Into the sea

Before he could finish speaking, the sea in front of him suddenly trembled.

The sea surface seemed to be lifted up from the bottom by an invisible giant hand, rising more than ten feet, and then tilting forward with a devastating force.

Hundreds of millions of tons of blood-red seawater detached from the surface, transforming into a colossal, overwhelming wall that crushed any ship that dared to approach it.

A loud bang followed.

The sound was mixed with countless tiny cracks, frictions, and impacts, like rocks on the seabed shattering under immense pressure, or like countless tons of metal crushing each other on the seabed.

When the sound reached the ship, the deck hummed, the mast cables trembled, and some of the less skilled crew members turned pale and instinctively covered their ears.

On the surface of the Hidden Boat, a gray protective shield rose up.

Dozens of other ships on the periphery were operating in the same manner.

Old Zhu's expression turned fervent and excited, and he almost leaned half his body out of the deck.

"Good heavens, there's a boat charging too fast ahead!"

Looking around, Hu Mang indeed saw a large ship, no less than the Seagull, attempting to rush into the core area of Dragon Blood Tide against the tide.

The ship's protective shield was emitting a dazzling white light, and several layers of defensive magic arrays surrounded its hull, clearly indicating that it had come prepared; but as the first wave of blood crashed over, the ship was tossed high into the air like a toy, flipped halfway through the air, and crashed heavily onto the sea surface with its hull facing the sky.

A second, even larger wave of blood followed, splitting the ship in two. The broken hull tumbled a few times in the crimson water before sinking rapidly, leaving only a floating wreck and a few figures struggling on the crest of the wave.

Three Golden Core core-level beams of light flew out from the ship, attempting to escape the area, but the blood wave engulfed them in the blink of an eye.

All the crew members turned pale upon seeing this.

The fervor on Old Zhu's face subsided slightly, replaced by a solemn expression. He turned to the crew on deck and shouted, "See that? This is the Dragon Blood Tide. Anyone who's not afraid to rush in first can, but I guarantee you'll end up like those three. We'll go into the water after the first wave recedes!"

Next, the crimson waves seemed to erupt endlessly upwards, with many waves even more powerful than the first eruption.

However, having learned their lesson, the large ships in the center of the Dragon Blood Tide became much more obedient. They activated all their protective formations and constantly turned their ships around to avoid the oncoming waves instead of heading straight for the sea eyes.

As the crimson waves surged forth, the Dragon Blood Tide finally entered an exciting phase, with all sorts of underwater treasures being swept ashore by the waves.

After a giant wave crashed over the sea, as the crest receded, the surface of the sea was revealed to be crystal clear, covered with countless high-grade Spirit Stone.

Another wave surged, revealing a millstone-sized piece of ancient coral, entirely crimson with intricate branches and a surface that gleamed with a warm, oily sheen.

The first Law Treasure was swept up.

It was a pale white bone spear about three feet long, its surface covered with fine runes. Deep within the runes, a faint spiritual light lingered. It was clearly a remnant of a magical Law Artifact left behind by an ancient cultivator. Although it was damaged, the material itself was still quite valuable. It rolled a few times on the crest of the wave before being snatched away in mid-air by a quick-thinking cultivator.

Several spirit iron ingots, scattered from the shipwreck, were thrown down by the waves. Each ingot was about the size of a brick and covered with a layer of black oxide, but a faint silvery metallic luster could be seen beneath the oxide layer.

These spirit iron ingots had slumbered on the seabed for hundreds of years before being stirred up by the Dragon Blood Tide. After being soaked in seawater for a long time and repeatedly infused with Spiritual Qi, their texture became denser than when they were first mined, making them an excellent material for forging Law Artifact.

There were also some odds and ends: a broken jade hairpin, half a bronze mirror, some rusty ancient coins that still emitted faint spiritual energy, and a few palm-sized seashells that shimmered with iridescent colors... With each receding wave, new surprises were left on the sea surface, as if the ocean was generously scattering its treasures that it had kept for millions of years.

The entire Dragon Blood Tide region has now transformed into a vast, bustling treasure trove, awaiting those with courage and insight to claim its spoils.

Hu Mang heard the rapid breathing of the surrounding cultivators more than once, and even Old Zhu's breathing became much heavier.

More than one crew member looked at Old Zhu, waiting for him to give orders.

"No rush, we won't move until the Golden Core is activated."

Old Zhu licked his lips.

Having experienced a Dragon Blood Tide, he knew very well that the Golden Core cultivators on the front lines had the sharpest senses. They determined that there were no undercurrents beneath the surface of the sea, and that was when the real battle would begin.

In fact, not only one Golden Core flew out of the ship and began fishing on the sea.

The large fishing boats were casting their nets wildly, scooping up entire nets at a time.

Needless to say, even Hu Mang felt a little anxious upon seeing this scene, but he quickly activated "Wisdom King Aizen" to expel this anxiety, and his eyes regained their clarity.

No rush, the Dragon Blood Tide has only just begun; the real treasures are yet to come.

Finally, just as Old Zhu's eyes were about to pop out of their sockets, a Golden Core of light flashed by and disappeared, plunging directly into the sea.

