Chapter 129: Mutual Killing

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Tunzuo pressed forward on her side.

The ghostly blue lights, like will-o’-the-wisps drifting from the tombs of Suiyuan Youling Cemetery, slowly drew closer to them.

The number of lights began to multiply exponentially.

Tunzuo squinted and made a rough count, only to realize there were as many as a hundred of them.

At first, only a scattered few had appeared, but as the distance closed, the number of lights kept growing.

“If they were witches, their attribute light wouldn’t be so perfectly uniform. What’s going on? Are they other contestant witches? No, that’s not it…”

An ominous premonition crawled up Tunzuo’s spine.

Not daring to hesitate, she quickly rose and swam out from the reef pile, trying to pull Hai Lanyue, who was exposed to danger, back to safety.

Just as Tunzuo was about to swim toward Hai Lanyue, the rope around her waist suddenly yanked taut, dragging her back down.

Tunzuo looked up in shock and saw Olivia gripping the rope with all her might, her face grim as she rapidly gestured a series of complicated signals.

Relying on the faint fluorescent glow radiating from Hai Lanyue, Tunzuo struggled for quite a while before managing to decipher Olivia’s meaning from her rapidly shifting hand signs.

Though she now understood what Olivia was saying, Tunzuo knew full well that at this point, whether she understood or not hardly mattered anymore.

“Don’t startle them. Acting rashly will only disturb them.”

Those ghostly blue lights had already completely surrounded Hai Lanyue.

As the hundred-strong swarm of ghostly blue lights arrived, the pitch-black sea was instantly illuminated.

The eerie glow pierced through the barriers, finally allowing Tunzuo to make out the true appearance of the mysterious lights.

Bodies four to five meters long stretched through the water, radiating a dazzling, soul-capturing brightness.

Their translucent skin exposed the complex vascular networks and pale white bones beneath in perfect detail, and beneath that beautiful exterior lay a horrifically gnashing maw.

Above their heads, five gleaming yellow eyes arranged in a ring reflected frigid light in the deep sea.

Their nose-like maws were savage, with layer upon layer of jagged teeth curling inward, every inch betraying a brutal hunting instinct.

“Phantom Leviathans!”

Tunzuo pressed her body against the edge of the reef, slowing her movements to the absolute minimum, doing her best to lower her presence.

Though Tunzuo wasn’t sure whether these Phantom Leviathans matched the ones in her memory, one look at them made it clear they were no pushovers.

Daring to serve as a light source in the Silent Sea, glowing openly and without fear—that wasn’t something just any old cat or dog could pull off.

To put it another way, the light itself might very well be the Phantom Leviathans’ deadliest hunting tactic.

Unaware of the Phantom Leviathans’ true nature, Tunzuo didn’t dare act recklessly.

She could only watch anxiously as Hai Lanyue sat on the seabed clutching Shub, wondering whether Shub, whose authority had been greatly weakened, could truly protect Hai Lanyue…

Just as Tunzuo was pondering how to safely retrieve Hai Lanyue, what happened next left her utterly dumbfounded.

After the Phantom Leviathan swarm swam up to Hai Lanyue, they didn’t attack her where she sat on the seabed.

Instead, they retracted their savage maws, lined up in neat formation, and slowly circled around her in a patrol.

Their ghostly blue radiance interwove and flowed, forming a bizarre, magnificent Tower of Babel on the ocean floor.

The Phantom Leviathans wove around Hai Lanyue with gentle movements, showing not a hint of hostility.

Some of the larger ones even gently lifted her, trying to help her float back up.

Every single sign pointed to the same conclusion: the Phantom Leviathan swarm was inviting Hai Lanyue to join their parade.

After a moment, Tunzuo noticed that the Phantom Leviathans’ five yellow “eyes” had no pupils.

They didn’t possess true vision, serving purely as light-sensing organs.

“Are they… mistaking Hai Lanyue for one of their own?”

Tunzuo was uncertain and alarmed, silently continuing to observe.

After a while, she seemed to figure something out.

“Do they distinguish friend from foe by light source? Because Hai Lanyue is emitting a similar glow, they’ve misjudged her as a kindred spirit? Talk about luck…”

Tunzuo’s mouth twitched as she once again marveled at Hai Lanyue’s worthiness as the Child of Fortune.

Since the Phantom Leviathan swarm bore no hostility toward Hai Lanyue, that was undoubtedly an excellent opportunity for Tunzuo and Olivia.

Tunzuo shook her head, shifting her gaze away from Hai Lanyue and focusing on the Phantom Leviathan swarm circling before her.

As the second most dangerous existence on the material list, if she could easily hunt enough of them right here, Tunzuo would be more than happy—it would save them a great deal of trouble.

So Tunzuo flashed Olivia, who was positioned across from her, a signal to prepare for the hunt.

Olivia gave a slight nod in response.

The next second, the two witches moved into action with a synergy that needed no words.

