’Absolute Water Manipulation... what a powerful technique.’ Yuan thought to himself, as he never anticipated he would be able to literally command the sea.

However, while it may have seemed as though he had frozen the entire Bloody Expanse in time, in reality, he had only stilled a portion of it.

Even so, that ’portion’ spanned several hundred thousand miles of the sea.

"How much faster can we arrive at our destination now?" Yuan asked Gutou.

"Uhh..."

Gutou stared at Yuan in shock, stunned speechless.

After a moment of silence, Gutou spoke, "If you can keep the currents frozen, we can travel with Void Manipulation and speed up our pace tremendously. Still, we’ll need at least several years."

Yuan nodded and turned to Supreme Ruler Dena, "Can you follow his directions and move us to the edge of my ’territory’?"

She calmly nodded.

"This direction." Gutou pointed east a few moments later.

Supreme Ruler Dena then used Void Manipulation to teleport them to the edge of Yuan’s territory, where the sea wasn’t under his command.

When Yuan uses Absolute Water Manipulation, anything within his control is considered his territory.

After arriving, Gutou said, "Please give me a few days to read the currents, then you can freeze it."

A few days later, Yuan used Absolute Water Manipulation, freezing the Bloody Expanse as far as their eyes could see.

"That direction."

They would repeat this process for multiple times throughout the next two years.

Eventually...

"Seeing that atoll with the skull mountain? We have officially entered the region with the Weeping Ossuary. Honestly, we got lucky with its location." Gutou said as he pointed to an island on the horizon that had a lone white mountain shaped like a skull.

"So the Weeping Ossuary is somewhere around here?" Yuan asked.

"Somewhere, yes," Gutou replied. "Unfortunately, this is the largest region within the Bone Atoll. It may take us even longer to locate the Weeping Ossuary than it did to reach this place... even if we know the general location and head straight there."

"Then let’s not waste any more time and get going—"

Suddenly, a massive bubble swelled beneath Yuan’s feet, distorting the surface of the water, before erupting upward like a volcanic blast.

Supreme Ruler Dena quickly reacted and used Void Manipulation to teleport them all to safety.

The next instant, a massive sea serpent with crimson scales jumped out of the water and flew into the sky.

"Which bastard is responsible for disturbing my cultivation?!"

It glared at Yuan’s group with immense killing intent.

"Huh? What are you talking about?" Yuan questioned.

"The bastard that stopped my currents! Identify yourself!" The red sea serpent roared.

"You’re the cause of the abnormal currents?!" Gutou exclaimed with surprise.

With his vast experience as a guide, Gutou could proudly claim that he knew most of, if not all, sea devils within the Death Atoll. Yet, he has never seen or heard of this red serpent.

Moreover, like other guides, he believed that the unpredictable current was a natural phenomenon, not something caused by a sea devil.

"Are you responsible?!" The crimson sea serpent snapped to glare at Gutou.

"N-No!" he hastily refused while shaking his head.

"Then is it you?!"

It turned to look at Lev next.

"Th-That’s right! I am responsible! So what?!"

For some reason, Lev admitted to a crime he didn’t commit.

"So... you will pay for your crime with death!" The crimson serpent roared as it lunged at Lev, who immediately hid behind Yuan.

Without a word, Yuan retrieved Number One Under Heaven and swung it at the incoming sea devil.

Sha!

Not only did Yuan cleave the crimson sea serpent in half with a single strike, but he also split the sea in half.

"Huh." Yuan stared at the sea devil’s mangled corpse with a raised eyebrow.

"It’s a lot weaker than I expected, considering that it was able to affect the Bloody Expanse to such an extent," he remarked.

As if he had jinxed it, the severed Sea Devil’s corpse suddenly reconnected, its mangled body stitching itself back together before rising from the surface of the sea.

"Hahaha! If you think you can kill me with such a weak—"

Before the sea devil could even finish its sentence, Yuan unleashed Heaven Splitting Sword Strike at it, completely vaporizing its body until not even a single scale of it was left behind.

"Surely, it won’t be able to regenerate from that, right?" Lev mumbled.

