In a world where the divine thrones had already been predetermined—No matter how outstanding he might be, in the end, his fate would only be the same as Tang Chen's.
In Li Chang'an's view, Tang Chen's downfall in the original story was not without the Asura God's hand in it. After all, based on elemental hierarchy, the Rakshasa God was only a subordinate main god under the Asura God's command. How could a subordinate possibly interfere with the succession of a God King?
If a God King's inheritance could be disrupted by a mere first-class god, then that "God King" would be far too weak.
The truth was clear—It was all an act. The Asura God simply needed a scapegoat, so he threw the blame onto the Rakshasa God, using her and her successor, Bibi Dong, as whetstones to polish his own successor.
After Tang San defeated both the Rakshasa God and the Angel God, his merit was established. Thus, when he ascended to the God Realm and inherited the divine throne, no one could question his legitimacy. The Asura God had used those two tragic women as mere stepping stones to elevate his successor's fame.
As for Tang San's dual inheritance of the Sea God—well, that was nothing more than an unexpected bonus, not part of the Asura God's original plan.
Therefore, if Li Chang'an wanted to obtain a divine inheritance for himself, the Sea God was the nearest and most attainable goal.
Star Dou Great Forest
Inside a hidden underground cave, Li Chang'an slowly awoke.
He quickly noticed that the space around him seemed smaller than before—or rather, it was not the space that had shrunk, but his own body that had grown larger.
After devouring his own eggshell, he had fallen asleep.When he awoke, his body length had surged to ten meters, and his cultivation age had increased from less than ten years to nearly a hundred years. Clearly, that eggshell had been immensely nutritious.
The lifespan of a soul beast didn't literally mean how long it had lived. Rather, it was a way to classify its level of cultivation—just as humans had ranks such as Spirit Scholar, Spirit Master, and Spirit King. A ten-thousand-year soul beast wasn't necessarily ten thousand years old; if that were the case, the human race would've long wiped them out.
Considering the massive demand for spirit rings among humans, and the fact that Spirit Masters had existed for thousands of years, if soul beasts could only grow stronger by slowly aging, then they would've gone extinct ages ago.
Moreover, beyond human hunting, soul beasts also killed each other constantly due to their instinct for survival. The law of the jungle made their deaths even more frequent. Thus, "lifespan" was just a measure of power—not literal age.
After becoming a soul beast himself, Li Chang'an gained inherited bloodline memories. He now understood that for a top-bloodline soul beast, it might only take a few hundred or a few thousand years to reach the level of a hundred-thousand-year beast. And this process could be further accelerated by consuming heavenly treasures or cultivating in places rich in natural energy.
A perfect example would be the Heavenly Dream Ice Silkworm from Douluo Dalu II, which became a million-year soul beast purely by eating.
Soul beasts on the Douluo Continent were much like the demon beasts of cultivation worlds—they strengthened themselves by absorbing the world's energy to enhance their strength and longevity.
The only difference was that the gods of the Divine Realm had shackled them.No matter how powerful a soul beast became, it could never break past the divine level. And once it reached one hundred thousand years, the heavens would strike it down with lightning—a deliberate act to keep them from ever surpassing that limit.
The gods clearly wanted to exterminate the soul beasts entirely.
Li Chang'an's current body belonged to the species known as the Jade-Scaled Serpent Emperor—a supreme existence among soul beasts.King of Serpents, Monarch of Poison!
Its potential was extraordinary. Even if it stayed secluded in this cave without ever venturing out, merely by meditating for a few thousand years, it would naturally grow into a hundred-thousand-year soul beast.
That was how terrifying its bloodline potential was.
So don't be deceived by the "thousand-year" and "ten-thousand-year" titles of soul beasts—they weren't always as ancient as they sounded.
The cultivation of a soul beast was, in fact, very simple.It relied on its bloodline to instinctively absorb the world's energy, strengthening its body and soul power. For them, cultivation was as natural as breathing—no techniques or meridian routes required.
The stronger the bloodline, the more efficient the absorption—and the faster the cultivation.
Conversely, soul beasts with inferior bloodlines cultivated far more slowly. Some might truly only gain one year of cultivation per year of life—becoming literal ten-thousand-year-old beasts after ten thousand years.
After adapting to his growth, Li Chang'an began to move, preparing to leave the cave. As a hundred-year soul beast, he now had at least some ability to protect himself.
As long as he didn't encounter beasts of superior bloodline or human Spirit Masters hunting for rings, his safety was largely assured.
The cave wasn't sealed—many tunnels led outward.
Li Chang'an flicked his tongue, tasting the scents in the air. From what he could tell, no creature had been here for centuries. His biological mother, being cold-blooded, had no instinct for nurturing her young. Most likely, she had simply found this safe spot to lay her eggs and then left.
The eggs would eventually hatch on their own over time.
"I wonder where I am now," Li Chang'an thought."Star Dou Forest? Sunset Forest? Or perhaps some lesser-known soul beast forest?"
As he pondered, his long body slithered forward, choosing a tunnel and heading slowly toward the direction where the air was freshest.
