novelraw Chapter 303: Fear of the Deep Sea
Chapter 303: Fear of the Deep Sea
Gurgle! Gurgle!
In the blood-scented deep sea, Fen was instantly pulled beneath the waves. In that moment, countless crimson eyes surfaced from the dark water.
Seawater kept flooding into her nose and mouth, her hair tangled and drifting in the current.
Breathe!
Fen’s pupils snapped tight. She fumbled to clutch the strange tentacle at her chest, trying with brute force to tear free from the horrifying restraint:
“Life…”
Bang!
The next instant, a hand of dark fire sprang from her neck and clamped her mouth shut.
“Quiet!”
Chen Qi abruptly retracted the dark-fire hand behind him, tightened its grip on Fen, and hauled her deeper into the abyss.Fen’s eyes widened. Gradually she understood Chen Qi’s intention and stopped struggling.
Underwater, Chen Qi lifted his head and, through the water, stared toward the sky.
Even in this blood-red seabed, amid the surging currents, the dazzling light on the horizon was still visible.
The Dragon Tamer King’s Blade Heart Release — it simultaneously unleashed the power of the Black Thunder Dragon King’s heart, combined natural lightning drawn from the sky, then infused Blade affinity and Heart affinity, erupting as a devastating move.
Chen Qi had assumed the Dragon Tamer King would keep exchanging blows with them, or sacrifice his own power to let the recovering Black Thunder Dragon King enter full battle.
But now it seemed—whether out of anger or fear of the navy—he no longer wanted to wait.
He intended to use this Release to take Chen Qi and Fen in one strike.
A celestial move like this is overwhelmingly powerful, but it has one glaring weakness: obvious charge time.
There’s a conventional counter: hide behind a highly defensive object, like an indestructible meteor in the sky, and tank the blow through the object’s protection.
Alternatively, Fen could use a life-draining life technique to endure the hit, but that risk would be enormous.
Right now, neither Chen Qi nor Fen had a strong defensive object.
However, the sea itself served as a natural barrier—provided they were deep enough.
Of course, the deep sea is forbidden territory within the Witch Sea. Legends say the lightless depths hide indescribable terrors.
“Dive deeper!”
Chen Qi used the dark-fire hand to pull Fen in front of him, then shoved the prepared breathing potion into her mouth.
At the same time, before his eyes, a golden dragon’s pupil seemed to appear, staring at him.
On his chest, a scorching dragon-eye mark silently bloomed!
A blinding notification popped up.
[You have been marked by the Golden Dragon Pupil. You are now a marked target. While marked, your every movement is being tracked…]
In an instant, Chen Qi felt as if he could see through the endless seawater to the Dragon Tamer King’s golden dragon pupil—the hunt’s eye.
“This is trouble…”
Chen Qi bowed his head against the crushing pressure, pulled Fen, and continued swimming deeper into the abyss.
Above, in the sky.
The Dragon Tamer King stood atop the dragon’s head, cradling an apple-sized Golden Dragon Eye, patiently waiting for the Blade Release to complete.
The Golden Dragon Eye can mark enemies within sight. Once marked, with sustained spiritual input, it can track that enemy indefinitely. He had obtained the artifact back when he was a bounty hunter in Moonstone City at third tier.
Nearby, Black Glove, afraid of being hit, struggled to ride his flying dragon and landed beside the Dragon Tamer King.
Even though Jie had intentionally cleared a path, simply approaching him left many shocking wounds across Black Glove’s skin.
Summoning courage, Black Glove said, “Lord Jie, you called down the storm dragon. Take it slow—capturing them is only a matter of time. Besides, we must defend the Dragonflower Archipelago!”
Release is powerful, but its cost is huge!
Earlier, Jie had already fought the Tiger Shark Admiral; the Black Thunder Dragon King’s heart had taken a direct Blade Release from the Tiger Shark Admiral and its body was peppered with bullets.
Just now it was struck by the Flower Witch’s Release as well.
If he unleashed that move again now, it would mean Jie could never defeat the Tiger Shark Admiral today.
If the Dragon Tamer King fell, the massive Dragonflower Archipelago would be seized by the navy and untold medicinal resources would fall into naval hands.
Since the Blackfin Island conference, none of the six navy admirals of the Blackfin Crew had suffered a strategic defeat.
Jie lowered his dragon pupil, coldly eyeing the distant navy vessel:
“Do you think we have all the time in the world? There’s a White Pigeon Press reporter watching us from afar.”
“Don’t worry about the Dragonflower Archipelago falling. Once I capture the Flower Witch, I’ll use the Black Hunter as leverage to force her to use life techniques to heal me.”
