Volume 2: Shenzhou Academy & The Battle of Venice
Chapter 169
Lin Feng Slays the Subaquatic Commander
BOOM!
A dull, subterranean detonation echoed up from the deepest belly of the tower, followed by a violent tremor that cracked the thousand-year-old stone walls into long, jagged fissures. Broken masonry and pulverised rubble rained down in cascades, splashing into the stagnant, black water below, which churned with foul, nauseating froth.
Beneath the Whale Sea Lighthouse, what should have been the subterranean mana reservoir powering the coastal divine eye array had been transformed into a lethal, festering swamp. Pitch-black seawater welled up incessantly from the oceanic subterranean trenches, boiling in rancid frothing eddies that carried the sickening stench of decaying sea monsters and the bone-chilling miasma of the abyss.
At the very center of that vast subterranean pool, a colossal phantom slowly breached the black surface.
The Abyssal Yaksha Demonic Puppet!
Standing over twenty meters tall, the monstrosity loomed like an obsidian mountain. Its entire frame was encased in thick, rugged scales of black jade, coarse as the scales of an abyssal sea dragon and glistening with a cold, metallic sheen. Eight razor-sharp bone spurs jutted from its pitch-black spine, their every movement scraping against the subterranean cliffside with ear-grating, horrific screeches.
Its grotesque face was the spitting image of the yakshas of ancient lore: a flat, sunken nasal cavity, four pupil-less crimson eyes rolling incessantly in their sockets, and a jagged maw bristling with hundreds of inverted iron spikes.
Most terrifying of all, clutched in its sinewy right hand—tipped with half-meter-long black talons—was a colossal Yaksha Demonic Saber. The twelve-meter-long curved executioner’s blade was forged from a millennium of accumulated malice, condensed from the dying resentment of myriad creatures swallowed by the ocean deeps. Viscous tendrils of oily black smoke curled around the blade, twisting into screaming spectral arms that writhed in perpetual agony.
ROOOAAAR!
A space-shattering bellow tore from the titan’s chest! The acoustic shockwave, laden with the sheer pressure of a high-tier Commander-level sovereign, slammed squarely into the four inner stone walls of the lighthouse. Load-bearing pillars several meters thick shivered violently before fracturing into massive slabs that plummeted into the water, sending plumes of black froth exploding ten meters into the air.
“Lin Feng, be careful!”
Perched upon the cracked marble steps bordering the underground pool, Han Yue called out, her voice—normally frigid and composed—tinged with a rare tremor of tension.
Her cascading silver hair whipped backward against the howling gusts churned up by the behemoth. A form-fitting azure cloak accentuated her slender yet lethal silhouette. Her ice-blue eyes burned with a frosty luminescence, her pale, delicate fingers dancing through the void in a blur of complex incantation hand-seals.
Behind the two of them, perched atop the central stone dais, the Mana Crystal Core of the lighthouse sputtered with feeble, static groans. The once-blinding sapphire radiance that had illuminated the sky had waned to a sickly glow, flickering like a candle guttering in a hurricane.
Countless violet-black energy tendrils anchored directly from the Abyssal Yaksha’s spine into the crystal core, voraciously draining the coastal defense array’s lifeblood.
Eighty percent of the lighthouse’s mana had already been devoured into its abyssal belly!
A few minutes more, and the moment that final drop of energy was siphoned away, the core defensive magic array of the East Divine Continent’s coastline would violently implode. When that happened, over a thousand kilometers of shoreline stretching from Whale Sea to Vast Thunder Ridge would be left utterly blind and defenseless against the encroaching tide of savage sea monsters!
Far above in the upper tiers and beyond the beacon island’s entrance, the resonant thunder of magical detonations from Ye Qingwan and Gu Xiaowei echoed relentlessly. The swarms of Giant Night Specters were violently laying siege to the outer perimeter, and the two girls were burning through their mana reserves to hold the line, ensuring not a single stray beast could breach the chamber to interfere.
The colossal burden of executing this Commander-tier mastermind fell squarely upon Lin Feng and Han Yue!
“Ice Lock—Absolute Frost Chains!”
Han Yue barked a crisp incantation, channeling the pinnacle of her Ice-element mana into both arms.
CRACK! CRACK! SNAP!
The pitch-black subterranean water froze over in an instant, ice crystals racing across the surface with breathtaking speed. Four titanic glacial chains, each thick as the trunk of an ancient oak and barbed with razor-sharp frost spikes, surged from the depths of the pool, wrapping violently around the black-jade-scaled calves of the Abyssal Yaksha Demonic Puppet.
