Wu Long gently sat Shen Min on a wooden chair not far from them, letting her bask in the afterglow while he cleaned himself as well as her up. She gradually came to when he was already fully clothed again and was fixing her upper clothes. She smiled at him and as he saw her gaze that asked for a kiss he gladly obliged.

She took out new lower underwear and pants and became fully clothed as well. He watched with rapt attention as she took her lower clothes all the way off and then wore the new ones, and as she felt his gaze she felt a warm sensation envelop her.

The ship sailed off into the sea as the trip through the Southern Archipelago continued with even more comfort.

Cao Xiang stood at the captain’s deck, looking into the distance when she saw Wu Long enjoying time with his beauties on the upper deck below. Her expression darkened as she was still feeling guilty and ashamed.

Meanwhile, Luo Mingyu was excitedly telling Wu Long about the new comprehension of the second layer of Dual Extremes Infinite Union Art that she was able to figure out.

“… yes, the feeling I get is that the second layer of the technique is largely comprehended at this time, though there may be some discoveries later it should not impede comprehension of the third layer”

Wu Long said as he now felt confident enough to start the comprehension of the third layer. But as he said this, a slightly unnatural silence hung in the air and confused expressions appeared on the faces of beauties around him.

“… there is a third layer?”

Finally, Luo Mingyu carefully asked, and this time it was Wu Long’s time to be confused. Even if they could not be comprehended immediately, a practitioner would be able to tell how many layers were in a technique as long as they learned the technique.

Wu Long looked at the faces of the beauties around him and was more and more dumbfounded, as he clearly perceived nine layers of the technique.

“You don’t perceive more than two layers?”

As they shook their heads Wu Long became mystified.

“I thought it was a characteristic of the technique that the second layer evolves from the first, as I did not even perceive the second layer of the technique when I learned it, and only found out it has the second layer after the enlightenment we had after our first cultivation session with it”

Ye Ling added, and then surprise appeared on the face of Luo Mingyu and the others yet again.

“When we learned it we clearly perceived two layers…”

They said and the confusion became even more intense.

“Well, sister Ye Ling did learn it first, and the enlightenment about the second layer came to her and Wu Long at the same time”

Luo Mingyu ponderingly said as she was starting to see the logic in it.

“You mean to say…”

Ye Ling widened her eyes and Luo Mingyu nodded as Wu Long reached the same conclusion.

“The only one who can see the complete technique is Wu Long, and for us, it evolves as long as he comprehends the next layer”

She made an assumption that caused everyone to slightly shudder in astonishment. This technique was too mysterious and profound.

Wu Long’s Chaos Origin Eyes as well as Chaos Refining Body Tempering Art were also unusual techniques in the sense that they were taught to him, but he could not teach it to others. He was told about this by the people who taught him, but since he never attempted to teach these techniques to anyone he did not particularly care. However, when he tried to teach Luo Mingyu not long ago she told him that the mnemonic he told her did not make any sense, and when she repeated it to him he found out that it was truly a string of incomprehensible noises, rather than the mnemonic of the technique.

But he never heard of a technique’s layers being hidden from others and only perceivable to one person.

“Though we cannot be certain as we need to wait until the third layer is uncovered”

She concluded, and their base assumption became this theory as the others including Wu Long nodded. Wu Long was still dumbfounded at this discovery when he noticed Cao Mei standing on the side of the ship and absentmindedly looking into the far ocean.

He approached her but she was too busy with her thoughts to notice.

He smiled and already opened his mouth to lightly tease her but then his pupils shrank and he looked to the horizon.

“Wu Long!”

Ye Ling arrived at his side in a flash, startling Cao Mei who looked back at the two and quickly noticed the serious expressions on Ye Ling’s face. Soon, a powerful and suffocating pressure enveloped the entire ship and anyone below Qi Manifestation Realm fell onto their knees struggling to breathe while those above had trouble doing anything else except resisting the pressure.

“This pressure is…”

Ye Ling’s eyes narrowed in the same direction Wu Long was looking at previously, and then she looked at him, as he looked back, nodding with a serious expression.

“Yes, it is a 9th-tier demonic sea beast” 𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝘭.𝘦𝑡

He replied and Ye Ling gulped while Cao Mei, as well as Wu Long’s other beauties that rushed here widened their eyes and paled.

“What is such a thing doing chasing…”

She started replying but then gasped as she remembered.

“Liquid Fire Flower?”

She asked in bewilderment as she could not believe that a demonic beast of this level was making its way to them at this time because of something they picked up weeks ago.

“It was probably lured over to that volcanic island, and when it reached it, tracked us by scent, it likely took this long since there was the volcanic ash that obscured the scent as well as another ship there, so it chased after it first…”

Wu Long said while his mind was rushing with the decision of how to deal with it.

“Ling’er”

Wu Long looked at Ye Ling, there was a minute communication in that gaze that had trust and faith in it. She understood that he asked her to keep everyone safe while he was gone as fighting that demonic sea beast near the ship was not a good idea.

“Wu Long…”

Wei Lan started but Ye Ling placed her hand on her shoulder to stop her. There was no time to argue and Ye Ling ultimately trusted Wu Long’s judgment.

He jumped off the ship and Spiritual Qi gathered at the soles of his feet as he landed on top of the water and sped off in the direction the presence was coming from.

There was a certain light in Luo Mingyu’s eyes that watched his receding figure as her excitement about finding new comprehension about the Dual Extemes Infinite Union 2nd layer, which helped Wu Long and everyone, died down. Ye Ling worriedly looked at her expression, opened her mouth but did not say anything in the end.

As Wu Long traveled at high speed he soon reached a point where the giant ship he was on was just a tiny dot on the horizon and stopped there. A luxuriously decorated halberd appeared in his hand as he waited for a bit. Not long after a big figure surfaced from the sea, covered in a hard shell and with big pincers that just from the looks of them boasted astonishing gripping power.

“Heh, Wei Lan’s going to be happy with some crab soup today”

Wu Long smiled, as it was certainly a high-level demonic beast but the main feature was not speed or any supernatural abilities, but its defense and pincers. He did not consider such a creature a threat to him.

Just as Wu Long said his phrase the pincer closed with astonishing speed, creating a loud sound as if a catastrophic thunderclap sounded out and a violent airwave spread as the rapid compression of air created a targeted area explosion.

*gulp*

Wu Long’s smile slightly froze as his hair was blown back by the tyrannical wind from the demonic sea beast crab closing its pincer.

Wu Long’s halberd came up with his hand and made graceful revolving motions as he sidestepped and another explosion sounded out as the crab’s second pincer sent a targeted airwave with a pinch to the direction Wu Long was just at. The speed of the airwave and its explosive force backed by Spiritual Qi were absolutely lethal for him, so the only way he was alive was by predicting the attack and moving before it happened since his speed was slower than the speed of the attack.

Even as he avoided it a light redness appeared on his skin from the secondary wave that was widespread, less lethal but still powerful enough. Wu Long’s halberd still revolved as he moved with fluid motions, avoiding the attacks of the creature, circling around it. Wind and Spiritual Qi were swirling in the path of the halberd’s rotation, and his figure also was moving so that both his body and the momentum of the halberd were constantly accelerating. Finally, a light discoloration appeared in the area as Wu Long’s Halberd Intent broke out in violent waves, and his movements flowed into a single powerful strike that cracked the crab open, split it in two, and sent an airwave with a huge explosion of water high into the air.