Druid Fairy

Chapter 216 Xuanwu
"It sleeps for longer and longer periods of time, sometimes for months at a time, and becomes increasingly irritable when it wakes up."

The white snake's eyes were filled with worry: "I tried to use my water-based spiritual power to soothe it, but I found that there seemed to be an extremely stubborn death energy entangled in its body, intertwined with its life force. When my spiritual power got close, it would trigger an even more violent backlash."

Just a few days ago, it fell into a deep sleep and did not respond no matter how I called it. The lake water around its cave began to become murky, and the creatures in the water began to die inexplicably.

I was helpless and could only watch as its condition worsened day by day.

The white snake's tone was filled with helplessness, "Today, I happened to sense a strange change in the world here, a vast and boundless life force. Perhaps only by mastering the way of life and nature can I save its life. Therefore, I have taken the liberty of coming here!"

After saying this, she was about to get up and bow.

Li Pingcan raised his hand, and a gentle force supported her. He frowned slightly, already understanding the general idea in his mind.

The situation of the black tortoise is so similar to that of the old mulberry tree that was eroded by evil insects!

It's all about the entanglement of life and death, a collapse that begins from within.

However, the old mulberry tree was corrupted by external evil spirits, while the black tortoise probably had problems with its own cultivation, or suffered some incurable Dao injury in its early years, which has now accumulated to the point of no return and has completely erupted.

Such injuries, which involve the very essence of life, are indeed difficult to treat with ordinary elixirs and spiritual energy.

But for him, who has now grasped the principles of "prosperity and decline," perhaps there really is a solution.

“Senior Xuan Gui has done me a favor, and I will not stand idly by in this matter.” Li Pingcan looked at the white snake’s expectant eyes, pondered for a moment, and then nodded. “There’s no time to lose, let’s set off now and go to the lake to take a look.”

True to his word, he didn't hesitate at all. He nodded slightly to the white snake and took flight.

"Wow!"

The golden eagle Xiaofei let out a clear cry, transforming into a golden lightning bolt, flying alongside the magic boat to protect its master. Its speed was more than twice as fast as before, and with each flap of its wings, the sound of wind and thunder accompanied it, displaying extraordinary swiftness.

"let's go."

As soon as Li Pingcan finished speaking, the white snake felt the scene before her eyes blur. This speed was even faster than when she was flying through the clouds at full power!

Looking at the calm and collected Li Pingcan beside him, the last trace of doubt in his heart completely vanished.

They traveled in silence, and in less than the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, they were already hovering above Longquan Lake.

The scene before her eyes plunged the already worried White Snake into despair.

The Longquan Lake of my memory, with its vast expanse of clear water, shimmering and full of life, is gone.

Instead, there was only deathly silence.

The lake water was an ominous grayish-green, murky and covered with a greasy film and a large number of dead fish and shrimp with their white bellies up.

A gentle breeze blew by, but instead of bringing fresh, moist air, it brought a nauseating, putrid, and decaying stench.

The entire Longquan Lake seemed to have turned into a huge poisonous swamp. The lush aquatic plants and spiritual plants that once surrounded the lake had all withered and died.

"How could it have deteriorated so quickly..."

The White Snake's voice trembled, her eyes filled with heartache. This was the place where she had cultivated for nearly a thousand years, but now it had become like this.

Li Pingcan remained silent, hovering quietly in the air, and slowly closed his eyes.

The next moment, his divine soul, which was already connected to the earth veins of the entire Great Yu Dynasty, spread out like mercury, instantly enveloping the entire Longquan Lake.

In his perception, a chaotic, violent, and contradictory energy was continuously emanating from a cave at the deepest part of the lake.

That energy was half pure and profound life essence, and the other half cold and domineering death energy.

The two should have been irreconcilable, but now they are intertwined and devouring each other in an extremely strange way, forming a chaotic energy vortex.

This whirlpool is frantically devouring all the vitality of Longquan Lake, turning it into more death and polluting this land.

"I see."

Li Pingcan opened his eyes, a hint of understanding flashing in them. "Senior Xuan Turtle was not simply injured or poisoned, but was undergoing a transformation that was fraught with peril. Unfortunately, it seems that something went wrong, causing an imbalance between life and death, and a reversal of yin and yang, which led to the current situation."

"Transformation?"

