Chapter 172: A Place Where One Will Never Get 'Skunked

"Before we were found by that man, we were slaving away for the giant crocodile behind the scenes. Every cent we earned wasn't our own. Others thought we were infinitely glorious, but the truth was that we were pawns who could be discarded at any time, hunted down like stray dogs."

Black Taotie called out the childhood nickname that only she was entitled to use, "Niya, are we going to live like this for the rest of our lives? I'm tired. I no longer fantasize about living the life of someone above others; I just want to find a place and live like a human being."

"Don't call me that, go to hell!" Miao Hentian, however, did not like this name. Her parents died too early, and the sisters were sold abroad by human traffickers when they were around ten years old, drifting through all sorts of unbearable places, never having another day of freedom.

In countless moments when they couldn't go on, the two sisters encouraged each other with 'freedom,' relying on one another to make it to this day.

But as time passed, many things changed, and the two, having been drenched by countless rains, also had different thoughts.

"You want a peaceful life now, you want freedom, but when you were hell-bent on becoming a leader in Sky Viper and insisted on taking the medicine, why didn't you think about that then?"

Compared to Miao Cuihua, Miao Hentian actually didn't have enough schemes, and even her ambition was less than her sister's; she was more of a follower.

But even as a follower, she couldn't accept becoming a monster, and the reason the three of them ended up like this was all because her sister, Miao Cuihua, said she wanted to gain a foothold in Sky Viper and become a tool that was no longer controlled by others.

"That's all in the past. Haven't we already broken away now? As long as we provide the layout of Sky Viper's forces in China and the location of the New World, Liu Mu will naturally let us leave. She... is different from those people."

"Is that so? You said the same thing about Joseph back then, and what was the result? Where is the New World? Have you ever seen an alien? It's all bullshit!"

Black Mamba lost her patience, and a layer of black scales gradually emerged on her skin, "If you really want to leave, then go. I, for one, can no longer be some ordinary person. You can forget, but I can't. We are already monsters; no normal person is like me, none!"

The sisters' argument ebbed and flowed, and this time they still didn't convince each other, only making the rift more apparent.

Hong Hu is the collective name for this body of water.

During the dry season, it splits into dozens of water bodies of various sizes, but what can be seen now is a vast lake with no end in sight.

As the morning sun rises, the vast sky and the lake surface are the same color, with shimmering light extending infinitely, making one's heart feel just as expansive.

Liu Mu stands by the lake on a giant rock that has split down the middle; the half facing the lake has slid away, forming a cliff four or five meters high.

The end of the fishing rod is jammed into the eroded stone, and Liu Mu sits beside it. Her fingers, like the fishing rod, are dug into the stone, actually grabbing a chunk out of the boulder; with a light squeeze, it turns into fine sand and gravel, drifting away with the wind.

Behind her and the fishing rod is a patch of low-lying Mutated grass, upon which lie several eel skeletons, still stained with fresh blood and bits of meat.

The fishing line twitches slightly, Liu Mu lifts her hand, and another eel is pulled out of the water; before it can even struggle, it is tossed into the grass.

The seemingly ordinary grass immediately emits a hair-raising chewing sound. After a burst of crunching, that arm-length eel is reduced to a bare skeleton.

This process lasts for over an hour, and as the sun climbs high, someone finally can't help it anymore.

This time, the eel is as thick as an adult's thigh. Ordinarily, a fish of this size would have a pulling force of at least four hundred catties in the water, but in Liu Mu's hands, it is still just a light flick of the rod, and the eel, like a light black ribbon, is thrown into the grass.

"What are you fishing for?"

Liu Mu glances sideways at the newcomer, her tone unreadable, "Can't you tell?"

"I can't," Miao Hentian steps across the grass, but before she even makes it halfway, she suddenly feels a stinging pain in her feet. She looks down, and she feels like her whole world is falling apart, letting out a scream!

"What are you doing!"

The person fishing ignores her, Liu Mu continues to stare at the water surface, "Get over here. You're quite the talent to dare walk on man-eating grass!"

Already fuming with her sister Miao Cuihua, Miao Hentian didn't know where else to go, and by the time she came to her senses, she had already seen Liu Mu fishing.

Not knowing what kind of psychology it was, she hid in the bushes, enduring the mosquitoes, and watched for so long.

Seeing that Liu Mu didn't feel the slightest bit surprised, she knew the other party had discovered her from the very beginning.

There was no other way; although the movement was ungraceful, her life was more important. Miao Hentian endured the nausea and rolled quickly across the rows of fish bones.

Not until she was on the rock did she frantically pull out the grass needles that had burrowed into her body, tearing up little blood spots on her snake-like skin.

"Are you trying to kill me?"

