Over the deep blue sea, a silver beam of light over three meters in diameter pierced through the head of the Giantous Demon Whale, extending hundreds of meters further. The space around this massive silver beam was violently distorted.
It lasted for several seconds before gradually dissipating.
All signs of life in the Giantous Demon Whale had been completely extinguished during the penetration of this silver beam.
This was the terror of a 100,000-year mental-attribute attack soul skill. Among the four soul skills that the 100,000-year Evil Eye Tyrant soul ring and soul bone granted Xu Zihuang, Evil Eye Gaze possessed the strongest destructive power.
Previously, when Xu Zihuang condensed his fifth soul skill, Mental Storm, into a silver needle, the energy fluctuations it contained were already quite astonishing. But compared to the massive silver beam produced by Evil Eye Gaze, it was like the difference between a firefly and the bright moon.
Mental Storm was an area-of-effect mental-attribute soul skill; its effect was the omnipresent mental power invading the target's body, destroying it from within.
The reason Xu Zihuang had condensed Mental Storm into a silver needle to kill that Qingpeng Soul Sage by destroying his consciousness and soul was precisely inspired by the Evil Eye Gaze soul skill.
Evil Eye Gaze destroyed the mental origin. Whether for soul masters or soul beasts, the importance of the mental origin was beyond doubt.
The ten golden light orbs left behind by the Heavenly Dream Ice Silkworm when it fused with Xu Zihuang were its mental origin. Just earlier, Xu Zihuang had relied on the power of the Heavenly Dream Ice Silkworm's mental origin to increase the age of his soul rings.
The Heavenly Dream Ice Silkworm's mental origin could be absorbed by Xu Zihuang without affecting it because it had long abandoned its body, merging its spiritual consciousness into Xu Zihuang's sea of spirit.
For any other soul beast, once its mental origin was severely damaged, even if it didn't die on the spot, it wouldn't live much longer. Only those super soul beasts with noble bloodlines and profound foundations could recover through long years of recuperation.
The ultimate soul skill of the Evil Eye Tyrant Ruler, Light of Space-Time, was based on this Evil Eye Gaze, further incorporating its own comprehension of spatial and temporal forces.
In the peak battle between the Evil Eye Tyrant Ruler and the Beast God Di Tian, the Evil Eye Tyrant Ruler had relied on the Light of Space-Time to severely damage Di Tian's mental origin.
Even with the Beast God Di Tian's cultivation, after directly taking the Evil Eye Tyrant Ruler's Light of Space-Time, it took over a thousand years of recuperation to return to peak condition.
This showed just how powerful the Light of Space-Time was.
The ultimate soul skill, Light of Space-Time, required consuming a large amount of life force, so the Evil Eye Tyrant Ruler rarely used it. In hundreds of thousands of years, only the Beast God Di Tian had forced it to use it once.
Although Evil Eye Gaze was not as powerful as Light of Space-Time, as the innate strongest talent attack soul skill of the Evil Eye Tyrant lineage, it was likewise not easy to resist.
In fact, the instant the silver beam pierced through the Giantous Demon Whale's skull, it spared no effort in burning its origin and life force to forcibly regain its slowed consciousness, frantically mobilizing its mental power and soul power to resist.
Generally speaking, the mental power of whale-type soul beasts far surpassed that of other sea soul beasts. This was a racial advantage. At the same cultivation level, the head and brain capacity of this Giantous Demon Whale was more than twice that of the Deep Sea Demon Whale or Evil Demon Orca, making it the whale-type soul beast most skilled in using mental power.
Unfortunately, it faced Xu Zihuang, whose total mental power and realm completely overwhelmed it.
Both had mental power that had just entered the tangible and substantial realm, and both possessed mental-attribute soul cores. When Xu Zihuang fully unleashed Evil Eye Gaze, there was no essential difference compared to the 100,000-year pure mental-type Evil Eye Tyrant using the skill itself.
At most, limited by the gap in cultivation, the power would be somewhat weaker. But that was all.
With this Giantous Demon Whale's cultivation and mental power level, it was clearly insufficient to survive this powerful 100,000-year soul skill. Its mental origin was directly shattered under the penetration of the silver beam, and its life force extinguished.
Its incomparably massive body fell toward the deep cubic gap in the sea surface below.
The silver glow in Xu Zihuang's eyes gradually faded, leaving only the brilliant golden halo of his Golden Eyes martial soul in his pupils. With his aura calm, he once again stepped on the crystal mirror surface, ascending into the sky to avoid the towering waves surging on the sea.
Using such a 100,000-year head soul bone skill indeed consumed a lot. However, pure mental-attribute soul skills had a very special characteristic: they could be released without consuming soul power, relying entirely on mental power.
Although more than half of the mental power in his sea of spirit had been directly drained, his soul power remained essentially at its peak state. The consumption of soul power and mental power caused the mental-attribute soul core in his brow to absorb external heaven-and-earth origin energy much faster.
The depleted soul power and mental power were recovering rapidly.
