In the blink of an eye, two months passed.
On that day, where the sky and ocean met in the distance, there was a large round black spot covering the vast blue expanse of the ocean, and it was unclear when it had arrived. When one got closer, they would be able to see that it was actually a dense group of sharks, stretching unbroken for a thousand meters. Every shark looked fierce and tough, and based on a rough estimate, there were at least ten thousand of them.
These sharks were from the largest active water demon beast clan near the small island. Besides the mutant, the vast majority of them were level six demon beasts. Their teeth were extremely sharp, and if a huge group of them attacked at once, it would be just like a horde of locusts sweeping through. An ordinary small island would most likely be drowned. But this was something that happened quite often in the sea territory, so practitioners also called this phenomenon the beast tide.
At that moment, this group of sharks had the same goal.
Their target was the small island ahead of them. It seemed like something attractive had appeared on the small island, and they all fought to arrive at the island first, moving extremely fast. Not even an hour later, they were less than a thousand meters away from the small island.
Astonishingly, the sharks suddenly stopped.
But then, an enticing, persistent scent abruptly spread out from the center of the small island, and the sharks, which had originally calmed down, started to move restlessly again.
For them, this scent was as enticing as if a human was walking in a desert without food or water but suddenly discovered a green oasis. The diffusion of the scent made it impossible for them to resist, and it was even enough to make them go crazy.
As the scent grew thicker and thicker, a few of the sharks close to the small island couldn’t take it any longer, and they sped quickly towards the small island, eyes crimson, as if they had fought through an invisible restriction.
One after another, they advanced in waves.
However, when they came within fifty meters of the small island, something strange happened. Two sharks that had violently leaped out from the water looked as if they were sliced into numerous bloody meat chunks by an intangible net. Fresh blood stained the surface of the ocean red, and the sharks that smelled the scent of blood grew even more frenzied. The price that they paid was that all of the sharks that were unable to resist ended up being annihilated.
The expanse of sea water became blood water, and the group of sharks in the distance became more and more restless.
After a moment, the scent spread from the small island for the second time. This time, it was even more tempting than the last, and it contained an extremely rich and pure spiritual energy. Just smelling it made them feel as if the cultivation that had stagnated in their bodies would suddenly break through.
One could imagine what kind of situation that would be.
If they could obtain the thing that was emitting this scent, their cultivation bases would definitely be able to grow quite a bit.
Sharks were considered mid-tier demon beasts. Even if one was a mutant, at the most it could only be a high-tier demon beast, but because of mutant demon beasts’ bloodlines, their success rate for breaking into higher levels was fairly high. However, the process to advance was difficult. In the end, mutants were still considered a defiance of the natural order of things, so they couldn’t be too successful.
Not longer after, a group of sharks arrived at the other side of the island under the command of a mutant leader.
To their pleasant surprise, there seemed to be no defenses up here. But deciding what to do next made them uneasy again.
After all, sharks were underwater creatures. Before transforming, they couldn’t go on land.
If they wanted to seize the small island, there wasn’t much they could do besides directly attack the small island like before. If they did this, the entire island would be destroyed in an instant.
Just when the mutant leader was at a loss for what to do, a sense of danger loomed over its mind in a heartbeat.
By the time the mutant leader raised its head to look at the shore, a horde of Rat Beasts had begun to slip out from the forest, endless and even more crowded together than the sharks. They filled the shore very quickly with thousands of green eyes. There were even more of them present than there were sharks and just looking at them made someone’s scalp prickle.
The Rat Beasts had an advantage: just like the sharks, they had very sharp teeth. If the sharks dared to go on land, the Rat Beasts would easily be able to turn them into food in a short amount of time. This had happened before. The mutant shark led its subordinates and attacked the small island, but in the end, there were heavy casualties.
Not long after that, the mutant leader fled in defeat with its underlings.
This was the reason why it had always been unable to attack and obtain the small island, which was in the scope of its territory.
One hour later, the mutant leader, who had been doggedly dithering nearby, finally discovered that the smell had weakened and unwillingly left at last.
Meanwhile, You XiaoMo spat out a mouthful of blood onto the floor.
Today was the day that he would refine one drop of the White Tiger’s Life Blood, but in reality, he had already undergone secluded cultivation for two months now. The White Tiger’s Life Blood was even harder to refine than he had imagined.
The scent that had lured over all the sharks was precisely the smell that the Life Blood emitted. The White Tiger was one of the very few ancient Emperor Beasts, so its Life Blood had a very powerful attraction for demon beasts and humans alike. This was one of the reasons why Ling Xiao advised that You XiaoMo refine the Life Blood here.
While refining the Life Blood, it would produce a resistance and emit a kind of tempting scent. While this scent might be a little less tempting for humans, it held a deadly attraction for demon beasts, since even though the only thing left was the Life Blood, it still carried the oppressive power of an Emperor Beast.
