As though lightly tipsy after drinking, Tang San drifted into a momentary daze and felt himself arrive somewhere strange.
It was a bright, beautiful beach, with lush green mountains in the distance and dazzling sunlight.
Tang San himself lay on the clear, warm water, drifting with the waves.
In the distance, a Gray-Clothed Youth walked barefoot through the mountain woods, reciting a resonant verse.
His body relaxed without limit, yet an urgent warning sounded deep within his consciousness.
I mustn't do this! Danger...
For a moment, Tang San felt confused. He remembered his Eight Spider Lances piercing Ren Tao's body, creating a backflow of energy between them. Within the world of their consciousness, their thoughts seemed to have briefly connected as well.
Both had entered a state of intoxication, delight, even drunken euphoria. Their former hostility and murderous hatred had vanished, replaced by harmony and cheerful companionship.
"What potion have you fed me to bewitch me?"
Only when Tang San spoke did he realize how languid his voice sounded, without the slightest trace of hostility.
"Knowing water as life, with or against the current, all is one; boundless and unfathomable amid depths and shallows. The endless sea conceals its surging tides; the still abyss reveals fish and dragons."
Ren Tao turned his head amid the mountain woods, a smile at his lips and his eyes slanting toward Tang San. Yet the clear, ringing voice of his verse sounded within Tang San's heart. "Qingyang, I am the Still-Tide Lord. Don't you remember?"
"No! This is an illusion!"
Tang San snapped awake, bit hard into the tip of his tongue, and spat out a mist of blood.
"Pfft!"
As that mouthful of blood burst forth, the Wisdom Skull grew hot, and white light shot from his eyes. The "illusion" before him shattered abruptly. In its place appeared dense Blue Silver Emperor growth, filling heaven and earth and blocking his entire field of vision. Yet through the blue-and-gold gaps, another enormous gray-blue figure cast him a haughty, unbridled glance.
"It's the Deep Sea Demonic Whale King!"
A voice from outside reached his ears at the same time, and Tang San immediately recognized Ma Hongjun.
His mind regained its clarity, only to plunge into an icy chill.
Ren Tao remained tightly restrained by the Eight Spider Lances, just as before, while the Blue Silver Emperor's Entanglement had practically wrapped him into a rice dumpling. Yet Ren Tao's face was flushed and his eyes half closed. Rather than poisoned, he looked drunk.
But the giant whale figure filling the Myriad Phenomena of the Blue Silver Spirit Domain showed no hint of relaxation. Its eyes were blood-red. From the tips of the Blue Silver Grass, the ends of the Devouring Golden Threads, and the Eight Spider Lances came an immense, almost irresistible suction. It formed a vast energy vortex around Ren Tao, madly devouring Tang San's deadly poison and spiritual power while injecting a sense of excitement and bliss into his body.
Something seemed to be slowly disintegrating.
Compared with the loss of soul power and spiritual power, it was these invisible, minute substances breaking apart that truly made Tang San's heart pound with terror.
"Get away!"
Tang San roared, wrenching the Eight Spider Lances out of Ren Tao with all his strength. At the same time, he rolled sideways, trying to break his "connection" with Ren Tao.
"Bang!"
With Tang San's forceful roll and the force generated by the Eight Spider Lances bracing against the ground, both men were flung away together.
There was no other reason: the Blue Silver Grass had bound them too tightly. Even as Tang San recalled it with all his strength, some of it still linked their bodies.
But Tang San quickly used the support of the Eight Spider Lances to stand.
Ren Tao also swiftly merged with the phantom of the Deep Sea Demonic Whale King, abruptly seeming to vanish from Tang San's perception.
"Why such haste? You and I must walk together to the very end!"
Ren Tao's voice still carried a trace of sleepy mumbling, as though he had not fully emerged from his "drunken" state. His eyes, however, had already turned blood-red. "The Eight Spider Lances' poison and flavor are both excellent. This king will gladly accept them! Hahaha!"
As he spoke, eight spikes extended from behind the Deep Sea Demonic Whale King's phantom. Their tips trembled, flashing with blue-purple lightning like a spider rapidly weaving its web.
In an instant, thunder and lightning roared. The shadowed area beneath Myriad Phenomena's canopy suddenly became a thunder zone, filled everywhere with savage lightning and searing flames.
At that moment, Tang San glanced at his Eight Spider Lances. Their brilliant golden sheen had dimmed, and at their ends, the spikes and barbs that had pierced Ren Tao's body had all melted away!
So that was it...
