196: Chapter 196 The Beast Tamer Lives, the Pet Dies

Seventy-two hours.

This amount of time was not short.

For an ordinary Card Creator, it was enough to complete dozens of low-tier cards, or even perform multiple rounds of adjustments on a mature card-creation scheme.

But right now, what Su Bai needed to solve was not an ordinary card problem.

He didn't even have a true creation direction yet.

Obsidian's internal seven evolutionary structures had completely merged.

They were not seven pieces of equipment that could be dismantled one by one.

Instead, they were seven paths of life written into both the physical body and the soul simultaneously.

No matter which one Su Bai chose to keep, the other six would cause secondary damage to Obsidian during the stripping process.

Furthermore, there was still a collapsing symbiotic contract between Song Qingli and Obsidian.

Wanting to save one side was not difficult.

The difficult part was how to make both sides survive.

And to ensure that they were still their original selves.

"Supreme."

The First Elder of the Song family suppressed the anxiety in his heart and bowed to Li Qingyue.

"Maintaining the time freeze of the entire secret realm will inevitably cause you to bear a huge consumption."

"There is a Law Recovery Room in the central area specially prepared for 9th-tier Supreme professionals."

"Do you need us..."

"There is no need."

Li Qingyue's tone was calm.

The silver laws surrounding the entire secret realm remained stable, without a single ripple.

As if freezing tens of thousands of contracts simultaneously was not worth her attention at all.

Only Qi Yuan glanced at her.

Time Stop was different from space-time freezing.

The former only required making the target stay at a certain instant, while the latter had to precisely adjust the flow rate of time according to different life states.

Although those rampaging magical beasts had stopped moving, the most basic life activities within their bodies had not truly stopped.

The heart was still beating at an extremely slow speed.

The soul also maintained a minimum level of vitality.

Li Qingyue also had to separately freeze every injury, every contract crack, and every strand of backlash energy.

In the entire secret realm, how could the time nodes she needed to control simultaneously be mere tens of thousands?

Even for a 9th-tier Supreme, continuously maintaining it for seventy-two hours was by no means easy.

But Qi Yuan did not expose her.

He knew that Li Qingyue did not want Su Bai to be disturbed because of this.

"Clean out a card creation room."

Li Qingyue instructed.

"Send over all of the Song family's data regarding Obsidian."

"Including its physical examinations, bloodline changes, skill records, evolutionary materials, and contract data from birth to the present."

"Everyone who participated in this evolution must also be present."

The expression of the First Elder of the Song family changed slightly.

"All the data?"

"Is there a problem?"

"Some evolutionary data involves the core inheritance of the Song family."

Li Qingyue looked at him.

Just a calm gaze made the latter feel an indescribable pressure.

The Song family's core inheritance was indeed important.

But if they hadn't arbitrarily connected the contract network of the entire secret realm to the same set of evolutionary structures, this disaster could not have happened.

Now they were asking Su Bai to save people, yet they still wanted to conceal the most important data?

"No problem."

The First Elder of the Song family immediately changed his tune.

"I will have people prepare it right away."

After saying that, he turned and left.

The other elders of the Song family also began dealing with the injured in the secret realm.

Although Li Qingyue had frozen the contract backlash, the injuries would not disappear because of that.

They had to transfer all the beast tamers and magical beasts to a safe area within seventy-two hours.

The surroundings of the central altar quickly quieted down.

Song Qingli was still kneeling beside Obsidian.

Her wounds were no longer bleeding, and her breathing had returned to stability, but her hands never let go of Obsidian's neck.

It seemed that only by maintaining this posture could she confirm that Obsidian was still there.

Su Bai did not urge her.

He sat on the edge of the altar and re-examined the tasks given by the system.

[The third conceptual task has been unlocked.]

[Target profession: Beast Tamer.]

[Existing professional pain points: slow growth of magical beasts, fixed evolutionary routes, severe contract backlash.]

[Task requirement: Create a brand new concept of growth-type life.]

[Current life sample: Eclipse Moon Nether Wolf - Obsidian.]

[Sample status: near death, conflicting evolutionary routes, stable soul.]

[Concept blueprint extraction qualification: Locked.]

Su Bai looked at the last line of information and frowned slightly.

The system did not directly provide the blueprint.

This meant that he must first find a conceptual direction recognized by the system.

The magical girl card was the same.

The system could give the complete blueprint, but "why make this card" and "what problems this card needs to solve" had to be decided by Su Bai himself.

The Stand Arrow was built upon his understanding of spiritual manifestation.

It was the same now.

To extract the third set of concept blueprints, he must first answer a question.

What kind of future did Obsidian actually need?

Repairing the physical body?

Restoring evolution?

Changing the bloodline?

Or choosing a new path again?