The Miao sisters were already quite old when they were sold, and because they needed to insist on speaking their mother tongue for many years, they had no foreign accent at all.

But her words only made Liu Mu feel more speechless, "Little sister, you really shouldn't rely too much on Black Taotie in the future. I'm serious. If you don't use your brain, it'll atrophy."

Liu Mu suddenly becomes curious, "Do you want to eat two as well? I heard eating fish meat is good for the brain."

"No need!" Miao Hentian, who had simply ripped open her leather jacket, viciously gave Liu Mu the middle finger, "F**K U!"

"Don't curse, watch out or I'll whip you!" Liu Mu flicks her hand, a black shadow leaps out of the water, and its tail leaves a mark on Miao Hentian's face.

Touching her sticky face and shaking her clothes, the petite beauty is stunned for a long time, "You, you..."

The swear word starting with the letter B doesn't make it out, because Liu Mu continues to lift the fishing rod, and black shadows fly over her head, as if it were raining eels in broad daylight.

Miao Hentian fiercely wipes the slime off her face and puts back on her leather jacket, which is now full of holes, just to see what exactly Liu Mu is trying to catch.

The eels on the grass quickly grow from dozens to over a hundred. The grass seems to be 'full,' and the newly caught fish are actually not being 'eaten.'

This situation lasts for a full half hour; the eels are piled into a small hill, yet the expression on Liu Mu's face becomes increasingly excited.

"This is truly a good day that those 'skunked' fishermen can't get!"

This thick-skinned woman doesn't forget to show off. Miao Hentian takes two steps toward the lake; there are too many fish, and they are already spilling onto the rock.

"Are you waiting for something?"

"You noticed?" The fishing rod in Liu Mu's hand is almost pulled to the point of sparking, and then at a certain moment, it finally can't bear the load and lets out a mournful sound of snapping.

"Don't be impatient, I have more!"

Hearing Miao Hentian's mockery, Liu Mu explains, and actually pulls out a few more fishing rods, this time even more exaggerated, "You're responsible for those two over there. Hurry up, this is the ultimate experience for a fisherman; ordinary people won't encounter this once in a lifetime."

"Why should I..." Miao Hentian regrets it. She shouldn't have come. Knowing full well that this woman is a black-hearted exploiter, how could she possibly let her watch from the sidelines?

But watching the two fishing rods about to be dragged into the lake, she follows them as if possessed, grabs them, and pulls with all her might.

Simultaneously pulling up two Mutated Eels over two meters long, the resentment in Miao Hentian's heart suddenly vanishes.

She is a Mutated person, and one who has been specially trained by Sky Viper and improved by Xing Tianyang; her strength and agility are incomparable to those of ordinary people.

But having to pull up two fish at once still makes her feel the strain.

Looking at Liu Mu, who has been fishing for so long and is now holding two rods in one hand, still looking completely relaxed, she has to admit that she is envious.

This damn woman, just how strong has she become?

"The fish are electric, keep the rods high!"

Liu Mu, tireless herself, doesn't forget to remind Miao Hentian, who is attempting to grab the fish with her hands.

"I know!" Miao Hentian looks slightly embarrassed; of course she knows the eels are electric, let alone Mutated Eels, but she... had really forgotten just now.

Thus, she had no choice but to learn from Liu Mu, swinging the fishing rod and using the inertia generated by the eel's own weight to make it unhook.

It looked simple, but it didn't go smoothly in practice; at first, she couldn't shake off several of them, otherwise she wouldn't have habitually wanted to use her hands.

"Why catch so many fish? The Mine doesn't have enough freezer storage at all; they will spoil very soon."

In Miao Hentian's view, someone as shrewd as Liu Mu would never do anything without a benefit, so it was absolutely impossible for all these fish to be used to feed this patch of grass.

Amidst her busy work—er, with an expression still leisurely—Liu Mu sighed, "Sigh, how could you understand the hardship of me raising so many of you? If it weren't for a bite to eat, I wouldn't want to work so hard either. It's worrying!"

"Didn't we tell you the location of the Sky Viper's granary in the south? What else are you worried about?" Miao Hentian instinctively felt something was wrong, but a pair of extremely eerie pupils immediately took on a faint anger, "Are you suspecting that we gave you false information? Liu Mu, let me tell you, everything we said is true!"

"Distant water cannot quench immediate thirst; you don't understand." Liu Mu still had an appearance of deep thought, as if she were the most great person, "Hurry up and fish; if that guy comes in a while, it won't be possible to get it done."

Who? Miao Hentian's combat instinct made her quickly scan the surroundings; she didn't detect the presence of a third person, so she had to ask, "What kind of person is coming? And there's someone you're afraid of?"

