Chapter 1309: The Trap
The great ship traveled north along the direction of the arrow at a steady pace while remaining cautious.
Many cultivators were surprised to see the boat's trajectory. Any reasonable person would know that the buoy from earlier was an attempt to goad Li Qiye towards the trap.
They weren't willing to be fooled and would rather avoid it completely instead of being led by the nose. Everyone knew that Li Qiye was aware of this trap, but to their astonishment, he still chose to go towards it.
"Knowing that there is a tiger on the mountain yet still choosing to climb, how bold and decisive. What a confident person!" Even sea demons unavoidably felt a little admiration for Li Qiye.
"Prudence allows for a ship to sail ten thousand years." An old cultivator murmured: "The path towards the dao is endless with countless dangers. If not careful, even the most amazing genius might find their boat capsize one day."
"Come, let's take a look. I actually want to know who is trying to mess with Li Qiye." Some cultivators couldn't contain their curiosity and decided to follow.
Someone had already placed a high bounty for Li Qiye's head, and now there was this blatant provocation and trap. The person behind this must have an irreconcilable feud with Li Qiye.
The boat didn't go too far before seeing another message on the sea with an arrow: "Li Qiye will die if he goes this way!"
The boat, once again, followed the direction without any hesitation. After some distance, they kept seeing the same sign again and again with a new direction.
"Just what kind of trap is waiting for him?" The quantity of the signs built up the anticipation of the cultivators following behind the boat.
Eventually, the boat stopped because of a large sign with "Li Qiye will die here!" written on it. There wasn't an arrow above the words this time.
The spectators knew that the trap was before them, so they stopped to watch from afar.
Li Qiye told the two girls: "Stop here, I'll go take a look."
"Be careful." Jianshi reminded him after seeing that he wanted to go alone.
"Don't worry, I actually want to be killed." Li Qiye looked at her and smiled: "It will be a good thing."
The two sisters were speechless. This was their first time hearing someone who wished to be killed.
Li Qiye slowly walked on the waves towards the sign in front of him. He seemed to be taking a stroll through his own garden instead of walking towards a trap.
The sea demons in the distance were surprised by his carefree demeanor. One of them said: "This Li might be arrogant, but he can really back it up. Courageous and domineering, a very unique individual even among the young geniuses in Heaven Spirit."
"It's about to begin, I wonder how strong his enemies are." Some spectators were holding their breaths in anticipation. They didn't want to miss a single detail. Some wanted to see just how strong this trap was and if it could deal with Li Qiye or not.
Li Qiye glanced at the buoy and casually threw it away before smiling: "Come, do your worst and impress me."
"Boom! Boom! Boom!" At the initial location of the buoy where Li Qiye was standing, great pillars soared into the sky from the bottom of the sea.
They surrounded this region and runes began to appear on their surfaces.
"Clank!" These runes instantly connected with each other like iron chains and sealed the entire area.
"Whoosh!" They emitted a powerful aura and a blinding light. Even space seemed to be frozen.
A spectator blurted after seeing this brilliance: "The aura of a sea god! This is a sea god's method!"
Now that the nearby space had been frozen by the pillars, they began to emit an energy to suppress Li Qiye and cut off all paths of retreat.
"These are items personally refined by a sea god." Someone commented after seeing some clues on the pillars.
A cultivator asked: "Which sea god?"
The paragon slightly opened his mouth, but he refrained from answering. He didn't want to expose the background of the sea god. After all, he and Li Qiye didn't know each other. There was no need for him to run his big mouth and provoke a sea god's lineage.
"Buzz!" When Li Qiye gathered his blood energy, a seal of a sea god surfaced on the pillars in order to suppress his energy; it was immediately successful.
Another expert wondered: "I wonder if Li Qiye can withstand this level of suppression in that sealed space."
Li Qiye didn't seem to mind at all and stopped gathering his blood energy. He smilingly said: "Fine, I can still destroy you all without using my blood energy and merit laws. It's time to show me your worth, don't waste my time."
When all of his power was converged, he looked just like a mortal. The crowd was dumbfounded by his actions.
Even in the face of a sea god's suppression, he still chose to not use laws and his blood energy. Just how confident and domineering was this?
Small buds stretched out of the sea. It looked like new branches were growing from them. Just like that, more and more of these young buds surrounded this sealed area for as far as the eye could see.
"What is this?" The crazy growth of these buds creating a meadow-like location on the sea left many astonished.
