Cultivating for a hundred lifetimes to ascension

"Chase!"

Mr. Dong let out an angry roar, a surge of yellow light flooding from his body and transforming into a streak of light that swiftly flew to where Zhao Sheng had plunged into the sea, before diving in after him.

If he let a junior Qi Refiner slip away from his grasp, where would the face of a Late-stage Foundation Establishment Ancestor like him be left!

Seeing this, Lianyue Wanderer's eyes flickered with unusual light, and after a charming laugh, she inserted her Spiritual Artifact, the Water Phoenix Hairpin, back into her hair and also gave chase.

Splash!

A wave rippled, and above the sea there was no longer any sign of them.

The moment Zhao Sheng entered the water, his body transformed into an extremely nimble fish, and with a light flick of his tail, he darted several zhang downward.

In just a moment, he had dived more than twenty zhang deep undersea.

At that moment, a powerful Divine Sense suddenly swept over him. Zhao Sheng's heart skipped a beat, sensing a strong intent to kill coming from above. The Divine Sense clung to him like a persistent maggot, impossible to shake off.

Having been a Foundation Establishment Cultivator in his past life, he knew all too well that if he couldn't escape the range of the opponent's Divine Sense, he would inevitably be caught, and it would be all over for him.

After all, Mr. Dong was a Late-stage Foundation Establishment Cultivator. The gulf in their cultivations was too wide, not something that could be overcome by mere trickery.

To wish for victory was farfetched, but even escaping from his opponent's hands would indeed be a fortunate occurrence.

As Zhao Sheng's thoughts raced, above him the water surged with yellow light. Numerous yellow light blades easily pierced through the thick water, stabbing towards Zhao Sheng's head, chest, abdomen, and limbs.

Zhao Sheng's face hardened, and without looking back, he dived deeper, releasing two Second-order Water Mine Talismans while on the move.

Boom boom!

A series of dull explosions went off above his head. The seawater within a seven to eight zhang radius suddenly "boiled and churned" incessantly, a chaotic mixture of currents swirling everywhere, with countless tiny bubbles spreading around densely like froth.

For a moment, the nearby seawater was blasted into a muddled mess.

Zhao Sheng felt the Divine Sense behind him break due to the water mines, and after a cold huff, Spiritual Power surged violently from beneath his feet, transforming into a powerful repulsive force that made his dive speed increase several times over in an instant.

He had already made up his mind; now was not the time to hesitate. Rather than conserving Spiritual Power, he was eager to escape the range of the Divine Sense as quickly as possible.

Otherwise, once his pursuer caught up with him, it would already be too late to even think about escaping. However, he was quite confident in himself; after all, the undersea was his home turf.

Seeing the boy trying to escape through the muddy waters, Mr. Dong's eyes flashed with a cold light, and within a cloak of yellow light, his hands fiercely swept downward.

Two enormous light blades flew out of his hands.

The light blades seemed to ignore the resistance of the seawater, crossing twenty zhang of space in an instant, slicing towards Zhao Sheng's back.

As the light blade neared, a suddenly intense shadow of death emerged in Zhao Sheng's mind.

He shivered abruptly and flung his hands backward.

From one hand flew a massive, heavy black turtle shell, while the other hand burst forth with a copious blue light, forming layers upon layers of robust water barriers.

"Splash"

The light blade swiftly cut into the water barrier, effortlessly slicing through it as if it were a hot knife through butter; in no time, the barrier was hacked to pieces, turning back into ordinary seawater.

Meanwhile, the light blade collided with the turtle shell; with a "crack", the shell split into two halves and was utterly destroyed.

After breaking through two defenses, the light blade's speed greatly decreased and its size halved.

Zhao Sheng didn't spare a single thought of regret for the destruction of the turtle shell Magic Artifact.

Without even looking, his hand reached to his Storage Bag at his waist, and two head-sized pale blue water mines flew out, squarely colliding with the light blade in perfect unison.

Boom boom

The seawater exploded in an instant, and as electric light rampaged through, the light blade flickered a few times before dissipating like glowworms.

Seeing his attack fail again, Mr. Dong was shocked and furious!

