Douluo Dalu: Lucky Star

What a grand accusation!

Looking at Bo Saixi, who radiated intense negativity beneath a facade of righteousness, Han Li felt the urge to laugh—and he did.

"Hahaha..."

He laughed out loud, bending over, and the sound only grew louder, making no effort to hide his amusement.

"Disrespecting the Sea God? Well, I suppose there's some truth to that. After all, roughing up his High Priest isn't exactly polite."

Under their watchful gazes, he admitted it casually.

"But honestly, are any of you that much better than me?"

He glanced at the gathered crowd with a mocking expression.

"Don't tell me none of you noticed what happened when Lingling confirmed the trial."

He pointed to the trident mark on her forehead.

"It's clear proof. If even that isn't enough for the High Priest, then perhaps her loyalty to Poseidon is misplaced."

"If dogs like you are allowed to block the way, then what's a little disrespect? Who knows, maybe he ought to thank me for teaching you all a lesson."

Han Li's voice echoed over the sea, ripping away Bo Saixi's veil of dignity.

The Seven Sacred Pillars exchanged awkward glances, some lowering their heads. As guardians, they understood what Han Li meant. In a way, he wasn't wrong. But Bo Saixi's long-standing authority and her interpretation of the Sea God's will had made them instinctively ignore the issue. After all, gods were both close and distant to them.

"You scoundrel! How dare you speak the Sea God's name so casually! You won't leave here alive."

Bo Saixi snapped, her loyalty to Poseidon and the rage from having her inner thoughts exposed pushing her over the edge. She had reached her breaking point.

She moved.

The attack she'd been preparing since they left Sea God Island was unleashed as she waved her scepter toward Han Li.

"Feel the wrath of the Sea God!"

The overwhelming aura forced the Seven Sacred Pillars and the Demon Soul Great White Sharks to instinctively retreat. It had been years since they'd seen the High Priest fight at full strength.

Centered around Han Li and Bo Saixi, the calm sea erupted. Countless waterspouts rose from the surface, roaring as they twisted and charged toward Han Li under her control. Though it was broad daylight, the sheer scale of the attack darkened the sky, blocking out the sun and plunging the area into shadow. A violent hurricane accompanied the waterspouts as if it meant to shred Han Li to pieces.

Bo Saixi had unleashed the full power of her Sea God Martial Soul's domain. Based on Han Li's earlier attack, she assumed he was a Beast Martial Soul user with terrifying physical strength. But against the might of the ocean, nobody could withstand its force. This was the sea.

Watching Han Li stand motionless at the center of her attack, a cold glint flashed in Bo Saixi's eyes. He had to die.

But in the next moment, her expression froze.

Her attack didn't tear Han Li apart as she had expected. Instead, everything halted within ten meters of him. The blue waterspouts instantly froze as they entered his space, turning into towering white ice pillars. They formed a barrier around him, even blocking the hurricane.

"Is that all? You're truly pitifully weak, Sea—God—High—Priest."

Han Li's slightly mocking voice drifted from behind the ice pillars.

As he spoke, the frozen pillars around him shattered into white mist, falling to the sea below. Under the sunlight, it created a strange, beautiful scene.

The laws of ice and fire were core to Han Li's cultivation, and he had mastered them completely—he simply preferred using ice. In truth, he could have controlled the waterspouts and sent them back at her, but he didn't feel like it.

Breaking her confidence bit by bit, dragging her down into despair—that was Han Li's way.

"This... this is impossible..."

Bo Saixi, hovering in front of him, unconsciously took a step back, her words trailing off. It was hard to accept, but the reality unfolded before her eyes. Saying "impossible" only made her look like a fool.

As soon as the thought crossed her mind, she launched another attack.

Massive waves surged beneath her feet, lifting her higher and higher. Behind her, seawater within a hundred-meter radius gathered rapidly under her control, drawn like a siphon.

Raindrops began to fill the air between her and Han Li, turning from a drizzle to a torrential downpour in seconds. These weren't ordinary raindrops; each one carried a faint trace of divine power.

"Water erodes stone," she declared, her voice laced with anger. Han Li now knew the name of her attack.