They didn't know what these buds were. Shortly after, the buds grew into large vines like swimming serpents. They wove together and created a huge net that wrapped around Li Qiye.
While this was happening, he stood there without moving while watching this scene with a smile.
"It's the Blazing-serum Treant!" The nest-like creation formed from these vines was finally recognized by a cultivator.
Treants emerged from the sea as well as inside the sealed sky. Their heads were skulls while their bodies were made from vines and roots. Their bodies were very muscular like horned dragons taking root in the sea. They grew with frightening speed and immediately crowded the entire area. Suddenly, huge vines covered everyone's vision.
Next, the net made out of giant vines shrunk at a rapid pace. It seemed to be using a mighty force to strangle Li Qiye inside.
A different type of sea demon was standing on these gigantic vines as well. Their bodies were transparent like seawater, rendering their organs visible. When their bodies swayed with the vines, liquids gurgled out continuously into the vines themselves.
Meanwhile, the vines crazily absorbed this liquid. It looked to be greatly nutritious since the vines could grow even faster to occupy the area.
All of this happened very quickly. Starting from the buds until they grew into the entrapping vines, it only took the time it takes to perform a merit law.
Escaping this sealed space was truly a challenge. Moreover, Li Qiye couldn't move at all since he was wrapped by the vine net.
"Ice-spirit Sea Demons, no way!" A sacred lord from the Dragon Demon Sea was startled.
An unfamiliar cultivator asked: "What do you mean?"
"Ice-spirit Sea Demons and Blazing-serum Treants have been mortal enemies for generations. They have always been at odds!" This sacred lord blurted out: "But these two races are complementary to each other. The water of the Ice-spirit is extremely nutritious for these treants, allowing them to mature faster. This means that the explosiveness of the treants would be dozens or a hundred times greater in combat…
"… at the same time, the roots and buds of these treants are also nutritious for the sea demons. All along, the Blazing-serum Treants wanted to capture the Ice-spirit Sea Demons to suck their water dry while the Ice-spirits wanted to absorb the Blazing-serums' roots and refine them into their own treasure liquids. They have massacred each other for generations, so why would they work together like this…?"
Chapter 1310: Blazing-serum Treants and Ice-spirit Sea Demons
"Boom!" The tightly woven net of vines suddenly caught on fire at the center. In fact, a fire was far from sufficient to describe what was going on.
This explosion left the net stranded in a sea of fire, making it seem like the sun itself. It immediately spread and exploded some more, emitting terrifying smoke. This ferocious flame swept through the entire area.
The fact that the space was sealed exacerbate the scale of this flame of indescribable power. Its high temperature could burn everything to ashes.
In this split second, the wooden net was no longer there, only a gigantic sun with its flames surging for thousands of meters could be seen.
These terrifying flames assaulted the world and burned everything. Li Qiye, who was stuck in the center, was affected the most. The flame had probably burned him to ashes.
The monstrous fire made it difficult for others to look straight at it. Many spectators were slack-jawed. Even a paragon would be nothing in the face of this intense heat.
"This is why the Blazing-serum Treants are so scary. If they are willing to risk it all by using their lifespan, they could incinerate their own bodies to kill their enemies." A treant ancestor explained: "The presence of the Ice-spirit Sea Demons made these treants grow even stronger and amplified the power of the explosion."
"Is he still alive?" Someone squinted to look at the center of the ball of fire, but the blistering flames blocked their vision. Even a heavenly gaze couldn't see through its blinding light.
As the blasts continued, everyone became curious as to what Li Qiye's situation was.
Suddenly, the flames moved wildly. This sky-searing flame caved in as if something within the artificial sun was devouring its power.
More scorching sizzles resounded. The sealed space continued to quake as the blazing sun became smaller and smaller; it was as if it was losing its source of power.
Eventually, the sun became small enough for one to see what was happening. Everyone could now see Li Qiye frantically devouring this sunflame.
He had opened his fate palace. The cauldron of life emerged with the Heavenly Dao's Primal Chapter. The cauldron itself already had an eternal flame of life while this primal chapter had an affinity for high temperatures. Thus, their combination was fundamentally flawless and allowed for the perfect absorption of all flames.
Meanwhile, the blazing flames of these treants were predicated on them burning their bodies. This type of flame was quite nutritious for Li Qiye, so his own fire of life grew much stronger after the devouring it.