Most ordinary demon beasts had a chance of jumping from a low level to high level after absorbing the Life Blood of an Emperor Beast, and a chance of becoming half an Emperor Beast from there. Even though it was only half, as long as it was related to the Emperor Beast, it was enough to make all the demon beasts go crazy. So if he refined it in a place with more people, sharks wouldn’t be the only thing lured over.
Even though the small island was called ‘small,’ its surface area was actually very large.
Ling Xiao was unable to set down restrictions across the entire island in a short amount of time, but he could still place them in the ocean in front of their house. The thing that had sliced the sharks into chunks was an extremely sharp offensive restriction, and even that mutant shark hadn't dared to rashly get close.
Ling Xiao saw the situation inside the house from the half-open window. He stared expressionlessly at the blood that You XiaoMo spat out, and it was unclear what he was thinking.
You XiaoMo wiped the corner of his mouth. Though he had taken the Heart Meridian Pill, the White Tiger’s Life Blood was even more violent than he had imagined. Moreover, there was an immense amount of power contained in one drop of Life Blood, and the energy collided with itself all throughout his body, as if it were an unbridled wild horse.
It was essentially impossible for low level demon beast bloodlines to ingest the Emperor Beast’s Life Blood. Even if they succeeded, they would have to pay an extremely large price.
But You XiaoMo was a human, and in the first place, the bloodlines for humans and demon beasts repelled a bit from each other. Refining and absorbing it completely required enormous amounts of willpower and stamina, so it was very typical to get injured. It was abnormal if one didn’t get hurt.
You XiaoMo picked up the bottle next to him and drank a sip of spiritual water. His dried-up soul force slowly recovered in a moment.
It was too bad that he still couldn't completely refine that drop of Life Blood even after being secluded for two months. However, he had already stored the rest of the Life Blood in his meridians, and when he cultivated later, he could slowly convert the energy from the Life Blood into his own.
Even though he couldn't completely absorb the energy from the Life Blood, he was already able to reap the benefits from the little amount he had been able to.
You XiaoMo checked the condition inside his body. Unfortunately, he still hadn’t been able to advance to grade four, but he was already at pinnacle grade three, so he could break through whenever he wanted to. Next, all he had to do was wait for that opportunity.
Ling Xiao pushed open the door and entered. “How is it?”
You XiaoMo stood up and shook off the dust on him. Since he sat in one place, unmoving, for two months, he had quite a bit of dust on him. When he heard Ling Xiao, he said, frustrated, “It was alright. I always felt like it wasn’t going very smoothly. I’ll probably need some more time before I can break into grade four.”
Originally, he wanted to advance to grade four all in one go, but for some reason, he just couldn’t break through that layer. Even though he had more than enough energy to break into grade four, in the end You XiaoMo had no choice but to accept that the opportunity hadn’t come yet. In the past, it had always gone very smoothly; this was the first time that he encountered such an obvious barrier.
“Don’t be impatient. Take things slowly.” Ling Xiao placed his hand on his head.
You XiaoMo also knew that he shouldn’t be impatient. It was just that in the past, he had been able to advance too smoothly, so now he wasn’t very used to encountering an obstruction. He would undoubtedly feel a little depressed. After all, people still had to experience some setbacks so they could grow stronger.
“I secluded myself for so long, did anything happen outside?”
Back then, the Weasel Beast said that it would be able to receive information after five days, but he ended up secluding himself for two months, he had missed it.
Ling Xiao helped him sit in a chair before sitting next to him. “This is the eastern territory of DaTong Ocean. It’s extremely far from the continent, and there are very few islands. It’s at least five thousand kilometers from here to the nearest one. If we fly, it’ll take a few years before we can get back to Dong Zhou.”
You XiaoMo pondered for a moment. “Don’t we still have a few teleportation talismans? The distance shouldn’t be a problem.” If one wasn’t successful, then they could just use another one. As he spoke, he fished around in his magic bag, but he only pulled out a few jade tokens.
“We used them all up, didn’t we?” Ling Xiao took the jade tokens from his hand. Back then, when his wife had been transported to the Vermillion Blood Clan’s territory, he had refined a lot in case of emergency. But recently, they had used up quite a few, including all the ones in storage.
You XiaoMo nodded before he suddenly thought of something. He said happily, “With your current cultivation base, you should be able to refine mid-level teleportation talismans, right?” Mid-level teleportation talismans could transport them fairly long distances, so perhaps it could transport them directly out of DaTong Ocean.
“I can, but I have to find a dimension that is relatively weak. This small island won’t do.”
Ling Xiao played with the jade tokens in his hand. If the dimension was relatively weaker, it was easier to make an opening, and he wouldn’t have to worry about using too much force, leading to the dimension being unstable.
You XiaoMo also understood this reasoning.
One week later, they tidied up their things and left the small island along with the Weasel Beast that they had just contracted.
The Weasel Beast was someone who was both clever and righteous. It was worried that if the sharks attacked and there was no leader here, there would be a problem, so it promoted one of more popular Rat Beasts at its side to leader. At the very least, the Rat Beast would enjoy popular support. Finally, the Weasel Beast that had become the commander of those ruffians wiped away its tears as it bid farewell to its adorable underlings.