Wang Zhong sat cross-legged on the deep-sea sinking silver pillar, his eyes closed, feeling the power of the sea, layered and continuous.
His muscles and bones vibrated with an almost identical frequency, contracting and relaxing, contracting and relaxing, repeating constantly. His breathing also alternated and adjusted at a peculiar rate, sometimes heavy, sometimes light, sometimes slow, sometimes rapid.
When his breathing and the vibration frequency of his muscles and bones synchronized, Wang Zhong suddenly opened his eyes, thunder brewing within them, ready to erupt.
He slowly stood up, a terrifying and astonishing pressure rippling outwards in all directions. The Sea Butterfly and Little White, who had been comfortably sunbathing by the small wooden house, simultaneously rose from their rocking chairs, staring at Wang Zhong in shock.
This oppressive force was unimaginably strong, even surpassing that of the High Priest Bo Saixi!
Yet Bo Saixi was a Level 99 Limit Douluo, while Wang Zhong was only infinitely close to Level 70 Soul Saint.
His fists clenched and hung by his waist, his left foot stepping back, lowering his center of gravity into a bow stance. Powerful and vast energy condensed within his body. Wang Zhong gazed at the rolling sea before him and exhaled softly.
His right hand, hanging to his side, began to push forward with an extremely slow yet exceptionally steady speed. When his arm was fully extended, it stopped in mid-air, his fist facing the sea.
The waves remained, unchanged.
Little White and Sea Butterfly exchanged glances, finding the scene peculiar. The aura emanating from Wang Zhong was clearly terrifying, yet this punch had achieved nothing.
The contrast was jarring.
But soon, they sensed something was wrong.
As favored beings of the sea, both the Magic Soul Great White Shark and the Mermaid were most sensitive and attuned to changes in the ocean.
To their perception, the sea, which never stopped its continuous, colossal waves, was now giving off a strange illusion of slowly becoming calm and quiet.
"Sister Little White, am I imagining things? Why do I feel like the sea is becoming peaceful?" Sea Butterfly frowned, looking at the sea that showed no outward change, and asked strangely.
"No, you're probably not mistaken!"
"Because I have the same feeling," Little White said, her voice trembling.
As a sea demon beast, she was born, lived, and grew up in the ocean. Her perception of oceanic changes was far more acute than Sea Butterfly's.
In her perception, the surging sea was being suppressed by a strange power.
It was a feeling that made her tremble with fear. The only powers that could suppress the sea, she knew, belonged to the Sea God Poseidon and the High Priest Bo Saixi.
However, the power of those two was more akin to commanding the sea than suppressing it, and nowhere near as terrifying as the power she was now sensing.
This was a complete, brutal suppression of the sea by absolute force!
Under their watchful eyes, the churning sea before them gradually calmed. The enormous waves, which had almost never ceased, now quietly dissipated.
It was as if a brush had gently erased them.
In just a few dozen breaths, the once tumultuous sea, reaching towards the heavens with its furious waves, transformed into a tranquil expanse of calm water, as if the previous scene had been an illusion.
Sea Butterfly and Little White involuntarily opened their mouths, their eyes wide with an unimaginable shock at this scene that transcended human power and touched upon the divine. They stared blankly at Wang Zhong, standing on the deep-sea sinking silver pillar in his bow stance with his fist extended, utterly dumbfounded.
Wang Zhong stood at the apex of the deep-sea sinking silver pillar, feeling the constant, subtle tremors of his muscles contracting and relaxing, a smile playing on his lips.
By releasing power in this intermittent, wave-like manner, the destructive force was unimaginable, capable of flattening or even shattering the very waves of the sea!
The power of the ocean's waves was ever-present. The reason the sea before them became so calm was that Wang Zhong's wave-like fist energy had shattered the nascent waves into countless tiny water droplets, returning them to the sea.
Calm on the surface, but with a surging, domineering power within – this was Wang Zhong's comprehension and practice over the past year, the creation of his own unique soul skill, unrelated to the system, or Eight Extremes Heaven, or the Eight Inner Gates.
Wang Zhong named it Annihilation! Its power, evident in the current state of the sea, was proof that it deserved its name.
He slowly retracted his fist and exhaled a heavy breath, feeling unprecedented satisfaction with this self-created soul skill.
This soul skill, in terms of destructive and lethal power, was in no way inferior to the ultimate killing moves of the last two forms of the Eight Inner Gates, nor was it weaker than the ultimate form of Eight Extremes Heaven.
Having created such a soul skill independently, without relying on the system, how could he not be satisfied?
Thinking of Eight Extremes Heaven, the joy on Wang Zhong's face gradually faded, replaced by a different contemplation.
With Annihilation as a foundation, he had now grasped the essence of another move from the fifth form of Eight Extremes Heaven: Sea Splitting!
The fifth form of Eight Extremes Heaven was Earth Splitting, Sea Splitting!
He had used Earth Splitting once when he fought the Deep Sea Demon Whale King on the sea, its power so great that even the king was intimidated and fled. Sea Splitting, being on the same level as Earth Splitting, was, to a certain extent, even more terrifying in its destructive and lethal capacity at sea.
However, regarding the Sea Splitting move, Wang Zhong had attempted it before on the small island where he had temporarily resided, but without success. During his year here, he had also tried several times, but the results were the same.
He could achieve Sea Cutting! But not Sea Splitting!
Though the words differed by only one character, their meanings and what they represented were worlds apart.
Sea Cutting was merely slicing the sea, like cutting water with a knife; though the water was cut, it would quickly rejoin. Sea Splitting, however, was about using absolute power to forcibly transform the intangible liquid seawater into a tangible, solid substance, separating it.
The difficulty between the two was incomparable, and naturally, their power levels were also vastly different.
As Wang Zhong retracted his fist, the power that had permeated heaven and earth vanished, and the surging, thousand-layered waves reappeared on the sea, roaring and magnificent.
"This place isn't suitable for performing Sea Splitting. I need to go deeper."
He leaped down from the deep-sea sinking silver pillar. Before Wang Zhong could steady himself, Sea Butterfly and Little White surrounded him.
"Wang Zhong, how did you do that?"
"How is it possible? To suppress the waves in this entire sea area?"
"This is something only Lord Sea God and Lord Bo Saixi can barely accomplish!" Little White asked Wang Zhong with immense surprise, shock, and boundless curiosity.
"Yeah, yeah!"
"Wang Zhong, how did you do it?"
"Is this the soul skill you created? It's too strong, too terrifying!" Sea Butterfly chimed in repeatedly, her tone filled with lingering astonishment.
"Uh, the reason is a bit complicated. Simply put, it's about continuously unleashing power in a wave-like manner, creating a constantly oscillating force similar to ocean waves, which then shatters the waves."
Wang Zhong pondered for a moment, then explained the principle without reservation. Both Sea Butterfly and Little White could be considered friends, so there was no harm in telling them.
"Yes, this is the self-created soul skill I've been thinking about for a whole year and have tried many times to succeed."
"It's called Annihilation!" Wang Zhong replied to Sea Butterfly's question with a smile.