Chapter 1528

"Roar!!!"

"Charge charge charge, the championship belongs to Jianghuai."

Cheers shook the heavens, clamorous and chaotic; in a corner of the cave wall, water plants swayed.

"Ah!!!"

Pain!

Too painful!

Heavenly God, why must you do this!

Fish skin charred black and shriveled, thick yellow tissue fluid seeped from the muscle, mixed with fat oil; not only did it fail to extinguish the great fire, it fueled the flames, burning in intermittent bursts.

The Sea Tooth King struggled desperately, roared with all his might, yet could do nothing, helplessly watching his physical body char black bit by bit, fade bit by bit. The realm he had cultivated for hundreds of years kept plummeting, as if it were all being sucked away by the crimson-gold gourd before him.

Blazing fire raged, golden light shone universally.

Twitching nerves gradually withered, then bizarrely recovered, cycling repeatedly.

The soul's howls went unheard by anyone.

Apart from the sounds of bones bursting between joints, the cave interior was dead silent.

Human shadows swayed on the cave wall; Wei Lin stood quietly to one side, watching the incomparably massive demon king's physical body continuously wither, his Qi and blood transport flowing incomparably smoothly, his internal cultivation actually rising by three parts; he faintly heard the cheers of the dragon people outside the cave — perhaps the East Sea Grand Hunt had begun — merely he did not care, a boring immortal assembly was all.

"Wei Guo————"

Wei Lin gazed at the continuously fading crimson-gold gourd, his eyes bright and piercing.

Relying solely on one Entering Zhen Xiang, the Qi Sea has limits; after tossing about for not long he would be unable to activate the divine ability — it is absolutely impossible to incinerate a demon king with such a powerful physical body.

However, his divine ability has the effect of never extinguishing, never perishing; as long as the Sea Tooth King does not resist, the longer he endures, the longer it burns!

Each time the crimson-gold solar blazing fire incinerated withered flesh and blood, the crimson-gold light on the gourd would diminish by a fraction; each time the desiccated flesh and blood recovered a bit or two, verdant green light would surge forth on the gourd, like mountain springs flowing through springtime.

Repeating so for half a month, the crimson-gold gourd had already become half crimson, half green, the two radiances blending; correspondingly, the Sea Tooth King's realm and vitality ebbed away.

The two are absolutely not balanced.

At the moment of transformation, it will be the Sea Tooth King's complete sacrifice.

How exactly did Liang Qu persuade the Sea Tooth King to willingly sacrifice himself?

Why the rush to finish before the Grand Hunt.

Zhang Longxiang Furnace, Liang Qu ascending to Wei Guo, Sea Tooth King sacrificing————

"Roar, finally it's begun, anticipated for five whole years, five years, that Cloud Whale just now was too verbose! Quick quick quick! Where are the people? All come over look look look."

"Where is the Huai King? Where is the Huai King? Oh oh oh, see it saw it, up in that right corner, there's a dedicated little window! Truly out of the ordinary."

"Hiss, how come the positions are all scrambled! The Huai King and Huai King's Consort can't be together anymore ah, where did the Frog King and Turtle King go?"

Merfolk and dragon people crowded in a cluster, chattering incessantly.

Everyone brought a small stool and sat in rows, pointing at the screen and discussing heatedly.

On the screen was a vast blue; occasionally a few young dragons' movements could appear.

"Wow, all taken apart? This way isn't it hard to find?" Long Pinghe worried.

"Afraid of what, young dragons all have sensing between them, they can meet up soon right?"

"Not the same, River Center Stones can only know existence and non-existence, and cannot indicate identity."

"Third Elder?" The dragon people looked back.

"Third Elder, what does 'cannot indicate identity' mean, isn't it by River Center Stones that we can know who invaded?" A dragon woman raised her hand.

"That is the normal situation." Long Zong Yin moved through the water flow, sitting in the central position, "The Heavenly Dragon's River Center Stones, in essence are a strengthened version of a whim during the tiger hunt, because of Six Heyi, knocking open the Heavenly Gate, connecting with heaven and earth, the sense of existence is higher.

To the extent that even among fellow young dragon powerhouses, there is a premonition of other powerhouses' directions, but this premonition cannot feed back to the person themselves more concrete knowledge of which River Center Stone at a certain position is exactly what person. If one could know, wouldn't that be bizarre?

Because it's either heaven and earth giving it to you, or self-perception; both are impossible. Normally being able to know is because everyone has a home, all have fixed activity ranges and routes; most of the time, looking at position and route, one naturally knows which River Center Stone is who, who is moving, just like our Dragon Palace, the Ape King resides there, that River Center Stone moves, it's definitely the Ape King."

"If a Wu Sheng closes up for cultivation too long, not paying attention to external changes, would they also not know?"

