Sea God's Secret

The moment the thought arose in Yun Chen's mind, a flash of light and shadow flickered before his eyes. When he opened them again, he was already in his room. His posture, however, was rather awkward—he was sprawled flat on the floor without an ounce of dignity.

"Ugh... that hurts..."

Yun Chen rubbed his head. The pain in his body was secondary; the stabbing aches in his mind were what kept coming back.

"What happened? That just now should have been my spiritual sea."

"Wait... how could my spiritual sea possibly be that vast?"

After all, when Yun Chen looked out over it, he hadn't been able to see its end. How was that possible?

Yun Chen closed his eyes. With a thought, his whole consciousness sank into his spiritual sea again. This time, entering it was much smoother. Only the phantom of the Sea God's Heart still floated quietly above the sea of his mind.

Yun Chen tried to explore the size of his spiritual sea. His consciousness instantly spread in every direction, after which he let out a small breath.

'The spiritual sea covers a huge area... uh... probably...'

Yun Chen found himself at a loss for words. He only knew that his spiritual sea was fairly large, but he truly couldn't think of a specific way to describe it. After all, during the era of the first Soul Land, there were no mental-power testing devices or classifications of mental-power realms like there were in the era of the third Soul Land, so there was naturally no way to put it into words.

"Looks like the Sea God's Heart even threw in a mental-power enhancement package for me. Not bad."

If Yun Chen had known that the Sea God's Heart had directly raised his mental-power realm to the level of a Soul Ancestor, he would have been even more shocked.

Now, Yun Chen turned his attention to the Sea God's Heart floating quietly before him.

Yun Chen tried to touch it, but his hand passed straight through.

"This is an illusion..."

His mind sank into stillness once more. When Yun Chen opened his eyes again, his gaze fell upon the Sea God's Heart resting quietly on the table.

The Sea God's Heart from before had merely been a phantom. This one was the real thing.

Yun Chen placed his hand on it again. A feeling of perfect harmony instantly flooded his entire body, and the four skills and all the information of the Vast Sea Cosmic Shroud poured into his mind.

"Vast Sea Bodyguard Shroud, Cosmos Spirit-Calming Shroud, Vast Sea Raging Waves, Cosmos Demonbreaker."

Yun Chen smacked his lips as he looked over those skills, nearly drooling.

"The Sea God sure is generous. Holy shit, out of the gods currently available, the Sea God is definitely the most generous."

"The Angel God had vanished God knew where, and the Rakshasa God wasn't even worth mentioning. That thing was nothing but a complete trap."

"As for the Shura God, just look at Tang Chen. If Tang San had gone there early on, he probably would've been finished too."

"Still, based on the analyses from those netizens in my previous life, the Shura God's relationship with Tang San seemed pretty unusual. Heh heh... interesting..."

"But back to the Sea God—just the skills granted by this inheritance token alone are worth more than two hundred-thousand-year soul bones."

Yun Chen placed his hand on the Sea God's Heart and tried to activate it with his soul power.

"Vast Sea Bodyguard Shroud!"

In an instant, a blue-gold barrier enveloped Yun Chen's entire body, isolating him from everything outside. It was like one-way glass: Yun Chen could see outside, but those outside couldn't see in.

The original novel's explanation of the Vast Sea Bodyguard Shroud's abilities was even more absurd.

Yet the very next second, the barrier shattered with a bang, turning into specks of starlight that merged into Yun Chen's body. Yun Chen, meanwhile, collapsed to the floor with a thud, his face frighteningly pale, looking like he was just short of foaming at the mouth.

"I... holy shit... I forgot my soul power is only... Rank Fourteen..."

With the last of his strength, Yun Chen crawled back onto the bed. Even that small effort nearly drained him completely. Breathing heavily, he no longer wanted to think about anything. He had only one thought now: sleep.

Gradually, Yun Chen drifted off into dreams.

But Qian Renxue, on the other hand, could not sleep.

She sat at her desk, writing furiously by candlelight.

