As he descended deeper, the downward pull on Ye Chen gradually faded, and the Sky Crystal Battle Saber slowly halted. He hugged it with both hands, straining with all his might, yet unable to budge it. A bitterness welled up in his mouth. Looking around, he realized it was utterly dark; he had no idea how deep he had penetrated the earth. To carve a passage out with his bare hands was absolutely impossible.

"I can only return the way I came, retrieve the Divine Sword, kill that dark monster, and then come back for the Sky Crystal Battle Saber!" Ye Chen resolved in his mind. He immediately turned and rushed back. After swimming for a short while, he felt a surge of water current pressure bearing down on him, causing a jolt of alarm. "It must be that dark monster chasing me in!"

He frowned, scanning his surroundings. He was effectively in a dead end now, with no second path available. Moreover, the Divine Sword was out of his grasp, leaving him unable to slay the Dark Prince...

The Divine Sword is out of reach? Ye Chen’s eyes suddenly lit up. He immediately opened his Fire Civilization Space and retrieved a golden longsword, seven feet in length. At a glance, its design bore a striking resemblance to the Divine Sword. With the deep reserves of the Fire Civilization Treasury, procuring a golden longsword was hardly a major feat.

Ye Chen gripped the longsword, not retreating but advancing, charging upwards against the current. His black hair danced wildly in the ocean flow, his eyes icy and filled with overwhelming killing intent. As he drew nearer, a dark silhouette became vaguely visible, plummeting down like a meteorite.

Ye Chen spread his arms wide, unleashing an explosive burst of energy from his entire body, jetting out from his pores. This blast shoved the surrounding currents away, propelling his body upward against the flow. He glared with frosty malevolence at the Dark Prince and brought his sword down in a sweeping arc!

Pfft!

This golden longsword, being a third-rank Gold-grade artifact, was sharp enough to slice through the scales of level 3000 monsters. As it swung, it cleaved the water, and combined with the De Character Sword Art and the Meteorite Profundity, its power surged dramatically, whistling as it lunged toward the Dark Prince's face.

The Dark Prince was utterly shocked. He hadn't expected Ye Chen to find a sword resembling the Divine Sword. Recalling the previous moment he was cleaved in two, a chill crept into his heart. Had he not executed his clan's divine technique, he might already be dead. He immediately roared out in surprise and anger, pulling back and rocketing rapidly upwards.

Ye Chen’s expression remained icy as he pursued relentlessly.

"Damn it!" Seeing Ye Chen clinging to his tail without letting up, the Dark Prince grew even more suspicious. "This brat got lucky; how did he manage to pick up that Divine Sword again! He still has his Tentacle Mode unactivated; he must be waiting until we are close to suddenly spring a trap!"

He gritted his teeth and charged up, breaking through the water currents in an instant, arriving at the surface. Just as the Dark Prince burst out of the passage, Ye Chen’s gaze flickered. He abruptly halted, then retreated over a dozen zhang, only to see the cave mouth instantly plunged into darkness, as if covered by a giant palm!

Boom!!

A thunderous roar echoed, shaking the entire ground. Water surged violently downward, crashing onto Ye Chen. Fortunately, he was far enough away that it caused minimal damage. Had Ye Chen followed directly out, that claw would have smashed down upon his head, certainly resulting in his brains being splattered.

Seeing the hand blocking the exit, Ye Chen guessed the Dark Prince's intent. He began to ponder, and unconsciously, the surrounding temperature started to rise. He paused, then experienced a sudden surge of joy. "How could I forget, this is a volcano area! Not far from here, the interior of the volcano is hollow. From my current position, if I dig across, I can definitely escape. Moreover, the Divine Sword might have been deflected during its tumble in the water and fallen into the volcano!"

With this thought, he frantically began to dig, pulling out a battle saber and hacking at the soil. The earth beneath the seabed was incredibly hard, like hardened steel. After only a short period of digging, Ye Chen's arms began to ache fiercely.

One must remember that underwater, the surrounding pressure was immense. His 5000-level strength could only manifest as about 1000-level, which was considered decent. Furthermore, in this world, the gravitational pull was immense, and the aerial elemental matter was ten times stronger than outside, meaning the soil density was also ten times greater. This restricted him to displaying only about 100 levels of actual strength.

Digging seabed soil with a strength equivalent to level 100 was agonizingly slow work.

Several hours later, after resting multiple times, Ye Chen’s arms ached severely. He had excavated a passage nearly a hundred zhang long, breaking three battle sabers in the process.

"Not good!" Ye Chen suddenly felt a tightness in his chest, a suffocating sensation, and his expression shifted slightly. "With my physique, I can survive underwater, but while digging, I expended too much energy; the oxygen in my chest is severely depleted!" Realizing this, he frowned and immediately accelerated his digging.

Not long after, as Ye Chen struck downward one last time, the opening before him suddenly shattered. Intense firelight flooded his vision. Based on Ye Chen's estimation, he hadn't burrowed too deep to be directly hit by lava flow.

The area was dazzling with fiery light and scorching heat, permeated with potent fire toxins. Magma streamed down the rock walls, mixing turbulently with the seawater. Ye Chen frowned slightly, looking down at the flowing, bubbling lava. After a moment of contemplation, his figure darted out. Utilizing the vortex acupoints of his internal Burning Source Point, he treated the terrifying ambient heat with complete disregard, as if merging with it. His gaze swept across the area and suddenly spotted a speck of golden light on the cliff face at the bottom of the lava pool. He narrowed his eyes to focus.

There, right at the edge of the liquid magma, in an extremely precarious position, a ten-meter golden sword was stuck point-down.

Ye Chen’s body moved instantly, rushing toward it. Suddenly, a tremendous shaking sound echoed from directly above him, followed by a massive shadow descending, enveloping the area overhead.

