A Farmer's Journey To Immortality - Chapter 492

Chapter 492: Kidnapping the Berserker Bear Cubs
The Verdant Elder turned around, stepped outside, and glared at the cave entrance.

“If you are somehow hiding in the cave using some trick, I will bury you along with your petty tricks,” he shouted.

The ground beneath him cracked as he gathered Spirit Essence into his claws.

He slammed his palm forward, and with a loud crack, roots surged out from the ground and shot into the mountain wall. Thick vines twisted and tore into the stone, digging deep before exploding outward.

The entire cave shook. Then, with a roar and a rumble, it collapsed. Huge boulders fell. Dust rose high into the sky.

The mountain cave was destroyed.

Just as the dust settled, the Verdant Elder suddenly stiffened.

His Spirit Essence had started moving again. And it was not by choice.

It surged through his meridians like water breaking through a dam. It rushed toward his Dantian, growing stronger and heavier by the second. It started to condense into gaseous form.

The Verdant Elder’s expression darkened.

“No… not now,” he muttered.

He could feel it—the pressure in the air. The rising tension. The storm that hadn’t yet formed but already loomed above.

The third trial.

Celestial Wrath.

His lips curled into a grim frown.

This was the final trial. The one that killed most who attempted the breakthrough. Even powerful beings trembled at the thought of facing it. And now, it was coming for him.

But not yet.

The Verdant Elder closed his eyes and forced his Spirit Essence to stop. It wasn’t easy, but he pushed it back with sheer will. He couldn’t afford to trigger the tribulation now.

Not in this state. Not when his soul was still wounded. Not with Aksai on the loose. And certainly not here.

He needed time. He opened his eyes again and looked at the ruins of the cave.

The Verdant Elder felt that Aksai had ruined everything. He would have triggered the 3rd order breakthrough event at his own pace if it wasn’t for Aksai’s intervention.

The Verdant Elder turned away, his heart still burning with hate. Using his movement-type spell, it shot into the forest. He didn’t stop until the trees thickened and the land grew darker.

He was heading deeper into the Eternal Beast Dynasty. A place where no humans below the Core Formation realm would dare follow him.

A place where he could prepare for the trial without interruption.

At least, that’s what he believed… as he disappeared into the depths of the ancient forest.

***

A few minutes before the Verdant Elder cleared the Dejection Demon trial.

Aksai sprinted towards the cave in a hurry. His heart was still pounding—not from fear, but from the rush of what he had just done.

He had struck the Verdant Elder’s soul. The soul of someone worthy of triggering the 3rd realm breakthrough trial. This was a legendary feat in itself.

Aksai could bet the Verdant Elder’s chopped leg that there was nobody in his generation who could pull off something like that. After all, the Spirit cultivators of his generation hardly knew anything about the soul-related attacks.

All the soul-related attacks had one thing in common as per the knowledge in Dadangar. It was the fact that a weaker Spirit cultivator could not harm the soul of a stronger cultivator unless there were some exceptional factors involved.

However, Aksai’s knowledge related to Aether essence and his resources from Acarnis had helped him bridge that gap.

The Blood Soul Lamp had done its job better than expected.

He had waited for the perfect moment, and when the demon beast’s soul was most vulnerable, he had attacked. Although he hadn’t planned this feat from the beginning when he first thought of using the Blood Soul Lamp, he was all the more glad for it.

His Aether essence had slipped in without resistance, and now a Soul Mark had been planted deep inside the Verdant Elder’s Soul Space.

But Aksai didn’t stick around to admire his handiwork. He had other plans.

The bear cubs.

He remembered the way the bear family had fought—the ferocity, the teamwork, and those berserker forms that flared like living flames. That kind of wild strength wasn’t something common.

With the right training, and maybe some help from his research, he could nurture them into something far greater. He had seen the way the woodland bears fought in the Holy Land Torel.

Maybe he could modify them and turn them into partial puppets. Or he could change and modify their vessel bloodlines or even Spirit bloodline. The possibilities were near endless.

Aksai’s feet landed silently on the soft ground as he neared the mountain cave. The air still smelled of smoke and burnt earth. Apparently, the bears had attacked the Verdant Elder in rage when he first entered the cave.

He paused for a moment, glancing up at the dome in the distance. It still glowed faintly. That meant the Verdant Elder hadn’t come out yet.

Good. He still had time.

He reached the cave entrance and slipped inside, hugging the wall as he moved deeper. His eyes adjusted quickly to the dark.

The air inside was still warm. Faint claw marks were scratched into the stone, and there was dried blood here and there, but no signs of fresh battle. He moved forward, deeper into the cave’s winding tunnel.

Then, he heard soft breathing.

He stopped.

Slowly, he peeked around a curve in the wall.

There they were.

The bear cubs—seven of them—huddled together in a shadowed corner. They looked tired, still shaken by the fight, but alive.

One of them looked up, sniffed the air, and growled weakly. Aksai raised his hand and let his Spirit Essence flow gently. He didn’t want to scare them. Just enough to calm them.

“Easy now,” he whispered. “I’m not your enemy.”

The cubs still looked unsure. But they didn’t attack.

Aksai knelt down and took out a small pouch from his belt. Inside were a few berries soaked in low-grade calming elixir. He gently rolled them toward the cubs. The smallest one sniffed, then ate. The others followed a moment later.

Good.

Aksai smiled faintly. “I’m going to take you with me,” he whispered, mostly to himself.

“Let’s see what you can become with a little care… and a little madness. Hehehe.

The bloodline experiments on you guys will make you even stronger than your parents. It will hurt a bit but I’m sure you won’t mind considering the fact that I’m saving your life.

Don’t worry. I’m not kidnapping you. I’m just taking you somewhere safe. Otherwise, that mad turtle will attack you.

Well… the bloodline experiment part indeed makes me sound like a monster but I assure you I’m not. You help me and I help you. How does that sound?”