The ice-blue greatsword streaked across the sky, and in just a moment, it had reached the territory of the Deep Sea Blue Whale clan.
Because they had suffered Flender's ambush just two days ago, the whale clan was still on high alert. Now, faced with this sudden overwhelming pressure, the entire pod instantly boiled with agitation.
Flender and Zhao Wuji's seventh soul rings, pitch-black and ominous, lit up at once. As they arrived, they directly unleashed their strongest soul skills.
A golden-eyed cat-eagle with a wingspan of over ten meters and a towering bear more than eight meters tall manifested in midair. Their terrifying soul power pressure crashed down like a tidal wave, bringing immense oppression upon the whale clan.
With a piercing eagle cry, Flender, in his golden cat-eagle form, surged with soul power. A storm of golden feathers shot forth, each one sharp as a blade, slicing down toward the whales below.
At the same time, Zhao Wuji, in his giant bear form, radiated violent soul force. A crushing pressure descended over the pod, greatly hindering their movements.
Meanwhile, Lu Qibin's sixth black soul ring flared. A chessboard materialized in his hand, instantly expanding to an enormous size under the influence of his soul skill. The giant board is split into several sectors, partitioning and encircling the whales.
As Lu Qibin's battlefield control locked in, Gai Yue stepped forward with his Frostmoon Sword. His fifth black soul ring blazed to life.
"Fifth Soul Skill: Frozen Sword Dance!"
The Frostmoon Sword slashed outward, unleashing terrifying arcs of glacial sword qi. They cut into Lu Qibin's chessboard domain, freezing and reinforcing it until it became a massive cage of ice, sealing the whales within.
With the trap in place, Flender immediately charged at the whale leader—an ancient beast with over 23,000 years of cultivation. Zhao Wuji, Lu Qibin, and Li Yusong each engaged a ten-thousand-year whale of their own.
Their speed was blinding. Their opening assaults were like lightning—before the whales could react, more than ten thousand-year-old Blue Whales were struck down by Flender and Zhao Wuji's first wave of attacks.
However, the sheer bulk of the whales absorbed much of the damage. The slain whales' massive bodies shielded the survivors, buying the rest of the pod precious time to rally.
The clan leader let out a mournful, furious roar. Its colossal tail slapped the sea, raising a monstrous wave that surged toward the intruders.
But before the wave could crash, Gai Yue's Frostmoon Sword cleaved forward once more. The entire surge froze solid in midair, glittering as a frozen wall. Such was the might of his fifth soul skill.
"End it quickly!"
Gai Yue's voice cut like steel. He slashed again and again, countless arcs of icy sword qi raining down, but this time directed at the whales below five thousand years of age.
Watching from the ship in the distance, Shao Xin spoke gravely to Oscar and Ma Hongjun:
"Little Ao, Hongjun—remember this lesson. No matter who your enemy is, as long as they can resist, you must go all out."
Oscar and Ma Hongjun nodded in unison. "Understood!"
Yet Oscar couldn't help but notice—Flender and the others had underestimated themselves. Even without Gai Yue's overwhelming power, the teachers might well have been able to take down the entire pod alone.
Barely a quarter of an hour later, it was over. Dozens of enormous Blue Whales floated lifelessly on the sea's surface, soul rings of various colors rising one by one—yellow, purple, black.
The battle ended so swiftly that even Flender couldn't help glancing at Gai Yue with newfound respect. He had already thought highly of Gai Yue, but this fight showed his strength was nothing short of monstrous.
To think—this was the man who had once slain a seventy-thousand-year soul beast while still at the Eighty-first rank.
But there was no time for celebration. Everyone wordlessly pulled out Shao Xin's restorative candies, swallowing them to recover soul power.
They quickly stored the massive whale corpses in their soul tools. Within five minutes, the battlefield was cleared, and they returned to the ship.
The vessel immediately set sail, putting distance between itself and the slaughter grounds, lest the blood draw stronger beasts. After all, they still had to protect Oscar and Ma Hongjun—their talents were extraordinary, but their current strength was too low.
Back on board, they tallied the harvest:
Four whales of over ten thousand years,
Fifteen over five thousand years,
Eighteen between one and five thousand years,
And four in the mere hundred-year range.
The Deep Sea Blue Whale clan had been formidable indeed. This one battle had brought them astonishing spoils.
But when Flender checked their storage capacity, his brow furrowed—they had already used half their space.
The whales' sizes were simply too massive, most over ten meters long, and the ten-thousand-year-old ones reached fifteen. It was impossible to sail back to replenish storage tools now.
After some discussion, they decided to strip and keep only the whale jelly from beasts under five thousand years, discarding the carcasses.
The stronger specimens, however, would be preserved whole—for auction or for food, they were priceless.
As they sailed toward the next destination, they dissected the harvest, obtaining:
4 pieces of ten-thousand-year whale jelly,
15 pieces above five thousand years,
22 pieces below five thousand years old.
At first, Flender wanted to save them for later, but Oscar suggested otherwise:
"If everyone strengthens their body with these first, and raises their physique to its limit, then we don't need to keep hunting. With Teacher Gai Yue here, as long as we find the right targets, our harvest will never be small. But wasting so many soul rings would be too much of a pity."
Flender considered, then agreed. Oscar was right—whale jelly only worked up to a point. Once the body reached its limit, eating more would yield almost no benefit.
And Oscar wasn't simply being kind. He knew the truth: soul beasts were growing scarcer by the day. At the rate humans hunted, extinction wasn't far off. They couldn't save the world, but at least they could ease their conscience.
Finally, they divided the spoils:
Gai Yue consumed the jelly from the 23,000-year whale,
Flender, Zhao Wuji, and Lu Qibin each took a ten-thousand-year jelly,
Li Yusong, Shao Xin, Oscar, and Ma Hongjun split the fifteen five-thousand-year pieces.
The process of consuming the jelly wasn't difficult—the hard part was refining it. But thanks to Oscar's prior instructions, none of them had trouble.