I will now translate and polish the provided Chinese text into natural, idiomatic English prose, strictly maintaining the original paragraph structure and line breaks.
Deep beneath the sea floor, fragments of colossal, shattered rock rested in the abyssal depths, silent across eons stretching back billions of years.
These megaliths were irregularly shaped; some resembled fractured mountains and rivers, others the form of great broadswords, and many clearly showed signs of having been severed by blades, their edges incredibly smooth.
This entire region was strewn with such colossal fragments—relics of star-shards.
“Years ago, fierce combat erupted above the surface of the Shattered Sea.
The star-shards suspended above the water were blasted apart and sank one by one to the ocean floor,” Mei Ji stood gracefully atop an angular stone, resembling a captivating, bewitching fox spirit.
“The battle directly over this area must have been particularly intense, evidenced by the greater number of fallen star-shards, though this itself is nothing rare.” Not far off, on a shard shaped like a keen, sharp sword, Shi Yan stood with a stern countenance, his eyes filled with deep contemplation.
After sweeping through with incredible speed alongside Mei Ji to this field of rubble, Shi Yan abruptly slowed, separating from her to drift among the star-shards, occasionally reaching out to caress the strange stones.
This inwardly agitated Mei Ji.
She could not comprehend why, at such a critical juncture, Shi Yan had the leisure to study and examine these fragments of stars.
“Give me some time.” Shi Yan made a silencing gesture toward her and continued moving among the star-shards.
These fragments displayed a kaleidoscope of colors; some were riddled with bizarre spots, others polished smooth as mirrors, while still others were rough and incredibly hard.
Gradually, he closed his eyes, his divine sense spreading out like a silken net, sweeping across every single star-shard.
Upon arriving here, his spirit had sensed a profound, mysterious feeling—the profound mysteries of the stars felt faintly stirred, as if some ineffable wonder resided within this shattered stellar zone.
Threads of divine sense expanded like a massive net, lingering over each star-fragment.
After a long while, he suddenly opened his eyes, a flicker of astonishment appearing in their depths.
Within one star-shard, a wisp of his divine sense detected an extremely faint, subtle aura.
This aura was peculiar, seemingly possessing the fluctuation of a soul, yet simultaneously elusive and indistinct… With a shift of his focus, he transformed into a streak of starlight and paused upon a flat star-shard.
This fragment was dozens of meters high, grayish-brown, utterly unassuming.
He extended one hand, pressing it onto the shard, perceiving it in silence.
He permeated it with the power of the stars.
“Boom!” The moment his stellar energy flooded into the grayish-brown star-shard, it suddenly burst forth with a dazzling, blinding starlight! The starlight shone like a sword—icy cold and fiercely sharp, like a lone bright star in the pitch-black expanse, radiating brilliant glory.
Mei Ji, standing in the distance, suddenly saw streaks of starlight piercing upward.
After a moment of stunned silence, she swiftly moved closer, her face alight with astonishment, her beautiful eyes sparkling with fascination as she gazed from atop another stellar rock.
At this moment, Shi Yan rested one hand on the gleaming, radiating shard, his expression focused, wonder clouding his eyes.
Inside this particular star-fragment resided an exceedingly faint trace of presence—an aura belonging to the shard itself.
This was a miraculous manifestation where profound mystery, honed to the utmost degree, had spontaneously generated sentience! A scene instantly flashed across his mind… Tens of thousands of years ago, above the Shattered Sea, a formidable expert cultivating the profound mysteries of the stars unleashed an ultimate technique.
The stars across the heavens rotated, and every single celestial body gained consciousness, their wisdom unlocked, enabling them to actively seek out and attack foes.
The profound mystery possessed a spirit! The manifested mystery, imbued with a guiding intelligence, became an extension of the caster's vital essence, spirit, and will, instantly elevating the subtlety of the technique to an unimaginably profound level.
Even after tens of thousands of years, the consciousness imbued in that manifested technique—this star-shard—had not entirely faded.
A slight touch from Shi Yan, who himself mastered the mysteries of the stars, immediately triggered a reaction, exciting the last remnant of stellar power and causing the shard to briefly illuminate.
The stone’s light then dimmed, its stellar activation energy spent, reverting to its ordinary state.
The trace of soul essence hidden within the star-shard finally dissipated into nothingness, no longer existing.
Yet, Shi Yan continued to trace the stone with his fingers, his eyes blazing with stellar light.
“The mystery has a spirit!” His mind roared like clashing thunder.
As his thoughts churned, streams of starlight erupted from the tips of his ten fingers.
Ten brilliant, dazzling meteors danced unpredictably under his manipulation, writhing like ten spiritual serpents.
“Seal Spirit!” Ten spiritual imprints were copied from his main soul and merged into those ten streams of light.
The meteors abruptly broke free from the restraint of his fingers, severing their link with him.
As the ten streams shot away, he immediately retracted his focus, no longer actively guiding them with his soul consciousness.
The connection between him and the ten meteors was instantly cut.
The ten streams proceeded along a perfectly straight trajectory, hurtling far out to pulverize a star-shard nearby.
“No, that’s not right.” Shi Yan shook his head.
If the profound mystery possessed true sentience, once the meteors flew out, they should attack autonomously without needing his soul consciousness to direct them; they should possess the ability to shift their trajectory dynamically without requiring his explicit guidance.
“It must be the direction that’s wrong…” He murmured softly, reshuffling his esoteric formula.
With a single thought, a stream of starlight shot out from his left index finger.
Harnessing his comprehension of the stellar mysteries, he used his main soul to perceive the stellar river within the layer of profound mystery.
