The Damn Sea God and the Sea God's Son

Although more than half the pirates aboard had been knocked unconscious by the Deep Sea Demonic Whale King's pressure, the few who remained awake were all seasoned hands, each quicker than the last.

Those assigned to raise anchor raised anchor; those assigned to hoist sails hoisted sails. In less than half a minute, the entire ship switched from a standstill to full speed ahead.

Zi Zhenzhu's prow sliced through the sea, leaving a white wake behind it as it sped toward the Heaven Dou Empire.

Jiang Lan leaned over the stern rail, staring nervously at the enormous creature floating in the distance with its eyes closed.

The Deep Sea Demonic Whale King was still floating there obediently, its single eye tightly shut and its massive body rising and falling with the waves. It looked utterly harmless, nothing like a ruler of the sea that had lived for who knew how many tens of thousands of years.

"Doro, what do you think he'll do when he realizes we ran away?" Jiang Lan asked quietly.

Doro lay atop his head and answered just as softly, "He'll probably be very angry."

"How angry is very angry?"

"Angrier than Mama Bo Saixi when she finds out you snuck out."

Jiang Lan shuddered and quietly pulled his head back behind the rail.

Just as Zi Zhenzhu sailed about a nautical mile away, a faint blue glow suddenly spread across the sea.

The blue light extended from beneath the ship, silently enveloping the entire vessel. Then, its speed suddenly surged.

It wasn't the sea wind pushing the sails. The entire sea was pushing the ship forward.

The spray at the prow turned from white to blue, while the wake behind the stern stretched into a long ribbon of blue light.

The bearded man stood before the helm with his mouth wide enough to fit a coconut inside. He had lived for so many years and seen favorable winds and favorable currents, but he had never seen the entire sea make way for a single ship. The ship was moving at an absurd speed, yet it was unbelievably stable. Even the wine cups on deck did not tremble.

"W-what is this?" a young pirate stammered.

"Shut up! Steer the ship!" Though the bearded man had no idea what was happening either, he knew that stopping to ask questions at a time like this meant there was something wrong with your brain.

Jiang Lan looked at the blue trail behind the stern, then lowered his gaze to his own hand.

That power had appeared again—the power that had helped him cleave out that trident strike earlier. It was warm, domineering, and carried a familiar salty tang. It felt as comfortable as being immersed in seawater. He knew who was helping him.

"Big brother?" Jiang Lan called out tentatively in his mind.

There was no response. But that power nudged the back of his head, as if saying, "Hurry up and leave. Don't look back."

Jiang Lan grinned, then turned and shouted at the helmsman, "Uncle! Faster!"

"This is already as fast as it can go! Any faster and the ship will fall apart!" The helmsman's voice was scattered by the sea wind.

Of course, the ship did not fall apart.

The blue light supported the hull from beneath, making it as light as a leaf as it raced across the sea at a speed that utterly defied the laws of physics.

Schools of fish along the way hurriedly made way. Several slow-reacting sunfish were sent flying by the prow, tumbling through the air several times before splashing back into the sea.

One shichen passed.

Two shichen passed.

Out on the sea, the Deep Sea Demonic Whale King finally began to feel that something was wrong.

That brat had said to wait half an hour, yet it had waited two shichen without a single sign of movement.

Charging up?

What kind of move needed two shichen to charge?

Even that man hadn't needed that long to charge up his ultimate move back then.

It wanted to open its eye and take a look, but then remembered that it had promised to wait with its eye closed. If it opened its eye now, wouldn't that give the little brat another hold over it?

It had already experienced that little brat's silver tongue. When the time came, he would just say, "You opened your eye, so the bet doesn't count," and it wouldn't even be able to argue back.

So the Deep Sea Demonic Whale King continued to keep its eye closed and waited another half a shichen.

Only when a sea breeze drifted over, carrying an extremely faint Sea God's aura that was rapidly moving away, did it suddenly realize something was wrong.

That aura wasn't in front of it.

It was behind it—and so far away that it was nearly beyond the range of its senses.

The Deep Sea Demonic Whale King abruptly opened its eye.

The sea before it was completely empty. There wasn't even a plank of wood in sight.

The ship flying the skull flag, the little lump of flesh in penguin clothes, and the white little ball that could turn into an orange had all vanished without a trace, as though they had never existed.

It had been tricked.

It had been tricked by a six-year-old brat with the excuse of charging up.

It had floated on the sea with its eye closed for two whole shichen, waiting like an idiot for someone to unleash an ultimate move, only to find that they had long since fled beyond the horizon.

And that old bastard Sea God had actually helped cover for his child while he escaped.

"SEA GOD!!!" The Deep Sea Demonic Whale King's roar exploded across the entire sea, its sound waves churning the surface into white spray. "YOU AND THAT LITTLE BRAT JOINED FORCES TO TOY WITH ME!!!"

Its enormous body rolled wildly across the sea, its tail slamming into the water and raising towering waves dozens of meters high.

A nearby deserted island was smashed in half by a single sweep of its tail, and shattered rocks rained into the sea.

A flock of passing seagulls was knocked from the sky by the sound waves, flapping desperately as they spun about in the water.

"What kind of bullshit Sea God! What kind of deity! You don't even have the courage to fight me head-on! All you know is how to hide in the shadows and secretly help your own son!" The Deep Sea Demonic Whale King was so furious that every scale on its body stood on end, its single eye bloodshot. "One old bastard ambushed me! One little bastard tricked me! Did your Sea God lineage specifically train in how to piss people off? From old to young, not one of you is any good!"

Its roars echoed over the empty sea, but no one answered.

No, someone did.

A streak of blue light descended from the sky and struck the Deep Sea Demonic Whale King squarely on the head.

It was not an attack. It was a single word.

A huge golden character formed from Sea God's divine power, glittering as it floated in the air.

"Idiot."

The Deep Sea Demonic Whale King stared blankly at that word, the pupil in its single eye shrinking to the size of a needlepoint.

The word hovered leisurely before it, flashing again and again, as if afraid it might not see clearly.

Then the character split apart, becoming two words.

"Idiot."

"Asshole."

The two golden words lined up side by side, with a considerate gap between them, as if saying:

Afraid you wouldn't understand, so I split it up and explained it for you.

The Deep Sea Demonic Whale King froze.

It had lived for who knew how many years. It had seen human civilization rise from tribes to empires, and soul beasts fall from overlords to prey.

It had believed there was nothing left in this world that could break its composure.

But it had been wrong.

Those two glittering golden words hurt more than that trident strike just now.

The pain was not in its body, but in its soul, its dignity, and the last shred of decency it possessed as a ruler of the sea.

"SEA—GOD—!!!"

This roar was no longer sound. It became a black pillar of light shooting into the sky.

The entire sea region boiled with its fury. Countless marine creatures floated to the surface belly-up, while a gash was torn through the clouds overhead.