Qiong Qi tore open the array, and once he had shepherded Ye Liuyun’s group through the front formation, he too stopped to catch his breath.

“The pressure here keeps climbing. At this rate I won’t last much farther. And the arrays ahead—you won’t be able to handle them alone.”

Worry creased Qiong Qi’s brow as he spoke to Ye Liuyun.

“Just do your best. If it gets too rough we’ll slow down. I’ll stream everything I see to you and you decode it for me.”

Qiong Qi could only nod. “That’s all we can do. Let’s move while my core energy still holds and cover as much ground as possible.”

He rallied himself and led them deeper.

Two more hours passed before Qiong Qi finally collapsed. Ye Liuyun tucked both him and Ye Tiandao into his spatial world, then released two late Return-to-One warriors and three mid Return-to-One experts, ordering them to trail him at a distance. If anyone was trapped by an array, the others could break it from outside.

These five were high-level and physically tough; the ambient pressure barely bothered them.

Ye Liuyun and his clone now had to cloak themselves in spatial force just to withstand the weight of the water.

Ahead, on the trench floor, grew a patch of stunted seaweed. Afraid the plants might conceal another array, Ye Liuyun hovered in front of them and studied the scene for a long while—nothing looked wrong.

Qiong Qi, receiving the feed, saw no flaw either. Dragon Girl likewise sensed nothing odd.

“Let’s test it.”

Ye Liuyun didn’t send the others first; they might miss a subtle danger. He advanced alone. When nothing happened, he waved the rest forward.

The instant the group stepped in, the seaweed exploded outward, shooting up like living ropes. A massive sea-serpent burst from a crevice in the trench wall and arrowed toward them.

The seaweed resembled Devil Vine—thinner, softer, no thorns, but endless in number and speed. Tear away one strand and three more wrapped around you; in moments they were bundled like rice dumplings.

They tried to raise qi shields, but the weeds punched through effortlessly. Only when Ye Liuyun summoned Golden-Crow Sacred Flame did the fire gain a little ground—yet under the deep sea the flames were smothered as fast as he produced them.

Only Dragon Girl was safe; the seaweed ignored her. Whether it feared her Blue-Sea armor or recognized her sea-beast blood, no one knew.

Seeing the others entangled, she shifted to true form, intercepted the serpent, and slammed it down. Under her bloodline pressure its cultivation plummeted to Return-to-One Second-Layer, while her armor-boosted might let her rip its head off with one bite.

After killing the serpent she rushed back to tear the weeds away, but the plants, though not attacking her, sprouted walls of growth that blocked her path.

The other experts hacked and retreated. The clone, wreathed in Golden-Crow fire, broke free first.

Ye Liuyun used his golden pupils to pull Dragon Girl into his spatial world before she could be isolated, then wrapped himself in sacred flame and burst out.

The seaweed did not pursue; once they withdrew, it shrank back to its former harmless appearance.

“Master, these weeds are poisonous!” a warrior cried. Tiny cuts on necks and arms had begun to itch and numb.

Ye Liuyun and his clone felt their own toxin sources absorbing the venom through the skin. The poison was mild, but the paralysis would trap anyone who lingered.

Unwilling to lose time, Ye Liuyun and his clone drew the toxin out of the others. Dragon Girl, having cultivated the Myriad Poisons Sutra, neutralized hers alone.

Then Ye Liuyun released Devil Vine.

“Rip those weeds out by the roots,” he commanded.The Devil Vine plunged straight into the seabed. A tremor rolled through the depths; in moments, vast sheets of seaweed were yanked downward, and within minutes the ocean floor was swept clean—every blade of kelp gone.

The vine burst back out of the ground and reported to Ye Liuyun: “A half-demonized seaweed. I’ve absorbed it—rich energy, and highly toxic.”

“Half-demon seaweed?” Ye Liuyun frowned. They hadn’t actually traveled far; if semi-demonized sea beasts were already showing up, whatever lay ahead would only be more dangerous.

He recalled the Devil Vine, ordering it to stay ready for rescue, then waved the group onward.

“Hold it—stop!” Qiong Qi barked.

He had Ye Liuyun scan the route ahead. After a careful look, Qiong Qi pinpointed a second formation still active around the sea-serpent corpse—one that didn’t trigger on sea beasts. If they tried to collect the carcass, they’d likely blunder straight into the trap.

“Circle around the sides,” Qiong Qi concluded.

Ye Liuyun released his second clone, stationed both duplicates at the rear, alerted the ancient demon guards and the demon race to stand by for combat, and redistributed some of the fifty elite warriors to the clones as insurance.

Next he sent two ancient-demon puppets ahead to scout; even he refused to take point now.

Black Tiger and Phantom Hand shifted to human form and flanked him, ready to unleash their black-white beam.

“Move out—hold this formation and stay ready to strike,” he ordered.

They hadn’t gone far before a school of slender silver fish appeared, each sporting a javelin-like spine along its back. The swarm packed the trench floor from wall to wall, swimming straight at them.

“Shield wall!” Ye Liuyun shouted, handing out military-grade shields. The team locked them together in a tight ring, forming a barricade against the oncoming fish.

Schools of tiny fish were common in the sea, and they’d passed plenty that ignored them—but here, no one dared assume these would.