A giant wave, seven or eight meters high, crashed in both directions, and the massive black spine continued to rise menacingly, causing Zhang Guodong and his companions to gasp in shock. Even before the entire black, ferocious spine of this sea monster was fully revealed, it was already over ten meters long; it could be estimated that this behemoth was at least twenty or thirty meters long!
This is even larger than the largest sea animal, the giant whale. Adult whales are typically [length missing] and [weight missing]. Moreover, Zhang Guodong had never heard of a whale having such menacing bony spurs on its spine; this image is more like that of a land mammal, especially an extinct dinosaur. The menacing bony spurs on its back seem more like defensive weapons, allowing enemies to bite from below.
In fact, this unknown ferocious beast was far longer than thirty meters. In the blink of an eye, a colossal creature over forty meters long revealed most of its body, prompting Zhang Guodong and his companions to quicken their pace and flee. The beast let out a long roar and charged forward.
That speed was no slower than Zhang Guodong's magic-powered boat, and even slightly faster. The eighty-meter distance was closed in just two seconds.
"Damn, what is that thing? It's so fast!" Zhang Guodong urged the ship forward with all his might. He felt a large amount of his magical power being converted from the pills and then consumed, his meridians burning intensely, and he could no longer bear it. He didn't forget to release his divine sense to keep an eye on the ferocious beast. Its speed astonished him.
Previously, when its magical power was abundant, the small boat could outpace the ferocious beast. But now, its magical power was depleted, and it was only supported by pills. Neither its magical strength nor its conversion rate could compare to before. It could only secretly lament its predicament.
"Sister Rose, what kind of ferocious beast is this? Are you confident you can kill it?" Zhang Guodong asked hurriedly.
Liu Meigui and Bai Yin, along with some fellow cultivators they were on good terms with, often took on missions from the Cultivator Guild to earn crystals for cultivation. This overseas region was said to be their most frequented destination. They would occasionally encounter ferocious beasts.
It's strange, really. Mortals rarely see such ferocious beasts at sea. But the presence of cultivators attracts them. I wonder if there's something about the cultivators that draws these beasts in; they come without fail every time. It's quite amazing!
Liu Meigui's expression was solemn, and she had already taken out an offensive magic weapon, ready to attack at any moment. Upon hearing this, she said, "Senior Brother Zhang, I don't know what kind of ferocious beast this is, but some people call it the Sea Soul Beast. I've encountered traces of them almost every time I've gone out to sea more than ten times!"
Zhang Guodong didn't care what kind of ferocious beast it was. As long as Liu Meigui recognized it and knew how to deal with it, that was enough. He had encountered this kind of ferocious beast on more than ten voyages, which showed how powerful it was; it could detect him wherever he went.
“Alright, since Sister Rose knows about this ferocious beast, then the task of dealing with it is entrusted to you. Ban, you follow Sister Rose's instructions,” Zhang Guodong said.
Xuan Qing nodded slightly in agreement.
Seeing the sea spirit beast with its two basketball-sized, blood-red eyes glaring at them, its massive body cleaving through the waves, Liu Meigui, suppressing her tension, flew closer to their small boat and said, "This kind of sea spirit beast basically has no other means of attack. Its hide is tough and its flesh is thick; it only relies on instinct to devour. Once you're inside its stomach, it's very difficult to get out. Our magical artifacts will be corroded by its stomach acid! So the way to deal with it is simple: we can only attack its head with force. The area between its eyes is where its brain is located!"
Thirty meters!
"Whoosh!"
At that distance, the sea spirit beast suddenly opened its massive maw, and a jet of water the size of a bucket shot out like a missile, attacking with a water stream. This disrupted the three's vision.
However, all three were cultivators, and even from a distance of several dozen meters, they could sense the danger without seeing it. While the current would likely capsize the small boat if it didn't hit it, for cultivators, it would only have a minor impact and wouldn't cause them to panic.