Jie extended his hand, quietly feeling the enormous lightning power before him:
“The real difficulty now is catching these two without killing them. That’s trickier than I thought.”
The Black Hunter and the Flower Witch were far stronger than he’d expected. Capturing them without risk was no longer realistic.
Rumble! Rumble!
The thunder gradually quieted and the Black Thunder Dragon King became enveloped in countless bolts of lightning, unfolding its vast wings and slowly aiming its huge body at the waters below.
Jie moved atop the Black Thunder Dragon King’s head, the golden eyeball in his hand slowly rolling to target the seabed.
Blade Heart Release: Ten Thousand Thunders Falling from Heaven, activate!
Boom!
With a low roar, the Black Thunder Dragon King spread its immense wings and plunged like a meteor from beyond the heavens!
As it accelerated downward, the massive lightning it carried erupted.
Crack! Crack!
Under the lightning’s impact, the island’s trees splintered in half.
Burry prayed as he fled, shepherding resilient red crabs and other small animals behind the Ice Witch’s statue, deploying a shield to try to withstand the strike.
In that instant, he didn’t even have time to finish his prayer.
Nearly in a flash, the island—once carpeted in flowers and trees—was turned into scorched earth.
Boom!
At the distant edge, Dya pulled a folding giant shield from his Backpack Card, opened it, and blocked the impact.
But under such immense force, the shield shattered. The steam boat instantly disintegrated, and the piles of banknotes and Shell Coins on the gambling table were burned to charcoal.
If they hadn’t been at the edge, the small boat would have suffered mass casualties.
Only Pelu braved the tremendous lightning, keeping her camera fixed on the battlefield, eyes unblinking.
Rumble!
The Black Thunder Dragon King’s huge body crashed into the ocean, raising towering waves that surged toward Chen Qi and the Black Hunter at the seabed!
The moment it hit the water, sea beasts that had tried to seize it trembled under the lightning’s assault.
Its force reached five hundred meters down in an instant!
“That brat dared to dive to fifteen hundred meters—gone mad for survival?”
Jie gripped the Golden Dragon Eye tightly.
Legend holds that five thousand meters beneath the sea is the limit for ordinary Transcendents; go down that far and even legends rarely survive.
But in truth, descending two thousand meters is already exceedingly dangerous.
Under the sea, the water turns pitch-black and presses in like countless tight bandages, constricting body and spirit, squeezing tighter and tighter.
Spiritual detection and movement suffer severe restriction.
Even Jie’s once-neat golden hair was a mess in the water.
Despite being in Blade Heart Release state, Jie was straining.
“Diving into the ocean to avoid my Release—what a bold choice!”
Jie gripped the dragon scales atop the Black Thunder Dragon King’s head.
Fortunately, he had a backup—he had already marked the Black Hunter!
He flung his right hand open. The Golden Dragon Eye’s pupil spun, targeting below.
Five hundred meters left!
Without hesitation, Jie triggered the Black Thunder Dragon King’s final Release power and charged toward two thousand meters beneath the sea!
Boom! Crackle! Lightning arced on the seabed, smashing the sea beasts rushing up from the depths!
As he dove deeper, the Golden Dragon Eye vibrated more violently!
“Found you, Black Hunter!”
Jie drove the Black Thunder Dragon King, releasing its final Release force and directing it into the dark ocean!
Boom!
Although his goal was to capture the Black Hunter alive, Jie did not hold back with this strike.
Enormous thunder cleaved through the seabed.
Yet to his surprise, before him there was no Black Hunter—only a dragon, a sea dragon as black as pitch.
Under the Black Thunder Dragon King’s assault, the pitch-black scaled sea dragon stared at him and the dragon with feral eyes.
In that instant, even the dragon-king-blooded Black Thunder Dragon King felt fear.
The black water had already washed over their bodies.
Was the Golden Dragon Eye malfunctioning? Jie pondered.
But before he could regain calm, a round little thing drifted behind him and, coalescing a tiny fist, slapped his face.
Simultaneously, in the moment Jie was thinking, Fen stopped hesitating. She plunged her staff hard into his back.
“Flower!”
Fen screamed uncontrollably in terror from the seabed.
She expended her own life energy to shape a Life Dissipation Technique, striking the Dragon Tamer King’s back.
“Die!”
Jie reacted sharply. He turned, grabbed the opponent’s staff with a firm hand.
Then the Black Thunder Dragon King opened its huge maw and gave a mighty roar.
The last wave of heavenly lightning fell!
