Hunter in the Stone

A hundred years of cultivation had brought not only an increase in Soul Power, but comprehensive improvement in every aspect.

Jingtian's body had grown from the size of a washbasin to nearly that of a small round table. His eight tentacles had become thicker and stronger, their suckers capable of anchoring him firmly to reefs battered by swift currents. The most noticeable change was his camouflage ability—he could now conceal his dark-blue rings in dim surroundings and slowly adjust his skin color and texture according to the environment, imitating reefs, sandy ground, and even certain dull-colored corals.

This gave him exceptional camouflage.

"Hunter in the Stone"—that was the tone Jingtian had set for this new stage of his life. He would abandon unrealistic challenges against stronger foes and return to the most reliable method of hunting and accumulation. Camouflage was the most important part of his hunting plan.

His targets were soul beasts with Soul Power between one hundred and fifty and two hundred years, relatively low intelligence, and habits of remaining within fixed territories. Such targets were ideal for ambushes.

For his first target, he chose a Rot-Bone Pufferfish that wandered around the outskirts of the Shipwreck Graveyard to the northeast. This soul beast had around one hundred and eighty years of cultivation. It was bloated, slow-swimming, and covered in poisonous bone spines along its back. It liked weaving through shipwreck remains, gnawing at fungi and worms clinging to rotten wood. Its poisonous spines were highly threatening to close-combat soul beasts, but it reacted slowly and was almost completely wary of static objects.

Jingtian arrived at the outskirts of the Shipwreck Graveyard three days in advance. Rather than rashly approaching the area where the Pufferfish frequently appeared, he selected an inconspicuous black reef, half-buried in the sand, on a patch of open seabed downstream where the current was relatively gentle.

He spent an entire day slowly adjusting his body shape, color, and even surface texture. His tentacles curled beneath him, while his body surface recreated the roughness of a reef weathered by seawater, along with mottled moss-like patches clinging to it. He perfectly "became" part of that reef, even suppressing his aura until it was almost nonexistent. Only the core fluctuations of life and the Soul Power contained within remained still.

He lay in wait like that, as motionless as a real reef, letting little fish and shrimp swim past him and letting faint currents carry away the silt on his body.

On the second day, he began observing. Sure enough, at a fixed time, the Rot-Bone Pufferfish slowly swam out from behind a large shipwreck along its usual route and began its daily "cleaning" work—scraping the growths off the ship's planks with its thick lips. Its route happened to pass roughly ten meters in front of Jingtian's disguised position.

Jingtian waited patiently.

On the third day, when the Rot-Bone Pufferfish once again swam along that route and was about to pass the optimal attack position, Jingtian moved.

He did not launch a sudden assault. Instead, he made an incredibly slow, nearly imperceptible adjustment. Beneath him, from the sand, the tip of an extremely slender, almost transparent tentacle that had long been lying in ambush emerged soundlessly from between the grains like the most agile venomous snake.

At its tip, a drop of dark-blue venom condensed to the utmost limit, nearly invisible, was ready to strike.

The Rot-Bone Pufferfish noticed nothing. Its fat body drifted leisurely through the water, drawing closer and closer to the "reef" Jingtian had disguised himself as.

Eight meters, five meters, three meters...

Now!

That slender tentacle suddenly trembled!

"Whoosh—!"

Amid a nearly inaudible sound of water breaking, the condensed drop of venom shot like an arrow from a bow, accurately flying toward a relatively soft fold of skin beneath the side of the Rot-Bone Pufferfish's body! No hard bone plates covered that spot. It was a weakness in its defenses.

The venom moved incredibly fast, arriving in the blink of an eye!

Only as the venom was about to strike did the Rot-Bone Pufferfish's sluggish senses catch that faint energy fluctuation and killing intent. Its bloated body jolted, the poisonous spines on its back instantly standing upright and emitting a warning gray glow as it tried to turn or launch its spines in attack.

But it was too slow.

"Pfft!"

A faint sound, like a bubble bursting.

The dark-blue drop hit its target precisely and instantly sank into the skin!

