The freezing, bone-piercing sea wind carried salty, fishy spray like countless tiny ice blades, savagely scraping across Ling Feng's exposed skin. He stared fixedly at the apocalyptic stretch of sea off the starboard side.
The enormous shadow rising from the water revealed only its back, yet that alone stretched over a hundred meters! Its blue-black, heavy scales gleamed with a cold metallic sheen beneath the dim light, like armor worn by an ancient god or demon. Down the center of its back stood towering, razor-sharp white bone spikes, grotesquely piercing toward the oppressive lead-gray sky.
Even more soul-shaking was what lay before the shadow. Its abyssal maw had opened, like a passage leading straight to hell! Several layers of giant meat-grinder-like teeth glinted with a chilling light, densely interlocked in rows. A terrifying suction force, powerful enough to distort space itself, erupted from that monstrous mouth!
Rumble—!!!
The seawater roared under unbearable strain, madly pouring inward and forming a massive vortex more than a hundred meters wide! Its edges spun at incredible speed, carrying destructive force capable of devouring everything. Like an open mouth of death, it rapidly spread toward their tiny, dilapidated fishing boat! The boat bucked violently, its hull groaning beneath the strain as an invisible force dragged it madly toward the vortex's center!
"Sea Demon Whale! It's a ten-thousand-year Sea Demon Whale! The overlord of the Devil Sea! It's over! We're all finished!" The old fisherman collapsed onto the soaking deck, his face ashen and his cloudy eyes filled with nothing but despairing terror. Meaningless wails spilled from his mouth as he scrambled forward and clung desperately to the base of a thick mast, as though it were his only lifeline.
Hu Liena was jolted awake by the horrifying roar and violent rocking. She struggled to rise,