Chapter 581 - Great Beast
Under the pale glow of the moon, Elder Cai’s silver armor shone with a keen elegance, its engravings catching the light in an enchanting display. Oppressive and powerful. Those two words described the appearance of her battle armor well, so much that its might colored perception: the entire ocean seemed to sink.
Mu Ye’s eyes flickered with light as he took in the sight. He sighed. “That’s a three-word battle armor. A three-word battle armor from Shrek Academy really is different!”
Tang Wulin stared at Elder Cai, jaw dropping and unable to tear away his gaze. This was his first time beholding her true might. He had been told she was a powerful elder during the entrance exam, but never could he have imagined such oppressive power. Only those who stood at the peak could suppress the ocean itself.
This was the strength of a Hyper Douluo equipped with three-word battle armor! In this state, she was only one step short of matching a Limit Douluo. To put that into perspective, a seven-ringed Soul Sage equipped with two-word battle armor was nearly on par with a Titled Douluo, and an eight-ringed Soul Douluo with three-word battle armor could match a Hyper Douluo. However, after becoming a Hyper Douluo, the remaining soul power ranks grew exponentially harder to achieve. Even a Titled Douluo with three-word battle armor could only match a rank 96 Hyper Douluo.
Since Elder Cai was a Hyper Douluo herself, her three-word battle armor boosted her strength to the equivalent of a rank 98 Hyper Douluo. A mere step shy from a rank 99 Limit Douluo. If she managed to upgrade her armor to the four-word level, she would stand on the peak above all other peaks in terms of strength.
As such, Elder Cai had nothing to fear from a couple of hundred-thousand-year soul beasts. Even if their cultivation levels were far higher, she still could put up a good fight. As someone who earned the position of an elder of Shrek Academy, she was naturally a person who gazed down from the summit.
“I’ll give you one more chance,” barked Elder Cai. “Get out of the way now!”
“Leave her to me,” someone said from deep within the ocean. The next instant, a figure burst through the water in the distance. The sky around them trembled, azure raging through its expanse. The ocean swelled up to swallow the sky. To those on board the two ships, it looked as if the ocean engulfed the entire world.
Elder Cai’s confident expression faltered for the first time.
During dangerous situations, information saved lives. Tang Wulin used his Purple Demon Eyes to see what had broke through the water’s surface. To his astonishment, the figure appeared to be a human male. However, that similarity only held true for his upper body. His lower body consisted of twelve kraken-like tentacles. As the tentacled man floated in the sky, he unleashed his mighty aura, pushing back against Elder Cai’s own.
“A Great Beast?” Mu Ye blurted.
Great Beasts. In other words, soul beasts with a cultivation level over two-hundred-thousand years! The continent of Douluo also had several of its own known. They were the Ten Great Beasts.
Ten thousand years ago, the Ten Great Beasts had shocked the world with their strength and fought against the founder of the Spirit Pagoda, the Spirit Ice Douluo, Huo Yuhao! He managed to slay a few and drive them away. Ever since then, there had been no sightings of any of the Ten Great Beasts. Among the ten, the strongest was known as the Beast God, the Golden-eyed Black Dragon King, and possessed a cultivation level over eight-hundred-thousand years! The most powerful existence in the mortal realm!
Legends had it that before the Spirit Ice Douluo ascended to godhood, he waged war against the Golden-eyed Black Dragon King, Di Tian. In the end, he managed victory and ascended. The Beast God disappeared afterward, his death unconfirmed.
The ocean covered far more of the planet than land did, so there were more Great Beasts lurking within the waters.
With the addition of a Great Beast to the pair of hundred-thousand-year soul beasts, Elder Cai and the ships now faced a true threat.
As water dripped from the Great Beast still suspended in midair, its body enlarged, transforming into a colossal kraken over a kilometer in size. A single strike of its tentacles sent the ocean into a frenzy. Even Elder Cai was overwhelmed by its outburst of strength.
The abyssal demon whale king bellowed, rallying all of the lesser soul beasts to attack the ships.
Elder Cai raised her staff to the sky in retaliation. It swallowed the moonlight cast by the silver moon, gathered it, and condensed the moonlight into a long needle. The staff released the needle, shooting it at the giant kraken!
The colossal kraken waved its tentacles in front of it. Violet petals of light, layers upon layers of such, bloomed. The petals intercepted the needle in a dazzling explosion of lights.
As the two powerhouses waged war against each other, the two ships began mounting their offensive as well. With a shuddering boom, the ships’ soul cannons unleashed simultaneously upon the swarming beasts.
Powered by soul batteries, the soul cannons could continuously recharge by injection of soul power. They possessed immense firepower, the strongest of them even capable of unleashing an attack on par with a Titled Douluo.
In an instant, explosions rose from the water. The corpses of numerous soul beasts floated to the ocean’s surface. But they had barely put a dent into the number of beasts, and the beasts continued charging the ships, slamming against the barrier.
From the points of impact expanded quivering ripples. Fortunately, the ships were equipped with a powerful soul barrier and soul generators for the sake of protecting the two continents’ diplomats. The barriers just managed to hold against the onslaught.
In the air, the four three-word battle armor masters split into two groups to obstruct the abyssal demon whale king and the great white demon shark king. However, obstruction was their limit. They were at a disadvantage fighting in the open ocean, and this was the domain of their enemies.
Utter chaos engulfed them in an instant.
Tang Wulin elbowed Mu Ye at his side. “Teacher, you…”
Mu Ye remained silent, watching the ongoing battle outside with an indifferent gaze.
Wu Zhangkong narrowed his eyes at Mu Ye, then in a flicker of movement, he tore through the air like a shooting star to join the battle, robes flapping in the wind. He equipped his Sky Ice battle armor and summoned his Skyfrost Sword mid-flight.
As a seven-ringed Soul Sage and a two-word battle armor master, he could unleash strength nearly at the level of a Titled Douluo. But more importantly, he was Wu Zhangkong!
A great white demon shark sensed Wu Zhangkong flying in the air and turned to him, its dorsal fin shining as it unleashed a beam of energy his direction. The beam raged forth like a bolt of lightning, closing the distance between them in an instant.
But Wu Zhangkong slashed his Skyfrost Sword toward the incoming beam, unleashing numerous tiny Frost Scars that sliced the beam into nothingness. He halted in the air, his battle armor shining bright. A blink, and he dove toward the ocean. As he plummeted, his soul rings revolved around him, the seventh beginning to blossom with radiance.
His Skyfrost Sword grew to a gigantic size. Wu Zhangkong fused with it, unleashing an overwhelming burst of sword intent. Now over ten meters in length, the gigantic Skyfrost Sword stabbing into the ocean. This was his seventh soul skill, Martial Soul Avatar!
However, the gigantic sword didn’t target any shark in particular. Instead, it simply pierced straight into the water and disappeared.
Huh? What’s Teacher Wu doing? Tang Wulin stared, flabbergasted.
But his question was answered the next instant.
The surface of the ocean began to crystalize with ice. Chilling fog rose from the water. In the blink of an eye, the ice covered an expanse of several hundred meters in diameter, encasing hundreds of soul beasts.