Chapter 342 – A Very Generous Gift
As they entered the main hall, the luxuriousness of it was no less than Long Er"s Scaling Dragon Cave. The whole ground was made of crystals and although it wasn"t actual crystal stones, it was still considered a rare mineral of the seabed. On both sides of the hall were brackets holding onto luminescent pearls which made the main hall quite bright. In the center of the main hall was a golden throne that whoever sat upon, even if it was a child, would give off an Emperor"s momentum.
"This place is really not bad." Lei Yu couldn"t help commenting and staring all around.
That huge golden throne could allow five people to sit at once. The old turtle pulled Lei Yu with him to sit down, a special treatment not anyone can enjoy.
"This is all from the appreciation of these underwater brats." The old turtle smiled.
Lei Yu then asked: "Senior, you had previously mentioned my big brother had the aura of the Black Tortoise true G.o.d. What"s that about?" Lei Yu was really curious about this.
With a light smile, the old turtle replied: "The Black Tortoise true G.o.d will choose amongst the billions of existences to be his vessel. When little Hu reached the Gold Core stage, there was a strong resonance between him and my Black Tortoise Shield. If it wasn"t because of this, there"s no way I would have gifted him the shield."
"What kind of power does the Black Tortoise Shield possess? As one of the divine beasts, why would the Black Tortoise choose my big brother?" Lei Yu asked in confusion.
"Little Hu doesn"t know about this and needs to continue getting stronger in order to break past the barrier to understand it himself. I"m telling you this today for your own knowledge but I hope you will keep this a secret from him and allow him to discover it on his own." Said the old turtle.
Lei Yu nodded to show he would keep it a secret. Right after that, the old turtle continued: "The ancestors of the G.o.ds have lived throughout the ages. From the beginning of time, their existence all came from the same source and that source also nourished their power. These bodies of power have been split into six paths; East, South, West, and North are considered one body. The top and the bottom are split into two realms. The two realms are further split into two regions but they are all part of the same source."
"Uh…" Lei Yu blinked a few times and embarra.s.sedly said: "Senior, can you say it in simpler terms? I didn"t understand a single word you"ve just said."
"In other words, there were originally six great divine beasts and six great demonic beasts in charge during the ancient times. Right now, the demonic beasts are silent while there appears to be some divines beasts gradually waking up."
"You"re saying Nuo Hu has been chosen by the Black Tortoise true G.o.d as its vessel to awaken in?"
"That"s absolutely right, and you should know that Long Er belongs to the Dragon Clan which is also the origin point of a divine beast. But of course not everyone of the Dragon Clan is a divine beast. Just like me – although I have the outer appearance of the Black Tortoise Xuan Wu, I"ve only grasped the ancient Black Tortoise techniques and don"t possess the divine beast essence. I"ve only been blowing my own trumpet all these years. Now when it comes to little Hu… if he"s able to train longer and increase his strength, he may eventually one day reach the power of the Black Tortoise true G.o.d!"
Lei Yu widened his eyes as he couldn"t believe his big brother would one day achieve such success! It looks like he definitely can"t be allowed to know about this too early. Although Lei Yu knew Nuo Hu"s personality quite well, telling him such a huge piece of news might cause Nuo Hu to feel he"d become strong in the future and actually slack off right now.
"What else is included with the six great divine beasts?" Lei Yu asked.
"At the head of the pack is the Multicolored Divine Bull. Riding on its back is the Vermillion Bird. On its left is the Black Tortoise, on its right is the White Tiger, and at its rear is the Azure Dragon. And the final one being the Lord of all these sacred guardians, a being known as Ares!"
Lei Yu swallowed hard as he was internally shocked to hear the name Ares! So could the bull-head been already identified as one of the divine beasts a thousand years ago?
"What"s wrong little Yu?" The old turtle asked when he saw Lei Yu"s shocked expression.
Lei Yu shook his head, "Oh, no, nothing. I"ve gained some understanding of the situation so thank you senior, for explaining everything."
"It"s nothing much, most likely those in the senior generation all know about this." The old turtle smiled.
"I heard today was senior"s birthday?" Asked Lei Yu.
