Chapter 601 - 331: Demon Cultivator Attack
The cultivators who landed on the island were quite fortunate.
Aside from a few unlucky souls who were devoured by Demon Beasts, everyone else had some gains, big or small—worth at least a hundred Spirit Stones.
This made the cultivators who had been too afraid of the danger to venture out deeply envious. After all, this amounted to a third of the price of a ticket on the ship.
For low-level cultivators, this was a huge sum of money.
Night grew deeper.
Thanks to the day’s harvest, the fleet—which had been gloomy from the constant deaths—came alive with a rare energy. Many ships spontaneously organized trading sessions. Spiritual Objects from Turtle Island were brought out, and the air filled with the sounds of haggling as deals were struck.
At the highest point of the giant ship’s sterncastle.
Here stood a small, elegantly decorated hall.
The fragrance of tea filled the air.
Lü Zhong raised the Treasure Shell Tea Lamp, took a sip of the Spirit Tea Water, and looked at Shuini beside him.
"How is your recovery coming along? We’re not far from the Cyan Sea Abyss now. I’ve been feeling unsettled lately. It seems the Demon Cultivators have indeed set their sights on this fleet. I expect they’ll make their move soon."
These were not empty words.
In recent days, the auras of Demon Cultivators had been appearing constantly, and there had been multiple probing attacks—clearly, they were testing the fleet’s defensive capabilities.
Their goal was to prepare for an all-out assault.
"I still need at least three more months," Shuini said, putting down a pastry and thinking for a moment. "However, I can still display the power of a Nascent Soul True Monarch even now. Of course, it’s not the strength of a normal Nascent Soul, just the level of someone who has recently undergone Nascent Soul Formation. If I use a Secret Skill or take a Pill, I can maintain my peak condition for a short while."
Lü Zhong was silent after hearing this.
’The aftereffects of being parasitized are quite severe.’
’I wonder about the extent of the aftereffects for Yun Yan, Fire Dragon, Mu Guan, and the others who were rescued and returned to the Southern Barbarian lands a while ago.’
’If they’re crippled, their cultivation unable to advance another inch, that would be for the best, of course...’ Lü Zhong thought to himself, though he felt it was unlikely.
DONG!
A warning firework exploded in the sky.
It was followed by a barrage of warning fireworks.
"This is bad! A Demon Beast has infiltrated! All ships, on high alert!" Yuu Mingzi’s roar came from the front. Using some unknown technique, his voice boomed like thunder, echoing across the entire fleet.
Hearing this, Lü Zhong looked at the chaotic crowd on deck and felt a pang of confusion.
’But I personally screened every single cultivator who returned,’ he thought.
’How could a Demon Beast still have gotten mixed in?’
Before he could dwell on it, the sounds of battle erupted.
At the same time, the shields on each ship finally activated, preventing more Demon Beasts from using the chaos to board and cause even greater panic.
Lü Zhong produced the Star Mirror and said to Shuini, "Be careful."
"Mm, you too." Shuini formed a protective shield with a quick gesture, readying herself for battle.
Soon, Lü Zhong began clearing the ships one by one.
His powerful Divine Sense swept out, locking onto the Demon Beasts on the ships.
He singled out the Tier Three Demon Beasts, picking them off with precise, fatal strikes.
Lü Zhong fired off several beams of Mirror Light.
He blasted clean holes through several slug-like Demon Beasts and, without waiting to see if they were dead, moved on to the next target.
In the time it takes to take a hundred breaths, he had cleared all the Tier Three Demon Beasts from one ship.
As for the Tier One and Tier Two Demon Beasts, he didn’t need to lift a finger; the cultivators on the ship would deal with them.
With this method, and with Shuini’s assistance,
Lü Zhong finished the cleanup in just three quarters of an hour.
But this was just the beginning.
As he was quelling the chaos, the Demon Cultivators finally revealed themselves, driving a massive horde of Sea Beasts before them. Their tyrannical Demon Qi surged into the heavens, coalescing into a vast demonic cloud that blotted out the starry sky.
There were four Demon Cultivators in total.
Compared to Immortal Cultivators, their forms were enormous, each standing at least ten feet tall.
The leader was a Demon Cultivator with the head of an octopus and the body of a man, standing a full thirty feet tall. His aura was no weaker than Yuu Mingzi’s. The moment he appeared, he charged straight for Yuu Mingzi, and the two were instantly locked in a furious battle. Flashes of Spiritual Light erupted; one moment, the sea was cleaved open into a ten-thousand-foot abyss, the next, towering waterspouts shot into the sky.
Of the other two Demon Cultivators, one resembled a great catfish spirit. Its massive, bloated body was a hundred feet tall—an oppressive sight—and covered in a layer of mucus.
Its massive tail swishing, it charged across the water’s surface toward Lü Zhong.
"The True Catfish Demon King is here! Human Cultivator, prepare to die!"
"Heh, how polite of you," Lü Zhong sneered, producing the Cangwu Bead.
In an instant, a protective shield formed around him.
He spared a glance for Shuini. She was facing off against what appeared to be a Clam Spirit. Aside from its massive shell, the demon had a fully humanoid form, so Lü Zhong figured it couldn’t be that strong.
’Shuini should have no trouble dealing with it.’
’The only real problem is the fourth Demon Cultivator!’
Lü Zhong’s gaze shifted. The fourth Demon Cultivator had reverted to its true form: a gigantic turtle with a shell covered in thorns. It was directing the Sea Beast Group to launch a ferocious assault on one of the large flying ships. At the same time, it continuously spat out orbs of light that created ripples across the ship’s shield with every impact.
’At this rate,
the ship’s shield will be broken before long.’
But Lü Zhong had no more time to think. In a flash, the True Catfish Demon King attacked, striking with a palm that carried immense and astonishing Demon Power.
