He was preparing to use the energy transmitted from the core of the God Realm to stimulate the spiritual imprint left inside Gu Yuena, forcing her to regain her memory and drag her back to serve as a shield.
What he willed, he acted upon.
At that moment, Gu Yuena was being cradled in Yali's arms, fleeing from the relentless pursuit of ferocious soul beasts.
"Duang! Duang…"
While being held by Yali, Gu Yuena suddenly felt a strange sensation in her head.
It wasn't pain, but an indescribable "pleasurable sting."
It was like a gash had suddenly opened at the top of her head, and entire bottles of essential balm were being poured inside.
In a split second, Gu Yuena's mind plunged into a void-like state, her brain trembling.
Simultaneously, an invisible force pierced the chaotic domain around her and abruptly pulled Gu Yuena's true body from Yali's embrace.
Even Yali, a four-word battle armor master, had no time to react.
When she reappeared, Gu Yuena was suddenly standing in the Tang Sect's Tian Dou City branch.
At this moment, her memories had already returned.
Moreover, everything she saw, heard, and felt during her amnesia had not vanished with the return of her old memories.
Blocking a Tier-9 stationary soul-guided cannon blast for Tang Wulin, escaping from the Great Star Dou Forest... witnessing Di Tian launching a war against humanity to seize habitat for soul beasts… hiding and cultivating with the Shrek Seven Monsters in the Tang Sect branch… until the Abyss Plane's invasion…
All these major events surged into Gu Yuena's mind at once, leaving her emotionally overwhelmed to the extreme.
However, given the dire situation, she had no luxury to slowly sort out the strands of her tangled thoughts.
She was now standing directly between Tang Wulin and Di Tian — right in the path of Di Tian's deadly attack.
Lances of Dark Order came at her like a torrential storm, aiming straight for the kill.
She didn't understand...
Why, upon seeing her appear, didn't Di Tian stop?
He had led the soul beasts to victory during her disappearance and amnesia. Shouldn't he be welcoming her back to lead once again?
[Lol lmao]
Weren't those ferocious beasts chasing Yali earlier doing so to bring her back?
…
Her brain was swirling with the equivalent of "a hundred thousand whys" when the lances of Dark Order closed in.
At first contact, her auto-activated silver protective membrane was instantly shattered.
One of the lance tips pierced toward her heart — seemingly just a breath away from full impact.
But at that exact moment, a silver dragon's phantom burst from within Gu Yuena's body.
Strangely, this dragon phantom appeared deeply wounded, with countless gashes so deep they exposed bone. These were ancient wounds, steeped in time, clearly left long ago.
After all, this was a projection of the Dragon God's body — reactions encoded in her very genes.
Sensing mortal danger, the original power hidden in her core erupted — along with it, all the long-dormant ancient wounds resurfaced.
This meant Gu Yuena's eons of recovery and healing were destroyed in an instant. With her body now injured and ill, she could no longer exert her peak battle power.
Just a little longer! She had been so close!
In the grand scope of her long life, she had almost reached the point of returning to a perfect, flawless state — to the level of a first-level god, nearing a half-step God King, with spiritual power far beyond most god kings.
But now? All of that was gone!
"Di Tian! You bastard!"
Her silvery teeth clenched with audible grinding — she was beyond furious.
Not only had her old wounds returned, she now had fresh ones too.
Many of the surrounding Dark Order lances had already been neutralized by her. But the one that had reached her chest? It had completed the fatal, point-blank strike.
Even though Gu Yuena had used the power of seven elements to weaken the invading lance, she still suffered significant injury.
"Drip. Drip…"
Crimson blood streamed down her smooth skin and fell to the ground.
She wasn't the only one injured by those Dark Order lances. Gu Yuena might shield Tang Wulin from harm — but that didn't mean she would do the same for A Yin.
And indeed, she didn't.
One of the Dark Order lances hurled by Di Tian nailed A Yin to a deep pit — a black abyss opened by its destructive power.
Gu Yuena's face was deathly pale from her injuries, her amethyst dragon eyes staring at the approaching Di Tian.
And then she heard—
"Do you have any last words, Gu Yuena?"
Gu Yuena was angry? Well, Di Tian was furious too!
A Yin being pinned down was one thing — but Tang Wulin? He was gone!
He had vanished without a trace, with no sign of his presence or aura.
Gu Yuena stood there, momentarily dazed.
But not because of Di Tian's harsh words.
It was because she finally sensed something abnormal inside her body.
Until now, her entire mind had been focused on staying alive. Only now did she realize something was amiss within.
With god-king-level spiritual power, she immediately found the source — an invisible spiritual imprint left behind by Tang San. In an instant, she understood its function, origin, and time of implantation.
It had been placed there two thousand years ago by an ascended god — the new enforcer of the God Realm, inheritor of both the Sea God and Asura God positions.
That imprint carried divine law fragments left behind by the fallen Goddess of Love in the Douluo Plane. It was Tang San's doing.
And Tang San had a definite blood relationship with Tang Wulin!
In that moment, Gu Yuena realized: her love with Tang Wulin… might not be so pure after all.
More likely — she had been played by Tang San!
With a flick of her delicate hand, a projection appeared in her palm — one that looked exactly like Tang San.
Her amethyst eyes calmed down as she stared directly at Di Tian.
"Di Tian, do you know something?"
"Or rather… have you known everything from the start?"
Now that her god-king spiritual power had returned, her mind was completely clear. In a flash, she connected many dots.
Back when she split off her second personality, Na'er, Di Tian had suddenly changed, insisting they go their separate ways.
That Beast God, who once stood guard beside her in the Lake of Life, who wouldn't even change his posture without reporting to her, had defied her three times.
Thinking back now, only one explanation made sense — Di Tian had known something all along. That's why he turned on her.
Di Tian looked at the spiritual imprint left behind by Tang San, golden eyes narrowing.
Yes — he knew Tang San had left a spiritual imprint inside Gu Yuena.
He had always assumed it was from the time Tang San visited the Blood God Legion and left it then.
But as his own strength grew, he could now sense deeper truths in the imprint within Gu Yuena's hand.
(End of Chapter)