"I, I..." A thousand voices seemed to be telling Sea Dragon that he should admit defeat, that as a dragon, he could not offend the king's majesty.
But in his heart, another voice told him that if he bowed his head now, he would bow his head forever and never have the chance to surpass Qi Ling again.
"I... I refuse to accept it!" Sea Dragon roared, then charged towards Qi Ling. Even knowing he couldn't win, surrendering without a fight was something he absolutely could not accept!
Unfortunately, the battle started quickly and ended even faster. After charging towards Qi Ling, the Sea Dragon Douluo was knocked down in one move, his dragon head pinned under Qi Ling's claws, offering no resistance whatsoever.
Sea Dragon Douluo had indeed considered that he might be outmatched, but he hadn't expected such a huge gap in skill; he couldn't even withstand a single move from Qi Ling?
What he found even more unacceptable was that Qi Ling then slowly released the dragon claw, letting the Sea Dragon Douluo go back, and said, "I know you're not convinced, come again."
After a brief adjustment, Sea Dragon Douluo pounced again, opening his mouth to bite Qi Ling.
This time, he succeeded, but his sharp teeth, biting into Qi Ling, couldn't harm Qi Ling in the slightest; in fact, his teeth were even starting to ache slightly.
The Sea Dragon Douluo was immediately shocked. No sea beast could withstand his teeth, yet they couldn't even break through Qi Ling's dragon scales. How could this not make one feel despair?
Once again, Qi Ling stomped Sea Dragon Douluo's head onto the ground. Qi Ling slowly said, " Sea Dragon, I'm giving you one more chance to choose: leave this place and never come back!"
Feeling the power of Qi Ling's dragon claws pressing down on his head, as if a slight exertion could pierce his skull and kill him, the Sea Dragon Douluo lost all fighting spirit.
After an unknown amount of time, Sea Douluo Bo Saixi arrived at the place, but it was already deserted. Even she had no idea what had happened there.
That afternoon, the group who were cultivating in the Sea God's Light welcomed Qi Ling's return. Xiao Wu excitedly jumped into Qi Ling's arms and said, " Brother Qi! Your strength has recovered, hasn't it? That's great!"
"Get down quickly, how old are you? Still so unsteady." Qi Ling helplessly lifted Xiao Wu off her, mainly because the girl's body was too flexible, and she could do all sorts of movements, making it difficult to control her.
The others looked at Qi Ling and laughed. With Qi Ling back, their team felt like it had a soul, like a complete team, instead of a disorganized mess.
" Boss Qi, you're finally back! The brothers have missed you so much!" Ma Hongjun said. " Boss Qi, now that you're back, why don't you challenge the Sea God's Light? Let us see just how big the gap is between us."
" The Sea God's Light? What's so challenging about that?" Qi Ling looked at the steps in front of her and said, "This thing isn't very impressive."
As she spoke, Qi Ling slowly ascended the steps without any change in rhythm. Upon reaching the top, she said to the people below, "See? I told you there was no challenge at all."
Everyone stared at Qi Ling stretching lazily on the top step, utterly speechless. This was just too discouraging! It's true, you can't compare people.
After Qi Ling came down, he stood on the hundredth step and said with a smile, "Since so much time has passed, let me see how much you've improved."
Qi Ling's meaning was simple: to let everyone start climbing and see how many steps they could climb.
Ma Hongjun smiled smugly and said, "Then let me go first! Boss Qi, can we use some auxiliary methods?"
"Supportive measures? You're planning to have Rongrong and Oscar assist you and enhance your strength?" Qi Ling stroked her chin and said, "Interesting. So, you already know that this will be effective?"
"Hehe, that's right, this is the conclusion reached by the Xiao San. By amplifying ourselves and strengthening our abilities, we can climb even higher!" Ma Hongjun said.
Qi Ling laughed indifferently, "Alright, Fatty, go ahead and try. Whatever methods you use, whoever helps you amplify it, it's fine!"
"And, Fatty, I can promise you, if you can climb to the fiftieth step, then you've passed the test! How about it?"
Upon hearing this, Ma Hongjun thought, "Level 50? Even without any buffs, I could easily climb past level 50!" He couldn't help but laugh and said, " Boss Qi, you underestimate me. I'm only level 50. Watch me climb up and show you!"
So Ma Hongjun confidently climbed the steps, intending to begin the challenge of the Sea God's Light. But as soon as he put his first foot on the step, his expression changed, and he asked in confusion, "What, what's going on?"
The others, seeing that Ma Hongjun hadn't climbed the steps yet, couldn't help but feel curious. Oscar asked, "Fatty, what's wrong? Why aren't you going up the steps? It's only the first step, it shouldn't be that difficult, right?"
"I don't know, the pressure on this step has suddenly increased many times over. I feel... about the same as fifty steps!" Ma Hongjun said in surprise.
Everyone was startled by Ma Hongjun's words, because the pressure of the Sea God's Light had remained unchanged for some time. How could it have suddenly increased?
The only thing that could have caused this change was Qi Ling, who was sitting on the steps! Everyone looked up at Qi Ling, and Ma Hongjun said miserably, " Boss Qi, did you do this? You can even control the Sea God's Light?"
Qi Ling sat on the steps and laughed, "You could say that. This Sea God's Light is just a pressure from above. I can intervene in it and make it grow or shrink at will."
"The pressure you're feeling right now is the pressure I'm exerting. Alright, Fatty, use whatever means you want, climb up here!"
Ma Hongjun climbed one step with great difficulty, and when he was about to step onto the next step, his expression immediately changed, because the pressure increased exponentially with each step. This second step seemed to have increased the pressure by about five steps!
If this continued, Ma Hongjun would reach his limit when he reached the seventh step! Helpless, he had to rely on Oscar and Ning Rongrong's boosts, but when he reached the twenty-seventh step, he could no longer climb another step.
Left with no other choice, Ma Hongjun had to retreat, and couldn't help but sigh inwardly, "When Boss Qi wants to mess with someone, there's really nothing you can do!"
"Alright, what are you all waiting for? Come and try out this enhanced version of Sea God's Light," Qi Ling said with a smile.