Upon hearing this, the white snake was taken aback, then, as if realizing something, exclaimed, "Could it be... 'Returning to the Origin of the Mysterious Armor, Shedding Mortal Form and Becoming True Being'? This is a bloodline supernatural power that only one in ten thousand of us aquatic demon cultivators can trigger when our lifespan is nearing its end or when our cultivation reaches a bottleneck! If successful, we can shed our mortal body, reshape our true form, and our cultivation and lifespan will both increase dramatically. If we fail, we will die and our soul will perish!"

The color drained from her face. "The old tortoise never mentioned this to me! Knowing its nature, it must have felt uncertain and didn't want to implicate me!"

“Let’s go down and take a look.” Li Pingcan said calmly. “Perhaps there is still room for redemption.”

Upon hearing this, a glimmer of hope rekindled in the White Snake's eyes. She nodded quickly, formed hand seals, and chanted incantations.

The lake water in front of us automatically parted to the sides, revealing a deep passage leading straight to the bottom of the lake.

The closer you get to the bottom of the lake, the more violent the chaotic energy becomes.

Black arcs of electricity flashed intermittently across the water walls on both sides of the passage; these were strange phenomena caused by the collision of death energy and water elemental power.

If ordinary cultivators were here, the energy emanating from this place alone would probably be enough to give them a serious headache.

Soon, an ancient underwater cave appeared before the two of them.

At the entrance of the cave, the array runes that were originally set up to gather water elemental power have all dimmed and are even corroded by the death energy, leaving them pitted and uneven.

Inside the cave, the place was in complete disarray.

There, the black tortoise, as large as a small mountain, was quietly lying in the center of the cave.

Its condition was even worse than described by the White Snake.

The tortoise shell, once as solid and thick as millennia-old black jade, was now covered with spiderweb-like cracks. Large pieces of the shell had peeled off, revealing lifeless gray flesh beneath. Grotesque black lines, like venomous snakes come to life, spread from the cracks and covered its entire body.

Above its head, a spirit tree that was originally meant to be nourished as its natal spiritual plant had withered completely and turned into a gray-black stone.

The black tortoise had its eyes tightly closed, its breath extremely weak, and its body was twitching slightly and unconsciously. With each twitch, a chaotic energy would burst out from its body, shattering the surrounding reefs into dust.

"Old Turtle!" The white snake was about to step forward.

"Don't touch it."

Li Pingcan reached out to stop her, and said with a serious expression, "It is currently at an extremely delicate balance point. Life and death are engaged in a final struggle within its body. Any external intervention could cause this balance to collapse instantly, and at that point, it will truly be too late to reverse the situation."

The White Snake stopped in her tracks, her voice choked with sorrow as she asked, "What should we do?!"

Li Pingcan did not answer immediately, but slowly walked to the front of the Xuan Turtle. He extended his right hand, his index finger gently pointing out, a wisp of chaotic energy that belonged neither to life nor death swirling around his fingertip, and carefully placed it on the Xuan Turtle's cracked forehead.

"Buzz!"

Li Pingcan's divine sense, following this point of contact, instantly surged into the Xuan Turtle's sea of ​​consciousness.

An aged and weary soul is being bound by endless black chains of death energy, dragged relentlessly toward a dark abyss that represents "the end".

At the core of its soul, a faint golden light, like a candle flickering in the wind, was struggling desperately, trying to break free from the shackles of darkness.

That is the "true spirit" that the black tortoise nurtures during its metamorphosis; it is its hope for the future.

Unfortunately, it seems to have suffered a severe injury in its early years, resulting in a deficiency in its origin. Now, with its lifespan nearing its end and its vital energy declining, it is simply not able to support this transformation of "destruction and re-construction".

The power of new life is too weak, while the power of decay of the old body is too strong, which has led to the current stalemate.

If this continues, within ten days, that glimmer of "true spirit" light will be completely extinguished. At that time, the Xuan Turtle will be reduced to a mindless walking corpse that only knows how to destroy, and eventually, after its energy is exhausted, it will turn into a puddle of mud and die.

"So that's how it is. It was a failed transformation caused by a Dao injury..." Li Pingcan withdrew his finger, having already made up his mind.

"Is there any way?" the White Snake asked nervously, her heart pounding in her throat.

"Have."

Li Pingcan nodded, but his expression became extremely solemn. "However, this method is extremely dangerous and requires absolute silence. Lady Bai, I ask you and Xiaofei to protect me and guard the cave entrance. No matter what happens, do not let any living being get close."

