Novel Full Chapter 1353 - 686: Abyss Island, Giant Turtle Corpse
Chapter 1353 - 686: Abyss Island, Giant Turtle Corpse
"That gave me a scare. I was just thinking, how could there be someone inside this building that’s been submerged for so long."
Ye Nan awkwardly laughed and made a comment to ease his own discomfort.
Liang Yuan shook his head: "It’s not wrong to be cautious. Don’t forget, those Merfolk and Mermaids are humanoid. Who’s to say they didn’t make these submerged buildings their nests when they had nowhere else to go?"
"This..." Ye Nan was startled, realizing that Liang Yuan’s words made perfect sense.
"Mr. Liang, do you think these Merfolk and Mermaids evolved from other species of fish?"
Liang Yuan nodded slightly: "Most likely. Wasn’t there a scientific report once that speculated that humans might have evolved from marine organisms?"
"If everyone shares the same genes, some humans can transform into Merfolk or Mermaids, then why wouldn’t there be mutant fish among other aquatic species that could evolve into Merfolk or Mermaids?"
Liang Yuan even thought back to those mutant frogs in Meidu Garden, each one evolving a massive body, with their limbs and facial features progressively evolving towards a humanoid form.
Ye Nan was amazed and said: "So, do you think those Merfolk, Mermaids in ancient myths, could actually have prototypes? Did ancient people really see these monsters? Otherwise, how could they describe them so vividly?"
Liang Yuan glanced at him, not expecting his casual remark to hit the nail on the head.
Based on the intelligence gathered from Ling Yurong, much of the ancient mythological stories, besides the fictional parts, likely contain real mutated beasts.
These stories were passed down orally and recorded through generations.
Of course, it’s also possible that some species have such intense impressions of these mythical creatures embedded in their genes, directly engraved and passed down to their descendants.
In their subconscious dreams, the descendants might be able to construct visions of these fearsome creatures.
It’s not just Liang Yuan speculating—genes can indeed carry information passed down to the next generation.
For instance, cats and mice; if cats didn’t inherit such information, how would a newborn kitten know that mice can be eaten?
And rabbits; if it weren’t for genetic inheritance, how would they know that eagles are their natural enemies?
All of this is the fear inherited through generations of genes.
The same goes for humans. It’s possible that in the genes of humans, there’s already an engraving of fear and curiosity about these mythical creatures.
After this scare, Ye Nan became more alert, cautiously looking for routes while ensuring not to stray too far from Liang Yuan.
The two soon swam out another dozen kilometers, where dense underwater buildings began to emerge.
Roadside signs, covered in rust, had partially visible painted characters of "Wenxi Road" on them.
"This is it, Mr. Liang, look over there!"
Ye Nan surveyed the surroundings and finally spotted a massive dark shadow ahead, immediately calling out to Liang Yuan.
Following Ye Nan’s direction, Liang Yuan saw the enormous shadow ahead resembling a colossal hill, sprawling across the seabed.
It crushed many surrounding structures, with tall buildings collapsing nearby.
Around them, numerous mutant beasts swam, occasionally traversing into the hill.
Liang Yuan promptly said: "Let’s go check it out!"
The two gradually approached the large island ahead, its overall height being about a hundred meters or so.
Though not too tall, its ground cover was massive, comparable to the size of Yangshan.
Considering how the floodwaters have risen, the water level exceeding roughly a hundred meters, Yangshan still had half of it above water.
In other words, this underwater island was almost reaching the water’s surface.
Without a doubt, it was a submerged floating island.
Some referred to it as the Abyss.
All because this former floating island, now underwater, was rich in resources, attracting numerous mutant beasts to gather.
Besides, there were already parasitic beasts on the island.
This made this region a true abyss, where mutant beasts ran rampant.
"Mr. Liang, what should we do now?"
Ye Nan followed Liang Yuan, swimming nearby, but there were too many mutant beasts surrounding the island.
Liang Yuan pondered for a moment and said: "Why can so many mutant beasts coexist here?"
"It seems like they live in groups, each having fixed territories." Ye Nan observed for a while and whispered.
Liang Yuan thought for a moment and said: "Let’s go, I’ll take you underground."
Ye Nan froze, and then saw Liang Yuan reach out to grab his shoulder. Immediately, an earthy yellow glow started to flow over their bodies.
Swish!
Liang Yuan used Earth Escape Skills to bring him into the mud.
This was true land, not the surface land of a floating island, where inside it was really flesh and blood tissue.
On a floating island, only shallow Earth Escape could be performed. Going deeper would be blocked by the floating island’s own flesh and blood tissue.
Because essentially, a floating island is a massive biological corpse, not a real island.
Below the soil, Liang Yuan led Ye Nan, swiftly traversing underground.
Before long, Liang Yuan stopped, feeling that he should now be under this Abyss Island.
"Mr. Liang, I can’t tell the direction down here, don’t know where Island Lord and the others are." Ye Nan said.
Liang Yuan replied: "We should be beneath the Abyss Island now. Let’s go up and take a look, make sure you keep your aura concealed."
"Alright, alright." Ye Nan quickly nodded.
The two swam upward rapidly, soon feeling obstructing objects above.
Liang Yuan’s Earth Escape Technique couldn’t go further up.
Evidently, they were stopped by the flesh and blood tissue inside the Abyss Island.
This indicated they were already beneath the Abyss Island.