"Exactly, this is also why major powers all build divination heavy artifacts like the Four Fields Through Heaven Instrument, precisely to have someone monitor every River Center Stone at all twelve double-hours."

"When will our Jianghuai also build one ah."

"Hahaha." Long Zong Yin laughed, "That depends on whether you all work hard or not, whether you can learn more divination, learn more skills, to forge our Jianghuai's Four Fields Through Heaven Instrument for the Water Lord."

"So that's how it is! This way there's a good show to watch!" Long Yanrui struck fist into palm, "Someone might think it's a friend, but run into the Huai King face to face, wouldn't that be unlucky?"

Long Zong Yin stroked his beard and laughed: "Not excluded; I think this is also the reason the Whale Emperor wants to scatter everyone's positions, much more interesting than the routine forming of cliques and factions.

""

Every beast arena has dedicated personnel adjusting wooden placards.

All young dragons' names are listed one by one; there is also a huge ranking board that can freely insert wooden placards according to order.

"My heavens, going into the water in this dead of winter, won't we freeze shivering?"

"Exactly ah."

"Hahaha, freeze shivering, dying of laughter, don't mention Martial Saints, even Martial Masters, stripped naked and buried in snow, ten days without a single sneeze."

——

County city, Fucheng, beast arenas — no lack of knowledgeable people explaining for the crowds.

At the same time, Yun Bo also seized the cracks to insert needles explaining for the audiences, almost a direct copy of the Yixing model.

In the cloud sea, the fat fish held its belly, long whiskers fluttering, losing itself in the flattery and invitations of the great poet fish one after another.

Heaven did not give birth to me, Great Black Fish; the Way of Poetry for ten thousand ages is like a long night!

"Hua————"

Sea water icy cold, silver bubbles floated up one after another, gradually dissipating from the field of vision. Liang Qu for a moment could not tell whether here was the sky sea, or the true East Sea on land, only hearing extremely distant boiling clamor.

Communicate with the Ze Ding.

The Ze Ding had no abnormality whatsoever, standing quietly inside the Identifying Sea.

It's nothing.

At least on the surface, nothing's wrong.

After confirming his condition, Liang Qu adjusted his posture and moved toward the lit area.

—

All directions, all the flood dragons, were thrown into chaos in an instant, caught off guard, becoming markers with only positional information.

Heaven and man united, Liang Qu could clearly grasp the position of each "river stone," but he had no idea which "river stone" was which.

But he didn't care either.

It's all the same whoever he bumps into.

As long as the furnace doesn't activate, he's invincible.

If the Whale King doesn't move, we proceed with the normal competition.

Always still, always competing normally.

Within the competition domain, everyone's perception is compressed; aside from hearing and sight, their perception is no different from that of an ordinary person underwater—eyes blindly grasping.

But as long as he's in the water, Liang Qu's perception method is completely different from that of ordinary cultivators.

The water domain spreads out, streams like great snakes, extending outward, wrapping around the riverbed, clearly reflecting all solid forms.

Mermaid tears come in two types.

One type has a method enabling "flight," accounting for roughly eighty percent, with speed determined by the strongest individual within the radius.

The other type cannot move, only concealed through methods, even breath hidden, making it harder to find than the flying kind.

Hence, many Entering Zhen Xiang have joined in, trying their luck.

All experts, no fun—just flood dragons, they can create too little content, and missing mermaid tears are even more likely.

But no matter how concealed the breath, the existence of an object itself cannot be erased.

As long as it's still there.

"Found it!"

Liang Qu opened his eyes.

Swish!

Water reversed its flow, the water domain surged, drawing a white trace.

Liang Qu planted his feet, true gang large hand seized, a large clump of silt puffed up and exploded, blurring vision.

"The Huai King has moved!"

"What is it?"

"Could it be they found mermaid tears? So fast!"

Yun Bo's spirit tightened, he immediately enlarged Liang Qu's image on the control panel, moving it from the small window to the center of the screen.

Silt stirred, pitch black.

Heavenly gang large hand trembled, black mist dispersed completely.

A crystal-clear mermaid tear flashed with luster, suddenly appearing, with a special golden-yellow Grand Hunt emblem at its center!

【Water Marsh Essence +2641】

【Water Marsh Essence: Fifty-five million five hundred eleven thousand】

It's actually new?

Liang Qu pinched the mermaid tear, gaining an unexpected joy, wiped it on his chest, placed the small yellow leather pouch at his waist, casually waved his hand in the void, and instantly appeared on the curtain.

The Jianghuai Great Marsh, the Yixing fiefdom, erupted in cheers, repeatedly shouting approval.

"I go, caught one right at the start?"

"I say the Huai King is awesome!"

"Looks like mermaid tears aren't few? Caught one right away?"

"Pfft, not few—initially said only ten thousand, later increased to thirty thousand, sounds like a lot, but scattered everywhere; if it were you, you'd never find one in a lifetime!"