"Indeed it is. I had originally not wanted to make a big deal out of it but that kiddo Guman, who I"m favorable towards, wanted to do something for me so I couldn"t reject his well wishes."
Lei Yu"s hand shimmered and a large piece of light blue crystal stone appeared. Lei Yu was planning to use this to cultivate while outside of the Devil King"s Castle. Now that he found out it was the old turtle"s birthday and there wasn"t anything else he could bring out, Lei Yu decided to pull out the crystal stone from his Universal Pouch.
"This is a small appreciation from me so I hope that senior accepts it." Lei Yu smiled.
Looking at this two meter long, half a meter wide, and about twenty centimeter thick crystal stone, the old turtle"s eyes became round and wide. "Such a big piece of crystal stone… and it"s even a blue crystal stone!"
Lei Yu lightly smiled. "I can sense that senior is struggling at the edge of the late Soul Splitting stage. You never know, this item might be the necessary catalyst allowing you to make a breakthrough." From the very beginning, Lei Yu had already sensed the old turtle"s strength. The currently Lei Yu even has the ability to sense someone"s strength all the way to the late Boundary Transition stage now.
"Where did you get this crystal from? And such a generous gift, there"s no way I can accept it! This is like the ultimate treasure of all cultivators! Also… also there"s such a large portion of it!"
The mouth of the old turtle was saying this, but his eyes had never left the crystal a single time. It looks like he was really eager to have such an item but was just embarra.s.sed to accept it.
Lei Yu could see through the old turtle"s desire. "Don"t worry, this crystal stone wasn"t stolen or robbed from someone. I still have some left over for myself so I hope that senior doesn"t continue to decline it. This is considered a gift for your birthday, okay?"
"Then… then I can only thank you with sincerity! This old turtle has been stuck at the late Soul Splitting stage for a while now and has never been able to find enough spiritual energy to make my breakthrough. Especially when the underwater environment here is rather weak in the gathering of spiritual energy. Now that you"ve given me such an item, it"s similar to sending me coal during a snowstorm!" The old turtle excitedly said.
Lei Yu"s eyebrows went up; the Immortal World also had the saying of sending coal during a snowstorm?
The old turtle excitedly received the crystal stone. If Lei Yu had brought out the purple crystal stone instead of the blue crystal stone, most likely the old turtle would be so excited they he wouldn"t be able to sleep for several days.
"Oh right little Yu, why did you come to the eastern sea region? And how come little Hu isn"t with you?" Asked the old turtle.
"I have an important task to take care of and couldn"t bring him along. But don"t worry, big brother is cultivating very seriously and had already reached the Nascent Soul stage." Lei Yu replied with a smile.
"Nascent Soul? This short decade and he"s already reached the strength of the Nascent Soul stage?" Lei Yu"s words had shocked the old turtle once again. One needs to know that in order to break through to the Nascent Soul stage from the Gold Core stage; it required a long amount of time. Apart from time, it also required a continuous hard work without a break in order to successfully accomplish it. The old turtle couldn"t believe that Nuo Hu would have the strength of a Nascent Soul expert in such a short time.
Chapter 343 – Jade Revolving
The old turtle didn"t know but within the Devil King"s Castle, a person of average talent would still cultivate faster than someone with exceptional talent out in the regular Immortal World. Especially when Nuo Hu"s talent would be considered one of the top out of all the other geniuses. Otherwise, he wouldn"t be a Fifth Order Warrior when he was only in his twenties during the time in the modern world.
"Little Yu, what level of strength have you reached now? How come I cannot sense your energy fluctuations?" The old turtle asked while thinking Lei Yu had used some secret skill in order to block his senses.
Lei Yu originally didn"t want to bring up anything about himself but since it was already mentioned, and that he was dealing with his sworn big brother"s master, Lei Yu didn"t want to hide anything. He then honestly replied: "I am the same as senior, at the late Soul Splitting stage."
The old turtle was slightly surprised and then started laughing. "Okay, stop joking with this old turtle. Quick, tell me what secret skill you are using in order to hide your own strength?"
Lei Yu felt a bit helpless and understood why the old turtle didn"t believe him. Who in this world would believe that in a short decade, he went from an insignificant brat with a newly formed Gold Core to a super expert at the Soul Splitting stage that could be counted one"s hand in the Immortal World?
