197: Chapter 197 The Qualification for Re-evolution

Gu Tianheng turned to look at him.

"Yes."

"So direct?"

"Reality will not produce a third result just because the phrasing is more euphemistic."

Gu Tianheng walked to the center of the altar.

His palm landed on the frozen contract runes.

"The beastmaster provides resources, materials, shelter, and evolution opportunities for the beast."

"The beast fights for the beastmaster and protects the master in times of crisis."

"This is the meaning of the contract's existence."

"If only one of the two is destined to live, it is only right to let the human live."

"Why?"

Su Bai asked.

Gu Tianheng frowned slightly.

He obviously did not expect Su Bai to ask such a question.

"Because it is a beast."

"Is this the answer?"

"Is this answer not enough?"

Gu Tianheng's voice remained calm.

Humans build cities, resist magical beasts, and provide a safe growth environment for beasts.

Over the seventeen years spent cultivating Obsidian, the resources invested by the Song family were enough to cultivate ten Tier 6 professionals.

Without Song Qingli and without the Song family, Obsidian could not have grown to where it is today.

Now its death is unavoidable.

Using its remaining soul to save Song Qingli is the most rational choice.

This is not cruelty.

Rather, it makes the sacrifice valuable.

When Gu Tianheng spoke, there was not a trace of mockery or malice.

He truly believed these words.

Because over the past few decades, he had personally handled too many identical situations.

Such as a beast's evolution failure, contract backlash, or the master and beast being on the verge of death simultaneously.

Every hesitation could make two lives disappear at the same time.

Initially, he also tried to save both sides.

But the result was often that neither could be saved.

Later, he established the theory of abandoning the beast to protect the master and perfected the soul extraction card, raising the survival rate of beastmasters during contract backlash from twelve percent to seventy-nine percent.

Those beastmasters he saved regarded him as a benefactor.

The sacrifices of those beasts were also taken for granted by various major families.

"Su Bai."

Gu Tianheng looked seriously at the young man in front of him.

"I know you have created many things that break common sense."

"Whether it is the Magical Girl or the Stand."

"They all prove that your concepts have value."

"But life is not a card."

"A failed card can be remade."

"A dead life cannot."

"You don't even have a complete plan right now."

"If you forcefully keep Obsidian just to verify an unformed inspiration, in the end, it will only make Song Qingli and the entire mystic realm bear the price together."

Several elders of the Song family nodded one after another.

It wasn't that they didn't want to save Obsidian.

Obsidian was one of the beasts in the Song family with the highest hope of breaking through to Tier 7.

As long as there was a glimmer of reliable opportunity, they were willing to invest more resources.

But what Su Bai could offer now was only a vague direction.

Seventy-two hours later, Li Qingyue must lift the spacetime freeze.

By then, the contract backlash will erupt again.

There is no opportunity for trial and error.

Song Qingli lowered her head.

She knew that what Gu Tianheng said was all facts.

And because of this, she felt even more despair.

"Obsidian."

She reached out to touch the frozen pitch-black fur.

"Do you also want me to do this?"

Obsidian did not answer.

Time froze its injuries and all its reactions.

But the nearly broken contract between the two still retained a last trace of faint connection.

Song Qingli could feel the pain.

She could also feel Obsidian's will to let her live.

If Obsidian could still speak now, it might truly choose to sacrifice itself voluntarily.

Song Qingli's fingers gradually tightened.

Gu Tianheng did not urge her.

He was willing to give her a little time to say goodbye.

But he would not allow her to drag it out until the end and let the entire mystic realm take risks with her.

"There are still sixty-nine hours left."

Gu Tianheng said.

"Before the Supreme's spacetime freeze is lifted, I must start the beast-abandoning ritual."

"The later the soul is extracted, the less origin can be preserved."

"You can continue to wait."

"But at most forty-eight hours."

"Forty-eight hours later, whether you accept it or not, I will execute the beast-abandoning master-protection."

Song Qingli raised her head abruptly.

"How dare you!"

The golden lizard on Gu Tianheng's shoulder opened its eyes once again.

Just a wisp of mental fluctuation made Song Qingli's second beast emit an uneasy low murmur.

"You can hate me."

"After you survive, you can hate me however you want."

"This is my decision."

Several elders of the Song family did not object.

Li Qingyue didn't speak up either; after all, the current situation was indeed a bit special, and even as a master, it was not easy for her to speak.

