Three hours passed in relative calm.
By now, the soul-hunting vessel had already left the safe waters and entered a region where sea soul beasts might attack at any time.
At this point, Xue E had returned to Bai Chen's side. Earlier, when they were still in the safe zone, it hadn't mattered if he stepped away briefly. But here, he had to remain close to protect Bai Chen and Na'er at all times.
Bai Chen noticed the map in Xue E's hand and asked curiously,
"Uncle Xue, what's that?"
Xue E paused for a moment, then smiled and unfolded the sheet, showing him its contents.
"This is the sea soul beast distribution map the captain handed out earlier. With this map, the Federation can make sure every soul master's needs are met during the voyage."
As technology advanced, humanity had gradually expanded its exploration of the oceans.
Although conquering the entire ocean was still impossible, the nearshore regions were already well within the Federation's control.
If the Federation dared to run a business involving the hunting of sea soul beasts, it meant they had already thoroughly studied the surrounding waters.
Just like land soul beasts, sea soul beasts also possessed territorial instincts. Their territories weren't as stable as those on land, but their activities were generally limited to certain regions.
And this map was precisely the foundation of the Federation's confidence.
Different soul masters required different types of soul rings.
For example, Bai Chen specifically wanted a dark-attribute or space-attribute soul ring this time.
It wasn't that he didn't want evil-attribute or time-attribute soul rings.
But one of those attributes was extremely controversial, while the other was too rare, practically impossible to encounter.
So he had lowered his expectations to darkness or space.
Without guidance, searching the vast ocean for those attributes wouldn't quite be like finding a needle in a haystack—but it would still be incredibly time-consuming.
Thus, the Federation planned its routes according to this distribution map, traveling through different regions in sequence.
"Ah. We've arrived at the first zone."
At that moment, Xue E suddenly folded the map and looked ahead.
Just as he said, the soul-hunting ship slowed and came to a stop.
A middle-aged man in white robes stepped onto the bow of the ship.
Seven soul rings—two yellow, three purple, two black—rotated around him.
A frost-blue pearl floated above his palm, releasing waves of icy energy that blew across the ocean surface.
Besides the bodyguards hired by the passengers, the Federation had also dispatched an ice-attribute Soul Saint to better handle combat with sea soul beasts.
Stimulated by the cold aura, streaks of green wind blades suddenly shot up from beneath the sea, carving cracks into the frozen surface.
The white-robed Soul Saint remained completely calm.
He simply stood there, releasing colder and colder energy, strengthening the spreading ice.
Behind him, five men stepped forward and shouted loudly,
"All soul masters seeking wind-attribute soul rings, gather here! Prepare to descend onto the ice!"
Hearing this, more than ten young soul masters quickly stepped forward and followed the five men off the ship.
Each of those five men had six soul rings—all of them were Soul Emperors.
One Soul Saint and five Soul Emperors.
That was the security force the Federation provided.
Considering the distance of this voyage, such strength was more than sufficient.
Soon after, perhaps provoked by the freezing cold—or perhaps seeking revenge—
Several seal-like sea soul beasts climbed onto the ice and began attacking the humans.
The outcome was obvious.
The battle was completely one-sided.
Within ten minutes, the fight on the ice was already over.
In nearshore waters, ten-thousand-year soul beasts were extremely rare, and even thousand-year ones were uncommon.
Against five Soul Emperors and their powerful escorts, these creatures couldn't last long.
After the soul rings were captured using specialized soul tools, the participating soul masters returned to the ship.
The vessel resumed its journey toward the next soul beast zone.
The wind-attribute clients remained on board, beginning the absorption of their newly obtained soul rings.
The entire process was incredibly smooth.
At this rate, they would return to land in less than a week.
After that, the hunting ship repeated the same process twice more, fulfilling the requests of two additional groups of clients.
During this time, Bai Chen took the opportunity to continue studying the Soul Spirit Contract ritual.
After several days of practice, he felt he had almost mastered it.
At most, it would take half a month before he could perform the ritual himself.
However—
just as things seemed calm, an accident suddenly occurred.
"Wooooo—"
"Attention! Attention! Unrecorded sea soul beasts are attacking! All soul masters prepare for battle!"
A loud alarm echoed across the ship.
Every soul master instantly became alert.
"Unrecorded sea soul beasts" referred to creatures not listed on the distribution map.
They usually didn't belong to the region and had only appeared by coincidence.
No one could predict what kind of soul beasts they might encounter.
But generally speaking, these unexpected creatures tended to be quite powerful.
For soul masters whose attributes matched them, they could also be excellent targets.
One soul ring after another lit up across the ship.
The vessel came to an emergency stop.
The white-robed Soul Saint appeared again—this time not on the bow, but hovering above the ocean.
He raised the pearl in his hand above his head.
His seventh soul ring suddenly flared.
"BOOM—!"
A thunderous explosion echoed through the air.
An overwhelming wave of freezing energy erupted outward.
The seawater began freezing second by second, rapidly forming a massive sheet of ice.
The power of a Soul Saint using his Martial Soul True Body was terrifying.
Although he deliberately directed most of the cold energy toward the sea, a small portion still drifted toward the ship.
Even that small amount made many low-level soul masters shiver uncontrollably.
Under the assault of the freezing energy, dozens of sea soul beasts were instantly trapped within the ice.
The white-robed Soul Saint sighed in relief—
But the next moment, his expression froze.
Circles of black-red light suddenly appeared.
They rapidly eroded the frozen ice.
With a series of cracking sounds, the trapped soul beasts burst free one after another.
As an experienced Soul Saint, he quickly made a judgment and shouted his analysis to everyone on board.
"There are at least ten ten-thousand-year soul beasts!"
"Among them, roughly three are above thirty thousand years."
"The leader is approximately fifty thousand years old."
"The real threat is those ten-thousand-year beasts. The others are just supporting forces."
He paused for a moment before announcing the enemy.
"The enemies we're facing are…"
"Evil Tiger Sharks!"