Bone-piercing frost expanded aggressively. A half-meter-thick sheet of permafrost crept rapidly up toward the beast’s thighs, seeking to entomb its lower torso in eternal ice and pin it firmly in place.
Yet, Han Yue’s expression instantly blanched!
HISS! SIZZLE!
From deep within the abyss beneath the pool, a humid subterranean geothermal surge welled up, merging with the billows of toxic abyssal miasma. The beast’s black jade scales radiated a sinister corrosive heat that, combined with the tainted seawater, began gnawing away at the glacial frost.
Spiderweb fractures propagated along the frosty links. The sickening snaps of shattering ice rattled without pause.
“This is bad!” Cold sweat beaded across Han Yue’s brow, her chest heaving. “The seawater here surges directly from an abyssal trench, saturated with corrosive venom and corruptive geothermal heat! My frost domain is being unraveled by the seawater—the ice chains won’t hold it for more than ten seconds!”
The Abyssal Yaksha Demonic Puppet let out a contemptuous roar. Its four crimson eyes rolled in their sockets, locking hungrily onto the two minute figures on the stone landing. Its massive calves flexed with earth-shattering force!
SHATTER!
The four absolute frost chains conjured by the Battle Ranking’s Rank 2 pulverized into hundreds of thousands of diamond-hard shards, spraying across the chamber.
Hoisting the gargantuan Yaksha Demonic Saber high into the air, its hulking arm swung downward. The pitch-black blade cleaved the murky mist asunder, unleashing a crescent of dark blade aura over twenty meters long that crashed directly toward Han Yue and the crystal dais! Even before the edge struck, the crushing wind pressure caved the flagstones beneath her feet into a sunken crater!
SWOOSH!
In that razor’s-edge fraction of a second between life and death, a firm, calloused hand clamped onto Han Yue’s shoulder.
“Dark Night Shadow Escape—Void!”
The shadow beneath Lin Feng’s boots rippled like a disturbed pond. In a heartbeat, their physical silhouettes dissolved into an ethereal wisp of dark mist, gliding across the perimeter of the stone wall.
BOOOM!
The demonic cleave struck the stone terrace where they had stood an instant prior. The reinforced marble floor pulverized into ash, carved open by a smoking, pitch-black trench fifteen meters long. The horrifying kinetic force strangled the breath from the air, flooding the chamber with the suffocating stench of sulfur and vengeful souls.
Lin Feng materialized upon a jagged outcropping across the chasm, releasing his grip on Han Yue’s shoulder. His gaze remained frighteningly calm, devoid of even a shred of panic. His fathomless dark eyes tracked the colossal beast as its hideous skull whipped toward them.
“Fighting from the shore won’t work,” Lin Feng said, his tone low, steady, and razor-sharp. “The tower chamber is too confined, and its black jade scales can disperse long-range magical bombardments. If we stay up here trading spells from a distance, the tower will collapse and shatter the crystal core long before we bring that beast down.”
Han Yue bit her lower lip, her breath coming in quick, shallow gasps. “But down in that water, it possesses absolute home advantage! That black reservoir is hundreds of meters deep, opening directly into the oceanic trench of Whale Sea. It’s packed with thousands of tons of hydrostatic pressure and lethal abyssal venom. If a human archmage plunges in there, their mana will be smothered and their flesh melted away before they can even complete a single spell!”
“That applies to other people.”
Lin Feng’s lips curled into a cold, predatory smirk, a glint of lethal intent unsheathing across his chiseled features.
He raised his left hand and snapped his fingers.
HUMMM!
A pitch-black summoning rift tore through the damp air atop the rocky ledge. Out from the spatial fissure bounded a colossal wolf silhouette over five meters in length, its thunder-scaled paws striking sparks as they gouged furrows into the solid stone.
The Abyssal Nether Wolf!
Lin Feng’s contracted battle beast growled with haughty defiance, its sleek coat bristling like midnight silk. Deep violet lightning crackled along its obsidian spine, converging upon the razor-sharp thunderhorn protruding from its brow. Its wild, lupine eyes gleamed with bloodthirsty battle lust, radiating the surging aura of a Peak Warrior-tier apex beast—completely undaunted by the Commander-level pressure radiating from the watery deeps.
“Han Yue, cover me from above. Sever and lock down those malice tendrils; don’t let it siphon another ounce of mana from the crystal core.” Shedding his outer duster to reveal his lean, muscled frame clad in pitch-black tactical battle attire, Lin Feng added coldly: “As for this behemoth... I’m diving in to sever its head!”
