Hai Liwei

The burly man stood at least three meters tall, the muscles on his face chiselled in sharp definition. He wore a heavy suit of blue-and-black armor and carried a black broadsword on his back, giving the impression of an impregnable fortress. "Hai Liwei, known as the Sea Hero King, current patriarch of the Sea Clan, with late-Star-rank strength. The guy's a violent maniac—be careful," Niman warned Yu Xian via mental transmission as she watched the giant approach. Knowing Niman's strength was severely diminished, Yu Xian gave a slight nod and proactively stepped forward to meet Hai Liwei. Their gazes locked. A second later, both unleashed the energy within them simultaneously. Hai Liwei's energy surged like a massive tsunami, crashing toward Yu Xian in a violent, rolling deluge, while Yu Xian's energy was more like a crimson bubble, expanding to envelop everything. The blue and red energies clashed. A fissure immediately split open in the ground at the point of impact, and the hurricane whipped up by the collision blew hard enough to stagger the surrounding Sea Clan members, even sweeping several off their feet on the spot. In truth, this was merely a preliminary probe. Both were well aware that now was not the time for an actual fight, so they kept it strictly within bounds. Once the wind subsided, Hai Liwei stopped and looked down at Yu Xian, extending a hand. "Hai Liwei." "Yu Xian." Yu Xian reached out and shook Hai Liwei's hand before introducing himself. Neither turned the handshake into a contest of strength; they simply exchanged a brief clasp before letting go. Though Niman had branded him a violent maniac, Hai Liwei was the patriarch of the Sea Clan; he clearly was no brainless fool. He might be violent, he might be bold, but he was also a shrewd and perceptive leader. Hai Liwei looked at Yu Xian with a glint of amusement in his eyes. "Someone falsely accused your companion of being a Garuda to lure the dragon clan here for confirmation. A mysterious figure then attempted to stir up conflict between the Sea Clan and the dragon clan by mimicking our clan's ultimate technique to kill several dragons. What do you think of that explanation?" "One addition: my companion is a Golden Phoenix," Yu Xian said with a nod. Hai Liwei glanced at Little Nora and agreed, "Then that's how we'll handle it." The two exchanged a smile. Dealing with someone whose wits were sharp was effortless—infinitely better than trying to talk to an idiot. "Actually, Shui Shui has mentioned your name many times. I've long looked forward to meeting you. A pleasure," Hai Liwei said to Yu Xian. Yu Xian asked curiously, "Shui Shui is your...?" "Her? She's my great-grandaunt," Hai Liwei answered with some embarrassment. Yu Xian was completely dumbfounded. He had assumed Shui Yuetian was Hai Liwei's daughter or someone of similar status, but she turned out to be... his great-grandaunt. His mind raced through the generational math. A father's sister was an aunt; a grandfather's sister was a grandaunt; and a great-grandfather's sister was a great-grandaunt, traditionally addressed as an old grandaunt. Shui Yuetian's generational rank was shockingly high! Seeming to guess Yu Xian's thoughts, Hai Liwei gave a wry smile and added, "Even though Shui Shui is my great-grandaunt by lineage, she's actually several centuries younger than me. I watched her grow up, so she's really not that different from a daughter to me." Transcendent races already had low fertility rates to begin with, and cultivation only made conceiving even harder; the higher one's cultivation reached, the more difficult it became to produce offspring. In the past, a certain Mighty One grew intensely curious about why this occurred and conducted dedicated research, eventually spawning several distinct schools of thought. First was the Soul-Light School. This school posited that all living things possessed a soul-light, which served as the foundation of a soul. The more powerful an organism became, the more terrifying an aura it exerted upon soul-light, causing soul-light to actively avoid such beings. Without soul-light taking root, no offspring could naturally be conceived. It was comparable to worlds with an Underworld, where if no souls were willing to reincarnate into a particular household, that family would inevitably remain barren. The second was the Genetic Mutation School. This school held that as a practitioner advanced, their body grew closer to perfection and their genes mutated, effectively turning them into a different species altogether. Though their outward appearance