The Unrivaled Tang Sect Chapter 2.2: Skydream Iceworm

Huo Yuhao was still young, after all. After only a brief moment of astonishment and nervousness, his mood changed into that of excitement. He'd finally arrived at his destination after so many days of travel. When he thought about obtaining a soul ring for himself, so that he could truly become a soul master, he felt his blood boil. Although he was only eleven, he'd already bitterly cultivated for over five years, just for the sake of today.

In his excited state, he unconsciously increased the speed of his steps. The speed of his advance towards the Great Star Dou Forest was also slightly fastened.

A slightly strange feeling suddenly appeared in his mind as he advanced forward. Huo Yuhao then felt a slight stabbing pain in his eyes, causing him to unconsciously move soulforce to his Spirit Eyes.

A weak stream of air spiralled around Huo Yuhao's eyes, and he seemed to see a shadow flash across the left side of the road in front of him.

As an extremely rare spiritual-type mutated martial soul, his Spirit Eyes had a very strong ability to sense danger. The feeling of immediate crisis Huo Yuhao felt caused his senses to immediately sharpen. He rapidly lowered his body to the left, and used his right hand to quickly unsheathe the White Tiger Dagger from his waist.

A black figure flashed past the area he'd previously been at. The area where it had pounced was almost within Huo Yuhao's reach, which immediately allowed him to clearly see what it was.

It was a baboon that was roughly one metre tall. Its body was covered in light brown fur, and its eyes were brown in colour. It had two arms that were oddly long, and sharp fingernails on its claws. Its canine teeth were exposed from its lips, and a savage light was present in its eyes. It immediately let out a low roar towards Huo Yuhao since it had failed to hit him. It then powerfully stamped its hind legs, once again pouncing towards Huo Yuhao.

Although his Spirit Eyes didn't have an accommodating soul ring, its fundamental ability was still fairly good. After he'd poured his soulforce into his eyes, the pouncing baboon's movements became much slower in his eyes. Huo Yuhao, who had previously dropped to the ground, rapidly rolled to the right. He then sprung up and tumbled a few steps backwards, whilst simultaneously raising the White Tiger Dagger before him.

The clear sounds of his nervous heartbeat echoed out, and his breathing had clearly become rushed. This was the first time in his life that he'd encountered a soul beast's attacks. The palm he was using to hold the White Tiger Dagger had already been covered in sweat, and his expression had also turned somewhat blank, because he didn't know how to react.

After the baboon missed two attacks in a row, it seemed to become enraged. Its upper body rose up, and it used its fists to vigorously beat on its chest, letting out a roar. At the same time, it suddenly opened its mouth towards Huo Yuhao. It immediately spat out a ball of white light, which went directly towards Huo Yuhao.

Even though Huo Yuhao had no experience, he was still able to see that his opponent was a soul beast now. There was still a certain distance between where he was and the Great Star Dou Forest, which was the reason why he hadn't been prepared at all. With his current level of cultivation, it was very possible that he would suffer a calamitous fate if he were to be struck by that white ball of light.

At that moment, Huo Yuhao's mind had already become blank. The ball of white light didn't seem very fast when he looked at it through his Spirit Eyes, but in reality, it would arrive in the blink of an eye.

Whilst spitting out the white light, the baboon had also pounced towards Huo Yuhao at an extremely quick speed, a savage light in its eyes.

Huo Yuhao had already lost the ability to think due to his nervousness. When the white light reached him, he subconsciously followed his instincts and brought the White Tiger Dagger in his right hand up, striking the white light head-on.

A strange scene appeared at this moment. By the time the white light had collided with the White Tiger Dagger, the baboon had already arrived, and had extended its long arms in front of it, slashing towards Huo Yuhao's shoulders with its sharp claws.

Since the battle had reached this point, Huo Yuhao's fate seemed to already be sealed. Was he really going to perish under this soul beast's claws?

The baboon clawed Huo Yuhao's shoulders, and made use of its st.u.r.dy body and the momentum from its charge to flip around midair, in an attempt to fiercely throw Huo Yuhao downwards.

