Except for our boatmen, right now we only have the Two Emperors, Michelle, Asena and me on the boat. Huang Yi suddenly lifted our boat from the sea while Jiang Xu created a defensive energy shield around it. I also moved and hovered on top of the whirlpool while I ordered Michelle to protect Asena.
"You stole my Worshippers! I challenge you, You Thief!" the mysterious voice cried.
"Show yourself then!" I responded.
Before I could realize that there was a freaking enormous serpent swirling and coiling under the whirlpool, ready to strike.
An extraordinary giant King Cobra suddenly burst out from the bottom of the whirlpool. Its deep dark obsidian scales caught the light, flashing incredible iridescent olive green color, while the large wide scales on its underside were a pale silvery pearl. It possessed several special features, including thick spiked spectacle scales over its yellow eyes, a ridge of sharp scales along the rim of its hood and some strange ridge of long scales ran down its back.
All I could do now was steady myself and block the attack with the Frozen Storm Shield before it reached me.
The Serpent's head had been frozen by my Shield's returning effect, but it wasn't long before it started to fully spread its frilled fin hood and snapping a fin-like dorsal crest out from its back scales to break the ice. Before it dived back into the sea and tried to strike again.
"Huang Yi, go ahead! Bring everyone to the Island!" I announced. Their powers didn't really suit fighting in the sea. I had to let them go first to unleash my full power.
"Huang Yi, go ahead! Bring everyone to the Island!" I announced. Their powers didn't really suit fighting in the sea. I had to let them go first to unleash my full power.
When they were out of range, I called upon several lightnings down, but it seemed like it wasn't enough to affect the bottom of the sea. So, I shifted myself into the Azure Dragon form and dove into the whirlpool. Before I could adapt to the underwater environment, the Serpent tried to bite me, but its attack activated the Armor of Floating Cloud effect.
The Serpent began to float out of the sea, showing its unique tail fin that only had an upper side, almost like Naga tails in Classical Thai Art. I wrapped around the Serpent and accelerated the levitating process.
"Do you want to be struck by lightning or surrender?" I asked.
"Never!" the Serpent replied.
After it finished answering, I called upon huge lightning from the sky. The Serpent was struck and fell down, reverting to its original mortal form, the King Cobra.
I also shifted into my warrior form, dove following it. Before I blessed the serpent with some of my energy and activated Regeneration within it. Then I wrapped it with my own reality which I now called "Eden," since the name Heaven might be confused with Huang Yi's Personal Space, the "Celestial Palace."
I always have a soft spot for the brave ones, even though this guy seems like a troublemaker to me. It will take some time before the Serpent fully recovers, we will have to wait and see then.
After everything was done, I continue flying towards our small boat that was already on the dock. They were waiting for me with some of the Sun Sphere agents, I use the term agents because some of them are local tribesmen, not just native people of the Sun Sphere.
This northern point of Zhuya Island is filled with many Huaxia Chinese people but as we travel east, they are replaced by local tribesmen. I think the Two Emperors' secret base is around the modern Wenchang area. When we reached a certain point, the locals stayed and guarded, while we traveled further into the forest. Before we found one of the entrance elevators that was hidden under planted trees.
They activated the elevator to rise above the ground. I immediately recognized it, this is the same as the elevator of the Sun Sphere. Underneath of us was mainly a residential area and a few research laboratories, which were also similar to underground facility of the Sun Sphere.
We stayed there for a week and discussed things out. I had already brought out and delivered the containers of energy-rich metals. I also asked for a new smaller container design, so we can deliver it by foot and mule caravan over the mountain routes.
I was trying to teach them the Mobius Rune Language, when I found out that Jiang Xu was already familiar with some of these Rune patterns. When he tried to create a CPU for his robots by using his Innate Power, he only thought about creating a CPU core when these Mobius Runes shaped themselves. He noticed some of these patterns but didn't understand their meanings.
