Many children, many blessings: Stealing the offspring of powerful figures to cultivate immortality.

Black water poured into her mouth and nose, choking Jiang Yining and causing her lungs to ache.

She coughed up a mouthful of blood mixed with black mud, and her body was shoved heavily against a hard wooden board by a dark current.

When I opened my eyes, there was a very low, thick, gray-white fog overhead.

The only sound was the rhythmic splashing of oars, and the not-so-wide wooden plank beneath me swayed gently up and down with the waves.

Jiang Yining gritted her teeth and propped herself up, habitually reaching for her dantian.

Just as a faint glimmer of lightning managed to gather at his fingertips, a heavy force surged through the surrounding air, crushing the lightning into dust.

The cultivation foundation he had painstakingly built up in the Martial Spirit Realm was still there, but his spiritual power was like lead, sinking into his meridians and impossible to lift.

There was no familiar spiritual energy around.

This heavy, almost viscous power of law was seeping into her bones through her damaged flesh, crushing her original spiritual power into a ball.

"Get up when you wake up."

A man's voice drifted from the bow of the ship.

Lazy and listless, exuding a weariness that made even taking a deep breath feel like a chore.

Jiang Yining raised her head.

Through the thin mist, I saw a man in black leaning against the bow of the ship.

His shirt was wide open, revealing several striking dark purple lines winding across his pale chest and neck.

The man was carrying a white jade wine pot in his right hand and holding a rough wooden paddle in his left hand, the barbs of which had not even been properly polished.

The oar tip, dripping with black water, casually tapped twice on the plank beside Jiang Yining's shoulder.

"The Boundless Sea doesn't accept trash. Jump in yourself, so the Void Beasts won't come looking for trouble because they smell your blood."

Jiang Yining leaned against the soaked gunwale, her wet hair clinging to her cheeks.

She was still catching her breath, her voice was hoarse from choking on water, but her eyes were frighteningly clear.

"If I go out to sea, your wrecked boat will be dragged down by what's chasing it from below."

The man stopped pouring the wine into his mouth.

He turned his head, his narrow eyes slightly upturned, and his gaze swept over her scarred body.

Are you threatening me?

"Just a reminder."

No sooner had he finished speaking than the once calm Black Sea suddenly churned up with huge waves.

From the depths of the dense fog, several dark red streaks of light cracked open, and the oppressive power of the divine realm's laws transformed into several thick chains, lashing down fiercely at the lone boat.

The man clicked his tongue and straightened up, still holding the wine jug.

"You dared to fall into my ship after provoking the Divine Realm? You really know how to pick your place to annoy people."

He raised his foot, the toe of his shoe pointing straight at Jiang Yining's shoulder, clearly intending to kick this troublesome woman back into the sea.

But just as he exerted his strength, the dark purple lines on his left arm suddenly began to wriggle as if they were alive.

The black poisonous mist seeped directly from under his pale skin, instantly corroding the left half of his sleeve into ashes.

Large patches of festering flesh were exposed to the air, a shocking sight.

The man's foot froze in mid-air.

His brows furrowed tightly, and the languid air he had been enveloped in while intoxicated was torn open by the sudden, sharp pain.

Jiang Yining's gaze immediately locked onto his arm.

The poisonous fog conceals an extremely domineering law of destruction.

The Myriad Spirits Divine Tree within her body, suppressed by the realm, seemed to have sensed some extraordinary nourishment, and actually squeezed out a wisp of purple-gold wood energy from the depths of its ancestral root.

She raised her hand without hesitation.

A thin, purple-gold vine sprouted from her fingertip, like a slender snake flicking its tongue, and wrapped itself around the man's festering left arm.

As soon as the wood vapor touched the black mist, a sickening corrosive sound immediately rang out from the ship's deck.

The man's body visibly stiffened.

The rampant dark purple patterns seemed to have encountered a natural enemy, and their movement came to a standstill.

The domineering purple-gold vitality forced its way into his festering flesh, pushing the layer of black mist back an inch.

It hurts and itches.

Xie Wuwang looked down at the thin vine wrapped around his arm, and his expression finally changed.

It was no longer about looking at a corpse about to be fed to the fish, but rather about examining it with a sense of scrutiny.

Using the gunwale for support, Jiang Yining stood up unsteadily and looked directly into his eyes.

"Take me away from the Sea of ​​No Return."

Xie Wuwang didn't move, letting the vine wrap around him: "Why should I?"

"I can suppress the poison in your body."

"You can't even stand up straight now."

"the same as you."

Jiang Yining refused to budge an inch.

Xie Wuwang turned his head slightly, twirling the white jade wine pot halfway between his fingers: "Can you save me?"