Actions were louder than words so Lei Yu stood up from the golden throne. As he walked to the center of the main hall, one could see his mouth chanting something. The brand on his right arm suddenly flared up brightly before a column of lightning the shape of a dragon burst forth from his body. This was a dragon covered in lightning that slowly wrapped itself around Lei Yu. There was a "hissing" noise from the surrounding water and it even started boiling. Right after that, the huge dragon slowly unwound itself onto the ground. Lei Yu then made a thought and a faint illusory purple light flew towards the dragon. The next moment, another Lei Yu with the same looks appeared in front of the old turtle, except the skin of this new Lei Yu had a light purple tinge to it.
The old turtle"s eyes were already round and wide. He was so shocked that he didn"t even realize that he was releasing snot bubbles from his nostrils that were floating upwards to the surface. He was currently glancing non-stop between Lei Yu and his soul body without blinking. After a long while, the old turtle finally stood up from the golden throne.
"You are truly a monster! An utter true monster! How would anyone in the Immortal World dare to compare themselves to your cultivation speed?!" He then clutched onto Lei Yu"s arm, "It looks like for the Dragon Vein to recognize its owner, the owner would definitely have unimaginable achievements!"
Lei Yu had a faint smile on his face but there was actually some bitterness in his heart. He remembered the Devil King had once said all of these should have belonged to him and not Lei Yu. But what Lei Yu didn"t know was that even if the Devil King personally went to the spot of the Dragon Vein, the Dragon Vein may not recognize him unless he had a strong will and a powerful soul. And one of the main conditions for the Dragon Vein to recognize its owner was something the Devil King didn"t know about – it required a righteous person and not an evil one!
"I hope so…" Lei Yu smiled bitterly. "That"s right senior, have you heard of something called the Jade Revolving Gra.s.s?"
"Jade Revolving Gra.s.s? How do you know the name of such a gra.s.s?" The old turtle asked slightly surprised.
Lei Yu was overjoyed because it looks like the old turtle knows about it or else he wouldn"t respond like that. "I have an old friend that"s an expert at refining pills and I happened to learn a bit of pill refining from him. Since I"ve come to the eastern sea region, I was hoping to find traces of this herb."
There was a sparkle from the old turtle before he smiled, "Come with me."
Lei Yu felt it was a strange reaction but kind of guessed the reason and started getting excited.
He followed the old turtle through several turns in the palace before arriving at a place that looked like a garden. This place had many varieties of sea gra.s.s and multicolored corals but since it was underwater, it didn"t give off the smell of flowers where a typical garden would have.
In the center of this so called garden, Lei Yu was staring at a cl.u.s.ter of sea gra.s.s that gave off a light green light. His jaws dropped and it was a while before he was able to ask: "That"s… is that the Jade Revolving Gra.s.s?"
"That"s right." The old turtle clasped his hands behind his back, "The Jade Revolving Gra.s.s has a strong ability of replenishing one"s spiritual energy. I happen to come across it back then and managed to transplant it here. I never imagined that I would meet you here and you happen to be looking for it."
"What effects will there be if I ate the Jade Revolving Gra.s.s raw?" Lei Yu asked.
"The Jade Revolving Gra.s.s has the ability of replenishing 30% of the consumer"s internal energy. But if it underwent refinement by a master level refiner with the addition of other herbs, I believe it would at least reach the effects of 50% internal energy replenishment."
Lei Yu swallowed hard a few times. Back then, Ceng Hong told him it took him many tries in order to successfully refine the Green Vein Dewdrop pill to have the effect of 100% energy replenishment. If he managed to have such an ability… and managed to have a few pills on hand, wouldn"t that mean he could dominate the entire Immortal World?
Unfortunately, one clump of Jade Revolving Gra.s.s can only be refined three times. There was a high chance of failure accompanying it and once one fails, the effects of the gra.s.s will be completely gone. Lei Yu had already known how rare the Jade Revolving Gra.s.s was in the > and it wasn"t something you could get whenever you wanted. If one didn"t have the luck, even flipping the whole eastern sea region upside down may not net any at all.Lei Yu pointed at the Jade Revolving Gra.s.s while glancing at the old turtle. He didn"t know what to say and instead, his face started getting red because he was slightly embarra.s.sed.
