Chapter 32: Sorry for the Trouble

Chase!
Liang Qu felt the presence of the Three-Eyed Whale King. Before he could even laugh, he noticed that the whale king had turned and swam back into the cave, so he immediately flew after it.
Naturally, Shen Nan hurried to keep up with Liang Qu.
The Three-Eyed Whale King swam extremely fast—with just one flick of its tail, it could cover a mile. Moreover, the cave kept branching endlessly, and thanks to its familiarity with the terrain, the whale king easily escaped Liang Qu’s pursuit.
As soon as Liang Qu lost contact with the whale king, he stopped. Shen Nan quickly reached him and looked at him in surprise.
“Elder, has the Three-Eyed Whale King disappeared?” Shen Nan asked cautiously.
“It has indeed disappeared, but it doesn’t matter. Let’s return to the cave entrance first, seal it off, and then search for the whale king. I refuse to believe that I can’t find it after exploring all these branches,” Liang Qu said determinedly, regaining his spirit.
Soon, Liang Qu returned to the cave and brought out a set of array discs, setting up the “Dreamy Golden Flow Array” at the entrance.
This was an illusion array. Once an enemy entered, they would be trapped in a dreamlike golden world filled with golden light, golden monsters, golden scenes, and golden attack spells, which would continuously drain their vital energy until they were exhausted.
After setting up the array, Liang Qu felt relieved and immediately led Shen Nan deeper into the cave.
The cave was extremely wide—at least twenty meters wide in some places, and even wider in others. What was even more astonishing was that it began to branch after just a few hundred meters, with paths that twisted and changed elevation, making it difficult to determine direction.
A day later, after flying nonstop, Liang Qu and Shen Nan arrived at a place and stopped in frustration. It turned out they had already been in this spherical space the previous day—meaning they had gone in circles.
“Damn these branching paths! What kind of maze is this?” Even with his excellent control skills, Liang Qu couldn’t help but get angry.
Shen Nan, having been here before and experienced such difficulties, remained calm.
But just as Liang Qu finished complaining, a smile appeared on his face.
“Haha! After much effort with no results, it came easily. Shen Nan, the Three-Eyed Whale King has already entered the ‘Dreamy Golden Flow Array!’” Liang Qu exclaimed joyfully.
Shen Nan also exclaimed, “Elder, heaven is on our side.”

It turned out that the Three-Eyed Whale King, relying on his familiarity with the terrain, noticed that Liang Qu and Shen Nan had reached deep inside the cave. He rushed to the cave entrance via a side path, intending to exit and swim in the ocean. Unluckily, he failed to detect anything unusual at the entrance and thus stepped into the formation.

Soon, Liang Qu and Shen Nan, filled with joy, flew back to the cave entrance and stood outside the formation’s space.

“That bastard made me waste a whole day in this cave, draining a huge amount of my vital energy. I’ll let this formation drain yours first, then take your third eye,” Liang Qu said coldly.

After speaking, he sat down. Seeing this, Shen Nan also had no choice but to sit down and wait for Liang Qu’s orders.

……

The Three-Eyed Whale King fell into the “Dreamy Golden Flow Formation.” Immediately, golden light bathed his surroundings, filling everything with a golden hue.

Suddenly, a golden eagle soared down and lunged at him. Without time to think of a way to escape the formation, the Whale King saw the eagle’s ferocity and immediately flipped his tail upward, shattering the eagle.

Though the eagle was shattered, there was no trace of vital energy—turns out it was just an illusion within the formation.

The Whale King was terrified, realizing he had entered a trapping illusion formation. His upper and lower eyelids flickered rapidly, as if hesitating whether to use his third eye.

In that instant, the surroundings changed drastically—there appeared a towering golden dam, which cracked open, unleashing a torrent of golden water.

Instinctively, the Whale King released water-based vital energy to create a “water membrane” around himself to ward off the flood.

Of course, this golden water was also illusory; after crashing down, it carried no trace of energy. Yet as the Whale King used vital energy for defense, he felt an intense force hitting him.

Illusions—everything was an illusion—but he still had to keep releasing vital energy to resist.

In this illusory space of the “Dreamy Golden Flow Formation,” all the scenes and spells appeared incredibly real. After breaking through each spell, the Whale King angrily realized that his vital energy defense had been wasted again. Yet he still had to defend against each illusionary spell.

His vital energy continued to be drained at an alarming rate.

Suddenly, after losing a great deal of vital energy, the third eye in the center of the Whale King’s head finally opened.

Whoosh!

The Vertical Eye emitted a fierce beam of hazy green light, exactly the size of an eye, yet so straight and mesmerizing. Within the “Dreamy Golden Flow Formation,” this green light created a dazzling, illusory world—resembling a deep-sea scene filled with countless giant fish swimming around. Upon detecting anything unusual, all the giant fish would explode to drive out intruders.

The Third Eye of the Three-Eyed Whale King could also generate an illusory space, and the space it created directly counteracted the illusions produced by the “Dreamy Golden Flow Formation.”

