Cthulhu Gonfalon

Chapter 728: Vol V Chapter 88

The giant fish eventually rejected Sui Xiong’s invitation. This did not shock Sui Xiong as the giant fish clearly was used to its life here. Furthermore, this was a freshwater lake. Sui Xiong was unsure where else to find freshwater in the outside world, and the giant fish was unlikely to be able to survive in saltwater no matter how strong it was. Even if it could, it was not really in the giant fish’s interests to leave its home.

As Sui Xiong left, he pondered about the giant fish’s situation. Although he did not have much space to roam, he was content. Although it was hard to maintain its food source, the giant fish at least did not face much danger. To the fish who had a rather simple mindset, this stable life was good enough, and it did not plan to make changes to it. Furthermore, if it chose to venture out, danger awaited.

Sui Xiong had a sudden realization at this point. To the giant fish, although staying stagnant was not necessarily the best choice, it was undoubtedly the safest. Life was boring but safe, and this was a good trade-off. However, was one really able to give up the novelty of life for safety? Sui Xiong thought hard about this. If he were the giant fish, he did not think he could do this forever. If he was able to, he would not have even left the giant ocean in the first place as he could at least be a leader there. However, Sui Xiong had left the ocean in the past and went to the mainland to understand society and do things with his life.

“I’m a human, not a fish. While fish can be content with such a mundane life, humans cannot.”

Actually, he was already considered an extremely patient person as he had trained solo in the freezing cold ocean for a thousand years. This was something that few could accomplish.

In fairy-tale novels, the self-cultivators who trained solo for decades and hundreds of years were extremely ignorant of the passing of the time.

As he left the mountain housing the giant fish, Sui Xiong used his powers to add on an extra layer of enchantment to the mountain. It did not have any special effect except to make people feel turned off and unwilling to approach the mountain. While it was not strong, it was hard to detect even by legendary creatures, and they would be affected unknowingly. Of course, this would not protect the giant fish against demigod masters. However, if a demigod master were to really approach, they would be told the story of the giant fish and Sui Xiong. While this would not stop them, they were also reasonable and clever and would not fight Sui Xiong over a giant fish. If they insisted, the spell would inform Sui Xiong, and if he was free, he would come over to prevent their entry. For the giant fish, this protection was sufficient. Actually, Sui Xiong felt that he was rather redundant as the giant fish had probably lived there and defended itself for decades without any fuss. If anything were to happen, it’d probably be due to its over ingestion of devils which could lead to poisoning. Thinking of this possibility, Sui Xiong couldn’t help but laugh. “Summoning demons for food, I can’t believe the giant fish actually thought of that!”

Other than this interesting giant fish, they weren’t other dangerous creatures in the vicinity, such as man-eating demons or big monsters. Thus, they did not bother Sui Xiong. With the legendary Clito leading the expeditions, even the stronger creatures, such as a near-legendary variant tauren, was of no issue. The tauren was actually rather special. While most taurens had four arms, this one had four legs instead. Normally, taurens had bovine hooves, a cow’s head, and the rest of it had human features. This particular one had them too, but waist-down, it still looked like a cow and seemed like the famous odd centaur.

Perhaps… it should be labeled as one? However, it did not have a human brain, and thus, the label was rather mismatched.

Towards this creature, Sui Xiong was not particularly attentive as he could tell it was the result of a magic experiment. Magicians frequently used magic to create odd creatures, and this was a rather common sight. Creatures like this centaur were already considered rather normal. Sui Xiong had heard that some malicious magicians had combined humans and monsters before to really create pure half-bloods. Some even specialized in this area and hoped to create a new population by making these creatures procreate. No one had actually succeeded in this, however, and because of this dream, many magicians were thus added to the explorers’ crusade list.

This particular tauren had a unique magical branding, possibly from when it had escaped from a laboratory or perhaps when it had killed the magician that made it for his freedom. These were all possible answers, but it was not important. In any case, the tauren was a vegetarian. He strictly only consumed vegetables and did not touch meat at all. Even when rabbits or goats appeared near it, they were clearly unafraid because of this fact. There were no traces of beasts and monsters. Clearly, even if the tauren did not consume meat, it was protective of its territory. Sui Xiong reminded himself to inform Clito of this fact to prevent any unnecessary fights.

As to the remaining creatures around, they were really not worth mentioning, As the mountain area was not big (it only contained the giant fish, the tauren and a few miscellaneous creatures), it did not house any other special or strong creature.

In the natural world, the stronger the creature, the bigger its territory. Only dangerous humans lived in narrow spaces. This mountain was not touched by humans, and thus, that situation would not occur.

Sui Xiong took this chance to explore the mine as well. There was indeed a mine, and its quality was rather high. Most of the minerals were high in value and was worth exploring. What was interesting was that while the mine was lucrative, the tauren did not choose to live near it but rather in an isolated side of the mountain. Sui Xiong wasn’t sure if it was a deliberate or ignorant choice. Sui Xiong did not inform Clito and the team of the details of the mine, however. Since a team had already been formed, they could explore it for themselves.

He only reaffirmed them that the mine was worthy of exploration.