"Little Yu, how about I give you these Jade Revolving Gra.s.s as a gift?" The old turtle laughed as he could see Lei Yu"s thoughts.
"Really?" The excited Lei Yu gasped out and even forgotten the usual decorum of declining it. The old turtle didn"t care about it and nodded, "Let"s consider it as a small reciprocal gift from the birthday present you gave me!"
Knowing how precious this main ingredient for the Green Vein Dewdrop pill was, Lei Yu became extremely ecstatic.
"But…" The word from the old turtle startled Lei Yu and made him perk up his ears for the rest of the sentence.
"But the Jade Revolving Gra.s.s has to be refined within three months of being picked or else it will lose a portion of its medicinal properties. Although it"s not obvious, it will actually reduce the success rate when refining."
Those words of the old turtle made Lei Yu realize why he kept it planted in the garden instead of storing it someplace. For it to lose a portion of its medicinal properties after being picked for three months, this clearly showed how precious this plant was.
Lei Yu felt an oncoming headache. If he were to pick it now when he didn"t know when he would accomplish his task. And if it couldn"t be complete it in three months, wouldn"t he be decreasing his own success rate of refinement? For someone like Lei Yu that had never refined a pill before, the chances of him succeeding would probably be next to impossible.
"Little Yu, don"t you have a task you need to deal with? How about coming back here after you"re done? There shouldn"t be any difference or issues with that." The old turtle reminded him.
Chapter 344 – White Scaled Giant Crocodile
Those words sounded reasonable and there wasn"t any need for him to keep the Jade Revolving Gra.s.s on him. Declining the old turtle might actually make Lei Yu look like he didn"t trust him.
Upon returning to the main hall, a youth was seen rushing in. He was about two meters tall and extremely thin, and no different from a stick of bamboo pole. As he was entering the main hall, he was already yelling: "Sea Emperor! There"s an outsider causing trou…" Once he saw Lei Yu and the old turtle sitting together on the golden throne, his eyes glazed over.
Lei Yu stood up and smiled, "My apologies, that was a misunderstanding previously."
Guman"s eyes landed on the old turtle and saw the latter nod with a smile so he quickly forced a smile. "You are truly powerful. I believe in the eastern sea region, you can be considered an overlord!"
Lei Yu waved his hands and smile, "I"m in no way an overlord, I just happened to be pa.s.sing by and encountered senio… the Sea Emperor who was an old friend."
After chatting for a bit, Lei Yu realized how the old turtle was able to carve out his own territory in the eastern sea region. The surface area of the sea was extremely huge and the further one went out, the more experts there would be. They all happened to be demonic cultivators as well. Within this region, the old turtle"s late Soul Splitting stage power could be considered as one of the peak experts, but his territory only took up a small portion of the sea region.
Demonic cultivators had one special ability – the ability to detect outsiders or non demonic cultivators. No matter how strong that person was; once they entered their range, even if that person was at the Mahayana realm, a mere Gold Core demonic cultivator would be able to tell him apart from fellow demonic cultivators. This was because normal martial cultivators did not possess the unique aura a demonic cultivator typically had. This was something Lei Yu had experienced before when he was in the water region of the Southern Wild Lands.
"I can"t delay anymore and will be leaving right now." Lei Yu stood up and cupped his hands.
"When you come back, I"ll have the Jade Revolving Gra.s.s ready for you!" The old turtle cupped his hands and sent Lei Yu off.
It wasn"t that Lei Yu was in a rush, it was because the Devil King in his Universal Pouch released an aura of grievance. If Lei Yu didn"t leave soon, and the Devil King happened to suddenly pop out of the pouch… a floating skull would be a terrifying scene for others to behold. Moreover, Lei Yu didn"t have the power to trap the Devil King in the storage pouch since he couldn"t even control the trace of energy still inside his body.
After bidding farewell to the old turtle, Lei Yu flew out of the waters and into the air. He figured he would just keep on meeting more and more opponents while underwater and that was trouble he didn"t want to attract. And since he already had access to the Jade Revolving Gra.s.s, there wasn"t any further need to travel underwater.
