Chapter 21: The Depths of the Lake
Several miles away on a hilltop.
The gentlemen watched the town in full-scale chaos.
The "clothing" they wore seemed to detect the scent of blood wafting from the town, becoming agitated.
Teacher Siman, with his protruding belly, scrunched his facial features together.
"If this large-scale forced infection erupts tonight, it will be difficult for anyone to last until tomorrow afternoon... I suggest moving up the end time of the assessment to dawn."
This proposal gained the approval of many gentlemen.
Even the usually strict white-haired Professor Qian Bosen tacitly agreed.
While most of the gentlemen's gazes were fixed on the town center and surrounding areas where fierce battles were erupting,
Hoot~
The owl perched on Qian Bosen's shoulder let out a call, drawing Qian Bosen's gaze along with its own towards the Green Shade Inn at the edge of town.
Two "infected" with independent consciousness did not join in the town's chaos, but instead quietly slipped out the back door,
Pushing a wooden cart, one in front and one behind,
Piled on top were six 'corpses', their surfaces wrapped in a kind of 'fish egg membrane', filled with large amounts of mucus inside.
Among them, the 'corpse' pressed at the very bottom was the young man that white-haired Qian Bosen had been paying attention to earlier, who had slightly piqued his interest.
Qian Bosen simply watched silently, without making any comment.
The wooden cart was pushed to the lakeshore,
The front tilted,
Splash~ Water sprayed up as all six corpses tumbled in.
The brother and sister responsible for transport also leapt into the lake,
Using their sticky bodies to carry the six corpses, they delivered them to the deepest part of the lake bottom.
"This is..."
At this moment, Qian Bosen's pupils changed, which was also the first time he had used his abilities during this exam supervision.
His whites were replaced by blood-red,
While his round pupils were completely dyed black,
Greatly enhancing his visual abilities, easily seeing through the green lake, focusing on Yi Chen who was wrapped in the membrane, pretending to be unconscious.
"This fellow has actually gone to such lengths..."
Qian Bosen pointed a finger,
The owl on his shoulder immediately spread its wings and flew out, a white shadow flashing across the night sky, heading towards the green lake.
...
[Underwater]
What the siblings were carrying were not corpses,
But perfectly cultivated infected bodies suitable for "fish transformation"... currently all being used as interference items, concealing Yi Chen as the 'sixth person'.
These fish egg membranes wrapping their bodies
Could effectively isolate the effects of the lake water,
While also preserving a certain amount of air, enough to support them to the lake bottom.
Additionally,
Yi Chen himself had also taken some precautionary measures,
"Built-in mask"
An 'inner net' woven from rootlets was set up in the throat, nasal cavity, and ear canals... even if exposed to lake water, it would prevent water from entering the body, effectively filtering out pathogens.
Eyes tightly closed,
Feigning unconsciousness,
A mouth quietly opened at the back of his head, containing an eye, secretly observing the underwater situation.
Based on observations of the green lake:
[Upper half of the lake]:
Floating, crowding with a large number of densely packed, green-glowing parasite eggs and fish eggs.
[Lower half of the lake]
The small egg bodies no longer existed, replaced by a terrifying form of "human eggs".
Those who had successfully passed through the first stage of fish scale infection were curled up within the egg bodies,
A flesh cord resembling an umbilical cord connected one end to their navels and the other end to the lake bottom.
They underwent "fish transformation" in this manner.
Once their bodies grew enough fish scales, internal organs evolved, and perfect gill structures formed, they could break out of the eggs and transform into merfolk.
Of course,
Some already formed fish people were also swimming here, inspecting the human eggs and vigilantly watching for intruders.
Slowly,
Under the siblings' guidance, they gradually approached the deepest part of the green lake.
An eerie sense of being watched came over them again, clearly something in the deepest part was observing them.
[That is!]
After circumventing numerous human eggs and patrolling merfolk,
An abnormally large [giant eye] was discovered, embedded in the deepest part of the lake bottom... its super-sized green eyeball constantly moving, monitoring all situations in the lake bottom and Green Lake Town.
