I've already reached the Nascent Soul stage, and you're saying I didn't time travel?

Chapter 103 [The Palace of Myriad Transformations]

A massive light screen suddenly appeared, and after only a few seconds of silence, it was immediately flooded with a torrent of comments:

"Don't panic, everyone! The Six-Clawed Serpent isn't as strong as you think!"

"Indeed, there was a reason why the frigate was sunk this time."

"The Florentine-class corvettes of France are second-class corvettes, positioned for ocean patrol and law enforcement in economic zones. Their onboard armament is only for low-intensity threats such as pirates and smuggling ships, and is not suitable for high-intensity frontal combat."

"In order to save money, the Huayue-class frigates were built to merchant ship standards, with only a small portion meeting military regulations. They are not true combat ships. Moreover, they are equipped with lightweight armaments. The main gun and the two machine guns are designed to deal with sea targets, but they have no anti-submarine capabilities and are difficult to deal with underwater targets."

"The Exocet anti-ship missiles equipped on the Huayue-class ships are completely ineffective against the Six-Clawed Serpent. This missile is designed to target surface ships and can only strike enemies exposed on the surface. Not to mention that the Six-Clawed Serpent spends most of its time underwater, even when it is exposed on the surface, the active radar seeker of this anti-ship missile uses the metal structure of the enemy ship to lock onto the target, and it simply cannot lock onto a living organism like the Six-Clawed Serpent."

"In the end, the frigate was too overconfident this time. It should have waited for other support to arrive before launching an attack on the Six-Clawed Serpent. Otherwise, with only one surface ship, the Six-Clawed Serpent could have disappeared underwater and the frigate would have been unable to catch up."

"Who would have thought that the first wave of naval gunfire wouldn't have taken it down? That was a 100mm caliber naval gun."

"Naval guns are not omnipotent. Although the caliber is large, the barrier effect of the water is greater after it hits the water. The kinetic energy of the armor-piercing projectile decreases rapidly, making it difficult to cause much damage. If it is equipped with a high-explosive shell, it will explode as soon as it hits the water surface, making it equally difficult to damage the underwater six-clawed serpent."

"Now that I think about it carefully, the Six-Clawed Serpent wasn't as strong as I thought. It was even damaged when it was hit by the first wave of naval gunfire. This shows that although its scales are strong, they have their limits. If it had just launched a torpedo when it charged at the frigate, it would have blown it up."

"Well, there's nothing we can do about it. The Flower Moon-class submarines don't have torpedoes."

"Actually, I'm still not very optimistic about whether the ship can kill the Six-Clawed Serpent. The main reason is that this thing's skills are outrageous. It's one thing to freeze the sea surface to defend against machine guns, but later it can even stick close to the ship and use the ice to hinder the ship's movement in order to launch an attack. Think about it yourselves, which ship would let it get close and cause so much trouble? Not to mention the ice spikes that it used to attack the air later, which shows that this thing also has long-range attack capabilities."

"Let's send a few submarines over there. How could we not win an underwater battle?"

"The Flower Moon-class was sunk, and it will probably be very difficult to find it now."

"If only God Qi had a way."

"Even if he had a solution, he wouldn't know we needed it."

……

This is the first time that not many people have talked about Qi Xuan when the broadcast started. The main reason is that the incident that just happened has had a huge impact on netizens. They were all very confident beforehand and were even planning what to do with the corpse after killing him. Who would have thought that the situation would be reversed by the Six-Clawed Xuan Snake in the blink of an eye? It was like a slap in the face to everyone.

The shock was immense.

The impression was undeniably profound.

But no matter how much attention you pay, it's useless now.

With the Huayue-class destroyer sunk and the live television broadcast cut off, and no other ships currently in the vicinity of the target area, it is estimated that it will be difficult to find the six-clawed Xuan Snake in the short term.

After a brief discussion, netizens gradually focused their attention on Qi Xuan on the screen.

Qi Xuan was very quiet today, and so was Sunday next door.

The man and the pig didn't continue exploring or fight any wild beasts; they just stood quietly in front of a campfire... roasting meat.

