"So you're called Sai Joshi." A voice suddenly echoed out. Following that, Sai Joshi's vision instantly retracted, and he unconsciously lowered his gaze. He could only see he was self-standing above the golden ocean, right in the middle of the ten now-golden-white balls of light.
"Where is this? Why am I here?" Sai Joshi asked in amazement.
"This is your mind's sea of consciousness, or spirit sea. In the future, this will be this Brother's home. This place was small, so this Brother simply helped you expand it. However, your body is weak, so I'll have to make do for now."
"You're the Stardream Iceworm? I'm not dreaming?" Sai Joshi became even more stunned when he heard the voice and tone of the person who'd spoken. Everything that he saw in front of him had already surpassed his knowledge. Not to speak of Sai Joshi, who was only sixteen; even adults would be shocked to the point of them trembling in fear if they were presented with such a miraculous scene.
"Dreaming? If you were able to have such a nice dream, wouldn't you have died from happiness? This is obviously not a dream. As I said, this is the world within your mind." The Stardream Iceworm unhappily replied.
Sai Joshi blankly said, "What's that?"
The Stardream Iceworm replied, "You really are foolish. How do I explain this to you? Well… let's put it this way. You know about your eyes—they're the martial soul that your consciousness calls the 'Spirit Eyes. The Spirit Eyes are your spirit, but at the same time also your eyes. Thus, the spirit sea is where your spirit power is stored. If you want to display the might of your Spirit Eyes, you'll need to convert your spiritforce into spirit power, then release it using your Spirit Eyes. The specific location of your spirit sea is your brain, behind your Spirit Eyes. As of right now, your consciousness is immersed within your spirit sea. The body that you're seeing isn't actually your real body, but a body that I've created using spiritual energy for the sake of communicating with you."
Sai Joshi finally understood a few things after hearing this detailed explanation. The fear in his heart also weakened by a lot. Young boys were much more sensitive than adults at certain times, and he felt that the Stardream Iceworm truly didn't have any malicious intentions towards him.
"Then, how come you appeared in my spiritual sea?" Sai Joshi asked again.
The Stardream Iceworm replied, "Didn't I just tell you? I want to become your soul ring, an intelligent soul ring! As of now, I've already become one. However, for the sake of becoming your soul ring, I've suppressed and sealed a large amount of my power. From now on, you'll have a soul ring, and can become one of the human's so-called soul masters. However, your innate talent is good. But not excellent, but for now I know my choice was correct."
Huo Yuhao was slightly ashamed as he said, "I admit that my talent is good. But, I'll work hard. My innate spirit power was only rank one."
The Stardream Iceworm said, "I'll think of a method to help you improve yourself later on."
As the length of the conversation increased, Sai Joshi's guts did too. "Stardream Iceworm."
"Call me Brother Stardream."
"Fine, Brother Stardream. You said that you were a million year soul beast, is that true? Also, why did you pick me? I've heard that Soul Scholars can only withstand soul rings that are below four hundred years old. However, since you're a million year soul beast, how were you able to become my soul ring?"
The Stardream Iceworm suddenly let out a long sigh, "Do you think that I wanted to pick you? I had no other choice! If I'd continued to refrain from making a choice, my life would've come to an end. And once I died, my body would've most likely become food for those guys in the Spirit Hunting Forest! Under state of helplessness, I could only use this plan to attach myself to you humans. This is also my only way out. Would you like to listen to my story? In the future, we'll be with each other for a very, very long time. I don't want to hide anything from you either, so I'll tell you everything."
Sai Joshi nodded his head and said, "Brother Stardream, please speak."
The Stardream Iceworm replied, "At first, I was just an ordinary Iceworm spirit beast. I wasn't born in the Spirit Hunting Forest, but in an extremely cold place located in the northern areas of the continent. We Iceworms are spirit beasts that have two innate attributes, spirit and ice attributes. However, our combat strength is seriously limited by our speed. Thus, we can only be considered very ordinary spirit beasts. What's more, we're also affected by the presence of natural predators. Very few of us can cultivate longer than ten thousand years. I'm the sole exception to that."
"When I was thirteen years old, I carelessly fell into a crack in the ice whilst running away from a predator. At that time, I thought I was done for. However, who could've known that I'd drop into a ball of ten thousand year Ice Crux? I sank into a deep sleep after that. I was still very weak and small back then, and my body wasn't even three inches long. That sleep lasted for an entire ten thousand years. When I woke up, I found myself in an icy cave. That ten thousand year Ice Crux had disappeared—it had all been absorbed by me. However, as a result of my slumber, I had thus turned into a ten thousand year soul beast. I was indescribably pleased and surprised back then! However, I discovered that I couldn't find any way to exit the icy cave at all."
"I was surrounded by extremely hard ice in that icy cave. Although I had already become a ten thousand year soul beast, our Iceworm clan has always been weak in combat, resulting in me being unable to forcefully break through the ice."