The Might of the Sea God

The Spirit Light Sanctuary should have counted as a holy land of the ancient elves.

Though more than five thousand years had passed, I could still see the sanctity and solemnity of this building.

Protected by powerful magical restrictions, the entire structure gave off an azure radiance.

Teacher Bradycond stepped forward, brought her hand close to the sanctuary, and began murmuring words under her breath.

The stone carvings at the gate then moved as if they had come alive. From two elven guards standing on either side, they turned into two elven guards each extending one hand, their palms pressed against each other.

Then Bradycond took out the jewel she had used outside among the seaweed and placed it at the center between the palms of the two elven guards on the stone carving.

Rumble, rumble, rumble—amid a thunderous roar, the sanctuary's great doors opened from the inside out.

After entering the sanctuary, I discovered that this place was completely different from the outside. The azure radiance outside the sanctuary seemed to have blocked off the seawater. Once we entered, it was like stepping into another world.

Outside was a shimmering undersea world of rippling water; inside the sanctuary was a dry ruin, with dust on the ground. Not even the seawater clinging to our bodies had been brought in. Even our hair had dried.

This truly was a miraculous sanctuary. The magical attainments of the ancient elves were unfathomably deep. I couldn't make sense of the magical principles behind this sanctuary at all.

The sanctuary was extremely large, probably comparable to Asura Palace's Silver Palace.

Overhead was an enormous dome built from white marble, and on both sides stood all kinds of stone carvings. There were female mages holding staffs and wearing magic robes, elven archers in cloaks and tight warrior attire, and elven swordsmen holding greatswords and wearing magnificent armor.

After we continued along the stone-paved path for nearly ten minutes, Teacher Bradycond finally led us into a great hall. The writing in the hall was not the Beast God Language used by the elves over in the Great Forest. Nor was it the human language used by the wood elves in Forest Song City of the Biheril Kingdom. Teacher Bradycond said this was the Ancient Elven Language, which very few elves used now; only a small number of elves over ten thousand years old understood this language.

This great hall was my destination: the Magic Guidance Hall.

There were several enormous stone carvings in the hall. Each one was human-shaped, but no faces or other parts had been carved onto them—only the outline of a person.

All kinds of lines were carved over those outlines. The lines coiled around the stone carvings; some wound from head to toe, while others looped around from the left and right sides of the body. Just looking at them made a person dizzy.

Teacher Bradycond said, "This is where you'll study. The water king-tier magic I learned is this stone carving, and beneath it are the chants that must be recited in conjunction with casting this magic. This magic requires you to understand the magical veins on the stone carving and then use it together with chanting. You'll have ten days to study here.

"If you can't learn it, you still can't stay any longer. We still have to go retrieve the sacred relic.

"As for studying the magic here, the rest of you don't even need to think about it. No matter how much you look, you won't have any reaction. I'll take you to search for treasure."

And so, I was left alone in this hall filled with stone carvings.

First, I found the stone carving Teacher had mentioned, the one engraved with the water king-tier magic Abyssal Eternity, and carefully observed the lines on it.

The entire stone carving was covered with fine lines, running from the top of the head to the left leg, then from the left leg to the left shoulder. The whole stone carving had already been filled to the brim with carved lines. I carved each route, one by one, into my memory, then compared them with the magical veins in my body.

During that period, I basically slept very little, and kept using the greatest willpower I had to memorize the tens of thousands of routes on the stone carving. In the end, I spent five days completing the entire magical-vein carving of this stone statue inside my mind. After having a proper sleep, I found another relatively intact stone carving and began studying it. This time, I had no idea what magic I was learning, so I could only leave it to luck.

The ten days passed very quickly. I had been immersed in the state of studying magic the whole time, until my teammates and Teacher Bradycond came back and found me.

"Dolin, how is it? How did your studies go? Can you cast Abyssal Eternity? If you haven't finished learning it, there's no time. I have to open the inner layer of the sanctuary as soon as possible and take away the sacred relic. Otherwise, once enough time passes, if the Sea People send experts or an army over, we won't be able to leave."

"Teacher, I've already learned it. We can go retrieve the sacred relic now."

"Good. Let's set out now."

We reached the interior of the sanctuary. In an altar, there was a treasured sword that looked as if it had been made from mercury.

The lower half of the sword was inserted into the stone platform, while the mercury-like substance on the upper half squirmed over the blade. It looked as though it were alive, seeming especially eerie.

Teacher was very direct. She told me to touch the treasured sword with my hand, then pull it out.

I hesitated a little. One glance at this treasured sword was enough to tell that touching it would probably cause some kind of problem.

"Don't worry. According to the records in the ancient texts, this sword is the sacred relic passed down among us elves from ancient times to the present, the Silver Flow Spirit Pivot. This sword has no edge and has never injured anyone. There are no records of what use it has, either. The records say that only the strongest elven mages of each generation who know no-chant magic are worthy of using it.

"I've held it before too, but there was no reaction. My hand passed through the hilt easily. That's why I asked you to come and try."

After listening to Teacher, I felt slightly more at ease. I gently reached out and gripped the hilt.