In the same moment that it reached Huo Yuhao and attempted to throw him down, a white light flashed past its body. Its body seemed to stiffen for a moment, and Huo Yuhao was flung outwards instead of being smashed into the ground. On the other hand, the baboon rolled on the ground for a little while, before ceasing any further movements.

“Peng—” Huo Yuhao's body collided with a nearby tree trunk, then slid down. Everything in front of his eyes turned dark, and the violent spike of pain instantly caused him to lose his ability to breathe.

At this moment, Huo Yuhao's appearance truly looked quite miserable. There were long wounds on his shoulders, and his jacket had nearly been torn apart.

However, he still managed to awaken from his empty-minded state amidst the violent pain. His gaze subconsciously shifted towards the baboon that lay unmoving on the ground.

A faint white light had appeared over the baboon. It slowly and gradually began to condense into a white halo above its body. The halo wasn't clear, and the light was also only faintly discernible. However, this still made Huo Yuhao gape at it.

Soul ring? This is a soul ring? Huo Yuhao was so excited that his body trembled slightly, and the wounds on his body didn't seem to hurt that much anymore.

He'd only learnt the most basic meditation technique within the Duke's Mansion, yet he'd heard far, far too much about soul beasts and soul rings. Almost every single guard within the Duke's Mansion would bring up the topic frequently, but this was the first time that he'd personally seen one.

Could it be that it's already dead? Huo Yuhao thought blankly to himself. A soul ring would only appear when a soul beast had died! But, how had it died?

His Spirit Eyes' ability appeared at this moment, causing his memories to surge through his mind like a tide.

The white light that the baboon had released had struck the White Tiger Dagger, however as soon as that happened, the White Tiger Dagger had suddenly emitted a light, unexpectedly absorbing all of the white light. This was also the factor that altered the most crucial moment of the battle.

According to the baboon's instincts, a weak human like Huo Yuhao would definitely lose all of his combat power after being struck by its soul skill. Then, he would lose at least half his life from being fiercely smashed to the ground. However, it never thought that its soul skill would be subconsciously neutralised by Huo Yuhao's White Tiger Dagger. When it flipped its body in order to throw Huo Yuhao, Huo Yuhao had instinctively swung his hands upwards, causing the White Tiger Dagger in his right hand to naturally slash upwards as well.

Originally, the White Tiger Dagger's length hadn't been long enough to reach the baboon that had already soared into the sky. However, the White Tiger Dagger suddenly released a foot-long blade of light in that instant, which swept across the baboon's body. It seemed to have turned the white light it had previously absorbed into a sharp blade. Although Huo Yuhao was unable to clearly remember where the dagger had struck due to his blank mind, something had definitely happened. That blade of light must have definitely slashed the body of the baboon.

I actually won? Huo Yuhao gazed at the white soul ring, but the excitement in his heart gradually faded. Soul rings were necessary items for soul masters to advance in rank. However, not all soul rings were suitable for soul masters to absorb. Only a soul ring that had a high compatibility with the soul master's martial soul could be absorbed, for the best results.

The strength of a soul ring was based off of how many years the soul beast had cultivated for; the better a soul ring was, the stronger the skill it would grant to a soul master.

White soul rings were those formed by a ten year soul beast. All soul beasts that had cultivated between ten and a hundred years would produce a white coloured soul ring when they were killed. The baboon that Huo Yuhao had luckily managed to kill was undoubtedly a ten year soul beast, and a ten year soul ring had also clearly appeared in front of Huo Yuhao. Unfortunately, the soul ring wasn't one he could absorb.

Although Huo Yuhao didn't have any experience at killing soul beasts, and couldn't see what type of existence the baboon was, he was certain that the baboon wasn't a spiritual-type soul beast. Therefore, its soul ring was thus even more unsuited for him.

He wanted to check the baboon's condition, but a wave of both pain and soreness flooded his body when he was about to stand up. His excessive nervousness from earlier caused him to be unable to use any strength at all now. Combined with the pain from his shoulders, the exertion of force caused him to let out a m.u.f.fled groan, and almost caused him to faint.

