Chapter 57

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On the Leviathan's side, Lin had been keeping the giant pitworms in check without moving. Lin didn't know if they were simply not hungry or for some other reason, but something interesting was happening here.

Suddenly, ice began to form from the surface of the sea.

Although Lin had seen ice form in water many times, this peculiar phenomenon was something new. The ice didn't spread wildly as before; instead, it formed a massive ice pillar that extended from the surface deep into the sea. The tip of the ice pillar was slowly growing, almost touching the seabed.

Why did the freezing form a pillar and not freeze the surrounding water?

Curious, Lin had the Leviathan approach the ice pillar. The pillar wasn't very thick, and Lin noticed that many creatures were frozen inside it, but they were mostly jellyfish and other floating organisms.

Perhaps the jellyfish didn't avoid the ice pillar and collided with it themselves, as the water around the pillar wasn't particularly cold.

Lin had the Leviathan extend a tentacle to gently touch the ice pillar. At that moment, Lin felt a sharp pain, and the tentacle's surface stuck to the ice.

The cold from the ice quickly spread through the cells in the tentacle. Lin immediately pulled the tentacle back with great force, feeling a strong tearing sensation. Finally, Lin managed to retract the tentacle, but a large piece of skin remained stuck to the ice pillar.

Lin quickly repaired the wound on the tentacle. The blood vessels automatically closed to prevent any cells from leaking out, but Lin was more concerned about the ice pillar.

Such a powerful freezing ability...

Why did this ice have such unique power? It was completely different from ordinary ice, with an extremely strong freezing ability but not spreading randomly in the water...

Why? And the surrounding water wasn't cold at all, which should only happen under extremely low temperatures in the water?

Unfathomable.

Suddenly, Lin thought of an interesting experiment. It formed a ball from chitin inside the Leviathan, with a long handle on top, and a hook at the end of the handle.

Lin took the ball out and placed it on the ice pillar. As expected, the ice quickly spread up the ball, soon freezing the entire chitin ball.

Then, Lin used the tentacle to grab the handle and pull the frozen ball off, taking it to the entrance of the giant pitworm's trap and throwing it in.

The moment the ice ball was thrown in, the trap entrance and the surrounding sand shook violently. The giant pitworm clearly reacted strongly to this. The ice on the ball began to spread, and the surrounding sand vibrated more and more intensely.

Suddenly, the sand around the trap entrance was thrown up, and a massive creature burst out of the sand, stirring up a cloud of dust as it swam into the water.

Is this the true form of the 'giant pitworm'? It wasn't as large as Lin had imagined. The trap Lin had seen initially was actually the entire body of this creature, an oval structure with the trap entrance as its head and a ring of swimming tentacles and water jets at its tail, allowing it to burst out of the sand.

However, the giant pitworm's tentacles and water jets were relatively small compared to its body. After swimming in the water for a short time, it seemed to lose strength and sank back to the bottom.

Then it began to dig into the sand with its tentacles, apparently trying to burrow back in.

Lin wouldn't let the giant pitworm succeed. The Leviathan immediately released several flying saws, which rushed toward the giant pitworm at high speed. The rapidly spinning saws cut through the giant pitworm's tentacles, and a large number of cells gushed out from the wounds. The giant pitworm immediately jetted water to move a short distance.

The flying saws pursued and cut into the wounds on the giant pitworm's tentacles again. These already injured and not very thick tentacles were instantly severed, leaving the massive creature unable to move.

Defeating a creature ten times larger than the Leviathan, Lin didn't feel particularly surprised. After all, this creature wasn't a particularly fierce predator.

But this creature was indeed quite unique, having evolved a hollow body to serve as a trap.

The Leviathan approached the giant pitworm and looked inside with its eyes. The chitin ball that had been thrown in no longer had any ice, apparently having melted. Although the freezing ability was strong, it melted too quickly to be of much use.

The Leviathan then swam to the tail of the giant pitworm and released a micro flying saw to enter the water jets and cut the soft structures inside.

Lin quickly killed the massive creature. Its internal structure was actually quite simple. The oval body was hollow inside, with a shell covering both the inner and outer walls, making it suitable for a trap. All the organs were squeezed into the narrow space between the inner and outer walls. It could produce a large amount of dissolving fluid in a short time, quickly filling its entire body cavity.

Lin felt it was necessary to study this rapid production of dissolving fluid. The giant pitworm's cells seemed to be able to ingest some harmless components from the water and quickly convert them into a powerful dissolving fluid, which was worth learning.

As for other aspects, there wasn't much that was particularly special. Although the creature was large, its structure was quite simple.

So, the next step was to continue the journey, but a base was needed here, mainly for the study of the peculiar ice pillar.

Lin released collectors to enter the giant pitworm's body, consuming all the various structures and cells cut by the flying saws. In the end, only a large oval hard shell remained. Lin then placed the base seed inside this hard shell.

Next, the Leviathan left the area, swimming upward toward the unknown region.

There was still some time before nightfall. The legion ball captured by the main base seemed lifeless, apparently having died from desiccation. Although it had no mouth, it had gills, and if the water on the gills was lost, it would die from the inability to collect oxygen.

Lin wasn't clear about the internal structure, as it had never created gills. On land, it directly relied on surface cells to capture air.

The Leviathan was now approaching the surface, which should have been warm, but Lin felt increasingly cold. It noticed that the surface was covered with a thin layer of ice crystals, through which light shone with a strange glow.

The ice pillar that Lin had seen earlier extended from this ice layer, reaching deep into the water.

The Leviathan swam close to the ice layer and tapped it with its tentacles. Lin found that this ice layer didn't have the rapid freezing ability of the ice pillar; it simply broke like ordinary ice.

Why was the ice pillar so strange? This was a question Lin couldn't currently answer.

The Leviathan continued to swim slowly under the ice layer. In this cold environment, there were quite a few creatures, mostly jellyfish, floating and swaying under the ice. Although they looked beautiful with the light filtering through the ice, Lin found them quite bothersome.

Lin had to be careful not to let the Leviathan's tentacles be stung. As it swam through the jellyfish, the ice layer ahead became thicker, and the light in the water grew dim.

In this environment, there were no more creatures. The Leviathan continued to move forward in the cold water.

The deeper it swam, the darker the surroundings became. Lin had to turn on the lantern to illuminate the strange ice crystals above.

After swimming for a while under the dark ice layer, Lin still hadn't found any creatures. Just as Lin was considering whether to return, a bright light suddenly appeared ahead.

A cave entrance?

When the Leviathan swam under the light, it discovered that the source of the light was a large circular hole in the ice layer, at least twice as wide as the Leviathan.

It was strange. Why was there such a hole in the ice layer?

The Leviathan swam to the bottom of the ice cave and saw that the edges of the hole looked as if they had been dug by sharp objects. This hole... was it dug by some creature? Why would it do that?

Lin also noticed that the marks were quite new, with ice crystal fragments still falling... perhaps the creature that dug the hole was nearby?

Suddenly, the floating eyes around the Leviathan saw a massive dark shadow. It was directly below the Leviathan and was rushing toward it at an extremely fast speed!

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Thank you~~~ Gong Wang's saber for the 10000~ Thank you~~~ I am a lolicon for the 1888~!!!

Thank you~ Da Wo Cheng~ for the donation~

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