192: Battle Temple

The South Sea at night was even more profound than during the day.

Moonlight was pulverized by thick clouds and surging waves, leaving only a negligible glimmer.

The shrine island was like a dormant behemoth, its silence permeated with a heart-palpitating sense of oppression.

"Now is the time."

The voice of the Sea Clan Elder echoed in Li Dong's mind, carrying an ancient sense of determination.

In the next second, dozens of cyan-blue figures silently merged into the violent undercurrents surrounding the island.

They were born children of water; these undercurrents, which could easily tear steel ships to shreds, were as docile as a stream outside their doorstep beneath them.

Li Dong did not take the same path as them.

He seemed to transform into a shadow, hugging the seabed, stepping toward the shrine constructed of beast skeletons and coral.

There was no resistance from the currents, and he did not alert any of the fanatics patrolling the perimeter of the shrine.

Under his Spiritual Domain, he was a part of this sea area, an unremarkable reef.

...

The core of the shrine was a massive karst cave.

Rather than a karst cave, it was more like the thoracic cavity of an ancient sea beast that had been hollowed out.

On the slippery, fleshy walls, strange blue blood vessels were covered, pulsing gently at a fixed frequency, emitting a dull sound like a heartbeat.

In the center of the cave, a massive figure was flesh-and-blood connected to the base of the entire shrine.

That had once been a person, but now it looked more like a bloated deep-sea monster.

His lower body had completely merged into the base made of coral and flesh, and countless thick tentacles extended from his back, connecting to the four walls of the cave like a giant spider web.

Golden Core Perfection, half-step Nascent Soul.

This was the South Sea's divine envoy agent.

"The scent on you... is very special."

The agent opened his eyes, a pair of eyeballs with no pupils, only deep blue vortices, "It is the scent of the key, but it is mixed with the anger of the sea. You and those bugs in the sea, have you teamed up?"

Li Dong walked out of the shadows, sizing up this "big guy" in front of him.

"Your nonsense is also quite special."

The agent seemed to be choked up for a moment, then let out a low laugh, causing the entire cave to vibrate.

"It doesn't matter. Since the key has delivered itself, it saves me the trouble of looking for it. You will become the most perfect sacrifice, helping me take the final step."

Before the words had even faded, the entire sea area seemed to be enraged.

Terrifying deep-sea pressure squeezed in from all directions, enough to instantly crush a submarine into an iron pancake.

At the same time, tsunamis composed of high-concentration divinity power generated out of thin air within the cave, crashing down on Li Dong's head.

"Is that all?"

Li Dong did not dodge or evade; the pitch-black mark on his forehead suddenly lit up.

An invisible vortex unfolded in front of him.

Void Vortex!

The tsunami and pressure, enough to crush a Golden Core Cultivator, plunged into the vortex without raising a single ripple; instead, it was as if they had found an outlet for release, being crazily devoured and converted.

Streams of pure ocean divinity, filtered by his Perfect Dao Body, surged into Li Dong's Golden Core.

"Hmm... the taste is not bad, chewier than the one in Qingzhou."

Li Dong even had the leisure to comment.

For the first time, ripples appeared in the agent's vortex-like eyes.

He could not understand how his attack had become the other party's supplement.

"Blasphemer!"

He roared, and more tentacles on his back lit up, mobilizing even more majestic power.

Li Dong, however, could not be bothered to wait any longer; his figure flickered, appearing instantly before the agent, and he threw a punch.

There was no thunder, no sound of wind, only the purest power.

The fist landed solidly on the agent's bloated chest.

"Ooo—"

A strange, mournful cry emanated from the depths of the agent's throat.

It was not an angry roar, nor a painful scream, but a kind of... cry similar to a whale beaching itself.

In the perception of Li Dong's Spiritual Domain, he caught a fleeting emotion.

Not fanaticism, not loyalty.

But a kind of... longing for freedom?

"Interesting."

Li Dong's mind raced, but his hands did not stop.

He activated his Perfect Dao Body, his palm turning into a black hole, and began to more violently extract the power within the opponent's body.

At the same time, he held the Sea Clan's supreme treasure, the "Tear of the Sea God," in his hand.

