"Ten-thousand-year Deep Sea Demon Whale? Not bad."
Looking at the description on the sea chart, Shui Wuhen closed it and sent a telepathic message to Articuno: "Articuno, there's no need to detour around the Deep Sea Demon Whale Sea Area ahead. We'll just pass through from the southern side."
"Alright!"
Articuno nodded, then slightly adjusted her course.
A mere ten-thousand-year soul beast like the Deep Sea Demon Whale was not enough to make Shui Wuhen and Articuno retreat. With their current strength, even directly facing a ten-thousand-year soul beast, they might not necessarily lose—let alone the fact that they were flying so high.
Of course, to avoid unnecessary conflict, Shui Wuhen and the others still chose to pass from the southern side. After all, the sea chart already stated the method to pass through, so they might as well use it.
Very quickly, Articuno arrived above the Deep Sea Demon Whale Sea Area and flew according to the planned route.
However, what Shui Wuhen and Articuno did not know was that after they entered the air above the sea area, deep in the abyssal ocean below, an enormous soul beast seemed to sense something. A rough voice echoed from within its massive body.
"The aura of divinity!"
The next moment, the gigantic body moved, rapidly swimming upward.
As the colossal creature stirred, the originally calm sea began to surge with turbulent waves.
"Hmm?"
Shui Wuhen in the sky immediately noticed the abnormality below, and his expression turned cautious as thoughts rapidly spun.
"The sea chart is fake? No… we've already verified its accuracy many times before. Then is the description of this sea area wrong?"
While he was thinking, the sea below had already begun to churn violently. In an instant, the entire Deep Sea Demon Whale Sea Area was thrown into monstrous waves.
BOOM——
A massive water pillar over fifteen meters in diameter shot into the sky, distorting the surrounding air as it directly aimed at Articuno.
"Dodge!"
Without Shui Wuhen's command, Articuno herself flapped her wings and sidestepped, narrowly avoiding the enormous water pillar.
After evading the attack, Articuno looked downward—and immediately saw a colossal figure slowly rising from beneath the sea, like an island emerging from the depths.
It was a whale-type soul beast with a body the color of sapphire, over two hundred meters in length. On its head were two enormous eyes, each over three meters in diameter. One of them was hollow and lifeless, exactly as described in the sea chart—it was blind!
After this gigantic Deep Sea Demon Whale appeared, all the surrounding seawater was tinted with a rich blue glow, even brighter than the sky itself.
"This is a ten-thousand-year Deep Sea Demon Whale?"
Looking at the creature below, Shui Wuhen was filled with confusion. Was there a mistake? This clearly wasn't an ordinary ten-thousand-year soul beast.
But he quickly understood the truth. Those soul masters before him, just like he once was, had too little knowledge and could not distinguish between ten-thousand-year soul beasts and those far beyond that level.
From the size and aura of the creature below, this was unmistakably an ultimate ferocious beast—and it was clearly even more powerful than the Ice Empress Scorpion he had encountered before!
However, after seeing Articuno dodge its attack, the Deep Sea Demon Whale King revealed a hint of surprise in its eyes.
From the aura emitted by Articuno and Shui Wuhen, they were only at the Soul Saint level. Yet such a level actually managed to evade its attack—this was absurd.
"No wonder it carries the aura of divinity. Indeed, extraordinary!" the Deep Sea Demon Whale King thought to itself.
The next moment, its massive body shifted slightly, and a gigantic tail swept upward from behind, wrapped in twisting blue light, slamming heavily into the sea surface.
In an instant, countless water droplets shot into the sky. Each droplet was like a sharp arrow, piercing toward Articuno and Shui Wuhen.
Seeing this, Shui Wuhen's pupils shrank sharply, and he immediately sent a message: "Go! Fly to ten thousand meters altitude!"
If it were just a ten-thousand-year soul beast, they might still have a chance to fight. But against this unfathomable ferocious beast, they only had one option.
"Vee~~~"
Articuno flapped her wings, instantly performing a powerful upward surge, rapidly climbing higher into the sky.
Although Articuno's speed was extremely fast, it might still not be enough to escape such a terrifying beast. But ten thousand meters altitude was different. Aside from a very small number of exceptionally powerful flying soul beasts, even a Titled Douluo could not reach that height—that was their advantage zone.
The Deep Sea Demon Whale King naturally saw this scene and sneered in its heart.
"Trying to escape? If I let you escape, wouldn't I become a laughingstock?"
Although Shui Wuhen and Articuno had some unusual abilities, the Deep Sea Demon Whale King was even more extraordinary. As one of the only two 990,000-year soul beasts on the entire Douluo Continent—virtually a million-year-level existence—it would be effortless to deal with two Soul Saints.
More importantly, it had been stuck at this level for a very long time. Without divine position guidance, it did not dare to take the final step, fearing death under the heavenly tribulation.
Now that it saw Shui Wuhen and Articuno—especially Articuno, who seemed to carry the aura of a divine inheritance—it would never let them escape.
In an instant, a blue radiance spread from the Deep Sea Demon Whale King's body, instantly enveloping the entire sea area, including the rapidly ascending Articuno.
After being covered by this blue light, Shui Wuhen and Articuno clearly felt that although they were already thousands of meters in the air, their bodies felt as if they were still submerged in the ocean.
The surrounding air rippled strangely, and an invisible resistance made them feel as if they were sinking into deep water. Moreover, this "ocean of air" exerted even greater suppression than real seawater.
A domain—without a doubt, this was the power of a domain!
Although Shui Wuhen understood this, his heart sank.
Such an enormous domain was completely different from anything he had seen before. The previous domains he had encountered only covered a radius of a hundred meters, already considered extremely powerful, since most soul master attacks in this world did not even exceed that range.
But now, even though he and Articuno were at an altitude of thousands of meters, still far from the Deep Sea Demon Whale King, they were completely enveloped by its domain. This completely exceeded Shui Wuhen's imagination.
Such a monster actually existed in this world!!!
Just as they were restrained, a massive sphere of blue light over five meters in diameter condensed at the front of the Deep Sea Demon Whale King's mountainous back. In an instant, an incomparably terrifying beam of blue light erupted forward.