Douluo Continent: The Book of Witness and Peerless Tang Sect

Chapter 243 King of the Underwater Secret Realm

Long You had analyzed his own personality; he was a rather self-centered person. This meant that Long You didn't really care what the God-King was planning. All he cared about was whether his close friends and family were doing well.

Tang Ya and Bei Bei have been playmates of Long You since they were six years old, so Long You didn't refuse when Tang Ya proposed reviving the Tang Sect. Huo Yuhao became entangled with Long You when Long You left Xingluo City, and Huo Yuhao also took a place in Long You's heart. Under these circumstances, Long You would naturally try his best to ensure that his little brother didn't follow too many scripted paths and didn't live a life that was too burdensome.

In this process, Long You will inevitably affect the God King's script, and there is a high probability that it will cause the God King to have some negative emotions. In order to prevent these negative emotions from really affecting him, Long You feels that he needs to master more powerful strength. The virtual universe has always been Long You's goal, and under this situation, he naturally cannot give it up.

Despite their considerable curiosity about the secret realm and their desire to see it for themselves, the Long family group, as discussed yesterday, remained only at the entrance area. Having completed all necessary preparations, Long You, clad in battle armor and soul-guided mecha, stood somewhat nervously at the entrance to the secret realm, watching his parents, who were about fifty meters away.

At this moment, the two were slowly releasing the oppressive aura of advanced Soul Saints. Through his soul tool, Long You discovered that the entire secret island seemed to be slowly awakening. Without Long You's prompting, Long's parents immediately withdrew the aggressiveness from their auras and simultaneously conveyed a simple request for communication through their voices and mental energy.

There was a standstill; Long's parents took no further action, and the Willow Clan within the entire secret realm remained silent. However, the feedback from the soul-guided device indicated that the soul-guided energy in the island region where the Willow Clan was located was indeed increasing.

After glancing at the striking numbers on the soul guide display screen in front of them, Long's parents began to shuffle backward in perfect unison, while Long You took a further step back and placed one leg across the secret realm portal. At the same time, Long You activated the detection robot that had been previously deployed to the seabed.

Willows aren't exactly species adapted to seawater, but a 100,000-year-old "Man-Beating Willow" has undergone countless leaps in life stages compared to an ordinary willow, so it can't be judged by common sense. We must be prepared that the entire underground of this underwater secret realm is filled with the roots of Man-Beating Willows.

Time ticked by, and the tension in the hearts of Long You and his two companions (Long Ping did not enter this time) grew ever tighter. Although the soul-guided detector did not detect the presence of the Man-Beating Willow Roots on the seabed, after twenty minutes had passed, Long's mother and father stopped bothering with formalities and went directly to the entrance to the secret realm.

"There are still ten minutes left until the final evacuation deadline. Considering that the soul power reaction value on that island has been in a stable period for more than ten minutes, Dad, you can call again. Maybe the Willow King has just fallen asleep out of boredom and didn't hear you at all!"

Seeing that the situation was relatively stable, Long You, who was already feeling dizzy from the effects of the spatial gate, quietly urged his father to shout again as he jumped back into the secret realm to recover.

After a brief moment of thought, Long's father carefully moved his chin and roared again, just like Long You had thought. Since the situation was relatively stable, there was no need to waste time waiting. Shouting was nothing to bother with.

The sound, amplified by soul power, wasn't particularly loud to others, but its intensity remained undiminished as it was transmitted directly to the secret island three kilometers away. Simultaneously, the mental energy message, processed by the soul tool, spread throughout the entire secret realm.

One second, two seconds... Just when Long You and his two companions thought that this time it would be like the shout when they first came in, not causing any waves, a very strong and vast aura expanded throughout the entire underwater secret realm space like a prehistoric beast awakening.

The piercing alarm blared, and the three of them, without looking back, emerged from the underwater secret realm, leaving behind only an intelligent robot capable of transmitting information.

"This is terrifying! This King Liu who beat people up!"

It's definitely more than 100,000 years old!

Ascending rapidly above the sea level, Longba, the last to emerge from the underwater secret realm due to his position, revealed a deeply furrowed brow after removing his facial armor.

"You two left relatively quickly, so you might not have felt it deeply, but I'm quite certain that the moment I left, I felt as if the entire gate to the secret realm was under control. I can't be sure if this control will cause the gate to close completely, preventing us from freely passing through it, but I'm certain that entering again would be extremely risky."

While the intelligent robot was transmitting signals from inside the underwater secret realm, Long's father explained the reason for his deep frown.

"The situation is getting a bit out of control!"

Long You admitted that he wanted the ten-thousand-year-old willow heartwood, comparable to a rare and precious treasure, but if the environment within the secret realm became too dangerous, he would absolutely not take the risk. Even if the Willow King was only ten thousand years old and had reached the level of a ferocious beast, if it demonstrated the ability to threaten the gate to the secret realm, Long You would need to carefully consider whether to risk entering this underwater secret realm again.

However, simply agonizing over it won't help; whether or not to re-enter the underwater secret realm will depend on the information transmitted back by the intelligent robot later.

The three of them didn't have to wait long; a fairly clear image quickly appeared on the screen projected into the air. This was a good sign, because after eliminating signal interference, the clarity of the image could reflect, to some extent, whether the soul-guided intelligent robot had been damaged. The fact that the image was so clear indicated that the soul-guided intelligent robot had definitely not been in combat.