"Yes!" The white snake nodded heavily. She knew this was her last hope. She immediately turned around and, together with the golden eagle Xiaofei, guarded the entrance to the cave, setting up layers of water curtain barriers. Her expression was extremely solemn.

Inside the cave, only Li Pingcan and the silent Xuan Turtle remained.

Li Pingcan took a deep breath. Without using any magic weapons or activating his powerful magic, he slowly raised his hands and placed them on the head and tail of the Xuan Turtle.

The next moment, his soul, which had been completely integrated with the Dao Fruit of Life and Death, began to operate with a roar!
Completely different, yet sharing the same origin, forces surged forth simultaneously from his palms!
On his left hand, a jet-black mark resembling the character "枯" (ku) appeared in the palm.

A deathly power, pure to the extreme, representing the end of all things and the return to nothingness, flowed gently into the decaying old body of the Xuan Turtle like a gentle tide.

The injection of this power did not hasten the death of the Xuan Turtle. Instead, it acted like a precise guide, calming and gathering all the violent, chaotic, and disorderly death energy within the Xuan Turtle's body, and then guiding it to accelerate the "withering" process of the Xuan Turtle's old body in a gentle yet irreversible way.

"Crack...knock..."

Before the white snake's horrified gaze, the cracked shells on the black tortoise's massive body began to peel away rapidly, turning into ashes. The lifeless flesh also quickly withered and decayed.

This process is like the falling leaves in autumn, a natural withering of life. Although it is full of desolation, it is without any pain or violence.

At the same time, a jade-green "Rong" mark bloomed in the palm of Li Pingcan's right hand.

A vast and boundless life force, full of creation and rebirth, descended like a gentle rain from the heavens, precisely bypassing the withering old body and pouring directly into the depths of the Xuan Turtle's sea of ​​consciousness, onto that extinguished golden light of the "true spirit"!
"Buzz!"

Nourished by this life-saving rain, the golden spirit suddenly shone brightly!
Driven by Li Pingcan's Dao of Life, a more refined and spiritual Xuan Turtle Divine Soul, with that bit of true spirit as its core, rapidly condensed into form!
One destruction, one construction.

One life, one death.

Under the precise control of Li Pingcan's "Hands of Life and Death," the life-or-death battle that had been heading towards destruction within the Xuan Turtle's body was forcibly reversed, turning into a perfect transformation of destruction and rebirth, a perfect metamorphosis from death to life!
"Roar!!!"

A joyful roar suddenly erupted from the core of the old body that was turning to ashes!

A dazzling golden light shot up from the old body, illuminating the entire dark cave at the bottom of the lake as if it were daytime!
Amidst the light, a miniature Xuan Turtle, only one-tenth the size of its original form, its entire body carved from the finest imperial green jade, with natural Hetu and Luoshu patterns imprinted on its shell, slowly emerged.

Its eyes, no longer cloudy and irritable, have become as deep and bright as stars, filled with the wisdom of returning to simplicity.

The transformation was a success!

"Thank you for saving my life!"

The Xuan Turtle spoke in human language and slowly swam to Li Pingcan, solemnly lowering its head, which had been proud for thousands of years.

It looked at Li Pingcan with a complicated expression, never expecting that the human boy it had once looked down upon would become its benefactor.

With its mouth slightly open, the Xuan Turtle gently spat out a dragon eye-sized pearl that was entirely azure blue and seemed to contain a sea of ​​stars inside.

"I have no way to repay your great kindness. This is the 'Mysterious Nether Heavy Water Pearl' that I nurtured with my primordial essence after sleeping for ten thousand years. It contains primordial heavy water, which can suppress water veins and also transform into supreme protection. I am giving it to you today to repay even a fraction of your kindness."

Looking at the Xuan Turtle before him and sensing the perfect and flawless true spiritual energy within its body, Li Pingcan smiled.

From this day forward, in addition to the Azure Dragon of the Earth Veins, there will likely be another "Black Tortoise" guarding the water veins within my Druid dojo.

As the source of the chaos disappeared, the water in Longquan Lake began to become clearer at a visible speed. Withered aquatic plants sprouted new shoots, and the remains of dead fish and shrimp turned into nutrients.

A new life is being born anew in this ancient lake, full of vitality.

(End of this chapter)