Chapter 4588 — Five-Phase Killing Aura? This Is Indeed a Feast Beneath the Sea, Only the Master of the Feast Is Not the Hundred-Plus Fierce Sea Beasts That Have Gathered Here—They Are Merely the Food Set Upon the Table, Nothing More.

Wei Zhao stared at the staggering scene churning through his mind and was struck utterly speechless. He could only watch helplessly as that top-tier sea beast—something that resembled a colossal electric eel—surged up from the depths and swallowed the stunned sea beasts whole in a single gulp. Such was the dread majesty of that ferocious creature emerging to devour all under heaven that even Wei Zhao felt an impulse to kneel and submit.

After it had eaten everything clean, the giant electric eel left untouched only that first bloody, tempting sea-beast carcass. Then it flipped its body over and sank back into hiding among the sand and gravel of the deep trench, waiting for its prey to take the bait once more.

Watching this, Wei Zhao fell into thought. The ghost thing had once told him that although the sea-beast clan and the spirit-beast clan were both beasts, they belonged to entirely different systems. Spirit beasts, in a sense, were not so different from human cultivators—across their long lives, cultivation was their primary pursuit.

Sea beasts, however, were another matter. No matter how powerful a sea beast became, it still retained an exceedingly high degree of bestiality, and so they rarely cultivated of their own accord. To them, devouring blood and flesh was the finest form of cultivation; the higher the order of being they consumed, the faster their strength advanced. This was a pure law of nature—the four words "the weak are meat for the strong" were embodied in them to the fullest.

Yet what interested Wei Zhao even more than the sea-beast clan's way of life was another matter entirely: that fleeting flash of deep-purple electric arc!

Wei Zhao had been observing closely from the very start. Of the hundred-plus sea beasts drawn in by the scent of blood, any one of them possessed at least the strength of the Mystic Ascension stage; sea beasts of the Mountain-Opening stage were everywhere, and there were even those of the Sea-Splitting stage—more than one of them, in fact. Yet a single flash of that electric arc had stunned every last sea beast present beyond any shadow of doubt. What terrifying power was this!

In that instant, Wei Zhao once again experienced what it meant for his hair to stand on end. Yet even amid the lingering dread, some strange impulse arose in him for reasons he could not fathom. His mind replayed over and over the moment the deep-purple electric arc had sliced through the air, and that restless, stirring sensation grew ever stronger. Driven by the instinct to grow ever more powerful, Wei Zhao unconsciously wanted to imitate it.

Unfortunately, the scene had been far too swift and fleeting. Even replaying it endlessly in his mind, he simply could not make it out clearly. Wei Zhao had the instinctive urge to imitate it, yet he could never grasp its essence.

The memory fragments surfacing in his mind continued. The giant electric eel still lurked among the sand and gravel of the deep trench. This time, however, what came to be drawn in was not those bloodthirsty sea beasts—in truth, that earlier feeding had already devoured every powerful sea beast within a hundred miles. To lure in the next wave, it would have to wait several months at the very least. Yet this time, a mere few hours later, an uninvited guest arrived.

The Five-Venom Flood Dragon! Gazing at that existence from afar within the memory fragment, Wei Zhao's pupils abruptly contracted. What had taken the bait this time was a flood dragon whose entire body shimmered with five colors—its appearance identical to the mightiest Five-Phase Killing Aura he had seen before, only the impression it gave was far more real. Its bulk was more enormous, and its aura more piercing and formidable.

Though he had never truly seen a Five-Venom Flood Dragon, Wei Zhao was instantly and utterly convinced: this was certainly a Five-Venom Flood Dragon!

It swam slowly to the side of that sea-beast carcass. After circling it once, the Five-Venom Flood Dragon did not rush to open its jaws and devour it as those sea beasts had done before. It was, after all, a true top-tier spirit beast; though devouring blood and flesh had some effect on it as well, the attraction was nowhere near as fatal as it was for sea beasts.

Moreover, only a few hours earlier, over a hundred powerful sea beasts had met their deaths right here, and the surrounding seawater still swirled with an oppressive, lingering killing intent that would not disperse. Even Wei Zhao could easily sense something amiss—how much more so the Five-Venom Flood Dragon.

The giant electric eel seemed to possess great patience. No matter how the Five-Venom Flood Dragon swam back and forth overhead, it simply lay hidden among the sand and gravel of the deep trench without stirring in the slightest. Though its body was enormous, it blended perfectly into its surroundings; even its aura was wholly indistinguishable from the environment around it. Even knowing full well that it was hidden right there, Wei Zhao found that the moment his attention wavered, he could no longer locate it—not a single flaw could be discerned.

Only that unique vantage point within the memory fragment revealed to Wei Zhao that this top-tier sea beast, which seemed to be a giant electric eel, had not truly fallen dormant. From first to last, it was fixed intently on the Five-Venom Flood Dragon's every movement above, and it seemed to be stirring restlessly, poised at any moment to strike it dead with lightning and then feast to its heart's content.

Threads of current, imperceptible to the senses, spread throughout the entire stretch of sea around them, reaching as far as a thousand miles in every direction. Yet because they were so faint, every living thing within those waters remained utterly unaware of anything out of the ordinary. This was the giant electric eel's unique means of perception. It had no eyes, nor did it employ divine sense, yet these subtle currents were far more effective than divine sense—clearer, and leaving no trace.

The Five-Venom Flood Dragon, like every other creature in those waters, seemed entirely unable to sense the giant electric eel's presence. After circling the sea-beast carcass twice, it finally prepared to take a bite—and it was at that very moment that the deep-purple electric arc that had appeared before descended once again in an instant.

Wei Zhao's heart instantly clenched. He watched as the Five-Venom Flood Dragon seemed about to follow in the footsteps of those hundred-plus powerful sea beasts—but unexpectedly, the Five-Venom Flood Dragon, struck by the deep-purple electric arc, suddenly transformed into a shadowy image condensed from true qi, which then rapidly dispersed!

And the true body of the Five-Venom Flood Dragon had, in that same unknowing instant, appeared directly above the giant electric eel's head. Accompanied by a dragon roar that shook heaven and earth, its front claw swept out, and a blast of five-colored true qi instantly pierced through the giant electric eel's body!

At the sight, Wei Zhao's eyelids gave a violent twitch. Having cultivated for so long in the space below, his familiarity with the Five-Phase Killing Aura could be called unparalleled—and this blast of five-colored true qi the Five-Venom Flood Dragon had just released was unmistakably an enhanced version of the Five-Phase Killing Aura.

If one insisted on naming a difference between the two, it was simply that this one lacked that innate, self-arising spirituality; it was instead all the more obedient to its master's will, controlled with perfect ease.