[Super big green grape!]
Little Grape became extremely excited at this moment.
At this point,
Yi Chen also understood the reason for Little Grape's enthusiastic behavior, perhaps it had known all along.
However, there was one puzzling point:
[Why is the source a giant eye? Rather than a mother body?]
In Yi Chen's imagination,
What caused the spread of the fish scale disease and the town's mermaid transformation should have been a parasitic mother body... its form should have been a huge, insanely egg-laying insectoid monster.
Yet this giant eye before him seemed to have no connection at all to "egg-laying" or "parasites".
Just as Yi Chen was feeling confused, Little Grape's voice came:
[What is disease? Where does infection come from? Basically no one can figure out these questions, and the diversity and variability involved is even less understood.
Perhaps there was never any parasitic mother body to begin with,
This giant eye may just be an [Observer].
It may have been instructed to bring the 'parasite swarm' to this town, to monitor and witness the town's disease transformation... and may later take away some high-quality infected individuals.
Its eye can control the parasites through focused gazing.
In any case,
This super big grape is the source... it's our target now.
Later, William, you only need to do one thing - [Make physical contact with this eyeball].
As long as you touch the surface of the eyeball, I can directly transfer into its interior and suck the grape juice.]
Hearing Little Grape's battle plan, Yi Chen replied:
[You knew from the beginning that this giant eye was hidden at the bottom of the lake, right Little Grape?]
[Not from the very beginning, but I sensed it while gazing at the lake during our boat ride... being of the same type, there's naturally some subtle connection.]
Yi Chen didn't say much more, but focused on what was before him.
After the siblings delivered the 'goods',
The innkeeper used a form of mental communication to convey information about this batch of goods to the giant eye at the lake bottom.
Once finished transmitting, they immediately floated up.
Any unnecessary actions could arouse suspicion.
Yi Chen and the other 'goods' floated about four meters above the giant eye,
Currently in deep water, this distance was not easy to close - they had to wait for an opportunity.
Next,
A rather bizarre scene appeared before their eyes.
The center of the giant eye's pupil actually opened up a round small hole,
Creak creak~ From within emerged an eel-like fleshy creature, let's call it a flesh-eel.
Its mouth was round, filled with dense sharp teeth, and it extended blood-red filaments that swayed in the water.
[This is... something that connects to the navel, like an umbilical cord!]
In the next second,
The flesh-eel plunged into one of the 'goods' next to Yi Chen,
Its mouth perfectly connecting with the navel,
Dragging the goods to an empty spot on the lake bottom,
Taking root,
Nurturing,
Transforming,
All in an orderly manner.
Another flesh-eel emerged, connecting to another piece of goods in front of Yi Chen.
Watching the 'corpses' around him being dragged away and packaged one by one... this kind of suffocating, oppressive feeling was like having a hand squeezing his heart, forcing his heart rate to accelerate.
[Stay calm!]
Yi Chen used all his strength to suppress his nervous emotions, waiting for the best moment to arrive.
Perhaps due to good luck,
Or perhaps this giant eye sensed Yi Chen's special nature,
Or perhaps the innkeeper had said something to the giant eye,
Yi Chen happened to be the last in line... at the bottom of the lake, only he and the giant eye remained.
Creak creak~
From the small hole in the eye's pupil emerged the final flesh-eel, the one paired with Yi Chen,
Squirming,
Floating up,
Piercing the membrane,
Phew... Yi Chen took a deep breath, still not moving, still waiting for the right moment to come.
The flesh-eel clung to his waist and abdomen, squirming towards his navel,
The oral filaments for neural connection scraped across Yi Chen's body, causing intense itching.
Circling to the front,
The flesh-eel's mouth opened like petals in bloom, revealing an inner wall full of sharp teeth, about to bite down on the navel.
Just as the mouth touched the navel,
Yi Chen's eyes suddenly opened wide,
The silver axe he had prepared in advance was drawn from his clothes... Swoosh!
The flesh-eel's elongated body and the white egg membrane on Yi Chen were sliced open together.
