The humanoid Skeleton Demon dragged the corpse of the Silver Bream, over a hundred yards long, closer to the Great Wing Battleship. Huangfu Bing'er activated the ship's protective light shield, allowed it entry, and then sealed the shield once more.

With a heavy thud, the Skeleton Demon dropped the massive Silver Bream corpse onto the deck of the Great Wing Battleship.

When a transformed demon cultivator dies, it reverts to its original demonic form. Thus, the immense Silver Bream carcass now occupied nearly half the ship's deck.

Ye Qin, along with Huangfu Bing'er and Bai Xiuer, came forward to examine the corpse of the gigantic Silver Flood Dragon demon cultivator.

Dozens of wounds, large and small, scarred the body covered in lustrous silver scales, each mark emitting wisps of dark corporeal energy—all left by the Skeleton Demon's sharp claws. These were mere superficial injuries, none fatal.

The most severe damage was concentrated on the head, blasted by the Great Wing Battleship’s Minor Divine Ability spiritual cannon. Even though only three beams of spiritual energy struck it, they had obliterated more than half of the white, pulpy brain matter inside, ensuring its complete demise.

“The power of the Great Wing Battleship's spiritual cannons is sufficient to deal with early-stage transformed demon cultivators at close range.” However, the demon cultivators’ physical bodies are extremely tough, and their speed is too great, making them difficult targets. We fired ten shots and only hit three times. If we hadn't fired ten cannons simultaneously, we might not have hit it at all. It seems best to avoid close combat with demon cultivators whose cultivation exceeds our own.”

Ye Qin closely examined the wounds, showing slight astonishment, and muttered to himself.

“I heard that demon cultivators above the Tenth Tier are treasures from head to tail. This Silver Flood Dragon’s sharp teeth, tendons, and silver scales are all Tenth-Tier raw materials suitable for forging magical artifacts. Especially this layer of silver scales—though a small part is damaged, most of it is usable. If we could cut it off and forge it into an artifact, the defense would surely be incredibly formidable. Furthermore, because it was intimidated by the corporeal energy during its death struggle with the Skeleton Demon, it never dared to release its Tenth-Tier Demon Core, which might still be hidden within this corpse.”

Huangfu Bing'er joyfully assessed the Silver Bream corpse and said.

“Good. I will cut off the Silver Bream’s scales. Bing'er, you look for its Demon Core, and see if the Demon Soul of this Flood Dragon is still alive!”

Ye Qin nodded, then waved his hand, summoning the Golden Bird Luminous Sword. He swiftly trimmed away the parts of the Silver Flood Dragon’s corpse corrupted by the corpse qi to prevent contamination of the other sections, then set about cutting the scales with full force.

These Silver Flood Dragon scales were exceptionally tough, emitting a faint silver glow that could even neutralize low-to-mid-tier spells. But now, lacking the support of demonic power, their defensive capabilities were greatly reduced. They could not withstand the incomparably sharp Golden Crow Luminous Sword, and Ye Qin quickly sliced them off, storing them in the material storage pouch.

Huangfu Bing'er was no slower. She manipulated the Ice Soul Cold Light Sword, emanating icy qi, and sliced through the Silver Bream’s sturdy flesh as if cutting tofu. She then reached into its abdomen and extracted a water-blue Demon Core the size of a human head.

Demon cultivators can expel their Demon Cores from their mouths, allowing the core to leave the physical body. But this Silver Bream’s head had been destroyed by the cannon fire, and its Demon Core had not managed to escape before it perished completely.

Huangfu Bing'er swept her magic, collecting the Demon Core that radiated a brilliant azure glow and extremely potent Water Spiritual Energy. After tossing it to Ye Qin, she turned to Bai Xiuer, who was already flexing her muscles, and instructed, “I’ll search for where the Demon Soul is hidden. Xiuer, you dig out its sharp teeth and tendons. These raw materials are also very valuable; they’ll fetch a high price in the East Sea!”

“Got it!”

Bai Xiuer responded, using her green ancient halberd to pry apart chunks of enormous flesh, extracting a nearly translucent Bream Tendon from the carcass and tossing it onto the deck.

Then, she leaped into the Silver Flood Dragon’s slightly agape maw and used her divine strength to pull out the incredibly sharp, silver teeth one by one. The Silver Cold previously used the Silver Blade Demon Soldiers, which were transformed from its own silver teeth.

