The Spiny Shrimp Swarm

With Ghost gone, Xiao Hao decided to stop farming monsters one at a time.

It was too inefficient.

He was going to try farming entire swarms.

After his previous two hunting sessions, Xiao Hao had gotten a rough idea of the monster swarms.

There were three populations: low-level Prehistoric Spiny Shrimp, Human-Faced Thornfish, and Primordial Snailfish.

Of these, the Primordial Snailfish were both the easiest and the hardest to deal with.

They were easy because their attacks were weak. Even if the mantis shrimp stood still and let them hit it, they could not break through its defenses.

They were difficult because of their absurd health and peculiar constitution.

Their bodies consisted entirely of a gelatinous substance, translucent with a hint of color like pudding, and immune to physical attacks.

Even after the mantis shrimp chopped them into mince, they stuck themselves back together like modeling clay without taking any damage.

Only the Shadow Seahorses' Darkness Erosion could hurt them, but even that took a considerable amount of time.

Time was what Xiao Hao lacked most.

That was also why he had never gone looking for the boss-level Primordial Snailfish.

If wearing down its health took half a day, Ghost would have broken into the Coral Shell Room long before he finished.

The more he feared death, the more likely he was to die.

Xiao Hao decided to target the Prehistoric Spiny Shrimp.

At a glance, each of the three populations contained at least several hundred monsters.

Xiao Hao sent the seahorses out first, then had the mantis shrimp draw their attacks while he hid in a corner and kept his head down.

The moment the Peacock Mantis Shrimp appeared, a Thorn Shrimp roughly two meters long charged at it impatiently.

The first slash severed its two protruding, tentacle-like eyeballs.

The second slash cut off the two centipede-like feelers it thrust forward.

Before it could flee, the third slash split its crocodilian body in two.

The Thorn Shrimp's flesh was neatly sliced apart in an instant. Only then did the exposed blood vessels seem to react, spraying blood without pause.

The mantis shrimp stood coldly in place, its two enormous jade scythes held across its front as though it had never moved.

Its slashes had been so fast that before the afterimages left behind could fade, its jade scythes had already returned to their original positions.

Xiao Hao happily pocketed ten Spirit Pearls.

The seahorses had a more awkward time. They could cast Darkness Domain together, but when different Thorn Shrimp fled in different directions, their AoE skill could only follow one of them.

Fortunately, the eightfold-stacked Darkness Domain covered a sizable area. Even when the Thorn Shrimp inside scattered, it could still drain the vitality of several at once.

The mantis shrimp brutally slaughtered its first victim, and the spreading crimson blood provoked the Thorn Shrimp swarm.

The Thorn Shrimp's tentacle-like eyeballs had whites crisscrossed with blood vessels like centipede legs. The circular mouth beneath its head tore open, gradually exposing blade-like teeth, while lingering threads of blood writhed through the water like parasites.

The Thorn Shrimp lunged onto the mantis shrimp. Even swinging its jade scythes, it could not slaughter them all at once.

Those that escaped its attacks successfully landed on it, scraping their sharp, blade-like teeth against its Jade Armor.

The Jade Armor was green all over and remained pristine despite their gnawing teeth.

More and more Thorn Shrimp piled onto the mantis shrimp until its position seemed to have become a spherical ball of flesh.

The mantis shrimp had not used any skills.

Those few slashes had merely been basic attacks.

Xiao Hao had been afraid that using a skill right away would scare the monsters off.

Now that enough monsters had crowded around the mantis shrimp, Xiao Hao ordered it to unleash its ultimate.

Its two enormous Mantis Scythes swung at blinding speed, like an electric fan turned up to its highest setting.

Like a chef at a five-star restaurant, the mantis shrimp used its extraordinary knife work to slice every Thorn Shrimp around it into thin cuts of meat. Even the dark red ground was scored with neat slash marks.

Wherever those slashes passed, earth and stone crumbled into fine sand.

And all of it happened in the blink of an eye.

The slices floating through the water were so thin they were almost transparent. Xiao Hao could even see through them.

One small Prehistoric Spiny Shrimp after another surged forward, but before the mantis shrimp's jade scythes, they were as helpless as insects trying to shake a tree.

Soon, blood stained this stretch of sea red.

There were too many Prehistoric Spiny Shrimp spread over too wide an area. Among all those protruding eyeballs, one was bound to spot Xiao Hao.

That was also why Xiao Hao had been so reluctant to provoke the swarms. It was far too easy to become their collective target.

The mantis shrimp's slaughter had terrified them, while the Shadow Seahorses appeared and disappeared without a trace.

Xiao Hao was their ideal target.

As expected, unable to challenge the mantis shrimp or find the little seahorses, the Thorn Shrimp focused all their aggro on Xiao Hao.

Xiao Hao felt utterly screwed.

He did not dare retreat into the Coral Shell Room.

A single Deep-Sea Ghost had already left the Coral Shell Room in peril. If several hundred Thorn Shrimp joined in, Xiao Hao might as well bare his neck and wait to die.

But where could he hide?

If he got too close to the mantis shrimp and it made one mistake, he would be sliced into meat too.

Even if he used Shadow Transformation to enter the Darkness Domain, these monsters could still sense him.

Xiao Hao could maintain Shadow Transformation for a few minutes each time. All he could do was use that window to lure as many monsters toward the mantis shrimp as possible.

Unfortunately, while these monsters were not clever, they still knew how to seek safety and avoid danger. They kept steering clear of the mantis shrimp.

And so it turned into...

