Chapter 332 The Giant Tortoise Carrying a Stele

"Good!" The old Daoist nodded and looked toward the vegetable garden nearby.

There, a tall, thin Daoist child and another short, stocky Daoist child had been tending to the garden, and now both looked over.

Roar! Suddenly, without any warning, both Daoist children let out a long howl.

The howling sound pierced through the clouds and split stones, and even the layered auspicious Qi clouds above Dragon Tiger Mountain could not block it; one howl sounded like a Dragon roaring in the vast sky, while the other sounded like a tiger roaring in the forest.

Immediately after, the bodies of the two Daoist children dissolved into two rays of Qi, one a white Dragon form and the other a black tiger form, which locked onto the old Daoist like two shackles.

"Let's go!"

At this moment, the old Daoist was no longer restrained and deep; instead, his aura was long and enduring, on par with that of Venerable Zixiao.

With one step, he appeared above the sea of clouds.

Venerable Zixiao followed closely behind, waving his sleeves to scoop up the three young Daoists waiting below the mountain and placing them upon the clouds, and the five of them rode the clouds and broke through the air, departing.

Below, the many Daoists of Dragon Tiger Mountain watched from afar and bowed in unison: "Farewell, Ancestral Master!"

...

Within the distant Western Regions, deep in the expanse of the Ten Thousand Buddha Cave.

Clang! Clang! Clang! Nine grand bell tolls echoed throughout the entire Ten Thousand Buddha Cave. One by one, monks walked out of their respective grottoes and stood outside, gazing at the tall and majestic statue of the Buddha Shakyamuni in the very center.

These monks were tall, short, fat, and thin, all with different appearances. As long as one had achieved success in their cultivation, they could all seek a secret place within the Ten Thousand Buddha Cave to practice.

Strictly speaking, the Ten Thousand Buddha Cave was not a strict sect temple.

Rather, it was a place where monks from all over the world gathered to cultivate, where they could listen to various interpretations of Buddhist scriptures to enhance their practice.

Beneath the central Shakyamuni statue sat several monks with deep and powerful auras; Great Master Longbrow, who had once traveled with the Old Man of Tianshan, was among them.

Opposite the few monks, an old monk with a withered appearance sat cross-legged.

A middle-aged monk beside Great Master Longbrow spoke solemnly: "Grandmaster, Heavenly Pillar Mountain has opened; we should set out!"

The withered old monk opposite them recited a Buddhist chant and said slowly: "Heaven's Gate... Heaven's Gate..."

"Our generation has cultivated for endless years, only to fight for this glimmer of heavenly opportunity. This poor monk has lived a withered life for a thousand years, yet in the end, I still cannot comprehend this single word, 'Buddha'!"

"Sigh..." With a sigh, the old monk slowly closed his eyes. The age spots on his face gradually solidified and deepened, then began to spread across his body. Soon, his entire body turned brown-black, with a cold and hard texture, devoid of any life.

It was just like a wooden sculpture.

"Grandmaster, forgive me!" The middle-aged monk who had just spoken bowed in salute, then waved his monk's robe, tucking the wooden sculpture into his sleeve.

"Let's go!" He said. Great Master Longbrow, who was kneeling to the side, stood up, and together they transformed into a golden ray of light, flying out of the Ten Thousand Buddha Cave.

Behind them, the bell tolls within the grotto rang continuously, seeing the three off.

...

"Eeya—woohahahahaha!!!"

Above the surging Qu River, the current flowed endlessly, and vast waves crashed against the shore, emitting violent sounds.

This great river was the number one river in the world today.

The Yang River that spanned across Cangzhou Prefecture was merely a tributary of this great river.

Just beneath this surging river water, a wild laugh suddenly erupted; the rolling sound waves penetrated the river water, directly drowning out the sound of the waves crashing against the shore.

The next moment, a huge whirlpool suddenly appeared on the river surface, which was nearly a hundred miles wide. All the surrounding fish and shrimp were involuntarily swept into it, crushed to pieces by the water flow.

At this time of year, because the Qu River had just flooded, the current was surging and the winds and waves were fierce, so few ships passed through here; otherwise, they would inevitably have been swept into the tides.

However, there were fishermen on both banks. They noticed the anomaly in the Qu River immediately.

"What is that?" "Look quickly!!!"

They saw that within the huge whirlpool, a black giant stele suddenly floated up, dozens of zhang high, its surface smooth and wordless, shimmering with a faint light.

Next, following the giant stele as it floated to the surface was a black giant turtle, a hundred zhang in size.

Its turtle back was like a vast, ancient mountain, carved with the aura of time. The turtle shell was densely covered with mysterious patterns, faintly revealing the trajectories of stars.

Each scale was as towering as a massive rock. As the water vapor steamed, a pressure originating from the primordial ancient times pressed down, making the entire Qu River seem as if it were about to bow in submission.

The Qu River water inverted, and the heavens and earth changed color.

The hundred-zhang black turtle broke through the water, its massive body spanning across the river surface, almost cutting off the ten-thousand-mile-long flow.

That giant stele was bound to its back with iron chains, and the river mud that had accumulated for thousands of years on the bottom of the Qu River coated the entire thick chain.

"Such... such a huge turtle!!!" "A monster!!! Run quickly!!!"

The fishermen on both banks had long been scared silly. Such a giant turtle was something unheard of and unseen.

Such a sight only existed in myths and legends; who had ever seen it with their own eyes?

All the fishermen abandoned their boats and climbed ashore, running wildly toward the banks on both sides, wanting only to get far away from the Qu River.

Just at this moment, three Immortal-like figures arrived from the distant horizon, moving against the flow of people, and landed above the Qu River.

Leading them was a middle-aged man who defied description.

The reason he defied description was that this person's temperament was too unique.

He wore a white robe, and his looks could not be called either handsome or ugly; in short, one found it hard to forget him after a single glance, but once one turned their head away, they would immediately forget what he looked like.

His temperament was like willow catkins in the wind, and also like the great mountains of the earth; at times shifting, at times standing still, unbound by any form or object, as if he were not of this world, not in the present moment.

It was truly hard to put into words.

Behind the middle-aged man were a middle-aged man in green robes and a middle-aged man in black robes.

Both of them looked at the giant turtle on the river surface with somewhat astonished expressions.

There were quite a few strange beasts in this world. Given their knowledge and experience, they had seen many.

They had even traveled far overseas and seen the Dragon that dominated the deep sea, whose intelligence was no different from a human's, and which could even speak human language.

Deep in the Southern Border, they had seen the thousand-year-old Mother Gu that could control all the Gu in the world; its intelligence was even superior to that of humans, and it was worshipped as a deity by the Miao people of the Southern Border.

But none of those were as miraculous as the giant turtle before them.

The ancient, vast aura rushing from the other party—one did not know how many years it had existed in this world; time had left indelible marks on its turtle back, and anyone who looked at it for a few more moments might possibly comprehend a peerless, miraculous technique.

With its appearance, the surging Qu River became calm, and this remained so for thousands of miles.

The middle-aged man in white in the center, however, had a calm expression, as if he had long since seen this giant turtle.

Just at this moment, the giant turtle spoke, its voice rumbling, causing the heavens and earth to move with it: "Master of the Number One Estate Under Heaven, we meet again!"

"Last time, you came to me seeking the method to alter the earth's veins and create a blessed land, which destroyed the Great Zhou Imperial Dynasty that had passed down its Legacy for thousands of years."

"Afterward, the world underwent drastic changes, creating a chaotic era of thousands of years of war, yet you remained hidden behind the scenes."

"This time, what do you want again?"