Volume 3: Global Vanguard & The Advanced Pinnacle
Chapter 203
Violent Lightning Cleanses the Blood-Scale Sharks
The stench of rotting coral mixed with the biting, salty reek of the deep sea rushed straight into their nostrils, carrying with it a dense, gray miasma heavy with sulfur.
The Xuanwu magic-armored warship cleaved through the waves, thrusting deep into the boundary of Sector 7—a region known as the Blood Purgatory Red Coral Abyss. Surrounding the vessel’s hull, massive crimson coral reefs jutted out jaggedly from the water like the ribs of a prehistoric behemoth, tightly pinning down the rotted wrecks of centuries-old sunken ships. High above in the sky, dark clouds billowed like spilled Chinese ink, lightning carving jagged, winding cracks across the firmament, yet not a single drop of rain fell.
The atmosphere was stifling and weighed down by heavy mana pressure, resembling a colossal iron cage slowly closing in on them.
“Rumble! Rumble! Rumble!”
The pitch-black, rolling surface of the sea suddenly churned violently. Colossal whirlpools dozens of meters in diameter erupted, dragging fragments of shattered coral down into the abyss below.
Up in the crow’s nest on the central mast, Ye Qingwan gripped the magic cable tightly, her pupils contracting as she peered through the magitech telescope. Instantly, she channeled Wind magic to beam her voice down to the deck, her tone urgent and sharp:
“Red-level alert! Directly ahead at twelve o’clock... the numbers are uncountable! They’re surfacing!”
No sooner had the warning faded than the entire expanse of sea before the warship’s bow changed color. The gloomy black of the ocean was swallowed by a ghastly, vibrant crimson, as if a gigantic cask of fresh blood had just shattered beneath the waves.
“Swoosh... Crack!”
The water’s surface tore apart. Hundreds, then thousands of razor-sharp dorsal fins, resembling sickles forged from quenched steel, broke through the violent waves. These were the Blood-Scale Sharks—the most notoriously ferocious beasts of the Mediterranean forbidden zone!
Each magical shark was four to five meters long, its entire body encased in a layer of dark red scales harder than granite, radiating a nauseatingly thick, fishy stench. Most terrifying of all was their double row of jaws bristling with hundreds of saw-toothed fangs made of black mineral stone, fully capable of grinding through the ship’s protective magic alloy armor.
And those were merely the Servant-class beasts.
Right behind the vanguard swarm, the sea swelled in massive chunks like moving hills. Over thirty colossal Commander-class Blood-Scale Shark chieftains rose! Their bodies stretched over fifteen meters long, their dorsal fins standing erect like crimson giant sabers thrusting straight into the sky, their bloodshot eyes glowing like burning coals, radiating a frenzied, savage killing intent.
“Roar——!”
The Commander-class beasts flicked their tails in unison, unleashing a muffled sonic boom that rattled eardrums. With that wave-splitting tail lash, hundreds of steaming, crimson water spouts shot straight into the air, forming a torrential downpour of blood-red acidic rain that lashed down upon the Xuanwu warship!
“Hiss, hiss, hiss...”
When the magic acid struck the deck, the half-meter-thick Xuanwu armor instantly billowed with pungent white smoke, its corroded metallic surface emitting piercing, squeaking screeches. The entire warship, weighing thousands of tons, rocked unsteadily amidst the violent waves, like a fragile dry leaf tossed in the eye of a storm.
About two nautical miles away, the warships of the other competing teams were falling into a similar state of chaos as they entered the coral seas.
Through the hazy mist, the Greek team’s warship could be seen hurriedly turning about to flank sideways, their mages frantically casting Light Shields and Water Barriers to block the corrosive acid rain. To the northwest, the dazzling silver-trimmed warship of the British Imperial Team, commanded by Arthur, had also activated its full array of aurora defense barriers, clumsily retreating into shallower waters to avoid being swarmed by the sharks.
From the command deck of the British fleet, Arthur raised his magitech binoculars toward China’s Sector 7 coordinate, the corner of his mouth twitching into a malicious grin:
“Ha ha! The Blood Purgatory lives up to its name! This swarm of Blood-Scale Sharks has at least three thousand Servants and nearly forty Commander chieftains! The China team drove headfirst straight into a monster den; no matter how tough their Xuanwu hull is, it’s going to be chewed into scrap metal within three minutes. Lin Feng, oh Lin Feng, let’s see how your arrogant bravado saves you this time!”
