138. Be yourself!

As the Skydream Iceworm was lost in thought, it failed to sense the strange shift in the atmosphere. It wasn't until the Scarlet King gave it a firm pat on its wound that it raised its tear-filled eyes.

"Be yourself!" the Scarlet King sang repeatedly, its behavior growing more bizarre.

Skydream Iceworm couldn't understand why the Scarlet King was so persistent about this phrase. It wanted to complain, but when it saw that several individuals had arrived, including Bi Ji, the Emerald Swan clan patriarch, and the three-eyed Golden Lion, it decided to hold back.

Skydream Iceworm understood that it was in a precarious situation. In the face of such a powerful group, it wisely chose not to cause any further trouble and focused on survival.

The conversation shifted as Lu Yuan stepped forward, kneeling down next to the ice silkworm. Gently, he poked at the creature's flesh, asking, "Where is your slough?"

The ice silkworm was taken aback by the question. Before it could respond, the Scarlet King, who was still eyeing it, grabbed it by the head and pressed it to the ground.

"Answer, understand?" the Scarlet King said, flashing an insincere smile.

"I don't understand," Skydream Iceworm replied with as much composure as it could muster, trying to avoid provoking the larger beast further.

Skydream Iceworm replied sincerely, nearly eating a mouthful of mud due to its eagerness. Nevertheless, it persevered, raising its head to speak clearly, "Slough is something that forms after I die. At the moment, it doesn't exist."

It wasn't a lie. Sloughs were typically created from the body after death, but most soul beasts in the Star Dou Great Forest rarely survived until their natural lifespan's end. They were often hunted and killed by other soul beasts, meeting an early death.

Observing this, Lu Yuan slowly straightened up, impressed. The remains of Skydream Iceworm were valuable, capable of entrapping the Ice Emperor in the extreme north unilaterally, albeit briefly. The time might be short, but it showcased the value of its remains.

Lu Yuan examined the golden lines on Skydream Iceworm's body, deep in thought. A million years. To be honest, the ice attribute linked to Skydream Iceworm was entirely useless to him. However, the spiritual attribute it possessed was precisely what he lacked at the moment.

Addressing Bi Ji, Lu Yuan requested, "Aunt Bi, could you please treat it?"

Skydream Iceworm was surprised. This was the first time he'd heard such comforting words from the human boy in the past few years. Maybe it should be termed "warmer." Regardless, the unexpected emotion made Skydream Iceworm slightly tearful.

Although Skydream Iceworm was somewhat lost in its emotions, Bi Ji remained attentive. She didn't comprehend why the Ice Fire Dragon King had asked her to treat the ice silkworm, but observing the wound before her, she knew that treating it wouldn't strain her soul power excessively.

With a casual gesture, Bi Ji released a blue light that enshrouded the entire body of the Skydream Iceworm. The bleeding wound stopped at a visible pace, healing rapidly. The Skydream Iceworm endured the itchiness and pain, hesitating to speak up.

After a short while, the blue light subsided. The form of the Skydream Iceworm returned to normal. Although the cultivation it had lost wouldn't return, Skydream Iceworm still felt slightly teary-eyed.

Lu Yuan gently patted the distraught Skydream Iceworm and then politely acknowledged Bi Ji, who had halted her actions.

He was well aware that his request was quite audacious. However, Bi Ji executed it with perfection. For a moment, Lu Yuan even pondered whether it might be better if he were on the beasts' side. With the Silver Dragon King protecting him and his current status, he wasn't inferior to the Three-eyed Golden Lion among the beast clan.

Yet, Lu Yuan sighed silently. He was human. Moreover, global unification was already underway. Neither he nor Tang San, who stood on the other side, would halt or abandon their paths just because their opponents opposed them.

Nonetheless, Lu Yuan wished not to encounter the madwoman Bibi Dong any time soon. While Qian Renxue might still hold some redeeming qualities, Bibi Dong, who was already darkened by her emotions and had been in love for an uncertain number of years, was a different matter. He felt he could let her go.

Truly, troublesome teammates could sometimes drive one mad. He didn't wish to see the world's unification falter due to Bibi Dong's temporary wavering.

However, destiny was something even he couldn't predict.

With a slight narrowing of his eyes, Lu Yuan lightly patted the intact portion of Skydream Iceworm's body and asked, "If you want to change your current circumstances, and if I really obtain an artifact, would you be willing to become my follower?"

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Frankly, both Skydream Iceworm and even Scarlet King and Bi Ji, who were beside it, were thoroughly puzzled by this turn of events.

This twist felt utterly abrupt.

Additionally, considering the harsh conditions given to a hundred-thousand-year Mandala Snake and the extremely lenient conditions given to a million-year Ice Silkworm, Skydream Iceworm wasn't the only one baffled.

"Dear Dragon King, combat prowess and age have no concrete correlation. They aren't strongly linked," Bi Ji gently reminded from the side.

"I know," Lu Yuan responded earnestly, shifting his gaze to the perplexed Skydream Iceworm. "That's why I used the word 'if' in regards to obtaining an artifact."

Bi Ji could only support her forehead in exasperation. Was that truly what she intended to convey? She meant to tell the recently crowned Ice and Fire Dragon King not to pick the seemingly talentless ice silkworm before him.

They had already addressed this issue, and she couldn't say much more. Some matters were beyond her control. She would simply leave this matter to Di Tian to handle.

Unaware of the impending trouble that would land on his lap, Di Tian finally found a suitable battleground for their duel: the outskirts of the Star Dou Forest.

However, Di Tian's concept of "outskirts" wasn't identical to that of humans. In his understanding, the "outskirts" were akin to what humans referred to as "high-risk zones." After all, wasn't the area where the Titan Giant Ape and the Azure Bull Python had roamed for a hundred thousand years considered high-risk?

But to Di Tian, even the mighty God-level Giant Dragon was no match for the Azure Bull Python. What a joke! The python was merely worthy of a cursory glance. If the python ever managed to transform into a dragon, only then would it merit his attention.

His mind briefly wandered, but Di Tian swiftly refocused. He observed the confrontation below between a snake and a spider: the Hundred-Thousand-Year Mandala Snake King against the Hundred-Thousand-Year Death Spider King.

The Mandala Snake Emperor was indeed sly. On the surface, the Death Spider King seemed stronger, surpassing it in raw power. However, in actual combat, they were evenly matched. Although the Death Spider King's venom was potent, the Mandala Snake King's wasn't any weaker!

Moreover, the Mandala Snake King unleashed a large burst of dark purple mist from its gaping maw. Wherever the mist spread, flora withered and decayed into a muddy mess. Yes, its venom could switch between liquid and gaseous states!

This was the true reason it had attained a position in the core circle of the Star Dou Forest despite just reaching a hundred thousand years of cultivation.

Meanwhile, the thirty-two eyes of the spider spun, finding the Mandala Snake Emperor concealed within the poisonous mist. The Death Spider Emperor extended its silk sac slightly, releasing a massive purple-to-black spider web that unrolled toward the Mandala Snake Emperor.

Observing the fight that had finally commenced, Di Tian remained seated on a distant treetop, watching in silence.

The confrontation between two hundred-thousand-year-old soul beasts was nothing short of awe-inspiring. The Mighty King vs. The Mystic King. Ning Rongrong and the others were oblivious to this development, but they were making their own progress today.