The Rot-Bone Pufferfish froze. The glow of its raised poisonous spines quickly dimmed. A trace of confusion first flashed through its dull little eyes, only to be replaced by endless terror and pain.

The neurotoxin had taken effect!

The poison spread through its blood vessels and nerves at an astonishing speed. The Rot-Bone Pufferfish's body began to convulse and twitch uncontrollably, while the color of its surface rapidly turned ashen. It tried to shriek, but its muscles no longer obeyed, and all it could force from its throat were hoarse, leaking gasps.

It wanted to flee, but its body was heavy as stone. It could only spin futilely in place, stirring up a cloud of murky water.

Jingtian continued maintaining his reef disguise without moving, merely observing his prey's reaction calmly. After repeated real battles and growth in cultivation, his venom had an extremely high lethality rate against hundred-year soul beasts, especially against types with less-than-exceptional defenses and slow reactions.

In less than twenty breaths, the Rot-Bone Pufferfish's struggles weakened, and its life aura dissipated as swiftly as a receding tide. At last, its belly turned upward and it slowly sank toward the seabed, leaving behind only faint twitches.

Only after the prey's Soul Power fluctuations had completely vanished and there was no unusual movement nearby did Jingtian drop his disguise. He swiftly swam over, cut away the core parts least corroded by venom—the Pufferfish's head and heart region, which contained the richest life essence and Soul Power—with his tentacles, then dragged them away and quickly left the Shipwreck Graveyard.

Back at his nest, he devoured and digested it.

The entire process was quiet, efficient, and deadly.

There was no earth-shaking battle, no perilous struggle.

There had only been a perfect ambush and a precise snipe.

This was the path Jingtian had chosen for himself: bringing camouflage and poison techniques to their very limits, becoming the deadliest assassin in the Deep Sea.

Having tasted success, Jingtian became increasingly adept at his subsequent hunts.

He disguised himself as a coral cluster and poisoned a Seven-Colored Dazzling Fish with one hundred and sixty years of Soul Power, one that liked nesting among coral crevices. This fish had excellent vision but a dull sense of smell, and it held no guard against stationary coral.

He disguised himself as a pile of inconspicuous gravel and waited beside a hollow lush with seaweed. There, he waited for a Saw-Tooth Shield Turtle with one hundred and ninety years of Soul Power to come searching for food. The Shield Turtle's defenses were astonishing, but the place where its neck extended and retracted was a weakness, and it was least alert while feeding. Jingtian patiently waited until it stretched out its neck to gnaw seaweed, then accurately fired venom into the folds on the side of its neck.

He even used the terrain to disguise himself as a blocking rock at the exit of a narrow crevice, trapping a Ghost-Shadow Barracuda with one hundred and seventy years of Soul Power that had been pursuing a smaller soul beast and had fled into the crack in panic. At close range, he sprayed venom straight into its face and finished it instantly.

Each successful hunt brought steady growth in cultivation. His Soul Power gradually rose from one hundred and twenty years to one hundred and fifty, then one hundred and eighty... steadily advancing toward two hundred years. The life essence gained from devouring different soul beasts also subtly strengthened his body. His tentacles became more powerful, his senses sharper, and his control over venom increasingly precise.

He even began trying to develop new uses for his venom: spraying it out in an extremely fine mist to create a small Poison Mist Zone. Though its power dropped after dilution, it could be used to drive away or disrupt enemies. He could also create Delayed Poison Sacs, injecting them into prey to erupt after a certain period of time as needed.

His hunting range also expanded slowly but steadily outward from his nest like ripples. The Shipwreck Graveyard, Coral Hills, Seaweed Hollow, Gravel Canyon... a "hunting map" personally drawn by him, marked with prey distributions and safe routes, gradually became clear in his mind.

He avoided every known area containing powerful auras. Like the most cunning predator, he operated only within his own "safe zone."

Of course, not every hunt went smoothly. He had encountered soul beasts with exceptionally sharp senses that nearly saw through his disguise, forcing him to attack early and endure a frantic chase and escape. He had also misjudged a prey's poison resistance, causing his venom to fail to take effect instantly and forcing him to strike again. That created some commotion and attracted unwanted attention, leaving him no choice but to abandon the prey and retreat quickly.

