The moment the Storm King Serpent died, Shi Feng's experience bar surged wildly.
As the non-team member who delivered the final blow on the boss, he could claim nearly half of the Storm King Serpent's experience points all by himself.
"That's a ridiculous amount of experience. At least the Fourth Tier scroll wasn't wasted." Shi Feng watched his experience bar climb section by section, his heart filling with satisfaction.
His current level had already reached 90, and the experience needed to gain a single level at this stage was enormous. Even if he ground normally, it would take four or five days just to level up once.
The Storm King Serpent was a different matter entirely.
It was a King-tier sea beast, and sea beasts already awarded far more experience than ordinary monsters. Being King-tier on top of that, the experience it dropped actually exceeded what a World Boss would give.
In any normal scenario, splitting that experience among one or two fleets would have been a massive windfall for everyone involved. Now, Shi Feng had swallowed nearly half of it alone — the resulting experience gain was beyond imagination.
In less than a second, Shi Feng's level shot up from 90 to 91. Two seconds later, it climbed from 91 to 92, and it kept rising all the way to 93 before finally slowing down.
It ultimately settled at 93 with 24% toward the next level. The sheer volume of experience far exceeded even Shi Feng's expectations.
After the Storm King Serpent's death, every major faction on the sea went berserk. Ships surged toward the serpent's corpse from every direction.
"Quick! Grab the loot!"
In that instant, everyone's eyes turned red with greed.
The drops from a Legendary-grade King-tier sea beast were an irresistible temptation for anyone at this point in time — even the upper echelons of the great superpowers couldn't resist.
Thousands of vessels charged toward the Storm King Serpent's remains.
But after the Storm King Serpent died, its corpse began to slowly dissipate. As it faded, glowing orbs of light shot out one after another — these were the serpent's drops.
Unlike ordinary bosses, whose loot clustered together in one spot, these orbs scattered in all directions, giving players no chance to dive into a treasure pile and grab everything at once. Each orb hovered above the water's surface, and the distance between items was enormous — players would have to swim a considerable time just to reach each one.
The Storm King Serpent had dropped a staggering number of items — over three hundred in total — spread across a 200-yard radius around the serpent's remains, forming a breathtaking sea of light. The sight was nothing short of magnificent.
But no one had time to admire it. Every single person charged forward with bloodshot eyes, terrified of being even a single step behind the others.
And the great superpowers had apparently coordinated beforehand. They formed alliances and began clearing the area, refusing to let anyone outside approach the sea of light by even a step.
"If you won't let us have the treasure, you won't get it either!"
The various adventuring parties saw through the superpowers' strategy and responded without hesitation. They launched wide-area bombardments directly at the sea of light, keeping both ships and people from getting close, while simultaneously sending speedboats racing toward the loot zone to contest the superpowers head-on.
Individually, each adventuring party was far weaker than a superpower, but their sheer numbers more than made up for it. Out on the open sea, they could hold their own against even the greatest factions.
In moments, the entire area erupted in a storm of cannon fire. The sea of light around the Storm King Serpent's remains was blanketed in explosions — not even a mosquito could get through. Anyone who tried was dead.
Some superpowers that believed their defenses were sturdy enough sent Iron Rank speedboats charging in, attempting to tank through the barrage and snatch the loot. The result was total destruction — ships sunk, crew killed.
"Guild Leader, what do we do?" Qing Zhu asked anxiously.
They had been the closest to the boss, yet before they could even begin collecting the loot, a wall of cannon fire had slammed into them. The density of the barrage far surpassed anything Star Ring had thrown at them earlier. With no other choice, they'd been forced to pull back.
Now, the entire treasure zone was under bombardment — not just from the adventuring parties, but from the great superpowers as well. The zone had become a rain of death, utterly impossible to approach. Anyone who dared move in would become the target of everyone at once, and even the superpowers didn't dare set foot in the treasure zone. They could only lock horns with the adventuring parties and look for another way, because under this kind of concentrated firepower, even a Bronze Rank sailing ship wouldn't last.
"You all wait here. I'll go try," Shi Feng said after a moment's thought.
The longer this standoff lasted, the harder it would become for any individual to snatch the drops. The most likely outcome was that the adventuring parties and the superpowers would sit down and negotiate a truce — at which point all the loot would end up in their hands. Shi Feng knew he had to act before that happened.