Chapter 177: I Heard You Were Looking for Me?

Dressed in a crisp black suit and carrying his luxurious Snakewood Cane, Su Mu had a gentle smile playing on his lips. He stood quietly atop the massive tentacle, looking every bit the elegant gentleman stepping out of a classical painting.

Beneath his feet lay the surging ocean and a boundless army of undead sirens. Looking down from high above, he resembled a demon god emerging from the abyssal depths.

From the moment he appeared, the world could no longer hold any other sound. Only his voice echoed across it.

"Gentlemen, I heard... you were looking for me?"

Crash... crash...

The waves pounded against the reefs, beating like war drums for him.

Gale winds churned the dark clouds, howling like a horn blown just for him.

On the shore, Hu Jie and the others—along with the soldiers and citizens of the Sea Kingdom—were dead silent.

Complete disbelief filled every face. They stared dumbfounded at the figure standing in midair, finding the gentle smile on his face incredibly piercing.

"Su... Su Mu!?" Hu Jie cried out. He was so terrified that his voice cracked.

"What the hell is going on? How is he controlling the sea monster army? Isn't that the authority of a sea god's familiar?" Pang Yang's obese body trembled violently.

If even those two had no idea what was happening, the rest of the crowd was completely lost. They had originally come on the orders of a sea god's familiar to hunt down Su Mu, only for Su Mu to suddenly appear with a vast army of sea monsters in tow.

Yang Dongqing stared at Su Mu as if he were a descending god, completely forgetting the pain wracking his own body. He had known Su Mu wouldn't just run away, but he never could have imagined such a dominant return.

In his limited imagination, he had figured Su Mu would just hide in the crowd, hypnotize a few lackeys, and launch a sneak attack to fight back.

Looking at him now... how the hell was this a sneak attack? This was an absolute steamroll!

"You... you... what did you do?! How are you controlling these sea monsters?!" Hu Jie roared in disbelief.

Su Mu smiled faintly. "It's simple. I just became a sea god's familiar."

He slowly swept his gaze across the stunned crowd. His Tinted Glasses reflected the moonlight, completely hiding his profound eyes behind the glare.

"Citizens of the Sea Kingdom, hear my decree! King Hu Jie has offended the Sea God. Kill Hu Jie before dawn, and you will guarantee the Sea Kingdom's safety. Otherwise, I will trample the Sea Kingdom into dust, leaving no one alive!"

The crowd froze. Why did those words sound so familiar? Hadn't they just heard the exact same thing not long ago?

Weren't those King Hu Jie's exact lines?!

The crowd's gazes toward Hu Jie began to shift, turning strange. A few people even subtly tightened their grips on their weapons.

Sensing the dangerous shift in the atmosphere, terror flashed through Hu Jie's eyes. Blustering to hide his panic, he shouted, "Don't listen to his nonsense! I didn't offend the Sea God! I didn't! Su Mu, you're lying! You're a fucking liar!"

Atop the tentacle, Su Mu silently pushed up his Tinted Glasses. "I am a sea god's familiar," he said lightly. "If I say you offended the Sea God, then you offended the Sea God. Are you not going to make a move?"

Following his mild question, the dense, dark tide of the undead siren army began to slowly press forward. Dozens of hundred-meter-tall sea beasts let out deafening roars!

As they thrashed their massive bodies, monstrous waves immediately surged across the ocean. The sheer might was terrifying.

The crashing waves swept right up to the crowd, splashing over their feet and submerging their calves.

Faced with such terrifying might, the crowd paled. They didn't care about the truth anymore, nor did they care who had actually offended the Sea God. They only knew one thing: if they didn't listen to Su Mu right now, they would die.

Pressed by the threat of imminent death, more and more people began turning their weapons around to aim squarely at Hu Jie.

Even his best friend, Pang Yang, did the same.

Pang Yang pressed closer step by step, a vicious cruelty flashing in his eyes. "Old Hu, don't blame me. I don't know how Mr. Su suddenly became a sea god's familiar, but his power to control the sea monsters and the ocean is undeniable. For the sake of the Sea Kingdom's citizens, I'll have to ask you to suffer."

"Pang Yang, you bastard!" Hu Jie roared, his eyes splitting with rage. He had never dreamed such a farcical scene would play out against him. Just a moment ago, Pang Yang had been screaming about making Su Mu die for the citizens, but now he had flipped the exact same rhetoric onto him!

"Sigh, I have no choice, Old Hu," Pang Yang said. "You know as well as I do that we're nothing but livestock living in the Sea Kingdom, and a sea god's familiar is the master of that livestock. We truly can't disobey his commands."

Seeing Pang Yang ready to strike, the rest of the wavering transcendents also hardened their expressions and moved in to surround Hu Jie.

"You! You can't do this to me! I... I..." He hesitated over and over before finally gritting his teeth. "I'm the real sea god's familiar!"

Hu Jie had finally blurted out his deepest, most well-hidden secret. Yet... absolutely no one believed him.

"Old Hu, what kind of nonsense is that?" Pang Yang said, his face full of pity. "We've known each other for five years. Wouldn't I know if you were a sea god's familiar? Don't worry. After you die, I'll take good care of your concubines, and I'll treat your children as if they were my own."

"Go fuck yourself, Pang Yang! You're a fucking stupid pig!" Hu Jie's face twisted with sheer savagery. He screamed like a madman at the encroaching crowd, "I am a sea god's familiar! I'm the fucking sea god's familiar!!"

Right then, Su Mu's calm voice echoed out once more. "The sinner Hu Jie not only offended the Sea God, but now dares to impersonate a sea god's familiar. His crimes have compounded. You citizens of the Sea Kingdom had better give me a satisfactory answer. Otherwise, before the sun rises, the Sea Kingdom will completely drown!"

Pang Yang's heart lurched with panic. Tossing aside any last shred of their old friendship, he launched a lethal strike right at Hu Jie!

The other transcendents were right there with him. Countless terrifying attacks rained down upon Hu Jie.

In an instant, Hu Jie's body was blown to pieces, dissolving into a shower of paper scraps that littered the ground.

Pang Yang's eyes flickered before narrowing darkly. "This is Old Hu's ability, Paper-Cutting Wraith. I know him better than anyone. This skill's range doesn't exceed a thousand meters. He can't have gotten far!"

"Leave it to me," a middle-aged man in the robes of a Sea Kingdom minister stepped forward. He picked up a piece of shredded paper from the ground and tossed it into his mouth. "Eye of Investigation!"

Instantly, the sight of Hu Jie fleeing through a row of residential houses appeared in his vision.

"He's to the northwest! After him!"

With that, the massive mob surged forward in a grand hunt for Hu Jie.