Entering the River

Xiang Kun walked directly to the riverbank, dodging surveillance cameras along the way. Now he didn't even need to switch to infrared thermal imaging visual mode to observe; his "sixth sense" could directly help him determine the location of the cameras and their approximate recording areas. Then, through calculation, he could avoid the camera's range as easily as avoiding light.

Based on his observations on the way back and his analysis of online maps, he found a secluded, dark area by the river that was not covered by surveillance cameras.

Xiang Kun climbed over the river embankment and carefully examined the riverside grass using various senses. Then he began to take off his clothes, pants, shoes, and socks, leaving him only in a pair of shorts.

After hiding his clothes, phone, and room key in a relatively dry place he had observed, Xiang Kun slowly walked towards the river.

Around him floated six Coin and twenty tungsten steel beads—these were the "Super-Linked Object" he always carried with him.

Stepping into the icy river, Xiang Kun slowly tilted his body so that the water completely submerged him, and the twenty-six "Super-Linked Object" followed him into the water.

On the river, only a few ripples remained, and then there was no more movement; not even a few bubbles rose, it was calmer than a sinking stone.

Beneath the river's surface, Xiang Kun opened his eyes, his gaze sweeping around, but he didn't seem to be puffing out his cheeks or holding his breath. He appeared completely at ease, just as he would be on land.

Yes, Xiang Kun no longer needs to hold his breath to maintain his activity needs; his body is actually capable of "breathing."

Since the mutation occurred last year, Xiang Kun has conducted numerous experiments and training sessions on breath-holding, and has been recording the duration of his breath-holding.

Although he could hold his breath for longer and longer, he remained certain that even with the significant changes his body had undergone, he still needed oxygen.

After walking back to the hotel along the river with Lao Xia, Tang Baona, and Yang Zhen'er, Xiang Kun suddenly had an "inspiration." So he filled the sink with water, exhaled, and then immersed his head in it.

Then he discovered that after holding his breath, he could enter an "anaerobic mode" that he had never experienced before. He stopped breathing, but did not experience any difficulty breathing or lack of oxygen. It was as if his body suddenly did not need oxygen anymore.

However, Xiang Kun felt that it wasn't that his body no longer needed oxygen, but rather that he had evolved other ways of "breathing" after devouring the "Mutated Parasite".

Because the hotel didn't have a bathtub, so he couldn't experience the feeling of being fully submerged in water, Xiang Kun simply sneaked out of the hotel and drowned himself in the river overnight.

With his already considerable weight, sinking into the river went quite smoothly. In the water, after switching to that special "anaerobic mode," Xiang Kun once again experienced the feeling of not being able to breathe, just like he had in the hotel bathroom.

Xiang Kun carefully sensed the changes in his body, which swayed like an abandoned stone sculpture at the bottom of the water.

He then discovered that after switching his breathing mode, his physical functions declined to some extent, but this did not affect his various sensory abilities or his thinking, which was obviously mainly protected by his body.

The decline is mostly in strength, endurance, and explosive power. Of course, he only has a rough estimate of the specific degree of decline, and there is no accurate judgment without actual testing and experimentation.

However, there were no significant changes in the sensation of muscle exertion, other bodily functions, or breathing patterns.

It's like an appliance; the screen can still turn on, but the brightness has been reduced, and the internal operation doesn't seem to have changed fundamentally.

Therefore, Xiang Kun speculated that after he held his breath underwater, he switched not to "anaerobic mode" but to "Oxygen-Saving Mode".

So, where does oxygen come from?

Xiang Kun knew that fish breathe underwater using gills.

Fish can use gill lamellae to capture dissolved oxygen in the water and also to expel carbon dioxide. Even if a fish were to acquire the function of gills, it would still need to open its mouth to drink and expel water, right?

But the truth is, he doesn't need to open his mouth or filter water underwater.

Xiang Kun immediately recalled his observations after catching the "Mutated Parasite".

Most of the world's internal parasites rely on glycolysis for energy and do not require oxygen.

However, it is clear that the "Mutated Parasite" is not among them. It can still survive after leaving its host, has a certain degree of mobility, and its maneuverability and adaptability in water far exceed those on land, so it must need to breathe.

However, in Xiang Kun's observation, that creature did not have any gill-like structures.

So how does it breathe?

Xiang Kun continued to carefully sense his surroundings and noticed a slightly cool feeling on his skin. He had noticed this feeling from the beginning, but initially thought it was simply because the water was cold.

At this moment, after carefully recalling the subtle differences before and after fully submerging in the water and activating the "Oxygen-Saving Mode," I immediately realized that the cool sensation all over my skin might be my skin "breathing."

