Chapter 00137: The Old Turtle's Commission
# The Old Turtle's Commission
Chapter 137
Novel: After the Immortals Disappeared
Chapter 137: The Old Turtle's Commission
He had lived for several decades and had never entered an Immortal's cave, filled with both curiosity and longing.
He Lingchuan shrugged his hands, "Whether it's an Immortal or not, I can't say. Inside, there's a small hill and a sitting corpse."
He asked the Crocodile Demon, "Did you find any treasures earlier?"
"A pile of junk," the Crocodile Demon replied.
"There isn't a trace of spiritual energy inside; it's even worse than the outside. Any treasure would be wasted there."
At this moment, Wu Shaoyi's heartbeat had calmed down slightly, so she requested to go ashore again.
He Lingchuan also knew it was time to leave, but glancing back at the old turtle demon's corpse, he felt a bit regretful.
Why be afraid of leaking heavenly secrets when you're already dead? Why not just write the answer on the divination stick?
Moreover, He Chunhua was right; the old turtle demon had even shown the shrine keeper a dream to create the divination stick.
If it had no requests of He Lingchuan, why go through all this trouble?
He had thought he could find answers on the turtle demon's corpse, but he did not.
Disappointed, He Lingchuan took out the two divination sticks and placed them on the old turtle demon's carapace: "Here, this is for you."
He placed them quite properly, but somehow, one of the sticks slid down the edge of the shell and then—
Then it disappeared.
"Eh?" He Lingchuan caught this scene as he turned around, slightly stunned.
Where did the stick go?
It seemed to have slid beneath the turtle's belly and then vanished.
He Lingchuan leaned down to look but found nothing.
It was just a broken stick; what was the big deal? He turned to leave, but saw the second stick also elegantly slide down, dropping to the ground right under his eyelids, sinking away.
Fearing he hadn't seen it clearly, it all happened in slow motion.
Not to mention the ground was stone; even if it were soft sand, how did the stick go down?
He Lingchuan finally became a bit interested and reached his hand under the turtle's belly to feel around.
To be honest, it wasn't easy to squeeze his hand in, but then he suddenly felt a gap with one of his fingers.
The space under the turtle's belly was empty!
In such hard reef rock, there was actually a hole?
A rather deep hole.
He Lingchuan instinctively pushed the turtle's corpse; of course, it didn't budge, splattering his hand with blood.
"Crocodile God, can you help me out?"
The Crocodile God's reaction was to flick its tail, too lazy to even open its mouth.
It absolutely would not do anything outside of its duty.
He Lingchuan had no choice but to take out his broken knife to cut the ground.
"Old Wu, wait a moment."
Sparks flew, and he was afraid the blade would break again.
Fortunately, this weapon was as reliable as ever.
After working hard for a quarter of an hour, he finally widened the stone hole beneath the turtle's belly enough for his hand to fit in.
Then, he dug out something larger than a football, oval and almost rectangular.
This thing was light white in color, with a surface covered in spots.
An egg.
A perfectly intact… turtle egg?
So this turtle demon was female? He Lingchuan carefully cradled the egg and washed off the surface slime by the pond.
After washing, he suddenly remembered that washing a chicken egg like this wouldn't work; what about a turtle egg?
Forget it, this turtle egg was laid by a water spirit, it should be a bit different, right?
Wu Shaoyi watched in astonishment, "Is that a turtle egg?"
"You're asking a question you already know the answer to."
The water spirit specifically left the divination stick for him; was it to entrust something?
That meant it knew it was about to die when it entrusted the dream to the shrine keeper.
It seemed the water spirit's divination was quite accurate.
Hmm… this was really not good news for him.
The Crocodile Demon lifted its eyelid and stared at the egg: "Let me eat it, and I'll give you a great-grandson as a spirit pet!"
The several small Crocodile Demons outside were all its bloodline.
It was well known that crocodiles and snakes were among the hardest to tame as spirit pets.
He Lingchuan could only refuse: "Sorry, no trade."
Although a Crocodile Demon spirit pet was good, this turtle egg was related to the mystery of the divination stick and his own life; it absolutely could not be given away.
The Crocodile Demon was not angry: "Fine, I've already killed it once, so let it have a way out."
Demons also cultivated the Dao and understood the principle of not going too far.
"It?"
The Crocodile Demon tilted its head: "Is there only this one egg?"
"Yes."
At least he hadn't found a second one in the cave.
"This is not reproduction; it's corpse transformation," the Crocodile Demon said lightly.
"What you're holding is either the offspring of the turtle demon or the turtle demon itself!"
He Lingchuan was greatly surprised.
With a little explanation from the Crocodile Demon, he understood that such a heavenly spiritual object would choose the method of corpse transformation when its time was up or when its cultivation had reached a standstill, seeking a chance for rebirth.
This turtle demon probably concentrated all its essence and transferred it out in the form of an egg, then infused its soul into it.
As long as it could break out of the shell, it could begin a second turtle life, equivalent to starting over.
Although the process of transferring the soul could lead to soul damage and memory loss, one must bear risks when going against the heavens.
But here, even if the egg could hatch, the entrance was blocked tightly by the heavy turtle corpse, and the newly hatched little turtle wouldn't be able to escape, likely to be trapped to death in the end.
But if the hole wasn't blocked, the water rats would have eaten the turtle egg long ago, leaving no chance for hatching.
At this moment, external assistance was needed.
Feeling like he was being used as a tool, He Lingchuan took out a copper coin from his pocket and said to the air: "Turtle Immortal, do you want me to take the egg away? If so, let it land face up three times."
He had just cut off the turtle demon's XX, and now he had to find a way to communicate with it, making him feel a bit uneasy, so he quickly used a respectful title.
After tossing the coin three times, all landed with the side showing characters facing up.
The old turtle's soul was indeed still wandering in the cave! He Lingchuan felt a chill at the back of his neck.
"Did you give me two divination sticks because my calamity is supposed to occur tonight?"
The copper coin landed three times, all showing the blank side up.
Clearly, the old turtle was saying no.
He Lingchuan let out a long sigh of relief: "Thank you."
Thinking positively, didn't this mean he could ultimately pass through the calamity of the bandits safely?
His mood brightened immediately.
"Then does that mean I will face a greater calamity later, and death is inevitable?"
The copper coin he tossed got stuck upright in a stone crevice.
What did that mean? The answer was neither affirmative nor negative?
These old shamans never spoke definitively.
"Is there still a glimmer of hope?"
The side of the copper coin with characters faced up again.
Good, good, finally giving a definite answer.
He Lingchuan rubbed his hands together: "Then, how can I seek life amidst death?"
This time, the coin fell directly into the crevice, making several clinking sounds, clearly indicating there were more crevices inside, and it wouldn't be easy to retrieve it.
He didn't know if the turtle spirit had no answer or just couldn't say it.
The Crocodile Demon beside couldn't help but ask, "Are you done yet?"
Wu Shaoyi also coughed twice, growing weaker.
They couldn't afford to delay here, and He Lingchuan was anxious to go out and find his family, so he secured the turtle egg and asked the Crocodile Demon to fulfill its promise to take them out.
The Crocodile Demon had long been impatient: "Get on my back."
(End of Chapter)