The mantis shrimp chased the monsters and hacked at them, while the monsters chased Xiao Hao and hacked at him. Although the seahorses kept casting Darkness Domain, Xiao Hao could not shake the feeling that they were slacking off and merely providing atmosphere.

He had known this would happen!

With Shadow Transformation about to expire, Xiao Hao simply climbed onto the mantis shrimp's armored back and ordered it to keep its scythes pointed forward, never attacking behind itself.

It would use Rinkaku Tentacles to attack the Thorn Shrimp behind it instead.

Even if a tentacle slipped up, at least it would not kill him outright. He would still have a chance to drink a Blood Potion.

The crimson tentacles strangled, pierced, or flattened the Thorn Shrimp, skimming past Xiao Hao's body by mere millimeters as though tracing his outline to demonstrate their precise control.

But Xiao Hao watched in terror.

If its control were really that good, it would not have gotten tangled up in its own Rinkaku Tentacles before!

Sitting on its back, Xiao Hao looked like a wax statue.

He dared not move.

He dared not move at all.

He was terrified that if he shifted around, the mantis shrimp might accidentally drive a tentacle into him.

The eight seahorses cast Darkness Domain directly around Xiao Hao. With their eightfold health-draining speed, any ordinary Thorn Shrimp that stayed inside for a minute would die.

Using the Retry Gloves, Xiao Hao cast Jade Armor.

Only after the armor covered him did Xiao Hao feel much safer.

There were too many Thorn Shrimp. Some inevitably slipped through the gaps between the mantis shrimp's tentacles and lunged at Xiao Hao to bite him.

Fortunately, the Thorn Shrimp's teeth could not pierce the jade armor.

Xiao Hao remained unhurt, but his stamina drained faster.

The seahorses had no choice but to reveal themselves one after another, whipping their barbed black-and-gold tails at the Thorn Shrimp beside Xiao Hao.

Their tails also had four-sided bony rings, and their lashes struck even harder than the spiny shrimp's centipede-like feelers.

Under the seahorses' blows, the sturdy crocodilian body of the Prehistoric Spiny Shrimp biting at Xiao Hao suffered multiple comminuted fractures and went limp like a large, fat sea snake.

Before long, Xiao Hao received its death notification.

The eight seahorses surrounded Xiao Hao like the eight directions of a bagua formation, serving as his personal bodyguards.

They were only half a meter long and looked unimpressive beside the Thorn Shrimp, which averaged two meters. But they were genuine level-five rare monsters, several levels above the Thorn Shrimp.

So even in terms of physical strength alone, the seahorses were no weaker than the Thorn Shrimp.

More and more Thorn Shrimp died, and the thickening scent of blood further inflamed the swarm.

The Thorn Shrimp's eyeballs turned entirely crimson. Gradually losing all reason, they surged forward like a frenzied tide.

More and more shrimp slipped through. The mantis shrimp had its passive undying body skill and was fine, but the seahorses were struggling increasingly hard.

Xiao Hao used Shadow Transformation with the seahorses to move directly beneath the mantis shrimp. The moment it unleashed its ultimate, slices of flesh drifted down like willow fluff, creating a strangely beautiful sight.

Bright red pigment splashed freely. Bloodstained brain matter resembled blooming white lotuses, the crazed crimson eyeballs seemed to speak of despair, and the broken blade-like teeth lay utterly lifeless.

Time itself seemed to slow across this red seabed. Dark red sand swirled upward, and the jade scythes became fleeting streaks of emerald light. Wherever that light flashed, bloody lotuses burst into bloom.

Unfortunately, these million-dollar special effects could not last long.

Fine, in plain language, Xiao Hao was almost out of stamina, and the mantis shrimp had to stop swinging its two prized jade scythes.

Xiao Hao slumped limply on the mantis shrimp's armored back, his face as pale as though he had spent all night **, looking utterly done with life.

The mantis shrimp had only just cleared the monsters around it when more Prehistoric Spiny Shrimp surged forward. Sprawled on its back like a powerless sage, Xiao Hao watched helplessly as they drew closer.

But was Xiao Hao really a sage who had transcended life and death?

No.

He was not.

Xiao Hao had simply calculated the timing.

After all, the Shadow Seahorses' Darkness Domain and Erosion had been active the whole time.

The eightfold-stacked Darkness Domain covered a far greater area than the mantis shrimp's close-range ultimate.

How could these monsters, having lost all reason, notice their gradually decaying bodies?

Inside the Darkness Domain, the Thorn Shrimp's tentacle-like eyeballs had turned so red they were almost black. Their paddle-like fins shriveled like an old person's wrinkled skin, and their graying white bellies resembled dead pigskin coated in dust. Even their centipede-like feelers crackled with the sound of breaking bones, as though about to fall apart.

Before these Thorn Shrimp could knock Xiao Hao down, they had already become corpses.

Their vitality completely eroded, their heavy bodies fell like stones. Dull thuds sounded, and several Corpse Mountains had already formed around him.

Only scattered handfuls of Thorn Shrimp remained. The deaths of so many companions finally awakened the fear deep within them.

The Thorn Shrimp scattered in flight. Some panicked and charged straight toward Xiao Hao instead, only to be perfectly carved up by the mantis shrimp's masterful knife work.

Xiao Hao collapsed in exhaustion on the mantis shrimp's back, and silence returned to the dark seabed.

Carrying the limp Xiao Hao, the mantis shrimp still remembered to brace both sides of his body with its Rinkaku Tentacles to keep him from accidentally falling off.

Across this desolate seabed, its red diamond-like limbs pierced the ground, and every step the Mantis Shrimp took was exceptionally steady.

The eight seahorses kept watch all around, forming a moving regular octagon with Xiao Hao at its center.