Four hours later, the hundred-thousand-year soul beast alliance met up with the Evil Spirit Orca Group, and together they swam toward the depths of the sea.
But all of this was merely a smokescreen. Ren Tao had already prepared for a long journey. His Storage Pouch held food, dried meat, changes of clothes, clean shoes and socks... all the necessities of daily life, obtained through trades with delivery merchants on Sea God Island.
For the first time since crossing over into the Douluo World, he felt he was living like a person.
The hundred-thousand-year Sea Soul Beast Alliance headed north with the Evil Spirit Orca Group, making a wide circuit toward the open sea before turning back east.
The Douluo Continent lay southeast of Sea God Island. Neither Ren Tao nor Shui Ling'er and the others knew which city's coastline they would reach, but every jellyfish served as Shui Ling'er's eyes and ears. Once they came within a certain range, they could transmit information through a secret electrical signal. Jin Hai and Yin Zhang possessed similar abilities, so they never worried about losing their way at sea.
Along the way, Shui Ling'er also issued a search order, asking all the jellyfish to help locate the Mermaid Clan.
Six hundred-thousand-year sea soul beasts, accompanied by nine Evil Spirit Orcas, began their long voyage through the sea.
On one hand, they were escorting Ren Tao to a coastal city. On the other, they wanted to send a message to the soul beasts of the sea: the hundred-thousand-year sea soul beasts had formed an alliance!
From that day onward, the ocean had a new force that could not be ignored. They would speak for themselves, replacing the Sea God as guardians of the sea soul beasts and the ocean.
In Ren Tao's words, this was an inaugural parade.
Gradually, as they traveled, groups of sea soul beasts spontaneously followed them, slowly forming a great tide of sea soul beasts.
Flocks of seabirds wheeled overhead, cheerful dolphins leaped from the water, and even larger schools of fish formed orderly ranks on either side. Vast swaths of jellyfish drifted with the waves behind them, making an immense, grand procession to see them off.
The entire stretch of sea seethed with unprecedented excitement!
Every sea soul beast used its own channels to pass along the news, discreetly and excitedly.
The momentum grew stronger and stronger, until they almost blocked all traffic. Through some unknown channel, the sea soul beasts had guessed Ren Tao's route and lined up ahead of time, waiting to admire their leaders.
This forced Ren Tao to deliver several impromptu speeches, encouraging the sea soul beasts to break free of the Sea God's mental control, become strong and independent, and consciously uphold order in the ocean, defending their home under the leadership of the Sea Soul Beast Alliance.
Only that evening, after the sun had set, did Ren Tao and the others evade the tide of beasts and find a stretch of sea to rest in. Once the sea soul beasts lost track of them, they slowly dispersed.
For Ren Tao, however, this was only the beginning. Another important task remained: helping Shui Ling'er and the others refine the Sea God's Abhorrence.
First, they needed to connect their consciousnesses and enter Ren Tao's Sea of Inheritance. Then they would use its energy to wear away the Sea God's will and slowly extract and refine the core energy.
Big Sister Shui Ling'er was the first to try. Female jellyfish or not, she had a drive to fall behind no one in anything she did.
But this was Ren Tao's first time helping someone else extract and refine the Sea God's power, and everything went off the rails on the spot!
He had just unfurled his Devouring Golden Threads, preparing to establish a Mental Link with Shui Ling'er, when a powerful electrical current abruptly surged through him~
"Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch!"
Ren Tao had never been electrocuted so badly. Caught completely off guard, his whole body shook, his teeth clattered, and he felt as though his jaw would come unhinged.
For the first time, his devouring ability met its nemesis. Shui Ling'er's electricity was extremely powerful and frequently uncontrollable. Although Ren Tao successfully penetrated her sea of consciousness, he was stunned senseless in the process.
Aside from shivering and rolling his eyes back, he could do nothing.
"Big Sister, what are you doing?"
"S-s... s-s... sorry!"
Shui Ling'er's face was filled with apology. She had only just entered the Sea of Inheritance and taken a look, without even having time to exclaim in wonder, when Ren Tao lost consciousness. The Sea of Inheritance immediately closed and kicked her straight out.