To be precise, it's roasted dragon meat.

The creature being grilled was the same golden-eyed pterosaur that was tragically shot and killed during last night's live stream.

The campfire crackled and popped, and the dragon meat, marinated overnight, sizzled and dripped with oil as it roasted, making everyone hungry even in the middle of the morning.

While grilling, Qi Xuan suddenly took out a bucket of silver winged pheasant honey, dipped a brush in the honey, and began to spread it on the surface of the grilled meat.

Seeing this, netizens who had just experienced the auction couldn't hold back their emotions:
"Damn it! You think you can just waste Silverwing Honey like this?!"

"What a disaster!! Who the hell told you to use honey to brush on grilled meat?!"

"While I understand that brushing honey on grilled meat can neutralize the greasiness, lock in moisture and oil, and even add color and shine... but can't you just use regular honey?!"

"Do you know that high temperatures destroy the activity of honey?! Ten milliliters can fetch 300 million, how many billions would you waste by brushing this on? How could you possibly brush it on?!"

"Please, please don't throw away the brush after you're done. Can I lick it a couple of times? I'll do anything."

……

Netizens are filled with envy, jealousy, and hatred; they're practically dying of envy.

No matter how frantic they became, Qi Xuan calmly continued brushing on the honey, while smiling at the camera and saying:

"Look, this dragon meat coated with honey looks really beautiful and smells delicious. If you ever hunt a Golden-Eyed Pterosaur, remember to brush it with honey when you grill it; it will definitely taste great."

In response to his suggestion, a barrage of profanities in various languages ​​flooded the screen.

At this moment, netizens from all over the world, regardless of nationality or race, achieved a great unity of ideas.

The morning's live stream passed easily amidst repeated barbecues and casual conversation, with occasional instruction on ancient seal script characters.

But shortly after the live stream ended, another astonishing piece of news emerged—

A Panamax bulk carrier was sunk after encountering a six-clawed serpent!

Panamax bulk carriers are the largest type of bulk carrier that can pass through the Panama Canal. They are 247 meters long and have a tonnage of over 60,000 tons. They are often used to transport coal, grain, etc., and are the most economical type of ship for the Pacific route.

Given that bulk carriers have low freeboard, slow speed, and lack strong armed forces, they are usually easy targets for pirates. It is not surprising that they were sunk by the Six-Clawed Serpent.

But it set another record: the largest tonnage ship sunk by the Six-Clawed Serpent to date.

As news of the attack on the bulk carrier spread, more and more intelligence was uncovered.

A straight line was drawn from the location of the bulk carrier's attack to the battle site of the Flower Moon-class frigate. Tracing back along the route, except for a very few fast-moving ships, the vast majority of civilian vessels were sunk.

This even includes two escort ships that are also heading to the island.

The news sent shockwaves through the world once again.

People were not only shocked by its astonishing destructive power.

What shocked me even more was its unbridled audacity.

It seems that ever since sinking the Hanazuki-class corvette, it has no longer been afraid of ships longer than itself.

Now, they've become even bolder, daring to directly attack bulk carriers weighing tens of thousands of tons!
Shocked, military vessels from various countries deployed in the vicinity rushed to the scene of the incident, including the aircraft carrier strike group of the United States' Pacific Third Fleet.

The whole world is watching this impending battle between humans and wild beasts.

Half an hour later, the US Freedom-class littoral combat ship was sunk.

Immediately afterwards, the island nation's Mogami-class destroyer sustained damage to its hull and was simultaneously struck by a close-in weapon system.

Finally, the Russian Kilo-class conventional submarine successfully damaged or killed the enemy by launching a saturation attack with multiple torpedoes.

As for why it was uncertain whether it was killed, it was because the Six-Clawed Serpent quickly submerged after being attacked, escaping the sonar's detection range and far exceeding the submarine's diving depth.

Unable to be tracked, and it is impossible to determine whether they are still alive.

Other ships that arrived later continued to deploy unmanned deep-sea submersibles and autonomous underwater vehicles into the area in an attempt to track the Six-Clawed Serpent.

