Great Turtle's Good Brother

"No, no one asked me to go!"

Zhao Yuling shook her head, looking utterly bewildered.

Chu He's expression shifted.

Then, with a flip of his palm, he took out the Eight Trigrams Jade Plate and used his mind to control it, beginning a calculation based on Lin Xueling's birth date and eight characters.

The final result.

An auspicious omen!

Then there was nothing to worry about!

Chu He put the item away, picked up his book again, and resumed reading as he swayed back and forth.

"Looks like the Sacred Land thinks more highly of that Lin girl. After all, she's enough of a hot-blooded chuunibyou to take protecting the Lin Family and reviving the Xia Clan as her personal duty. Unlike you, little girl—you drift through every day without a care in the world, and even teach disciples as if you're just playing around."

Chu He sighed.

Lin Xueling also knew more about the Xia Clan's secrets.

It was clear that she was more trusted.

Now that something had happened to the Xia Clan, they were bringing her along as well.

When Zhao Yuling had been little, she had been just as chuunibyou as Lin Xueling. But after staying by his side for so long, she had clearly changed a great deal.

She had turned into a salted fish.

Zhao Yuling wrinkled her delicate nose, looking a little wronged.

"Don't be so depressed! You're doing just fine like this. If you lived like your little aunt, you'd be exhausted. Just be happy yourself. In the future, if you can teach a few promising disciples, that would count as a tremendous contribution to the Xia Clan too! It might not be any less than your little aunt's."

Chu He said with a smile.

People!

Their personalities were always different. That was what made them people!

Lin Xueling's nature was that of a passionate, chuunibyou girl.

Zhao Yuling's nature was to love having fun. Her chuunibyou phase before had been shaped by her surroundings; now, her true self had emerged.

Those were simply their respective personalities.

Time flew like a shuttle, and peaceful days passed swiftly.

In the blink of an eye, another three years had gone by.

Chu He was ninety-two years old, and he had signed in continuously at the Book Repository for seventy-eight years.

After three years, the Great Turtle in the water had grown even larger.

Its body was already developing toward the size of a small hill.

Whenever it swam through the water, it caused quite a commotion.

Over the years, it had gone from being uneasy and reluctant to leave the Book Repository to frolicking wildly in the water.

At first, whenever Chu He went to the riverbank to see it, it would appear the moment he arrived.

It never strayed far.

If it did not see Chu He for several days, it would dig a huge pit into the riverbank, extending the river a long way forward.

But later on, Chu He had to go looking for it.

It began darting wildly through the water, reveling in its freedom.

Following the mark he had left on the Great Turtle, Chu He walked through the water with his hands behind his back. Wherever he passed, the river water retreated before him.

With every step, he crossed a thousand meters.

Very quickly, he found the Great Turtle.

He discovered something.

This time, the Great Turtle had gained a big companion.

A large black snake.

How strange. How had a turtle ended up playing with a snake?

"Hiss hiss!"

"Brother Shell, I'll take you to seize a great opportunity. As long as we succeed, reaching the Half-step King Realm will be just around the corner. When that time comes, we'll be the kings of this entire river region."

The Black Snake's bucket-thick tail coiled around the Great Turtle's equally bucket-thick neck. It flicked out its tongue, speaking in a mysterious, furtive manner.

"Squeak squeak!"

"Alright!"

The Great Turtle nodded in approval.

A wicked gleam flashed through the Black Snake's eyes, full of smug delight.

One snake and one turtle swam swiftly through the river region, followed soundlessly by a person.

Before long, they arrived at an underwater cave.

Black evil aura seeped from the entire mountain here.

At a glance, it was clearly no decent place.

Once they arrived, the Black Snake stopped pretending and revealed its ferocity.

It coiled around the Great Turtle's tail, then violently flung it, smashing the Great Turtle into the deep cave entrance billowing with black smoke.

The previously motionless cave trembled. A black tongue like a curtain shot out at incredible speed and tightly wrapped around the Great Turtle.

"Hiss hiss!"

"Great King, I have returned!"

"The Blood Food I brought back this time is at the Innate Ninth Level, at full completion, and its blood vitality is exceptionally strong."

The Black Snake landed on the ground, lowered its head, and respectfully flicked out its tongue.

"Squeak squeak!"

"Black Snake, what are you doing?"

The turtle sensed that something was wrong and struggled desperately.

It felt that there might be a problem with this newly acknowledged brother.

Heh heh!

At that moment, the evil aura on the small mountain surged even more violently, and the water and earth shook.

The cave entrance rose from the ground.

It was, astonishingly, the head of a colossal beast.

And the Great Turtle had already become food in its mouth.

"Very good. Its blood vitality is indeed abundant and extremely pure. This is the first time this King has encountered such quality."

The giant beast nodded in satisfaction and cast the Black Snake a highly approving glance.

Then waves of evil aura poured from its mouth, accompanied by green bubbling liquid. Like sulfuric acid, it wrapped the Great Turtle layer upon layer.

The Great Turtle struggled desperately, but the enormous tongue binding it was unbelievably strong. Even with its strength, it could not break free.

It panicked terribly, squeaking frantically.

Most of the aquatic creatures in this river were ordinary water creatures. Even those that had evolved and begun cultivating were mostly at the Acquired level; Innate-level beings were rare. Once it released its aura, no fool dared to trouble it.

This was the first time it had encountered danger.

It looked at the large Black Snake beside it, flicking its tongue, fury nearly bursting from its eyes.

It swore that if it got out, whenever it encountered creatures with that long, long shape in the future, it would crush them all to death!

Not a single one would be spared!

They were too hateful!

After a while!

"Eh!"

"This turtle is rather hard. Why is there still no sign of it being refined after so long?"

The giant beast blinked its lantern-sized eyes, deeply puzzled.

With its strength and the special nature of the venom in its body, refining an Innate-level creature, even one at the peak of the Innate realm, would not take long.

Yet half an hour had passed, and this turtle was still struggling powerfully. Forget its shell—there was not even the slightest sign that the head sticking out had softened.

Something felt wrong.

Whoosh!

As the water and earth shook once more, it extended two enormous claws, grabbed the Great Turtle by the neck, and tried to pull it out. It would kill it first and refine it afterward. Though the effect would be somewhat worse, there was no other way.

Refining a living Great Turtle was simply too difficult!

After so long, it felt as though there had not been the slightest progress.

Who knew how long it would take to refine it?

"Squeak squeak!"

The Great Turtle bared its teeth and squeaked furiously at the giant beast. It hated having its head pulled!

But there was nothing it could do.

Not a single one of those who liked to rub its head was something it could handle!

After pulling for a while.

The giant beast's eyes grew even more frustrated!

This turtle was different.

Its shell being hard was one thing, but even its seemingly soft head was unbelievably hard. It could not pull it out.

It examined it carefully.

That was right!

This was only a turtle at the peak of the Innate Ninth Level.

"What exactly did you bring back?"

The giant beast glared at the Black Snake, extremely displeased.

"Hiss hiss!"

"Great King, I'm sorry! I was wrong!"

The Black Snake shuddered, lay flat on the ground, and lowered its head.

The giant beast blinked, hesitated for a moment,

Then finally decided to give it another try.

Blood Food at the Innate Ninth Level was not so easy to come by!

I refuse to believe it! Could this King fail to refine a mere Innate-level Blood Food?