📘 CHAPTER 4: A Conversation with a Cosmic Worm
The silence in the clearing was absolute. The very air seemed to hold its breath. Tang Ya's hand was clamped over her own mouth, her eyes wide as full moons. Bei Bei had subtly positioned himself in front of her, every muscle taut, his spirit power a barely restrained hum. Before them, the impossible was unfolding: a scrawny, eleven-year-old boy was staring down a legendary Million-Year Spirit Beast, and had just refused a gift of heaven-shaking power.
The Tianmeng Iceworm didn't move, but the playful light in its massive golden eyes deepened into something ancient and discerning. Its mental voice, when it came, was no longer a lazy broadcast but a focused beam directed solely at Huo Yuhao.
"A… conversation?" The words echoed in his mind, tinged with genuine astonishment. "Little human, little variable… do you have any idea what you are rejecting? What I am? I am the Skydream Iceworm! The first of my kind to breach a million years! I have slept through epochs and been chased by beasts that could shatter mountains with a roar. And you, a fledgling spirit master who can barely frost a puddle, want to 'talk'?"
A wave of immense spiritual pressure, gentle but impossibly vast, washed over Huo Yuhao. It was a pressure meant to inspire awe, to reduce him to grateful submission. It was the pressure of the "canon."
Huo Yuhao's knees trembled, but he locked them. The Black Book in his spiritual sea emitted a soft, stabilizing pulse. The memories of Ayush—of reading about this very creature's boastful, narcissistic personality—merged with the hard-earned grit of Huo Yuhao's life. He didn't see a savior. He saw a supremely powerful, incredibly lonely, and desperate entity.
"I know exactly what you are," Huo Yuhao said aloud, his voice not wavering. He wanted Tang Ya and Bei Bei to hear this; he needed witnesses to his divergence. "You are the Million-Year Skydream Iceworm. You possess immense spiritual power but almost no combat strength. For the last many millennia, you have been trapped, used as a living cultivation resource by the powerful beasts of the Star Dou Great Forest's core region. You are not offering me a gift out of benevolence. You are making a desperate escape."
Another stunned silence, this one charged with shock. The Iceworm's translucent body rippled.
"How… could you possibly know that?" Its mental voice lost all its playful pretense, becoming sharp, even wary.
[Earth Viewer 255]: "HOLY— HE JUST CALLED IT OUT!"
[Earth Viewer 89]:"He's playing a dangerous game! The worm is proud!"
[System Notification]:+10 Rebellion Points. Directly confronting a core "Canon Benefactor" event. Narrative strain increasing.
Bei Bei sucked in a sharp breath, his analytical mind reeling. The core region? Used as a cultivation resource? This was secret knowledge far beyond what any ordinary spirit master should know. Who was this boy?
Tang Ya simply whispered, "Wow."
"I know many things," Huo Yuhao continued, pressing his slight advantage of shock. "I know you seek a spirit master with a mental attribute to preserve your consciousness. I know your plan—the 'God Creating Plan.' You wish to become my intelligent spirit ring, guide me to godhood, and live on through me."
"Then… why refuse?" The Iceworm's confusion was palpable. "It is the perfect symbiosis! You gain unmatched foundation, and I gain freedom and a future!"
"Because it's a trap within a trap," Huo Yuhao stated, the words cold and final. "Your plan is sound. But my destiny is not my own. If I walk the path you envision, I become a jewel in someone else's crown. My strength will become a leash. My godhood will be a cage."
He took a step forward, an act of breathtaking audacity. "I offer a different bargain. Not master and spirit ring. Not predator and prey. But allies."
The Iceworm stared, utterly nonplussed. "Allies? You, a Rank 10 Spirit Person, propose an alliance with me?"
"Your strength is spiritual and in your million-year life force. Your weakness is your physical form and your vulnerability to those core area beasts," Huo Yuhao laid out, his mind racing, the live-stream chat blurring with suggestions in the corner of his eye. "I have… resources. Resources that can hide you, protect your essence in a way fusion cannot. I can offer you a sanctuary, not just a vessel. In return, you become my mentor, not my spirit ring. You teach me what you know of the world, of spirit beasts, of spiritual control. We help each other grow stronger, on our terms."
He was bluffing, partially. The Black Book's treasury had space, but could it hold a living million-year soul beast's consciousness? He didn't know. But the future Huo Yuhao's echo had said to think differently. The script demanded fusion. He would offer cohabitation.
The Tianmeng Iceworm was still. The forest seemed to darken as it contemplated. This was a novel equation. Pride warred with desperation. The elegant, pre-written solution was rejected. A messy, uncertain, joint venture was on the table.
"A sanctuary… outside of this world?" it probed, its sense brushing against the edges of his spiritual sea, feeling the foreign, immovable authority of the Black Book. It recoiled slightly, intrigued and alarmed. "What are you, little variable?"
"I am Huo Yuhao," he said, and for the first time, the name felt wholly his own. "And I am rewriting my story. Do you want to be a footnote in someone else's plan, or a co-author of a new one?"
The gamble hung in the air. Tang Ya and Bei Bei were statues, understanding they were glimpsing something that defied all logic of spirit master and spirit beast relations.
Finally, the Iceworm's body rippled with something like a sigh. The arrogant, cosmic wanderer persona fell away, revealing the tired, hunted being beneath.