Liang Yuan immediately changed direction to explore further.
Before long, he found a ’gap’ formed by dirt and rocks.
Following this gap, he took Ye Nan quickly back to the water.
Breaking the surface, Liang Yuan looked around.
He found that this was actually a cave.
Inside the dark cave, bubbles were gurgling around.
Some unknown substances emitted a faint fluorescence, barely providing some light.
Ye Nan instinctively asked: "Mr. Liang, is this place..."
"Shh--!"
Liang Yuan covered his mouth all of a sudden, startling Ye Nan.
He quickly looked at Liang Yuan, confused.
Liang Yuan pointed at those glowing substances, shaking his head slightly at him.
Under Liang Yuan’s spiritual power, these glowing substances were actually eyes!
And their owners were giant mutant creatures clinging to the cave like snails.
These mutant snails varied in size, with glowing eyeballs flickering as if to lure external creatures close.
Evidently, it was a hunting method using itself as bait.
Liang Yuan just glanced slightly and guessed there could be thousands of such mutant snails in this cave.
Although he felt their mutation level might not be high, Liang Yuan still preferred not to cause trouble.
If they accidentally made a noise that attracted even stronger mutant beasts, it would be quite a loss.
Liang Yuan immediately activated the Dark Abyss Shadow Dragon’s ability, and taking Ye Nan with him, they transformed into shadows, silently traversing through the darkness, swiftly exiting the cave.
Outside, Liang Yuan continued stealthily within the shadows.
They were at the foot of the mountain upon this Abyss Island at that moment.
"We’re out. Follow me closely. In shadow form, we should dodge most mutant beasts’ attention."
Liang Yuan warned Ye Nan.
The two swiftly swam toward the island.
After a few hundred meters, Ye Nan suddenly couldn’t resist tugging at Liang Yuan.
"Mr. Liang, look quickly!"
Liang Yuan turned back, following his gaze.
He saw the entire abyss sparkling with strange lights from various creatures, making it colorful and beautiful.
All kinds of mutant beasts roamed freely on the island, bizarre mutant plants swayed gracefully in the waves, creating a splendid underwater world.
However, what Ye Nan was pointing at was not this beautiful scene but the cave they had come from.
There stood a giant shell that initially was unnoticeable.
Looking back now, Liang Yuan finally realized it was no mere cave entrance!
It was a giant shell!
The entire shell towered over ten meters, blending seamlessly with the mountainside, appearing as if it had adhered there for years and gradually grown together.
That entrance was merely a small opening in the shell!
Liang Yuan’s heart stirred, he whispered, "It must be the shell of some mutant sea shell beast. No wonder there were so many mutant snail beasts within."
"How could there be such a huge shell?" Ye Nan couldn’t help but remark.
Liang Yuan said, "Probably a mutant sea shell at genetic recombination level."
"But now it’s nothing but an empty shell, harboring many of its offspring."
"I wonder if it’s self-spawning or some other reproduction method."
Liang Yuan murmured, the feeling was peculiar, as if intimately encountering the progeny propagation of alien species.
"Mr. Liang, let’s go quickly, this really feels eerie."
Ye Nan felt unsettled instead, fearing the unknown, hurriedly urging Liang Yuan.
Liang Yuan nodded slightly, asking, "How much farther?"
"It should be ahead, we were submerged by the giant turtle directly from water, not climbing from below."
Liang Yuan nodded slightly, "Then let’s proceed."
The duo continued hiding in shadows, proceeding stealthily.
Soon, Liang Yuan suddenly halted.
Ye Nan puzzled, "Mr. Liang, why did you stop?"
"Your giant turtle."
Ye Nan raised his head upon hearing, looking forward.
In the mountain hollow ahead lay an enormous turtle, akin to an island!
The turtle, which should have been the size of two or three soccer fields, now had its head bitten off.
Its limbs were devoured by quite many mutant fish and shrimp, leaving only part of the torso and the giant turtle shell, carrying the ruins of Spirit Jade Island’s base, within this mountain hollow.
"Spirit Jade Island!"
Ye Nan’s eyes instantly reddened, he cried out in disbelief.
This giant turtle had become his home.
Witnessing his homeland turned into this, how could he endure?
Liang Yuan said, "This turtle is unique, having such enormous size yet mismatched strength for a genetic recombination level mutant beast."
"Not sure if it possesses some unique bloodline or something."
In Liang Yuan’s research, mutant beasts’ size generally correlated with their strength.
Larger size generally indicated higher evolution levels.
For instance, when Liang Yuan reached ten percent genetic recombination, the reorganized genetic beast form was about ten or so meters tall.
At twenty percent, it would reach twenty meters tall.
Not only him but Feng Jiangong, Zhang Yujiang, and others showed similar traits.
Of course, this wasn’t absolute, as spirit-class gene maps or space gene maps post-recombination showed no direct size to recombination level correlation.
After transforming into Sumeru Green Ant, Liang Yuan’s size was just a few meters.
The Spirit Turtle Illusion Snake was similar.
But other gene map types typically followed the size-strength proportionality.
This giant turtle obviously didn’t belong to that category.
"Now is not the time for sorrow, finding your Island Lord is most crucial."
Liang Yuan’s words made Ye Nan suppress his grief.
He promptly nodded, taking a deep breath, "You’re right, seeing the turtle carcass, our hiding spot shouldn’t be far."