Chapter 101: The Ever-Growing Demand, A Reversal of the Situation

Dusk. The golden fireball slowly sank beneath the horizon.

Under the refraction of the sea, the afterglow of the setting sun softened for a moment, no longer brimming with violent heat.

Accompanied by a long, distant cry, the colossal beast before them finally closed its eyes for eternity, never to move again.

It seemed the afterglow of the setting sun also symbolized the extinguishing of the great beast's life.

Vast amounts of blood had long since turned this stretch of seawater into a kingdom of blood. Countless sickle-like dorsal fins circled the periphery of this blood sea, trying to enter and plunder the delicious flesh.

Yet not a single shark dared to set foot into this forbidden zone.

Because to enter meant death. A great white shark nearly five meters long, along with several sharks of other species, had served as examples for their kind.

Enter and die!

Once inside, one would either convulse all over, flip belly-up, and perish on the spot, or be frozen solid into a chunk of ice that drifted up and down with the sea.

No exceptions.

At this moment, at the center of this blood sea.

A thick-bodied flood serpent had both its front claws driven deep into the flesh and blood. Its massive dragon head kept tearing chunks of tender, resilient flesh from the great beast's body and swallowing them.

With each bite, copious amounts of crimson blood gushed forth, flowing into the sea and dyeing it a uniform scarlet.

And this was the true source of the blood sea before them—the flood serpent feeding!

That was Baichuan, who had chased the blue whale for an entire day. After a full day of driving it, I finally killed it for good in waters only two hundred meters deep.

The whole process was tense. I merely swam at a speed slightly faster than its own to the blowhole of the blue whale, thrust one claw in, and then viciously tore open the muscles that controlled its breathing.

And that caused it to choke on water and die of suffocation from blood loss.

Tearing at the flesh, Baichuan's heart was not exactly light. With my current body size growing, my appetite was also growing ever larger.

When I was seventeen meters long on the Wild Continent, a single meal required me to devour the entire flesh and blood of a small elephant.

Now at fourteen meters, I need not just one small elephant, but two more wild oxen on top of that to fill my stomach.

Such a massive food demand means that, in a single day, I need a very long stretch of time just to eat.

If I keep growing like this, what creature on this planet could possibly bear the burden of my consumption?

If nothing changes, perhaps one day in the future I will eat every last creature on earth into extinction.

That is probably the price this world pays for my current strength, which far surpasses it.

Any ability within my body that is even slightly powerful is a terrifying energy hog.

Electric Discharge, Poison Secretion, Ice Element, and Flight or Burst, and so on.

None of them are easy to deal with; they are all masters at consuming energy!

With a quiet sigh, Baichuan had no idea what to do. Fortunately, I can still bear it for now. There are still plenty of creatures on the planet, so I can only suffer and enjoy it at the same time.

Worst case, I'll head back to the Wild Continent and let those elephants breed like crazy. Their meat is plentiful and filling anyway.

Taking another fierce bite of delicious whale meat, feeling the warm, comfortable sensation rising within my body, I thought so contentedly.

Time began to flow again. In the blink of an eye, half an hour had passed.

And Baichuan was finally full. In its place, nearly half of the blue whale's flesh and blood had vanished.

Unbelievable. An entire seventy-one-meter colossal blue whale had been gnawed of nearly half its flesh and blood by a single creature!

Yet Baichuan was only fourteen meters long, and had eaten flesh and blood greater than its own body size.

All of this was thanks to the fact that "Digestion and Absorption" had now reached LV3 (Banzhu), along with the Storage LV2 ability.

Baichuan was very satisfied with this. It was rare for me to eat so comfortably and so deliciously.

Not only was my whole body full, but I had also stored a large amount of energy within me, to be used for the intense expenditure during combat.

Compared to the flesh of elephants, thick with a heavy keratin layer, blue whale meat was indeed more tender and delicious.