The heavy waves, like a natural disaster tsunami, took a long time to subside, even affecting the port of Qianling City hundreds of kilometers away.
The massive icebergs floating in the nearby sea area collapsed one after another.
A huge shadow slowly surfaced, surrounded by countless bubbles. Clearly, this was the corpse of the Giantous Demon Whale. Its enormous head protruded dozens of meters above the sea surface, with a circle of black soul ring carrying an extremely oppressive and ferocious aura floating above its head.
Seawater slid off its smooth, deep blue skin. Those deep blue eyes, over a meter in diameter, were dim and lifeless, seemingly still retaining the shock and unwillingness at the moment of death.
Looking at the scene before him, the Heavenly Dream Ice Silkworm fell silent. This time, it more intuitively realized just how terrifying Xu Zihuang's current strength was. In its view, if anyone in this world could reach that level, it would undoubtedly be Xu Zihuang.
The Giantous Demon Whale's corpse continued to rise and fall with the waves. Xu Zihuang floated down gracefully, landing steadily on the whale's head.
A whale-type soul beast with cultivation exceeding 50,000 years was truly a treasure trove from head to tail. However, the space in his storage soul tool was limited, so he only planned to use his long sword, Shark Teeth, to remove the two eyeballs of the Giantous Demon Whale.
The deep blue eyes of the Giantous Demon Whale were extremely mystical. Even after death, they still emitted a faint glow, with a texture like emerald jade, incredibly hard. These were the most precious materials on the Giantous Demon Whale's body. In ancient times on the Douluo Continent, nobles liked to polish whale-type soul beast eyeballs into night pearls. With the development of soul guidance technology, people gradually discovered that the eyeballs of powerful whale-type soul beasts were excellent materials for crafting high-level defensive soul tools.
Especially those from whale-type soul beasts over 10,000 years in cultivation.
However, soul beasts of this level were not easy to hunt, and they were extremely rare, making them always in high demand and short supply on the continent.
The two eyeballs of this 50,000-year Giantous Demon Whale, if taken to a top auction house on the continent, could fetch at least over a million gold soul coins.
Materials from other parts were also quite valuable, but compared to those two eyeballs, they paled in comparison.
There was not a trace of blood on the Giantous Demon Whale's eyeballs, and seawater would slide off instantly upon contact, leaving no droplets behind.
Xu Zihuang stored the two eyeballs in his storage soul tool, then lowered his head and thrust his long sword Shark Teeth into the tough skin of the Giantous Demon Whale's head.
Earlier, he had carefully scanned with his mental power and confirmed that this 50,000-year Giantous Demon Whale had not produced a soul bone.
However, he felt no disappointment. The appearance of soul bones relied more on luck. Moreover, even if this Giantous Demon Whale had produced a soul bone, it held no attraction for him.
"Zihuang, the head of the Giantous Demon Whale, is the largest among whale-type soul beasts. With this guy's cultivation, it should provide you with quite a bit of high-quality whale ambergris. Cut from the side to avoid damaging the ambergris," Tian Meng's excited voice rang out in Xu Zihuang's sea of spirit, sounding even more thrilled than Xu Zihuang himself.
It was so happy not just because of the Giantous Demon Whale's ambergris, but more because it added a bit more confidence in Xu Zihuang touching that elusive realm.
Xu Zihuang nodded, gripping Shark Teeth tightly with both hands and infusing soul power. Brilliant golden light immediately flickered on the sword's body. Then, he circled around the massive head of the Giantous Demon Whale.
Although the Giantous Demon Whale's skin was tough with astonishing defense, without soul power protection, it was just an empty shell. The main material of Shark Teeth was the teeth of a 10,000-year Demon Soul Great White Shark; as one of the three overlords of the ocean, the Demon Soul Great White Shark's teeth could tear through the flesh of any soul beast.
Shark Teeth smoothly cut through the Giantous Demon Whale's skin, flesh, and even bones.
No foul odor emanated from the incision; instead, a rich and intense fragrance assaulted the nostrils. Xu Zihuang merely sniffed a few times lightly and felt refreshed and invigorated.
Returning to the starting point after circling once, he flicked his right hand and lifted the skull cap of the Giantous Demon Whale. He then saw the brilliant golden whale brain in the central area. Thick steam and fragrance blended together, extremely enticing.
Whale brain, whale ambergris, and whale glue were actually the same thing.
For a period after a whale-type soul beast died, its whale brain would be in a paste form, known as whale ambergris. After the ambergris was weathered and lost moisture, it would form solid whale glue.
However, natural air-drying would cause the ambergris to lose some efficacy along with the moisture. The ideal situation was to artificially lock in the nutrients and dry it shortly after a whale-type soul beast died, just like how Wang Xiao and the others processed the Evil Demon Orca's ambergris back then.
Looking at the whale brain before him, which was at least three to four cubic meters in volume, the Heavenly Dream Ice Silkworm couldn't help but be stunned.