Su Bai raised his head and looked at the seven evolutionary structures inside Obsidian frozen by time.

These structures were all very strong.

Any single one of them, if completed independently, would be enough for Obsidian to step into the 7th tier.

But they all came from the Song family's calculations and choices.

From beginning to end, no one had ever asked Obsidian what kind of life it wanted to become.

"Su Bai."

Song Qingli's voice suddenly sounded.

"What you said just now, only its body is broken."

"What does that mean?"

"Literal meaning."

Su Bai walked to Obsidian's side.

"Its soul is very stable."

"At least it's not as bad as you guys imagine."

"But the Song family's test results show that Obsidian's soul integrity is only thirty-one percent left."

Song Qingli looked at a screen beside the altar.

The numbers on it had been frozen by time.

[Target soul integrity: 31.7%]

[Mental activity: continuous decline.]

[Self-awareness: close to dissipation.]

"The test results are correct."

Su Bai said.

"But what you tested is the degree of Obsidian's control over this body."

"Its body is being contended for by seven evolutionary routes."

"Every route is rewriting its bloodline, organs, and spiritual circuits."

"It can no longer determine which part belongs to itself."

"Therefore, the testing array thinks that its soul is dissipating."

Song Qingli was slightly stunned.

"What about in reality?"

"In reality, it is simply trapped."

Su Bai reached out and pointed at Obsidian's chest.

Deep within its huge body, there still existed a faint yet stable mental fluctuation.

That fluctuation did not participate in any evolutionary route.

Nor did it try to fight for the body.

It just curled up silently there, enduring the pain brought by the tearing of the seven life structures.

"It's still here."

"It's just that in this body right now, there is no longer a suitable place for it."

Song Qingli looked along the position pointed out by Su Bai.

She couldn't see anything.

But the symbiotic contract still made her vaguely feel that Obsidian had not completely left.

That familiar mental fluctuation was hidden beneath countless chaos and pain.

A trace of hope reappeared in Song Qingli's eyes.

"Since the soul is still here, as long as we change bodies..."

"It's not that simple."

An aged voice came from outside the altar.

Hearing this voice, the people of the Song family cleared a path simultaneously.

An old man wearing a dark green robe walked over slowly.

There were no magical beasts following behind him.

But on his shoulder coiled a palm-sized golden lizard.

The lizard's eyes were tightly shut, looking completely unremarkable.

But when it passed the edge of the altar, [The World] behind Qin Ye suddenly turned its head.

Dark golden eyes locked onto that golden lizard.

The lizard opened its eyes at the same time.

The gazes of the two spiritual lives intersected in mid-air.

An invisible pressure flashed and disappeared.

The old man stopped and looked up at Qin Ye.

"This is [The World]?"

Qin Ye did not reply.

[The World] also withdrew its gaze.

The old man didn't mind.

He came before Li Qingyue and slightly bowed.

"Gu Tianheng pays respects to Space-Time Supreme."

Li Qingyue gently nodded.

Gu Tianheng.

One of the most representative figures of the Dragon Country's Spirit Beast Faction.

8th-tier [Lord of All Spirits].

His actual combat power had not reached the 9th tier, but in terms of beast evolution, soul contracts, and bloodline cultivation, no more than three people in the entire Dragon Country could compare to him.

The Song family's system of using the secret realm's contract network to assist magical beast evolution was perfected on the basis of his theories.

After the incident with Obsidian, the Song family sought help from him at the first instance.

However, he was originally at a large beast-taming secret realm in the western part of the Dragon Country, which was extremely far from Jinghai, so he only arrived now.

"Grandpa Gu."

Song Qingli seemed to have grasped the last straw.

"Please take a look at Obsidian quickly."

"Su Bai said its soul hasn't dissipated."

"As long as we give it a new body..."

Gu Tianheng did not answer immediately.

He walked up to Obsidian, and the golden lizard on his shoulder gently leaped down.

In mid-air, the golden light rapidly expanded.

The palm-sized lizard turned into a hundred-meter-long golden giant dragon phantom in the blink of an eye.

The giant dragon was not a physical entity.

Its body was composed of countless intricate spiritual patterns.

Those patterns passed through Li Qingyue's space-time seal and cautiously entered Obsidian's body.

Li Qingyue did not stop him.

She proactively released a portion of the time nodes to let Gu Tianheng conduct the examination.

A moment later, the last trace of ease on Gu Tianheng's face completely vanished.

"All seven routes have failed."

"Dark Moon, Devouring, Void, Crystallization, Regeneration, Beast King, Calamity."

"In order for Obsidian to break through to the 7th tier, the Song family wrote all seven routes currently most suitable for the Eclipse Moon Nether Wolf into its body."

"Originally, it was intended to use symbiotic screening to let it choose the route with the highest adaptability by itself during the evolution process."

