“We shouldn’t 'ave come here, this was a mistake…”

A grizzled old man with a dark tan looked at a monstrous tentacle rising out of the sea and pulling his ship down. The massive storm was already a big problem but then the sea creatures were agitated.

“Captain, you said that this wouldn’t happen, were the blood crystals not enough? ”

“Shut yer mouth, the sea has been actin' strange these months, somethin' got the creatures spooked, me ship shall remain hidden but they spotted somethin' here, it's like must be one o' ye! Are ye hidin' somethin' that attracted the beasts t' me ship!?”

The people that looked like sailors took out their sabers and pointed them at the other group of passengers. Both sides had about the same fighting strength and it seemed the ship's captain was willing to toss the other side overboard to appease the monsters below.

“You dare go back on your promise, we haven’t even reached the destination, you clearly lied to us, where is the island?”

The ship captain frowned after remembering that he had taken these people on a quick cruise to a secret island location. The island was supposed to appear once a year for a week period and had a secret ground filled with various tests and trials. He had sold this information and fare for a lot of blood crystals that were the currency around the demonic lands.

“It should be here, I said that the sea was actin' strange lately…”

“Excuses!”

The two leaders from each side started shouting at each other while the lackeys got ready for a fight. The only problem was that the sea creatures that were around them were already devouring the ship which made this infighting even more stupid.

“Stop this nonsense or we all will die! Please, grandfather, appease your anger this is not the time.”

A young woman of alluring proportions placed herself between the leader of the robed figures and the pirate look-alikes. She was the only one that could see the bigger picture, if they didn’t work together they would surely die.

“Meifen … you are right, we need to take care of the beasts but then we will have a talk!”

“Aye…”

The ship captain nodded at the sailors that turned to face the dark tentacles coming out of the sea. However, even when they turned to face the monsters they were still keeping an eye out for the other party.

They were in lands without any laws or morals. Cheating between the demonic and evil cultivators was a daily occurrence. The sailors could have easily planned all of this just to kill them, the monsters that were attacking the ship could have even been part of the scheme. Yet after realizing that the ship was actually being torn apart did the party of cultivators decide to work together.

“These things… are they at the core formation level?”

Only the captain of the ship and the leader of the cloaked figures had any luck in harming the tentacles. The monstrous squid that looked like a smaller version of the legendary Kraken was just too strong for the others. All of their weapons just bounced away and couldn’t cut through the thick flesh.

The man that the young woman named Meifen called grandfather jumped forward. In both of his hands, he was holding a giant gloomy-looking scythe. The dark blood from the sea creature was dripping from it but also making it radiate more power.

“... Now!”

The man waited for the monster to pop its ugly head out. It was bulbous in shape and mostly consisted of a swarm of eyes and shark-like teeth. When it drove its mouth into the ship he used this chance to slash diagonally. The weapon he was holding burst forth with dark red energy as a massive blade surrounded by wailing souls was formed. This attack collided with the sea creature and sent it tumbling back.

Following this attack, the ship’s captain thrust forward with his heavy rapier. A sonic boom escaped from it as the blade tip collided with the monster as well. With both of the attacks hitting the creature retreated into the depths while its tentacles let go of the ship.

“That wasn’t bad for an ugly bastard.”

“Aye, no’ bad ye ole fart!”

Both the leaders started eyeballing each other once more, the monster had retreated but their feud was not over yet. Either the ship captain returned the blood stones that he took or he delivered them to the requested spot. It was a problematic decision as he had already suffered massive damage to his ship and would need these crystals to cover the expenses.

“Return the crystals, you have lied about the… huh?”

Before the argument could continue further a massive wave hit them. It came from the side where the squid monster vanished.

“Is that blasted thing still alive… no… how could this be!”

To the surprise of the people on the ship, it was something else. A giant humanoid hand rose from beneath the depths with the squid monster in it. This monster that had almost caused them to go under was handed like a little fish by the creature that just appeared.

A massive scream of pain escaped from the Kraken look-alike before it was squished before them. The giant of the depths rose up and pushed the full-sized ships as if it was a tiny boat. Its body was covered with dragon-like scales and the head was similar to a hammerhead shark. The upper body had a humanoid shape but from its back, a mass of tentacles with various horns and teeth could also be seen.