Zhang Guodong steered the small boat, channeling his magic power. The boat dodged the current, but his magic power was significantly depleted. He couldn't hold on much longer.
"Sister Rose, Ying, quickly finish this guy off! My magic power can only last a few more minutes," Zhang Guodong said, ignoring the cold sweat streaming down his forehead.
This wasn't just due to the fear of the ferocious beast; the main pain was the intense burning sensation in his meridians, like being stabbed with knives. If this continued, it wouldn't be long before the damage to his meridians healed. Such injuries, damaging the very foundation of one's being, are the most dangerous thing for a cultivator.
"Okay, slow down. This guy is dangerous, but I can still handle him, it's just one step."
Erfeng Rice!
"The distance is good, junior sister, let's attack together! Three, two, one, attack!" The small boat slowed down, and the sea spirit beast immediately leaped up. In an instant, the distance between them closed by ten meters. Liu Meigui tightened her grip on the sword-shaped magic weapon in her hand and shouted to Xuan Qingxuan.
Two magical artifacts, one green and one red, flew out. The attack instantly exploded towards the center of the sea spirit beast's eyes. With the power of these two mid-level material attack artifacts, one green and one red, a hit on the target would definitely kill it—this was Liu Meigui's experience.
She felt that in terms of the exquisite control over magical artifacts, she was not as good as this junior sister, except that her life force was slightly inferior to hers.
Upon seeing the danger, the sea spirit beast knew from the blue and red lights that it was not to be trifled with. It immediately spat out a jet of water and its head began to dive downwards. The movement was incredibly fast.
Aside from water-attribute magical artifacts, the power of other magical artifacts is greatly reduced in water, and this is also true for these two magical artifacts, one green and one red.
The water jets rushed towards the two magical artifacts, attempting to block them, but the artifacts were controlled by humans. Xuan Qingban's cyan artifact deftly evaded the water jets, while Liu Meigui was no less capable; her life force surged, and her red artifact shone brightly. The water jets instantly dissipated, failing to hinder Liu Meigui's attack in the slightest.
"Where do you think you're going!" Willow Rose shouted. The attacks from the red magic weapon and the Xuanqing Bo magic weapon almost doubled at the same time, landing together on the sea spirit beast's brow, bursting with unparalleled brilliance.
A deafening roar and scream instantly devastated the small area of the sea. The sea spirit beast's dying struggle was quite loud, churning the seawater into a frenzy. Pillars of dark red blood instantly stained dozens of square meters of the sea surface, and giant waves several meters high rolled in, almost capsizing the small boat controlled by Zhang Guodong.
He quickly channeled his magic to get the small boat away from the area. Zhang Guodong only stopped after they were several hundred meters away.
"This sea spirit beast isn't that difficult to deal with. I thought it would be much stronger!" Zhang Guodong said with a sigh of relief.
"We can't stop!" Liu Meigui urged.
"What? Didn't we wipe it out? Even if a few of them came, with your combined strength, it wouldn't be a problem!" Zhang Guodong asked in surprise.
"My dear Senior Brother Zhang, three or four of them are nothing, but if dozens or hundreds come, we'll have no choice but to run! Hurry, the blood of these sea spirit beasts can attract a large number of their kind. If we're surrounded, that will be truly dangerous!" Liu Meigui said with a wry smile.
"No way!" Zhang Guodong was startled. He had initially looked down on Liu Meigui for being so afraid of a sea spirit beast that he could easily kill, but he hadn't expected Liu Meigui's words to have a hidden meaning. These sea spirit beasts liked to attack in groups, and if a whole group came, it would exhaust his magic power and kill him!
As expected, Zhang Guodong dared not relax for a moment. After swallowing another handful of pills, the small boat quickly traveled several miles under the power of his magic. A sweep of his divine sense revealed that over a dozen similar creatures had appeared in the same sea area. Their numbers were steadily increasing. These sea spirit beasts began attacking their dead companion!
