Douluo Continent: On Becoming a God Through Science

Chapter 156 Clash with the Ruler of the North Sea, the Despicable You Chen

Mermaids, once they reach adulthood, maintain a body length of around three meters, and even after living for over 100,000 years or becoming ferocious beasts, their size remains unchanged.

Looking at the stunningly beautiful mermaid before him, You Chen was momentarily stunned, amazed by her natural beauty.

Even with You Chen's experience, he had to admit that the female mermaid in front of him was definitely a top-tier woman among all the women he had ever seen, in terms of appearance and temperament.

Even the likes of Bibi Dong and Qian Renxue, compared to her, can only be said to have their own merits, different flavors and temperaments, and their own beauty, but they could never surpass the mermaid in terms of beauty.

They are all stunningly beautiful women in the novel, capable of captivating a nation.

After a slight pause, You Chen's pupils contracted.

At his level, no matter how beautiful a woman is, she cannot sway him; she can only amaze him for a moment, which is already the limit.

There was only one reason why his pupils dilated—the golden crown on the mermaid's head!

In the mermaid clan, not just anyone can wear a crown. Only those with royal blood can wear it!

As for the golden crown, there are only two possibilities...

The contemporary Sea Princess, and her successor!

So—which situation is it exactly?

"Guard, why are you here?"

The mermaid, wearing a golden crown, frowned and asked a question.

You Chen's thoughts raced, and he realized the trap in those words.

There was nothing wrong with his avatar appearing here; the real problem was that he concealed his aura, preventing the mermaid from noticing him until she saw him in person.

Its furtive appearance clearly indicates that it has a guilty conscience.

It seems the mermaid has already concluded that there's a problem with her incarnation.

So what you answer isn't important; what's important is not letting the mermaid realize that this is an incarnation, and not letting her realize that there are accomplices around.

Therefore, we should portray the image of someone who is in dire straits but still clings to a glimmer of hope!

Although this unexpected turn of events was extremely frustrating and disheartening, You Chen remained calm. Controlling his avatar, which had transformed into a sea knife fish, he feigned fear and said, "My lord, I...I...the captain sent me to deliver an important message. I just accidentally got lost!"

Just as the avatar was making a desperate attempt to argue and struggle, You Chen's true form had already silently emerged like a shadow.

His eyes were sharp, and his Barrett rifle was already poised to fire!

When he unexpectedly encountered the crowned mermaid, You Chen did hesitate for a moment and did not make a move immediately.

If the mermaid before him is not the current Sea Princess, but rather the successor to the Sea Princess, Princess Liya who possesses golden blood in the original story, then his actions would be tantamount to stirring up trouble.

Conversely, in front of the real 590,000-year-old sea princess, there is no guarantee that continuing to contact her in the avatar might reveal other clues.

Yu Chen hesitated between the two options: "to deceive her and confirm the real Sea Princess before taking action" and "to take action directly".

Opportunities are always fleeting. If he wanted to make a move immediately, there would be no time to hesitate, and no room to judge whether the mermaid in front of him was the sea princess or not!

You can only rely on your intuition to make a judgment!

In the end, he decided to take the plunge!

The moment the Barrett was set up, a strong sense of impending death enveloped the Crown Mermaid's heart.

Before she could react, a dark red energy surge struck her, instantly causing her to become dizzy!

Since we've decided to make a move, it has to be a decisive one!

Even in the worst-case scenario, where the mermaid senses his presence and sets a trap, this would be the perfect spot to assassinate him, especially since there are no other guards around and he is all alone!

You Chen directly used his fifth soul skill, Stardust Demon's Capture, to forcibly stun the Crown Mermaid!

Unless there is a massive shock, this is absolute control.

As Stardust Demon's Shot hit, You Chen also pulled the trigger!

Bang!

The massive impact of the Barrett bullet stirred up surging waves. At that distance, it wouldn't take even half a second to blast the Crown Mermaid into a pile of mangled flesh!

