Only moments later, Brother Sky Dream and Huo Yuhao appeared in another dense grove near the edge of the Star Dou Great Forest. This grove lay deeper within the forest than the area Huo Yuhao had occupied before, but it was still within its outer reaches.
"Brother Sky Dream, your earth burrowing technique is incredible!"
Huo Yuhao meant every word. Brother Sky Dream's power had carried him all the way here, and he had not even been able to see anything.
Yet there had not been the slightest jolt along the way, and even his breathing had remained perfectly smooth. It was as though the earth beneath their feet was nothing more than a pond in which Brother Sky Dream could swim at will.
His name is the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm, so why does he have an earthworm's innate ability? What a baffling question, Huo Yuhao could not help wondering.
"That human should have been killed somewhere within a one-li radius of here. But don't be afraid. Although a hundred-thousand-year soul beast killed him, that only happened because a beast tide sent a hundred-thousand-year beast king out to attack a human city. Under normal circumstances, hundred-thousand-year soul beasts don't leave the core of the Star Dou Great Forest." Brother Sky Dream's voice was rather weak now. Clearly, his claim that he had little time left had not been pulled out of thin air.
"Come on, Brother Sky Dream. Let's hurry and complete the fusion." Huo Yuhao no longer hesitated. He opened his consciousness completely, ready to merge with the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm.
At the same time, he slipped the ancient-looking black ring off his hand, placed it solemnly on a flat piece of bluestone before him, and bowed respectfully to it several times.
"What are you doing?" the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm asked, puzzled. "All right, all right, don't waste time. Young lad, bear with it. Your big brother is coming in!"
Huo Yuhao's mouth twitched at those words, but before he could voice any objection, an aura of extreme cold instantly robbed him of consciousness.
He only vaguely saw Brother Sky Dream's enormous body press down toward his own frail frame. The next moment, all ability to think deserted him.
The ten golden rings on the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm's body pulsed as though they had come alive, while his large head rested against Huo Yuhao's forehead.
The ten golden rings swiftly enveloped Huo Yuhao's body, while the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm himself transformed into a white radiance that poured into him.
At the same time, the ancient-looking black ring Huo Yuhao had placed on the bluestone actually began to glow faintly. As though some strange suction existed within it, a tiny wisp of the white radiance Brother Sky Dream had become was drawn away and vanished into the ring.
"This body is far too weak! Sorrow fills my eyes, and the passing years cannot carry away my million years of grief! I'm so pitiful. How many seals will I have to place on myself before this feeble body can withstand me? Being a Wisdom Soul Ring really isn't easy!"
Yet just as Brother Sky Dream was sighing and lamenting, the previously bright sky above the Star Dou Great Forest suddenly darkened. A thunderous boom rang out high overhead, and in that instant, darkness completely blotted out the sun's light.
A terrifying pressure, like the boundless might of heaven itself, descended instantly. The Sky Dream Ice Silkworm turned to look up in horror. Mixed into that horror was a measure of bewilderment; he had no idea what had happened.
"No way! Has the tribulation lightning I've built up over a million years decided to settle the whole bill with me now, all in one go?"
Contrary to Brother Sky Dream's expectations, however, a gray stream of energy suddenly descended from the sky. Like a bolt of gray lightning, it instantly entered Huo Yuhao's body through the back of his head.
"What dares to fight me over him?"
The Sky Dream Ice Silkworm flew into a rage. He mobilized the vast spiritual origin he had accumulated over a million years, trying to drive the gray stream of energy out of Huo Yuhao's body.
Suddenly, an indistinct figure appeared behind Huo Yuhao. An aged voice rang out with indescribable majesty. "With sun and moon in my hands, I pluck the stars; none in this world can match me. To think a wisp of this old man's remnant soul could still survive."
Faced with the assault of the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm's immense spiritual power, the hazy, illusory figure seemed entirely unaffected. In the blink of an eye, he vanished.
"How strange. Forget it, I'll leave him alone." Brother Sky Dream shook his large head. Had he possessed hands, he would surely have spread them in a little bear's shrug. "Whatever the case, I'm finally free! You bastards who treated me as food, you've lost your chance! Wahahaha!"
The Sky Dream Ice Silkworm's triumphant voice gradually faded. The terrifying spiritual fluctuations that had previously blanketed an area a full hundred li in radius also slowly disappeared.
A lustrous white ring silently appeared beneath Huo Yuhao. After circling his body three times, it faded again, merging into him and vanishing.
