Li Changāan nodded. "Iāve heard from Cultivators that as a World-Devouring Whale, you can devour the boundaries between worlds in the Void?"
The World-Devouring Whale nodded proudly. "Thatās right!"
Li Changāan continued, "Iād like to ask you to sever the connection between this small world and the Cultivation Realmāin other words, all those gates. I wonder if you could help?"
Hearing that Li Changāan wanted to sever the gates to the Cultivation Realm, the World-Devouring Whaleās eyes widened.
"Are you insane? First of all, Iām severely injured right now and can barely move. Even if I were at my full strength, my natural abilities would only allow me to sever the connection between a single gate and the Immortal Palace at most."
"The moment I do that, the Immortal Palace will surely notice. They might even send a large force to hunt me down. I wonāt stop you if you want to get yourself killed, but donāt drag me down with you!"
Hearing the World-Devouring Whaleās response, Li Changāan realized he had oversimplified things.
āThatās true. Thereās only one World-Devouring Whale, but there are so many gates. If the connection between one gate and the Cultivation Realm is severed, the Cultivation Realm will definitely find out something is wrong with this world very quickly.ā
āThey might even guess immediately that a World-Devouring Whale was behind it.ā
āWouldnāt that be like poking a hornetās nest?ā
The first plan was a no-go, but Li Changāan wasnāt disappointed. He proposed a second one instead. "Senior, could you secretly gnaw away at the barrier between the Cultivation Realm and the Lower Realm, isolating the Lower Realm?"
Hearing this plan, the World-Devouring Whale wasnāt as agitated. It snorted coldly. "Iām only one whale, and Iām severely injured. Even if I were willing to help you, boring through the boundary between the Cultivation Realm and the Lower Realm would probably take at least ten thousand years!"
"By then, the Cultivation Realm will have probably scoured this world clean, leaving no life behind. Do you think that proposal is reasonable?"
Li Changāan thought for a long time. After looking the World-Devouring Whale up and down a few times, he asked, "If your injuries could be healed, could the efficiency be improved a bit?"
The World-Devouring Whale waved a fin to scratch its armpit, saying flatly, "If my injuries heal, it would take about five thousand years. Thatās the fastest I can go."
Li Changāan blinked. "Senior Whale, do you have any family or friends?"
At the words "family and friends," the World-Devouring Whale became visibly agitated, and the entire tunnel trembled with its emotion.
It said, both angry and annoyed, "The Immortal Palace hunts us down everywhere! My entire clan was captured and enslaved by those beasts! You tell me if I have any family or friends left!"
Li Changāan didnāt press on the World-Devouring Whaleās sore spot. Instead, he said, "Senior, you told me before that the enemy of my enemy is my friend. I deeply agree..."
"Right now, we have a common enemy: the Cultivators from the Immortal Palace. So why donāt we cooperate and kill those son-of-a-bitch animals!"
Upon hearing this, the World-Devouring Whale started HUFFING and PUFFING, clearly enraged.
But after a long moment of fury, it sighed and said, "To those true Cultivators, weāre nothing but a bunch of ants. Even if you gave us another ten thousand years, weād never be their match!"
"Right now, I just want to find a quiet place to heal, and then find a new clan to continue my lineage..."
Li Changāan didnāt speak.
Instead, he took a few Elixirs out of his pocket.
The moment it saw the Elixirs, the World-Devouring Whale quickly shut its mouth, sniffed the air, and after a moment, said with a mix of shock and delight, "These are Cultivator Elixirs! Did you loot them from that bastard?"
Li Changāan smiled. "These are healing elixirs I refined myself, using the Cultivatorsā own as a base. Theyāre very effective for healing injuries."
As he spoke, Li Changāan tossed the Elixirs to the World-Devouring Whale.
The World-Devouring Whale caught the Elixirs, held them to its snout, and sniffed them carefully for a long time before swallowing them. In an instant, although its injuries hadnāt fully recovered, they began to slowly scab over.
Wounds inflicted by a Cultivator are difficult to heal naturally because theyāre saturated with Spiritual Power.
Only Elixirs prepared by Cultivators can neutralize the destructive energy within.
Li Changāan said persuasively, "If we canāt be their match in ten thousand years, then weāll take a hundred thousand. If a hundred thousand isnāt enough, then a million!"
"As long as we donāt give up, weāll get our revenge one day!"
"How can you, Senior, stand by and watch your own kin suffer while you hide away, living a carefree life?"
"If we join forces and pull out the hooks the Cultivation Realm has in the Lower Realm, sooner or later, a single spark from the Lower Realm will be enough to start a prairie fire!"
Logic told the World-Devouring Whale it should immediately find females from other clans to continue its lineage.
But its heart screamed, āTo hell with continuing the lineage!ā
āA true warrior fights!ā
It was fired up. It roared, "Since youāre so confident, Iāll go all out this time! Iāll risk my life to help you!"
"Once Iāve healed, Iāll immediately start gnawing away at the boundary between the two realms. As soon as the boundary is completely devoured, the Lower Realm and the Cultivator World will separate, and the gates will naturally be severed!"
At this point, its voice paused. Its pair of beady, jet-black eyes looked at Li Changāan as it continued, "But youāll have to provide a lot of Elixirs to help me recover. And after Iāve recovered, youāll still have to hold out for at least another five thousand years. Can you manage that?"
Five thousand years meant at least two more waves of Cultivators.
Even in the World-Devouring Whaleās eyes, this was a nearly impossible task.
"You donāt need to worry about those things, Senior!" Li Changāan replied without any hesitation, turning his head. "Ten thousand years is too long; we must seize the day. I will go and draw up a contract with the will of this world. Once we sign it, weāll begin!"
Saying this, Li Changāan didnāt exchange any more pleasantries.
He turned and left the desolate Gobi Desert of the northwest.
...