466: Chapter 33 – Below the Water Surface_1 466: Chapter 33 – Below the Water Surface_1 The profound depths of the sea are forever shrouded in mystery in the eyes of land-dwelling races, much like the dense fog beyond the navigation hazard line that hinders one’s sight.
When the sea is calm and peaceful, there may be wild currents swirling beneath the surface.
When stormy waves rage on the surface, the underwater world usually remains serene, undisturbed by the turmoil above.
Compared to the surface, the deep sea is like another world.
There are no seasons, no high-hanging sun or moon, no botherso rain, snow, or storms – many things people take for granted on land don’t exist in the depths of the ocean.
The breath of air, scattering scent, sounds carrying through the air – with these elents removed, people often find themselves lost in the underwater realm.
But the deep sea is not lonely; instead, it’s a place full of life, distinctly so from what people imagine.
There is light, albeit a faint one.
Countless towering Coral Trees stretch upward from the seabed.
A multitude of algae grows on the Coral Trees, these special alga give off tiny points of light in the dark.
Large patches of seaweed unite into an unbroken expanse, a sight that mirrors the starry night sky, bringing hopeful brightness to the dark sea floor.
Through the dim luminescence of phosphorescent algae, one can vaguely discern the environnt deep underwater.
The inky-dark seawater fills every space around, much like the air on land, in which everything is encompassed.
The ground underfoot is composed of fine grains of sand.
Under the algae’s light, what should have been golden sand takes on a chilling greenish-black tint.
The sandy ground is dotted with Coral Trees, which stand tall, forming a Coral Forest.
Thousands of tiny fish dart in and out of the crevices and holes in the Coral Trees, vying for the nourishing deep-sea plants that grow on the coral.
Currents stir, and the dining fish scatter in fear, seek refuge in the coral crevices.
Pairs of protruding eyes watch nervously from within these safe havens.
Surroundings seem peaceful, but a close observation reveals a mound moving slowly beneath the sand, stealthily approaching a Coral Tree.
Beneath the Coral Tree, the sand abruptly disperses, revealing a strange creature over half a ter long.
Resembling a type of fish, its body is both long and wide, appearing like a compressed sphere, with only a small part of the center protruding outward.
On the raised part, two eyes grow side by side.
These eyes protrude upward, their black pupils freely revolving within the sockets.
When it grounds itself upon the seabed, it can observe everything around it without a blind spot thanks to its rotating pupils.
Its mouth is located directly beneath its body.
Usually, it remains in a closed, shrunk state, like a hole.
However, when feeding, it can freely change its size and shape through the contraction and relaxation of muscles.
This unidentified fish burrows out from the fine seabed sand, slowly rises upward, and attaches itself to the Coral Tree with its belly.
It opens its mouth, changes its shape according to the holes on the Coral Tree, effectively seals off the hole, and then gives a powerful suction.
The small fish hiding inside can’t resist the formidable suction force and are unwillingly sucked out from the crevice, becoming the predator’s delicacy.
After changing its feeding spot over a dozen tis, the flatfish finally seems satiated.
But it doesn’t know that danger is looming.
Normally, the flatfish’s field of vision covers all angles, so enemies from any direction can’t escape its sight.
It can sense an approaching enemy way ahead of ti and hide in the sand.
However, a vulnerable spot is exposed while it’s feeding on the Coral Tree – half of underbelly adhered to the Coral Tree becos a blind spot.
The coming attack originates precisely from this direction.
In the dim light provided by phosphorescent algae, the Coral Forest is peace itself.
Apart from the flatfish engaged in its hunting, no other creature moves.
It’s like a beautiful still life painting.
But suddenly, two white spots appear on one of the Coral Trees.
No, they are not spots; they are a pair of ghastly white eyes.
A lean fish close to two ters in length is lying in wait on the Coral Tree.
Its skin color and texture are indistinguishable from those of the Coral Tree, making it blend seamlessly into the background.
This coral-fish has a robust and powerful tail.
With one slight flex of the tail in the water, the streamlined body shoots forward like an arrow, the pointed head breaking through the water resistance, heading straight towards the part of flatfish’s belly exposed outside the Coral Tree.
Sensing the imminent danger through the change in water current, the flatfish quickly dislodges from the Coral Tree and tries to escape towards the fine sand on the seabed.
But its speed is no match for the lean coral-fish.
Halfway through its escape attempt, it is pierced straight through by the hard head of the coral-fish.
Its eyes quickly lose all signs of life.
The lean coral-fish has successfully hunted its prey.
As it’s about to enjoy its feast, sand on the ocean floor suddenly rises, resulting in a cloud of murkiness underwater.
