Chapter 1377

"Gurgle!"

The Iron-Head Fish King swallowed hard, saliva gurgling down his throat, then shrank back onto his throne. Earlier, his head had been full of battle fervor, blaming the Flood Dragon King for cowardice—but now, no matter what, he couldn't utter those words.

"One, two, three—sixth wave!"

First wave: Sea Lichen King; second wave: Jade Qilin, seemingly not engaged; third wave: Azure Dragon King; fourth wave: Ice Bear King; fifth wave: Three Heroes of the Eastern Sea; sixth wave—

Fierce!

Extremely fierce.

That damned white-haired monkey—truly like some ancient feral beast leaping suddenly from the obscure corners of a pulp novel!

Iron-Head Fish King, Peng Ze Old Turtle, Yue King, Old Monk, Holy Emperor, Tribal Chief, Great Khan, Snow Mountain Venerable, Overseas Nations—

Heroes of the world, mighty figures of the realm—at this very moment, they all set aside their affairs, focusing intently on the Huaijiang battlefield. Even the Martial Saint now engaged in propagating life must withdraw and pause to watch this sixth wave.

Blue Canopy King and Vase King!

The two overlords of the Eastern Sea join forces!

Two kinds of fruit authority! The pinnacle among pinnacles!

If even such a formidable combination cannot defeat Bai Yuan, and the White Dragon King does not appear, then it nearly proves that in this world, single combat—or even two or three against one, small-scale engagements—within Huaijiang, head-on, face-to-face, offers almost no chance of victory.

Without fish-scale charm, without sufficient resources to drag out a dozen or so coiling flood dragons at once, the next few years will simply be spent honestly waiting for the new ruler of Huaijiang to ascend!

【Intimidate the disloyal, virtue pacifies Huaijiang.】

【River Dominion +0.3】

【Great Prosperity's merit, fame shines bright.】

【River Dominion +0.1】

【River Dominion: 14.1 (River Spring Care: 92.0499)】.

"Drip."

The demon king's blood is heavy.

Most of the fresh blood scattered into the water, leaving only a few drops of essence blood coagulated and undispersed, flowing along with Bai Mao, dripping onto the fist's tip, smashing onto the jade-white plaza, blooming into a red flower.

Five-toed large feet stepped on the dazed demon king's head; Bai Yuan's right fist hair fluttered with the waves, continuously seeping and merging with red water, as if the arm were wrapped in a spreading crimson banner, swirling and dancing.

Distant sky.

The azure jellyfish resembled a heavenly canopy, its massive bell rising and falling, magnificent beyond compare; atop the dome, an olive-green object, like a Buddha's hand, clung motionless—a barnacle gourd.

Bai Yuan bared his teeth, exhaling a breath.

The big toe and thumb alike gripped the fish king's gill cover, pulling hard—the entire spear-fish flew to the corner, lined up behind the Ice Bear King; thereafter, Golden Eye Xiong Xiong stared straight at the newcomer.

"This monkey—how can he be so fierce?"

The Azure Dragon King glanced sideways; the Ice Bear King, who had fainted alongside him earlier, stirred dazedly, spat a mouthful of blood, his vision sweeping past the monkey toward the horizon, enduring the headache as he struggled to rise from the ground.

"Who knows."

The Azure Dragon King glanced again, continuing to watch Bai Yuan.

The demon kings had never been water sovereigns, unaware that Huaijiang's favor was not merely "indestructibility," but also a massive boon to recovery and consumption. They only saw Bai Yuan fighting from morning to afternoon without rest, victory after victory.

Even if they knew, or perhaps just the same—would knowing make the boon disappear?

War of attrition, indeed.

Though the Boundless Sea of the Coiling Dragon is no joke, its offensive might endless, no matter the realm, when facing equals, mental exhaustion is immense.

Combat relies not only on strength but also on mind; between life and death, mental consumption is especially great—like a novice student taking a two-hour exam, exhausted after finishing; nearing graduation, facing exams, still a two-hour test, still exhausted.

Clearly having studied for years, abilities greatly improved—no other reason, the difficulty of the questions has similarly increased dramatically.

Only one possibility exists.

The soon-to-graduate student faces exam questions still at the level of a first-day newcomer!

The Ice Bear King spat another mouthful of blood: "What exactly is that monkey's authority?"

