Chapter 527: Provocation

Above the gray mist, Ke Lai En calmly abandoned his intention to vie with the Sea King for control of the storm.

He set aside the Sea God's scepter, reached into a pile of junk and summoned a crudely cut paper doll, using the Conqueror's property to forge a paper doll angel wreathed in flames.

Following the mark the prophet's avatar left on the Sea Monster, he bestowed a paper doll angel blessing upon the Sea Monster hiding beneath the sea surface.

He then took the nearby Sea God's scepter and applied a few Ocean Domain blessings to it, helping it evade the Sea King's scan of this sea region.

Having done all that, Ke Lai En leaned back into the high‑backed chair behind him and let out a long sigh.

He hoped it wouldn't be found by that Sea King, lest it lose any chance of being remelted in the furnace.

I, a half‑baked Sea God, can only barely muster any power thanks to this gray mist and the Sea God's scepter; compared with the active Sea King, I'm like a child who hasn't even begun to develop versus a robust adult.

As he sighed, the image formed by the deep crimson light quivered slightly, grew hazy, and began to warp strangely.

"Hm? What's going on? The Sea King's mental scan shouldn't have provoked such a strong reaction."

"An angel cast its gaze? The Storm Church? Or just passing by? No, this seems to contain no will at all—could it be a Level‑0 seal?"

Muttering to himself, Ke Lai En decisively ended his observation of that sea region and directed his sight, via the Mind‑Communication link, toward another sea region.

The sea surface was empty; apart from howling gale and crimson moonlight, there was nothing.

Above the gray mist, Ke Lai En saw more; with true sight, he beheld a tangled mass of blue‑green vines, layered upon layer, forming a blue‑green forest.

"Imprison!"

While softly chanting in Dragon language, the prophet's avatar lifted a hand and pushed forward, creating a sheet of ultra‑viscous transparent liquid that flowed like a massive amber, tightly encasing the black‑haired, golden‑eyed Black Emperor in black formal wear, a demigod, and immobilizing him on the spot.

The black‑haired, golden‑eyed demigod calmly raised his hand; the imprison effect, which resembled paper in front of him, snapped apart with a gentle tug.

"Are you of the Castia family?"

As he spoke, dark‑red light seeped slowly from his eyes, his right hand clenched into a fist and he swung it forward forcefully.

At that moment, the distance between them became chaotic; the dozens of meters shrank to a single step, and the ordinary fist was amplified into a lethal strike.

The prophet's avatar's pupils narrowed slightly; his body suddenly turned transparent, became illusory, and under the deadly fist dissolved into a mass of bubbles.

The bubbles reflected dazzling colors, scattering and vanishing in an instant.

His figure reappeared over a hundred meters behind the black‑haired demigod.

Specks of brass‑colored glimmer moved about, outlining one strange sigil after another, continuously reinforcing the space and patching the gaps caused by Chaos.

The prophet's avatar's eyes shone with a bright pale‑blue light, exuding an indescribable awe, as if he were a terrifying being capable of effortlessly dominating others' lives.

Under such awe, the black‑haired demigod was briefly stunned in place, an inexplicable terror swelling in his heart, making him want to bow his head, even crawl, to listen to every word and obey every command.

Without any hesitation, he used Bestow to transfer his negative condition onto the prophet's avatar.

The prophet's avatar suddenly lost its fighting spirit, and the mysterious scale‑like sigil that had just formed before it abruptly collapsed.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Several thin, sharp wind blades suddenly sliced the air, firing toward them.

The thin wind blades were abruptly amplified dozens of times in midair, their keen cutting carving several half‑meter‑wide ruts into the ground of interwoven blue‑green vines.

In the blink of an eye, the wind blades engulfed the spot where the prophet's avatar stood, slicing his body into pale‑yellow paper shreds.

His figure appeared some ten‑plus meters away, the pale‑blue light in his eyes dimmed, and he seemed listless.

At that moment, dark, depressive thoughts rose in his mind, plunging him into extreme self‑contradiction.

Just now, using a paper doll substitute to dodge the attack had already strained his spirit to its limit.

At that instant, dense gray mist surged from before his eyes, and a towering angel bearing twelve pairs of flame‑wings and clad in heavy armor stained with crimson blood and iron rust materialized.

Its wings, ablaze with scarlet flames, enveloped him layer by layer, grafting his negative influence onto the unknown.

Pale‑blue light streamed in his eyes, outlining a sigil composed of layered illusory gates.