“I-it’s a leviathan? … Why would one of these things be so close to the shore?”

The ship's captain crumbled to his knees as he saw the gigantic monster devouring the other sea creature. A leviathan was how they described the rulers of the dark seas. They were monsters on the level of nascent soul masters and were considered stronger than their human counterparts.

“Meifen… please forgive your stupid grandfather…”

“Grandfather…”

The two family members clung to each other while looking at the beast. It was clear that they would end up inside of its belly, there was no escape. Its energy wouldn’t allow a core formation expert to fly away on a sword, there was no place to hide or run, if a miracle didn’t happen they would be quickly devoured.

This massive being of the depths looked down at the tiny beings below. It could feel the two core formation experts on the ship and it desired their spiritual energy to sustain its body. The massive mouth opened up to show off the rows upon rows of greatsword-sized teeth, the squid flesh still on it as it craved more sustenance.

Yet while everyone was trembling in fear and had their lives flashing before their eyes, something strange happened. The beast stopped right before chomping down on the ship. Everyone gathered there had a front-row seat to the stinky mouth of this large being.

It suddenly started being pulled away and rose up into the air. The monster’s lower body was similar to that of a legendary mermaid while also having a plethora of squirming tendrils. While the leviathan were considered on par with nascent soul masters, they weren’t known for their flight ability, there was something fishy going on here.

“W-what is happening… what is that purple haze around it…”

“T-there, up in the sky!”

Meifen looked up to where her grandfather pointed and quickly saw a man’s figure floating up in the sky. It wasn’t hard to figure out that this person was pulling the creature out of the sea but how was he doing it? The monster started squirming around but its massive hands collided with some kind of transparent barrier that continued to get smaller and smaller.

After a few moments, they could see a truly gruesome display of bones breaking. The leviathan was being crushed while floating defenseless in the air. What kind of being could do something like this to a strong creature like this? Was this the second coming of the Heavenly Demon?

…

A few moments earlier…

‘Hm, this should do… can’t use my old pseudonym of a demon hunter, so I need something new…’

Zhang Dong was hiding his presence while shrouding his body in the thick clouds above. Below him was a mass of water filled with various sea creatures that would give his previous self nightmares. The creatures had sharp teeth, tentacles, and eyes where they shouldn’t have. Devouring each other seemed to be their only pastime and perhaps the reason why the water was a murky dark.

He had already spent a few days zooming through the air towards the lands of the demonic cultivators. It was quite boring and the only thing keeping him awake was his new disguise that he was still deciding on. His robes were of course switched out to more demonic-looking black ones with various occult-looking symbols on them.

His new persona would be a solo demonic cultivator of unfathomable power and knowledge. He could not look like a bum, instead, he decided to go for a more refined-looking elderly person. A white bread that was cut at angles to pronounce his chin was the first thing he attempted, his hair was slick and plentiful. He somewhat based it on an old meme from his old days, just an aged-up version.

For the time being, he needed to lock away his holy aura. Luckily he had gained a nice replacement with the Dao of gravity. Coupled with his spooky soul Dao he could shroud himself in mysterious purple energy that wasn’t far off from what the demonic cultivators used.

‘The concentration of spiritual energy here is even worse than in the lower regions.’

He had a lot of knowledge concerning the empire. The demonic cultivators used a different way to get stronger than the orthodox ones on the mainland. Instead of mostly using spiritual energy to slowly cultivate the arts, they absorbed it from other living beings. This allowed them to cultivate at the lower levels faster but halted their progress later on.

‘So they turn the beasts and other humans into blood crystals that they use as a substitute for spiritual energy.’

This was the main reason for all the evil cultivators being hunted down. A lot of them infiltrated the mainland to gather humans as a resource. After partaking in the evil arts they were unable to use regular spiritual energy as a resource. They needed to instead capture other cultivators and turn them into human pills.

‘This is going to be an interesting expedition… I just have to remember to not get involved with their squabbles… Wait, what's that?’

In the distance, he spotted a lone ship fighting both a storm and a large squid monster. Yet this was not what he was worried about, below them was a much bigger creature that was grinning for some reason and even further away there were some strange fish people.

“Oh geez…”