He was only eleven after all! The determination in his heart had even wavered slightly, after the battle that he'd just experienced. The amount of spiritual-type soul beasts that existed was extremely little, yet he'd almost been killed by the first soul beast he'd encountered. Furthermore, this had only been a ten year soul beast. What if he'd encountered a hundred year soul beast? He would've had absolutely no chance of even narrowly escaping, simply because it was impossible for luck to be with him at all times. The miraculous power that had momentarily been released from the White Tiger Dagger obviously couldn't make up for his weak strength.

What should I do? Huo Yuhao struggled to barely sit up. He leaned against the tree that he'd previously flown into, and gasped for breath.

I can't die, I'll definitely succeed. I still have to seek justice for my mother, I can't give up like this! Huo Yuhao tightly clenched his teeth, and unceasingly hardened his conviction. However, the scenes from his previous battle with the baboon continuously let him know that he had been overestimating his capabilities.

Huo Yuhao's mind was filled with an empty feeling, and he didn't know what to do. Suddenly, a voice echoed out inside of his mind, without any prior warning.

“Finally, I've met a spiritual-type human! What a pity that this brother can't cry! If I could, my face would definitely be covered with tears!”

Huo Yuhao was startled. He didn't understand why a voice had suddenly appeared inside of his mind. However, at this moment, the ground beneath him suddenly trembled without any prior warning. Cracks began to appear on the ground two metres in front of him, and then gradually expanded until they turned into a crevice; a dim golden-white light faintly shone from within the crevice.

This, what is this? Another soul beast?

Huo Yuhao subconsciously gripped the White Tiger Dagger tightly, and nervously gazed at the crevice that was gradually expanding. If it wasn't for his aching body, he might've already run away.

An icy chill was released from the crevice, which caused the surrounding temperature to drop. The area of the crevice gradually increased, and after a moment, its diameter had reached five metres wide, causing the true appearance of the golden-white light to finally be revealed.

It was a plump and fat-looking head with a diameter of over one metre. After it slowly wiggled its body and managed to climb up, its entire body was revealed. Its body was over seven metres long.

Following its appearance, the surrounding temperature became so cold that Huo Yuhao was able to see his own breath, and it caused him to be unable to help but shiver a few times.

This was definitely a soul beast, yet it unexpectedly resembled a silkworm. However, it was G.o.d-knows how many times larger than a normal silkworm.

Its body was the same colour as white jade, sparkled, and was translucent. Although it had dug itself out from the earth, there wasn't any dirt on its brilliant skin at all. Halos of light moved about underneath its epidermis, and it unexpectedly had a small pair of eyes on its head that flickered with a golden light. Strangest of all, golden patterns were engraved on its body at certain intervals, starting half a metre from its head. From head to tail, it had a total of ten golden patterns.

A look of despair appeared on Huo Yuhao's already nervous face as he gazed at its enormous body.It has such an enormous body, and it has the power to change the temperature… it's at least a hundred year soul beast. It's over, everything's over.

“Don't be scared, don't be scared. This brother won't harm you!” The voice from before echoed out in Huo Yuhao's mind once again, and the enormous silkworm nodded its head. Its huge head then drooped downwards, before stopping a metre away from Huo Yuhao. It even emitted a faintly fragrant odor from its body.

Huo Yuhao said in a startled tone, “Are you the one that's talking to me?”

The enormous silkworm nodded its head in response, and its voice continued to echo out inside of his mind, “It's obviously this brother that's speaking. Did you get captivated by my beautiful body?”

After realizing that the enormous silkworm didn't have any evil intentions, Huo Yuhao's taut heartstrings relaxed a bit.

“What do you want to do?”

The silkworm replied, “First off, let me introduce myself. I am the embodiment of heroism and chivalry! A king of kings amongst soul beasts, who is both equally smart and good-looking! I'm an absolute expert, one who has cultivated for a million years! I'm the Skydream Iceworm who's set the record for the longest lifespan in the Douluo Continent! Yup, you can call me Brother Skydream!”

Huo Yuhao's eyes instantly turned lifeless, “Mil-Million year soul beast?” The Skydream Iceworm's age differed from his prediction by a factor of ten thousand times. Furthermore, were there really such existences as million year soul beasts in the world? The strongest soul beast on the Douluo Continent should only be a hundred thousand years old!

The Skydream Iceworm, who was clearly pleased with himself, said, “Aren't you in awe? Aren't you really excited? You're the first human who's seen my almighty figure.”

