The pressure was incredibly domineering, and the wave of black water which appeared at the entrance of the port instantly turned into a huge wall that rumbled toward the main sluicegate. The wave was so massive, and contained such brutal power, that it provoked a reaction from the grand spell formation. The seven distant eyes glittered, and in response, a screen of red light appeared to block the progress of the wave.
However, the rumbling grew louder, until it was so deafening that the people in Harbor 176 felt like heavenly thunder was crashing in their ears. Xu Qing frowned and waved his hand, causing dharma force to sweep out and cover Gu Muqing and Ding Xue, blocking the sound from entering their mind. Unfortunately, the rest of the disciples didn’t have it as easy, and one after another, they coughed up blood and staggered backward. This sound was so intense that it was injuring Qi Condensation cultivators!
Xu Qing’s eyes narrowed, while the Captain rubbed his chin and looked at Second Highness.
Second Highness also frowned as she looked past the sluicegate and barked, “What’s the meaning of this?”
“Aiyaaa, Big Sis, don’t be angry!” responded a melodious voice from beyond the sluicegate.
A moment later, a massive octopus tentacle stretched out of the water in roughly that same spot. It was many meters wide, and several hundred meters long as it stretched over the sluicegate and into the port itself. Then a massive octopus rose out of the water, using its tentacles to simply climb over the gate.
Atop the octopus sat a young woman who appeared to be in her teens. It was hard to determine her specific age, though, because of her physical appearance; her style wasn’t typical of a young woman. She wore tight black clothing and had very short hair. That said, she was cute, and even seemed dainty as her gigantic octopus made its way toward Harbor 176.
Upon nearing, the giant octopus dripped black water everywhere, some of which splashed on the Seven Blood Eyes disciples. Meanwhile, the Seastars all trembled and bowed their heads. Shockingly, this octopus radiated the same type of aura as a Gold Core elder! Terrifying sea beasts this huge had battle prowess automatically surpassing cultivators in the same level as them. And right now, this octopus was emitting pressure without the slightest scruple.
Xu Qing backed up a few steps to avoid the splashing water, all while coldly eyeing the young woman in black as she got to her feet atop the huge octopus. She was probably around fifteen or sixteen, with an oval face, thin lips, lively eyes, and delicate features. Hopping off the octopus, she landed on the dock, glanced at Xu Qing and the Captain, and then rushed over to Second Highness.
“Don’t blame me, Big Sis! It’s all Stinker’s fault! I’ll handle the punishment!” As the words left her mouth, the young woman waved her hand, causing a host of sharp black spikes to appear in the air and then shoot toward her own octopus, pulsing with astonishing energy. And they weren’t aimed at its tough hide, but instead, its eyes. The octopus trembled, not daring to move as the black spikes stabbed into it. A moment later, black blood oozed down out of its eyes.
Seeing all this, Xu Qing’s pupils constricted. And as he looked more closely at the girl in the black clothing, his heart beat a bit faster. The reason was that, though this girl looked like an ordinary human, she was actually different. She wasn’t like the Captain, or the Seazombie dao child, or the elders or peaklords. She seemed… much more pure!
It was a purity that Xu Qing understood very clearly, and it was why his heart was suddenly racing.
She doesn’t have any mutagen in her!
It was the first time Xu Qing had ever encountered any other cultivator who lacked mutagen. She was so pure she seemed like the daughter of a god! What was more, Xu Qing could just barely make out the evidence that she had many more than 100 dharma apertures open. She hadn’t quite reached the level of 120. Rather, she had 104 of them open. What was more, she was clearly continuing to open more and more of them, and it didn’t seem like she would stop at 120. It was entirely possible she would go past that level.
That in itself was no shock to Xu Qing, as he had previously come to the realization that 120… wasn’t the final limit.
Frowning in irritation, Second Highness said, “Yanyan, this is Seven Blood Eyes. You—”
“Okay, okay,” Yanyan said sweetly, slipping her arms around Second Highness’ arm. “My bad, Big Sis.” Clearly, Yanyan was close to the Second Highness.
Shaking her head, Second Highness looked at the Captain. “Eldest Brother, uh… look, Yanyan didn’t do any of this on purpose.”
Smiling, the Captain measured up Yanyan.
She looked curiously back at him. Smiling to reveal two dimples, she said, “Don’t look at me like that. If you do, I’ll have Stinker dig your eyes out.”
The Captain’s eyes glittered as he intentionally opened them even wider. Producing an apple, he took a bite and said, “That’s totally fine. In fact, I’ll dig them out for you. How about we trade? My eyes for a bottle of Eastnether serum?”
Yanyan’s eyebrows shot up, but then Second Highness tightened her arm around her. Yanyan snorted coldly, then finally looked over at Xu Qing. Before, she had barely looked at him, but now her gaze met his face.
“Big Sis, this guy isn’t a fellow disciple of yours, is he? I’d like to use his face for a mask. It’d look great!”
It didn’t seem like she was joking around. Her eyes glittered with a very odd light, while at the same time, the huge octopus looked coldly at Xu Qing.
Everyone present was getting very nervous, and the Seastars were edging away.
Meanwhile, Xu Qing didn’t say anything, but his dharma force was already converging, and his shadow was ready to act at any moment.
As Yanyan’s eyes narrowed, Second Highness sighed inwardly.
