Bei Bei stood up, alertly scanning their surroundings to guard her.
After falling unconscious, Huo Yuhao felt as though he had entered a dream. He dreamed that he had stepped into a white space filled with countless specks of light, stretching out as far as the eye could see. He tried to cast his gaze to every corner of this space, but could find no boundary.
Just as he realized how miraculous this space was, a sudden whirlwind whipped up around him, and streaks of golden light silently appeared one after another.
The golden light gradually converged to form a massive halo floating in midair. With its appearance, all the specks of light in the space grew significantly larger.
Ten golden halos slowly rotated, and within each halo, a white light appeared. This white light grew stronger and stronger, gradually forming ten massive spheres of light floating in the air, expanding the height and volume of this space by countless times.
At that exact moment, near one of the halos, a gray halo suddenly appeared. In terms of volume, this halo was no larger than the ten spheres of light. As soon as it appeared, the spheres of light instantly brightened, as if trying to drive the gray halo away. However, the gray halo showed no sign of weakness; it gradually condensed into a sphere and floated serenely.
After a futile effort, the ten spheres of light finally gave up and returned to consolidating themselves.
Huo Yuhao's consciousness gradually cleared, and his surroundings became sharper. The specks of light in the air slowly descended, pooling into a pale golden ocean that supported the massive spheres of light of the same color. In the air, only that gray sphere remained, refusing to gather in the same place as the pale golden ones.
"So, your name is Huo Yuhao."
A voice suddenly rang out. Immediately after, Huo Yuhao's pupils contracted. He instinctively looked down and saw himself standing completely naked upon the pale golden ocean, which was actually the ten spheres of light of the same color from earlier.
"Where is this? Why am I here?"
Huo Yuhao asked in shock.
"You are inside your own brain, also known as the Sea of Consciousness or the Spiritual Sea. From now on, this will also be this brother's home. This place was too small, so this brother helped you expand it a bit. However, your body is too weak, so this is the limit for now."
"You are the Tianmeng Iceworm? Is this really not a dream?"
Hearing the gentle voice finish speaking, Huo Yuhao grew even more terrified. What was happening had completely surpassed his imagination. Let alone an eleven-year-old child like him, even if this happened to an adult, they would likely be scared out of their wits by such a miraculous sight.
"A dream? If you could have such a beautiful dream, wouldn't you be thrilled to death? Of course this isn't a dream. I'll say it again: this is your spiritual world."
The Tianmeng Iceworm said in annoyance.
Huo Yuhao asked blankly:
"What is a spiritual world?"
The Tianmeng Iceworm said:
"You really are... how should I explain this to you? Let's put it this way. First, we must talk about your eyes, which are also your Spirit Eyes Martial Soul. I just looked through your memories, so I already know some of your past. Your Spirit Eyes Martial Soul originates from these very eyes. As for the Sea of Consciousness, it is the place that stores spiritual power. For you, if you want to unleash the power of your Spirit Eyes, you must convert your Soul Power into spiritual power and release it through your Spirit Eyes. The origin of spiritual power is called the Sea of Consciousness, and its specific location is in your brain, right behind those Spirit Eyes of yours. Right now, your consciousness is immersed in your own body. What you are seeing is not your physical form, but a projection I helped you condense using my spiritual power so that we could communicate."
Listening to the iceworm's gradual explanation, Huo Yuhao understood a bit more, and the fear in his heart lessened accordingly. Children are more sensitive than adults, and he knew this Tianmeng Iceworm harbored no ill intent toward him.
"Then why did you appear in my Sea of Consciousness?"
Huo Yuhao asked again.
The Tianmeng Iceworm said, "Didn't I say so earlier? I want to become your Soul Ring! An Intelligent Soul Ring. It's done now, but in order to become your Soul Ring, I had to seal away my own energy. However, your talent is even more miserable than I imagined—it's so poor that it's beyond description. I really don't know if my choice was right or wrong."
Huo Yuhao said with some embarrassment, "Although my talent is poor, I will work hard to make up for it. My Innate Soul Power is only rank one."
The Tianmeng Iceworm said dejectedly, "I'll slowly figure out a way to reconstruct your body."
As their conversation went on, Huo Yuhao grew bolder.
"Tianmeng Iceworm."
"Call me Brother Tianmeng."
"Alright, Brother Tianmeng. Is it true that you are a million-year Soul Beast? And why did you choose me? I heard that a Spirit Scholar can only withstand a Soul Ring that is no more than four hundred years old. You are a million-year Soul Beast, so how could you become my Soul Ring?"
The Tianmeng Iceworm suddenly let out a sigh. "Do you think I wanted to choose you? I had no other choice! If I hadn't chosen you, I would have lost my life. And if I died, I'm afraid my body would have become food for those Soul Beasts in the Great Star Dou Forest. Driven into a corner, I had to resort to this last option—attaching myself to a human like you. This was the only path I could take. Do you want to hear my story? We will probably be together for a very long time, and I don't want to hide anything from you. It's probably better to lay everything out clearly."
Huo Yuhao nodded and said, "Brother Tianmeng, please go ahead."
The Tianmeng Iceworm said, "I was originally just an ordinary iceworm like any other. I wasn't born here in the Great Star Dou Forest, but in an extremely cold region on the northern continent. We iceworms are born with dual attributes: the spiritual attribute and the ice attribute. However, our combat strength is severely hindered by our speed, so we can only be considered ordinary Soul Beasts. What's more, we have a very powerful natural enemy, which is why no Soul Beast in my clan has ever been able to cultivate for over ten thousand years. I am the sole exception."
"When I was thirteen years old, while fleeing from a natural predator, I accidentally fell into an icy crevice. At the time, I thought I was finished. But to my surprise, the place I fell into was filled with ten-thousand-year Ice Marrow. As soon as I landed there, I fell into a deep sleep. Back then, I was still very small and weak, not even three inches tall, and that single sleep lasted for ten thousand years. When I woke up, I found myself lying in an ice cave, and that ten-thousand-year Ice Marrow had completely vanished—it turned out I had absorbed all of it. By then, I had become a Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast. At that moment, I was absolutely overjoyed, not quite understanding what had happened. But once the joy subsided, I realized I had no idea how to get out.
"Inside the ice cave, everywhere was ice that was at least ten thousand years old, which was incredibly hard. Although I was a Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast, we Ice Worms are naturally very weak in combat, so I had no way to break through the ice to escape. Fortunately, there were many small holes and crevices in the cave for me to crawl through. So, I searched around in there, trying to find a way up. In the end, instead of finding a way out, I stumbled upon another deposit of ten-thousand-year Ice Marrow. Seeing the Ice Marrow, I absorbed it and fell into a deep sleep once more. This sleep lasted for another several tens of thousands of years..."