Contentedly swaying my dragon head slightly, like a human burping, I squinted my dragon eyes in comfort.

Then I decisively flicked my tail fin and leapt out of the water. A pair of enormous wings unfurled in an instant.

In the blink of an eye, the moisture on my body turned into countless tiny ice crystals that shot out like raindrops, splashing layer upon layer of transparent ripples on the water's surface.

I wonder what effect those tiny ice crystals would have if flung with Baichuan's current strength and struck a creature?

I suppose I just don't know who will be the lucky one to experience it first.

The next moment, the flood serpent, like a Yinglong or Quetzalcoatl, flew toward the sky. In just a few breaths it had reached an altitude of two hundred meters.

Baichuan checked the direction, then flew forward.

Thinking that this trip might bring conflict with Great Zhou, some scouting was absolutely necessary.

After all, a great man once said: one may despise the enemy strategically, but tactically one must take the enemy seriously.

So Baichuan thought of the two factions of Xiaoze Hidden Valley from years ago—the Flying Heaven Sect and the Earth Dragon Gang.

As for why my first thought was to target them.

First, because they are the Great Zhou human sects I am currently most familiar with, and they are located in the desolate, uninhabited Xiaoze.

So even if they were suddenly wiped out, the news would not spread for a while. This would help me stay hidden in the shadows and prepare.

Second, if I can't even take down those two sects in my current state, then I need not think about taking on all of Great Zhou. I might as well head back overseas and go to sleep.

When the time comes that I've honed my body to be invincible, I can always emerge from the mountain later.

Third, that place is near the sea. If something unexpected happens and I can't handle it, I can easily flee back overseas.

After all, in the overseas waters today, there are very few things I need to fear. The ocean is so vast—one plunge and I vanish without a trace.

When doing something big, one must first consider the plan and the way out. That was what Baichuan thought.

Of course, among other things, I also harbored a little thought of going back to look at the place where I started. No other intentions—just taking a look. After all, it was the place I was once most familiar with.

……

This flight took another half month.

Meanwhile, elsewhere.

"Clop—clop—"

Accompanied by a crisp clatter of hooves, a squad of calm-faced riders swept past beneath the mountain path on low-headed ponies, splattering mud prints across the ground.

Surely no one here would bother looking more than a dozen paces ahead of us, and so they would never notice a small group of riders in hot pursuit just like them.

And compared to the riders behind, our lot was far better equipped and far more elite.

Yes—elite!

Their aura was perfectly unified; though dozens of horses thundered forward, the hoofbeats they struck out were a chaotic, disordered mess, as if it weren't a whole squad but merely a single horse!

If one looked carelessly at the soldiers beneath the horses, one could even make out the solemn, statue-still expressions above their iron helms! Every movement of their bodies was coordinated and unified, as though each were the very incarnation of the general leading them.

The moment the two were set side by side, the difference was plain at a glance.

"Ahem~"

From among the horses behind, a heavy, faint cough rang out.

"Ah, Chief, you're awake?" From beneath a horse, a crisp, pleasant voice rang out, filled with concern and worry.

The voice at his ear pulled the dazed Zhang Rang back to his senses in a hurry. He gave a heavy cough, his hazy gaze lifting from the ground sweeping past at speed, and looked toward the man beside him who held him as they sat upon the horse.

Though the man was still dressed as an old fellow, half of the disguise mask on his face had already flown off on its own, exposing a delicate, snow-white complexion.

Only then did Zhang Rang recall what had happened earlier.

After giving a faint reply, his gaze—somewhat dull—slowly turned to the riders beside and ahead of him who were escorting him, and a flicker of grief and guilt flashed through his eyes.

In an instant, his eyes reddened—it was he who had let down those brothers of his, it was he who had ruined everything…

It was all his fault for understanding Great Zhou far too poorly.

He had thought he had underestimated the other side, only to realize in the end he had still overestimated them…

Baichuan's character card is online!

(End of chapter)