An Extraordinary Tale

"Why didn't you kill me?" The bone-chilling cold around them had already faded, and Gu You and the Ice Emperor Scorpion stared at each other.

"Mm... I don't know. The aura on you feels very strange to me, and you definitely aren't one of those people."

A strange aura? It seemed there were still many secrets surrounding his Martial Soul. "What people? How exactly were you captured?" Gu You was puzzled. A Soul Beast capable of speaking was naturally highly intelligent, and judging by her strength, she was far from weak. Yet she had actually been captured alive.

"It's a long story. Help me shut down that hateful sphere first. It can suppress my cultivation." The Ice Emperor Scorpion pointed one of her pincers at a frozen box.

Gu You looked over. At the center of the box was a sphere emitting an unusual glow, surrounded by ice. "No. What if you recover your cultivation and decide to kill me?"

"Detestable human! We Soul Beasts keep our word far better than you humans do."

"You Soul Beasts are far more cunning than us humans."

"You... you! You're infuriating!" The Ice Emperor Scorpion paced back and forth in the cramped space.

"It's not that I won't help you. Answer my two questions first." Gu You found this scorpion rather interesting.

"Really?"

"Obviously!"

"Fine! I was born into the Ice Scorpion Clan, with royal bloodline at that. From birth, I was superior to ordinary beasts, but when I was young, I was rather playful..."

"Wait. What was there to play with in that godforsaken Far North besides ice and snow?" Gu You asked curiously. The Ice Emperor Scorpion before him felt like a child.

"Huh? I just wandered around. Sometimes I used my pincers to cut ice blocks. In human terms, I suppose that would be called carving." The Ice Emperor Scorpion tapped her two pincers together.

"What? You can carve too? There are artists among Soul Beasts?!" Gu You paused, feeling his brain shrivel. What he had seen and heard today had truly overturned his impression of Soul Beasts.

"Does that make me an artist? That sounds nice. When I was young, I liked running around everywhere. For roughly four thousand years, I barely cultivated at all..."

Four thousand years?!

Gu You found it utterly absurd. Having a long lifespan really was wonderful.

"After I got tired of playing, I began cultivating. With my Extreme Ice and royal bloodline, I reached fifty thousand years of cultivation in merely three thousand years. After that, I kept sleeping, sleeping and sleeping. Several thousand more years probably passed, and when I woke up, I had sixty thousand years of cultivation. And then..."

"Stop! Stop! Quit nesting stories inside stories. Get to the point." Gu You hurriedly cut off the Ice Emperor Scorpion.

"...That day, I had nearly one hundred thousand years of cultivation, but I was only around ten thousand years old. An elder of my clan with imperial bloodline told me that Soul Beasts had to undergo a tribulation every hundred thousand years of cultivation. My physical body was weak, and even surviving the first tribulation would be difficult. Then I heard a legend from my clan: Ice Empress, one of the former strongest among the Ten Ferocious Beasts, had followed a human youth and become a god. I was very naive back then. Later, when the heavenly tribulation was about to arrive, I left the inner region of the Far North and came to the outskirts where you humans were active. I was really almost out of time, and then I met a woman. She was very powerful. She was shocked when she saw me. I even bragged that I wanted to become her Soul Spirit, and then... then..."

"And then what?" Gu You was completely engrossed.

"She revealed nine Soul Rings and beat me up. I didn't even hit her!" The Ice Emperor Scorpion began crying in grievance.

Nine Soul Rings! Gu You pondered it. If that was the case, then there was a nine-ring Evil Soul Master here. How the hell was he supposed to run now?

"Later, she beat me until I was covered in injuries and used a special device to suppress me here. It's the one I told you about. That woman's aura also disgusted me. Anyway, I didn't like her. Sometimes she even brought me food. That was actually pretty nice."

Absurd. What the hell kind of plot was this? "You've been living quite comfortably," Gu You teased.

"This life is terrible. This place is too small. I want to go home. I've told you everything, so can you let me go now?" The Ice Emperor Scorpion rolled around on the ground.

So if this place had been a little bigger, you wouldn't even want to leave. Gu You slapped his forehead speechlessly. Just as he was about to inspect the suppressing device, he suddenly remembered something. "Didn't you say your hundred-thousand-year tribulation was about to arrive?"

The Ice Emperor Scorpion froze. That was right. She remembered that when she had left the Far North, the heavenly tribulation had already begun showing signs of appearing. But why had so much time passed without it descending? She was fairly clever, and she blankly stared at the device suppressing her. Could it be because of this?

"What do I do? I don't want to die. I still want to leave this place." The Ice Emperor Scorpion sat down and covered her eyes as she cried, without the slightest awkwardness.

"Uh, didn't you say you wanted to become a Soul Spirit? Am I not suitable?" Gu You planned to lure this foolish Ice Emperor Scorpion away.

"You?" The Ice Emperor Scorpion sized Gu You up and down. "Your Soul Power is so low. You're weak as shit!! What Soul Spirit would ever choose you?"

Fuck!

"How am I weak? Those little nobodies outside? I can take ten of them by myself." Gu You was displeased.

"Then how would you withstand my Soul Ring? I have nearly one hundred thousand years of cultivation, and I can also sense that your cultivation can't absorb any more Soul Rings yet." The Ice Emperor Scorpion leaped in front of Gu You.

"Simple. I'll force myself up five levels. My Spiritual Power is strong enough." Gu You took out the Milk Bottle, and an enormous wave of Soul Power surged forth.

"Forcing a breakthrough will affect your future development," the Ice Emperor Scorpion reminded him.

"My talent is unmatched through the ages. Why should I fear the future? If there were no setbacks, wouldn't it all be too easy?" Gu You said disdainfully.

"Can you become a god?" The Ice Emperor Scorpion asked the fatal question.

Gu You nearly fainted. Become a god? Logically, that was impossible. After all, the God Realm had already been swept away by the temporal-spatial turbulence. There was simply no way to become a god.

"Probably. Think about it—back then, the person Ice Empress chose had less than one ten-thousandth of my talent, yet he still became a god. Why can't I?" Gu You declared that he was absolutely capable.

"Mm... all right. I suppose you're the only suitable one." The Ice Emperor Scorpion agreed.

What did she mean, she supposed he was the only suitable one? She was actually being picky now? Gu You cursed under his breath and began meditating. Enormous amounts of Soul Power poured out from the Milk Bottle and rushed into his body.

26!

Even the Ice Emperor Scorpion was shocked by the density of Soul Power in the air. What was that little bottle? It was so miraculous, releasing so much Soul Power.

With enough Soul Power stored to match a Soul Douluo, Gu You planned to force it into his body and break through to level 30!

His bones let out a savage crack. Gu You gritted his teeth, his entire body trembling.

This little pain... was nothing!

27!

28!

29...

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