Chapter 472: A Devastating Strike

Chapter 472: A Devastating Strike

(The previous chapter has been modified regarding the content of symbiosis between different species, as it was written hastily without careful thought.)



Riding on the back of the Annihilator Dragon, Ji Xinghuo opened the interface of the Myriad Star Pupils.

At the edge of his vision, there was an arrow.

The arrow pointed directly to the direction he had guided Doomsday towards.

Since venturing out to sea this time, the arrow had grown slightly larger.

As the Cloud Sea Dragon's habitat was not in the direction of the arrow, despite having ventured 180,000 kilometers deep into the abyss, Ji Xinghuo estimated that he was still nearly 300,000 kilometers away from the location indicated by the arrow!

He needed to fly northeast from his current position.

Ji Xinghuo took out the abyssal map given to him by Cang Ya and carefully examined it once more, repeatedly checking it against his surroundings to confirm that he was nearing the boundaries of the map.

There was very little information about that area of the sea, almost as if it were a blank space.

Ji Xinghuo was well aware that this journey would undoubtedly be filled with unknown dangers, but he had to go.

The Myriad Star Pupils was his biggest secret and the primary force that had brought him to where he was today; the possibility of obtaining a fragment of the Myriad Star Pupils was an opportunity he couldn't afford to miss. Even if he just went there to scout the situation, it would be worth it.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh...

Doomsday maintained an altitude of about a thousand meters above the sea, with the fierce wind blowing against its face. Yet, amidst the vast expanse of sky and sea, it seemed to be standing still.

Ji Xinghuo kept his electromagnetic sensing active at all times.

After flying just over three hundred kilometers, he detected a group of monsters beneath the surface of the sea to his left.

And it was a large group.

"Swordfish!"

Ji Xinghuo's spirit lifted, and his interest was piqued.

In the abyss, there were three of the most commonly found group-dwelling monsters: the Cicada-wing Snapper, the Swordfish, and the Dark Tide Frenzy Shark. They dominated the seas through sheer numbers, and other fish and regular monsters dared not provoke them, becoming their food instead.

Among these three group-dwelling monsters, the Swordfish had the largest numbers, with each school typically consisting of three to four thousand individuals, and it was not unusual for there to be over ten thousand.

However, their average strength was also the weakest.

Only about a third of them were ordinary monsters, with a small number of a few hundred elite individuals, and the rest could only be considered fish.

The weaker the monster, the less spiritual source energy they possessed.

However, even if a single Swordfish had minimal spiritual source energy, their vast numbers more than made up for it.

Moreover, hunting them posed absolutely no danger.

Previously, when he had ventured out to sea with Cang Ya, they had encountered numerous schools of Swordfish as soon as they entered the abyss. Ji Xinghuo had wanted to take action then, but the alien had only occasionally killed a few Swordfish for a taste, and they had never hunted them as they usually did with other species. The alien considered the Swordfish to have no value.

At that time, Ji Xinghuo couldn't think of a reason to hunt them, so he had no choice but to endure it. Now that he was alone, he no longer had any reservations.

"A little to the left."

Ji Xinghuo directed Doomsday to adjust its course.

Soon, the entire school of Swordfish came into range of his electromagnetic sensing, and the distance between them rapidly closed. Countless Swordfish crowded together, forming a massive entity in the sea that stretched for several kilometers.

The Swordfish resembled swordfish from Earth, with a long, flat blade extending from their heads, like a sword. They swam with incredible speed and were even larger and longer than their Earth counterparts, possessing a more ferocious temperament.

The Swordfish were predatory fish.

Whenever they spotted prey, they would launch a group charge, using the swords on their heads to fire blades of water that could slice through their targets.

This school of Swordfish was currently hunting a group of Grayfin Whales, another powerful type of monster with massive bodies that could grow to over thirty meters in length. However, they were no match for the Swordfish school.

As Ji Xinghuo drew closer to the Swordfish, two of the Grayfin Whales had already been badly injured by the water blades, slowing their swimming speed.

But the Swordfish did not immediately go in for the kill.

