Peering through the hole, Liu Xing observed the electric eel coiling around the Alchemy Hall. Killing those spirit beasts would be killing two birds with one stone. Aside from clearing his path, it would benefit him greatly. While their cores would not allow him to directly break through to the third stage of the Core Splitting realm, they would shorten his cultivation time by a few years—perhaps even decades—if he were to cultivate the normal way. He licked his lips, and his impatient side shouted at him to emerge from the shipwreck and start fighting. However, he inhaled deeply and reined himself in. He needed to be patient.

As he observed the eel more closely using his qi sense, he realized that while the spirit beast was probably at the peak of the Core Splitting realm, its presence and aura felt as heavy as an ancient mountain. However, the Jin clan had confirmed that it was not the strongest, which spelled trouble. If this eel was not the most powerful of the spirit beasts, what kind of presence would the strongest one emit?

"I need to gather information first," Liu Xing muttered. He closed his eyes, nose, and ears, focusing entirely on sensing the qi around him. As soon as he did, he felt as if he had submerged himself in an abyss. Soon, however, he could sense several presences within this dark expanse. The electric eel's qi felt prickly but also held a hint of familiarity, as if it were a distant cousin he remembered meeting several times in his life. This made sense, since the eel likely used electricity as its main attack. The qi of the other spirit beasts was more foreign to him, but he could sense ten of them nearby. In fact, there was one so close that, judging by the direction of its qi, it was hidden underground. Aside from these ten, he could sense several more distinct spirit beast signatures, but he could not pinpoint their sources. This could be interpreted as either these spirit beasts being quite far away or hiding their presence.

Liu Xing looked around through the small hole, but the limited sight hindered him. He needed to move to a different place if he wanted to gather more information.

He turned and swept his gaze over the patriarch and the two elders of the Jin clan. Their eyebrows were sharp, their eyes shone with focus, and their lips were curved down slightly, as if they were standing in the jaws of a spirit beast that could snap shut at any moment. When they saw him nod, conveying that he was ready to move alone, the patriarch of the Jin clan took several steps forward and squeezed his shoulder firmly before stepping back. The old man with the long beard nodded and opened his mouth to speak. Liu Xing could not hear him and had no experience reading lips, but he could guess what he meant. The elder wanted him to save Jin Wuyi. The other old man merely nodded and moved to the side.

He swept his eyes over the three men once again, nodded one last time, and began to walk. As he walked, he reminded himself that his primary goal was the Heaven Severing Pill, with the secondary objective of killing the spirit beasts and absorbing their cores to fuel his cultivation.

As he bent down and emerged from the shipwreck, he began to think about what strategy he needed to employ. The size of those spirit beasts was no joke. The Jin clan had called them gigantic, and he agreed. The electric eel was coiling around a tower that was perhaps several hundred meters tall, maybe the size of the Eiffel Tower, which meant the eel was truly massive. It could probably swallow thirty people at once. If the other spirit beasts were of a similar size, it would be hard to kill them with his gun.

Liu Xing summoned his gun to his left hand. He instantly activated his invisibility, and the effect spread out from his gun. He jumped up, landed on top of the shipwreck, and then climbed the main mast that pointed diagonally upward. By the time he arrived at the tip of the broken mast, he was fully invisible.

"I need to gather information first, find where all twenty spirit beasts are, learn their capabilities, and look for a way to kill them with my gun," he muttered to himself, knowing his words could not travel far. There was also a time limit. When the air inside his bubble ran out, he could still function for a while, but it would be dangerous.

"Fifteen minutes," he added.

He needed to gather all the information about the spirit beasts within fifteen minutes. It would be difficult, and he was quite sure there was not much he could glean in such a short amount of time, but even knowing their locations would be useful.

Liu Xing loosened the rope around his spatial bag's neck. Water rushed in when he opened the bag, but he was quick enough to grab the handle of his stone blade, pull it out, and close the bag again. Then, when the stone blade also became invisible, he inhaled deeply, his body relaxing as his mind focused. Holding his stone blade in his right hand and his gun in his left felt right, and this rightness boosted his confidence and his focus. With both of these weapons, he felt he could handle these spirit beasts without too much trouble.

Stolen novel; please report.

Liu Xing jumped from the mast and landed softly on the seafloor, though a small cloud of sand swirled around his feet. He looked toward the electric eel, its face as menacing as a dragon's, and when he realized that the eel hadn't even glanced at him, he felt more confident and began to move.

