Listening to Crocodile Luo's orders, everyone on the deck felt a chill in their hearts, their bodies turning cold.
Their Crocodile Pirates' young leader, Crocodile Cheng, had gone to the southern sea region of the Sun Moon Empire to scout information and had not returned for a long time. If Crocodile Cheng happened to be in the nearby sea area, when that terrifying existence made its move, he would inevitably perish in this sea region.
Crocodile Luo didn't even care about his own grandson's life or death, so how could he care about theirs? Following such a leader was truly too heart-stopping and frightening.
However, due to Crocodile Luo's authority, no one dared to show the slightest unusual emotion.
Several pirates stepped forward and worked together to aim the main cannon at the front of the deck toward the sea surface. The cannon barrel was as thick as a person's body and over ten meters long. From its structure, it could be judged that this was a barrel used to fire fixed soul guide shells. And its grade was not low.
The fixed soul guide shell had already been loaded in advance. As soul power was activated, a dense orange-red light gathered at the mouth of the cannon.
One shot was fired, strangely without producing a violent noise, but the surrounding space was completely distorted. It was as if an invisible shock wave had merged into the seawater.
Seventh-level shock ripple shell. This was a type of fixed soul guide shell with an attack range comparable to a high-explosive shell. When it was fired, it would produce intense shock waves. Soul masters who were not strong enough could even be directly torn apart by these shock waves. And even powerful soul masters capable of resisting would have their movements delayed by these powerful shock waves.
This shock ripple shell had another characteristic: it could perfectly integrate into a liquid medium like seawater. Although the power would decay significantly, the dense shock waves would extend continuously.
Crocodile Luo spent such a great price to fire this seventh-level shock ripple shell, naturally not to deal with sea soul beasts living in the nearby sea region, but to notify one far away, thousands of kilometers.
In fact, the movements of the South Sea Soul Engineer Corps had always been under his control. This time, his actions deliberately exposed such a big flaw to leak information, precisely to lure the Sun Moon Empire's South Sea Soul Engineer Corps into the trap.
Ju Zi and the others were scheming against the Crocodile Pirates, but how was Crocodile Luo not scheming against the South Sea Soul Engineer Corps?
A soul engineer corps of 500 people, that was a full 500 soul masters. Such high-quality blood food, that one would definitely like very much.
Crocodile Luo's eyes were filled with fervor and madness.
As long as this operation went smoothly, he would surely receive even more generous rewards from that existence. Perhaps he could even use this to defy the heavens and change his fate, breaking through to the Title Douluo realm.
Title Douluo was the goal pursued by every soul master. He was no exception.
Originally, with his talent, the hope of breaking through to eight-ring Soul Douluo in his lifetime was very slim. But after encountering that existence, his fate changed.
All of this traced back to eight years ago. At that time, he had unintentionally entered the depths of the southern sea region of the Star Luo Empire, and it was during that time that he first had contact with that existence.
There were some twists and turns in the process, but in the end, they reached an agreement that was very satisfactory to both sides.
He provided that existence with sufficient blood food, and in return, that existence gave him a soul bone of extremely high quality, and it was the most precious trunk soul bone.
It was precisely by relying on that trunk soul bone to improve his aptitude that he was able to break through to the Soul Douluo realm in just eight years, and now he already possessed eighty-fifth-level soul power.
Now it was clear that the ships that disappeared near the Yuenan Islands sea region back then were precisely plundered by Crocodile Luo and his men. Naturally, everyone on those ships became blood food for that existence.
According to the agreement, if he accomplished this today, that existence would give him another soul bone of even better quality.
How could this not drive Crocodile Luo mad?
As long as he fused another high-quality soul bone, he had sufficient confidence to break through to the Title Douluo realm. Compared to this, everything else he could disregard. Even the life or death of his grandson, Crocodile Cheng.
After becoming a Title Douluo, a soul master's physical qualities would be greatly improved. If his grandson died, he could just find a woman to continue the bloodline. What he cared about most now was only whether he could break through to Title Douluo.
Crocodile Luo stood up, clenching his fists tightly as he gazed at the distant sea region, his eyes burning. With that existence's heaven-defying methods, it would probably take about an hour to arrive in this sea region.
The next thing was just to wait. When the time was near, he would appear again to lure the South Sea Soul Engineer Corps over.
…
Ju Zi was intimately entwined with Xu Zihuang, sleeping sweetly, the corners of her mouth even curving into a subtle arc. Only in front of Xu Zihuang would she show absolute trust and dependence.
