Volume 3: Global Vanguard & The Advanced Pinnacle
Chapter 298
Slaying the Sea Demon Sovereign, A Resounding Global Victory
BOOM!
A muffled explosion echoed straight from the chest of the thousand-meter-meter giant beast, spreading across ten thousand miles of the ocean expanse. It was the sound of a Sovereign-tier life structure shattering, where the magic nucleus energy accumulated for a millennium at the deep sea floor was torn into countless debris fragments.
The eighth head—the most ferocious and insidious head of the Eight-Headed Water Python—split in two under Lin Feng’s Divine Thunder sword strike. The cut was as smooth as if carved by supreme spatial rules, extending from the scale-armored skull straight down to its colossal throat.
Not a single roar of struggle managed to escape. The violent magic energy carrying the divine might of the Nine Heavens Divine Thunder completely sealed its vocal cords and incinerated all the magical meridians inside its body before the pain could even reach its brain.
The blood of the Deep Sea Sovereign was as thick as boiling black tar, carrying a concentration of highly corrosive venom that erupted outward like a pitch-black rainstorm. But the instant that foul, greasy fluid touched the air, the golden light and deep purple lightning trails lingering on Lin Feng’s blade instantly activated.
Hiss, hiss, hiss!
Extreme temperatures surged upward. Before the toxic blood could even touch the surface of the sea, it evaporated completely into wisps of gray ash, vanishing into nothingness.
The massive body of the Eight-Headed Water Python, stretching over a thousand meters long and heavy as a subterranean mountain range, began to wobble mid-air. When the immense magic energy sustaining its floatation was extinguished, the gravity of heaven and earth immediately reclaimed its ruling authority.
SMASH!
The colossal mass of flesh slammed hard onto the surface of the East China Sea. The heaven-shaking collision created a soaring column of white spray reaching up to the clouds, sending shockwaves along the continental shelf that shook the sturdy sea-dike defense line in the distance violently. The seawater surged and then gradually parted, revealing the lifeless corpse of the primordial sea serpent slowly sinking into the salty brine.
The storm that had raged violently for three full days and nights suddenly halted.
Losing the will and magical guidance of the deep-sea abyss lord, the category-seventeen gale tearing through the territory quickly dissipated. The leaden, ink-black clouds hovering overhead began to crack open with massive fissures. The howling northerly wind lowered its voice, turning into a majestic, cool sea breeze carrying the raw, salty scent of the ocean instead of the foul stench of death.
From the eastern horizon, where sea and sky met, a brilliant orange-red streak of light abruptly pierced through the pitch-black night. The first dawn after days of life-and-death battle poured over the water’s surface, draping a shimmering layer of golden dust across the rolling waves like ten thousand miles of gold-sifted sand.
The East China Sea, after hours of roaring to submerge the mortal world, now quietly stretched flat like a giant mirror reflecting the clear sky above.
Yet beneath the water’s surface, a completely contrasting tragedy was unfolding.
Tens of thousands of low-level sea demons, green-scaled Yakshas, Berserk Sand Megalodons, and even the most ferocious Commander-tier monsters stood frozen in shock. The blood-red, bloodthirsty eyes of those deep-sea creatures now held only absolute terror that paralyzed their sensory faculties.
Their lord... the supreme deity that had ruled the oceanic trench for centuries... was dead!
Slain in half by a human youth with a single sword right before the eyes of all its kind!
The most primitive fear instantly erupted within every nerve cell of the demonic beasts. When the suppressing mental link of the Eight-Headed Water Python snapped, the horde’s order instantly crumbled into pieces. Not a single sea demon dared to look up at the youthful figure hovering in the high heavens a second time.
“Squeak... roar...!”
Piercing, shrill sounds echoed across every corner of the sea. All million sea monsters panicked, turning around, crowding, trampling, and tearing at each other to fight for an escape route. They desperately dived into the deep abyss, swimming for their lives toward the east, toward the dark, fathomless Mariana Trench—the only place where they hoped human sunlight and sword qi could never reach.
The sight of millions of marine creatures fleeing frantically created rolling subterranean ocean currents beneath the waves, sweeping all the wreckage of the battlefield far out into the open sea.
High in the sky, Lin Feng still stood towering in the void.
The robes of his battle attire fluttered fiercely in the morning wind. On his sharp, handsome face, beads of sweat mixed with dried bloodstains gradually revealed themselves in the morning sun. He slowly lowered his sword-wielding arm, breathing deeply and steadily, regulating the surging Star River magic within his body.
