“Palace Lord Huo, what should we do now?” a disciple rushed over, and asked.

　　“Activate every protection barrier first!” Huo Qing ordered.

　　The magic characters on all six Gigantic Vast Sea Boats lit up one after another. Then, a thick layer of white radiance emerged on the hull of each ship.

　　The tremors of the ships reduced to some extent after the light-curtain had appeared.

　　Bang!

　　But then, the water surface near the edge of the ship burst open, and a black shark leapt from the sea’s surface. Then, this several feet long shark pounced towards one of the ships.

　　The monstrous teeth of the shark looked like daggers. They sparkled in a frightening manner as the shark attacked the ship with a tyrannical and murderous aura.

　　The disciples by the side of the ship were left flabbergasted, and started to flee in quick succession.

　　Then, a “Whoosh” sound was heard!

　　A grey light-blade flashed past these people, and the black shark was cleft into two halves. A spurt of its blood splashed everywhere!

　　Huo Qing put down his arm as a ray of grey light flickered in the palm of his hand.

　　“Don’t panic! Everyone guard your respective side. Also, open the weapons muzzles on both sides so that we can shoot and kill these marine beasts!” Huo Qing shouted at top of his voice.

　　The people on-board revealed a determined look when they heard his words, and each one of them held on to their respective side.

　　These people were the elite disciples of the Dark Moon Cult. So, each one of them commanded extraordinary strength. They had instantly regained their equanimity, and had moved into action. Numerous Real Qi-condensed blades, Sword Qi, Fist shadows, fireballs, ice spears, and all other kinds of magic spells flooded into the sea like a torrential rain.

　　In addition, the muzzles on both sides of the ship continued to exude a thick beam of white light as they bombarded the surface of the sea in a constant manner.

　　Soon, myriads of corpses of various kinds of sea beasts floated up.

　　But, the shadows continued to bubble-up one after another from the bottom of the sea. And, they kept pouncing toward the ship. Consequently, the number of sea beasts around the ships didn’t reduce a bit.

　　Huo Qing mumbled something. Then, he turned his hand, and a magic stick appeared in his hand. He then waved the stick in the air!

　　A vast-stretched mass of grey mist emerged in the air in response. Then, a strange “Quack” sound burst out. After that, a grey bone-bird gushed out of the grey mist, and swooped down toward the shadows in the sea.

　　Huo Qing had evoked more than one-hundred bone-birds in an instant.

　　These bone-birds were considerably large, and varied in shape. They hovered in the air around the ships for a moment after they emerged. Then, they repeatedly started to swoop down into the sea. Their incisive claws would grab the head of a sea beast, and would tear it into several pieces every time they went into the water. In addition, they were evading the attacks of the sea beasts by taking advantage of the air.

　　These six ships were able to contend against these sea beasts after these over a hundred bone-birds had joined the battle.

　　A person’s silhouette flew over from behind at this moment. This person was the one-eyed Palace Lord. He landed beside Huo Qing.

　　“Palace Lord Huo, we shouldn’t get involved with these marine beasts. It can’t be said how many of them are around us. I believe that we should retreat and leave the territory of these marine beasts,” the one-eyed Palace Lord said.

　　Huo Qing’s face revealed a look of hesitation on hearing these words. He had naturally taken this matter into consideration. But, he had parted ways with Liu An and the others only a short while ago. And, he couldn’t show his face to them if he went back in such a dingy state.

　　Suddenly, the sea’s surface tumbled, and a small hill-like green sea beast emerged somewhat far from the ship.

　　The beast’s entire body was covered with a layer of thick and dense hairs, and a pair of sharp and long horns protruded from its head. It looked like a bull. In addition, its eyes were bloodshot.

　　This bull-like sea beast was different from the other sea beasts. It was sending forth a tremendously evil aura.

　　Huo Qing and the one-eyed man had sensed the monstrous aura of this bull-like beast, and their complexion had changed accordingly.

　　“That’s not good; it’s a sea beast with wisdom!” Huo Qing said.

　　The formidable spiritual aura around this hairy sea beast wasn’t inferior to that of the two of them in any aspect.

　　The hairy bull-like sea beast exuded a loud roar. Then, it raised its head and spurted out ten or more blue balls of water at a stretch. A blue magic character could be vaguely seen flickering in the center of each water ball.

　　Whiz!

　　These water balls had been projected at an alarming speed. They turned into streaks of blue light, and darted toward the bone-birds in the sky.

