The massive brown eyes stared back at Alex.
It was about 5 meters away from him and the eye was all Alex could focus on.
His breathing stopped in fear at the massive eye. Slowly, he moved his eyes away from the single eye and towards the rest of the body.
The eye was attached to a long, bulbous head that had dark, almost black skin that was wrinkled throughout.
The neck of the beast elongated all the way down the mountain and disappeared somewhere Alex couldn't see at all.
"Hmm? Was it time already? I thought there were a dozen more years before you changed your representative," the beast spoke rather slowly.
Alex was too dumbfounded to even understand what the beast was talking about. Rather, he was having a hard time understanding what the beast even was just from the side profile of its massive head.
He didn't know how strong it was, but if it could sneak up on him this easily, he didn't want to try and find out.
As such, Alex didn't even dare bring out his spiritual sense of fear.
"You must be the one going about destroying mountains and causing volcanoes to erupt. you disrupted my sleep little cat." the beast said.
Alex was too stunned to even speak. Just looking at the massive beast made him feel like his soul was going to escape from his body.
"Why aren't you speaking, young tiger?" the beast asked.
"T-Tiger?" Alex asked, not understanding what the beast was talking about. "I… I'm not a tiger."
"Huh?" he heard the confusion in the beast's voice.
Suddenly, he felt his body lurch forward off of the surface of the hill and was pulled down to the ground.
Alex landed on the snow and looked up quickly to see the beast's head looking down on him.
Finally, he could see what this beast was.
'A… A turtle?' Alex thought. 'No, A tortoise.'
Alex couldn't see anything but the head of the tortoise. The neck went back to some cave on the small hill.
'Wait, is that even a hill?' Alex thought. When he saw the size of the head and estimated the size of the body, he quickly realized that the small mound of land was actually the entire tortoise.
Alex's mind refused to believe just how big this beast was. There was no beast in the world that was bigger than this at all.
"Are you really not a tiger?" the tortoise asked.
"N-no?" Alex said. Obviously, he wasn't a tiger. But why was the tortoise asking that?
A thought came upon him, unimaginable in most scenarios, but he still dared to ask it.
"Ar-are you… are you talking about the White Tiger?" he asked. That was the only way anyone would ever mistake him for a tiger.
"Of course, what other tiger could I mean?" the tortoise asked.
Alex looked at the tortoise and then at its color. Black.
'No way, right?' he thought, but the curiosity burned him and he needed to ask.
"Are you a Black Tortoise?" Alex asked.
"Yes, I am," the tortoise said. "You are quite slow for someone that is meant to become a new ruler."
Alex's mind had so many thoughts running concurrently that he didn't even manage to grab what the tortoise was telling him.
A Black Tortoise, a member of the Four Heavenly beasts blessed by the gods. Alex hadn't expected to meet one so soon, and in a place that belonged to the demons at that.
"Wait, I'm not the next ruler of this continent," he quickly said. "That— That's someone that will come in about 90 years."
"Huh? Oh, so I was right about the passage of time. There indeed are still a few dozen years left," the tortoise said as it nodded to itself.
"Hmm, are you really not the White Tiger then?" the tortoise asked.
"No, I'm just a human with the White Tiger's bloodline," Alex said. There was no point in hiding that since the tortoise had already sensed the bloodline.
"A human?" the tortoise's loud voice shook the snow on its back and some of it fell down. Alex could now see the dome-shaped shell at the back that was totally black.
A spiritual sense fell onto Alex, so dense that it nearly toppled him over. It quickly passed through, searching for something, but when it didn't find it, it left.
"No beast core. You really are a human. How do you have the White Tiger's bloodline?" the beast asked.
"Uh… I took in a White Tiger's blood essence," Alex said truthfully, unable to find a way to lie against the Black Tortoise, who was one of the four heavenly beasts, just like the White Tiger. He didn't know what they might have in common and didn't try to.
"A human who took in a White Tiger's blood essence? Impossible," the tortoise said and its head flew closer to Alex, breathing warm air onto his face as it looked at him.
Alex didn't know what to say so he quickly thought to change the topic.
"Senior Tortoise," Alex called.
"Call me Xuan Luhei," the tortoise spoke.
"Senior Luhei," Alex said. "A-are you one of the rulers sent to this world as well, or are you one of one of their family members?"
"I am the ruler," the tortoise said.
"Eh? Then shouldn't you be over at the Northern Continent, ruling over it?" Alex asked.