Xu Zihuang leaned against the headboard, closing his eyes to rest, his spiritual attribute soul core in his forehead operating on its own, absorbing the surrounding heaven and earth vital energy. At the same time, he released his spiritual force, perceiving the situation in the surrounding sea region, especially the movements in the seawater.
From the time they left Shrek Academy until now, over a month and a half, because they often encountered attacks from sea soul beasts in the sea region, he could not cultivate around the clock. But just relying on the effect of the spiritual attribute soul core autonomously absorbing heaven and earth vital energy, it was almost comparable to his previous period of bitter cultivation.
Through this month and a half of tempering, not only had he perfectly mastered almost all of his own abilities, but his soul power had also naturally reached the peak of sixty-seventh level. He was only one step away from breaking through to the sixty-eighth level.
And Xu Zihuang, who had been suppressing himself for a long time, after releasing some pressure through that method earlier, actually made the circulation of soul power in his body smoother and faster. At this rate, he would soon be able to smoothly break through to the sixty-eighth level.
At this moment, Xu Zihuang's gaze focused. He keenly perceived the dense invisible shock waves in the seawater.
Caused by a soul beast? No, the frequency was too regular.
Xu Zihuang raised his head and looked through the circular blue crystal window beside the bed. Brilliant golden light circulated in his eyes as he stared at the sea region ahead.
Tracing the source of those shock waves, he could confirm that they all came from the sea region ahead. Previously, when infiltrating the bottom of the Sea Dragon, those few members suspected to be from the Crocodile Pirates had disappeared in that direction.
"This seems to be caused by a fixed soul guide cannon. Such dense shock waves should be from a shock ripple shell. Could it be that the Crocodile Pirates encountered an attack from a powerful sea soul beast?"
Retracting his gaze, Xu Zihuang lowered his head to look at Ju Zi beside him.
Although he had some doubts in his heart, he did not intend to wake Ju Zi. Even if the Crocodile Pirates launched a surprise attack, there would be other South Sea Soul Engineer Corps soldiers on the Sea Dragon to send signals to the main force of the South Sea Soul Engineer Corps.
His view was the same as Ju Zi's: even if he did not act, the Crocodile Pirates still could not block the main force of the South Sea Soul Engineer Corps. This was an absolute crush in overall strength.
Of course, everyone on the Sea Dragon except him and Ju Zi would inevitably be placed in danger.
Xu Zihuang closed his eyes again, waiting for the impending storm.
…
Deep in the southern sea region of the Star Luo Empire.
Unlike the sea region where the Sea Dragon was located, here ten thousand miles of starlight sprinkled down, giving a sense of tranquility and peace.
Waves surged, rippling with shimmering light.
But in this sea region, a huge shadow was slowly surfacing.
That enormous size was enough to horrify anyone. Its body length alone exceeded seven hundred meters.
As this colossal creature continued to surface, from its outline, it could be judged to be a whale. An intense oppressive feeling enveloped the sea region for dozens of kilometers around. Even the sky became overcast, rendered black-purple by terrifying energy fluctuations.
However, this whale did not surface but rapidly headed north in the seawater. Its huge, blood-red eyes opened and closed, cold as if it could suffocate people.
Not long after this giant whale left, another powerful aura arrived in an instant. At the same time, an anxious thought spread throughout this sea region.
"No, I must stop Mom! She can't continue to go wrong like this!"
Another giant whale surfaced, revealing a deep blue back. An extremely thick water column shot into the sky from its blowhole, quickly swimming north in pursuit.
From their characteristics, these two giant whales were very similar. But the former's size was nearly ten times that of the latter, and the intensity of its aura was not on the same level at all.
An hour passed quietly, and the night deepened.
Most of the passengers on the Sea Dragon had rested, leaving only Ruan Xinghai with a group of South Sea Chamber of Commerce stewards on guard on the deck. The dark clouds dispersed, revealing dots of starlight.
Seeing this, Ruan Xinghai's tense nerves subconsciously relaxed a bit. Silver moonlight and starlight fell, making the surrounding dim sea region clearer.
A purple-clothed steward came to Ruan Xinghai's side.
"Deacon Ruan, now we can distinguish directions. Do you think we should set off now, or spend the night here?"
Ruan Xinghai pondered for a moment and said,
"No need to cause extra trouble; let's wait here until dawn."
Although his martial soul was the thunder attribute martial soul, known for its violence, he was not aggressive at all. Instead, he was usually steady in his actions, and over the years, he had made no mistakes, which was deeply valued by the president of the South Sea Chamber of Commerce.