In the Shattered Star Sea, due to the environment, cultivators have always been most adept at underwater combat.

As a late-stage Foundation Establishment Cultivator, Mr. Dong, who had lived for nearly two hundred years, had experienced countless underwater skirmishes.

But he had never encountered a slippery youngster like Zhao Sheng.

Barely delayed, the Lianyue Wanderer also caught up to Mr. Dong's side.

Watching Zhao Sheng getting further away, about to escape the range of her Divine Sense, a flash of astonishment appeared in her eyes as she transmitted with her Divine Sense, "Brother Dong, with the youngster's agility, I now believe more and more that he's related to 'that person'!"

"Pursue!"

Upon hearing this, Mr. Dong didn't hesitate at all and rapidly descended, his figure a dazzling yellow comet, eagerly chasing after Zhao Sheng.

A distance of twenty zhang, which could be crossed in the blink of an eye in the air, was undoubtedly much slower undersea.

Zhao Sheng, carrying the Spiritual Clan Bloodline, could be called the darling of the sea, and with the help of Spiritual Power, his underwater speed was not only not slower than Mr. Dong and his companion's but was also imperceptibly faster.

During the chase, the two Foundation Establishment cultivators launched several attacks in succession, but all were blocked by talismans.

Zhao Sheng had talismans in his hand that seemed inexhaustible, and to obstruct the two's pursuit, he spared no expense in scattering them generously.

Facing such an overbearing junior Qi Refining cultivator, Mr. Dong was frustrated and furious.

Yet in this unique underwater environment, for a moment he could do nothing to Zhao Sheng.

Only if the distance between them was less than ten zhang could he command his Spiritual Artifact to strike that youngster fiercely.

The gap between them widened further and further, and in the blink of an eye, the three had dived to a depth of a thousand zhang at the sea floor.

There, in the pitch-dark surroundings where vision was useless, they could only rely on Divine Sense to lock onto Zhao Sheng.

At this moment, Mr. Dong sensed that the youngster was about to escape from his Divine Sense range. With a hardened heart, a speck of golden light suddenly burst from his glabella and disappeared into Zhao Sheng's back with a flash.

The next instant, Mr. Dong, filled with shame and unwillingness, "watched" the youngster "disappear" from his Divine Sense.

Seeing him like this, the Lianyue Wanderer had her suspicions, but she still added fuel to the fire and transmitted, "Brother Dong, did that youngster... get away?"

Mr. Dong ground his teeth and said, "Humph, he... won't escape! I've planted a Divine Soul Mark on him. Even if he burrows into a trench, I will catch him."

The Lianyue Wanderer was taken aback upon hearing this.

She knew that a Divine Soul Mark was a forbidden technique that hurt the enemy a thousand at the cost of self-injury of eight hundred.

To cast this forbidden technique, one must pay with the loss of a strand of one's Divine Soul.

And injuries to the Divine Soul were amongst the most difficult to heal in the world, revealing the resoluteness of Mr. Dong's intention.

Meanwhile, as Zhao Sheng made his escape, he didn't relax at all, instead he swam with all his might towards the deeper undersea.

Zhao Sheng dived to the ocean floor in one breath, and upon touching the sand, he quickly burrowed into it and released a Concentrating God Talisman, reducing his presence to the utmost limit.

However, even after doing this, Zhao Sheng was still filled with unease, a strong sense of crisis lingering at the forefront of his mind, refusing to dissipate.

After a few breaths, his body tensed up, and his heart pounded furiously; the feeling of crisis grew more intense, as if an enemy could strike at any moment.

"Something's not right!"

Zhao Sheng suddenly burst out of the sand. Although he didn't know what method Mr. Dong and his companion had used, he realized they could still track him.

Zhao Sheng trusted his spiritual sense wasn't wrong.

Without any hesitation, he forcefully kicked off the ground, his body shot out sharply, and he fled towards even deeper and more distant waters.

No more than twenty breaths after he left the area, Mr. Dong suddenly burst forth from the darkness, appearing there.

Sensing the rapidly fading Divine Soul Mark, Mr. Dong's anger boiled, "Damn it, just one step too late!"