Three Months in Vast Sea City!

In the days that followed, Huang Yun settled down in Vast Sea City.

He did not rush to leave. This coastal city had an atmosphere completely unlike that of inland towns—free, rough, unrestrained, with the salty, damp scent of sea breeze always lingering in the air.

He liked that sense of openness.

Every morning, he ran several laps through the dock district, loosening his body in the most basic way and feeling the changes brought about by the tempering of Whale Rubber.

He spent most of his days refining Whale Rubber at the inn. Every four or five days, he refined a pound, giving his body enough time to digest and absorb it. He was neither hasty nor impatient, progressing steadily.

Occasionally, he went to Vast Sea City's spirit fighting arena for a few matches.

The spirit fighting arena in Vast Sea City was different from those in Gengjin City and Suotuo City. More than half the matches here were held on the water.

There was an enormous deep pool at the center of the arena. Contestants fought in the water or atop its surface, making for extremely entertaining battles, and the spectator stands were always packed.

The first time Huang Yun stepped onto a water-surface arena, his opponent was a level fifty-eight Sea Soul Master whose Martial Soul was a Sawtooth Shark. He moved incredibly fast in water and attacked viciously. Relying on his home-field advantage, he tried to end the fight quickly from the start.

In the end, Huang Yun slapped a Raikiri onto the water's surface. The entire pool was instantly covered in blue-white arcs of electricity, and the Sawtooth Shark Soul Master floated to the surface, twitching all over with his eyes rolled back.

The entire process took less than three breaths.

Water conducted electricity.

His lightning-attribute soul skills gained exponentially greater range and power in water, while most Sea Soul Masters accustomed to fighting underwater were electrocuted unconscious before they even had time to react.

He fought several more matches afterward, all of them ending in instant kills without exception.

The shortest match took less than a breath from start to finish. He stood by the pool and casually flung an arc of electricity into the water; the Sea Soul Master on the other side had not even swum three meters before flipping belly-up.

"That's cheating!" someone shouted from below.

"A lightning-attribute Soul Master fighting a water battle? Isn't that fucking bullying?"

But rules were rules. There was no rule forbidding lightning attributes.

Huang Yun left after collecting his prize money after every match, never lingering for another fight. Over time, a legend began spreading through the arenas of Vast Sea City.

There was a masked lightning brat—never fight him in the water. If you ran into him, just surrender. At least you could save yourself a day's worth of dignity.

Huang Yun did not care in the slightest.

He fought at the spirit fighting arena purely to earn some pocket money and stretch his limbs. At the same time, he tested the performance of lightning-attribute Soul Power in different environments, confirming that the physical law of water conducting electricity was indeed correct.

Meanwhile, he was also purchasing Whale Rubber in large quantities throughout Vast Sea City.

Ten-Thousand-Year Whale Rubber was something one could only stumble upon by chance, but Thousand-Year Whale Rubber and Whale Rubber that was several hundred years old were not particularly rare in Vast Sea City.

Through several merchant guilds that had long dealt with sea hunters, he gradually purchased nearly a hundred pounds of Thousand-Year Whale Rubber and over ten pounds that were several thousand years old.

Though their age could not compare to that pure Ten-Thousand-Year Whale Rubber, they were more than enough for everyday nourishment and consolidation.

He sorted and stored the Whale Rubber according to age, cutting off a small piece to refine each day so that his body remained continuously nourished, improving slowly but steadily.

Time passed day by day like this.

Sea winds blew through the windows, and the tides rose and fell. Every day, Huang Yun repeated the same rhythm of refining, cultivating, occasionally fighting a spirit battle, and continuing his purchases.

Before he knew it, three months had slipped through his fingers.

That evening, Huang Yun sat cross-legged in his inn room and refined the last remaining portion of that piece of Ten-Thousand-Year Whale Rubber.

His eyes were closed as the Whale Rubber's energy slowly flowed through his body. Every inch of bone and muscle was being nourished, moisturized, and reinforced.

Once that warm current had completely fused into the depths of his flesh and blood, he slowly opened his eyes, a flash of electricity passing through the depths of his pupils.

Level fifty-seven.

Over three months, he had advanced from level fifty-six to level fifty-seven. The progress was not particularly fast, but it was solid.

After repeated tempering by the Whale Rubber, the meridians in his body had become broader and tougher. His Soul Power circulated more smoothly, laying an exceptionally firm foundation for his future push toward higher realms.

More importantly, the strength of his physical body had risen another level.

Although his Indestructible Vajra Body at minor mastery had not broken through to major mastery, it was already extremely stable. The golden sheen between his flesh, tendons, and bones had become increasingly restrained, and the force behind a punch was noticeably greater than before.

The absorption limit of the spirit rings in his body was also steadily broadening. At present, absorbing a forty-thousand-year soul beast for his sixth spirit ring posed no pressure at all. If he refined all his remaining Whale Rubber, he might even reach the threshold of fifty thousand years.

"Three months. It's time to go."

Huang Yun packed his luggage, paid for his room, and walked out of the inn.

Vast Sea City was still lively and prosperous. People flowed back and forth along the docks, while seabirds circled and cried between the masts.

Standing at the city gates, he looked back one final time at the deep blue sea in the distance. Then he spread his wings and shot into the sky, flying toward the inland.

While flying, something he had forgotten for a long time suddenly flashed through his mind.

The Vast Sea Cosmic Shroud.

In other words, the Heart of the Sea God.

He was a transmigrator, so naturally he knew about it.

He had forgotten it before and only remembered it now.

The Treasury of the Heaven Dou Empire held a priceless treasure called the Vast Sea Cosmic Shroud. Its entire body was azure and translucent, its interior seemingly containing a vast, flowing sea. It was something the empire's founding emperor had obtained by chance, passed down through the generations until it became one of the Heaven Dou Empire's treasures of state.

But Xue Ye did not know what use this thing truly had. He only knew it was valuable, not what it really was, and treated it as an ornamental treasure locked away deep within the Treasury.

In the original novel, the Vast Sea Cosmic Shroud was the core token passed down on Sea God Island. Whoever possessed it was qualified to inherit the Sea God Divine Position.

The reason Tang San was able to become the Sea God later was that this thing was an indispensable part of it.

If he took the Vast Sea Cosmic Shroud away, could Tang San still become a god?

Huang Yun changed direction in midair and flew toward Heaven Dou City.

"Whether he can or not, it will only gather dust in the Treasury anyway. I might as well put it to use."

He was incredibly fast. The wind howled past his ears as the mountains and rivers below rapidly receded.

He had already begun planning the specifics. The Heaven Dou Empire's Treasury was heavily guarded, that was true, but with his current speed, coupled with Teleportation and the sensory abilities of Lightning Falcon Eyes, he had at least a ninety percent chance of sneaking in and taking one item.

Besides, he was not unfamiliar with the layout of Heaven Dou City.

Three months earlier, he had stayed in Heaven Dou City for a time and had an impression of the city's structure and the general location of the imperial palace.

Though he had never personally seen the Treasury's location, travel journals and folk legends suggested that it was likely within a separate cluster of buildings on the eastern side of the imperial palace.

This time, he was going to take a trip inside the Heaven Dou Empire's imperial palace.

By the time night fell, the outline of Heaven Dou City had appeared on the distant horizon.

Huang Yun hovered high in the sky for a while, looking down at the brilliantly lit imperial capital below. The corners of his mouth curved faintly upward.

"A vital Treasury?"

"A treasure of state?"

"I'm taking this thing."