novelEncirclement of the Sharks
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2043 Encirclement of the Sharks
Boom!
The five Heavenly High Immortal-tier swords released their Gods' Sword Intent simultaneously, their combined might surpassing even that of his Sea Severing Sword. In an instant, a passageway that he could escape through was drilled in the ceiling.
Zhang Xuan immediately made his way in.
As soon as he dived into the passageway, a loud explosion echoed beneath him. The space where he was standing at previously had been utterly decimated.
"I need to hurry up!"
Zhang Xuan knew that his time was limited before those aquatic creatures beneath caught up with him. Thus, he infused his energy furiously into the five swords, turning them into drills that reduced the ceiling to dust upon contact.
It did not take long for the water to turn murky.
"Where do you think you're going!"
Boom!
A furious howl echoed through the passageway, and Zhang Xuan could feel the entire cavern tremoring.
The sharks clearly did not expect Zhang Xuan to dive right into the ceiling. Nevertheless, they quickly pursued him.
Due to Zhang Xuan's small stature, the passageway that he had dug out was not big enough for the sharks to pass through. As such, they had no choice but to use their own strength to ram their own way out.
It took three breaths and a continuous infusion of zhenqi for Zhang Xuan to escape from the other end. As soon as he broke out, he swiftly stowed his swords away before charging right into the coral and vines in the trench.
Before he could get too far, a resounding explosion echoed from the cavern beneath. Amid the murky waters mixed with sediment, a shark charged out furiously. It opened its mouth and spat out a jet of water.
Boom!
The jet of water dashed upward with astounding momentum, tearing apart even the plants that Zhang Xuan thought were incredibly resilient with ease.
"Parry!"
Seeing that it was impossible for him to evade the jet of water in time, Zhang Xuan took out the Tongshang Sword and slashed his blade down furiously with a livid look on his face.
The sword qi collided with the jet of water current, causing Zhang Xuan to feel a tearing pain between the webbing of his finger. While he did manage to deflect the enemy's attack, it had also left him with a stifling ache in his chest, causing him to tumble backward uncontrollably.
"Powerful!" Zhang Xuan's body stiffened a little.
This was the first time that he had faced off with a Semi-Divinity realm expert in the truest sense.
Even when he tamed the Blackback Tortoise previously, he had tapped into the strength of the little yellow chick in order to subdue it. It was one thing to see a Semi-Divinity realm cultivator in action, but it was another matter to experience it firsthand!
Even though he had managed to achieve a breakthrough to the Lesser High Immortal realm, and his physical body had managed to reach the Heavenly High Immortal realm, he felt like he still could not withstand a single attack from the enemy!
Zhang Xuan quickly regained control of his tumbling body before dashing outward once more.
If even facing a single Semi-Divinity realm expert was so fearsome, he could not imagine having to deal with three of them at once. Furthermore, there were still several hundred High Immortal realm aquatic creatures lying in wait for him.
His only option was to run!
"From the moment you dared steal our possession, your fate was sealed!"
A thunderous roar echoed from above.
Alarmed, Zhang Xuan raised his head, only to see another shark charging at him with its mouth wide open, revealing innumerable sharp teeth that emanated cold glints.
While one of the sharks was pursuing him, the other two had dashed out from the cavern with even greater speed to block his way from the front!
At the same time, an even more powerful jet of water shot toward him from above.
Knowing that he was in a terrible position, Zhang Xuan did not dare hold back. With a flick of his wrist, he took out the Semi-Divinity artifact that he had tamed previously and compressed it together to form a massive barrier.
A deafening explosion happened right after.
The shockwave blasted all the surrounding plants and rocks into dust.
Under the recoil, Zhang Xuan felt both of his arms going numb, as if he could not raise them anymore.
While the Semi-Divinity artifact did allow him to withstand their offense, the attack had still jolted his innards, causing him to sustain severe internal injuries.
"What the hell was that?" Zhang Xuan felt like he was on the verge of a mental breakdown.
He had only gone there to scout out the area, not to alarm the enemy, and he had indeed managed to achieve what he had set out to do. The saying was really true; all it takes is a lousy teammate to bring down an entire team!
"A Semi-Divinity artifact?" Seeing the shield that Zhang Xuan had brought out, the eyes of the sharks shone in excitement."A droplet of god blood in exchange for a weapon. I guess that's not too bad a deal!"
As powerful as the god blood was, all they needed was a single droplet of it in order to reach the Semi-Divinity realm. Beyond that, it was not of much use.
However, if they could tame a Semi-Divinity artifact as well, there was no doubt that their fighting prowess would rise by leaps and bounds!
Boom boom boom!
The three sharks continued bombarding the shield from all three directions, determined to break it down.
Even though Zhang Xuan was still holding on for the time being, he felt as though he was going to be paralyzed under the series of impacts. He immediately bellowed, "Blackback Tortoise, hurry up and get me out of here!"
Hu!
The Blackback Tortoise of roughly a hundred meters in length abruptly materialized, and as soon as it appeared, it dashed directly upward with Zhang Xuan on its back.
Its speed was much faster than that of Zhang Xuan's, but it was still unable to outrun the three sharks. The three sharks continued pouring attacks down upon them, and it felt like the entire ocean would be destroyed at this 恤
"Old Tortoise, I never thought that you would choose to submit to a human instead of us. You are truly the black sheep of all aquatic creatures!"
"I would have understood it if you submitted to an expert, but he's only a Lesser High Immortal... It's as if you are regressing with time!"
"What a fool. We let you off, but you chose to come back. Since that's the case, don't expect us to show any mercy. You can be buried here together with that new master of yours!"
Cold sneers echoed all around them. Seeing how their old foe, the Blackback Tortoise, had submitted to the young man before them, the three sharks could not help but mock it.
