On the back of the one-legged divine bird lay a little fox.
The blood aura enveloping the divine bird could not taint the little fox in the slightest.
The fox had pure white fur and a delicate, dainty build—truly striking to behold.
Yet its aura was nothing like its cute, fragile appearance; shockingly, it was a Transformation stage great demon as well!
However, one of its hind legs was dripping with blood and drooping limply. Strands of black vapor twisted and writhed within its torn flesh, clinging like maggots in bone, nearly impossible to purge.
Though shaped like a fox, the little beast was merely the size of a rat. It dug both front paws firmly into the bird's feathers, glaring ahead at the azure streak of light, its round, beady eyes filled with fury.
Behind them trailed another streak of black light.
Its appearance was even more grotesque and bizarre than the one-legged bird's.
Its upper half bore the head and body of a fish covered in black scales, while its lower half grew two frog legs. As it flew, its body lurched forward in bounding leaps, looking rather comical.
The frog-fish was by no means slow, but it fell far behind the azure light and the one-legged divine bird, quickly lagging in the rear.
Opening its fanged maw, it let out a shriek and plunged into the sea.
*Splash!*
Spray scattered in all directions.
In the ocean, the frog-fish was like a fish in water.
A dark shadow surged beneath the waves, undulating as its speed exploded, swiftly giving chase.
Before long, all three streaks of light vanished into the distance.
From the north drifted a faint tint of blood.
The crimson hue grew thicker and thicker as blood flowed with the ocean currents, testifying to untold slaughter. Gradually, debris from a massive vessel floated into view.
Most striking was a vividly carved golden dragon's head.
What had once been a magnificent dragon ship was now reduced to shattered wreckage!
The figure fleeing as the azure light was none other than Qin Sang.
Sensing the terrifying demonic aura rising behind him, Qin Sang glanced back at his relentless pursuers, groaning inwardly.
By now, he had already crossed the Storm Belt and reached the Three Realms of the North Sea.
The crossing had gone reasonably well, fraught with danger but without mishap.
The resonance from the Moon-Gazing Rhinoceros horn had shown no sign of waning.
However, the Storm Belt was far vaster than he had anticipated. The toll it took on the journey far exceeded his expectations, proving grueling even for Qin Sang at his current level of cultivation.
Because he had failed to find a safe resting place along the way, he could only summon his Nascent Soul talisman puppet during moments when the storm eased to hold off the tempests, seizing every second to recover.
Even with his thorough preparations, by the time he broke out of the Storm Belt, his true essence was nearly exhausted.
Emerging from the tempest, Qin Sang had let out a long breath, thinking how close it had been. Making the crossing right after breaking through to the middle Nascent Soul stage had still been pushing his limits.
Having just arrived in an unfamiliar land, Qin Sang intended to find a quiet place to recuperate first. To his dismay, this side was much like the other; after searching carefully for half a day, he found nowhere safe.
During his search, Qin Sang came across a dragon ship.
It was an enormous vessel.
Even in the Canglang Ocean, a ship of this scale was exceedingly rare.
More surprising still, the dragon ship was fortified with layer upon layer of restrictions, protected by a spiritual formation, and actually carried Core Formation stage cultivators aboard.
Concealing his true cultivation and disguising himself as a rogue cultivator, Qin Sang revealed himself and inquired, only to learn that this sea area was in utter chaos. Great demons frequently roamed the waters, making it perilous enough that even Core Formation cultivators had to travel in groups.
The language these people spoke shared the exact same lineage as the Beichen Realm's, which Qin Sang took in stride without surprise.
Knowing this area was unsafe to linger, Qin Sang had no desire to wander aimlessly either. He paid spirit stones to rent a quiet room, intending to meditate aboard the vessel and seize the time to recover.
Unexpectedly, while Qin Sang was deep in meditation, the dragon ship came under sudden attack!
There had been zero warning beforehand.
The ship's protective spiritual formation was breached without offering the slightest resistance, snapping the vessel clean in two!
Only then did the terrified people aboard realize that three figures had appeared out of thin air, their demonic auras flaring openly—all of them Transformation stage demon kings!
Tasked with protecting Qin Sang, the Nascent Soul talisman puppet instantly struck back. By the time Qin Sang was startled awake, his presence had already been exposed.
Trying his old trick of posing as a demon king was out of the question now. Yet even if the talisman puppet had not acted, fooling them would likely have been nearly impossible.
His past successes in deceiving demon kings had relied on other factors working in his favor, where his targets had preconceived notions that kept them from suspecting him.
Here, however, Qin Sang was a newcomer. Knowing nothing about the Three Realms of the North Sea or its demon races, it would be all too easy to slip up and be seen through.
Besides, demon kings were hardly guaranteed to show mercy to a solitary stranger of their own kind.
Moreover, Qin Sang's weakened state could not be masked from their keen senses.
The three demon kings seemed to have merely been passing by, casually destroying the human ship on a whim. Catching such a big fish was an unexpected delight; their eyes gleamed, completely ignoring the low-level cultivators to lock their sights onto Qin Sang.
At that moment, Qin Sang had restored barely thirty percent of his true essence and dared not engage in a prolonged battle.
If there had been only one demon king, Qin Sang working with his Nascent Soul talisman puppet would have feared nothing, and might have even managed a counter-kill.
Yet there were three foes, and the one-legged divine bird in particular was a cut above the Snake King in cultivation.
The frog-fish was also at the peak of the early Transformation stage. Its divine abilities were exceedingly peculiar; Qin Sang estimated that unless he caught it off guard at close range with his sword formation or demonic banner, taking it down would be no easy feat.
Taking in the dire situation the moment he awoke, Qin Sang did not hesitate for an instant, immediately casting the *Thunder Command Art*.
Heavenly thunder burst forth in unison as the Nascent Soul talisman puppet seized the opening to strike, successfully wounding the little fox.
Yet immediately afterward, the puppet was forced back.
Fortunately, Qin Sang had never intended to slay them—only to buy time.
The three demon kings appeared intimately familiar with one another, working together in uncanny harmony.
The moment the *Thunder Command Art* was unleashed, the one-legged divine bird instantly revealed its true demonic form. Blood-red aura soared to the heavens. Instead of attacking Qin Sang, it wheeled around to protect its companion, spitting a beam of bloody light to intercept the heavenly thunder.
It had not expected the Thunder Command Art to be so potent; the collision scattered the bloody light.
The thunder's shockwave slammed violently toward the weakest of the three, the little fox.
Like the one-legged bird, the frog-fish's first instinct had also been to save their companion. Puffing out its cheeks, it spat out a glob of green light that spread across the void like viscous fluid.
Caught off guard, the Nascent Soul talisman puppet was splashed by the green slime. Its movements instantly stiffened and slowed considerably. Had Qin Sang not promptly ordered it to retreat and tear free from the green light, it likely would have been surrounded.
*Sure enough, not everywhere enjoys peaceful coexistence between humans and demons like the Beichen Realm. Even in Beichen, friction and mutual wariness between different races are inevitable.*
Qin Sang smiled wryly to himself. *Just how rampant are the demons in the Three Realms of the North Sea that I'd run into this many demon kings all at once? I never heard anything about this place being ruled by demons...*
He felt a twinge of regret. In his rush to recover after boarding the ship, he hadn't questioned the fellow cultivators in detail about the political landscape of the Three Realms of the North Sea.
Then again, they were at most Core Formation cultivators; they likely wouldn't have known the full picture anyway.
Fortunately, he had bought a sea chart from the captain and knew that continuing forward would bring him to land. That was human territory. Even working together, the three demon kings would not dare pursue him onto the mainland.
Chapter 1371