However, just as the bullet was about to hit her, a pale blue halo enveloped the crowned mermaid, and with a whoosh, she vanished without a trace.

Spatial teleportation!?

You Chen's pupils contracted. At that moment, he suddenly realized that this was indeed the worst-case scenario.

You Chen realized that he had been exposed, not because of the hasty sniping, but before he even encountered the sea princess in front of him.

Yes, after that hasty decision, he had come to his senses and truly confirmed that the mermaid from before was indeed the real sea princess.

The teleportation soul skill just now was not used by the sea princess who was controlled by him with Stardust Demon's Capture. It was most likely that it was activated by another mermaid with golden blood, Liya, who had established a mental connection with the sea princess beforehand, the moment she realized that the sea princess was being forcibly controlled!

When exactly was it discovered?

You Chen's expression darkened slightly. He realized that this was a situation similar to the one he had encountered in the Disaster Mountain Range. Both times, it was due to factors he had not noticed that led to premature exposure.

The difference this time is that he didn't have time to summarize and analyze where the mistakes or omissions occurred.

In reality, if we were to speculate on the possibilities after the fact, there are only a few possibilities.

The first possibility is that the underwater Crystal Palace was originally a special large-scale soul tool controlled by the Sea Princess and other soul beasts, and the Crystal Palace served as a warning to them.

The second possibility is that the individual is not adapted to the underwater environment, while the sea princess is perfectly at ease. With this difference in their abilities, the sea princess may have noticed a leak of energy or traces that she herself was unaware of.

The third possibility is that the sea princess's mental power is stronger than imagined, or that she possesses some special mental power technique, which allowed her to discover his existence.

Fourthly, the patrols and guards within the Crystal Palace exhibit a specific, coded sequence, which the Sea Princess discovered during her routine checks.

The reasons are no longer important.

Although his tracks were exposed prematurely, You Chen did not come away empty-handed.

The only gain was, of course, confirming the Sea Princess's identity and appearance.

The reason why You Chen was able to confirm that the other party was the Sea Princess was also very simple.

Since this is a pre-arranged scheme, and there is a rescue soul skill that forces escape, it is only natural to send the strongest person to test the waters.

With the strength and pride of a 590,000-year-old soul beast, even if a powerful expert at the Limit Douluo level were to invade, it would never be defeated and killed immediately.

Besides, You Chen belatedly realized that even though it was an ambush laid in advance, he hadn't noticed the other party immediately. He only realized their presence when he bumped into them around the corner. He couldn't imagine that any other soul beast in the Crystal Palace could conceal their aura to such an extent, except for the Sea Princess with 590,000 years of cultivation.

It is probably only with such strength and ability that they have the confidence and arrogance to take risks.

However, even the Sea Princess herself did not expect that Youchen would have a forced control skill like Stardust Demon's Capture.

If it weren't for that rescue soul skill as a backup plan, I would probably have been extremely unlucky and died in that very first encounter.

And that is indeed the case.

The sea princess, who was teleported to Liya's side by Liya's rescue soul skill "Mermaid's Guardian", was still in shock. After regaining her senses, she recalled the fear and helplessness in the face of death and immediately forgot her dignity as a princess, and started to hysterically curse.

"Everyone, fight to the death to catch that intruder! I will absolutely tear him to pieces!!!"

Only by facing the fear of death can one realize the preciousness of life.

It had already used its mental power to detect when the Dust Barrett's attack missed and hit the Crystal Palace wall.

The Crystal Palace's walls were made of a material so hard that they were comparable to human walls reinforced with advanced arrays, yet they were blasted into dust with a single shot from a Barrett sniper rifle.

Its flesh is not as hard as the walls of this Crystal Palace, so the consequences of being hit head-on are self-evident.

The last time the Sea Princess faced the threat of death was during the calamity ninety thousand years ago. Now that she has once again walked through the gates of hell, how could she not be furious?