In the beast arena, instantly a cloud giant took the Huai King's name tablet, inserted it into the first-place slot, then wrote down "gain one."

Yun Bo immediately reported: "Congratulations to the Huai King, temporarily leading!"

"Hiss————"

The Iron-Head Fish King sucked in a breath of cold air.

It was still dazed in the sky, Liang Qu had already obtained one? Not daring to delay, the Iron-Head Fish King immediately hurried off to search.

The flood dragon was equally urgent.

Sky, heavenly sea, earthly sea.

The three realms each differ.

Upon arrival, with hardly any mermaid tears on hand, even if looting, nothing could be seized, so on the first day of the competition, there was almost no intense conflict.

Everyone was probing the surroundings, head down searching, carefully avoiding all "river stones," while some approached each other, testing, confirming they weren't allies, then hurried past; the fortunate ones met comrades of the same faction and immediately teamed up.

Gradually, some "river stones" repelled each other, some attracted each other, turning from individual exploration into joint exploration.

On the contrary, Entering Zhen Xiang, unable to sense "river stones" and with no "river stones" displayed, many masters and great demons kept rummaging everywhere.

Five years, full five years of waiting, the entire world cheered and stirred for the Grand Hunt.

Countless private gambling houses.

The beast arena was similarly so.

The Whale King would never come to earn such low-class money, yet the number of merchants coming to the Cloud Heaven Palace is countless.

With tens of millions needing food, drink, waste, the Cloud Whale clan didn't stop small stalls from appearing, even providing dedicated venues.

The merchant guilds thus seized the opportunity, setting up temporary stalls on the passageway, opening a big gambling den, the only cost being meal provision—one copper coin for a serving, with meat and vegetables.

It was originally the farming off-season, and with the cheap food, the attraction to the crowds became even more intense.

"Come come come, the competition begins, place your bets place your bets! Opportunity knocks but once, miss it and it's gone, passersby don't miss out, pick the top ten in your heart, get rich overnight right now, win and drink nuptial wine with the courtesan headliner, sing songs in the Xianggu Pavilion!"

"Lady, Master, come quickly and pick your predicted winner, support Prince Huai for the championship!"

"I'll bet too!"

Palm striking down, bracelet half-dangling, a thick stack of silver notes pinned the tabletop.

The steward's heart gave a start.

He couldn't see the denominations under the palm, but he saw the thick stack; it was definitely no small sum. On a normal day, a distinguished guest like this would surely be welcomed to the second floor, served tea and snacks, with a dedicated attendant to handle the wager, but conditions here in the East Sea were crude, so he hurriedly served tea.

"Right then, how much does the Lady intend to wager?"

"One million taels! On Prince Huai!"

Instant dead silence.

The surging crowd calmed, as if hitting a reef, the backwash of a tide.

On the table bank, the copper coin mountain slid and toppled sideways, golden light flashing.

Xu Zishuai jumped in fright: "Master's wife, you've taken out Master's coffin savings?"

"Nonsense!" Madam Xu slapped the back of Xu Zishuai's head, then looked at the steward, "Can you take it or not?"

"Can can can!" The steward hurriedly accepted.

One million taels, easily said, but if it's on Prince Huai————

Prince Huai's odds are too low, even if he wins the profit won't be much, no reason to refuse.

Filled out the ticket, stamped the seal.

Immediately a servant boy shouted "One million taels, on Prince Huai for first place!"

Even greater uproar.

Madam Xu had already tossed the ticket to Xu Zishuai, disappearing into the crowd.

"Who is that?"

"Don't recognize her."

"It's Prince Huai's adoptive mother, the eldest young lady of the Xu family of Huangzhou." Someone spoke while gnawing a steamed bun, "Saw her once when going to Yixing, sat in the front row at the River God Festival."

"Then it's not strange, Huangzhou shark-gauze brings in gold by the bushel daily."

"Wrong, a fight's broken out, a fight's broken out! Quick quick quick, go watch go watch."

"Prince Huai, first place, Mermaid Tear two."

"Prince Huai, first place, Mermaid Tear three."

On the wooden board, people kept making the list, gradually the top hundred positions were filled, slowly the order on the wooden board began to constantly change.

One hundred wooden plaques, only Liang Qu's nameplate firmly occupied first place unmoving, in one day's work he had apparently obtained Mermaid Tears, eleven of them!

"There are thirty thousand?"

Night fell.

Liang Qu looked at the Ze Ding once more, confirming no mishap, inventoried today's harvested Water Marsh Essence, seven had essence, four did not.

By proportion, the Whale Emperor should have increased the number of Mermaid Tears, effectively extending the Great Hunt competition time.

Good thing!

Liang Qu gripped the Mermaid Tight, stuffed it into his pocket.

