Volume 3: Global Vanguard & The Advanced Pinnacle
Chapter 208
Explosive Dragon Armor-Breaker, Slaying the Behemoth Whale
Howling tempests tore through the thick, salty mists, lashing freezing gusts against Lin Feng’s angular face.
Beneath the alloy-reinforced combat boots, the surface of the Eight-Desolations Behemoth Whale’s skull was rugged, resembling a submarine rocky plateau thrusting out of the open sea. Layers of calcified coral stacked over thousands of years formed a jagged volcanic rock armor more than a meter thick, ash-gray and bristling with venomous spikes. With every breath of this beast stretching over two hundred meters long, thousands of cubic meters of seawater were swept away, churning up vicious whirlpools reeking of deep-sea mud.
The Eight-Desolations Behemoth Whale roared in fury.
As the absolute overlord of the Dead Coral Reefs’ deep waters, no living soul had ever dared to stand atop its head and act with such insolence. Furthermore, the one trampling upon the pride of an Upper-Level Commander beast was merely a human being, as frail as a mayfly in its eyes!
“Ugh… Oo… O… OOM!!”
The monstrous, bizarre roar from the beast’s deepest throat resonated through the water column, causing the surrounding five-kilometer radius of the ocean to violently convulse. The sonic waves crashed against the rocky cliffs, shattering rows of ancient stalactites. A thousand meters away on the deck of the divine battleship Xuanwu, Xie Zhaoyuan, Han Yue, and Ye Qingwan had to brace themselves tightly against the bulwarks, their faces turning pale at the overwhelming pressure of a Commander-tier entity.
“Lin Feng... what is he planning to do up there?! That’s the whale’s celestial spirit crown, the spot where the most toxic magical energy nodes are concentrated!” Xie Zhaoyuan swallowed hard, his hand gripping his light shield while trembling violently.
High above, tens of thousands of World Judges’ image-capture talismans from the Venice Arena were live-streaming every single close-up angle. Hundreds of millions of spectators across five continents—from prestigious academy mages to veteran Super-level powerhouses—held their breath as they watched the solitary figure atop the sea monster’s head.
The instant the behemoth’s rage reached its boiling point, the entire layer of coral scales spanning its massive two-hundred-meter back suddenly vibrated violently.
CRACK! CRACK! SWISH!
Countless glowing fissures burst open beneath the calcified rock layer. A gloomy, pungent, and terrifying azure hue slowly seeped outward. This was not ordinary natural lightning, but “Dark Blue Poisonous Lightning,” accumulated over millennia from abyssal cold qi and dead coral venom!
SWISH! SWISH! BOOM! BOOM!
Without any hint of incantation, over a thousand blue lightning lances, as thick as a grown man’s thigh, shot simultaneously into the air! Each lightning spear shrieked as it tore through the firmament, painting intersecting webs of lethal light across the overcast sky. The rising toxic miasma caused raindrops passing through the lances to instantly vaporize into acrid black smoke.
After looping across the cloud layer, the thousand Dark Blue Lightning Spears abruptly inverted their trajectories, carrying the terrifying momentum of gravity and the destructive might of an Upper-Level Commander straight down toward Lin Feng!
The density was so absolute that not an inch of open space remained. In a blink, the entire crown of the beast transformed into a slaughterhouse overflowing with thunder and venom!
“Die, you damn insect!!”
The Eight-Desolations Behemoth Whale roared in frenzied delight. It wanted to see that arrogant human torn to shreds and burned to ashes drifting across the ocean.
Yet, right at the epicenter of the storm of a thousand burning, venomous lightning lances, Lin Feng stood as unyielding as an ancient pagoda against the wind and waves. The corners of his mouth curled into a cold, supremely arrogant arc.
“Using lightning against me? You’ve chosen the wrong opponent, you wretched beast!”
RUMBLE!
Deep within Lin Feng’s spiritual boundary, the Upper-Level Tier 3 Peak Dark-Purple Lightning Nebula spun furiously. Forty-nine lightning star-seeds, refined by Primordial Dragon Qi, erupted with blinding brilliance!
The ultimate Lightning-system Spirit Seed — Sovereign Wild Lightning!
SWISH!
Lin Feng’s boot lightly scraped across the coral rock surface. The very moment the first blue lightning lance struck half an inch away from him, his figure abruptly blurred!
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
A chain of earth-shattering explosions erupted across the monster’s skull. Coral fragments and mud blasted wildly into the air. One silhouette of Lin Feng was pierced through the chest by three lances... but that silhouette did not bleed; instead, it shattered into a sparkling dark-purple afterimage that instantly counter-detonated the opponent’s electric current!