However, due to the passage of time, no further discoveries have been made yet.

The fate of the six-clawed black serpent remains a mystery, a lingering shadow in everyone's hearts.

In the afternoon, as soon as the live stream started, netizens flooded the chat with comments:

"If they were really going to kill us, that would be one thing, but if we survived, that would be acceptable. But what the hell is this? Couldn't they have fired a few more torpedoes to finish us off?"

"I won't even mention that only two of the six torpedo tubes on the Kilo-class submarine are capable of launching anti-submarine torpedoes. The reloading process after a torpedo is launched takes time. It's not like you can just have a thought and the torpedo will launch itself."

"In fact, the Kilo-class's ability to severely damage the Six-Clawed Serpent was already an unexpected achievement. After all, it wasn't carrying a heavy torpedo, and its warhead was only 205 kilograms in yield. Its attack depth could only reach 400 meters underwater. Let alone a mythical creature like the Six-Clawed Serpent, you might not even be able to kill an ordinary sperm whale on the spot."

"Indeed, the Six-Clawed Serpent is completely different from ordinary ferocious beasts. Not to mention its thick scales, its freezing ability and long-range ice spikes are quite threatening and can even be used as defensive weapons. When it was attacked by the highest-level close-in weapon system, it relied on frozen seawater to detonate the missile in advance, greatly reducing the damage."

"The Six-Clawed Serpent has sunk. It has wounds on its body, and the underwater pressure is so high. Logically, it shouldn't have survived, right?"

"Who can know? After all, this thing isn't a wild beast in nature, so we can't judge it by common sense. It's not impossible that it could dive to 5,000 meters and still be alive and kicking."

"Damn it, a mere land-island behemoth has caused all sorts of countries to suffer, and yet it had the nerve to say it would wipe out the land-island before."

"There's nothing we can do about it. This thing just dived into the Pacific Ocean. The Pacific is so big, it's hard to find. If you let it stay on the island, you can bomb it with missiles in no time and blow it to smithereens."

"What's the use of saying so much? It's already submerged into the sea. Warships can't guard the vicinity every day, and they can't. As long as we don't find its remains, the Pacific shipping lanes will never be at peace."

Is there any way to find it?

"Currently, many countries have deployed a number of unmanned underwater vehicles, acoustic detectors and other equipment, but to be honest, even if all the underwater detection equipment is deployed, it will be difficult to track it down. After all, the Pacific Ocean is too big, and the deep seabed is a completely unfamiliar world to us. It can just hide in any trench and you won't be able to find it at all."

"That's true, which makes it even more troublesome. If we had known this would happen, we should have had the fleets of all countries try to surround it, at least to make sure we could kill it before taking action, so that we wouldn't be stuck in this limbo, living in constant fear."

"If it were just a matter of life and death, that would be fine. What I'm most worried about now is that this six-clawed black serpent might continue to grow. It was only twenty or thirty meters long at first, but now it's almost fifty meters long. If this drags on, and it grows to five hundred meters or even five thousand meters, I'm afraid even if an aircraft carrier comes over, it won't be of any use. That would be the real big problem!"

"What can we do? Qi Shen can't come down from the sky. Otherwise, with his extraordinary martial arts and various tricks, he might be able to dive down into the ocean and have a good fight with it. At the very least, he could find a way to track it down."

"Don't mention that. Qi Shen has no idea about the trouble we're in. Look how happy he is eating. He was eating all morning and he's still eating all afternoon."

"I'm about to lose it just thinking about this. We're constantly fighting and getting into trouble here, while Qi Shen is drinking and eating meat on the floating continent. He's practically begging for two dancers to perform for him. Compared to that, I'm getting angrier and angrier. Who's going to smash his barbecue grill?"

"Hehe, if I really give you the chance, do you dare to smash it?" "Smash it first, then beg for mercy, and God Qi should let me go."

……

In the live stream, Qi Xuan was indeed continuing to grill meat.

There was no way around it; at first, it was because the honey-roasted meat was so delicious that I couldn't stop eating it once I started, so I thought I might as well roast it all.

