"Will you leave or continue with the second Sea God Trial?" the immense voice echoed all around him. It crashed onto Tang Wulin like breaking waves causing him to slightly frown as his ears were ringing.
"I didn't think you would finish the first trial so fast." Old Tang's voice rang out causing Tang Wulin to sigh.
"I don't have time to waste."
"You aren't leaving?" Questioned Sleipnir as her voice rang out.
"I will finish all of them now."
"I understand, so I will help as much as I can. As I'm sure you can already guess, the difficulty will gradually increase as you progress in the Sea God's Nine Trials. Each trial will be more difficult than the last one. You can only claim the Sea God's Trident after completing the trials, prompting you to gain all of its power."
"The opportunity to leave will come after each trial. Failing one trial will mean you won't be able to do it again causing you to lose the chance to claim the trident. But each time you pass, your affinity with the Sea God's Trident will increase until it will be able to completely listen to you when you claim it."Said Old Tang causing Tang Wulin to nod his head as he began cracking his knuckles.
"Start the next trial." Said Tang Wulin.
The surroundings are all golden-colored, and the sound of majesty resounded in his mind, "Sea God Second Trial, start."
Yet to the confusion of Tang Wulin, he didn't see any change to the golden world or anything rising from the sea.
He decided to wait a bit while spreading out his spiritual sense to sense if there was anything around him.
Yet even with all of this, for the next fifteen minutes, he wasn't able to sense or find anything.
"...Old Tang, what is going-"
"It as already started." Old Tang's voice rang out causing Tang Wulin to blink his eyes.
"What do you mean?"
Yet Old Tang hasn't responded causing Tang Wulin to furrow his brows. With a thought, he tried entering his spiritual sea but to his surprise, he wasn't able to enter at all.
Every time he tried to enter; he was met with a barrier made out of gold, that kept bouncing him back.
"What is going on."Mutter Tang Wulin as he glances all around but he still saw nothing changing in this golden world.
Tang Wulin looked up into the sky, it was golden with the clouds also being gold for a few minutes as he got lost in thought.
Then after a bit, he sighed before sitting down and closing his eyes.
"Best to take a breather."Muttered Tang Wulin as he felt the wind moving past him causing his hair to sway.
In the next instant, the world was peaceful, with no noise ranging out. The golden sea was calm with a constant breeze passing by.
Tang Wulin began doing something that he hasn't done in years. His figure stayed in the same spot, without any movement as just like in the dream cycle, he became no different than a statue.
#
"Have you found them yet?" Questioned the Sea General Aron as he gazes at the mermen kneeling in front of him.
The mermen shivered as he felt the steeled gaze of the Sea General upon his figure but he could only swallow before answering.
"Yes, sir! We have scoured through the whole palace, inspecting all of the chambers where they should have been teleported."Said the Mermen causing Sea General Aron to nod his head.
It was only thirty minutes ago that Queen Marina told them about the intruders in the sea palace.
She informed them, that they walked past the entrance of the sea palace before being teleported by the automatic defense about an hour ago.
She was able to notice this because of her connection with the sea palace and the water element around the area.
Ordinarily, the automatic defense wouldn't be put up, as the palace entrance would have been guarded by the mermen soldiers.
But because of a special event that required all of the soldiers, the Queen activated the defense inside of the palace.
Such news was a shock to Aron and the other soldiers who were around the Queen, with them asking why she waited so long to tell them.
The queen only shooked her head before telling them that during those thirty minutes, they were still attending to that thing.
So she couldn't inform them from the moment the intruders got teleported.
"Who are they? Is it the white devils again? Did they not learn their lesson from last time? Or could it be those annoying urchins?"Questioned the Sea General Aron with a frown on his face.
"About that sir...It's a bit more complicated than we initially thought."
"More complicated? What are you talking about? Hurry up and tell me who has invaded the palace."Said the Sea General Aron with a glare.
"Humans were the intruders." Said the Merman as he looked down, avoiding the gaze of the Sea General.
"Humans!" Shouted the Sea General Aron with a grim expression as his hands began squeezing the trident in his arm.
"Yes, sir. There seems to be over ten of them and from the queen words, they are split into a group of two."
The Sea General Aron went silent for a bit as he began to ponder over this information. He knew things at the moment were tense, with the sea being under the command of a new ruler.
Not only that, but he also didn't know how strong was the human invaders. He didn't wish or desire to underestimate them at all, as their advantage in the sea was gone at the moment.
As at the moment, all of the water residing in the palace has been drained. As from the words of the Queen, it is needed for a ritual to the dissatisfaction of Aron.