　　More than a dozen bone birds were struck by the blue lights the next moment.

　　After that, the glaring blue light-beam brightened, and a series of painful screeches of the bone-birds rang out in the air. The grey mist around these birds’ bodies dispersed, and the birds exploded with a loud ‘bang’ sound.

　　Then, a ray of blue light flashed beside the bull-like sea beast, and a dozen blue water balls emerged again. They were similarly spurted out, and a dozen bone-birds burst and shattered into pieces once again.

　　Huo Qing fumed with fury as he saw this scene. He waved his wand once again.

　　A mass of grey light bubbled-up in the vicinity of the bull like sea beast. Then, a loud bellow was heard, and a gigantic bone-python emerged in that grey light. This python was several dozens of feet long. It pounced toward the bull-like sea beast as soon as it appeared.

　　The gigantic bone python’s whole body was glistening with a lustrous grey radiance. Also, it was giving off a very strong spiritual pressure. In fact, this spiritual pressure couldn’t be considered inferior to that of the bull-like sea beast in any aspect.

　　The bone-python dove into the sea at an incredible speed.

　　Then, the python’s long body coiled around the bull-like beast’s body with a flash of grey light.

　　After that, the python’s big head started to bite at the sea beast’s neck in a fierce manner. The bull-like sea beast was alarmed, and issued a loud roar in response. After that, the two huge monsters started to roll and tear at each other for some time. Soon, the surrounding seawater got dyed red.

　　The surface of the sea got stirred-up, and mighty sea waves started to emerge one-after-another.

　　Huo Qing hadn’t even heaved a sigh of relief when the nearby sea surface revealed a sudden surge. Then, five enormous sea beasts appeared before his eyes. The spiritual aura around these beasts could be placed on par with that of that hairy bull-like sea beast.

　　“It’s not good; quickly retreat!”

　　Huo Qing’s complexion terribly changed… so much so that he didn’t emphasize on his honor and self-respect anymore as he quickly issued the order to retreat.

　　The stick in Huo Qing’s hand radiated bright luminescence as he gave it a flick.

　　A magic power wave burst into the air, and a circular black magic circle emerged out of thin air. Then, a black light flashed in that magic circle, and a dozen feet long massive carrion bird and a skeletal flood dragon emerged. Both of them were Earth-ranked Dead Spirit creatures!

　　However, Huo Qing’s complexion had paled slightly. This had happened because he had summoned a large number of Dead Spirit creatures in a row, and an enormous amount of his magic power had gotten consumed in the process.

　　The massive carrion bird spread its wings, and its huge body flew up. Then, it rushed towards a large hippocampus sea beast.

　　The white skeletal dragon twisted its body as this happened, and jumped into the sea. It then dashed toward another ship in order to deal with a huge octopus beast.

　　There were now two Earth-ranked Dead Spirit creatures and a huge skeleton python that were defending the ships. But, they were still barely able to resist the stream of gigantic sea beasts around them.

　　The six ships seized this opportunity, and started to turn around with much difficulty. They retreated toward the rear in a slow manner.

　　“Retreat! Retreat!” the one-eyed Palace Lord returned to the three rear ships, and shouted.

　　“Send a message to Palace Lord Liu, and plead for his help!” a ray of light flickered in the only eye of that one-eyed man as he said to a middle-aged man beside him in a low voice.

　　The middle-aged man’s face revealed a trace of surprise, and he stared dumbfounded at the one-eyed Palace Lord. In fact, he couldn’t respond for a while.

　　“You still haven’t sent the message!” the one-eyed man shouted in a stern voice.

　　“Ah… Yes!” the middle-aged man came to his senses at once. He turned his hand, and took out a Messaging Jade Plate.

　　… …

　　Shi Mu was on Ship No. 1 at this moment. He stood by the side of the deck, and was gazing in the northwest direction. He looked calm and composed on the surface. However, he was profoundly shocked deep in his heart.

　　He had seen through Cai’s field of vision that the six ships in the distance had bumped into a perilous situation.

　　Shi Mu had already mentally prepared himself to face this situation. However, he was left staggered after he had seen the unbelievable number and overwhelming strength of these sea beasts.

　　Those people should blame only themselves for getting into trouble since they were reluctant to place their trust in Shi Mu’s admonishment. Others couldn’t be blamed for this.

　　“It seems that this is the true strength of the Sea Race!” Shi Mu muttered to himself. Simultaneously, the thought of clam girl — Xiang Zhu — sprang-up in his heart.