Huo Yuhao blankly said, “Then what do you want to do?”

The Skydream Iceworm's voice suddenly became serious, “This brother wants to become your soul ring—the Douluo Continent's first ever intelligent soul ring.”

“Ah?” Huo Yuhao looked at the Skydream Iceworm in front of him with a dumbstruck expression. He'd momentarily lost his ability to think.

Everything that had occurred so far had simply been too sudden. Admittedly, he did thirst for a soul ring. However, in the past, the soul ring that he'd wanted to obtain was simply a ten year soul ring. He'd never had any extravagant hopes. Yet, at this moment, a ma.s.sive silkworm that could talk had suddenly dug itself out from beneath the ground, had told him that it was an almighty million year soul beast, and that it wanted to become his soul ring. This made Huo Yuhao completely unable to understand what was going on at all. Furthermore, he didn't know whether the Skydream Iceworm was telling the truth or not.

However, the enormous silkworm in front of him wasn't something that he could hope to fight, regardless of whether it was telling the truth or not.

The Skydream Iceworm's enormous head turned in the direction of the Great Star Dou Forest, and carefully scanned it. Then, it turned back towards Huo Yuhao and said, “I'm going to start, okay? Don't worry, I'll be gentle. I won't cause too much pain.”

“You…” Before Huo Yuhao could even voice any sort of opposition, an extremely cold aura caused him to immediately lose consciousness. He could only faintly see a white object charging towards him. In the next moment, all of his thoughts faded away.

The ten golden patterns on the Skydream Iceworm's body moved rhythmically, almost as if they were alive. The white object that Huo Yuhao had seen was actually the Skydream Iceworm's head, which had reached forward to press against his head.

The ten golden patterns rapidly enveloped Huo Yuhao's skinny body, and the Skydream Iceworm slowly turned itself halos of white light that unceasingly surged into his body.

“Too weak, too weak. This is simply too tragic. I'm so pitiful, ah! Just how many more seals will I have to put on my body before his weak body can support me? It's so hard to become an intelligent soul ring.”

When the Skydream Iceworm had surged towards Huo Yuhao's body, a layer of incorporeal spiritual undulations had spread out from its body. These terrifying spiritual energy undulations almost instantly covered everything within a hundred miles.

When the spiritual energy undulations covered Bei Bei and Tang Ya, who had sped up to chase after Huo Yuhao, they immediately fell into a momentarily sluggish state. Although the spiritual attack hadn't been too damaging, it still caused all living beings to lose their ability to think for a short period of time.

At this moment, a large portion of the southern area of the Great Star Dou Forest had become frighteningly quiet.

Previously, the sky had been extremely clear and sunny. However, it had suddenly darkened, and a thunder-like boom resounded out in the air. In that instant, the sun's brilliant rays of light were unexpectedly covered up by the darkness. Then, an enormous pressure that caused one to be unable to even breathe descended from the sky.

When the thunder-like boom resounded in the air, the Skydream Iceworm's enormous body, who was currently trying to merge with Huo Yuhao's body, violently shook for a moment. Its small, golden eyes looked upwards into the sky, and a terrified look immediately appeared inside of them. Inside of that terrified expression was also a hint of shock. The pressure in the sky clearly hadn't affected it, but it exceeded its knowledge.

A grey stream of air descended from the sky, as if an enormous attractive force had sucked it downwards. After only an instant, it landed on the back of Huo Yuhao's head, and quietly entered it.

“Who dares to fight with this brother over a person?” The Skydream Iceworm flew into a rage. Its huge spiritual undulations instantly surged forth in an attempt to expel the grey stream of air from Huo Yuhao's body.

An extremely blurry figure appeared behind Huo Yuhao, and an aged voice with a hard-to-describe imposingness echoed out, “The hand grasps the sun and moon, and also plucks the stars; This world has no one like me. I didn't think that this old man would have a trace of a remnant spirit left that still existed here.”

The vague and illusory figure didn't seem to be affected by the Skydream Iceworm's powerful spiritual attack at all. With a whoosh, it disappeared into the back of Huo Yuhao's head.

