I never want to eat sugar again for the rest of my life

Dark, deep, and oppressive.

This was Luo Li's first impression upon entering the Leviathan domain.

As he passed through the hidden underwater passage, it felt as if he had entered another world.

Sunlight cannot penetrate the thousands of meters deep seawater; all around is eternal darkness, with only some deep-sea creatures and strange minerals emitting a pale, eerie glow, like will-o'-the-wisps punctuating the boundless stillness.

The immense water pressure was enough to crush a tank into a pancake in an instant, but for Luo Li, who could distort space and define rules, it was like a gentle breeze.

The real trouble comes from the vast, unfamiliar, and hostile environment itself, and the cunning hunter lurking within it.

[The Eyes of the Time Abyss] is invincible on land, easily seeing through illusions and Tracing Causes.

However, its effectiveness is greatly reduced in the deep sea, where the composition is complex, the energy flow is chaotic, and the boundaries are almost infinite.

He could clearly "sense" Leviathan's vast, twisted consciousness, filled with endless Envy and resentment, like ink spreading in the sea, omnipresent yet impossible to pinpoint a precise, stable "point".

It seemed to merge with the entire Mariana Trench and the endless, dark depths of the ocean.

Luo Li tried several times.

Once, he sensed that consciousness gathering tens of kilometers to his left. [Space-Trace Instant Shadow] arrived instantly, and the silvery-white Spacetime Domain suddenly opened, freezing and annihilating the seawater, rocks, and several giant deep-sea mutants hidden within that area.

However, Leviathan's true form had already, like a slippery squid, dispersed and dissolved into the vast ocean before the attack arrived, leaving only a mocking, Envy mental fluctuation.

Once again, through [Causal Tracing], he pinpointed an energy anomaly, seemingly a crucial "node" within Leviathan.

Enma unleashed a blade of light that tore through the seawater, creating a massive vacuum chasm in that area.

But after the attack, only turbulent mud and startled deep-sea creatures remained; Leviathan's aura once again gathered from another direction like a ghost.

It did not confront him directly, but instead constantly harassed and tested him, eroding his spirit with its Envy thoughts and wearing down his patience with the entire deep-sea environment.

In this home turf, Leviathan unleashed the power of "Envy" to its fullest extent—it Envy Luo Li's power, Envy his ability to move freely across the land and the deep sea, Envy of everything about him.

This Envy transformed into the most vicious tactic: to never let you have your way, and to drag you down using the methods you're least good at!

Luo Li even used the newly absorbed authority of "Sloth" in an attempt to drag a large area of the sea into the quagmire of the mind and force it to show itself.

But Leviathan's consciousness seemed to be a chaotic ocean filled with negative emotions, and the power of "Sloth" was like a mud ox entering the sea, having little effect.

Xiao Hong also tried to lure them with the Greed "Greed" and provoke them with the power of "Wrath," but Leviathan was as cunning as the most experienced hunter, completely unmoved, simply hiding in the endless darkness, tormenting them with its cold, malicious "gaze."

Time and time again, they missed their target; time and time again, they were played for a fool.

Luo Li stood on a cold underwater mountain range, her body shimmering with silver light, silently annihilating the approaching venomous jellyfish and lurking schools of stingrays.

He stared coldly at the darkness before him, a darkness that seemed capable of swallowing everything.

He possessed the power to destroy stars, yet in this vast deep sea, he felt a sense of powerlessness, like punching cotton.

He could forcibly evaporate a large area of the sea, but that would consume a huge amount of energy, and he might not be able to accurately hit that slippery main body.

If you alert the prey and it disappears completely, it will be even harder to find it in the vast depths of the ocean.

"Master, this guy is too cunning! He's even slipperier than an eel!"

Xiao Hong flew around Luo Li in a huff, its six-colored radiance standing out conspicuously in the deep sea.

Luo Li remained silent for a moment.

In the "Right Eye [Peering into Secrets]", the fragments about the future entangled with Leviathan in the deep sea are mostly chaos and futility.

Staying here is just a waste of time and energy.

He made a decisive decision.

With a flash of silver light, his figure vanished from the oppressive depths of the sea, and the next moment, he appeared on the west coast of America, on the outskirts of a relatively bustling survivor market near the port.

