The Little Book Spirit’s lips curled slightly.
Understand?
It understood all too well.
"Are we doing this?"
"Let's do it!"
Xu Xian's inexplicable excitement left the old tortoise baffled.
It was just a copy of [Delusion] that he hadn't even practiced yet; was there a need to be this happy?
However, when it saw the light gleaming in Xu Xian's eyes as he looked at it, it panicked.
That kind of look.
It had seen it on others before.
It was the look of a soldier at the border who, after ten years of bitter cold, suddenly saw the girls from the pleasure quarters—every pore on his body radiating restless agitation.
It was very nervous because it feared Xu Xian had taken a liking to it.
But.
It also knew that was absolutely impossible.
It subconsciously looked back at the stone stele behind it, then turned back to look at the young man.
An unrealistic thought flashed through its mind.
Its throat bobbed, and still somewhat disbelieving, it said, "No way."
"You're taking this too?"
But the facts told it: yes, he was really taking it.
Like a swarm of locusts passing through, he was sweeping everything up, leaving nothing behind and wanting it all.
The young man truly began prying at the stone stele right in front of its face.
Could it work?
Was it reliable?
He must be crazy.
The old tortoise's thoughts were in disarray; it never expected such a scene to play out.
Xu Xian began following the Little Book Spirit's instructions, sorting through the spiderweb-thin chains on the stone stele.
He specifically picked out and marked the ones linked to the Watery Grotto-Heaven and the Cloud-Marsh World.
These.
They needed to be severed; otherwise, moving it would be impossible.
The Little Book Spirit said that it wasn't sure before if it could sever these chains, but now, it was confident it could break these cold chains with the power of the three swords.
Most importantly, with the construction of the third floor of the Sword Tower, Xu Xian's control over the Sword Mound had reached a new level.
He could attempt to send living beings into the Divine Sword Pool.
Of course.
There were prerequisites.
Prerequisite one.
The living being sent in had to be able to withstand the instantaneous rejection and suppression from the Sword Mound.
That power was immense.
In the Little Book Spirit's words, a common creature's soul would be strangled in an instant.
Even a ninth-stage tribulation transcendence expert sent into the Divine Sword Pool of the Sword Mound this way would have their soul wiped out by the spatial turbulence.
But the old tortoise was different.
It was a former Immortal King, a divine beast of the Era of Primal Chaos, and as a Nether Tortoise, it excelled in defense.
Whether it would hurt or not, the tortoise didn't know, but it definitely wouldn't die.
Moreover, it had no cultivation and couldn't refuse.
Xu Xian cared even less.
To him, not dying was fine, but dying was even better.
Prerequisite two.
This living being needed to be tightly connected to an inanimate object.
To put it simply, for example, a person couldn't be sent in directly by Xu Xian, but if that person was placed inside an alchemy furnace.
And the lid was sealed tight.
Xu Xian would only need to retrieve the alchemy furnace, and the person inside would be sent along with it.
The condition was that the furnace had to be hard enough and the lid sealed tight enough so that it wouldn't be torn apart by the spatial turbulence the moment it was moved.
And throw the person out.
Both prerequisites were indispensable.
And as it happened.
The current old tortoise and the stone stele perfectly met these conditions.
The stele was hard enough, the old tortoise was hard enough, and these chains connecting the two were also hard enough because they were infused with the sealing power of ancient experts.
In short, to put it plainly, everything was hard.
Because it was hard.
It would work.
It could be done.
Xu Xian's actions, in the old tortoise's eyes, were incomprehensible and unbelievable, yet it remained very anxious.
It chattered incessantly from the side, asking over and over.
"Bai Mang, what exactly are you trying to do?"
"You're crazy! You really want to move this stele?"
"Wait... I'm asking you a question?"
"Say something!"
The constant nagging and chirping made Xu Xian's head throb with annoyance.
He kicked it to the side.
"Get lost, don't bother me."
The old tortoise rolled three and a half times on the ground, seeing stars.
It was truly fed up.
A dignified Immortal King, one of the former overlords of the Nether Ocean, was now being bullied like this.
Was there no Heavenly Dao left?
Was there no justice?
It sat on the ground, arms crossed, full of resentment.
It had realized that this kid wasn't human and didn't act like one.
Let him mess around; why should it worry?
Whatever happens, happens.
Whether he could sever them or not, whether he could move it or not, what did it have to do with the tortoise?
It would be best if the stele got smashed.
That wouldn't be bad for it either.
If he really could sever these chains, then that would be great; it could escape to freedom.
In less than a hundred years—no, thirty years—with thirty years of recovery, it could turn things around and crush this brat with a single finger.
It plotted in its heart, cursing and swearing.
Then its eyes shifted as it realized something was wrong.
If the chains were really severed and the stele was moved, where would it go?
Be moved along with it?
Or be finished off?
The answer seemed obvious.
Its face turned green in an instant.
"Oh no!"
It jumped up and shouted, "You little brat, you have no honor! Tell me, are you planning to screw me over too?"
Xu Xian gave it a sidelong glance.
Just one glance.
"You're sick!"
The Nether Tortoise's anger flared up.
"I shouldn't have trusted you."
It paced back and forth with its hands behind its back.
"Fine, fine, fine."
"You want to play, right?"
"Good!"
"This Tortoise Lord will play with you."
"You really think I'm afraid of death?"
"You really think you can kill me?"
"Let me tell you straight, I only compromised because I didn't want to deal with you, and I didn't want to eat your shit..."
"Since you're throwing my kindness back in my face, I'm done pretending."
"Show me whatever skills you have."
"This Tortoise Lord will show you today just how hard I am."
"..."
It cursed non-stop, saying every harsh word it could, losing all the submissiveness it had earlier.
It had suddenly grown a backbone.
What it said was indeed true; at its level, dying was not an easy thing.
Even if that book sword immortal had really struck with a sword earlier, at most, it would have only taken an arm.
But it was more than familiar with basic methods like regenerating limbs.
Even if its physical body was chopped into mincemeat, as long as its soul remained, it could still reappear, seize a body, or act as a parasite—it had plenty of methods.
The reason it had compromised and confessed everything was truly just to get rid of this plague god.
For that, it was happy to take a small loss and act submissively.
But unfortunately, this kid was stubborn and insatiable.
It had realized.
With a punk like this, you couldn't give him an inch.
You had to go head-to-head with him, to the very end.
Wasn't it just swimming in a sea of shit?
What's the big deal?
Eating one bite is eating, and eating two bites is still eating; it didn't matter anymore.
It wouldn't hold back.
It would have its say first.
The old tortoise's verbal abuse made the Little Book Spirit's head ache.
It complained, "This old bastard's mouth is so foul. He doesn't even repeat his insults. I'm impressed."
Xu Xian, however, remained calm and unfazed.
He only said leisurely, "This is its true self. You'll get used to it."
Back when the Little Book Spirit was in a deep sleep, Xu Xian had experienced this old bastard's verbal prowess; it was indeed extraordinary.
Otherwise, Xu Xian wouldn't have been provoked into using that move against it.
However.
Xu Xian's mindset was very good now because no matter how much this old tortoise shouted, it couldn't change its fate.
The thought of throwing it along with the stone stele to smash people in the future made him feel secretly delighted.
The Little Book Spirit suggested, "How about you take another big dump and we throw him in there again?"
Xu Xian rejected it with disgust.
"No thanks. The smell just dissipated, and I don't want to make the Divine Sword Pool dirty."
Rate on N.U.
