Hunting ground

Guided by the sixty-thousand-year Demon Whale, Jingtian crossed a rugged reef shrouded in scorching heat and toxic gases, finally reaching a natural cavern in the flank of an enormous underwater mountain range. Its entrance lay hidden behind sea anemones and luminous moss, but the interior was exceptionally spacious and deep, large enough to hold several Deep Sea Demon Whales. The seawater was cold and still, carrying a faint mineral scent, a stark contrast to the boiling hydrothermal region outside. Clearly, this was a rare sanctuary the Demon Whale had discovered by chance and remembered.

After carefully settling the gravely wounded, unconscious fifty-thousand-year Demon Whale on a relatively level patch at the back of the cavern, Jingtian stopped his continuous transfer of energy. Retracting his Ninth Tentacle, he carefully sensed the blue Demon Whale's condition—her life force remained weak, but it was no longer deteriorating. Nourished by pure energy and the Demon Whale's own tenacious vitality, her wounds had begun an exceedingly slow recovery. She had escaped certain death for now, but recovery was still a distant prospect, requiring prolonged rest and substantial replenishment of energy.

"Guard her. Do not leave, and do not release any strong Soul Power fluctuations." Jingtian sent the sixty-thousand-year Demon Whale a clear, unquestionable mental command, then used his poison power to set up a simple poisonous barrier near the entrance for concealment and early warning.

The sixty-thousand-year Demon Whale bowed his enormous head deeply, releasing a soul hum of absolute obedience and gratitude. His massive body curled gently around his mate like the most faithful guardian, his gaze never leaving her.

Jingtian delayed no longer. He needed time, but the mother and calf at the Shattered Star Seabed had even less.

"Do you know the fastest, most concealed route from here to the Shattered Star Seabed?" Jingtian's thoughts reached directly into the Demon Whale's consciousness, transmitting a rough impression of the Shattered Star Seabed's location, drawn from Mo Yuan's intelligence.

The Demon Whale blinked his enormous eyes, seemingly recalling and identifying the place. A moment later, he returned a soul fluctuation conveying certainty, accompanied by a series of hazy route "images"—which waters had strong currents that could accelerate travel, which dangerous predator territories required a detour, which trenches offered concealment... This was a spatial memory and navigation method unique to Soul Beasts, rooted in instinct and experience.

Jingtian quickly deciphered the information. This route was far more efficient than heading there blindly himself; it would save at least a third of the journey time!

"Very good." A trace of satisfaction entered Jingtian's thoughts. This Demon Whale's value was gradually revealing itself.

Without another word, his massive body slipped silently out of the cavern and back into the darkness of the deep sea. Following the Whale Path information supplied by the Demon Whale, he pushed his speed to its limit while deftly avoiding several energy anomalies and potential territories of high-ranking Soul Beasts. Like the most seasoned traveler of the deep, he sped through the endless gloom.

Along the way, he spared a sliver of attention to sense Mo Yuan's condition. Mo Yuan's aura remained weak but stable, and no new distress signal had arrived. Perhaps that was good news, meaning the Demon Whales on the other two battlefields were still struggling to hold on. But it could also mean... they had already fallen without a sound.

Jingtian suppressed that unnecessary thought and focused on the journey.

Thanks to the optimized Whale Path, he took less than two hours to cross the complex waters that would otherwise have required much longer, reaching the outskirts of the Shattered Star Seabed.

Before him stretched a vast, peculiar underwater landscape. Countless enormous coral reefs of every shape rose like a forest, scattered with heavily rusted shipwrecks of all sizes. Some lay half-buried in gravel, their skeletal keels jutting out menacingly. Starlight—some kind of luminous plankton—flickered faintly between coral branches and wrecks, offering a weak source of light while making the shifting light and shadow even more fragmented and bewildering. The currents were relatively gentle, but the terrain was extremely complex, easily obstructing both sight and perception.

