The Deep Sea Demonic Whale Fang Chang had just devoured had a soul power of over 17,000 years. After consuming it, Fang Chang's soul power increased by approximately 3,000 years, pushing him past the 120,000-year mark.
Calculating the efficiency, the upgraded "Super Devour" now converted about one-fifth of the prey's soul power, nearly doubling the previous conversion rate. Fang Chang was quite satisfied with this improvement. While the increase from one-tenth to one-fifth might not seem significant at first glance, it effectively halved the time required for him to reach the million-year soul beast level.
After finishing off this Deep Sea Demonic Whale, Fang Chang continued his hunt for the remaining four members of the clan. With his current strength, dealing with these scattered and fleeing Deep Sea Demonic Whales was a trivial task, and he quickly eliminated them all.
Once the hunt was over, Fang Chang returned to the shipwreck, where the Sea Spider clan had just finished off the rest of the Deep Sea Demonic Whales. The two groups met in front of the sunken ship.
In this battle, the Sea Spider clan had lost fewer than ten members, yet they had completely eradicated the Deep Sea Demonic Whale clan. Such a feat was unprecedented in the history of sea soul beasts, especially considering that they had recently participated in the destruction of the Devil Spirit Great White Shark clan.
After these two victories, the once-obscure Sea Spider clan had risen to become the new overlords of the sea. As long as the Deep Sea Demonic Whale King didn't intervene, they were virtually unrivaled in these waters.
Fang Chang looked at Little Gold's two younger sisters, who seemed to be seeking rewards after their triumphant return. He stepped forward and placed two of his shield-like spider legs on their heads.
A strange energy flowed from his legs into their bodies, causing them to undergo the same transformation Little Gold had experienced earlier. Their bodies elongated, their legs became sturdier, and their colors grew more vibrant.
Little Gold, watching her sisters' transformation, pouted and nudged Fang Chang with one of her legs, as if to say, "I was here first! What about me?"
As the second-greatest contributor to the battle after Fang Chang, Little Gold certainly deserved a reward. Without her merging with him, Fang Chang might not have been able to withstand the Deep Sea Demonic Whale King's final attack or hold his own against so many of the clan's members.
However, since she had already undergone one evolution, and Fang Chang's "Blessing" skill could only evolve each clan member once, he wasn't sure how to reward her. He leaned over and whispered into her ear, "I'll reward you tonight, and it'll be much better than what they got."
Little Gold blushed and walked away with a huff.
After this, the Sea Spider clan entered a period of rapid growth. Their numbers swelled, and within a few months, over sixty to seventy new spiderlings were born.
These newborns were extraordinary. Most of them were Sea Emperor Spiders, with a few being Dominator Evil Spiders capable of underwater breathing. Among the last batch of spiderlings, there were even a few Netherworld Soul-Chasing Spiders.
With these high-potential, high-bloodline spiderlings joining the clan, the overall strength of the Sea Spider clan skyrocketed. More importantly, these newborns also possessed Fang Chang's "Devour" ability, albeit in a weaker form.
Sea soul beasts, unlike their land-dwelling counterparts, were known for their high reproductive rates. Some could lay tens of thousands of eggs in a single clutch, with multiple clutches per year. However, the survival rate of these offspring was extremely low, and most were eaten by other sea soul beasts before they could grow strong. Out of tens of thousands, only a handful might reach the thousand-year level.
On the other hand, some races, like the Deep Sea Demonic Whales, had very few members, but each one was incredibly powerful, often becoming dominant forces in the sea.
The Sea Spider clan fell somewhere in between. Typically, a female Sea Spider could lay twenty to thirty eggs per year, but over 90% of them would die before reaching maturity. Only two or three would survive to a significant age. This low reproductive rate had historically kept their numbers small and their influence limited.
However, Fang Chang's arrival had completely changed this dynamic. The new generation of Sea Spiders had potential comparable to races like the Devil Spirit Great White Sharks and Demonic Devil Whales. Combined with their "Devour" ability, their growth rate far surpassed that of ordinary sea soul beasts, significantly reducing the risks they faced during their development.
With the birth of these spiderlings, Fang Chang's next plan could finally be set into motion. The core of this plan was to hunt large numbers of sea soul beasts to serve as food for the young spiders.
Sea soul beasts often gathered in large groups, making it easy for Fang Chang to find targets. Over the next six months, most sea soul beast races in the area, except for a few that submitted to the Sea Spider clan, were attacked to varying degrees.
Through this large-scale hunting, Fang Chang's soul power grew to over 170,000 years, while his offspring reached the thousand-year level, forming a formidable force.
Fang Chang then replicated the model he had used in the Star Dou Forest, dividing the young spiders into teams and training them to hunt cooperatively. With their high potential and numbers, these teams could easily take down sea soul beasts with forty to fifty thousand years of soul power.
Fang Chang had finally become the "big capitalist" he had always dreamed of being. Now, he simply waited for his offspring and other clan members to bring back prey, from which he would take a share. Even without actively hunting, his soul power continued to grow at an impressive rate.
The sea had become the hunting ground of the Sea Spider clan, with almost the entire area under their control, except for the territory dominated by the Deep Sea Demonic Whale King.
With this foundation, Fang Chang began the second phase of his plan: targeting Sea God Island.
One night, using his "Stealth" skill, Fang Chang infiltrated Sea God Island and captured two Soul Sage-level sea soul masters who were patrolling the coast. He used "Super Devour" to consume their martial souls, leaving them as powerless cripples, whom he then abandoned on distant reefs.
The next night, Fang Chang returned and took a Soul Emperor and two Soul Kings. The mysterious disappearances of these soul masters alarmed the inhabitants of Sea God Island. They increased their defenses and sent out more patrols, but this only provided Fang Chang with more targets.
Soul Emperors, Soul Sages, Soul Douluos—more and more sea soul masters vanished from Sea God Island, and the level of the missing individuals continued to rise. Sea God Island could no longer ignore the situation.