A Grand Grievance Session

A Grand Grievance Session

Huo Yuhao's consciousness entered his Sea of Spirit. After Bibi Dong had spent a year restoring it, the entire space had transformed into a vast, boundless palace. Looking up, he saw an endless sea of stars, countless points of light stretching beyond sight. Yet his gaze could reach every corner of this space.

Just as he marveled at Bibi Dong's miraculous handiwork, his consciousness was abruptly pulled into the palace. There, he saw a gigantic Ice Silkworm prostrated on the ground, along with a mass of gray airflow.

Five brilliant golden lights converged into five enormous golden rings, floating in midair. Their presence made every structure within the palace much brighter.

The golden rings began to rotate slowly. Within each ring, milky-white halos emerged, growing ever brighter until they gradually became enormous spheres of light suspended in the air. The palace's height and volume expanded by an unknown number of times as well.

Bibi Dong's beautiful eyes flickered. She had once thought Huo Hang's life in the original Worldline was too unreal, even suspecting it had been Huo Yuhao's fantasy. Yet her words had become prophecy. In the blink of an eye, this Million-Year Soul Beast and a divine consciousness from a foreign land had arrived here.

If she had possessed such cheats before becoming a god, why would the Spirit Hall Empire have failed to unite the continent? Perhaps, as the God Realm claimed, a Son of Fortune appeared on Douluo Continent every so often, just like Tang San, the Sea God who had once dominated the continent.

Then Tang San had cleverly made use of the second Son of Fortune, Huo Yuhao, gathering all that fortune into his own family. That was why the legends of Tang Wulin and Lan Xuanyu came afterward.

If Huo Yuhao had not brought her out of the Rakshasa Divine Statue, then once the Douluo Plane was completely controlled by the Tang family, what awaited her might not have been merely the Asura God Sword and Sea God Trident. There would have been Asura's Eye and a Dragon God Spear as well.

At that thought, Bibi Dong could not help but feel a lingering chill of fear.

Seeing Huo Yuhao approach the divine throne, Sky Dream Ice Silkworm immediately cast him a pleading look. Huo Yuhao could not help but laugh.

"Big bug, why did you choose this child?" Bibi Dong asked Sky Dream Ice Silkworm, brushing the hair from her forehead. Her voice carried an inviolable majesty.

Sky Dream Ice Silkworm let out a long sigh. "You think I wanted to choose him? I had no choice! If I didn't choose someone, my life would have ended. Once I died, my body would have become food for those guys in the Star Dou Great Forest. Left with no alternative, I could only take this desperate measure and attach myself to a human. This was my only way out. If you want to hear my story, we'll be together for a long, long time. I don't want to hide anything from you."

Huo Yuhao exchanged a look with Bibi Dong, then nodded. "Tianmeng, go ahead."

Sky Dream Ice Silkworm timidly raised his head to glance at Bibi Dong before speaking. "Actually... I was originally a very ordinary Ice Silkworm Soul Beast, born in the frigid lands of the continent's north. We Ice Silkworms are naturally Soul Beasts who cultivate both the Spiritual Attribute and Ice Attribute. Our combat power is severely limited by how quickly we advance, so we can only be considered very ordinary Soul Beasts. Besides, we have countless natural predators. Almost none of our kin can cultivate for more than ten thousand years. I was the sole exception."

Hearing a story much like the original, Bibi Dong frowned slightly. But Huo Yuhao gave her a look, telling her to let Sky Dream Ice Silkworm continue airing his grievances.

"When I was thirteen, I was fleeing pursuit when I accidentally fell into an ice crevice. That was actually a mass of Ten-Thousand-Year Cold Marrow. I fell into hibernation because of it. I was still very weak then, less than three inches long. That sleep lasted ten thousand years. When I woke up, I found myself in an ice cave. The Ten-Thousand-Year Cold Marrow that had originally been there was long gone. It turned out I had absorbed it all myself, and thus transformed into a Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast. I was overjoyed at the time, but tragically, I couldn't find a way out."

Huo Yuhao nodded silently and gave Bibi Dong a look, telling her to keep listening.

