Chapter 150 - The journey
After the three-eyed tiny monkey had died, the animal group immediately stopped attacking, and scattered to leave.
The gigantic turtle kept moving towards the North with steady steps. Gui Three and a few teams of guards searched through the remaining luggage of the little group of bald men for quite a while, but failed to find any useful information, therefore, this case of attacks got suspended for the time being.
Every day, Ji Hao would squat on the city wall near the head of the gigantic turtle, and chatted with the turtle while watching the scenery.
This Starry Sky Spirit Turtle, who had lived for countless years, was quite a chatter. Two days after he had gotten familiar with Ji Hao, it started telling Ji Hao all kinds of interesting stories about his experiences throughout its long time of living.
It had started with the story about its hometown, the bottomless ocean, deep in the deepest area of the Northern Wasteland. The gigantic turtle depicted a cruel scene to Ji Hao, which described millions of large-scale aquatic animals madly killing and devouring each other in the depths of the boundless, dark ocean, in order to survive and procreate.
After the long larval stage, the Starry Sky Spirit Turtle sensed a call from its own bloodline. Therefore, it trod on the air and left the depths of the ocean, where it had hatched. After that, it signed a mutually benefiting contract with the Spirit Turtle Caravan and became a member of the caravan.
During the past thousands of years, this gigantic turtle had carried the city on its back, living with generations and generations of the caravan members, protecting and relying on each other, while traveling between the Midland and the Southern Wasteland. It had witnessed the horrible war in the Midland, the witless mass killings in the void, as well as the most sanguinary clan extermination in the Southern Wasteland.
In its life, it had met too many strong and brave warriors, and breathtakingly beautiful women.
“However, in my turtle eyes, even the most beautiful girl of your humankind still lacks a turtle’s shell!” Said the gigantic turtle while yearningly looking at the sky, after which it let out a long sigh, and said slowly, “When I break into the Divine Magus Level, I will have become a real adult Starry Sky Spirit Turtle. Then I can find myself a turtle wife, and have a bunch of baby turtles. The meaning of life is nothing but reproduction!”
Hearing the words of the turtle, Ji Hao smiled and shook his head, then said, “The meaning of life is definitely more than just reproduction.”
The gigantic turtle blinked its bright little beady eyes, turned its head back and threw a glance at Ji Hao, then said, “Eh? Ah, unlike the humankind, we don’t have that many thoughts about different stuff. We only want to stuff our bellies, not be killed by others with violence, until our lives end naturally, and to have as many offsprings as we can, to increase the numbers of our kind; these are all of the purposes of our lives.”
“As for...” The gigantic turtle seemed wanting to continue but hesitated, it then looked at Ji Hao’s young and tender face, blinked its eyes again, lowered its voice and murmured, “As for the many things that your humankind would spend a lifetime pursuing, we don’t value that kind of things as much as you do.”
Ji Hao looked at the turtle full of curiosity and surprised, then asked, “What kind of things are valued by us but not you?”
The gigantic turtle remained silent for a short while, then lowered its voice once again, and said whispered, “With dignity and honor.”
While speaking, the turtle had already reached the northern boundaries of the Southern Wasteland. It shook its enormous head, and stepped over a hundreds of miles wide river, then quickly took another two steps forwards, stepping into the boundless void.
From under the four legs of the gigantic turtle, large clouds of hazy, star-like glowing lights spread out. The turtle slowly walked inside the dark, bottomless and boundless void, just like walking on the flat ground. Step by a step, every step would leave a miles in radius, glowing footprint in the void. Those glowing footprints would only slowly dissipate after the turtle had walked ten thousand miles further.
Ji Hao silently looked at the gigantic turtle. The turtle rushed in the void for over half an hour, then turned its head around, slowly grinned at Ji Hao, and said, “That may have sounded as if it’s lacking some backbone, but in our bloodline too many scenes of once powerful beings disappearing have been recorded. A Starry Sky Spirit Turtle is not some kind of extremely powerful creature that could stand at the top of the whole world; it’s already not bad for us to be able to survive and keep reproducing like this.”
Ji Hao leaped down from the city wall and came to the edge of the turtle shell, slowly and gently patted the rough skin on the turtle’s neck.
“I get that. All kinds of beings in this world have their own goals. Some pursue eternal life, and some want to live as brightly and shining as shooting stars, even though that kind of life would be short and temporary. All kinds of beings in this world are free. We live in this world, all of ours pursuances fit the...”
Ji Hao looked at the silent and peaceful gigantic turtle, and with a bit difficulty let out the last word, “Dao!”
All kinds of beings in this world were free. Creatures living in this world, all of ours pursuances were fit to the...Dao!
The gigantic turtle blinked its eyes, turned its head back and silently contemplated on Ji Hao’s words.
Ji Hao stood on the gigantic turtle’s neck abruptly, shocked by the magical scene that suddenly appeared in the surrounding space.
Within the void, it did look as if the turtle had been walking very slowly, but its speed was around ten times faster than it had been in the Southern Wasteland. In the Southern Wasteland the turtle had to be extra careful in order to prevent itself from stamping a large hole in the Southern Wasteland’s jungle or shaking a mountain into collapsing.
However, in the void, no matter how fast it rushed, the boundless void would still be able to hold its weight and speed.
It had been only a big half an hour, but the gigantic turtle had already rushed over nearly a million miles. An ocean-like, magnificent cloud of stardust, which had spread over countless miles, had abruptly appeared in front of the gigantic turtle. Within the cloud of stardust, the smallest grain was only as big as a single dust on earth, and the biggest star had a radius of a few miles.
Because of reflections, the vast cloud of stardust was glowing with multicoloured and splendid lights, similar to a shining, colourful ocean.
Countless dolphin-shaped, over a-hundred-zhang long beautiful creatures, which were all wrapped with a faint, blue mist-like light, leisurely and lithely leaped up from this ocean of glowing stardust, happily flipped their tail fins, then dove quickly away.
These unknown magical creatures were swimming in the void, just like how dolphins swam in the water; their each movement was as fluid as the most beautiful melody; so beautiful that it would take anyone’s breath away.
A blue whale-shaped, miles long gigantic creature was quickly swimming around all those dolphin-shaped magical creatures. Tens of zhangs tall muscular men were standing on the back of this gigantic creature, while holding long poles in their hands, controlling the directions those dolphin-shaped magically beautiful creatures moved, just like shepherds in the grassland.
Seeing the Starry Sky Spirit Turtle coming over, a sturdy man, whose upper body was bared, laughed out loud when the turtle was still hundreds of miles away from then.
“Ah, are you my caravan’s friend? We are so thirsty, our tongue hasn't touched even a single drop of booze for over ten years! Do you have delicious booze? We have quite a lot good stuff here, we can trade with you!” Yelled the sturdy man.
Gui Three always showed up timely whenever he was needed.
He leaned half of his body out of the tower, while waving friendly and excitedly both his arms and yelled towards that sturdy man.
“Ah! Ah! Who is there? My Star Shepherd Clan brothers, how have you been lately? The last time I met your clansmen was over a hundred and seventy years ago. I have more than enough top quality booze for you, especially your favorite sweet booze that has been soaked in honey; I have as many as you want!”
Bright and clear laughter resounded across the void; those beautiful magical creatures stopped swimming, curiously turned their heads around, and looked at the gigantic turtle.
The gigantic whale flew towards the gigantic turtle, both of them were quickly drawing closer to each other.