Chen Chuan had long been waiting for that thing to appear. Over these past few days, whenever he enjoyed food or engaged in cultivation, he would sense that prying gaze.
Thus, he had developed a habit: as soon as he began eating, he would deliberately build up momentum—both to practice controlling the prismatic stone and to wait for the other party to show itself.
Now, almost the instant his intent surged, the prismatic stone flew straight toward the creature, and the sensation of being watched vanished along with it.
What fell slightly short of ideal was that, perhaps because the creature had hidden within the seawater, the stone slowed slightly upon entering the water, failing to produce the intended effect.
A moment later, the prismatic stone buzzed softly as it returned before him.
He was certain he had struck the thing just now, and it had even brought back some "spoils." Inspecting it now, he saw that what had rubbed off onto it was... some kind of bone powder?
Was that creature something with a hard shell, like a stone crab? That wasn't impossible.
From the looks of it, these were precisely the most abundant creatures in this stretch of sea—such as the whitehead fish, encased in exoskeletons and slamming into prey with their sturdy bodies, and the polypod stone clams, which secreted a special liquid to ensnare prey. Moreover, teeming populations like these were the most likely to give rise to creatures that had achieved a life-tier leap.
At present, he could at least confirm that whatever was watching him from the shadows was most likely a creature of the same tier; otherwise, it would have been impossible for it to evade his strike at the critical juncture.
Most likely, just as he suspected, it viewed him as prey as well, which explained its repeated attention.
He looked toward the sea. In that case, he would simply wait right here.
Raising a hand, the prismatic stone flew back into his grasp. If he wanted to use this thing against an opponent of such a tier, he would need to coat it with his own Flame of Spirituality at the very least.
Because it contained none of his mutated tissue, keeping it imbued required sustaining it continuously with his spirit rather than having it sustain itself. However, with sufficient preparation beforehand—infusing enough spiritual power to release in a single burst—it was entirely doable.
How to apply it in practice would depend on the tactics he chose.
After a moment's thought, he slipped the stone into his pocket and resumed tackling the food before him. Once he finished every bite, he cleaned the utensils and, drawing on the energy replenished in his body, continued with the day's cultivation.
The sea was the other party's home ground, and since he still didn't know what it was, he wouldn't rashly seek it out.
There was ample food here, and he would keep training right in this spot. With each passing day, his strength would grow a fraction greater; the later the creature arrived, the stronger he would be.
Once both grand forms were completely mastered, if it still hadn't appeared, he would go hunt it down.
When night fell, he resumed his nocturnal cultivation. As the tide of the spiritual realm rose, the surroundings predictably filled with a cacophony of clamorous noise. In that moment, not only the surrounding creatures, but even the vast, dark sea before him seemed to become a monster capable of swallowing all things.
Yet having grown used to this over the past few days, he simply held firm to his field and spirit.
Precisely because he had grown familiar with the fluctuations around him, however, he heard a different stir at this moment and glanced toward the distant river flowing into the sea.
There, waves splashed with rushing sounds. Creatures from inland were likely entering the sea at this time. Creatures in the night undoubtedly underwent mutated shifts—simply put, they were "contaminated."
The same held true for most things in the ocean. There was a fair chance the original order of predator and prey in the food chain would invert; in such a mutated environment, the rules governing the physical world could easily be shattered.
Just then, a colossal dark shadow suddenly rolled within the sea, unmistakably approaching from the ocean depths. Immediately afterward, countless shrill, agonizing shrieks drifted over from that direction, sounding both like the screams of some bird and the wailing of infants.
Though he could not see beneath the waters in the pitch-black, warped night, he could clearly sense that this commotion was orchestrated by the creature he had encountered during the day.
Was it greeting him? Demonstrating that it was capable of activity at night? Or perhaps it hoped to make him uneasy, disrupting his nighttime cultivation so he couldn't practice in peace?
For a non-human creature to think of such things was no small feat.
He actually found himself looking forward to it.
Still, he was certain this display was largely bluster. If it possessed the ability, it would have come ashore to disrupt him long ago rather than waiting until today; this felt more like a counterattack and response to his strike from earlier.
Even so, one should always overestimate an enemy. Even if the probability was slight, he still needed to take it seriously and make appropriate preparations.
The thought passed in an instant, and he continued with his cultivation.
Come daytime, he drew back his stance and departed, returning from the surrounding areas with numerous sizable boulders. Following Protector You's previous method, he first carved out their rough forms, then positioned them one by one according to the ritual's required orientations.