On the other hand, after realizing he had been exposed, You Chen no longer hesitated and directly used his mental power, which he had not used before, to investigate.

In just a few seconds, he discovered the location of the sea princess who had been teleported away.

The distance is very short, only about one kilometer.

It's easy to understand that although the Sea Princess was cautious and kept a backup plan, she didn't really believe that You Chen, the intruder, could threaten her.

The preparations it made were not of the highest standard; in fact, they could be described as somewhat crude.

At this moment, there are not many guards around the Sea Princess, so this is the best time to launch an attack.

When You Chen used his mental power to lock onto the Sea Princess, the Sea Princess also sensed the fluctuations in You Chen's mental power.

His expression immediately changed.

"What?! This guy is actually probing us from the sidelines! Could it be that he hasn't given up on the assassination attempt?!"

Although You Chen displayed an attack powerful enough to kill it, the Sea Princess believed that You Chen made this choice because he was afraid to face it directly, since he needed to infiltrate the Crystal Palace to carry out the assassination. It was likely that You Chen had focused all his strength on concealment and one-time bursts of power, and his actual combat strength was not too outrageous.

This was a perfectly reasonable assumption. However, what the Sea Princess didn't consider was that a large part of the reason You Chen wanted to assassinate him was because he didn't want Poseidon of Seagod Island to get involved.

The Sea Princess was unaware that You Chen had confirmed its connection to Seagod Island; it was perfectly normal for her to draw this conclusion based solely on existing information.

From the Sea Princess's perspective, You Chen was trapped in enemy territory and had already been exposed. At this point, he should have been running for his life.

Therefore, it quickly developed its own understanding.

"So you're going to go all in?! Do you think the same killing move will work on me again after we've seen it once before?!"

It immediately used its mental power to order all the sea spirit beasts to gather at the core palace, no longer needing to search for the assassins' whereabouts.

It wants to kill this despicable assassin here!

Neither of their choices can be considered wrong.

It simply led the situation to a head-on confrontation.

After locking onto the Sea Princess with their mental energy, You Chen no longer worried about the leakage of soul energy fluctuations and directly possessed the Martial Soul.

The narrow passageway of the Crystal Palace was not suitable for using the Martial Soul True Body, which somewhat limited You Chen's explosive power. However, rather than looking for the next opportunity to strike when the Sea Princess went out, he preferred to kill the Sea Princess on the spot now!

Whoosh—.

Even disregarding the one-kilometer straight-line distance of the obstruction, and including the winding and circuitous route, it's only about two kilometers long.

Even if the turns in the passage require some slowing down and changing direction, for You Chen, it would only take an extra minute at most.

With a flap of his wings, the sea spirit beasts at the passage only felt as if a sea breeze had blown by, and they didn't even have time to notice You Chen's figure before letting him pass through.

Under the powerful mental lock of the sea princess, her expression finally changed.

The speed alone, far exceeding its own, made it realize that the newcomer's strength was definitely not as weak as it had imagined.

In an instant, the hundreds of sea spirit beasts already in the core area of ​​the Crystal Palace completed their spiritual connection.

While You Chen was still on his journey, the Sea Princess had already launched an attack on him from a distance using the mental power of her subordinates.

With the fusion of spiritual power and water-attribute soul power, the waves of the ocean began to strangle You Chen.

The terrifying water pressure was enough to crush an ordinary Title Douluo into serious injury, but this level of ranged attack could only slightly slow down You Chen's speed.

The results of the first attempt were clearly not satisfactory to the sea princess; in fact, they were quite terrible.

It began to realize that the opponent before it was far more troublesome than it had imagined, and that its compatibility with it was extremely poor!

The opponent's mental strength was not much weaker than his own, which meant that ordinary mental attacks could not cause any damage to the opponent. This was equivalent to cutting off his own arm!