The Skydream Iceworm didn't dare to strengthen his spiritual attack again, as traces of blood had already begun to seep out of Huo Yuhao's seven apertures. He discovered that, after the grey stream of air had entered Huo Yuhao's mind, it had immediately turned into a soybean-sized grey pearl. Then, it had turned silent. It didn't conflict with his spiritual energy, nor could he affect it with his power.

“I can't be this unlucky. It was so hard to find a spiritual-type human, but a b.a.s.t.a.r.d wants to s.n.a.t.c.h him from me. Are the heavens jealous of a genius like myself? This brother is so pitiful!” Although he was currently voicing his complaints, his movements didn't slow down at all. Dense white light gradually condensed and poured into Huo Yuhao's body, while the Skydream Iceworm's body both gradually turned more transparent during the process, and rapidly decreased in volume. There had already been no turning back for him, from the instant he'd started to pour his energy into Huo Yuhao's body.

Huo Yuhao's body had turned completely jade-white, and resembled the previous appearance of the Skydream Iceworm. His shoulders' wounds were recovering at a speed visible to the naked eye.

“Wahaha, no matter what way you put it, this brother is finally free! You b.a.s.t.a.r.ds who took me as food no longer have any chance, wahaha!” The Skydream Iceworm's voice, who was clearly pleased with himself, gradually turned softer and softer. The huge spiritual energy that had previously covered a hundred miles proceeded to shrink at a frightening speed, then gradually disappeared.

Several terrifying auras from within the depths of the Great Star Dou Forest simultaneously let out violent undulations, as if they'd sensed something. However, they were fated to to not have any success in their endeavors.

When the Skydream Iceworm's voice had completely disappeared, a jade-white halo soundlessly appeared beneath Huo Yuhao's body. After circling around his body three times, its light dimmed, and the entire halo merged into his body, disappearing without a trace.

Huo Yuhao didn't know that, while he was unconscious, he'd managed to obtain his first soul ring. Furthermore, this was a soul ring that was truly unrivalled and unique on the Douluo Continent.

The jade-white colour gradually faded from Huo Yuhao, and an ice-blue layer started to appear below his skin. This lasted roughly ten seconds, before it gradually dimmed and restored the original colour of his skin. Then, his body tilted, causing him to fall against the tree he'd previously leaned against.

A thin white membrane that had a faint golden sheen to it soundlessly rose into the air, before it rapidly shrunk and formed a ball that disappeared inside of Huo Yuhao's heart. There were no more traces of the Skydream Iceworm's aura after that.

The big hole in the road had already closed at an earlier time, and except for the collapsed Huo Yuhao, the baboon that'd been killed by him had had its corpse left on the ground. Everything else also seemed to have recovered to its normal state.

Not long afterwards, two figures ran over extremely quickly.

“Ah!” A figure let out a cry, and instantly sped up. She sped over to Huo Yuhao's body, and stopped beside him.

“We're late. It seems little brother Yuhao was attacked. These soul beasts have really become more and more rampant! They've actually come out of the Great Star Dou Forest!” Tang Ya carefully helped Huo Yuhao up off the ground, a gloomy and worried expression on her face.

Bei Bei walked over to the baboon and turned it over. He saw that a slanted, foot-long wound had been inflicted on the baboon's chest, and that even its heart had been cut part. This was clearly a fatal wound.

“That was a Wind Baboon. From its size, and the strength of its muscles, it should be a ten year soul beast. It's already dead.” Bei Bei walked over to Tang Ya and squatted down to check on Huo Yuhao's condition.

The thing that amazed them was that, although Huo Yuhao's clothing had been seriously damaged, they couldn't find any sign of injury on his body.

Bei Bei tapped Huo Yuhao's wrist with his right forefinger, which caused the White Tiger Dagger to drop into his palm. A faint blue light flashed in Bei Bei's hand for an instant, and then a hazy blue l.u.s.ter immediately appeared on the White Tiger Dagger.

“This is a soul tool. Yuhao must've used it to kill that Wind Baboon. Although the Wind Baboon was only a ten year soul beast, both its speed and power are relatively decent, and it can also use an innate soul skill to attack its opponents. Since he can kill a Wind Baboon at his age, Little Yuhao is already quite good. It seems that our earlier judgement of Yuhao wasn't accurate enough—he should already be a first ring soul master.”

