Published: February 12, 2025
“Is this really possible?”
Shikangbu watched as the marine life continuously flipped onto their backs and felt that his understanding, built over many years, had been completely shattered.
He and Ye Zhongming, along with Jie Kui, chose a special sea area as their hunting ground. Here, there were small islands in every direction. If the seawater were drained, it would be revealed that the four small islands were actually the four corners of a dead volcano, connected to each other and linked to several one-meter-wide rock caves approximately ten meters below the sea surface.
This place seemed like a secluded realm, a sanctuary and habitat for many small marine creatures.
Over time, a high-level but not particularly powerful mutant lifeform emerged here. Their food consisted of mutated plants from the sea; although they could not rival those large, high-level sea lifeforms that specifically hunted for them, they had the advantage of being small in size, which meant they required less energy and thus did not lag much in their evolutionary speed.
Of course, as top-tier lifeforms, they naturally had their own advantages despite lacking strong offensive capabilities. For example, these creatures had impressive speed, not just generally fast, but extremely fast.
Their name was derived from this characteristic: Luminous Fish.
Ye Zhongming found this place unexpectedly. During his last healing phase, although Hawkins and the others had difficulty finding him due to the seawater barrier, he was still cautious and sought a safe location. Accidentally, he stumbled upon this place and discovered these lightning-fast, social high-level lifeforms.
Sometimes, Ye Zhongming wondered how this planet, which had little lifespan left, could sustain so many top-tier lifeforms. The situation in the Blue Secret Realm was vivid in his mind; the energy fluctuations generated by so many top-tier lifeforms must seriously impact the planet's core, right?
Perhaps, this place was originally meant to be abandoned, so the effects were disregarded.
For Earth, perhaps due to being in its "prime," as long as not all top-tier lifeforms erupted at once, it wouldn’t significantly affect the planet itself.
Back to the luminous fish, during the last cycle while healing, Ye Zhongming had observed these lifeforms. Perhaps life was too comfortable for them; in the waters among the four islands, they would lazily gather together, suspended in the water, not sure if they were sleeping or contemplating fish life.
When they sensed another life form approaching, they would swiftly swim away, only attacking when there was no way to escape—relying on their speed to crash into their target.
No matter what, having the body of a top-tier lifeform combined with such abnormal speed meant that a collision would be quite painful. For Ye Zhongming, Jie Kui, and Shikangbu, capturing these fish directly would first require trapping them in an enclosed space, or else they would only be left admiring their shadows. Furthermore, if these lifeforms became aggressive and collided, they could very well kill all three of them.
The sheer number was overwhelming, at least fifty of them. It was estimated that in less than half a minute, they could turn the three of them into a pulp.
This was also another reason why these high-level lifeforms were still thriving until now.
However, when something caught Ye Zhongming's interest, it was basically impossible to escape. After returning and gathering some materials, he placed his hunting target on these lifeforms from the very first day.
The method was actually quite simple: poison.
The poison was from Ye Zhongming practicing the double poison shadow technique. This poison was not lethal to top-tier lifeforms but had excellent compatibility and spreadability, acting quickly.
Of course, this toxin could not be used directly; even if these top-tier lifeforms were affected, they would only be momentarily dazed, and mental attacks in the water were not very effective. Even if Ye Zhongming and the others managed to kill a few in that instant, the other luminous fish would likely crash into them.