Unfortunately, the Sea God Emperor was the most powerful mortal body cultivator on the plane. Each time Cha Ming blocked his dreadful trident, it felt like getting struck by a mountain. His flesh broke apart and his ligaments tore, only to heal over again just as quickly. The ocean below them was stained in blood. His blood. The power of the Sea God Crown was simply too potent; his disadvantage in body cultivation would only keep increasing.
As these titans fought, the guardsmen who had accompanied Cha Ming had joined forces with the dolphins in attacking the fiendish sharks. Thousands of guardsmen clashed with their elite counterparts while hundreds of dolphins ripped and tore at the few hundred sharks. All around them, fish of all kinds joined in to attack their dreaded foes.
Ling Dong was fighting alongside the guards, as was Jin Huang, Yue Bing, and Zi Long. Ling Dong clashed with shark after shark while projecting his Demon-Subduing Intent, both bolstering nearby friendly demons and reducing the fiendish sharks’ combat effectiveness. Devil-Sealing Intent shone out from all over them, further weakening the sharks, but they were too powerful. The evil means that had given them birth allowed them to grow much faster than their tamer counterparts, so even weakened, they still managed to take down one dolphin after another.
But not without paying a bloody price. For each few dolphins they felled, one of the fiendish sharks was destroyed. While this might not seem like a win in most people’s books, the dolphins cackled gleefully with every kill. As Huxian had suspected, they held a terrible secret—their bloodlust and their hatred for sharks. If you put the two species in the same place, the dolphins wouldn’t rest until the sharks were dead. This applied doubly so to fiendish ones.
Yue Bing was an unexpected star of the battle. If not for her, they would have already fallen. The blood doctor flew around on her bloody wings, siphoning blood from enemies and healing allies as they fought over the bloody ocean. Appendages that had been bitten off, deep bites, and gashes—all could be healed by her miraculous powers. The guardsmen had noticed this, but every time they tried to close in on her, Zi Long’s illusions interfered.
Meanwhile, Jin Huang roamed the battlefield practically unhindered. Even the fiendish demons feared him and his poisons, so he sowed them with impunity. He didn’t kill scores of foes but weakened them. The rest would be up to his allies.
Cha Ming defended with Splitting Heaven and Earth as the Sea God Emperor crashed down with his trident. A residual blade of water struck Cha Ming’s body and split it vertically. Cha Ming quickly reformed and summoned a combat formation. Sand blew around him as his freshly summoned Desiccation Formation attempted to suck all the moisture out of the air and the Sea God Emperor himself.
The Sea God Emperor would have none of it. He kicked Cha Ming away, nearly breaking his ribs in the process, before slashing at key points in the combat formation and breaking it apart. He finished just in time to notice Feng Ming’s spear stabbing at his face, which he grabbed with his bare hand then flung Feng Ming away.
We can’t win this battle, Cha Ming thought. Not without help. He looked at the heavens above, where three angels and three devils floated as though unaffected by the terrible battle. They would interfere if they had to, but the cost was steep; with the mounting conflict between the North and South, they didn’t dare waste their transcendent lives. Likely, they would only interfere to save more important individuals before they died in battle. Cha Ming hoped it wouldn’t come to that.
One last noteworthy battle was taking place. Huxian and his four friends were fighting the surprisingly powerful prime minister and the grand marshal. They weren’t devils, he noticed, just practical individuals who had seen a chance and taken it. But did that make them any different?
Both were powerful body cultivators minoring in qi, and the Sea God Scales and the Sea God Shell were treasures that bordered on defying the plane’s will. Whereas the Sea God Crown enhanced the body, the scales controlled space and the shell controlled force. The shell covered them in a golden glow that, with their peak-marrow-refining cultivation, made them almost impossible to harm. Meanwhile, under the protection of the grand marshal, the prime minister struck out at the assembled beasts with spatial fragments.
Blood flew all around them. Gua, with his fan, controlled flows of ocean water to obstruct and tangle the two’s movements. Silverwing, on the other hand, felt practically useless. Despite his swift speed and powerful attacks, his moves were easy to predict. The fear of a spatial blade appearing before him midflight prompted the bird to fight in a more reserved fashion; he used a smaller form to fight and preferred to slash out with wings, talons, and blades of wind.
Unlike Silverwing, Lei Jiang was king in this battlefield. He zipped all around and used the nearby water to his advantage, constantly striking their two opponents with bolt after bolt of lightning. Huxian fought alongside him with tooth and paw, using his superiority as a Godbeast to match their physical strength. For every strike he received, he gave. Shadows and light danced around him, nibbling at the nearly infinite vitality of their opponents.
Mr. Mountain! Huxian shouted as he exchanged yet another round of blows. A violet mist, which had been absent all battle, suddenly materialized as a massive mountain. Several miles wide and tall, it was impossibly large for a demon. But why would Mr. Mountain care about what was possible or impossible? Mountains were big, and they were heavy, right? He came crashing down on the prime minister and the marshal, forcing them