“Huh? Why does this Flood Dragon demon cultivator have one golden bone?”

While breaking apart the flesh and tendons of the Silver Bream, Bai Xiuer spotted a golden bone along the spine, only a long, distinctly different from the other bones. She couldn’t help but dig it out, looking puzzled.

“Is this the Silver Bream’s Spiritual Root Bone!?”

Ye Qin and Huangfu Bing'er recognized it at once and exclaimed with joy.

The Skeleton Demon, which had been standing stiffly beside the Silver Bream corpse, became instantly agitated upon seeing the bone. It leaped in front of Bai Xiuer, staring eagerly at the golden Spiritual Root Bone in her hand.

“You want this bone?”

Bai Xiuer giggled, tossing the Spiritual Root Bone upward.

The Skeleton Demon was overjoyed, snatching the bone. The faint light in its skeletal eyes flickered incessantly, seemingly extremely excited.

This Spiritual Root Bone was a great supplement for the Skeleton Demon.

The Skeleton Demon had already generated its own Spiritual Root Bone. By integrating the Spiritual Root Bone of that Twelfth-Tier Poison Dragon and now this Tenth-Tier Silver Bream, its cultivation speed and overall strength would increase significantly.

The scales were stripped, the tendons extracted, the Demon Core and the Spiritual Root Bone were all found, but the Demon Soul remained elusive.

Ye Qin’s brows furrowed slightly. After pondering for a moment, he smiled coldly at the Flood Dragon corpse and said, “What? Prince, are you still hiding? Do I need to invite you out using the Samadhi True Fire?”

A mass of silver-blue light, only about ten inches in size, looking almost identical to the Silver Flood Dragon, drilled out from within the carcass. It shot out toward the edge of the battleship with a whoosh, but immediately rebounded with a bang.

A thick protective shield had already sealed the entire battleship.

This ball of light realized escape was impossible and could only shrink back in terror, looking pleadingly at Ye Qin. A demon cultivator's Demon Soul is different from a cultivator's Primordial Spirit.

The demon race cultivates its physical body, hence their formidable strength, drawing upon heaven and earth spiritual energy through the power within their Demon Core to unleash innate demonic arts. However, demon cultivators do not cultivate their souls.

In contrast, cultivators focus on their soul power, continuously strengthening their soul with the vital energy generated by physical cultivation, eventually condensing a powerful Primordial Spirit. A demon soul, without its body, possesses almost no offensive capability.

Upon death, even if the Demon Soul escapes, it is merely a less threatening spirit. Of course, the Demon Soul of a Tenth-Tier demon cultivator is still far stronger than a lower-tier one.

This Silver Bream Prince, Yin Han, held a high position within the Silver Bream Clan and had spent his time cultivating in the Demonic Sea, lacking experience in life-or-death struggles with higher-tier demon cultivators or sparring with cultivators.

He never expected to encounter Ye Qin today—a cultivator at the late Golden Core stage, yet possessing a transformed Skeleton Demon and the rare Minor Divine Ability Great Wing Battleship. Caught completely off guard, he ended up with his demonic body destroyed and his soul unable to flee.

Even for a high-ranking demon race like the Silver Bream, Yin Han had cultivated for over a thousand years in the Demonic Sea to achieve transformation. His death here today was simply bad luck.

Beneath Yin Han’s plea, a flicker of extreme malice and ruthlessness crossed his features, though it was expertly concealed by the azure light.

Without his physical body, he was utterly desperate. Yet, he held onto the hope that a few of his guards might arrive, capable of avenging him so he wouldn't die with unresolved grievances.

“Is this the Demon Soul of a Tenth-Tier demon cultivator? This soul could become the Artifact Spirit for a Minor Divine Ability artifact, which would greatly benefit it!” Huangfu Bing'er was genuinely surprised, seeing a Demon Soul up close for the first time.

The Demon Soul’s look of humble begging did nothing to sway Ye Qin. Letting it go was out of the question.

“Collect…”

Ye Qin’s expression was indifferent. At the same time, he flipped his right hand, and a jade bottle appeared. Without a word, he formed a finger seal, and a strand of green light shot out of the bottle’s mouth, instantly sweeping over and dragging Yin Han’s Demon Soul inside.

