Elsewhere.
Deep within a secluded stretch of sea in the True Dragon Sea...
In the cold, silent seawater, squads of figures clad in heavy black armor moved like prowling deep-sea behemoths, silently patrolling along meticulously planned routes.
The Bone Spears in their hands glimmered with ghastly white eerie glow. Every sweep of their tails stirred the undercurrents as they passed soundlessly through towering clusters of majestic palaces.
These palaces were built from massive slabs of deep-sea obsidian, their surfaces carved with savage tiger shark totems. Beneath the faint phosphorescence, they exuded an aura of majesty and grim slaughter.
This place...
Was the core territory of the Black Spirit Tiger Shark Clan, the center of its power!
Inside one grand and forbidding main hall.
Sha Minghong sat high upon an icy black-jade throne, one hand propping up his chin while his knuckles tapped idly against the cold, hard armrest, producing dull, monotonous knocks.
His tiger eyes, once sharp as blades, now appeared somewhat unfocused as they stared blankly into the dim void deep within the hall, As though they could pierce through the thick stone wall and gaze upon some unknowable distance.
"Ever since I entered the Forbidden Sea..."
Sha Minghong's murmur was almost inaudible in the silent hall, yet his thoughts surged like undercurrents in the deep sea.
"This Blood Stele, the key that accompanied my rise, has repeatedly grown restless, stirring a resonance deep within my origin bloodline.
"This is far from ordinary!"
A thought wormed its way out beyond his control:
"Could it be..."
His gaze abruptly sharpened.
"That this Blood Stele itself is incomplete?
"That its missing, crucial portion lies within the Forbidden Sea?
"And that is why it has triggered such a powerful resonance?"
But immediately afterward, he shook his head sharply and forced the thought