Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

One day later, a thousand and three hundred kilometers away from the eastern coastline of the Star Glory Federation…

Although the majority of the federation was based on the continent, its terrain included a lot of pearl-like islands on the vast ocean east of the continent, too.

The essence of the resources in the ocean was condensed around the islands. Also, there were the precious relics left by the Far East Demon Kingdom. Therefore, the part of the terrain was quite important to the federation.

Towns had been established on many islands. There was even a city with a population of more than 1.5 million on the largest islands.

Therefore, countless airships were coming to and from the islands, carrying enormous assets and resources.

At this moment, a crystal airship leaving from the capital city was cruising in the sky like a tortoise that had grown wings.

The horizon was already occupied by the dark clouds. Thunder was roaring, and lightning was flashing. Superstorm Cuckoo was raging on the ocean and raising surging tides.

Deep inside the ocean, the undercurrents were running in a mess, too. One of the undersea volcanoes had become active and was blowing out the most scorching and violent force at the center of the planet crazily. The volcanic eruption together with the tectonic movements led to a destructive tsunami!

To avoid the natural disasters, the crystal airship lowered its altitude and accelerated, trying to reach the destination before the arrival of the superstorm and the tsunami.

Right then, below the crystal airship, in the gap between the undercarriage, something fell down into the ocean.

The surging spiritual energy caused by the natural disasters was scouring the area earlier than the superstorm and the tsunami did. The surveillance magical equipment on the crystal airship was all jammed and did not notice the anomaly.

Huala!

The object did not cause a splash when it hit the surging ocean. It was swallowed by the seawater and sank straight to the bottom.

Li Yao successfully dived into the depths of the ocean.

Shua!

It was not until he reached the bottom of the ocean that he retrieved the Mystic Skeleton Battlesuit, activated the crystal processor, and scanned the undersea terrain.

Bo! Bo! Bo!

On the light beam, the map of the undersea terrain was getting clear. The glimmering debris of a mother lode appeared on one corner of the light beam.

Li Yao retrieved dozens of balls from the Cosmos Ring and released them. Then, the balls filled with gas slowly floated to the surface of the ocean.

They were the meteorological balls that could capture the weather data and analyze the intensity of the superstorm and the tsunami.

After releasing almost ten balls, Li Yao activated the undersea thruster unit that he had installed earlier. Then, he swam amid the undercurrents like a huge fish.

Very soon, he found the debris of an enormous mother lode.

According to the files that Professor Mo Xuan had offered to him, it was the debris of the manganese titanium mother lode that had been discovered a hundred years earlier.

The mother lode, which had been drained, was several hundred kilometers long. Like a dragon that was empty, it was lying on the folds at the bottom of the ocean quietly.

Li Yao snuck into the mother lode and traced it back to its source. Swimming and releasing the meteorological balls, he found the undersea mining base at the end of the mother lode an hour later.

The mining base was designed in a radiative fashion and looked like an enormous crab that had spread out all its limbs. It was a big undersea city.

There was also a tube refined out of super tensile metals leading to the surface of the ocean, where a vast floating platform was established.

Li Yao sensed very intense spiritual waves. Many crystal warships designed for undersea uses and elite Exos with impressive spiritual waves were patrolling nearby.

The large air circulation rune arrays, which could absorb oxygen from the seawater and refill the fresh air in the base, were also sending out intense spiritual waves. They were hissing on Li Yao’s crystal processor, indicating that they had been activated to the maximum.

After observing for a while, Li Yao noticed that at least a hundred Exos and almost ten crystal warships were building up bulwarks around the undersea mining base.

Although the tsunami and the superstorm mattered little to the bottom of the ocean, they were still implementing the safety measures dutifully. It was not hard to tell that the base was very important to them, and no accidents were allowed to happen.

This meant that Li Yao had come to the right place.

The undersea mining base that belonged to the Green Thunder Sect had been sealed for decades, during which time the mining technology of the federation did not make any major breakthrough. From the business point of view, the place was still worthless to be developed.

What was it that made the undersea mining base run again and need to be so well protected?

Lurking in a deep trench, Li Yao released an extremely feeble mystic ray and scanned all the details of the undersea mining base coldly, including the weakest defensive regions.

Half an hour later, he collected all the data he needed and left for a location three hundred kilometers away that he had calculated earlier.

[The Broken Vein Trench, more than 55,700 meters deep, the third deepest trench that the federation has discovered on this planet so far!]

Floating above the Broken Vein Trench, Li Yao observed the glamorous view below him.

The Broken Vein Trench was like a dark abyss. Even the seawater nearby would be falling down incessantly when it reached the place, leading to the splendid scenery of ‘undersea waterfall’.

