A Farmer's Journey To Immortality-Chapter 485: Overcoming Prudence-Driven Hesitation & Waiting for the Right Opportunity

The Verdant Elder, standing calmly in the distance, watched without a sound.

His eyes held no mercy—only the focus of a predator claiming its prey.

Aksai's body was flung through the air like a ragdoll.

The blood-covered vines that had pierced him pulled back at once, coiling away and retreating into the dome of wood and thorns behind the Verdant Elder.

As they disappeared, they took with them the last of their brutal grip, leaving Aksai to crash onto the forest floor with a hard thud. He landed on his side, rolling once before coming to a stop near a twisted tree root.

The pain was unbearable. Blood oozed from the hole in his chest, soaking his robes and spilling into the mossy ground beneath him. He gasped, his vision swimming, the forest spinning around him.

It felt like dying.

He clenched his jaw to stop himself from groaning. He knew better than to show any more signs of life.

Not yet.

The beast didn't even look at Aksai anymore. The strike had been too clean, too precise. He had used his Spirit Sense to confirm that Aksai's vital organs had been hit. He was as good as dead in the demon beast's eyes.

As such, the Verdant Elder turned his head, eyes settling on the two bears nearby. The last adults of the bear family, still breathing—barely.

The Verdant Elder's snaketail twitched. Then it lunged.

The tail-turned-serpent opened its wide mouth and bit down on the head of one of the bears with a sickening crunch. It didn't stop. The tail kept feeding, dragging the bear's limp body into its mouth in slow, brutal gulps.

At the same time, the Verdant Elder walked toward the second bear. He opened his own mouth and began to feed directly, tearing flesh and bone without hesitation.

Aksai watched it all.

He lay there, pretending to be mortally wounded, his breathing shallow and slow. His hands twitched slightly as he fought the urge to act.

Aksai had to admit that he had underestimated the natives of the Eternal Beast Dynasty far too much. He hadn't even gone that deep into the forest, and he had already met such a cunning demon beast. What would happen if he went deeper into the woods?

No wonder the Spirit cultivators considered crossing the Eternal Beast Dynasty to reach the Shinayin Empire a suicide mission. It was a gamble with life—where the only way to win was to avoid being discovered by powerful demon beasts during the journey.

Take the Verdant Elder, for example. It was cunning, cold, and calculating. It had used everything—the forest, the battle, the bodies—as part of its plan.

In his mind, Yelia's voice rang again.

"My liege… let me…" she said, her voice trembling. She was ready to leave the Everwood Farm.

But Aksai stopped her quickly, speaking through their shared connection in a weak voice.

"Don't worry. I still have the Phoenix Rebirth Feather."

That seemed to quiet her for a moment, but not for long.

"But… but you are severely injured," she said, nearly pleading. "What are you waiting for? Use that artifact quickly!"

"I'm fine…" Aksai replied. His teeth were clenched. Blood was pooling in his mouth. "It's only the heart… that's been wounded… I can still function… for a minute or two… thanks to my body cultivation."

He struggled to stay awake, to stay focused. The pain was overwhelming, but his will was stronger.

When he was uninjured, Aksai wanted nothing more than to run away from this wretched demon beast. He obviously wanted to prioritize his own safety. Battling an enemy on the enemy's terms was clearly a disadvantage. So, he had planned to target the Verdant Elder another day. If there needed to be a showdown between them, it had to happen on Aksai's terms.

However, after being injured so brutally by the demon beast, something inside him flipped. His pride had been challenged.

Aksai had always been prudent in his actions. But that didn't mean he was a coward who would let his enemies walk all over him. When necessary, he was ready to put himself in harm's way to teach his enemies a lesson—one they would never forget.

Furthermore, Aksai would have used the Phoenix Rebirth Feather right away if he hadn't been a body cultivator. No matter how strong a Spirit cultivator's spells were, their mortal bodies were a weak point. He would have died within seconds if not for his body cultivation.

Thanks to Qi cultivation, Aksai could stop his Qi from leaking out of his organs for longer, even though he had been severely injured. It slowed down his bleeding and put his body into a survival mode by lowering his metabolism rate.

It was like a partial, self-induced vegetative state that kept him from succumbing to his injuries. Even though Aksai's body cultivation realm wasn't that advanced, he could still control his internal organs and Qi well enough to perform this feat.

So, Aksai gritted his teeth and said to Yelia:

"If I use the feather now… the Verdant Elder will notice. He'll sense the change and target me again," he explained. "I… I need to watch him. See what he's doing. Look for a chance to deal him a real injury…"

Aksai knew he wouldn't be able to kill the Verdant Elder right away. But he needed to injure him somehow. He also needed to place a tracker on him—his Qi Mark—which would let him trace the demon beast within a certain range.

That's right. Aksai had given up on defeating the demon beast now. He needed to recover and strike at the right time. But he couldn't just disappear from the Eternal Beast Dynasty. He didn't want to lose track of the Verdant Elder.

After all, it would be nearly impossible to find this cunning demon beast again once it left the region. Aksai didn't want that to happen. He had already decided—he would kill this demon beast and turn it into his Aether Beast.

If the demon beast had allowed Aksai to retreat, he might have chosen another target. After all, the Verdant Elder wasn't the only demon beast with potential. There were many others with similar power. freewebnσvel.cøm

But now Aksai was angry. No other enemy had ever injured him to this extent. He had to vent his rage. And only by turning this cursed demon beast into his Aether Beast would he find the peace of mind he was looking for.

Yelia went silent. She understood Aksai's emotions and how he thought. So, she said nothing more and let him handle the situation. Though she was worried, she still had complete trust in her master.

Aksai's eyes stayed fixed on the scene ahead.

The snaketail finished swallowing the bear's body, while the Verdant Elder crouched down and began devouring the last one. Blood and fur covered the mossy ground around him. The runes on his shell flickered again, and his aura swelled once more.

Aksai's breath came in short gasps. His chest hurt more with each second. He could feel his time slipping.

But he didn't move. Not yet. He was waiting.

Waiting for his moment.

On the other hand, things were going quite smoothly for the Verdant Elder.

The forest had gone quiet after he finished devouring his prey.

The bloodied ground was still, and the broken bodies of the two adult bears were nowhere to be seen—devoured, consumed fully by the Verdant Elder.

The massive tortoise let out a low growl. It was not one of anger or pain, but of satisfaction. Even though he had been severely injured many times during this hunt, he had reached his objective.

A heavy breath left his nostrils, thick with steam. His eyes slowly turned toward the sky, then closed. His body trembled slightly.

In the next moment, his whole body began to change.

Beneath the thick moss-colored skin of the tortoise, strange movements could be seen—like dozens of small snakes slithering under the surface.

His flesh rippled in waves. His veins, once hidden, now stood out clearly—thick and dark green, pulsing with power. They glowed faintly, like roots lit from within.

The shell on his back started to shift.

The Essence Equation runes etched across the shell's surface started to change once again as well. They glowed brighter and began to move. Slowly, steadily, they twisted, curved, and bled into one another.

Lines met lines. Circles folded inward. Triangles formed where there were none before.

One pattern turned into two. Two became five. And then they started to form something new entirely.

A new kind of rune. More complete. More refined.

The Verdant Elder had started the process of his 3rd Order breakthrough.

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AN: Aksai obtains the Phoenix Rebirth Feather as a reward for clearing the 8th stage inside the Holy Land Torel in chapter 420.