Since the Phantom Leviathans were numerous, Tunzuo and Olivia decided to divide and conquer first.

After all, they didn’t need that many materials, and there was no reason to provoke the entire swarm at once and risk being surrounded.

Tunzuo silently floated upward, using the shadows to conceal her presence so the Phantom Leviathans wouldn’t notice her, while Olivia churned the water currents, deliberately creating a disturbance to draw the swarm’s attention.

The turbulent currents successfully made the Phantom Leviathans turn to face Olivia’s direction.

But what the swarm didn’t know was that Tunzuo had already slipped behind them.

Seizing the moment when a smaller Phantom Leviathan at the rear straggled and fell behind, Tunzuo suddenly clenched her fist and launched a surprise attack.

The shadowy curtain abruptly snapped shut like a carnivorous flower opening its massive maw, instantly engulfing the targeted Phantom Leviathan and completely isolating it from its kin.

“Got it!”

Tunzuo felt a surge of joy at the successful capture.

But just as she was about to drag the Phantom Leviathan away to process it in a corner, something unexpected happened.

The shadow-wrapped Phantom Leviathan, sensing that the light of its companions around it had vanished, began trembling violently.

Then, its once-solid translucent body started to blur, dissolving into chaotic ripples and losing its physical form.

In the blink of an eye, the Phantom Leviathan phased straight through the shadowy curtain’s capture and shot back into the swarm at incredible speed.

The escaped Phantom Leviathan flashed a strange frequency across its body surface, sending an alarm to its nearby companions that an enemy was present.

After receiving the warning, the roaming Phantom Leviathan swarm immediately contracted.

No longer dispersed in patrol, they gathered tightly together, linked end to end, watching each other’s backs.

“Ph-physical immunity?!”

Tunzuo’s eyes flew wide in disbelief, feeling as though her prized elemental phasing ability had been grossly violated.

And from the looks of it, the Phantom Leviathan swarm likely possessed an extremely high degree of social organization.

Seeing that a solo strike wouldn’t work, Tunzuo and Olivia exchanged glances and gave silent nods, preparing to switch to a full-frontal assault.

“Shub!”

Receiving Tunzuo’s command through their contract, Shub’s body rapidly expanded, her soft fur wrapping securely around Hai Lanyue, and like a rolling ball, she carried Hai Lanyue away to safety in the distance.

Sensing that the “kin’s” presence had vanished, the Phantom Leviathan swarm grew restless, as though a predator lurking in the shadows had already launched its attack.

Seeing this, Tunzuo and Olivia stopped hesitating and simultaneously struck at the swarm.

Whoosh!

Tunzuo swung Huanye, and the surrounding seawater was compressed by magic into razor-sharp water blades that tore through the water, howling as they sliced toward the Phantom Leviathan swarm.

On the other side, Olivia spread her palm, her fingertips rippling.

A raging gale erupted from nowhere on the seabed, and several water tornadoes shot up from the ground like drills, surging upward in an attempt to shatter the Phantom Leviathans’ swarm defense from below.

But unfortunately, the Phantom Leviathans were extremely sensitive to changes in water currents.

The instant Tunzuo and Olivia launched their attacks, the entire swarm collectively entered their spectral state.

The water blades passed straight through their bodies without drawing a single drop of blood.

The water tornadoes smashed through everything in their path, yet accomplished nothing.

After neutralizing the two witches’ attacks, the Phantom Leviathan swarm resumed their patrol—only this time, they swam faster, with stricter discipline, and the frequency of their glowing flashes grew more intense.

Eventually, under high-speed movement, the outermost Phantom Leviathans erupted in blinding white light.

Zzzt—!

Layer upon layer of high-voltage current discharged from the Phantom Leviathans’ bodies, and in moments, it unleashed a massive lightning storm across the Silent Sea.

Cerulean lightning bolts raced wildly through the water like a frenzy of electric eels, destroying everything they touched.

Even the pitch-black seawater was decomposed by the current, bubbling and churning.

Forced into a corner, Tunzuo and Olivia could only raise magical barriers to defend.

The violent lightning slammed against their barriers, causing intense tremors that left Tunzuo’s arms numb.

“Are they insane? Actually discharging electricity in the sea! Not a shred of ecological awareness!”

Frustrated by the failed opening, Tunzuo cursed inwardly, going on a full rant against the Phantom Leviathans.

If she could, she’d give these Phantom Leviathans a lecture on marine ecology—they were begging for a beating from the environmental protection organization!

Because the Phantom Leviathan swarm’s lightning assault was so ferocious, the suppressed Tunzuo and Olivia could only focus entirely on defense, finding no opening to attack.

Just as Tunzuo was pondering how to break the deadlock, a ferocious water pillar suddenly shot up from the seabed, blasting with tremendous force straight into the center of the Phantom Leviathan swarm.

Boom!

The massive impact instantly scattered the swarm, and the violent lightning storm ceased along with it.

Tunzuo looked up and saw that Shub, who had successfully escorted Hai Lanyue away, had returned to her position at some point.