Tang San instantly understood the whole sequence of events. Although the Eight Spider Lances had pierced Ren Tao's body, the Soul Garment had delayed them for a moment. Right then, the Deep Sea Demonic Whale King's phantom had manifested and blocked them, beginning a contest of Devour against Devour.
Moreover, unlike the poison carried by the Eight Spider Lances, the Deep Sea Demonic Whale King's phantom-or rather, the Evil Orca King Ren Tao's Devour skill-carried something akin to dopamine that induced excitement and joy. That was what had caused his hallucination, one that even the Purple Demon Eye could not immediately see through.
Because it was almost a part of his own emotions.
That flash of insight took no more than a blink, but by then, lightning and fire had already reached him. Tang San vanished from his original position, using Teleportation again to reach the edge of the battlefield.
"Knowing water as life, with or against the current, all is one."
This time, the verse rang out clearly and unmistakably. As his voice sounded, Ren Tao launched his first attack, Orca Shattering Fang Slash.
He was still barefoot, but his eyes had returned to a gentle blue-gray. Behind him, the Deep Sea Demonic Whale King's phantom receded along with the shadows of Myriad Phenomena.
With a clang, the Clear Sky Giant Hammer blocked the Orca Shattering Fang Slash, and Tang San was immediately sent flying backward.
Against the soul power of a level-95 Super Douluo, Tang San was still far inferior.
"Boundless and unfathomable amid depths and shallows."
Ren Tao moved as though strolling through a quiet courtyard. Without any apparent motion, blood-red crescent slashes flew casually from his body, ripping through the air with explosive cracks, repeatedly disrupting and cutting across Tang San's Teleportation paths.
"The endless sea conceals its surging tides; the still abyss reveals fish and dragons."
By the time he finished those four lines of verse, Ren Tao had reached Tang San's side.
Compared with Tang San's endless assortment of soul ring and soul bone skills, Ren Tao's methods could almost be called crude: Orca Crescent Slash, Devour, and the Evil Orca King's Speed- and Power-Reduction Domain. Yet these simple skills achieved astonishing results, embodying supreme craftsmanship without ornament.
This was the result of two days of devoted study and repeated deliberation. He countered Devour with Devour, disrupted the rhythm of Tang San's Teleportation with Orca Shattering Fang Slash, then supplemented them with domain suppression and his advantage in soul power. In this battle, he had finally begun to gain the upper hand.
Yet his misunderstanding of Devour only deepened. He had never imagined that the skill would induce "intoxication" in both himself and its target. Nor did he understand why his Devour could produce an effect akin to "reverse gene-editing decoding," while the Deep Sea Demonic Whale King's could not.
Could this be a passive skill? Had Tang San's Devour instead triggered a backlash from super evolution?
With those doubts and questions in mind, Ren Tao swiftly threw seven punches, carrying wind and thunder, comparable to Dai Mubai's White Tiger Meteor Shower. His fists raised layer upon layer of afterimages as they struck Tang San's chest like lightning.
This was no silly routine of "pounding your chest with little fists." If these punches landed solidly, even if they did not punch through Tang San's body, they would at least crush several of his internal organs.
"Bang!"
"Bang, bang, bang!"
Tang San's body drifted backward like a kite with its string severed.
Yet in the next instant, his body reversed course, returning even faster than he had retreated. A red soul ring flashed around him, and a pink figure suddenly floated out. Her long hair flew, wrapping around Ren Tao's neck with the speed of thunder before one could cover one's ears.
Invincible Golden Body... Sixth Soul Ring skill, Explosive Eight-Stage Throw!
Instinctively, the thought surfaced in Ren Tao's mind, and his heart gave an involuntary jolt.
"It's Xiao Wu! Xiao Wu, have you... finally come to protect your Brother San?"
Ah! Over the past few days, many readers have brought up the ages of the Deep Sea Demonic Whale King and the Evil Orca King.
First, the Deep Sea Demonic Whale King should have a million years of cultivation. Although the original "Douluo 1" did mention three or four hundred thousand years, it later explicitly emphasized a million years;
Also, the Evil Orca King is not the Deep Sea Demonic Whale King! Let me stress that point!
Furthermore, why did the Evil Orca King’s cultivation only break through to the Two-Hundred-Thousand-Year level after absorbing the Deep Sea Demonic Whale King’s Whale Pearl? One reason is that absorption and fusion take time. The second reason also lays the groundwork for what comes later!
Thank you for your attention, dear readers!
I really, truly will put my heart into writing this!
Before you continue