“Are you out of your mind?!” Han Yue’s sapphire pupils dilated in pure horror. She reached out to pull him back. “Fire-element magic is completely inert underwater! And if you discharge your Lightning magic submerged, the conductive backlash will electrocute you to death! What could you possibly rely on to slay a Commander underwater?!”
Yet Lin Feng did not hesitate for even a fraction of a second.
Turning his head, the corners of his mouth lifted into a smile brimming with unshakable confidence. “Trust me.”
With those words, Lin Feng vaulted onto the broad back of the Abyssal Nether Wolf.
“Black Wolf, dive!”
HOWWLL!
Unleashing a deafening howl that shook the subterranean cavern, the Abyssal Nether Wolf kicked off from the cracked ledge with explosive force. Tearing through the curtain of black mist, mount and rider morphed into a streak of pitch-black thunder, plunging straight into the churning depths of the pool below!
PLASH!
Black spray erupted violently. Man and wolf vanished entirely into the fathomless deep.
Han Yue stood frozen upon the ledge, her heart hammering against her ribs as if ready to burst. Staring down at the boiling, black vortex swirling beneath her boots, a cascade of terrifying scenarios flashed through her mind. A mere freshman—even one who had conquered the Top 5 of the Battle Ranking—daring to dive headfirst into the submerged domain of a Commander-tier behemoth... It defied every established law of arcane logic!
Yet the memory of Lin Feng’s mountain-steady silhouette as he leaped into the abyss anchored her trembling hands into clenched fists. Her porcelain expression hardened, her chest rising and falling as every drop of Ice-element mana within her nebula began to burn with frantic intensity.
“If you have the guts to wage your life... I won’t let this bastard interfere with you for a single second!”
Han Yue cried out, her silver locks dancing wildly in the tempest. Dozens of Frost Crystal Arrays blazed into existence around her, unleashing thousands of diamond-edged ice lances that rained down upon the skull of the Abyssal Yaksha Demonic Puppet, fiercely drawing all aggro and fire upon the surface!
THUD! THUD! ROAR!
The instant he plunged into the submerged abyss, a crushing hydrostatic pressure descended upon Lin Feng like a collapsed mountain. The sheer depth here was staggering; the water was frigid as bone marrow, yet interspersed with searing bubbles of geothermal sulfur. The viscous black venom clung to flesh like grease, frantically clawing to penetrate his pores, corrode his meridians, and dissolve his magical foundation. The terrifying pressure screamed against his eardrums, threatening to rupture them into bloody ruin.
Yet, the split second the tainted water touched Lin Feng’s chest—
BUZZZZ!
An ancient, sovereign resonance—resonant and majestic as a primordial bell tolling from the dawn of creation—erupted from against his breastbone!
The Primordial Dragon Pendant blazed white-hot, burning like a cinder in the abyssal deep. A resplendent halo of imperial gold intertwined with black draconic qi erupted from the talisman, instantly condensing into a spherical barrier of draconic essence that enveloped Lin Feng and the Abyssal Nether Wolf within an absolute sanctuary!
SIZZLE! HISS!
Every droplet of abyssal venom that struck the draconic barrier hissed into steam, thoroughly purified into nothingness. Hundreds of tons of crushing hydrostatic pressure were repelled three paces outward. Within the orb of draconic qi, pure, crisp air circulated in abundance, allowing Lin Feng to breathe as effortlessly as if he were walking upon solid ground.
Cocooned in the draconic aura, the Abyssal Nether Wolf’s lupine eyes burned with feral excitement. Arcs of lightning cracked along its thunder-scaled spine, and the obsidian horn upon its brow cleaved through the murky water, allowing it to navigate the liquid abyss with the graceful agility of a prehistoric thunder-whale.
Deep within the pitch-black water, the twenty-meter-tall behemoth loomed like a sunken fortress. Its lower torso was anchored deep into a subterranean trench that fed into the open ocean, where energy tendrils continued to channel stolen mana into its titanic frame.
Noticing an intruder daring to trespass into its submerged sovereign domain, the four red eyes of the Demonic Puppet Commander dilated in savage fury. Its gargantuan fist tightened around the Yaksha Demonic Saber, unleashing a horizontal cleave through the water!
BOOM!
Displaced by the immense blade, water compressed into a surging, underwater wall of violent vortexes, carrying legions of snarling, vengeful black specters hurtling straight toward Lin Feng!
Any ordinary archmage battling under such crushing fluid resistance would find it impossible to even evade, let alone complete the incantation of a spell.
But Lin Feng was no ordinary archmage!