　　Shi Mu then turned his gaze toward a white silhouette on the front deck. That silhouette stood there with his hands crossed behind his back, and his back toward Shi Mu.

　　Shi Mu saw that his blood-red long hair was fluttering in the wind. And, that silhouette was also gazing in the northwest direction.

　　… …

　　The six ships had started to retreat toward the rear area. They had started to drift away from the territory of the sea beasts in a gradual manner. However, the surrounding sea beasts didn’t show the slightest sign of giving up, and continued to rush toward them in a relentless manner.

　　A grey light shimmered on the body of the one-eyed Palace Lord, and a pair of huge black bone-spears emerged in front of his body. Each spear was several feet in length, and had a bucket-like thickness.

　　He then waved his hand, and the bone-spears shot up to the sea like a pair of black electric lights. They pierced the heads of a gigantic silver shark and a huge octopus.

　　The two sea beasts struggled for a moment. Then, they motionless floated up to the surface of the sea.

　　The fleet of six ships was moving backwards in a line. The one-eyed Palace Lord stood on the last ship, and was clearing the way for the ships for uninterrupted sailing.

　　The grey light continued to gleam on the one-eyed Palace Lord’s body as he kept on summoning the huge bone spears. Simultaneously, the grey lights continued to stab and kill the sea beasts that were in close proximity.

　　But then, the large number of gigantic sea beasts that were swimming under the sea surface near the ship suddenly disappeared.

　　Then, a humongous shadow faintly emerged under the ship.

　　The one-eyed Palace Lord felt a cold shiver running down his spine as he noticed this. He had a premonition of imminent danger in his heart.

　　He hadn’t even reacted when the sea water under the ship changed drastically. It formed an immense whirlpool, and the gigantic boat whirled around along with it.

　　Bang!

　　Then, the thick pincer of a crab stretched out of the sea surface. It was almost as large as the Gigantic Vast Sea Boats. It then hacked at the ship like a large and incisive blade.

　　Ka-cha!

　　The ship got cleft right from the middle, and seawater gushed into the two halves.

　　The people on that ship started to tumble into the water as a result. And, a series of mournful screeches rang out as a result. But, they lasted only for a moment. Only a few seconds had passed, but the entire ship had been engulfed by the vortex along with the disciples on-board. Consequently, the ship had disappeared without a trace.

　　However, the one-eyed Palace Lord was propped up by a mass of grey clouds. He had barely escaped this attack at the last moment. But, his complexion had turned deathly pale.

　　Suddenly, a mighty silhouette emerged in the midst of the whirlpool. It was an incomparably huge crab-type sea beast. It was over one thousand feet in size, and its eight black legs were several feet in thickness. Its pincers were like two small hills, and the teeth between them were extremely sharp. In addition, it wore an armor which was shiny black in color and looked indestructible.

　　The spiritual aura that this monstrous crab was emitting was astonishing. In fact, it was only slightly inferior to Old Man Wu Chen’s Heaven-ranked aura.

　　Huo Qing was on the ship that was farthest from this sea beast. He felt the dreadful spiritual aura of the crab sea beast, and flew over.

　　“Human race… now die…” a muffled and fuzzy voice resounded.

　　After that, the massive body of the crab moved, and turned into a fuzzy afterimage.

　　The one-eyed Palace Lord’s facial expression changed since he hadn’t expected that the crab would be enormous in size. Moreover, the crab’s speed was incredible even though its body was very big. Its silhouette flashed, and appeared beside the grey cloud in an instant.

　　Puff! A blood light flashed after that!

　　The one-eyed Palace Lord couldn’t guard himself from the imminent peril in time, and his body got pierced by the crab’s pincer. It seemed that his body-protecting Real Qi was useless since his whole body had gotten cleaved into two parts.

　　Huo Qing’s facial expression changed very terribly when he witnessed this scene. And, his movement completely stopped.

　　“Roar!” the crab issued a low growl, and pounced toward another ship.

　　Bang!

　　Another ship was struck and sent flying in the air from the sea surface. It hadn’t yet crashed to the water surface when it got cleaved into two halves by the mighty pincers of the crab.

　　Huo Qing’s complexion turned pale, and his eyes got smeared with despair.

　　But then, a white light flew over from afar at a lightning speed. That person hadn’t reached the ship yet, but a blood-red blade light darted out from his side like a meteor, and slashed at that crab.