The Golden Tortoise coughed awkwardly after discovering the existence of its victim. However, its eyes turned slightly red after this. “That’s right, I absorbed some of your strength then. However, I absorbed it sneakily. I didn’t do anything to you. But did you know the problems I suffered after absorbing your life energy? If I hadn’t absorbed your life energy then, I wouldn’t have been so sensitive to life forces, and wouldn’t have turned greedy, eventually landing myself in such a state!”
Huo Yuhao was confused as he looked at the Golden Tortoise and asked, “What’s going on? Do you know Brother Skydream?”
The Skydream Iceworm snorted and replied, “Yuhao, do you remember what I told you before? My life energy and soul power were absorbed by a group of the strongest soul beasts in the Great Star Dou Forest. I was only left with pure spiritual power when I met you. It must be this guy who absorbed my life energy. From the life energy that he released, I can sense a part of it contains my aura. That’s why I found it so familiar.”
As Huo Yuhao’s abilities grew stronger and stronger, the Skydream Iceworm didn’t have to hide himself so much. Even if the God Beast Di Tian knew that he was inside Huo Yuhao’s body, he wouldn’t dare to deal with Huo Yuhao. Huo Yuhao controlled the destiny of the entire Great Star Dou Forest!
Furthermore, those who were present now were all Huo Yuhao’s close friends, and given the strength of Huo Yuhao’s spiritual power, even Bi Ji wouldn’t be able to eavesdrop on them.
The Golden Tortoise’s tone of voice suddenly sounded very depressed, “It’s none of my business anyway. I only absorbed your life energy then. However, I landed myself in a tragic state because of that. If I had known what was going to happen, I wouldn’t have been so greedy.”
Xu Sanshi was curious as he asked, “What happened? You don’t really have a thirty-thousand year cultivation, right?”
“Of course not,” the Golden Tortoise said arrogantly, “Most Golden Tortoises are able to survive for more than ten thousand years. I’m a hundred-thousand year soul beast.”
If there were any other soul beast present to hear its words, they would have the urge to knock themselves against a wall. Most Golden Tortoises were indeed able to survive past ten thousand years. Even the Golden-Eyed Black Dragon King Di Tian wouldn’t dare to dispute this. Most species of soul beast would have an enemy. Golden Tortoises were one of the rare, few species that didn’t have a natural enemy.
Any soul beast that got close to them would be blessed by their fortune. It would take it half the cultivation effort to achieve double the result. The Golden Tortoise’s fighting strength was naturally not very great, but their reputation was built on their longevity. Naturally, they were adept at something, their defense! Among their innate skills, they had one called Invincible Barrier! Humans’ Invincible Barriers were, to some extent, inspired by and derived from the Golden Tortoises.
Even a savage beast would find it difficult to overcome the defense of a hundred-thousand year Golden Tortoise. Some kind of special method would have to be used to slowly weaken the defense of such a beast.
Xu Sanshi was perplexed as he asked, “Since you are at the tier of a soul beast king, why are you in such a tragic state?”
The look in the Golden Tortoise’s eyes turned dimmer, and it appeared to be in great pain. “Initially, I absorbed the Iceworm’s life energy and soul power from underground. Due to my fortune, I was able to hide my aura very well. Even the God Beast Di Tian didn’t realize it. Furthermore, there were many hundred-thousand year soul beasts there then. I’m also a hundred-thousand year soul beast. If not for the fact that I was afraid of being remembered by Di Tian, I would have dared to absorb his life energy openly. I followed him underground and absorbed it until he had no more life energy left, and then I escaped while Di Tian wasn’t looking.
“I was very proud and delighted then. After absorbing so much life energy, I was confident of crossing the twenty-thousand year bottleneck by coupling it with my own life energy. Tortoises, especially Golden Tortoises, rarely reach a twenty-thousand year cultivation, even though most will survive beyond ten thousand years. If we choose to be reborn, we’ll become nourishment for humans and other soul beasts. We won’t dare to do that. That is why we’ll generally wait until we die. If I reached at least a twenty-thousand year cultivation, I’d become a hero among Golden Tortoises even if I wasn’t the first to do so. My confidence was bursting then, and caused me to become complacent.
“As I’m a water and earth-type soul beast, I’m very adept at moving underground and underwater. However, I was greedy, and snuck my way into the Lake of Life that Di Tian normally rests in.
