78: Losing both wife and army

"You two, good luck!"

Looking at the giant tail fin slapping towards them, Shopkeeper Wu said with difficulty.

"Boom!"

The golden shield, which had held on for dozens of breaths, shattered with a bang.

The three Nascent Soul Cultivators all spat blood from the backlash of the Formation.

At the same time, at the Formation's auxiliary nodes spread throughout the jingtun vessel, many Core Formation Cultivators directly exploded into a mist of blood.

Those slightly stronger also spat blood and wailed endlessly.

Another tail fin slapped down, and the enormous jingtun vessel, without the Formation's protection, was directly fanned downwards towards the sea surface.

The ship's hull, forged from the Ink Whale's body, was riddled with holes and cracks.

The market in the abdominal cavity, deprived of the Formation's protection, had all its various items and facilities tumbling and falling with the jingtun vessel. Cultivators, caught off guard, were being flung around and crashing everywhere.

The next moment, multi-colored streams of light shot out from all over the jingtun vessel, fleeing into the distance.

Among them, a Spirit Transformation Cultivator flicked his sleeve, collecting many items from the jingtun vessel's abdominal market into his Storage Ring, then stepped on his Flying Sword and flew out directly through a crack.

The sea ship's passengers actually took advantage of the chaos to loot!

But the panicked Cultivators didn't even have time to flee for their lives, so who would care about that at a time like this?

However, the two fifth-tier Void Abyss Ink Whales ignored the fleeing Cultivators, instead pouring their surging water-element demonic power into the head of the jingtun vessel.

They extracted the enormous Formation energy core.

Su Ling, peering out from the porthole, watched the rapidly changing scene outside, utterly astonished.

Seeing the jingtun vessel about to crash into the sea, Su Ling immediately threw out his startling swan boat, a pair of grayish-blue wings faintly appearing behind him.

The next second, the startling swan boat transformed into a streak of azure light, speeding along the surface of the sea.

After fleeing for only a dozen li, a profoundly sorrowful whale cry suddenly came from behind.

"Roar!"

In the enormous eyes of the two fifth-tier Void Abyss Ink Whales, sorrowful and enraged gazes appeared.

That Ink Whale demonic soul was rapidly dissipating even as the Formation core was being stripped away.

Boundless water lightning densely appeared within a radius of dozens of li.

Then, it exploded with a roar!

"No!"

"Mercy..."

"Impossible! I am a Nascent Soul Cultivator..."

"Bronze Battle Armor, block for me..."

"I am a Disciple of the Feiyun Sect! How dare you, wicked demon..."

Countless Cultivators, fleeing in terror and unwillingness, turned to dust amidst the sky-filling water lightning.

That Spirit Transformation Cultivator rushed out of the lightning zone at the cost of losing a protective Magic Treasure, fleeing without looking back.

Ultimately, only a handful survived the water lightning explosion.

All of them fled like stray dogs.

"Roar!"

The two Ink Whales let out angry cries, dove into the great sea, and rapidly rushed towards the distant, mist-shrouded area... A long while later, hundreds of zhang deep beneath the sea surface.

A grayish-blue sphere slowly unfolded, revealing Su Ling, covered in fragments of molten fire shield, blood at the corners of his mouth, and a pale face.

The moment the water lightning erupted, Su Ling promptly used his azure roc wings to envelop his entire body, then activated the molten fire shield and a High Grade Magical Artifact, the Profound Ice Shield.

The startling swan boat, used only a few times, instantly turned to dust.

If the azure roc wings, a Medium Grade Spirit Treasure, hadn't possessed strong defensive capabilities and the ability to absorb lightning-elemental spiritual power,

Su Ling would probably have turned to ashes along with the startling swan boat.

Even so, the water lightning power that the azure roc wings couldn't absorb in time directly caused the molten fire shield to shatter and the Profound Ice Shield to be damaged.

Su Ling, protected by three layers of defense, was still severely injured.

Using his magical power to expel the fragments of the molten fire shield, he casually popped a handful of third-tier Low Grade funing pills into his mouth. Su Ling didn't even dare to extend his Divine Sense, only cautiously floating upwards.

When he poked his head out of the sea, he discovered that fragments of the jingtun vessel were floating everywhere on the surface.