Swift Thunder Mirage Step combined with Absolute Shadow!
SWIT! SWIT! SWIT!
Amidst the dense rain of lightning, Lin Feng transformed into seven, fourteen, twenty-one dark-purple lightning afterimages! His footsteps glided across the rugged rock surface as gracefully as a grim reaper dancing amidst the waves. Every time a blue lightning lance lunged down, it only managed to tear through an illusory afterimage while his true body had already materialized dozens of meters away in an entirely different spot!
Yet evasion was never Lin Feng’s combat style.
“Lightning Convergence — Return to Source!”
A deep shout echoed like an ancient imperial decree. Lin Feng halted at the highest protruding point between the beast’s eye sockets. He spread his arms wide, his ten fingers clawing tightly into the void.
BOOM!
A dark-purple electromagnetic vortex surged fiercely around his body. Driven by the supreme-grade Sovereign Wild Lightning Spirit Seed—far surpassing all mortal thunder in tier—hundreds of incoming Dark Blue Lightning Spears suddenly had their trajectories violently warped by a terrifying gravitational pull!
HISSSSS! CRACK!
A magnificent spectacle unfolded before the entire world: the venomous blue lightning bolts of the Eight-Desolations Behemoth Whale did not explode upon touching the dark-purple vortex around Lin Feng; instead, their toxicity was instantly crushed! The pure lightning energy was purified, transforming into obedient strands of lightning that plunged straight into his pores, channeling through his meridians directly into his Lightning Nebula!
Swallowing lightning! Diverting thunder!
The magical energy within Lin Feng’s body not only failed to deplete; it surged like a breached flood. Every muscle fiber swelled with power, dark-purple lightning wrapping around his body like the ancient battle armor of a descended Thunder God.
“ROAR...!!”
The Eight-Desolations Behemoth Whale shivered violently. It sensed that its millennium-old ultimate attack not only failed to harm the intruder, but had actually become nourishment for him! Overwhelming panic drove it into a frenzy. Its massive two-hundred-meter body writhed, preparing to plunge down into the ten-thousand-fathom abyss to crush Lin Feng with deep-sea pressure!
“Want to run now? Too late!”
Lin Feng’s eyes blazed with two blood-red flames. He took a step forward, his left palm pressing firmly against his chest—where the Primordial Dragon Pendant was vibrating intensely at a frequency of a thousand beats per second!
CRACK!
An invisible seal within the dark-gray jade pendant shattered.
“Dragon Might Domain — Open!”
RUMBLE RUMBLE RUMBLE!!
The sky above the dead coral reef, previously blanketed in heavy clouds, was violently torn open by a gigantic fissure! A golden-purple pillar of light descended straight from the ninth heavens onto the crown of Lin Feng’s head!
Out of the void behind his back, a pitch-black, ten-thousand-zhang dragon head adorned with rugged volcanic horns slowly emerged from the cloud layer! The dragon’s eyes burned red like two primordial suns, glaring down at the mortal sea!
The might of the Primordial Black Dragon!
This was not ordinary elemental magic, but the absolute bloodline suppression of all living creatures since the dawn of creation!
WHOOSH!
An invisible shockwave swept across the ocean surface. A sixty-meter-high tsunami surging upward instantly halted, as if pressed down by a god’s hand, freezing mid-air!
Bearing nine-tenths of this overwhelming Dragon Might was none other than the Eight-Desolations Behemoth Whale!
The giant beast’s soul screamed in despair. Though it was an Upper-Level Commander ruling the seas, before the aura of a true Primordial dragon, the bloodline in its body instantly congealed like tallow meeting cold snow. Its motor nerves were completely paralyzed, its four fins hung limp, and its massive two-hundred-meter body froze dead in its tracks!
Half a second!
To ordinary mortals, half a second was barely enough to blink.
But to Lin Feng, half a second was more than enough to seal the fate of an ocean overlord!
“The cruciform fissure... Found it!”
Lin Feng’s vision was as sharp as a razor blade. Under the suppression of Dragon Might, the whale’s protective energy layer dissolved, revealing a small cruciform fissure buried deep between the rugged eye ridges. Beneath that fissure, a dark blue thunder-core the size of a truck flashed with frantic light.
That was the Life Thunder-Core—the source of power and the sole fatal weakness of the Eight-Desolations Behemoth Whale!
“Four-System Convergence — Gather!”
