Bullying the Golden Hawksbill Turtle

He had no comment on the Golden Hawksbill Turtle's stupidity!

That was simply the nature of Soul Beasts!

If only Soul Beasts had a few more intelligent ones among them, they would not have ultimately ended up facing extinction.

For human Soul Masters, finding a Golden Hawksbill Turtle was somewhat difficult, but for Soul Beasts, it was no challenge at all.

Besides, the Golden Earth Dragon Clan and the Golden Hawksbill Turtle Clan had always been on friendly terms.

In less than half a month, Jiang Heng learned through his clansmen where that Golden Hawksbill Turtle was hiding.

This time, he personally set out with two ninety-thousand-year Golden Earth Dragons.

"Just as expected of a turtle. You hid yourself quite deeply!"

Looking at the deep pool before him, Jiang Heng clicked his tongue in amazement.

This Golden Hawksbill Turtle was clearly a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast, with a cultivation of as much as one hundred ninety thousand years, yet it had chosen to cower in a pool within the Mixed Zone.

With a leap, Jiang Heng and his two clansmen plunged into the deep pool.

Then they began a destructive search.

Before long, the Golden Hawksbill Turtle was forced to reveal itself.

"Stop pretending. I know you're a one-hundred-ninety-thousand-year Soul Beast."

"Cooperate with me, and I can help you survive this life-or-death crisis."

"Of course, you can choose not to cooperate. I imagine Di Tian would be very interested in a little thief who stole something."

Jiang Heng did not exchange any pleasantries with the Golden Hawksbill Turtle and directly stated his purpose.

"Y-you... how did you know..."

The Golden Hawksbill Turtle had wanted to pretend it was merely a ten-thousand-year Soul Beast, but once Jiang Heng exposed it, it immediately grew nervous.

With its defensive power, it naturally did not fear this Hundred-Thousand-Year Golden Earth Dragon King, but it feared Di Tian!

"Come with me!"

Jiang Heng gave the order with absolute dominance. Faced with the situation, the Golden Hawksbill Turtle could only resign itself to its fate.

Of course, it was not a fool either. From the way this Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast addressed Di Tian, it could infer a great deal of information.

Perhaps if it left with him, it would not die.

Jiang Heng then brought the Golden Hawksbill Turtle back to their Underground Palace.

"Th-this palace... you built it yourselves?!"

Looking at the palace before it, the Golden Hawksbill Turtle felt as though it had entered the human world. Compared to this place, where it had lived before was practically a doghouse.

Most importantly, living here was safe.

Unless Di Tian had something wrong with his brain, he would not dig more than two thousand meters underground just to find it.

"Give up your defenses and cooperate with me. If I forcibly remove the Gold of Life from your body, you can still live."

"Otherwise, at the rate this Gold of Life is draining your vitality, you will definitely die within a thousand years."

Once they arrived at the Underground Palace, Jiang Heng directly revealed his solution.

"Are you treating me like an idiot?"

"If I stop resisting and you take that chance to kill me, what am I supposed to do?"

"Even if you keep your promise, if you cut open my abdomen, wouldn't I still die?"

Upon hearing Jiang Heng's words, the Golden Hawksbill Turtle immediately lost its composure.

This was clearly an attempt to make sure it did not survive!

"Your Golden Hawksbill Turtle Clan is inherently similar to Auspicious Beasts. If I kill you, I'll be plagued by bad luck, and I definitely won't survive my next Heavenly Tribulation. Do you think I'm that stupid?"

"Even if you accidentally die while I'm extracting the Gold of Life to help you, it will still count as killing you, and I'll still suffer backlash. Since I dared to suggest this, I naturally have a way to handle it."

Jiang Heng felt that this fellow's brain had definitely gone haywire.

If he were a Golden Hawksbill Turtle, he would dig the Gold of Life out of his stomach even at the cost of half his life.

"Th-this..."

Hearing Jiang Heng's words, the Golden Hawksbill Turtle hesitated.

Its not-so-bright mind turned over the matter, and it suddenly felt that it made perfect sense.

"Fine, I'll cooperate with you!"

The Golden Hawksbill Turtle then made its decision.

If the Golden Hawksbill Turtle resisted with all its strength, its terrifying defense would make even Jiang Heng's dragon claw unable to break through its body.

Although the Golden Hawksbill Turtle could currently exert, at most, the strength of a forty- or fifty-thousand-year Soul Beast, it was still fundamentally a one-hundred-ninety-thousand-year Soul Beast.

Fortunately, it fully cooperated and did not resist.

Jiang Heng then used his sharp dragon claw to cut open the Golden Hawksbill Turtle's abdomen.

After locating the Gold of Life, he made a precise incision and directly carved it out along with a chunk of the surrounding flesh.

During the process, the Golden Hawksbill Turtle directly severed its senses. Otherwise, it feared the pain would kill it.

After successfully extracting the Gold of Life, Jiang Heng began stitching it up.

Yes, stitching it up—very roughly.

If not for the formidable vitality of a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast, Jiang Heng's treatment would have killed the Golden Hawksbill Turtle long ago.

Fortunately, everything went smoothly.

"Rest and recover slowly. In a few hundred years, perhaps you'll be lively and well again."

Looking at the half-dead Golden Hawksbill Turtle lying there, Jiang Heng spoke softly.

This also bound the Golden Hawksbill Turtle here, allowing him and his clansmen to grow stronger more quickly.

Of course, if a suitable opportunity arose, he would kill the Golden Hawksbill Turtle without hesitation. Since it concerned the Gold of Life, only a dead beast could keep the secret.

Even the clansmen who had accompanied him to find the Golden Hawksbill Turtle did not know what he had been doing.

Naturally, the Golden Hawksbill Turtle could not die by his hand. Things like fate truly could bring backlash.

He would find a suitable opportunity to have humans make the move, then kill those humans and avenge the Golden Hawksbill Turtle.

Afterward, he began studying the Gold of Life.

Swallowing it would mean certain death, unless one was extremely powerful or possessed an ability related to devouring.

He truly could not integrate it into his Spirit Sea to nourish his spiritual power. What he currently lacked most was spiritual power.

Although he had inherited the former owner's Spirit Origin and had barely reached the Formed Without Substance Realm, he was still ultimately lacking.

However, by keeping it on him, he could constantly feel his strength growing stronger. Even the hidden injuries within his body were quietly recovering.

This thing was truly heaven-defying.

Therefore, he did not immediately make use of the Gold of Life. Instead, he hid it on his person and let it constantly assist the growth of his strength.

With the Golden Hawksbill Turtle here and the Gold of Life in hand, the entire Golden Earth Dragon Clan could feel their strength rapidly increasing.

During this period, he had been studying the items obtained from human Storage Soul Tools.

He also had his clansmen gather more Storage Soul Tools of the same kind.

Through the knowledge contained in those Storage Soul Tools, combined with the Soul Beast Clan's innate senses, he had his clansmen find many herbs in the Star Dou Great Forest that could increase spiritual power.

With his powerful body nourishing him in return, the Gold of Life's enrichment, and the assistance of various spiritual power-enhancing herbs, it took less than ten years for his spiritual power to completely stabilize at the Formed Without Substance Realm, comparable to a level-92 Title Douluo among human Soul Masters.

Combined with a Soul Beast's powerful physique, that was enough to support him in condensing a Soul Core.

As for the method of condensing a Soul Core, he had obtained it from the Golden Hawksbill Turtle as well.

With all preparations complete, he began condensing his Soul Core.