Beside Arthur, Alexander of the US team monitored closely through a magic crystal screen, his booming voice full of gleeful schadenfreude: “Get the rescue boats ready, Arthur. Soon we’ll get to watch those arrogant Easterners press the emergency button in utter humiliation.”
Not only those two foreign team captains, but the entire panel of international supervisors and judges watching via the projecting screens in Venice held their breath before the horrifying scene in the Red Coral Abyss. Thousands of bloody fins were frantically tearing through the waves, surrounding the Chinese warship three layers deep and three layers wide, turning the surrounding sea into a colossal meat grinder.
“Raise the shields! All defense preparations!”
On the deck of the Xuanwu, Xie Jiuyuan roared furiously. He slammed both palms down onto the steel flooring, earth-element mana surging turbulently:
“Rock Ridge – Heavy Rock Guardian Wall!”
Thick slabs of granite thrust up from the ship’s edges, interlocking to form a sturdy rampart shielding the flanks.
At the same time, Han Jiuyue stepped forward, her long hair fluttering in the fierce wind. She brought her magic staff down heavily against the deck, unleashing a pure pale-blue frost aura:
“Ice Lock – Condensing Water Threads!”
Chilling, razor-sharp ice chains whipped out, freezing the seawater alongside the hull into jagged blocks of ice to block the monsters’ path. Ye Lingtian had also drawn his magic short sword from its scabbard, the space around the blade vibrating with sharp silver ripples, ready to slash apart any Commander-class beast daring to leap onto the deck.
Yet the sheer numbers of the Blood-Scale Shark swarm were terrifying beyond measure. Han Jiuyue’s ice layer formed only to be smashed to pieces by tail whips laden with acid. Dozens of Servant-class beasts surged forward, gnawing savagely with their saw-toothed jaws against Xie Jiuyuan’s stone wall, producing teeth-grinding screeches as stone dust flew everywhere.
The defensive wall began to crack!
At that very moment of extreme peril, a calm, bell-like resonant voice echoed from the center of the deck:
“Hold your positions, team! Retract offensive magic, focus on maintaining the ship’s protective barrier! These beasts... leave them to me!”
The figure vanished from his original spot as the words fell.
Lin Feng!
Without retreating a single step, his figure transformed into a black afterimage that tore through the wind, soaring high into the air before landing as lightly as a dry leaf right atop the highest sharp tip of the Xuanwu warship’s bow.
The sea gale howled violently, whipping the tails of Lin Feng’s black trench coat embroidered with a golden dragon. Acidic mist drizzled around him, but the moment it approached within three paces of his body, it was shattered into nothingness by an invisible aura field.
Lin Feng stood there, his back straight as a spear thrust into the eye of the storm. His gaze was icy as he looked down at the blood-red sea below, where thousands of ferocious eyes from the Blood-Scale Shark swarm stared up at him like a choice meal.
“Rumble!”
Three colossal Commander-class Blood-Scale Sharks roared, vaulting straight up more than ten meters from beneath the water. Their cavernous crimson jaws gaped wide, hundreds of pitch-black fangs snapping straight toward the ship’s bow and Lin Feng, carrying a reeking, bone-chilling aura of death!
Lin Feng did not dodge at all. A cold, sharp smile curved the corners of his mouth.
“Want to tear me apart? Let’s see if your teeth are hard enough!”
Within Lin Feng’s vast spiritual sea, the Lightning-element Star Nebula, previously calm, suddenly boiled furiously like a deep purple sea of magma. Forty-nine Lightning Star Children blazed brilliantly, guided with precision down to the fraction of a millisecond by Lin Feng’s spiritual power, instantly falling into place to form seven flawless Star Orbits. The seven Star Orbits intersected, weaving into a magnificent, revolving lightning Star Plate at a terrifying speed!
Middle-Level Tier 3 Lightning Element!
Yet that was not all!
“Clang——!”
From deep within Lin Feng’s soul, an exceptionally tyrannical, ferocious surge of lightning power was unleashed. Top-grade Spirit Seed—”Frenzied Lightning Afterimage”!
A deep dark purple, carrying destructive and mana-corrosive properties, coiled tightly around every single star child. The air around the ship’s bow instantly grew bone-dry. Arm-thick dark purple lightning arcs began writhing along both of Lin Feng’s arms, emitting sharp, crackling explosions that tore through the space.
The archaic dragon majesty from the Primordial Dragon Talisman on his chest resonated in tandem, causing the thunder’s coercive pressure to surge to an unimaginable height. The boiling sea suddenly flattened under an invisible pressure, depressing into a deep, concave hemisphere!
