Right when I thought we were on the cusp of victory, there was a sudden eruption from the seabed. I watched in horror as the ocean churned and swirled violently, something massive bursting out of the surface.
No, massive wasn't the right word. Supermassive. It reminded me of the scale of Whale Lord and Long Wang's original form as the Heaven ranked Deep Sea King. Almost a kilometer in length, it defied comprehension and surged all the way to the skies, even reaching the clouds.
And that was just a single part. The rest of its body was hidden underwater. Even without seeing the whole thing, I could already guess what we were witnessing.
"Jormungandr," I murmured. "Has it already awakened?"
"Not fully," Myria said, and though she sounded concerned, she wasn't as horrified as I was. I glanced at her.
"What do you mean? That looks like he's awake to me."
"If Jormungandr was truly fully awake, we'll all be dead."
Somehow I doubted that, having survived the Deep Sea King when he was Heaven ranked, but at that time, he wasn't at full strength because he had only just been unsealed, so I wondered if it counted as me surviving against a Heaven ranked spirit beast. The other only one that I had met was the Whale Lord, and he was on my side.
Even so, I could sense the incredible amount of dense mana that saturated the region, weighing heavily on all of us. Even the Earth ranked spirit beasts were affected, looking drained as they were pressurized by the awesome presence of a demigod. Or a literal god, perhaps. It felt as if there was an ocean of qi pressing down on us, suffocating us and slowly crushing us.
The ordinary ranked spirit beasts passed out instantly, unable to bear the presence of such a being. I quickly recalled my Little Anglers and Mud Fishes, even as all the wild spirit beasts drifted around motionlessly, almost foaming at their mouths or jaws.
"What do we do?"
"Nothing," Long Wang said simply. "I would challenge him if I were at my full strength, but right now, fighting such a being will be suicide. We're lucky he's not fully awake, so his attention isn't turned toward us at the moment. Just wait a bit and he'll retreat back into the ocean."
"That's right," Myria agreed. "The only thing we can do now is be patient."
"Besides, our old friend, the Whale Lord, will show up and smack him back down to the depths if necessary. But I doubt even the Whale Lord is a match for Jormungandr."
That didn't bode well for us.
"Don't worry, that's what we are for."
The new voice surprised us. I spun around and caught sight of dad and his regiment of cultivators appearing on the beach. They had already set up a spirit array, and were channeling their qi into it. Arcane runes glowed and hovered around them, turning into a gigantic magic circle that covered the entire beach.
"Dad? What's going on?"
"Hey, good job, kids." He waved at us, specifically glancing at me and Jun Hai. "Originally, we were going to fight the marine spirit beasts, but when you kids took on that role, you freed us up for this task. Now leave the big guy to us adults."
Technically, we were adults too. I was a university student, and so was Myria. I wasn't sure if we were still kids, but I guess we will always be children to our parents. Not that I was complaining.
"Isn't the Jormungandr out of range for your spirit array? If I'm not mistaken, spirit arrays have very limited range. It can only affect the area it's set up in."
"Why do you think we took so long to set up this spirit array? We would have helped you in your battle, but we couldn't because we had to spend a lot of qi and resources and efforts into setting this one up. It's to lengthen the range of this spirit array to as far as possible."
That made sense. I could detect an enormous buildup of qi as the spirit array drew upon the dense natural mana from the earth, tapping into rich ley lines and thick dragon veins. The circle continued expanding, spreading across the entire beach and extending out to the sea. I watched in awe as it never stopped growing, until its outer edge finally reached the gigantic tail-like appendage splashing out of the water and encompassing it.
"I didn't think that was possible," I marveled, craning my neck and staring at the enormous circle.
"All things are possible as long as you have the will," dad replied with a wink. He nodded to his subordinates, all of whom were cooperating and working together in a set formation to wield the spirit array. As one, they manipulated and controlled the flow of esoteric energies, adjusting them to alter the environment and bring about the desired effect.
There was another immense splash, and the serpentine tail vanished back into the ocean, sending a tsunami washing toward us. Fortunately, Xiao Ke moved forward, and the Shell Loch Lord froze the titanic wave with a single freezing beam. Then Da Hai, the Emperor Crab, the Armored Carid and the other spirit beasts smashed the frozen tsunami apart, sending chunks of ice raining down and floating about in the sea. They then left them to slowly melt in the relatively warm temperatures. The sea might be cool, but it was still above zero degrees Celsius.
"What…what happened? Did you destroy Jormungandr?" I asked, stunned. Dad shook his head and sighed.
"No. It's unfortunate, but even a spirit array as complex and powerful as this will not be enough to destroy a Heaven ranked spirit beast like Jormungandr. He's practically a god, almost beyond the reach of us mortals. Perhaps, if adventurers all over the world unite together and cooperate to slay him, we might pull off the impossible, but not with so few of us."
"Still, you kids are impressive," one of dad's subordinate said. I recognized him as among those who joined my father in helping out with the rescue mission in mom's offshore marine laboratory about a year and a half ago. "I didn't think you would be able to actually defeat an entire fleet of aquatic spirit beasts by yourselves."
"Hey, those are my sons you're talking about," dad said, gesturing proudly to me and Jun Hai. He then glanced at Sylvie and Silvia before nodding at Myria. "And I guess you can say adopted daughters too. And my future daughter-in-law. I never had any doubt they could pull it off. I told you they'll be fine."
"Yeah, I was surprised when you ordered us to set the spirit array instead of reinforce them. You really have a lot of faith in your children." The grizzled veteran peered at us. "Your sons, especially. They are beast tamers?"