"But the adaptability of all seven routes is completely identical."

"They all think that they are the most suitable path for Obsidian."

A flash of anger crossed Gu Tianheng's eyes.

He turned to look at several elders of the Song family.

"Who changed the evolutionary parameters?"

The expression of the First Elder of the Song family was ugly.

"No one modified them."

"Before Obsidian impacted the 7th tier, the adaptability of the seven routes was seventy-one percent, sixty-nine percent, sixty-eight percent..."

"After the evolution began, their adaptability suddenly rose to ninety-nine percent at the same time."

"We only realized something was wrong at that time."

"By the time we wanted to stop, it was already too late."

Gu Tianheng's expression became increasingly gloomy.

Seven structures simultaneously reaching ninety-nine percent adaptability was definitely not normal.

But now there was no time to investigate the cause.

He continued to control the golden giant dragon to check Obsidian's spiritual sea.

A few minutes later, the giant dragon phantom shrank again and returned to Gu Tianheng's shoulder.

"What Su Bai said is correct."

Gu Tianheng slowly spoke.

"Obsidian's self-awareness has not yet dissipated."

Song Qingli's eyes lit up.

"Then can you save it?"

"No."

The hope that had just appeared was personally shattered by Gu Tianheng.

Song Qingli froze in place.

"Why?"

"Because the soul cannot exist independently of the body."

Gu Tianheng looked at Su Bai.

"At least, a magical beast's soul cannot."

"The spiritual sea of human professionals is stable enough, and high-tier mental-type professionals can even briefly maintain consciousness after the physical body is destroyed."

"Magical beasts are different."

"Their bloodline, skills, memories, and soul are all attached to their life organs."

"Obsidian's soul looks complete, but in reality, every part of it has already fused with this body."

"Stripping it is equivalent to tearing its memory, personality, and power apart respectively."

Song Qingli anxiously asked:

"Then we won't change bodies."

"You help it choose one evolutionary route and clear out all the other six routes."

Gu Tianheng shook his head.

"It's too late."

"The seven routes have already entered the soul."

"Clearing any one of them now will take away one-seventh of its self."

"After clearing six of them, even if the remaining part can still live, it will no longer be the complete Obsidian."

Gu Tianheng's tone was not harsh.

But every sentence made Song Qingli's complexion even paler.

"Is there no other way?"

"There is."

Gu Tianheng looked at the Contract-Breaking Card suspended above the altar.

Song Qingli seemed to guess what he was going to say, and her body instantly tensed up.

"Sever the contract."

"Make Obsidian give up control of its body."

"Before its self-awareness is completely torn apart by the seven routes, extract its soul origin."

"Use Obsidian's mental origin to repair your spiritual sea."

It was the same plan again.

Severing the beast to save the master.

Except this time, it was spoken out personally by Gu Tianheng.

"I do not accept."

Song Qingli didn't hesitate at all.

"This is not asking for your opinion."

Gu Tianheng said.

"This is the only way to save a life right now."

"Obsidian is not dead yet!"

"Its body can no longer continue to carry life."

"Then find a way to save it!"

Song Qingli's voice became hoarse once more.

"You are one of the strongest beast-taming theoretical masters in the Dragon Country."

"The Song family possesses the most complete beast-taming data."

"There is also Space-Time Supreme here, and Su Bai!"

"The Stand Arrow can turn a person's soul into a Stand."

"The magical girl card can put a person's consciousness into a soul gem."

"Why must Obsidian's soul die together with its body?"

She raised her hand and pointed at [The World] behind Qin Ye.

"A Stand can fight separated from the physical body."

"Only when it takes damage will feedback be given to the master."

"Why can't Obsidian?"

Gu Tianheng glanced at [The World].

"Because from the very beginning of its birth, a Stand is a spiritual manifestation."

"Obsidian is not."

"It is a true flesh-and-blood life."

"Its soul and body have grown together for seventeen years."

"You cannot think that all life can become a Stand just because a Stand can separate from the physical body."

"Different lives possess different ways of existing."

Gu Tianheng had clearly carefully studied the public data of Stands.

He did not deny the existence of Stands just because the Stand System exceeded traditional theory.

But he likewise did not think that the rules of Stands could be directly applied to magical beasts.

Su Bai suddenly asked:

"If we extract Obsidian's soul origin right now, what will happen to it?"

"Death."

Gu Tianheng answered very calmly.

"Will consciousness be retained?"

"No."

"What about memories?"

"Only a small portion of memory fragments will enter Song Qingli's spiritual sea."

"Obsidian's power?"

"Its remaining Mental Power can repair about eighty percent of Song Qingli's soul injuries."

Su Bai nodded.

"In other words, let the beast tamer live, and let the magical beast die."