From this murkiness, a maw bristling with sharp teeth erges from the sand and snaps shut, gripping both the flatfish and the lean coral-fish in one bite.
In its panic, the lean coral-fish desperately struggles but can’t escape the jaws almost as enormous as its own head.
It quickly loses its head, its wreckage of a body then floats aimlessly in the water.
The fine sand churns with the ebbs and flows of seawater, scattering in all directions.
As the dust settles, a massive creature, around five to six ters long, is revealed at the ocean floor.
This creature also displays a flat-bodied physique, lying flat on the ocean floor like a legless lizard, its front part sporting a disproportionately large maw lined with frightfully sharp teeth.
Its back is covered in a thick layer of keratin, filled with countless pores that give those who see it a chill down their spine.
It leisurely opens its large mouth, and its razor-sharp teeth, like a pair of shears, effortlessly slice through the corpses of the two prey, swallowing a significant chunk with not the slightest difficulty.
Cold, dark-red blood oozes profusely from its victims’ wounds, their life force draining away, perating the ocean floor’s world with an aura of gore.
An astonishing event occurred.
As the giant mouth chopped and swallowed large chunks of the corpse, tiny pieces of flesh from the corpse floated around.
Thousands of small fish that initially hid in the crevices of the Coral Trees sward out of their nests as if guided by so signal.
With no hesitation, they shared these scattered flesh particles right beside the predator.
Many of the fish swam past the predator’s mouth, seemingly unnoticed.
Soon, the big fish finished eating, and the small fish promptly completed their share.
However, instead of returning to the crevices of the Coral Trees, the tiddlers swam straight into the nurous holes on the back of the big fish.
With its lure retracted, the big fish sank back contentedly to the seafloor, motionless and resting, restoring the tranquility underwater as if nothing had happened.
There was no concept of day or night in the deep-sea world, and ti seed to stagnate.
After a while, perhaps a minute, an hour, or a day, the resting big fish jolted its body and the large eyes above its giant mouth ca back to life again.
Like sensing fear, its eyes directed towards the waters above twitched.
The fish hastily headed into the Coral Forest, disappearing into the darkness where the phosphorescent algae didn’t reach, leaving no trace behind.
Soon after the big fish disappeared, several humanoid figures erged through the water and dived towards the seabed.
In the lead was Lamia, a Six-ard Naga, her elongated serpentine tail pulling four girls along.
Half a body length behind Lamia swam Lanna, the rmaid princess, who held Mr.
Pannis’s hand tightly.
She seed to regard Pannis as her father or soone similar, despite Pannis’ many attempts to deny it.
Throughout the journey, she behaved like a little girl experiencing her father’s company for the first ti.
She swam around Pannis, insisting on holding his hand even under the watchful and wary eyes of Lina, Catherine, and Vivian.
Over two days of silent travel, the girls had grown accustod to Lanna’s antics.
It seed that their princess was rely being affectionate towards a father figure in her own way.
Any initial mistrust towards Lanna had subsided, to be replaced by teasing jokes — all aid at Pannis.
The group of seven descended straight from the surface to the seabed.
Once Lanna and Lamia, with their fish and snake tails respectively, steadied themselves at the bottom, they stopped.
However, the five mbers of the adventure team floated in the water, unable to touch the ground.
Their only difference from when they were on the surface was the delicate necklace each one of them wore.
Embedded in the necklace were several smooth white pearls, and a crystal pendant hung at the end, positioned securely beneath each person’s Adam’s apple.
“Transform like you practiced on the surface,” Lamia advised.
Though she maintained her stern deanor, her twitching eyebrows betrayed her amusent at the adventure team’s feigning to float.
However, the girls were too astonished to notice Lamia’s rare show of humor as they realized that they could hear underwater even at a depth of more than two thousand ters.
Lamia’s voice, different from when she was on land, sounded deep and husky underwater, and interestingly, her mouth didn’t move at all.
The sound seed to emit directly from her throat.
Though surprised, the girls followed Lamia’s instruction and transford their Amphibian Beads.
The sensation was similar to losing most of the resistance against them, causing them to fall to the sandy floor under water’s gravity.
They felt like they had fallen into a blob of thick air, a strange sensation.
“Father…
Didn’t Mr.
Pannis tell you?” To the girls’ surprise, Lanna sounded equally astonished.
Her voice lost the seductive quality it had on land and sounded more appealing and rhythmic due to its low tone.
The rmaid princess widened her eyes and exclaid in surprise, “I thought he had already told you about it, so I didn’t explain the use of the collar.
It enables you to hear us.” (To be continued.
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