The massive sun was plumting, its slanted rays turning the water's surface into a sea of gold.
A gentle breeze blew, swelling the sails.
The canoe advanced alone in the ocean, slow and steady.
A pair of pale, large hands soaked in the sea; fingertips skimd the surface, the ripples they left spreading with distance until they vanished without a trace.
In the silence, the pale and wrinkled fingertips trembled slightly, the fingers suddenly clenched and plunged downward!
"Splash!"
Drops of water fell like beads of gold; the lively little fish caught by the thumb struggled incessantly in his palm; unfortunately, there was no live stream running, and no one witnessed the remarkable scene.
Bi Fang opened his eyes, dark circles heavy under them, the whites filled with many blood vessels; he sat up exhausted, leaning against the gunwale, looking at the struggling little fish in his hand with surprise.
The motion just now was entirely subconscious; in a daze, he sensed a creature approaching and reacted instinctively.
"Lucky," he muttered.
Nemo Point was a biological desert indeed, but it wasn't utterly devoid of life.
Deep under Nemo Point, many bacteria and marine microorganisms that barely relied on nutrients survived, their existence wholly dependent on the thermal vents, forming an extrely simple food chain.
With few human visitors and not many predators, Nemo Point beca the safest and most reliable ho for these marine bacteria and microorganisms.
Occasionally, so small fish wandered in and could barely survive, though they were very rare.
Bi Fang's sensory abilities had heightened effects in water, reaching an astonishing range of fifty ters. Within this range, he could directly sense any creature that entered.
This was a semicircular sensory field with a diater of a hundred ters; its coverage was quite large, essentially a small radar!
Yet, it had been the first ti in several days of sailing that he had encountered a small fish.
Perhaps the fish mistook Bi Fang's fingers for food. Not wanting to starve, it had to take its chances even knowing sothing was amiss.
It was like a traveler seeing an oasis in the desert, knowing the blurry light might be a mirage, but driven by a throat so parched it began to smoke, compelled to approach.
Thumb and forefinger ford a circle, he gripped tightly, and the entire fish's gills were plucked out; the little fish ceased its struggle after not too long.
Bi Fang strung the fresh gills on the hook and cast them into the sea, hoping to catch another fish.
The taste of shark patties was diocre at best; after eating them for so long, the prospect of a change in flavor was welco.
The downpour from the day before had lasted a long ti; Bi Fang had battled the storm all night, his muscles sore to the core. The consequence of overexertion was him falling asleep as soon as he set the sail and identified the direction, sleeping through the entire day without knowing where he now was.
The fatigue was such that Bi Fang didn't feel like moving. Excessive sleep left him groggy; his brain felt as though it was being pricked by needles, and perhaps it wasn't just from oversleeping...
Bi Fang's brow twitched; he felt as if a grand crisis lood over him, but he couldn't pinpoint what it was.
What could it be?
An animal? Sharks?
Improbable; monsters are just rumors, the food chain couldn't support it; this wasn't a sci-fi movie set.
If it wasn't a creature, then the second greatest danger in survival must be the climate, yet they had just gone through a storm; it seed unlikely that another one would follow so soon.
"Achoo!"
Bi Fang sneezed, his worries deepening.
It seed he had caught a cold.
Regardless, he decided to start the live stream first.
"Here it cos!"
"Front row seats!"
"Ah, is that the sunset already?"
The audience that flooded into the live stream imdiately saw the golden sunset and felt as though it was about to end before it even started.
Fortunately, Bi Fang didn't share that thought; he held up the small fish in his hand, "Just before going live, I had so good luck and caught a small fish. It's quite uncommon here at Nemo Point. I almost feel reluctant to eat it."
"But I think it's already dead."
"Indeed," Bi Fang reluctantly agreed, "I love it, but my stomach tells it's ti for a change of taste. I can't argue with that, so I have to comply."
Bi Fang held the obsidian dagger in his hand, skillfully slicing and gutting.
"Impressive!"
"Indeed, sotis I can't argue with my stomach either."
"It's over, I've been dominated by my stomach, wuwuwu..."
...
On the eighth day at noon, the air was dry and hot.
The temperature seed to have risen, hotter than the previous days. Even when Bi Fang plunged his hand into the sea, he could feel a trace of warmth. However, the piercing pain at his brow beca more severe, as if sothing was frantically writhing inside.
This was certainly not a good sign.
Bi Fang's heart thudded as he looked to the sky.
Clear skies as far as the eye could see.
No clouds, no low pressure, even the humidity was normal, with just a bit of heat, but that was normal.
Past experiences had proven his instincts never to be wrong, so if the danger was not coming from the weather, it was coming from...
Bi Fang lowered his gaze towards the water below. The midday sun was strong, making the ocean crystal clear, and one could see down to depths of fifty to sixty ters without any obstruction.
Suddenly, ripples spread across the ocean surface, moving in a pattern completely different from the direction of the wind. They were so subtle that one could barely notice them, but in his heightened state of alert, Bi Fang caught them. Simultaneously, an unusual scent began to perate the air.
It was a faint foul sll, yet noticeably different from common odors, more pungent, as if it could burst one's olfactory cells, like the head of a burning match...
Heated sulfur!
The warm blood in his veins suddenly turned cold, and Bi Fang's face whitened.
"This is bad."
"What's bad? What's happened?"
"What's going on, what's going on?"
His abrupt outburst left the audience clueless.
"The volcano is about to erupt!"
Bi Fang shouted the words, with no ti for explanations. His not yet fully recovered muscles were forced back into action as he grabbed the nearby oar and began to paddle.
At that mont, Bi Fang wished for another storm, even a headwind, as any wind that could swiftly carry him away was a blessing!
Volcano?
Eruption?
The audience was confused by his abrupt words, but they quickly began to understand.
Following the initial spread of ripples, wave after wave started appearing on the ocean surface. The evidence beca clearer, and even the viewers not focused on the water started noticing.
Just as Bi Fang had paddled just a few strokes and had not yet made much distance, more anomalies began to erge.
"What is that thing?"
"Damn, a pillar?"
A conspicuous "pillar" shot up from the depths of the ocean, growing frenziedly until it breached the surface, releasing a bubble that suddenly burst open, unleashing a far more intense sulfur sll into the air with a bang.
One after another, these pillars appeared, sending chills down the spines of onlookers as the pillars shot up, bursting through the ocean surface.
Bubbles kept rising from the entire sea, as if...
It were a boiling pot!
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