"Yes!" The purple-clothed steward respectfully replied.
The two had just finished talking when suddenly red light spots appeared in the night sky, rapidly enlarging in their sight.
Ruan Xinghai was stunned for a moment, then suddenly reacted, his face dramatically changing as he shouted: "Enemy attack! Everyone to your positions, prepare for battle!"
"Boom boom boom—" Intense explosions rang out one after another. High-explosive fixed soul guide shells landed near the Sea Dragon, the terrifying high temperature rapidly vaporizing seawater, producing 'sizzling' sounds.
Waves were splashed up dozens of meters high, and the Sea Dragon began to shake violently. Everyone on the ship was startled by this huge commotion; hearing Ruan Xinghai say it was an enemy attack, they immediately became panicked.
Only the stewards of the South Sea Chamber of Commerce remained somewhat calm.
Most of the passengers were ordinary people; panicking in such a situation was normal. Moreover, this commotion was much greater than the previous several encounters with sea soul beasts.
Standing on the deck of the Sea Dragon, Ruan Xinghai looked toward the distance with an ugly expression, faintly seeing the outline of a warship.
Crocodile Luo was also standing on the deck of his warship. However, he had no intention of approaching the Sea Dragon, only ordering continuous firing of fixed soul guide shells that made loud noises, mostly high-explosive ones.
In just this short while, more than a dozen sixth-level fixed soul guide shells had been consumed.
Because only sixth-level or higher fixed soul guide shells could have such a long range.
The cost was huge, but the effect was very significant. Soon after, light spots appeared behind the Sea Dragon.
It was precisely his main target this time, the main fleet of the Sun Moon Empire's South Sea Soul Engineer Corps.
Crocodile Luo excitedly clenched his fists. Just earlier, he had received a thought from that existence. It would arrive soon.
His timing was grasped quite precisely.
On the other side, in the top-floor room on the Sea Dragon's deck, Ju Zi suddenly woke up, her beautiful eyes flashing with sharp light. She immediately looked at Xu Zihuang beside her, who was calm and composed.
"Tianhuang, what happened?"
"It's the Crocodile Pirates making their move." Xu Zihuang calmly said. His current spiritual force could extend to a radius of thirty kilometers. The Crocodile Pirates' warship was within his perception.
The other nineteen elite members of the South Sea Soul Engineer Corps on the Sea Dragon were also fully armed.
Ju Zi quickly got up and came to the spacious area at the end of the corridor, carefully observing the situation.
Their infiltration of the Sea Dragon to provide positioning for the main force of the South Sea Soul Engineer Corps was one thing; the most important task was actually to use the equipped powerful soul guides to temporarily hold back the Crocodile Pirates, buying time for the main force of the South Sea Soul Engineer Corps to approach.
Xu Zihuang was right beside Ju Zi. At this time, both noticed that something was wrong. The Crocodile Pirates were continuously using fixed soul guide shells for fire suppression, but not approaching; such behavior was too abnormal.
Before they could think further, the surrounding air strangely distorted, and time seemed to solidify.
A violent shock came without warning from beneath their feet. Accompanied by a deafening roar, the massive Sea Dragon was thrown hundreds of meters into the air.
Everyone on the Sea Dragon lost consciousness in this terrifying roar, except Xu Zihuang and Ju Zi, who were spared.
Although Xu Zihuang did his best to protect himself and Ju Zi, the two still felt a buzzing in their ears, only able to see each other's mouth movements but unable to hear what the other was saying specifically.
Xu Zihuang could only transmit to Ju Zi through spiritual force, telling her to hold on tight to him and not let go.
The deep blue sea seemed to be split open, uneven in height. The highest places exceeded the original sea level by hundreds of meters, and the lowest places were bottomless like abysses. The sky completely turned black-purple, as if it had swapped positions with the ocean.
Xu Zihuang held Ju Zi in his arms, standing between this bizarre heaven and earth. But in the next instant, his pupils suddenly contracted, his eyes filled with shock.
On a rising water cube, a whale of extraordinarily huge size emerged. This giant whale was blue-black all over, its massive body large at the head and small at the tail, with layers of demonic patterns like ferocious faces.
Deep Sea Demon Whale.
And it was not just an ordinary Deep Sea Demon Whale. Its body, exceeding seven hundred meters, was several times that of the Deep Sea Demon Whale King from back then. Combined with the demonic patterns on its body, Xu Zihuang's expression became extremely grave.
