"You really eat anything, don't you?"
The little Ice Snake stuck out its tongue at Gu You. Of course, it wasn't challenging him. From the bloodline's aura, it was actually more afraid of him.
Golden?
At that moment, Gu You realized that the little Ice Snake was entirely golden.
A shimmering soul beast?
Suddenly, this thought crossed Gu You's mind. Its aura had infected him—wasn't it supposed to be purple? This...
He didn't dwell on it and placed the little snake back in the water, letting it return.
Regardless, Gu You was fascinated by the golden-colored soul beast, a snake no less. If he told others about it, they would look at him like he was a fool.
He turned back to touch the life tree. "Did you choose me?" Gu You sighed softly. It seemed like his battle with Tang Hao was coming soon.
Roar!
A mighty dragon's roar erupted from Gu You's body. Every soul beast within the Sea of Spirit trembled in submission. Even Tie Hanhan, though a ten-thousand-year soul beast with a higher bloodline than ordinary soul beasts, had to lower its head before Gu You's aura, although it was somewhat better than the other soul beasts.
"I command you all! Protect this tree! Do not harm it!!" A magnificent dragon-shaped shadow appeared behind Gu You. The growth of the life tree would bring boundless blessings to this spiritual world. If a bunch of foolish soul beasts destroyed it, it would mean that the soul beast race had no chance at this blessing.
The conflict between humans and soul beasts could never be resolved, everyone knew that. But Gu You now had a grand idea: to raise soul beasts within his mind, using the life tree. If he ever became a god, he could split this spiritual realm and merge it into the divine realm, or create a small world to house the soul beasts.
It was a crazy idea. Once it was split off, Gu You didn't know what kind of mental trauma he might suffer. But there was no other option. Like in the case of Douluo Four, should he conquer several planets and move the soul beasts there? That was possible, but the Douluo Continent was the soul beasts' original home. Leaving it would be difficult. Becoming a god and merging into the divine realm seemed the best path. Imagine this: a hundred-year-old soul beast, asleep in Gu You's mind, suddenly wakes up and finds itself a god—it would be a glorious feat and also fulfill the mission of soul beast revival.
He didn't know if Xiao Bie San would agree, and he didn't expect good relations with the Tang family anyway. Eventually, the entire divine realm could rise up, taking the power back from the gods. Though facing a dozen god kings would be challenging.
[T/N: Xiao Bie San means Little Turtle Three, probably talking about Tang San]
All the soul beasts lowered their heads in acknowledgment, moving toward the purple royal shadow...
Inside the Golden Ancient Tree
A beam of green light shot up to the sky, piercing through the highest branches of the ancient tree and rising into the clouds. The entire Shrek City, even farther away, could see it clearly.
Long Yueye was awakened by the commotion and immediately appeared at Gu You's location. She stood not far away, her eyes filled with shock.
All the Sea God Pavilion members were startled by the disturbance.
The energy of the Golden Ancient Tree began to accumulate and took on a humanoid form. "Impossible!"
Yun Ming, sensing the endless life energy in the air, muttered four words: "Child of Life."
Yali, standing beside him, was filled with joy. "Does this mean that Gu You has become a child of the realm?"
"No, no, it's not that. The life seed chose him, not the realm itself. This is truly unbelievable!" The humanoid form of the Golden Ancient Tree spoke in astonishment.
"His manifestation can no longer be stopped. Some of the older generation should be able to deduce the identity of the Child of Life," Cai Yue'er said with a solemn voice. This was her first time meeting Gu You, and she never expected it to happen under such circumstances.
"Look!"
Someone shouted, and everyone turned to see Gu You's soul power rapidly increasing.
It had been stuck at level 49 for some time.
Long Yueye swallowed hard. This was terrifying. To suddenly leap forward by ten levels—could a human really do this?
In the sky, a dark green soul ring slowly descended with the green light beam. The ring was exceptionally large, like a divine soul ring granted by the gods.
A green soul ring, a green soul ring! Many ordinary people in Shrek City gasped, an event rarely seen in history.
Even some Title Douluo level experts had never witnessed such a scene.
The soul ring began to shrink, landing beside Gu You, as life energy surged and spread in green waves around him.
Long Yueye felt the energy and noticed that even her old wounds began to heal.
"It truly feels like the aura of a god. This tidal energy is like the life tides of Demon Island." Yali closed her eyes.
Demon Island—at the mention of this, all the elders in the room inhaled sharply. After all, they had experienced it themselves. The life tides of Demon Island only appeared once in many years, and they were extremely rare. Today, they were feeling it directly through Gu You.
The soul ring solidified, and Gu You's figure floated in the air.
The final wave of life energy appeared, signaling the completion of the absorption.
(End of Chapter)