She Meixiao stood in the air above the ship, opposite of the octopus-human Soul Beast, when everyone heard her mocking words. The azure blue light in the sky carried with it a powerful energy that left most of the people on the ground terrified and pale faced.
The octopus Soul Beast roared loudly as it swung its hand at She Meixiao and the azure light started shining downwards. What followed was a scene as if the sky was collapsing onto the earth. The azure blue light blotted out the sun and, for a moment, it seemed like the whole world had been covered by the light.
She Meixiao casually swatted her hand towards the sky as if shooing of a fly. A terrifying purple wave of energy spread out from her, completely obliterating the azure blue light in a split second. The whole scene stood still as She Meixiao smiled under her helmet and tilted her head lightly. "I said I was gonna play with you, but if this is all, then I'll really turn you into seafood before you realize it!"
The octopus Soul Beast roared again, shocking and rocking the whole ocean so much that even the ice Wu Zhankong created cracked under the pressure at various points. The sea started to surge, winds bellowed everywhere and huge whirlpools of seawater started forming behind the Soul Beast, reaching up into the air instead of drawing underwater!
The octopus Soul Beast shook before a long, golden trident seemed to grow out of its hand. With the trident in hand, the beasts power seemed to multiply again the the ocean rocked even more violently; It seemed as if the God of the Sea had descended personally!
She Meixiao glanced at the spectacle around her, than at Elder Cai and spoke in a low voice. "You go and keep the people safe. I'll take care of our squid friend here." Elder Cai nodded and vanished from her spot, then She Meixiao turned around to the octopus.
She remained silent for a moment before her power surged once more. A dark purple aura began emitting from her body and was slowly drawn to her back and started forming into a colossal two headed cobra. The cobra grew further and further and when it finally stopped, it was already bigger than the huge cruise ship they had travelled on.
Then, the cobra started to get an actual physical form. The dark purple energy turned into a pitch black, scaled cobra that sat on the surface of the ocean, completely curled up. Its two heads spread and showed distinct patters on the wide part of their bodies, just beneath the head.
One of the pattern looked like a warm, smiling face; The dark green colour clearly standing out from the pitch black scales. Even though the cobra was coiled up, its head was still on the same height as She Meixiao, quietly flicking its tongue out of its mouth repeatedly while staring at the octopus Soul Beast.
The other head had a similar pattern, but unlike smiling face of the first head, the pattern on this one looked like a devilish and cruel grin. The head rose up to She Meixiao's right, quietly flicking its tongue at the octopus Soul Beast as well.
The dark purple aura that surged out of She Meixiao had stopped by now and was surrounding the double headed cobra like a light coat, making it seem like the cobra glowed faintly. The storm created by the octopus Soul Beast was still raging violently, but neither She Meixiao nor the colossal snake seemed to care.
On the ground, Sheng Feilong continued to stare at the scene in the sky. When those leaders of both factions appeared before them, all the fighting on the ground had surprisingly stopped and all attention was gathered on them. Even though he had read of numerous Soul Beasts of all different kinds, he had never heard of a double headed cobra. Still, it was obvious that the cobra was unimaginably powerful and Sheng Feilong could feel that it had the same aura as She Meixiao.
'Is this... the physical form of her Spirit Essence? The ability she got from reaching the ranks of Soul Saints? It can become so massive and powerful at will?' Sheng Feilong was silently comparing the True Avatar of She Meixiao's Spirit Essence to that of Wu Zhankong, the only other one he had ever seen.
He guessed that Wu Zhangkong's Spirit Essence should already be considerably powerful and that his True Avatar was near the top of all Soul Saints when it came to power, but it was absolutely impossible to compare it to She Meixiao's. While Sheng Feilong was lost in his thoughts, Mu Ye's body suddenly flashed next to him and his two companions. "Kid, you can stare at your Master's power later. Get back on the ship for now; If they start fighting, the ice won't hold on."
Sheng Feilong barely recognized him before his shoulder was suddenly grabbed and his surroundings blurred. Before he could do or say anything, he found himself standing next to Tang Wulin and his friends. They looked just as surprised as Sheng Feilong, but Tang Wulin quickly turned to Mu Ye. "Teacher Mu, what's going on?"
"We're returning to the ship, hold tight." Mu Ye's Soul Power suddenly spread out, fixing all nine of them in place before their surroundings blurred again. This time, Sheng Feilong was somewhat prepared and managed to see that they were moving at a high speed over the battle field and back on the ship when he concentrated.
They just reached the ship and Mu Ye unceremoniously threw all of them down on top of the deck while he turned towards the battle in the air. He crossed his arms in front of his chest and walked to the front of the ship. His Soul Power was still spread out, seemingly protecting the ship from the battle that was about to ensue. "Watch closely. It isn't everyday that you get to see a Four Word Battle Master fight against one of the Ten Great Ferocious Beasts."
Just as he finished his sentence, the battle in the sky started as if they had waited for his command. The octopus Soul Beast roared and suddenly thrust its trident forward, followed by the pillars of water behind it moving and their tips piercing in She Meixiao's direction.
She Meixiao calmly responded by waving her left hand in the direction of the waterpillars. The cobra head to her left opened its jaws and suddenly spit out a stream of dark green liquid. The liquid flew straight at the waterpillars and an enormous amount of poisonous steam was created as the twoset each other off.
In the midst of the steam, She Meixiao waved her right hand and the cobra head to her right abruptly lunged higher, then forward, above the octopus Soul Beast and spit out a stream of dakr green acid as well. But before it could hit the octopus, the latter suddenly vanished, reappearing next to the snake head.
The cobra's head alone was about the same size as the octopus Soul Beast, but that didn't stop it from punching the cobra square in the jaw, sending it flying back dozens of metres into She Meixiao's direction with a loud boom. She Meixiao's eyebrows twitched, but she only calmly turned her left hand and the cobra head to her left suddenly charged at the octopus Soul Beast, slamming directly into it at an incredible speed.
The octopus was barely pushed back a few metres when the second snake head appeared behind it and spit out another round of acid, directly into the Soul Beasts back. The beast roared in anger again, forcing the acid away, then turned around and swung its trident at the cobra.
A pillar of water suddenly shot up from the surface of the ocean, impaling the snake head from beneath before the water fell down again. The head fell from the sky and She Meixiao's body shook. She frowned and the first purple Soul Ring behind her back lit up. The dark purple light around the cobra increased in intensity and the gaping hole in the snake's right head closed at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Although it seemed like they were back to square one, She Meixiao continued to frown. She had underestimated the power of the octopus Soul Beast and especially the trident in its hand and the power it could exert. Her Soul Power spiked again as the first red Soul Ring behind her back lit up brightly, followed by the dark purple light on the cobra's body intensifying as well.
The snake heads returned to She Meixiao's side and the dark purple light intensified further. In the end, both cobra head stared at the octopus Soul Beast and their heads slowly became wider. They grew wider and wider and it seemed as if its body was strained more and more. In the end, the heads ripped apart in the middle respectively and healed again; They split right in half!
Those new halves quickly healed themselves and grew in size again until the were the same size as the original two heads; And where there were two massive heads before, there were now four of the same size! With the doubling of the head count, so did the power of the cobra double as well. Each individual head seemed more powerful than before and the red Soul Ring behind She Meixiao's back continued to glow.