Almost as soon as he entered the region, Jingtian caught the Soul Power fluctuations coming from afar—more chaotic and concentrated than those in the Hydrothermal Forest, mingled with a Demon Whale's furious, grief-stricken roars, a calf's piercing cries, human Soul Masters' sharp shouts, and the excited shrieks of Demon Soul Great White Sharks.

The battle was raging, and from the sound of it, the mother whale's situation was even more desperate than the intelligence had suggested!

Jingtian pushed Guixu Assimilation to its limit, blending his aura perfectly into the surroundings. Like the deepest shadow on the ocean floor, he slipped swiftly toward the battlefield's center under cover of coral reefs and shipwrecks.

Soon, he saw the battlefield.

The sight was horrifying.

A relatively "slender," silver-gray mother whale, bearing several wounds deep enough to expose bone, desperately sheltered a pale-blue calf only a tenth of her size beneath the fragile barricade of her own body. The calf trembled in terror. They were trapped on a relatively open patch of sand enclosed by several enormous shipwrecks, their room to maneuver squeezed to its absolute limit.

Their attackers were indeed four human Soul Masters and six Demon Soul Great White Sharks, just as reported. But the situation was worse than expected: of the two Soul Douluos, one was a burly man wielding a heavy halberd, around level 87, while the other was actually a rare control-type Soul Master, level 85. He continually released blue energy chains, attempting to entangle and restrain the mother whale, severely limiting her already cumbersome evasions. The two Soul Saints kept launching ranged attacks from the flanks, harassing her and blocking any possible escape route.

Under the control-type Soul Douluo's direction, the six Demon Soul Great White Sharks, averaging thirty thousand years old, coordinated with exceptional precision. Rather than rush into a frontal assault on the mother, they split into two groups. One repeatedly feinted attacks on the calf, exhausting the mother with rescue efforts and forcing openings in her defenses; the other seized opportunities to strike her weak points, leaving fresh wounds. Several more bloody gashes deep enough to expose bone marked her body, and her blood stained a broad expanse of seawater red.

"Keep it up! This mother whale is almost finished! The calf's Soul Ring is top quality too!" The control-type Soul Douluo laughed coldly, flinging another thick energy chain toward the flipper she had just raised to swat away a shark.

The mother whale unleashed a roar entwined with pain and fury, struggling desperately, but blood loss and depleted Soul Power made her movements increasingly sluggish. The calf cried helplessly beneath her, further agitating her and throwing her into disarray.

"Now! Attack the calf with everything you have! Force her to take it head-on!" Spotting his chance, the halberd-wielding Soul Douluo roared. His heavy halberd erupted with dazzling blue light, forming a solid halberd silhouette that shot not toward the mother, but straight at the unprotected head of the calf beneath her! If it struck, the calf would undoubtedly die!

At the same time, every other enemy—the other Soul Douluo's energy chains, the two Soul Saints' ranged Soul Skills, and the lunging bites of six Demon Soul Great White Sharks—directed all their attacks at the calf, as though by prior agreement!

This was a brazen, open scheme! Strike where she was bound to defend! The mother whale had to either watch her child die or block every attack with her body! In her current state, enduring this concentrated assault would leave her grievously wounded even if she survived, stripping her of all ability to resist!

"No—!!!" The mother whale released a heart-rending soul shriek of utter despair. Without hesitation, her massive body twisted violently as she prepared to pin the calf completely beneath her at any cost and take the devastating attacks on her own back!

At that hair's-breadth moment, when only despair and maternal devotion remained in the mother whale's eyes, and cruel smiles spread across every enemy's face—

At the battlefield's edge, within the shadow of the mast of the largest ancient shipwreck, half-buried in gravel, two abyss-deep glimmers abruptly lit up.

"Dan-Devour—Targeted Elimination."

There was no sound, only an utterly icy thought.

Four dark streaks, more condensed and swifter than those used in the Hydrothermal Forest, shot out almost simultaneously. Like death warrants delivered from the underworld, they crossed the space silently and precisely "stamped" themselves onto the vital points between the four human Soul Masters' brows or at the backs of their hearts!