As the Blackback Tortoise sustained more and more damage, its speed reduced visibly. Before they could even get out of the trench, it had already sent a telepathic message over."Master, I fear that we won't be able to get out of here at this rate..."
The reason it had been able to escape previously was because it had escaped as soon as the confrontation started, and the three sharks had no intention of going that far against it.
But this time, its master had stolen the sharks' god blood and reduced their base to a pile of rubble...
There was no way that the sharks would let them off!
"You're right. It doesn't seem like we'll be able to get away at this rate, " Zhang Xuan murmured in agreement as he quickly assessed the situation around him.
While they were clashing with the three Semi-Divinity realm sharks, the High Immortal realm aquatic creatures that he had seen in the cavern earlier had already moved to seal all possible escape routes.
In other words, they would be tied down no matter where they headed to, and eventually, they would come under the tight encirclement of the three sharks.
"What should we do?" the Blackback Tortoise asked worriedly.
It had warned its master time and time again not to go there, but he just would not listen! In the end, disaster really did strike.
Was it really going to die at the hands of the three sharks that it had gone through so much in order to escape from previously?
"Since it's impossible for us to get away, we'll just have to make a stand, " Zhang Xuan said as he stood up on the back of the Blackback Tortoise.
The opponents might be three Semi-Divinity realm experts, but he had a Semi-Divinity realm artifact, a Semi-Divinity realm tamed beast, a clone, and many Soulless Metal Humanoids. They would not be able to bring him down easily!
You wish to fight against them?" The Blackback Tortoise shuddered in fear."How? I can only hold back one of them for a short while..."
"It's fine. Just hold back one of them while I try to kill the other. As long as we can kill one of them swiftly, we should be able to make them hesitate..." Zhang Xuan bit his lips.
The three sharks had allied themselves with one another and proclaimed themselves as 'brothers', but he was betting that their relationship was one of convenience rather than true kinship.
If that was really the case, as long as he could slay one of the sharks, the other two, as well as the several hundred High Immortal realm aquatic beasts around, would have to think twice before making a move.
That would provide him an ideal opportunity to make his escape!
In any case, his goal was to get out of there safely rather than to get rid of all his opponents.
"Very well then!"
Gritting its teeth, the Blackback Tortoise retracted its neck and limbs into his tortoiseshell before charging right toward one of the sharks.
At the same time, Zhang Xuan morphed his shield into a massive web of metal chains as he charged forth along with it as well.
Your opponent is me!"
But before he could get far, a shark charged right in his direction and swept its tail toward him.
Zhang Xuan immediately converged the web of chains together to deflect the attack, but the powerful impact still slammed him into the wall, creating another huge depression in the trench.
"Humph!"
Wiping the fresh blood from the corner of his lips, Zhang Xuan brought out a Soulless Metal Humanoid and commanded it to charge toward the shark.
"You have a helper? Hah!" Without any hesitation, the shark opened its mouth wide and crunched down on the Soulless Metal Humanoid."What you have here isn't a helper but food!"
"That depends on whether you are able to digest it or not!" Zhang Xuan smirked.
Boom!
The Soulless Metal Humanoid exploded on the spot.
"Pu!"
Due to the massive explosion, the shark spurted a mouthful of blood and threw out one of its sharp teeth, leaving it in an unkempt state.
"How dare you hurt me? I'll tear you apart!"
Feeling a stinging pain within its body, the shark was infuriated.
It had not sustained such injuries since reaching the Semi-Divinity realm!
Sou!
It charged right toward Zhang Xuan with its mouth wide open, seemingly intent on devouring him.
On the other hand, Zhang Xuan's eyelids were twitching in disbelief."That darned shark's still fine after suffering an explosion within its body?"
That was a Heavenly High Immortal realm Soulless Metal Humanoid, and its explosion should have destroyed everything within a radius of hundred meters. The explosion had occurred within the body of the shark, but all it had done was to spurt a mouthful of blood and shed a single tooth.
Were Semi-Divinity realm beasts really that resilient?
Zhang Xuan immediately morphed the metal chains into a massive shield in order to block the shark's bite. He was just about to toss yet another Soulless Metal Humanoid into the other party's mouth when he saw the final shark circling behind him.
"Damn it, I guess I can only use my clone!"
Zhang Xuan knew that it was impossible for him to face two Semi-Divinity realm experts simultaneously in his state. He could very well die at this rate!
Desperate, he was thinking of bringing out his clone and Vicious as well to support him when the shark behind suddenly came to a halt.
Following that, a resounding voice echoed across the entire trench.
"Halt!"
Boom!
The one who had made the command was the shark that had sat on the centermost throne back in the cavern, the strongest among the three.
The shout made the shark, which was intent on swallowing Zhang Xuan whole, retreat slightly, and the other one that was battling with the Blackback Tortoise also paused its offense.
"Big Brother, this human dared barge into our territory and steal our god blood. This is an unforgivable crime! We have to teach him a lesson!" the shark that had lost a tooth cried indignantly.
"Big Brother, I agree with our Second Brother. Why should we show these b*stards any mercy? They might have many means up their sleeves, but with our combined might, we should be able to destroy them easily!" the other shark facing the Blackback Tortoise exclaimed in agreement.
"Shut your mouths!" the shark that the other two addressed as Big Brother bellowed.
After silencing the other two, it turned to Zhang Xuan and assessed him carefully with its massive eyes.
Perplexed by the current situation, Zhang Xuan narrowed his eyes and warily drove his zhenqi, fearful that the other party was just buying time to assault him.
But the next moment, the massive shark before him suddenly kneeled down and exclaimed, "Your humble subordinate pays its respect, Master!"
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