"Quite a hurry, aren't you?"

Under her watchful gaze, Han Li slowly raised his right hand, forming a scarlet flame umbrella in his palm, which he casually opened above his head.

Water counters fire, yet Han Li chose to defy that logic. Elemental disadvantages only mattered when powers were evenly matched. Unfortunately for Bo Saixi, Han Li's strength far exceeded hers.

Holding a flaming umbrella over the sea—was this for real? Not only Bo Saixi, but even the Seven Sacred Pillars and the Demon Soul Great Sharks watching from the battlefield's edge were dumbfounded.

And then their eyes widened further.

Han Li, holding his fire-forged umbrella, walked toward Bo Saixi at a leisurely pace. The raindrops, which exploded upon hitting the sea, evaporated before even reaching the umbrella. And it wasn't just the space above his head: as he moved forward, the area around him became a vacuum. Every drop of rain vanished from his path, leaving a trail of white mist.

This wasn't merely blocking an attack. It was something beyond her comprehension.

Bo Saixi watched in horror, her body trembling. Han Li hadn't taken control of the ocean, but that only made her terror grow. She had never encountered anything like this, not even when she had fought Tang Chen and Qian Daoliu two-on-one.

Powerful and bizarre—that was the truest way to describe the feeling Han Li inspired in her.

But there was no turning back now. She couldn't retreat. The humiliation she had suffered could only be washed away with blood.

"Endless Ocean Burial!"

Her previous attacks had been preparations to prevent Han Li from advancing, but this was her true killing move. By now, the flood beneath her feet was fully charged, infused with borrowed divine power. No matter how strong Han Li was, she was confident he'd be seriously injured by this strike, and she had follow-up attacks ready.

The hundred-meter-high waves loomed, rushing toward him at breakneck speed. Bo Saixi's main attack hadn't landed yet, but Han Li, walking steadily across the water, seemed to sway with the turbulent waves, like a small boat on the verge of capsizing.

Yet he still wore a smile. The surging sea did not affect him. Like a dancer, he stepped gracefully across the water, moving forward with calm elegance, as if the massive wave crashing down on him didn't exist.

The divine-powered wave passed through him, rolling back and collapsing at his feet like a tamed dolphin. White foam danced around him like water sprites, lifting him and carrying him swiftly toward Bo Saixi.

Elementalization—this was the gift he had received when he became a Soul Sage, mastering the essence of ice and fire. Strictly speaking, any water or fire elemental attacks were useless against him—unless someone could limit his control over these laws. Bo Saixi could not.

All bark and no bite—that was the most accurate way to describe her attack.

Now, Bo Saixi was trapped, unable to retreat. She had been confident and had activated her Martial Soul True Body over the sea. She hadn't expected her so-called Endless Ocean Burial to be completely ineffective. Instead, it had become an ally to Han Li.

She had no other choice now, so she closed her eyes. When she opened them again, both she and the massive Sea God projection behind her had eyes glowing with a fierce golden light.

Blue as the base, gold as the highlight—not a bad color scheme, Han Li thought, even as he leisurely evaluated her effects. He noticed that the divine power around Bo Saixi was concentrated in the eyes of the Sea God Martial Soul projection behind her. Was she about to make a big move? Sea God's Light?

Han Li casually tossed his flaming umbrella into the sea, his smile widening.

Meanwhile, in the Divine Realm, inside the Emotion God's residence, the Sea God—who had just received news from Rong Nian Bing—suddenly trembled, spilling his tea.

Bo Saixi's Martial Soul was a god-gifted one. When she prayed and he wasn't in his temple, he couldn't respond directly, but her Martial Soul held a trace of his essence. Despite being on another plane, he could vaguely sense something.

He had planned to cozy up to Rong Nian Bing to get closer to the Five Great God Kings, but now there was no time for that.

"Emotion God, I apologize. I just remembered something urgent. I'll visit again another day."

He quickly stood up, not waiting for Rong Nian Bing's response, and rushed toward his temple, hoping he wasn't too late.

Back on the sea, as Bo Saixi prepared to unleash the Sea God's Light, Han Li slowly raised his left hand.