The Three-Eyed Whale King could now avoid wasting his vital energy. However, after activating the Vertical Eye, his complexion appeared somewhat drained, as it seemed that activating this third eye required sacrificing some of his internal substances.

Liang Qu, outside the formation, immediately sensed the changes inside and sneered, “Now that the Three-Eyed Whale King has activated his third eye, he no longer poses a threat to me. I can enter the formation and attack him directly.”

Originally, Liang Qu had hesitated to enter the formation because he knew that the green light emitted by the Three-Eyed Whale King’s third eye, besides creating illusory spaces, also had an offensive power comparable to that of a warrior in the early stages of fusion, so he didn’t want to take risks. Now that the Three-Eyed Whale King had used the Vertical Eye once, he would need ten days to recover its function, so Liang Qu no longer had to worry.

As soon as Liang Qu entered the formation, he drew a golden long sword from his hand—Jin Hao Sword, a lower-grade spiritual weapon. Wherever the sword pointed, a brilliant sword aura would appear, possessing immense destructive power.

“Three-Eyed Whale King, hand over your eyes!” Liang Qu shouted as he swung his sword.

A pale golden sword aura shot out fiercely and struck the Three-Eyed Whale King’s tail, giving him no time to react. The tail was instantly split in two, with blood gushing out like a fountain.

In pain, the Three-Eyed Whale King quickly realized he had been ambushed by a powerful warrior in the early stages of fusion.

Suddenly, his third eye snapped open, and another fist-sized beam of green light was fired at Liang Qu. The speed was too fast for Liang Qu to dodge, so he quickly channeled his vital energy to block the green light.

Zzz! Zzz!

A palm-sized hole appeared in Liang Qu’s body, where his golden vital energy was fiercely battling the green light energy. The more intense the battle, the greater the damage to Liang Qu’s body.

Still, Liang Qu managed to block the green light with difficulty, though his vital energy was severely depleted.

“Impossible! Didn’t you already use Vertical Eye once? How can you use it again?” Liang Qu looked at the Three-Eyed Whale King, whose body had shrunk, and shouted angrily.
“Hmph, you’re right. Under normal circumstances, I wouldn’t use Vertical Eye twice in a row. Now, it will take me a year to recover from it. Moreover, my internal meridians have been severely damaged, and it will take even longer to heal,” the Three-Eyed Whale King roared in anger.
It turned out that forcing the use of Vertical Eye repeatedly came with extremely severe consequences. If the Three-Eyed Whale King used it again, it might be completely destroyed.
At that moment, Shen Nan also entered the formation and came to Liang Qu’s side, looking at the Three-Eyed Whale King with joy.
“Three-Eyed Whale King, today you’ll die at my hands,” Shen Nan announced happily.
“You, a human cultivator in the late stage of Diversion, think that just because I’m injured, you can defeat me?” the Three-Eyed Whale King sneered.
Shen Nan immediately focused his eyes, drew out a golden broadsword, and with the power of his vital energy, the sword flew out, aiming straight at the Three-Eyed Whale King.
The Three-Eyed Whale King suddenly transformed into a one-meter-tall human child and easily dodged the sword’s attack.
“Shen Nan, use this Golden Bright Sword to kill it,” Liang Qu said. His vital energy was severely depleted, making it difficult even for him to control his magical artifacts.
The Golden Bright Sword was a lower-grade spiritual weapon that could only be crafted by cultivators at the Fusion stage. Its sharpness would surely be enough to wound the Three-Eyed Whale King.
Shen Nan immediately took the sword and, like a wisp of smoke, floated toward the child-like Three-Eyed Whale King. Sword energy filled the air, forcing the Three-Eyed Whale King to desperately dodge.
The Three-Eyed Whale King hadn’t expected this move from the Golden Bright Sword. He had originally planned to rely on his physical strength to resist Shen Nan’s attacks, but now he couldn’t use his body at all. He could only rely on his vital energy to quickly dodge the attacks.
However, the Three-Eyed Whale King wasn’t fast enough. Under the onslaught of the sword energy, hundreds of wounds appeared on his body, with blood flowing continuously.
“If you attack again, I’ll explode my Nascent Soul!” suddenly, the bloodied Three-Eyed Whale King shouted angrily.
Shen Nan immediately stopped and stared at the Three-Eyed Whale King in shock. Liang Qu, who had been sitting quietly, was also stunned for a moment, his eyes filled with concern.
Just then, four figures suddenly appeared in the formation—Qu Yi, Wu Yuan, Golden Qilin, and Illusory Dance Butterfly—all emerging from the Dimensional Sphere.

“Thank you all for your hard work. Let’s take it from here,” Qu Yi said with a smile, standing there confidently. Meanwhile, Wuyuan, Jin Qilin, and Huanwu Die emerged from the Cunjie Ball and launched an immediate attack. Wuyuan attacked Liang Qu, who was sitting on the ground; Jin Qilin swung his mountain-hammer at Shen Nan, while Huanwu Die held an Eight Directions Sword and sent a beam of light at the Three-Eyed Whale King.