"Kind of like divergence." The Azure Dragon King focused, "Completely opposite to Blue Canopy King's fruit—when he punches, I feel like exploding, my whole body wanting to burst open, from inside to out."

"Then it's right." The Ice Bear King clutched his chest, wiped blood, "Same for me—no matter what I strike with, it feels like being 'blown apart,' uniform impact, utterly useless."

Whale Mighty cared for his little brother, waving his fins, introducing the two Eastern Sea overlords afar: "Blue Canopy King is of the Blue Poison Jellyfish clan—what we often use as blue-light jellyfish, flash once bright, flash again dim. Blue Canopy King is a variant of that clan, differing in toxicity and non-toxicity.

It's said the Blue Canopy King clan is born with low spiritual intelligence, but Blue Canopy King himself has extraordinarily long lifespan, using his own trait, he refined his own fruit through good fortune—related to contraction and constriction; as long as its tentacles wrap around something, anything becomes like dehydration.

Vase King is even more special—he is of the Barnacle clan, which is no ordinary thing: ordinary disgust becomes even more vile when refined into a spirit monster, capable of displaying innate divine power, attaching to another fish—once successful, scraping off the flesh does nothing, and moreover, it can use your divine power."

Use its divine power?

The fat fish startled, hastily covering his own rear.

He had seen barnacles—on many unrefined giants of the Eastern Sea, they cause maddening itch, making heads constantly bang against reefs, disgustingly so.

"Exactly." Whale Mighty nodded, "As long as it attaches to you, you can use your divine power—and once the Barnacle King becomes a demon king, his innate divine power transforms into the Art of Creation; after long attachment and detachment, it can directly fix the attached one's divine power onto itself.

Not only can it solidify others' divine power, including range—becoming one entity, like teleportation divine power, which normally only allows self-teleportation, unable to carry much—but after the Vase King attaches, it can carry the stuck object along as one.

The fat fish stared wide-eyed—he had long heard the Heavenly God lecture on dragon cultivation, concerning what Dao, technique, and Qi are.

Coiling Dragon strong ones, based on their three great Arts of Creation, continuously deduce associations, forming entirely new divine powers, just like having children.

The second generation bears the shadow of the first, the third the shadow of the second—if enough building blocks are stacked, those with divine power will become myriad and varied, even unrelated things like wind and horse, perhaps able to traverse space, also to seal space, also to attack, also to defend, also to self-heal, also to aid cultivation—no longer limited to the three fixed positions at the Entering Zhen Xiang stage, hard to target.

Only the nurturing of arts is as difficult as sitting in temples and growing the qi sea—limited resources and lifespan mean being able to stack two or three generations is already good; few can escape the shadow of the Arts of Creation.

Vase King directly pastes others' divine power onto himself—day after day, accumulating, how much divine power must he gather? Is he not an almighty demon king?

"Pfft." Whale Mighty flicked his fins, "Fat brother, also not that exaggerated—the Barnacle clan has only Vase King as this freak; normal barnacles have big flaws, moving slower than slag.

Only Vase King, having pasted perhaps dozens of divine powers, can directly teleport, also break spatial seals—almost no weaknesses; he and the Sea Lichen King are the two special cases among Eastern Sea overlords; the only flaw likely is that after pasting a water creature, one seemingly cannot remove it for years, including one's own position.

Oh, forgot to mention—his fruit is the same: Vase King has a fruit, just unrefined; he used his own Art of Creation to achieve half-refinement, able to barely activate the fruit's authority—seems like touching anything twists it into a vortex shape; your great king is probably in danger—but why did these two overlords only appear now?"

Danger?

The fat fish lifted his head, puffed his chest, gripped his fins, and swung left and right, throwing two punches at the air.

Heavenly God, invincible under heaven!

"Go Big Brother! Go Big Brother! Go Big Brother!"

The little mirage dragon clutched two clumps of waterweed, shaking its head and swaying its tail, twisting left and right, letting out a wuhu cry as it spun a circle.

"Can't move," Round Head, Fist — all of them circled the square dancing in encouragement.

The dragon people and dragon sturgeon held their breath.

It could be foreseen: the flood dragon would not move; right now was almost the final great offensive!

Break through, Uncrowned King!

The Blue Canopy King, blotting out the sky, hovered above the water surface, casting a giant circle on the square; the Pot King shrank atop the Blue Canopy King's head, tiny, almost imperceptible.