Suddenly, right in front of Lin Feng’s chest, where the ancient jade pendant was kept, an unusually warm surge of heat suddenly rose.
The Primordial Dragon Pendant trembled slightly.
A low humming sound like a dragon’s roar from tens of thousands of years ago echoed within Lin Feng’s sea of consciousness. An invisible, ancient, and unfathomably deep vortex of suction suddenly unlocked from the surface of the mysterious black jade block.
At the deepest point beneath the seawater, where the heart and lungs of the Eight-Headed Water Python had just stopped beating, a brilliant radiance suddenly condensed.
It was a Mid-Stage Sovereign-tier Star Soul!
Completely different from the servant-class or commander-class remnant souls or star souls Lin Feng had encountered before, this star soul was as huge as a miniature full moon, emitting a crystal-clear sapphire light without a speck of dust. Inside that sphere of energy, the phantom of a miniature eight-headed giant serpent writhed and roared in desperation, containing a source of life energy and pure magic energy so intense that any Forbidden Mage who saw it would covet it.
For an ordinary hunter, gathering a Sovereign-tier Star Soul required national-grade sealing treasures and hours of chanting incantations. But to the Primordial Dragon Pendant, that priceless star soul was no different from a delicious morsel willingly delivering itself to its mouth.
Swish!
A streak of turquoise light ripped through the water’s surface, soared high into the air, and obediently plunged straight into the heart of the jade pendant on Lin Feng’s chest.
The Primordial Dragon Pendant vibrated contentedly in satisfaction. Not stopping there, the ancient suction force from the dragon pendant began to diffuse across the entire East China Sea battlefield over a radius of hundreds of kilometers.
Millions of tiny phosphorescent light specks—the remnant souls of the sea demons fallen throughout the bloody battle—were swept up by an invisible whirlwind. They gathered from all directions, forming a brilliant, gigantic soul vortex orbiting around Lin Feng’s body, then poured frantically into the interior of the jade pendant in wave after wave.
An unprecedentedly abundant supply of pure energy flooded every nook and cranny of the Primordial Dragon Pendant.
Crack!
A crisp sound echoed deep within Lin Feng’s spirituality. The fourth-layer seal of the dragon pendant—a seal as solid as bedrock—cracked visibly under the nourishment of the Mid-Stage Sovereign Star Soul and millions of battlefield souls!
A stream of pure life spiritual liquid from the dragon pendant instantly rushed backward into Lin Feng’s limbs and bones. All fatigue and the sensation of magic depletion after executing a destruction-tier sword technique were instantly swept away. The magic energy across his four Star River systems—Lightning, Wind, Space, and Shadow—acted like a drought meeting a refreshing rain, beginning to boil, expand, and balloon at a dizzying speed. The boundary walls within his body shook violently, ready for a breathtaking leap forward.
Lin Feng closed his eyes and took a deep breath, feeling the warm vitality flow along his spine, the corners of his lips curving upward into a calm smile.
This trip to the East China Sea had yielded results that far exceeded his initial expectations.
At the same time, upon the East China Sea dike defense line.
The space fell silent for a full ten seconds. Hundreds of thousands of border guards, Forbidden Guard Mages, tactical grandmasters, and all high-ranking generals standing atop the thick reinforced concrete dike seemed to have forgotten how to breathe.
They stared blankly as the thousand-meter corpse of the Eight-Headed Water Python sank deep into the sea. They watched the sun rise, saw the dark clouds disintegrate, watched millions of water monsters trample each other in flight, and saw the lonely figure of the young man bathing in the golden morning light high in the sky.
Li Jingyuan—the Grand Commander of the East China Sea theater known for his unyielding steel—had his hands trembling violently on the steel railing. The specially crafted alloy baton in his hand slipped to the ground, producing a crisp “clink.”
“We won...”
A trembling whisper came from the parched throat of a young soldier standing guard on the magic turret tower.
“We... did we really win?”
That whisper fell like a match into a gigantic gunpowder keg.
“WE WON! THE EIGHT-HEADED WATER PYTHON IS DEAD!”
“A RESOUNDING VICTORY! THE SEA DEMONS HAVE ALL FLED!”
The entire hundreds-of-kilometers-long sea-dike defense line suddenly erupted in unprecedented, fanatical cheers and roars!