The three Commander-class beasts flying in midair suddenly sensed a life-or-death threat from the depths of their instincts. Extreme terror flashed across their bloodshot eyes, but their momentum was too fast for them to halt!
Lin Feng took a deep breath. He spread both hands wide, his ten fingertips sparkling with dark purple lightning, then slammed them down heavily toward the surface of the sea!
“Bolt——!”
“AFTERIMAGE FRENZIED LIGHTNING TIDE!”
“BOOM——!!!”
An explosion that tore through the gloomy nine heavens crashed down!
It was not a solitary thunderbolt, nor was it scattered bolts of lightning. From the dense, dark cloud canopy, a colossal dark purple lightning pillar over ten meters wide descended straight from the heavens like the war hammer of the Thunder God right into the heart of the monster swarm!
Simultaneously, from Lin Feng’s palms, tens of thousands of violent dark purple lightning bolts shot straight into the deep sea.
The internal and external lightning currents combined flawlessly, erupting right on the water’s surface!
Seawater was naturally the finest conductor in existence, and the dark purple lightning of the Frenzied Lightning Afterimage carried supreme superconductivity and damage-diffusion traits. The fusion of a top-tier Lightning Spirit Seed and the oceanic terrain created an apocalyptic disaster of world-destroying proportions!
“Swoosh... Swoosh... BOOM BOOM BOOM!”
In the blink of an eye, a colossal dark purple lightning web propagated across the sea at the speed of light!
One hundred meters!
Three hundred meters!
Five hundred meters!
The entire sea within a half-kilometer radius surrounding the Xuanwu warship instantly transformed into an unprecedentedly terrifying Oceanic Thunder Purgatory!
Waves were detonated by voltages of millions of volts, transforming into raging columns of thunder-fire blazing amidst the saltwater. The seawater boiled intensely, vaporizing violently to generate massive billows of steam that obscured visibility. Winding dark purple lightning serpents plunged dozens of meters deep into the water, weaving through every coral reef and hunting down every single corner!
“Howl... Glug...”
The three Commander-class Blood-Scale Sharks lunging at the ship’s bow were the first to taste the Thunder God’s wrath. The dark purple lightning struck squarely atop their heads, instantly shattering their dark red scales—hard as magic steel—into ash. The lightning burrowed straight into their bodies, roasting their entire internal organs and spinal cords in a tenth of a second. All three behemoths let out mournful howls before exploding midair, shattering into tens of thousands of charred chunks of flesh that rained down into the sea!
And beneath the water, a bloody massacre unfolded on a terrifying scale.
Thousands of Servant-class Blood-Scale Sharks densely packed beneath the surface had zero chance of escape. Wherever the dark purple current went, the shark swarm went into violent spasms. Their scales billowed with black smoke, their eyes burst, their bodies convulsed violently, and they floated belly-up to the surface in droves!
“Bang! Bang! Bang!”
Nearly forty Commander-class Blood-Scale Shark chieftains relied on their massive physiques and tenacious protective mana to resist. They whipped their tails frantically, attempting to dive deep into the seabed to escape. However, the Frenzied Lightning Afterimage carried the “Afterimage” trait of unyielding attachment. Dark purple lightning arcs wrapped tightly around their dorsal fins, pierced through their gills, and plunged straight into their brains!
Sharp, resounding explosions echoed continuously beneath the water.
Every single explosion meant a Commander-class beast’s body was torn apart from within by the lightning blast, blood dyeing the sea crimson, viscera and bones scattering amidst the boiling waves!
Up on the deck of the Xuanwu, Xie Jiuyuan, Gu Xiaowei, Han Jiuyue, and Ye Lingtian stood frozen stiff at the sight before them.
Xie Jiuyuan’s jaw dropped, his hands maintaining the Rock Guardian Wall dropping slackly without him noticing. He stared at the half-kilometer radius of churning sea where thousands of charred shark carcasses floated like oil slicks, his chest pounding as if it wanted to jump out of his ribs.
“A single strike... Cleansed completely?!” Ye Lingtian gripped his sword hilt tightly, his knuckles turning pale white from shock. He knew Lin Feng was strong, but never imagined that when Lin Feng’s Lightning element combined with the deep-sea environment, its explosive might would reach such a terrifyingly destructive realm!
Han Jiuyue raised her head slightly to look at Lin Feng’s tall, imposing back at the ship’s bow. In the flickering glow of the lingering dark purple lightning, the youth’s figure resembled an unrivaled Thunder God reigning supreme above the winds and storms, inspiring boundless awe and admiration.
At the same time, in the distance.
The magitech binoculars in Arthur’s hand slipped straight onto the deck, shattering into tiny jade fragments.
