Chapter 500 — Breaking Through to Tier-Eight Beastmaster

The Kingdom of Bolan.

An island totem nation on the sea.

Its internal human civilization was not highly developed—only scattered tribes, not even comparable to the Heavenly Sword Kingdom.

Yet it still harbored over ten million transcendent beings, spanning every race.

Overnight, the Kingdom of Bolan was annihilated. A pall of death-energy shrouded the heavens, surging straight toward the stars, and the world was shaken at once—Lin Shuo flew into a rage.

The reason: Bolan had been among the first totemic powers to answer Donghuang's call and join the Cangwu Alliance.

Its totemic guardian deity, like those of the Endless Sea and the Ghost Sea, had placed considerable trust in the Canghai Spirits.

In the end, before it could enjoy the Alliance's protection, it was the first to meet a great crisis.

Countless nations rushed to the scene to witness it, and found that Bolan and a vast stretch of surrounding sea had become a plague-blasted dead zone; the viral radiation had turned the place into a no-man's-land for life.

Shi Cen had been scouring the world for Yun'an's whereabouts. When word reached him, he came with Lin and the others above Bolan, and gazed in silence at the dead island.

The situation here was now even more perilous than the undead battlefield where the Undying Nether Phoenix roosted. Any weak creature that came into contact would likely be demonized in an instant, so the Alliance had immediately declared it forbidden ground.

This residual power bore an extreme resemblance to the signs heralding the emergence of the Abyssal Sea.

According to the Alliance's astrological masters, corroborated by on-site investigation, this annihilation was suspected to be the work of an ancient demigod of the Abyssal Sea, revived by the restoration of its rules, striking a partnership with Yun'an.

Unfortunately, these two demigods appeared swiftly and vanished just as swiftly. After devouring the living of Bolan, they left behind a single sentence and were gone without a trace.

"Cangwu Alliance, hand over Shi Yan, the Canghai Spirit."

"Otherwise, this is only the beginning."

This time, they were not merely targeting Shi Jin.

And with that one move, the fledgling Cangwu Alliance was pushed to the brink of collapse.

Now many minor totemic nations were gripped by fear. Numerous small totemic powers, like Bolan, that had answered the seven human nations' call to found the Cangwu Alliance were terrified, suspecting that after Yun'an's failed raid on the Alliance island and failed assassination of Shi Jin, it dared not strike directly at the great powers and would next take revenge on the small powers that had thrown in with the Alliance.

This act of annihilation dealt a heavy blow straight to the Nine Luminaries Alliance's plan to establish the Cangwu Alliance.

After all, the Alliance's founding purpose was for small powers to supply material and labor resources in exchange for the support and protection of greater strength, and for a chance at peaceful development, so that all might grow stronger together and withstand future crises.

But now, before it had even begun to function, a weak nation had been annihilated by an outside force, instantly shoving the Cangwu Alliance into an awkward position. If it could not deal with Yun'an and the Abyssal Sea in short order, its establishment would likely fail utterly.

The rulers of the seven nations were instantly stricken with headaches—none more so than Lei Tang, who harbored ambitions of contesting the office of Cangwu Alliance chairman, grinding his teeth in fury.

As for the demands of the two Abyssal demigods, the Alliance naturally could not possibly agree. Losing Shi Cen was one thing, but without the Canghai Spirits, when the Abyss came sweeping back in full, who would purify it?

"Those two bastards are courting death."

Above Bolan Island, Shi Jin's face was grim. Attacking him outright was one thing, but to coerce him and Susu into submission this way—unless this Yun'an was turned into a renewable resource for a hundred million years, Shi Zhao's fury would never be appeased.

"Ning, ning!!" Naturally, Susu was furious too—absolutely furious.

"Quack!!!!" And in agony as well was Yaya.

On the deck of the aerial warship, Yaya clutched its head and howled, having realized that the Abyssal inheritance had been snatched from under its nose.

The Abyssal Sea inheritance, too, had been passed down from the Mythic Age, left behind by the Abyssal Evil God. Its defining trait was that it appeared at random and was exceedingly difficult to destroy completely.

Each time it revived, tens of thousands of contamination sources would appear across the seas. Any creature that came into contact with a contamination source was considered to have received the Abyssal inheritance.

These sources varied in strength; the powerful ones could corrupt totems, and could dye the seas red the instant they appeared. Among the monsters that received the inheritance, whichever grew first to the demigod tier would become the new leader of the Abyssal Sea.

That leader could locate the true inheritance ground of the Abyssal Sea and obtain the super-divine resource, the Eye of the Evil God. A demigod of the Abyss bearing the Eye would grow stronger still, and could command every contamination source, expanding its power all the faster.

Beyond that, the Eye of the Evil God had many other wondrous uses—remolding ordinary creatures into Abyssal kin, for instance, or devouring other life and converting its vitality into contamination sources, which were the core power of the Abyssal kin.

One could say this was the very key to the Abyssal Sea's unbroken line of inheritance. Even the Canghai Spirits could not purify the Eye of the Evil God. Whenever an Abyssal demigod died, the Eye would dissolve of itself and be reborn somewhere anew.

Yaya had intended to break through to totem, become a demigod, and then take charge of the Eye of the Evil God. And now this so-called ancient Abyssal demigod—where in the world had it even quacked out from? It was furious beyond measure.

"Ning!" In short, Susu now wished nothing more than to go and destroy those two bastards tied to the Abyssal power that very instant.

Were it not for Shi Jin holding it back, the hardheaded thing would already have gone.

"We can't be rash. They dare flaunt themselves so brazenly while wanted across the whole Blue Star—they must have something to rely on," Lin said.

"Yun'an joining hands with an unknown Abyssal Sea demigod is no good news at all."

"The Eye of the Evil God is the inheritance left by the Abyssal Evil God in the Mythic Age. Abyssal Sea demigods are native Abyssal creatures that have received the Abyssal inheritance, while Yun'an is an extra-worldly Abyssal creature, of the same kind as the Abyssal Evil God. Risking further provoking the Cangwu Alliance, they have begun devouring living beings on a grand scale—they must be plotting something with even greater ambition."

"I suspect that their alliance will make the two of them all the harder to deal with."

The Yun'an of this timeline was even harder to find than the one of the past timeline. Lin suspected it not only possessed special resources for concealing itself, but had also, with the help of the Abyssal Sea demigod, hidden away in a deep-sea alternate space.

And for that place, its probing power would surely fall short of what it could muster in the alternate spaces of the outside world.

"Ning, ning." Susu was utterly aggrieved, leaving Yaya beside it at a loss for how to console it.

"Quack!! (Abyssal Big Eyeball, your king is right here!!)" Duckie was still furious.

"I know. Even if we found them now, we wouldn't stand a chance. Two demigods—and one of them an abyssal demigod wielding the Eye of the Evil God. He's likely no weaker than Meteor Moose." Shi Li said.

Lin Shuo had also called just now to urge him not to be rash.