This letter was to be sent to Spirit Hall's Hall of the Pope and Hall of Worship.

After writing for a long while, Qian Renxue let out a long breath and slowly put down her pen.

Her exquisite face looked somewhat weary at the moment. Irritably rubbing her brow, she flung the pen from her hand and leaned sharply back against the chair, falling into deep thought.

First was the matter of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect. What the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect had done today had enraged Qian Renxue. They had actually dared to attack Yun Chen—something Qian Renxue simply could not accept.

"Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect... you're courting death..."

"Don't think this matter will just be let go. It's time to turn up the heat on the Soul Hunt Operation as well."

Qian Renxue murmured those words. Her expression grew calmer and calmer, but the icy coldness in her eyes could not be erased.

In the letter she had just written, Qian Renxue had not only agreed to the Soul Hunt Operation plan Bibi Dong had proposed before, but had also added fuel to it.

The contents were as follows.

"I believe the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect's strength far exceeds our expectations, and they possess enormous wealth. After the Clear Sky Sect went into seclusion, they practically became the number one sect under heaven. Their influence and resources are simply unimaginable."

"Furthermore, Ning Fengzhi constantly shifts from side to side. He will truly become the greatest obstacle to Spirit Hall's unification of the world."

"Therefore, to be safe, I propose that while the original plan is carried out, two more worship elder should be added to the operation."

"The two I recommend are Azure Luan Douluo and Lion Douluo."

Those two titled Douluo made for quite an interesting pair. Lion Douluo was responsible for raw destructive force, while Azure Luan Douluo made sure no one could escape.

The Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect was about to suffer badly.

Qian Renxue rubbed her brow again. What irritated her most was not the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, but the secret hidden within the Xue family. It left her with lingering fear.

If she had truly carried out the plan to usurp the nation and forcibly taken over the empire in the end, would Xue Ye have simply dragged her down with him in an explosion?

"The Xue family... is actually connected to the Sea God..."

Qian Renxue's expression turned somewhat strange as she murmured to herself.

When Xue Ye had pulled Qian Renxue aside for a talk today, he had emphasized only one thing: their Xue family was far more than it appeared on the surface.

Qian Renxue should have realized it long ago.

How could such a weak and declining Xue family have held firmly onto the throne of the Heaven Dou Empire without something to rely on?

"The Xue family is actually the Sea God's representative on land? No wonder... Xue Ye could unleash that kind of power."

"But... isn't this representative a little too weak? An eight-ringed representative? This Sea God..."

Qian Renxue did not know how to judge it. She was rather speechless, though she had actually misunderstood the Sea God. Back then, the Sea God had merely bestowed a strand of power to ensure that the Xue family could survive.

After all, the Sea God had been willing to protect the Xue family and make them her representatives so that they could seek out someone destined for her and hand over the Heart of the Ocean. Yet over the past several thousand years, none of those who had obtained the Sea God's Heart had truly satisfied the Sea God.

At the same time, over those countless years, the Xue family had used this power more than once. By now, it had finally been completely exhausted.

It was not that Xue Ye was generous enough to waste such power on a single genius. The main reason was that even if it went unused, the power would dissipate in another five or six years.

The Xue family was simply too weak. There was nothing they could do. This power originally required a Title Douluo-level expert to nourish it in order to restore some of it, but asking someone with a swan martial soul to become a Title Douluo was perhaps asking a bit too much.

Things had been fine at first, when the Xue family still had Title Douluos. In the early days, it could still be managed. But the timespan was simply too long, and the Xue family's swan martial soul was truly in decline, causing the nurturing of the Sea God's power to become almost entirely futile.

Even now, Qian Renxue still remembered Xue Ye's final, helpless words.

"Qinghe, Father has failed you."

"Father was unable to become a Title Douluo, so in the end, I cannot continue this power. But fortunately, I have left you a potential Title Douluo. You must nurture him carefully, especially make sure he remains loyal to the imperial family."