Hunter of Mysterious Creature-Chapter 581 - 139: Aquatic Aberrations (Part 2)

"But the key point is this review from April 4714, just a month after the shop opened." Song Yarong extended a finger, swiping across the tablet screen, "A customer bought a tank of ornamental fish and took them home. In less than a week, over two-thirds of the fish developed a strange disease, with disgusting growths protruding from their bodies... This customer immediately chose to return the purchase for a refund."

Below this review were two blurry photos, as if taken through a door lock, where you could barely make out the decomposing flesh wrapped around the dorsal and caudal fins of two fish, resembling tumors clinging to them.

Everyone exchanged looks.

"I think these fish are malevolent creatures," Song Yarong said slowly, enunciating each word.

"I think so too," Ye Xuan nodded, "Senyang Aquarium not only sells normal ornamental fish but also secretly raises some fish-like malevolent creatures. Those toxic feeds, termed 'rat poison,' are probably used to feed these malevolent creatures. This negative review is likely an accident, mistaking the malevolent creatures raised in the shop for ordinary fish sold to customers... No wonder they have a good attitude towards compensation."

…

…

591 Victory Avenue, Jinlu County, Senyang Aquarium.

The mutated malevolent creatures crawled onto Wang Xiyi in various "ways of moving," constantly nibbling at the scales on her body——for a moment, Wang Xiyi felt like she was a bag of flour in the corner of a restaurant, and these annoying creatures were like rats climbing onto the flour bag.

The rats wanted to tear open the bag's outer packaging to eat the white flour inside... and for these creatures, a body infused with black dragon blood was the "flour" they craved.

"Scum."

Wang Xiyi said coldly, her body suddenly emanating a ghostly blue flame, instantly turning the aquatic malevolent creatures crawling on her into charcoal.

A long with it, the gasoline leaking from the van's fuel tank... and the "water" flowing out from the broken fish tank were ignited as well.

The liquid used to breed aquatic malevolent creatures was not water but a fluid more flammable than gasoline!

The entire "Senyang Aquarium" was instantly engulfed in flames.

Watching the raging fire around her, Wang Xiyi suddenly realized something.

No wonder Qiao Liu's Qingzhu Bar, despite not using many flammable materials in its renovation, still burned so thoroughly… those two large ecological fish tanks contained the best fuel.

"Burn, let it all burn clean."

Wang Xiyi was unafraid of the fire; she tossed aside the van wreckage, grabbed an iron folding chair, and walked deeper into the store.

Senyang Aquarium's shopfront wasn't large; even accounting for the space occupied by fish tanks and aquariums, it barely reached a hundred square meters... But this didn't mean the interior of the building was only a hundred square meters.

The buildings in this neighborhood were similarly structured, suitable for both commercial and residential use—with the storefront facing the street, the area behind the shop for living quarters, and passing through the front hall, there was even a small courtyard. The courtyard was filled with bizarrely shaped fish on drying racks.

Wang Xiyi glanced at these fish; she suddenly recalled a file she had seen—allegedly, when aquatic malevolent creatures first appeared in coastal areas, countries worldwide pointed fingers at England and Dongying. The reason was simple: these two nations discharged a massive amount of nuclear waste into the sea following nuclear plant accidents…

The aquatic malevolent creatures were thought to have mutated due to nuclear radiation, but months later, people realized the situation was far more severe than nuclear contamination.

The aquatic malevolent creatures landing first in coastal areas worldwide looked eerily similar to these dried fish hanging on the racks.

Who would have thought that these aquatic malevolent creatures climbing out of the deep sea would appear so far inland, away from the ocean?

There's a "buffer zone" between the storefront and the courtyard, so the shop's fire was yet to spread over; only the choking smoke wafted over, drifting into the courtyard.

The courtyard floor was paved with cement bricks, where you could still see traces of undried slime—clearly, the tentacle that just attacked Wang Xiyi first passed through the courtyard, then through Senyang Aquarium's shop... The creature's size was too large for Senyang Aquarium's shop to contain!

Wang Xiyi rushed across the courtyard, then kicked open the door, entering the living room's interior.

The furniture inside was toppled all over, but no traces of slime were found.

Wang Xiyi returned to the courtyard—behind the living room was a residential area, where there was no space to breed large malevolent creatures.

That thing… could it have always been hiding underground?

As this thought emerged, the cement bricks in the courtyard were pried open, and four or five suction cup-covered tentacles emerged from underground, violently lashing towards Wang Xiyi!

"Indeed!"

The core of this malevolent creature was hidden within the Senyang Aquarium's underground piping system!

Soft-bodied animals have excellent body extension capabilities; even malevolent creature octopuses with large bodies can easily squeeze into pipes less than a meter in diameter and move freely within them.

It's not just the tentacles moving within the pipes but the entire creature!

Wang Xiyi enveloped herself in flames to prevent the neurotoxic slime from contaminating her again and fiercely slammed into a side wall!

Staying in the courtyard would mean being battered one-sidedly by these tentacles, much like catching a turtle in a jar… and she was that unfortunate turtle.

She had to reach an open area for her speed advantage to manifest.

The most open spot nearby... was likely the Victory Avenue entrance.

Wang Xiyi dodged two tentacles slamming down and burst through three walls in one go, and as she approached the last wall separating her from Victory Avenue, the ground beneath her suddenly collapsed!

"Damn!" Wang Xiyi cursed inwardly. At the moment she lost her balance, she instinctively wanted to flap her wings and soar up, but a stab of pain from the wound on her back suddenly reminded her she had already severed her wings…

"Damn it!"

The collapsing ground formed a bottomless pit, and the now flightless Wang Xiyi plunged directly into the depths of the hole, with breaking rocks and soil battering her scales, sounding like clashing metal.

"Hold on! I must hold on!! Falling is the end!!"

During the fall, Wang Xiyi constantly adjusted her posture, her dragon claws digging deep into the cracked hole walls… yet the crumbling walls couldn't support her body. As her dragon claws carved several deep furrows into the walls, her falling momentum didn't slow.

The pit was over two hundred meters deep, and when Wang Xiyi crashed heavily onto the ground, she realized she had fallen into a vast underground cavern!

This underground cavity was clearly not caused by the recent collapse but had been hollowed out long ago… As for the purpose of hollowing it out…

Wang Xiyi turned her head to one side.

Not far from where she landed was a turbulent underground lake, where numerous tentacles tore through the water's surface, striking at her like frenzied serpents.