The undulations produced by his body in sync with the waves allowed Tang San to clearly feel as though he had fully merged with the ocean. Without needing to use any soul skill, without even requiring the protection of Soul Power, he could distinctly perceive himself undergoing a process of dispersing force. It was as if a tremendous force was rushing toward him, yet his entire body was operating at the same frequency as that incoming power, blending into it. In this way, the impact he bore was drastically reduced.
This natural bodily response was like an innate skill granted by the waves themselves. It worked against the onslaught of the ocean, and naturally, it would work the same way against attacks of any other energy form.
Every day was spent in excruciating agony, which undoubtedly squeezed even greater potential from the Shrek Seven Devils. It forced them to pour everything into their Soul Power cultivation even when the waves weren't crashing down on them, so that their battered bodies could recover as quickly as possible. Soul Power was no longer a separate energy dwelling within them. Under the relentless pounding of the waves, it had merged into their meridians, their flesh, their very bone marrow. This method of body refinement was undoubtedly brutal. Without extraordinary willpower and considerable strength, there was no way one could endure it. But once endured, the benefits to the body were equally immense.
Tang San's Soul Power had now reached level seventy-nine. He had already broken through to the seventy-ninth level during the fifth month of Tidal Body Refinement. Now he was charging toward his eighth bottleneck. The realm of Soul Douluo was already beckoning to him.
Boom, boom—the massive waves struck Tang San's body with virtually no gap between them. Feeling the fluctuations of the Mysterious Heaven Skill's internal energy driven within him by each sweep of the towering waves, a sudden, gradual epiphany began to dawn in Tang San's heart. It seemed as though he was no longer a human being, but rather a part of these raging waves, a part of heaven and earth itself. His entire being had fully immersed itself in this wondrous sensation.
The sensation of the furious waves crashing against him vanished, and instead he himself seemed to have become the waves. His senses were amplified several times over, and he could now grasp the movement of every single droplet of water charging toward him within his spiritual world.
At that moment, the rising sun was just cresting the horizon. A faint band of fish-belly white appeared at the distant edge of the sky. With practiced familiarity, he raised his head and gazed toward the fleeting flash of purple light at the horizon, and Tang San's eyes suddenly blazed to life. An unprecedented sensation flooded through every part of his being. With a thunderous boom that detonated inside his skull, in that instant he could no longer feel his own body. The entirety of Seagod Island seemed to lie within his field of vision. Everything around him became extraordinarily vivid.
Whether it was the condition of his companions, the crashing of the waves, or every last detail upon Seagod Island—everything, no matter how great or small, was laid bare before his eyes and imprinted upon his mind. Tang San's pair of blue eyes had, at that very moment, completely transformed into a deep purple-gold. A radiance that seemed even more profound than the vast ocean itself projected toward the horizon where sea and sky met.
Suddenly, Tang San realized that the purple qi which had just vanished seemed to surge forth once more from the edge of the sky, connecting with his own eyes. He and that purple qi were like two anchor points of a bridge, communicating, releasing.
The scenery before his eyes shifted once more, no longer confined to Seagod Island alone, but seemingly covering the entire ocean. In his vision, the seawater was actually a kaleidoscope of colors—faint pale blue, deep black, and crystal-clear azure. And not even the slightest fluctuation among these hues could escape his perception.
At the center of his brow, above the golden trident mark, a speck of blue light quietly expanded. The triangular Ocean Vast Heaven Cover emerged from there, floating before Tang San. All the crystalline radiance seemed to merge as one with the Ocean Vast Heaven Cover in that moment, and Tang San's perception was amplified yet again. His eyes closed of their own accord, but that breathtaking panorama continued to unfurl within his mind. Without needing to look with his eyes, he could already grasp every shift upon the ocean's surface.
The purple-gold faded from his eyes, reverting to blue—but this time it was a blue as deep as the night sky. The color deepened, and even Tang San's once-short hair transformed into a deep blue. An indescribable wave of energy erupted outward from his head as its epicenter, manifesting as a dazzling ring of light that expanded in all directions.
Even Sea God Douluo Bo Saixi, who sat cross-legged upon the reef, could not help but be visibly moved. She rose gracefully to her feet, her keen eyes fixed upon the halo of light emanating from Tang San's body, watching it until it vanished into the distance.
Tang San's head suddenly appeared to turn translucent. Through it, one could faintly see crystalline light shimmering across the blue skull. The Ocean Vast Heaven Cover before him quietly shrank, and in a short while it had been reduced to roughly the size of an egg, before hurtling back toward Tang San's forehead and sinking through the trident mark in a single pass.
A roar-like bellow erupted from Tang San's mouth as the Ocean Vast Heaven Cover surged inward. In that instant, the impossibly violent raging waves of Despair suddenly fell silent without any warning. But in the very next heartbeat, an overwhelmingly colossal roar thundered upward. The waves no longer came from the front—they surged up from below. Rising skyward in a single bound with Tang San's roar, they pierced into the heavens like a curtain blotting out the sky, exploding into countless shimmering droplets of water.
The power of a single roar had reached such a staggering degree. The six people behind Tang San stood rooted to the spot, completely dumbfounded. They had no idea what had just happened to him.