Outside
A patch of fallen leaves suddenly bulged, and a triangular emerald-green snake head quietly emerged. Its amber eyes darted around, cautious and alert. Once it was sure there was no danger, the rest of its body followed.
Li Chang'an moved carefully, slipping into the grass, his green scales blending perfectly with the surroundings.
Serpents were natural masters of stealth, and as the Jade-Scaled Serpent Emperor, Li Chang'an's concealment was unparalleled.
He silently glided through the undergrowth, flicking his tongue to collect scent traces.
Before long, he spotted a soul beast.
It was a rabbit, its body faintly glowing with pale light—around a few decades old.
The moment he saw it, his bloodline instincts surged—the primal urge to hunt.
Without hesitation, he slithered closer, inch by inch.
But the rabbit suddenly froze mid-bite, its red eyes flicking nervously. Its long ears twitched, picking up faint sounds—and then, sensing danger, it bolted!
Li Chang'an reacted instantly. His body blurred into a streak of green, shooting forward like lightning!
A wave of oppressive aura radiated from him—the pressure of a top predator.
The rabbit's limbs stiffened mid-run. It fell forward, rolling several times before lying still, trembling in terror.
Among soul beasts, bloodline determined everything.
Li Chang'an's current form, born as a Jade-Scaled Serpent Emperor, possessed an inherently noble and terrifying lineage. For any soul beast with inferior blood, his mere presence invoked submission.
Even a thousand-year soul beast might hesitate to fight him. For this mere decades-old rabbit, resistance was impossible.
Li Chang'an slithered up to the quivering creature, opened his jaws, and exhaled a faint green mist.
In an instant, the rabbit's body twitched, then went still—dead from poison.
A faint white soul ring condensed above the corpse.
Ignoring it, Li Chang'an felt a deep hunger rising from his instincts. Without delay, he opened his jaws wide, like a python, and slowly swallowed the rabbit whole.
The process was smooth.
Although called a "serpent," the Jade-Scaled Serpent Emperor shared a python's ability to swallow prey many times its own size.
After finishing, Li Chang'an felt no revulsion whatsoever.After all, his body was that of a snake now—its senses, instincts, and emotions utterly different from a human's.
People often wrote in novels that transmigrators who became tigers or wolves found raw meat disgusting, forcing themselves to cook it over fire to "preserve their humanity."
But that was nonsense.
If you truly became a tiger, raw bloody meat would taste divine; cooked meat would feel dry and flavorless. The instincts of man and beast were simply not the same.
After swallowing the rabbit, Li Chang'an could clearly feel it being digested slowly inside him.
This process took time, so he slithered back into the cave and coiled up to rest.
Time passed quietly.
Gradually, his bulging stomach flattened again, and as the rabbit's body was digested, its energy flowed through him—nourishing his flesh and increasing his soul power.
By the time digestion was complete, a full day had passed.
Li Chang'an opened his eyes, sensing his cultivation had increased by more than ten years.
That might not sound like much, but it was a significant gain. In reality, even among beasts of the same level, energy quality and body composition varied greatly, and digestion always involved loss.
For a decades-old soul beast to provide ten years' worth of cultivation was already impressive.
Of course, this was because his level was still low. Once he reached the thousand-year stage, consuming such weak prey would hardly make any difference.
"Hunting soul beasts… seems like a shortcut to faster cultivation."
"In fact, soul beasts have always been able to increase their strength through devouring each other. So this practice must be common among them. But then, why were the Man-Faced Demon Spider and the Dark Devilgod Tiger so hated by other beasts in the original story?"
"Could it be because they ate too much—and disrupted the ecosystem?"
That explanation made sense. Those two species were infamous for their devouring abilities and slow cultivation, relying entirely on eating other soul beasts to grow stronger.
If they wiped out every creature in an area, it would threaten the entire balance of the forest.
For carnivorous beasts, having their hunting grounds stripped bare would make them furious—of course they'd unite to eliminate the cause.
So the so-called "evil nature" of those species wasn't about morality at all. It was about survival.
They ate too much, threatened others' existence, and thus became public enemies.
"Evil" was merely a human label.
What could a soul beast possibly do that was truly evil? They couldn't exactly invade human cities to massacre people.
At worst, they ate more prey than others. That was just nature's law—the strong eat the weak.
After confirming that devouring other soul beasts truly accelerated his cultivation, Li Chang'an immediately began searching the area for new prey.
Before long, he found a boar the size of a rhinoceros—roughly several decades old, with thick hide and great strength.
But against a top-tier predator like the Jade-Scaled Serpent Emperor, it stood no chance.
A mere wave of Li Chang'an's aura froze the boar in place. Its body stiffened completely under the suppression of a superior bloodline.
Li Chang'an slithered closer, stopping a few meters away, then exhaled a faint mist of venom. He dared not approach too closely—cornered prey could act unpredictably, and there was no need to risk injury.
As the green mist enveloped the area, the outcome was already decided.
(End of Chapter)
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