"The ice cave was filled with ten-thousand-year ice, incomparably hard. Our Ice Silkworm clan has always been weak in combat, so there was no way I could force my way out. Fortunately, the cave had many openings that I could crawl through. So I crawled around inside, searching for an exit. In the end... I didn't find an exit, but I found an even larger mass of Ten-Thousand-Year Cold Marrow... With Ten-Thousand-Year Cold Marrow, I had food again. As I ate, I fell asleep once more. That sleep lasted several more tens of thousands of years..."

As Bibi Dong listened to Sky Dream Ice Silkworm's account, a strange feeling suddenly arose in her heart. Sky Dream Ice Silkworm's luck probably did not lose out to any Son of Fortune on Douluo Continent over the past ten thousand years.

"After that, I simply stopped searching for a way out. I crawled around inside looking for Ten-Thousand-Year Cold Marrow to eat. Whenever I found a large mass, I would eat it and sleep. Eventually, even I no longer knew how long I had slept, until the first golden stripe appeared on my body."

Ten thousand years ago, Bibi Dong had known a fair amount about the Soul Beast world through Spirit Hall. To the Ice Silkworm clan, golden stripes held extraordinary significance. They represented an Ice Silkworm's cultivation reaching the Hundred Thousand Year Cultivation level.

"In my memories, I was the first being in history to reach a Hundred Thousand Year Cultivation! At that time, I evolved into a Golden-Striped Ice Silkworm and gained enough power to break through the ice and leave. But I didn't understand then that becoming a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast would place immense restrictions on me, making it difficult to improve my cultivation further. Perhaps I was lucky, and perhaps it was because our Ice Silkworm clan lacked combat power, but somehow I did not attract any heavenly punishment... After sleeping so much, I became too lazy to leave. So I simply kept sleeping in the ice cave. As my cultivation rose, I could break through solid ice and enter places I couldn't reach before. That was how I discovered even more premium cold marrow deep within the ice cave. They became my food as well." Sky Dream Ice Silkworm recounted the past in detail.

"And so, I ate and slept, slept and ate. I had no idea how much time had passed. Only the golden stripes on my body could calculate how long I had existed on this continent."

"Eventually, I ate all the cold marrow in the ice cave. I had no choice but to burrow out from the bottom of the cave and enter the sea. I drifted along the ocean, following the edge of the continent southward. It was during that journey that I encountered an enemy for the first time..."

"By then, I already had nine golden stripes. I was a ninety-thousand-year Soul Beast without precedent. I thought I should have been invincible in this world, but..."

At this point, Sky Dream Ice Silkworm cautiously glanced at Bibi Dong, visibly embarrassed. "As we fought, I realized that apart from sleeping, I seemed unable to do anything at all. I wasn't very good at fighting, either. In the end, I relied on my immense Spiritual Power to scare the enemy away. That finally made me wary. I tried cultivating offensive abilities, but long years of cultivation for our Ice Silkworm clan did not mean great strength. I truly was a Million-Year Soul Beast, but my combat power was actually inferior to that of some ordinary Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts. I was even less capable of defeating those Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts with powerful bloodlines and expertise in battle."

By the time it said this, Bibi Dong's beautiful eyes were almost filled with contempt.

"The deep sea is a forbidden zone for humans. Soul Beasts there have higher cultivation and are more dangerous. At the time, I thought the land might be safer. So I went ashore. But the land didn't seem peaceful either. Perhaps because I had absorbed too much cold marrow, my body carried a scent that could attract the attention of every Soul Beast, making them regard me as the finest possible tonic." Sky Dream Ice Silkworm continued recounting its tragic history.

Huo Yuhao covered his forehead with one hand. Although the wording differed somewhat from the original Worldline, it was clear that this guy was truly hopeless!

"In the end, I was caught by Scarlet King in the Star Dou Great Forest. But it didn't kill me immediately. Instead, it brought me to the Star Dou Great Forest's core region. It said that I possessed too much World Origin Energy. As long as it could absorb and transform the power within me, any Soul Beast could become a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast, and Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts could break free from the limits imposed by cultivation years. But because the power I had cultivated for a million years was too immense, it would take a long time to absorb. That was why it brought me back to its lair."

"But that guy underestimated me. I might not be good at fighting, but I can amplify my aura. So I drew over every Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast in the Star Dou Great Forest, even those rulers, hehehe..."

As she listened, even Bibi Dong's eyelids twitched wildly. This big bug was far too good at stirring up trouble.