Most importantly, this was an internal choice of the Song family.

Unless Su Bai could truly give a third answer, no one could prove that Gu Tianheng's handling method was wrong.

Sacrificing a doomed beast to protect the beastmaster.

From the perspective of the result, this was already the choice with the least loss.

Yet Su Bai did not continue to argue with Gu Tianheng.

He walked to the side of Obsidian's head and raised his right hand.

A white robe flashed past behind him.

That unnamed exclusive Stand appeared once again.

Faceless.

Weaponless.

The golden circuits on the surface of the white robe constantly generated, collapsed, and reorganized.

Its integrity was still only twenty percent.

Even so, when it appeared, the golden lizard on Gu Tianheng's shoulder still slowly raised its head.

It did not feel any power from the white-robed Stand.

Instead, it felt an extremely special blankness.

As if that Stand had not yet decided what it actually was.

Su Bai closed his eyes.

"Concept mapping."

The white-robed Stand raised its right hand.

A pink magic circle flashed past.

That was the concept of the soul gem carrying consciousness in the Magical Girl System.

Immediately afterwards, dark golden mental ripples covered the palm.

That was the concept of the soul manifesting as reality power in the Stand System.

Neither concept was complete.

Su Bai could not directly apply them to Obsidian.

He merely used this momentary mapping to bypass the chaotic physical body and touch Obsidian's true soul core.

[Concept mapping intensity: three percent.]

[Estimated duration: zero point seven seconds.]

The palm of the white-robed Stand passed through the time node deliberately opened by Li Qingyue and gently landed on Obsidian's forehead.

Boom!

Countless chaotic information instantly poured into Su Bai's consciousness.

Dark Moon Law.

Devouring Law.

Void Law.

Crystallization Law.

Seven evolution routes tore at each other.

Obsidian's massive body was like a collapsing maze.

Every path led to a different exit.

Every path called out to it to make a choice.

And Obsidian's true consciousness was suppressed at the deepest part of the maze.

It had not dissipated.

Nor had it lost its memories.

It simply could no longer control the body already occupied by countless evolution laws.

Zero point seven seconds passed in a flash.

The palm of the white-robed Stand became transparent.

Su Bai's Mental Power was sucked away by a large chunk in an instant.

But just before the concept mapping completely ended, he finally saw a pair of eyes.

Silver eyes.

No confusion.

No madness.

Those eyes, separated by seven evolution routes, quietly looked at Song Qingli.

It still remembered her.

Su Bai withdrew his hand.

The white-robed Stand disappeared.

"How is it?"

Song Qingli asked immediately.

Gu Tianheng also looked at Su Bai.

Su Bai slowly let out a breath, suppressing the dizziness brought by having his Mental Power emptied out.

"It's still there."

"It remembers you."

Song Qingli's tears welled up instantly.

"Then why doesn't it respond to me?"

"Because it currently has no body that can respond to you."

Su Bai looked at Obsidian again.

He finally confirmed his judgment.

Obsidian's soul did not need to be repaired.

At least, the core consciousness that truly belonged to it did not.

What was truly broken was the life structure carrying the soul.

Gu Tianheng said in a deep voice:

"I have already explained that a beast's soul cannot exist apart from its body."

"So we won't let it leave."

"What do you mean?"

Su Bai raised his hand and pointed at the seven frozen evolution routes inside Obsidian's body.

"You have always been thinking about which route should be preserved and what it should evolve into."

"But now, all these routes have failed."

"Continuing to repair them is just forcefully choosing one from seven wrong answers."

Gu Tianheng frowned.

"You want to clear them all?"

"Not clear."

Su Bai said.

"It is to abandon."

"Abandon Obsidian's current body."

Song Qingli's expression changed.

"Then its soul..."

"Its soul does not leave the life carrier."

"It just changes the way of carrying it."

The doubt in Gu Tianheng's eyes deepened more and more.

"What are you going to use to carry the complete soul of a Tier 6 beast?"

"A card?"

"A mental container?"

"Or like a Magical Girl, putting its consciousness into some kind of gem?"

"I don't know."

Su Bai answered very calmly.

Gu Tianheng was silent for a moment.

Not knowing, yet able to speak so self-righteously?

The expressions of several elders of the Song family also became extraordinarily wonderful.

Su Bai continued:

"I haven't found the specific method yet."

"But the direction is not wrong."