Border soldiers tossed their steel helmets into the sky. Middle-aged mages with graying hair embraced their comrades nearby, letting hot tears stream down faces smeared with dirt and blood. Female medical mages sank to the ground, crying and smiling in ultimate happiness.
For three days and nights facing the brink of extinction, preparing themselves mentally to be buried at the bottom of the cold sea, they had survived! Humanity had repelled doomsday!
Xiao Lingfeng—President of the Shenzhou Magic Academy—who had experienced hundreds of large and small bloody battles, could not suppress his emotion either. He looked up at the distant vault of heaven, his choked voice trembling in the wind:
“Heaven protects Shenzhou... To have Lin Feng is the supreme fortune of an entire era!”
Standing beside him, Liu Ruoxue gripped her magic staff tightly. Her eyes reflected the youth’s silhouette amidst the blazing sun, her lips pressed tightly together to keep a sob of happiness from escaping. As for Qin Yichen, he tilted his head back to the sky and laughed heartily, his booming laughter drowning out the sound of crashing waves.
Below the fortress, a soldier raised the bright red flag of Shenzhou high atop the command tower.
And then, from a corner of the trench, a resonant shout rang out:
“LIN FENG!”
Instantly, tens of thousands of others joined in:
“LIN FENG! LIN FENG!”
“SWORD OF GOD-SLAYING! SHENZHOU’S MAGIC GOD!”
The shout started sparsely in a few sectors, but in the blink of an eye, it spread like rolling thunder across the entire battle position. Hundreds of thousands of people roared the name in unison. The majestic, heroic, and fanatical sound wave rolled into a gigantic wave of sound, blasting away all lingering traces of fear, echoing across the vast sea and straight up to the nine heavens!
Through ultra-long-range military satellite systems and live magical broadcast cameras, the moment Lin Feng swung his sword to sever the head of the Eight-Headed Water Python was broadcast live to every large and small screen across Shenzhou’s territory.
In Haicheng—the city standing right at the tiger’s jaws, where tens of millions of citizens held their breath sheltering in underground anti-magic bunkers—when the image of the giant beast collapsing appeared on the underground plaza screen, the entire city erupted.
People poured out of the bunker exits, embracing anyone they met on the streets. Fireworks bloomed brightly in the daytime sky. Ancient temple bells in the Capital, Jiangnan, and Xichuan rang out in unison, dispelling the gloomy darkness that had weighed on the citizens’ minds over the past few days.
Billions of Shenzhou citizens shed tears. They knew that from this day forward, the name Lin Feng was no longer just a young magic prodigy; he had become the sturdiest bulwark, a towering lighthouse protecting this country against wind and storms!
If Shenzhou was immersed in a sea of jubilation, on the other side of the globe, a magnitude-twelve spiritual earthquake was sweeping through all the world’s centers of power.
Geneva, Switzerland—the Supreme Headquarters of the International Holy Land Magic Association.
Inside the millennial marble-paved circular conference room, the air was so stifling that a pin dropping could be heard. Twelve Forbidden Archmages—powerful figures holding the destiny of all humanity’s magic—stood frozen in front of the gigantic spatial magic screen.
On the screen, magic energy indices transmitted from observation satellites were still flashing bright red:
[Target: Eight-Headed Water Python.]
[Rank: Mid-Stage Deep Sea Sovereign.]
[Life Status: Completely eradicated.]
[Damage Source: A single burst of magic energy exceeding 12,000,000 Joules. Nature: Nine Heavens Divine Thunder fused with Rule Sword Intent.]
[Perpetrator: Lin Feng – Shenzhou. Verified Age: 19 years old.]
“Nineteen years old... Single-handedly slaying a Mid-Stage Sovereign...”
A French Forbidden Archmage trembling removed his gold-rimmed glasses, his voice entirely lost:
“Good Lord... How can a nineteen-year-old youth condense magic power surpassing even the full-force strike of an elementary Forbidden Mage?!”
The Association President, a white-haired elder with a long beard touching his chest, slowly placed his aged hands on the table. His dim eyes stared fixedly at the figure of the youth standing amidst the East China Sea dawn on the screen, speaking in a deep voice:
“Humanity’s magic history has just been torn and rewritten starting today. Shenzhou is no longer a sleeping dragon. With the appearance of this youth, the global magic order must be completely restructured.”
In New York, USA—The Pentagon and the North American Hunter Association Headquarters.