"One," he muttered, marking the position where he was currently standing. Dozens of meters below the surface, a gigantic spirit beast was probably slumbering.

"Two," he pointed at the eel, electricity coursing around and through its body. Its eyes were alert, as if it were afraid someone would take the tower from it. At that point, he realized that while this eel had the presence of a king, it did not have unwavering confidence. It was afraid of other threats.

He then began to move to the right. Instead of walking, though, he decided to swim. Propelling himself with his hands and feet, he soon saw the third spirit beast. It was not too far from the Alchemy Hall; he could have thrown a rock and hit the tower from here. However, there was a large hole in the middle of the seafloor. He had deactivated his pearl ring, so the only illumination came from the bright electricity of the eel. Peering into the hole from above, he saw a creature resembling a crab. Its color was dark purple, and it had two pincers that looked as if they were made from glass. Instead of normal crab legs, though, its legs were made of what looked like golden fire. He felt no heat, nor did he see the water boiling.

"Three," he noted, looked at the Alchemy Hall, and then began to move again.

The fourth spirit beast was located behind the Alchemy Hall. In this place, the seafloor was covered with jagged earth that resembled the inside of a shark's mouth. Floating above this jagged floor was a flat spirit beast that looked like a smooth plate from above. Its color was pitch black, and two eyes were located in its center—one pointing up, the other down. If this flat spirit beast positioned itself vertically, he imagined it would be like a wide fish, its sheer size capable of eclipsing both the Alchemy Hall and the electric eel.

"Four," he muttered.

The fifth, sixth, and seventh spirit beasts were located high above. One of them was a normal-looking fish with sails on its back and a long nose resembling a sword. Its color was gray and white. From a distance, its size was deceptive, making it look like a normal fish, but he knew it was as big as a whale. Circling behind the gigantic sailfish was a black horse. Its hooves were surrounded by black fire, and it kicked at the water as if flying through the sky. From the neck up, instead of a horse's head, it had the head of a black dolphin, its eyes fixed on the sailfish with murderous intent. Hundreds of tentacles grew from its body, shaping themselves into two dark and disgusting wings. Behind this horse, a gigantic humanoid swam. Its skin was so pale it looked like a corpse, its head was bald, and a gleaming sword grew from its face. It didn't look as if the sword was embedded in its face; rather, it seemed its face had morphed into a sword.

Liu Xing looked at the three of them and licked his lips. These three were at the Core Splitting realm, and while they had a strong presence, they were weaker compared to the other spirit beasts he had seen. Targeting them first would be a good idea, though the fact that they were close to each other was troublesome.

He swam a bit further and found the eighth, ninth, and tenth spirit beasts. The three of them were quite far from each other. Each of them faced the Alchemy Hall, and he could see the eel was actually monitoring these three. One was in the shape of a snake, its color as blue as the sky, coiling itself in the water as if holding onto an invisible tower. Its size was a bit smaller than the eel's, but he was quite sure it could latch onto and break a sailing ship with ease. Its eyes shone with a golden hue, and as it observed the eel, it looked as if it were trying to find the perfect time to act. The ninth spirit beast was in the shape of an anglerfish, with a lure that protruded from its head and shone with a blue light. Its eyes were entirely white, and its face was covered by a steel mask. It looked as if it were made by human hands, yet he saw that it blended directly into its face, as if the steel mask had grown from its flesh. In terms of size, it was the smallest spirit beast, perhaps only around four meters high. However, it had a strong presence and was at the Sun Refining realm, making it the strongest in terms of cultivation. The tenth one was a giant human hand. Its size was around the same as the Alchemy Hall's, and its skin was as pale as a corpse's. It stood on its palm, and from the back of its hand protruded a fish head the size of a normal fish. He was quite sure that little head was what controlled the entire body.

He could only identify these ten in a short amount of time. The other ten were either too far away or were hiding. Ideally, he wanted to locate all twenty, but even locating these ten spirit beasts took him more than ten minutes. Considering how difficult it was to pinpoint the other ten, finding the rest would take much longer than fifteen minutes.

As he floated high in the water, his eyes fixed on the alert electric eel, its maw and sharp teeth bared to the entire world, he muttered, "Should I begin the attack?"

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