When Jingtian returned to the temporary cavern with the mother whale, battered but her eyes full of awe and gratitude, and the calf following close behind, both frightened of him and curious about him, the sixty-thousand-year Demon Whale inside immediately released a soul hum mingling surprise, joy, and worry. It glanced cautiously at Jingtian, then at its newly arrived companions. Seeing the wounds on the mother whale that ran deep enough to expose bone, its eyes revealed a trace of sympathy born of shared suffering.
Jingtian wasted no time on pointless exchanges. He settled the mother and calf in a relatively dry area on the other side of the cavern, then once again released pure, quiescent energy through his Ninth Tentacle to treat the mother's worst wounds. At the same time, he diverted a strand of gentle energy to nourish the calf's frightened soul. The calf initially shrank back, but soothed by its mother and enveloped in that warm energy, it gradually calmed down. It even began curiously touching the tip of Jingtian's tentacle with its tender snout.
At the sight, the sixty-thousand-year Demon Whale also gathered its courage and sent over a thought fluctuation filled with gratitude and inquiry, apparently asking about its mate.
"Alive. Recovering. Needs time." Jingtian replied briefly, then turned his attention to the cavern's interior.
The once empty, icy cavern now felt crowded and full of "life" with three enormous Deep Sea Demon Whales—two of them gravely wounded—and a calf occupying it. The sixty-thousand-year Demon Whale guarded its unconscious mate, while the seventy-thousand-year mother protected her calf. Though all were injured and their auras feeble, their almost instinctive dependence on and reverence for their "Master" after finding life in the jaws of death filled the entire space with a peculiar cohesion.
Jingtian sensed their conditions, calculating rapidly.
Fifty-thousand-year blue Demon Whale: worst injuries, damaged origin, kept alive by my energy. No combat capability in the short term, purely a drain on resources and a burden. But if saved, its future holds promise, and it is an important bargaining chip for controlling its mate, the sixty-thousand-year Demon Whale.
Sixty-thousand-year Demon Whale: relatively light injuries, heavy soul power expenditure, but some mobility restored. Extremely loyal because I saved its mate, and familiar with the surrounding waters. An excellent guide and basic combat asset.
Seventy-thousand-year mother whale: severe external injuries, excessive blood loss, depleted soul power, but a strong will to survive for her calf. With an energy supplement, she should recover relatively quickly. Equally high loyalty. The strongest combat asset currently available, once recovered.
Ten-thousand-year calf: no combat capability, promising potential. The mother's inviolable reverse scale, and the anchor binding her loyalty.
"Resources are limited. They must be used efficiently." Jingtian's cold thoughts reached a decision. He stopped continuously treating the mother whale, whose injuries had already stabilized, and focused most of his efforts on sustaining the fifty-thousand-year Demon Whale's life. At the same time, he began accelerating his consumption of the remaining life essence he had yet to fully digest after slaughtering the two squads, converting it into a more readily absorbed form of energy.
Then he did something that utterly stunned all three adult Demon Whales.
Controlling his Ninth Tentacle, he evenly injected the gentlest, purest life energy he had devoured and refined from his enemies into the three adult Demon Whales, as though portioning out a meal! The two gravely wounded whales received especially generous shares.
This was not treatment. This was feeding, an investment! He was using his enemies' flesh and blood to rapidly heal the injuries and restore the soul power of the fighting forces under his command!
"Hiss—"
"Ooh..."
The sixty-thousand-year Demon Whale and the mother whale simultaneously released low soul cries filled with disbelief, comfort, and gratitude. They could clearly feel streams of warm, powerful energy rapidly merging into their parched meridians and damaged bodies, repairing their injuries and replenishing their soul power. Even their souls, exhausted by prolonged flight and battle, received a measure of solace. To Soul Beasts, this direct bestowal of energy had a far greater impact than any words.
Even the unconscious fifty-thousand-year Demon Whale's aura seemed to grow imperceptibly more solid and stable.
The calf also drew closer, releasing faint, yearning cries. Jingtian diverted a strand of the purest, gentlest energy into its body, helping it grow and steadying its frightened emotions.
