Chapter 3016: Chapter 3016
Ye Liuyun had no idea what they were searching for; he could only tag along.
His golden pupils had already spotted plenty of sea-beasts beneath the waves—most of them too lazy to break the surface, let alone attack.
Wonder if the Dragon Girl could scare them off if she showed up, he mused, filing the idea away for later.
From that point on the squad was hammered by marine predators almost without pause; corpses dropped every few miles.
Everyone kept their spiritual sense stretched tight, and fatigue set in fast.
Then, far ahead, they saw a sizable island rising from the sea.
Relief flickered across every face—finally, a place to rest.
Li Qingyang immediately sent a crew of bandits ahead to scout.
Ye Liuyun’s golden eyes, however, had already told him the “island” was only a colossal turtle’s shell.
He’d been fooled once in a Sea-Clan secret realm; this time he checked the waterline.
He couldn’t see the creature’s head—just one claw and a tail—but the thing dwarfed any turtle he’d met before.
He quietly warned Tang Xinyao and the others to keep their mouths shut; Liu Yan wasn’t told.
If trouble started, the big shots could handle it—no need for them to stick their necks out.
The turtle seemed indifferent.
The advance party reported no danger, and when the whole group climbed aboard the shell the beast still didn’t stir.
Tang Xinyao’s team stayed wired, ready to bolt; Liu Yan laughed at them for being jumpy.
Ye Liuyun urged them to relax and refill their depleted soul-power.
“No point burning energy now. Wait till the turtle actually moves—there are plenty of heavyweights around, and it might not even bother with us.”
He’d barely finished when—BOOM!—a deafening crash rang out.
A sentry on the rim stood over a sea-snake he’d just cleaved in half; the thing had shot up like a python and forced him to strike back.
Within moments more snakes boiled onto the shell; explosions erupted everywhere.
“We’re toast—this racket is definitely going to wake the turtle,” Ye Liuyun muttered, cheeks twitching.
Tang Xinyao caught on instantly, signalling her people to stand by for take-off.
“Relax, just a few snakes—they can’t punch through our shields,” Liu Yan insisted.
The next heartbeat the entire “island” lurched.
Bandits who’d been sitting were thrown off their feet, and the massive disk began to plummet.
Ye Liuyun’s group vaulted into the air, clearing the sudden drop.
The top-tier experts followed, but most of the bandit mob rode the shell straight into the drink.
They bobbed up again almost at once—except the rim guards, ambushed mid-fall.
Snakes mobbed them the instant they hit the water; crimson clouds bloomed, and a few never resurfaced.
Liu Yan burst from the sea soaked to the bone, rejoining Ye Liuyun’s circle while steaming the water off with a blast of qi.
Seeing Tang Xinyao’s smirk, he grudgingly conceded, “Fine—you lot had your eyes open.”
Still he muttered, “How does an island just sink like that?”
He hadn’t realized the island was alive; the turtle had already vanished into the depths.
Li Qingyang and the other powerhouses, though, had guessed the truth.
“Move out. That ‘island’ was a turtle’s back, and our brawl startled it. No rest for us.”He waved the rest of the group on and kept scouring the sea.
“No idea whether he knew it all along or just figured it out,” Ye Liuyun muttered. It suddenly struck him that Li Qingyang’s bunch had probably realized long ago that the “island” was nothing more than the giant turtle’s shell.
The pirates had no choice but to trail along, grumbling. A few suggested hauling out a flying skiff so everyone could rest.
Li Qingyang shot the idea down. “A skiff’s too big a target—sea beasts will swarm it. Lift into the starlit void and cultivators pick us off instead. We endure; no skiffs.”
Ye Liuyun lifted his gaze, sweeping the starfield. Sure enough, the Dragon-Head pirate flotilla shadowed them—and closer still, several other powers’ craft tailed them brazenly.
“Plenty of treasure-hungry vultures,” he thought.
He passed the word to Tang Xinyao’s squad so they’d keep their heads when trouble hit. He split the nine of them into three rotating trios: one scout on spiritual watch, two resting. He and his two clones took turns standing guard, sparing their soul-power.
They hadn’t gone far when a thunderhead of storm-clouds rolled up from astern.
“Rear guard—eels incoming!” Li Qingyang barked. Two cultivators strong in spatial and worldly power rushed aft, layering folded void and heaven-and-earth force over the tail of the column.
“I’ve got this!” Ye Liuyun shouted. He released Lei Ming; his clones shifted faces and surged out, all three crackling with lightning as they raced to meet the storm.
Through his golden pupils Ye Liuyun counted hundreds of electric eels, each pulsing with fierce thunder-force. When they massed, they brewed their own storm-cloud—proof of the power packed in their ranks.
Rather than charge straight in, the three lightning-wielders fanned out, hammering the school with bolts from three sides, baiting the eels to split and strike back.
The bait worked. The eels scattered, loosing arcs of blue-white death; the storm-cloud unraveled, but the sea’s surface danced with crawling sparks.
Lei Ming wielded the Thunder-Source Orb to drink the energy; the clones held Lightning-Struck Stones and did likewise. Once the eels had spent themselves and interest waned, the trio pocketed their treasures and let Ye Liuyun whisk them back into his inner world.