"D-do you... know? I often... g-get... shocked too!"
What?
Looking at Shui Ling'er's face, Ren Tao finally understood why she spoke like that!
This woman really had a hard life!
"All right, I understand. Go to the back of the line for now. Jin Hai, you first!"
Ren Tao thought it over but could find no better solution for the moment. Shui Ling'er could not fully control her own electricity. If it flared while they were refining the Abhorrence Brand and struck his consciousness directly, it might cripple him outright.
This was a little too dangerous!
"O-okay."
Shui Ling'er lowered her head, dejected and guilty, and quickly retreated to the outer edge of the circle of soul beasts to stand guard.
Then, a few minutes later, Jin Hai cried out loudly,
"Ah!"
Yin Zhang, Shui Ling'er, and the others were startled. Thinking something else had gone wrong, they quickly gathered around.
"This feels so good!"
Jin Hai let out a sigh that sounded like a moan. His long tentacles drooped limply, and his entire starfish body slumped onto the seabed. The suckers on his body blossomed one after another like flower buds, conveying pleasure and delight.
Inside the Sea of Inheritance, Jin Hai sat in the water in the same posture. A vast golden vortex spun rapidly around him, creating tremendous suction. A streak of dark light was drawn from his body, only for an invisible force to restrain it and try to pull it back inside. As the two forces struggled, hundreds upon thousands of golden threads emerged from Ren Tao's body, flickering faster than the eye could follow as they stripped away the Sea God's power bit by bit.
At this point, the Abhorrence Brand had yet to assume a definite form and was merely a beam of dark light. Ren Tao's Devouring Golden Threads resembled golden needles. At the tip of each needle lay a nascent trace of divine power, though other forces were mixed within it, giving it a faint purple hue. Every flick of a needle tip released a blue glimmer too fine to discern with the naked eye, which the Sea of Inheritance silently dissolved.
Ren Tao still could not fully decode the Sea God's power. But besides divine power, the Sea God's Abhorrence also contained a trace of the Sea God's will, like a coat wrapped around the core of divine power.
What Ren Tao did was dismantle that outer protection, then seal and suppress it with forbidden power, turning it into an unstoppable "hidden weapon" to use against enemies in a crisis.
Since it was inherently formless and could damage an opponent's soul, Ren Tao named it the "Soul Breaking Spear."
Its power varied according to the strength of its user's spiritual power. But by a conservative estimate, anyone below a level-95 Titled Douluo would find it difficult to withstand a single strike from the Soul Breaking Spear, unless their spiritual power had reached a vast realm like Tang San's.
When Ren Tao drove it with the purple divine power of the Sea of Inheritance, it could even shatter a trace of the White-Haired Woman's divine sense, clear proof of its might.
He concentrated fully on removing the Sea God's will, then decomposed it using the Sea of Inheritance's Reverse Decoding technique. The Abhorrence Trident gradually took on a tangible shape. Next came the most crucial step: eroding the Abhorrence Trident's own sentience.
It was just like what the Evil Soul Master had done before. Yet at this point, Ren Tao could not help feeling a flicker of doubt~
Mortal power and divine power were fundamentally different. The former could not affect "divine power" at all. Before acquiring divine power himself, Ren Tao had likewise been helpless against the Abhorrence Brand.
But that senior Evil Soul Master possessed no divine power. How had he broken down the Abhorrence Brand?
I can't figure it out!
Ren Tao shook his head. Using several hundred golden threads, he carefully wrapped and restrained the Abhorrence Trident, then eroded it with the power of the Sea of Inheritance.
Threads of red light suddenly seeped from the red crystals by the sea. Like piranhas scenting blood, they swiftly gathered around the golden cocoon, then completely ignored the obstruction of the golden threads and darted inside.
The red crystals' power and the Devouring Golden Threads came from the same source. Under Ren Tao's control, they would only cooperate, never clash.
This was another ingenious use of the red crystals that Ren Tao had discovered later.
The Sea of Inheritance held far too many secrets. The red crystals, the purple clouds, and the "wind's charm" circling through the air all lay beyond Ren Tao's understanding. He did not know what they truly were.