There was no golden light bursting forth, nor any shaking of heaven and earth. The mercury on the hilt passed straight through my palm the moment it touched my skin. I felt as though something had entered my body. It wandered chaotically through the magical veins in my body, roaming wantonly along my meridians.

I focused my mind, mobilized the magic power in my body to surround and block it, then squeezed it into my brain. Suddenly, an enormous amount of knowledge was transmitted into my knowledge bank.

The method for controlling the Silver Flow Spirit Pivot, as well as its uses, appeared one by one in my mind.

This was not a sword. It was more like a medium, a medium for controlling magic power.

Then I controlled that tiny point into my palm and reached out again to grasp the hilt. After the point of light touched the hilt, I gained the sensation of touch. Following the normal posture for drawing a sword, I pulled this medium out.

Seeing that I had succeeded, Teacher was also extremely happy, and reached out, wanting to take it.

Although I knew what the result would be, I still placed the sword in Teacher's hand. But the moment I let go, the sword passed through Teacher's palm like a puddle of water, fell to the ground, and turned into a pool of liquid.

"So it still can't be used?"

I reached out and touched the liquid on the ground. The instant I touched it, it turned back into the shape of a sword. This truly was a miraculous sword. There was no helping it; I could only carry it out myself.

After that, we prepared to withdraw. In this adventure, every one of my teammates had gained a lot.

Berion, Damon, and Gwen had all found many magic crystals and magic stones. If they took these gemstones outside and exchanged them for money, it would be enough for them to use until their next lives.

Clark and Niki collected many magic tools whose functions were unknown. Their exact uses would still have to be appraised after we got out.

Isolte seemed to have found a piece of clothing made from soft golden threads in one room as well. She said this garment had been placed somewhere that looked like it was meant for extremely valuable items. She didn't know the specifics either, but when she slashed it with the Azure Water Heart, it didn't leave even the slightest scratch. Its defensive power should be pretty good.

Everyone had basically obtained a considerable harvest. It truly was a good result.

Very soon, we reached the great doors of the Spirit Light Sanctuary. Outside the doors was azure seawater. Each of us cast a water-repelling scroll on ourselves and stepped into the sea.

The moment we walked out, we noticed something was wrong.

The blue dome of light shrouding the sky vanished.

More than fifty Sea People floated in the water. They were probably the Sea People patrol that had been out on duty earlier.

Swimming beside them were many sharks draped in scale armor. These sharks were all Crystalized Sharks tamed by the Sea People.

"This is a little troublesome. One look at these Sea People and you can tell they're planning to hold us here until their main force arrives to kill us."

"We can't drag this out. We need to return the way we came, quickly. Get to the Cangming. Block the enemies for me. I'll cast a spell to trap them."

Teacher Bradycond stepped to the very front, preparing to cast magic and face the Sea People overhead.

The Sea People had already made their move as well. The sharks beside them charged toward us.

"Don't shrink back. Go up and deal with those sharks."

Isolte charged at the very front. She drew the Azure Water Heart I had given her and unleashed Water Moon Slash at the sharks rushing in. Crescent-shaped sword lights flew toward the oncoming sharks. Bloody flowers burst open in the water.

Because Clark and Berion had no ranged attack methods, they chose to guard beside us and deal with the sharks that broke into the group.

Damon and I each cast our own spells.

I directly formed Water Arrow in the water, sending it over the sharks and flying toward the Sea People in the rear.

However, they were exceptionally nimble in the sea. Although Water Arrow was invisible in the water, the Sea People somehow sensed my attack and lightly dodged it.

Only two Sea People were careless enough to have their skin grazed by my Water Arrow. It did not cause lethal damage.

This was truly troublesome. In the water, the Sea People had a natural racial advantage.

My attack seemed to anger them, and a crowd of Sea People charged toward us.

They were extremely fast, even quicker than the sharks they raised. In the blink of an eye, they had broken through to right in front of us.

I swiftly drew my Meteor Sword and blocked the attack of the Sea Person clashing with me. He held a heavy trident. The moment it made contact with my weapon, white light lit up on the trident.

The instant I saw the white light, I knew things were bad. I tilted my head three inches to the right and dodged the beam attack by a hair's breadth. As expected, it was a magic tool.

I poured magic power into my feet and generated Ground Thorns beneath the Sea Person. It pierced straight through that Sea Person's chest in one strike. My heart pounded wildly. This was the first time I had ever encountered such a soul-shaking battle.

I looked around. Because she had charged at the very front, Isolte was surrounded by two Sea People attacking her, and there was also one Sea Person she had already slain.

Clark was dealing with two Sea People. Berion had just exchanged wounds with a Sea Person and was now being treated by Gwen. I had just been about to go help Isolte.

But then I heard Teacher's low murmur beside me. I immediately used a water tornado to pull Isolte back to our side.

Progenitor of the dark abyss, Diva, god who devours time! Dwell within my palm and bring down the tidal roar of the end! By the bonds of the abyss, tear apart time and space; the living and the dead shall all return to dust! Spiral vortex that nurtures darkness, seize the source of life from all things! Eternal contract, be forged in this moment, azure blade that annihilates the sea! Abyssal Eternity!

