The creature’s massive body was surprisingly agile. It pounced ferociously at Huangfu Yuchen, opening its large mouth to reveal gleaming sharp teeth. When its attack missed, the creature’s body rolled forward and arched like an upright hoop or a giant stone roller. It flipped over in an instant, its tail swung down towards Huangfu Yuchen’s head.
Huangfu Yuchen wielded his sword to strike back, managing to hit the creature’s body for the first time, precisely at its tail. Despite the creature’s tough-looking skin, his spiritual sword was able to slice through it with ease. The creature’s blood gushed out, tinting the nearby seawater red.
Yan Ge promptly cast a barrier to prevent the scent of blood from attracting sharks and other predators.
The creature suddenly turned its head, fixing its gaze on the sword in Huangfu Yuchen’s hand. In its grey-white eyes had a hint of anger and… contemplation.
Yan Ge and Huangfu Yuchen exchanged a surprised glance. If they were not mistaken, it seemed that this creature could think?
The creature launched another attack, deliberately evading Huangfu Yuchen’s sword. This confirmed Huangfu Yuchen and Yan Ge’s speculation. Perhaps the creature had developed intelligence from staying in places rich in spiritual energy.
For animals to gain intelligence was exceedingly rare. But with its ferocious aura, Huangfu Yuchen had no intention of showing mercy as he confronted it head-on.
The creature’s body twisted like a corkscrew, evading Huangfu Yuchen’s strike. However, Huangfu Yuchen’s movements were astonishingly swift, his figure disappeared in the blink of an eye and reappeared behind the creature. With a precise thrust, his spiritual sword descended straight down.
The creature roared in anger, its eyes growing as large as footballs. Its body writhed violently, causing waves and turmoil in the water. It attempted to shake off Huangfu Yuchen, yet Huangfu Yuchen’s feet seemed to stick to the creature’s body like glue. With both hands gripping his spiritual sword, he thrust it deeper.
The creature’s tail rose again, its tip resembling a steel cone, aimed at Huangfu Yuchen’s back.
Huangfu Yuchen sensed danger from behind, and knew that the creature’s tail was striking. He gracefully shifted to the right, but he heard Yan Ge’s urgent shout, “Watch out!”
The voice carried both alarm and astonishment. Huangfu Yuchen realized something was amiss but didn’t turn his head. Instead, he pulled his spiritual sword diagonally upward, inflicting more damage to the creature, and simultaneously leaped into the air.
Only then did he glance back and his eyebrows slightly raised in surprise. The creature’s tail had unfurled like a bud, revealing another identical head!
There were now two wounds on the creature’s body and it was enraged beyond measure. Its eyes were bloodshot, and it charged at Huangfu Yuchen in a fit of fury, emanating a strong stench of blood. With two heads, it acted as though there were two separate creatures, working in harmony without interfering with each other, making its attacks even more fierce.
Huangfu Yuchen felt greater pressure than before, evading and attacking simultaneously. His brows furrowed, this approach wasn’t sustainable. He looked at the two massive heads and an idea formed in his mind. He leaped toward the middle of the creature’s body and said, “Baby, your spiritual sword.”
Yan Ge b but quickly grasped his intention and tossed his spiritual sword. Although the sword was bonded to him, Huangfu Yuchen could wield it as well. Perhaps due to their prolonged interactions, their auras had mingled together. Of course, they couldn’t communicate with each other’s swords, but they could still use them as ordinary weapons.
A trace of wariness flickered in the creature’s eyes. Nevertheless, it continued to battle fiercely, its two heads not ceasing their relentless assault on Huangfu Yuchen.
With a sword in each hand, Huangfu Yuchen attacked the creature’s two heads. He remained positioned in the middle of the creature’s body, forcing it to twist into a “U” shape every time it attacked him.
As the battle continued, Huangfu Yuchen’s attacks grew weaker, and the creature’s satisfaction was evident. Seizing the opportunity, the creature attacked fiercely. Both heads charged toward Huangfu Yuchen in unison, aiming to trap him.
A cunning smile tugged at Huangfu Yuchen’s lips. Just as the two heads were about to strike him, he swiftly vanished. The creature’s heads collided violently, causing huge ripples in the sea. With a composed demeanor, Huangfu Yuchen raised his sword and effortlessly cleaved the creature into two halves.
The creature’s resilience was formidable. It writhed madly for a several minutes before finally stopping, dead.
Yan Ge drifted over and patted the creature’s head sympathetically, “It’s not scary to die at the hands of an enemy, but it’s frightening to die by your own actions.” He glanced at Huangfu Yuchen with a playful smile. “Humans are quite cunning.”
Huangfu Yuchen chuckled and returned the spiritual sword to him. “That’s why we’re a perfectly matched pair.”
Yan Ge looked puzzled. How did that have any connection to what he had just said?
Huangfu Yuchen patted his head and held his hand. “I’m a human, and you’re a human, so I’m cunning, and you’re cunning too. Let’s go.”
After taking a few steps, Yan Ge stopped abruptly. “Wait.”
“What’s wrong?” Huangfu Yuchen looked at him curiously as he walked back to the creature’s corpse.
Yan Ge stowed the creature’s body into the system’s store for sale. “This thing is quite rare. Maybe it’s worth something.”
Huangfu Yuchen grinned, also patting the creature’s severed head. “Poor thing.”
Yan Ge stared at him. “Aren’t I doing this to support our family?”
Huangfu Yuchen nodded quickly. “You’re doing the right thing, my love. If we encounter such a creature again, I’ll go kill it.”
The two of them bantered and continued on, but didn’t meet any more strange creatures.