Jin Hai had long since regained his clarity, but he was so comfortable, as languid as though soaking in a hot spring. The pleasure in his mind left him utterly relaxed, until he barely wanted to leave the Sea of Inheritance at all,
"Can I come here often?"
Ren Tao met his eyes. "What do you think?"
Jin Hai was actually highly intelligent and quite strong. He was simply lazy to the bone, and more slippery than Yin Zhang and the others. He laughed,
"What a wonderful place! You're actually human, aren't you?"
Hmm?
Ren Tao wondered whether he had misheard, but his expression remained unchanged as he quietly met Jin Hai's gaze.
"Only humans know how to enjoy themselves this well!"
Jin Hai narrowed his eyes. "Sometimes I really envy humans. They're born as the spirit of all things, standing high above everything else, and they cultivate quickly too. We soul beasts have to cultivate for a hundred thousand years just to earn a chance to become human. In essence, we're far beneath them. So when I was little, I always thought it was perfectly normal for humans to kill soul beasts and eat them."
Ren Tao said nothing and listened quietly.
"Even after I grew up, even after I broke through the threshold of a hundred-thousand-year soul beast, that thought never changed. Back then, I believed soul beasts could never beat humans, no matter how high our cultivation, because they were a higher species. But after meeting you, I changed my mind.
"You defeated the strong as the weak, killed the Deep Sea Demonic Whale King, and then defeated the Sea God's successor. Now I feel there's nothing we soul beasts can't accomplish. So you have to succeed!"
"Succeed? At what?"
"Everything! You have to succeed at everything you want to do. That way, I'll see hope too. So I, Yin Zhang, Big Sister Shui, E Laosi, and Ran Laowu will always stand by you, until you reach the summit and become an existence high above the rest! Then I can tell the younger generations that our sea soul beast world has an incredible hero too, one who is absolutely no worse than any human!"
Light flickered in Ren Tao's eyes. For some inexplicable reason, he felt rather moved at that moment.
He had never expected that after coming to the Douluo World, besides "family" like the Evil Spirit Orcas, he would also find true friends.
"Have you had too much to drink?"
Smiling, Ren Tao patted Jin Hai on the shoulder. "It isn't even New Year yet. This isn't the time for speeches like that!"
"Besides, I didn't kill the Deep Sea Demonic Whale King. Tang San did, and the Demon Soul Great White Shark Group ate his corpse. Remember that. If you don't want trouble, that's the truth!"
"You're really cautious!"
Jin Hai wore a knowing smile. "Got it! Tang San did all those wonderful things. He also devoured the Whale Pearl, but he doesn't have a million-year soul beast's Soul Ring or Soul Bone. How do we explain that?"
"No explanation needed! Rumors don't need to stand up to scrutiny. Those who believe them will believe them!"
Jin Hai reluctantly departed, and Yin Zhang came next.
He was much quieter than Jin Hai. He said nothing most of the time, nor did he thank Ren Tao, as though all this were perfectly natural.
But after the Abhorrence Brand had been removed, he mentioned that he had a nephew with eighty thousand years of cultivation, a mutated lightning silver-ringed octopus.
"If you have the chance, Whale King, could you give him some guidance? He's the most talented child in our sea octopus lineage!"
"Aren't you afraid I'll devour him?"
Ren Tao spoke jokingly.
"Your devouring isn't all that impressive," Yin Zhang said with a smile. "It's good enough to fool outsiders. If you're willing, shall I have him become your disciple?"
"No!"
Ren Tao refused decisively, looking seriously at Yin Zhang. "Raising death flags is the scariest thing of all. I absolutely can't watch you take that risk. But once I've dealt with matters on the continent, I promise I'll consider it."
After "processing" two hundred-thousand-year sea soul beasts in one night, Ren Tao already felt exhausted. Precisely controlling hundreds upon thousands of golden threads through two consecutive procedures had taken a great toll on his spiritual power.
Thus, he promptly rested. As for how much the Sea of Inheritance had benefited from these two extractions of the Sea God's power, there was no quantifiable measure, so even Ren Tao himself did not know.