"Who told you it was a person?" Liu Mu's motion of waving the fishing rod suddenly stopped, and she pointed into the water, "Look, what you fear is what comes."

Because of the fishing activity, the lake surface had lost its calm, and at this moment, two huge shadows were swimming over from the distance at high speed.

Although their lengths were different, one could see with the naked eye that the long one was at least over fifty meters, and the short one was also around forty meters. Compared to their length, their widest point of no more than two meters didn't seem that astonishing.

"Is this an Eastern dragon?" Miao Hentian also forgot the tension of the fishing rod in her hand, her crimson lips agape, "Do legendary creatures really exist?"

Liu Mu finally glanced at her, her eyes carrying a bit of confusion, "Of course they exist. The other eleven of the twelve zodiac signs all exist, how could the dragon be fake? Have you been away from China for too long that you've forgotten your own country's history?"

"Ah? It's real..." Miao Hentian's brain wasn't actually stupid, and what's more, she possessed nearly thirty years of experience beyond the ordinary; she quickly caught the flash of playfulness in Liu Mu's eyes, "You're lying to me! That is clearly the appearance of an eel, how could it be a dragon."

"Oh, seems like it, huh," Liu Mu answered slowly, and then, right in front of people, she changed into a high-density, full-coverage diving suit.

"I'm going to do some hunting; you keep an eye on our fish."

Her voice was a bit muffled through the mask, and in the next second, under Miao Hentian's gaze that almost dropped her jaw, she performed a perfect dive, not even splashing any water.

"This... could win a gold medal..."

Knowing that saying this was meaningless, Miao Hentian really didn't know what else to say, "Are we going to have to change Boss again?"

To say she cared about Liu Mu was impossible; she didn't have the ability to be a Boss, but she also didn't want to change jobs frequently—what if she was sent back to the Laboratory again...

Especially since the two large eels were followed by a school of fish like a black cloud; one bite each, and Liu Mu wouldn't be enough for them to share.

The most troublesome thing was that this person went into the lake water and simply didn't come out to catch her breath for over ten minutes.

"Are you going to help or not? Hey, don't die!"

The fact was, the situation in the water was not as surely fatal as Miao Hentian thought.

Once in the water, Liu Mu sank directly into the depths of the lake.

While the swimsuit on her body significantly reduced friction for her, it also provided more than twice her body weight, preventing her from being pushed to the surface by buoyancy.

If others could see, they would discover that at the bottom of the lake where Liu Mu was, there was grass exactly the same as that on the shore.

Like the ones on land, they grew lushly, extending in all directions, and it was unknown how large the area was.

Facing the direction of the shore, more than ten meters away, they grew all the way up from the lake bottom, forming a single patch with the Mutated wild grass on land.

"There are also information transmission channels between plants; it's different from what humans think, their information transmission speed is much faster."

After merging with the Great Master Flower, Xu Xiaofeng would record her insights into the system, just like writing a diary, and there was no requirement for confidentiality.

And the information above was one of her many records, especially regarding Mutated plants; 'domesticating' new dietary habits based on recorded information was not a very difficult thing.

With a knife in her hand, Liu Mu arrived before the Eel King.

The dense school of eels was like a black torrent, surrounding her under the engulfment of the lake's undercurrents.

Their bodies shimmered with a faint, ghostly blue light; that was the surging of sheets of electric current. Sharp teeth appeared and disappeared in the faint light, and every eel exuded a chilling, fierce wildness.

Liu Mu connected the Recovery Space to her lungs in a way ordinary people couldn't understand, which ensured that she could maintain breathing underwater.

Facing the school of fish, she let her chest heave to fill her lungs with air, adjusting her state.

She knew this battle would be extremely dangerous.

Although the weight of the swimsuit and the water pressure made her movements slightly sluggish, the moment she made contact with the school of fish, she relied on her superior combat experience and tenacious will to react quickly.

Gripping the knife in her hand, the blade was also refracted by the strange faint light of the school of fish, casting a cold, sharp gleam.

The first few eels to rush over opened their blood-red maws and pounced straight at her. Liu Mu agilely turned to the side, the knife in her hand swinging along with the motion, precisely slicing across the body of an eel; dark green blood instantly dispersed in the water, blending with the lake water to form a strange mist.

The bloody scent was even more intense than on the shore, stimulating the other eels; they became even crazier, launching attacks from all directions.

In the intense entanglement, visibility gradually decreased due to the excess blood.

According to her own plan, Liu Mu resisted the eels' attacks while struggling to swim toward the patch of amphibious Mutated wild grass below.

However, how could the Mutated Eel school easily let her go? Their bodies swayed back and forth, chasing tightly behind her. Just as Liu Mu was about to swim to the water grass, an exceptionally thick eel lunged out from behind her and bit her ankle.