Farther east, the vast Qingli Kingdom, as large as a small continent, was already steeped in a bloody glow. This island was Princess Qingli's fief, once the Blood Qin Empire's bridgehead for invading the Eastern Ocean and the most important base of its Eastern Sea navy. Heavy troops had long been stationed across this great island, responsible for intimidating and suppressing the hundreds of thousands of islands, large and small, scattered throughout the Eastern Ocean, as well as restraining and purging the aquatic races of the Eastern Sea.
But today, every Blood Qin military camp in Qingli Kingdom had been razed to the ground, and the once-majestic Blood Qin banners lay soaked in blood. Every Blood Qin soldier who dared resist had no choice but to fall beneath the savage attacks of the sea race warriors. Even more Blood Qin soldiers had fallen into an endless slumber amid the songs of sea race merfolk sorcerers, becoming captives without ever firing a single arrow.
Ao Tian, king of the Eastern Sea's aquatic races and legendary descendant of the Eastern Divine Dragon, wore a set of dark golden armor. His arms folded across his chest, he sat sprawled atop a mountain, looking down from on high at a massive pool at the mountain's foot that exuded a strange, bloody stench. This pool spanned a thousand li in every direction. Huge azure magic crystals were embedded around its edges, each one enormous and containing earth-shaking magical power—every crystal held power equivalent to the full divine force of a Mid-God.
Near this rippling blue pool, there were no fewer than thirty-six thousand such azure magic crystals. The crystals ceaselessly devoured the surrounding magical elements while continuously pouring vast magical energy into the pool water.
Cries and wails rang out in every direction. Countless ordinary