Molting the Mortal Coil

Chapter 854: Turtle

Fortunately, the sea turtle was still incapacitated as he swam away at full speed. Using the Inner World he had experienced the turtles life extremely rapidly. This experience was already a very rapid process with many years only taking seconds to pass by. It was also to his favor that hed already lived many thousands of years upon the Inner World, which the turtle now had to live through. He wasnt worried about the turtle now knowing all his secrets because hed learned just how little it cared about anything other than being safe and filling its stomach. The turtle was very simple and cared only about the pursuits of other beasts. Even if it was actually quite intelligent in its later years because of the innate strength of its species, it still didnt care. It completely neglected introspection or thinking about the world around it. It was just plain lazy.

Sage reached the reef and swam between two large outcroppings, looking for a place to hide when the sea turtle finally came back to its senses. Its eyes seemed to turn red and it looked around rapidly before suddenly deciding on a direction and following flawlessly in Sages wake. Its normally cowardly and lazy behavior was tossed aside in favor of getting revenge upon its tormentor. It was minding its own business and had not had to face any hardship in hundreds of years. Its now immense size meant that as long as it didnt stray into the deeper parts of the sea nothing could threaten it anymore. Now this little creature had overwhelmed it with pain and then tortured it with the experiences of many strange and confusing lifetimes. Its head hurt not only from the painful attack, but from the amount of strange things that it was forced to see.

Sage found a hole in the reef that seemed to lead into a deep cavern and he didnt bother figuring out what lived inside before diving straight in. This entrance was nearly ten feet wide, but the sea turtles head was more than ten times wider. He swam in, on the lookout for other occupants. He was especially worried about this being the den of something like an eel with a ten foot wide body, one that might just open its mouth and rush outwards leaving him no room to do anything but get swallowed. Considering how rapidly he swam into this cavern it showed that hed much rather find himself in the belly of an eel than face the mountainous turtle outside.

Unlike his expectations there was no gigantic eel. Instead he started to run into smaller holes on the sides of this passageway which held many other sea creatures of sizes that he might find normal on Earth. He immediately realized that these comparatively tiny animals wouldnt have to face anything that couldnt fit into the cavern as long as they stayed down here. There were probably less resources for them to share, but it might be less dangerous. He couldnt really be sure, since there might just be a very tiny, but very powerful sea creature for all he knew. That thought actually pulled his mind away from the danger of the sea turtle. Perhaps this was the sort of place where a tyrannical tiny beast lived and all these weaklings were like its subjects, early warning system and emergency rations all in one.

While contemplating this possibility and staying wary of an ambush by a powerful creature, he was caught unaware by a giant boom. The water struck him from above and the rock shattered and crumbled around him. He realized it wasnt just him, all the water in this cavern as well as the many tiny tunnels had suddenly rushed downwards. It was like an instantaneous thrust, all of the water suddenly fell downwards with immense pressure. The floor of the cavern was smashed and compacted, dropping down a full three inches. Most of the tiny tunnels and side paths were suddenly tainted by clouds of blood. The powerful down current went against all logic, seeming to pass right through the rock above him and slamming down upon him. The cavern started to rumble and he realized it wasnt just the floor and the smaller tunnels, even the rocks above him had been struck with great force and the whole place was now approaching complete collapse.

He quickly spun back around and swam back towards the entrance, retracing his path to make an escape. The entrance appeared in front of him again, but then the water slammed down upon him a second time. The rocks around him cracked and huge pieces separated from the walls and ceiling. Luckily, the water resistance made them fall slowly and while his Jade Mantle was reduced in size from the impacts, he had just enough time to shoot out from between two huge rocks and escape an underwater burial. Maintaining his speed, he glanced back to see the huge sea turtle swimming in a loop, moving up towards the surface and then swooping back down. A seething pressure wave built up in front of it and then it turned away while the wave continued on. It smashed against the rock beneath it and the already crumbling pile was blasted into small pieces.

The sea turtle didnt stop to admire its handiwork. After pulling up from its dive attack it suddenly turned its head towards Sage and altered its course to follow him. It didnt care that the many hundred foot tall rock formation was blasted into pieces beneath it. Instead its red eyes were locked in on Sage and it followed after him on a powerful wave of its own making. This time the water was building up behind it and propelling it forward, quickly closing the distance between the two of them. Sage manipulated his Qi and released a crimson blood-like liquid into the water behind him. It formed into a giant cloud like he was releasing bloody ink in his wake. The sea turtle had no aspirations but it was not stupid and it tilted its body forward. The wave that was pushing it forward slid underneath its rear end and its whole body was lifted upwards. It changed its angle and it swam seamlessly over the bloody cloud. At the same time the wave it was riding scattered the ruby liquid apart.

The attempt to slow it down was barely effective and the distance between the two of them continued to shrink. Just as it was about to catch up, Sage released an even larger cloud of material this time. An almost neon green cloud spread out behind him, forming an area more than four times larger than the red one. The sea turtle was still riding on top of the current, but now it slowed slightly and then dipped down. The wave that was first pushing it, and was then carrying it along was now in front of it. The sea turtle rode in the center of the water column, using the wave in front as a battering ram to scatter the cloud before it caught up to its target.

Unlike the blood colored cloud, this green cloud was utterly immune to the wave of water. The Greenrose Miasma was not touched by the force of the water and only the sea turtles Water Law did anything. It smashed up against Sages Corruption Law that was reinforcing the spiritual poison. The tangible versus the intangible. The column of water passed right through the miasma and smashed into Sage, but the turtle swam right into the intangible cloud of poisonous miasma. Sage had used the liquid contact poison, Ruby Blood, to give the turtle a false sense of security before using the spiritual poison of the Greenrose Miasma as a trap.

Of course, the price for poisoning the sea turtle was for him to take its attack head on. The powerful rush of water smashed against him and he let it carry him away. If he tried to resist it would hit him even harder and the sea turtle would likely ram into him. Yet, even as weakened as the hit was, it still peeled off his Jade Mantle. Layer after layer of it crumbled away until the thin layer finally popped. His clothing was torn to shreds, the flowing garments werent very thick, but they were still from a qualified tailor. The magical tool was torn to shred and his body was left battered and bruised. From his waist the spider shaped belt buckle did its job, releasing silken threads to form a new outfit on his body. This new clothing didnt offer any protection other than for his modesty, but he had better things to worry about.