The sudden return from the serene yet deadly deep sea to the bustling, chaotic, and "human" land was a disorienting experience even for Luo Li.

He needs a change of scenery to sort out his thoughts; perhaps he can find clues about Leviathan's weaknesses on land.

As I strolled into the market, the sounds of various vendors hawking their wares, arguing, and loud music blaring from cheap stereos mingled together, assaulting my eardrums.

The air was filled with the aroma of heated food oils, the salty smell of the sea breeze, and... a cloyingly sweet smell.

Luo Li frowned slightly and looked towards the source of the smell.

In front of one stall, a long queue had formed. The stall owner was taking huge, golden-brown, sizzling turkey legs out of the oil and then... immersing them directly into a bucket of thick, syrup-like reddish-brown liquid. He would soak them repeatedly until a thick, glistening "sugar shell" formed on the surface of the turkey legs before handing them to the eager customers.

The customer took it, opened his mouth and took a bite, a satisfied expression on his face, his lips covered in glistening syrup and oil.

Not just this stall.

The dessert shop next door had its windows filled with brightly colored donuts and cakes, drizzled with thick chocolate sauce and cream, and sprinkled with sugar pearls; each one looked so sweet it could trigger a blood sugar crisis.

Even the so-called "thirst-quenching" drinks sold by roadside vendors are all kinds of strangely colored, bubbly sugar water, with sugar seemingly condensed in the ice cubes.

When Luo Li was surfing the internet before, he had seen many jokes and pictures that made fun of America' love of sugar, such as candy-roasted sweet potatoes and syrup pizzas. He always thought they were exaggerated staged photos or extreme examples.

But now that he's seen it with his own eyes, he realizes that those jokes might still be too conservative.

In these precarious times, high sugar and high calories seem to be the easiest things for the poor to obtain and the things that can bring them the most temporary pleasure and energy replenishment, to the point that this dietary habit has been amplified and perpetuated.

No wonder... His gaze swept over the market, where people walked with unsteady steps and were abnormally obese and bloated; their numbers were far greater than those he had seen in Longxia.

"Master, that shiny thing... it looks delicious?"

Curious, Xiao Hong floated over to a stall where "amber cotton candy" was being made. She rolled the cotton candy in the melted sugar syrup and placed it in front of the fist-sized stall, eager to try it herself.

Luo Li, expressionless, dragged her back.

Just then, a tall, thin guy who looked like a local thug, chewing gum, swaggered up to Luo Li, grinned, and revealed a set of unhealthy teeth corroded by sugar. "Hey, bro, new face! Just arrived in ' Sweetwater Town '? Want some real 'good stuff'? Guaranteed to be more potent than those syrups!"

He rubbed his fingers together, making a universally understood gesture, and glanced ambiguously into the darker corners of the market.

Luo Li didn't even bother to lift her eyelids.

The thug, however, took it as a yes and grinned, reaching out to pat Luo Li on the shoulder to try and get closer. "Don't be shy, bro, I'll show you around..."

Before his hand could even touch Luo Li's clothes, he was struck as if by an invisible truck, sent flying backward, and crashed heavily into a pile of discarded tires in the distance. He passed out without uttering a sound.

The surroundings fell silent for a moment, and the crowd scattered in fear, their eyes filled with dread as they looked at Luo Li.

Luo Li didn't even look in that direction; she just felt that the omnipresent, cloyingly sweet air around her was becoming even more unbearable.

He turned and left the market town called "Sweetwater Town" without hesitation.

Walking along the relatively quiet abandoned road, Xiao Hong was still savoring the "amber cotton candy" she had just seen, chattering excitedly, "Master, Master, why do they soak the meat in sugar water? Does that make it taste good?"

Luo Li: "... Shut up."

He gazed at the ominous dark red hue of the distant sea, feeling the power within him, growing ever stronger yet subtly restless from absorbing the essence of the six deadly sins. He then recalled the bittersweet scene at the market and the lingering, cloying smell of sugar in the air...

An idea popped into my head uncontrollably:

I never want to eat candy again in my life.

The problems of the deep sea must be solved.

But we shouldn't blindly rush in and confront things head-on.

He needs a more effective method.

Perhaps... it's time to go back to Longxia.

Lu Jingheng's ingenuity, along with Longxia's vast database and research capabilities, might offer some different perspectives.