Chapter 820: Over a Thousand Meters

A circle of ripples rose on the sea surface.

Heimu stared intently at the half statue of Ailixiya in the distance, still in their mind contending with the afterimage of their own white silk jade feet.

Heimu's perception edge was suddenly brushed by something, as if something quickly swept across the edge of the perception net Heimu had spread, causing a slight vibration.

The source of the vibration was underwater.

At a depth of about two hundred meters, it was rising upward at a slow speed.

Heimu tilted the head slightly, peripheral vision scanning the sea surface below the edge of the cube.

The milky sea water remained as flat as a mirror, reflecting a sky painted like brushstrokes.

But within the reflection there was a shadow.

Heimu stood at the edge of the cube, one hand on the hip, gray‑white long hair fluttering backward in the sea breeze.

Heimu narrowed the eyes slightly, the dark‑purple pupils reflecting the shadow slowly sliding by.

Calmly, Heimu increased the scanning precision of perception by one order of magnitude.

Heimu was waiting.

That thing was clearly not passing by; its trajectory was curving slowly but surely toward the side of the cube.

Each loop added a few more degrees to the deflection.

Like a snake tightening its strangulation.

Except this "snake" measured its length in kilometers.

After a moment, the shadow's Tail finally swam out completely.

Over a thousand meters.

That length was not attainable by any normal marine creature.

The shape of the shadow was not fish, but a more slender, strip‑like object, undulating slowly in a serpentine manner in the water, each bend stirring a ring of dark surge in the surrounding milky sea water.

"Ying." Heimu spoke, tone Calm.

Ying had already stood up from beside Ge Lei Xiu.

Ying's Fox Ears stood upright, the tips slightly tilted backward, right hand pressing on the handle of the Foot‑long dagger.

Gray‑purple eyes swiftly scanned the extending shadow on the sea surface, pupils constricting.

The shadow was rising slowly from the deep sea toward the shallower layer, its color shifting from a vague dark gray to an increasingly clear deep blue.

Ge Lei Xiu sat on the edge of the Big Yellow Duck, her white‑silk‑wrapped feet still hanging lightly on the inflatable plastic surface, swaying gently.

She tilted her head, pale‑purple eyes reflecting the massive shadow beneath the distant sea surface, lips moving slightly.

"... so big."

"Ge Lei Xiu, stay behind me, don't move recklessly."

Ying's voice remained Calm, but her drawing of the dagger was at least half a beat faster than usual.

The metallic scrape of the Foot‑long dagger being drawn was scattered by the wind over the open sea, the blade held horizontally before her, tip aimed at the water.

Ge Lei Xiu blinked.

She asked nothing further, simply pulling her legs back from the duck's edge, the two white‑silk jade feet lightly stepping on the inflatable plastic surface, knees together, hands placed on the knees.

Those pale‑purple eyes looked through Ying's shoulder toward the unusually Calm distant sea surface.

Her calves, wrapped in white silk, tightened slightly, arches forming a faint curve, toes curling within the stockings.

Heimu maintained the single‑hand‑on‑hip posture.

Her global scan operated at an unprecedented frequency, the outline of the massive shadow becoming clearer in Heimu's perception.

It was not a snake.

Although at first glance it indeed resembled a snake—elongated body, serpentine sway—the details did not match.

Its cross‑section resembled a flat ribbon, edges uneven, like torn fabric drifting in the water.

Somewhat like a gigantic belt fish?

Heimu was momentarily choked by the metaphor that sprang from their own mind.

From head to tail its length exceeded twelve hundred meters, the body's thickest diameter approaching eighty meters—a gigantic belt fish; once this notion was accepted, Heimu even found it somewhat amusing.

But the current situation was clearly not something to laugh at.

The massive shadow had risen to within a few meters below the sea surface, the milky water displaced by its massive body forming a strikingly obvious curved surface on the water.

The curved surface continued to rise.

The sound of water changed.

Earlier the sea surface was as calm as a mirror; now the water on that curved surface began to flow down along both sides of the massive shadow, producing a sound like an inverted waterfall.

The sound traveled from the soles upward, transmitted through the cube's white material, making it feel as if the entire cube trembled slightly.

The curved surface rose higher.

Through the increasingly thin milky water, one could see the underlying pale‑blue glow, a substance somewhere between crystal and liquid, emitting a faint blue radiance beneath the sea.

It was contracting its surrounding ring.

From an initial over a thousand meters it shrank to a few hundred meters, then to a few dozen meters.

Heimu could sense it gathering energy.

Within its body a massive energy surged rapidly from Tail toward the head, causing even the water it passed through to boil slightly.

Ying gripped the Foot‑long dagger tighter.

She stepped half a pace forward, completely shielding Ge Lei Xiu behind her.

Gray‑purple eyes locked onto the slightly trembling sea surface below the cube's edge.

Her breathing shifted to a low frequency, thigh muscles tensing slightly, knees bent to a ready‑to‑spring angle.

Meanwhile, Ge Lei Xiu poked half a head out from behind Ying, those pale‑purple eyes still clear and Calm, now tinged with curiosity.

She looks at that blue giant shadow and tilts her head again.

That blue hue feels very familiar.

But she can't recall where she has seen it.

At that moment, the sea surface burst open!

A nearly hundred‑meter‑wide dark‑blue body thrust up violently from beneath the water, the displaced sea water exploding into a towering white water wall in the air.

Its surface bore swirling dark‑blue light patterns, the light racing through every vein‑like line, like countless glowing blue vessels pulsing together.

Its body was flat, the edges thin as a blade, the middle thick, the whole semi‑transparent, allowing one to see a deeper, darker blue core inside slowly writhing through the outer layer.

The instant it rose from beneath the sea, the entire space was tinted with a blue filter.

Then its body traced an enormous arc in the air, from head to tail, the thousand‑meter‑long form exerting force simultaneously, sweeping a strike that covered the space above the entire cube.

The width of this blow approached a hundred meters, its speed so great that the sound of air tearing only caught up after its Tail swept by, a sound like someone ripping a very long cloth by the ear—sharp, piercing, and endless!

The white cube on the sea surface appeared under its shadow like several dice tossed onto the ground.

The half‑sculpture of Ailixiya still kept its slightly tilted head, its chibi‑style eyes reflecting the blue giant shadow sweeping across.

Sakura's Fox Ears were jolted backward by the sound of the space‑splitting roar.

The Foot-long dagger had already been raised, its blade slashing upward from the waist, drawing a bright pink arc in mid‑air, but before she could finish the slash, a hand already blocked her.