No wonder she had not encountered Beast God Ditian and that group of Soul Beast kings ten thousand years ago. They had apparently gone to divide up this fellow's value long ago.

"That was an enormous melee, involving almost every Soul Beast in the Star Dou Great Forest with more than ten thousand years of cultivation. They fought with such savage intensity! I thought I had a chance to escape, but who knew that those guys had an unfathomable leader? He actually stopped them and began negotiations. Then tragedy struck me—they ultimately decided to absorb my power together. After all, the Soul Power within me was vast enough. In the end, they trapped me in the center of the Star Dou Great Forest and forced me to release my World Origin Energy for them to absorb. The stronger beasts were positioned closer to me, so they gained greater benefits..." Sky Dream Ice Silkworm cried miserably.

"I had no way to resist, so I could only let them manipulate me. While they drained me, I thought of ways to escape their control. My origin energy was pure enough to sustain their absorption for ten thousand years. After several thousand years of thought and observation, I realized that escaping their control required more than simply running away. I also had to hide my aura. Later, humans gradually began entering my field of vision. Several times, groups of particularly powerful humans entered the depths of the Star Dou Great Forest, seeking to hunt those Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts. Unfortunately, nourished by me, the ferocious beasts in the Star Dou Great Forest had surely become the strongest group of Soul Beasts on Douluo Continent. Even though those humans possessed powerful weapons, they still suffered badly."

"Mm, so the ferocious beasts of Star Dou are much stronger than they were several thousand years ago. It turns out that was your doing." Bibi Dong suddenly smiled, though danger radiated from that smile no matter how one looked at it.

Ten thousand years ago, when Spirit Hall hunted Soul Rings and Soul Bones, it had suffered no small number of losses in the Star Dou Great Forest. Bibi Dong had even heard from Qian Daoliu that somewhere within the Star Dou Great Forest lurked terrifying beings far stronger than the Titan Giant Ape and Sky Azure Bull Python.

"I am a Soul Beast with both Spiritual and Ice Attributes. After much consideration, I decided to become the Soul Ring of a human Soul Master. That way, the human would definitely become especially powerful in the future. With my Spiritual Attribute, I could preserve my consciousness and become the first Wisdom Soul Ring in human history. So I began trying, but my first attempt failed. The person I chose seemed to be one of your human Titled Douluo. He was quite powerful, and his physical body was incredibly strong, but his spiritual cultivation was utter trash. He was actually blown apart by me in an instant. He never even saw my true body; he couldn't withstand merely the impact of my Spiritual Power. Only then did I realize that becoming my host was no easy matter. First, they had to possess the Spiritual Attribute. Then they needed the capacity to bear my Soul Power. That was even harder... So I searched for several thousand years without success. Meanwhile, my origin energy had been almost completely drained by those Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts. I was nearly at the end of my rope..."

"Heaven still favored me. Just when I had fallen into despair, the tenth golden stripe appeared on my body, making me the first Million-Year Soul Beast in history. When that tenth golden stripe emerged, I finally gained the power to contend with Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts and the ability to hide my aura. So I officially named myself Sky Dream Ice Silkworm. But I definitely couldn't defeat the many Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts and ferocious beasts in the Star Dou Great Forest. Besides, they had already absorbed nearly all of my World Origin Energy. All that remained was my Innate Soul Power, the greatest tonic to them—that is, my two attributes had not been absorbed. I couldn't avenge myself. So I found an opportunity and finally used the power I gained after my breakthrough to hide my aura and escape underground."

"Ah—" Sky Dream Ice Silkworm sighed mournfully. "Unfortunately, I was still a tragedy. Breaking through to a million years was a double-edged sword. Though it barely allowed me to escape their control, my lifespan had reached its end because of the sudden heavenly punishment. If I couldn't survive by another method, I would soon die of life exhaustion. It was then that I met you, little fellow. You aren't particularly strong, but I had no other choice! At least you possess the Spiritual Attribute. So I could only reluctantly fuse with you. No matter what, those bastards won't get the most precious thing I possess..."

Listening to Sky Dream Ice Silkworm's account, which was much the same as in the original story, Huo Yuhao smiled. "It's fine, Tianmeng. From now on, we're family. As you can see, a god resides in my Sea of Spirit. My future certainly won't make you regret today's choice."

There are always troublemakers plotting against me. Heh heh.