Su Ze’s clone once again brushed past the hermit crab and headed straight for the bottom of the Great Sea Shell. This time, he moved directly toward the purple barrier.

Up close, he finally got a clear look at the purple barrier. It was only at this distance that he discovered the barrier wasn’t purely purple; it was streaked with wisps of blue.

According to his deductions, purple represented the Divine rank of a seven-time evolution, just as a Bloodline Crystal containing a Divine Skill Prototype was also purple.

So, the appearance of a purple barrier here immediately made Su Ze think of the legendary "new king." It was said to be on the verge of completing its seventh evolution to become a Divine-rank aberrant beast.An

d now, this purple barrier mixed with blue seemed to fit the description of that new king perfectly. It had one foot in the Divine rank but hadn’t fully ascended, which was why it was still mixed with blue energy, a symbol of the sixth rank.

’Could this purple barrier really be the work of that new king?’

Su Ze’s Perception Tentacles couldn’t pass through the purple barrier. In fact, they were repelled the moment they touched it. He didn’t dare use his Spiritual Power, either; with a sixth-rank aberrant beast present, it would be easily detected.

He could only get as close as possible and use his "vision" to see. Even in his liquid state, without eyes, Su Ze was still capable of sight.

He did his best to disguise himself as seawater and pressed against the purple barrier. Fortunately, the barrier didn’t repel him, but the constantly flowing, interwoven purple and blue energy on its surface greatly obstructed his view.

He could only vaguely make out a glittering golden expanse inside...

’Is it all "golden ore"?’

Su Ze’s heart began to pound.

The purple barrier enveloped a circular area six or seven meters in diameter and about five meters deep. If this area was filled with "golden ore," its value would be immeasurable.

’If there really is this much golden ore, wouldn’t I be able to ascend directly to the Divine rank just by collecting a few vials of high-level extract?’

However, he wasn’t certain, as his view wasn’t very clear.

He continued to press forward, and it felt as if he’d pushed through a membrane of energy on the barrier’s surface. It was like pulling back a curtain; the scene before him suddenly became clear.

There was indeed a lot of "golden ore," but not as much as he had imagined...

Inside the barrier, the ground was covered in something golden-yellow. It wasn’t ore, but rather a mass riddled with countless tiny pores. It was attached to several large chunks of "golden ore" and seemed to be slowly absorbing the golden energy.

’Is this an aberrant beast or a Spiritual Plant?’

Su Ze wasn’t sure. The golden-yellow mass was irregularly shaped, haphazardly clinging to the "golden ore." It looked soft, like it would be easy to squish.

’A sponge?’

Su Ze suddenly thought of this extremely simple animal.

This golden-yellow thing looked a bit like the common sponges of daily life, though most of the ones people saw were artificial.

But Su Ze knew that the earliest sponges people used were natural, made from a type of marine animal.

After all, sponges were originally animals that lived in the sea.

’A sponge can become an aberrant beast?’

’Don’t tell me the so-called "new king" is a sponge!’

After all, sponges, sea squirts, and corals were all extremely low-level animals with virtually no hope of becoming aberrant beasts.

Even that hermit crab looked like a good-for-nothing.

But under the influence of the golden energy, it seemed these animals had not only become aberrant beasts, but had also grown with incredible speed, all of them reaching the Saint rank.

’So I guess even mud *can* be slapped on a wall!’

Su Ze was about to observe further to verify his suspicions when the sponge-like thing inside the barrier suddenly moved.

It quickly gathered itself up, forming a sphere. Looking at it now, it resembled a ball of sponge even more.

Su Ze was now basically certain: this thing was a sponge that had become sentient.

He suddenly had a bad feeling, as if he were being watched.

The feeling came from his clone; it didn’t extend to his main body at the entrance to the trench.

’Could it be...?’

Just as he’d expected, the spherical sponge leaped up like a "facehugger" from a movie and lunged right at him.

The purple barrier separating them simultaneously opened a slit, and an irresistible suction force pulled Su Ze’s liquid body toward the sponge.

The surrounding sea mud and water frantically surged into the purple barrier, all of it absorbed by the sponge. A tunnel large enough for a grown man to pass through was sucked directly out of the mud at the base of the Great Sea Shell. A few unlucky aberrant beasts were caught off guard and swept up by the suction, getting pulled in as well.

The moment those aberrant beasts touched the sponge, they too were absorbed into its body as if they were made of water.

Yet, after absorbing so much seawater, mud, and several aberrant beasts, the sponge’s size didn’t seem to have changed at all.

The sudden turn of events startled the aberrant beasts that had been listening to the hermit crab’s speech, but the one with the biggest reaction was the sixth-rank hermit crab itself.

The creature was scared out of its wits. It scrambled back toward the Great Sea Shell in a panic but couldn’t even find the entrance at first. It circled halfway around before finding the open door, and after darting inside, it immediately sealed the entrance shut.

Su Ze’s Liquid Clone didn’t even have a chance to resist. It was instantly sucked into the sponge’s countless pores, and everything "went black."

Su Ze decisively severed his connection with the clone. He swam away as quickly and quietly as possible, heading toward the coast of the Dongli Kingdom.

However, as he left, he also left behind a fist-sized Liquid Clone to observe the situation behind him.