Chapter 497: Chapter 486: The Sword Cultivator Father
The speed of the old sea turtle became increasingly rapid, the seabed pitch-dark, and the pressure Ye Qiu suffered grew more and more intense. For a time, he actually couldn’t break through the sea turtle’s spiritual power shield.
"What is your purpose?" Ye Qiu unsheathed his long sword, his expression icy.
Spiritual beasts at the Nascent Soul Stage can’t transform nor speak, but they can communicate telepathically with cultivators. However, this sea turtle clearly was unwilling to engage in much conversation with Ye Qiu, its speed of descent growing faster in the dark currents-filled seabed, unobstructed.
The formidable deep-sea pressure made Ye Qiu feel stressed; the spiritual power shield was only to prevent him from escaping and did not provide any protective effect. In the confining space, he had already hastily dodged several turbulent streams.
"If you won’t release me, then don’t blame me for being impolite." Ye Qiu’s expression turned stern, spiritual power gathered in the sword, and he struck fiercely at the shield.
The spiritual power shield wobbled a few times, then immediately returned to its original state.
In the Cultivation World, turtle spiritual beasts are among the few with the strongest defensive power, their ancestors said to be one of the Four Great Divine Beasts, Xuanwu.
Speaking of Xuanwu, he recalled the Little Wood Spirit, Little Earth Spirit, among others he had encountered in a certain Cultivation World. The world’s hierarchy was certainly higher than this one, and spiritual energy much more abundant, otherwise they wouldn’t have successfully nurtured the Five Elements Origin. As much as both worlds are Cultivation Worlds, it is unknown whether they can communicate with this one.
However, thinking so much was useless at this moment, as this Old Turtle didn’t seem to harbor any good intentions. With that thought, he raised his long sword and continued to attack the spiritual power shield.
"Human, hand over the merfolk inner core and the spirit stones in your storage bag, as well as the inner cores of the sea beasts you hunted during this period." Just as Ye Qiu struck the same spot with a few consecutive swords, the old sea turtle finally spoke up, its deep and aged voice echoing in the deep sea, where no other creatures existed and the pitch-black seabed made everything feel even more empty and terrifying.
Ye Qiu’s mind sank, realizing that this Old Turtle had set his eyes on him long ago.
"In your dreams!" Ye Qiu spit out these three words coldly, swinging the sword even faster. It was obvious they had entered the Old Turtle’s territory, and sinking further could mean encountering more dangers and surprises.
"Human, you can’t escape; no one can break through my protection." Old Turtle cackled and continued to dive deeper.
"Can’t escape? You’re a bit too confident." Ye Qiu sneered dismissively, exuding the demeanor of the Lonely Swallow Sword Lord from his time in the Cultivation World. Being called the Lonely Swallow Sword Lord was not without reason; with his formidable Sword Qi, he was like a one-man stronghold, impervious to a multitude.
With this strike, the spiritual power shield significantly weakened, Old Turtle started to get angry, feeling that this human did not know how to appreciate favors.
Having lived in the deep sea for over a thousand years, even when the merfolk ruled this part of the deep sea, they couldn’t hurt it easily, let alone a mere Nascent Soul Early Stage human wishing to escape from it.
But some people are naturally beloved by the heavens. Although Ye Qiu was not a child of destiny like Lin Shen, being born with a Metal Spirit Root and being able to cultivate unimpeded to the Nascent Soul Early Stage in the Xuanyuan Realm, a world with a scarce spiritual energy, by the age of two hundred, spoke of his fortune and abilities which naturally weren’t too bad. Moreover, he was also a Sword Cultivator known for his attack prowess, so the outcome of who is stronger or weaker was not yet determined!
Every sword Ye Qiu wielded was extremely fierce, indeed exerting a fair amount of pressure on the Old Turtle.
However, he still did not escape. Being the long-term overlord of this seabed, it knew where the terrain was most advantageous to itself, and thus continued to flee with Ye Qiu in tow.
The continuous assaults of the underwater currents, along with the increasingly scarce spiritual energy, indeed exerted considerable pressure on Ye Qiu; this Old Turtle was no easy opponent!
However, this was also the reason Ye Qiu hadn’t exerted his full strength. After swinging his sword a few times, he realized something—this Old Turtle had a higher cultivation than him, at least at the Nascent Soul Middle Stage. It’s not easy for spiritual beasts to cultivate; often, they require much longer than humans to reach the same cultivation level.
He roughly estimated that this Old Turtle was at least a few hundred years old. The merfolk hadn’t vanished centuries ago, and since it could recognize a Merfolk Inner Core, it might know something about the secrets of the Merfolk Treasure.
Since the Old Turtle’s defenses were not easily broken, Ye Qiu simply decided not to waste his spiritual power and see where the old turtle intended to take him.
The Sword Qi he released grew weaker and weaker, and the Old Turtle thought its strategy was working, feeling inwardly delighted.
This was one of the weaknesses of spiritual beasts. Powerful spiritual beasts often have innate advantages and don’t need to cultivate to possess strong bodies and high levels of cultivation. However, Heavenly Dao is also fair—correspondingly, they cultivate slowly, and their intelligence isn’t quite sharp. Only the humanoid spiritual beasts, like the merfolk and Spiritual Ape, have slightly higher intelligence.
"Human, if you don’t want to die, hand over the Merfolk Inner Core quickly." The big turtle stopped in a certain area of the deep sea, where undercurrents raged, and spiritual energy was extremely scarce, posing great danger to ordinary cultivators.
But Ye Qiu was a Sword Cultivator, and the physique of a Sword Cultivator was only slightly weaker than that of a Body Cultivator. Having practiced swordplay at the peak of Hidden Sword Peak for a long time, Ye Qiu, after a brief period of adjustment, wasn’t greatly threatened by the currents.
The only concern was the lack of spiritual energy. However, if he needed spiritual energy, so did the big turtle. Ye Qiu’s disadvantage was that the Merfolk Inner Core could sustain him underwater for at most two months; if the big turtle remained immobile, he would eventually have to break through the defenses and escape.
He was now troubled that Little Golden Crow had been in closed-door cultivation for so long this time, causing his space to be sealed off from access as well. Otherwise, he would have had the resources to hold out against this Old Turtle.
"What do you want the Merfolk Inner Core for?"
"Of course, for cultivation. Hand it over now, or I’ll drown you," the Old Turtle said urgently, and Ye Qiu detected something unusual in its tone.
Narrowing his eyes, Ye Qiu asked as if testing the waters, "Oh, for cultivation, is it? I thought you needed it to unlock the mechanism of the Merfolk Treasure!"
"You know?" the Old Turtle asked eagerly, but immediately regretted speaking out and quickly refuted itself, "What treasure? I don’t understand. The merfolk have been gone for hundreds of years; where would any treasure come from? It’s complete nonsense."
The more it said this, the more convinced Ye Qiu became that it knew something about the Merfolk Treasure; he just didn’t know how much it knew.
"How about this—I’ll accompany you to find the Merfolk Treasure, and we’ll split it fifty-fifty," Ye Qiu suggested as a negotiation.
"Why should I share half with you? Hand over the inner core," the Old Turtle’s tone turned somewhat ferocious. As a defense-oriented spiritual beast, it hardly had any offensive means, which was quite frustrating; all it could do was trap Ye Qiu there and threaten him.
Ye Qiu simply sat down, speaking indifferently, "Although I can’t escape for the moment, you can’t really do anything to me either. Getting my life and the Merfolk Inner Core won’t be so easy. If it comes to it, we’ll both lose everything. Think carefully about that."
Having said that, he closed his eyes, paying no heed to the Old Turtle’s anxiety.