He did not simply leave them on the surface, however; instead, he struck each one to sink it lower, leaving only a small portion exposed above ground.
Once these were set, he took out the pivot stone, placed it at a designated spot in the ritual layout, and patted it down as well, sinking it into the subterranean soil so that only the hollow for seating the ritual-activation stone remained above ground.
This method made the entire ritual layout sturdier. Although its efficacy would be somewhat diminished, trade-offs were necessary here; after all, what he might face this time was a creature of the same tier.
Having arranged everything, he inspected it once over, confirmed there were no issues, and walked over to the side to draw the Xuejun Saber embedded in the ground. Ever since returning from the Outer Ocean, he had kept the saber by his side during battles as much as possible, letting it attune to his field and spirit.
In his spare moments, he also communed and fused with it. As he grew, the mutated tissue within the blade grew continuously alongside him.
Particularly during this recent period, thanks to his abundant supply of nourishment, the blade benefited as well. Its compatibility with him grew steadily closer, and the power it could withstand increased incrementally.
According to his estimates, if this communication and nutritional supply continued uninterrupted, in another few days, the saber would be able to fully bear his power.
Several days later, he advanced both grand forms by another form each. But when he attempted the final form of the Grand Radiant Light Forms, he found it was no longer as smooth as before; instead, he encountered a surge of resistance.
This resistance did not stem from the grand form itself. The final form wasn't overly complex, and practicing it was no different from what he had practiced before; rather, his body and mutated tissue were resisting.
He could sense that his body was telling him it was not yet ready to complete the entire grand form—the energy he had accumulated thus far was insufficient to support the final form's completion.
A faint realization dawned on him: in all likelihood, once all twelve forms were linked, the mutated tissue would undergo a metamorphosis, which would require far more abundant energy and nourishment to sustain.
When Mr. Zhuan had taught him the two grand forms, he hadn't actually explained what would happen after linking all twelve forms, nor did the manual mention it; the text focused entirely on how to train them.
This was understandable. After what happened with Zhao Zhenye, the Purist Faction was extraordinarily cautious and sensitive in this regard, never revealing everything all at once.
Since he had trained to this point, he could only figure it out himself. The feedback from his body was the most intuitive: if it merely required an ample supply, that was hardly an issue. The convergence zone was the last place that lacked such things.
From now on, then, the focus had to shift to acquiring energy. The pace of cultivation could slow down slightly, affording him a chance to rest and recoup in the interim.
Over the days that followed, he began hunting everywhere.
This presented little difficulty. Prey in the bay was simply too plentiful, with creatures streaming continuously from upstream rivers at all hours, virtually impossible to count. Even if he hunted non-stop every single day, it would only be an infinitesimal fraction. He could even pick and choose, selecting only those with the highest nutritional value.
Now he could also see why a limit-breaking creature could emerge here. With such favorable conditions, the birth of such an entity was almost a certainty.
In the blink of an eye, five days passed. He still showed no intention of stopping, storing all the nourishment he acquired into his mutated tissue, preparing to link the grand form in a single breath when the time came.
Yet on this day, around dusk, as he was searching for prey, a sudden warning bell sounded in his heart. He turned toward the sea.
Fog had rolled in over the water at some point, and then he saw a vague, shadowy figure rise from the surface of the sea, walking toward him.
He had initially thought it was something humanoid, but as it drew closer and emerged from the mist, he could finally see it clearly, and his gaze narrowed slightly.
What was approaching the shore turned out to be an immense skeleton resembling an ichthyosaur. Yet it was clear it wasn't walking on its own; rather, slender, glowing tentacles pulled it forward step by step. These tentacles covered the skeleton from head to tail, with their opposite ends all converging inside its cranium.
Inside the hollow eye sockets, a glowing orb could be seen, radiating a greenish-yellow light.
Chen Chuan observed it for a few more moments and began to recognize its origins.
Was this... "rotting phosphor"?
"Rotting phosphor" was said to be a semi-organism formed when the mutated tissue of decaying marine creatures combined with certain airborne filaments. Highly corrosive, it typically floated upon the sea surfaces of the convergence zone, relying on its faint luminescence and sweet fragrance to lure creatures into swallowing it.
It was a creature recorded as far back as the Old Era, known back then as the "sea ghost lantern."
He stared ahead. He had entertained many guesses about what kind of creature had broken through its life tier in the sea, but he had never imagined it would be something like this.
Chapter 898