The next day, the hundred-thousand-year Sea Soul Beast Alliance and the Evil Spirit Orca Group set off again.
Compared with the day before, the crowds lining their route and cheering were even more enthusiastic. The relationship between the hundred-thousand-year sea soul beasts and the Evil Spirit Orcas also grew increasingly harmonious. During Ren Tao's absence, he would be entrusting the Evil Spirit Orca Group to Shui Ling'er and the others. Otherwise, he truly could not feel at ease.
Along the way, Jin Hai and Yin Zhang tested the Soul Breaking Spear's power, directly punching through a section of space. But it also consumed a great deal of their spiritual power. According to Yin Zhang, it used at least seventy percent, which would be difficult to recover without several days.
Still, anyone below a level-95 Titled Douluo who took a hit would very likely die on the spot.
That result left Ran Laowu and E Laosi greatly tempted.
Only Shui Ling'er seemed downcast. She followed at the rear of the group without speaking the entire way.
But soon, Ren Tao solved her problem.
It was simple: grounding technology. As for the conductors, they were the other four hundred-thousand-year soul beasts.
There was no helping it. They were all brothers; when trouble came, they bore it together.
That night, Jin Hai, Yin Zhang, E Laosi, and Ran Laowu linked themselves into a chain. Wave after wave of electricity tormented them until they cried for their parents, their bodies convulsing, mouths twisting, and eyes rolling. They could not even swim in a straight line.
And so, three days of travel passed in a flash.
When the distant silhouette of a city appeared before him, Ren Tao felt as though he were dreaming.
A city, after so long away. Although there were no longer the towering buildings and flowing traffic of modern society, he had returned to human civilization all the same.
Yet those days and nights spent on the ocean, rising and falling in the blue sea and gazing up at the stars, had already become part of his life, joined to him by blood, a bond that could never be severed.
In less than half a year, he had experienced far too many storms and too much bloodshed. At that moment, he felt a little like crying.
"Big Brother!"
Hu Dong, Feng Ba, Zhen Jiu, Tae Hee, Ha Jun, Jun Hyuk, Jun Ho, Jenny, and Yeonnie-the nine orcas lined up side by side and shouted in unison.
Throughout the journey, they had never shown the slightest reluctance or sorrow at parting. Even though their big brother had promised not to leave, saying he would wait until they could all defeat Tang San, and had now broken that promise, not one of them had questioned him.
Before the hundred-thousand-year Sea Soul Beast Alliance, no matter how close their big brother was to Shui Ling'er and the others, the Evil Spirit Orca Group stood as one, united in heart.
Now their big brother was heading into human territory to battle those ruthless humans. But when had the Evil Spirit Orca Group ever known fear?
They only wanted to bolster their big brother's prestige and give him a proper send-off.
"Big Brother, invincible in battle! Return in triumph!"
The Evil Spirit Orca Group's cries rose wave after wave. Blood-red light shone in their eyes, and powerful auras erupted from their bodies, leaving the creatures native to that stretch of sea trembling and silent as cicadas in winter.
"Stay with Big Sister Shui Ling'er and wait for me. Two months at the earliest, three at the latest."
Standing on the surface of the sea, Ren Tao raised his arm and shouted to the Evil Spirit Orca Group,
"I will return in triumph!"
"Big Brother is mighty!"
"Whale King, E Laosi, until we meet again!"
Amid the surging waves, the four hundred-thousand-year sea soul beasts swiftly disappeared with the Evil Spirit Orca Group, without the slightest hesitation.
They rode the wind and broke the waves, leaving only a boundless sea and sky stretching as far as the eye could see!
Starting today, I'll occasionally post some longer chapters.
This is mainly for the sake of the plot. Breaking chapters at certain points would be inappropriate; some passages need to flow uninterrupted to achieve the right effect.
But there will still be two chapters posted every day. That won't change.
In short, I'll work even harder at writing to bring all you readers a better story!
Thank you all for your support. I've read every message and comment very carefully.
I love the time spent together with my readers.
Before you continue