Four-star generals and high-ranking council members sat around the strategic roundtable, their complexions all ashen like dead ashes. The strategic plan titled “East China Sea Humanitarian Aid with Conditional Magic Mineral Resource Concessions” that they had painstakingly prepared the night before now lay forlornly on the table, no different from a ridiculous farce.
They had calculated that even if Shenzhou poured the full strength of its Forbidden Mages into battle, they would suffer heavy losses, and the collapse of the East China Sea dike was hard to avoid. At that time, the West would stand in the position of savior to intervene and impose unequal terms.
Yet, all those profound calculations had been completely severed by a single sword strike from Lin Feng!
“Check all databases on Lin Feng again!”
A general slammed his hand hard on the table, roaring at the intelligence department:
“Upgrade this subject’s threat level to Top-Secret Mythical! Absolutely... absolutely do not take any provocative actions targeting Shenzhou as long as this nineteen-year-old monster is alive!”
In Tokyo, Island Nation.
The Parliament Building and major shrines were plunged into a suffocatingly gloomy atmosphere.
As an island nation situated right at the gateway of the Pacific Ocean, the Island Nation understood the horror of sea demons better than anyone. In their ancient texts, the Eight-Headed Water Python was the incarnation of Yamata no Orochi—the ferocious god that had devastated their territory in legends. For decades, the Island Nation’s magic titans could only huddle in defense, never daring to contemplate direct combat against a Mid-Stage Sovereign in the deep sea.
Yet today, that ferocious god had been slain by a youth from a neighboring country.
Shock, bitterness, and supreme awe enveloped the Island Nation’s entire magic community. They understood that from this moment onward, anyone wishing to survive the Pacific sea demon wave would have to bow their heads toward the West—where the young Magic God guarded the borders of Shenzhou.
Top global news agencies from CNN, BBC, Reuters to AFP simultaneously blared blazing red headlines across their front pages:
[EAST CHINA SEA MIRACLE: NINETEEN-YEAR-OLD SHENZHOU YOUTH SLAYS SEA DEMON SOVEREIGN!]
[RISE OF THE NEW MAGIC GOD: GLOBAL ORDER OFFICIALLY SHIFTS!]
[EIGHT-HEADED WATER PYTHON NIGHTMARE ENDS UNDER LIGHTNING GOD SWORD!]
The name “Lin Feng” and the title “Shenzhou Magic God” within a few short hours climbed straight to the number one search spot across the global Internet, creating a fanatical craze unprecedented in modern human history.
Returning to the surface of the East China Sea.
Amidst countless thunderous cheers from the wave-blocking dike, Lin Feng’s figure swayed slightly and slowly landed on the concrete dike.
Grand Commander Li Jingyuan, Academy Director Xiao Lingfeng, and hundreds of high-ranking generals immediately stepped forward to greet him. The gazes of those weathered seniors looking at Lin Feng now no longer carried the look of a talented junior, but were filled with utmost respect and veneration as if gazing upon a savior of the nation.
“Lin Feng... you’ve achieved the impossible!” Li Jingyuan choked up, patting his shoulder hard. “All of Shenzhou owes you a life debt!”
“Grand Commander flatters me.” Lin Feng shook his head slightly, the smile on his lips calm and humble. “Protecting the borders and eradicating demons is the responsibility of every Shenzhou mage. I only did what I ought to do.”
That modest reply made the surrounding generals silently marvel in their hearts. To achieve such a heaven-shaking feat yet remain as firm as bedrock in temperament, neither arrogant nor boastful, such bearing was truly worthy of a peerless grandmaster!
However, while responding to the Grand Commander, Lin Feng’s gaze glanced furtively toward the distant deep-sea horizon.
The smile on his face gradually faded, his eyes deeply grave.
Because the moment the Primordial Dragon Pendant finished refining the Eight-Headed Water Python’s Sovereign Star Soul, a bizarre pulse from deep within the pendant had transmitted straight into his consciousness.
That was not nourishing energy, but a warning from dragon soul instinct!
At the Mariana Trench thousands of nautical miles away, at a depth of over ten thousand meters in the eternally dark ocean abyss—where even magic light was crushed...
The death of the Eight-Headed Water Python did not seem to be the end. The blood of the millennial Sovereign seeped deep into the seabed tectonic cracks, inadvertently awakening a terrifying primordial seal a myriad times more formidable.
In the pitch-black abyss of ten thousand fathoms, a pair of gigantic eyes glowing red like two blood-moons slowly opened.
A chilling and supremely evil breath slowly awakened, stirring the entire floor of the Pacific Ocean...