At that moment, a huge cubic barrier appeared where the Sea People had gathered above. Everything inside the cube was utterly motionless, as if being squeezed by something, and even the seawater within the cube looked as though it had been cut away from the ocean.

The moment Teacher used this spell, she collapsed to the ground. The roots of her hair also gradually began turning white. But it did not make all her hair white; only a small section near the roots had turned pale.

Isolte and I each took one of Teacher's arms and carried her as we ran toward the Cangming's location.

We sprinted all the way without resting in the middle. Soon, we reached the Cangming and then activated its invisibility function.

We set sail back along the route we had come from.

"At least we got through it without danger. I nearly died of fright just now. Those two Sea People I fought both had at least upper-tier strength. If two more had come, I definitely wouldn't have been able to beat them. Good thing Crimson Vortex's teacher was there. Mages really are amazing. I'm going to make my future child become a mage too."

"Clark, don't relax too early. We still haven't left the bottom of the sea. Save that kind of talk for when we're back on land. Right now, we still need to stay on guard."

I did not know whether people got talkative when they were tense, but aside from me controlling the ship, Clark, Niki, Berion, and Damon were all discussing what they had seen in the battle under the sea. Gewen was taking care of Teacher Bradycond and casting healing spells on her.

"Her condition was caused by exhausting the magic power in her body. Once we return to the surface, she'll be fine after resting for a few days."

Just then, we had just floated upward and left Lament Trench when I suddenly felt as if some light had swept over our ship.

Because we had already risen to a position two hundred meters below the sea surface, sunlight could already penetrate into the depths. I saw an astonishing scene.

A Sea Person with an octopus head and tentacles was holding a staff, and behind him followed at least a thousand Sea People, packed densely throughout the water. They had blocked the path back to the surface, sealing the entire sea area tightly.

Then he seemed to release sonar-like ripples. We on the ship heard human speech that was not very clear, somewhat intermittent.

"Elves, hand over your sacred artifact. I can still leave you with intact corpses and send you back to your homeland for burial."

"If you continue to resist, after killing you, I will hand the women's corpses to the Dolphin-People to ravage, and I will throw the men's corpses into the trench for the Crustacean-People to gnaw on."

"What do we do? There are so many Sea People. There's no way we can resist. Have we already been discovered?" Damon's face showed terror, and Gewen's face was full of sorrow as well.

Clark was worthy of being an old adventurer. He drew his precious sword and said, "We'll go out and fight them to the death. If we're going to die, we die like men."

I glanced at Isolte and gave her a reassuring look.

"Don't worry. Leave it to me. I hope you won't be afraid of me."

I walked out of the cabin alone and looked toward those Sea People. When they saw someone come out of the ship, they all looked at me.

Without saying much, I gripped the elven sacred artifact in my hand, the Silver Flow Spirit Pivot, and cast the magic I had just learned.

Abyssal Eternity!

It was different from the magic Teacher Bradycond had cast. Through the Silver Flow Spirit Pivot, my magic power absorbed the countless water elements around me into my body, infinitely amplifying my own magic power. In other words, if a person could grip this sword, they could continuously extract infinite magic power from the surrounding environment for their own use.

After I cast Abyssal Eternity, a magic barrier formed in front of my ship, stretching from the high sea surface down to the seabed, one hundred kilometers long and roughly ten kilometers wide.

I did not freeze them in place like Teacher Bradycond had. I continuously drew on the power of the surrounding water elements, then kept compressing everything inside the barrier.

The seawater inside the barrier turned into ice, then continuously shrank, gradually growing brighter as well. Then I felt that after the seawater inside the barrier had compressed to a certain degree, it was as if endless energy were squeezing against the barrier, about to burst open at any moment.

By then, the barrier had shrunk to the size of a basketball court, and a huge volume of seawater had flooded back into that space. I controlled the barrier and hurled it farther toward the center of the ocean.

In the end, I withdrew my magic power. All I saw was an enormous sphere of light at the center of the ocean. The sphere kept swelling, and any seawater that touched it evaporated in an instant. Then, like a nuclear bomb going off, a gigantic mushroom cloud rose from the sea.

I returned to the cabin, layered our ship with a great deal of protective magic, and told everyone to grab the handrails. I held Isolte tight with one arm and Bradycond with the other. Then I saw a massive shock wave surge through the water, shoving our ship toward the shore.

The huge waves formed a tsunami, more than ten meters high, slamming toward the coastline.

Everyone in the cabin clung tightly to all kinds of railings. Thankfully, the Cangming was a magical ship made by the elves, sturdy enough to withstand the water pressure several thousand meters beneath the sea.

If it had been an ordinary ship, it would definitely have fallen apart by now.

Amid that enormous tsunami, the waves slapped us up onto the shore.

Before the next wave could come crashing in, we hurried off the ship and advanced deeper inland.

No one said a word along the way. They were probably all frightened of me now.

Only I kept holding Isolte's hand and did not let go.