Listening to the Tianmeng Ice Worm ramble on, Huo Yuhao suddenly had a strange thought: was the name "Tianmeng" given to it simply because it spent every single day dreaming?
"Although I couldn't get out of that cave, the ten-thousand-year Ice Pith made me feel extremely comfortable. After that, I stopped looking for a way out. Instead, I just kept searching for ten-thousand-year Ice Pith to eat, and then I would go back to sleep. I don't even know how long I slept, until the first golden pattern appeared on my body.
"To us ice worms, a golden pattern is of utmost importance. It symbolizes that an ice worm's cultivation has reached the hundred-thousand-year level. As far as I can remember, no one in my ice worm clan had ever broken through to the hundred-thousand-year level; I was the very first. At that point, I evolved into a Gold-patterned Ice Worm. I finally had enough strength to break through the hard ice and escape. But back then, I didn't know that ten-thousand-year Soul Beasts faced many restrictions. Aside from their cultivation progressing extremely slowly, they also had to endure Heavenly Tribulation. Perhaps I was lucky; because an ice worm's combat strength is so weak, I didn't trigger the Heavenly Tribulation. Cough, cough... besides, I preferred sleeping and was too lazy to go out, so I just went back to sleep. By then, my cultivation was quite high, so I began exploring places I couldn't reach before. The deeper I went, the more premium Ice Pith I found, which all became my food.
"Just like that, I ate and slept, slept and ate, with no idea how much time had passed. I could only keep track of it by looking at the golden patterns on my body.
"Finally, one day, I ate every last bit of Ice Pith in the ice cave. I crawled out through a crack at the very end of the cave and made my way to the vast ocean. I drifted across the sea all the way to the Southern Continent. It was during this journey that I met my first enemy.
"By then, I had nine golden patterns, making me a powerful nine-hundred-thousand-year Soul Beast. I originally thought I was invincible in this world, but..."
Speaking up to this point, the Tianmeng Ice Worm was clearly a bit embarrassed:
"But, other than sleeping, I had never done anything else, let alone fight. In the end, I had to rely on my massive spiritual power to scare that enemy away. This incident made me vigilant, so I tried to train my offensive capabilities. However, I found that training them was completely useless. I was a million-year Soul Beast, yet my combat strength wasn't even comparable to a ten-thousand-year Soul Beast, let alone those battle-hardened hundred-thousand-year Soul Beasts. The outside world was just too dangerous. But I couldn't find my way back, either.
"The sea was very dangerous, so I thought the land might be a bit safer. Thus, I went ashore. But I soon discovered that the land wasn't peaceful either. Perhaps because I had absorbed too much Ice Pith, my body emitted a unique fragrance that attracted the attention of other Soul Beasts, making them want to turn me into their food."
In the end, I was captured by a powerful hundred-thousand-year soul beast from deep within the Star Dou Great Forest. But it didn't kill me right away; instead, it brought me deeper into the forest. From listening to it talk, I realized that because I had absorbed so much of the heaven and earth's origin energy, any soul beast could become a hundred-thousand-year soul beast just by absorbing and converting the power within me. And once they became a hundred-thousand-year soul beast, they could break free from the limitations of their cultivation lifespan. However, because my million-year cultivation power was so immense, it would take a very long time to absorb it all, which is why it brought me back to its lair.
But that fellow underestimated how formidable this brother is. Although I'm not very good at fighting, I can make my aura incredibly powerful. So, I lured all the hundred-thousand-year soul beasts in the Star Dou Great Forest over, hehe.
A massive free-for-all broke out, dragging in almost every soul beast of a hundred thousand years or older in the Star Dou Great Forest. Their battle was absolutely brutal! Originally, I thought I'd have a chance to escape. But while I knew how to use schemes, those guys were also very cunning and actually stopped midway to negotiate. As a result, this brother's tragedy began. In the end, they reached an agreement to share and absorb the power in my body. After all, the soul power inside me was incredibly vast. They then trapped me in the Star Dou Great Forest, forcing me to release my heaven and earth origin power for them to absorb. The stronger a soul beast's cultivation, the more they could absorb, and the greater the benefits they received. Those bastards practically treated this brother like food.
Sigh, unable to resist, I could only obey them. While being oppressed by them, this brother was also pondering if there was any way to escape their control. My origin power was extremely pure, enough for them to absorb for over ten thousand years. After several thousand years of contemplation and observation, I realized that to escape their control, I not only had to run away, but I also had to completely conceal my aura. Gradually, you humans began to enter my field of vision. A few times, some fairly powerful humans tried to venture deep into the Star Dou Great Forest to hunt hundred-thousand-year soul beasts. Unfortunately, they were all killed. Thanks to my heaven and earth origin energy, the high-level soul beasts in the Star Dou Great Forest had all become incredibly powerful. So, even though those humans had very strong weapons, they still suffered heavy losses. Nevertheless, after watching so many battles, I came to see the advantages of you humans.
I am a Soul Beast with dual attributes of spirit and ice. After thinking it over, I decided to take the approach of turning myself into a human's soul ring. That way, my human host would surely become exceptionally powerful. Relying on my spiritual attribute, preserving my own consciousness would be very easy, allowing me to become an Intelligent Soul Ring, something you humans have never seen before. When that time came, I would definitely have my revenge, helping my host kill all those bastards who once harmed me. And so, I began to try. However, it seemed no one could succeed. The first human I chose was some Titled Douluo of yours. His strength was great, but he was a useless piece of trash who couldn't withstand even a bit. Forget about my physical body; he couldn't even handle my spiritual energy. Only then did I realize that becoming my master was not that easy. First, they must possess a spiritual attribute, and then they must have the capacity to bear my soul power. This was extremely difficult, which is why I haven't succeeded for thousands of years. Meanwhile, my soul power was almost completely drained by those hundred-thousand-year soul beasts. I was already on the verge of running completely dry.
Fortunately, heaven still favored me. Just when I was at my most desperate, the tenth golden pattern appeared on my body. I finally became an unprecedented million-year soul beast. After this tenth golden pattern appeared, I finally gained the power to contend with those hundred-thousand-year soul beasts. At the same time, I could also conceal my aura. Thus, I gave myself the moniker of Skydream Iceworm, no longer the Gold-Patterned Iceworm. But I knew I couldn't fight against so many hundred-thousand-year soul beasts. Furthermore, my heaven and earth origin energy had been almost entirely absorbed by them, leaving only my essential soul power. That is to say, my two great attributes that hadn't been absorbed. I couldn't take revenge on my own. Therefore, I looked for an opportunity, and by relying on the aura-concealing ability I gained after my breakthrough, I finally managed to escape.