Chapter 73: The Tier-Three Jellyfish King

Before long, Qiu Han’s gaze suddenly sharpened, his spiritual sense retracting to focus on the stone walls hidden within the underwater thickets. After a moment’s contemplation, he entered one such patch, parting the tangled weeds with his hand, and made a discovery. Tracing the stone walls ringed by aquatic grasses, Qiu Han’s expression gradually became enlightened. Concealed above, around the walls, were openings of varying sizes, all hidden by the dense weeds. It was through these very holes that the jellyfish beasts had just escaped.

Following one of the larger passages, Qiu Han’s eyes glinted thoughtfully as he withdrew the supreme spirit artifact, the Inkfeather Blade, from his storage pouch and gripped it in his palm. After nearly half an hour’s walk, two new passageways appeared ahead. He paused, considering his options, and then, beside one entrance, carved a deep mark into the stone with his blade before stepping inside.

Within, he soon lost all sense of direction, only vaguely aware that the path sloped ever deeper underground as he continued. Another half hour passed, and four more passageways emerged before him. Qiu Han halted, his eyes fixed upon the quartet of tunnels. After a long moment, he extended his spiritual sense in four directions, sending it racing down each corridor. Retracting his sense, his gaze settled on the third opening to the left; calm and resolute, he stepped inside.

Along this tunnel, several jellyfish beasts floated ahead, while Qiu Han followed silently a hundred yards behind. Soon, the creatures emerged into a chamber where ten more passages riddled the stone wall. Lingering briefly, the jellyfish split up, each entering one of three passageways in the lower right corner.

This scene did not escape Qiu Han’s notice. He memorized the locations, then exited the tunnel himself. Marking the stone wall with several fresh incisions from the Inkfeather Blade, he entered one of the lower right passages.

An hour later, Qiu Han finally reached the end of the tunnel. Below, hundreds of yards beneath the water’s surface, lay a vast basin. Tens of thousands of jellyfish beasts drifted about, encircling a colossal, elliptical blue light barrier at the basin’s center. Qiu Han’s spiritual sense was blocked by the shimmering veil—he could not see what lay within.

Gathered around the blue barrier at a distance of about a hundred yards, the throng of jellyfish formed a living barricade, yet none dared approach closer, as if some unspeakable terror lay within that blue glow. As Qiu Han pondered this, he felt a violent trembling from the spirit beast pouch at his waist. No matter how he tried to calm it, the convulsions only grew more intense.

Resigned, he patted the pouch and released the unicorn. The creature emerged with unprecedented agitation, its eyes wild, fixed upon the blue barrier below, yet repeatedly glancing back at Qiu Han, as if awaiting his command.

With a soft sigh and a rueful smile, Qiu Han gathered the unicorn in his arms. In a flash, he propelled his Water Escape Technique to its utmost, shooting straight toward the blue light.

Within a few breaths, he hovered above the shimmering barrier. The tens of thousands of jellyfish below erupted in a frenzy, surging forward, yet none crossed the hundred-yard threshold, as though held at bay by an invisible force.

With a sudden leap, the unicorn sprang from Qiu Han’s arms, hurtling into the blue barrier—only to be flung back by a powerful rebound. Undeterred, the unicorn charged once more, and with a fierce jab of its silver horn, tore a rent in the barrier. Without hesitation, it plunged inside.

Qiu Han stared in shock, but a furious roar from within the blue veil jolted him to his senses. Swiftly, he slapped his storage pouch, drawing out a sheaf of talismans, the Icefeather Ring, and a defensive spirit shield. The battle had begun.

No sooner had the roar faded than the unicorn burst out, pursued by a massive aquatic beast, its fury palpable. At its arrival, Qiu Han felt the overwhelming pressure unique to a second-tier demon beast—far stronger than most of its kind.

A peak second-tier water beast—equivalent to the late Foundation Establishment stage of a cultivator.

But now the beast’s side was pierced by a bloody wound, crimson pouring out and soaking its white fur. In contrast, the unicorn’s coat was merely ruffled, its silver horn stained red but quickly washed clean by the current. The injury was clearly its doing.

Through his spiritual sense, Qiu Han glimpsed what lay inside the blue barrier—a massive, azure sphere, roughly a yard in diameter, swathed in white ribbons. The instant Qiu Han beheld it, terror seized his heart.

This was no mere water sphere; it radiated an aura of dread many times more potent than the water beast, as if belonging to a higher realm altogether.

A third-tier Jellyfish King!

In that moment, Qiu Han understood. The third-tier Jellyfish King and the peak second-tier water beast had been performing some vital symbiotic ritual. Had it succeeded, both would have gained enormously. Yet all had been disrupted by Qiu Han’s intrusion.

He had already sensed that the jellyfish beasts carried something the unicorn deeply craved. After observing its strange behavior, Qiu Han deduced that within the Jellyfish King resided an essence that could greatly benefit the unicorn—thus its uncharacteristic urgency.

And now, the Jellyfish King made no move, just as Qiu Han had guessed—its actions were constrained by the ritual, leaving only the second-tier water beast to confront him. As for the jellyfish horde encircling them, none would dare approach so long as the king’s aura remained.

Resolved, Qiu Han darted forward, placing himself before the unicorn. With his right hand, he channeled spiritual power into the Icefeather Ring, unleashing its full might. The unicorn hesitated, but, meeting Qiu Han’s gaze, charged into the blue barrier once more.

The Icefeather Ring’s attack failed to harm the water beast at all—it swept it aside with a flick of its arm, then barreled toward Qiu Han, limbs flailing. Forced to retreat, Qiu Han’s rueful smile deepened at the corners of his mouth.