Chapter 93: The Strange Chiton

"Huh? Where's my perfectly intact great white shark? How did it end up all battered and torn?"

Baichuan stared at the scene before him, somewhat stunned.

Because the great white shark now before his eyes had lost most of its flesh — a hole here, a hole there, like a piece of ragged burlap.

It was a pitiful sight.

After staring and examining it for a while, he let out a helpless sigh. His sensory organs hadn't alerted him to anything unusual nearby, so it must have been some petty thief that showed up while he was practicing Flight.

Maybe it was eaten by some passing small fish. Fortunately, the remaining meat was still enough to fill him up.

Baichuan could only think this way, then stopped hesitating and began wolfing it down.

As he ate, he thought viciously: these bratty little fish actually dared to mess with his dinner — sooner or later he'd give them another upgraded version of Popping Candy!

……

The next day, Baichuan rose bright and early, preparing to go out and explore this area.

Come to think of it, he'd been here for quite a while now — at least half a year at minimum — but he'd just stayed at the bottom of the sea the whole time and never really come ashore to learn about this place.

Now that one worry off his mind, having learned Flight, and with hardly any points left to spend.

He considered it for a few seconds, then decided to go ashore and check out the situation here.

Thinking this, Baichuan directly swung his tail fin and slowly rose toward the surface.

Before long, he was back on shore. His four claws propped up his long, sleek body; he raised his majestic dragon head and narrowed his sharp eyes to gaze into the distance.

Then he spread his wings, and a burst of piercing cold erupted instantly, freezing and shaking off all the residual moisture on his surface.

Only then did he leisurely stride away step by step. As he walked, that crescent-shaped tail fin swayed and swung — quite the eye-catcher.

Since this was an aimless stroll, Baichuan was in a leisurely mood, wandering along while curiously observing the various small creatures around him.

When he encountered one whose ability model he hadn't yet acquired, or one that looked particularly novel, he'd extend a claw, scoop it up, and swallow it.

For him as he was now, having gained the bat's super-strong Immunity and Ice Frost power, there were very few things on land he didn't dare to eat.

As for parasites, he had Ice Frost power to purify himself and stay clean; and as for bacteria and germs — he wasn't joking — with the high-speed metabolism brought by his current LV2 Immunity, plus his immune system running at full throttle, his body temperature kept rising.

His normal body temperature had already reached 42°C, and with full activity it might even hit 51°C.

As for how he knew this — don't forget his heat-sense vision. Having encountered many creatures through that vision, he could naturally confirm his approximate temperature.

At this temperature, there really weren't many kinds of bacteria that could thrive inside him — though it might make him hungrier faster.

But he didn't need one more energy drainer right now — he could handle it!

Now, any viruses that entered his body would either be killed outright by his extremely high body temperature, or have their activity weakened and destroyed by that heat, becoming listless and then being driven by him.

In the end, they not only couldn't draw energy from him, but were turned into his workhorses and drained dry.

This was the super ability bats had evolved over countless ages — and now he'd gotten it for free!

While pondering, a strange sensation suddenly came from beneath Baichuan's claws.

He froze, stopped walking, and looked down.

Hey! Turns out he'd unknowingly stepped on a strange creature he'd never seen before.

It was shaped like an abalone but a full thirty centimeters across, with a layer of brownish-red flesh-like stuff growing on its back.

The whole thing looked just like a slab of meat.

Baichuan curiously extended one front claw and picked it up. During this, he didn't see the thing resist or struggle at all.

After curiously examining it closely from side to side, he made an astonishing discovery — this creature seemed somewhat like the chiton he knew.

But a chiton this big was rare indeed.

After marveling at the wonders of nature, he looked at this abalone-like creature that didn't have much meat.

Because it was his first time encountering this kind of creature, his hamster-like nature stirred up the thought of collecting its ability model.

So he simply brought it to his mouth, ready to take a bite and taste it, then scan its ability model.

However, the moment he started to bite, he felt as if he'd encountered a huge resistance — as if he weren't biting a living creature, but a piece of tough rubber with no life in it. The texture was extremely strange.

But Baichuan wasn't picky — he just wanted to taste this odd fellow.

As he bit down hard, his great mouth full of hard, sharp teeth instantly bit clean through the chiton.

Instantly, an extremely strange taste flooded into his mouth — like a slab of expired, soured meat.

Instinctively, he wanted to spit it out, but then thought: he'd already suffered through the bitterness; he couldn't just spit it out and waste his sacrifice, and he'd have to scan it again.

Thinking this, he restrained himself and swallowed it down — then, as if electrocuted, he flung the strange thing away.

He shook his head speechlessly. This was the second worst-tasting meat he'd ever eaten, right after the one containing shark skin and flesh.

After this little interlude, feeling that strange taste lingering in his mouth, Baichuan decided he should rinse his mouth first.

He looked toward the tall coconut trees in the distance, thinking this.

Once the thought arose, Baichuan — never one to dawdle — went straight to a tall coconut tree nearby and took down a ripe coconut.

Then he raised a sharp claw and easily pierced through it, and drank from it contentedly.

……

Time passed slowly, and soon the sky had completely darkened.

The nearby beach looked extraordinarily beautiful under that moonlit, star-sparse night.

The clear moonlight spilled onto the soft, fine sand of the beach; the gentle sea breeze rustled the leaves of the tall coconut trees, as if they were whispering among themselves.

From time to time, domineering crabs crawled out of the water or up through the sand to the shore for a breath of air; occasionally a few sea turtles could be seen slowly coming ashore from the sea.

Everything seemed so thriving and full of life.

But then, a thunder-like sound came from afar, and a massive shadow slowly crept over this beautiful beach, as if to engulf everything around it in darkness.

Looking from afar, above the beach over there, an eight-meter-long, slender Jiao-snake was soaring through the sky with wings spread — the source of that shadow was precisely those enormous wings, like hanging clouds, blocking out the clear moonlight.

And this was none other than Baichuan, returning from a full day of exploring this island……

Such an obvious plot hole… I'm not taking the bait.

(End of chapter)