Yan Ge felt bored and opened the system store to check if the creature had sold. He didn’t have high hopes, but when he saw the shelf was empty and a notification indicated the creature’s body had sold for 10,000 high-grade spirit stones, he couldn’t help but raise his chin in satisfaction.
“It was actually bought?” Huangfu Yuchen knew him well, and from his expression, he guessed what had happened and was somewhat surprised.
Yan Ge nodded, “10,000 high-grade spirit stones.”
Both of them were quite pleased. They hadn’t expected to make a small fortune on this trip.
However, thinking that He Xin and Xu Kai were still in William’s hands, they didn’t dare to linger and continued forward.
“The seawater is surging.” Yan Ge watched as his clothes floated in a clockwise direction and patted Huangfu Yuchen’s waist.
Huangfu Yuchen nodded, gazing ahead. “Judging from this situation, it seems like we’re getting close to a vortex.”
At the same time, both of them sensed that the spiritual energy had become denser. It was as if they were gradually approaching the source of the spiritual energy.
After moving forward for about a hundred meters, they saw a vortex ahead of them. The water vortex spun incredibly fast, and the seawater in that area was much darker than elsewhere. Fish, shrimp, and other creatures passing by couldn’t withstand the force of the vortex. They were swept in and disappeared in an instant. Due to the rapid speed, it looked as though they were dissolved by the rapidly spinning dark seawater. The lucky fish that managed to escape struggled to swim away from the dangerous zone.
Yan Ge looked down the vortex and saw a massive black hole with a diameter of about two hundred meters at the seabed. It looked like the gaping maw of a giant beast, seemingly bottomless. This was where the seawater entered.
He exchanged a glance with Huangfu Yuchen. The source of the spiritual energy was right below them; there was no reason not to take a look.
“Yuchen, this vortex is enormous. If we continue like this, we might be separated by the seawater.”
Huangfu Yuchen furrowed his brows. While it was feasible for them to cling to each other, the force of the seawater was incredibly strong. The direction of the vortex’s rotation had minor variations. If the seawater forcefully pulled them in different directions, they were likely to get injured even if they held onto each other.
“Use a double-layer barrier,” Huangfu Yuchen suggested.
“Let’s give it a try.” Yan Ge first generated a barrier with his true qi that could accommodate both of them. He then added another layer outside of it before pushing it into the vortex. The barrier resembled a transparent, sturdy sphere sinking deeper along with the vortex’s pull. Yan Ge sensed that the barrier remained intact and nodded to Huangfu Yuchen.
They held hands and formed a double-layer barrier around themselves before jumping into the vortex. They immediately felt a powerful force tossing them around.
Inside the vortex, it was pitch-black, and not a trace of light could be seen. Yan Ge took out his night pearl.
Huangfu Yuchen looked at his wristwatch. After more than twenty minutes, the vortex’s speed gradually decreased, and the darkness started to dissipate.
Suddenly, a forceful thrust struck the barrier and the two of them were thrown out of the vortex, landing on solid ground.
Before they could assess their surroundings, the whole space lit up and at the same time, a fierce killing intent surged toward them.
Looking up, they saw a burly man in gray armor holding a sharp sword. His eyes were as cold as ice, but strangely, his body seemed to twist and sway with the flow of the seawater, as if his flesh was soft.
Yan Ge carefully observed and realized that the man wasn’t a real person; he was merely a projection. Despite that, the killing intent emanating from him made them cautious and not dare to act recklessly.
Huangfu Yuchen looked at the man with concern, “My love, it seems we’ve inadvertently triggered a formation here.”
Before Yan Ge could speak, the man swung his sword toward them. With just one step, he appeared right in front of them.
“Yuchen, I’ve got this!” Yan Ge unsheathed his sword to block the attack. Feeling the impact from the man’s strike, Yan Ge’s face showed astonishment, “Sure enough, although he’s just a projection, his attacks are real!”
“Be careful,” Huangfu Yuchen stepped aside warily, keeping an eye on Yan Ge and the man while surveying their surroundings.
The space was quite peculiar. Despite being in the deep sea, it was as bright as day. This allowed them to clearly see that they seemed to be inside a cave. Fish bones were scattered on the ground, along with human skeletons. Not far away, there were even four or five sunken ships half-buried in the soil, their hulls damaged and worn. Due to the passage of time, they were heavily corroded, making it impossible to discern any inscriptions on them.
Huangfu Yuchen’s spiritual sense extended to only a hundred meters before being cut off by a barrier.
The man in battle armor displayed exquisite swordsmanship. The seawater posed no hindrance to him as he thrust his sword. The sword light shot like lightning toward Yan Ge.
Yan Ge quickly dodged, and the sword energy landed on a decaying log behind him, slicing the log in two as if cutting through tofu.
Yan Ge smiled, a fierce battle intent gleaming in his eyes. His aura suddenly converged, but the killing intent on his sword grew heavier. The spiritual sword seemed to trace a complex character in the seawater and the sword energy surged and roiled like a torrent, rushing toward the man in battle armor with the force of a flooding river.
The man’s body froze for an instant. With both hands lifting the sword, he forcefully split the rushing torrent into two, diverting it to both sides.
Yan Ge had anticipated this move. He leaped into the air and glided through the passage opened by the man, and his spiritual sword descended like lightning from above the man’s head.
However, the man also knew how to teleport. He suddenly vanished without a trace, and his aura appeared behind Yan Ge.
Yan Ge swiftly turned around, using his spiritual sword to block the opponent’s weapon.
The powerful forces clashed, causing both individuals to tremble slightly.