Although the attack was launched remotely through subordinates as anchors, its power was far less than a direct attack. However, judging from You Chen's reaction, even if he had used all his strength, he would have only caused minor injuries to the opponent at most!

Unless it's a desperate, life-or-death move... it's probably going to be difficult!

The visitor is hostile! The reason for choosing assassination is probably not out of fear of its strength, but rather... to achieve a fatal kill!

Princess Hai, through a series of missteps, inadvertently deduced the correct answer from the strength displayed by You Chen.

"Liya, Regent, take some guards and get out of here through the secret passage immediately!"

Upon hearing the words conveyed by the Sea Princess through her spiritual power, the expressions of all the sea spirit beasts present changed drastically.

The guards dared not question the sea princess's orders, but her two daughters did not have such concerns.

The mermaid wearing the silver crown cried out, "Mother, are you asking us to abandon you and leave?"

"Stop acting like a spoiled child!"

Seeing her daughter completely unaware that they were facing a life-or-death situation, the Sea Princess roared, "Even I am not entirely confident in the strength of this newcomer! If he kidnaps you, I will be hesitant to act! So you must leave!"

Lijing froze, muttering absentmindedly, "But...but we are also 100,000-year-old soul beasts, Mother. Since the enemy is so powerful, shouldn't we unite even more? I, Liya, can definitely help you..."

But as it spoke, seeing the Sea Princess's expression soften, it couldn't continue. From the Sea Princess's expression, it realized that this time the Sea Princess's command was not to be questioned.

The Sea Princess turned to look at Liya and said, "Liya, if I fail to return, you will become the new patriarch of the Sea Princess clan. If all else fails, go to Seagod Island."

"Are you talking about something interesting?"

Just then, You Chen's mental energy fluctuated, and his voice rang out directly in everyone's minds.

A two-meter-tall blue and white dragon-man broke into the core palace.

The Sea Princess's expression changed. She gathered the soul power of all the soul beasts present and unleashed a white light wave with all her might.

This force directly imprisoned You Chen in place, even temporarily sealing his soul power.

"Hurry up!"

The Sea Princess once again used her mental power to transmit a telepathic message, simultaneously unleashing a more powerful, genuine vortex strangulation attack than when she previously used it while anchored.

Blood kept appearing on You Chen's body. The power of the soul skill used by the Sea Princess was indeed far greater than before, and it was able to damage his strong physique.

However, under the Sacrifice Sanctuary, only a minor injury could ultimately be left.

In terms of survival ability, he is the strongest below the Limit Douluo level, without exception.

The white light waves still bound You Chen, yet despite the blood and flesh flying all over his body, You Chen silently turned his head to look at the two mermaids wearing crowns behind the Sea Princess as if nothing had happened.

Liya Lijing felt a chill run down her spine as she was stared at by those merciless eyes.

They instinctively realized that the creature in front of them was not something they could fight against.

Urged by their mother, they finally made a decision and quickly chose to evacuate.

This white wave of despair lasted only a few seconds, but as long as they could leave the palace during that time, and with the Sea Princess as their formidable enemy, You Chen would naturally be unable to pursue them any further.

However, You Chen watched them leave, a subtle smile curving his lips.

After the two mermaids left, accompanied by a dozen guards, the white wave of despair shattered.

Whoosh—.

To the astonishment of the sea princess, the incomparably powerful white dragonman transformed into six.

And no matter which one it is, they all look exactly like the real one.

This was completely different from the avatar soul skill that she had been able to discern before—yes, the Sea Princess sensed something was wrong with the avatar precisely because of her powerful mental strength and her experience in using mental strength, which was many times richer than You Chen's.

But now, what appeared before her was no longer the incarnation of starlight, but a flawless phantom of stardust.

The Martial Soul True Body is not suitable for use here, but You Chen still has the trump card of Spiritual Realm Outburst.

At this moment, You Chen had already entered the state of spiritual power burst.

