Chapter 73
The Great Barrier Reef of Australia, Abiseth’s homeland.
The aircraft carrier continued drifting eastward along the currents, and Abiseth couldn’t possibly move such a behemoth. He had no choice but to follow the aircraft carrier as it drifted further into the Pacific Ocean, completely separate from Siren and Xia Yi’s journey—this made the giant octopus very happy. It no longer had to worry about waking up to find holes all over its tentacles.
Soft-bodied creatures can’t handle this.
Just because it’s fleshy doesn’t mean you can jab at it however you want!
Watching a certain octopus dart away, Xia Yi initially felt sympathy. After all, being so close to home but unable to go inside—it’s frustrating. But upon arriving at the Great Barrier Reef, he instantly abandoned that thought.
The water here was surprisingly shallow, only enough to fit Abiseth’s entire body.
What’s most troublesome is the abundance of obstacles in this area, like a tropical rainforest made entirely of coral. It was impossible to see more than a few meters ahead. Though the seawater was crystal clear and blue like a gem, it couldn’t hide the fact that these coral reefs were reaching out of the water, defying the norms.
Xia Yi’s eyes widened at the sight. He had seen plenty of coral reefs, but they were always submerged, occasionally with protruding high points that stood out.
Never had he seen vast expanses of coral reefs visible above the water’s surface. Some of these corals were even exposed to the sunlight, displaying their bodies freely.
Siren seemed to enjoy the warm sunshine.
After swimming forward for a while, he climbed onto a coral reef protruding from the sea. He sat there, gazing up at the clear blue sky without a cloud in sight, his silver fish tail still immersed in the seawater. His hair flowed over his shoulders, and the small pearl-colored seashell hung tightly against his chest.
His elbows and waist fins had regrown. The ivory-white bone spurs supported the fin-like gauze, still semi-transparent. When the sea breeze blew, a few strands of wet hair gently moved, revealing evenly symmetrical butterfly bones and the distinctly light red spots.
Especially the layers of coral on the side. Some branches were thick and curious, stretching out with several main trunks, while others resembled stacks of layers. Xia Yi’s sharp eyes noticed that half of the coral reef also had a large gray-white giant clam, conveniently positioned where it emerged above the sea level. This made the fish tail covered with pale silver scales look most beautiful in the fantasy illustration style.
No matter the personality, anyone who saw such an eye-catching scenery would subconsciously slow their breathing, becoming enchanted and entranced.
A triangular fin emerged silently from the water’s surface, gliding quietly from afar—
Siren happened to turn his gaze, shifting from the clear sky to Xia Yi.
Before Xia Yi could discover Siren’s distracted appearance, he had already noticed something unusual on the sea’s surface!
A sharp sound wave that jolted Xia Yi’s senses reverberated, and he stared in disbelief as Siren suddenly propped himself on the coral reef, his body curving into the sea, creating a blurred sight of splashing water.
Xia Yi didn’t understand what was happening and followed suit, diving down.
A tiger shark over four meters long with patterns all over its body was thrashing in the seawater. Its terrifyingly large mouth was biting wildly, and its sharp teeth had actually nibbled off a small piece of coral reef.
Siren didn’t directly confront it; he firmly stuck to its dorsal fin and swiftly turned along with its violent movements. The merman’s body length was much smaller compared to such a shark, only about a third of it. Its agility made the tiger shark unable to even touch it despite circling in place.
This ferocious creature that dominated the sea was becoming irritable, more aggressive in its attacks.
As Xia Yi retreated, he firmly wrapped the water layer around his side.
He conjured over a dozen ice blades suspended in the seawater, unsure of how to intervene to help Siren in this life-threatening struggle.
The merman and tiger shark were too close.
This life-and-death struggle resembled an intense and agile dance. This tiger shark, still not an adult, was no match for Siren, despite being a particularly fierce species of shark with extremely rapid reactions.
However, its slightly larger size allowed it to thrash from the sea surface to the sea floor. Xia Yi could only catch glimpses of the exuberant light silver fish tail. The shark’s fierce biting actions caused visible cracks on the shell surface of the huge clam, with surrounding corals breaking into pieces.
Compared to the shark’s brute force, Siren was much more agile. From fingertips to fish tail, he could bend into extremely clever arcs, avoiding coral reefs and obstacles, remaining firmly attached to the shark’s back like a festering bone infection.
The shark’s back skin was obviously tough. After becoming familiar with this creature’s tricks, Siren mercilessly left five blood marks on its side. The injured tiger shark became more agitated, its actions completely chaotic.
Siren took advantage of this by grasping its dorsal fin. This time, it wasn’t just shallow and short wounds; five fingers tore off half, regardless of how painful the tiger shark tried to struggle to maintain this action without being shaken off.
Blood spread in the seawater, staining the snow-white spray red.
The ferocious marine predator finally felt fear.
It began swimming desperately outward at high speed, trying to escape. Because blood would stimulate the senses of many fish, including its kind, and it was just a tiger shark without adult traits, to save its life, it could only quickly dive into a natural sea lake surrounded by coral reefs. Such places often had only one opening, suitable for recuperating from injuries and ambushing opponents.
Siren didn’t want to hitch a ride with it, and halfway through, he loosened his fingers, not looking at the fleeing tiger shark but swimming closer to Xia Yi, affectionately and intimately rubbing his chest and back with his arms.
He wanted to see if Xia Yi was injured.
But because of the water layer in between, Xia Yi could only see a faint red spreading around his body.