Tang Ya anxiously examined Huo Yuhao's body, then said, “Talking about this is useless right now. We wasted time all because you insisted that I wash my hands and my face. If something happens to Little Yuhao because of that, I'll never forgive myself. No matter what level of talent he has, I've decided that I'll definitely convince him to join our Tang Sect.”

Bei Bei's gaze softened as he looked at Tang Ya's anxious expression. The kindness that came from Tang Ya's heart was something he loved very much. “Don't worry, he's fine. Can't you see that his breathing is normal? There aren't any wounds on his body either. Judging from his the way he fainted, he must've lost consciousness after being slammed into that tree by the Wind Baboon during their battle.”

Tang Ya stared blankly for a moment, then raised her head up and glared at Bei Bei. “Why didn't you tell me earlier? You made me worried.”

Bei Bei helplessly replied, “Who could've known that you'd be unable to see something so simple?”

“Humph!” Tang Ya helped Huo Yuhao up, and allowed him to lean on her body. After confirming that he truly had no problems, she relaxed.

Bei Bei stood up and carefully checked their surroundings as he quietly guarded Tang Ya.

After Huo Yuhao fainted, he entered a dream. He dreamt that he'd entered a pure white s.p.a.ce. There were many motes of light within the s.p.a.ce, and he couldn't see the end of it. However, his gaze still seemed to somehow be able to reach every single corner of the s.p.a.ce.

Whilst in the midst of understanding the mysteries of the s.p.a.ce, it had suddenly turned turbulent. After that, golden lights had interweaved and entered the s.p.a.ce.

The golden lights converged into enormous golden rings of light which floated in midair, and the many motes of light within the room started to increase in size due to their appearance.

The ten golden rings of light slowly started to rotate, and a milky white halo appeared within every single one of them. As the halo's strength increased, they gradually gathered together and formed ten enormous b.a.l.l.s of light that floated within the s.p.a.ce. The height and the volume of the s.p.a.ce increased many folds in size in turn.

At that moment, an unremarkable grey ball of light appeared near one of the golden b.a.l.l.s of light. The grey ball's size was much smaller than the other ten b.a.l.l.s of light. Furthermore, the golden b.a.l.l.s of light began releasing a strong golden light, as if they wanted to chase it away. However, the grey ball remained tranquil, and continued to float in midair. No matter how much the golden lights attacked the grey ball, it didn't seem to be affected at all.

In the end, the ten golden lights could only give up on the meaningless task. They turned stable, and flickered with a dim l.u.s.ter.

As Huo Yuhao's consciousness gradually cleared, the smaller motes of light that were floating in the s.p.a.ce gradually sank downwards, forming a faint golden ocean that supported the ten enormous b.a.l.l.s of light. Only the extremely tiny grey light remained midair, unwilling to join the large b.a.l.l.s of light.

“So you're called Huo Yuhao.” A voice suddenly echoed out. Following that, Huo Yuhao's vision instantly retracted, and he unconsciously lowered his gaze. He could only see his naked self-standing above the golden ocean, right in the middle of the ten now-golden-white b.a.l.l.s of light.

“Where is this? Why am I here?” Huo Yuhao asked in amazement.

“This is your mind's sea of consciousness, or spiritual sea. In the future, this will be Brother's home. This place was too small, so Brother simply helped you expand it. However, your body is just too weak, so I'll have to make do for now.”

“You're the Skydream Iceworm? I'm not dreaming?” Huo Yuhao became even more stunned when he heard the voice and tone of the person who'd spoken. Everything that he saw in front of him had already surpa.s.sed his knowledge. Not to speak of Huo Yuhao, who was only eleven; even adults would be shocked to the point of them trembling in fear if they were presented with such a miraculous scene.

“Dreaming? If you were able to have such a nice dream, wouldn't you have died from happiness? This is obviously not a dream. As I said, this is the world within your mind.” The Skydream Iceworm unhappily replied.

Huo Yuhao blankly said, “What's that?”