"Direction?"

"It doesn't need to be restored to the original Eclipse Moon Nether Wolf."

"Nor does it need to re-choose one from the seven evolution routes."

Su Bai looked at Obsidian's massive body being torn apart by the seven structures.

"Since this body is already broken—"

"Then let it start over."

Gu Tianheng's gaze condensed.

"Life does not have a chance to start over."

"Who says it doesn't?"

"Evolution is irreversible."

"Then make it reversible."

"High-tier life cannot regress to infancy."

"That's just your current theory."

Su Bai's tone was calm from beginning to end.

As if what he was discussing was not a life path that no one had ever walked before.

But rather adjusting an unreasonable pattern on a card.

Gu Tianheng stared at him.

"What on earth do you want to do?"

Su Bai did not answer immediately.

On the system interface, [Concept Blueprint Extraction Qualification: Locked] still had no change.

The direction he proposed was not complete enough.

Let Obsidian start over.

How to start?

What to preserve?

What to discard?

If it was just turning Obsidian into a new wolf cub, there was no essential difference from duplicating a flesh body.

It must preserve memories.

Preserve personality.

Preserve the soul.

Preserve everything formed by living together with Song Qingli for seventeen years.

At the same time, it must shake off the fixed evolution structure that had already collapsed.

In Su Bai's mind, a vague egg-shaped outline gradually appeared.

The body can be destroyed.

The form can be changed.

Power can temporarily disappear.

But as long as the core data still exists, it still possesses the possibility of growing again.

"I want it to change its life form."

Su Bai finally said.

"Preserve its soul, memories, personality, and all growth experiences."

"Discard this already failed body."

"Let it return to its initial form."

"Give it another chance to choose its future."

Song Qingli stared at him dazedly.

"Return to the beginning?"

"Yes."

"Will Obsidian lose its power?"

"Possibly."

"Will it lose its current bloodline?"

"Possibly."

"What will it turn into?"

"I don't know."

"Can it still re-evolve?"

Su Bai paused for a moment.

"If my idea can succeed."

"Of course it can."

Gu Tianheng was not moved by this future.

He only heard a lot of uncertainties.

"No carrier."

"No theory."

"No card-making plan."

"Not even knowing what it will ultimately turn into."

"Su Bai, this is not a rescue plan."

"It's just an unverified hypothesis."

"Right now, it is."

Su Bai admitted it very straightforwardly.

"In a little while, that might not be the case."

After speaking, he refocused his attention on the system quest.

What Obsidian truly needed was not a stronger evolution route.

But the qualification to break away from the fixed route and grow again.

It needed a life carrier that could preserve the soul and growth experiences.

A brand new form that could both degenerate and evolve again.

The system interface flickered slightly.

The originally dim quest text flashed with a faint golden light for the first time.

[Preliminary concept direction detected.]

[Separation of life entity and fixed form.]

[Preservation of core self and growth data.]

[Get rid of incorrect evolution structures through regression.]

[Concept completeness: thirty-one percent.]

[Has not yet reached the blueprint extraction requirement.]

Su Bai's eyes lit up slightly.

The direction was right.

There was still the last part missing.

Gu Tianheng looked at the silent Su Bai, assuming he could not answer his questioning.

"Forty-eight hours."

He emphasized again.

"I can only give you forty-eight hours."

"If you cannot produce a complete plan that can pass life simulation within this period, I will execute the beast-abandoning master-protection."

"Let the beastmaster live, and let the beast die?"

Su Bai asked.

"Yes."

Gu Tianheng did not deny it.

"At least one life can still be saved."

Su Bai nodded.

"I understand."

Gu Tianheng frowned slightly.

"You agree?"

"No."

Su Bai turned and walked down the altar.

"I just finally know what needs to be done this time."

"What are you going to do?"

Su Bai's footsteps paused slightly.

He did not turn back, but calmly said:

"Make a contract that does not require the beast to die for the master."

"And then let it possess the qualification to re-evolve."

Gu Tianheng stood in place.

The Song family members were speechless for a moment.

Su Bai walked toward the card-making room just cleared out by the Song family.

Deep within his consciousness, the unnamed white-robed Stand slowly raised its hand.

In the palm of its hand, a vague black egg-shaped outline flashed and disappeared.

And within the time frozen by Li Qingyue,

Obsidian's silver eyes, which could not open, seemed to show a faint light once again for the first time.