"Demon Empress?!"
Yes, only that wife of the Deep Sea Demon Whale King, the Demon Empress, matched these characteristics.
Thrown into the air were not only the Sea Dragon, but also the fleet of the South Sea Soul Engineer Corps, and the warship Crocodile Luo was on.
The shock in Crocodile Luo's eyes was even greater than Xu Zihuang's. More accurately, it was a mix of shock, anger, and despair.
"Why?! Why?!" Crocodile Luo roared madly in his heart, his eyes filled with ferocious, bloodshot veins from extreme anger. The sudden fall from heaven to hell made him on the verge of collapse.
They had clearly agreed, but now the Demon Empress had unilaterally broken the agreement.
"You said you were severely injured and needed blood food to recover?! You beast dared to deceive me?! I never should have trusted you, you beast!!!!!!!"
Back then, he had considered the possibility of the Demon Empress crossing the river and dismantling the bridge. But in the face of immediate benefits, how many people could completely remain rational? Moreover, the Demon Empress at that time was indeed severely injured and in recovery.
The Demon Empress coldly glanced at Crocodile Luo. From beginning to end, she had never trusted greedy humans. Back then, her husband had died at the hands of a human soul master; she harbored only hatred toward humans.
Back then, she had suffered severe damage to her origin while fighting several ferocious beast-level sea soul beasts, even facing the possibility of falling, and had no choice but to use Crocodile Luo's greed to reach an agreement. Anyway, over these years, she had killed and devoured countless sea soul beasts in the ocean; casually giving out soul bones left after those sea soul beasts died was no loss to her.
And after recovering for these many years, although she had only restored less than thirty percent of her strength, it was still not something these ant-like insignificant human soul masters could resist.
The Demon Empress raised her massive body, and then piercing purple-gold light bloomed like an explosion.
Her massive body, over seven hundred meters long, began to shrink, slowly condensing into human form. At the same time, the black-purple sky swallowed everything in this space.
All vitality perished, the sea surface returned to calm, but the dense black-purple energy filling the space lingered for a long time.
Under the hazy purple-gold light, the Demon Empress had completely transformed. In human form, the Demon Empress looked like a beautiful woman in her thirties, both in figure and appearance, one in ten thousand.
However, her facial expression was very cold.
At this moment, her entire body was enveloped in a layer of purple-gold light, and in the center of her smooth forehead, a purple-gold crystal was emitting intense radiance.
"Hahaha—"
She stood on the sea surface like this, hands virtually holding up, revealing a morbid smile. Endless red blood qi and silver souls were drawn by her and merged into her body. With each passing moment, the purple-gold in the seawater beneath her became a bit denser.
Devouring this blood qi and souls, she could at least restore fifty percent of her peak strength.
"Once I fully recover, it will be your death."
Devouring those several ferocious beast-level sea soul beasts, she would inevitably advance further toward that level, and then have hope of resurrecting her husband.
At this moment, another Deep Sea Demon Whale arrived in this sea region. With a shake, it transformed into a delicate and pretty girl whose appearance was seven or eight parts similar to the Demon Empress.
The girl looked pale, watching the Demon Empress devouring human blood qi and souls. Her delicate body trembled, and she came before the Demon Empress to plead.
"Mom, stop. I beg you, stop. You can't let hatred for Father's death blind your heart. Although we are not human, humans thay are life! If you do this, you will suffer heavenly retribution!"
"Shut up!" The gentle expression on the Demon Empress's face from immersing in thoughts of her husband was instantly replaced by cold severity.
"Heavenly retribution? Hahahaha! When your father was killed, why didn't that bastard suffer heavenly retribution? Back then in that sea region, had your father ever actively slaughtered humans?! That bastard sought out your father, wasn't it just coveting your father's soul ring and soul bones?! Utterly hypocritical; after leaving the continent, he even proclaimed your father an evil soul beast that committed countless atrocities. We were just surviving, and became evil sea soul beasts. Hahahaha! That so-called Sea God's mount, the Demon Soul Great White Shark clan, did they slaughter fewer sea soul beasts than our Deep Sea Demon Whale clan?!"
"Even if there is heavenly retribution, so what? As long as I can exchange it for your dad's life, even slaughtering all humans on the continent, what of it? Hahahaha—"
The Demon Empress's hysterical laughter echoed in this sea region.
"All humans deserve to die! Once I devour those few bastards and reach your father's level from back then, I will use all living beings on the Douluo Continent as sacrifices for my foundation to become a god!"