remained unchanged, the difference between the cultivator and their original race was akin to that between humans and chimpanzees—they were reproductively isolated on a genetic level. There were several other schools of thought as well, too numerous to detail. All in all, the Sea Clan was among those species that reproduced with great difficulty. Combined with the vast lifespans granted by cultivation, it was common for many Transcendent races to have elders who were vastly younger than themselves. An elder being several hundred years younger was nothing unusual; even elders younger by thousands of years were not unheard of. Thanks to their mutual connection through Shui Yuetian, Yu Xian and Hai Liwei quickly grew familiar. When the conversation shifted to the recent attack, Yu Xian asked, "Patriarch Hai, is there anything unique about your Sea Clan's Sea King Cloud-Overturning Rain-Making Palm? Why was Niman so certain it was your clan's ultimate technique?" From Yu Xian's perspective, the black-robed person's use of the palm to frame the Sea Clan didn't seem particularly hard to imitate. Yu Xian himself possessed the power to manipulate water; with refined control, forming a giant palm of water was no difficult feat. As for its destructive force, with enough raw power, even a brick could fly. Hai Liwei condensed a mass of water in his palm, which swiftly shaped itself into the form of a hand. He asked, "Brother Yu, do you see any difference between the water in my hand and ordinary water?" "Huh!" Yu Xian peered closely at Hai Liwei's palm, his expression shifting to surprise. He could see that the water in Hai Liwei's hand contained a peculiar energy. While preserving the inherent characteristics of water, this energy endowed it with extraordinary stability. Put simply, not a single water molecule within it could be split into hydrogen and oxygen atoms. In the hands of a Star-rank powerhouse, such specialized water could unleash immense power, far surpassing ordinary water. "This is our clan's unique water-control secret art," Hai Liwei explained. "Once this art is applied, the water cannot be dispersed, nor can it freeze or evaporate. You could call it our clan's most vital core technique." Yu Xian frowned. "If this is your clan's core secret art, then the black-robed person..." "That's precisely the problem. The Sea King Cloud-Overturning Rain-Making Palm he used was virtually identical to our clan's. Either we have a traitor among us, or someone harboring malicious designs against our clan is trying to drive a wedge between us and others," Hai Liwei said solemnly. Yu Xian paused for a moment, then said, "Well... I actually have a slightly different take that might offer Patriarch Hai an alternative angle of insight." He then relayed the hypothesis he and Niman had formed. Hearing it, Hai Liwei frowned. "You're saying the black-robed person might be from Earth? And that his goal this time was to drive you away?" He found Yu Xian's theory absurd. Would a practitioner who had gone to the painstaking trouble of secretly learning the Sea Clan's arts in Crescent Bay really risk exposing himself just to chase away a fellow countryman? Besides, Crescent Bay was vast. The probability of Yu Xian and this person ending up in the exact same Star Tower was minuscule. Even if they truly were in the same Star Tower, if the culprit genuinely wanted to avoid Yu Xian, he could simply relocate. Forget moving to another Star Tower—even shifting to a different star layer would make the chances of crossing paths with Yu Xian infinitesimally small. When Yu Xian nodded with conviction, Hai Liwei was left somewhat speechless. He had initially taken Yu Xian for a sharp-minded man, but looking at him now, he felt almost as though he were dealing with a simpleton. Frowning, he said, "Mm, I understand. I'll thoroughly investigate the possibility you mentioned. You can leave the rest of the cleanup here to my Sea Clan." "Then I'll leave the investigation in your capable hands, Patriarch Hai." Yu Xian recognized the polite dismissal. There were numerous clues left on the scene, and Hai Liwei's people would likely conduct a far more meticulous examination once he departed. After taking his leave from Hai Liwei, Yu Xian departed with Little Nora and Niman. The moment the three were gone, Hai Liwei raised a hand and gave a signal, and the Sea Clan began moving in to inspect the area. Naturally, none of this was any longer Yu Xian's concern. The Sea Clan would resolve the remaining matters and address the misunderstanding with the dragon clan on their own.