"This was the place..."
The Water Vengeful Spirit's incredible speed underwater had carried Ming Zhao four hundred nautical miles in less than two hours, bringing him to the area where the mermaid princess Li Ya was supposedly active.
Next, he had to search carefully.
Ming Zhao floated in the seawater, slowly sinking until his feet touched the seabed. His already transparent body grew even more insubstantial, and he hid directly in the shadows between the coral reefs.
The next instant, gray-black ghostly figures darted out from his side.
Concealed by the pitch-black depths, the figures were almost invisible to the naked eye, and they moved too fast to track.
The Water Vengeful Spirit puppets, which had remained in paper effigy form on land, immediately transformed into their true forms as drowned ghosts upon entering the water. Their strength rose in every respect, and most importantly, their agility reached its peak.
After receiving the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm's sacrifice, Ming Zhao could even use the Soul Skill King of Ten Thousand Ghosts to connect to these ghostly figures remotely, project his consciousness through them, and use Ghost God Vision to investigate everything around them.
As long as Li Ya really was in these waters, Ming Zhao would find her within three days.
As it turned out, whether they were furries or love-brained fools, their ability to get things done was maxed out. And when the two combined to produce a paragon, he was even more relentless, swearing never to stop until he got what he wanted.
A sexy furry like Li Ya, half-human and half-fish and ridiculously beautiful, was exactly what people like them loved most.
Information uncovered through such superhuman persistence, practically driven by their fundamental programming, naturally couldn't be wrong.
On the afternoon of the second day, the ghostly figures Ming Zhao had dispatched found the mermaid songstress sitting on an iceberg, singing to her heart's content in her beautiful voice.
After pinpointing Li Ya's location, Ming Zhao didn't attack immediately. Instead, he left one ghostly figure to keep watching her while the others searched the surrounding waters for dozens of miles in every direction, leaving no blind spots.
The Sky Dream Ice Silkworm might have been a coward, but his suggestion had been right.
Against Li Ya alone, Ming Zhao was completely confident he could kill her without taking a scratch.
But if that old woman, the Sea Princess, with her six hundred and twenty thousand years of cultivation, showed up, he would have a hard time holding out.
He would have to wait until he broke through to the Titled realm, or even reached Level 95, before he had the strength to fight or kill a Limit Douluo.
Huo Yuhao's experience of being played like a monkey by Long Xiaoyao had taught Ming Zhao not to underestimate anyone with cultivation at the limit. Heaven knew what tricks those old geezers had hidden up their sleeves.
Wasn't that old woman, the Sea Princess, also someone who had strung Huo Yuhao up and beaten him in the original story?
If Tang Wutong hadn't used her daddy-summoning technique at the critical moment, poor Huo might have died right there in the icy sea.
To make sure that old baby fish wouldn't interrupt him when he made his move, it was necessary to check whether the surroundings were safe.
Search, strike, retreat-you only won if you could get out!
Two hours later.
Ming Zhao opened his eyes, a flash of intense killing intent appearing in their icy depths.
"There are no other Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts within a hundred miles. It seems you were fated to suffer this calamity!"
The drowned ghosts returned to Ming Zhao's body one after another, and the Water Vengeful Spirit's possession ended. Back in his own form, Ming Zhao grinned wildly as red and white apparitions appeared instantly on either side of him.
Water Vengeful Spirit, Ghost Bride!
They looked at each other across Ming Zhao, then raised their arms and pulled him into their embrace. Gray-white and scarlet light rapidly formed an enormous vortex of Soul Power, and the apparitions of a Ghost Coffin and the Ghost Bridal Sedan took shape within it.
Self-Martial Soul Fusion Skill-Red and White Colliding Calamities!
Night Parade of a Hundred Ghosts!
Ghostly figures burst from the vortex, shouldering the Ghost Coffin and carrying the Ghost Bridal Sedan as they charged toward the surface!
At the surface.
Li Ya had stopped singing at some point and sat quietly on the iceberg, her long, beautiful fish tail gently patting the blue sea. A hint of unease showed on her delicate face, and her slender brows were slightly furrowed.
As a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast specializing in the spiritual attribute, Li Ya was highly sensitive to danger.
All day, she had felt a faint unease in her heart. It had even left her with little inclination to hunt for food, so she had surfaced to bask in the sun and sing, hoping she might be able to relax.
But sunbathing and singing, the two things that usually relaxed and cheered her most, couldn't dispel her unease. Instead, as time passed, that elusive sense of danger grew stronger and stronger.
Until this moment.
Her spiritual senses stung, and unease filled her heart.
A great disaster... was upon her.
Clang!
Clang!
Boom, boom, clang...
The sound of gongs and drums drew closer from afar, and faint laughter and wailing began to echo in Li Ya's ears.
Her sense of danger peaked in that instant. Her expression turned wary and fearful, and every colorful scale on her beautiful tail stood slightly on end, betraying the tension in her heart.
At last.
A tremendous surge of Soul Power shattered the iceberg beneath her into a skyful of ice shards. The shimmering light of the setting sun reflected off the crystals, giving the surrounding sea a dreamy, hazy beauty.
But Li Ya was in no mood to appreciate the rare sight. Panic and fear filled her face as waves of sharp pain stabbed through her mind.
A spiritual attack!
She quickly realized what it was and built a thick spiritual barrier around herself.
After blocking the spiritual attack, Li Ya also saw clearly the chilling killing intent hidden beneath the hazy beauty of the sea.
There were two strange processions.
One group of drowned ghosts, dressed in hemp mourning clothes and straw rain capes, their bodies soaking wet and dripping, shouldered the Ghost Coffin in two rows.
One group of female ghosts, dressed in bright red gowns and wearing eerie red hats that concealed half their faces, carried the Ghost Bridal Sedan in two rows.
One played funeral music; the other played wedding music.
One tossed paper money; the other scattered flower petals.
They joined head to tail, surrounding her.
The unceasing spiritual attacks left the spiritual barrier Li Ya had built for herself on the verge of collapse.
"Was it you... What are you?" Li Ya gathered an attack in her hand, her bright eyes fixed on the Water Vengeful Spirit sitting atop the Ghost Coffin and the Ghost Bride sitting inside the Ghost Bridal Sedan.
She had never seen anything like them. The existence of ghosts was beyond the mermaid princess's understanding.
"You must be a Soul Master, right? This is a trick of your Martial Soul. You want to hunt me down and take my Soul Ring and Soul Bone?" Li Ya quickly guessed the truth, and her expression grew serious.
On the Douluo Continent, whenever something was beyond understanding, one could never go wrong blaming it on human Soul Masters. Only humans could keep producing things that shattered Soul Beasts' understanding.
She received no answer, only funeral and wedding music that grew louder and more fervent.
Li Ya also felt there was no need to communicate.
She had nothing against many humans, and even liked watching them and singing for them.
But that didn't include Soul Masters who wanted to hunt her down.