The golden trident mark blazed to life at precisely that moment. A square screen of light burst from Tang San's forehead, shattering amid a clanging explosion, its fragments dissolving into motes of starlight that flowed back into his body.
Deep within his mind, that familiar, authoritative voice rang out for the third time: "Exceeding trial expectations. Spiritual awakening. Influenced by that vast spiritual force, the head spirit bone has been forcibly evolved, infused with special energy so as not to shatter. The third trial, Tidal Body Refinement, has been completed ahead of schedule. Seagod Affinity increased by fifteen percent. Total affinity: twenty-five percent."
On the first day of the twelfth month of the third trial, Tidal Body Refinement, Tang San had completed his trial ahead of schedule.
The only other person whose forehead emitted a screen of light was Xiao Wu. The crimson barrier shattered and dissolved into points of light that merged back into Xiao Wu's body. The reward notification she received was, once again, a stacking bonus. Xiao Wu's trial was simple: companionship. To accompany Tang San through every trial. As long as she was at his side when his trial was completed, her own trial would be completed as well.
The roaring waves resumed their bombardment, but this time the experience was entirely different for Tang San. When the waves struck toward him, they were automatically deflected by an invisible force, never touching his body at all. The same phenomenon occurred with Xiao Wu. Clearly, after passing the Tidal Body Refinement trial, the raging waves of Despair could no longer cause them any harm whatsoever.
Tang San slowly opened his eyes. They had become a profound, deep blue. The world before him was no longer the same—everything had become strikingly layered. That sensation did not come solely from vision, but rather predominantly from his spiritual force. It felt as though his spiritual power had fused with the ocean, much like the sensation he experienced when activating the Blue Silver Domain in the forest. Only now, the feeling was even more vivid than when using the Blue Silver Domain.
Even someone of Sea God Douluo Bo Saixi's caliber did not know precisely what had happened to Tang San. But Tang San himself understood. The reason he had been able to complete the trial ahead of schedule was not because he had endured the waves for the required duration. Rather, it was because the ultimate technique inherited from the Tang Sect—the Purple Extreme Demon Eye—had finally, after years of cultivation, ascended to its final realm.
The Purple Extreme Demon Eye encompassed four realms: Overview, Microscopic, Mustard Seed, and Vast. Ever since Tang San had obtained the Spirit Condensation Wisdom Skull, the Purple Extreme Demon Eye had automatically risen to the Mustard Seed realm. But from that point on, even though he continued to practice diligently every day, the Purple Extreme Demon Eye showed not the slightest further improvement.
However, Tang San's years of effort had not been in vain. Only now did he understand why his Purple Extreme Demon Eye had been unable to advance further. The reason was simple: it stemmed from the Spirit Condensation Wisdom Skull that had helped him elevate his cultivation to the Mustard Seed realm. The Spirit Condensation Wisdom Skull had indeed raised his Purple Extreme Demon Eye by one tier, but in truth, the skull itself had also become a constraint preventing further advancement. The purple qi Tang San absorbed each day was compressed within the skull, unable to release. This had created an ever-intensifying process of compression.
And today, without intending it, a sudden and extraordinary epiphany had surged through Tang San's heart amid the waves. That epiphany not only propelled his Mysterious Heaven Skill's internal energy to a new level, but simultaneously triggered an explosive release of all the compressed purple qi stored within his skull.
Regardless of what one cultivated, upon reaching a certain realm, progress could no longer be achieved through effort alone. A moment of sudden awakening and realization mattered far more. In that instant of eruption, the Purple Extreme Demon Eye finally leaped across the gulf from Mustard Seed to Vast, reaching an entirely new realm.
An epiphany was an exceedingly elusive thing. Even Tang San himself would absolutely be unable to replicate the process. But the result, for him, was nothing short of a miraculous gift. With the Purple Extreme Demon Eye ascending to the Vast realm, Tang San's spiritual power increased by a geometric order of magnitude. If before his spiritual power had resembled a spider's web, then now it was like mercury—pouring forth, penetrating every crack without exception. He finally understood that when the Purple Extreme Demon Eye reached its highest realm, it was no longer about seeing with the physical eye. It was the mind's eye. No illusion, no matter how crafty, could ever deceive this mind's eye. Tang San was certain that even if he encountered Qian Renxue's Angel Domain again, he would be able to see clearly through every layer of that golden radiance. With the Purple Extreme Demon Eye reaching the Vast realm, no energy or object could obstruct his mind's eye ever again.
This moment of epiphany held immense significance for Tang San. A full year of enduring the waves had not been borne in vain. The final evolution of the Purple Extreme Demon Eye, combined with the special awakening of the Mysterious Heaven Skill's circulation, had allowed him, in one fortuitous stroke, to break through the bottleneck of level eighty.
Of course, Tang San had also been fortunate. When the Purple Extreme Demon Eye ascended to the Vast realm, the spiritual power within his mind and the might of the Purple Extreme Demon Eye could no longer be suppressed by the Spirit Condensation Wisdom Skull. This led to the skull's eventual rupture. That was what the authoritative voice had referred to as a forced evolution.
