Chapter 395 - 392: Petrifying Dust

Chapter 395: Chapter 392: Petrifying Dust

This was an exceptionally dim and dirty seabed. From the water’s surface, too high to be seen, a gray, dust-like powder continuously drifted down, shrouding the already gloomy seafloor.

An occasional bubble would emerge from the seabed, which was covered in a thick layer of gray dust, and float swiftly upward.

However, the roly-poly’s senses seemed to have long ago adapted to this lightless environment.

Mo Ling discovered he didn’t need any adjustment period to operate this non-human body, almost as if he had always been its rightful owner.

The Kind-hearted Worm that had rescued him from the stone shell led him leaping about the seabed, chattering on about all sorts of things:

"I’ve seen many of our kind become so obsessed with petrification it drives them mad. They’re like you—not very talkative, with nothing but petrification on their minds. Some even stop eating and starve themselves to death. I don’t know why it happens."

The Kind-hearted Worm trailed off and came to a stop.

"How long has it been since you’ve eaten?"

The question stunned Mo Ling for a moment. Once he recovered, he gave a short reply, "Not long."

"That’s good." The Kind-hearted Worm breathed a sigh of relief and resumed crawling across the lightless seabed with Mo Ling.

The dust on the seabed had accumulated in mound after mound. Sometimes the Kind-hearted Worm would lead Mo Ling in leaping between them; other times, it would use the undercurrents to swiftly navigate the gaps.

"Hold on." The Kind-hearted Worm stopped abruptly as they reached a canyon.

"What’s wrong?" Mo Ling asked curiously.

The Kind-hearted Worm didn’t answer. It stayed put, gazing intently at its surroundings.

Not knowing what was happening, Mo Ling could only follow its lead, staying put and looking around.

All he could see was the same pervasive gray dust, a hazy expanse punctuated by the occasional floating bubble.

This place seemed no different from anywhere else.

However, Mo Ling soon noticed something strange.

’What is that?’

Through his strange senses, Mo Ling saw flickering white shapes.

These white shapes were like tiny, high-speed insects; you couldn’t even notice them if you weren’t looking carefully.

Just as Mo Ling was observing them, the Kind-hearted Worm also locked its gaze onto the flickering white shapes.

Then, something happened that shocked Mo Ling.

The surrounding gray dust suddenly began to churn as if pushed by a current, and silent, gray whirlpools swept toward the white shapes.

Engulfed by the whirlpools, the white shapes seemed instantly trapped. Their movements slowed, their once-nimble actions turning sluggish.

Before long, the white shapes were "frozen" inside the whirlpools, their bodies encased in thick stone shells.

"There."

The Kind-hearted Worm slowly crawled forward, using its nimble appendages to collect the stone-encased white shapes one by one.

"Want some?"

It extended an appendage, offering a handful of "seeds" to Mo Ling.

Mo Ling was still stunned, but the Kind-hearted Worm just stuffed the "seeds" into his grasp.

"Here, eat them on the way. Don’t go hungry."

Mo Ling stared at the seeds in his grasp, still a bit stunned.

Gray stone shells, giving off a strangely fresh aroma...

On some strange impulse, he picked one up and placed it in his mouth.

CRUNCH...

’Is this... dried shrimp?’

Beneath the crunchy stone shell, Mo Ling tasted something familiar. It was like a sun-dried shrimp, intensely savory.

To confirm his suspicion, Mo Ling carefully crushed a stone shell with one of his appendages. Inside lay a small, tender white shrimp.

’So those white shapes from before were these shrimp?’

Mo Ling finally understood what the Kind-hearted Worm had been doing.

’Hunting.’

And a strange way of hunting at that.

This method of hunting reminded Mo Ling of his earlier battle with the Stony Corpse.

’The Stony Corpse also had the ability to petrify its enemies. What’s the connection?’

"Tastes pretty good, right?" The Kind-hearted Worm interrupted Mo Ling’s thoughts.

"It’s delicious," Mo Ling answered honestly. He’d never eaten shrimp this savory.

"How did you do that?" Mo Ling asked curiously.

"Do what?" the Kind-hearted Worm asked, a little confused.

"You know, encasing them in stone." Mo Ling knew his question might make the Kind-hearted Worm suspicious, but he couldn’t suppress his curiosity.

But the Kind-hearted Worm wasn’t suspicious at all. Instead, it began to explain patiently:

"You mean the whirlpools? That’s the power of petrification..."

It held up one of the seeds and said to Mo Ling, "You’ve probably realized that as our petrification deepens, hunting gets harder and harder, right?"

"Prey that was once easy to catch suddenly becomes a blur of white that you can’t seem to grab..."

"They get faster and faster, or rather, we get too slow..."

"So, if we want to catch them, we have to make them slow down, too. And how do we do that?"

The Kind-hearted Worm looked at Mo Ling, posing the question.

Mo Ling looked at the seed and instantly understood everything.

"Petrify them, too..."

"Exactly."

The Kind-hearted Worm popped the seed from its appendage into its mouth.

"You’ve been eating only shellfish up until now, right? Those things don’t move, so you can still eat them even when you get slow."

"But that’s not enough. Once your petrification reaches a deeper level, you’ll find that even they will become untouchable white blurs."

"You try it. Try using petrification on them."

The Kind-hearted Worm pointed an appendage at a nearby swarm of white shapes and said to Mo Ling.

It must have assumed Mo Ling hadn’t mastered this hunting skill yet, because it began to teach him step by step.

"Use all your senses to feel the dust all around you. It’s made of countless particles, and it’s everywhere..."

"They float within this endless world. At their core is frozen time. The farther from the core, the faster time flows. When they converge, even time itself is obstructed."

"You can’t influence them directly. You can only stir the water, creating a whirlpool to carry them where they need to go..."

The Kind-hearted Worm raised an appendage and began to spin it in the water.

Mo Ling did as it said and began to stir up a whirlpool...

...

Before long, Mo Ling found himself clutching a large handful of shrimp-seeds, at a complete loss.

He had succeeded.

And it had been a resounding success.

Following the Kind-hearted Worm’s instructions, he had truly felt the ever-present Petrifying Dust in the water. He had summoned the invisible whirlpool, and, of course, he had acquired a large handful of shrimp-seeds.

"You’re incredible. It took me a long time to master this ability," the Kind-hearted Worm praised him sincerely.

"It’s because you’re a good teacher," Mo Ling replied modestly.

He was still savoring the feeling from just now.

Everything had seemed to come so naturally, so simply...