At this moment, a massive fish stretching over tens of thousands of miles swam leisurely atop the Heavenly Realm Sea. This was its territory. The Heavenly Realm Sea was boundless, infinite, teeming with uncountable great and small living creatures, each with its own domain.

In recent years, this place had been far from peaceful. Patriarch Heiyu, the undisputed overlord of the Heavenly Realm Sea, had battled two terrifying creatures, turning the area upside down. Larger beings had either fled far away or sunk into the depths, refusing to show themselves.

Finally, things had calmed. Peace returned. Patriarch Heiyu's whereabouts were unknown, leaving behind this vast expanse of ocean with only one supreme being remaining—this massive fish. In mere days, it had devoured more than a dozen weaker creatures, feeling an unparalleled thrill.

Now, it set its eyes on Patriarch Heiyu.

This was a supreme-level fish at the pinnacle of power, possessing an extraordinarily robust physique and ferocious nature. The moment it saw Patriarch Heiyu, it launched its attack.

Just a small snack—one bite was all it would take!

Patriarch Heiyu, observing the enormous opened maw of the attacker and its teeth gleaming under the sunlight, let out a cold laugh. As the maw approached, Heiyu unleashed a divine sense, crushing everything in its path.

The colossal fish, tens of thousands of miles long, was instantly caught in a tragedy!

Frozen and motionless, it was confined in place, terror filling its gaze. Powerless, it watched as the comparatively tiny black fish of just several thousand miles opened its mouth—and swallowed it whole in one bite.

In the final moment of despair, it finally recognized who it had encountered.

"Bastard!"

"Utterly shameless!"

"You—Patriarch Heiyu! The undisputed overlord of the entire Heavenly Realm Sea with no rivals among its inhabitants—did you really have to stoop to such a level?"

After swallowing the fish, Patriarch Heiyu scanned the area but found no other prey. It then reverted to its smaller black fish form, leisurely floating there, basking in the sun.

Soon after, a silver-scaled fish, only a few dozen feet long, slowly drifted into Patriarch Heiyu's line of sight.

"Argyrosaurus?" Patriarch Heiyu was momentarily startled, a trace of doubt flickering through those cold, sinister eyes.

Argyrosaurus was not truly a dragon but an exceedingly rare fish unique to the Heavenly Realm Sea. Even Patriarch Heiyu had not eaten many of them over the years. What puzzled it was that this species usually resided in the deep ocean and rarely appeared near the surface.

So its initial reaction was not to strike, but instead to activate its mysterious skill and better conceal its presence.

The fish… seemed to sense its presence!

In a sudden burst, it nearly jumped as it dived frantically toward the depths. In mere moments, it had disappeared into thousands of miles of water, continuing its descent with frenetic urgency.

"Heh heh…" Patriarch Heiyu finally chuckled. With a light swish of its tail, it effortlessly caught up to the panicked Argyrosaurus.

It then opened its enormous mouth, biting down to swallow half of the silver-scaled fish, and savagely chomped again. Patriarch Heiyu even began savoring the delicious taste!

It had been years since it had last enjoyed such a delicate little elf!

Patriarch Heiyu felt a rare sense of happiness wash over it.

Crunch!

Its teeth… shattered—hundreds of them, in an instant.

In the freezing underwater depths, Patriarch Heiyu let out an earth-shattering roar of rage, its tail thrashing violently as its head shook uncontrollably, trying in vain to throw its adversary off.

It was then that Patriarch Heiyu, a supreme giant, realized it had been deceived. To fail to grasp the cunning trick laid against it, it might as well have not lived at all!

But what it couldn't fathom was who had orchestrated this scheme against it. Not only had they evaded its divine sense, but they had also flawlessly laid their trap. Whoever this being was, they were undoubtedly a match for its own supreme status!

This was no monkey!

Absolutely not!

That infernal monkey might resort to trickery like this, but it could never execute such deception without revealing itself and challenging Patriarch Heiyu in direct combat by now.

Suddenly, Patriarch Heiyu felt a sharp pain in its head. The Argyrosaurus had transformed into a rope, threading through its gills with an unstoppable force, hauling it upward, toward the ocean surface.

The sensation was as humiliating as being a fish caught by a fisherman, dragged from the depths.

This was utterly terrible!

And deeply disgraceful!

From the moment it was born, Patriarch Heiyu had dominated its way through life—never encountering a situation like this. Not just such a setback—never even a worthy opponent!

In this boundless northern stretch of the Heavenly Realm Sea, Patriarch Heiyu had been the undisputed overlord, the one to humiliate others. When had it ever been humiliated in turn?

The feeling was so unbearable it wanted to die.

"Who are you?" Patriarch Heiyu began to unleash its greatest divine abilities in retaliation. It first sealed the internal wounds on its Dao, then launched a frenzy of attacks against the rope.

"If I were you, I'd surrender quietly. Little black fish, do you truly believe becoming a giant makes you invincible? So naive. This rope is forged from the divine material of the Tunnel. While it might struggle against the Supreme, it is more than enough to bind you. So be good and submit."