In the next moment, his body vanished instantly from where he stood.

Boom! A thick silvery‑white bolt of lightning ignored distance and struck the spot where he had just stood.

The blue‑green vines on the ground were blown into a deep crater, turning charred, while fragmented silvery lightning serpents scurried about, hissing. About a hundred meters behind the black‑haired demigod, the prophet's avatar suddenly appeared, specks of brass‑colored glimmer outlining a scale‑like pattern before him, and his voice, laden with indescribable awe, said:

"No distortion of rules allowed here!"

"No bribery allowed here!"

"No corruption allowed here!"

"This place..."

His words had not fully finished when his voice suddenly turned chaotic, as if slurred, and the subsequent "prohibitions" never formed.

At the same time, an unnamed fury rose within him, urging him to violently tear everything around him apart.

The intense anger made even thinking difficult; he only wanted to rip and kill the people before him, heedless of everything.

His breathing grew heavy, and the pale‑blue light in his eyes flickered with the violent swings of his emotions.

The prophet's avatar exhaled a heavy plume of foul breath, and relying on his own reason, he temporarily suppressed the anger that had been Bestowed and Amplified.

Around him, brass‑colored glimmers wandered continuously, outlining one strange, Sun‑domain‑infused mysterious sigil after another.

The brass glimmer gradually turned into brilliant gold, growing brighter and hotter.

Simultaneously, he half‑raised his arms, reverently chanting as if embracing a divine gift: "Sun!"

Around him, golden flames of scorching heat ignited out of nowhere, intertwining to form a massive pure light sphere that burst with fierce light and heat, engulfing, igniting, and destroying everything nearby.

Within the blinding white light and fire, an abnormal void appeared, with surrounding light and flames spontaneously warping around it.

As the surrounding blue‑green vines ignited, the space finally revealed a usable breach.

"A trace of unnoticed anger and a dark inner side are enough to drive a person to irrational acts."

The black‑haired demigod let out a sigh with a hint of a smile, his dark‑red eyes deepening further.

Amid the surrounding light, fire, and blue‑green vines, a passage leading out of this space materialized.

Without hesitation, he stepped forward, his figure flickering oddly a few times, and he immediately left the space.

Feeling the cold sea breeze on his face and the crimson moonlight, a familiar, imposing Dragon language echoed in his ear: "Imprison!"

Layer after layer of transparent walls materialized out of thin air, solidifying him firmly in place.

He raised his hand, wanting to again, just like before, directly distort the intensity of his extraordinary ability, and then tear apart the invisible barrier imprisoning him around him.

A blazing white spear of flame tinged with faint purple suddenly appeared, falling from the sky like an unstoppable meteor, constantly enlarging in the black-haired demigod's eyes, drawing ever closer.

He stood there dazed, as if frightened stupid, completely unsure how to respond; if one looked closely, one could see his pupils contracting extremely slowly, as if his own time had been slowed.

This state didn't last long; he quickly used his own extraordinary ability to prematurely end the negative effects on himself.

After a brief delay, the flame spear, like a meteor sliding down, had already approached; in his horrified gaze, the flame spear instantly pierced his skull.

This was an attack imbued with "Harvest"; even though he weakened its intensity by using his "Distort" ability, after striking a vital point it still achieved a lethal one‑hit effect.

A powerful mental sweep also came at this moment, carrying an almost tangible fury, making the surrounding winds grow much fiercer.

The Prophet's clone stepped forward without the slightest hesitation, his form flickering and appearing directly beside the black-haired demigod's corpse; one hand seized him, while the other traced symbols of illusory doors in midair.

A glimmer of bronze light swiftly wandered around, continuously tracing several illusory doors covered in mysterious symbols.

In the sky, heavy dark clouds swiftly gathered, then continually split open, forming eyebrows, eyes, and a mouth.

Slivers of silvery-white lightning brimming with destructive aura poured down from the mouth and nostrils of the face formed by the dark clouds, like a silvery-white forest of violent destruction, illuminating the entire sea area in blinding white.

The Prophet's clone dragged the black-haired demigod's corpse, glanced at that face in the sky, waved at it, then casually chose an illusory door and entered.

As soon as his front foot stepped into the illusory door, silvery-white lightning engulfed the surroundings; some surged into each of those illusory doors, being sent to unknown places, while others fell around.

Each illusory door lasted only a moment before being obliterated by the lightning storm, shattering into specks of azure light.

(End of chapter)