Inside the small secret realm,
The seagrass beneath Ethan's feet spread across the ground, sprawling wildly in all directions.
Every single vine of seagrass sprouted dozens of secondary branches at the exact same instant, and each secondary branch grew dozens of smaller twigs.
Within a few breaths, the hundreds of vines transformed into a colossal net of seagrass that blanketed an area of several hundred meters.
The giant net rose from the ground and swept down toward the densest part of the crab swarm.
The seagrass swept along the ground.
The sound of crushing crab shells was as dense as popping corn, and dark green bodily fluids exploded into one murky cloud after another in the seawater.
Half an hour later, Ethan stopped channeling mana and mental control.
Ethan glanced at his status panel.
【Life Energy: 142,577,824.】
One million one hundred and thirty thousand Triangular Cannibal Crabs, all slaughtered.
This number was enough to unlock the next passive.
“Unlock passive.”
【Adding the 27th passive will consume 67,108,864 points of Life Energy. Current Energy: 75,468,960. Confirm?】
“Confirm.”
【Energy deducted: 67,108,864 points. Current Energy: 8,356,096.】
【Generating passive...】
【Generation complete. Obtained passive: Cloud's Great Fury.】
【Cloud's Great Fury: For every second the battle continues, all attributes increase by 1% until the battle ends.】
Ethan's gaze lingered on those words for two seconds.
All attributes. A 1% increase for every second it lasted. No upper limit, until the battle ended.
He knew exactly what this passive meant.
As long as a battle dragged on long enough, his strength, speed, mana output, mental power intensity, defense—everything that could be considered an attribute—would grow infinitely.
A battle lasting a hundred seconds meant a doubling of attributes, and a thousand seconds meant a tenfold increase.
As long as he could hold out, there would never be a ceiling.
Boulder had prepared one million one hundred and thirty thousand Triangular Cannibal Crabs for him, wanting to see him torn to shreds.
Now, this pile of crabs had completed the final piece of his puzzle.
The corner of Ethan's mouth twitched.
“Boulder, now, it's time to take my revenge.”
“Teleport to Anchor Point 1.”
His body vanished from the spot.
Seawater surged in from all directions to fill the void left by his disappearance, while debris and severed limbs were swept up by the current before settling back down.
In the next instant, inside Boulder's royal palace hall, a figure squeezed out of the void.
Ethan's feet stepped onto the cold stone floor.
Seawater continuously poured in from the rift in the dome, trickling down the shattered basalt blocks and forming puddles on the stone floor.
The puddles reflected the broken silhouette of the dome and the dim runic patterns on the walls.
Shattered stone blocks were scattered everywhere in the hall.
Several of the largest pieces lay across the center of the hall, the runic patterns carved on their surfaces completely devoid of luster.
The giant luminous pearl was embedded in a crater on the side wall, its body covered in cracks, the blue light patterns flowing inside flickering intermittently like the breath of a dying creature.
Boulder sat on the coral throne.
He leaned against the backrest, his arms resting on the edges of the armrests, his fingers hanging limply over the sides.
The dark blue short robe he wore was crumpled, with a section near the hem torn by something, the tattered shreds swaying gently in the seawater.
His pale blue eyes stared blankly toward the main entrance of the hall, reflecting absolutely nothing.
Then, he heard footsteps.
They were very light. As they stepped onto the waterlogged stone floor, the sound of water being squeezed out by the soles of the shoes was exceptionally clear in the empty hall.
Boulder's eyelids twitched.
He slowly turned his head, a figure reflecting in his pale blue eyes.
A tall figure in a dark blue noble robe, with an emblem of winding thorns embroidered on the chest, his face calm.
Ethan stood in the center of the hall, looking at the state of the man on the throne across a floor of shattered stone blocks and puddles.
Boulder's lips moved slightly.
In his pale blue eyes, the blankness receded inch by inch, replaced by something much deeper.
There was rage, humiliation, the vacancy of having everything stripped away, and a certain madness bordering on collapse.
“You're really not doing so well,” Ethan spoke, his voice echoing in the empty hall. “I've only been gone for how long, and you've already ended up like this?”
Boulder's fingers suddenly clenched hard against the edge of the armrest.
His lips trembled, squeezing out a muffled syllable from his throat, followed by a second, then a third.
“Eth... an...”
His voice was as raspy as sandpaper scraping against an iron plate.
“IT'S! ALL! BECAUSE! OF! YOU!”
Boulder suddenly stood up from the throne.
The step beneath his feet emitted a dull thud, sending a few fragments flying from the edge of the cracked stone slab.
His body was shaking. His knees bent and straightened, then straightened and bent again, as if he might collapse onto the steps at any moment.
The small horns on both sides of his forehead suddenly flared with a blinding light.
The grayish-white keratin began to glow with pale gold again from the roots, the light climbing up the horns, growing brighter and more dazzling as it rose.
His eyes were bloodshot, the madness in his pupils practically spilling out.
“You ruined everything of mine! My identity! My status! My guards! All gone!”
Ethan looked at his state, his face calm. “So what do you plan to do about it?”
Boulder didn't answer.
The stone slab beneath his feet exploded.
A ring of deep blue light erupted from beneath the throne. Wherever the ring expanded, shattered stone blocks were swept away, puddles on the floor were pushed aside, and the seawater receded in all directions, clearing an open space twenty meters in diameter in the center of the hall.
Boulder's figure vanished from the spot. In the next instant, he appeared three meters directly in front of Ethan, his right fist wrapped in a layer of aqua-blue, scale-like energy, smashing down toward Ethan's face.
The shockwave from that punch kicked up the standing water on the floor into a wall of water, which rolled back to both sides, exposing the cracked stone slabs beneath.
The air was compressed by his fist into a visible white ring of air, and the seawater at the edge of the ring was pushed out to form a circular void.
Ethan kicked off the ground with his foot, retreating rapidly backward.
The stone slabs beneath his feet were carved into two deep grooves during his slide, sending rubble flying to both sides.
Boulder's punch struck the ground, and the stone slabs shattered.
A deep crater over thirty meters in diameter appeared out of nowhere, the rocks at the bottom ground to powder.
The shockwave spread outward from the bottom of the crater, throwing all the remaining stone blocks in the hall into the air.
Ethan used the force to back out of the hall.
He crashed through the stone frame of the hall's main entrance, sending shattered stone blocks shooting outward.
His body flipped in the deep sea, landing on the plaza outside the hall.
Outside the plaza lay an undersea forest.
Countless glowing coral trees rose from the seabed, the tallest exceeding a hundred meters, the shortest standing over a dozen meters.
The coral branches were hung with fist-sized luminous pearls, their bodies flowing with pale gold light patterns inside.
The undersea plain was covered with a thick carpet of seagrass, which was dark green with broad leaves that swayed gently in the seawater.
Boom!
The main entrance of the hall exploded.
Boulder rushed out of the shattered door frame.
The small horns on both sides of his forehead shone blindingly, the pale gold light from them dyeing the surrounding seawater for dozens of meters into a pale gold hue.
He didn't take his trident.
He didn't need a weapon now.
He wanted to use his hands.
Punch by punch, he would smash.
Blow by blow, he would vent all the rage in his heart.
Only in this way, only in this way could he truly let it out!
Rate on N.U.