But overall, his "Hunter in the Stone" strategy had succeeded. It was safe, efficient, and sustainable.

As his cultivation neared two hundred years, Jingtian could feel some internal shackle loosening. His Soul Power became denser, and his perception of the surrounding environment grew clearer. He knew he was not far from his next obvious transformation.

And all of it was built upon steady accumulation.

That day, he had just finished digesting the essence of an Iron-Headed Lantern Fish with one hundred and ninety years of cultivation. His Soul Power was full, and he was in excellent condition. He left his nest, preparing to scout a new Reef Zone that he had not yet explored in detail.

The Reef Zone's terrain was complex, filled with jagged reefs that formed countless caves and crevices. It was an ideal habitat for many soul beasts that preferred hiding. Maintaining his reef disguise, Jingtian slowly moved among the rocks, his perception like invisible tentacles reaching into every shadowy corner.

He discovered quite a few soul beasts ranging from several decades to over a hundred years in cultivation, most of which posed no threat. Just as he was preparing to venture deeper into a cluster of reefs that appeared particularly dark and where the currents were strange, the edge of his perception suddenly caught an unusual fluctuation.

That fluctuation did not come from a soul beast, but from... signs of some kind of energy gathering. It was vague and weak, yet possessed a pure, stable quality utterly different from the scattered Soul Power he normally absorbed. It even had less violence and more balanced serenity than the ancient aura leaking from the crack near his nest.

Jingtian immediately stopped, raising his camouflage to its utmost limit as he focused all his perception in that direction.

The fluctuation came from inside a cave deep within the Reef Zone, one covered by a giant sea anemone. The cave entrance was narrow and concealed by the anemone's dangling tentacles. Unless one carefully sensed the flow of energy, it would be extremely difficult to discover.

What is this...? Jingtian's heart stirred. Such a stable energy convergence point often meant... a heavenly treasure? Or perhaps some soul beast was condensing a Soul Core?

Either possibility represented opportunity—and risk.

He cautiously drew closer, attaching himself to the rock wall above and beside the cave entrance like a real reef. His perception carefully penetrated through gaps between the sea anemone's tentacles and probed inward.

The cave was not large. At its center was a small patch of sand. Floating above the sand was a fist-sized pearl radiating a soft blue glow. The pure, stable energy fluctuation came from that pearl. Strands of water-element energy around it were slowly being drawn in and absorbed.

Below the pearl, on the sand, rested a Sea Star that was crystal-clear, as though carved from blue crystal! This Sea Star measured roughly half a meter across. Its five arms were spread wide as it faced the pearl overhead, guiding the energy emitted by the pearl into its body with every breath. Its Soul Power fluctuations had astonishingly reached around two hundred and thirty years!

A Blue Crystal Starfish! A rare soul beast with dual water and spiritual attributes. It possessed considerable intelligence and excelled at mental attacks and illusions. Its defenses were relatively weak, but its close-combat arms were quite powerful, and it had strong regenerative abilities.

It was clearly cultivating with the aid of that strange pearl!

Jingtian quickly weighed his options. Two hundred and thirty years of cultivation was far beyond his current level. The threat posed by the Blue Crystal Starfish's mental attacks was unknown. But it was currently cultivating, so its vigilance might be lowered. And that pearl was clearly no ordinary item—if he could seize it...

The risk was immense, but the rewards could be equally great.

Should he quietly retreat, or...

He remained disguised, clinging silently to the rock wall like a reef. His dark-blue rings blended into the surrounding stone beneath his camouflage, and his aura was suppressed to the utmost limit. Yet his tentacles had already quietly adjusted their angles, while deadly venom silently gathered within his body.

He observed. He waited. He waited for the moment most suitable for launching a fatal strike, the instant when his opponent was at her most relaxed.

The hidden reefs were dark, and the current was silent.

The Hunter in the Stone had set his sights on new prey.

And this time, his prey did not seem to be a fool without the power to fight back.