The ice-blue crystal shone brilliantly, and a stream of Origin power of the ocean, pure to the extreme, was injected through Li Dong's body into the connection point between the agent and the shrine.

On one side was devouring pollution, on the other was injecting purification.

The agent's massive body trembled violently as two diametrically opposed forces clashed within him, causing him to emit an even more painful cry.

"Aaaah—"

The divinity power on his body began to become chaotic and irritable.

Meanwhile, the divinity core at Li Dong's waist became astonishingly hot, the golden runes on its surface spinning crazily, like a supercomputer, fully analyzing this divinity Law that had fused with the power of the ocean.

Streams of insights regarding water currents, tides, and the Origin of life surged back into Li Dong's Sea of Consciousness.

He felt his understanding of this ocean deepening at an incredible speed.

"Elder, do it!" Li Dong gave the order.

Outside the shrine, the Sea Clan Elder, who had been waiting quietly, slammed the coral staff in his hand into the seabed beneath his feet.

"In the name of the sea, by blood oath, I summon the power of my clan's ancestors, Tides... Reverse Flow!"

He chanted an ancient incantation, and the power accumulated by the entire Sea Clan tribe over hundreds of years erupted at this moment.

Boom!

The seawater surrounding the entire shrine island seemed to be stirred by an invisible giant hand.

The tide that had originally been spreading outward actually began to rush crazily back into the core of the shrine!

Inside the shrine, those blue blood vessels that had originally provided power to the agent instantly turned into fatal poison.

The out-of-control ocean power formed a reverse tsunami within his body.

"Pfft—"

The agent spat out a mouthful of energy mixed with blue blood and divinity fragments, and his aura instantly withered.

His Fusion with the shrine developed a fatal flaw at this moment.

However, just as Li Dong was preparing to deliver the final strike, he suddenly felt a strong palpitation.

It did not come from the agent, but from beneath his feet, from the entire island, from the core of that spiritual anchor point!

That anchor point... had "come alive"!

It seemed to have detected the agent's failure and was actually going to initiate the final destruction sequence.

"Hum—"

The entire island began to groan under the unbearable burden, and countless cracks spread throughout the shrine.

It was going to sacrifice the entire island, along with all the life on it, including those fanatics, to carry out a final, most insane resistance.

"Want to run?"

Li Dong smiled.

This was the opportunity he had been waiting for!

At the moment the anchor point contracted all its power, preparing to self-destruct, its core was exposed like never before.

"Thanks for the hospitality."

In Li Dong's hand, a flash of brilliant purple-gold thunder appeared.

Spirit Transformation Demon Suppression Thunder Seal!

But that wasn't all; he infused all of the pure Source of Purification from the "Tear of the Sea God" into this thunder seal.

The purple-gold thunder was wrapped in a layer of pure blue halo, appearing sacred yet full of a destructive aura.

"Go."

He flicked his finger, and that power, which fused extreme destruction and extreme purification, precisely submerged into the node named "Heart of the Tide" directly beneath the shrine's base.

Time seemed to stand still for a second.

Then, there was no earth-shattering explosion, only a dead silence of white light.

Wherever the white light passed, all filth, all divinity, all flesh altars were instantly decomposed, purified, and erased.

The South Sea's spiritual anchor point, that indestructible core, just like that, silently... collapsed.

"Free... dom..."

The agent's massive body disintegrated inch by inch in the white light.

His vortex-like eyes, at the last moment of dissipation, actually regained a trace of clarity, spitting out the last two words.

In the next second, he completely turned into the purest divinity essence.

More than 90% of it, like a young swallow returning to the woods, crazily surged into Li Dong's body.

The remaining 10% turned into specks of blue light, dissipating into the seawater, greedily absorbed by the surviving Sea Clan warriors.

Li Dong closed his eyes, feeling the surging power within his body that was ready to burst forth.

The barrier of the Golden Core Late Stage Peak was tottering under the impact of this massive energy.

On the "Hunting Ground Map" in his Sea of Consciousness, the light point representing the South Sea was completely extinguished.

Immediately after, in the distant Northern Territory, a light point radiating a biting chill suddenly became unprecedentedly eye-catching.

Li Dong opened his eyes, his gaze piercing through the ruins of the shrine, looking toward the north.

It was time to go to the next "restaurant."