Vampiric Bloodletting!

"..."

"..."

"Little White, I wasn't seeing things, right?"

Haiming shook his head. He felt as though he was hallucinating. How could the content of the second trial be this twisted?!

Little White's pretty face was somewhat stiff as well. "What I'm wondering is, where did a school of Bloodrays come from in the Inland Ring Sea?"

Bloodrays were a notorious bully species in the ocean. Most traveled in schools of thirty to fifty, and adults were generally around thirty centimeters long.

Though they were not large, their innate abilities struck fear into countless Sea Soul Beasts and Sea Soul Masters.

Pressure resistance and bloodlust!

No matter what kind of pressure they faced or how harsh the marine environment became, Bloodrays would never feel fear. Like deranged madmen who had lost their minds, they would fixate on their prey. Even if that prey could kill them with a sneeze, it made no difference.

Their bloodlust was even more disgusting. Bloodrays could drain an enemy's blood through their teeth and their naturally formed tails. Their tails were also incredibly sharp and could pierce defenses, specifically countering Sea Soul Beasts and Sea Soul Masters with exceptionally tough bodies!

It could be said that Bloodray Sea Soul Beasts were detestable, while Bloodray Sea Soul Masters were terrifying!

"If my guess is right, Teacher must have gone to prepare them..."

Haiming suddenly remembered. Over the past few days, he had been adapting to his Divine Bone and had not paid attention to the second trial. Bo Saixi had not disturbed him either. Instead, she had unusually sent Sea Dragon and the others away from Sea God Island for some unknown purpose. Thinking about it now, they had most likely gone to prepare the Bloodrays for this trial!

"Whether that's true or not, we'll know once we return to Sea God's Mountain."

Haiming sighed. If his guess was correct, this trial would not be easy to pass.

At the foot of Sea God's Mountain, on the clearing where Haiming had lived for several years, Bo Saixi stood calmly by the shore. Her gaze was deep and filled with kindness.

But in Haiming's eyes, she looked like an "evil ghost"!

"Teacher... Are you saying that for my second trial, not only do I have to cross the Ring Sea while under attack from the Bloodrays, I can't even use any Soul Skills?"

Haiming's expression darkened. He had originally planned to rely on Sacred Barrier. No matter how powerful the Bloodrays' defense-piercing attacks were, surely they would not remain so terrifying after passing through Sacred Barrier. But now that his Soul Skills had been sealed, he could only cross the Ring Sea with his body!

"Why not try it first? This batch of Bloodrays Sea Dragon caught are all little ones with great potential."

Seeing that Bo Saixi did not seem to be joking, Haiming gritted his teeth, removed his shirt, and stepped into the waters of the Ring Sea.

The sea surface in the distance was perfectly calm. Bo Saixi had already used her Soul Power to clear out an empty area within the Ring Sea. In the waters before Haiming, only one species remained—the Bloodrays!

"Let's do this!"

Haiming drew a deep breath and shot into the sea like a fish. The icy water made him shudder, but something even more terrifying awaited him!

Like boiling water bubbling furiously, the once-calm sea surface began to churn with waves. Haiming felt a sharp pain. Looking down, he saw that three Bloodrays, each around twenty centimeters long, had latched onto his chest!

Their distinctive mouthparts and invincible tails fastened them tightly to Haiming's body.

Haiming endured the pain and grabbed one in each hand, forcibly tearing them away from his body. Chunks of flesh ripped open, blood flowed backward, and crimson flowers bloomed across the surface of the sea!

Damn!

The seawater touched his wounds. Before Haiming could even feel the pain in his chest, stabbing pain came from his legs as well. When he turned around, he found that dozens of Bloodrays had already targeted him!

"I can't keep wasting time fighting them here!"

Although he knew the Sea God Trial could not possibly be passed in one attempt, Haiming still wanted to see where his limits lay on this first try.

Unable to use Soul Skills, Haiming had no way to harm the Bloodrays attacking him apart from relying on his physical strength. Yet in the sea, he could not fully unleash that strength. He could only let the Bloodrays cling to his body as he carried them toward the opposite shore.

After swimming less than a hundred meters, Haiming began to feel dizzy and weak. His vision blurred, his limbs went limp, and all strength drained from his body.

"D-Damn it... Have I... lost too much blood?"

Haiming stubbornly kept moving his arms, but he could not change the fact that his body had stiffened and was gradually sinking toward the seabed!

Ssh!

A beam of blue light fell upon Haiming. He felt a wave of warmth and slowly closed his eyes without realizing it. The Bloodrays attached to him scattered as if they had encountered their natural enemy, staring unwillingly at Haiming as he sank toward the ocean floor.

When Haiming opened his eyes again, he saw Little White wrapping bandages around him, with Bo Saixi standing beside him.

"Teacher, it seems the time for this trial will probably be spent recovering, right?"

Feeling the emptiness within his body, Haiming forced out a smile. Bo Saixi answered with a nod.

"Ah, does the Sea God really need to be this ruthless just to make me shed my mortal blood? I could have just bled myself. Why did there have to be a Bloodray trial?"

Having experienced the limits of Sea God's Light, Haiming understood the key point of this trial not long after the Bloodrays drained his blood.

A blood exchange!

His mortal blood would be replaced with Divine Blood created by the marrow of his Divine Bone!

[Stop complaining. Do you think Divine Blood is so easily produced?]

Kyogre's somewhat weary voice sounded in Haiming's mind. It seemed to be swimming excitedly through his sea of consciousness.

[Unless you are at death's door, seriously injured, and your body lacks enough blood, the Divine Bone will not produce Divine Blood. Even if it does, it will only produce a tiny amount. So if you want to replace all the blood in your body, you have plenty of suffering ahead of you.]

Listening to Kyogre's undisguised teasing, Haiming could only marvel. Was this the intelligence of an ancient divine beast?

How long had it been? It had gone from being a simpleton who only knew how to clash head-on like Groudon to its current state.

"Kyogre, you're saying that next will be the Divine Body and the Divine Soul, aren't you..."

After thinking through Sea God's Nine Trials from the original story, Haiming's mouth twitched. If he remembered correctly, the next trial seemed to be Tidal Body Tempering!

If he passed the second trial, the only things left to transform would be his body's muscles and his soul.

And Tidal Body Tempering...

That thing was the best—and most brutal—way to train the body!