Even through seawater, the power of falling heaven lightning was tremendous. The fearsome thunder—like ten thousand lightning blades—cut into Fen.
In an instant, Fen’s body was sliced with hundreds of crimson wounds!
If Jie had not held back and if Fen hadn’t used her special secret art at the moment she was struck, she would likely have fallen unconscious then and there.
“One!”
Jie’s dragon pupil constricted as he roared within.
After consuming massive spiritual energy and remaining in Release, he had finally subdued the Flower Witch!
However, the next second, a tentacle coiled around his left arm and forced into his mouth.
A shadow emerged from the Blackship Sea Dragon’s maw and, taking advantage of the instant, closed in on Jie.
A sniper rifle aimed at him.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
With muffled booms in the water, seven spiral bullets struck the Dragon Tamer King’s heart precisely.
The dull thumps hammered Jie’s heart. His body convulsed, the crimson protective dragon scales over his chest split, flesh caved in, revealing white bone and the bright red heart hidden within his spine.
In that instant, Jie fell into terror and tried to scream, but his mouth was already firmly blocked by a dark-fire hand.
Yet these attacks alone wouldn’t be enough to defeat him—not nearly enough!
In the immobilizing deep sea, Chen Qi forced Hound’s Pace, then used a dark-fire hand to hook the enemy closer.
Slash!
Chen Qi did not hesitate—he hacked violently at the withered arm and thigh. In an instant, one of Jie’s arms and one leg were severed.
Finally, he thrust directly at the heart!
The arm holding the Golden Dragon Eye floated in the water, spurting blood.
Jie’s eyes widened. He tried to defend but had to first spend spiritual energy to repair the withering sensations in his body.
His limbs were bound; spiritual perception was greatly weakened by the water; a terrifying loss of life crept through his body.
At that moment he was like a helpless child, struggling—only struggling…
The next instant, a dark-fire hand swept past his face, clutching the Backpack Card hidden beneath his blood-and-scale armor.
The predator was being plundered!
He tried to extend a hand to resist, but only felt suffocation.
Strangle!
Chen Qi bound the Dragon Tamer King tightly while taking the enemy’s severed limbs, the Golden Dragon Eye, and the Backpack Card.
“Welcome to the deep sea…”
Chen Qi murmured as he bound Jie firmly.
Fen gasped and stared at the scene with difficulty.
They had done it—they had inflicted massive wounds on the Dragon Tamer King.
But underwater, both Chen Qi and Fen’s oxygen was dwindling.
Purple-blue discoloration appeared on Fen’s face; her breathing grew shallow; the surrounding darkness was unbearable.
“Save… save me!”
Jie’s body had already turned extensively blue and purple. He weakly reached up and cried out toward the sky.
Boom! The next second, the black sea dragon beneath his feet snapped its jaws and swallowed the Dragon Tamer King like a hunted rabbit, shooting upward toward the surface.
Not fast enough—our ascent speed is not enough… Fen’s eyes bulged; vivid hallucinations sprang before her.
Something in the deep sea seemed to be watching her.
Her vision went black. Her body showed clear signs of drowning; instinct alone kept her struggling, searching for a savior, grasping for any lifeline…
Bang!
The next second, Chen Qi grabbed Fen’s right arm and began swimming upward.
Fen felt the warmth of his hand and slowly closed her eyes.
Whew!
Ten seconds later, with help from the water spirits and the Coastal Apex Predators, Chen Qi burst from the seabed and resurfaced.
Gasping and drenched, he cradled the unconscious Fen against his chest.
Fen was soaked and entirely unconscious.
After pressing on her chest a few times, Chen Qi immediately fed the prepared oxygen vial into Fen’s mouth.
Then he hurriedly looked forward again.
They had gravely wounded Jie, but killing him was still a long way off.
Dragon and Heart is a forbidden technique—so long as the Black Thunder Dragon King does not suffer the same grievous injury, even if the heart is damaged, the Dragon Tamer King can still stand on this sea.
Now, the Black Thunder Dragon King’s heart had a small hole. Scalding dragon-heart blood shot from its wound, forming a column and falling.
Jie knelt atop the ocean. He raised his head, lifted his hand like a pious believer, opened his mouth, and drank the dragon-heart blood.
Drink the dragon’s blood, forge a new body… Chen Qi looked at Jie with bloodshot eyes.
Jie, drenched in blood, slowly turned his head.
In that moment their gazes met again.
But unexpectedly, this time there was no hunter’s killing intent in Jie’s dazzling golden dragon pupil, no lofty arrogance of a high-ranking man—only fear, the fear of someone clinging to life.