However, the moment Lev closed his mouth, a crimson orb suddenly materialized out of thin air, quickly expanding in size until it formed the crimson sea serpent again.

"What the hell?! To regenerate from that, its regeneration is on par with yours!" Lev exclaimed as he turned to look at Yuan.

Yuan narrowed his eyes at the crimson sea serpent.

Then, without a word, unleashed Heaven Splitting Sword Strike again. This time, he used Eternal Essence.

However, not even half a minute later, the sea devil returned.

"It’s useless! You will never kill this Everlasting Crimson Dragon!"

"You? A dragon?" Yuan sneered. "You’re barely a sea serpent, much less a dragon."

"And I doubt you’re really immortal."

"Then how is it coming back to life even after its entire body is vaporized?" Gutou asked.

"That’s probably not its real body," Yuan remarked with a profound smile.

"?!" The Everlasting Crimson Dragon’s body visibly stiffened when it heard Yuan’s words.

The smile on Yuan’s face widened.

"Looks like I am right. I bet its real body is somewhere in the Bloody Expanse."

"I’ll give you credit where it’s due," the Everlasting Crimson Dragon said. "You’re the first to see through the truth."

"However, even if you know the truth, there’s nothing you can do about it unless you know where my real body is! Hahaha!"

"..."

After a moment of silence, Yuan said, "So what? It’s not like you can kill us, either."

"A bold claim! I may be unable to kill you now, but there’s no such thing as forever! I’ll wear you down and then kill you, no matter how long it takes!"

"Wear me down?" Yuan chuckled. "Good luck with that. I am guaranteed to find your real body before you can exhaust me."

"It would be nice if the Primal Sovereign of the Seas was still with us. I bet he’d be able to find its real body in a heartbeat," Lev remarked.

Suddenly, another bubble swelled across the water’s surface nearby, and a massive figure surged forth from the sea in the next instant.

"Primal Sovereign of the Seas?!" Lev cried out loud in disbelief.

"I heard this majestic one’s name being mentioned, so here I am!" the Primal Sovereign of the Seas laughed, its voice echoing across the sea.

Yuan narrowed his eyes before speaking in a suspicious tone, "Don’t tell me you’ve been stalking us this entire time."

"Me? Stalking?" the Primal Sovereign of the Seas echoed, its expression turning incredulous, as if the very notion offended it.

He continued, "I just happened to be in the area."

"..."

Despite his clear-sounding voice, Yuan did not believe him one bit.

Meanwhile, the Everlasting Crimson Dragon trembled in fear.

"P-Primal Sovereign of the Seas?! What the hell are you doing here?!" It exclaimed, looking like it just saw a ghost.

The Primal Sovereign of the Seas turned to face it and spoke, "Hm? If it isn’t Little Red. What are you doing here?"

"I came to this world to evolve because I didn’t want to disturb the seas in the Primal Expanse!" He cried out loud.

"And yet, here you are!"

"It’s just a coincidence."

"You two know each other?" Yuan suddenly interjected.

"Yes, we’ve clashed a few times in the Primal Expanse."

Yuan raised an eyebrow and remarked, "It survived not one but several clashes with you? It must be quite formidable."

The Primal Sovereign of the Seas burst out laughing and said, "That’s because I never fought her seriously."

"She’s female?"

"Not only that, but she has a crush on this majestic one. Unfortunately, we are not fated to be—"

"Shut the fuck up!" The Everlasting Crimson Dragon suddenly roared. "Who the hell has a crush on you?! That’s just your own made-up fantasy!"

"If you don’t have a crush on me, then why are you always coming after me and picking fights with me?"

"Because I am trying to surpass you!"

"There’s no need to be ashamed. This majestic one has plenty of admirers across the three worlds, after all."

"Screw you, you fat bastard!"

"You’ve become more feisty since I last saw you."

The Primal Sovereign of the Seas returned to Yuan and said, "Anyway, why did you call for me?"

Yuan sighed, "Nobody called for you."

"Then why was this majestic one’s name mentioned?"

Lev raised his hand and said, "Um... I was the one who called your name."

The Primal Sovereign of the Seas’ gaze immediately shifted to him, who proceeded to explain their situation to him.