Chapter 206: Deep Sea Anomaly, Demonic Might Reaches the Heavens
At the edge of the Deep Sea Rift, the Demon Empress's massive dark-blue body was now like an energy furnace on the verge of exploding.
The dark, dull energy orb meticulously "gifted" by Lei Chen, the moment it entered her body, was like a spark falling into an ocean of oil, triggering a chain reaction of violent intensity.
The outer shell of the light orb shattered, and the abyssal primordial energy, compressed to its limit within, surged forth like a bursting dam or an awakened ancient ferocious beast. With the most primal savagery and desire for destruction, it instantly rushed into the Demon Empress's limbs and bones.
"Roar—!!!"
No longer the previous roar mixed with pain, this time, the Demon Empress's shriek was filled with pure, almost insane exhilaration and wildness!
The old scars on her massive body vanished at a visible rate under the scour of the violent energy, and a new, harder stratum corneum, covered in strange and evil patterns, was forming.
The cultivation barrier of 990,000 years groaned under the overwhelming impact of this pure and powerful external energy.
The invisible chasm separating mortal beasts and divine beasts was now covered in spiderweb-like cracks, which were spreading and expanding at an alarming rate.
The Demon Empress's aura soared like a rocket!
It was no longer the fluctuation of her previous injured and weakened state, but a terrifying pressure truly belonging to a peak ferocious beast, transitioning towards a higher life form!
Centered on the Deep Sea Rift where she hid, an indescribable sense of oppression spread rapidly in all directions like a tangible tide.
First, there was a change in the seawater itself.
The previously slow-moving deep-sea cold current abruptly stagnated, then began to flow backward and swirl. Countless tiny bubbles frantically emerged from the seabed and from rock crevices, as if the entire sea area's water body was trembling in fear.
The water temperature began to rise sharply, with the area near the Demon Empress even starting to boil, steaming up large patches of hot vapor. Yet, in the deeper parts, a bone-chilling cold, originating from the soul level, was spreading.
"Rumble..."
A low, continuous rumble came from the seabed. It wasn't sound, but the vibration of the seawater caused by intense energy fluctuations, which transformed into a muffled thunderclap when it reached distant areas.
The seabed sediment was stirred up by an invisible force, forming turbid dark currents. The solid seabed rock layers groaned under the unbearable pressure, cracking into bottomless fissures. More abyssal aura, mixed with the Demon Empress's overflowing evil Soul Power, spewed out from these fissures, dyeing the nearby seawater a heart-pounding blend of dark red and ghostly blue.
Ripples of energy fluctuations spread out in circles, growing stronger and wider.
Hundreds of miles... thousands of miles... tens of thousands of miles!
This previously relatively quiet deep-sea area now seemed to have become an undersea volcano on the verge of erupting, brewing world-destroying power.
About several hundred miles from the rift where the Demon Empress was hiding, a azure stream of light was traveling through the deep sea at an astonishing speed.
The Sea Princess's beautiful face carried a lingering sense of solemnity and exhaustion. Nearly a year of continuous pursuit, not only constantly sensing the cunning Demon Empress's faint residual aura but also repeatedly resolving her attempts to devour sea creatures, had taken a toll on her spirit, even with her cultivation and the Merfolk Clan's natural affinity for the ocean.
However, her sapphire eyes remained as resolute as ever; the belief in guarding the ocean and purifying evil sustained her.
Suddenly, her speeding figure abruptly halted!
It was as if an invisible heavy hammer had struck her soul perception, followed by a familiar evil pressure that chilled her to the bone, yet was far more violent and terrifying than ever before, sweeping over from the distant sea ahead like a tsunami!
Within this pressure, there was also a hint of... transformation and sublimation that made her soul tremble!
"This is...?" The Sea Princess's face instantly turned pale, not from fear, but from extreme shock and disbelief. "The million-year barrier loosening?! No... not loosening, it's being forcibly broken through! The Demon Empress... she's assaulting the million-year mark?! How is this possible?!"
She clearly remembered that during their last encounter, although the Demon Empress was strong, she was still some distance from that chasm and severely wounded. How could she have gained such an opportunity and energy to assault the million-year mark during just one year of fleeing?
But the energy turmoil emanating from the sea ahead was so real, that terrifying aura, constantly rising as if breaking free from some shackles, was rapidly becoming vast, profound, and immeasurable!
The ocean was wailing, countless tiny thoughts, filled with fear and despair, pricked the Sea Princess's keen senses like needle tips—it was countless marine creatures in the distant sea instinctively trembling and fleeing!
"I must stop her!" A thought flashed through the Sea Princess's mind like lightning.
Once the Demon Empress successfully breaks through to the million-year level and achieves divine status, her strength will undergo earth-shattering changes. At that time, not only will she herself be unable to contend with her, but the entire Douluo Ocean, and even the coastal continent, will face a catastrophe!
That would be a disaster more direct and terrifying than an abyssal invasion!
The Sea Princess gritted her teeth, and a brilliant azure divine light erupted around her. Her speed increased by another third, transforming into a blue lightning bolt tearing through the deep sea, rushing desperately towards the source of the pressure.
She had to interrupt this process before the Demon Empress completed her breakthrough! Even if... even if it meant paying an unimaginable price!
In a more distant sea, on a hidden island.