"This guy really is extraordinary. Some 100,000-year-old whales probably don't even have whale brains this large. And the quality of this guy's whale glue is quite good."
Xu Zihuang was also a bit surprised. However, he didn't delve into it now; instead, he extended his right hand, using the high temperature from Ultimate Thunder to quickly dry it. The fragrance of this whale's brain was too rich and lingered without dispersing. If it blended into the sea breeze and drifted into the deep sea, attracting even stronger sea soul beasts would be troublesome.
With various trump cards in hand, he had confidence in protecting himself; he was just afraid of implicating Ma Xiaotao, who was very likely in this sea area.
...
At the same time, on an iceberg about thirty kilometers southeast of Xu Zihuang's location.
"Was that the sound of that demon whale? And that silver beam of light?"
A woman in red clothing looked up toward the northwest, her brows slightly furrowed as she murmured to herself. From her appearance, she seemed to be around twenty-three or twenty-four years old. Her light pink eyes gave off a soul-stirring and enchanting feeling, fortunately tempered somewhat by her cold gaze.
Her slender figure had extremely voluptuous curves, especially the towering peaks that seemed ready to burst forth, a slender waist, and below that, long, straight legs.
If Xu Zihuang were here, he would recognize the woman at a glance as Ma Xiaotao, who had gone to the Extreme North for training four years ago and had not returned.
Five months ago, Ma Xiaotao had found a 100,000-year-old snow lotus in the core area of the Extreme North. Although only half the petals remained on that snow lotus, it was enough to completely resolve the evil fire within her body.
However, not long after she braved countless dangers to take the snow lotus and leave the Extreme North core area, the entire Extreme North suddenly became chaotic. She also encountered several powerful 10,000-year soul beasts.
No matter how strong she was, at that time she only had level 70 soul power and hadn't even acquired her seventh soul ring. The Extreme North environment also restrained her martial soul's abilities. Unable to win, she gritted her teeth and drilled into the strange ice cave she had discovered before.
After entering, Ma Xiaotao discovered that the ice cave was deeper than she imagined, with a complex internal structure, interconnected in all directions. While evading attacks from soul beasts outside, she simply stayed inside to refine the effects of that 100,000-year snow lotus, finally resolving the evil fire problem that had plagued her for so many years.
But precisely because of the intense high temperature from her Evil Fire Phoenix martial soul, a large area of the ice cave melted due to the heat and began to collapse. She had no choice but to escape along one of the passages, eventually reaching the sea.
The Extreme North was not entirely land; much seawater had frozen into glaciers connected to the land.
When Ma Xiaotao emerged from the ice cave, she was shockingly at the bottom of a glacier, in seawater over five hundred meters deep. And here, it happened to be the territory of a 50,000-year-old Giantous Demon Whale. Afterward, she was chased again, stumbling deeper into the sea area by mistake.
There was no other way. In that crisis, she had no time to consider anything else.
She finally escaped danger and surfaced, only to discover that this sea area was the territory of a flock of flying-type soul beasts. If she released her martial soul to fly, she would be surrounded and attacked by the flock.
In the end, she could only detour around this sea area to return to the continent. Over the past two months or more, although she encountered attacks from many sea soul beasts, fortunately, none posed a threat to her.
At that moment, a second wave of massive waves swept in like a sky-obscuring curtain, causing the iceberg under Ma Xiaotao's feet to shatter with a boom.
She tapped her toes lightly, and intense golden-red flame wings unfolded behind her, rising into the air. Two yellow, two purple, two black, six soul rings appeared simultaneously.
Although Ma Xiaotao had broken through to level 70 long ago, she had been plagued by the evil fire issue for years, and there were no suitable fire-attribute soul beasts in the Extreme North, so she had not attached a soul ring.
And just as she released her martial soul and ascended, she discovered that she seemed to be locked onto by mental power.
"Such strong mental power?!" Ma Xiaotao looked toward the source of that mental power in surprise and doubt, flying over. This mental power actually gave her the feeling of facing Elder Mu or Elder Xuan.
She was certain that the owner of this mental power was definitely a human soul master, at least a Super Douluo-level powerhouse.
Since she had already been discovered, there was no point in hiding.
If that Super Douluo really wanted to find her, no matter how she concealed herself, it would be useless. It was better to appear openly.
On the other side, Xu Zihuang, standing on the Giantous Demon Whale's skull, drying the whale's brain, had a strange expression on his face. He looked up toward the southwest, where a golden-red light spot rapidly enlarged in his eyes, turning into a gorgeous woman bathed in golden-red flames, the firelight reflecting on her stunningly beautiful face.
Xu Zihuang looked at the approaching figure, his strange expression instantly turning into a gentle smile.
"Long time no see, Senior Sister Xiaotao."
No matter what, he never imagined that his reunion with Ma Xiaotao would be in such a peaceful way.
Ma Xiaotao looked down from the air at Xu Zihuang, first stunned, then her eyes widened fiercely.
"Stinky brat, how are you here?!"
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