To guard against the possible appearance of Celestial Demons, Yang Jing even took out the Demon-Catching Tripod, which he hadn’t used in a long time.

THUD!

The heavy Demon-Catching Tripod landed on the deck. The Spiritual Essence within the tripod seemed a little resentful, but it still loyally stood guard against any Celestial Demons that might appear in the surrounding waters.

Suddenly, Yang Jing waved his sleeve, and the Celestial Waterfall Sword flew out from his Dantian. It transformed into a barely perceptible white line and vanished into the darkness.

A few breaths later, a wave crashed against the Flying Boat’s Defensive Spirit Light. Then, the Celestial Waterfall Sword returned, dragging a bizarrely shaped Demon behind it.

This Demon resembled a giant flounder, its body nearly a hundred feet long.

But while a normal flounder only has two eyes, this fish’s body was densely covered with over thirty of them. Just a single glance into these eyes made many of the soldiers dizzy and nauseous.

’This fish must have risen from the seabed, taking advantage of the storm to ambush the sea fish diving deeper.’

Yang Jing deduced.

This Demon Fish had a flat body and so many Soul-Capturing demonic eyes. Ordinarily, it must rely on lurking on the seabed, using the demonic eyes on its back to ambush its prey.

It had hidden stealthily in the pitch-black water, its concealment flawless. But it could not escape Yang Jing’s perception, which was aided by his Water Escape technique. The Celestial Waterfall Sword pierced its brain with a single strike, taking its life.

The Demon-Catching Tripod suddenly released its Lock Chains, which ripped a relentlessly struggling Demon Shadow from the flounder-like Demon Fish’s body and dragged it into the tripod for Refining.

This fish possessed a Celestial Demon Bloodline. Its ancestor was likely possessed by an Outer Celestial Demon—a Thousand-Eyed Demon. It must have then bred with other Demon Fish of its kind, passing down the Celestial Demon Bloodline.

The number of generations since that ancestor was probably not very large. That was why this Demon Fish’s Divine Soul still retained the aura of a Celestial Demon, allowing it to be captured by the Demon-Catching Tripod.

This Demon Fish’s body had residual Demonic Qi, making it inedible. So, after Yang Jing removed the demonic eyes from its back, he simply incinerated it to ash with his Five Elements True Fire.

Afterward, the Flying Boat continued its submerged journey, and Yang Jing used the Celestial Waterfall Sword to slay countless Demon Monsters and Demons.

These Demon Monsters and Demons had intended to take advantage of the storm on the surface, rising to the surface to feast, but they never expected their lives to be taken by an inconspicuous streak of Sword Light.

After nearly three hours of this, Yang Jing finally had the Flying Boat stop. He recalled his Flying Sword and sat cross-legged on a Meditation Cushion to recover his Magical Power.

Constantly sensing for hidden Demons and Demon Monsters, even someone with Yang Jing’s foundation felt exceptionally weary. Especially at a depth of over ten thousand feet, controlling the Flying Sword consumed several times more Divine Sense than usual.

Zuoqiu Feng had also tried to emulate him by slaying the hidden Demons and Demon Monsters. Normally, her Divine Sense could perceive an area for dozens of miles, and when focused, could reach over sixty miles. But in the deep sea, its range was suddenly reduced to about two thousand feet.

Compared to before, it was as if she had become blind, completely unable to detect these Demons and Demon Monsters that had long since adapted to the deep sea.

"Master, should we surface and see if the storm has ended?" Iron Head asked.

Yang Jing shook his head.

"The storm above has not ended yet."

Using his Water Escape Technique, he could sense the endlessly churning waves in the upper layers of the ocean.

Thanks to his Divine Techniques for mastering the Five Elements, his sensory range in the water reached twenty thousand feet.

Yang Jing spent nearly seven hours recovering the majority of his depleted Divine Sense. During this time, the Ruyi Nine Tripod Array on the Flying Boat also restored the Magical Power equivalent of one tripod.

"Continue forward."

Yang Jing didn’t dare to slack off in the slightest. The storm was unexpectedly immense; it had lasted for more than a day and still showed no sign of stopping, instead growing even more intense.

In this situation, more and more Demons and Demon Monsters would surface to hunt, and they might even encounter a Profound Whale again.

In the sea, the Flying Boat’s Tunneling Speed couldn’t compare to a Profound Whale’s. If they ran into one, their only option would be to risk escaping back up into the sky.

As the Flying Boat glided through the silent, dangerous depths, Yang Jing, who was sitting cross-legged on the deck, suddenly raised an eyebrow.

