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"Is what the lord said true?" Although X3 always tried to appear calm, she was actually afraid of death; who wouldn’t choose life over death?
Angol retorted, "Do I need to deceive you?"
X3 did not question further. Considering Sanders’ status, there really was no need for him to deceive her.
"Ferro and I will follow her and ensure there are no issues," Reynold said.
"I will fulfill the lord’s instructions," X3 said, and then flew towards the outer sea with Reynolds and Ferro.
X3 must not get close to No. 03, or she could easily be influenced by the fruit. All she needed to do now was to drive away the sea beasts approaching the outer sea.
Even though Ferro went to the outer sea with X3, Angel still controlled a scouting puppet to follow along. He also wanted to see if X3’s abilities could dominate over these sea beasts heading to No. 03.
Under Ferro’s guidance, X3 quickly reached the outer sea.
Looking down from there, one could still see a dense crowd of sea beasts beneath the sea surface, scrambling to swim in the same direction.
At a glance, there were at least a hundred sea beasts.
Though there weren’t any giant ones, most were the size of adult sea whales, and such a massive migration of sea beasts was something X3, who had been controlling sea beasts for years, had never witnessed before.
"It’s still small here; earlier I saw a number of sea beasts as large as islands, all sacrificed by that dangerous presence. Just imagine how powerful the opponent will be if the entire Mist Belt’s sea beasts are devoured and sacrificed," Reynold said softly. "So, we must stop this."
X3 glanced at Reynold, "I don’t need your reminder. Since I’ve agreed, I won’t go back on my word."
With that, X3 put away her complex emotions, closed her eyes quietly, and hummed a song softly.
The tune was very lively, with a bright rhythm and beat.
Ferro frowned, unsure of what X3 was doing; why was she still singing at this time? Just as Ferro was about to speak, Reynold said in the mind link, "This is ’Song’ activating her soul arms. That’s why I named her ’Song.’"
Ferro understood and nodded, saying no more.
After humming a short piece of music, X3’s body slowly released some specks of light. Ferro could clearly feel that these specks seemed to possess the nature of soul force, but before soul force forms a spell model, it’s hard to materialize. He was seeing this kind of soul force, which materializes in particle form, for the first time.
A large number of light specks floated around X3, eventually forming her soul arms.
It was a white bone flute adorned with various colorful ornaments and strange engravings.
Though the bone flute had taken shape, it was not completely independent. Its bone handle had a light band that connected to X3’s right thigh.
This indicated that X3’s soul arms actually came from her transplanted right leg.
After the bone flute appeared, X3 held it to her mouth, took a deep breath, and the melodious music flowed out.
This piece of music was the same as the one X3 had hummed earlier. With the cheerful flute accompaniment, Ferro confirmed that this melody was a shepherd’s song.
No wonder X3 was dressed in a shepherd’s dress, looking like a herds-boy. It matched her shepherd’s song.
As the lively shepherd’s song played over the sea, the sea beasts swarming around suddenly calmed down.
They seemed to be enjoying the music like happy little lambs.
Under the beautiful music, the redness in the sea beasts’ eyes returned to normal.
Seeing this scene, both Ferro and Angel felt a rush of emotion.
So far, it seemed to work!
However, although the sea beasts no longer charged forward with unrestrained fury, they also didn’t leave. More sea beasts would come, and if they all gathered here, X3’s shepherd’s song might not affect so many sea beasts.
So now, these sea beasts needed to be driven far away as much as possible to prevent excessive congregation.
While Ferro was thinking about how to tell X3, she had already noticed this flaw. Her flute melody became even more vibrant, and she began dancing, leaping in the air and gradually flying away.
The sea beasts below followed X3’s steps, quickly swimming away.
As she drove away one group of sea beasts, new ones gathered, and X3 repeated the previous actions, continuously driving away the incoming sea beasts.
With one shepherd’s song, she could control hundreds of sea beasts simultaneously, from one point to an entire area, encircling a whole section of the sea.
X3’s efficiency was astonishing.
Of course, not all sea beasts would heed the call of the shepherd’s song.
Among those reaching the apprentice peak or official wizard level, none were attracted by the shepherd’s song.
These more powerful sea beasts were a minority among the vast number of sea beasts. Angel instructed X3 not to worry about these beasts; they directly let them through for him and Nis to handle.
For those too powerful or hard to deal with in a short time, Angel used the nightmare illusion to control them, making them run in circles on the spot.
As long as they didn’t get near No. 03 or become a sacrifice target, there would be no issue.
With X3 solving the sea beast problem, indeed, the fruit above No. 03’s head showed signs of slowing maturation. In the following minutes, its attraction did not increase again, as indicated by Angel’s domain field weakening the attraction.
This showed that their plan had achieved half its success.
They successfully delayed the fruit’s rate of ripening. But this wasn’t the end.
Now the consideration turned to how to rescue Kanter.
Currently, there seem to be two choices: either seize the mysterious fruit directly or aim to awaken Kanter.
As the group deliberated, the Observer quietly watched them, having noticed Angel’s efforts that managed to stall the fruit’s maturation.
Yet, the core issue remained unsolved.
He, too, was curious to see what choice Angel and the others would finally make.