"Summoners," Jun Hai corrected. I was inclined to agree with him. There was a distinct difference, after all. We had absolutely nothing in common with Rein Shroud.
"Ah, my apologies." The soldier chuckled as he scratched his head. "Summoners, then."
Evidently, he couldn't tell the difference. Not that I cared. It was a trivial matter, and I wasn't that petty. Instead, I was more concerned with the notification window that was popping out in front of me. Before the text could resolve, I noticed that the enemy was fleeing. The tide of aggression had receded, and my spirit beasts and their allies were routing those too slow to escape their vengeful wrath.
With the disappearance of Jormungandr (or his tail, to be more precise), the ordinary ranked spirit beasts were slowly stirring and waking up. Now that their stronger brethren had fled, their morale in tatters, they turned tail and retreated frantically, seeking to avoid the vengeance that the Sea Horses, Sea Horse Dragons and King Horse Dragons meted out. Even the ferocious Sea Dragons were forced to withdraw, realizing that it was pointless to throw away their lives.
Thanks to that, the system registered my mission as complete.
-Mission "Naval Warfare" accomplished. The following reward will be granted: 50 ordinary spirit contracts. –
"Ordinary spirit contracts?" I repeated, bemused. Glancing at the retreating Sea Dragons, I felt a little disappointed. I was hoping to bind at least one of them to a spirit contact, but I guess I would have to wait for another chance.
"If you want a Sea Dragon, you might want to capture a Magic Carp and then slowly train it and evolve it into a Sea Dragon eventually," Jun Hai said. I almost jumped.
"What?"
"Oh, I'm assuming you're talking about your system because you were complaining about only getting ordinary spirit contracts."
"Uh, right." Jun Hai knew about my system, partly because I had told him about it, and partly because he had one himself. Or so I thought. It was a little weird that I shared whatever I had with him, but he kept secrets from me. Whatever. I knew he had no intention of backstabbing or betraying me, unlike what the existences beyond the fourth dimension claimed, so I decided to leave him his privacy. Teenagers were like that, and he was at that sensitive age.
This was reality. Not some stupid cultivation manhua or web novel where everyone except the protagonist's harem was out to backstab or betray me for no reason other than…plot.
And, as some of the comments from the existences beyond the fourth dimension can attest, it appeared that many teenagers were in love with the idea of keeping their true strength a secret, only revealing it in a crisis to show off how cool they were. Like, I wasn't sure why they thought it was cool to keep their true abilities a secret, only to surprise and shock everyone later. For face slapping purposes? I don't know, but that just sounded…juvenile.
Instead, I focused on what was coming before me. The moment the system notified me of the many spirit contracts I had at my disposal, I caught sight of a whole swarm of Sea Horses swimming toward me. The system, as usual, prompted me if I wanted to make a spirit contract with them.
Unfortunately, there were no Magic Carps among them. Fortunately, I liked the Sea Horses, and I was amazed by the Sea Horse Dragons and King Horse Dragons that they would eventually evolve into. I had a preference for dragon spirit beasts, and these guys were right up my alley. What appealed to me further was that they had a very high elemental power and incredible elemental resistance.
Currently, most of my spirit beasts had stronger physical attack power, such as my Terra Tortoises, Tree Revenants, Pumpkin Wraiths, Grim Owls, Colossal Crabs and King Crab, Lantern Sharks, Swamp Stompers, Armored Carid and Giga Rex. Da Hai, the Guardian Golems, the Titan Golem and the Plated Lizards had a high physical defense. The only exceptions were my Lantern Fishes and Xiao Ke, who had high elemental power, but prior to their current evolutions, they weren't very high ranked. And now the Lantern Whales were more defensive than offensive orientated. Hei Ba and Xiao Huo Long were both physically strong and also possessed high elemental attack power, but I supposed Xiao Huo was the only one who really stood out in terms of specializing in elemental firepower. Now Xiao Ke had joined her in elemental offensive capability, but having the King Horse Dragons join them eventually would help me a lot.
Honestly, I personally wasn't physically strong. But I exceled more in elemental techniques, which was why I preferred having spirit beasts that possessed strong elemental capability, but I supposed it all worked out in the end – my spirit beasts were actually covering the one area that I was lacking.
Still, I was happy to have the Sea Horses join me. I reached out and stroked the ones closest to me, only to get swarmed by all of them. I made sure to pat all fifty of them, refusing to leave even a single one out.
They were all my important comrades.
"Welcome to the family," I told them with a grin. "I hope you'll love your new lives in my Deep Sea Palace. I'll make sure to show you guys around later. I've to check on my Plated Lizards and see how they're doing too."
"One day, you have to let me visit your dungeon, big bro," Jun Hai complained. I nodded.
"Sure. When we return home in Hua Xia, I'll prepare a trip. Sylvie and Silvia already set up a spirit array that can teleport visitors from my room to my dungeon. Myria was a guest once."
"Oh! I can't wait! I always want to see what a dungeon is like!"
"You'll get your chance. For now, though, I think we all could use a night's worth of rest." I was dead on my feet as I hopped off Xiao Ke and landed clumsily on the beach. With the enemy annihilated or in full retreat, I had recalled the majority of my spirit beasts to my dungeon, leaving only Xiao Ke to ferry me back to shore. Myria, Sylvie and Silvia were also returning, while Jun Hai was still surfing atop his Venus Serpent. He nodded wearily.
"Yeah, I think I'll fall asleep immediately the moment I lie down."
"Good job, kids." Dad clapped as he came forward to meet us when we disembarked from our spirit beasts. He placed his hands on our shoulders. "Go get some rest. Leave the rest to us. You too, girls. I mean it. All of you, go get some rest. This is only the beginning."