Chapter 32: Battle of the Seabed

The oyster spirit shuddered violently and cursed,
"You human! Have I ever done anything to offend you? The way you looked at me back at the banquet was already suspicious!"

Ji Huo burst into laughter, offering no lengthy explanation. Instead, he laughed heartily and said,
"You lot only know how to mimic the Dragon Palace built in the capital, utterly devoid of any true depth! Sea tribes are just sea tribes; you haven't the faintest idea how many generations of humans, how much time, and how vast a cultural heritage went into building the imperial palace in the capital..."

As he spoke, he noticed the sea spirits staring at him with wide, bewildered eyes, confusion written all over their faces.

Ji Huo chuckled. "Even if I told you, you wouldn't understand. As for how I knew that Dragon God was a fake... it's because it claimed certain people had visited the Dragon Palace in the past and even wrote adventure stories about it upon leaving..."

The smile on Ji Huo's face grew increasingly bizarre, eventually turning into a piercing, rattling laugh akin to a spinning barbell:
"Those adventure stories you've been reading? I wrote them! Hahahaha! That's right, I wrote them! To make them look old, I even went to great lengths across the mortal realm, spending a lot of effort to spread them through various academies and storytellers! I never expected they'd fool all of you!"

"Hahahaha! It's an absolute riot!"

"Those tales of the Dragon Princess? I just wanted to supplement my household income, add a touch of adapted realism to squeeze out a few tears, and because I was worried someone might hunt me down demanding proof, I completely fabricated the Dragon Princess... I never dreamed you'd actually fall for it!"

"Hahahaha!"

Ji Huo's taunting laughter was exceptionally grating, as if rubbing the faces of these great demons back and forth against the dirt.

Unable to save face any longer, the demons, who had originally planned to stall for time until their master arrived, were now consumed by blind panic and burning rage.

"I'll hack you to pieces, you thieving scoundrel!"

The water rhinoceros immediately charged forward brandishing a massive axe, bringing it down in a move resembling Mount Hua being cleaved in twain.

"Ha! Well struck!"

Ji Huo had intended to test these monsters' strength anyway, but fearing the fake Dragon God might show up, he decided to make quick work of them.

He thoughtfully erected an aura shield exclusively around his head like a helmet to prevent water from rushing into his mouth while he spoke.

He left the rest of his body completely unprotected by the shield, worried that these great demons' attacks wouldn't even pierce it and thus ruin his assessment of the sea tribe's capabilities...

With a swift grab of Ji Huo's left hand!

The axe, carrying the force to split mountains and cleave rocks, was caught dead in its tracks and couldn't advance an inch. Yet the currents swirling around the blade drilled ceaselessly into Ji Huo's palm like wriggling loaches.

An ordinary person would surely have been sliced apart by the currents.

The water rhinoceros tugged furiously on the axe, but it remained utterly motionless.

With a roaring bellow, it hurled a fist straight at Ji Huo!

Yet against this ferocious punch, Ji Huo merely raised his hand casually and blocked it.

As light as a breeze.

Only the unleashed currents raging beside him whipped about wildly, acting like invisible undercurrents that frantically carved up the surrounding seabed, silently leaving numerous jagged fractures in their wake.

Ji Huo released his grip. Enraged, the water rhinoceros hoisted its massive axe and chopped down with a flurry of clangs.

Though the water rhinoceros looked rough and blocky, its underwater speed was inexplicably blistering. It moved with the agility of a fish, darting behind Ji Huo in an instant and raining down a flurry of strikes so fast they blurred into afterimages.

By this point, Ji Huo couldn't even be bothered to put up a pretense. Abandoning defense entirely, he casually demonstrated blocking the axe with his bare hands, letting the blade strike his palm directly.

If the force was strong enough, it might break the skin and draw a drop of blood, though the wound would heal the moment the axe lifted.

If the force was weaker, it left nothing more than a faint white mark.

This action, dripping with supreme mockery, infuriated the water rhinoceros. Its eyes turned bloodshot, just like a wild bull catching sight of a red cape, and it hacked away with frenzied abandon.

And truth be told, viewed from afar, the offensive was overwhelmingly fierce, suppressing Ji Huo to the point where he had no room to counterattack, creating quite a spectacle visually.

Ji Huo nodded inwardly. True to being sea monsters, they were entirely different from land dwellers, possessing a mastery over water far purer than he had imagined.

Especially with the geographical advantage of the deep sea, they could unleash power far exceeding the standard of typical great demons.

Just as he was pondering whether to slap this water rhinoceros to death, the creature abruptly reversed its grip and slashed the axe upward from below.

Ji Huo instinctively raised a hand to guard his chin, only to realize something was amiss an instant later. This axe carried very little sharpness; instead, it possessed a gentle, lifting momentum that lightly carried Ji Huo floating backward into the open water, lifting him completely off the seabed.

Bolstered by the ocean, it effortlessly hoisted Ji Huo into the water column, severing all contact with the ground.

Amidst Ji Huo's sudden realization, he caught a glimpse of a cunning, smug grin spread across the goofy water rhinoceros's face.

The bastard had been acting foolish this entire time!

As it turned out, even natural bimbos were pitch-black on the inside!

"Everyone, attack together!"

The shark spirit's eyes lit up. Twirling several hand seals, it instantly transformed the surrounding water into multiple water-sharks that frantically lunged to tear into every part of Ji Huo's body.

The other great demons had been ready for a long time. Having known for years that the water rhinoceros was an old schemer, they had already been channeling their energy the moment they saw it attacking like an utter fool.

At that moment, harpoons were hurled, heavy charged-slashes were primed, and others let fly vicious fish barbs and spine bones...

Most of their techniques and weapons bore the distinct flavor of the sea tribe, carrying a faint whiff of destitution. One giant turtle demon even hurled its own shell like a paving brick.

In the blink of an eye, these attacks rained down upon Ji Huo, resulting in a concussive explosion as a violent shockwave of water rippled outward.

The turbulent currents surged in all directions, forcing the gathered great demons to retreat a few paces.

Then, to their sheer astonishment, a massive, brownish-yellow grizzly bear appeared at the center of the blast.

This grizzly bear—obviously not a creature of the sea—shook out its fur. The preceding barrage hadn't broken its defense in the slightest; not a single hair had fallen.

It grabbed a turtle shell that happened to be floating by, clamped down with its massive jaws, and crushed it to pieces. In the distance, the giant turtle demon instantly spewed a mouthful of blood and collapsed straight onto the ground.

The grizzly bear seemed unaccustomed to floating weightlessly in the water. Lowering its head, it glared downward, causing the seabed beneath it to rapidly bulge upward, forming an earthen platform.

The platform rose higher and higher until, in a flash, the grizzly bear was standing firmly upon it.

Facing the surrounding pack of great demons, the bear stood atop its earthen mound like a sovereign, utterly devoid of fear.

The grizzly bear parted its jaws. Though it used no internal energy to block the currents, all the surrounding water parted from it automatically.

"Roar!"

Spreading its arms wide, the grizzly bear let out a furious roar toward the heavens.

The bellow resounded alongside the churning currents, unleashing a ferocious and violent pressure that forcefully parted the seawater, carving out a vacuum pocket right on the seabed.

Unable to withstand this overwhelming majesty, the great demons retreated one after another, the terror in their eyes growing ever more profound.