“Dragon Pendant, guide my path—awaken, Dragon Might Domain!”
Lin Feng growled deep in his chest.
Gold and black radiance erupted from the Primordial Dragon Pendant in an overwhelming deluge. An ethereal phantom of a myriad-meter-long primeval dragon coiling around the sunken foundation manifested with terrifying clarity within the spiritual plane!
ROOOAAARRR!
The roar of an ancient sovereign dragon reverberated through the oceanic abyss!
In a liquid medium eight hundred times denser than air, the acoustic shockwave and the sovereign soul pressure propagated with terrifying velocity—detonating like a depth charge at the bottom of the sea!
The murky undercurrents of the Demonic Saber disintegrated into harmless bubbles the instant they contacted the Dragon Might Domain.
Nor did it stop there. The supreme draconic might of the primeval beast emperor crashed directly down upon the Abyssal Yaksha Demonic Puppet’s skull! A vile oceanic horror that took boundless pride in its sinister bloodline felt its very soul battered as though Mount Tai itself had dropped upon its crown!
CRACK! SNAP! CRUMBLE!
The draconic resonance harmonized with the oceanic fluid dynamics, generating ultrasonic vibrational shears. The supposedly impenetrable black jade scales encasing the monster’s flesh suddenly fractured into dense, spiderwebbing networks!
Shards of jade-scale detached and drifted away, exposing raw, rancid black flesh oozing thick, foul-smelling violet blood.
A bellow of agony and unbridled panic echoed through the water as the demonic saber in its grasp trembled and skewed off course.
“Now! Black Wolf, pin its blade!” Lin Feng barked.
ROAR!
The Abyssal Nether Wolf launched forward like an arrow cleaving the tide. Violet-black lightning erupted around its four paws, turning it into a dark beam of light that lanced across the abyssal gloom.
In the blink of an eye, while the behemoth was still reeling under the Dragon Might, the wolf intercepted its right wrist. Razor-sharp fangs coated in dark, frenzied lightning clamped down into the bone joint gripping the demonic saber!
CRUNCH!
Torrents of violet-black electrical currents tore into the beast’s joints, paralyzing every motor nerve in its arm. The monster thrashed in fury, but its spastic hand could no longer lift the saber. The twelve-meter-long instrument of slaughter was locked rigidly in the water!
And in that exact instant, Lin Feng dismounted.
Gliding within the bubble of draconic qi, his speed pushed to the absolute extreme. Unimpeded by hydrodynamic drag, he shot straight toward the massive chest of the Abyssal Yaksha Demonic Puppet—where the black jade scales had been pulverized by the Dragon Might, exposing a throbbing, unprotected chasm of dark flesh.
There lay the blackened heart—the fountainhead of its vitality, and the reservoir harboring all the stolen mana devoured from the lighthouse!
The four bloodshot eyes of the demonic puppet widened, witnessing the tiny human dare to close within half a meter. It opened its hideous, fang-lined maw, gathering all the abyssal miasma in its gut to spew forth a torrent of virulent venom and pulverize Lin Feng into sludge.
Yet Lin Feng granted it no such chance!
Within Lin Feng’s spiritual sea, the two grand nebulae of Lightning and Fire ignited simultaneously!
Forty-nine Mid-Tier Tier 2 Lightning stars aligned into a magnificent stellar constellation, violet-black lightning screeching like a legion of frenzied thunder serpents. Simultaneously, forty-nine Fire stars blended with the blood-crimson blaze of his top-grade Soul Seed, “Scarlet Flowing Flame,” roaring to celestial heights!
Lightning and Fire fusion!
The tyrannical Energy-Combustion property of his flame—capable of incinerating all things—fused with the annihilating penetrative force of the Yaksha Divine Lightning!
Surging cascades of mana poured like an uncapped cataract into Lin Feng’s right fist. His knuckles blazed with a brilliance so blinding it dispersed the millennia of subterranean darkness, transforming the entire underwater pool into a dazzling sun of thunder and flame!
“Lightning and fire cannot detonate underwater?”
Lin Feng’s lips curled into a smile of absolute disdain, his eyes as cold and lethal as an immortal divine blade.
“Today, let me show you what it means to boil the seas and burn the world!”
Clenching his fist, sinews rippling like forged steel, Lin Feng drove an annihilating punch straight into the fracture upon the monster’s chest:
“BLAZING FLAME—VIOLENT DRAGON THUNDER BLAST!!!”
KABOOOOM!
A cataclysmic detonation erupted from the point of impact!