She was gulping down seawater, her body swelling high, then abruptly contracting as she expelled the water in her belly as a high-pressure cannon blast.

Seizing the opportunity while the Phantom Leviathan swarm was scattered and in disarray, Tunzuo and Olivia’s eyes gleamed, and they launched their attack once more.

Tunzuo’s shadows coiled around her, spawning countless sharp shadow spears that shot toward the dispersed swarm.

Countless dark tentacles extended from the darkness, lashing through the water at breakneck speed to seal off the Phantom Leviathans’ escape routes.

Olivia swung her fist fiercely, sending vicious shockwaves hurtling toward the Phantom Leviathans.

At the same time, she landed on the seabed and stomped hard.

Magic rippled through the ground, and reefs erupted upward.

Jagged stone pillars pierced like javelins straight at the Phantom Leviathans’ underbellies.

However, because the Phantom Leviathans were extremely agile, and because the restrictions of the Silent Sea slowed both Tunzuo and Olivia’s movements, landing a decisive blow before the Phantom Leviathans could phase was incredibly difficult.

Due to the frequency of her attacks, Olivia’s position was exposed to the swarm.

Most of the strikes missed, slamming into the seabed and churning up layers of silt.

Nineteen of the largest Phantom Leviathans opened their jagged maws and lunged at Olivia, determined to slaughter the hunter who dared assault their swarm.

Seeing that after expending most of her effort, her damage output remained at zero, Tunzuo couldn’t hold back any longer and let loose a string of profanity, her composure starting to crack.

“Damn it! These goddamn phasing freaks! Annoying as hell even in death!”

Meanwhile, Olivia, locked in combat with the Phantom Leviathans, read what Tunzuo was cursing from her expression.

She froze in place, shocked as if struck by lightning, wondering if she’d misread things.

“Little Ghost, do you even hear what you’re saying?!”

Just as Tunzuo was stewing in frustration, unsure what to do, a teasing, mocking laugh suddenly echoed through her mental sea.

“Heehee, Young Master, charging in like that won’t work, you know. To deal with spirits, you need mental force or certain specialized spells. Only problem is, this sea…”

Naiya’s flippant teasing only made Tunzuo, who was already irritated, even angrier.

She raised her hand and pounded hard on the Pale Mask on her face, speaking crossly.

“I summoned you out all this time, and I haven’t seen you contribute much of anything. All you do is talk nonsense. Go! Take out these Phantom Leviathans and prove your worth! Otherwise, shut your mouth!”

“Heehee, don’t be mad, Young Master. I’d be delighted to oblige.”

Naiya giggled cheerfully as she accepted the order.

The Pale Mask detached from Tunzuo’s face, floating in the seawater.

The next second, the Pale Mask began twisting violently, gradually stretching into a clump of pitch-black, viscous liquid that writhed incessantly.

Then, the black liquid began to split and reassemble, and in no time, it had divided into over a dozen Phantom Leviathans—completely black, but only a few centimeters long.

Naiya’s duplicates looked like Phantom Leviathan larvae, yet they exuded an ominous aura.

And so, the Phantom Leviathans Naiya had transformed into silently infiltrated the swarm.

They didn’t attack, merely drifting beside the ordinary Phantom Leviathans, slowly siphoning away their flesh and blood.

Naiya’s duplicates’ attacks were as light as mosquito bites, and their aura was extremely similar to that of the Phantom Leviathans, so the swarm never noticed anything amiss.

But as Naiya devoured more and more Phantom Leviathan flesh, things began spiraling out of control.

The duplicates, originally only a few centimeters long, gradually grew.

Their color shifted from pitch-black to translucent ghostly blue, and eventually they grew into forms identical to the Phantom Leviathans, fully blending into the swarm.

And so, the chaos began.

The Naiya duplicates mixed into the swarm started tearing into the Phantom Leviathans with savage fury.

Suddenly attacked by “their own kind,” their communication channels disrupted, the Phantom Leviathans lashed out wildly—jaws gaping, electricity arcing everywhere.

The once-orderly swarm descended into utter chaos in an instant, discipline completely shattered.

The Phantom Leviathans began attacking their own brethren around them, gradually losing the ability to distinguish friend from foe, devolving into a blood-soaked arena of mutual slaughter.

And Naiya, nourished by the chaos, kept attacking, splitting off more and more Phantom Leviathan duplicates to muddy the situation further.

[Come now, bite, tear, slaughter!]

Naiya’s seductive voice echoed through Tunzuo’s mind, dripping with malice.

[There are no kin around you. They’re all enemies in disguise.]

[All is illusion. The only way to survive is to shred them all to pieces!]

Watching the Phantom Leviathan swarm descend into complete chaos under Naiya’s instigation, Olivia blinked, mulled things over for a moment, then silently dispelled the magic she’d just been gathering in her hand, canceling her spell and pretending she hadn’t prepared anything at all.