The abyss twisted.
Pressure rolled along the trench walls in deep, groaning waves. The ocean felt heavier, thicker, like the sea itself was bracing for something it didn't want to witness.
Yan Shen stood suspended in the darkness.
Across from him, Varn completed his transformation.
The prince's body cracked and warped. Muscle ballooned. Scales melted into dark-blue flesh. Jagged bone ridges erupted along his spine and arms, locking together like armor plates. His tail thickened into a scythe of living muscle. Rows of teeth multiplied behind one another.
When the final convulsion passed, Varn stood nearly three and a half meters long, half-leviathan, half-nightmare.
His voice rolled out in a double echo.
"This is the true flesh of our royal line."
Yan Shen's expression remained flat… until Varn moved.
The prince's aura surged upward like a crashing tide, strong enough to burst a Foundation cultivator instantly. The water itself bowed around him.
"In this form," Varn growled, "and in the water… my strength rises to half a step into Golden Core."
Lines of force cracked the trench walls.
Yan Shen blinked once.
"…Half a step?"
A slow smile formed.
Not amused, hungry.
Varn instinctively recoiled from that smile.
Then Yan Shen released his Qi.
Qi detonated outward like a collapsing star.
The sea recoiled violently, forming an empty sphere around him before the vacuum slammed shut with a quake. His spiritual pressure hammered the trench like a falling mountain.
It wasn't refined elegance.
It was weight, crushing, overwhelming, terrifying.
Varn's eyes widened.
"This… this density…?! Qi-Gathering cannot.."
Yan Shen raised a fist.
"This is late Qi-Gathering. It's not hidden."
His eyes gleamed grayish-red.
"It's finally unleashed."
The water shivered.
Even Varn took a step back.
Varn lunged first.
His clawed arm blurred through the water, a wall of sharpened force aimed to split Yan Shen in half.
Yan Shen met it with a fist.
The impact imploded the ocean between them.
Pressure craters exploded along the trench walls.
Varn was thrown back over thirty meters before stabilizing.
Yan Shen drifted backward… five meters.
He raised an eyebrow.
"…You actually held that?"
For the first time, Yan Shen looked genuinely surprised.
Varn saw that flicker and felt a savage thrill.
He laughed, a distorted, bubbling rumble.
"You thought I'd crumble from a single strike, human?"
But inside
Varn was terrified.
He's pushing me back. Even in MY waters. Even in this form.
Damn it… if I don't kill him here…
I cannot return.
If I go back defeated, my mother will feed me to the brood-pits.
His jaw clenched.
There was only one choice.
Life Essence Ignition
Varn's heart pulsed, once, twice, then ruptured a thread of silver-blue light into his meridians.
The water temperature dropped sharply.
Yan Shen felt the shift, eyes narrowing.
"…You're burning life essence."
Varn's grin widened, manic and cracked.
"Yes. I have no choice."
Silver flames ignited beneath his skin, circulating through his monstrous frame. His aura spiked again, wild, unstable, brilliant.
Kaelrin, if he were present, would have fled instantly.
Varn roared, shaking the trench.
"I will not die here! I will not crawl back in shame!"
His power surged to unstable heights, near true Golden Core, but at the cost of years of life… perhaps decades.
Yan Shen exhaled.
"Another trump card."
A faint smirk touched his lips.
"You young masters sure carry a lot of life-saving tricks."
He tightened his stance.
"I don't have any."
He stepped forward.
"I only push harder."
His Qi surged outward again, denser, sharper, a greyish storm wrapped in human shape.
The sea churned between them.
Two forces surged.
Two titans collided.
Far beyond the battle, Kaelrin stood before the circular pool of liquid sapphire.
The water rose like a living thing, forming faces his ancestors.
"Child of our line…"
Their voices were the language of tides and memory.
"You carry our blood. Our will."
"Receive what is yours."
The water spiraled around him, flowing into his skin like cool lightning.
Kaelrin gasped.
Visions flooded him, cities beneath the sea, armies of leviathans following a single voice, crowns shaped from living coral.
His spine vibrated. Bones hummed.
"Our gift is dominion."
"The sea will bow."
"Beasts will kneel."
"Predators will obey."
Kaelrin trembled as the power settled into his marrow.
Then the voices darkened.
"But first… survive the guardian at your gate."
Kaelrin's eyes snapped open.
"Yan Shen…"
The trench boiled.
Yan Shen and Varn ripped through the water, each impact shattering stone and ripping currents apart.
Varn's life-burning aura twisted the sea into spiraling blue flames. He struck with claws sharp enough to rend spiritual shields.
Yan Shen met everything head-on.
His Qi smashed into Varn's essence flames. His fists collapsed vortices. His kicks shattered pieces of the trench ridges.
But inside the prince's mind
He's still pushing me back!!
Even burning my life, he forces me on the defensive!
How strong is his damn body?!
Still, he accelerated.
Still, he tried to overwhelm.
His life essence blazed.
His breath grew ragged.
His bones creaked.
If this fails… I die here.
But Yan Shen saw all of it, felt the desperation.
He smiled.
"Then come."
He drove his knee into Varn's gut, folding the giant prince in half.
Varn's rage boiled.
"This isn't everything!"
He roared through blood and tearing muscle.
"I WILL CRUSH YOU!"
His monstrous body convulsed.
A second surge began, more violent, more unstable, more ancient. Varn's eyes went white, not blind, but seeing something beyond. His gills flared, drawing not just water but memory from the depths.
The trench answered.
Pressure multiplied tenfold. The water became solid around them. Yan Shen felt his movement slow, his qi compression fighting against an ocean that no longer wanted him here.
Every muscle strained. Every breath cost. The sea itself had turned against him, recognizing Varn's blood and punishing the foreign.
Yan Shen felt the shift and braced.
"Oh? Another one?"
His smile widened.
"Good."