'My chest feels so tight…' Gu You braced himself against the wall, clutching his chest with the other hand. His vision blurred, and in the haze, a streak of purple light floated ahead. He instinctively reached for it but couldn't touch it… The light kept drifting forward, and Gu You kept following.
'What just happened?' Gu You snapped back to himself, hearing low growls echoing from all directions down the corridor. It looked like a massive warehouse, with towering iron cages that seemed to hold something unknown inside.
As he stepped closer, a pair of blood-red eyes emerged from the darkness.
"Whoa! Scared me half to death!" Gu You stumbled back, heart racing. Standing before him was a massive creature — a hundred-year Ice Crystal Bear — and around it, countless other hundred-year spirit beasts.
Ice Feather Serpents, Ice Silkworms… all rare species native to the extreme north. Judging by this setup, it was clear the evil soul masters were responsible for capturing them.
A deep roar rumbled through the air again, this time more intense than the others. Gu You's eyes widened. 'That's… a thousand-year Ice Crystal Titan Bear! A mutated form!'
Seeing a thousand-year spirit beast in person for the first time, Gu You felt something odd — not fear, but excitement and even a strange sense of satisfaction.
Suddenly, his spirit rings rose at his feet, and a dragon's roar thundered through the room. Instantly, the entire beast cage fell silent. The fierce, glowing eyes of the spirit beasts softened.
'What the…? My martial soul can activate itself? It's this advanced?'
Gu You furrowed his brows and looked up — only to jolt in surprise. The thousand-year beast was now lying calmly before him, no longer aggressive but gentle, almost tame.
'Seriously?'
Slowly, Gu You extended his hand to touch the Ice Crystal Titan Bear. Its surface felt cool and smooth, and the beast showed no sign of resisting. Even its innate freezing effect, which could normally freeze anyone solid on contact, had no effect on him.
Just as Gu You was marveling at the feel, the massive bear dissolved into a shower of light, merging straight into his mind. A surge of cold energy rushed through him, making him let out a soft gasp.
One by one, the other hundred-year spirit beasts also turned into glimmers of light, fusing into Gu You's spiritual sea.
Inside his spiritual sea, the surface began to ripple and boil. Bursts of vitality emerged, and the space kept expanding. Waves crashed, and in the blink of an eye, land began to form, snowy plains stretched out, the sun and moon appeared in succession, and two continents emerged.
From above, the area wasn't vast, but the snowy plains covered most of it, while the forested highlands took up only a small section. It seemed the balance matched the proportions of the types of spirit beasts — most suited to the snowy north, with only a few adapted to forests and highlands, like the tiny chicken-like Ji Ji Ba and the Ice Crystal Titan Bear.
'I… have an entire world inside my mind?!'
For a moment, Gu You stood stunned. The suddenness of it all left him dazed and scattered.
"It seems… you're not so bad after all," Gu You murmured, glancing at the dragon-scaled claws covering his hand with a faint smile.
Meanwhile, Ji Ji Ba stood blinking in confusion, staring at the massive presence in front of it. 'How is this thing bigger than me? And… where even is this place?'
As Gu You exited his spiritual sea, he felt his mind brimming with energy, as if he had access to endless spiritual power.
'A boundless spiritual sea… this is creation itself.'
This unexpected opportunity had directly pushed his spiritual power past the Spirit Sea Realm, likely between 1200 to 1400.
'So absorbing spirit beasts boosts my spiritual power? At this rate… aren't I basically unstoppable?'
Excited, Gu You set off again, determined to see if there were any other stray beasts he could find.
With a splash, Gu You dropped a wooden plank and leapt down into a hidden chamber he had spent ages locating. There had to be treasure here.
The air was damp, and ancient green bricks supported the underground beams. The farther in he walked, the clearer his vision became.
'Just as I thought!'
Rows of iron cages lined the space again, filled with spirit beasts — mostly thousand-year ones this time, though some were just hundred-year. Thankfully, no ten-thousand-year beasts, or things would get truly out of hand.
Still, Gu You had to admit, the evil soul masters' methods were impressive. Capturing so many live thousand-year spirit beasts? If handed over to the Spirit Transferring Tower, these would fetch an astronomical price.
But Gu You wasn't that kind of person. Releasing his martial soul aura once again, he calmly absorbed all these spirit beasts into his spiritual sea.
His mental domain expanded once more, the snowy plains now occupying nearly his entire mental world, leaving just a tiny patch of forested highlands.
'Ah… this feels amazing.'
'Looks like I'm at mid-Spirit Sea Realm at least,' Gu You calculated.
'Alright, let's move!'
Striding along cheerfully, Gu You stepped forward — only to fall straight into another hidden tunnel. The surrounding air grew colder, and he instinctively curled up. 'These evil soul masters… they really love their traps.'
The chill deepened. Even though Gu You could handle sub-zero temperatures, this felt like being thrown into minus-thirty conditions without warning.
"Human!"
'What the hell?!'
A cold, crisp voice pierced Gu You's ears. From the distant mist, a pair of ice-blue eyes slowly opened, gleaming like frosted jade. The figure approached, the temperature dropping sharply until even Gu You struggled to breathe.
And then, emerging from the fog, was the most beautiful scorpion he had ever seen. Its pale blue scales shimmered with an icy glow, its tail stinger looking less like a weapon and more like a stunning adornment.
"Die!"
Before Gu You could react, the scorpion's massive tail shot toward him.
'Oh, crap!'
Gu You narrowly dodged, the massive stinger slamming into the ground with a heavy thud.
"You uh… you're not poisonous, right?" Gu You swallowed nervously. One hit from that would probably skewer him on the spot.
"Why don't you come test it yourself?" The Ice Emperor Scorpion snapped back without waiting, its massive pincers lunging forward.
"Wait, stop! You can talk, which means you're intelligent. You should know humans have an old saying: peace is precious!" Gu You raised his dragon claws to block the deadly strike.
"Argh! You're driving this emperor mad! If it weren't for the suppressing formation here, I'd have chopped you up already, you little human brat!" the Ice Emperor Scorpion fumed, pacing furiously.
"I get you're frustrated, but this won't solve anything. Wait… you're a hundred-thousand-year spirit beast, aren't you? Talking and all that…"
But the Ice Emperor Scorpion didn't care for Gu You's rambling. It simply lay down, playing dead as if it had no life left.
"Hey… you okay? Don't play dead now. I know you spirit beasts love pretending to lure prey close and then strike. I'm not falling for it," Gu You muttered, squinting skeptically.
"Come on… still faking it?" Gu You cautiously reached out and poked the scorpion's pincer.
"Heh heh! Got you now."
"Ah, crap! Don't come any closer!!"
Panicking, Gu You unleashed his first soul skill, but the blow merely bounced off the Ice Emperor Scorpion's hard shell with a dull thud.
'This is bad. Curiosity really does kill the cat. Looks like I've truly fallen into the spirit beast's trap this time…' Gu You thought bitterly.
(End of Chapter)
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