When the remaining Shrek students—those not taken away by Xuan Lao—felt the terrifying soul beast aura surging from Xiao Qiang, followed by an even more overwhelming beast aura rapidly closing in, their faces turned deathly pale.
"Are you hurt?" The Snow Emperor (Xue Di) quickly moved to the auspicious beast's side, her expression filled with concern. In her worry over the beast and Xiao Qiang, she hadn't even bothered to cut down Xuan Lao, who had fled.
The auspicious beast shook its head. "You came just in time. I'm fine. But…"
It turned its gaze in the direction where Huo Yuhao had just been sent flying, a trace of seething anger surfacing in its golden eyes. "If I ever see these damn humans again, I swear I'll rip out their tendons, skin them alive, and feed them to the other soul beasts!"
After venting its fury at both Xuan Lao and Huo Yuhao, who had escaped with lightning speed, the beast turned its attention to the remaining Shrek students.
"You just said you wanted to turn me into a soul ring, didn't you?"
"It's a misunderstanding! Just a misunderstanding!" the students shouted in panic, scrambling to explain.
But the auspicious beast had no intention of listening.
Its mouth opened wide, and with a mighty roar, it unleashed a stream of radiant fire. Normally, the students might have had a chance to dodge, but under the suffocating pressure from the Snow Emperor, they couldn't even move. All they could do was scream helplessly as the scorching lightfire engulfed their bodies.
One by one, they were burned alive, their figures reduced to ash.
As the fire slowly faded, only skeletons remained. But strangely, two bones did not turn to ash like the rest. Among the charred remains, a skull—radiating faint spiritual energy—lay undamaged, along with a gleaming right leg bone.
"Huh?" Xiao Qiang raised his eyebrows.
Ordinary human bones couldn't possibly withstand the blazing fire of the auspicious beast, but these bones had—because they were soul bones. One was a skull estimated to be at least 60,000 years old; the other, a right leg bone likely over 80,000 years.
Without hesitation, Xiao Qiang casually picked up the two soul bones, feeling the dense energy coursing through them.
"You're not a soul beast… you're human?" the auspicious beast asked slowly. The intense fierce beast aura from before had vanished, and Xiao Qiang had stopped activating the soul bone. Only now, in the absence of those forces, did the beast sense the difference.
Xiao Qiang didn't deny it. "That's right. But we're not enemies—at least not right now."
The beast glanced at the Snow Emperor, then back at Xiao Qiang. "True. Regardless of your identity, thank you for helping me."
Earlier, the beast had been on the brink of despair, seeking death rather than enduring more pain. It was Xiao Qiang who had helped it escape that hopeless state. Whether human or not, the fact remained—he had saved it.
"Come closer. I have something for you," the beast said.
Xiao Qiang stepped forward as instructed. The eye embedded in the beast's forehead began to glow, and a surge of destiny energy erupted, condensing at its peak before shooting into Xiao Qiang's forehead. A glowing illusion of the Eye of Destiny took shape above his head.
"This is your reward for saving me," the auspicious beast said. "With this eye, you can strip the luck from any human or soul beast and transfer it to yourself. Their good fortune will become yours, strengthening your fate."
"But it's only a projection formed from my power," the beast added. "You can use it three times. After that, the Eye of Destiny will vanish. However, the luck you've seized will remain with you permanently."
As the beast explained its gift, Xiao Qiang's expression didn't focus on the limitations—it lit up with a deeper realization.
"I can strip the luck from anyone? Even the human you just knocked away?"
He didn't care how many times he could use it. One use on the right person was enough. The luck of a hundred Dai Huabins couldn't compare to the fortune wrapped around Huo Yuhao. If he could seize Huo Yuhao's luck, then the other two uses would be bonuses.
Hearing this, the auspicious beast blinked and then recalled how Huo Yuhao had miraculously escaped its grasp during the earlier attack—despite being marked by fate itself.
Even in failure, Huo Yuhao's survival had turned into a boost in his fate power. That kind of fortune wasn't ordinary.
But the beast wasn't ordinary either. It was the auspicious beast—master of destiny, a creature whose mere presence doubled the cultivation rate of all soul beasts in the Star Dou Great Forest.
"His luck is indeed strong," the beast said slowly. "But when it comes to controlling luck, I am the true emperor. No matter who it is, if it's luck, I can influence it."
"You want to take his luck? No problem. But…"
The beast paused, its voice taking a more serious tone.
"What I gave you was a gift for saving me. If you help me get revenge too… how should I reward that?"
Xiao Qiang scratched his head. "You don't have to give me anything. The one who truly saved you was the Snow Emperor. I just thought of a plan and helped put it into action."
The auspicious beast pondered a moment. "Let's say this Eye of Destiny is a thank-you gift for today. But if you really manage to strip luck from one of those two people—then I'll give you something even better."
"Deal," Xiao Qiang replied without hesitation.
Stripping Huo Yuhao's luck was already his goal, so any additional reward from the auspicious beast was simply icing on the cake.
While Xiao Qiang and the auspicious beast conversed, the Red King suddenly arrived, leading a 100,000-year soul beast and a 15,000-year soul beast.
The moment he sensed the Snow Emperor's overwhelming 700,000-year soul beast aura, he froze in disbelief. A dark ripple surged through the void behind him, and from that darkness emerged a middle-aged man with long black hair flowing past his waist.
"Snow Emperor?" he said, his voice tinged with surprise. "Why are you here?"
…
Near Shrek Academy, Outside the Star Dou Great Forest
Back near the outskirts of the forest, Xuan Lao finally found a moment of breathing room, thanks to the Snow Emperor prioritizing the safety of Xiao Qiang and the auspicious beast.
Huo Yuhao lay nearby, injured by the earlier fireball blast. Acting quickly, Xuan Lao used his earth-based ability to pull Huo Yuhao underground and flee from the battleground.
As for the other students…
When he saw the auspicious beast slip from his grasp and sensed the horrifying pressure of a 700,000-year beast, Xuan Lao understood something clearly—if he hesitated for even a moment, not just the students, but he might have lost his life.
Huo Yuhao had merely been fortunate enough to be close to him when the beast struck. The others… he couldn't save them.
Still, at least Yuhao had already obtained his thousand-year soul ring and survived. That was something.
Looking down at the unconscious youth, Xuan Lao took a long swig of wine from his flask and muttered to himself, "Yuhao's safe. I suppose… we can call this mission barely completed."