With a deafening BOOM,
the blow struck the Cangwu Shield, causing it to deform violently.
Lü Zhong was secretly shocked. ’This catfish is incredibly strong,’ he thought. ’No wonder it charged in without hesitation. It must be extremely confident in its power.’
Seeing it prepare another palm strike, Lü Zhong let out another cold laugh.
He immediately unleashed the Thunder Skill he had prepared.
"Thunder Descends!"
In an instant, a blinding flash of lightning erupted.
"GAK!" The Catfish Demon King’s small eyes narrowed, and it let out an involuntary, strange cry.
As it hastily withdrew its palm, a large amount of mucus secreted from its skin.
An astonishing scene unfolded. The incomparably powerful Tribulation Thunder slammed into the mucus and seemed to be neutralized. As the mucus rapidly vanished, the lightning disappeared along with it.
"Human Cultivator, how does your Thunder Skill contain the aura of Tribulation Thunder?" The True Catfish Demon King’s face was filled with shock. It opened its cavernous maw and spoke these words fluently.
A moment ago, it had nearly been engulfed by the Thunder Skill.
If not for the innate talent of the Earth-Shaking Catfish clan to release a protective Earth Energy Mucus, that single strike would have been enough to blast it to a crisp, reducing its power by twenty percent.
Hearing this, Lü Zhong decided to play along while secretly preparing another spell. He thought for a moment and said, "Naturally, the Thunder Skill I cultivate is... special."
"GAK! What a pity!" The True Catfish Demon King sized up Lü Zhong, its covetous gaze undisguised. "In the past, Your Excellency might have become an honored guest of the Saint Venerable. Of course," it added, "I mean the kind that’s stewed in a pot and served on a platter."
A Human Cultivator’s Nascent Soul is the ultimate tonic for a Demon Cultivator.
A single bite is worth hundreds of years of bitter cultivation.
The True Catfish Demon King had been fortunate enough to have a taste once, and it had never forgotten the flavor.
Just as it was wracking its brain for a few more words to stall the Human Cultivator and finish accumulating its Demon Power, Lü Zhong, across from it, beat the True Catfish Demon King to the punch and completed his own Magic Skill.
Lü Zhong gave the True Catfish Demon King a mocking smile. With a flick of a Technique Mantra, his Magical Power surged.
The sky gradually began to brighten.
This strange phenomenon naturally drew the attention of everyone present.
Shuini was slightly taken aback when she saw this. She hadn’t expected Lü Zhong to cast the Star Pulling Skill with such ease.
As a cultivator who specialized in the Profound Moon Inheritance, she herself would have to spend a great deal of time and exhaust most of her Magical True Essence to even dream of summoning such a massive Meteor.
As the thought crossed her mind, the massive Meteor had already broken through the cloud layer.
Its target was none other than the Thorny Giant Turtle.
"ROOAR!" The giant turtle let out a great cry, sending a ring of waves surging around it. The flying ship’s shield was on the verge of breaking. If it retreated now, the shield would recover, and all its efforts would have been for naught.
So, shrouded in a blood-red light, it decided to rely on its shell to withstand the Meteor Strike head-on.
The next moment.
A tremendous BOOM shook the entire surface of the sea.
The area ahead flashed brilliantly.
A blinding light erupted.
A massive, circular wave radiated out from the Thorny Giant Turtle.
The immense force of the Meteor’s impact radiated outward. The nearby Sea Beasts took the full brunt of it, instantly exploding into a bloody mist that dyed the sea red. The shield of the closest Flying Ship flickered wildly, on the verge of shattering.
Lü Zhong was surprised to see the giant turtle was still afloat.
’It actually withstood that?’
As the Caster, he knew the power of his Meteor Strike well. It could shatter the Protective Gang Qi of even an Early-stage Nascent Soul cultivator. The force was astonishing.
Just as Lü Zhong was thinking about how to deal with this demon,
The Thorny Giant Turtle began to sink slowly, blood pouring from its body. Its aura was much weaker than before. Lü Zhong surmised it must have been seriously injured and was forced to retreat.
With the giant turtle’s threat neutralized, Lü Zhong could focus on the True Catfish Demon King.
The Demon Cultivator attacked again, its power now on a completely different level. Shrouded in blood-red flames, each of its palm strikes contained astonishing force.
At the same time, it was fully prepared for Lü Zhong’s Thunder Skills.
It spewed a thick layer of mucus to cover its body.
Seeing this, Lü Zhong settled in for a prolonged fight. He unleashed Thunder Swamps and Thunderous Spears, occasionally mixing in a Thunder Descends. In any case, his Magical Power was abundant, so he had no fear of a war of attrition. And with no Tier Four Demon Cultivator threatening them, the fleet wouldn’t be breached anytime soon.
The two exchanged hundreds of blows, but the outcome remained undecided.
The breakthrough came from Shuini. She condensed a massive Moon Sword and, wrapped in moonlight, brought it down on the Clam Spirit’s giant shell. It plunged straight through the shell, eliciting a ghastly scream that was impossible to identify as male or female. A moment later, a torrent of blood gushed out.
The Clam Spirit was grievously wounded.
Some time later, the Demon Cultivators were defeated and retreated, leaving behind a vast number of corpses floating on the surface. Blood had dyed the entire sea red.
The fleet had suffered heavy casualties, with nearly a thousand dead or wounded. Most of the losses occurred when the ships’ shields were breached.
The only good news was that none of the presiding Nascent Soul Cultivators were harmed. Yuu Mingzi, after his long battle with the octopus-headed Demon Cultivator, had only exhausted his Magical Power, leaving his face a little pale.
After collecting the spoils of war, the fleet set off once more.