Pfft! Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!

Four barely audible sounds were swallowed completely by the violent explosions of Soul Skills and the Demon Whale's roar.

But the next instant—

"Urgh—!"

"Cough!"

The halberd-wielding Soul Douluo's seemingly certain strike abruptly disintegrated mere meters from the calf! As though an invisible sledgehammer had struck his chest, his eyes bulged, and all color drained from his face before turning a bizarre bluish purple. He violently spat a mouthful of dark-red blood mixed with fragments of internal organs! The heavy halberd slipped from his grasp, and his massive body flew backward like a kite with its string cut, Soul Power pouring madly from his body in a backlash!

The sinister smile on the control-type Soul Douluo's face froze instantly, replaced by boundless terror and agony. He felt as though his soul had been thrown into a meat grinder, screaming soundlessly as the energy chains sustained by his Soul Power broke apart inch by inch and vanished. Clutching his head with both hands, black blood seeping from all seven facial orifices, he lost control of his body and sank.

The two Soul Saints fared even worse. Without so much as a muffled groan, their Soul Power ran wild, their eyes rolled white, and they collapsed like two lumps of dead flesh, their life force rapidly extinguished.

At the moment they unleashed their strongest attacks, their minds most focused and their defenses relatively most "neglected," Dan-Devour struck all four Soul Masters simultaneously in their vital points! In an instant, every one of them died violently or lost the ability to fight!

This sudden, utterly bizarre turn left the six Demon Soul Great White Sharks lunging toward the calf completely stunned! Their attacks even grew disordered and hesitant as they lost the Soul Masters' direction and coordination.

What happened?! How did the leaders... all fall?!

The mother whale, who had been about to build a wall of flesh and blood around her calf, froze as well. The world-destroying attacks she had expected never arrived. Instead, those vicious enemies had suddenly, inexplicably collapsed and died? Her enormous eyes widened, filled with unparalleled shock, bewilderment, and a faint, disbelieving hope of escaping certain death.

At that instant, as Jingtian's intervention once again plunged the battlefield into stunned silence—

"Hiss—!"

An ink-black tentacle afterimage shot without warning from the enormous shipwreck's shadow, moving so fast it tore through the seawater! It did not attack any of the Demon Soul Great White Sharks. Instead, as though alive in its own right, it traced a strange arc through the water before viciously "lashing" the soft sand below!

"Boom—!"

A muffled explosion rang out. It was not a physical impact, but an eruption of dormant poison power! Terrifying force hurled up vast quantities of seabed dust, broken coral, and rotting wood fragments from the wrecks. Mixed with the dark-purple poisonous mist Jingtian deliberately released, carrying powerful blinding, paralyzing, and Mental Interference effects, it instantly enveloped the entire heart of the battlefield like an exploding smoke bomb!

Sight was completely blocked! Perception was disrupted by deadly poison! The seawater grew viscous and chaotic!

"Awrr?!" "Hiss?!"

The six Demon Soul Great White Sharks plunged into even greater panic. Robbed of sight and clear perception, and having witnessed their leaders die instantly, their ferocity was overwhelmed by fear. Instinctively, they tried to flee this suddenly lethal region of poisonous mist, but they could not discern direction, even colliding with one another in the confusion.

Though the mother whale was also engulfed in poisonous mist, she was already lying on the seabed sheltering her calf, and Jingtian's mist primarily targeted the enemies, so its effects on her were relatively mild. She felt only slightly dizzy, her vision blurring; far stronger was her boundless wariness.

Amid the chaotic poisonous mist, Jingtian moved.

He was like a reaper merged with the mist itself, his Ninth Tentacle his sole, lethal scythe.

"Pfft!" One Demon Soul Great White Shark, disoriented and just about to surge upward, had its skull silently pierced from the side.

"Crack!" Another tried to hide in a gap within a shipwreck, only for the tentacle to coil around it and abruptly snap its spine.

