Chapter 282 - 255: Underwater Extraordinary Life
Qin Ziwen felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned his head and saw his brother open his mouth. "GURGLE... GLUG..."
He gestured with his hands, pointing to the side.
Qin Ziwen followed his gaze.
From a cave in the nearby reef, an eel with mottled, yellowish-brown patterns had poked out the upper half of its body and was staring at them.
Qin Ziwen instinctively raised his Fish Spear, but then he remembered they were in the ocean. The scent of blood could travel far and might attract larger fish, so he lowered his weapon.
His movement drew the attention of the others. Yuan Ming turned his head and finally noticed the eel not far behind him.
He jumped in fright. The eel hadn’t been there when they’d passed the coral reef moments ago; he had no idea when it had appeared.
Realizing it had been spotted, the eel slowly retracted its flattened body, disappearing into a crevice in the reef.
Yuan Ming drew his Fish Spear, ready to teach the creature a lesson, but felt a tap on his shoulder.
He turned and saw it was his father. Following his father’s pointed finger, he saw that Chairman Qin and the others had already gotten far ahead.
He hurried to catch up, his limbs paddling through the water like a giant turtle in a desperate chase.
As they walked along the ocean floor, the sand underfoot grew coarser, and the path ahead suddenly dropped off.
Peering down through the water, they saw it was a deep trench.
It was about three or four meters wide.
In his perception, the water ahead was a chaotic mess.
It was as chaotic as a gridlocked intersection.
Crosscurrents, downwellings, upwellings, eddies—the undercurrents were raging.
He made a hand signal.
He signaled for everyone behind him to stay close, then led them upward for a short distance before swimming across the widest part of the trench.
According to his perception, the turbulence here was relatively calm.
After crossing the trench, they reached a deep-reef zone. He clearly noticed the surrounding light change from blue to a dim, blue-gray.
Visibility dropped sharply.
The water temperature dropped noticeably as well.
From this point on, the surrounding underwater scenery changed drastically.
Interestingly, Qin Ziwen discovered that the underwater environment didn’t seem to change gradually, but rather in distinct "vertical layers."
It seemed that once they reached a certain depth, the environment would change abruptly.
A dark-red starfish the size of a dinner table was slowly crawling across the seafloor.
He had never seen such a large starfish. He cast Insight on it.
[Ordinary Crown-of-Thorns Starfish: ☆☆☆☆☆]
It had reached the absolute limit for an ordinary specimen.
Apparently, even among starfish, it was rare to find one of this size.
As they continued along the seafloor, the surrounding light grew dimmer, but they could still just barely see for about three or four meters.
Beyond that, anything in the distance was just a blurry shadow.
Not far away, a shadowy mass approached.
Judging from its silhouette, it was massive.
Seeing Qin Ziwen halt, the others swam over to his side, raising their Fish Spears defensively.
The shadow in front of them circled the group for a moment before finally drawing closer.
It was a shark, about four or five meters long.
Cao Biansheng unslung the One-Handed Crossbow from his back and aimed it at the shark.
Du Yu raised the Long Spear in her hands.
Apparently sensing that this group of humans would not be an easy meal, the shark swam another lazy circle around them before slowly moving on.
Once it was a safe distance away, the group breathed a collective sigh of relief.
They were far less agile in the water than on land. Besides, Chairman Qin had ordered them to focus on scouting the environment and finding an underwater altar. Clashing with the shark could have attracted other, bigger problems.
After a moment’s consideration, Qin Ziwen decided to continue onward along the seafloor.
The area where the Mosasaurus and the Snake-necked Dragon had fought earlier was to the north of the reef island.
That was why they had chosen to enter the water from the south side of the island.
It was to lower the chances of encountering those creatures.
They continued onward, the water growing deeper.
Eventually, the seafloor ahead was completely enveloped in darkness, like a bottomless abyss.
Only then did Qin Ziwen stop.
’We can’t go any further.’
When they first descended, everything had seemed novel and exciting, but after a while, he found the underwater scenery was becoming monotonous.
The main issue was the poor visibility; everything was a hazy gray, with only the faintest blue light filtering down this far.
Perhaps because of the dim light, most of the aquatic life here had rather... unrestrained designs.
’After all, the light is terrible, so it’s not like they can see each other.’
’Might as well grow wild for the fun of it.’
He changed direction, heading straight to the right.
Suddenly, Qin Ziwu started waving his arms and legs excitedly. He slapped Qin Ziwen’s shoulder hard, having apparently discovered something.
Following his pointed finger, Qin Ziwen saw, diagonally ahead of them in the coarse sand, a gigantic Tridacna with its shell open, wedged between two coral clusters.
A flicker of shocked surprise crossed his eyes.
The creature was huge, nearly two meters tall. It was so large it looked unreal.
Like a sculpture in a shopping mall.
’I’ve heard these things can have pearls inside. I wonder if this one does.’
Qin Ziwen kicked his legs and swam closer.
As he drew nearer, Qin Ziwen saw what looked like a fist-sized, round object embedded in the fleshy folds of its open shell.
It also seemed to be emitting a faint blue light.
Before he could get a clearer look,
THUMP—
The giant shell snapped shut in an instant.
The muffled impact spread through the water, creating a vortex.
’This thing is incredibly sensitive.’
’It closed before I even got near it.’
Qin Ziwen cast Insight on the Tridacna.
[Extraordinary Glowing Tridacna: ☆☆☆☆★] (Nurturing a Level 1 Spirit Pearl, Level 1 Hard Shell)
’What the hell? This is an Extraordinary Creature?!’
’Neither the Mosasaurus nor the Snake-necked Dragon from before were Extraordinary, yet this "tiny" Tridacna had already broken through.’
A flash of astonishment crossed Qin Ziwen’s eyes.
Suddenly, a thought occurred to Qin Ziwen, and a peculiar glint appeared in his eyes.
’It looks like there’s a lead on Red Hare’s quest to become Extraordinary.’
Red Hare’s quest to become Extraordinary required hunting an Extraordinary creature that weighed more than both Qin Ziwen and Red Hare combined, and without either of them getting injured in the process.
This Tridacna was two meters tall and looked incredibly solid; its weight had to be substantial.
’It should meet the weight requirement.’
And judging by its species, it was clearly not built for combat.
After all, it was just a Tridacna.
’You couldn’t expect a Tridacna to sprout arms and legs and start throwing punches, could you?’
’It feels a bit like I’m picking on it because of its species, but I can’t worry about that now!’
𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚
Qin Ziwen decided to go back and get Red Hare right away.
Then Red Hare could come into the sea, and with man and horse as one, they could help him complete his Extraordinary quest.
Qin Ziwen waved and gestured for a while before the others finally understood his meaning. The main party would wait nearby, while two others would ascend to the surface with him.
Normally, ascending to the surface from the deep sea required a gradual process with decompression stops.
But after his body broke through to the Extraordinary realm, Qin Ziwen possessed extremely strong restorative powers.
It took him less than five minutes to slowly float from the seafloor to the surface.
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