Sea God's Power: Binding

"Oh!"

The Sea Witch nodded, then shook her head. "I don't know about anyone else, but I have this!"

As she spoke, she held up a ring set with a ruby. Though the stone was a ruby, a faint thread of golden light shimmered within it.

At the sight of that ring, the Abhorrence Trident inside Ren Tao stirred again, even conveying a faint sense of wariness.

"Sea God's Light!"

Ren Tao recognized it at a glance. This ring also contained a certain amount of Sea God's Light, though it was very weak. He estimated that it would be exhausted before long.

"Go ahead and ask."

"Why did you become so powerful after devouring the Deep Sea Demonic Whale King's Whale Pearl?"

The Sea Witch put away the ring and asked her question with seeming nonchalance.

Ren Tao's brows creased slightly. This Sea Witch really did have some brains. Her question was actually a compound one, encompassing things like whether devouring the Whale Pearl was what had made him stronger, what he had obtained from it, and why he had gained skills the Deep Sea Demonic Whale King had never possessed... and so on.

Naturally, the moment she asked, Ren Tao would think about it. What the Sea Witch really wanted was a glimpse of his thoughts in their entirety. That way, she could learn many things without his ever saying them aloud.

"Because an Evil Soul Master sacrificed himself to the Deep Sea Demonic Whale King. I obtained his legacy, along with a little of what the Deep Sea Demonic Whale King left behind."

Ren Tao concealed nothing and laid everything on the table.

The Sea Witch was clearly startled by his frankness and blurted out, "By saying that, are you admitting you're evil?"

"Does it matter whether I admit it? What matters is that your Sea God Island and your Sea God already branded me as evil!"

Ren Tao pointed to the black trident mark on his forehead, then said, "You've finished your second question. My turn!"

Uh.

The Sea Witch bit her lip, beginning to regret how quick her tongue had been. Honestly, did that even count as a question?

Yet Ren Tao had seized the opening. That crafty fellow!

"What exactly does the Sea God's Abhorrence do?"

Ren Tao looked at the Sea Witch, his expression turning serious. The danger he had sensed earlier clearly hadn't come from her, because she wasn't yet powerful enough to threaten him. That sense of danger, then, had to be connected to the Abhorrence Brand.

"On that subject, first of all, anyone who possesses Sea God's Light can easily find you and lock onto you. Like you said, it's the label the Sea God put on you."

The Sea Witch said calmly, "Second, any believer of the Sea God who kills you will receive an additional reward from him."

Something like the red-name system for player killing in online games?

Ren Tao touched the mark on his forehead. At the same time, he wondered whether the Abhorrence Trident, modified by the Evil Soul Master, actually served as a warning in the opposite direction as well.

It seemed he would have to hurry up and find a way to break the Sea God's Abhorrence!

"What else?"

"Perhaps your luck will get worse?"

The Sea Witch smiled, but a sly gleam slipped into her eyes, making Ren Tao feel that she clearly had no good intentions.

"Why do I get the feeling you're not telling the truth?"

"That is the truth. You've finished your third question!"

Having learned her lesson in the previous round, the Sea Witch swiftly struck back. This time, she had come out ahead!

"...!"

Ren Tao let out a breath. What went around really did come around. The advantage he had just gained had been erased in an instant.

"My third question is, how much do you know about Sea God Island, Tang San, and Lady Bo Saixi?"

The Sea Witch gathered her long, curly hair and finally asked the question that mattered most to her.

"Don't you think that's a bit much? Is that one question, or a whole pile of questions?"

Ren Tao immediately objected. How much do I know? That's already a whole lot of questions, all right? And you even threw in Tang San and Lady Bo Saixi in the same breath. Answering that would take me at least two minutes!

"All right, then. I'll drop Tang San and Lady Bo Saixi from the conditions. Just tell me how much you know about Sea God Island."

The Sea Witch also knew she had gone a little too far, so she revised her conditions, trying to make her question easier to accept.

"Lady Bo Saixi will die. For Tang San to complete the Sea God's Nine Trials, Lady Bo Saixi must sacrifice herself. And in the future, Tang San will kill hundreds of thousands of people on the battlefield. Although Sea God Island won't take part directly, those will still be its sins. Can you believe that?"

The Sea Witch was visibly shocked and instinctively fixed her gaze on Ren Tao's eyes.