Chen Yunshen, who was sitting cross-legged, nurturing his divine soul and repairing the primordial damage from his last self-detonation of the sea god helmet, suddenly opened his eyes the moment this terrifying fluctuation, sweeping across half the ocean, reached him!
In his ancient eyes, the previous calm was shattered by violent turmoil, replaced by an intense shock and worry that couldn't be dissolved.
As the former strongest in the ocean, the current Sea God Douluo of the Sea God Family, his perception of the ocean, especially the aura of top predators, particularly a mortal enemy like the Demon Empress, was extremely sensitive.
"This aura... it's the Demon Empress! And... so violent, so unrestrained... Is she assaulting that threshold?!" Chen Yunshen abruptly stood up, walked a few steps to the edge of his cave dwelling, his gaze seemingly wanting to pierce through layers of seawater towards the direction of the fluctuations, his face extremely grim.
He knew better than the Sea Princess how terrifying a million-year Soul Beast was; it was a true qualitative change, a leap from mortal beast to divine beast. Once successful, the Demon Empress would be completely reborn, her strength far beyond simple doubling.
"Sea Princess..." Chen Yunshen clenched his hands into fists, his knuckles turning white from the force, his eyes filled with anxiety.
He could imagine the immense pressure and danger the Sea Princess, closest to the Demon Empress, was currently facing. Pursuing a 990,000-year-old ferocious beast was vastly different in risk from interrupting a ferocious beast undergoing transformation towards a million years!
"Damn it! If only this old man's sea god helmet were still here..." A sense of powerlessness and self-reproach welled up in Chen Yunshen's heart.
The last time he self-detonated the divine artifact to severely wound the Demon Empress, though a necessary sacrifice to save the Sea Princess and impede the enemy, it also cost him his most important reliance. Now, with his strength not yet recovered, even if he wanted to rush to help, it might be too late and a drop in the bucket.
He could only forcibly suppress the anxiety in his heart, extending his damaged but still powerful spiritual force as much as possible, on one hand closely monitoring the increasingly terrifying commotion in the distance, and on the other, trying to capture the Sea Princess's aura, silently praying in his heart.
"Your Royal Highness, Sea Princess... you must be careful... please... don't let anything happen..." The old man's low voice echoed in the empty cave dwelling, filled with worry.
And at this very moment, the most direct and intense impact of the Demon Empress's breakthrough was on the countless sentient and non-sentient beings in the vast ocean.
From the smallest plankton to massive fish schools, Sea Soul Beasts, and Soul Beasts of varying cultivation residing everywhere, all marine life within the Demon Empress's spreading pressure fell into unprecedented panic and chaos.
For lower marine organisms, it was an irresistible, extreme fear stemming from primal instinct.
It was as if the ultimate predator had descended, as if the apocalypse had arrived early. Countless fish schools frantically scattered, completely disoriented, crashing into each other, resulting in countless deaths and injuries. Shellfish tightly closed their shells, burrowing deep into the sand, trembling. Jellyfish and other soft-bodied creatures huddled together, drifting with the current...
Slightly stronger Sea Soul Beasts with some intelligence felt it more clearly and painfully.
They could not only feel the evil and pressure that froze their souls but also vaguely "hear" the "wails" and "warnings" from deep within their bloodlines and from the ocean itself.
Some timid Sea Soul Beasts, like startled rabbits, desperately fled in the direction away from the source of the fluctuations, regretting not having a few more pairs of fins.
Some powerful Sea Soul Beasts with volatile tempers and strong territorial instincts, after a brief moment of fear, let out angry and anxious roars and shrieks. They restlessly patrolled their territories, baring their teeth towards the direction of the pressure, yet not daring to actually challenge it, as the aura presented a fatal threat.
Even more intelligent marine creatures, who held faith or goodwill towards the Sea Princess, such as some affiliated tribes of the Merfolk Clan and Soul Beast tribes previously saved by the Sea Princess, in their panic, sent out silent, pleading Spiritual waves towards the direction they perceived the Sea Princess to be.
"Your Royal Highness, Sea Princess... save us..."
"Evil... so terrifying..."
"Lord Sea God... bless us..."
These chaotic and faint thoughts, mixed in the overwhelming tide of panic, though inconspicuous, were like sparks, subtly echoing and connecting with the Power Of Faith from those further away who held gratitude and dependence on the Sea Princess.
The entire ocean, centered on the Deep Sea Rift where the Demon Empress was, a vast sea area with a radius of tens of thousands of miles, had already descended into utter chaos.
Darkness, chaos, fear, and flight... formed the main theme of this moment.
And at the center of this chaos, the Demon Empress's transformation had reached its most critical moment.
Her body violently twisted and expanded within a cocoon of energy interwoven with dark red and ghostly blue. Her aura had already broken through a critical point, and she was launching her final and most violent assault towards a new, soul-shaking level that would make all living beings tremble!
Above the deep sea, the previously calm surface now, without warning, churned with monstrous waves. Dark clouds gathered at an unnatural speed, and thunder rolled and roared within the clouds, as if heaven and earth themselves felt uneasy and enraged by this peerless ferocious creature about to be born.
A terrifying storm sweeping across the ocean, potentially even affecting the continental pattern, had already begun. And at the core of this storm, the Demon Empress, making her final sprint towards the million-year mark, had eyes filled with destruction and boundless ambition.
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