Help! I transmigrated to a Beast World

Chapter 142: The Sky Lord

The portal looked like a wound.

Mán Shū had torn it open with both of her hands, her tiny body trembling, golden light bleeding from her fingers like she was pulling apart the sky itself. The edges of the portal flickered, unstable and looking as though it was on the verge of collapse.

"Hurry," she said. Her voice was thin. Stretched. "I can not hold it for so long."

Xin Yi stepped toward the rip in the air. It was cold on the other side. Not the cold of winter or mountains. The cold of somewhere that had never known warmth.

This was a spectacularly bad idea.

"I don’t like this," Hei Yan said. His panther ears were flat and his tail was still.

"No one likes this," Qing Lin replied. He was already stepping through the portal, trying and failing to hide how terrified he was.

Sha Chen went next, spear in hand, bandages still wrapped around his head from Jin Ze’s attack. He didn’t look back.

Jin Xuan tried to go fourth but Xin Yi caught his arm.

"If you do something stupid in there," she said, "I am leaving you."

"You would not leave me," Jin Xuan said cheerfully. "I am too pretty." Xin Yi rolled her eyes.

He stepped through.

Xin Yi followed.

~

The realm of Tiān Zhǔ was not heaven.

There were no clouds. No golden thrones. No winged creatures singing.

There was just white. Endless, flat, suffocating white. The ground had no texture. The sky had no color. The air had no smell. It was like standing inside a bone.

"Where is he?" Hei Yan scanned the emptiness. His claws were already out.

"You barge into my domain, and have the audacity to bare your class? How brave. Or foolish," said a voice.

The voice came from everywhere. From the ground beneath their feet. From the white above their heads. From inside their own chests.

Tiān Zhǔ materialized before them.

He was huge. His robes were the purest of whites, and his hair fell past his waist, silver where Mán Shū’s was gold. His eyes were the color of a winter sky just before snow.

He looked at Mán Shū first.

"Sister," he said.

She flinched, her tiny form flickering.

"Brother."

"You brought them here." The lack of emotion in his voice as he spoke was nothing short of terrifying. "You brought mortals to my threshold."

"They are not just mortals," Mán Shū said. "They’re—"

"Yes yes, I know what they are. They are your precious beastmen. Your..... abominations." His gaze moved across the group. Lingered on Hei Yan’s claws. Qing Lin’s scales. Sha Chen’s spear. Jin Xuan’s bare chest.

Then landed on Xin Yi.

"You."

He said it like he was naming a disease.

"Me," Xin Yi said, her heart racing. She was standing before her literal maker and the creator of the human race.

Tiān Zhǔ walked toward her. The Alphas moved to block him, but the god didn’t stop. He didn’t need to. They stepped aside without meaning to, his presence pushing them aside like a physical weight.

He stopped inches from Xin Yi and looked down at her.

"I told my sister not to create them," he said. "I told her the beastmen would destabilize the natural order. I told her they would be chaos wrapped in flesh. She did not listen."

"You created humans," Xin Yi said. "She created beastmen. What is the difference?"

"Humans build. Humans order. Humans create civilizations that endure." He gestured at the Alphas. "These creatures fight. They mate. They die in the dirt. They are animals wearing human skin."

"We are standing right here," Sha Chen said.

Tiān Zhǔ ignored him, failing to hide the disgust he felt from a lowly beastman daring to speak to him. "And you. The transmigrator. You taught them to build houses. To bathe. To cook their meat. You thought you were saving them." His eyes narrowed. "You were only delaying the inevitable."

"Why?" Xin Yi asked, balling her fists. This guy was a real piece of work. "Why are you doing this? The corruption. The red eyes. The madness. Why?! They didn’t do anything to you! They’re just trying to exist, and you’re just ruining it!"

Tiān Zhǔ was silent for a moment.

Then he said: "Because they were a mistake."

Mán Shū made a hurt sound.

"My stance on them remains unchanged, sister," Tiān Zhǔ continued. He looked at his hands. "The beastmen were never meant to build cities. They were never meant to wear clothes. They were never meant to think."

"So you’re killing them," Xin Yi’s voice broke. "Because they proved you wrong."

His eyes snapped to her.

"I am correcting an imbalance."

"You are throwing a tantrum because your sister made something beautiful and you can’t stand it."

The white realm trembled.

