Chapter 165: Tsunami

"It got away," Su Mu said evenly.

With those words, Su Mu's perceived power instantly rose even higher in the minds of the other two. To actually frighten off a legendary sea god's familiar... not even a Gold powerhouse could necessarily do that, right?

"So what do we do now? The Swimming Fish Potion is about to wear off. I only brewed these few bottles; there aren't any extras."

Su Mu's eyes flickered. He was just about to speak when a sound like a conch horn echoed from the depths of the ocean.

As the horn blast spread, the sea monsters and leviathans seemed to receive a signal. They steadily retreated, ultimately vanishing into the deep sea.

"What's going on? Is the sea god's familiar scared?" A weary Yang Dongqing squeezed out from the mouth of the man-eating flower. He looked at the retreating army of sea monsters, his face lighting up with joy.

Su Mu shook his head. "It isn't scared. It probably realized that this method wouldn't be enough to kill us, so it's switching tactics."

"To what?" Yang Dongqing asked.

Su Mu didn't answer, because the ocean answered for him.

Crash!

Above the endless expanse of the sea, gale-force winds howled and the waves churned violently. Where the ocean met the sky, a white line abruptly surged upward.

"It's a tsunami!" Yang Dongqing cried out. He stared fixedly as the distant white line rose higher and higher until it revealed its true form: a monstrous, heaven-touching wave nearly a hundred meters tall!

The white crests roared like wild beasts, crashing toward them with earth-shattering momentum.

Even before the wave struck, the underwater currents were already surging in a frenzy. They twisted into deep-sea whirlpools, sweeping everyone up so violently that it was impossible to maintain their balance in the water.

"Mr. Su! The Swimming Fish Potion's duration is almost up. What do we do now? Should we sink to the ocean floor and keep pushing forward to find the Black Fog, or temporarily retreat to the Sea Kingdom and wait until I brew a new batch before heading back out?" Mu Qing asked anxiously.

Su Mu watched the towering wave bear down on them, the corners of his lips curling up slightly. "Miss Mu, did you invent the Swimming Fish Potion yourself?"

Through Nangong Mengli's connections, he was no longer a transcendent novice. He had a solid grasp of the major Transcendent Potions circulating on the market, but he had never heard of the Swimming Fish Potion.

Mu Qing froze, not quite grasping the intent behind the question, but she nodded anyway. "That's right. I brewed it specifically as a precaution after arriving in the Sea Kingdom."

Su Mu offered a faint smile, everything suddenly falling into place in his mind. "Let's go. We're heading back."

With that, he turned and swam toward the Sea Kingdom. The others were somewhat confused, but with the crisis looming, they had no choice but to follow closely behind Su Mu and retrace their path.

The reason Su Mu chose to retreat was that he had noticed something interesting: the true goal of the sea god's familiar seemed to be preventing them from finding the Black Fog. This massive wave looked like an attack, but it was actually meant to force them back.

Everyone here was a transcendent. A wave of this magnitude could only be considered a nuisance to them; trying to actually kill them with this level of force was completely unrealistic, especially since they had already revealed their ability to breathe underwater to the sea god's familiar.

The most troublesome aspect of the ocean was humanity's inability to breathe in it. Once the breathing problem was solved, the threat of the seawater plummeted.

Furthermore, Mu Qing had invented the Swimming Fish Potion herself. How could the sea god's familiar possibly know that the potion's effects were about to wear off?

Without knowing the potion's time limit, the sea god's familiar should have been fully aware that seawater alone couldn't kill them. Even if it somehow could kill the others, it would never be able to kill Su Mu, who could slip into the Shadow Space at any moment.

But despite that, the sea god's familiar still chose to launch a tsunami. What was its goal?

Simply venting its anger? Su Mu didn't think that a familiar—one capable of suppressing its thirst for souls to treat the entire Sea Kingdom like captive livestock—would be so mindless.

By normal logic, if someone capable of killing you appeared in your territory and their only goal was to leave, you would simply hide in the deep sea, wait for them to depart, and then go back to ruling your domain.

You wouldn't choose to launch useless attacks and constantly provoke them.

Therefore, Su Mu guessed that the true goal of the sea god's familiar was to use the tsunami to force them back to the Sea Kingdom. With the tsunami raging and various whirlpools forming on the seabed, it would be absolutely impossible for them to swim to the edge of the ocean to search for the Black Fog.

Combining this with his previous suspicions, he was gradually starting to piece together the truth behind the Sea Kingdom. If his guess was correct, an even grander performance was waiting to be staged in the Sea Kingdom.

Things were getting more and more interesting!

The group continuously accelerated, darting forward like fish along the seabed. But no matter how fast they swam, they couldn't outpace the whirlpools formed by the swirling undercurrents.

The various whirlpools acted like black holes, madly drawing in the surrounding seawater. Everyone's bodies were constantly yanked and dragged by the shifting forces. Had it not been for their powerful transcendent physiques, the turbulent currents alone would have been enough to tear them apart.

"To the surface," Su Mu ordered. He shot rapidly upward, and the others followed close behind.

When they breached the surface, they hardly needed to exert any effort; the raging tsunami simply swept them along. The massive waves, powerful enough to smash houses into splinters, caused them physical pain but failed to inflict any fatal injuries.

Of course, Su Mu was the exception. In terms of pure physical toughness, he was undoubtedly the weakest of the bunch. Mu Qing and Lu Dongliang were both Silver tier; their physical attributes went without saying.

Though Yang Dongqing was relatively weak, by relying on Heart of Steel and Ceaseless Recovery, he could completely shrug off any damage dealt by the waves.

That left only Su Mu. His physical constitution relied entirely on the boost from Great Force Bombardment Punch, which mostly manifested as raw strength; his defense was severely lacking in comparison. Fortunately, he still had the Energy-Devouring Spirit Ring.

A steady stream of mental energy poured into the ring, converting into physical power that was more than enough to keep him safe and sound amid the tsunami.

None of them knew how far the monstrous wave had carried them, but when it finally dissipated, the hazy silhouette of an island appeared in their line of sight.

By now, everyone was looking noticeably worse for wear. Their skin had turned pale from the soaking. They no longer dove back into the depths, opting instead to swim freestyle across the surface, as the effects of the Swimming Fish Potion had long since worn off.

Soon enough, they successfully reached the shore. Yang Dongqing collapsed onto the sandy beach, gasping heavily for air. The high-intensity battle and the grueling trek through the ocean had drained every last ounce of his strength.

Lu Dongliang was in terrible shape as well. His Bloodshed Berserk was a burst-type skill by nature and consumed a massive amount of stamina. First he had fought a vicious battle against the sea monsters and leviathans, and then he had swum for who knew how many miles. Even a man made of iron wouldn't have been able to endure it.

Mu Qing managed to maintain a basic level of dignity. Resting her slender arms on her knees, her soaking wet hair clung to her delicate cheeks as crystal-clear water droplets steadily dripped onto the sand. Reaching into her clothes, she pulled out a stamina-recovering Transcendent Potion and downed it in one gulp. Her pale complexion rapidly regained its color.

"Mr. Su, do you need one?" Mu Qing asked, holding up a Transcendent Potion.

Su Mu smiled and shook his head. "I just need to sleep for a bit."

With that, under Mu Qing's stunned gaze, he casually sat down against a coconut tree. Stretching one leg out flat and bending the other, he rested his hands on his knee, lowered his head... and fell asleep.

Because he had been constantly converting his mental energy, even his vast reserves were on the verge of bottoming out. To prepare for whatever might happen next, he chose to get some sleep first.