Sea Soul Beasts' Madness! (Part 2)
"I thought the description in the book was an exaggerated artistic embellishment, but I didn't expect it to actually be a square head."
Upon seeing the Rubik's Cube Octopus's head with her own eyes, Romantina was somewhat incredulous, marveling at the wonders of nature that could create such a square creature.
Regarding the Rubik's Cube Octopus, the "Soul Beast Encyclopedia" doesn't describe how to determine its age, so Zhou Qing asked Ariel, "Do you know how many years of cultivation this Rubik's Cube Octopus has accumulated?"
"About a hundred years ago."
Ariel generously shared her method for determining the age of the Rubik's Cube Octopus with Zhou Qing and the others.
The Rubik's Cube Octopus's cultivation period is calculated based on the number of Golden Thread Coral that encircle its head; one circle represents one hundred years of cultivation.
In addition, one can carefully distinguish how many years the Rubik's Cube Octopus has lived by looking at the grooves and folds on the outer layer of its light blue square brain.
For every additional year one gains in imitating the octopus's cultivation, one more wrinkle will appear on the ridges of one's brain.
Those are the marks of time!
"Speaking of which, are those ring-shaped golden corals part of the Rubik's Cube Octopus? Or did they plant corals in those grooves and folds?" Zhou Qing asked.
"That's part of their brain, and it's the organ they use to absorb the silver light, look!" Ariel explained, pointing to the hundred-year-old Rubik's Cube Octopus.
Around the golden ring-shaped coral object on its square brain, visible silver rays of light appeared.
Neither Tang San's Purple Demon Eye nor Zhou Qing's powerful eyesight could discern whether the silver radiance was moonlight drawn by the golden coral or its own brilliance.
After learning that the Rubik's Cube Octopus could cultivate by absorbing moonlight, Zhou Qing and Tang San understood that the Rubik's Cube Octopus was drawing in moonlight.
The same idea popped into both of their minds: to absorb the Yuehua for cultivation!
[Soul Beast seem similar to the spirits and monsters from my previous life's legends.]
Since Zhou Qing proposed the theory of the Human Body Cauldron, and hypothesized that Martial Soul were some kind of natural magical treasure embryos, Tang San also compared everything in the Douluo Continent with various legends of gods and ghosts and stories of monsters and strange creatures from his previous life.
Seriously!
Upon comparison, he found that they were indeed quite similar!
In a past life, there was a fox spirit who transformed into human form to repay a debt of gratitude; in this world, there is also a rabbit who transforms into human form to avenge its mother... It's just that this rabbit spirit was easily blinded by the allure of the world at first.
"In fact, the Rubik's Cube Octopus can absorb not only moonlight but also sunlight. However, sunlight is too intense, and direct absorption would burn the brain of Rubik's Cube Octopus with a cultivation level of less than ten thousand years," Ariel continued. "It is said that the Rubik's Cube Octopus absorbs moonlight and sunlight in order to evolve the Brain World."
"Something like a dream?" Zhou Qing asked tentatively.
"Do you know why the Rubik's Cube Octopus's head is a cube? And why it's surrounded by a ring of golden coral?" Ariel didn't answer directly, but instead asked Zhou Qing these two questions.
Circular ring?
Cube?
A ring encloses a cube...
Spiritual Attribute...
Absorbing the essence of the sun Yuehua is for the evolution of the Brain World...
Zhou Qing pondered for a moment and guessed, "Is the Rubik's Cube Octopus imitating the heavens and earth?"
The Round Sky Square Earth!
During this period of Douluo I, the people on the continent believed that the world was flat and the sky was Round Sky Square Earth, rather than that the world they lived in was a Planet.
But--
Would Soul Beast think that way?
Zhou Qing thought it was possible.
In the original series, Di Tian was probably the first being to fly around the entire Douluo Star and finally return to the origin, confirming that the world is round.
Other Soul Beast, even if they reach Hundred-Thousand-Year or even become Ferocious Beast, will probably only live in their original territory and will not explore the outside world much.
Therefore, the shape of the Rubik's Cube Octopus's brain is physically shaped like Round Sky Square Earth!
"Very clever!"
Ariel was surprised, but realizing that Zhou Qing had obtained the Star of the Ocean and had been able to analyze the ocean's vibrations so clearly before, she understood—he was a very smart child.
"The Rubik's Cube Octopus is imitating the heavens and earth, trying to use its Spiritual Power to construct its Brain World."
"However, generally speaking, only Rubik's Cube Octopus that are Hundred-Thousand-Year can create a Mental World in their Sea of Spirit."
"Legend has it that when a Hundred-Thousand-Year Rubik's Cube Octopus dies, the Mental World it created collapses into Mental Bead, existing in a space that even gods cannot perceive. Only when another individual in the Rubik's Cube Octopus Clan reaches the Hundred-Thousand-Year level will it manifest and merge into that individual, adding one or more Mental World to that individual."
Xiao Wu exclaimed, "Doesn't that mean that after the Rubik's Cube Octopus reaches Hundred-Thousand-Year, it can inherit the Spiritual Energy of its deceased Hundred-Thousand-Year kin? It might even push the Spiritual Power cultivation of Rubik's Cube Octopus that has just reached Hundred-Thousand-Year to the million-year level?!"
"That's how it is in theory."
Ariel gave Xiao Wu a deep look, her eyes calm and undisturbed.
Why is it a theory?
Because this world does not allow Soul Beast to become gods, due to the rules, no Rubik's Cube Octopus can reach the level of a million years of cultivation, not even in terms of Spiritual Power alone.
Moreover, what she said before—that octopuses and similar creatures have no bones because they offended the Sea God —is false, but it is true that the Rubik's Cube Octopus Clan offended the Sea God.
Of all the marine life in the Great Sea, Ariel would categorize them into two main groups: those who had not submitted to the Sea God.
Firstly, there are Whale Species, which are not fish at all, but creatures that have returned to the ocean from the land.
Secondly, there are Soft-Bodied Species.
Most of these marine creatures are incapable of developing intelligence, so they cannot submit to the Sea God or contribute their faith. However, a very small minority of these creatures possess extremely high intelligence, such as Octopus Species. The powerful individuals among them can actually negotiate with the Sea God, demanding benefits before submitting. Without benefits, they merely put on a show and cannot contribute even a fraction of their Power of Faith.
This also made the Sea God despise these soft-bodied Sea Soul Beast, which were either unintelligent or cunningly human-like.
The Rubik's Cube Octopus is one of them.
This aversion was also noticed by the other Sea Soul Beast who had submitted to the Sea God, and then—
The Sea God's mercy and unwillingness to act do not mean that these fanatical followers will not act.
And so!
Within the Rubik's Cube Octopus swarm, individuals Hundred-Thousand-Year were besieged and killed, and individuals aged over 10,000 years are extremely rare today.
Only those with a history of a thousand years or less, or less than a hundred years, are relatively numerous.
It wasn't that the Sea Soul Beast were merciful, but rather that they felt that if the Rubik's Cube Octopus were all killed, many Sea Soul Beasts would lose their food source.
Therefore, the Rubik's Cube Rubik's Cube Octopus Rubik's Cube Octopus Clan was preserved, but its growth was strictly controlled. In the past 20,000 years, apart from those Rubik's Cube Octopus that survived and hid 20,000 years ago, Ariel had never seen a new Rubik's Cube Octopus advance to become Ten-Thousand Year Soul Beast.