Fortunately, no one had let their guard down. As the finger-long fish closed in, they fired the spines on their backs in unison, drumming the shields like hail.

Outside the wall of shields, the two puppets smashed at the school. The fish were low-level; a single punch cleared whole swathes.

In moments the last fish was pulp. The puppets were peppered with white pock-marks, nothing serious.

The shields had barely folded away when Ye Liuyun’s golden pupils caught brown bugs wriggling up from the seabed. Following the blood-trail, they first drained every trace of crimson from the water and the floating corpses, then surged straight at the team.

The two forward puppets smashed again, but the insects were too small; plenty slipped through.

Ye Liuyun flung out a wave of ice-seal—one sweep froze acres—then shattered the whole slab with a palm-strike.

After a while the drain felt wasteful. He shaped the sea-ice into an ice-cone and, with spatial force, herded the insects inside. Everyone joined, shifting bugs into the freezing spire. Chilled stiff, they could no longer crawl. 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

When no more insects showed, Ye Liuyun locked them in ice, threaded a wisp of Golden-Crow sacred fire through the block, and reduced the whole mass to ash.

He exhaled, swapped places with First Clone, and dropped to the rear for a breather while the clone led on.

They hadn’t gone far when the pressure climbed and the water turned even colder. Ahead, the trench yawned darker.

Ye Liuyun’s golden eyes picked out the flickering silhouettes of sea-beast wraiths.

“Ghosts!”

First Clone warned the martial artists behind to brace their souls, then advanced, sweeping baleful Nether Ghostfire ahead to scatter the yin-breath and ignite the wraiths. Here, Ghostfire outperformed Golden-Crow flame; one gout set whole ranks howling.

Ye Liuyun and Second Clone bathed the group in Buddhist radiance, leaving the sea-wraiths no opening.

“Strong spirits—most were Unity Seven or Eight when alive,” First Clone muttered. “Without counters we’d be meat.”

“Release the Lord of Hell aura—see what we can learn,” Ye Liuyun sent.

First Clone let the aura roll out. A Unity-Eight sea-serpent wraith, mid-shriek, suddenly found the Ghostfire gone and the pressure of the Nether King upon it. Suspicion flickered in its spectral eyes.

The clone snapped his fingers; Ghostfire and Buddhist light caged the serpent again.

“Want another death—or a new life?” he demanded.

“I’m already dead,” the serpent answered, mind still sharp.

“I can send you all to the Netherworld, let your souls re-enter the wheel. Better than dissolving to nothing.”

The serpent glanced at the burning, howling wraiths around it, undecided.

The clone waved; every scrap of Ghostfire withdrew. Then he summoned the Gate of Hell, linking with Zhuge Feiyu waiting on the far side, Soul-Banner in hand, ready to collect the spirits.

Every sea-wraith froze, staring at the gate with naked longing. Yet without a leader none dared move.

Zhuge Feiyu flourished the banner; its pull and the gate’s Nether breath set the ghosts churning.The sea-serpent that the clone had first rescued hesitated for a heartbeat, then dipped its head to the clone in submission. Abandoning all resistance, it let itself be drawn straight into Zhuge Feiyu’s Hundred-Refined Soul Banner.

Once the first yielded, the rest followed in droves; sea-beast after sea-beast was swallowed by the banner and funneled into the Netherworld.

When the last spectral beast had been taken, the thick yin mist ahead began to thin.

Zhuge Feiyu rolled up the banner and told Ye Liuyun, “Those sea souls say the trench’s deepest point hides a secret realm ruled by a mighty sea demon. The yin array it set is what trapped them here.

This place gathers yin qi; only by staying and killing intruders can they cling to a half-life.

They guess the demon’s at the ninth level of Return-to-One, and a master of arrays.”

“Demon beast? What kind?” Ye Liuyun asked.

“Blue whale,” Zhuge Feiyu answered.

“Blue whale? Ask them if it’s home right now.” Ye Liuyun suddenly thought of the whale outside.

Zhuge Feiyu checked. The whale had left to feed and had not yet returned.

“Got it. Thanks—head back; I’ll close the gate.” Ye Liuyun nodded his thanks.

Zhuge Feiyu nodded in return, stepped into the Netherworld, and let Ye Liuyun seal the portal.

Ye Liuyun stayed behind, wondering: is the whale outside the same demon? If not, what ties them together?

He made the call: retreat, find the whale. Whether it was the demon or not, trap it in his inner world first.

The way out was smooth; every array was still etched in his mind.

Near the exit they passed fresh corpses caught in the traps—latecomers who had followed them in. Ye Liuyun ignored them and kept going.

The moment they left the trench, before they could even search for the whale, several human experts struck from ambush. The five slaves he released blocked them.

The seabed erupted in battle; the would-be assassins were erased in seconds by Black Tiger and Phantom Hand’s black-white light.