Su Ze and his clone couldn’t stray too far from each other, so he had his main body dive down near the trench entrance before controlling the small mass of the clone to descend to the bottom.

The clone also carried a Storage Ring, though it was camouflaged to be invisible from the outside. The ring itself had been rendered transparent.

A constant stream of mutated beasts moved in and out of the trench. It was so crowded that Su Ze’s Liquid Clone couldn’t avoid them. Beasts passed right through its body, but none of them noticed anything amiss.

To them, it felt no different from swimming through ordinary seawater.

Su Ze’s Liquid Clone, having been upgraded, was already a god-tier camouflage ability. In the water, it needed almost no active concealment to be perfectly natural.

The clone continued its descent and soon reached the bottom of the trench.

He didn’t bother collecting the scattered flecks of "gold sand" in the sea mud. Instead, he moved past the crowd of worshipping beasts and went straight for the Great Sea Shell.

Su Ze had planned to burrow directly into the sea mud beneath the Great Sea Shell, but just then, the hermit crab—which had only cracked its door open to peek out with a pair of eyes—suddenly pushed the door wide and scurried out.

Su Ze’s clone brushed right past it, and his heart leaped into his throat, terrified of being discovered.

But the hermit crab was completely oblivious. It swaggered forward a couple of steps, puffed out its chest, and smugly scanned the crowd of worshipping beasts before it.

Its small, raised eyes clearly conveyed its mood, as if the word ’smug’ were carved right onto its hard-shelled face.

The assembled beasts were incredibly deferential to the hermit crab. The weaker ones were so terrified they prostrated themselves on the seafloor, not daring to rise.

The hermit crab seemed to revel in the other beasts’ worship and awe. It raised its upper body, propped its two large pincers on its hips akimbo, and swept the area with a powerful mental wave, as if lecturing the crowd.

Feeling the terrifying mental wave emanating from the hermit crab, Su Ze’s heart pounded. He was finally certain that this wretched crab was truly a Tier 6 mutated beast!

’How can any Tom, Dick, or Harry become a Tier 6 mutated beast?’

Gazing at the wide-open door on the Great Sea Shell and the grandstanding hermit crab, Su Ze suddenly had a bold idea...

’If I sneak in now and steal the hermit crab’s two "gold ores," I probably won’t be discovered, right?’

’It’s just a tiny piece of my clone, anyway. If I lose it, I lose it.’ Bolstering his courage, Su Ze guided the clone toward the inside of the Great Sea Shell.

’Based on the dull senses the hermit crab had shown so far, the chances of being discovered are low. Even if it spots me, it doesn’t seem to have any way to trace my main body. I’ll just have to abandon the clone and retreat.’

Su Ze’s clone slipped inside the Great Sea Shell. At such a close distance, he could feel a life force from it, confirming the huge creature was still alive.

’What a brainless creature,’ he thought. ’Even after evolving into a mutated beast, it’s still an idiot. Something carves a hole in its body and sets up a home, and it doesn’t react at all.’

Su Ze’s clone moved along the yellow inner wall of the Great Sea Shell and quickly found a hollowed-out compartment. Inside, besides the two "gold ores," was a pile of junk.

There were scratched glass marbles, bleached fish bones, a moss-covered tennis ball...

’I have no idea where the hermit crab collected all this junk. Some of it probably came from human trash thrown into the sea, yet it hoarded it all like treasure.’

Su Ze quietly took only the two "gold ores," placing them silently into the clone’s Storage Ring.

Then, he withdrew from the Great Sea Shell, dispersed his clone’s form, thinning it out and squeezing it bit by bit into the sea mud below.

The sea mud was already saturated with water. He forced his clone to displace that water and merge with the mud itself.

Sure enough, in the mud beneath the Great Sea Shell, he saw fine, golden gravel. These pebbles were also treasures, and Su Ze collected them piece by piece.

He memorized the location of the purple barrier but didn’t approach it for now. He planned to first collect all the surrounding golden gravel before exploring further.

A moment later, Su Ze had collected all the golden gravel in the area around the purple barrier.

After a moment’s thought, he controlled the clone to retreat.

’After all, I’ve already collected so much "gold ore." Better to secure it first. If something happens to the clone during the next phase of exploration and I can’t retrieve it, the loss would be immense.’

The hermit crab was still delivering its passionate "speech," pausing from time to time as if waiting for applause, expecting a response from its audience.

At every pause, the assembled beasts would either dance on the spot, bash their heads on the seafloor, or let out all sorts of bizarre-sounding cheers.

The hermit crab was completely lost in the moment.

Su Ze’s clone slipped stealthily past the hermit crab, floated all the way up to his main body, and left the Storage Ring filled with "gold ore." Then, it once again dove toward the bottom of the trench.

His main body took the Storage Ring and felt the rich golden energy contained within the small pile of "gold ore." The energy from the two large pieces he’d taken from the hermit crab was practically overflowing.

Su Ze felt much more at ease. ’With this haul of "gold ore," this whole adventure is already a massive win.’

Now he could send his clone on a suicide mission to explore without any worries.

’All I have to do now is immediately sever the connection if the clone runs into any trouble, so my main body isn’t affected.’