After a slight shaking and refocusing process, the projected image in the air finally stabilized. However, the moment Long You saw the content on the screen, he couldn't help but twitch his lips slightly. His father's earlier feeling was correct; the King of the Hitting-Man Willow's control over the underwater secret realm extended to the location of the realm's gate. Otherwise, it would be difficult to explain why the soul-guided intelligent robot left at the entrance of the underwater secret realm could reach the depths of the island jungle unharmed in such a short time.

Indeed, Long You was certain that the Soul-Guided Intelligent Robot was currently located deep within this underwater secret realm, or rather, at its very center. To gain any benefits from this underwater secret realm, Long You would undoubtedly need to conduct a comprehensive exploration.

As the soul-guided drones explored the entire underwater secret realm, the images of the island's center transmitted by the drones were truly impressive. The entire island was covered in lush willow trees, with the trunks becoming increasingly thicker the deeper into the island. However, this pattern completely broke down at the very center of the island. The soil there, visibly fertile and brimming with life, was devoid of vegetation; only a barren expanse of black earth remained.

Now, through the 360-degree camera mounted on the Soul-Guiding Intelligent Robot, Long You could see that the area around where the robot stood was entirely covered in dark, fertile soil, devoid of shade, willow branches, or thick willow trunks. Long You was certain that this only existed in the very center of the secret island. However, unlike when he had used the Soul-Guiding Drone for reconnaissance, directly in front of the Soul-Guiding Intelligent Robot, Long You saw a tender green sapling of the Man-Beating Willow.

"Your Majesty, the signal has been connected."

Just as Long You was still pondering what exactly was going on with this sapling of the "Hit-and-Hit Willow," the screen representing the frontal view of the Soul-Guiding Intelligent Robot lowered slightly, and the smartwatch on Long You's wrist emitted the robot's voice at just the right moment.

When the action plan was first formulated, Long You thought that if the situation changed, he would just leave a soul guide camera with a sound recording function in the secret realm. However, in the end, he considered that his family's strength was indeed too weak, and any action from a 100,000-year-old soul beast could be considered a change in the situation.

What if the Soul Beast King considered it and decided it was worth listening to first, then "rolled over" to speak, only to have the Long family frightened away by the movement, causing the deal to fall through? Considering this situation would be far too awkward, Long You decided to spend a little money and leave behind an intelligent soul-guided robot loaded with the Bern branch's AI. This way, if the Soul Beast King genuinely "rolled over" out of goodwill after scaring the Long family away, the deal wouldn't necessarily be terminated.

That's the situation now. The King of Beating Willow is obviously ready to hear what Longba meant when he was broadcasting through the loudspeaker that he could help the life of Beating Willow, which is on the verge of death, to be extended again.

"Your Majesty, I apologize for disturbing your rest."

While Long You was still silently analyzing the possible scenarios, Long's father had already reacted quickly. After confirming that his camera was on, he bowed respectfully to Liu Youmiao, who had hit him, on the screen.

"Hmm, what an amazing method. It seems that my long slumber made me miss some things. Little ones, you can call me Liu Bai, the chief of the Liu clan on this island."

A rather calm and youthful voice came from the speaker.

"Hello, Mr. Liu Bai."

This time, Long You didn't continue to stand in a daze. Instead, he stood behind his parents and bowed to the self-proclaimed King of the Liu clan, who called himself Liu Bai.

"Hello, I'm sorry I may have startled you earlier. This wondrous being showed me some images, and I'd like to learn more about it. If spirits are indeed so wondrous, I wouldn't mind my people giving it a try."

“Mr. Liu Bai, we are very grateful that you are interested in understanding souls, but as you can see, we are far too weak compared to you. Talking to you in the underwater secret realm is too much of a burden for us. Although it is very offensive, we hope to receive some guarantees, after all, we are only here to seek goodwill cooperation.”

"A cooperative gesture of goodwill? This goodwill is probably based on my strength, isn't it?"

However, since you haven't done anything excessive while I've been asleep, I have no reason to make things difficult for you. This seedling is my incarnation; let this wondrous metallic life form carry my incarnation out of the secret realm.”

“I am very sorry, Mr. Liu Bai. I apologize again for our rash actions. I wonder if your avatar requires a special rooting environment? We can make some preparations in advance.”

"No need, just prepare the case studies to showcase."

The conversation could now come to a temporary end. With Long You's authorization, the intelligent soul-guided robot left in the underwater secret realm bent down and dug up the sapling of the Man-Beating Willow, roots and all, along with the surrounding soil.

"Alright, this Mr. Liu Bai seems to be quite sincere. Let's hurry back to the base and have Xiaoping prepare. If necessary, we should also consider conducting direct experiments."

“Direct experimentation is probably too troublesome! With soul transformation, as long as it takes a little time, we can always find a soul beast that is on the verge of death and willing to cooperate. But right now, it is very difficult to find a soul master who is willing to cooperate with our experiment and is currently at a bottleneck in soul power.”

"That's true. Releasing this technology rashly could be more of a disaster than a blessing. Let's talk about it first."

The Soul-Guided Intelligent Robot returned very quickly. If Long You and his two companions hadn't already been moving towards the base during the "video call," the "guests" might have arrived home first.

Perhaps because Long You and his group shared similar interests with Liu Bai, the King of the Beating Willows, regarding the matter of soul transformation, the entire exchange proceeded quite peacefully. Long Ping's ten-thousand-year-old soul spirit, the crystal seahorse, retained remarkably complete intelligence, thus increasing Liu Bai's trust in Long You's family.

“Now that we have a basic level of trust, tell me in detail where you come from and what benefits the spirit can bring you. If we can both be honest with each other, I believe cooperation is possible.”

"Respected Mr. Liu Bai..."