In no time, hundreds of sea spirit beasts had gathered in that area!
Wiping away a cold sweat, Zhang Guodong's face turned much paler.
"We need to find a small island quickly, otherwise we'll be stranded in the sea!" Zhang Guodong said.
"Or perhaps..." Xuan Qing, seeing that Zhang Guodong's situation was not good, was actually a little worried and hesitated to speak.
Zhang Guodong quickly interrupted, saying, "It's alright, there might be an island nearby. Let's take another look at the map."
He knew what Xuan Qingban meant; she possessed a flying artifact. If all else failed, they would have to reveal themselves. Xuan Qingying could control it, carrying three people, and flying a thousand miles was nothing. However, Zhang Guodong didn't want Liu Meigui to know. The Qingxuan Sect was not suited for exposure right now, and they couldn't take any risks.
Although Liu Meigui and I had a good personal relationship, it wasn't deep enough for us to be completely open with each other.
Liu Meigui opened the map, but she couldn't understand the text on it and could only guess at the locations of the islands. Only Zhang Guodong could understand this map. Liu Meigui always struggled to read it.
"We are currently in the South China Sea, 180 li southeast of the Spratly Islands. The nearest island to us is this one—no, it should be a reef. It's not marked on it, so we can only feel our way across." Zhang Guodong steadied the small boat to prevent it from capsizing in the waves while examining a map of the South China Sea, finally determining the approximate location of the three of them.
To be honest, there aren't many islands and reefs in this sea area, but there are still some. It's just that humans are too insignificant compared to the sea, and this sea area is simply too vast.
After determining the location, Zhang Guodong swallowed another handful of pills, took a short breath, and immediately set out. The sea was never safe.
He sensed that the hundreds of sea spirit beasts, after devouring their companions, had dispersed and left. He worried that the three of them would be caught by the sea spirit beasts again. Furthermore, Liu Meigui had told him that these sea spirit beasts were the most common type they encountered, and there were many of them. But there were other ferocious beasts, much stronger than the sea spirit beasts.
Moreover, this sea spirit beast seems to be much larger than those encountered before. Clearly, this sea spirit beast appears to be evolving rapidly. It's hard to understand how it has grown so quickly in such a short time.
After traveling several dozen miles, Zhang Guodong suddenly felt excruciating pain throughout his body, losing all feeling in his flesh. Fortunately, his divine sense detected an island or reef. This reef wasn't large, with only a few thousand square meters of surface area above water. Apart from slightly damp rocks, it was almost entirely bare.
Some plants seem to have difficulty growing on this.
"It's a small island! That's wonderful!" As they drew closer, Liu Meigui spotted it and exclaimed happily. "Senior Brother Zhang, just a little longer, we'll be there soon!"
"It's nothing!" Zhang Guodong forced a smile across his pale face. This time, it seemed he'd gone too far; if things continued like this, he was just asking for trouble!
Fortunately, they haven't encountered any human cultivators so far, otherwise they would be in serious trouble. The strongest among the three of them had actually been defeated by a small boat.
Xuan Qingban glanced at Zhang Guodong every now and then, his eyes filled with anxiety and worry. But at this moment, the three of them had no choice. Only magic power could propel the small boat, and life force demonic energy was simply insufficient; they couldn't draw upon external power. Or perhaps she had exposed her flying artifact!
"Look, what are those? So many skeletons! Is this some kind of animal's nest?" As they drew closer to the reef, Zhang Guodong felt his mind becoming somewhat hazy, and Liu Meigui suddenly exclaimed.
Hundreds of meters around the reef, numerous enormous skeletons floated on the sea, white and eerie, densely packed, numbering in the dozens, scattered haphazardly around the reef. Zhang Guodong's mind cleared momentarily, and upon looking around, the three of them immediately tensed. They had just escaped a pack of ferocious beasts; were they about to enter the lair of some other beast?
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