This time, however, Ren Tao did not circulate his soul power to resist. He simply met her gaze openly. He wanted her to understand the gravity of this matter, and he also wanted to see how much conscience this so-called Guardian Douluo, who represented the Sea God, still had left.

After a long while, the Sea Witch withdrew her gaze and let out a long sigh.

"I see. I understand!"

Her expression was somewhat dazed. She said two things with much the same meaning in succession before raising her head again and saying quietly, "That's enough questions for today. I'm going back!"

"Are you sure the question-and-answer session is over?"

Ren Tao licked his lips. The Sea Witch's aura had kept his devouring instinct stirring restlessly. Moreover, what attracted him wasn't her martial soul, but her own bloodline.

Although he didn't know what use devouring a mermaid would be to him, this was a need arising from the evolution system itself. Ren Tao found it difficult to resist, and he didn't want to.

"Let's fight! If you beat me, I'll let you leave!"

Before the Sea Witch could react to Ren Tao's words, the Evil Spirit Orca underlings farther out erupted in cheers.

"Go, boss!"

"Boss, make her stay!"

Ren Tao: ...

What are you all making a fuss for? It's not what you think!

"Insisting on forcing me to fight, honestly..."

The Sea Witch Xin Luo revealed a faint smile, but the Black Flute swiftly appeared in her hand. She did not use her ninth soul skill. Instead, her Eighth Soul Ring lit up. The Sea-Calming Divine Melody was a group attack that required her to activate her Martial Soul Avatar and gather power, whereas her eighth soul ring skill was her strongest single-target attack.

"Sea God's Power: Binding!"

The Black Flute released a piercing shriek that seized the soul, simultaneously unleashing a powerful mental shock. Though it fell short of Tang San's Vast realm mental attacks, this was the opening restraint effect of the Sea Witch's soul skill. Ren Tao was struck almost instantly. His thoughts immediately slowed, and before he could gather his soul power, he plunged straight toward the sea.

An enormous black vortex appeared beneath his feet, exuding tremendous suction. Within it, countless piranhas with tiny bodies, enormous mouths, and sharp teeth let out shrill screams as they scrambled to lunge at Ren Tao.

Many even leaped out of the water and bit into the hem of his clothes.

In an instant, Ren Tao was reduced to taking a beating without being able to fight back.

But he didn't panic. One second had already passed, and he had a feeling that the shock would end in another two. Within those two seconds, the piranhas absolutely could not break through his Soul Garment's defenses. And after those two seconds, once he was in the sea, the Sea Witch would pose little more of a threat to him than Xiao Bai did.

With that thought, Ren Tao spread his arms in a jaunty pose, leaned backward, and dropped lightly into the seawater.

At that moment, however, he noticed something was wrong.

He discovered that his control over the ocean had vanished. Not only did the surrounding water-attribute power refuse to serve him, it seemed to hold a grudge against him, frantically squeezing and tearing at his body.

Like the water ghosts of his previous life's legends, it radiated a chilling, sinister malice.

The corners of the Sea Witch's lips curled upward, and her smile widened. The vortex trapping Ren Tao began to contract rapidly, compressing a vast stretch of seawater into a pitch-black mass of ink. Ren Tao, caught within it, seemed utterly powerless to resist as he sank blankly beneath the surface.

"You must be wondering, aren't you? Why would a sea soul beast lose control over water? That's why I said your luck would get worse. This is the Sea God's Abhorrence. If the Sea God wishes, he can turn the entire ocean into your enemy!"

The Sea Witch Xin Luo seemed quite talkative, but her hands weren't idle either. Golden light flashed across the ruby in her ring and swiftly sank into the water.

Like a spark falling into a pan of oil, the entire stretch of sea suddenly boiled.

Touched by the golden light, the piranhas turned into golden arrowheads, darting back and forth and cutting repeatedly. Their power had multiplied countless times over.

Ren Tao's gray Soul Garment was instantly riddled with holes, and spraying blood stained the surrounding seawater red.

The waves in the sea also seemed to gain awareness. Within the vortex around Ren Tao, they formed faces filled with resentment and hatred, unleashing roar after roar. These carried both energy and physical attacks, as well as the properties of mental attacks. The successive wails overlapped into endless waves of sound, as though seeking to drag Ren Tao's soul into the fissures on the seabed.

So this was the true function of the Sea God's Abhorrence Brand?