Natasha used the dim azure glow in the distance to carefully survey her surroundings. On one side was a spherical cavern; on the other, the oppressive, pitch-black seawater and all manner of bizarre deep-sea "monsters." The two regions were cleanly divided, with no mixing whatsoever.
"That portion of the seawater seems to have been specifically expelled by the 'Azure Gate'—there isn't even a trace of air inside. Sneaking past Helix's perception would be extremely difficult," she concluded.
Under normal circumstances, with Lucian's mastery of numerous arcane spells, approaching the "Azure Gate" unnoticed would have been easy. But according to Doris's intelligence and what the previous priest had revealed, Helix was positioned right in front of the "Azure Gate." With his peak-legendary strength and the matching intuitive perception that came with it, slipping closer undetected—without the cover of seawater, fish, sea creatures, microorganisms, or deep-sea plants—was a formidable challenge.
Lucian nodded slightly, surveyed the nearby environment once more, then let his body sink heavily to the ocean floor, landing on the mineral-rich "ground."
"Stay here and keep watch. I'll slip in first to take a look." Lucian had already formed a plan.
Natasha didn't hesitate. She gave a small nod. "Alright. If anything happens, I'll fly over immediately."
She was well aware that in terms of scouting and stealthy infiltration, the gap between herself and a legendary magician was vast—almost incomprehensible. Those bizarre, arcane spells that defied common understanding were precisely what the situation called for. If she insisted on going along, she would only become a burden when something unexpected occurred—for instance, forcing Lucian to cast two spells instead of one just to conceal their traces.
Of course, this didn't mean that a magician's stealth and espionage abilities were necessarily superior to a knight's. Rather, the "Sword of Truth" bloodline was built for head-on charges and brute force—it simply wasn't suited for such delicate work. Other specialized bloodlines that excelled at infiltration might not necessarily be inferior to a magician's abilities.
Seeing that Natasha agreed, Lucian smiled and activated the spell model within his soul. The reason he had fallen for her likely had to do with the fact that she wasn't indecisive—she could distinguish priorities, weigh the pros and cons, avoid letting emotions cloud her judgment too heavily, yet never abandon her most fundamental convictions.
A faint yellowish-brown glow surfaced across Lucian's body, enveloping him entirely, while the magical fluctuations, aided by metamagic techniques, were minimized to the point of being nearly undetectable.
Within the yellowish-brown radiance, Lucian's body suddenly softened—every item he carried, including the "Grand Archanist's Robe," transformed along with his flesh into a puddle of sludge!
"A mud golem?" Natasha's slightly puzzled voice came through the telepathic link. She had never seen this peculiar spell and could only guess at the closest possibility.
Lucian's sludge-like body undulated and merged with the ocean floor. His spiritual power extended like countless tentacles in every direction, weaving a vast "spiritual net" that brought the surrounding terrain under his control.
"No—a rare ninth-tier spell called 'Master of the Underground.' The 'Azure Gate' only expelled the seawater; it didn't cause the ocean floor to collapse. So this spell is perfectly suited for the job," Lucian explained to Natasha. "Regardless, this still counts as 'underground.'"
Natasha asked no further questions. She gripped the "Sword of Truth" tightly, ready to launch a surprise attack at a moment's notice, while Lucian sank deeper into the earth and then crept silently toward the "Azure Gate."
Compared to the pitch-black of the deep sea, the darkness underground felt even more oppressive—as though it might bury him at any moment. Although Lucian could sense the conditions above through the spiritual tentacles extending to the surface, the temporal and spatial distortions gave him the disorienting illusion that he had lost all sense of what year or day it was.
After advancing two or three hundred kilometers, the projection of his Star of Destiny within his soul suddenly twitched. The spiritual tentacles extending to the surface snapped back sharply, and his forward momentum came to an abrupt halt. He settled into a strange, motionless state, tucked quietly underground.
He could go no further. Ahead lay the "absolute defense" range of Helix, Lord of the Boundless Ocean!
An "absolute defense" range was the perimeter over which a peak-legendary figure exercised near-absolute control. Its size varied depending on the individual's strength and specialization—larger for some, smaller for others. But without exception, no one could penetrate this range without alerting its master. Not even a demigod could manage it.
This was why assassination attempts against peak-legendary figures were always launched from outside this perimeter, or why the attacker had to be concealed within the cover of another target beforehand. When the Elven Empress had ambushed the previous Demon Prince, she had relied on "the altar he had personally constructed." When the "Dark Lord" had devoured the previous Demon Prince, it had first surrendered to him and served at his side. That was also why Lucian had considered that if there were other deep-sea fish in the area, he might be able to blend in among them—offering a slim chance of evading Helix's "absolute perception," provided Helix was distracted by something else.
Though Lucian's tentacle-like spiritual power had retracted considerably and maintained a considerable distance from the surface, between the sand, gravel, and rock, there were always countless tiny voids. These served as auxiliary "eyes" for the Master of the Underground, allowing Lucian to vaguely "see" what was happening above.
Not far away stood a magnificent palace—a structure without walls, supported entirely by colossal stone pillars.
The palace was incomparable to the grandeur of the Necropolis, roughly equivalent in scale to a Nexer Palace. The pillars were mottled and ancient, with visible fractures and collapse marks here and there, reminiscent of those ancient cities drowned beneath the waves.
The palace was ring-shaped, with an open-air altar at its center. Above the altar hovered a faint, gossamer-thin gate of azure light. This gate gave Lucian an odd sense of familiarity—for, like the "Soul Hearth," it seemed to transcend the physical world: close at hand yet infinitely distant, as though it could never be touched, never be reached.