A chilling divine sense, saturated with mockery, echoed through the skies above the Heavenly Realm Sea.

Patriarch Heiyu abruptly snapped its mouth shut. It seemed to recall something; disbelief and shock showed starkly in its fishy eyes. It began to guess the identity of its opponent but didn't dare believe it.

Because—it was utterly impossible!

Then, Patriarch Heiyu saw the figure standing in the void. In that instant, everything became clear.

"Spiritual Master Lingtong, it's you!" Patriarch Heiyu's voice was unbearably hoarse. It hung on the rope like a fish reeled in by a fisherman, staring unblinkingly at the figure.

"Who else could it be? Unless you thought the Supreme decided to act against you?" The figure enshrouded in radiance spoke casually.

"The Supreme… Of course not," Patriarch Heiyu replied stiffly. "The Supreme's benevolence in enlightening me years ago has never been unappreciated."

"Ha, such gratitude! If I recall, even Old Mr. Ji saved you once, didn't he?" Spiritual Master Lingtong chuckled under the luminous veil.

Patriarch Heiyu fell silent briefly, then answered, "That's different."

"Indeed, it is. My prophecy from back then—hahaha!" Spiritual Master Lingtong let out a laugh.

"A prophecy? More like a trap designed specifically to ensnare people like us." Patriarch Heiyu finally understood the meaning of the phrase "man is the knife, I am the fish." It had always despised such notions, but today, it truly tasted the bitter truth of it.

"A trap for you? Not entirely." Spiritual Master Lingtong's figure emerged from the shining light, looking down at Patriarch Heiyu.

A man who appeared no older than his thirties stood before him, strikingly average in appearance—leaning toward ugliness. Sparse yellow hair sprouted from his head, eyes bulging outward, their irises matching his hair in an eerie yellow hue. His dark skin bore high cheekbones, and a sardonic grin tugged at his lips as he gazed at Patriarch Heiyu.

"Not entirely? So the prophecy was real, wasn't it?" Patriarch Heiyu questioned.

"Yes, the prophecy was real. And yes, it was also made to trap you," Spiritual Master Lingtong admitted freely. "But there's much you don't understand… which I won't bother explaining."

"Are you going to kill me?" Patriarch Heiyu asked.

"Of course. Fish from the ancestral realm are a delicacy no matter where you go. The true pinnacle of flavor. My plan is to steam you. What do you think? Does that sound good to you?" Spiritual Master Lingtong seemed genuinely soliciting his opinion.

Outraged, Patriarch Heiyu unleashed a divine strike, darkening the sky in an instant. A vast spatial force erupted, encasing Spiritual Master Lingtong within a terrifying domain—the strongest blow Patriarch Heiyu could muster!

Few beings in existence could survive in this domain.

Spiritual Master Lingtong, however, was one such being.

He merely coughed softly. "Little black fish, do you find this fun?"

With just those words, Spiritual Master Lingtong remained motionless. The spatial force, the ferocious power of the domain capable of crushing all creation into dust, vanished instantly.

Patriarch Heiyu fell into despair, roaring furiously: "Spiritual Master Lingtong, why? Why do you seek to kill us? What gain does this bring you?"

"No gain. Just hunger—I felt like eating fish." Spiritual Master Lingtong replied, raising a finger and pressing it against Patriarch Heiyu's forehead.

With that, Patriarch Heiyu's entire Dao cultivation dissolved into nothingness.

One supreme being, silenced and wiped from existence. Death without sound—the most unsettling part—the annihilation of Patriarch Heiyu, a being of such magnitude, carried no ripple or resonance across the vast Luotian cosmos.

After killing Patriarch Heiyu with a single finger, Spiritual Master Lingtong used divine abilities to compress it into a mere one-zhang-long fish and casually tossed it into his storage space.

Softly, he said, "The seed has already sprouted and rooted. Growth has begun. How could I stand by and watch you destroy it?"

As he spoke, Spiritual Master Lingtong stretched out his hand, palm open to reveal a pale blue bead. The bead glistened faintly with Patriarch Heiyu's Dao essence flowing within!

Indeed, in the instant of annihilation, Spiritual Master Lingtong had extracted the entirety of Patriarch Heiyu's Dao cultivation, refining it into this azure bead.

"I've waited thirty thousand epochs. I can wait longer." Spiritual Master Lingtong flicked the bead with his finger. In a heartbeat, it pierced through the Heavenly Realm Sea, warping space in its path until it reached Chu Mo—and embedded itself in his brow.

Patriarch Heiyu could never have imagined that the culmination of countless millennia of painstaking cultivation would ultimately serve to empower Chu Mo.

Spiritual Master Lingtong's gaze was tranquil and penetrating, as if he could see through all the pretense of this world.

He gazed toward Chu Mo's location beneath the sea and let out a faint sigh.

Then, he turned and vanished.

In an instant, his silhouette disappeared entirely.

As if it had never been there.

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