This seemed to trigger a chain reaction, with one streak of light after another disappearing into the water, as if someone were raining down cannonballs on the sea.

"Quickly! Old Sha, get down! We need to get down too!"

As Old Zhu shouted, a large amount of black film began to squeeze out from the surface of the Hidden Boat. These black films intertwined with each other with a spiritual quality, expanding like a balloon. As the "balloon" inflated, the entire smuggling ship crashed into the water with a "boom".

This is a very novel experience.

The Hu Mang had never dived before, but this feeling was different from diving. There was no pressure, but there was a noticeable inversion of his sense of direction. Several crew members staggered and even fell to the ground.

A flash of demonic light appeared in Hu Mang's eyes, and the Heavenly Devil Field quickly corrected his somewhat out-of-control sense of direction, restoring him to normal.

"Alright, Old Sha, we're almost at two hundred meters. We can't go any lower. If we go any lower, I'm worried the undercurrents might not be cleared yet, and a Seaquake could wipe us all out."

As soon as Old Zhu roared, the black ship stopped.

"Pick up your sacks. I'll say it again: you can't be out for more than ten minutes. If you're out for more than five minutes, you need to be ready to come back."

Almost as soon as they finished speaking, the crew members flashed with a water-colored escape light and dashed out.

The cultivators who traveled the sea route were all highly skilled in water escape techniques, but Hu Mang did not know water escape. However, he knew another technique. He pressed down hard with his heel, and the deck made a loud noise, causing the entire ship to shake twice. Old Zhu was almost knocked over.

Using this momentum, the Hu Mang was launched like a cannonball.

"This kid is actually a body cultivator; that's truly rare."

"Taking the pure body-refining route, could they be someone from the Heavenly Gate military?" Old Sha's voice rang out from the cabin.

"That's unlikely. There are quite a few people practicing body cultivation in Nanyang... It shouldn't be possible."

Old Zhu muttered to himself, he was starting to have some doubts too.

Like a cannonball, the Hu Mang pierced through the shield of the Hidden Boat and plunged straight into the seawater of the Dragon Blood Tide.

The moment he entered the water, his body sank sharply.

Broken coral powder, rotten wood fibers, metal shavings as fine as dust, and black particles of unidentifiable composition all came flying at once.

That's not even the worst part.

The most troublesome thing is the Spiritual Qi churning at the bottom of the sea.

These turbulent Spiritual Qi formed several undercurrents of varying directions and intensities beneath the sea surface. Some were like gentle pushes, while others were like brute force, striking his body without any discernible pattern.

In a short while, Hu Mang felt as if he had been surrounded and beaten up by a group of burly men.

"Hiss~ It's really troublesome that he can't use water escape techniques."

With a thought, Hu Mang directly activated the Heavenly Devil Field.

Centered on him, an invisible force field spread outwards, bringing the seawater within a three-zhang radius under its control; the chaotic Spiritual Qi currents, upon entering the range of the Heavenly Devil Field, became docile like tamed wild horses, instantly bypassing his body under his will and flowing to both sides. The floating debris and particles were also repelled by the Heavenly Devil Field, forming a relatively clear water area around him.

That's more like it.

Hu Mang sensed that although he had used all the Spirit-Locking Talisman, Breath-Holding Talisman, and Aura-Concealing Talisman, he could clearly feel that the consumption of Spiritual Qi in his body was ten times that of usual.

Even though his foundation is much stronger than that of an ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivator, such a depletion is still troublesome.

"Is it possible to directly draw upon the Spiritual Qi from the seabed during the Dragon Blood Tide to replenish our supplies?"

"Rampant Spiritual Qi definitely won't work, but what about normal water-based Spiritual Qi?"

With a thought, Hu Mang blurred the Heavenly Devil Field once again, and layer upon layer of filters were created within Heavenly Devil Field.

He was quite experienced in dealing with this kind of high-concentration, explosive Spiritual Qi.

As various real-world parameters were adjusted, and the pure seawater Law Power Spiritual Qi entered the body, the rate at which the Hu Mang's mana was being depleted gradually decreased.

Nine times

Eight times

Seven times

Six times

When the Law Power consumption reached three times the normal level, it became impossible to control.

Whether it's maintaining the Heavenly Devil Field, reducing the pressure of the seawater, or consuming the filter, all of these factors kept the Hu Mang at three times the level of True Qi consumption.

That's about enough.

Hu Mang nodded.

Three times the amount is still within our tolerance range.

After glancing at the Hidden Boat, which was already some distance away, Hu Mang, Mid Golden Core cultivator, immediately spread his Divine Sense. Within the range of his Divine Sense, he quickly sensed three to four points of Spiritual Qi, some large and some small. Without saying a word, Hu Mang headed straight for the largest point of Spiritual Qi energy.

Then they quickly found their target: a grayish-white stone about the size of a basketball, its surface covered with fine pores. It was extremely light to the touch, like squeezing a dried-out sponge, but the stone emitted a faint, exotic fragrance from within.

"Is this... ambergris?"