Lin Feng drew a deep breath into his chest. The sound of blood flowing through his veins roared like an undercurrent.
Within his vast spiritual sea, all four Nebulae awakened simultaneously!
The crimson-red Fire Nebula surged like erupting volcanic magma! The Spirit Seed unleashed a thermal output soaring past thousands of degrees!
The Shadow Nebula transformed into pitch-dark night, coating every muscle fiber on Lin Feng’s right arm with an elastic pitch-black membrane, reinforcing joint and bone durability tenfold!
The Summoning Nebula surged with wild savagery, pouring the entire physical might of the Netherworld Black Wolf into his punch!
The four Nebulae roared in resonance! Unprecedented multi-system magical energy wildly twisted, pouring entirely into Lin Feng’s right arm!
His bicep swelled, purple-red veins bulging like coiled dragon serpents beneath his skin. The air around his fist was warped by extreme heat and electrical charge, emitting ear-piercing crackling snaps.
Lightning and Fire fused! Fist intent gathered!
A lightning-fire dragon head over thirty meters long condensed around Lin Feng’s fist. The dragon jaws parted, purple lightning forming fangs, crimson flames forming blade tongues, and a destructive aura instantly vaporizing the surrounding seawater into a dry vacuum!
“Self-created technique — Blazing Flame · Nine-Palaces Explosive Dragon Whale!!”
Lin Feng’s shout drowned out the sky’s thunder. He slammed his heel down, borrowing the recoil from shattering the coral rock to plunge through the air like a flaming meteorite straight down toward the cruciform fissure!
BOOM!
The lightning-fire-wrapped fist smashed accurately onto the crown of the Eight-Desolations Behemoth Whale!
In the first thousandth of a second, the world fell completely silent.
All sounds of ocean winds, roaring waves, and heartbeat vanished without a trace. Only a blinding point of light like a miniature sun exploded at the point of contact between Lin Feng’s fist and the coral armor!
TEETH... CRACK!!
Following that deathly silence came the most terrifying shattering sound humanity had ever witnessed!
The layer of volcanic coral armor over a meter thick, harder than magic-forged steel... shattered in an instant into tens of thousands of tiny rock fragments!
The Explosive Dragon Whale fist intent whirled like a gigantic drill, tearing through thick layers of blubber and plunging deep into the beast’s cranial cavity!
RUMBLE RUMBLE RUMBLE RUMBLE RUMBLE!!
The Nine-Palaces Flame Whale burst in succession! Nine layers of lightning-fire shockwaves erupted consecutively inside the brain of the Eight-Desolations Behemoth Whale!
The truck-sized dark-blue thunder-core, before it could release its defensive lightning light, was ground into dust by the dark-purple energy and scarlet flames! The beast’s entire nervous system, magical blood vessels, and internal organs were incinerated from within by the intense heat, turning into a blazing ruin!
“Ugh... Oo...”
A final, feeble moan escaped the giant teeth of the Eight-Desolations Behemoth Whale. The ferocious light in its house-sized eyes extinguished completely, leaving only the murky dullness of death.
BOOM!!
The massive, two-hundred-meter-long, tens-of-thousands-of-tons carcass of the coral reef overlord collapsed onto the water surface. The terrifying impact hurled millions of cubic meters of seawater hundreds of meters into the air, creating a salty downpour across the marine region. The aggressive tsunamis that had just surged upward lost their supporting magical energy, instantly fracturing and dissolving into the deep ocean.
The dead coral reef sea, previously churning with storms... at this moment abruptly returned to absolute calm like a giant mirror!
Standing atop the slowly sinking beast carcass, a straight, solitary figure stood firmly amidst the churning white sea foam.
The ocean wind whipped through his tattered tactical jacket, revealing a sturdy chest where dark-purple lightning trails still flickered across his skin.
Lin Feng withdrew his fist and slowly exhaled a wave of scorching hot air.
“Won... Did he really win?!”
Over a kilometer away on the deck of the battleship Xuanwu, Xie Zhaoyuan rubbed his eyes hard three times, his glasses sliding off the bridge of his nose onto the floor unnoticed. He dropped his jaw, his throat choked with speechless shock.
“A single punch... He actually used a single punch to shatter the skull of an Upper-Level Commander?!” Han Yue leaned against the bulwark, her lips trembling slightly. As the capital’s premier Ice-system prodigy, she had witnessed countless experts clash, but the spectacle of using pure physical combat combined with magic to crush a super-defensive monster’s skull was something she had never even dared to dream of!
Ye Qingwan and Ye Lingtian exchanged glances, their eyes filled with utter shock.