He condensed a wisp of soul imprint, merged that imprint with the stellar river, infusing the stream of light with the essence of that mystery layer, and then imprinted the mark onto the flowing light once more.
The stream shot out, still without independent intelligence, and shattered the massive rock in front of it.
“Still not right…” As if possessed, within this star-shard region, streams of light continuously erupted from his fingertips, repeatedly flying out to blast the fragments ahead into splinters.
Failure after failure! He seemed oblivious to the passing time, frowning deeply, utterly immersed as he tried every conceivable method, attempting to imbue his technique with spirit and glimpse the deeper subtlety of the stellar mysteries.
Mei Ji watched quietly from the side, ceasing her attempts to persuade him.
She knew Shi Yan was at a crucial threshold of comprehension and must not be disturbed now.
Time blurred as two days and two nights passed.
Mei Ji possessed a secret treasure similar to the Celestial Illusion Star Compass, allowing her to track the elapsed time precisely by the markings on its time scale.
Two days and two nights felt incredibly brief in ordinary circumstances, fleeting in an instant.
But given the current situation, two days were long enough for countless things to occur, long enough for enemies to catch up.
Seeing Shi Yan so deeply engrossed he couldn't pull himself free, yet still unable to grasp the true subtlety, Mei Ji became increasingly anxious.
Another stretch of time elapsed, and Shi Yan remained in a daze, desperately searching for the true meaning of the mysteries within that field of star-shards.
Mei Ji’s worry intensified into a burning fever.
… “Rumble!” Millions of rolling thunders surged and collided, detonating and shattering layer upon layer of water barriers.
Ferer let out a fierce yell, finally bursting free from the water enclosure.
He was furious, roaring, “Sea Shark Sovereign! You dared trap me, allowing that brat to escape! Whatever your intentions, you must bear the consequences!” The Sea Shark Sovereign and Shen Ren stood flanking Ferer, their expressions impassive, ignoring Ferer’s tirade.
“I have no time for your nonsense.
Where is that brat? I promised the Ancient Demon Clan I would take his life and seize the Mystic Rune Pagoda in his possession!” Ferer’s face was grim.
The Sea Shark Sovereign scoffed and shook his head.
“Ferer, haven't you always believed you were the foremost figure in the Shattered Sea? I know you’ve challenged me repeatedly, seeking a true battle to defeat me and solidify your esteemed status, hoping the Ancient Demon Clan would pay you more attention and invite you back with the highest honors, haven't you?” He laid Ferer’s deepest ambition bare in a single sentence.
Ferer was not a pure-blooded member of the Ancient Demon Clan; he carried their bloodline within him.
Before he became powerful enough, the Ancient Demon Clan disdained acknowledging him.
Only after he broke through to the Domain Ancestor realm and gained renown in the Shattered Sea did the Clan begin to truly value him, leading to the later visits from figures like Yebeler and Hussein.
Ferer appeared arrogant, but deep down, he yearned for the Clan’s recognition—to one day return to the Ancient Demon Clan in glory and become one of the apex powers there.
For years, Ferer often provoked the Sea Shark Sovereign and Ricardo, hoping to defeat them and establish himself as the undisputed number one in the Shattered Sea.
With that status, he hoped the true powerhouses of the Ancient Demon Clan would notice him and personally travel to the Shattered Sea to invite him back to acknowledge his lineage, granting him the most revered status and treatment.
This time, Ferer stepping up for Yebeler and Hussein was secondary; his true goal was to showcase his might and seize the Mystic Rune Pagoda, thereby proving his dominance in the Shattered Sea.
He did not hesitate to offend the Phantom Race, effectively binding himself to the Ancient Demon Clan.
He had also received assurances from the higher echelons of the Clan: as long as he secured the Mystic Rune Pagoda, a seat in the deepest sanctums of the Ancient Demon Clan’s future halls would surely be reserved for Ferer.
It was for that potential seat that Ferer fought so fiercely now.
Having his motive exposed by the Sea Shark Sovereign, Ferer’s expression darkened.
“So what if that’s true? So what if it isn’t?” “Whether it is true or not, today I shall grant your wish, Ferer, and fight you—fulfilling your long-held aspiration!” The Sea Shark Sovereign grinned, his eyes flashing a blood-red light, strangely similar to when Shi Yan had erupted in fury.
A savage, bloodthirsty aura, completely unlike his usual Water Profound Mystery cultivation, suddenly erupted from within him.
Shen Ren, standing nearby, inwardly groaned upon seeing the Sea Shark Sovereign transform.
The reason he stayed behind was precisely the fear that the Sea Shark Sovereign would employ this secret technique of bloodlust, which he had taught him years ago.
Once activated, this technique would grant the Sovereign a significant power boost, but like Shi Yan’s situation, it made him dangerously prone to falling into an irreversible state of mindless slaughter.
“Don’t worry, I have control.
I’ll withdraw when it’s time.
Don't lecture me now!” As if sensing Shen Ren’s thoughts, the Sea Shark Sovereign flashed a cruel, wide grin and boomed carelessly, planting his feet on the surging current, striding toward Ferer.
Ferer’s expression shifted slightly.
He looked up towards the water above him and suddenly felt the pressure increase by tens of times—the omnipresent hydrostatic pressure felt like billions of mountains squeezing down upon him.
At that moment, Ferer realized the Sea Shark Sovereign was not as weak and easy to bully as he had assumed.
He was a deep-sea beast that had merely been slumbering, unwilling to engage in a true fight until this very day, when he finally awoke! …(To be continued) RQ