The Skydream Iceworm replied, “You really are foolish. How do I explain this to you? Well… let's put it this way. You know about your eyes—they're the martial soul that your consciousness calls the 'Spirit Eyes'. I've just gone through your memories, so I know about your previous experiences. The Spirit Eyes are your martial soul, but at the same time also your eyes. Thus, the spiritual sea is where your spiritual energy is stored. If you want to display the might of your Spirit Eyes, you'll need to convert your soulforce into spiritual energy, then release it using your Spirit Eyes. The specific location of your spiritual sea is your brain, behind your Spirit Eyes. As of right now, your consciousness is immersed within your spiritual sea. The body that you're seeing isn't actually your real body, but a body that I've created using spiritual energy for the sake of communicating with you.”

Huo Yuhao finally understood a few things after hearing this detailed explanation. The fear in his heart also weakened by a lot. Young kids were much more sensitive than adults at certain times, and he felt that the Skydream Iceworm truly didn't have any malicious intentions towards him.

“Then, how come you appeared in my spiritual sea?” Huo Yuhao asked again.

The Skydream Iceworm replied, “Didn't I just tell you? I want to become your soul ring, an intelligent soul ring! As of now, I've already become one. However, for the sake of becoming your soul ring, I've suppressed and sealed a large amount of my power. From now on, you'll have a soul ring, and can become one of the human's so-called soul masters. However, your innate talent is much worse than what I thought. You can practically use the term 'extremely poor' to describe it. I really don't know whether my choice was correct or not.

Huo Yuhao was slightly ashamed as he said, “I admit that my talent isn't that good. But, I'll work hard. My innate spirit power was only rank one.”

The Skydream Iceworm gloomily said, “I'll think of a method to help you improve yourself later on.”

As the length of the conversation increased, Huo Yuhao's guts did too. “Skydream Iceworm.”

“Call me Brother Skydream.”

“Fine, Brother Skydream. You said that you were a million year soul beast, is that true? Also, why did you pick me? I've heard that Soul Scholars can only withstand soul rings that are below four hundred years old. However, since you're a million year soul beast, how were you able to become my soul ring?”

The Skydream Iceworm suddenly let out a long sigh, “Do you think that I wanted to pick you? I had no other choice! If I'd continued to refrain from making a choice, my life would've come to an end. And once I died, my body would've most likely become food for those guys in the Great Star Dou Forest! Under my state of helplessness, I could only use this plan to attach myself to you humans. This is also my only way out. Would you like to listen to my story? In the future, we'll be with each other for a very, very long time. I don't want to hide anything from you either, so I'll tell you everything.”

Huo Yuhao nodded his head and said, “Brother Skydream, please speak.”

The Skydream Iceworm replied, “At first, I was just an ordinary Iceworm soul beast. I wasn't born in the Great Star Dou Forest, but in an extremely cold place located in the northern areas of the continent. We Iceworms are soul beasts that have two innate attributes, spiritual and ice attributes. However, our combat strength is seriously limited by our speed. Thus, we can only be considered very ordinary soul beasts. What's more, we're also affected by the presence of natural predators. Very few of us can cultivate longer than ten thousand years. I'm the sole exception to that.”

“When I was thirteen years old, I carelessly fell into a crack in the ice whilst running away from a predator. At that time, I thought I was done for. However, who could've known that I'd drop into a ball of ten thousand year Ice Pith? I sank into a deep sleep after that. I was still very weak and small back then, and my body wasn't even three inches long. That sleep lasted for an entire ten thousand years. When I woke up, I found myself in an icy cave. That ten thousand year Ice Pith had disappeared—it had all been absorbed by me. However, as a result of my slumber, I had thus turned into a ten thousand year soul beast. I was indescribably pleased and surprised back then! However, I discovered that I couldn't find any way to exit the icy cave at all.”

“I was surrounded by extremely hard ice in that icy cave. Although I had already become a ten thousand year soul beast, our Iceworm clan has always been weak in combat, resulting in me being unable to forcefully break through the ice. Fortunately, there were many holes in the icy cave that I was able to climb through. Thus, I crawled around in search of an exit. In the end, I still couldn't find an exit, but I found an even larger ball of Ice Pith. The appearance of this new ball of Ice Pith signified that I had food to eat. Hence, I entered another deep sleep. However, this sleep lasted several tens of thousands of years…”