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His body leaped into the air, then plunged nimbly into the water. After a few strokes, he swiftly swam toward the middle of the river.

He had grown up in a fishing village. Though he was not an exceptionally strong swimmer, he was still far better than most people.

With things this serious tonight, even if the police did not come after him immediately, they would soon call in the special police.

He only needed to hide in the water for a while.

"Fuck, he really jumped!"

The voice came from above the water. Lu Ao was underwater, his ears filled with the gurgling rush of water, making it hard to hear clearly. He could only make out the frustration and fury in that voice.

A sense of foreboding suddenly rose in his heart, and he instinctively dived deeper.

The next moment, a liquor bottle splashed into the river.

Soon, liquor bottles, rocks, bricks, and all kinds of miscellaneous junk were hurled hard into the water.

In the darkness, Lu Ao could not hear clearly, but he could tell that the debris was landing fairly close to him.

His heart sank, and he had no choice but to swim farther toward the middle of the river.

Like most city moats, the water in their city's moat was not particularly clean. Most of the time, it was dark, murky, and fishy-smelling.

Lu Ao had never come here to swim before, much less gone night swimming here.

He swam several meters, then surfaced for air.

The moment he appeared, liquor bottles and bricks came smashing after him.

The current was fast. His attention was on dodging the bricks, and he did not expect a powerful surge to hit him, sweeping him far away in an instant.

?!!

Lu Ao was left dizzy and disoriented by the current.

The worst thing in swimming was losing one's rhythm.

This unexpected accident threw his limbs into disarray, and then an undercurrent caught him and dragged him toward the riverbed.

Fuck!

Lu Ao knew he was in serious trouble.

He tried hard to calm down and adjust his movements.

It was useless.

He had already exhausted all his strength during the chase earlier. Now, wrapped in a heavy, icy undercurrent dragging him down toward the riverbed, he simply could not break free.

Lu Ao desperately swam toward the surface, but human strength was limited. He truly could not contend with the power of nature.

Within minutes, he unwillingly exhaled a string of bubbles and was completely dragged to the riverbed.

Their city was by the sea, and the river carried Lu Ao onward in a vast rush toward the ocean.

Perhaps because this sudden disaster was so unjust, Lu Ao could not let go of that last breath of resentment even in death. He held on, somehow managing to last more than ten minutes in the river without dying completely.

The river water silently merged into the ocean current.

Lu Ao was swept to some unknown place, and he had no idea how much time had passed.

When he regained consciousness, it was already broad daylight.

He seemed to be floating underwater.

The water was crystal clear. Through the surface, he could see the blue sky and white clouds directly.

Astonishingly, though he was completely submerged, he did not feel the least bit suffocated.

He was a little dazed. Based on his judgment, there was no way he could have survived under such complicated hydrological conditions. He had no idea what miracle had happened, but he had actually been given the chance to open his eyes again.

Lu Ao instinctively blew out a bubble and began struggling, paddling desperately with both hands.

Wait, something was wrong.

Lu Ao widened his eyes and looked ahead.

He soon discovered two claws. What he was using to paddle was not his hands, but two short little claws!

They were incredibly short—not even as long as his forearms.

The claws were strange. Their tips were sharp, and their bodies were covered in scales, making them look like a lizard's claws.

Lu Ao completely panicked.

He flailed hard in the water and twisted his head, trying to get a clear look at himself.

Claws, a spine, a tail.

His body was covered in scales too, with a faint jade-like texture. They were cool, translucent dark green.

They looked very beautiful.

But no matter how beautiful, they were still nonhuman.

He had been nearly six feet tall, long-limbed and well-proportioned. Yet after jumping into a river and waking up again, he had become a four-legged lizard?!

What did four-legged lizards eat? Surely they did not eat bugs, right?

As Lu Ao struggled toward the surface, uncontrollable wild thoughts flooded his mind.

His claws might have been short, but they were quite useful. Before long, he reached the surface.

He stuck his head above the water. Soon, he saw the blue sky and white clouds—and a deserted island nearby.

A deserted island made entirely of stone.

Lu Ao did not go out to sea often, so he had no idea where this was.

He rolled his eyes and looked around, discovering that this stretch of sea was unusually calm.

It was not yet time for the tide to rise or fall, and there were only tiny waves on the surface.

Looking in every direction, he could not see a single boat.

He did not even know whether he was still on Earth.

Lu Ao let out a breath of relief.

Even if he was no longer on Earth, that was better than appearing directly in front of humans.

Somewhat weak, he slowly crawled onto the island along the rocks.

He was utterly exhausted. The blazing sun warmed his back, and at that moment, he almost wanted to collapse on the rocks and fall asleep without a care.

Fortunately, his reason returned. He forced himself to perk up and crawled around the island once.

The island was not large. At its longest, it was only thirty or forty meters, and at its widest, only twenty or thirty meters.

There were several pools of water on the island, while the rock walls were covered with many oysters and all kinds of sea snails.

Oysters could be eaten raw, and many sea snails could too.

Only when Lu Ao saw food did he realize that he had long been ravenously hungry.

He could not care about any squeamishness as he crawled over to look for snails.

The sea snails here were all rather small. He did not know many kinds, recognizing only a few dark brown spicy snails.

There were not many of them. Gathered together on the ground, they amounted to only about a handful.

The opercula on the snails were tightly shut. With his tiny claws, there was no way to get at the meat inside unless he bit through the shells as well.

Lu Ao did not know whether his current teeth could directly crush these snails.

He stared at them for a while, inexplicably reluctant to try. They were too hard. If he were still human, biting them would have been enough to shatter his teeth.

The snails were right there in sight but impossible to eat. After thinking for a while, Lu Ao slowly went to find a rock, then painstakingly brought his tiny claws together and lifted a stone beside him that was even bigger than a soccer ball.