The Scarlet Flowing Flame, reaching temperatures of tens of thousands of degrees, detonated in tandem with the violet-black thunder of the Violent Dragon Blast right inside the liquid black depths!
The instantaneous release of extreme thermal energy flash-vaporized millions of liters of surrounding water! A blazing, gargantuan fireball tore the darkness apart, blowing back the ocean water dozens of meters in all directions and creating a scorched, roaring vacuum of plasma and thunder amidst the ocean floor!
The displaced seawater boiled frantically, vapor bubbles crackling like subterranean thunder.
CRUNCH! SQUELCH!
Lin Feng’s strike, infused with draconic brute force, tore through muscle fibers denser than tempered steel, shattered the monster’s colossal ribs, and plunged straight into the rancid, malice-thickened black heart of the Abyssal Yaksha Demonic Puppet!
The Scarlet Flowing Flame surged uncontrollably into its heart, triggering the Energy-Combustion effect. The centuries of accumulated dark mana and rancid malice within the beast’s corpse turned into kindling, igniting into an internal inferno that consumed its viscera and scorched through its flesh!
ROOAAARR... Gurgle... Gurgle...
The Commander-tier roar choked into grotesque, boiling gurgles as superheated blood bubbled in its throat.
Its four red eyes bulged outward, drowning in horror and sheer disbelief. It could not fathom how a puny Mid-Tier human could unleash an apocalyptic strike of such magnitude beneath thousands of fathoms of sea!
BANG!
The black heart exploded into a thousand blackened cinders!
The blast of lightning and fire erupted out the back of the beast, carving a hole three meters wide through its spine and projecting a violet-crimson pillar of fire through the subterranean bedrock, shaking the entire beacon island above!
The massive Yaksha Demonic Saber slipped from its twitching claws, plunging into the silt before fracturing into wisps of black smoke that dissolved into nothingness.
The indomitable vitality of a high-tier Commander-level sovereign was thoroughly extinguished!
The twenty-meter-tall carcass of the Abyssal Yaksha Demonic Puppet tilted backward, collapsing heavily into the abyssal chasm below the pool, sinking toward eternal oblivion.
Lin Feng hovered in the returning water, his black hair floating gently in the current. His breath was slightly ragged, wisps of lightning-fire smoke sizzling off his right arm, yet his eyes remained as cold and sharp as winter ice.
WHOOSH!
The moment the demonic puppet’s life was extinguished, a radiant, deep cerulean sphere of light—pure, pristine, and large as a crystal orb—ascended from the sinking carcass.
A complete Commander-tier Soul Essence!
The boundless, immaculate, and priceless aura emanating from the soul essence caused the subterranean depths to tremble. This was the second Commander-tier Soul Essence Lin Feng had laid his hands upon since the slaughter of the Whale Thunder Behemoth!
WHIRRR!
Before Lin Feng could even reach out, the Primordial Dragon Pendant on his chest vibrated violently, like a primordial dragon awakening from a thousand-year hunger. An invisible vortex of draconic suction surged forth, wrapping around the Commander-tier Soul Essence and devouring it into the pendant in the blink of an eye!
RUMBLE!
Upon gorging on the soul essence, the Primordial Dragon Pendant erupted in an unprecedented blaze of brilliance. A corner of its fourth seal subtly fractured, releasing an ocean of pure, undiluted mana.
This was the very mana the Yaksha Demonic Puppet had stolen from the lighthouse—now thoroughly cleansed and purified by the supreme alchemy of the Dragon Pendant. Every shred of impurity and malice had been incinerated, leaving only the purest primordial essence in heaven and earth!
Guided by Lin Feng’s consciousness, that colossal river of mana coalesced into a dazzling pillar of azure light. Shooting upward from his chest, it breached the surface of the pool and poured directly into the Mana Crystal Core of the Whale Sea Lighthouse!
HUMMMMM!
Atop the elevated dais, the dying Mana Crystal Core suddenly ignited with the brilliance of a midday sun!
The fissures marring its crystal surface knit closed at staggering speed, mended by the pure mana infusion. Its energy reserves surged from twenty percent to fifty... seventy... ninety... and finally peaked at a glorious, complete one hundred percent!
Han Yue stood atop the stone landing, eyes wide as she beheld the miraculous awakening of the lighthouse. She whipped her head toward the edge of the subterranean pool, where a silhouette astride a black wolf was parting the waves, stepping ashore.
The lethal hook of doom had been shattered. Now, an earth-shattering beacon of mana was poised to spear through the coastal night sky, heralding the total counteroffensive of the East Divine Continent’s legions to sweep the invading sea monster tide from the face of the earth!