“I always knew that the Lake of Life was a secret existence. Di Tian has been living there since ancient times. I can almost confirm that he was able to reach his eight-hundred-thousand year cultivation and achieve breakthrough after breakthrough because of his Lake of Life. Back then, Di Tian wasn’t in the Lake of Life, because he was trying to capture the Iceworm’s spiritual energy. That was why I tried to sneak my way in and use my concealment abilities to hide myself from Di Tian.
“I thought that I might be able to become as strong as Di Tian in the future if I could find the secret to the Water of Life, and eventually lead all the tortoises to rule the Great Star Dou Forest.”
Everyone’s expressions turned weird when they heard the Golden Tortoise’s words. It was being overly arrogant! A tortoise who wasn’t adept at fighting was dreaming if it thought that it could rule the Great Star Dou Forest. The Golden Tortoise must have had been extremely conceited back then. It was its egocentricity that brought it so much trouble.
The Golden Tortoise didn’t seem to sense the weird looks that everyone was giving it and continued, “After I snuck into the Water of Life, I was especially careful. This was because I knew that it was Di Tian’s habitat. I was confident that he wouldn’t kill me even if he found me, because my destiny was especially strong after I reached a ten-thousand year cultivation. In the entire Great Star Dou Forest, no other soul beasts could compare to me, apart from the Auspicious Emperor Beast. My survival is extremely beneficial to the entire forest. It’s also because of this that I was so brazen.
“As a result, I sought the secret of the Water of Life. The more I swam, the closer I got to the core of it. I discovered that the life energy in the Water of Life was especially immense. Although I couldn’t directly absorb and assimilate it like I managed to absorb the Iceworm’s life energy, it could continuously nourish my body. I was fully certain of my conjecture. Di Tian was able to live so long and achieve breakthrough after breakthrough because he was nourished by the Water of Life. It’s just that he’s too powerful, and thus no soul beasts can venture into his territory.
“I guessed that the Water of Life must have an origin if it contained such immense life energy. Given the amount of life energy present, it might have originated from some kind of treasure. That’s why I went to find this treasure! Finally, I found the mouth of a spring at the core of the Water of Life. It was the source of the entire Lake of Life. Around this mouth was a ring of green metal. This green metal was very weird. It contained the purest life energy above it. I knew that I had found the correct place. Although I couldn’t leave with the mouth of that spring, I could still leave with the metal!
“Although Golden Tortoises aren’t adept at fighting, our bite is one of the strongest in the world of soul beasts. As a result, I bit hard on a piece of that metal, and bit off close to one-fifth of the jade-green metal. However, Di Tian was simply too strong. He immediately sensed it when the metal was damaged. A terrifying suppression immediately descended on me.
“I was very scared then, as I sensed Di Tian’s extreme fury. I was really afraid that he might kill me without regard for anything else. As a result, I did my best to dive all the way down to the bottom of the lake and into the mud at the bottom. After that, I kept on digging, and also did my best to conceal my aura so that he wouldn’t find me.
“However, I soon realized that it was all for nothing, because the piece of metal that I stole contained too much life energy. I could conceal my aura, but I couldn’t conceal its aura! I would have definitely been exposed. Eventually, I decided to swallow it, since it was good stuff anyway.”
“What?” Huo Yuhao exclaimed. “You ate Life Gold? No wonder your life energy is so immense, but doesn’t belong to you!”
Huo Yuhao could roughly guess what was going on after hearing the Golden Tortoise’s description. He had been to the Water of Life before. He could sense that the concentrated life energy there seemed to be related to Life Gold. It was just that he couldn’t confirm it, and he wasn’t as bold as the Golden Tortoise. He wasn’t bold enough to search for treasures in Di Tian’s habitat.
Not only did the Golden Tortoise succeed, but it even managed to eat the Life Gold. But judging by its current condition, it seemed that eating the Life Gold didn’t generate any benefits for it.
“So that metal is called Life Gold to humans. It’s this thing that got me into so much trouble,” the Golden Tortoise said depressingly. “After I devoured the Life Gold back then, I realized that it indeed contained life energy. I also sensed that the immense life energy was permeating through my entire body. After Di Tian returned, he wasn’t able to find me, which left me extremely delighted about managing to sneak into an area that he controlled.
“However, I started to realize that things were amiss after I returned to my own habitat. At the start, that metal was releasing life energy that infiltrated my entire body. However, it seemed to slowly familiarize with my body, and then started to absorb my life energy, instead.”
