Chapter 31: Encirclement

Ji Huo traveled swiftly beneath the ground, unsure whether the sea clan's monsters could detect his subterranean movements. Yet, having pilfered an item from the Dragon God's corpse, he was bound to provoke their fury.

The ocean was their domain, making prolonged stays inconvenient. He had to rush back to Cape Town and return to the mainland as soon as possible.

He guessed that the sea clan would notice the anomaly regarding the dragon's corpse and converge upon it. By burrowing underground, he could bypass their encirclement and evade the brunt of their forces.

Thinking of this, Ji Huo could not help but marvel at the terrifying power of the *Catalog of Elements*. Once the second tier was mastered, earth-tunnelling felt practically like using a cheat code.

Of course, it would be even better if his vision remained unaffected underground.

As Ji Huo tunnelled along, he suddenly plunged headfirst into a deep crevice. Estimating it to be an ocean trench and not tunnelling deeply enough, he unexpectedly burst straight out of the trench's stone wall, getting a mouthful of seawater smeared across his face.

He calmly maintained his protective aura shield. When tunnelling through the earth, one could encounter all sorts of situations; if he had tunneled too shallowly and plunged headfirst into a cesspool, it wouldn't have been entirely impossible.

A routine operation. He would just have to get used to it.

Just as he intended to plunge headfirst into the opposite trench wall to continue tunnelling, he was surprised when the opposing wall rumbled loudly, and a huge, pale, maggot-like monster emerged from it.

The monster stared with wide eyes at Ji Huo.

Ji Huo stared back with equally wide eyes.

After a few seconds, the monster finally opened its oral apparatus and roared, "Come quick! That rat is over here!"

Before its words could fade, Ji Huo had already rushed forward, grabbed the maggot monster by the neck, shoved it directly into the rock wall, and smashed it into pulp.

"Damn it! I didn't expect to run into a monster that knows how to tunnel..." He shook the fluid off his hands. Before he could resume burrowing, his martial artist's intuition sensed several murderous auras locking onto him.

Powerful monsters were already rushing toward this location.

Without a second word, Ji Huo burrowed straight back into the earth.

"Oh?"

The first to arrive was a water rhinoceros spirit, looking entirely blue with two large eyes emitting a faint blue light, appearing rather quaint. The moment it saw Ji Huo earth-tunnelling, it immediately cried out:

"That rat knows earth-arts! He's in the ground!"

With that, it raised a snow-white mountain-splitting axe and brought it down heavily upon the ground!

The water pressure suddenly exploded, surging layer upon layer in the direction where Ji Huo had escaped!

The water rhinoceros never expected this move to hit Ji Huo, but the direction and vector of the current instantly provided incoming formidable monsters with a precise tracking guide.

In the distance, another powerful sea monster swam over swiftly. Upon arrival, it immediately sensed the water rhinoceros's technique and instantly understood the situation.

This formidable monster happened to be in the direction of Ji Huo's subterranean escape route, and it slammed its foot down fiercely from the water onto the seabed!

Countless volumes of seawater instantly pressed down toward the seafloor, and the accompanying demonic power formed a barrier wall of isolation on the seabed.

Following closely, other powerful monsters arrived, each setting up water-art sealing walls to obstruct the underground path.

These sea clan experts possessed ample experience in battling subterranean enemies, thanks to the fact that sea clan members either manipulated water or excelled at burrowing.

The reason Ji Huo had casually burrowed and immediately run into a monster fond of digging trenches on the seafloor was precisely because of this.

The only difference was that the creature dug tunnels while Ji Huo used earth-tunnelling.

With four or five formidable monsters appearing consecutively, they set up water-art sealing barriers at great intervals along Ji Huo's projected line, directly locking down the underground space and gradually forming an encirclement that completely blocked off the depths.

"He shouldn't have escaped; he's in this direction. Everyone, flush him out!"

A shark spirit waved its hand casually, tracing a straight line from the spot where the water rhinoceros had struck. Drawing on past combat experience, it called out as a reminder:

"That thief cannot determine directions underground, so he won't deviate from this line..."

Before the words finished echoing, Ji Huo had already burst out from the ground. While he was indeed trapped within the blockade circle, he was skewed far, far away from the coordinates the shark spirit had predicted.

The shark spirit's fish-like eyes widened in disbelief as it blurted out:

"How could he miss by this much? Could it be that he even walks in a crooked line while tunnelling straight underground?!"

The other formidable monsters were already roaring as they rushed forward. Ji Huo slammed his foot against the seabed, drawing an endless stream of earth energy into himself, and suddenly unleashed a punch!

The ferocious and tyrannical force instantly drove countless ocean currents surging forward, slamming squarely into the faces of the monsters.

"Careful! This thief possesses terrifying strength!"

The leading monsters were struck by Ji Huo's fist force and sent flying backward.

Only then did the shark spirit recover from its astonishment. Taking a clear look at Ji Huo, it cautioned the others:

"This thief is a human grandmaster! He was drinking wine with our Great King in the Dragon Palace earlier! Who would have thought he is actually a petty thief? Do not underestimate him!"

"He's actually a human!"

"Could it be that the humans have already discovered our grand scheme?"

"We cannot let him return alive!"

"I've never tasted a grandmaster's flesh before; I wonder if it's chewy!"

Hearing this, the other formidable monsters revealed fierce expressions, baring their fangs and eager to leap into action.

Ji Huo was about to let out a hearty laugh, but momentarily forgetting to maintain his protective aura shield, he almost choked on the seawater. He hurriedly re-engaged his shield and then laughed heartily:

"Hahahahaha! What theft? What petty thief? This humble me was merely taking a stroll here and picked up a few things along the way. Do you have any proof that these things belong to you?"

The other formidable monsters were momentarily stunned. A crab spirit with a shrill voice squeaked:

"Whatever is in the sea belongs to our sea clan!"

Ji Huo immediately retorted:

"Absolute nonsense! If I take a dump in the ocean, does that shit belong to you too?"

This retort left the crab spirit momentarily speechless, its cyan shell flushing red as if it had been steamed. Trembling with rage, it finally squeezed out:

"You are vulgar! You are unreasonable! You are twisting words!"

"Heh!" Ji Huo found these sea clan monsters rather amusing. They threw out idioms left and right, likely having studied among humans for a time, though without grasping the essence. He chuckled:

"What kind of nonsense are you babbling?"

Ji Huo cupped his fists in a salute and smiled:

"Ji here has always believed in reasoning with people."

The shark spirit stepped forward and said:

"Young Master Ji, please return the stolen treasure of our sea clan, and we can pretend this never happened. It won't affect the grand matters between you and the Dragon God. If you refuse, we fear we will have to capture you and hand you over to the Dragon God for judgment!"

Ji Huo burst into loud laughter once again.

"What damned Dragon God! Ji recognized at a single glance that it is no Dragon God at all! Just a common monster disguised!"

As soon as these words were spoken, the eyes of the other formidable monsters narrowed, their murderous intent surging fiercely.

The shark spirit squinted and asked:

"Young Master Ji, do not speak recklessly. How did you figure out that the Dragon God is fake?"

"That's right, that's right!" came another voice from nearby. It was the newly arrived oyster spirit, which whispered timidly:

"We put so much effort into making it look convincing..."

The moment Ji Huo caught sight of the oyster spirit, his eyes lit up brightly.