Level 93 Black Bird Douluo Yan Yu? Sea Dragon Douluo in a Panic! The Star Luo Empire, at Last!

Sea Dragon Douluo slumped in a corner of the deck, staring at the unfamiliar steel vessel with a heart full of bitterness.

His Soul Power was sealed. They held all the cards, and he was at their mercy.

Just then, a tall, slender figure blocked his view.

Sea Dragon Douluo instinctively looked up.

Standing before him was a young man who looked to be around thirty.

He wore a dark teal robe. His features were handsome, his bearing refined, yet he gave off an indescribable air of cool aloofness.

Unlike Wei Kurong, the young man wasn't surrounded by nauseating poisonous fumes. Nor did he carry the arrogant, overbearing air of Xu Yu.

He simply stood there in silence, yet somehow made people feel as though they were gazing up at a towering mountain.

"Don't shout, and don't try to break the seal."

The young man's voice was soft and gentle, like a misty rain in Jiangnan, yet it carried unquestionable authority.

"The Heir Prince spared your life for a reason.

As long as you behave yourself, we won't do anything to you."

Sea Dragon Douluo swallowed. His instincts as a Titled Douluo told him that this seemingly young man was extremely dangerous!

The Soul Power fluctuations he kept hidden were unfathomable, even... a little stronger than Princess Consort Kong Yan, who had just broken through to Level 92!

"W-who are you?"

Sea Dragon Douluo asked hoarsely.

The young man glanced at him indifferently, then casually drew a handkerchief from his sleeve and gently wiped a spotless section of the railing. He spoke as if the matter were of no importance.

"Yan Yu, Black Bird Douluo of the Great Sun Prince Mansion."

As his voice fell,

the phantom image of a divine bird appeared behind him for an instant. Its body was pitch-black, and its wings shimmered with a deep blue-green light.

It was a Black Bird!

An ancient divine beast bloodline—the Black Bird of destiny!

Though it appeared for only a moment, Sea Dragon Douluo clearly sensed its aura.

Level 93!

This was a Level 93 Titled Douluo!

Sea Dragon Douluo's pupils trembled violently as a tempest raged within him.

Among the Great Sun Prince Mansion's fleet,

there was the unfathomable Prince Xu Yu, the newly ascended Princess Consort Kong Yan, and the terrifying Poison Douluo Wei Kurong.

And then there was Lan Ya, who could bring the dead back to life...

And now, there was another Level 93 Titled Douluo who was so young?!

Judging by the young man's position and manner, he didn't seem to rank among the mansion's most powerful figures. He seemed more like... a household retainer.

In fact, Sea Dragon Douluo had guessed correctly.

At the top of the Great Sun Prince Mansion's power structure were Xu Zhao's family of three, the core of its imperial clan, as well as Wei Kurong and Lan Ya, two Grand Pontiffs whose status stood above the rest.

Beyond them were two figures jokingly referred to as "ordinary Titled Douluos."

The Level 93 Yan Yu, whose Martial Soul was the Black Bird, was one of them!

"Yan Yu... Black Bird..."

Sea Dragon Douluo murmured to himself. He searched through everything he knew about the powerful figures on the continent, yet couldn't find any mention of this man.

What sort of monstrous force was the Great Sun Prince Mansion? Where had it come from—some crack in the rocks?

Once he was sure that his life wasn't in immediate danger,

Sea Dragon Douluo forced down his fear and shock, then raised his head to regard Yan Yu with a complicated look.

He asked the question that had been circling in his mind, one he couldn't make sense of:

"Where... did you come from?"

"With a foundation this terrifying, and the ability to hunt the Evil Orca King with ease, you can't be some unknown faction."

"You're making such a grand journey toward the Star Luo Empire. What exactly are you planning to do?"

Faced with Sea Dragon Douluo's wary, probing questions, Yan Yu merely shook his head, a faint smile playing at the corner of his mouth.

"You're worrying too much."

Yan Yu put away his handkerchief and clasped his hands behind his back. His gaze turned toward the distant horizon, where sea met sky, and his voice remained calm.

"Though the Great Sun Prince Mansion can be overbearing, we're not ignorant of our limits.

"We have other business to attend to. We have no intention of making an enemy of Sea God Island, much less upsetting the balance of the sea."

At those words, the tension that had gripped Sea Dragon Douluo finally eased. The heavy stone in his heart fell away.