The tortoise's eyes narrowed as it stared as Alex. "Where do you think we are now?" it asked.
"Huh? We're in the—" Alex paused. He stopped talking and slowly looked around.
Ice, snow, and blizzard filled his eyes. Something that was plenty available in the Icy Hell, but also something that would be more than plenty in the Northern Continent, which was also sometimes known as the frozen continent.
Northern Continent… North… the North Mountain. Everything slowly started to make sense to Alex. And the more it made sense, the more dread filled his heart and made him realize just how far away he was.
"Did you not know where you were?" the Tortoise asked.
"N-no," Alex said with fear in his voice. The fear of course was at the fact that he was on a completely new continent, but the tortoise thought he was being afraid of him.
"Don't be scared, little one. Us four beasts and families aren't allowed to come to this world without making an oath not to hurt anyone," the tortoise said. "Of course, there are exceptions to this oath where we can hurt when absolutely necessary, but mostly we cannot harm anyone. Even the thought of harming someone makes us freeze unless it is for the right reasons."
"Really?" Alex's fear didn't diminish, but he was able to push it down when he heard that.
"I suppose you never learned it. How exactly did you come by the White Tiger's bloodline, young human?" the Tortoise asked.
"Uh… there was some in the Western Continent. I happened to find it by accident," Alex said.
"And you survived. I wonder how," the tortoise kept staring at Alex. "I wonder if you can take in my blood essence too."
Alex got excited when he heard that. The Black Tortoise's blood essence meant he could immediately improve his Earth Spiritual root to Supreme level as he did with his Metal root via the White Tiger's Blood essence.
"Can you give me some?" he couldn't help but ask.
The Black Tortoise smiled and even laughed a little. But in the end, it shook its head. "I'm afraid I can not do that. I am already injured as I am now. If I give you my blood essence, it will take forever for me to heal," it said.
"Wounded? Who could wound—" Alex stopped when he remembered the information he had acquired at the White Tiger's palace.
The Four Heavenly beasts from the four continents arrived at the central continent when they noticed something weird happening there.
There, they fought the one who attacked them, but they were losing. There the White Tiger died, and everyone else lost. As for the enemy, Alex didn't remember hearing about what happened to it.
After that, the remaining 3 beasts had returned to their own continent to go into closed cultivation and heal.
"Are you still not healed from the time when you fought together in the Central Continent?" Alex asked curiously.
"No," the tortoise shook his head. It wasn't surprised Alex knew that information, for this was well-known information in every continent but the Western Continent.
Alex was confused. "But it's been nearly 5000 years right? Even Saint realm cultivators should have been able to heal by now. Are you mortally injured?" he asked.
"No," the turtle said. "I just don't have any Qi to heal myself."
"Qi?" Alex's eyes narrowed. "Oh, you need Immortal Qi, don't you? Is there no immortal Qi in this world?"
"I'm afraid not," the tortoise said. "Why else would Immortals have to leave if there was?"
"So, are you going to stay here forever and not cultivate?" he asked.
"No, our term ends in about a thousand more years. At that time, I will get to return home and will heal there," the tortoise said.
"You are willing to stay injured for 6000 years?" Alex asked. He couldn't believe it at all.
"6000 years goes by in a flash for an Immortal like me. Besides, I could've gone back if I really needed my help, but I can't. Not alone. Not without my brother," the Tortoise said.
"Your brother?" Alex asked. Only then did he finally remember that while they were called the Four Heavenly beast, there were actually five.
"The Snake! Senior snake is not here?" Alex looked around at the tortoise, but the snake was indeed missing.
The snake and tortoise were always spoken of together as the Black Tortoise, so Alex didn't remember that the snake was supposed to be here when he remembered the name.
"No, he is not," the Tortoise said. "I haven't seen him since that day 5 thousand years ago."
Alex hesitated for a bit, but he still decided to ask. "Is he… dead?"
"No, if he dies, I die. We are linked by fate, so I know he's alive. Just, I don't know where," the black tortoise said while looking in a certain direction.
Alex nodded as he took in the information of the two of them being separated after the fight.
That only made Alex more curious about what could possibly fight against 5 different Immortal realm beasts that were blessed by the gods, and so he asked.
"Senior To— Luhei, can you tell me about the fight that happened 5 thousand years ago? What exactly was it that you fought? And how the previous White Tiger died?"