Xiang Kun carefully observed his skin in the water. By constantly switching between low-light night vision and infrared thermal imaging visual modes, he could still take advantage of his vision even underwater.

Often, cosmetic advertisements claim that "human skin can breathe" or "pores can breathe," but in reality, pores do not have this "breathing" function.

However, it seems that those advertising slogans have come true for Xiang Kun. He seems to be breathing very minimally through his pores, taking in oxygen from the water and expelling metabolic waste such as carbon dioxide through his pores. It's just that in the water, this process is broken down into smaller parts, and various tiny reactions are not only difficult to observe visually, but even he himself finds it difficult to clearly perceive them.

After determining his breathing method under "Oxygen-Saving Mode", Xiang Kun began to expand his attention outward and open up his senses.

Following the "inspiration" he had while strolling along the riverbank with Lao Xia and the other two, Xiang Kun once again used the "Parasitizing Everything" model to perceive the surrounding river water.

He then discovered that while "breathing" through his skin, he also gained a new sensory ability in the water—his skin seemed to have a more acute sense of water ripples, and through this sense, he could determine the movement trajectory of living things in the water and the location of dead things in the water, even if they were tens or even twenty meters away.

Xiang Kun carefully sensed this information and concluded that it did not only come from the evolution of his abilities brought about by the "Mutated Parasite," but was mostly due to his already superhuman sensory abilities, information processing, and judgment. Only by combining these abilities could he have the ability to scan all the information in the water.

Then Xiang Kun stopped "going with the flow" and began to swim actively in the water.

He had only learned the frog stroke before, and he was only so-so at it, but now in the water, when he moves, he swims according to a kind of "instinct".

His swimming style is like that of a fish, similar to the butterfly stroke, but much more comfortable and relaxed than the human butterfly stroke. He also extends his arms forward from below his chest from time to time to control his direction, allowing him to use the current and momentum of the water to save energy.

After swimming for a while, Xiang Kun found that his connection with the river seemed to have become even closer, just like a pair of shoes that fit better after being worn and used for a while.

As a result, Xiang Kun's movements in the water became smaller and smaller, but his swimming speed and agility became higher and higher.

After swimming for more than an hour, Xiang Kun stopped and then controlled the twenty-six "Super-Linked Object" that had followed him down the river to gather around him.

After he started swimming, he partially loosened his control over these "Super-Linked Object," only gathering them together again after swimming a certain distance to avoid them being carried too far by the river and out of his control, which would be too troublesome to find them one by one.

But at this moment, Xiang Kun "dispatched" these twenty-six "Super-Linked Object" far away underwater, the farthest of which was even hundreds of meters away.

At this distance, he could normally sense it, but he certainly wouldn't be able to control it. He would have to enter a "Hyper-Sensory State" to pinpoint the location precisely before he could perform the corresponding actions.

But now, in the river, Xiang Kun, through the magnetic fields of the "Super-Linked Object" from near to far, discovered that the river water acted like an adhesive, piecing together the individual magnetic fields of the twenty-six "Super-Linked Object" into a whole in Xiang Kun's perception.

With the help of this "Super-Linked Object" matrix, Xiang Kun's perception in the water was once again greatly expanded, reaching as far as more than 100 meters away, and the details of his perception were also much richer.

He could sense the small boats moored on the opposite bank of the river, the fish swimming around him, and the snails of various sizes and other planktonic organisms lurking at the bottom of the river.

Gradually, Xiang Kun discovered that he could not only sense things, but also had a certain degree of "control" ability.

He used the influence of the "Super-Linked Object" matrix to bring the twenty-six "Super-Linked Object" back together, and then tried to intervene in the flow of the river to find leverage points to influence the water flow.

Through repeated attempts, he finally managed to create a tiny whirlpool in the water.

However, Xiang Kun was in the water, was unaware that some strange phenomena were occurring on the surface of the river while he was conducting these experiments.

The wind seemed to have changed direction slightly and become a little stronger. A thin layer of mist appeared on the river surface near the whirlpool, but because it was so little, it was blown away by the wind in the blink of an eye.

Of course, no one on the river could see this scene in the dead of night.

Meanwhile, Xiang Kun, still immersed in his research and experiments on controlling the river, remained engrossed in the water.

By this time, nearly three hours had passed since he sank into the river.

Just as Xiang Kun had figured out the trick through research and experimentation and found a way to better control the water flow by utilizing the momentum of the water flow using the "Super-Linked Object" matrix, a sizable object fell into the river more than 60 meters away from his location, accompanied by a series of screams from women on the shore.

The twenty-six "Super-Linked Object" that were originally gathered around Xiang Kun instantly obeyed his will and shot out of the water like torpedoes, rushing towards the place where he fell into the water.

