Back to the present, Planet Earth.
Bai Zemin’s group submerged into the deep waters of the East Sea and under the guidance of Xian Mei’er moved with a clear goal in mind.
“It really feels a bit scary.” Wu Yijun commented as she looked at her surroundings warily.
The masks that Xian Mei’er had given them earlier were primarily intended to allow the wearer to breathe underwater, but being a mask without holes it also allowed the wearer to open their mouth and speak without having to worry about filling their lungs with water.
“Most sea creatures in this area obey me after my Third Brother took his soldiers with him when he ran away from the previous war.” Xian Mei’er pointed out. She and the two triton bodyguards were the only three who could see with absolute clarity amidst so much darkness, after all, the three of them were sea creatures, to begin with.
“Therefore, you guys don’t need to worry too much. Keeping your guard up is good though.” She finished and accelerated her swimming speed a bit, wagging her mermaid tail temptingly and with surprising agility.
Shangguan Bing Xue had created small spheres of transparent ice, and inside them, she had placed many luminescent seeds that Wu Yijun had given her.
These seeds had no function other than to illuminate, but even then they were considered as quite precious items as they were not like any other seeds. These seeds were Rank 2 objects that Wu Yijun had carefully nurtured, and each of them had enough power to illuminate at the same power as a military-grade handheld spotlight.
Thanks to the fact that each ice sphere had more than 20 seeds, even after diving more than 600 meters the group of ten could still see relatively well. In addition, the fact that they were all powerful soul evolvers certainly helped more than one might think.
The group swam for more than 5 hours in a straight line, moving a great distance away from the shore and deep into waters that no longer belonged to a part of the East Sea that cut part of China in two halves.
It was only after swimming for about 300 kilometers that Xian Mei’er began to lead everyone down into the sea.
A few minutes later.
“We’ve only submerged for a little over 1500 meters but the water pressure is really something.” Shangguan Xinyue commented.
“A normal Second Order soul evolver would probably not be able to handle the gravity of the world along with the water pressure at this level. Their bodies would definitely explode into pieces.” Evangeline added.
Everyone except Xian Mei’er and her two triton bodyguards was experiencing a severe drop in their overall movement capability and agility.
Bai Zemin looked at Kong Jun a little worried as it was no secret to anyone that ants were not good swimmers. Fortunately, the big former bodyguard of the former Queen of the weaver ants seemed to be doing just fine on his own.
If Kong Jun had any problems then Bai Zemin would find it necessary to order everyone to return to the surface. After all and to a certain extent Kong Jun was even more important than Bai Zemin in the fight to come.
After a few minutes and realizing that they were still descending, Meng Qi could not help but say in astonishment, “We are still going deeper? This must be at least 3000 meters deep!”
“Don’t forget that the world not only grew in length and width through evolution but also expanded in terms of depth and height.” Bai Zemin remarked.
“R- Right…”
Bai Zemin smiled slightly under his mask and was about to say something when he noticed a point of light in the distance, at least a couple thousand meters deeper.
“We’re close!” Xian Mei’er exclaimed in ecstasy.
All the humans in the group were a bit excited and curious to visit the sea city. This was because as far as was widely known to the public, things like cities at the bottom of the sea had never existed.
Besides, the sea race seemed to be stupidly developed, which was certainly strange. Therefore, one of the goals that Bai Zemin and the rest had in mind was to try to learn something and get information about it.
Although all of them had already accepted that Earth hid many secrets and was certainly not a normal world after finding ancient ruins with technology and artifacts that surpassed the era they lived in, they still had to find answers or at least a path to lead them to those answers.
Why were there soul evolvers from ancient times? Wasn’t the Soul Record supposed to have visited this world for the first time a little over a year ago? How was it possible for the sea race to have so many good things and even cities under the sea? What had happened to make all the soul evolvers of the past disappear? If the Soul Record had been on Earth before, why had it left only to return who knows how many years later?
There were too many unknowns but no answers, and not knowing the world they were walking on was certainly not a good feeling for them who needed not only strength but also information in order not to be caught with their pants down, something that could end up causing their death.
Just when Bai Zemin was immersed in his own thoughts and thinking that they were already safe, his passive skill Danger Sense suddenly triggered and brought him out of his dream world. All the hairs on his body stood on end like a cat facing a great threat and before his brain processed what was happening his body suddenly moved on its own thanks to the countless battles to the death against stronger enemies he had experienced until today.
“Gravity Manipulation x60!”
Instinctively knowing that he had no time to raise a Blood Wall, Bai Zemin increased the pressure of the world in front of him to the maximum possible.
At the same time as all the water in the sea several kilometers around moved and began to gather in front of Bai Zemin’s group, thus forming a large vortex spinning at terrifying speeds, Shangguan Bing Xue’s voice followed by the freezing of a large portion of the sea in front of them reached everyone’s ears as she activated Ice Maker.
“Ice Shield!”
The already high power of Ice Maker became even more terrifying in the seas, and at the same time that the skill Gravity Manipulation showed a completely different effect than what Bai Zemin was used to seeing on land, the enemy’s magical attack finally clashed with the two allied skills.
BOOOOOOOOM!!!!
An explosion whose sound was considerably suppressed by the endless sea surrounding them sent Meng Qi, Xian Mei’er, and the two female tritons flying backward; all four spat out a bit of blood and had difficulty stabilizing themselves as they struggled against the underwater waves that whipped their bodies unrestrainedly.
Evangeline could not be seen anywhere so it was hard to tell what her current situation was, but the surprising thing was that even under the sea and with water all around her, there was still no trace of her existence.