He found that he had overestimated himself. The two of them were enjoying their meal at first, but after eating half a dragon, they were too full to eat anymore.

Even if Qi Xuan threw a piece of dragon meat at Sunday, this silly pig would grunt and whimper for ages before finally managing to gnaw off a piece of skin.

Damn trash.

Who said you could eat the Giant-Toothed Demon Boar?!
However, Qi Xuan could understand the current situation.

After all, it was a third-tier Golden-Eyed Wyvern, whose body contained extremely rich essence. An ordinary person could be full for several days by eating a small piece of its own fingernail. In addition, it was coated with high-quality Silverwing Beetle honey. With the two combined, even with [Essence Refining] at its disposal, it was almost too much for it to refine.

The good news is that after this massive feeding, his previously stagnant physical body has been greatly strengthened once again, and he has now reached the limit of the sixth level of Qi Refining, exceeding his own entire minor realm, making him a veritable humanoid Tyrannosaurus Rex.

Even if we encounter a peak second-tier demon beast now, we might not lose to those guys in a pure physical fight.

Seeing that he couldn't finish the food, Qi Xuan simply stopped eating.

He casually put away the remaining half of the roasted dragon meat to serve as rations for the next while; he figured he could finish it eventually.

Upon noticing that the dragon meat had disappeared, Sunday, who had been whimpering and half-dead, immediately stood up, full of energy.

The human and the pig stared at each other, each seeing the same thought in the other's eyes—

Eat and drink your fill to aid digestion.

"drive!"

Qi Xuan flipped himself onto the pig.

I ran wildly on Sunday.

To call it a sprint would be an understatement; for an average person, that pace would be more like a stroll on a Sunday.

Seeing a person and a pig running freely in the forest, netizens were all incredibly envious.

"This is the life I've always dreamed of! Riding horses across the vast grasslands. Although it's not actually a vast grassland, and it's not even horses, it's pretty similar!"

"Others might take a short ride on a bicycle after eating and drinking their fill, but this guy is really driving a pig like a Mercedes."

"Tell me, is he fast or not on Sundays?"

"It's definitely fast. One squat and it'll send me flying, leaving me half dead."

"So if you don't have enough strength, even if you're given a mount, you won't be able to ride it."

"Aaaaaah! When will Qi Shen start teaching martial arts?! Has he forgotten about it?!"

"It's not that I've forgotten, is it? Didn't I teach you several hundred ancient seal characters today?"

"Don't even mention those ancient seal characters, they give me a headache. I never had it this hard when I was learning English."

"Come on, those people abroad are the ones who are having a hard time. Most of the ancient seal script can be matched one-to-one with Chinese characters, and the word order and tone are easy to understand. When it comes to those foreigners, get ready to pass three tests."

"By the way, did you notice the information revealed in the words we taught today?"

"What intelligence? I was busy following the ship-beast war today and didn't have time to look at it."

"It's the Heavenly Palace plaque. Comparing it with today's characters, three out of the five characters on the plaque have been matched. The plaque should read 'Wanhua XX Palace'."

What does "leading with [Myriad Transformations]" mean?

"I'm not quite sure. Many linguistics professors online have offered their speculations. The two characters '万化' could be a code name, an honorific title, an adjective, or even the name of a martial art. We'll have to see what the two missing characters in the middle actually are."

"But even if we knew, it wouldn't seem to be of much use, would it? We can't get in, and we don't even know where the Heavenly Palace is."

"At least it can increase our understanding of the Heavenly Palace. Perhaps as Qi Shen continues his exploration of the floating continent, he will uncover a lot of information related to the Heavenly Palace. I always feel that the Heavenly Palace is the core of the entire floating continent. Its existence is closely related to the floating continent. Including the last time the sun collapsed, it also caused great changes. What if we think about it from the other side?"

"You mean the Heavenly Palace needs to expand and manifest itself in the outside world at a certain time, which is why the sun on the floating continent collapsed?"

"This is just a speculation currently offered by the academic community. We cannot rule out the possibility of it. Therefore, research on the Heavenly Palace is of paramount importance. Even just a few words on the plaque are enough for us to ponder for a long time."