Under normal circumstances, the abilities of a spirit bone were fixed at the moment the soul beast died and it materialized. Only external spirit bones possessed the potential to evolve. This was a major reason why external spirit bones were second in value only to hundred-thousand-year spirit bones.
Tang San's Spirit Condensation Wisdom Skull, while certainly decent, could never evolve. Therefore, facing the explosive surge of his spiritual power, it had no choice but to shatter. Such an extreme increase in spiritual force combined with the detonation of a head spirit bone might not necessarily kill Tang San, but it would undoubtedly inflict devastating trauma upon him—damage that could even extend to his brain. Yet at that very moment, the miraculous Ocean Vast Heaven Cover had appeared. It spontaneously transformed into a special energy that fused into Tang San's fractured skull, completing this forced evolution. The quality of the spirit bone had risen accordingly, though Tang San had the vague sense that his newly formed head spirit bone was not a hundred-thousand-year spirit bone—yet it was certainly no lower in grade than one either. After that instantaneous fusion, the skull reformed itself, and all the various abilities previously possessed by the Ocean Vast Heaven Cover had likewise merged into Tang San's skull. Even his Purple Extreme Divine Light seemed to have undergone some changes. Just how many surprises this newly forged Ocean Skull would bring him, Tang San would only gradually discover through future battles and cultivation.
With a series of metallic clangs, the five Heavy Silver Rings on Tang San's body activated simultaneously. The muscles across his back instinctively contracted, adhering his body to the Heavy Silver Pillar. At the same time, without a moment's hesitation, he flicked out a strand of Blue Silver Emperor, wrapping it around Xiao Wu as she slipped toward the water below. He kicked off the pillar with his heel and launched himself into the air, carrying Xiao Wu with him as they flew toward the shore.
Sea God Douluo Bo Saixi watched as Tang San arrived before her, and a knowing smile graced her face. "Congratulations. Though I don't know exactly what happened to you, or how you managed to reach this level at such a young age, I can confirm that your spiritual power has risen to the same plane as my own. Isn't that right?"
Tang San stared at Bo Saixi in a daze, because the voice he had heard had not come from her lips—it had originated within his own mind. This was… spiritual communication?
"Yes, this is spiritual communication. You need only focus your spirit to sense my thoughts. Naturally, this form of communication can only exist between special soul masters who possess spiritual power on an equal level. If you don't want your thoughts probed, you can use your spiritual force to seal off your mind. That way, no one will be able to detect what you're thinking."
A spiritual realm on par with Sea God Douluo Bo Saixi's? Even though the Purple Extreme Demon Eye had evolved to its ultimate Vast realm, Tang San was still deeply shaken by Bo Saixi's words. In the back of his mind, he sensed that he had somehow opened a special door. What lay beyond it would require constant exploration to uncover.
"Thank you, Senior," Tang San said with genuine respect, bowing to Bo Saixi.
Bo Saixi offered a faint smile. "There's no need to thank me. It's simply my duty. From what I can see, your companions should have no problem passing this third trial. Since you've already completed your trial, I'll leave their care to you. It's time for me to return to the Seagod Temple."
"Understood." Tang San answered respectfully. "Senior, I've long had a question I'd like to ask. May I seek your guidance?"
A flicker of interest passed over Bo Saixi's expression. "Go ahead."
Tang San asked solemnly, "I would like to know—what exactly is Seagod Affinity?"
Bo Saixi's normally tranquil eyes suddenly blazed with two points of dazzling light. Had this been the Tang San of before, he might not have been able to withstand even this gaze. But the Tang San of now met it with composure, his deep blue eyes functioning like twin whirlpools that absorbed the full force of Bo Saixi's stare.
"Regarding Seagod Affinity, I'm afraid I cannot provide you with an answer. But what I can tell you is this: completing all nine Seagod Trials does not automatically guarantee one hundred percent Seagod Affinity. And achieving full affinity—it is the hope not only of myself, but of everyone on Seagod Island. What is your current affinity?"
Tang San replied, "Twenty-five percent."
Bo Saixi's heart jolted. "Twenty-five? Then that means—you received a very high affinity bonus when you completed the trial ahead of schedule just now?"
Tang San said, "I received five percent from each of the first and second trials. What I just received was fifteen percent."
Bo Saixi drew a deep breath, seemingly steadying the turbulence within her heart. "Very good. Twenty-five percent. Keep pushing forward. I believe you will succeed. Since the Seagod has bestowed upon you the Nine Seagod Trials, it means you have the chance to reach one hundred percent affinity."
With those words, Bo Saixi did not wait for Tang San to respond. She rose gracefully into the air, transforming into a wisp of red cloud, and vanished in the blink of an eye.
"Seagod Affinity," Tang San murmured to himself, his gaze once again falling upon the vast and boundless ocean. Within his lucid spiritual world, his thoughts raced at tremendous speed. From the words of the Sovereign of the Soul Devouring Great White Sharks, Xiao Bai, and those of Bo Saixi, he had already pieced together a great deal. Though he could not be completely certain just yet, if what he suspected was true, then this was undoubtedly a spectacular opportunity.