While we were only able to control our own energy, Jiang Xu could create Mobius Rune Circles and fuel the resulting spells by using the surrounding energy because of his Innate Power, Theoenergetics. But they are still far from mastering the rune creation process or rapidly composing of all these sophisticated Runes, so I offered to create a Coding Machine for them inside my Divine Realm.
So, I took this opportunity to check on our little Great Serpent. I ordered the Archangels to place and guard it in an open field on the eastern side of the Sacred Mountain, where it is far from the lake. Surprisingly, it was already back to its True Form but still smaller in size, and was surrounding the Archangels.
Before I could speak anything, it lowered its head and spoke, "Please accept my apology, Great Sky Deity!"
"Apology accepted, even though you already received your punishment," I replied. "I also blessed you with my energy, now your worshippers will become mine too, so we don't have to fight over them anymore."
"Thank you, Sir. But what should I do after this?" the Serpent asked.
"You lived in the sea around here, right? You don't have to serve me directly, just keep protecting your worshippers and the Southern Sea, including the strait we fought in." I told it my plan.
"Doesn't this mean I am your Divine Beast? Great Sky Deity, please name me. I always want to have a Human Form." the Serpent begged me.
"Are you sure about this?" I asked before it nodded. "Alright! Then I, Kirisen the Sky Wolf, name you Hai Wei and appoint you as the Guardian of the Southern Sea."
After getting a name, the Great Serpent transformed into a long haired man with a loincloth and tattoo patterns underneath from under knees to around his belly. Later I learned, this is the result of my imagination which mostly came from the image of Tai Yai and Tai Yuan men in my memories.
I messed up the timeframe quite a lot. They might look similar but this is before the series of mass migrations to southern lands that separated them. From the Kam-Sui group that was left behind when they were pushed from the Middle Yangtze and split into multiple Yue tribes. Many were assimilated by Huaxia Chinese, while some groups like the Zhuang, Nung, Kra, Be or Hlai still maintained their identity.
I believe the groups in Northern Vietnam, Lao, and Sukhothai probably came from the Guangxi group, while more western groups like the Tai Ahom and Tai Phake of Assam State in India, Tai Yai of Shan State in Myanmar, and Tai Yuan of Lanna Kingdom must came from the Yunnan group.
Sukhothai and Ayutthaya Kingdoms, who assimilated with Mon-Khmer people and considered themselves Siamese, called these two groups differently because of their tattoo patterns. Black-bellied Lao for Tai Yai and Tai Yuan, White-bellied Lao for Lao and Isan people.
And it seems that Spiritual Beasts that did not have a name or Human Form before ascending to Deities will stick to their Beast Form without a proper human name. My lightning made the Great Serpent revert to Spirit level, but after he received a name from me, he ascended back to Deity level again.
This also gave me an idea on how to link new Coding Machine to the Two Emperors. They can't be connect by Sky-Link like the Archangels, it's too risky to directly connect the Great Deities to Spiritual AI. Actually It's pretty simple, we can add it to their networks, just like when I connected to their Mining Squad or when I accepted new subordinates.
But with this method, our new Coding Machine will need some abilities of its own, not just a Rune Weaving or Calculating Unit like the Processing Halo. It will be closer to a Rune Artifact like Michelle's Octahedron Lance, so I will base this creation on its codes.
Even though it's similar to the Octahedron Lance, but it will only focus on coding the Mobius Runes for the Two Emperors and not act as a physical weapon by itself.
With all of that in mind, I wove the empty form of necessary codes onto three standard A.P.P.L.E.'s Golden Cores and finally added empty Mobius Ring Network on top of their codes.
After everything seemed fine, I created one more set and named the set, Coding Halo. This Halo set is built as a tool close to the Mining Squad, waiting for owner's energies to really activate it and passively connect to their network, unlike my creations that are actually life forms under my own network.
This Rune Technology is originally their knowledge, but the Two Emperors only focused on hardware and software that really supported their Space Programs first. I just sent it back to them, accelerating their research time and giving them few good safety protocols. But with this I already earned their trust, can access to most of their information, and had a roughly idea how to protect my network against any hackers from Michelle's reaction.