How could he let go when such a good opportunity was brought to his doorstep? He directly used his cauldron of life to turn everything into his own.
"How can this be? Something like this is actually possible?" Many people couldn't believe their own eyes.
Everyone knew that the flame of this race was a wondrous substance since they burned their own life force in order to create it. However, not just anyone could withstand such an overbearing fire. Devouring this blazing flame could easily destroy their own cauldron of life.
The Blazing-serum Treants became distraught after seeing all the fire being devoured by Li Qiye.
The experts of their race shouted: "Combine!" All of their branches grew at an astonishing pace as they took root within the deepest part of the earth.
At the same time, the Ice-spirit Sea Demons combined with the treants. Their own bodies merged with the branches, then they poured their spirit water inside.
"This is so incredible, seamless cooperation from mortal enemies. Someone must have paid a sky-high price to make them work together like this to kill Li Qiye." A sect master was astounded to see this teamwork.
At this time, the treants seemed to be blooming with flowers. However, petals didn't come out from the hollow holes filled with darkness.
"Rumble!" Lava rushed out from these holes. Some sprayed to the sky before aiming straight for Li Qiye.
Shortly after, lava gushed from all directions, aiming to drown and annihilate Li Qiye.
"The treants are using their killing move! Do not get hit by this hot serum or you'll explode right away!" A treant expert lost his voice while screaming.
This blazing serum from this race was quite terrifying. Not only did it have a high temperature, once it touched its prey, it would seem to come to life and invade the body before exploding.
Moreover, the power of this explosion was enormous; it was dozens of times stronger than the flames from earlier. Even the strongest body wouldn't be able to withstand the internal explosions.
These serums that resembled lava came tumbling down from the sky, causing relentless explosions. The sealed space trembled, but everyone saw an unbelievable scene.
Li Qiye's cauldron of life immediately opened wide and crazily swallowed all the incoming serum. It violently quaked as explosions resounded inside. Without a doubt, these serums were detonating within.
However, the Heavenly Dao's Primal Chapter and its laws fortified the cauldron of life by sealing it. The barrage of explosions couldn't harm the cauldron at all. How could these blazing liquids blow away an item at the primal chapter's level?
Jaws dropped at this spectacle.
"Is his cauldron of life made out of immortal metal? It is perfectly fine after this many explosions, even the strongest Godking cauldron wouldn't be able to handle so many powerful outbreaks." A sea demon of the paragon level was shocked.
"Rumble!" More blazing serum shot out in an endless manner. They crazily attacked Li Qiye's cauldron of life as if this treant race wouldn't give up until he was blown to pieces.
A few sea demons were lost in admiration. One of them said: "It is fortunate that these two races are mortal enemies. If they work together, they might become one of the most terrifying lineages in the Dragon Demon Sea. This endless barrage of serum could instantly destroy a great power."
"No, that's not right." A Virtuous Paragon from the previous generation was quite experienced. After watching for a while, he shook his head and said: "Something is wrong, they are not in control of their serum anymore."
This paragon was right. At this time, the experts from the two races were completely frightened because their serum kept on gushing out. They had lost control of the situation as they kept on feeding Li Qiye's cauldron of life as if it wanted to squeeze them dry.
Even though their serum was quite powerful and horrifying, it also came at a heavy price. It was equivalent to a cultivator's blood energy or even longevity blood. This lavish barrage of their serum meant that their longevity blood was being drained.
An expert from the treant race shouted towards the Ice-spirit Sea Demons: "Separate!"
Due to the previous fusion, their serum became stronger and, of course, this meant that Li Qiye was absorbing an even greater amount.
"We can't!" These sea demons were alarmed as well. Their spirit water was supporting the treants and their serum. However, Li Qiye was not only devouring the longevity blood of the treants, he was also sucking them dry since they were one with the treants.
They desperately tried to separate their bodies, but Li Qiye's cauldron of life had a formidable swallowing nature. It locked the two races together in a way that they simply couldn't separate.
Waves splashed everywhere. Despite how much the two races struggled on the sea, they failed to escape from Li Qiye's grasp.
"Oh mother! This is not the Blazing-serum Treants attacking Li Qiye, he is simply devouring their longevity blood!" Finally, people understood the situation and couldn't help but quiver in horror.
"No!" Ultimately, the experts from the two races screamed pitifully. Li Qiye had completely devoid them of their energy source. After a couple moments, countless corpses floated on the sea.