As Zhang watched the man with eight tentacles protruding from his back flee, he tightened his grip on the beating heart in his hand and crushed to bits before dropping it into the churning waters below.
By now all of the hundreds of thousands of fish and shrimp riders were left shaken to their very core.
Who was the man with eight tentacles protruding from his back? He was one of the dozens of champions of the Blood Coral Cove, to these mere foot soldiers he was an undefeatable existence who could kill hundreds of them with a wave of his hand. But in front of Zhang, the once mighty champion was like a mere child who couldn't even put up an ounce of resistance.
“Surround him and attack together! He's no mere lesser saint!” Lord Shen Yu roared to his subordinates. From his vast accumulation of experience, he could tell that Zhang would be a tough opponent, however, the allure of heavenly energy from four simultaneous ascensions and the haughty pride of a ruler of the sea was too great for him to have his forces retreat.
“My lord no need to get worked up, we will tear him to bits and pieces in no time. Just because he beat Chu Shou with easy doesn't mean he can survive our combined might.” A man whose right arm was a massive crab claw said as he looked at the man with eight tentacles protruding from his back with disdain, clearly showing that the man named Chu Shou fairly weak within their ranks.
Before long a force comprised of thirty lesser saints with many different unique features surrounded Zhang from all directions while baring their claws, fangs, tentacles, and weapons.
“Crab, seahorse, starfish, shark, fish, stingray, errrr sea snail?” Zhang said with an intrigued look on his face as he tried to identify what kind of divine beasts all of these lesser saints originated from.
“Flying Fish Cavalry water lotus formation! Support the generals and champions!” Lord Shen Yu roared.
Soon enough the hundreds of thousands of flying fish sped through the water and created dozens of rings below where Zhang was levitating, each ring larger than the other.
“Interesting.” Zhang mumbled as the thirty lesser saints shot higher into the sky while hundreds of thousands of blasts water were shot at him by the Flying Fish Cavalry.”
Once a Flying Fish unleashed a high-speed blast of water from its mouth it would dive into the sea to refill its water supply, as every single Flying Fish did this Zhang was allowed to witness a simply beautiful aquatic water show. Of course, this wasn't a water show for the weak hearted because each blast of water was more than enough to puncture a hole through the hull of a large ship and even saints would find themselves in a pinch if hit with enough of these.
As the hundreds of thousands of flying fish sent barrage after barrage of water blasts at Zhang and the thirty lesser saints that flew higher into the sky began to unleash their very own attack, Zhang remained oddly calm.
“Since you lot are the first people that I'm going to use this sword on, I won't be holding back.” He said as his eyes widened and a smile crept onto his face.
In a flash, the Rising Moon Sword in Zhang’s hand unleashed a single burst of essence that shot out in all directions, and much to everyone's disbelief the countless water blasts seemed to lose all of their momenta and fall sharply into the ocean.
As a few unlucky flying fish riders would soon find out, the once light balls of water that they had been shooting toward Zhang were now comparable to iron cannon balls that were capable of crushing bone and ending lives.
Once the barrage of water blasts was dealt with, Zhang’s cape fluttered and thirty-pitch black colored eagles with blood red eyes screeched as they intercepted the attacks of the thirty lesser saints.
After he nullified all of the incoming attacking, Zhang shot up into the air and the Rising Moon Sword unleashed another pulse of essence which caused a female lesser saint with a beautiful figure and a starfish sticking to her hair to be pulled toward him.
Although the female saint tried to resist the pull of gravity, the crushing force of thousands of pounds was simply too powerful to go against. After a few breaths, the female’s shoulder was pierced by the crystalline blade of the Rising Moon Sword before Zhang flicked his wrist and sent her smashing into the water.
Of course, her comrades had tried to help her but as they tried to close in on Zhang a powerful force repulsed them showing the difference in power between them and Zhang.
“Now who's next…” Zhang said in a loud tone so that everyone present could hear causing their hearts to tremble and cold sweat to form on their brows. Upon seeing how easily their comrade was dealt with and not knowing whether or not she was alive, the twenty-nine remaining lesser saints felt a hint of hesitation grip them.
“All of you on me! Attack!” Niao Wang’s voice entered the ears of the twenty-nine saints as a massive shadow flew through the air and directly act Zhang.
Niao Wang was no longer in his human form or in the form of a regular looking seagull, instead, he was now a towering figure whose wingspan stretched fifty feet from one end to the other.
Following his example, the twenty-nine lesser saints morphed into their original forms also, showing off a wide variety of different colored and oddly shaped scales, feathers, and fangs.
“Singularity!” Zhang yelled as he pointed the top of his sword into the sky. In an instant, a tiny black speck appeared in the sky and unleashed an overbearing suction force on all of the saints causing them to stop in their tracks.
Barely able to resist the suction force all of the lesser saints began to struggle while Niao Fang became locked in combat with Zhang.
Thanks to the heavenly treasures in his possession and a large amount of heavenly energy that he had extracted from the corpses of the lesser saints from the Sun Hall and Earthly Palace sects, Zhang’s strength was now easily comparable to a peak level full saint or perhaps a low-level high saint.
Simply said, lesser saints were now considered small fish or cannon fodder in front of our prince of Aurora. As for full saints, if they were lucky they would be evenly matched with Zhang when he didn't employ the powers of his treasures, but if they were unlucky he would be more than capable of toying with them until he lost interest.
While the twenty-nine lesser saints watched, Niao Wang flapped his massive wings and unleashed dozens of blades of wind and shot countless blasts of condensed air at Zhang who displayed the awe-inspiring power of the Abyssal Cape again and again. Thousands of winged Abyssal Beasts stretched their wings as they intercepted all of Niao Wang’s attacks or tried to claw at him with their pitch black talons.