"I can shut it up for now. As for how long you live, that's up to fate."

The wood energy at Jiang Yining's fingertips had begun to tremble.

Forcibly suppressing this level of poisonous fog almost drained her of her last bit of confidence, but she didn't even flinch.

"You hold off the pursuers from the Divine Realm and lead me to a place where I can settle down. I'll suppress the Poison of Annihilation for you. The price is fair."

Xie Wuwang suddenly laughed.

He leaned down, suddenly closing the distance between them.

The strong smell of alcohol mixed with the salty smell of the sea hit Jiang Yining's face directly.

Cold fingers gripped her chin without hesitation, the rough calluses on his hands brushing against the soft flesh of her cheek, forcing her to tilt her head back.

"Women, if you try to make a deal with Xie Wuwang in the Boundless Sea, you'll have to risk your life."

He was so close that Jiang Yining could see the dark red chains reflected in his pupils.

The force on her chin was so heavy it felt like it was going to crush her bones, but Jiang Yining didn't even flinch.

Instead of backing away, she leaned her neck forward slightly to meet his force.

The corners of his lips curled upwards into an extremely cold arc.

"I'm tough."

She stared into Xie Wuwang's eyes, her voice very soft, "Is one enough?"

The two remained locked in a stalemate.

The waves crashed against the ship's side, creating huge splashes, and the chains of the divine realm were already close overhead.

Xie Wuwang looked at her for three seconds.

He saw no fear in this woman's eyes, only a reckless, mad spirit.

He released her hand, lightly patted her cheek twice with his fingers, then turned and tossed the wine jug into the cabin.

"OK."

Xie Wuwang gripped the rough oar again and stood at the bow of the boat.

An aura of destruction, belonging to those above the demigod level, flowed down his arm and pressed into the oar without reservation.

"If you lie to me, I'll chop you and this vine into pieces and feed them to the fish."

Jiang Yining slid down against the cabin wall, clutching her chest and panting: "If you throw me into the sea halfway there, I'll definitely release all your poison before I die."

"Too verbose."

Xie Wuwang gripped the oars with both hands and swung them downwards.

The black sea was cleaved into a bottomless chasm by this seemingly casual strike.

The dark red chain that crashed down from mid-air collided with the aura generated by the paddle and shattered into countless fragments of light, leaving not a sound.

The lone boat, following the deep ravine it had carved out, shot into the thick fog ahead like an arrow released from a bow.

The giant waves behind them closed in, completely isolating the divine domain's oppressive power outside the Black Sea.

Jiang Yining withdrew the thin vine, closed her eyes, sat cross-legged against the cabin, and began to forcefully regulate her breathing.

Xie Wuwang pulled out another wine flask from somewhere, leaned against the stern of the boat, and drank while staring at her.

"Are you planning to grind it out at this tortoise-like pace?"

Jiang Yining didn't even lift her eyelids: "My current spiritual power isn't even enough to fill your teeth."

"Then hurry up and get it done."

"If you think it's too slow, you can change all the broken rules of this sea."

Xie Wuwang tilted his head back and gulped down a mouthful of wine, his Adam's apple bobbing up and down: "If I had such extraordinary abilities, I would have sent myself away long ago. Why would I be stuck on this wrecked ship?"

Jiang Yining opened her eyes, her gaze sweeping over his open collar and dark purple patterns.

"You keep saying you want to die?"

"Living is too much trouble."

"Then are you still afraid of the poison taking effect?"

Xie Wuwang placed the wine pot on his lap, rubbing the pot with his fingertips, and answered confidently, "Being afraid of pain and wanting to die are two different things."

This response was so smooth; it was clear that he had already planned it out countless times in his mind.

Jiang Yining didn't respond further, focusing instead on guiding the viscous energy around her to cleanse her meridians.

The old spiritual energy peels away and shatters little by little during the rinsing process, while the newly absorbed power sinks into the dantian along the meridians.

The dim purple-gold vines of the Divine Tree of All Spirits finally began to glow faintly again.

The thick fog pressed down lower and lower, and the only sound around us was the sound of water.

Suddenly, a deep, muffled bell rang out from a great distance ahead.

"Thump—"

Xie Wuwang's hand holding the oar was suspended in mid-air.

He turned his head, listened for a moment, and the laziness at the corner of his mouth lessened.

"Recover faster."

Jiang Yining stopped meditating and looked into the depths of the thick fog: "What's ahead?"

Someone is waiting for you.

"Here to take my life?"

Xie Wuwang put the oar back into the water and rowed hard, his tone returning to its usual nonchalant manner.

"Or maybe they've come to take me away."