Shangguan Xinyue was a little better, and although she was also sent flying backwards she was not injured.
Shangguan Bing Xue and Bai Zemin both grunted slightly, especially he as had made a move to cover her with his body to avoid Shangguan Bing Xue taking the worst of the inevitable.
Fortunately, although the Ice Shield and the large water whirlwind were shattered by the enemy’s magical attack, both defenses were enough to avoid the worst and only the remaining magic aftershocks hit their bodies.
“Yijun!” Bai Zemin called while keeping his eyes fixed straight ahead.
Wu Yijun gritted her teeth and quickly activated her skill Hydrokinesis even though she had not yet managed to stabilize her body amidst the swaying sea.
Hydrokinesis, being a skill that was somewhere in between Maker and Manipulation and which had some of the power of both but consumed more of the user’s Mana allowed Wu Yijun to control the water around her to some extent and although it was difficult she managed to shape giant water hands that held the bodies of Meng Qi, Xian Mei’er, and the two tritons that had taken a bad part of the previous explosion.
Rumble…
The sea was still shaking but the waters had calmed down enough for everyone to stand firm in their places. It was then that Bai Zemin’s group saw two silhouettes that had stopped about 500 meters ahead and were currently staring at them.
“Mmmm…” Thao Zhi looked at the young man who had given him so many problems in the battle half a month ago and an expression of confusion shone on his face as he studied him intently.
Bai Zemin and the others were doing exactly the same thing; studying the enemy in front of them.
Just as Bai Zemin expected, Thao Zhi had not yet fully recovered from the previous battle but he was not too far away either. Most notable was the fact that Thao Zhi’s left arm was nowhere to be seen, proof that the hit he had received from the Cosmic Particle Cannon had certainly been fatal.
However, this did not mean that the battle was won before the start… In fact, it was the opposite.
“Things couldn’t get any worse.” Shangguan Bing Xue whispered low enough for only Bai Zemin who was standing next to her to hear her words.
“… It’s not like we didn’t get prepared in advance for this.” Bai Zemin did not deny Shangguan Bing Xue’s words as she was right, but he did not despair either.
With a quick glance, Bai Zemin set his eyes on Third Prince Xian Kun who was standing about two or three hundred meters behind Thao Zhi.
“We will continue with our plan.” Bai Zemin motioned for Shangguan Bing Xue to step back and she quickly stomped an ice platform to propel herself backwards.
With her backing off, Kong Jun who had not even flinched at the earlier explosion moved forward and stood next to Bai Zemin.
“If that weaver ant standing next to you had been in our battle half a month ago… there is a chance that even I might not have been able to escape alive.” Thao Zhi admitted as he looked at Kong Jun with a hint of wariness. A moment later, his eyes fell on Bai Zemin again and he said in a cold voice, “But, the current you have become at least 50% or even weaker compared to you from two weeks ago. Although I have not yet fully recovered, in the water, I am the king while you, land creatures, have no way of not losing strength in general.”
What Thao Zhi was saying was true, completely true.
Being a pure mage, his magical abilities would lose practically no power underwater and since he was an alligator he would certainly receive a boost on his Agility now that he was in his territory.
Meanwhile, the Agility of Bai Zemin and the others had declined from the moment they entered the sea and there were some skills that could no longer be used while others would show completely different effects.
However…
“Don’t worry, I believe we won’t let you down.” Bai Zemin replied in an indifferent voice.
The active effect of the skill Soul Manipulation had a cooldown time of 60 days, so considering the fact that Bai Zemin had used the skill exactly 17 days ago there was no way he would be able to use it immediately.
At least not in normal times.
At least not until before he obtained his King subclass after conquering the entirety of China.
At least not until before he got the skill Mankind’s Pioneer.
——-
[Mankind’s Pioneer (Third Order active skill) level 3: A skill given only to those who pave the path for their respective race in their respective world, only those who achieve a great accomplishment being the first in a task on a massive scale considered to be incredibly challenging are worthy of possessing it.]
[First activation (Human Protector): When fighting non-human beings, the user can choose between 5 normal skills, 3 Unique skills, or 1 EX skill and reset its cooldown to 0 seconds. It can only be used 1 time every 15 days.]
[Second activation:…]
——-
Bai Zemin looked at Thao Zhi indifferently as he started up the first activation of the skill Mankind’s Pioneer, and with a single thought from him, Soul Manipulation immediately turned activatable.
“It’s true that my current self is way weaker than the time we fought.” Bai Zemin nodded and activated Soul Manipulation.
Thao Zhi didn’t dare to be careless and observed all the enemies in front of him earnestly. Last time a little carelessness had cost him a lot after attacking right away, this time he wanted to make sure first instead of thinking that his strength was enough to end it all. After all, he had made his preparations and only needed caution for this battle to end in his victory.
Although the enemy’s caution was certainly a problem for Bai Zemin and his team, in some ways it was also an advantage.
“But, haven’t you become weaker too?”
“Weaker? I have?” Thao Zhi frowned and his mouth opened revealing two rows of extremely sharp teeth, “Let me show you how wrong you are.”
Saying that, Thao Zhi pointed his magic staff to the front and a huge golden-colored magic circle illuminated the area, “Bright Water Spear.”
Swoosh!
A spear over 50 meters long shot out like lightning from the magic circle, and from the way the sea began to rumble it was clear to everyone that Thao Zhi’s magic power was certainly not at all lower than his magic power of half a month ago even though he was not yet fully recovered.
Bai Zemin sensed mortal danger, but instead of dodging he simply muttered under his breath words that the universe had not heard for several million years.
“Anti-Magic Domain.”
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