Chapter 219: A Close Call with Death (I)

Many people had been closely monitoring the countless mutated creatures within the Deep Sea Restricted Area. Over the years, there had been cases of high-level mutated creatures attacking coastal cities or vessels near the shore; there had even been one incident a decade ago of a mythical colossal king beast destroying a city before returning back to the ocean.

The authorities had taken multiple steps to prevent such attacks, from building an extremely expensive coastal radar system to periodically sending out warships and powerful practitioners to cull the population of high-level creatures. In between those missions, whenever they discovered a mutated creature that could potentially pose a great threat to humanity, they would be immediately targeted for preemptive elimination.

The information quickly reached the highest levels of the military. In less than ten minutes, a small meeting was convened to discuss the use of orbital weapons.

A middle-aged man in his fifties sat at the head of the round table, with four people on either side. Two of them emitted the aura of advanced cultivators, while the other two were ordinary individuals, albeit with scholarly qualities.

Once everyone was seated, the middle-aged man at the head turned to the right and said in a deep voice, "Mr. Li, what are your thoughts on this newly emerged king beast?"

Mr. Li flipped through the satellite images and compared data before saying thoughtfully, "My opinion is rather conservative. We've observed this mutated creature four times from satellites, and each time, it had been moving away from the coast. From its trajectory, it seems to be heading toward the deep sea.

"Under normal circumstances, when it reaches level 9 and needs to break through, its biological instincts will likely drive it to enter the mythical world through those deep-sea rifts. Of course, that’s assuming it reaches level 9 in the first place. Mutated creatures are brutal; who knows, it might get eaten by a stronger colossal beast in a couple of days.

"Moreover, as far as I’m aware, there haven’t been any attacks on fishing boats in recent years that involved anything resembling this mutated beast. For now, we’ve determined that it doesn't seem to harbor strong hostility toward humans. My suggestion is to continue observation. As humans withdraw from the ocean, our conflicts with marine life will become minimal.

"Otherwise, if we take the initiative but fail to kill it before it can escape into the deep sea, we might see a repeat of what happened ten years ago. And because this mutated creature has even greater potential, the threat it poses in such a situation would be even greater, as well."

After Mr. Li finished speaking, the man at the head of the table nodded slightly and turned to the middle-aged man beside him, saying, "Mr. Zhang?"

The middle-aged man pondered for a moment before responding. "I agree with Mr. Li. This oceanic mutated creature can come ashore, and seems to possess high intelligence.

"At level 7, it's already using king level intimidation to subdue other mutated creatures, forming alliances for hunting, and has even established a social group. We can see this from the fact that after the battle, Thunder Fiery drove the turtle away and enjoyed the spoils alone.

"In such circumstances, we need to be more cautious. If we attack it, we must prepare thoroughly, such as sending another Yunhai-class warship equipped with energy bombing weapons and a late stage Ninth Heavenly Realm expert. If by chance it survives an orbital weapon attack, we won’t need to fear its escape, as we can completely obliterate it with the energy weapons."

"Or, as Mr. Li suggested, we can ignore it unless it shows hostility toward humans. Otherwise, if we fail to exterminate it, it may create a faction of mutated creatures that view humans as hostiles, potentially worsening the situation there."

The man at the head of the table nodded slightly and turned to the man at his left, saying, "Major General Ling, what are your thoughts?"

The man replied solemnly, "General, the Aerospace Department doesn't have much research on mutated creatures. All I can guarantee is that the orbital weapon attack won't miss.

"According to the current coordinates, the satellite closest in orbit is the seventh Celestial Satellite. It has a medium orbital weapon capable of destroying a small island several kilometers in diameter with a single strike. Under such power, even if the creature has great potential, it cannot survive unless it can teleport or burrow underground."

When speaking of the power of the orbital weapons, Major General Ling's face was filled with confidence, as they had become the Aerospace Department's most successful weapons over the years.

"Burrow underground?" The General frowned slightly. "The data shows that there's a pool in the middle of that deserted island where the two creatures disappeared for over ten minutes."