If the other side had said outright that they didn't want to make an enemy of Sea God Island, that meant they were still wary of it.

At that thought, Sea Dragon Douluo straightened his hunched back a little, and the pride he felt as a Sacred Pillar Guardian of Sea God Island returned to his face.

"Hmph. I knew you wouldn't dare!"

Sea Dragon Douluo snorted. His eyes shone with the smug satisfaction of someone throwing their weight around behind a stronger ally, and his voice grew louder.

"You may be powerful, and you may even possess a Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring, but if you dare lay a hand on me, the High Priestess won't stand by and do nothing!"

At the mention of the High Priestess, reverence filled Sea Dragon Douluo's eyes, as if she were his greatest source of confidence.

"Her Excellency, High Priestess Bo Saixi, is one of the three Peerless Douluos of this age—a Level 99 Limit Douluo, a Demigod!

"On these seas, she is invincible!

"If you anger her, you'll meet your end even if you flee to the ends of the earth!"

At the words "Level 99 Limit Douluo" and "Demigod," Yan Yu, who had remained calm until then, twitched at the corner of his eye.

A profound wariness flashed through his placid gaze.

It was the reverence one felt before the utmost pinnacle of power.

But the wariness was quickly replaced by something even more intense: an almost feverish longing.

As the second-youngest among the Great Sun Prince Mansion's Titled Douluos, Yan Yu was only a little over sixty.

To ordinary people, sixty was already old age.

But to a Titled Douluo, whose life span was long, he was still in the prime of his rise to power—truly young and strong.

Back then, he had been no more than a wandering cultivator. Though exceptionally gifted, he had run into obstacle after obstacle for lack of connections.

He'd had to risk his life just to seize the smallest share of cultivation resources.

Then he'd met people from the Great Sun Prince Mansion.

Seeking protection and coveting the mansion's enviable cultivation resources, he had joined without hesitation, becoming one of its guest retainers.

The Great Sun Prince Mansion had treated him well.

With the mansion's terrifying resources behind him, his cultivation had advanced by leaps and bounds.

He had not only broken through Level 90 before the age of sixty and become a Titled Douluo.

What had truly made him unwaveringly loyal was what happened in the year he reached Level 90. The mansion had sent several powerful figures—

and Prince Xu Yu himself had led the expedition into the heart of a Soul Beast forest to hunt a hundred-thousand-year Soul Beast for him!

That was his ninth Soul Ring.

A genuine red Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring!

It was because of that Soul Ring that, with Level 93 Soul Power, he could unleash strength far beyond that of others at the same level and secure his place as one of the mansion's honored retainers.

"A Demigod..."

Yan Yu murmured, his fingers unconsciously rubbing the Black Bird pattern on his cuff.

If the Prince could help him hunt a Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring, and help the Princess Consort break through several levels in an instant,

then under the leadership of that unfathomable Prince, might he one day have the chance to glimpse the legendary realm of Demigods?

After all, he had Innate Full Soul Power too!

At the thought, the longing in Yan Yu's eyes grew even stronger, and Sea Dragon Douluo's bluster mattered even less to him.

He merely glanced at Sea Dragon Douluo, neither arguing nor agreeing.

Then he turned and walked to the other side of the deck, continuing to admire the sea as if their conversation had never happened.

The sea wind howled as the giant vessel cut through the waves.

Time passed second by second.

Sea Dragon Douluo had thought that invoking Bo Saixi's name would make them release him. Before long, though, he realized something was wrong.

The group kept saying they didn't want to make an enemy of Sea God Island, and they'd shown wariness toward the Grand Pontiff, yet their actions hadn't changed at all.

The fleet was still racing ahead at full speed, moving farther from Sea God Island and closer to the mainland.

And he was still lying on the deck like a cripple, ignored by everyone, with no one loosening his restraints or lifting the seal.

Being ignored and imprisoned in uncertainty made Sea Dragon Douluo's anxiety grow exponentially.

At last, after quite some time had passed, Sea Dragon Douluo could no longer hold back.

Struggling, Sea Dragon Douluo sat upright in the corner and shouted toward Yan Yu, who stood not far away:

"Hey! What are you people planning?!"

"If you don't want to make an enemy of Sea God Island, why are you still holding me?

"When are you going to let me go?!"

Just then, Xu Zhao was staring at the coastline growing larger in the distance.

The Star Luo Empire was here!