Sharing the Same Fate!

Farming?

Not exactly.

It was more like a form of farming, at least from a human perspective.

In Zhou Qing's view, the Spirit Rhyme Turtle's survival instinct had likely driven it to herd some Great White Carp into this stretch of stream.

The Spirit Rhyme Turtle earned the words "Spirit Rhyme" in its name because once it reached the thousand-year level, the plants on its shell would grow and gather the energy of heaven and earth, accelerating its own cultivation as well as that of the soul beasts close to it.

If a human Soul Master could tame a thousand-year Spirit Rhyme Turtle, then theoretically, it could also speed up human cultivation.

However.

The kinds of soul beasts humans could currently tame were pitifully few, countable on one's fingers.

Although Spirit Rhyme Turtles were relatively gentle, no Soul Master was willing to wait for a soul beast whose cultivation was directly tied to its age to grow from ten years to a thousand years.

There were simply too many uncertainties over the long span of a thousand years.

Let alone small families—even a force like Spirit Hall would probably be unwilling to spend a thousand years raising a Ten-Year Spirit Rhyme Turtle to the thousand-year level.

After all, before reaching Level 99, a Soul Master could not live for a thousand years.

Moreover, the major Soul Beast Forests of the Douluo Continent contained countless kinds of soul beasts to choose from, and many more had yet to be discovered by Soul Masters. Why waste unnecessary effort on a single Spirit Rhyme Turtle?

Still, Zhou Qing had one question. Could a mere two-hundred-year Spirit Rhyme Turtle, whose shell had been smashed by someone and prematurely planted with an ordinary aquatic plant, really possess the instinct to gather spiritual energy?

According to the books on soul beasts he had bought, only thousand-year Spirit Rhyme Turtles whose shell plants had fully grown possessed the ability to create a noticeable spiritual-gathering effect that even a Soul King could sense.

This showed that before reaching a thousand years of age, Spirit Rhyme Turtles had been constantly accumulating Spiritual Power and energy for growth.

The aquatic grass growing from the cracks in this two-hundred-year Spirit Rhyme Turtle's shell was doing fairly well, but much of the flesh beneath it was filled with pus, and several pond snails clung to it.

No matter how he looked at it, it did not seem capable of gathering spiritual energy. Zhou Qing even suspected that if this continued, the Spirit Rhyme Turtle would die from infection.

That was evident from the way it ate the Great White Carp: every time, it took only a small bite of flesh and swallowed slowly, with no appetite at all.

If it truly was the protagonist of the "terrifying legend" passed down in Holy Soul Village and the nearby villages, then this Spirit Rhyme Turtle had endured the pain in its back for at least fifty years!

According to the rule in the original work that the more painfully a soul beast died, the greater its chance of dropping a Soul Bone, this two-hundred-year Spirit Rhyme Turtle had over a sixty or seventy percent chance of dropping one after death!

Furthermore, the books also recorded that ten-thousand-year Spirit Rhyme Turtles were guaranteed to drop Soul Bones.

Perhaps when thousand-year Spirit Rhyme Turtles formed a symbiotic relationship with the plants on their shells, they also had to endure the pain of those roots taking hold in their flesh—and that pain lasted for ten thousand years!

Only after ten thousand years could the plants completely merge with the turtle's body, and by then, the Spirit Rhyme Turtle would no longer need to worry about food.

Enduring ten thousand years of suffering and torment for a lifetime free from worries about food and clothing.

That was true "sweetness after bitterness"!

"How should we kill this Spirit Rhyme Turtle?"

Tang San nudged Zhou Qing with his elbow.

When it came to understanding soul beasts, he knew he was no match for Zhou Qing. He hoped Zhou Qing could offer some advice on the most suitable way to slaughter this Spirit Rhyme Turtle.

Back in his previous life, let alone a Spirit Rhyme Turtle, even an ordinary turtle that had lived for two hundred years would have been an incredible tonic!

If he ate the meat of this giant turtle, Tang San was certain that his Mysterious Heaven Skill would reach completion of the First Layer within the next month.

"I have another idea now."

Zhou Qing shook his head, giving up on the plan to hunt the Spirit Rhyme Turtle.

"What idea?"

Tang San did not understand why Zhou Qing had suddenly changed his mind.

The old turtle had clearly suffered severe injuries. If they waited for it to die on its own, the meat might no longer be fresh!

Still, he wanted to hear Zhou Qing out. If Zhou Qing's reasoning did not satisfy him, he would find an opportunity to slaughter the Spirit Rhyme Turtle himself and share some with Zhou Qing afterward.

So Zhou Qing explained the Spirit Rhyme Turtle's ability to gather spiritual energy, as well as why the Great White Carp in this stretch of stream had become soul beasts.

"Logically speaking, only a thousand-year Spirit Rhyme Turtle that has completed its symbiosis with a plant can gather spiritual energy. This one is only a few hundred years old, and its shell was deliberately damaged. The plant growing from it is not anything rare either—just the most common aquatic grass, called Ox Hair Felt by the villagers because it resembles densely packed cow hair."

"A two-hundred-year Spirit Rhyme Turtle like this could not possibly gather spiritual energy, nor could it turn ordinary Great White Carp into soul beasts."

"So—"

Tang San understood as well. "There must be something beneath this stretch of stream that can turn ordinary carp into soul beasts!"

Zhou Qing nodded slightly. Furthermore, the fact that this two-hundred-year Spirit Rhyme Turtle had endured nearly fifty years with the flesh atop its shell rotting gave him reason to suspect that this thing had also suppressed its injuries.

But the stream was murky. Who knew what dangers lurked beneath it?

Leaving aside whether other soul beasts were present, even ordinary animals such as venomous snakes or poisonous insects would be troublesome. Being bitten, poisoned, or infested by parasites would be terrible.

This stretch of stream was completely different from the others. Its edges were covered with large amounts of rotting aquatic grass, wood chips, and even the bones and organs of fish and birds.

Zhou Qing did not dare take that risk.

Even Tang San was not too willing to jump into the murky water alone without any protection. His Mysterious Jade Hand, though immune to a hundred poisons, could not protect him from filthy stream water that seeped in everywhere.

Thus, Zhou Qing and Tang San watched the Spirit Rhyme Turtle finish eating the Great White Carp and enter the water. Then they quietly climbed down from the branches and headed back. Zhou Qing said, "San'er, do you think we can heal that Spirit Rhyme Turtle?"

"What?"

Tang San froze for a moment before coming back to himself. "Why heal it?"

"Spirit Rhyme Turtles are relatively gentle soul beasts. A book of strange tales about soul beasts in my home records that some nobles and Soul Master families like to keep Spirit Rhyme Turtles in their fish ponds. There are still quite a lot of these soul beasts with less than fifty years of cultivation, and many people are willing to put effort into catching them and selling them to nobles as decorations for their fish ponds..."

At that point, Zhou Qing added, "But there is no record of any family raising a Spirit Rhyme Turtle beyond a hundred years. It is said that the oldest one lived for fifty years before being slaughtered."

"It is not that I want to imitate those nobles' refined tastes. I just think that since this Spirit Rhyme Turtle completed its 'shell-breaking' and 'planting' ahead of time, it has fought with everything it had just to survive, just like me..."

Thinking of Zhou Qing's status as an orphan, Tang San fell silent. He thought of his irresponsible father and silently added in his heart, Just like me.

Just like that.

Tang San could not help but put himself in the place of that Spirit Rhyme Turtle, which had endured fifty years of pain just to survive.

How similar was it to himself and Zhou Qing?

Sharing the Same Fate!