Carried out of the range of the shark in what seemed only an instant he laughed inwardly, reveling in the freedom that such speed brought. The oppressing sense of danger that always seemed to surround him in the Depths was dispelled. What was there to be afraid of when every threat could be left behind in just an instant? A sense of wariness remained, but it was more of a heightened awareness like when driving at high speed, rather than the foreboding feeling of walking through a forest in the darkness.

That wasn’t even my fastest speed. Why pass up such a good training partner?

Head over tail he spun in place and shot back the way he came. The shield of air continued to surround him but he added two more enhancements this time, ones that had much higher consumption. The green aura around him shimmered, losing some of its volume and increasing his strength and speed. Along with this ability that consumed the Poison Qi invested into the Jade Mantle, the Qi from his other Core was pushed into a power he hadn’t used much in the Depths. The tip of his nose had to push through the water, making a point of breakthrough while the shield of air fought all the drag on his sides and rear. To go even faster there was an ability that King had once used in a similar manner: Cosmic Traction.

This ability burned through energy to change the density of space itself, warping the fabric of the world around him. It was astoundingly powerful, but it was also extremely taxing. Just using the air shield he’d only need to spend a few minutes at the surface every few hours. Such a cost was quite small. On the other hand, Cosmic Traction had such a high drain that it basically matched his Qi regeneration rate. While using it he couldn’t use any other techniques.

Or that was how it was on the surface. He hadn’t really used it much while he was in the Depths because it had a glaring weakness. For some reason the high pressure while under the sea also seemed to work upon the natural energies of the world. They were thicker and denser down here than back in the Dou or Shihu Kingdoms. He theorized that was the reason there was such a high density of powerful Demonic Beasts down here. The greater energy density made the plants and smallest plankton more powerful, which was a more powerful food for the small fish. This greater energy worked its way up the food chain, creating a much stronger ecosystem than on the surface.

This greater density also seemed to apply to space itself, making it more difficult to manipulate and increasing the cost for him to use Cosmic Traction. In the air it was quite easy for King, a fifth tier beast, to make a blade around his head and beak, cutting a large amount of wind resistance. Under the sea it was very difficult for Sage, as a Nascent Soul, to do the same with the drag from the water. The ‘spatial nose cone’ he could create was only a fraction of the size that King could make in the air, but when combined with the air shield it still drastically reduced the resistance he felt.

The already overwhelming speed became truly monstrous and required him to actively extend his Spirit Sense to keep up. Even with the enhanced vision types of the Sea Locust, he couldn’t see far enough to keep up with his reaction time. By the time something entered his visual range it was too late for him to change directions. He had to extend his Spiritual Sense outwards in the most active way, making himself extremely obvious to anyone in the area. Of course, that wasn’t really a huge concern at the moment because he was creating a loud noise simply by moving as fast as he was in the water. Even without his Spiritual Sense giving him away, the sound was even more obvious. While this form excelled in speed, it was far from being stealthy.

It was unfortunate that all these overt signs of him passing by were not as obvious in front of him, for the giant shark at least. Since he was moving faster than the speed of sound, the extremely loud rushing water left in his wake was not heard until after he passed by. The Spiritual Sense he was using to feel his way was extended only slightly further than his reaction time allowed. Given that this body had its physical reaction time pushed to the limits there was little chance that anything he approached could react in time. Especially since he’d left barely any room for error. Usually when accounting for reaction time it was the overall total of registering something happening, deciding upon a response, and then signaling the body into action. With enough practice the event and the response could become second nature, cutting out the need to make a decision as one’s body would act without even thinking, a natural reflex.

Sage got around this issue with the Inner World. Every action he took would be at the maximum speed his body could handle. As soon as something entered his senses the Soul Clone could analyze it and decide on a course of action in one seven hundredth of the normal time. The only slowdown was the time for a signal to be sent to his body to act and even this was many times faster than a normal human. The entire body of a Cultivator would be inundated with Qi and it comprehensively improved every function of the body. The only sad thing was that Life Nebula, the Qi Cultivation Technique he’d derived from the Tree of Life, was not focused upon speed or reaction time. Even so, his reaction times were monstrous, especially since he also had the body of a Demonic Insect and practiced Body Hardening techniques.

By the time the massive shark realized he had returned it was already too late.

A concentrated jet of water shot out of the side of his neck, combining with the arch of his body and the flip of his tail to change his trajectory. He slipped sideways avoiding the fin of the huge shark and changing the line of his approach to aim at a specific spot upon the shark’s side. The cone of space on his nose narrowed into a point and his Jade Mantle shifted to match it, using it as the point of the spear that he turned his body into. The burning poison of his Jade Mantle thrummed with the power of the Laws of Corruption and Thermodynamics magnifying its power to help him punch through the beast’s body.

Sage felt a ripple, the initial impact of the two bodies causing some resistance. Then that resistance was suddenly gone and everything went dark for an instant before he found himself back in the open ocean. Before getting a chance to examine the result of his attack he’d already shot out of sensory range. He slowed down and sent his Spiritual Sense backwards. By the time he’d turned around and swam back at a far more leisurely pace the last bit of life had already left the shark’s body. Sharks didn’t have swim bladders so the huge beast was already sinking down towards the bottom, but that observation was only secondary to the terrible wound that it suffered.

On one side of the thousand foot long shark was a small hole, just a couple yards wide. On the other, was a massive cavern. The whole side of the shark had been blown out, spanning from top to bottom, the two hundred foot wide hole was spewing out blood and shattered organs. A streamer of bright red blood trailed from the side of its body as it fell downwards. By the time Sage returned he could already see a few scavengers approaching.

The sheer speed of his attack had turned him into a living bullet, and the shockwave of his passing pulled along the insides of the shark, dragging them in his wake as he punched through its body. By the time he reached the far side of it, all of its insides were drawn along with him and caused an explosive release, blasting its body apart.