"Boy, want a Soul Ring? A million-year one!"
"No time to explain. Let's get straight to it!"
The Star Dou Great Forest!
The earth shook, and a massive fissure split open, uprooting countless towering ancient trees.
Li Jin stared ahead, his eyes wide, as a plump, white Ice Silkworm with ten rings of golden markings on his body crawled out of the fissure.
He said only those two sentences before beginning his sacrifice. Terrifying power capable of warping space formed a special barrier.
The aftershocks alone caused the minds of every Soul Beast and Soul Master within a hundred li to freeze for an instant.
Inside the barrier, the Ice Silkworm transformed into a vast torrent of power and poured straight into Li Jin's body.
At the sight, Li Jin cried inwardly, Holy shit!
Isn't this the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm?
He's Huo Yuhao's golden finger from ten thousand years in the future!
With those ten rings of golden markings on his body, he's already reached a million years of cultivation.
But how did he reach a million years of cultivation ten thousand years early?
When my Koi Physique's good luck comes, there's no stopping it.
Wonderful!
My First Soul Ring is a million-year Soul Ring. I get to enjoy the Huo Yuhao treatment too.
The Sky Dream Ice Silkworm was exceedingly crafty. It looked like a sacrifice, but he had actually hidden all his million years of cultivation inside his cast-off shell, without letting a single bit merge into Li Jin.
He was a spiritual-type Soul Beast. For other Soul Beasts, sacrifice was completely irreversible.
For him, however, it merely meant letting his soul temporarily leave his body. As long as he protected his body and cultivation, once his soul returned to his body in the future, he would be that million-year Soul Beast again.
Hehe, I'll use this human boy's fortune and destiny to evade Di Tian's pursuit. Once I escape the Star Dou Great Forest, I'll return my soul to my body and head back to the Far North to find my Bingbing.
Since this was ten thousand years earlier, the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm did not yet have his god-making plan. He simply wanted to use Li Jin's body to hide from Di Tian and his gang of Ferocious Beasts.
His sacrifice was therefore a sham sacrifice as well.
The Sky Dream Ice Silkworm harbored nothing but ill intent toward Li Jin, giving no thought whatsoever to whether sacrificing himself to Li Jin and then leaving him would cause irreversible harm to Li Jin's body.
Little did he know that all his malice toward Li Jin would ultimately become the chains that strangled him.
The Sky Dream Ice Silkworm's craftiness had also done Li Jin a huge favor.
A million years of cultivation was simply more than a Soul Scholar like Li Jin, who did not have even one Soul Ring, could withstand.
By hiding his million years of cultivation inside his cast-off shell, the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm had prevented Li Jin's body from being burst apart outright.
As for the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm's soul, he took his spiritual origin into Li Jin's Sea of Consciousness for a temporary stay.
This Sea of Consciousness hasn't even been opened yet. Then I'll open one for you now. Even if it's only a temporary home, I still need to live in comfort.
The Sky Dream Ice Silkworm mobilized his spiritual origin and poured it into a dull gray region within Li Jin's mind.
Li Jin's mind shook. Like Pangu cleaving heaven and earth apart, the first ray of light appeared within that dull gray region.
The light was gentle, not blinding.
Wherever the light passed, all the dull gray mist was swept away, and trickling streams gathered. They were none other than Li Jin's spiritual power.
With the constant nourishment of the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm's spiritual origin, the newly opened, still unstable Sea of Consciousness stabilized at a speed visible to the naked eye.
The Sky Dream Ice Silkworm nodded in satisfaction. Now this looked like somewhere he could live.
Just as he was about to settle in comfortably.
A streak of nine-colored light flashed toward him.
It slammed into the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm, knocking him off balance, and moved into Li Jin's Sea of Consciousness before he could.
The Sky Dream Ice Silkworm flew into a rage. It was like paying an exorbitant price and finally managing to buy a house.
Before he could move into his new house, someone else had moved in first.
"Who is it? I worked my ass off to open this Sea of Consciousness, and I haven't even lived in it yet! Who the fuck dares fight me for it?"
The Sky Dream Ice Silkworm looked closely.
Swimming around in Li Jin's Sea of Consciousness was an exquisitely beautiful carp. Nine colors adorned its body, shifting back and forth as it swam, making it a truly lovely sight.
The Sky Dream Ice Silkworm sensed the close connection between the Nine-Colored Koi and Li Jin. Within Li Jin's Sea of Consciousness, it was completely like a fish in water.
"So it's you. Even if you're this boy's Martial Soul, you can't steal the Sea of Consciousness I worked so hard to open."
Brimming with aggression, the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm was about to drive the Nine-Colored Koi away.
The Nine-Colored Koi noticed and merely gave the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm an indifferent glance.
The Sky Dream Ice Silkworm discovered, to his horror, that his spiritual origin was slipping out of his control. His intangible fortune and tangible origin were being stripped from his soul together.
"Impossible! Absolutely impossible!"
"Why is the origin I worked so hard to cultivate slipping out of my control?"
"It's the sacrifice process! But I already stopped it! Why is the sacrifice still continuing? Stop! Stop right now!"
Eating and sleeping, sleeping and eating, was hard work too.
Since he had offered himself as a sacrifice, he ought to act like a sacrifice.
If he wanted to stop halfway through, that depended on whether the Nine-Colored Koi agreed.
The Sky Dream Ice Silkworm watched helplessly as ten masses of spiritual origin, as dazzling as suns, were stripped from his Ice Silkworm body.
They hung high in the sky of this Sea of Consciousness, radiating light like suns and subtly nourishing it, causing it to continue expanding.
"That's my spiritual origin!"
The Sky Dream Ice Silkworm shrieked and charged toward the suns in the sky.
Seeing this, the Nine-Colored Koi suddenly sprang up like a carp leaping through the Dragon Gate and lashed its tail into the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm.
With a smack, the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm fell.
"Boohoo! You stole my spiritual origin, and now you're hitting me too! I'll fight you to the death!"
The Sky Dream Ice Silkworm sobbed and continued charging toward the suns in the sky.
The Nine-Colored Koi circled those ten suns. Every time the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm charged up, it slapped him back down.
Then, right in front of the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm, it took a deep breath toward one of the suns, as though mocking a powerless husband who could only watch it absorb his spiritual origin.
The Sky Dream Ice Silkworm was utterly dumbfounded.
This wasn't how the script was supposed to go!
He was a mighty million-year spiritual-type Soul Beast. He could clearly control his own sacrifice process, so why had it gone out of control?
The sham sacrifice had become a real sacrifice.
At that moment, Li Jin was in an excellent mood. He had opened the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm's skill library and was choosing the four skills he needed.
Spiritual Detection!
I'll take that!
Spiritual Sharing!
I'll take that too!
Mental Interference!
I'll pass on that. Just as Blue Silver Grass was naturally capable of Entanglement, as long as my spiritual power was strong enough, why worry about lacking the ability to interfere?
Spiritual Shock!
I'll pass on that too. The same reasoning applied as with Mental Interference. As long as my spiritual power was strong enough, releasing it would naturally produce an impact.
Spiritual Telekinesis!
I'll take that. I could develop it into the ability to control objects-flying needles and knives early on, then boulders and even mountains later.
Spiritual Bestowal!
I'll take that too. I could temporarily bestow my spiritual power upon lifeless matter, granting it temporary life and controlling it as an extension of my mind.