"You do not understand," Tiān Zhǔ boomed. His voice was louder now and the temperature dropped. "The corruption is not punishment. It is nature. The beastmen’s cores were unstable from the moment she breathed life into them. I am not destroying them. I am returning them to what they should have been."

"Beasts," Xin Yi whispered.

"Yes."

"But that’s not nature. That’s you."

She stepped closer to him. The Alphas tried to grab her and she shook them off.

"You’re afraid," she said. "You’re afraid that if the beastmen learn to build, to think, to create, then your humans aren’t special. They’re just another species trying to survive. And you can’t handle that."

Tiān Zhǔ’s face didn’t change, but the white around them cracked.

"You think you know me, little mortal? I created you. I moulded your kind from the dust and filled your tiny brains with ideas. You think you know me?"

"I think I know fear when I see it."

Jin Xuan, who had been uncharacteristically quiet, stepped forward. His golden eyes were locked on Tiān Zhǔ.

"You made my brother sick," he said. "You made his eyes red. You made him hurt people. He did not ask for that."

"Your brother was weak."

"My brother was alone!" Jin Xuan’s voice cracked. "And you left him to rot."

Tiān Zhǔ looked at the lion, and for a brief moment it looked as though the god would melt. He didn’t. His eyes hardened and the indignation he felt deepened.

"You are all pathetic. Specks of dust. Useless. You coming here to try to ’stop’ a god was foolishness unheard of. You change nothing. The corruption will spread," he said. "It will consume every beastman. Every last one. And when they are all red-eyed and mindless, I will cleanse this world. I will start again. Without her mistakes."

"Then we’ll stop you," Xin Yi said.

"You cannot."

"Watch us."

Hei Yan lunged.

It was instinct. Pure panther rage. He shifted mid-air, claws extended, aiming for Tiān Zhǔ’s throat.

Tiān Zhǔ didn’t move.

Hei Yan hit an invisible wall. The impact cracked through the white realm like thunder. He fell, crumpled, blood dripping from his nose.

Qing Lin hissed, fangs descending, venom streaming toward the god.

Tiān Zhǔ flicked his wrist.

The venom froze mid-air. Then reversed. Shot back at Qing Lin. He dove aside, but some caught his arm. He screamed, a sound Xin Yi had never heard from him.

Sha Chen threw his spear.

Tiān Zhǔ caught it between two fingers and snapped it like a twig.

"That is enough," the god said.

Jin Xuan roared and charged.

Tiān Zhǔ sighed.

He raised one hand.

Jin Xuan stopped. His body locked up. His eyes went wide. Then red. The corruption flickered at his edges, the same red that had consumed Jin Ze. The same red that was eating Su Ye alive.

"JIN XUAN!" Xin Yi screamed.

The lion fell. Twitching. Clawing at the ground.

"Stop!" Mán Shū flew forward, golden light blazing. "Brother, please! They’re children! They’re my children!"

"They are abominations."

"Then I’m an abomination too! I made them! I poured my soul into them! If you hate them, you hate me!"

Tiān Zhǔ looked at his sister.

For a long moment, neither spoke.

Then he said: "I don’t hate you. I never hated you."

"Then please stop this madness!"

"I can’t."

He turned to Xin Yi. His eyes were colder than before. But there was something else underneath. Something that looked almost like grief.

"You brought civilization to beasts," he said. "You taught them to build. To hope. To believe they could be more than what they were created to be."

He stepped closer.

"But civilization requires order. Requires structure. Requires control." His voice dropped. "My sister’s chaos will consume everything you’ve built. The corruption is already spreading. Your cities will fall. Your beastmen will turn. And when there is nothing left but ruin and red eyes..."

He reached out. His hand hovered over Xin Yi’s face. Not touching.

"You will regret defying me."

The white realm exploded.

Xin Yi felt hands grab her. Hei Yan’s. Sha Chen’s. Qing Lin’s. Jin Xuan was being dragged by Mán Shū’s golden light.

The portal ripped open behind them.

"No—" Xin Yi reached for Tiān Zhǔ. For answers. For something.

He was already gone.

The white was gone.

She was falling.

The last thing she saw was Mán Shū’s face. Terrified. Apologetic.

The last thing she heard was Tiān Zhǔ’s voice, echoing across dimensions:

You will regret defying me.