He slapped the Demon-Catching Tripod beside him. The tripod immediately released streams of Spiritual Light Chains, which plunged into the pitch-black depths.

"Is it another Demon Monster?"

Zuoqiu Feng became more vigilant.

After spending so long in the pitch-black depths where she couldn’t see her hand in front of her face, even as a Golden Core Cultivator, she felt her spirits becoming oppressed.

Chi Yu snuggled even deeper into her embrace.

"No, the situation might be even worse," Yang Jing said in a low voice.

The next moment, the whistling Spiritual Light Chains flew back with seventeen One-Eyed Demons entangled in them.

This Demon was a Lower Tier Celestial Demon, a subordinate to the Thousand-Eyed Demon. It was shaped like a leech and had a single, enormous eye on top of its head that resembled a piece of murky yellow amber.

Its long, flat body hung limply.

The moment they were bound by the Spiritual Light Chains, they were sealed by a Restriction. They were then dragged into the body of the Demon-Catching Tripod and completely Refined in less than a breath’s time.

"Could there be swarms of One-Eyed Demons and Thousand-Eyed Demons living in this part of the sea?" Zuoqiu Feng’s expression turned grim.

Yang Jing shook his head.

"These One-Eyed Demons are searching the waters in a systematic pattern. Someone is controlling them from behind the scenes. There’s another Flying Boat in this area—and it’s a Demon Sect Flying Boat."

This Demon Sect Flying Boat had very likely dived deep into the sea for the same reason: to escape the storm on the surface.

Yang Jing also found it unexpected that in such a vast ocean, two Flying Boats would happen to cross paths.

Demon Sect Arrays were only proficient in Demon Summoning; in other aspects, they were far inferior to Daoist Arrays. This was especially true for War Magical Artifacts like Flying Boats, which were the most brilliant jewels in the crown of the Array Dao.

To compete with the Flying Boats of the Six Sects, the Four Demon Sects had found an alternative path. They sacrificed and refined various Celestial Demons into their Flying Boats, using them as substitutes for Arrays.

Celestial Demons like the One-Eyed Demon were used by Demon Sect Flying Boats specifically for reconnaissance. They were incredibly useful, especially since they could see clearly in the pitch-black depths where a person couldn’t even see their own hand.

The expression on everyone’s face immediately turned solemn.

Yang Jing took a deep breath. He had the Demon-Catching Tripod capture these One-Eyed Demons, acting as its Spirit Binder. Though he had swiftly placed a Restriction and cut off their vision, he had also exposed their own presence.

The crew of that Demon Sect Flying Boat must have guessed they were here.

If he could have, he truly wouldn’t have wanted to kill these One-Eyed Demons. But unfortunately, if he hadn’t, they would have seen the glow from the Flying Boat’s Defensive Spirit Light.

"Shut down the Defensive Spirit Light! All lights out on the Flying Boat. No one is to make any light or sound. Communicate only with Divine Sense."

He issued the command.

"Hard to port! Port ahead, one!"

The glow of the Defensive Spirit Light had very likely exposed their position to the Demon Sect Flying Boat.

Under the control of the Array Masters on the Flying Boat, the Defensive Spirit Light around the vessel began to slowly dissipate.

The Flying Boat began to decelerate, reducing its speed.

The seabed was plunged into complete darkness.

Propelled by Primordial Magnetic Power, the Flying Boat instantly turned ninety degrees to port, carving an arc beneath the waves.

Yang Jing pushed his Water Escape perception of the surrounding sea to its absolute limit.

Unfortunately, the Demon Sect Flying Boat had released the One-Eyed Demons from very far away, beyond his sensory range.

"Should we leave this area and put some distance between us and that Demon Sect Flying Boat?" Zuoqiu Feng asked Yang Jing using her Divine Sense.

Yang Jing shook his head resolutely.

"Traveling at high speed will leave a strong wake in our path, and we won’t be able to hide it from those Eye Demons. We still don’t know the Tier of that Flying Boat. If its Tier is higher than our Martial Might-level vessel, it will be able to catch up to us with almost no effort."

In a battle between Flying Boats, the Tier of the vessel is the decisive factor.

If the enemy’s Tier was higher than a Martial Might-level Flying Boat, they would have no chance of winning, even if Demon Sect vessels were weaker in combat.

Yang Jing had chosen to turn hard to port and decelerate precisely to prevent their wake from being discovered by the released One-Eyed Demons.

He was confident that his ability to sense the ocean currents had a greater range than those One-Eyed Demons.

This was their greatest advantage against the Demon Sect Flying Boat.