But like usual the Abyssal Beasts could only serve as distractions or shields when Zhang was fighting someone who possessed around the same amount of strength he did. So despite so many Abyssal Beasts attacking Niao Wang he received little no damage at all.
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However, it was obvious that Zhang was not fighting him at full strength and intentionally drawing out their battle.
“As their master shouldn't you join in also?” Zhang said as he looked at Lord Shen Yu who was sitting atop a throne of coral located on the head of a large white colored whale whose body was covered in wounds that showed it had gone through countless battles.
“If you insist then this king will show you why your kind fears the oceans and seas.” Lord Shen Yu said as he stood up and flew through the air while brandishing a large trident made of blood red colored coral.
As another full saint joined the fray, Zhang waved his hand and withdrew a sword made lted entirely out of mithril from his interspatial ring and grabbed it out of the air.
Shen Yu gave off a deafening roar as ten huge columns of water shot up from the sea and flooded into the air causing thousands upon thousands of droplets of water to shower down from the sky, creating a beautiful spectacle as sunlight struck the droplets.
Once the columns of water rose into the sky they morphed into the shape of ten raging dragons who snapped at Zhang with their massive jaws.
Following up his master's display of power, Niao Wang caused the wing to howl and twist into the shape of ten dragon's made entirely out of wind. As the ten water dragon's shot upward and the ten barely visible wind dragon's shoot downward, Zhang would soon be sandwiched in between.
“Singularity!” Zhang yelled as he pointed his sword sideward and created another black speck that began to pull in the air and water around it.
“Singularity!” Zhang yelled once more as he pointed the top of his sword elsewhere, however as a third singularity was formed, the first one faded away and released the twenty-nine lesser saints from its grasp.
As the two new black specks formed they began to exert their suction force upon the incoming water and wind dragons. In an instant all of the water dragons were turned into a spiraling whirlpool while the wind dragons were turned into a tornado before fading away with the singularities.
Using his previous technique as cover Zhang had made his way down to where Shen Yu was the two of them began a dance of blades. Although perhaps due to the fact that he is a divine beast and a full Saint but surprisingly Shen Yu was able to slightly overpower Zhang in terms of speed and brute strength.
“Feel my might, human!” Shen Yu roared as he smashed the side of his trident downward aiming to crush Zhang’s skull.
However, the instant before the trident impacted Zhang’s head he was able to quickly use the Rising Moon sword’s power to change the pull of gravity around himself, causing Shen Yu’s trident to be pushed upward while Shen Yu himself was pushed backward a few steps.
“Singularity.” Zhang said as a black speck with incredible suction force appeared inches away from Shen Yu.
“You think this cheap parlor trick is enough to defeat this king?” Shen Yu laughed mockingly as his body began to morph and grow ever so larger. From his back, a massive shell began to form as his figure soon changed to that of a massive sea turtle with the head similar to that of a dragon's. After morphing, Shen Yu’s body stretched miles and gave off an ancient suffocating aura that not just any beast or person could possess.
“So you're a Dragon Horn Turtle, if legends are true then those horns of yours could be used to make wonderful weapons while that shell of yours could be used to make wonderful armor.” Zhang said with twinkling eyes as the now massive turtle levitating in front of him while disregarding what could be called a miniature black hole that was created in front of him.
“Feel my wrath, human!” Lord Shen Yu roared as his massive jaws widened, sending globs of saliva and pieces of dead fish flying toward Zhang.
“You win! I give up! That breath of yours is a weapon in itself.” Zhang said as he tried not to gag.
Angered by Zhang’s words the massive turtle’s dragon-like head shot out of its shell and closed tightly shut, trapping Zhang inside.
I've never smelled anything worse than this… Even when I have to pick up after Little White it doesn't smell as bad as this.” Zhang complained as he found himself in the dark confines of the massive turtle’s mouth.
“But since this is the only way for me to kill it with my current strength I have to bite my tongue and get things done…” He sighed as he landed on the turtle’s tongue.
“Now let's get started…” He said as he began making his way down the turtle's throat.
Outside thirty-two saints who were now in their human forms were levitating in the air in front of Shen Yu with looks of pure joy on their faces as hundreds of thousands of flying fish and mantis shrimp riders cheered and applauded.
“Long live the king of the Blood Coral Cove! Long live his majesty King Shen Yu!” The riders all chanted in a unison while their mounts joined the chorus by kicking and splashing the water.
“Seize the island in the sky for me! Bring to me the ascending and offer me their heavenly energy!” Shen Yu roared as he gazed down on his subjects while giving off the presence of a mighty ruler.
Like they had done before, hundreds of thousands of flying fish riders dove underwater and then launched themselves into the sky while the mantis shrimp began climbing on each other’s backs and creating a staircase to the Sky Fortress.
In the meantime, thirty-two saints fly upward in succession in an attempt to capture the beauties. But of course, the five layered barrier that Yuying had set up was still in place so entry to the Sky Fortress was obviously blocked.
“Attack! We will destroy all that hinders our lord’s path!” Niao Wang yelled as he made a dozen tornadoes appear around him and smash into the barrier.
But like all who had attacked Yuying’s barrier before him, all of the essence in his attack was absorbed. However not knowing what was happening Niao Wang and the other saints continued to unleash an onslaught of attacks against the barrier.
Soon after the hundreds of thousands of fish and shrimp riders joined the saints with their coral bows and barbed spears.
Knowing the unique features of the barriers and having complete trust in their lord, Zhang’s soldiers stood watch from within the barrier patiently with loaded ballistae, nocked bows and glistening blades made with hints of mithril in them.
Although deep inside they were afraid, none of the soldiers of Aurora showed any trace of fear as they stood guard, ready to fight to the bitter end if they were needed to.