Crossing the Cultivation Realm: Two Souls Coexist

Little Purple looked around furtively for a while, and only after confirming that the familiar, leisurely tortoise shadow was indeed not nearby did it.

Then, he tiptoed and, like a thief, darted over to Hu Qing and Gu Yang, who were sitting opposite each other at the foot of the mountain, their faces full of worry.

His little face showed a mixture of lingering fear and excitement at sharing a secret as he lowered his voice and said:

"Grandpa Turtle was just... was so scary! It scared me to death, I don't even dare to come closer to you."

Gu Yang was currently preoccupied with the "Sealing Spirit Golden Fiend Ball" and the two-day limit, so upon hearing this, he could only listlessly reply:

"Hmm? How did Old Turtle scare you again? Hasn't his training of you always been relatively 'gentle'?"

How much of that box of meteorite iron from outer space is still left uneaten?

As he spoke, he glanced at Xiao Zi's still slightly protruding belly.

Upon hearing the mention of meteorite iron, Xiao Zi instinctively rubbed her belly with her paw, her face immediately contorting in pain as she muttered:

"There's still... there's still more than half left! I feel like I'm turning into a stone dragon! Hey, don't interrupt! I'm talking about something important! Something very important!"

Seeing Xiao Zi's aggrieved yet eager-to-share expression, Hu Qing temporarily set aside her own burdens, reached out and ruffled the little guy's soft hair, deliberately teasing him:

"Oh? Our little Zi now has 'serious business' to discuss with us?"

Let me guess... have you taken a fancy to some pretty little female dragon? Are you planning to ask us to help you propose marriage?

"hateful!"

Little Purple's face flushed red with anger, like a ripe apple, and her tail unconsciously slapped the ground twice. "No, it's not! It's about Grandpa Turtle! It's a very serious matter!"

He took a deep breath, as if about to reveal some earth-shattering secret, leaned closer, lowered his voice, and even imitated it vividly:

"You were climbing up the mountain so hard that you had no idea what was happening down below!"

Grandpa Turtle was standing at the foot of the mountain, looking up at you with that expression... tsk tsk, his smile was terrifying!

His mouth was stretched so wide it almost reached his ears, and his eyes were narrowed into slits, gleaming with a greenish light!

He kept making that eerie "hehehe..." laugh, it gave me the creeps!

As Xiao Zi spoke, she shrank her neck, as if she could feel the chill from that time again.

"Then, something even scarier happened! I saw Grandpa Turtle rubbing his two claws together, and somehow he attracted a golden light, and soon he rubbed out... a golden ball!"

As Xiao Zi finished speaking, she glanced at Gu Yang with lingering fear.

Then, he 'heave-ho'ed and threw the golden ball up the mountain!

He was muttering something to himself, which I couldn't hear clearly because I was far away, but it probably meant...

'You little rascal, you've finally made it this far! Watch out, Grandpa's going to give you a big one! Taste this freshly baked treasure!'

Anyway, his tone was particularly... particularly bad!

Xiao Zi spoke at length, then paused to catch his breath, his face filled with worry and lingering fear. He looked at Hu Qing and Gu Yang with sincere and anxious eyes:

Stop laughing! I'm telling the truth!

Grandpa Turtle looked really scary just now! Is he... is he too old? Is something wrong with this part (Little Purple points to her head)?

He has... he has Alzheimer's disease?

"Shouldn't we quickly think of a way to take him back to the Central Region to see Grandpa Xia for treatment? This is too dangerous!"

Looking at Xiao Zi's earnest expression, filled with innocent worry as she tried to "save" a peerless powerhouse who might be "sick,"...

The expressions on Hu Qing and Gu Yang's faces gradually changed from playful to... extremely strange and complicated.

The two exchanged a glance, both seeing the same message in each other's eyes: so that terrifying golden sphere that had nearly blasted Gu Yang into serious injury, with its concentrated power and "spiritual energy sealing" effect...

It wasn't some pre-set formation or trap on the mountaintop at all, nor was it some "random" test. It was something that the old rascal, the tortoise, personally concocted below and then deliberately smashed up there!

Gu Yang's face instantly turned from white to red, then from red to green, with veins throbbing on his forehead, his fists clenched so tightly they cracked, and his teeth grinding together.

A surge of anger, feeling mocked and "ambushed," rushed to his head!

If it weren't for... if it weren't for the fact that he was truly outmatched, he would have rushed over right now, grabbed that old tortoise by the neck, and asked, "Is this how you train people?!"

