Before I could come up with any countermeasures, the waves had already arrived. With a loud boom, they crashed into the barrier causing tiny cracks to form all over while causing the ship to sink underwater.

Fortunately, the barrier held on, and not long after sinking, the ship popped back up to the surface once more, like a fishing bobber.

Before I noticed it, Ling'er had already walked up to my side while the old grandpa was already glancing around us with a grim expression. With one look, I noticed what he was worried about. Surrounding our ship on all sides are nine monstrosities.

Although it was my first time meeting these monsters, for some odd reason, they simply just look like the large version of some of the sea creatures I know. I can see a giant turtle shell, a giant shark fin, giant tentacles, a giant slimy snake, a giant swordfish, a giant jellyfish, a giant squid, a giant crab, and a giant dolphin.

Oi, what's up with all the giants you ask? Well, that's just to emphasize their size as the author is probably too lazy to find any other words to describe them.

Then, the stand-off begins as some of the monsters glared at the others before the swordfish began to speak, "SO which one of you annoying b*st*rds called me here? I will pierce you so hard if I find out who you are because you interrupted my swordfighting session with ma fish!"

The large crab clacked its claws before responding, "Not me that's for sure. I certainly did not recognize the voice so I did not want to come; however I had to come because even after I burrowed deep into the sand, the voice was still there. Old Wu, happen to recognize the voice?"

Then, it was met with silence as the turtle shell was floating there still as ever.

"Eh? Old Wu fell asleep again? Well, how about you Hai Zhe?" the crab then asked as its two eyes swerved towards the jellyfish.

The jellyfish bobs up and down in the water with a puff here and there, but no answer came.

"You idiot! Can't you see that Hai Zhe doesn't have a mouth to talk, why are you asking it? I haven't sprayed my ink and you are already more blind than the prey in my ink," the squid chortled as it sprayed a splot of black ink.

"Shut up you bunch of idiots. We are here, and I want to get this over with. So are these the pesky humans that unknown voice commanded us to bite to shreds?" a scratchy voice resounded as a large shark jaw popped out of the water, "I don't mind shredding them to pieces."

"Dolphytabha~ I can't just let you do that Sha Yu. After all, my race cultivates a manual of kindness, where we must help humans in need when they are at sea. I can't just let you do as you wish~" the large dolphin states in a squeaky voice as it placed its two fins together in a pray gesture.

"Ahhh? Hai Tun, you wanna go? Nobody can stop me from shredding through what I want with my jaws!" the shark growled back.

"Now, now, I don't care who you eat Sha Yu, but you have to leave that girl to me. I have a couple ten tickles moves that I learned from my Hen TaiChi ancient manual that I must use her to test," a childish voice resounded from the direction where eight tentacles are waving in the air.

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"SSSsss, don't think only you need to practice your Hen TaiChi Zhang Yu. This Sssssshee also needs to use the girl for my secret manual of Hen Taikwondo. Ssss~" the slimy snake hissed.

Then, the monsters continued to bicker as I turned my attention over to Ling’er. I must not let them take her to practice those sketchy sounding manuals!

“Ling’er, don’t worry, I will protect you from those two who want to use you to practice their cultivation!” I proudly stated as I pulled Ling’er to stand behind my back.

I snuck a glance over to see her heartfelt reaction, only to be met with a questioning face. Ling’er then asked,”What cultivation are you talking about, and who said it?”

“Ah? Can you not hear what they are saying?” I asked back confused as I still can hear them speaking perfectly fine.

Ling’er shook her head. I looked over to the old grandpa who was glancing at me up and down. Then, he stroked his beard before stating, “You must have the talent for beast taming. Usually all beast tamers would have some inkling of understanding of what monsters say, and the clearer they could understand them, the stronger their beast taming talent is. After all, if you understood the beast, it would be much easier to tame them.”

Huh? Beast taming? I hurriedly looked through my status and noticed the {Beast Controller} ability. It probably came from that, but it will probably be useless in this situation as all these beasts are higher level than my ability. At least it conveniently allows for me to hear what the monsters are saying.

Then, I told the old grandpa and Ling’er who our true enemies are based on what I heard,” The dolphin is our friend and the turtle is asleep so we don’t have to worry about them. We just have to worry about the seven others-”

I was interrupted by a threatening growl from the shark who howled, “Hai Tun, it’s been so long since we fought! But since you want to keep standing in my way of putting these humans in my jaws, I will shred you to pieces first!”

Then, the shark sprung out of the water, right over our boat in an arc as it headed for the dolphin which quickly dived into the water. The shark dived into the water with a large splash that caused some waves which shoved the turtle shell away to a safe distance. Well, I guess that’s one less monster to worry about.

“That should even out the fight a bit. This old man should still be able to take on a couple of them at once; however, this old man won’t be able to handle the one with lots of arms at the same time. Maybe the transparent one with weak arms and that one that spray ink are possible. Hence, this old man will leave the one with lots of arm and the slimy snake to you two. This old man will taunt the rest away to a larger battleground,” the old grandpa stated.

Then, with a tap of his foot, he floated off the ship and into the air.

“Amitabha.”

With that, a dazzling light spring up from behind the old grandpa as what seems to be a giant, golden Buddha with many arms materialized right behind his back.

“Come learn the dao of fate.”

The old grandpa’s voice echoed as golden light spilled forth, encompassing the squid, jellyfish, crab, and swordfish. Then, with a pop, the old grandpa disappeared with the four sea creatures, leaving behind the ship, Ling’er, and I to deal with the remaining two sea creatures.

Oi. Why does it have to be the ones that have that special cultivation manual?! Did the old grandpa do this on purpose?! Well, it doesn’t matter because I will sock these two’s faces in for even having such thoughts on Ling’er! Only I can have such thoughts! As for what thoughts those are, if you are innocent enough to not pick up the meaning, good for you.

“Ke Ke Ke, that strongest old thing is gone. Now I can truly practice my Hen Taichi however I want!” the octopus screeched as it began to wave it tentacles to bash the barrier.

“SSssss, that is if thissss one doesn’t get to her first and practice my Hen Taikwondo on her firssssstt~” the snake hissed as it smashed the barrier with its tail.

I definitely can’t let these two get to Ling’er! I can imagine- *cough* *cough* I mean I can’t imagine what they would do to her if they get their slimy body parts on her!