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Chapter 726: Vol V Chapter 86
Just like how schools separated students into normal and special classes, the participants in this expedition were also split into normal and elite groups.
The elite group consisted of the four roommates: Sid, Hopes, Ruby and Dudu.
All four of them possessed a certain level of skill. Even the weakest, Hopes, would not lose to the experienced explorers if he was being serious. His fighting skills were decent, and he knew natural magic; thus, he was of a decent standard overall. Unless it was an experienced veteran, a typical explorer would not be able to defeat him. Of course, for him to demonstrate that kind of skill required a life or death sort of situation. One usually showed their highest level of skill when they were forced to. For example, in the past, when Sui Xiong had been an illustrator, he had heard of an interesting story: In the industry, there had been a senior artist who only drew one piece of art per week. Once, when he was severely in need of money, he forced himself to end all social interaction and entertainment and drew for sixteen, seventeen hours a day. In the end, he managed to complete what he would usually take two months to complete in two weeks.
Although such an elite team had been arranged, the Republic and mining center did not want to put them in any actual danger. They simply put in necessary precautions in the event of a difficult situation. To be honest, their preparations were rather sufficient. Not only were the exploration workers sent for special training, but the elite team was also dispatched as the frontline team for reconnaissance and eliminate any possible dangers.
What was more important was that Sui Xiong was also participating.
He sent out a separate body and floated in the air, checking the area meticulously. In his eyes, the lush forests and thick rocks meant nothing. Only the big and small light spots caught his attention as they shone. Each light spot represented life—the stronger creatures, at least those equivalent to the wild wolf, were those who may pose as threats to the workers. These light spots were the manifestations of the life energy of the creatures' souls. Thus, the stronger the life energy of the creature, the stronger its light spot would be. Sui Xiong overlooked most of the weaker light spots and concentrated on a few special ones that were especially bright.
"Strange... It's not like this place is extremely isolated. Why is there such a strong creature here?" he muttered to himself as he flew towards the brightest light spot.
This light spot was hidden underground. For a typical person to find a cave, they would have to take several turns and twists before reaching its entrance. However, Sui Xiong simply morphed into an incorporeal form and was able to move to the entrance of the cave without being blocked by the rocks and sand.
It was a giant fish which lived in a river below a mountain. It had dull yet heavy, armor-like scales, no pectoral fins and no pelvic fins. In place of fins, it had four short but strong legs. Upon closer inspection, one would realize that these legs had several active tentacles. This fish had an extremely big brain, and it took up almost half of his body. The rest of his body was mostly made up of his tail. The entire body was about seven or eight houses' wide, but his torso was actually extremely small.
If it wanted to swallow a human whole, it would be no problem at all.
Sui Xiong stared at the fish suspiciously. With its huge stature, it clearly could not pass through any narrow roads or crevices. How did it manage to sustain itself then?
He turned invisible and stood in front of the giant fish to observe it. Sui Xiong realized that the giant fish, which by right shouldn't usually appear in freshwater, was making extremely slow movements and was quite possibly hibernating.
Maybe... it survived by perpetually being in a state of hibernation?
Sui Xiong shook his head and mentally crossed out this possibility. Even if it were hibernating, it would occasionally still need to wake up to consume food. In such a place, the presence of a plentiful food source was unlikely.
Sui Xiong observed for a while more but was still unable to figure out the giant fish. He then tried to read this odd fish's inner thoughts. The sad thing was that the giant fish had a rather empty brain. It could be likened to one's mindless reading of forum posts on the internet, where it did not really retain any information at all. He was only able to sense a special ability.
It was able to summon foreign creatures. Apparently, the giant fish had grown to this size thanks to this ability. Using its summoning skills, it lured aliens to itself as food. By killing and eating them, the giant fish also managed to absorb all the aliens' skills and powers. Its giant size meant that it had eaten a sizeable number of aliens thus far.
The giant fish had a slow reaction time and took about half a day to become fully awake. When it woke up, it first exercised its body and swam a few laps in the narrow river. It then stretched its limbs and waved its tentacles one by one in the air while emitting a piercing sound. This sound meant that the speed of the tentacles' movement had surpassed the typical speed of sound. The scales on the giant fish also started to emit differently colored rays of light. These all demonstrated its magical powers and hinted that it had a high level of skill. Watching this, Sui Xiong made a mental note that this giant fish must be rather dangerous. Although the giant fish did not affect him personally, the giant fish's strength was enough to create a crisis on land. If it decided to run to any port, the average port would not be able to defend against its attack.
After a period of activity, the giant fish sank to the bottom of the river and stopped any movement as if it were resting. After half a day, when it was close to night-time, it rose to the surface again, and both sides of his head flipped around as it emitted strange sounds. This was the giant fish carrying out prayers. While the chant was not long, it was messy, ominous and made anyone who heard it go crazy. This was an ancient and archaic chant. If a typical person heard the chants without any spiritual protection, they would be harmed, go mad or even die. With the ominous chants, the giant fish used its tentacles to create special drawings in the air. Sui Xiong was unable to understand the full essence of the images but could guess that they represented hell, but which hell? And what did they mean? He was unsure. However, Sui Xiong was certain that the giant fish was summoning an old and ancient demon.
How strange! What does it want to do? Is it summoning a demon to do its bidding and find food for it? That's rather ridiculous...
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