Siren’s chest rose and fell heavily. Xia Yi noticed that mermaids could sweat too, but those clear drops of water melted into the sea as soon as they emerged from his forehead and shoulder blades.
The Siren didn’t show any dissatisfaction with the layer of seawater enveloping Xia Yi’s body.
Instead, he held him tighter and tighter, refusing to let go for quite some time.
The sea returned to calm. If the corals here resembled a tropical rainforest, then the towering coral reefs were like steep cliffs. What was most intriguing was that many corals resembled lotus leaves in appearance, and some even looked like lingzhi mushrooms. A group of butterflyfish with yellow bodies and black eye-shaped spots on their fins swam back.
From crevices, numerous small and large eyes peeked out. A fist-sized clam tentatively opened its shell slightly, and the reflected light caused Xia Yi to squint.
“Are you alright, Siren?”
Recalling what had just happened, Xia Yi began to feel a bit frightened.
The tiger shark was too ferocious.
It was just one, but what if there were more?
Originally, he thought sea monsters had no natural predators in the ocean. But now he wasn’t so sure. Even with the size of Abiseth’s body, and the hard shell like that of a tortoise, there were still places they wouldn’t dare to approach.
The tiger shark’s teeth could even crack the shell of a giant clam; a single bite could cause serious injury if not death!
Sensing Xia Yi’s unease, the Siren pulled away, puzzled. He looked carefully at Xia Yi’s expression, not seeing any wounds, which confused him.
“That shark won’t dare to come back,” he assured.
Xia Yi remained silent, gazing around.
The Great Barrier Reef was perhaps the most beautiful tropical sea area he had ever seen. It was teeming with life. Small fish darted out from under fine white sand, only to dart back in again. However, which stones and corals were actually venomous fish in disguise was difficult to determine.
His anxiety was becoming evident. The Siren grasped his arm and gestured for him to swim towards the densely populated coral reefs.
In fact, the Great Barrier Reef was like a maze, with winding, complex coral reefs resembling curved walls or pillars. Occasionally, there were also large leaf-like seaweeds swaying or drooping.
Xia Yi felt dizzy. If he had to swim back along the same path, he would surely lose his way. There were no landmarks or buildings underwater to serve as waypoints. Even if there was an unusually prominent coral group, it could be seen simultaneously from all directions.
The more he looked, the more anxious Xia Yi became.
There were many hiding places for large fish adept at ambush. They only needed to seize the opportunity to emerge, making it impossible to defend against.
“Xia Yi? Don’t you like it here?”
Sensing trouble, the Siren drew closer to Xia Yi.
But before he could say anything, danger suddenly appeared, just as Xia Yi had feared. As they turned around a huge coral reef, instead of a colorful underwater scene, Xia Yi saw a large gaping mouth with sharp triangular serrated teeth.
Xia Yi exclaimed in shock and was choked by seawater. He desperately pulled the Siren back as the calm sea instantly surged. But it was too late. The Siren was facing Xia Yi and didn’t see what was behind them.
But noticing Xia Yi’s expression and the change in the water flow around them, the Siren’s purple eyes suddenly narrowed.
Xia Yi immediately heard a meaningless intense sound wave, which made him dizzy. His abilities also went out of control. He fell forward, coincidentally landing on the Siren, and due to fear, Xia Yi tried hard to keep his eyes open to see clearly around him.
What he saw was something he couldn’t believe.
That shark—yes, it was a mature tiger shark, eight meters long—its massive body was overturned, its fins and body twitching strangely, slowly floating towards the surface.
Overwhelmed with shock, Xia Yi forgot he couldn’t breathe and kept coughing. The layer of water around him dispersed due to his out-of-control abilities. The Siren’s cold arms immediately embraced his back, followed by cool lips.
After that, there were no other actions. The temperature on the mermaid’s body seemed to always be the same as that of seawater, slightly warm in the tropics, but still lower than Xia Yi’s body temperature.
The cough gradually stopped. Xia Yi was still uncomfortable with such contact. Although only their lips touched, subconsciously, he felt that if this continued, it would definitely not be what he wanted to see, so he slightly turned his head away.
“Is… is it dead?” Xia Yi stared at the belly-up shark in disbelief.
“The infrasound waves can kill many organisms…” including humans, but it’s all about the difference in frequency.
This was the innate ability of mermaids, their talent for sound, and the truth that sea monsters had no natural enemies in the vast ocean.
Otherwise, creatures like Thomas, who floated lazily on the sea surface without a carapace to protect their bellies, would have been attacked long ago. Moreover, in the ocean, it’s not the bigger and more ferocious creatures that are always safe. Electric eels and sea snakes were deadly enough.
“What about before?”
The Siren didn’t speak, but Xia Yi also noticed.
Obviously, not only had that unlucky shark died, but many beautiful tropical fish had also suffered. It’s just that their small size caused them to get stuck in the coral bushes and not float away, so their fate was unknown.
Different organisms have different lethal infrasound wave frequencies. The tiger shark was too large, and under such waves, the smaller fish couldn’t withstand the impact and died directly.
Though sea monsters had no environmental protection awareness; they wouldn’t use infrasound waves recklessly because killing all the food in the vicinity would mean no food in the future.
Xia Yi vaguely remembered when he encountered the crab spider. Sea monsters seemed to have said that crab spiders were troublesome because they weren’t afraid of infrasound waves and were not naturally occurring populations.
Then what about sea monsters?
How did they acquire their abilities?
Sleepyblue’s corner:
Bonus chapter courtesy to Willow ^ ^ Thank you for the donations! 🙇♀️