Xiang Kun quickly discovered that the person who fell into the river from the embankment was an adult male, while the person shouting on the bank was a woman.

Accidentally fell into the water?

Xiang Kun quickly made a decision: if it was within his power, he should still try to save the person. At this distance, with his speed, he should be able to swim over and rescue them in time.

But he remained submerged in the water the whole time, without jumping in from the side. It was the middle of the night, and there was no one else around or any boats on the river. It seemed too abrupt for him to suddenly emerge from the water and rescue the person.

You can't exactly save someone, shout "The light of righteousness!" and then turn around, jump back into the water, sink, and disappear without a trace, can you? That would terrify people.

Moreover, a big news story might break tomorrow, attracting a lot of attention and investigations that he doesn't want.

Therefore, Xiang Kun's decision was to swim in that direction while using the "water control" method he had just figured out to save the person.

A few minutes ago.

Riverside.

A car stopped on the side of the road.

The back door opened, and a young girl with short chestnut hair got out of the car angrily and headed towards the river.

On the other side of the back seat, a rather handsome young man quickly opened the door and followed, calling the girl's name as he ran and trying to take her hand.

Clearly, this is a young couple having a fight.

The two people in the driver's and passenger's seats exchanged a glance, shook their heads helplessly, rolled down the windows, and started chatting, waiting for the young couple to finish arguing and come back. As friends, they had seen this scene countless times.

But things took a different turn than usual. The young man seemed to have drunk quite a bit and was rather agitated. After arguing with the girl for a few moments, he yelled, "What the hell do you want me to believe? Do you want me to jump off this cliff before you believe me?"

The girl was already angry, so she retorted, "If you fucking have the guts, then..."

She saw the wide river suddenly jolt, and tried to brake, but before she could finish her sentence, it was too late. The young man, intoxicated, shouted, "Jump! Jump!" and then took a running start and leaped into the river.

"Ah? Ah!! Damn it!! Help me!!! -- Help me!!!" The girl screamed repeatedly, even wanting to jump in after him, but like her boyfriend, she couldn't swim and could only hop around on the riverbank, yelling for her companions in the car to come and rescue her.

When the two companions in the car realized something was wrong and rushed over, they saw a scene that astonished them, along with the girl who was already crying with snot and tears streaming down her face.

The young man who had fallen into the water swirled on the surface of the river and moved rapidly toward a sandbar not far from the shore. Judging from his posture in the water, it was clear that he was not swimming by himself.

After seeing the young man being carried downstream to the riverbank, the three of them quickly ran over.

When they arrived, the young man was lying in a patch of water plants, crying and moaning as he crawled toward the embankment.

It took the three of them a great deal of effort to pull their companion up.

"Holy crap, you almost drowned in a 1.5-meter pool, and you actually dared to jump into the river? Are you fucking drunk...?" the driver cursed, looking terrified.

The young man's girlfriend kept crying, asking her boyfriend if he was hurt anywhere and whether they should call 122 (the emergency number in China).

"Screw 122, it's 120!" the driver cursed at the girl helplessly, then said to his companion who had been sitting in the passenger seat, "Call his brother, let his brother know, then we'll take him to the hospital... Hey? What are you standing there for?"

He looked up and saw his companion standing beside him, staring blankly at the river. He couldn't help but wonder.

But when he followed his companion's gaze to the river, he too was stunned.

Just moments ago, the river surface on the opposite bank was clearly visible under the moonlight, but now it was shrouded in a thick fog, and this fog only existed between their location and the spot where the young man had jumped into the river.

A few seconds, or perhaps a few minutes later, the fog quickly dissipated, and a cold wind blew by, causing the people on the riverbank to shiver.

Just then, the surrounding streetlights suddenly brightened, and they realized that the streetlights had dimmed considerably along the way they had run, but they hadn't paid much attention because they were in a hurry to save people.

It's not brightening now, it's just recovering?

Just then, the man who had been lying on the ground, soaking wet, crying and groaning for a while, suddenly raised his head and cried out to his girlfriend and two companions in a desperate voice, "Run... run! There's something in the water... there's something in the water!!"

The three, who were already feeling a bit uneasy, were startled by his voice and trembled.

After the three men helped the man who had jumped into the river stumble away, half of a bald head slowly rose from the river near the shore.

Xiang Kun looked at the four people who were running towards the car on the side of the road in a panic, his eyes filled with helplessness. He had originally wanted to make it look like an "accident" and that the man who fell into the water was "lucky" enough to be washed ashore. However, he did not expect that his operation was not skillful enough and he still frightened people.