Ye Chen looked up; his expression slowly grew grim. A colossal, thousand-zhang alligator floated above the volcano, its ferocious eyes gleaming with metallic luster as it surveyed the depths. Perched atop its head was the Dark Prince, his black hair flowing wildly, clad in black armor, his snake-like hair whipping about, his eyes blazing with fury and savagery.

It turned out the Dark Prince, having waited for Ye Chen to surface for a long time, sensed the cunning nature of this human. Growing uneasy, he had walked over to the nearby volcano and coincidentally spotted Ye Chen emerging from the cliff face and plunging downward. This sight sent him into a fit of enraged laughter.

"Kill!" The Dark Prince urged the thousand-zhang alligator onward, plunging down the caldera.

The volcano crater was vast, spanning about ten kilometers. Given the alligator’s size, it could only occupy about a quarter of the space. As it dove, the compressed airflow actually propelled Ye Chen downward faster toward the base.

Swish!

Ye Chen reached out and snatched the Divine Sword, then turned his head. A monstrous black shadow expanded rapidly in his vision. A spark of rage flashed in his eyes. He hadn't expected the thousand-zhang alligator to maintain its speed even near the lava. This could only mean the Dark Prince was forcing it, intending to use the beast as a weapon to compel Ye Chen to activate his "Tentacle Mode"!

Based on their previous chase, the Dark Prince knew Ye Chen’s ultimate mode could only be maintained for a limited time, requiring a full day to recover afterward. Once the "Tentacle Mode" was depleted, the Dark Prince felt no fear, even if Ye Chen held the Divine Sword, for he was rank seventy thousand!

All of this happened in an instant. The dark shadow crashed down with immense force!

Boom!!

The entire volcano seemed to convulse, erupting in a level-ten tremor. Countless streams of magma were violently forced upward, and the surrounding earth shook, triggering precursors for eruptions in the other four adjacent volcanoes.

Ye Chen gripped the Divine Sword tightly and activated his Ant-Man Super Mode at the moment of extreme danger. However, the pressure of the descent gave him nowhere to brace himself. The rock beneath his feet was pulverized, and his body was crushed deep into the rock and lava, falling uncontrollably. Countless debris and molten rock rushed past him; he couldn't hear anything but the roaring pressure.

After an unknown duration, a sudden sensation of suspension came from behind him, followed by his body slamming heavily onto solid ground. He thought he heard a few startled cries, causing him to pause momentarily.

Just then, a black shadow slammed down—it was the claw of the thousand-zhang alligator!

Ye Chen's eyes turned fierce. Holding the Divine Sword, he leaped up, kicking the ground beneath him into an explosion of fragments, and surged upward against the force. The Divine Sword, imbued with the Meteorite Profundity, cleaved directly toward the descending claw!

Boom!

The ferocious sword momentum shattered the surrounding wind noise. The alligator's sharp, scaled claw sparked violently under the impact of that single strike!

Ye Chen gritted his teeth, knowing the Divine Sword was currently only Ghost-Artifact grade. Although it could slay Ghost-God realm experts, it favored physical attacks and was relatively weak. Against the God-grade ninth-tier body of the thousand-zhang alligator, one strike was insufficient to sever a limb. If he had the Sky Crystal Battle Saber in hand, one slice would have severed that claw!

Whoosh!

Ye Chen reversed his grip on the Divine Sword, raised his fist, and channeled the Meteorite Profundity, striking the claw like a comet impact. Though his body was smaller than even a single scale on that claw, it carried an aura of suffocating, savage power!

The collision struck!

Bang!!

Ye Chen’s entire body acted like a razor, piercing through hide and scale, penetrating the internal mass of the thousand-zhang alligator. He punched a bloody gash into its claw, recoiling from the impact!

Pfft! Ye Chen burst free from the scale-covered claw, his body wreathed in bloody killing aura. Holding the Divine Sword, he hovered in mid-air, staring directly into the eye of the massive alligator, now mere inches away. His demonic hair whipped wildly, making him resemble a savage, enraged beast. At that direct gaze, the thousand-zhang alligator’s body visibly flinched—perhaps from the intense pain in its claw, or perhaps sensing the tangible killing intent radiating from Ye Chen!

Ye Chen turned his gaze to the alligator’s head, where a black silhouette stood upright. A hint of surprise played across its face—it was the Dark Prince.

"Die!" Ye Chen's eyes turned brutal. He took a step, planting his foot on the alligator's claw, and charged toward the Dark Prince. Given the disparity in their sizes, they were like ants moving across the back of an elephant atop the colossal beast.

Seeing Ye Chen charging, the Dark Prince’s expression shifted slightly. He quickly shouted, "Kill him fast!" He noticed Ye Chen had finally resorted to the Tentacle Mode and was inwardly pleased, knowing that if they could just weather this period, Ye Chen would pose no further threat.

The thousand-zhang alligator hesitated slightly upon hearing the furious command.

Just then, Ye Chen reached the Dark Prince and swept the Divine Sword down directly!

The Dark Prince’s face darkened. He knew the Divine Sword held special bonus damage against Ghost-God realm experts, but it was useless against ordinary monsters. He immediately moved, shifting into Ghost-God Mode, rendering himself intangible, and phasing directly into the head of the thousand-zhang alligator.

Ye Chen’s sword strike landed, the tip scraping sparks off the alligator's cranial scales, failing to breach the defense. He quickly retracted his force to prevent the Divine Sword from shattering, then willed the sword to shrink to seven feet. Next, he ripped open the alligator’s massive head scale with his bare hand and dove headfirst inside.

"Aooogh!!" The thousand-zhang alligator let out a scream of agonizing pain.