Hu Qing was both amused and exasperated. Seeing Gu Yang's almost explosive expression, she quickly reached out and patted his shoulder to soothe him.

"Forget it, there's no point in getting angry now. The key thing is that Senior Turtle himself said that he's going back to the West in the next couple of days."

We still need to think about how to overcome this final hurdle and successfully reach the summit before he leaves.

Gu Yang's chest heaved violently a few times, but finally, like a punctured balloon, he sighed dejectedly, his face filled with utter despair.

"Easier said than done... That golden orb, and that damned pressure... When will this mountain ever end!"

Just then, Little Purple seemed to remember something, tilted her head, and asked in confusion, "Grandpa Turtle... is he really leaving? So soon?"

Gu Yang ruffled his messy hair in an annoyed tone, then made it even messier in a vengeful way, and said, "Yeah, it'll be in the next couple of days."

Why don't you hurry up and take advantage of his presence to 'consume' more meteorite iron, so he can give you more pointers? Otherwise, once he leaves, you'll have no one to 'supervise' you."

Xiao Zi shook her head and said seriously, "But... I think I heard Grandpa Turtle say that he has to help cultivate a certain amount of combat power in the East China Sea before he can leave."

"There are still very few people in Dongying now, aren't there?" He stretched out his little paw and gestured "very few".

"What?" Hu Qing and Gu Yang were both taken aback, their attention immediately drawn to it.

Hu Qing pressed, "Xiao Zi, when did you hear that? Is it true? Are you sure you didn't mishear?"

“Really!” Xiao Zi nodded her little head vigorously, trying hard to remember, “It was…it was the day you went hiking for the first time, and you were so tired that you fell asleep as soon as you got back.”

I was dozing off in my chair, half asleep, when I thought I heard Grandpa Turtle talking to someone... that voice.

It sounds a bit like… a bit like Grandpa Xia's voice, the kind we used to occasionally hear back in the Central Region! It's coming from quite a distance.

He paused, trying to organize his thoughts: "Grandpa Turtle seemed to be saying something about 'the West is pressing hard,' but the voice also seemed to be telling him to 'stay a little longer.'"

They said things like, "The East China Sea defense line has been initially established, but morale is unstable. We need a strong force to oversee it, and at least cultivate a few capable individuals to form a preliminary combat capability framework..."

That's roughly it. I was so sleepy at the time that I only heard bits and pieces.

Little Purple scratched her head and added uncertainly, "However, it seems that Grandpa Turtle later... agreed."

Because he muttered at the end, "Those two brats got off easy; they need to train them for a few more days..."

After listening, Hu Qing and Gu Yang exchanged another glance, and the heaviness and anxiety in their hearts began to melt away rapidly, like ice and snow under the sun.

Neither of them were stupid; with a slight shift in their thinking, they immediately understood!

The old tortoise's earlier statements about "having to leave in two days" and "finding someone else if necessary" were probably just meant to scare them!

It's putting them under extreme pressure to unleash their potential!

In fact, according to the information Xiao Zi heard, the old turtle was likely required by the Central Region to stay in the East China Sea for a period of time to assist in rebuilding the Dongying defense line and cultivating new forces.

And these two are clearly among the "promising talents" that the old turtle is focusing on "cultivating".

The so-called "deadline" is mostly a fabrication by the old turtle himself, a means to spur them on!

Having figured this out, the gloom on Gu Yang's face vanished, replaced by a mixture of amusement and a renewed fighting spirit.

He laughed and cursed, "That old fox... no, that old tortoise! ​​He's playing us!"

Hu Qing breathed a sigh of relief and smiled: "It seems we still have time. However, the training won't be any lighter, and Senior Turtle's 'special care' will probably only increase."

Knowing that there is no real "death line" chasing after you naturally changes your mindset.

Although the road ahead remains difficult, the Golden Ball remains terrifying, and the pressure remains immense, the suffocating feeling of being strangled by time has disappeared.

Instead, there was a more composed and determined resolve to fight the old tortoise's "special training" to the very end.

Their gazes toward the towering mountain peak sharpened once more.

Since the old tortoise wants to "train them for a few more days," then they'll play along to the end!

Let's see just how difficult these last ten steps are to climb! And whether that "Sealing Spirit Golden Fiend Ball" can truly force them to become "mortals"!

Little Purple watched as her two older brothers suddenly went from looking worried to looking radiant. Although she didn't quite understand what had happened, she became happy as well, and her tail wagged gently again.

Just thinking about the half-box of meteorite iron still inside him, and the old tortoise's eerie "hehehe" laughter, made him shiver slightly.