Observing from afar earlier, Long Pingjiang had already felt the Blue Canopy King's size was immense; now viewing it close, he discovered this fellow was the true colossus on the scene — the blue giant canopy atop its head actually had a diameter of over one li, two hundred zhang, over six hundred meters.

The Azure Dragon King was already a colossal beast, but its build was slender, and its body length did not match the Blue Canopy King's diameter; the sense of shock fell far short of the current Blue Canopy King.

Ten thousand tentacles drooped from the canopy top, fluorescent and shimmering, as if walking into a forest of coral light; among them, one tentacle coiled around two portions of medium-grade creation spirit medicines, lifting them slightly.

Bai Yuan opened his great mouth, rinsed it, spat, coughed up blood foam, and nodded at Long Pingjiang.

Long Pingjiang stepped forward to salute; the semi-transparent tentacles tossed the precious medicines, hindered by the water current, they drifted slowly; Long Pinghe leapt up, received them, and quickly retreated.

Bai Yuan took a deep breath.

On the left were the spectating Demon Kings; on the right, the defeated Demon Kings.

All around were ten thousand water beasts; above, the new challenger.

Five toes splayed, he stepped out half a pace, stomping down heavily.

Water ripples spread; fresh blood cleared in an instant.

Great Demon might swept across the central courtyard!

"Third Grandpa, why do these Hegemons all come up one by one?" Long Yanrui stroked his chin and asked.

Long Zong Yin stroked his beard: "First, the East Sea Hegemon is a title, not a group organization; once you enter you are a Hegemon, and as a Hegemon you join — fellow Hegemons, the Demon Kings inside don't necessarily know each other, don't necessarily trust each other.

The Great King first plucked the Position Fruit, then spent half a month refining it; on the day of refinement he announced it widely — from then to now has been mere days, lightning fast, catching all Demon Kings off guard, maximizing the use of momentum; at such speed, even if they had ideas, there was no time to act."

"Isn't it said the mantis stalks the cicada? What if they've had secret connections all along?"

"Even with prior connections, it's no more than two or three Hegemons." Long Zong Yin was confident. "The post of Jianghuai Water Lord has only one seat; who would covet it? Nothing more than fellow peak beasts — only those few would have true greed. The rest — even if they beat him down, can they hold it? Wouldn't they be clueless on how to be a Dragon Lord? Being able to eat some spirit medicines from the mutual strife is already not bad.

Since it's just those few, if they join forces, how to divide the benefits? In the end they'd still have to yield internally, still come to nothing. And they'd all be helping someone else succeed — who can't help? Why not help the Great King with the greater chance of winning? The pickings would be more secure.

Furthermore, that's the second point: besides the fourth wave, the Great King only briefly merged with Hai Fangzhu once to accelerate recovery against the fifth wave — in reality he has faced everything alone. But does the Great King have no helpers?"

"I see." Long Yanrui vaguely understood.

The struggle for the peak, the struggle for the Lord's seat.

Bai Yuan comes out for a duel and can't win; pinning hopes on a group beating?

The Great King called everyone over to "sit a while," to prop up the scene — even that costs spirit medicines. The other side pulls a bunch of brothers for a direct group brawl — how much more would that cost? And would the brothers stay forever? Maintained forever by paying out money?

Since the scene is laid out and there's no group brawl, at least the tops must clash first; naturally it becomes wave after wave, three rounds up or down, most common.

Boom!

White currents exploded; transparent water ripples brushed past the face.

While Long Yanrui questioned the elder, the sixth wave confrontation had already begun; Bai Yuan kicked off the ground, charging at the Blue Canopy King, crashing out a narrow vacuum, silver bubbles trembling, as if heaven and earth opened their eyes.

The Blue Canopy King neither dodged nor evaded; ten thousand tentacles drooped like a forest, stretching toward Bai Yuan; dark purple toxin condensed on the tentacles; wherever they reached, water flow was annihilated.

The Mind's Eye hung high.

Up, down, inside, outside — nowhere unseen.

Amid the interweaving tentacles, several blank paths were clearly visible.

Whoosh!

Water surged backward.

Bai Yuan flickered, shuttling into the tentacle center, fiercely throwing a punch — "Hong Sha" surged out mightily, bringing the water flow to strike out a long dragon; ten thousand "trees" snapped with a crack, clearing a small path.

