Chapter 473: Divine Beast Secret
The flaming bird wheezed, its wings drooping. "Enough... I yield... for now."
Reign grinned, tapping the staff on his shoulder.
"That's what I thought. And remember, next time, don't mess with someone who can create giant avatars. It never ends well."
Reign paused, his grin fading as a strange feeling washed over him.
He glanced at the massive golden monkey avatar behind him.
'Wait a second... why does this look so familiar?' he muttered, scratching his head.
It was as if he'd just pulled off some iconic move from someone other than Wukong—someone really powerful, but he couldn't quite place it.
'Nah, forget it. Must've seen it in a movie in my past life,' Reign muttered, shaking his head to clear the thought.
He turned his focus back to the flaming bird, now several sizes smaller and barely managing to hold itself together.
"You guys really have a thing for going small when things get tough, huh?" he smirked, folding his arms as the bird fluttered in the air, looking more like a charred pigeon than a fearsome beast.
The bird glared at him with what little strength it had left. "Don't you dare mock us… This is for the sake of surviving"
He chuckled, leaning on his staff. "Yeah, well, survival or not, you're not looking too scary right now."
"I'd say you're about two strikes away from being completely extinguish ."
The bird huffed, clearly offended but too tired to respond with anything more than a weak flap of its wings.
"I'll... regenerate again... just you wait."
"Why do you hate me so much? You could've just let me pass and teleported me to the next trial. I think you're being unfair and bias,"
He had a feeling this divine beast had been carrying a lot of anger, even before he'd beaten it down to a pulp.
"I don't want to hear something like that from an arrogant angel like you!" the bird sneered, its voice filled with contempt.
"But I'm not an angel at all! I hate those stuck-up idiots too. I will kill them all if they showed their faces in front of me," Reign explained.
The flaming bird's eyes widened in surprise, "What do you mean ? You bear the mark of the divine!"
'Mark of the Divine?'
He didn't fully understand what it meant, but he suspected it was related to his second body being an angel.
"Oh, you mean that? I'm what you call a Glutton," Reign declared, a smirk spreading across his face as he invented the name on the spot.
"A Glutton?" it repeated.
"I can turn into anything I eat," Reign declared, a hint of mischief in his voice. "You see, I've eaten two annoying angels already, so I gained their powers."
The flaming bird stared at him with skepticism. "A Gluton? eat an angel? You expect me to believe that?"
"I'll show you,"
He raised his hand, and a brilliant golden light began to emanate from his palm.
'System Cloaking'
His divine energy shifted and swirled, changing colors from green to blue, then to red and purple, creating a mesmerizing display of visual effects.
"See? I'm not exactly an angel. We are not enemies."
The flaming bird's eyes widened in astonishment, its flames dimming as it observed the kaleidoscope of energy.
"How can you do that?" it asked, awe creeping unconsciously into its tone.
"Each color represents the race I've absorbed," Reign continued, piling on the nonsense with a straight face.
"It's proof that I can tap into the powers of the beings I consume. I'm actually a beast , just like you. Those angels? They judged and discriminated against me for my appearance. So, from that moment on, I decided I'd become strong enough to kill them all."
"You're a beast too? What kind of beast?"
Reign carefully choose his next words. He knew he needed to sound convincing if he wanted to keep the ruse going.
Any hint of hesitation could raise suspicion, and he couldn't afford that now.
And then he realized he already had the perfect identity right in front of him.
"I am a b… golden monkey"
He almost let slip something really concerning, but thankfully, he was a fast thinker.
You're showing me something I've never seen before. You really are different. Are you telling the truth that you want to kill angels just like us?"
"Absolutely," Reign replied, his tone filled with fake conviction.
"Those angels think they're above everyone else, looking down on creatures like us. They've got it all wrong. They deserve to be put in their place!"
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The flaming bird nodded, agreeing with his bullshit.
Reign struggled to hide his grin after he saw the flaming bird starting to take the bait. It was working.
Now, all he had to do was play his part and pretend to despise angels just as much.
There was an old saying: 'The enemy of my enemy is my friend.'
In this case, he was ready to capitalize on it.
"So tell me, you called yourself a divine beast, right? Why do you hate angels so much?"
The flaming bird hesitated for a moment.
But after pondering the sheer strength Reign had just displayed—the way he had effortlessly overwhelmed it—it finally decided to reveal what it knew.
"I hate them because they see us as lesser beings," the flaming bird replied, its voice tinged with bitterness.
"Divine Beasts like me actually lived in heaven before. We had our own territory, separated from the angels."
Reign nodded, absorbing this information.
"They wanted to enslave us. That's why we struck a deal with the Creator—to guard this place in exchange for our autonomy."
"Isn't this place supposed to be for the trial ground What's so important here that all of you powerful Divine Beasts are on guard?"
He felt the urge to dig deeper, suspecting that Lilith was keeping something from him.
So—
With the opportunity before him, he aimed to exploit it fully, extracting every bit of information he could.