“Damn you, East Sea cultivator! My father will surely avenge me…”

Yin Han’s Demon Soul cried out in terror and struggled with all its might, but it could not slow the green light’s suction power from the sealing jade bottle. Before it could finish speaking, it was entirely drawn in.

The bottle mouth was sealed.

Pop!

A sealing talisman inscribed with numerous restrictions was affixed to the jade bottle, which Ye Qin then placed back into his storage pouch.

“The remaining flesh has little value and just takes up space—let’s discard it…” Huangfu Bing'er opened the battleship’s shield and said.

Ye Qin glanced over the Flood Dragon carcass, seeing no other valuable materials, and nodded.

Bai Xiuer gave a mighty kick, sending the hundred-yard-long, ruined Silver Bream carcass flying out of the battleship, falling towards the Blood Sea and splashing up a large wave.

Without the weight of the Silver Bream corpse, the Great Wing Battleship slowly sailed across the sea surface, returning toward the Spirit Island.

Ye Qin and Huangfu Bing'er stood side-by-side on the deck at the ship's bow.

“Hunting a transformed demon cultivator yields a harvest so rich it’s almost comparable to refining pills for several years. No wonder so many cultivators want to come to the Blood Sea to hunt beasts. Once we reach Nascent Soul stage, killing demon cultivators will earn us spirit stones faster than alchemy.” Huangfu Bing'er laughed, clearly satisfied with the battle's outcome.

“Counting it up, the raw materials from this demon cultivator should sell for a very high price. But to kill this demon cultivator, we fired ten cannon blasts, consuming ten thousand high-grade spirit stones—that’s no small price to pay…” Ye Qin nodded, estimating the cost, but a wry smile touched his lips as he recalled the expense of the spiritual cannons.

He looked toward the distant sea, about to say something, when his gaze suddenly narrowed.

Within his field of vision, three faint silver lights were rapidly approaching the battleship's location across the distant sea.

The Skeleton Demon stood at the bow, staring at the silver lights, revealing a fierce glint.

“It’s Silver Bream demon cultivators! Quick, change direction, retreat…” Ye Qin cried out in alarm.

Huangfu Bing'er reacted swiftly, immediately ordering the armored puppets controlling the ship to quickly change the battleship's heading.

The ship executed a sharp turn in the sky and sped away toward the Blood Sand Outpost at an even greater velocity.

A short while later, the three silver lights appeared in the area where the battleship had just been, revealing the forms of three Silver Bream demon cultivators.

When they saw the massive, unrecognizable Silver Flood Dragon corpse floating on the sea, their eyes instantly flushed crimson, and they let out furious roars.

“It’s the Second Prince! The Second Prince is dead…”

“That battleship was piloted by East Sea cultivators! Damn it, the Second Prince encountered a powerful enemy…”

“Kill!” The three Silver Bream demon cultivators were enraged, their silver light surging, transforming into three streaks of silver light that swept across the sea surface at full speed, stirring up three shocking waves below.

Ye Qin dared not stop to fight them; he merely used the Great Wing Battleship to flee rapidly across the Blood Sea.

Along the way, the Great Wing Battleship fired its cannons again, blasting haphazardly at the pursuing demon cultivators. Out of ten cannon blasts, one struck one of the cultivators, but it caused little significant damage.

Despite this, the immense power of the spiritual cannons forced them to keep a respectful distance from the Great Wing Battleship.

After chasing for five or six hours, the demonic power displayed by the three Silver Flood Dragon cultivators gradually weakened, and eventually, the Great Wing Battleship, supplied with ample spirit stones, left them farther and farther behind. Seeing they couldn't catch the ship, the three cultivators had no choice but to abandon the pursuit.

Ye Qin broke out in a cold sweat, tightly gripping Huangfu Bing'er’s icy hands.

Her face was equally pale.

Three extremely powerful Silver Bream demon cultivators—if they had been surrounded just now, even with the Great Wing Battleship and the Skeleton Demon, they would likely have perished in the Blood Sea.

“Husband, where do we go now…”

“We killed a transformed demon cultivator; we cannot return to the Spirit Island. The cave there was damaged by lightning strikes, and the scent of the spiritual pills remains—it might be discovered by demon cultivators. Let’s head to the Blood Sand Outpost first, then back to Linhai City…”

Day 1, Votes!!!!