Chapter 150: The Journey

The moment the three-eyed little monkey died, the beast tide instantly collapsed.

The giant turtle continued its steady pace northward. Old Man Gui, accompanied by the caravan guards, rummaged through the items left behind by the bald men for a long time. Failing to find anything useful, they temporarily set the matter aside.

Every day, Ji Hao squatted on the city wall closest to the giant turtle's head, enjoying the scenery while chatting idly with the beast.

The starry spirit turtle, having lived for an unknown number of years, turned out to be quite a chatterbox. After getting familiar with Ji Hao over the past two days, it began rambling on, recounting the interesting events of its long life.

Starting from its hometown—the bottomless oceanic abyss deep in the Northern Wilderness—the giant turtle described to Ji Hao the cruel scenes of countless massive aquatic lifeforms fiercely fighting and devouring one another for survival and reproduction within that boundless, dark abyss.

After a long infancy, the starry spirit turtle responded to the call of its bloodline, left the abyss where it was hatched, and stepped into the void. It signed a mutually beneficial contract with the patrons of the Turtle Spirit Caravan, officially becoming a part of it.

For thousands of years, this giant turtle had carried the city on its back, living in mutual dependence with generation after generation of the Turtle Spirit Caravan members, traveling back and forth between the Central Land and the Southern Wilderness. It had witnessed the terrifying fires of war in the Central Land, the frenzied slaughter in the void, and the bloodiest tribal massacres in the Southern Wilderness.

Throughout its life, it had seen far too many powerful warriors and peerless beauties.

"However, in the eyes of this old turtle, even the most beautiful maidens of your human race still lack a turtle shell!" The giant turtle gazed up at the sky with boundless yearning, letting out a lingering sigh. "Once I break through to the Wizard Emperor realm, I will truly be an adult starry spirit turtle. Then I can find a turtle wife and give birth to a whole bunch of little turtles. The meaning of life is reproduction!"

Listening to the starry spirit turtle's reflections, Ji Hao smiled and shook his head. "Is the meaning of life really just reproduction?"

The giant turtle blinked its small eyes and looked back at Ji Hao with an expression bordering on slyness. "Well, well, we don't have as many messy thoughts as your human race. To have food, to have drink, to avoid being violently killed before the end of one's life, and to produce enough offspring so that the tribe can multiply and thrive—that is the entire meaning of our existence."

"As for..." The giant turtle trailed off, hesitating. But after glancing at Ji Hao's youthful face and blinking a few times, it lowered its voice and muttered in a low rumble, "As for the many things pursued by your human race, we simply do not hold them in high regard."

Ji Hao looked at the giant turtle in surprise. "What on earth do we value that you couldn't care less about?"

The giant turtle remained silent for a moment, its voice dropping even lower. "For instance, dignity and glory!"

With a swing of its massive head, the giant turtle, having reached the extreme northern edge of the Southern Wilderness continent, took a stride across a hundred-li-wide river, lunged forward twice more, and stepped boldly into the boundless void.

Beneath the giant turtle's four limbs, vast ripples of hazy starlight spread outward. As if walking on flat ground, it slowly paced through the pitch-black, bottomless void—step by step, each footprint leaving a starlit mark several li in circumference. These glowing footprints would only slowly fade away after it had walked tens of thousands of li.

Ji Hao looked silently at the giant turtle. After galloping through the void for more than half an hour, the giant turtle turned its head and smiled lazily at Ji Hao. "This might sound spineless. But our bloodline has recorded far too many scenes of once-mighty entities turning to dust and smoke. The starry spirit turtle is not some supreme existence; as long as the clan can continue to multiply, that is already quite good."

Ji Hao simply jumped down from the city wall, walked over to the junction between the giant turtle's neck and its carapace, and gently patted the rough calluses on its neck.

"I can understand. All things in heaven and earth have their own pursuits. Some pursue eternal immortality, while others seek a brilliance as dazzling yet fleeting as a shooting star. All living things strive freely under the frosty heavens; born between heaven and earth, every aspiration aligns with..."

Staring at the giant turtle's silent, steady demeanor, Ji Hao struggled slightly before uttering a single word: "The Dao!"

All living things strive freely under the frosty heavens; born between heaven and earth, every aspiration aligns with... the 'Dao'!

The giant turtle blinked, turned its head away, and silently pondered Ji Hao's words.

Meanwhile, standing atop the giant turtle's neck, Ji Hao looked around in shock at the sudden, wondrous spectacle that had appeared before them.

In the void, the giant turtle's slow-looking steps were actually more than ten times faster than its movement across the Southern Wilderness continent. In the Southern Wilderness, the giant turtle had to constantly exercise caution; a single misplaced burst of force could punch a massive crater into the continent or collapse several mountain ranges.

Yet in the void, no matter how wildly the starry spirit turtle ran, the boundless expanse could fully bear its speed.

In a mere half-hour or so, the giant turtle had sprinted nearly a million li. Suddenly, right ahead of it, a vast nebula appeared—ranging in size from mere grains of sand to several li across, stretching on for countless thousands of li like an ocean of stars.

The boundless stardust reflected countless starlight rays from above, below, left, right, front, and back, creating a dazzling array of brilliant seven-colored light that resembled a colorful ocean.

Countless breathtaking creatures, shaped like dolphins but over a hundred zhang in length and veiled in a faint blue light mist, darted gracefully through the nebula, flicking their tails briskly before speeding off into the distance.

These wondrous, nameless creatures swam through the void just like dolphins in water, every movement imbued with a flowing rhythm that was breathtakingly and mesmerizingly beautiful.

A behemoth shaped like a blue whale, yet several li in length, swam swiftly along the periphery of this flock of strange creatures. Standing upon the beast's back were dozens of burly men standing several zhang tall. Wielding long poles like herdsmen on a grassland, they directed the swimming path of those ethereal creatures.

Catching sight of the approaching starry spirit turtle, a shirtless burly man laughed heartily from hundreds of li away:

"Ah, are these friends from the caravan? We are so thirsty, our tongues haven't touched a single drop of wine in over a dozen years! Do you have fine wine? We have plenty of good things here to trade with you!"

Old Man Gui always appeared precisely when he was needed.

Protruding his upper body from the watchtower, he waved his arms enthusiastically and greeted the men:

"Oh, oh, who do I see? Brothers of the Star-Herding Clan, how have you been lately? The last time I ran into your tribespeople was a hundred and seventy years ago! We have plenty of fine wine, especially your favorite sweet wine brewed with wild honey—as much as you want!"

His hearty laughter echoed through the void. The ethereal creatures stopped swimming and turned to look curiously in their direction.

The giant whale rapidly flew toward the giant turtle, and the two drew close at a swift pace. (To be continued.)