"You are the strangest, most intriguing creature I have ever met, Huo Yuhao," it conceded. "Very well. I accept your… alternative proposal. A trial alliance. Show me this sanctuary. I will not bind myself as your ring… yet."
[System Notification: MAJOR DEVIATION ACHIEVED]
Event: "Fateful Fusion" has been overwritten to "Unorthodox Alliance."
Reward: +50 Rebellion Points. "Skydream's Mentorship" buff activated. Narrative coherence in local timeline: significantly damaged.
[Warning: Divine attention scan intensity increasing.]
Huo Yuhao nodded, a wave of exhaustion and triumph washing over him. He looked inward, focusing on the Black Book. "I need to grant it temporary access to the Treasury's holding space."
[System Query: Grant entity "Tianmeng Iceworm" guest access to Dimensional Treasury? Y/N]
He selected 'Yes.'
A subtle, dark aperture, like a tear in reality itself, opened in the air before him. No spirit energy leaked from it, only a profound sense of elsewhere. The Iceworm, with one last curious glance at the stunned Tang Sect disciples, shimmered. Its massive, physical body began to dissolve into streams of pure, golden-white light and consciousness. Instead of flowing into Huo Yuhao's body, they streamed into the dark aperture, which sealed shut behind it without a sound.
The immense pressure vanished. The clearing was just a clearing again.
For a long moment, only the rustle of leaves could be heard.
Then, Tang Ya exploded into motion. "WHAT WAS THAT?!" she yelped, bouncing forward. "Where did it go? What did you do? An alliance? With a million-year beast? How? WHY?"
Bei Bei was more composed, but the awe in his eyes was undeniable. "Huo Yuhao," he said slowly, respectfully. "You must forgive our shock. What we just witnessed… it transcends normal understanding. That being… you didn't absorb it. You negotiated with it." He paused, choosing his words with great care. "The Tang Sect has records of intelligent spirit beasts, but this… You are full of surprises."
Huo Yuhao, feeling the Iceworm's now-distant, curious presence in a partitioned section of the Black Book's treasury, met Bei Bei's gaze. "The world is bigger than the records, Bei Bei. Some paths aren't in the books."
It was a subtle message: Your ancestor's script doesn't cover everything.
[Earth Viewer 300]: "YES! HE DID IT! NON-CANON ROUTE UNLOCKED!"
[Earth Viewer 12]:"Tang Ya's mind is blown lol. Bei Bei is suspicious…"
[System:] Rebellion Points can now be spent. Accessing preliminary store…
"Surprises are good!" Tang Ya declared, her initial shock transforming into blazing enthusiasm. "You're amazing! You have to join our Tang Sect! With your spirit and your… your way with beasts, you'd be incredible!"
The hook was cast again, shiny and tempting.
Huo Yuhao smiled, a small, tired, but firm smile. "Thank you for the offer, Sister Tang Ya. But my path lies elsewhere. I have… a different academy in mind."
"Another academy? Which one? Shrek is the best! We have a recommendation!" she pressed.
"Not Shrek," Huo Yuhao said, the finality in his voice leaving no room for argument. He looked towards the north, a direction that felt right in his bones. "I need to go to the far north."
The statement hung there, cryptic and decisive. It was a rejection of the central pillar of the early plot—Shrek Academy. Bei Bei's eyes narrowed slightly, not in offense, but in deep contemplation. This boy rejected a million-year spirit ring, rejected the Tang Sect, and now rejected Shrek. He was carving a path with a machete, ignoring all signposted roads.
"Then… good luck, Huo Yuhao," Bei Bei said sincerely, clasping his hands. "The world could use more spirit masters who dare to walk their own road. I hope our paths cross again."
Tang Ya looked disappointed, but she fished in a pouch. "Here," she said, pressing a few gold spirit coins into his hand. "For the roasted fish we never got to eat. And… for being interesting. Don't get eaten by a bigger bear!"
Huo Yuhao accepted the coins, a genuine flicker of warmth cutting through his calculated cold. "Farewell."
He turned and walked into the depths of the Star Dou Forest, not towards the exit to Shrek City, but deeper in, towards the unknown. His first mission was clear: survive, grow strong, and use the Treasury to build a foundation the script could never have imagined.
In his spiritual sea, the Iceworm's voice, now curious and collaborative, murmured, "So, partner. The far north? Ambitious. Tell me about this 'Black Book'… and what, exactly, you know about my 'plight'…"
And high above, in the God Realm, Tang San's gaze swept over the Douluo Continent. The minor thread had stabilized again, but it was now weaving itself into a part of the tapestry he did not recognize. A faint, divine frown lingered on his face. A single, anomalous variable had just successfully refused its first major programming.
The system had logged it as a glitch.
But in the heart of a reader-turned-variable,it was logged as Victory.
---
TO BE CONTINUED…
(Chapter 5 Preview: Foundations of Rebellion – Huo Yuhao, guided by the now-allied Skydream Iceworm, begins his true cultivation. He uses the Frozen Marrow to brutally temper his frail body, unlocks basic functions of the Black Book System, and learns to harness viewer suggestions from the live-stream. His goal: reach the Extreme North and find the Ice Empress—not as a supplicant for power, but as a potential ally against a common, divine enemy. Meanwhile, the ripple effects of his defiance begin to spread; whispers of a strange boy who talked to a million-year beast reach curious ears, and a certain Destiny God in a higher realm starts running a deeper scan.)