The British team captain’s handsome, aristocratic face turned as pale as paper, devoid of a single drop of blood. He clutched the railing with trembling hands, staring wide-eyed toward Sector 7 where a colossal mushroom-shaped cloud of black smoke had just risen:
“No... Impossible! Was that a Middle-Level magic spell?! How could a Middle-Level mage generate a damage radius of five hundred meters?! Furthermore... that shark swarm had dozens of Commanders!”
Elsewhere, the burly Alexander of the US team stood rooted to the deck, his teeth chattering uncontrollably. His mocking smile from moments earlier had vanished entirely, replaced by a profound dread spreading through his entire body. He wondered if he stood within that five-kilometer—no, five-hundred-meter radius of the dark purple lightning tide, whether his Rock Ridge protection could withstand even three seconds?
The entire international team communication channel at the coral reef fell into a dead silence. Not a single person uttered a word.
Meanwhile, on the bow of the Xuanwu warship, Lin Feng slowly withdrew his hands.
“Hum——!”
A familiar warmth suddenly radiated from his chest. The Primordial Dragon Talisman hidden beneath his combat uniform emitted an unprecedentedly brilliant, mysterious grayish-black light!
An invisible suction force, perceptible only to Lin Feng, burst forth wildly from the Dragon Talisman, enveloping the entire five-hundred-meter battlefield.
“Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh...”
Beneath the sea and on the surface, thousands of tiny fluorescent light spots soared from the shark carcasses. Those were thousands of Servant Star Children and hundreds of emerald-green Remnant Souls! Most dazzling of all were nearly forty brilliant dark-blue light orbs—complete Commander-class Soul Essences!
That entire massive ocean of spiritual energy rushed into the Primordial Dragon Talisman like a hundred rivers flowing into the sea.
The Dragon Talisman vibrated repeatedly in delight, its grayish-black light spinning wildly as it frantically refined and condensed each soul particle. Lin Feng clearly felt a wave of pure thermal energy pouring into his spiritual sea, causing the magic barrier blocking the Advanced level to fracture by another massive margin!
“Brilliant! This batch of remnant souls is enough to refine dozens of high-grade Soul Essences!” A flicker of irrepressible excitement lit up the corners of Lin Feng’s eyes.
And that was not all!
As the lightning smoke gradually dissipated, countless sparkling pale-blue light spots emerged across the calm sea, resembling fallen stars scattered across the ocean.
These were Tactical Crystals!
Every single Blood-Scale Shark left behind a magic crystal condensed from the energy of the dead coral reef upon its death. Especially from the carcasses of the massive Commander-class beasts, fist-sized crystals radiated a brilliance ten times brighter than normal!
“One hundred... one hundred fifty... good heavens, over two hundred Tactical Crystals!”
Gu Xiaowei gasped, her round eyes wide and bright like she had struck pure gold. She hurriedly retrieved her vacuum storage pouch, chanting continuously: “So many! Captain, we’ve struck it rich! Our score in this trial is definitely going to top the leaderboard!”
Lin Feng smiled, gently flicking his sleeve. The mana transformed into a gentle vortex that swept up all two hundred plus glowing Tactical Crystals from the surface, depositing them directly into the ship’s cargo hold.
The Xuanwu warship continued plowing past the floating monster carcasses, proudly advancing straight toward the core center of the Blood Purgatory Abyss.
Behind them, the international teams could only watch with eyes filled with covetousness and extreme awe. Barely an hour after setting foot in the forbidden zone, the China team had established an unimaginable lead in points over the rest of the world!
Yet, just as the ship crossed the seventh coral reef, Lin Feng’s smile abruptly faded.
His pupils contracted slightly.
The surrounding sea surface suddenly receded abnormally, forming a massive, deep, gaping depression. All remaining shark carcasses were dragged straight down by a bizarre suction force from the abyss.
“Boom... Rumble... Rumbling...”
From thousands of meters deep in the seabed rifts, a pitch-black undercurrent carrying coercive pressure far surpassing the Commander level surged upward. The entire Xuanwu warship shook violently, its armor plating emitting spine-chilling creaks.
A heavy, muffled sigh, echoing like primordial thunder, reverberated from the deep sea.
In the pitch-black depths of the abyssal crevice, a pair of colossal blood-red eyes the size of a house slowly opened, staring fixedly at the solitary vessel resting upon the water...
The fresh blood of thousands of Blood-Scale Sharks and the lingering fury of dark purple lightning... had ultimately awakened a terrifying existence slumbering in the ocean depths!