Ji Zhixing looked at the dense mass of Water Lice, then at the Landwalking Ancient Whale's eyes. An absurd feeling suddenly welled up inside him.
"A third-order Gene Beast actually came ashore to ask me to clean off its parasites?"
The moment the thought occurred to him, even he found it unbelievable.
But he quickly calmed down.
"No, maybe that isn't what it means." Ji Zhixing rapidly weighed his options. "I'll test it first and see whether it stops me if I leave."
He tried backing away slowly, his steps featherlight as he moved away from the Landwalking Ancient Whale inch by inch.
He had only taken two steps back.
Whoosh!
The Landwalking Ancient Whale opened its mouth, and a rounded stone shot out, smashing into the boulder beside him with a bang.
The boulder shattered on impact, sending fragments flying.
Cold sweat instantly broke out all over Ji Zhixing.
The stone was the size of a soccer ball. It shot from the Landwalking Ancient Whale's mouth so fast that he could not even see it clearly. It struck the boulder as though it were tofu, blasting it apart.
"If that hit me..." Ji Zhixing swallowed and immediately stopped, not daring to move a muscle.
He looked at the Landwalking Ancient Whale, then at the dense mass of Water Lice. After a moment's hesitation, he slowly walked toward the whale.
The Landwalking Ancient Whale did not move. It merely held its body sideways and waited patiently. Its eyes remained fixed on him, their expression unreadable.
Ji Zhixing reached the Landwalking Ancient Whale's side and looked up at the dense mass of Water Lice, his scalp prickling.
They looked like enlarged woodlice, with glossy gray-brown shells. Their thin legs were firmly embedded in the Landwalking Ancient Whale's skin, some already sunk into its flesh. The surrounding areas were red, swollen, and inflamed. Just looking at them hurt.
"Here goes." Ji Zhixing took a deep breath, grabbed a Water Louse, and pulled hard.
The Water Louse clung stubbornly, making it difficult to pull off. Ji Zhixing applied more force, and with a wet pop, he tore it free.
A red mark remained on the Landwalking Ancient Whale's skin, beads of blood seeping out.
The Water Louse struggled desperately in Ji Zhixing's hand, its thin legs flailing and its shell scraping with a rustling sound.
The Landwalking Ancient Whale's body gave a slight shudder, as though it felt good, and its fin spread a little farther.
Now Ji Zhixing understood why the creature could not remove the Water Lice itself. There was a natural gap between its fin and its body that would not close.
And its fin could not spread all the way out either, so even rolling around would do no good.
Ji Zhixing tossed the Water Louse aside and started pulling off the second one.
This time, he knew what to do. Pinching the edge of its shell, he gave a sharp tug and tore it off cleanly. The Landwalking Ancient Whale shuddered again, more noticeably this time.
Ji Zhixing pulled them off one by one.
After removing a dozen or so, his hands were covered in sticky liquid. He could not tell whether it was the Water Lice's bodily fluids or the Landwalking Ancient Whale's blood.
He shook his hands and kept pulling.
The Landwalking Ancient Whale remained motionless on its side, occasionally giving a gentle shudder as though enjoying itself.
Once he finished one side, the Landwalking Ancient Whale turned over on its own, exposing the other.
Ji Zhixing looked at the dense mass of Water Lice there and resigned himself to pulling off more.
After another ten minutes or so, he tore off the last Water Louse. Ji Zhixing backed away two steps and shook his aching hands.
A broad swath of red marks remained on the Landwalking Ancient Whale's skin. Some spots were still bleeding, but it looked much better than before.
The Landwalking Ancient Whale slowly turned around and glanced at Ji Zhixing. Then it wriggled its body and crawled toward the lake.
Ji Zhixing breathed a sigh of relief.
It was finally over.
But halfway into the water, the Landwalking Ancient Whale suddenly stopped and turned to look at him. Seeing that he remained motionless, it opened its mouth again.
"What now? Surely it isn't going to silence me?" Ji Zhixing's heart tightened.
Bang! The Landwalking Ancient Whale spat out another stone. It slammed into the ground beside him, spraying fragments everywhere.
Ji Zhixing stared at the freshly blasted crater, then at the Landwalking Ancient Whale. His heart turned ice-cold.
"What is it doing? Does it want me to follow?"
He hesitated, then started toward the lake. Only when the Landwalking Ancient Whale saw him move did it continue crawling into the water, its enormous body slowly sinking beneath the surface.
Ji Zhixing reached the water's edge and watched the Landwalking Ancient Whale's gray-white back flickering beneath the surface, torn with indecision.
"If I don't go in, one stone from it will finish me. If I do, who knows where it'll take me?"
He gritted his teeth and leaped into the water.