First strike seizes the initiative; before the watching dragon people could rejoice, the severed tentacles danced, the broken ends bulged, regrowing; the "forest" grew dense again, and the just-severed tentacles floated suspended in the water.

Atop the Blue Canopy King's head, the Pot King's light flashed; those severed tentacles writhed and grew, actually transforming into ten thousand purple sea wolves!

Seeing this, Liang Qu thought of an old friend — not the Sea Tooth King.

The Eight-Clawed King!

The Eight-Clawed King's divine ability is precisely to detach limbs from the body and transform them into the shape of any creature, even grafting them into other fish!

Only the Eight-Clawed King's control quantity is limited, unable to divide attention too much; right now there are over a hundred — another unknown control ability?

"The Pot King even stole the Eight-Clawed King's divine ability?"

The thought flashed; the purple sea wolves swarmed in neat rows; the tentacles were poisonous, the transformed sea wolves likewise poisonous; space was cramped.

Liang Qu attempted to shuttle again, to jump out of the encirclement; the Pot King's head light flashed again.

【Water Travels a Thousand Li】 instantly seemed to hit a wall, unable to move, unable to shuttle.

Space Seal!

Bai Yuan was startled, then laughed heartily: "Cultivating to this day, it's always been me relying on number of divine abilities to bully others; today I actually run into a freak with even more than me."

Boom!

Sword fingers joined, vortex blades abruptly born; ten thousand water knives manifested from nowhere, slicing and shuttling through the purple sea wolves, severing tentacles, like a giant meat grinder.

The more tentacles severed, the more they grew and morphed, causing more and more purple sea wolves; Bai Yuan surged forward fiercely, 【Vortex God Armor】 corroded and tattered then recondensed.

The Pot King's light flashed again.

In a split second, the purple sea wolves pierced through space, pouncing at Bai Yuan's face; simultaneously the Pot King tried to shift the Blue Canopy King backward, avoiding this wave of harm from Bai Yuan.

The Pot King knew its own weakness. The movement defect was the most important one — not even as good as a toddler.

Ordinary space shuttling would be forbidden by space imprisonment; the prohibition is bilateral. But just as the relation of spear and shield: because there is space shuttling, there is space ban; because there is space imprisonment, there is breaking space imprisonment.

It spent over three hundred years, amassing forty-six divine abilities, five or six requiring special conditions to achieve — like the Eight-Limbed Transformation, which could only be performed while attached to a Soft-Bodied Demon King — while the remaining eight were all about spatial traversal! Breaking and counter-breaking, enough to make it so the opponent could neither imprison nor traverse, while it alone stood on undefeatable ground.

The reason they appeared in the sixth wave today, after the Seven Tyrants of the East Sea, was both to drain Bai Yuan's energy and, at the moment the opponent's momentum peaked, to display the might of itself and Lan Gai, forcefully suppressing him, ascending to a higher rung, striking terror into the world's demons, and shaking the heavens with its prestige!

Just waiting to wheedle out of Bai Yuan's mouth how to become the Jianghuai Dragon Lord————

Boom!

The tide's roar surged, torrents poured down, and heaven and earth changed once more.

Unknown waters filled every corner; Hu Wang keenly sensed the environment had changed, but before he could understand what had changed.

Lan Gai Wang was frozen in place.

Surging rivers overlapped with reality.

The Hong Nation descended!

Lan Gai Wang didn't get to traverse; his umbrella canopy rose and fell, intending to roam.

Rippling light flashed again.

The umbrella canopy stagnated, ten thousand purple sea wolves fell into the 【Nether Sea Prison Cage】, unable to move.

"Hey!"

Bai Yuan grinned wide, puffed out his chest, inhaled and gathered strength, the blown airflow sending river water flying, creating a tiny vacuum.

Chest expanding and contracting, great arms stretching out.

Long hair fluttering, canine teeth bared.

Empty-handed grip, the fish-belly-white water spear suddenly appeared, knotted forearm and spear shaft tensed into a single straight line, serratus anterior rising and falling like shark gills breathing, like steel and iron, explosive power surging to the very tips.

Striding forward, twisting his body.

Black light flashed once.

Hu Wang was greatly alarmed, hurriedly deploying a defensive divine ability; Lan Gai Wang touched foot and spread out, tapping the black light, the black light shortened by three chi but did not vanish, and behind it water currents converged into a vortex, deflecting its direction.

Pfft!

Black light pierced through the blue canopy.

1