Led by a twenty-meter-long Swordfish of the Hong level, the entire school continued to attack the remaining Grayfin Whales.

The dark mass of Swordfish swarmed and took turns charging at the Grayfin Whales, accelerating before firing their water blades. The Grayfin Whales had thick skin and flesh, so a few dozen water blades could not harm them.

However, each round of water blades numbered in the hundreds, and sometimes even two or three thousand, all slicing into their bodies simultaneously.

The Grayfin Whales fought back desperately, managing to kill some Swordfish.

Yet, it was like trying to remove a flea from a bull's hide—barely making a dent in their vast numbers.

The sea churned as the Swordfish school relentlessly pursued the Grayfin Whales, firing wave after wave of water blades that tore into their flesh, causing blood to gush out and stain the seawater red. One by one, the Grayfin Whales succumbed to their injuries and lost their ability to move.

Ji Xinghuo directed Doomsday to fly high above, patiently waiting and observing the cruel scene of nature's food chain in the abyss.

After more than ten minutes...

Finally, the last super-school-level Grayfin Whale was also surrounded, its body riddled with countless water blade wounds, leaving it on the brink of death.

The Swordfish school quieted down, seemingly awaiting orders.

A sharp sound wave emanated from the Hong-level Swordfish, too low in frequency for Ji Xinghuo to discern clearly.

Boom!

The nearby sea erupted as seventy to eighty thousand Swordfish rushed towards the dozens of Grayfin Whale corpses, frenziedly tearing into the flesh and sending splashes of water flying in all directions.

Ji Xinghuo was reminded of piranha from Earth, but the scene before him was even more savage and terrifying.

Because he was flying at such a high altitude, the Swordfish were unable to detect the enemy above them.

"Time to reel them in."

When the Swordfish were feeding, they were at their most concentrated, and Ji Xinghuo raised his right hand. In his palm, a spherical lightning bolt took form as surging electromagnetic power flowed from his arm and into the ball of electricity.

The electromagnetic oscillation had been fully activated, and within a radius of several kilometers, countless electromagnetic field lines appeared.

The air was pierced, and even space seemed to distort.

A faint rumble of thunder echoed in the sky.

The frenzied swordfish, caught up in their feeding frenzy, finally noticed the anomaly and slowed down their voracious consumption of flesh.

The Hong-level swordfish lifted its head and let out a sharp cry.

But it was too late.

Doomsday dove from the high altitude towards the sea, reaching the water's surface in an instant. Ji Xinghuo, riding on the dragon's back, threw the ball of lightning with all his might.

The ball of lightning shot into the sea.

The Annihilator Dragon skimmed just a hundred meters above the sea surface before immediately climbing back up, its Flashing Light Wings tracing a graceful parabola as it swiftly returned to the sky.

Ji Xinghuo turned back to look down, and he saw a massive splash erupt from the sea, forming a tidal wave over two hundred meters in diameter. The wave surged outwards in all directions, carrying countless currents and rays of light as it swept away everything in its path.

Boom...

The sound of the explosion reached them slightly delayed, and the splashes reached high up into the sky.

[Spiritual Source Energy +2]



[Spiritual Source Energy +1]



[Spiritual Source Energy +3+2+4+1+2...]



Ji Xinghuo's vision was filled with a frenzy of prompts, flashing by too quickly to count. His Spiritual Source Energy, which had been below 20,000 points, skyrocketed to over 50,000 and continued to surge.

The tidal wave caused by the explosion of the ball lightning continued to spread outwards, turning into a small-scale tsunami.

Spiritual Source Energy continued to rise: 60,000... 70,000...

However, the rate of increase began to slow down.

This went on for over ten seconds.

The aftermath of the explosion still lingered, with waves reaching over a thousand meters away. But the sea surface at the explosion's center had mostly calmed down.

Swordfish after swordfish floated on the sea, their bodies motionless and devoid of any signs of life. While those closer to the explosion's epicenter were torn to pieces, most of the corpses bore no visible wounds.

They had been electrocuted to death.

