Chapter 494 - 323: Deep Sea Laboratory (Part 2)

Chapter 494: Chapter 323: Deep Sea Laboratory (Part 2)

"Gulp... ’There’s still a chance.’" Bobo Man abruptly sat up. Just as he was about to speak, his gaze fell on Han Ning’s face. His eyes lit up, and he sprang from the giant turtle’s head, leaping toward him.

Han Ning hesitated for a split second before reaching out to catch him.

"Your appearance..." Bobo Man furrowed his non-existent brow, carefully studying Han Ning before falling silent...

"Your appearance..." He kept repeating those two words.

"I remember now!"

Bobo Man extended a tentacle and tapped several times in the air.

In an instant, a Spiritual Ability Atlas materialized.

The pale blue, glowing diagram depicted a scene.

It showed a person in a feathered robe, seen only from behind.

Beneath the figure, a ferocious beast crouched, its body shrouded in cloud-like patterns, a pair of fierce eyes gleaming from within.

"That is Calorius. As for the man... he must be Calorius’s creator. Have you noticed? You bear a slight resemblance to him," Bobo Man said, pointing to the figure in the illustration.

"This... This is..."

Han Ning stared at the figure in the drawing. A flash of realization struck him, and he blurted out,

"Shen Gongbao?!"

"Shen Gongbao? What’s that? You really do know something!" Bobo Man’s face was alight with excitement.

"Where did this drawing come from?" Han Ning was aghast. The shock he felt was comparable to the day he’d first transmigrated, his eyes filled with utter disbelief.

"Um... It’s information my father obtained from a mural after he entered the Heaven-Reaching Tower."

"The Heaven-Reaching Tower? Where is it?"

"It’s the entrance to the Deep Sea Laboratory. To get into the real lab, you have to climb the tower and reach the summit. Only then can you meet the Guardian," Bobo Man explained, then added complainingly,

"You still haven’t told me what a Shen Gongbao is."

"Um... He’s a figure from the myths and legends of a particular human region. This Heaven-Reaching Tower... it might have something to do with us," Han Ning said, uncertain.

"Wonderful! I knew I felt a connection to you the first time we met! There was a reason for it after all!" Bobo Man’s eyes curved into crescents. With a POP, he leaped up and latched onto Han Ning like a face-hugger.

"COUGH, COUGH... His Highness Prince Bobo Man, you’re a little too enthusiastic!" Han Ning tugged at the tentacles, trying to pull Bobo Man off.

"Humans... Their origins are truly extraordinary." Sage and Hom exchanged a look, both recalling Han Ning’s many other incredible feats.

"Bobo Man, is this why the Red Manta Clan and the rest of the Wangchao Family are so relentlessly hunting you?" Sage asked suddenly.

"No, no, no. They don’t know what I’ve truly gotten my hands on. They just want to take my father’s place and seize all his resources."

"But what they don’t know is that this Deep Sea Laboratory is the most precious treasure my father spent his entire life discovering!"

"So... when do we enter this mysterious Heaven-Reaching Tower?" Han Ning was now desperate to explore it.

But to his surprise, Bobo Man shook his head. "We can’t. The tower’s spatial coordinates are constantly moving. However, my father already calculated the coordinates of its next likely appearance for me."

"And that will be—in the waters beneath the Southern Four Islands, which are part of the Sunset Islands!"

"So that’s it! That’s why you’ve been holding the Southern Four Islands all this time."

It dawned on everyone.

"In an estimated three days, the coordinates will shift directly beneath the Southern Four Islands. We need to hold off the Deep Sea Race’s attacks for three more days!" said Bobo Man.

"His Highness Prince Bobo Man, I have another question. Your father is known as the Fear Demon King of the Deep Sea, so why didn’t he leave any of his personal forces to protect you?"

This was a question that had been bothering Han Ning for a while.

Even Irena had a retinue of twenty-four Lord-Monarch Level guards.

"Father’s subordinates were used to cover Mother’s retreat to the Sea Demon Family. As for me... Bobo Ka is all I need!"

Bobo Man patted the large forehead of the turtle beneath him, his face swelling with pride.

"Bobo Ka was Father’s most trusted Contracted Soul Beast, the one who followed him the longest. Even though he was injured in battle, he’s still a Sea-covering Beast with the power of an Upper Emperor!"

"RUMBLE~"

The massive, dark turtle blinked and let out a deep, resonant rumble, as if to corroborate his little master’s claim.