"It'll be soon. Judging from Qi Shen's teaching progress, we should know what the whole plaque says in just a few days at most."

"Hopefully, this will help us crack the secrets of the Heavenly Palace!"

"—!!"

……

Almost as soon as netizens were lost in thought, a beam of icy blue light suddenly shot out, arriving in the blink of an eye and covering the entire light screen.

At that moment, everyone felt a chill run through their bodies.

They inexplicably recalled the scene where the helicopter was shot down in mid-air by the six-clawed black snake.

That's how it was back then too. A strong blue light suddenly magnified in front of my eyes, all the scenes abruptly stopped, and then nothing happened.

Now, the same scene is playing out again. Could it be that...?

The next second, netizens who were still worried that Qi Xuan would repeat the helicopter accident immediately noticed that the light screen lit up again.

Qi Xuan sat on Sunday's body, and instead of being instantly killed by the blue light as everyone expected, he appeared to be completely unharmed.

His expression, however, was cold and hard, filled with a hidden rage.

Qi Xuan was indeed angry.

Because the attack came so suddenly, if it weren't for the warning talisman that gave him a second to dodge, he would definitely have been seriously injured, or even killed on the spot.

This is not because his recently enhanced physical body is not strong enough.

It was because the enemy this time was stronger than he had imagined.

Not only was his opponent a third-tier cultivator, two minor realms above him, but he was also utterly unethical, ambushing him, a mere first-tier cultivator, from the shadows. Under normal circumstances, who the hell could withstand that?!
Just as he was filled with rage, the opponent that launched the sneak attack slowly revealed its enormous form from the forest.

Upon seeing the other party appear, all the netizens on Earth who were watching the live stream gasped in surprise.

The reason was that the ferocious beast that secretly attacked Qi Xuan was actually a six-clawed black serpent!
However, unlike the one in the Pacific Ocean, this one in front of us looks to be only about forty meters long. Its scales are dark blue instead of light gold, and even the six claws under its belly don't look as sharp as the one in the Pacific Ocean, which could easily tear through its armor.

Its single horn is also significantly smaller than that of the one in the Pacific Ocean, only about two-thirds the length.

Even so, its enormous size, the deep blue ice spikes it shoots, and its cunning sneak attacks are enough to prove that this six-clawed dragon-serpent is just as troublesome as the one in the Pacific Ocean.

Even more so.

After all, Qi Xuan didn't have powerful weapons like missiles or torpedoes by his side.

A group of netizens were extremely anxious and tried to persuade him through the screen:

"Run! Qi Shen! We can't possibly defeat this monster!"

"It's incredibly strong, intelligent, and even possesses special skills. We can't afford to confront it head-on!"

"As long as the green hills remain, there's always hope. We'll prepare for revenge later, just like we took down the Golden-Eyed Pterosaur!"

"Yeah, there's no shame in running away now. It's Sunday, so we can run fast. Once we find a narrow mountain path, we won't have to worry about shaking it off!"

"Let's perform a mountain-climbing act like last time and shake it off first! Once we're safely down, we'll settle the score with it later!"

……

Qi Xuan naturally couldn't see the netizens' advice, but even if he could, he didn't plan to run away.

The outside world has greatly underestimated the extent of the six-clawed black serpent's hatred towards him.

Since he successfully stole the Demon King Fruit, this six-clawed black serpent must have harbored resentment towards him. That's why it frantically searched for him after breaking through to the third rank and then launched a sneak attack after finding him.

If he tries to escape today, let alone whether he can actually do so.

Even if you manage to escape, you never know where you might be ambushed by ice spikes again.

But good luck doesn't come every time.

Being secretly watched by a Tier 3 beast, he wouldn't be able to sleep well tonight if he didn't find a way to get rid of it.

Qi Xuan slowly pulled out a two-meter-long spear made from the spine of a golden-eyed pterosaur.

Facing the colossal creature so close at hand, he pointed his spear diagonally and calmly said:
"Come."

(End of this chapter)