"Gentlemen, prepare yourselves to die in battle!"

The sea princess, her face solemn, gave her subordinates a declaration of their impending doom.

The six clones, each possessing the strength of the original, were evenly matched in terms of raw power against the Sea Princess and her ever-growing retinue.

To be precise, You Chen has a slight advantage.

Even though the Sea Princess received a constant replenishment of troops, large numbers of her subordinates were still killed by You Chen during the battle.

Even with the Sea Princess's racial talent soul skill, Mermaid Song, ordinary thousand-year-old soul beasts couldn't withstand a single blow from any of You Chen's clones.

As for those ten-thousand-year-old soul beasts, You Chen only needs to use one or two ten-thousand-year-old soul skills to easily kill them.

With his soul power recovery speed, he could recover from such a loss in the blink of an eye.

Even if the Sea Princess found the perfect opportunity and launched a desperate attack on You Chen by burning her life essence, she could only force You Chen to use his Emperor Golden Body once.

The sea princess couldn't help but become impatient.

Even though it uttered such tragic words to its daughters, it certainly didn't want to die if it could win and survive.

However, its final and strongest killing move never had the chance to be used.

Heart of the Ocean is a special technique that only those with golden bloodlines among the mermaid clan can use once a month.

This soul skill grants immunity to all energy attacks once. It can then redirect this immunity back to the user of the Ocean Heart skill, allowing them to unleash a combined attack in the next strike.

The most powerful feature of this Ocean Heart Soul Skill is that it can be used in conjunction with other powerful Soul Skills, and it can also make the enemy's attacks immune and turn them into its own.

If combined with the Sea Princess's killing move in her normal state, there is definitely a chance to kill all six of You Chen's clones here.

however……

"Why hasn't this guy used any powerful energy attacks from beginning to end?!"

Given the Sea Princess's abilities, it's not hard to see that You Chen used Stardust Power at its peak.

Without a doubt, with this power, You Chen definitely possesses a powerful energy attack move.

However, from beginning to end, You Chen primarily used fist and foot attacks, with energy attacks as a secondary method.

The strongest energy attack soul skill ever used, which is also the sixth soul skill of the first incarnation, Air Blade.

With You Chen's current soul power, this soul skill is enough to threaten an ordinary Title Douluo, but... it's far from enough to warrant the Sea Princess using the Heart of the Ocean to become immune to and return it.

If the Sea Princess's killing move has a power of 10, then this air blade has a power of at most 3. Even if you use the Heart of the Ocean to stack it, it's only an attack with a power of 13... Let alone kill You Chen, it can't even seriously injure him!

The Sea Princess couldn't find a chance to kill You Chen. She watched her subordinates die one by one. Although You Chen was wounded, she had no idea whether his true form was the most seriously injured. His real body might only have suffered minor injuries. How could she not be anxious?

suddenly……

The sea princess's pupils suddenly contracted, and she looked at You Chen with a horrified expression.

"Stop! Stop!"

The Sea Princess gave a low shout, but all the spirit beasts assumed it was an enemy tactic and did not react.

The sea princess quickly relayed the order to stop again via mental link.

Although the sea spirit beasts were confused, they chose to stop because it was the sea princess's order.

To their surprise, the other side also tacitly chose to stop attacking.

The Sea Princess, however, remained completely unmoved. Her usually composed and gentle face was now contorted with rage, her eyes bloodshot as she glared at You Chen: "Despicable human, state your demands!"

You Chen's current limit is seven clones, so naturally, one of his clones had already secretly followed Liya and the other person who left through the secret passage.

He had certainly considered the possibility of errors occurring inexplicably, just like before, but he did it anyway.

The truth is, after the perfect Stardust Phantom used the Concealing Breath Technique, even the Sea Princess was completely unaware of its movements.

You Chen smiled and said, "I want your soul to be sacrificed to me."

(End of this chapter)