The Mysterious Spirit Beast Hunt

After giving it some thought, Dean Shui decided to accompany Li Xuanyue back to the family estate. After all, the spirit ring Bing'er needed to obtain was extremely important—there couldn't be the slightest mistake in the process.

"Fine then. This way, certain people won't get too carried away while I'm gone. Besides, I haven't been back in five or six years anyway, so I might as well make the trip!"

The next day, outside the Waldorf Grand Hotel, beside an ornately decorated carriage:

"Little Iggy, you really won't come with us? I can arrange for you to study at Skywater Advanced Academy. Even though Skywater Academy only admits female students, the Shui family is one of its major investors, after all."

Dean Shui had already asked about Ignaz's intentions before, but today she inquired once more.

"No thanks, I'm doing just fine here in Vast Sea City. Besides, when you're helping Bing'er obtain her spirit ring, I wouldn't be much help anyway—I might even become a burden. As for advanced spirit master academies, I think I'll pass for now. I'm not ready to go yet."

Ignaz looked at Dean Shui before him, giving the same response as before. At his current Spirit Grandmaster level, venturing into the mainland would undoubtedly be extremely dangerous. Moreover, there was still plenty of time before Tang San would obtain the immortal herbs—he could easily cultivate to level 30 first, then travel the continent.

"Alright then. If you have any questions, Little Lu can help answer them."

Dean Shui climbed into the driver's seat of the carriage. Inside the carriage, Shui Bing'er, seeing they were about to depart, quickly poked her head out and said urgently:

"Big Brother Iggy, you have to write to me often! And when you become a Spirit Elder, remember to come find me in Skywater City—don't forget our promise."

"I won't break my word. I'll definitely come."

As the carriage gradually disappeared into the distance, their voices grew fainter and fainter. Li Xuanyue, sitting in the carriage, pulled Shui Bing'er back to sit properly and advised:

"Bing'er, Little Iggy is already a Spirit Grandmaster. If you don't want to be left too far behind, you must calm down and focus on cultivating your soul power, striving to break through the level 20 bottleneck as soon as possible.

"Only then, when you meet again, will you be able to beat him and show him how formidable we women of the Bing family are. Women of the Bing family must be self-reliant!"

Although Li Xuanyue knew that Ignaz's innate spirit power was low and his cultivation speed certainly couldn't match Shui Bing'er's, she still used this to motivate her niece's training.

"Aunt, I won't let you down."

Though she had never sparred with Ignaz before, her aunt was right—only by becoming strong could she have a voice in the Shui family and pursue her own happiness.

And Big Brother Iggy definitely wouldn't like some helpless trophy wife.

A year and a half later:

With a somewhat domineering wave of spirit power spreading outward from his body, Ignaz, who had been stuck at the level 29 bottleneck for nearly three months, finally broke through to the level 30 spirit power threshold.

He walked out of the cabin, gazing at the deep blue ocean ahead and the white waves churning behind them, then stretched lazily.

"Good morning, Mr. Iggy..."

The many sailors carrying cargo enthusiastically greeted Ignaz because ever since he had joined their fleet, he had repeatedly saved the lives of crew members.

Just a year ago, when he had first joined the fleet, they were transporting a batch of goods when they encountered a nest of pirates along their route. The pirate leader was even a powerful Spirit Elder.

However, before the pirates could act smug for even three seconds, they died under Ignaz's spirit tool weapons. Not only did this save a ship full of cargo and countless crew members' lives, but it also made other pirates afraid to covet their fleet.

This earned the fleet—that is, the Hai family—a solid twenty to thirty percent increase in profits.

As the captain's cabin door was pushed open, Ignaz entered. A one-eyed man stood up happily and said:

"Brother Iggy, come, come! Tell me in detail how this chess game should be played to win—I've already lost three games in a row to my deputy."

"Captain, I have urgent matters to attend to on this voyage, so I'm afraid I can't continue traveling with you all."

As a Spirit Elder–level captain, he naturally sensed something from Ignaz's sudden resignation.

"Alright then! Where are you planning to go, Brother Iggy?"

Ignaz pointed to a spot on the nautical chart and said, "I plan to cultivate on this small island for a while. You just need to drop me off at the nearest shipping lane—it's right on your route anyway."

"Fine, but you have to teach me how to play this chess game first!"

The captain wouldn't pry into Ignaz's affairs, but right now he cared more about the chess game. During the mind-numbing periods of sea transport, there weren't many things that could provide entertainment!

After the entire fleet sailed into the Flowing Cloud Sea area, Ignaz jumped off as planned, taking a small wooden boat toward his target destination.

However, just as Ignaz had barely rowed a few strokes, and while the large ship hadn't yet sailed far, violent splashes erupted on the sea surface several hundred meters away.

The captain took out his telescope and looked toward the commotion. He saw a wounded fish being relentlessly pursued by a ten-thousand-year spirit beast—an Ink Jade Octopus.

He shouted loudly to Ignaz below:

"Brother Iggy! There's a ten-thousand-year Ink Jade Octopus hunting ahead—we might run straight into them! Get back on the ship quickly so we can leave fast!"

The captain had been carefully following the nautical charts, cautiously avoiding the territories of various ten-thousand-year sea spirit beasts. Usually, the fleet and spirit beasts lived in peace, but who would have expected that today, a ten-thousand-year spirit beast would directly choose to leave its territory to hunt!

"Hard to port, quickly!"

Seeing the spirit beast getting closer and closer, the captain's urging became increasingly frantic.

However, in the next moment, a hundred-legged creature burst directly from the black depths, and the huge waves it created completely capsized the entire large ship. The sailors trapped inside the cabin, along with much of the cargo, were buried at the bottom of the sea as the merchant vessel sank.

Only a few people managed to survive by clinging to scattered pieces of floating debris from the merchant ship, though they weren't much better off, being swept away by currents and waves.

At this moment, Ignaz saw spirit beasts attacking from both the front and rear. He immediately abandoned his small wooden boat, circulated spirit power to his feet, and desperately ran across the sea surface toward the left side, where there were no spirit beasts.

But it was as if he had a tracking device on him—the bloody, wounded spirit beast immediately changed its escape direction and followed closely behind Ignaz.

"This spirit beast that's about to be killed—could it be trying to drag me down with it? It's sticking to me like a band-aid that won't come off. How annoying."

If the seawater weren't so deep, Ignaz would have already dove to the rocky reef clusters at the bottom to hide from this ten-thousand-year spirit beast's pursuit.

As Ignaz ran further, more and more ten-thousand-year spirit beasts gathered around them. Counting them, there were about a dozen—and the number was still increasing. This scene filled him with unprecedented terror.

"What... what's going on here? How can so many ten-thousand-year spirit beasts appear at the same time?"

You have to understand that each ten-thousand-year sea spirit beast has its own territory. In the same location, it would be absolutely impossible for so many of them to gather.

Then there was only one possibility—the spirit beast being hunted and currently fleeing was definitely no ordinary creature.