Meanwhile, back at the Venice Arena, the tens of thousands of attendees watching via the giant magic screen fell into pin-drop silence. Seconds later, cheers and roars from international commentators and Huaxia spectators erupted like thunder tearing open the European sky!
“Oh my god! Lin Feng! The captain of Team Huaxia has just achieved an unprecedented miracle!”
“Independently slaying an Upper-Level Commander! Through a devastating magical close-combat strike!”
“A new world record has been set in the Dead Coral Reef Sea!”
Amidst the global uproar over this heaven-shaking achievement, Lin Feng remained entirely unbothered by the external cheers.
The moment the Eight-Desolations Behemoth Whale’s life completely severed, a mystical event unfolded right before his eyes.
HUM... HUM...
Rising slowly from the deep fissure on the beast’s skull was a deep-blue glowing orb the size of a water jar. Inside the orb was the miniature silhouette of the Eight-Desolations Behemoth Whale swimming through waves of purest lightning.
An Upper-Level Commander Soul Essence!
Not a tattered lingering remnant soul, but an intact, one-hundred-percent perfect Soul Essence!
In the global magic market, an ordinary Commander-tier Soul Essence already commanded a sky-high price, enough to drive major clans to bloodshed. As for an Upper-Level Commander Soul Essence with rare Lightning and Water attributes, its value could simply not be measured in ordinary currency!
SWISH!
Before the Soul Essence could dissipate into heaven and earth, the Primordial Dragon Pendant on Lin Feng’s chest suddenly erupted with a magnificent golden halo!
An invisible, domineering suction force resembling a cosmic black hole shot from the jade surface. The massive Commander Soul Essence had no chance of resistance, being directly pulled into a streak of deep-blue light that plunged straight into the second-tier sealing space of the Dragon Pendant!
WHOOSH!
The instant it swallowed the Upper-Level Commander Soul Essence, the Primordial Dragon Pendant radiated warmth, feeding back an unbelievably pure flow of life energy directly into Lin Feng’s body!
This energy carried no impurities or beastly resentment, feeling as gentle as a warm spring stream flooding through every blood vessel and joint, before rumbling straight into his spiritual boundary!
CRASH!
Within the spiritual boundary, the four Nebulae of Lightning, Fire, Shadow, and Summoning acted like thirsty travelers in a desert encountering a magnificent rainstorm. They frantically absorbed the pure life-force energy, their nebula volumes expanding at a breathtaking pace!
Forty-nine Lightning Star-seeds clashed violently against one another!
Forty-nine Fire Star-seeds burned so fiercely they threatened to transform into an ocean of fire!
And then...
TEETH... CRACK!!
A crisp sound echoed from the deepest depths of Lin Feng’s soul.
The sturdy invisible barrier separating the Intermediate and Advanced realms—the shackles that tens of thousands of genius mages worldwide spent decades wearing down bit by bit with mountains of resources... at this moment, under the bombardment of the massive life-force energy from the Dragon Pendant, developed web-like cracks spreading across its surface!
Just one more step!
Just one opportunity to condense a complete Star River, and Lin Feng would officially shatter the barrier, stepping into the ranks of Advanced Mages—the realm of magical pillars dominating the battlefield!
TICK TICK TICK!
At that exact moment, the tactical scanner on Lin Feng’s hip began emitting an urgent, ear-piercing series of beeps. The LCD screen displayed wildly dancing numbers:
[Harvested Tactical Starlight Crystal from Upper-Level Commander: +5,000 points!]
[Team Huaxia Accumulated Score: 12,850 points!]
[Current Ranking in Wilderness Survival Trial: ABSOLUTE RANK 1!]
That score left the second-place team, the British Empire, behind by over four thousand points, officially shattering every scoring record in the history of the Venice World Tournament!
Lin Feng looked down at the screen and smiled faintly. He raised his head, casting a cold gaze toward the distant horizon where the Venice Arena and ancient bell towers loomed in the haze.
Out there, the brutal Quarterfinals awaited him. Huaxia’s next opponent was already determined—Team German Empire with its iron discipline and impenetrable Rock-Steel Demonic Golem!
Suddenly, from the deep recesses of the coral reef where the Eight-Desolations Behemoth Whale had just sunk, a bizarre seismic wave carrying the breath of an ancient deep-sea civilization rippled outward, transmitting directly into Lin Feng’s spiritual boundary via the Primordial Dragon Pendant...
A greater secret of this forbidden sea seemed to have just unveiled a corner of its dark veil!