It suddenly opened its massive jaws, a torrent of ink black energy rapidly gathering within its mouth.
"ROOOAAAR!"
With a deafening roar, that torrent of black energy transformed into a thick pillar of dark light, carrying with it a terrifying, all consuming force, and burst forth from the deep sea demon whale's mouth, surging straight toward Arthur.
"Time for the beam clash segment again?"
Arthur felt a headache coming on. Relying purely on his physical body, he couldn't fire off a beam of his own.
The demon whale's pillar of dark light was already nearly upon him, its terrifying power warping and collapsing the seawater all around him.
"In that case, I suppose I'll have to open up a little."
Arthur invoked his authority over the water element, and with the boost from planar power, he found himself connected to this entire stretch of ocean.
The seawater around him surged into a sudden boil. The water element that had been swallowed by the pillar of dark light violently flowed back, condensing behind him into a massive phantom shape made of seawater, majestic as a deity.
Arthur flipped both hands over, and the seawater before him was forcibly wrenched around, transforming into a water tornado spinning in the opposite direction of the dark pillar, brutally tearing the leading edge of the beam apart.
"ROOOAAAR!"
The demon whale bellowed in fury, and the pillar of dark light suddenly surged even larger, devouring the water tornado bit by bit.
"Not enough yet."
Arthur's eyes went cold. He raised his right hand and pointed at the center of the pillar of dark light.
In that instant, the water element throughout the entire sea went into a frenzy, converging in front of his fingertip into a droplet of blue water that looked deceptively small yet held within it a terrifying force.
"Go."
The droplet shot forward instantly, carving a perfectly straight streak through the seawater, striking the core of the dark pillar with pinpoint precision.
There was no earth shaking explosion, only a single low, muffled thud. The core of the dark pillar collapsed in an instant, as though hollowed out by some invisible force, and the entire pillar began to crumble apart from within.
"ROOOAAAR!"
The demon whale let out a shrill, agonized cry, its massive body shuddering violently.
And then, there was nothing more.
After a moment's wait, the demon whale, realizing it wasn't dead, froze in place.
"Why didn't you kill me?"
The demon whale spoke, its low voice echoing through the water, carrying a note of confusion and reluctant defiance.
As a sea soul beast, it knew perfectly well the power of that blue droplet just now. There was absolutely no way it should have survived.
Arthur paid it no mind and turned to leave.
"Whew, that felt good." Arthur let out a long breath and turned to Mu Ye. "Master, what are we practicing tomorrow?"
Mu Ye took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the shock in his heart, and said in a low voice, "The path of the body cannot be rushed. You've already done exceptionally well. For the time being, just stay in the sea every day and fight the soul beast using nothing but your physical body."
In truth, he had nothing left to teach. Arthur's progress in the innate arcane techniques had far outstripped his expectations.
He simply wasn't prepared for the next stage of training yet.
"Is that so?" Arthur scratched his head.
A thought crossed his mind, and the waters surrounding the two massive ships began to shift.
In the distance, seeing that the humans had no intention of killing it, the demon whale hastily tried to flee.
"Once I get back, I'll definitely bring Father here for revenge!" the demon whale roared inwardly, its enormous body transforming into a streak of black shadow as it fled desperately toward deeper waters.
But after fleeing a certain distance, it found itself being pulled back by the seawater.
It was stunned for a moment.
The demon whale thrashed its massive tail violently, its huge body struggling frantically in the water, entirely to no avail.
After a long while, it finally understood.
Centered on the massive ships that continued advancing across the Star Dou Continent's waters, it could neither move further away, nor draw any closer.
It was as though some invisible hand had seized it by the scruff of its fate, leaving it able only to circle helplessly within a fixed range.
The next morning, at first light, the sea still carried a faint chill.
Arthur plunged straight into the water.
Before long, he spotted the demon whale, still circling restlessly in agitation.
"Yo, morning," Arthur greeted it.
The demon whale paused.
"So it was you," it said, a flicker of realization crossing its mind at the sight of Arthur once again.
Arthur said nothing and simply threw an elbow, launching straight back into another brawl with the demon whale.
Day three. Day four.
The demon whale's spirit was utterly broken.
In all its years of life, this was the first time it had ever encountered such an unreasonable human.
Beaten, but not killed. Beaten, but never released.
Just an elbow to the face every single day, pure torment.
A few days later.
"Human, please, just kill me, glub," the demon whale said, utterly broken, letting Arthur do whatever he pleased to it without offering the slightest resistance.
Arthur paused his assault and frowned at the once mighty ruler of the deep sea.
Just a few days ago, it had still been thrashing wildly in the water, roaring in fury without end.
Now, it lay slumped in the water like a salted fish that had been thoroughly worn down, unmoving, not even bothering to open its eyes.
Arthur thought it over for a moment, then summoned the auspicious beast.
Xiaxi perched atop Arthur's head, curiously surveying the surroundings, before its gaze finally settled on the demon whale, collapsed in a heap.
"Mrrr," the auspicious beast let out a low cry, seeming to express some kind of confusion.
"Give it a buff," Arthur said, pointing at the demon whale.
Xiaxi blinked, gently raised a small paw, and a soft golden light spilled over the demon whale.
Wherever the light touched, the torn muscles and shattered scales began healing at a visibly rapid pace, the bones giving off faint cracking sounds, as though being pieced back together.
The demon whale's eyes, which had held no will to live, gradually regained a spark of vitality.
"What kind of power is this?" it murmured under its breath, its tone tinged with disbelief.
It could feel the fortune of the sea gathering around it, the bottleneck it had been stuck at for a hundred thousand years beginning to loosen.
"Keep training with me, every day."
Just getting beaten up could break through a hundred thousand year bottleneck? What a stroke of luck.
Revitalized, the demon whale charged straight at Arthur.
"Human! Take this!"
That concluded today's training. Arthur returned to the deck, cleaned himself up a little, then headed to the hall for the group meal.
While eating.
Xie Xie asked, puzzled, "Come to think of it, I haven't seen Gu Yue in a while."
He shoveled rice from his bowl while glancing around. "She hasn't secluded herself over what happened that day, has she?"
Everyone's eyes turned as one toward Na'er, who instantly flushed red, breaking into a foolish, giddy grin the moment she recalled that night.
Xu Xiaoyan grabbed her star staff and smacked Xie Xie across the face with it, snapping furiously, "Don't make me remember that, you jerk!"
Xie Xie clutched his stinging cheek, looking thoroughly wronged.
Tang Wulin couldn't help bursting out laughing. "Serves you right."
Arthur wasn't about to touch this topic. He kept his head down and focused on eating.
Honestly, even now he still had no idea what exactly had been going on with Gu Yue that night.
Had she snapped? Did she have a split personality?
Or was she just messing with him through some kind of contrast act?
Meanwhile, in Gu Yue's room, she hadn't stepped outside in several days.
Puzzled by their mistress's recent behavior, the fierce beasts, wanting to ease her burden, sent Bi Ji to look into things.
Gu Yue sat by the window, gazing out at the sea.
Behind her, Bi Ji knelt on one knee.
"My lady," Bi Ji said softly, "you've been sitting here for five days now."
Gu Yue didn't turn around. She simply gazed silently at the rolling waves outside the window.