Substitute

A curved saber that could easily pierce Wu Yan's magic-power barrier had to be at least a fine-grade Eighth Rank magical artifact.

The aura of magic power that had entered his body through the curved saber was pure, but it was only White Fang rank and nothing extraordinary.

Yet this combination was enough to sever Wu Yan's heart meridians and completely take his life.

The cultivator who had just condensed an Azure Wing Destiny Essence and possessed the potential to advance to Dragon-Elephant rank fell from midair onto the deck.

Blood gushed from his wound, gradually forming a pool of blood.

Yet no one paid the slightest attention to this gruesome scene.

That was because all four large ships had already begun sinking slowly, and everyone was doing their utmost to save the vessels.

However, the monster beneath the sea possessed an extraordinarily high intelligence and was terrifying beyond measure!

It made use of its extreme swimming speed to dart back and forth between the four large ships.

Every time it reached one, it would instantly tear open a hole more than a person's height in the ship's bottom.

In the time it took an incense stick to burn, each ship had been punctured at least four or five times by the demon beneath the sea.

Seawater surged through the holes, dragging the entire ships downward.

The sailors aboard the ships were not without attempts to patch the leaks and resist the demon's destruction.

But the demon moved like a ghost. It seemed even able to use the seawater to turn invisible, vanishing without warning so that no one could touch it at all.

Everyone present was a descendant of experienced sailors, and many had taken part in hunts for White Fang demons.

Yet they had never seen such a sinister and bizarre existence!

Some impulsive sailors even took fishing nets into the water in an attempt to capture it, but they could not touch so much as a hair.

Instead, when the demon's escaping light lightly brushed against a sailor, his flesh burst apart and his intestines spilled out as he died.

The battle lasted a full hour. In the end, all four large ships sank toward the dark depths of the sea.

This place was at the center of the Vast Sea, whose average depth exceeded five thousand meters. There was no chance these four expensive ships would ever see daylight again.

All the sailors abandoned hope completely, leaving the ships and drifting in scattered clusters across the sea.

There had originally been forty-two people aboard the four ships. Now, only seventeen remained alive.

Everyone else had been slain by the demon whose form no one had yet seen.

Having lost their footholds, fresh water, and food, these people had almost no chance of crossing ten thousand li to return to HunZhou Island.

Without any prior arrangement, everyone fixed their eyes on the only battered little boat still floating on the sea.

This was their last hope of survival!

However, while everyone had been trying to save their own ships, the little boat had somehow slipped free of its steel cables and was drifting away with the current.

Not daring to stop for even an instant, their instinct for survival drove them to swim desperately toward the little boat.

Five hundred meters beneath the sea's surface, a small figure floated in the water, face turned upward.

He looked at the seventeen figures suspended on the surface and raised a hand, shooting out a strand of thread.

The sailor at the very back suddenly felt his ankle tighten. His entire body plummeted toward the deep sea at incredible speed, before he even had time to cry out.

The thread dragged him all the way into the abyss beneath the sea. Then another thread looped around his neck and sliced his head clean off.

Immediately afterward, a small hand reached into the sailor's chest and rummaged around, only pulling out a few knife coins.

He did not seem to mind. After putting away the knife coins, he kicked the corpse away.

When humans left their ships and drifted alone upon the sea, if they lacked a suitable destiny pattern to anchor themselves, they could only be slaughtered at will before marine creatures.

The remaining sixteen sailors were singled out one by one by the threads, dragged into the depths, and bled dry in succession, never to appear again.

The entire process was calm and uneventful, without even stirring much of a splash.

Three of them were Ninth Rank Destiny-Determining cultivators. The rest had reached great completion in Nurturing Origin and possessed destiny essences.

On land, these people might have been somewhat troublesome.

But in the deep sea, Jing Qian killed them as easily as butchering chickens.

After a full month of hunting White Fang sea demons, his methods of underwater combat and his killing nature had long since entered an entirely new realm!

After dealing with his enemies, he swam toward the little boat. With a sweep of the Tide destiny pattern, he landed on the boat like a nimble fish.

Only two living people remained aboard: the tall woman and the short, stout man called A Bao.

The child in the woman's arms had already been gravely wounded and had quietly passed away.

Jing Qian did not reveal his face. Instead, he appeared wearing a mask carved from a white fish scale.

He leaned against the gunwale and said:

"Friend, I wonder if that blood contract you mentioned still holds?"

The female cultivator's face was ashen and gray, deathly air rising from her. It was obvious she would not live much longer.

Yet she had witnessed Jing Qian slaughter her enemies from beginning to end, and the sight of her great vengeance fulfilled had left her looking utterly gratified.

Hearing Jing Qian's question, she immediately said:

"Thank you, fellow cultivator, for personally killing my enemies."

"We of the Jing Household have always valued our promises. We never cheat even children or old people!"

With that, she sat up and somehow produced a grand book made of golden paper. She bit through the blood at the tip of her tongue and wrote with her hand:

"Whoever holds this book may claim the compensation of Jing Chuan, captain of the Hun Ling Number."

"Jing Ran of the Jing Household gives her word!"

She handed the Blood Contract Grand Book to Jing Qian and continued:

"Fellow cultivator, you may go to the Maritime Affairs Office on HunZhou Island and present this contract to receive my ancestor's compensation."

"From what I can see, fellow cultivator, your strength is extraordinary. You can roam freely through the Hun Sea, so you surely would not covet this small amount of compensation. Why were you willing to help my Jing Household? Please enlighten me."

Jing Qian looked at Jing Ran, who was close to death, then took out the tortoiseshell engraved with the Tide destiny pattern and displayed it before her.

"Were you searching for this?"

Jing Ran stared fixedly at the tortoiseshell, wearing an expression that said everything was just as she had expected.

"That truly is my Jing Household's Tide Divination. Seeing how formidable you were in battle at sea, I had already formed some suspicions."

"It is only a pity that those of my generation and the generations after us have no fate to see the clan's core inheritance!"

"By the way, my household still has a blind wet nurse. She is a close relative who raised both me and my nephew from childhood."

"Now that the two of us are gone, if it is convenient for you, please help her in some way!"

"Other than that, I have no lingering attachments!"

"It is only a pity that the Jing Household's line will ultimately end in my hands!"

After Jing Ran finished speaking her final sentence, she picked up her nephew's corpse and leaped into the sea, plunging toward the deep.

Jing Qian did not stop her. He had received a considerable favor from the Jing Household, so he naturally granted her the final dignity.

He then stepped forward, released the short, stout cultivator whose mouth had been sealed shut with spider silk, and asked:

"Fatty, what was Jing Ran's nephew called?"

Although that fat man had survived by sheer luck, he had witnessed Jing Qian's entire massacre and was already filled with boundless terror toward this strangely dressed man before him.

He did not dare refuse Jing Qian's request in the slightest. With a fawning expression, he said:

"My lord, that boy of the Jing Household was called Jing Qian. He was the Jing Household's only legitimate blood heir."

"Now that he has died, the Jing Household's line has been cut off for good!"

Hearing this, Jing Qian let out a soft laugh.

"Reasonable. Ingenious!"

"Who said the Jing Household's bloodline had been severed?"

"From today onward, Jing Qian is Jing Qian. I will never let the Jing Household fall into ruin!"

For Jing Qian, there was no identity more suitable for entering HunZhou Island than taking Jing Qian's place.