850 The Sacrifice

"Hmm? Do you want to learn about then? Do you not already know? It's only been about 5 thousand years," the Tortoise said.

"Yes, but there is a misconception going around," Alex said. "They think that the White Tiger attacked you all to take over this world for himself, and the 3 of you fought him and killed him to save this land."

"What?!" the Tortoise's voice got louder and gruffer. "Nonsense! If it wasn't for the tiger, we wouldn't have likely even survived back then. Why would anyone think the tiger did anything?"

"I don't know senior," Alex said. "I think once you guys all went into closed cultivation, the world took the battle in the central continent as you three fighting against him, so when the White Tiger died, they believed it was your doing."

"In fact, after the White Tiger's passing, the three continents joined forces to attack the Western Continent and killed many saint realms in the process while stealing away the resources from there. It is now a husk of what it used to be," Alex said.

"Is that true?" the tortoise's voice got louder even more. "These little bastards. They do not deserve anything. Dammit, If I was allowed to hurt them, I would rip them apart myself."

Alex didn't say anything and let the tortoise vent his anger through his words. After a while, when the tortoise finally calmed down a little more, Alex asked again.

"So what really happened back then? Can you tell me?"

The tortoise got silent for a bit before finally speaking. "We were here when we were alerted to the fact that something was happening in the Central continent."

"People could no longer teleport over, and when we got out we could already sense the disaster that was happening. The world was crying for help."

The tortoise remembered the day he had got out of the secret realm and sensed the dread far away. The Qi in this world was acting so violently that day, that he thought millions of immortals were fighting in the distance.

"The teleportation formations were not working, so we had to fly over there. We flew as fast as we could, even risking getting punished, and arrived on the central continent. When we did, we saw that the disaster had already happened."

"The continent was surrounded by Qi that was now so harsh that we didn't even know how we could enter. The Dragon arrived not long after and the Phoenix did too."

"We waited for the Tiger, but we only found out a moment later that the tiger had already jumped in. Using its strong body, it survived the wind and had entered."

"We did what we could and entered as well," the Tortoise said. "By the time we had arrived, the Tiger was already in battle with… that monster."

"Monster? What sort of monster was it?" Alex asked curiously.

The tortoise shook its head. "It was a human, or at least it looked like it. It looked like a young man, but there is no way anyone that strong could look that young. Especially when we couldn't sense any cultivation base from him at all. It could not have been a human at all."

The tortoise remembered what it saw that day. The White Tiger gave it his all fighting that young man with black hair. It remembered the snarky smile on his face and the deep dread when it tried to sense his cultivation base.

The human, or whatever it truly was, had no cultivation base from what the tortoise could sense. It was either that, or its cultivation base was so high that it could hide from them, which should have been impossible.

The three of them had joined the battle and fought against the young human, but without using any technique or skill, he had fought back with just his physical body and destroyed them all.

"We couldn't fight it at all. If we continued, we would have died for sure. But we couldn't leave either, because if we did, this realm would die for sure."

"While we hesitated, it was the Tiger that took action. He told us he had a plan, but we would need to get as far away from him as we could. We didn't know what he was doing, but we trusted him and left."

"However, when we were trying to leave, because we were injured, my brother got separated from me in the Qi storm and disappeared somewhere."

"I too was too heavily injured to go find him, and while I wanted to, I sensed it."

"I couldn't see what the tiger did, but it felt like the world was caving in on itself. Terror, I felt it that day, I will never forget it. It lasted for an entire 2 minutes before the feeling vanished."

"Then, neither that monster nor the tiger remained anymore. They were both dead," the Tortoise said.

Alex heard the story in awe. What sort of thing would have to happen to make it feel like the world was caving in on itself?

"Are you sure the monster died?" Alex asked. He didn't know of any techniques a White Tiger had to make it feel like that.

"Of course, it was no longer there inside," the Tortoise said.

"But it could have left, right? Immortals and other beings can leave the world all the time? What if the monster left the world just before the White Tiger did the suicide attack?" Alex asked.

"No," The tortoise shook his head. "We were there and waiting to make sure nothing went wrong. If they had left the world, we would have sensed it."

"Leaving the world causes a phenomenon that no one can hide, and even the Saint realm cultivators have good enough perception to know when one is happening."

"Since we were right there, we know that no one left the world," the tortoise said.

"What about the teleportation formation in the central continent?" Alex asked.

"Those were already destroyed," the tortoise said. "Listen, kid, I know what you want to know. You hope that the White Tiger is alive and well, but believe me when I say I wish he was too."

"But he died in a way where not only did his body not survive, even his soul was gone. In fact, if I had to guess, he must have exploded his cultivation base and nascent soul together while doing every other thing he could to destroy the monster," the tortoise said.

"We are lucky the monster really didn't have a cultivation base, or it would have still been alive today and this world would be no more," the tortoise said.

Alex was too stunned by the information he had received today. He knew that the White Tiger had died while fighting an enemy in the Central continent, but he would have never thought that he had died while not only fighting the monster but also saving the entire world in the process.

That only made him sourer when he realized what these people were doing to desecrate his legacy. They called him an arrogant tiger who didn't know better and went to attack the very thing he ruled.

Alex felt so angry that he needed to take long deep breaths to calm himself.

"And what about the senior snake?" he asked to take his mind off of the anger.

"I never saw my brother after that," the tortoise said in a sad voice.

"You said he isn't dead, right?" Alex asked.

"No, he's most certainly alive. I would have died if he did," the tortoise said in a slow voice.

"Then… why haven't you gone out to search for him? Are you so injured that you can't even leave?" Alex asked.

The Tortoise snickered a bit when he heard that, and the shaking was so bad that more of the snow on its back started falling to the side.

"No, no, that's not the reason. Well, it is in a way, but the real reason is that back then I had used a little too much power and the Heavenly Judgment came for me."

"I was so injured that I definitely couldn't survive it at all, and if I went for my brother, I would have caused him trouble as well. So, I ran and came back here to hide."

"Now, if I go outside, the Heavenly Judgment would start immediately, and since I'm still injured, I will most likely die."