"The node is three hundred meters ahead, fifteen meters underwater, inside a shipwreck's cabin."

Leng Ningxue's voice carried static interference,

"The energy readings are extremely high, and... there's a guard response.

It's not an Mind-Eroding Demon, but... a local sea beast leader controlled by sunken abyss transformation. Its energy level is close to the mid-tier King rank, but its characteristics are unknown."

The two exchanged a look and quietly dove into the water.

Visibility in the dark green seawater was poor, but relying on their perception, they quickly located the ancient shipwreck half-buried in the sea sand.

In the cabin, a dark, heavy energy source, radiating solidification ripples outward, pulsed like a heart.

Just as they approached the cabin entrance, the sea sand to their side suddenly exploded!

A massive creature charged out.

It vaguely retained the form of a Giant-Clawed Lobster, but its carapace had completely transformed into a dull stone-gray, with hideous crystal clusters growing at its joints.

One of its two giant claws was like a heavy stone hammer, while the other had mutated into a corrosive spike dripping with dark green slime.

Most unsettling was its head; where the compound eyes should have been, two slowly rotating dark vortices had taken their place, emitting thoughts of chaos and pain.

"An Abyssalized Rock-Armored Claw King..." Zi Yuan whispered, her long blade tracing a silent path through the water as purple lightning conducted through the liquid, illuminating a small area around them.

The Rock-Armored Claw King did not pause for a moment. Its stone-hammer claw, carrying immense momentum and Abyssalized solidification ripples, smashed down upon them!

The other corrosive spike-claw lunged insidiously at Bai Cheng from the side.

Bai Cheng's figure flickered slightly. Spatial Warp allowed her to remain agile even underwater, evading the direct hammer strike.

Simultaneously, the Dawn Light Blade reappeared in her palm. Instead of attacking directly, she drew an arc ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) of light, precisely slicing toward the joint where the corrosive spike-claw connected to the body.

The energy flow there was slightly sluggish.

Zi Yuan's blade-light was like a fish in the water, sliding along the surface of the stone-hammer claw. Her Flowing Blade Intent was not for direct confrontation but for guiding and deflecting, shunting the claw's violent force toward a nearby undersea reef.

Amidst a booming crash, the reef shattered, but Zi Yuan had already used the momentum to spin. Her blade-light flashed like lightning, stabbing directly at the central connection point of the two dark vortices on the Claw King's head.

Their cooperation was silent and perfectly synchronized.

Bai Cheng's Deconstruction and Zi Yuan's Breaking Strike completed a subtle combined attack in an instant.

The Dawn Light Blade cut into the joint. The order and purification properties within the Trickle of Faith clashed violently with the chaotic laws of sunken abyss transformation, producing a piercing grinding sound and temporarily delaying the movement of the corrosive spike-claw.

And at the moment Zi Yuan's blade tip touched the vortex connection point, her condensed Tide-Breaking Blade Intent, though not fully unleashed, pierced into the core of chaos like a sharp needle!

The Rock-Armored Claw King's massive body suddenly stiffened. The vortices on its head spun frantically, emitting a silent wail that struck directly at the soul.

Its consciousness, eroded by sunken abyss transformation and filled with pain and chaos, experienced a momentary stagnation and struggle.

"Now!" Bai Cheng shouted softly, her silver eyes lighting up. The Power of Space was no longer used for movement,

but was instead used to fully imprison the seawater and energy flow in a small area around the Claw King, creating a brief restraint for it.

Zi Yuan did not miss this opportunity. The purple lightning around her suddenly pulled inward, all of it flowing into her blade. The long sword traced a profound arc, not a direct stab,

but instead followed a natural vein on the Claw King's carapace—one that was now glowing slightly due to the energy conflict—and gently swept across it.

"Flowing · Trace Back."

This was a new application of blade intent she had comprehended, situated between Flowing and Tide-Breaking. It did not seek extreme explosive power or cutting,

but rather sought out and followed the weak traces of the target's energy structure, using minimal force to trigger an internal collapse.

Where the blade-light passed, that vein suddenly erupted with a blinding gray light, which then spread rapidly throughout the Claw King's entire body like a chain reaction!

The crystal clusters on its carapace exploded one after another, and the dark vortices rapidly dimmed and dissipated.

The Rock-Armored Claw King convulsed violently. Its massive body began to disintegrate—not shattering, but crumbling from within into primordial stone fragments and dark dust of laws, slowly sinking to the seabed.

Its soul, tortured by sunken abyss transformation, seemed to find a sliver of peaceful liberation in its final moment.

Without pausing, the two quickly entered the shipwreck's cabin.

In the center of the cabin, an object the size of a washbasin, shaped like an irregular polyhedral gray crystal, was suspended in mid-air, slowly rotating.

Dark green and grayish-white light patterns flowed continuously across its surface. This was the source of the entire Abyssalized Corrosive Tide in Cuiluo Bay—the abyssal core.

On the floor and cabin walls around the core, a thick layer of grayish-white substance resembling plaster had condensed, sealing within it the remains of many crew members and marine creatures. Their poses were lifelike, yet they had long since lost their vitality.

"Destroy it, and the Corrosive Tide should begin to dissipate," Leng Ningxue confirmed. "But be careful; the core itself is extremely unstable and may contain a backlash."

Bai Cheng nodded, and the Dawn Light Blade condensed once more.

This time, she did not attack recklessly. Instead, she transformed the light blade into countless ultra-fine threads of light, like a scalpel, attempting to penetrate the energy patterns on the core's surface to find the balance points and weaknesses in its internal structure.

Zi Yuan held her blade, guarding the surroundings, while releasing her Flowing Blade Intent to form a disturbance field, interfering with the core's continuous output of Abyssalized ripples to buy time for Bai Cheng.

As the light threads touched the dark patterns, a violent rejection reaction occurred once again.

The core shuddered violently, releasing even stronger Abyssalized ripples and even attempting to inversely erode Bai Cheng's light threads.

Fine beads of sweat broke out on Bai Cheng's forehead. The stellar trajectories in her silver eyes operated at their limit, and the Trickle of Faith was consumed frantically as she maintained the stability and penetration of the light threads.

Time seemed to stretch.

Every second was accompanied by immense energy confrontation and mental exhaustion.

Just as Bai Cheng was about to touch the tiny structural crack deep within the core, a sudden change occurred!

The World-Purifying Talisman Nail, which Bai Cheng had suppressed within her portable space, suddenly struggled violently as if summoned by some homologous ripple from deep within the abyssal core!

A cold, grand, and malicious consciousness descended once more along the imperceptible connection between the Talisman Nail and the abyssal core!

This time, it was no longer a distant glance.

The consciousness was like an invisible giant hand, instantly clutching the entire cabin. Its cold gaze locked firmly onto Bai Cheng, who was analyzing the core.

An indifferent, non-human consciousness, seemingly blended from countless sounds of laws, rang out directly in the depths of her soul:

"Fire Thief... repeatedly obstructing the Rite of World Purification..."

"This domain is filthy and shall return to a pure 'Slumber'..."

"You tiny sparks shall... be extinguished first."

As these thoughts fell, the abyssal core suddenly erupted with an unprecedented dark light!

Not as an attack, but by instantly detonating the Abyssalized energy accumulated within it—enough to completely transform the entire Cuiluo Bay into a domain of stone statues!