I was born a god, the son of the Demon Lord.

The Dreamland Battle Tournament.

The coastline was packed with people—cultivators, independent cultivators, and scions of powerful families—a vast, bustling crowd.

Xu Nanyi stood in the front row, with Shen Xizhou, Wu Qiyue and Xiao Shitou on either side of her.

The sea breeze was salty and fishy, ​​making her bangs fly wildly across her forehead.

A merman elder floated in mid-air, his silver fishtail reflecting a cold light in the sunlight.

He glanced at the group of cultivators below who had registered. "There's only one rule."

"Hunt down alien sea monsters; the more you kill, the higher your score."

With a flick of his wrist, hundreds of emerald green jade tablets flew out from between his fingers, landing precisely in the palms of each person. Xu Nanyi caught one; it was slightly cool to the touch, with fine, flowing patterns on its surface.

"This card can test the prey's cultivation level; the higher the cultivation level, the higher the score."

The elder flicked his tail, his tone finally taking on a human quality: "The alien sea monsters in the ocean are extremely dangerous. I don't care how many people you form in a group; form teams as you like. The prey will be divided up once it's on land."

He paused, his vertical pupils sweeping across the crowd.

"But—fratricide is forbidden."

After saying this, the elder waved his hand.

A huge water curtain suddenly appeared in the sky, like a torn window revealing a dark scene of the deep sea.

Xu Nanyi looked up.

What was in the water curtain made her frown.

Those sea creatures were three or four times larger than usual, and their colors were so vibrant they were almost blinding.

Crimson, indigo, fluorescent green—they looked as if they had been contaminated by something, and their shapes were even more deformed: an octopus with three heads and six arms, a crab with twelve legs, an eel covered in eyeballs...

My mother specifically taught them about the weaknesses of these things a couple of days ago.

Octopuses have their nerve nodes concentrated at the base of their tentacles, crabs have the thinnest plastron, and eels' eyes are their weak points.

A warm breath came close to her ear.

"Sister."

Shen Xizhou stared intently at a plump six-clawed crab on the water screen, his pupils practically sparkling. He lowered his voice and said, "This monster meat looks so succulent... Can we catch a few so Father can braise them?"

Xu Nanyi: "..." Do we have to eat food contaminated by nuclear wastewater?

"Salt and pepper is fine too," Shen Xizhou added sincerely.

Xu Nanyi's lips twitched. It was mainly because those things looked... indescribable. A braised octopus with three heads? Just thinking about it made her stomach churn.

"That's not a good idea."

"What's wrong with it? Meat is meat—"

Before Shen Xizhou could finish speaking, a shadow fell over him.

The merman elder had somehow appeared directly in front of them, his silver vertical pupils staring intently at Shen Xizhou, his expression as if he had swallowed a whole sea urchin.

"First," the elder said, holding up a finger almost to Shen Xizhou's nose, "that's called an alien sea monster!"

"Second," another one stood up, "This isn't seafood!"

"third--"

The elder's voice was forced out through clenched teeth: "Braising is forbidden! Salt-baking is also forbidden! ...Steaming is also forbidden!"

Xu Nanyi quickly pulled her brother behind her and gave Elder a sweet smile.

"Elder, we understand. We won't let him get his craving."

The elder snorted coldly, flicked its tail, and floated away.

Xu Nanyi breathed a sigh of relief and glared at Shen Xizhou.

You're really something, talking about eating seafood in front of merfolk. Next time, are you going to say "steamed merfolk" in front of them?

I don't know what's wrong with this guy lately. He eats and then sleeps, then eats and then sleeps, and he's growing really fast.

Shen Xizhou shrank back, but still muttered under his breath, "...After we win the competition, I'll ask Dad to buy it for me, and I'll go eat all the seafood!"

A faint voice sounded from behind the two of them.

"No seafood allowed!"

Shen Xizhou's hair stood on end, and he jumped up.

The elder had somehow circled back and was hovering about three feet behind them, his vertical pupils clearly saying, "I'm watching you."

Xu Nanyi pretended not to know the person next to her.

The elder finally flew back into the air, and with another wave of his hand, a thumb-sized emerald water bead flew into everyone's hands.

"This bead will allow you to breathe freely underwater."

"You have one hour. No matter how much you hunt, you must return to shore when the time is up."

His gaze swept across the entire room, and his tone suddenly turned serious: "If you encounter danger and cannot escape—crush the token."

Before he finished speaking, the elder formed a hand seal.

A huge whirlpool suddenly burst open in the very center of the sea, the deep blue water swirling wildly and emitting a low, mournful roar.

"Go into the water."

Xu Nanyi gripped the Azure Water Pearl tightly, exchanged a glance with Shen Xizhou, and the four of them leaped into the whirlpool.

The world spun around.

The current felt like a giant hand pulling them deeper, and all they could hear was the roar of the water—

Before she could fully emerge from the teleportation tunnel, something thicker than her entire body, crackling with blue arcs of electricity, slammed straight down towards her face.

Xu Nanyi's pupils contracted, and she used her waist and abdomen to sink her whole body, barely avoiding the heavy blow. She grabbed Shen Xizhou's wrist and pulled him to the side.

Wu Qiyue's scream came from behind.

"Ahhh—don't come any closer! I've never had this kind of thing stuck in my head before!!"

A giant blue tentacle covered in red rings was hurtling toward Wu Qiyue's face.

Wu Qiyue subconsciously pulled out the silver needles she used to stick voodoo dolls from her bosom and stabbed them hard.

The tentacle recoiled in pain.

Wu Qiyue pulled Xiao Shitou and did a forward roll, rolling out of the passage.

Xu Nanyi hid behind a huge reef, her hand already gripping her spear, looking up—

Her heart sank.

That was a Thunder Octopus at the late Nascent Soul stage.

It was at least fifty feet tall, entirely indigo, with twelve tentacles covered in dense red rings that shimmered in the dark water like countless closed eyes.

The tentacle that Wu Qiyue had just severed was bitten off by it, and a new tentacle grew back from the cut at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Is it for real that my luck is this bad? I was teleported to the deepest part of the hunting grounds, and I started with a powerful late-stage Nascent Soul cultivator.

The octopus clung to the massive rock wall, its twelve tentacles groping around, following the scent to find Wu Qiyue.

Xu Nanyi got goosebumps all over her body.

The seabed is so dark that you can't see anything at all if you don't have divine sense.

She could sense that Wu Qiyue and Xiao Shitou were huddled and trembling under the rocks not far away.

The octopus is getting closer and closer.

Xu Nanyi looked at Shen Xizhou and made a gesture.

Encircle from both ends.

Shen Xizhou understood, and the Dragon Bone Whip slid out from his sleeve, leaping out of the reef first. The whip's shadow was like a silver snake breaking through the water, lashing down on the octopus's head.

Not for killing, but only to confuse the enemy.

Xu Nanyi approached silently from the other side, holding her spear horizontally in front of her.

As she got closer, she saw the true nature of those red rings.

They moved.

A ring of red things slowly opened—they were eyes!

Hundreds of scarlet eyes, growing on tentacles, all turned toward her.