The surface area of the sea region was no less than the landma.s.s of the Immortal World. Lei Yu didn"t require a long amount of time of flying but it still took him over half a month at top speeds.
During this time, Lei Yu would occasionally take out the Sky Devouring Sword and practice the new grasped 24th form of the Thirty-six Lunar Star technique. In actual combat, this 24th form would be considered Lei Yu"s life insurance so he wouldn"t display it unless at the last resort.
Tsunamis or swells were a common occurrence in the Mortal and the Immortal World. As long as there was a strong enough wind, it would cause a huge wave. The huge waves and the gloomy skies would cause a depressive atmosphere for anyone.
Lei Yu had a foreboding that something would happen but that didn"t stop his flying. Even though he wasn"t seeking trouble, that didn"t mean trouble wouldn"t come looking for him. The current region Lei Yu was flying past happened to belong to a White Scaled Giant Crocodile that had cultivated for over 10,000 years and reached the early Boundary Transition stage.
Normal crocodiles should be living in small bodies of water such as rivers and lakes, but this White Scaled Giant Crocodile was different from others. It was an ancient demonic beast that one rarely encountered, but wasn"t ranked within the six major demonic beasts. It was only considered a very strong demonic beast, but even so, it possessed the ability to flip the earth and heavens upside down. Especially in the sea region, it allowed it to fully display its powerful abilities. Its attacks were extremely vicious and this would be considered Lei Yu"s bad luck to encounter it out of all places.
"Voluntarily leave behind your Nascent soul or else you won"t even have a whole corpse left!"
These words suddenly came from all directions. The voice came from underwater and had a m.u.f.fled tone to it, but Lei Yu could hear each word very clearly.
Lei Yu never slowed down because he had already detected a huge demonic cultivator thirty miles out following behind him. It was only now that the demonic cultivator made its move.
Lei Yu didn"t panic but he still had to make some preparations. He started raising his internal energy levels so that he could either attack or run away.
"I"m only pa.s.sing through so please don"t make things hard for me!" Lei Yu was floating in midair as his voice travelled in all directions. Even the surface of the water was trembling which showed how strong Lei Yu was currently.
At this time, there was a disturbance in the waters before a huge wall of water shot up a hundred meters high. Its height almost reached Lei Yu in midair. Once the wall of water crashed back down, water sprayed everywhere in the vicinity.
As the water disappeared, Lei Yu looked closely at the appearance of a towering crocodile. The appearance of this huge crocodile wasn"t that much different from other crocodiles except that its body was over forty meters in length. The width of its body was around ten meters, its body was mostly wide, its eyes were blood red and it had a vertical slit of yellow pupils. With its mouth open, one could see each sharp tooth was about half the size of Lei Yu"s body. This was only the hind teeth it used for chewing while the four front sharp teeth used for attacking was pretty much the size of Lei Yu.
Even though they were so far apart, Lei Yu could still smell the fishy stench of the crocodile"s breath.
Seeing such a huge creature, Lei Yu"s expression never faltered while the green brand on his right arm started flashing faintly. If things turned south, the powerful force inside him could be easily released at a moment"s time.
After licking its lips, the White Scaled Giant Crocodile used a low but ear deafening cold tone: "You dare to intrude upon my White Scaled Giant Crocodile"s territory? Leave your Nascent soul behind for my consumption or else I will rip you into shreds!"
Lei Yu"s body twitched a bit as he narrowed his eyes. "It looks like you want me to leave my Nascent soul no matter what?"
"That"s right!"
Lei Yu coldly sneered, "Since I"m going to die anyway, I might as well fight it out with you for the h.e.l.l of it."
Lei Yu"s words lightly startled the giant crocodile. When others faced him, not many would dare to say such words. He never imagined this human in front of him would have such courage.
Although the White Scaled Giant Crocodile was a level higher than him, Lei Yu had his own unique abilities and the Sky Devouring Sword. Facing such a terrifying and vicious looking demonic beast, Lei Yu was still confident he would be able to safely run away.
But the hot blooded him didn"t want to do that. Once someone strong meets another strong person, not being able to exchange some moves would be such a pity. This was the first strong enemy that Lei Yu had encountered ever since reaching the late Soul Splitting stage so he wanted to test out his own strength.