This meant that the humans weren't being pressured by the water elements or the sea level. While there was still some water lying around the palace, it still wouldn't make up their advantage.
Still, the Sea General didn't believe that the invaders would be in tip-top condition at the moment.
As he was almost certain they must have spent a lot of their soul power and stamina just trying to reach this low in the sea.
And that wasn't even taking into account the sea soul beasts that are wandering through this area.
With some of them being over a hundred thousand years and the more deadly ones being over two hundred thousand years.
With all of this in mind, he didn't believe the humans would be in the proper shape to take on all of the mermen.
At the minimum, one of them should have been captured at the moment.
"Have you guys captured one of them yet?" Questioned the Sea General Aron, yet the mermen lips twitch.
"About that..."
#
The shadow of a sword slashed through the air, chopping apart spheres of water that was being shot forward.
Ye Xinglan Stargod sword was becoming a blur, Its speed was terrifyingly fast that it felt like space around was being chopped apart with it.
The glittering sword chopped at the mermaid's shoulder, cutting deep across her shoulder but instead of blood leaking out.
It was only water and bubbles that appeared, with the figure of the mermaid appearing a few meters away from Ye Xinglan.
Ye Xinglan's expression didn't change as she immediately turned with her sword back and blocked the fist of mermen. At the same time simultaneously borrowing the force of his fist to fly towards the mermaid in front.
Ye Xinglan had flown in a straight line with two rings appearing under her before she chopped out beams of light towards the mermaid.
The mermaid's eyes widen before she quickly started using the water element around her to counter the beams of light.
"You!" Shouted the Mermen with an ugly look as he saw the human used him but before he could do anything a figure appeared behind him.
The mermen felt a terrifying sense of danger causing him to quickly twist his body, evading the fist by an inch.
"Damn, missed."Mutter Wu Siduo before she twisted her body to lash out with a roundhouse kick that was aimed at the Mermen's stomach.
The mermen only snorted as the water element surged around his figure, constructing a barrier of water that took the force of Wu Siduo attack.
Yet the barrier of water dispersed in the next second, a testament of Wu Siduo's overwhelming strength.
Wu Siduo didn't mind this as a golden light began to shimmer around her whole figure with her hand hacking out.
'Royal Bodhisattva Phase One: First Palm!'
The Merman tried to block Wu Siduo palm but it was all futile as Wu Siduo palm seems to have found its way to his blindside.
Chopping down, he felt his body scream with pain but Wu Siduo didn't let him off as she gripped his two-arm before pulling him toward her.
The mermen sprouted out blood as Wu Siduo knee struck his chest, causing it to cave in and then he was knocked out with a fist to the face.
As the mermen were falling, Wu Siduo had to side-step a set of razor-sharp teeth chomping down on her.
"These guys are too persistent. Hurry up Xinglan, we have to find everyone and regroup."Shouted Wu Siduo as she lashed out with an elbow into the aquatic beast, staggering it.
Ye Xinglan didn't respond as her sword was rapidly stabbing out at the mermaid who was struggling to hold on.
Yet in the next moment, the mermaid failed with keep with Ye Xinglan sword stab, leading the mermaid to be struck in her shoulder.
As the mermaid staggered, Ye Xinglan uses this chance to knock her out with the but of her sword and then continue to the rest.
Ye Xinglan's figure turned into a streak of light, with her sword flashing countless times as she dived into the rushing horde of the aquatic beast.
One stab after another was delivered towards the horde, taking advantage of the small space between all of the beast.
She was able to not only reduce their ability to evade her sword strike but also seamlessly move through all of them.
In the next few seconds, the horde of the aquatic beast crashed into the wall of the sea palace as Ye Xinglan finished moving through all of them.
"Let's finish up then." Said Ye Xinglan as she squeezes her sword, with no hint of her being tire or worry.
Such display caused the soldiers who were rushing at them to be surprised.
As they couldn't believe that these humans weren't showing any signs of being tired or their soul power consuming.
#
An unknown amount of time has passed as a figure was sitting in a golden lit world, with the sea below him.
Tang Wulin was calmly breathing in and out, as with no hint of worry or anxious seen on his face. As the sense of loneliness was something he was very intimate with.
As you don't live for over centuries, with everyone fearing your existence and not learn to both accept and enjoy the solitude.
As there was a sense of freshness and relaxing feeling of being in a place void of all distraction and stress.
Yet this was all broken as a ray of light appeared in around Tang Wulin.
"Time arrived. Sea God Second Trial, a world of solitude for one year completed!"