The longer the competition time, for him the longer the safe time, absolutely a piece of good news.

Twenty-sixth day.

Jin Guang flashed past in a leap, the winged Mermaid Tear sliced past Liang Qu's face.

The winged Mermaid Tear's speed was extraordinarily fast, so fast that without using his Shuttle Divine Ability Liang Qu could barely catch up, inadvertently chasing out over a hundred li, with such fierce momentum, "River Stones" continuously scrambled to avoid it.

Most Yao Dragons were merely sixth rank or below, they lightly dared not touch its edge and provoke conflict; likewise, those who neither dodged nor avoided likewise had great confidence!

"Pa!"

The Mermaid Tear landed squarely in a palm center, yet it wasn't Liang Qu's palm, knuckles coarse and large, fingers short and thick.

Water currents tumbled, Liang Qu halted abruptly.

In a split second, the outside world was in an uproar, all concentrating intently.

Could it be the first fight is about to break out? Or is it the most legendary Prince Huai!

Early on it was all each minding their own search, worried about accidents, few fought territory monsters, watching a whole day had more than a few points of boredom.

In Yixing City, Chen Qingjiang's whole family sat bolt upright, seeing it was Liang Qu matching up, they kept asking those around them, who snatched the Mermaid Tear?

Someone knowledgeable wore a grave expression.

"Dalhann King!"

Da Er Han King?

Chen Qingjiang didn't understand, asked: "Is he formidable?"

"Extraordinary! The backbone of the Northern Court, ordinary people entering Wu Sheng for thirty years may not advance a single rank. Dalhann King is a ninth-rank Wu Sheng, no, should be eleventh rank now, practically at the pinnacle of Wu Sheng!"

Chen Qingjiang's mood sank to the bottom: "Done for done for————"

Law Adi said in annoyance: "Haven't fought yet, and it's done for? Where's there such cheerleading?"

"What do you know, how many years has Ashui been a Wu Sheng? The other side is what, ninth rank, a top expert among Martial Saints, how can Ashui beat him?" Chen Qingjiang slapped his thigh hard, dejected, "Finally got first place, should have hidden away."

Law Adi frowned upon hearing this: "What to do then?"

"Sigh, still alright, the Great Hunt doesn't cost lives, just admit defeat."

Chen Shun:

"

"

Chen Kui:

Darhan Wang watched as the "mermaid's tear" actively ran into his palm, slightly surprised, and couldn't help but feel delighted as if a pie had fallen from the sky, immediately putting it into his pocket; only then did his peripheral vision notice that the person opposite had not left at all.

Could it be that he doesn't recognize me?

Darhan Wang let out a cold laugh, raised his head, and then fell silent.

Yun Boling's eyes moved slightly, and he immediately enlarged the image, allowing everyone to see more clearly.

Bubbles rose faintly, water flowing.

The two stood facing each other.

The air suddenly fell silent.

Liang Qu waved his hand.

Considering that there might be many people watching outside, Darhan Wang felt uneasy turning his neck, felt embarrassed, and hesitated for a long time without moving.

"Hmm?

"

"

"

Darhan Wang gritted his teeth, shifted his heavy legs, slowly approached Liang Qu, took a deep breath, and extended his hand to offer the mermaid's tear.

Audience: "?"

"Hmm~" Liang Qu nodded, pinched the winged mermaid's tear, put it into his bag, then suddenly saw Darhan Wang turning to leave, and said: "Hmm!

?

"

Darhan Wang froze.

He turned his back to Liang Qu, clenched his fists, seemed to hesitate for a long time, finally gritted his teeth, took off the small pouch at his waist, reached backward, leaned forward, and handed it over again.

Liang Qu counted them.

Three.

Nodded in satisfaction.

"You're welcome." Liang Qu only took two, left one in the bag, and returned it to Darhan Wang: "Rest assured, however we say it, we are not enemies now; I only took that many."

Darhan Wang found it hard to speak, finally Liang Qu stretched his neck, red-faced, shouted: "Thank you!"

After speaking, Darhan Wang left without looking back, as if he had made up his mind, flying all the way out of the Heavenly Sea, straight into the white clouds.

Beast Fighting Arena:

"

"

Wanqian County:

」————」

Chen Qingjiang was greatly startled.

On the high platform, the Holy Emperor laughed heartily, the Sweat King leaned against the chair back, his eyes dull.

The Cloud Whale changed rankings, Darhan Wang dropped out of the top hundred, Liang Qu remained first, and the number of mermaid's tears increased to fourteen.

February 27.

Liang Qu's number increased to twenty-six.

Darhan Wang suddenly paused.

February 28.

Liang Qu encountered the East Sea Demon King Chilin Wang, reached out and took it, and the number of mermaid's tears rose to thirty-eight.

The next day.

Chilin Wang paused.