Bai Jingshen found himself plunging through the ocean the moment he was teleported. He quickly gathered himself, ready to leave. But before he could, a massive sea serpent appeared next to him, its Divine realm aura surrounding Bai Jingshen in an instant.

"This section of the ocean is mine. Who are you to dare appear here?" the serpent asked.

Bai Jingshen stared at the beast with not a single shred of fear. The ocean beasts were territorial no matter where he went, so he knew how to deal with one.

"I came here by accident," Bai Jingshen said. "I'm leaving."

"Do you think I will let you go so easily?" the serpent asked. "You must part with something dear to you if you wish to leave here alive."

Bai Jingshen paused, slowly turning toward the beast. "You are either dumb beyond my understanding, or you do not recognize what I am."

"You are not in your realm, White Tiger. If you die here, no one will ever find out."

Bai Jingshen smirked. "Fine. If you wish to fight, I will fight you."

A shockwave spread through the ocean as Bai Jingshen propelled himself toward the serpent.

The serpent prepared for Bai Jingshen, its body forming a yin armor as its Creation manifested around its body. At the same time, the serpent struck at Bai Jingshen with its tail.

Bai Jingshen used his Creation too. He activated the White Tiger's Golden Claw technique and added onto it the power that was within a single drop of his Blood Essence.

What should've been a strong Divine Manifestation 1st realm strength attack immediately exploded in power as it reached heights that surpassed the snake.

The serpent took too long to realize the danger it was in, to the point where it had no way to dodge at all.

Three sharp claw strikes cut through the serpent's tail instantly, the attack striking the serpent's head and cutting through it. With a single strike, the serpent died, its body slowly drifting down to the bottom of the ocean.

Bai Jingshen felt a sensation of lethargy come across his body for a few seconds before it vanished, at which point he took the serpent's body, destroyed its Soul Space, and gathered everything into his own Soul Space before leaving the place.

His Blood Essence Creation would take a while to recover, so inside his Spiritual sea, his Creation shifted. From being a single drop of blood, it transformed into a young black-haired man that sat cross-legged.

The next time he activated his Creation, it would be the other one.

After flying out of the ocean, Bai Jingshen finally began wondering about the situation he had found himself in. The teleportation mishap had thrown him away from the rest of the group, which worried him a little.

He was supposed to have been there to protect them all, and yet things hadn't gone as planned.

He brought out a talisman to contact Pearl, but he didn't reach him at all. Frowning, he put away the talisman, deciding to first find out what was going on.

Bai Jingshen flew inland and made his way toward a decently large city there. He saw something far away, like a wall of smoke, that made him wonder what it was.

Finding someone to question, he asked everything that came to his mind.

Bai Jingshen learned about the changes that had happened to the Sun's Talon realm some time ago. The fact that the lifeless land that was the Talon had turned into a sea of lava was something he couldn't have dreamed of in his wildest dreams.

"The entire center of the continent is now a massive pool of lava?" Bai Jingshen asked the young beast that was answering his questions. "How is that possible?"

"I… I don't know, senior," the young beast trembled before Bai Jingshen.

The White Tiger frowned. He tried contacting Pearl again, and again he couldn't reach him. He pulled out another talisman and contacted Alex.

This time, there was a reply.

* * * * *

Alex learned about the Trials of the Talon from the two owls. Apparently, when the Talon had become active, the land turning to lava overnight, several islands had appeared at the edges of the Talon, around the locations of the claws, that one could enter.

A few people had entered for exploration and soon realized that it was a full-blown trial that allowed people to see how far they could go.

It had become a competition among many of the Immortal and Divine realm beasts, as they all tested themselves in the trial to see how far they could go.

"You could try heading over to the trial right here," the owl pointed at the map. He was only a few hundred kilometers away from the tip of the middle claw. He could reach that place in just an hour and immediately enter, heading toward the center.

However, Alex didn't want to go through some unknown trial without first finding Pearl and the rest.

"What's this place?" Alex asked, pointing to a specific mark on the map that lay at the corner between the middle and the left claw of the Talon.

"That is the Teleportation Receiving Formation," the owl said. "It's where you should have arrived after teleporting from the Land of the Blessed Sun."

Alex thought for a moment. "Has it been shut down?" he asked.

The owls shrugged. "We don't know. All we know is that it is said to be useless now."

"What if people did teleport here?" Alex asked.

"Could be," the owls said.

They could give no guarantee that the Receiving Teleportation Formation no longer worked as intended, so Alex could only hope that Pearl and the rest did, in fact, arrive there.

Just then, he felt the buzz of his talisman receiving a message.

Alex excitedly brought out his talisman and was visibly disappointed to see that it wasn't Pearl or Scarlet. Still, this was good.

"Brother Shen. Where are you? Are the rest of the group with you?"

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