"Upper Emperor?!" Han Ning jumped. "With that kind of power, why not just steamroll the enemy?" he asked, confused.

"What are you talking about? Forget the other branches of the Wangchao Family; the Red Manta Clan is one of the top five great clans of the Deep Sea. If Bobo Ka were to make a move, those old geezers would have a legitimate excuse to hunt me down and kill me, instead of just posturing like they are now."

"Simply put, Bobo Ka only protects me. He won’t get involved in any external conflicts!"

’Covered in expensive Soul Artifact Jewelry and protected by a top-tier bodyguard Soul Beast... Bobo Man is the very definition of a pampered prince hiding out among the common folk.’

’And this huge, dark turtle looks no different from one of those endearingly clumsy sea turtles you see at an aquarium, yet it’s actually an Upper Emperor.’

’The Great World is truly full of crouching tigers and hidden dragons,’ Han Ning thought. ’Even a random Octopus Head I stumble upon has an extraordinary background.’

The situation had developed in a way Han Ning never expected. Since a myth familiar to people from Xia Country had appeared inside the Heaven-Reaching Tower, he had to get inside no matter what. It might even hold the key to solving the mystery of his transmigration.

...

During the three-day wait, Han Ning returned to the Gray Demon Whale with Sage and Hom to inform the others that something had come up and they would need to stay a while longer.

Time trickled by as they waited.

「Three days later.」

In the pitch-black depths of the sea, far below the Four Islands.

Bobo Man’s bodyguard, Bobo Ka, erected a pale blue Shield, holding back the seawater in a radius of dozens of kilometers.

"It should be around here..." Bobo Man’s tentacle coiled around an irregularly shaped round stone. A faint glow of Telekinesis emanated from his body as he searched for the entrance to the Heaven-Reaching Tower.

Despite Bobo Man’s small size, he was actually a master of Spiritual Telekinesis. It was said that at his young age, he was already a master at forging Soul Artifacts and was proficient in all types of Spiritual Arrays. The dense cluster of rings on his tentacles had all been personally crafted by him—like father, like son, indeed.

"Ah! I found it!"

Bobo Man’s eyes lit up. He took aim at an empty patch of space and suddenly crushed the stone in his tentacle.

The shattered stone fragments emitted an eerie blue light and automatically converged on a single point in the void. The fine pieces combined to form a three-meter-long, starburst-shaped crack in space.

Immediately after, the giant turtle Bobo Ka raised its fist and slammed it into the fissure.

KRRRACK~

The fissure abruptly split open, expanding into a large rift ten meters high and three meters wide.

"The Heaven-Reaching Tower only permits Spirit Bodies and Elemental Bodies to enter. Blood and Flesh Soul Beasts must undergo Soul Emergence to get in," Bobo Man explained, hovering before the rift.

"It’s filled with all kinds of spirit and Energy Body monsters, but with Bobo Ka protecting us, it shouldn’t be a major issue."

With that, he tossed out several hundred items—rings, bracelets, and miniature shields—all at once. In the vast undersea space, they erected countless Energy Shields and shimmering Spiritual Shields...

"When we enter the Heaven-Reaching Tower, our physical bodies will be unconscious. We have to protect them properly. Even with Bobo Ka’s powerful presence providing protection, we still need to be careful."

Sheltered within the Energy Shield of an Upper Emperor, Han Ning and the others felt perfectly safe. They immediately settled into comfortable "Soul Emergence" positions, closed their eyes, and with a WHOOSH, their Spiritual Bodies shot out from their physical forms.

For this trip, he brought along Egg Pancake’s Dragon Soul, Yin Yi’s Elemental Body, and Fei Lin’s Undead Body.

Only the All-Encompassing Spiritual Silkworm’s spirit was relatively weak, so it couldn’t accompany them.

Irena’s six Main Combat Soul Beasts were all Elemental Creatures, so they had no such concerns.

Cang Tong’s Soul Beasts were all Monarch Level. Their spirits were quite strong, so they all followed their master as Spirit Bodies.

Sage and Hom, of course, were already Spirit Bodies.

"Let’s go!" Bobo Man called out, leading Bobo Ka’s Spirit Body into the rift first.

The others and their Soul Beasts followed close behind.

After a moment of spiritual disorientation...

...a colossal tower, one that seemed to connect heaven and earth, appeared before their eyes.