Even Li Yao was awed by the magnificence for a moment and had a shuddering feeling that he was going to be absorbed by the trench into the core of the planet.

There was no telling how many secrets were concealed in the deep ocean or how many blood-freezing beasts were lurking in it!

Taking a deep breath, Li Yao retrieved a cluster of bright yellow gel from his Cosmos Ring. He crushed it into powder with his spiritual energy and sprayed it into the undersea abyss.

It was the essence of the swimming bladders of Gold Soul Purple Scale Fish, the favorite for a certain undersea beast.

Li Yao waited patiently.

Ten minutes later, noises were echoing from the undersea abyss.

At first, an area of colorful brilliance rushed out, which turned out to be shoals of transparent, staggeringly-beautiful little fish. The fish were only the size of Li Yao’s finger, but their mouths were actually a sharp sting. Instead of attacking him, they were fleeing upward in panic!

Following which, pairs of bloody eyes were appearing, whose owners were Deep Sea Gulper Sharks, one of the most dangerous predators in the ocean. They were so brutal that when they were too hungry, they would even hunt down other sharks. Therefore, they were also known as sadistic sharks!

However, those sadistic sharks were also swimming past Li Yao like frightened rabbits. Having no time to bother him and the little fish ahead, they were running away in a hurry.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Fulminations were echoing inside the undersea abyss. The soundwaves penetrated through the thick seawater and Li Yao’s crystal suit, exploding next to his ears like crystal bombs.

Clusters of dirty water spurted out from the abyss like heavy smoke.

In the next, a whale more than three hundred meters long, with green wrinkles all over its body, dashed up suddenly from the abyss!

It was like a small crystal warship, with solid bone army covering its head. Its bloody mouth was fully opened, and behind the mouthful of tusks were sharp bristles[a]. For most of the prey, including the sadistic sharks, it did not even need to chew but only needed to absorb them into its stomach together with the seawater!

Even Li Yao felt a bit scared when he was faced with such an enormous whale.

However—

Shua!

Before the whale completely swam out of the abyss, it was caught up by a tentacle that was as thick as a dragon and tied up!

The tentacle was more than three meters in diameter with sucking discs all over it. Also, the sucking discs were surrounded by circles of bumps that looked like sharp teeth and edges. They were bound to the whale’s body and deeply embedded into its flesh and blood. No matter how hard the whale struggled, it was not able to get away!

Crack!

The tentacle tightened. Cracks were appearing on the solid bone armor of the whale. Thousands of sucking discs wriggled at the same time, releasing corrosive liquids, melting the body of the whale, and sucking it into the tentacle!

In excruciating pain, the whale struggled at the edge of the trench. Even the firmest rock was blown to pieces after one crash from it, but the endeavor proved no use at all.

Right behind him, in the abyss, new tentacles were popping up. They craned their heads and gazed at the prey like ravenous vipers.

Soon, they drew a perfect arc to the behind before they slapped over brutally like long bows that had been fully stretched.

Bam! Bam! Bam!

Every whip would rip off part of the flesh from the whale’s body. Very soon, the whale’s struggling became weaker and weaker until it was entangled by the tentacles and dragged back to the abyss.

Chiliu. Chiliu. Chiliu. Chiliu!

From deep inside the abyss, blood freezing sound of mastication was coming over, occasionally mixed by the cracks of bones.

Li Yao swam to the top of the abyss, only to discover that the glimmering skeleton of the whale was dragged by something into the darkness of the trench.

Li Yao licked his lips, retrieved a Six-Barrel Vulcan Machine Cannon, and shot at the skeleton of the whale!

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The bullets for undersea uses raised a series of flashes in the abyss. They also caused a deafening roar.

Hoooo!

In a moment, the earth was shaking, and the undercurrents were surging, as if another volcano was erupting right inside the abyss or a new mountain was slowly rising up!

Almost ten tentacles darted over like cannonballs and almost hit Li Yao. A monolithic object more than five hundred meters long slowly floated up from the trench!

It looked like a magnificent mountain. There was not any eye on its big head, which looked like a balloon, but a lot of wrinkles. There were tusks resembling sawtooth in every wrinkle. On the top of the head, there was an organ that looked like a sea anemone, in which fluorescent tentacles were waving crazily in colorful brilliance!

The enormous body was supported by nine thick tentacles. Dozens of spurts could be found at the bottom of its body, which helped the beast adjust its angle precisely and thrust forward rapidly with the speed and agility that was utterly disproportionate to its size!

This was the Nine-Headed Ocean Monster, the most dreadful animal in the ocean of the Heaven’s Origin Sector!

[a]beard -> bristles. This is an ok change, right?