A thin white membrane tinged with pale gold silently rose from the ground. It rapidly shrank, condensed into a clump, and slipped into the front of Huo Yuhao's clothing, disappearing from sight. With that, not the slightest trace of the million-year soul beast, the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm, remained.
At that moment, Tang Ya and Bei Bei were searching for traces of Huo Yuhao in the outer reaches of the Star Dou Great Forest, five li away. In the woods not far from them, a three-meter-long snake with a peach-pink body and a small flower-shaped protrusion on its forehead was rapidly heading toward the two of them.
Within Huo Yuhao's Sea of Consciousness, a likeness of him formed from spiritual power looked around at the scenery with some curiosity.
Countless points of light filled this pure white space, stretching beyond the limits of sight. Yet his vision somehow seemed capable of reaching every corner of it.
"So your name is Huo Yuhao." A voice rang out unexpectedly. It belonged to Brother Sky Dream, who had already become ten great lamps within Huo Yuhao's Sea of Consciousness.
"Yes. Hello, Brother Sky Dream," Huo Yuhao said quite calmly. Had he been the boy with the spiritual eyes from the original story, perhaps he would have found the sight before him wondrous and thrilling.
But he had lived two lives, and in his previous one, he had been an elite assassin who had endured brutal training. Whatever situation he faced, he would not feel surprised.
Unless he could not help it.
"Your memories are very strange. I just tried to copy them, but I could only copy a portion. The rest seemed to be firmly locked away by powerful forces of time and space. I've never encountered such mighty temporal and spatial power before. Even when Di Tian was injured by the Evil Emperor's Light of Time and Space back then, the Evil Emperor's power over time and space couldn't compare with what's in your memories," the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm said in wonder.
Huo Yuhao raised his eyebrows in mild surprise, but he did not answer that question.
After all, I'm a bona fide transmigrator. Shouldn't I get a few special privileges?
Besides, it was better for him if others could not learn of his memories from his previous life on Blue Star. Although Brother Sky Dream had already merged with him, he actually still possessed the ability to leave his body.
Since Brother Sky Dream had only read the original owner's memories and his own recent ones, his identity as a transmigrator could remain completely protected from disclosure.
After all, no one could say whether future events would unfold as they had in the original story. Keeping a few secrets of his own was a good thing.
"Brother Sky Dream, I don't understand any of what you're talking about. But I'd like to ask something. A powerful million-year soul beast like you must already rank among the very strongest beings on the Douluo Continent, right? Why would you be willing to become my soul ring?"
As a professional assassin, he had to study social engineering, or the art of social interaction. Even an idiot could take a knife and hack at someone, but using honeyed words and an ingratiating manner to create an opportunity to approach a target was a skill.
And as an assassin of the highest caliber, Huo Yuhao had scratched Brother Sky Dream right where he itched with that single remark. Not only had he lavished praise on him, but he had also handed the conversation over to Brother Sky Dream, giving him a chance to pour out his heart.
Taking up the conversational opening Huo Yuhao had deliberately offered, the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm, who had been confined for tens of thousands of years without anyone to talk to, once again began speaking in an endless stream.
From his birth in the Far North Ice Plains and his chance fall into a cavern of ten-thousand-year cold marrow, after which he had lived as though he had cheats enabled, sleeping his way to the cultivation level of a ferocious beast, to his imprisonment by the ferocious beasts of the Star Dou Great Forest and his successful escape after breaking through the million-year soul beast threshold, he recounted everything to Huo Yuhao down to the smallest detail.
Next, the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm began lavishly boasting about the continent's first Million-Year Soul Ring, which he had provided to Huo Yuhao, and the four soul skills that came with it.
Of course, it could not really be called boasting. After all, the four soul skills the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm had given Huo Yuhao were genuinely badass.
Yet a wisp of aura leaking from the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm's million years of cultivation was instantly detected by the surrounding soul beasts.
Whether they were hundred-year soul beasts or thousand-year soul beasts, all of them now came racing toward Huo Yuhao.
"Hmm, this little fellow's soul perception is quite extraordinary. He actually faintly sensed this old man's presence. Heh, very well. Since I've benefited from you and accepted your respects, there's no harm in lending you a hand."
On the bluestone, a wisp of eerie white flame suddenly seeped out of the ancient-looking black ring. Immediately afterward, the dozen or so soul beasts charging toward Huo Yuhao were turned into ice sculptures, frozen where they stood.