Watching the Sea Trench tribe members rush to their deaths one after another, Basha was almost numb.
Considering those killed on land before and those who smashed themselves to death now, after the plus and minus, she reckoned she would have to convert all the humans she captured into Sea Trench tribe members just to break even this time.
After an unknown number of Sea Trench tribe members had been sacrificed, the remaining three restrictions were finally broken.
Basha rushed in impatiently, eager to see what was being so heavily protected.
She quickly dived into the rift and soon spotted a severely damaged human cruise ship.
Judging by its external condition, the vessel had been submerged here for many years, and Basha could sense a strong magical fluctuation from the wreck.
"Humans' boring toys."
Inside the submarine, Basha was unfamiliar with the internal environment. Coupled with the fact that the thing had been soaked in water for a long time, its internal structure had long since deformed into a mess. Basha darted around like a headless fly, even walking into dead ends several times.
"Ah! Human garbage!"
After walking into yet another dead end and feeling the magical fluctuations moving further away from her, Basha could bear it no longer. She punched a large hole in the steel plate in front of her, grabbed its edges with both hands, and tore through it with a violent rip. Suthan Novels Online
With Basha's forceful clearing of obstacles, the path ahead became much easier.
Soon, Basha arrived at the room from which the magical fluctuations were emanating. Judging by the room's decor, it was undoubtedly the captain's cabin.
Basha approached the captain's desk and yanked open the locked drawer.
Perhaps it was due to the passage of time, or perhaps Basha's strength was a bit too much, but half of the drawer came out along with the lock.
Reaching inside and exploring, she quickly pulled out a briefcase covered in animal hide with a steel plate lining.
Basha was also curious. What kind of object, so small, could warrant the Holy Lord's special attention? She sifted through all the items of similar size in her memory, only to dismiss them one by one.
Unable to figure it out, Basha, filled with curiosity, slowly opened the briefcase.
The moment she saw what was inside, Basha was utterly shocked.
The briefcase contained two of the Holy Lord's dragon teeth.
"Good heavens, no wonder the Holy Lord valued it so much."
After holding the dragon teeth in her hands and examining them, Basha conceived a wicked thought. This desire grew even stronger, especially after she realized that the two dragon teeth did not carry Bai Qi's fiery aura but were pure essence of black energy.
It was important to note that Basha's current body was very weak. If she could swallow these two dragon teeth, the total amount of black energy contained within them would allow Basha to skip thirty years of cultivation.
Compared to the two dragon teeth in her hand, the three small pills of black energy that Bai Qi had given her as a trade earlier were utter trash.
This was not Basha exaggerating; they were genuinely worthless.
However...
The moment she thought of the Holy Lord, who was now strong and robust and could fight her two-on-one, Basha instinctively felt a chill. If the Holy Lord found out that she had secretly kept his two dragon teeth, he would be furious and immediately come looking for trouble.
If she were caught by him, it wouldn't be as simple as spitting out what she had eaten. Given his greed, it was entirely possible he would demand she disgorge 200%, no, 300% of it.
But such a huge temptation lay before her. To let it go, to hand it over to the Holy Lord, the process was more agonizing than killing her.
Ultimately, after an internal struggle, Basha gritted her teeth, steeled her resolve, and decided to go for broke, to pocket these two dragon teeth. As for the Holy Lord's retribution, let it go to hell.
The reason Basha dared to be so brazen and dismiss the Holy Lord's retribution was mainly because she had already planned her escape route.
In her opinion, her greatest advantage over other demons was that, except for Zhou Lan, the other demons had established their kingdoms on land. As the demon of water, the ocean was her domain. She could find a very, very deep trench to hide in.
Furthermore, the Holy Lord had so many enemies and rivals on land that he wouldn't be able to focus all his attention on her.
At that time, she could hide, avoid the Holy Lord's retaliation, recover her strength, build her forces, and once she had recovered sufficiently, make a triumphant return and contend with the Holy Lord for dominance.
The more Basha thought about it, the more excited she became, even to the point of involuntarily laughing aloud. However, she was unaware of how ridiculous and insignificant her schemes appeared to Bai Qi.
Meanwhile, in the Kingdom of Kuthor.
In Kuthor, almost everyone knew about the palace located in the heart of the country, the pride of all Kuthorians. Its splendor surpassed any structure in the world. Legend had it that even the floor tiles of the palace were made of gold. Some even said that when Bai Qi rewarded contributing ministers, gold and jewels were delivered by the cartload, the truck kind, in short, the more outrageous the better.
Bai Qi and his ministers were pleased with these rumors. After all, only officials of rank three or higher could enter the palace. These rumors contained up to eighty percent exaggeration, but it was undeniable that it was these false rumors that encouraged many Kuthorians to enter politics and played a significant role in the country's development.
However, one somewhat terrifying rumor among many caught Bai Qi's attention: the palace known to everyone was merely the facade; there was an unknown underground palace beneath the palace, which was the true core of Kuthor.
This rumor bore a striking resemblance to the legend of the Lizard People of the United States.
For those unfamiliar with the Lizard People legend, it states that the current US government is merely a front. The real controllers of the US government are the Lizard People who reside underground. They are said to be aliens who arrived on Earth thousands of years ago, using terrifying alien technology to hide among humans, assassinate US presidents, manipulate US politics, and ultimately achieve the goal of enslaving all of humanity.
The legend of the underground palace was an adaptation of the Lizard People legend. It claimed that the palace above ground was merely for ordinary citizens to see, while Bai Qi had an underground palace beneath it. Here, a large number of demons from hell gathered, obeying the Holy Lord, secretly accumulating power and preparing to rule the world.
The people of Kuthor treated this legend as mere entertainment. Especially the elders who had experienced the warlord era before the country's founding. Upon hearing the rumors, they would say with a hint of jest, "If that were really the case, that would be wonderful."
The reason Bai Qi paid attention to this outlandish rumor was that, damn it, it was true.