“Absolutely not!” Second Highness said sharply. It went without saying that Second Highness was familiar with Xu Qing, and knew that he was friends with Huang Yan. “Sorry about this, Xu Qing. You might as well take off now. I’ll explain all of this to Huang Yan later.”
Xu Qing nodded and turned to leave.
However, upon hearing Huang Yan’s name, Yanyan suddenly smiled. “Why are you protecting this guy, Big Sis? Do you have a crush on him? In that case, I don’t want his face after all. Instead, I’ll slash it to ribbons!”
She burst into motion, speeding toward Xu Qing with deep hostility burning in her eyes.
Though she moved with unfathomable speed, Xu Qing had been on guard the entire time. His life flames instantly burned to life as he entered the profound radiance state and shot toward Yanyan.
At the same time, the octopus erupted with the pressure of the Gold Core level, and was about to unleash its own attack when a roar of rage erupted from the Sixth Peak like thunder from heaven.
“How impudent!”
The octopus shivered, and its aura collapsed under the sudden pressure. The invisible force was so great that it couldn’t move.
The Captain chose that moment to shoot toward the octopus. Bursting with frigid energy, he headed right toward one of the tentacles and bit into it.
Meanwhile, Xu Qing and Yanyan smashed into each other. A boom rang out as she slashed her sharp nails toward his face. He dodged, and then a dagger materialized in his right hand, which he swept toward her throat.
She twisted to the side to avoid the dagger, but then Xu Qing’s knee slammed into her chest. She crumpled with a booming thud as she flew past him.
Not pausing for a moment, Xu Qing took out a small bottle of black liquid and smashed it between his hands with all the force he could muster.
The bottle shattered, and black liquid splashed out in all directions. Some landed on him, but most of it splattered on Yanyan’s hand, which had been stretching toward him from behind.
Expression flickering, she flicked her hand at the wrist, but wasn’t able to get the black liquid off of her. That black liquid was actually a host of tiny beetles, and the moment they touched her skin, they started burrowing into her pores.
“You!” she blurted. ｂ𝚍ｏｖ𝚕．𝚝
However, Xu Qing’s eyes were burning with killing intent. His black iron skewer appeared, and shot toward Yanyan, joined by his shadow.
In that moment of potentially deadly crisis, an irritated voice echoed from the Sixth Peak.
“That’s enough.”
A tremor passed through Xu Qing, and he suddenly felt powerless to do anything other than back up.
It was the same with Yanyan. Face pale, she stepped backward. After looking down at her hand, she took out a medicinal pill and consumed it, but it didn’t do anything. Finally, she had to grit her teeth and produce a golden paper talisman. After applying it to her hand, she was able to stop the spread of the black beetles.
Hurrying over, Second Highness sighed again and gave Xu Qing an apologetic look. Wrapping her arm around Yanyan, she began to lead her away.
“You’re Xu Qing, right?” Yanyan said venomously as she walked off. “I’m going to remember you. I have my sights set on that face of yours. By the way, tell that fatso Huang Yan that if he keeps going after my Big Sis, I’ll make sure he ends up dead!”
Off to the side, the Captain was struggling to rip off some Gold Core flesh, but was having trouble. Eventually, he had to settle for biting off the tip of a tentacle.
The octopus struggled against him, but had been fully suppressed, and couldn’t move. All it could do was make some piteous whimpering sounds. Sadly, Yanyan had already forgotten about the octopus.
As for the Seastars, they were looking at Xu Qing and the Captain with open reverence.
In their eyes, both of them seemed completely crazy. One of them, when facing a suppressed Gold Core sea beast, had immediately tried to take a bite out of its flesh. Meanwhile, the other had openly attacked a junior princess from Eastnether Isle. And he had obviously been trying to kill her.
It’s hard to say which is crazier! These two are not to be trifled with!
Then they thought about the bounty put up by the Seazombies, and came to the conclusion that it made sense for two people like this to have done something so dramatic.
With things calmed down, people went their separate ways. Eventually, the only ones left behind were Xu Qing, the Captain, the suppressed octopus, as well as Ding Xue and Gu Muqing. The Captain dismissed the latter two.
Ding Xue was obviously worried, but knew that the Captain and Xu Qing had things to discuss, so she took her leave. Gu Muqing also turned to leave, then stopped and gave a medicinal pill bottle to Xu Qing.
“Elder Brother Xu Qing, this pill works wonders in treating insect wounds.”
Xu Qing nodded in thanks and took the bottle. When the two young women were gone, the Captain shouldered the tentacle tip he’d bitten off, then sauntered over to Xu Qing.
“None of this is my business,” he said with a grin, “but just so you know, that girlie has had a crush on Second Sib for years. Obviously, she came here to cause trouble for Huang Yan, and once she found out you’re good friends with him, dragged you into it. She obviously didn’t realize you’d be so hard to deal with.”
Xu Qing’s eyes glittered coldly, but he didn’t say anything. Instead, he started walking toward the octopus.
“Hey, what’re you doing?” the Captain said.
“Chopping off a tentacle,” Xu Qing replied quietly.
“No, don’t! The suppression time is almost over!!”
“If you help, it’ll be easier to chop it off.” As the octopus glared angrily, Xu Qing summoned another dagger and started chopping.