This school of swordfish, numbering around 60,000, had been completely annihilated in an instant, including the Hong-level swordfish that had led them.

Ji Xinghuo had intentionally thrown the ball of lightning closer to the leader.

It reacted swiftly, trying to flee in panic, but it was no match for the shockwave of the explosion, which shook it to death, leaving its body in tatters.

The Myriad Star Pupils interface displayed a value of over 80,000 points of Spiritual Source Energy.

This single strike was equivalent to several days of hunting on Black Ring Star.

"Awesome!"

Ji Xinghuo felt exhilarated.

He quietly estimated that about a third of these 60,000 swordfish had awakened and evolved into monsters, which meant 20,000 of them. In total, they had provided him with over 60,000 points of Spiritual Source Energy. On average, he gained 3 points of Spiritual Source Energy per monster swordfish.

Compared to the 30 points per Cicada-wing Snapper, the swordfish only gave him a tenth of that.

However, swordfish were far more common than Cicada-wing Snappers. Their schools were over ten times larger, and there were far more of them! Moreover, hunting swordfish was much easier.

A single ball of lightning could instantly wipe out an entire school.

Given the choice, Ji Xinghuo much preferred hunting swordfish. Excited, he rubbed his hands together and muttered, "Earth doesn't allow electrofishing, but there's no such rule in the Star Sea Abyss. I can catch as many as I want here!"

He glanced at the corpse of the Hong-level swordfish.

"Let's go down."

Doomsday flew to the sea surface, and Ji Xinghuo landed on top of the twenty-plus-meter-long Hong-level swordfish. Its white skin was smooth, and when he reached out to touch it, information about the alien species popped up before his eyes.

After reading it, he shook his head.

No wonder no one bothered hunting swordfish. Their alien species held little to no value.

Ji Xinghuo didn't even bother collecting the alien species data and instead looked at Doomsday and asked, "Do you want to try swordfish meat? I heard it tastes pretty good."

Doomsday lowered his head to sniff at the swordfish, his eyes showing disdain.

Qinghong wasn't interested either.

"Then let's go. Keep flying." Ji Xinghuo climbed back onto Doomsday's back. The Annihilator Dragon's wings flapped, creating a thunderous sound as it soared into the sky and disappeared into the horizon, leaving behind the corpses of tens of thousands of swordfish floating on the sea.

In the Abyss, the blood and flesh would quickly attract other predators and fish, and whatever remained would rot within a few days.

There was no need to dispose of the bodies.

They continued their journey at a rapid pace.

To conserve Doomsday's stamina, Ji Xinghuo didn't push it to fly at full speed, opting for a more reasonable pace instead.

At times, he would even have Doomsday merge into his skin, and he would fly on his own.

Even so, on the first day, Ji Xinghuo covered over 10,000 kilometers. This was despite him not taking a direct route, often detouring due to encountering monsters, and sometimes even backtracking to harvest Spiritual Source Energy.

Over the next few days, Ji Xinghuo hunted down several schools of swordfish, as well as a group of over a thousand Dark Tide Frenzy Sharks, which took some effort to eliminate. He also encountered over a dozen Calamity-level monsters and sea beasts, all of which perished to his lightning, earning him several decent alien species.

His Spiritual Source Energy continued to rise, surpassing 600,000 points!

The arrow on the Myriad Star Pupils interface grew larger and larger as he drew closer, and the sensation became increasingly clear.

However, Ji Xinghuo also felt that the Abyss was becoming more dangerous.

On the fifteenth day, Ji Xinghuo had ventured 280,000 kilometers deep into the Abyss. The sea was calm, and the sky was a dark brown, like a film negative, as if perpetually shrouded in clouds. From time to time, spatial rifts would appear and disappear, constantly evoking a sense of oppression and unease.

Sitting atop Doomsday's back, he took out the map to check their current location.

They were approaching a maximum-level forbidden area, clearly marked on the map with a warning about the presence of Execution Star-level monsters.

"Execution Star-level!"

Ji Xinghuo's expression turned solemn, and he remained vigilant.

(End of Chapter)

Chapter end