Without strength, all he could do was obey.
"Good thing I have the Frog Pendant," Ji Zhixing thought as he swam after it. "Otherwise, since I can't dive, the Landwalking Ancient Whale would probably smash my head open with a single stone."
The Landwalking Ancient Whale led him deeper and deeper, and the light steadily dimmed. Sand, rocks, and aquatic plants slid past beneath them. Occasionally, startled fish scattered in all directions.
After swimming for several minutes, the Landwalking Ancient Whale stopped before a rock wall. A huge submerged tunnel opened there, its entrance pitch-black, its depths hidden from sight.
The Landwalking Ancient Whale slowly swam inside, its enormous body only just fitting through. After swimming a few meters, it looked back at Ji Zhixing.
Ji Zhixing hurried after it.
The submerged tunnel was long and winding, its walls covered in aquatic plants and moss. The Landwalking Ancient Whale swam ahead, occasionally flicking its tail and stirring up clouds of sediment.
As Ji Zhixing followed, his imagination ran wild.
"Have I stumbled upon some lucky opportunity? Could it be like those novels, where it wants to repay me by giving me some treasure..."
While he was still thinking, the tunnel ahead suddenly widened. The Landwalking Ancient Whale swam in, and Ji Zhixing followed.
The space before him suddenly opened up.
It was an enormous underwater chamber, easily the size of a basketball court. The ceiling was high, and glowing stones overhead cast a hazy light through the cave.
Half the chamber was submerged in lake water, while the other half lay above the surface. A rocky bank covered in fine sand and gravel rose above the water.
"Ribbit! Ribbit!"
Ji Zhixing had barely lifted his head out of the water when he heard a chorus of croaking.
His gaze swept across the rocky bank, where a dozen or so Giant-Footed Frogs crouched.
At the sight of the Landwalking Ancient Whale, they all huddled up, too frightened to move.
After entering the chamber, the Landwalking Ancient Whale glanced back at him, then looked at the Giant-Footed Frogs.
At that sight, a bad feeling immediately rose in Ji Zhixing's heart.
"What does that mean?"
"Could these Giant-Footed Frogs be cleaning the Landwalking Ancient Whale's Water Lice? They aren't capable enough to remove the stubborn ones, so that's why it came looking for me?"
"It didn't bring me here to repay me. It wants me as its new servant, to keep me like one of these Giant-Footed Frogs?"
Ji Zhixing looked at the huddled Giant-Footed Frogs, then at himself, his expression stiffening.
Bang!
Seeing that he still had not moved, the Landwalking Ancient Whale's patience gradually wore thin. Suddenly, it opened its mouth and spat out another stone, which struck beside him.
Ji Zhixing's heart lurched. He took a deep breath, hurriedly climbed out of the water, and walked over to the Giant-Footed Frogs.
Only then did the Landwalking Ancient Whale look away. It slowly swam into the depths of the cave, its enormous body sinking into the water until only half its back remained exposed.
Ji Zhixing huddled with the Giant-Footed Frogs and looked around the Underground Water Cave, a jumble of emotions churning inside him.
"What kind of mess is this..." He sighed, his gaze inadvertently sweeping across the depths of the cave.
Suddenly, he froze.
At the very back of the cave, beside the spot where the Landwalking Ancient Whale lay, was a separate little pool. It was small, only the size of a washbasin.
Above the pool, a stalactite hung from the cave wall. A drop of milky-white liquid was forming at its tip. The drop slowly grew, then fell into the pool with a clear plink.
A shallow layer of milky-white liquid had already collected in the pool.
"Earth Core Spirit Liquid!"
Ji Zhixing's heart gave a violent thump, and he nearly cried out.
He had used Earth Core Spirit Liquid to cultivate not long ago, so he could not have been more familiar with that milky-white liquid. And here, in that little pool, there was actually so much of it.
"So much Earth Core Spirit Liquid..." An intense longing surged inside him. "If it were all mine, never mind breaking through to the first-order peak. Even after I become a second-order gene cultivator, there would be enough to cultivate all the way to the second-order peak."
But he quickly suppressed that thought.
"Right now, forget getting my hands on this Earth Core Spirit Liquid. Even escaping this place would mean overcoming a thousand trials and ten thousand hardships."
He glanced at the Landwalking Ancient Whale lying in the depths of the cave, then at the dark water at the entrance. His heart grew heavy.
"The Landwalking Ancient Whale is much faster in the water than I am. Even with the Frog Pendant, there's no way I could swim out right under its nose."
"And it could send a stone flying at me at any moment..."
He crouched down, glanced at the huddled Giant-Footed Frogs beside him, and took a deep breath.
In this situation, he truly had no idea what to do.
Before you continue