And the two Ink Whales had long since disappeared.

Only in the mist-shrouded sky hundreds of li away, streaks of magical power light occasionally flashed.

"Go!"

Su Ling took a deep breath, randomly picked a direction, flapped his wings behind him, and sped along the sea surface.

But in a moment, Su Ling's expression changed again.

The magical power consumption of the azure roc wings was simply too fast!

At the current rate of consumption, his magical power reserves, comparable to a Core Formation Middle Stage Cultivator, could last at most half an hour.

He threw a bottle of third-tier Low Grade Clear Spirit Pills into his mouth, crushing Spirit Stones in handfuls, completely disregarding absorption efficiency.

He only hoped to last a little longer.

After a long while, Su Ling barely managed to fly seven hundred li, with less than one-tenth of his magical power remaining.

Seeing no danger behind him, he finally breathed a slight sigh of relief.

After discerning the direction and comparing it with the rough sea map he had memorized,

Su Ling then changed direction, taking pills to restore his magical power while flying towards an unnamed small island on the sea map.

Two hundred li from the island, the magical power crystals he had accumulated were almost depleted.

Feeling a pang of heartache, Su Ling had no choice but to put away his azure roc wings and activate a High Grade Flying Heaven Talisman.

The speed of a High Grade Flying Heaven Talisman was about two hundred li per hour, similar to a general Medium Grade flying Magical Artifact.

However, compared to the wind-breaking ability of flying Magical Artifacts, the Flying Heaven Talisman was much inferior.

Fortunately, this sea area was calm; otherwise, he didn't know where he would have been blown.

An hour later, Su Ling barely reached the edge of the unnamed small island.

He applied the Flowing Wind Technique and glided into a high cliff.

Then, using the High Grade Flying Sword Magical Artifact, the Golden Light Sword, purchased from the Treasure Pavilion, he carved out a simple stone cave and set up the Illusory Mist Five Elements Array.

Only then did Su Ling swallow a funing pill and begin to sit cross-legged, healing his injuries and restoring his magical power.

When he first set out to sea, he had harbored the mindset of sightseeing and enjoying the scenery of the Yaoxing Sea.

Unexpectedly, barely half a month after setting sail, he nearly lost his life.

The startling swan boat, which cost nearly thirty thousand Spirit Stones, also turned directly into dust.

The molten fire shield, used for the first time, also shattered into more than a dozen pieces.

After such a long period of nurturing, the azure roc wings' flying speed had increased significantly.

However, such a massive consumption of magical power truly made it unsuitable for long-distance flight.

And the nearest relay island to the incident was ten thousand li away.

In this Yaoxing Sea, teeming with sea beasts, traversing such a long distance without a flying Magical Artifact was simply too difficult.

Su Ling felt some regret in his heart, thinking he should have bought a flying Magical Artifact as a backup... Three days later, Su Ling stepped out of his temporary Immortal Cave, looking at the boundless Yaoxing Sea with a complicated mood.

Continuously activating the azure roc wings for an hour had consumed most of his magical power crystals, equivalent to two years of painstaking effort vanished into thin air.

It was truly losing the wife and the army.

However, although he lost a High Grade flying Magical Artifact and a Medium Grade Magical Artifact,

The water lightning jointly released by the two fifth-tier Void Abyss Ink Whales was absorbed by the azure roc wings several times.

The surging lightning-elemental demonic power actually made the azure roc wings' artifact spirit's emotions even clearer.

The effect was even better than the five jin of lightning-elemental essence blood.

Converted, it was worth thirteen thousand Low-Grade Spirit Stones.

It was much more valuable than the startling swan boat, which cost twenty-seven thousand Spirit Stones.

It could be considered a comforting gain from this sea journey.

If one disregarded the danger of the water lightning secret technique and the trouble of being stranded on a desolate island, Su Ling wished for a few more such occurrences.

Perhaps it would directly awaken and activate the artifact spirit.

"Forget it, let's first see what this island has!"

Shaking his head, he cast this extremely unrealistic idea aside. Su Ling took out a Flying Heaven Talisman, slapped it onto himself, and with a surge of magical power, leaped from the cliff, flying towards the interior of the island.