The girl opened her mouth, wanting to say something more.
But in the next moment, a sudden change occurred.
In this black-purple space, a dazzling silver-white light burst forth. It was a rhombic silver crystal; within this silver crystal, Xu Zihuang still maintained the posture of holding Ju Zi, coldly facing the Demon Empress from afar.
The silver crystal completely blocked the black-purple energy released by the Demon Empress.
100,000-year head soul bone skill: Soul Barrier.
This was also the last 100,000-year soul skill provided to Xu Zihuang by that 100,000-year pure spiritual-type Evil Eye Tyrant. A defensive-type 100,000-year soul skill.
With soul power as the main and spiritual force as auxiliary, the two perfectly fused to form an absolute defense.
It could simultaneously resist physical attacks, energy attacks, spiritual attacks, and even soul attacks. Calling it absolute defense was no exaggeration. The drawback was that once the Soul Barrier was shattered or damaged, Xu Zihuang, as the user who injected soul power, would suffer irreversible damage.
Just like the current situation. The Demon Empress's cultivation was far too superior to his. That condensed black-purple energy was enough to make even Title Douluo-level experts wary.
Fortunately, that black-purple energy was a mixed energy formed from the fusion of water attribute and thunder attribute elements, which was to some extent restrained by Xu Zihuang's Ultimate Thunder.
However, Xu Zihuang's current state was not good either.
The Heaven Dream Ice Silkworm had long awakened, recognized the current situation, and immediately, not caring about its shock, prepared to use its ultimate method to take Xu Zihuang away from here.
But it was stopped by Xu Zihuang.
"Zihuang?! What are you doing?! That guy is definitely not an opponent you can handle now!"
"Tian Meng, trust me!" Xu Zihuang low-shouted. At this time, he instead calmed down. A realization rose in his heart.
Black! Black! Black! Black! Black! Red!
All six soul rings around him disappeared. Suspended in mid-air, his entire body flickered with intense golden light.
An illusory brilliant golden vertical eye appeared out of thin air behind him. When this golden vertical eye appeared, the surrounding black-purple energy scattered. Then the illusory golden vertical eye began to solidify, its color shifting from brilliant gold to black iron, then bronze, silver, and finally to incomparably dazzling gold.
Golden-level second awakening of the body martial soul!
All this happened in an instant. The Demon Empress had just reacted when she was horrified to discover that this insignificant human before her now had a spiritual intent level surpassing hers.
"How is this possible?! How can this human possess demi-god level spiritual force?!"
The reason the Body Sect valued Xu Zihuang so highly was mainly because of Xu Zihuang's golden-level second awakening ability of the body martial soul.
The reason the golden-level second awakening far surpassed the silver-level second awakening was that the golden-level second awakening would additionally possess a special ability. Depending on the type of body martial soul, that special ability differed.
Xu Zihuang's golden-level second awakening ability had only one effect: in a short time, forcibly elevate his spiritual force by one level.
Back then, when his spiritual force was at the verge of the Tangible-Intangible realm, after using the golden-level second awakening amplification, it reached the verge of the Tangible-Tangible realm. At that time, he relied on that near-Tangible spiritual force to crush Xiao Hongchen.
However, at the god level, there were clearly restrictions. So, although his current spiritual force was at the initial Tangible-Tangible realm, after using golden-level second awakening, it could only elevate to the demi-god level. And it could only be maintained for an instant, after which he would suffer severe backlash.
The soul rings reappeared around Xu Zihuang, but there was only a solitary blood-red soul ring. Three peculiar golden patterns on the soul ring were clearly visible.
The soul ring shone, the brilliant golden Golden Eyes behind him suddenly enlarged, and Xu Zihuang's aura surged accordingly. Golden light enveloped his body, giving a majestic aura like an emperor overlooking the world.
Martial Soul True Body!
Relying on demi-god-level spiritual force, Xu Zihuang forcibly completed the fusion of his six soul rings, forcibly displaying Martial Soul True Body at the Soul Emperor level.
Golden eyes flickered, space distorted, and Xu Zihuang and Ju Zi's figures disappeared from the spot.
100,000-year soul ring skills: Mental Force Field and Soul Touch
100,000-year soul bone skills: Evil Eye Gaze and Soul Barrier
Listing them here, in case everyone has forgotten. I think these four skills combined are pretty perfect.
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Here are the chapters for today (づ￣3￣)づ╭～
"Don't forget there are 40 early chapters available on Patreon
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