After all this, Jingtian had also expended considerable energy. He paid it no mind, immediately settling near the cavern entrance and entering a deep state of regulated breathing. At a terrifying speed, he devoured the dense free energy in the cavern's seawater, which had gathered naturally because of the congregation of several top-tier Soul Beasts, along with the undigested "reserves" inside his body, replenishing himself.
Time passed in silent, efficient recovery. Within the cavern, there were only the Demon Whales' steady breaths—the sound of flowing water—and the occasional contented gurgle from the calf.
About four hours later.
Jingtian was the first to open his eyes. His aura had already returned to its peak. Through successive intense battles, devouring, using Dan-Devour, and exercising finer control over his own power, his cultivation had even shown a faint further improvement, steadily advancing toward more than ninety thousand years.
He sensed the cavern's interior.
The sixty-thousand-year Demon Whale had recovered best. Most of its injuries had healed, and roughly half its soul power had returned. A keen light flashed in its eyes; it already possessed considerable fighting strength. Its gaze toward Jingtian held an almost fanatical loyalty.
Under the combined effects of the energy and her own vitality, the seventy-thousand-year mother whale's external wounds had scabbed over, her bleeding had stopped, and roughly thirty percent of her soul power had recovered. Though still weak, she could move freely. Fighting for even a short time might be difficult, but following on a long journey posed no problem. Her gaze toward Jingtian held profound maternal gratitude amid its reverence.
The fifty-thousand-year Demon Whale remained unconscious, but its life aura was far steadier than before. Its wounds showed signs of slowly healing, and it was no longer in danger of dying at any moment. Still, waking and recovering its fighting strength would require vast resources and a long time.
Nourished by its mother and Jingtian's energy, the calf had regained its liveliness. It was even a little less afraid of Jingtian and a little more affectionate toward him, swimming curiously around its mother.
It was time.
Jingtian's thoughts swept through the three adult Demon Whales' consciousnesses like a cold tide.
"The last location. The Abyss Stairs. Your companion, eighty-three thousand years old, is surrounded."
He transmitted the vague information and location of the final battlefield from Mo Yuan's intelligence, then looked at the sixty-thousand-year Demon Whale. "Route. Fastest. Safest."
The sixty-thousand-year Demon Whale nodded its enormous head. A trace of solemnity flashed through its eyes, but above all there was absolute obedience to its "Master's" command. Once again, it transmitted a series of complex route details through soul fluctuations. This journey was farther—two thousand li—and the route more complicated. They would have to skirt the territories of several known powerful Sea Soul Beasts and even pass through an unstable undersea seismic zone.
"That one stays. Guard her," Jingtian ordered the sixty-thousand-year Demon Whale, pointing at the fifty-thousand-year Demon Whale. Then he looked at the mother. "You follow. Bring the child." Bringing the calf was certainly a burden, but it also ensured that the mother would exert her greatest fighting strength without a second thought of disloyalty. Besides, under certain circumstances, such as needing to enter a narrow area, the calf might prove unexpectedly useful.
Although the sixty-thousand-year Demon Whale worried about its mate, it released a fluctuation of obedience without hesitation, carefully nuzzled its unconscious mate with its head, then resolutely swam to the entrance to await orders.
The mother whale immediately gathered her calf close with her body and released a soul cry indicating she was ready to depart at any moment.
"Go."
Without any further rallying words, Jingtian's enormous body slid out of the cavern first, activating Guixu Assimilation once again. This time, however, he did not conceal himself completely. Instead, he released a gentle spirit energy field carrying a sense of guidance and protection, faintly enveloping the three Demon Whales behind him—the sixty-thousand-year whale, the seventy-thousand-year mother, and the calf. To some extent, this helped them coordinate their speed, reduce resistance from the water, and conceal part of their auras.
Led by the sixty-thousand-year Demon Whale, the party sped toward the Abyss Stairs like a silent, swift ghost fleet in the deep sea.
This time, he was no longer alone.
Behind him were the Demon Whale fangs beginning to take shape, filled with gratitude and reverence for him.
Their objective was to rescue the final fang, also the strongest one currently available, and fully consolidate this hastily assembled deep-sea force, battered yet brimming with potential, firmly within his grasp.
The boundaries of the deep-sea hunting grounds were quietly expanding with the movement of this little "whale pod."
And the nightmare of Sea God Island and the Demon Soul Great White Sharks, perhaps, had only just begun.
Before you continue