His other hand grabbed the upper half of the flesh-eel still clinging to his abdomen, Crunch~ squeezing it forcefully!
In the next moment,
Yi Chen raised his free arm
Fingers pressed against his face,
Creak creak~
Fresh plant rootlets quickly wove together,
Perhaps due to the dangerous stimulation, the weaving speed was faster than before, even forming bark structures on the surface of the rootlets.
In the blink of an eye,
A mask with filtering properties was worn on his face, further isolating the lake water.
The above process was completed almost instantly,
Taking advantage of the giant eye not yet fully reacting,
Yi Chen swam at full speed towards the deepest part...
Four meters,
Three meters,
Two meters,
With just over a meter left, a sudden change occurred!
The giant eye's pupil, which had been dilated, instantly completed contraction and focus... transforming into a [dot] the size of a ping pong ball.
"Not good!"
Even though Yi Chen closed his eyes immediately,
However,
An invisible mental ripple had already penetrated through,
Seeping through the mask and eyelids,
Passing through the pupils,
Traveling along the optic nerves directly to the brain,
Buzz!
An intense ringing in the ears,
As if some mischievous child had stuffed an entire box of pop-its into his head, then slapped them all at once.
[William! Hang on!
I can't reveal myself until we make contact with the big grape!]
At this time,
Little Grape's voice sounded in his consciousness, providing encouragement and mental support.
Under the penetration of mental force,
Yi Chen felt as if tiny eyeballs were growing all over the surface of his brain.
Any slight gap in consciousness would be infiltrated by these eyeballs.
[Hold on, this is a hard-won chance at rebirth...]
[Willpower]
A mental product forged with the hammer of "life experience".
Although Yi Chen was only in his twenties, the first half of his "life experience" was like a spiked giant hammer, pounding him constantly.
Finally escaping from that,
Finally obtaining the chance to transmigrate, coming to such an interesting world,
He wanted to survive... to truly live once.
At this moment!
Blood seeped from his eye sockets, staining the plant mask red.
His desperate cry turned into a mass of rising bubbles in the lake.
Forcefully breaking through the final meter of distance,
Turning sideways,
Extending his arm,
Making contact,
His palm firmly pressed against the moist, smooth surface of the eyeball... right in the center, at the hole where the flesh-eels emerged.
The instant he made contact,
The black flesh ball instantly separated from his palm,
Along the hole,
Burrowing into the giant eye.
At the moment of success,
Yi Chen could no longer hold on, his relaxed consciousness instantly breached!
However,
The mental invasion from the giant eye did not destroy his brain.
Instead, Yi Chen's consciousness was packaged and processed, sent to a completely unknown realm.
Buzz!
Consciousness trembled,
Yi Chen's conscious self seemed to be sent to a deep, mysterious cave as if at the bottom of an abyss.
Black fish scales in the shape of regular hexagons covered the cave walls like bricks,
The ground was covered with a layer of clear water that would reach the knees of an ordinary person,
Flesh-colored tubes interconnected various experimental tanks,
Chambers of varying sizes for nurturing life were suspended and embedded in the walls,
This place was like a [Abyssal Laboratory].
At the center of the laboratory,
An entity whose form transcended concepts was recording data,
Its back happened to be facing Yi Chen's conscious self,
It wore a near-perfect dark gold cylindrical robe with its own force field, revealing a tail covered in black scales.
Compared to a fish tail, it was more akin to a dragon tail.
For some unknown reason,
When Yi Chen gazed at this being's back,
Thump thump thump
Epic music with multiple layers inexplicably resonated in his consciousness,
The gradually fading cello sounds, coupled with the beating of ocean waves,
As if telling the listener that such music came from the depths of the sea, heralding the imminent arrival of some terrifying existence.
As the music sounded,
A [frame] similar to a health bar in games, gilded in gold with a fish head relief at the starting end, appeared above the entity's head.
The frame was filled with a dark fish oil, or rather, some kind of ancient fish essence,
Surging,
Rolling,
Roaring
Above the frame was attached a title and name.
§Fish Source - Nazjatar (The Primitive Arowana)§
(End of Chapter)
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