"A Black-Scaled Sea Python! This... this is an adult Black-Scaled Sea Python!"
Amid the raging wind and torrential rain, Old Wang's anguished voice turned shrill and hoarse with extreme terror.
His legs gave way, and he fell straight onto the waterlogged deck, trembling like chaff in a sieve as he stared despairingly at the enormous creature that had burst out of the water ahead.
It was a terrifying sea demon dozens of zhang long, its barrel-thick body covered in palm-sized black scales that gleamed with a cold metallic luster. Its scarlet eyes were like two blood-red lanterns burning in the darkness, fixed unblinkingly on the Windrider, while its gaping maw spewed a nauseating, fishy stench.
"It's over. It's all over..." Old Wang's face was ashen as he muttered to himself. "This adult Black-Scaled Sea Python has terrifying strength comparable to a human Golden Core stage immortal master! Its scales are indestructible. Ordinary magical artifacts couldn't leave so much as a scratch. Our mortal merchant ship wouldn't even be enough to fill the gaps between its teeth!"
The sailors and merchants on deck had long since been frightened out of their wits. Some knelt and frantically kowtowed in prayer, while others closed their eyes in despair.
In the vast, boundless seas, when mortals encountered a sea demon comparable to the Golden Core stage, they could do nothing but await death.
Yet amid this suffocating despair, Qin Chen still stood quietly at the bow, his blue robes snapping in the fierce wind, his expression calm and utterly unruffled.
"Comparable to the Golden Core stage?" Qin Chen narrowed his eyes slightly, looking the Black-Scaled Sea Python up and down as though appraising merchandise awaiting a buyer.
Jet-black, gleaming scales, thick bones, demonic energy contained within its dantian... these really are excellent materials for artifact and pill refining. Blasting it apart with brute force would be far too great a waste of nature's treasures, Qin Chen calculated inwardly.
Now that he was cultivating the Heavenly Cycle Star Body, what he lacked most was resources of every kind.
This Black-Scaled Sea Python was a treasure from head to tail. If he could extract its scales, snake bones, and demon core intact, they would certainly fetch a considerable sum of spirit stones at a market in the Overseas Cultivation World.
"Hiss-roar!"
The Black-Scaled Sea Python seemed to notice Qin Chen's utterly irreverent gaze and flew into a rage. It let out a deafening roar, its enormous body suddenly surging out of the sea. Opening its fang-filled maw, it bore down on the Windrider to swallow it whole, with a savage momentum that threatened to destroy everything.
The wind howled, and a rank gust struck their faces.
Just as the sea python's massive maw was about to engulf the bow, Qin Chen moved.
He neither drew a sword nor brought forth any magical treasure. He merely raised his right hand slowly and clenched his five fingers into a fist.
"Buzzz-"
As he clenched his fist, the already ignited mote of micro star-dust at the Shanzhong acupoint within Qin Chen's body suddenly blazed with dazzling light.
A vast, ancient, supremely domineering surge of star force instantly coursed along his meridians into his right arm.
Qin Chen's gaze sharpened. Controlling his strength, he threw a punch!
The punch looked utterly ordinary and barely even whistled through the air.
But the instant his fist touched the Black-Scaled Sea Python's lower jaw, an invisible force condensed to the utmost pierced straight through those indestructible black scales like an unseen poisonous needle, blasting into the sea python's body through the profound technique of Force Through the Mountain to Strike the Ox.
"Thud!"
An extraordinarily muffled impact erupted amid the storm.
The Black-Scaled Sea Python's enormous body suddenly stiffened, its forward momentum coming to an abrupt halt. The savage, brutal light in its scarlet eyes instantly scattered, replaced by endless terror and disbelief.
Within its body, the hidden star force contained in Qin Chen's punch erupted, precisely avoiding all its precious bones and its demon core while directly pulverizing its fragile brain and internal organs into mush.
On the surface, not a single scale on the sea python had broken, but in truth, its life had been completely extinguished in an instant.
With a tremendous crash, the Black-Scaled Sea Python's enormous body slammed back onto the sea like a puppet whose strings had been cut, sending towering waves into the air, yet it never moved again.
One punch had shaken a Golden Core stage sea demon to death! And it had been a perfect kill, without damaging any of the materials!
On deck, Old Wang and the crew, who had already closed their eyes to await death, were now all frozen like wooden chickens.
Their mouths hung open, and they even forgot to breathe as they stared fixedly at Qin Chen's somewhat slender back, as though beholding a god descended to earth.
Before they could recover from their overwhelming shock, something even more unbelievable happened.
Xiaobai, who had been dozing on Qin Chen's shoulder all along, lazily stretched and leaped into the air. Its tiny body swelled in the wind, transforming into a white Void Beast several zhang in size.
Looking down from above at the sea python's corpse floating on the water, Xiaobai opened its mouth and let out a "meow" wholly at odds with its size.
In an instant, a deep, pitch-black spatial vortex appeared in Xiaobai's mouth. A terrifying devouring force swept out, enveloping the Black-Scaled Sea Python, which was dozens of zhang long.
Under everyone's utterly horrified gazes, the hill-sized sea python corpse actually shrank rapidly in midair, finally turning into a streak of black light that Xiaobai swallowed into the internal space within its belly.
Having enjoyed its feast, Xiaobai burped in midair, its body rapidly shrinking until it once again became that harmless-looking white cat. It landed lightly on Qin Chen's shoulder and affectionately rubbed against his cheek.
At some point, the storm had subsided. The dark clouds dispersed, and the sea became calm once more, as though that world-destroying scene had been nothing but an illusion.
"Thump!"
Old Wang was the first to react. His knees buckled, and he dropped straight onto the deck, kowtowing repeatedly to Qin Chen, his voice trembling with excitement. "Th-thank you for saving our lives, immortal master! I had eyes but failed to see. I never realized an immortal master had come among us in person. Please forgive me!"
"Thank you for saving our lives, immortal master!" The sailors and merchants aboard also seemed to awaken from a dream, dropping to their knees in a great swath, their eyes filled with fervent awe.
"Get up, all of you. It was no more than lifting a hand." Qin Chen waved a hand indifferently, then turned and returned to his cabin.
For the remainder of the voyage, Qin Chen received the finest treatment aboard the Windrider.
Old Wang wished he could pile all the ship's best food and wine outside Qin Chen's cabin. Whenever anyone passed his door, they instinctively softened their footsteps, afraid of disturbing this "Golden Core stage mighty cultivator" who concealed his abilities so well.
And these waters were clearly far from peaceful. Over the following dozen or so days, the Windrider suffered several more sea demon attacks.
There were Deep-Sea Ironclad Crabs as large as small islands, Jade-Eyed Thunder Rays that could unleash lightning in the air, and even a flock of hundreds upon thousands of Bloodthirsty Seagulls.
Yet without exception, these creatures that were like nightmares to mortals could not last even a single exchange against Qin Chen.
To preserve the artifact-refining materials to the greatest extent possible, Qin Chen honed his control over the Heavenly Cycle Star Body's hidden force until it was as perfect as a furnace flame burning pure blue.
Whether it was the Ironclad Crabs' hard shells or the Thunder Rays' tough hides, he preserved them all perfectly.
And these mountain-like piles of demon beast corpses ultimately became plentiful stock within Xiaobai's internal space.
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