Mr. Li nodded. "Yes, that's one of the reasons why I suggested a less aggressive approach."

𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

The General fell into a slight silence before responding in a deep voice. "Request denied. Inform them that the conditions are insufficient, and that they are to continue to observe the creature’s movements. For now, we will simply wait and see.”

For most of the New Era, with the rapid development of modern weapons and advancements in cultivation, human methods toward marine mutated creatures had been rather aggressive. Each time a high level creature that posed a potential threat to humans was discovered, they would proactively attack and eliminate it in its infancy, resulting in fewer Deep Sea Restricted Areas back then.

A decade ago, however, a high-level creature with king-level potential had managed to escape, and after evolving into a mythical colossal beast, it returned for retaliation.

After that, humanity’s attitude toward marine life began to change. The ocean had limited resources compared to the mythical world, and it had never been humanity’s main territory to begin with, so they had slowly withdrawn from the oceans, only maintaining control over the coastal areas

***

The sky gradually darkened. On the deserted island, the Thunder Fiery Colossal Beast had consumed almost half of the ancient crocodile in just thirty minutes. At this point, the cells in its body were starting to feel full, and its digestion slowed down, prompting it to stop eating.

The level 8 colossal beast it was feeding on had flesh as tough as alloy. Even with a terrifyingly quick digestive system, the Fiery Beast couldn’t finish eating it all in one go. This would probably take another two rounds to finish.

Looking at the massive black skeletal remains before it, the Fiery Beast thought to itself.

As it ate and digested, its size had increased once again, now reaching over thirty-seven meters, and its evolution points had surged by nearly 200. Half of this rapid growth was likely due to the effect of that small crystal. It seemed that after absorbing that energy, its body became even more active.

Accelerated growth, huh?

The Fiery Beast glanced toward the deep pool in contemplation. With thunderous steps, it entered the water, waves rolling from its weight.

Gurgle! Gurgle!

Along with bubbles and splashes, the Fiery Beast quickly returned to the depths of the water, where it saw the faintly glowing rift.

Beneath it, a thumb-sized white crystal laid on a stone. In just over an hour, three growth crystals had fallen. This resource seemed quite abundant.

The Fiery Beast suppressed the urge to devour the crystal, instead using the water currents to pull it closer and grab it with its enormous claws.

This was for the Single-horned Kun.

As a beast, it couldn't be too greedy. When the three beasts worked together, fairness was essential. If one monopolized everything, it wouldn't be long before the squad disbanded.

After all, the Kun and the Dragon Turtle were just simple-minded, not foolish.

Of course, the Fiery Beast would take the biggest portion of the rewards, as it had contributed the most. Next, as the one to find the location, the Kun would take the second largest portion. Finally, the Dragon Turtle, who had served as the meat shield, would take the rest.

While the Dragon Turtle had seemed rather useless this time, if it hadn't gotten beaten up and exposed the crocodile's innate abilities, the fight wouldn’t have been so easy.

The laser breath ability had been especially important information. Even the Dragon Turtle, with its high defensive abilities, hadn’t been able to withstand it for more than a few seconds. As strong as it was, the Fiery Beast wouldn’t dare claim it could withstand such a powerful attack; if it had taken a hit, it would have gotten injured.

Besides, with the amount of these growth crystals, there was no need to be stingy. There was also the fact that eating the crystals required them to replenish their energy with food afterward.

If it could grow solely by eating them...

Contemplating this, the Fiery Beast slowly retreated from the cave. Halfway up the pool, the base of its dorsal fins lit up with a blue light, followed by countless small lightning bursts.

Sizzle, sizzle!

Blue flashes covered the entire pool, instantly killing microorganisms and tiny life forms.

When it had first arrived, the Fiery Beast had noticed that there were hardly any aquatic creatures in the pool. Obviously, the crocodile had kept it cleaned up, to prevent any fish from swallowing the growth crystals that fell from the rift when it wasn't paying attention.

The Fiery Beast was going to take a leaf out of its book.