"Hiss—!" A third frantically spat a wave of purifying water, but an arrow of denser venom, launched later yet arriving first, shot into its mouth. The poison instantly left it rigid, and the tentacle pierced its heart.

Fast! Precise! Merciless! Under cover of poison mist and chaos, Jingtian's killing efficiency reached an astonishing level. Without leadership, stripped of perception, and overwhelmed by panic, these Demon Soul Great White Sharks, averaging thirty thousand years old, had no ability to fight back against the precise assassination of a ninety-thousand-year Poison Beast.

Less than five breaths passed.

The poisonous mist slowly dispersed.

At the battlefield's center, the mother whale still fiercely protected her calf, watching her surroundings warily. Then she saw a sight she would never forget:

In the surrounding seawater floated the six gradually cooling, stiffening corpses of Demon Soul Great White Sharks, along with the twisted bodies of four human Soul Masters who had died in bizarre ways. Blood slowly spread, staining the seawater a faint red.

Directly before her, in the gradually clearing water, an immense, shadowy figure floated silently, radiating an aura that made even her soul tremble with awe. Nine tentacles, including that strange black one, swayed slowly, his cold "gaze" resting on her and her calf.

It was him! This terrifying Poison Beast had dealt with every enemy in an instant! Just like that earlier, hazy impression of "reinforcements"!

The mother whale's enormous body began to tremble slightly, not with fear, but with an intense surge of emotion born of surviving calamity, mingled with supreme gratitude and profound reverence. Slowly, with extreme difficulty because of her injuries, she lowered her enormous head, presenting her vulnerable neck and the calf beneath her, still trembling but peeking out curiously, to the Poison Beast.

She released a soul fluctuation clearer and more filled with gratitude and submission than that of the earlier Demon Whale pair, even mingled with the calf's faint, dependent calls.

No words were needed; actions explained everything. This powerful being had saved mother and calf twice—through his sensed presence and his arrival—sweeping away the enemies of their hopeless predicament with absolute power.

Jingtian received that pure gratitude and submission, his icy thoughts remaining unruffled. He slowly swam closer, extending his Ninth Tentacle again and releasing gentle life energy over several of the mother whale's worst wounds. At the same time, he separated out a strand of even gentler power to soothe the frightened calf.

"Can you swim?" Jingtian's thought was direct and concise.

The mother whale lifted her head, determination in her eyes, and sent an affirmative fluctuation. Though badly injured, the replenished energy and her powerful resolve after saving her child would support her through a short journey without difficulty.

"Follow me. Don't fall behind." Jingtian said nothing more. Turning, he began swiftly devouring the corpses of the Demon Soul Great White Sharks and Soul Masters while signaling the mother whale to follow.

Without the slightest hesitation, the mother whale gently nudged her calf with her snout, telling it to stay close. Then, enduring the agonizing pain, she swept her tail fluke and struggled to follow the shadowy figure ahead, who seemed like the sovereign of the deep sea.

She did not know where this "Master" would take them, but so long as she and her child could live, anywhere would do.

Jingtian headed back toward the temporary cavern while devouring and recovering. Inwardly, he rapidly took stock:

Two rescues completed. Three adult Deep Sea Demon Whales brought into submission—sixty thousand years, fifty thousand years and wounded, seventy-five thousand years—along with one calf. Dan-Devour's group-killing and single-target elimination tactics thoroughly validated. My expenditure replenished, with a slight surplus.

Now it was time to return and organize this fledgling "Demon Whale squad," treat the severely wounded, and then... pay a visit to the final battlefield and that ill-tempered eighty-three-thousand-year Deep Sea Demon Whale, who should still be fighting desperately.

With these three Demon Whales—even if two were burdens—and a guide familiar with the routes, the efficiency and likelihood of success of the final rescue would improve greatly.

Piece by piece, he was illuminating and taking control of the deep sea's hunting grounds.

And on his face, the twin masks of "savior" and "hunter" had already become inseparable.