Tang Yue was startled at the insane power and speed which had allowed the frog to propel itself right next to her with a single kick of its hind legs.
She had a bad premonition and quickly backed up a few paces, putting a distance between both of them.
At the same time, she rotated her earthen mana core and muttered. "Pierce the heavens."
Instantly, nine small spheres started swirling around the gigantic frog, the spheres quickly growing in size.
And just as Tang Yue backed away, the nine swirling balls suddenly elongated, dark black solid spears shooting out from within them.
The frog was perfectly caught in the middle, all nine spears whooshing towards it with a powerful surge amidst the ocean waters.
Tang Yue did not wait for the attack to land and she consecutively cast the spell a couple more times, several balls popping up and several spears shooting towards the frog.
ROAR!
The frog's multiple eyeballs flickered as it watched all the spears coming towards it.
But then weirdly, it didn't seem to mind it and pay any attention to it.
BANG. BANG. BANG.
One after the other the multiple spears fell on its thick body, barely scratching it let alone wounding it.
What a strong physical defense! Tang Yue glared at the beast.
The frog's eyes locked back onto Tang Yue and it opened its mouth.
Shit! Tang Yue expected the strong muscular tongue to lash out at her once again and moved accordingly in anticipation of the attack.
However, the frog did not shoot its tongue out this time around.
Its wide open mouth narrowed and its cheeks started puffing up as the big green beast inhaled a huge mouthful of water.
FWOOOSH!
The next instant it released everything in one go.
Though it was a powerful water spit, it didn't take much for Tang Yue to slither away and she evaded the attack easily.
Huh? She paused, sensing something unusual about the attack.
Instead of the crystal clear waters, the water she was currently swimming in seemed muddy and greenish-gray in color.
"Is this still from the blood?" Tang Yue pondered when a few familiar notifications promptly sounded.
Ding. Poison Resistance has been upgraded
Ding. Poison Resistance has been upgraded
Ding. Poison Resistance has been upgraded
Ah! Tang Yue now understood the point of this attack. The damned frog had spewed out something poisonous!
And it was more toxic than her own!
Nice! Bring it on. Tang Yue smirked and swam around very comfortably in the poisonous waters.
ROAR!
Seeing that Tang Yue was not affected by its attack, the frog let out another loud roar in anger.
Now that it knew poison had no effect on this opponent, it went back to hitting her with its tongue.
"So that's all you got?" Tang Yue grinned, morphing into her human form and summoning out her soul sword.
This was clearly going to be a battle of her stamina versus the frog's thick physical defense.
She needed to break through it before she ran out of energy. "Let's go." Tang Yue shouted.
She didn't waste her time moving around, and she directly aimed for the tongue coming straight at her.
She spun around weaving through the water with her sword, each move sending out powerful waves.
Kacha. Kacha. Kacha.
More blood seeped out as three slashes fell on the tongue leaving behind three big injuries.
But the frog managed to get a hit in as well, its tongue striking Tang Yue forcefully in her stomach.
She coughed up a mouthful of blood as she readied herself for the next attack.
In this manner, the two, one frog and one snake, continued exchanging blows in the middle of the ocean.
While these two were fully engrossed in their fight, a few miles away from them a small black ball popped up out of nowhere.
This ball started growing in size, slowly and steadily, gathering momentum as it did.
Soon a whirlpool started swirling around, with the black energy at its epicenter.
It roared and growled as it started sucking everything around, even tugging at the ocean waters miles away from the center of the vortex.
Tang Yue did not notice it at first but when her entire surroundings started roiling and swirling, she had to temporarily take her eyes off of the frog and pay attention to this disaster that was brewing nearby.
Was this another powerful beast?
Tang Yue frowned, not confident enough to handle two high-ranking beasts at the same time.
But the old man's voice hurriedly chimed inside her brain telling her otherwise.
"Little snake, quick. Go there. That should be the opening for the grave."
Hmmm. Tang Yue paused before throwing another glance at the frog in front of her.
The big green fat ball had also noticed the whirlpool by now and it even backed away a bit warily.
Tang Yue really wanted to finish this fight because she felt as if she was on the verge of victory, not to mention the amazing poison upgrades she was receiving, but she sighed and slithered towards the whirlpool anyway.
The frog's four pairs of eyes bulged in surprise as it watched the woman swimming towards the strong suction force pulling everything into it.
Tang Yue saw the beasts partly confused and partly relieved expression and couldn't help but chuckle.
"Bye froggie." She gave it a flying kiss as she watched the beast hurriedly scurrying away from the whirlpool.
It clapped both its hind limbs and front limbs crazily, swimming away from the whirlpool as fast as it could.
Tang Yue as well did not get much time to figure out what was happening.
Just as she slithered a bit more closer, she was pulled in as well, not having the chance to back out any longer.
The suction force of the whirlpool was so strong that Tang Yue couldn't even fathom the magnitude of the thing.
Before she was completely sucked in, she didn't forget to hurriedly call over the harpy and the wolf who were still hovering above the ocean waters.
Little Blue instantly jumped in as soon as it heard Tang Yue's orders but the harpy hesitated, before ultimately jumping in as well.
The three of them swirled around in the whirlpool but they felt little to no discomfort as opposed to the suffocating nauseating feeling that Tang Yue was expecting.
The next few seconds were a complete blur as the three got pulled into the epicenter of the whirlpool and everything turned dark.
And before they could figure out what was happening, they found themselves dropping onto a dry flat ground with heavy thuds.
Raining around them creepily were a bunch of fishes and some other smaller water beasts like snails and lobsters.
Tang Yue shook her head and tried to gather her senses.
"Hmm… So the whirlpool was simply an entrance to this place? What a powerful magical formation!"
She couldn't tell what triggered it though. They were roaming around the ocean for hours and all of sudden this vortex popped up?
Tang Yue pondered for a while when her eyes fell on the bloodstains on her armor.
Her own blood perhaps triggered the event?
Either way, it didn't matter right now and she looked around, trying to see what type of a place they had landed in.
"Old man, where the hell are we?" She asked. They seemed to be on the shores of some sort of an island.
"You are here, little snake. Now it's all up to you. I can't even intervene in this." The elder warned her once again.
Tang Yue nodded and then dusted her back, standing up from the ground.
She waved at Little Blue who had fallen a few feet away from her to make sure that he was also alright.
The wolf immediately ran over to her and licked her a few times. "You look fine." Tang Yue chuckled.
She glanced at the harpy as well who nodded back at her with a weak and confused smile.
Since the both of them seemed to be doing alright, Tang Yue clicked her tongue and started heading inside.
Beyond the sandy shores, there was a cluster of trees and plants crowded together resembling a forest.
When she had first heard about these training grounds, Tang Yue had expected something drastically extreme.
But everything in front of her seemed very normal and nothing was out of place.
If she headed inside, only to find out that they were still within the Nine countries, she wouldn't even be surprised.
But still, she had a slightly unsettling feeling, so she donned on a few armors and summoned her soul sword and also Little Plum, who was more than happy to be once again out in the open.
The four of them then cautiously headed inward. Tang Yue used her sword to slash through the clutter and made a clearing for them to walk into.