Chapter 146: Earthquakes, Tsunamis, and the Descent of the Beast Horde

According to Lu Chen’s original plan, he had intended to transplant the strange sapling into the waterfall space. Yet, for one reason or another, he never got around to it. Unexpectedly, even without sunlight in the inner space, the thing continued to grow vigorously.

After receiving a constant supply of high-quality flesh and blood, it had grown to more than three meters tall in barely over a month, with a trunk as thick as a bowl. However, its seven or eight branches bore not a single leaf, making it exceedingly bizarre.

Its movements also resembled those of a living creature rather than a stationary plant. Whenever it sensed the presence of flesh and blood within the inner space, it would swiftly manipulate its roots and crawl toward it, then sink its roots into the flesh and suck out the energy and essence within.

Only after draining it completely would it move on to another location.

Lu Chen had been afraid that, once placed in the waterfall space, it might take the opportunity to hunt the other saltwater crocodiles. Besides, since it had shown no sign of posing a threat to him, he decided to leave it there for the time being.

He was also curious to see what kind of monster this demon-devouring tree sapling would eventually become if it continued growing.

In any case, the inner space was entirely under his control. If it truly became dangerous, he could transfer it out and destroy it at any time.

“Hm… What’s this?”

To Lu Chen’s surprise, the demon-devouring tree was behaving differently today. Instead of immediately extending its roots into the body of a mutated oarfish and settling there as usual, it made a new move.

Several branches, soft as tentacles, rapidly drooped down and wrapped around one of the mutated oarfish carcasses.

Then, the tips of the branches began secreting sticky white filaments.

Within only a few minutes, a gigantic white cocoon appeared before Lu Chen’s eyes.

At last, he understood what the countless white cocoons hanging from the tree in the misty space had been. They were likely one of the demon-devouring tree’s methods of feeding.

Or perhaps they were used to store food, allowing it to consume the reserves whenever food became scarce.

After all, the creature moved far too slowly to have any hope of catching fleeing prey.

Having inspected the situation within the inner space, Lu Chen once again sensed the subtle currents in the seawater and accurately locked onto the direction in which the surviving group of oarfish had fled.

To avoid alerting them, he did not follow too closely. Instead, he remained several hundred meters behind them, trailing them from a distance.

Some time ago, Lu Chen had discovered that searching aimlessly for spirit-stone deposits in the ocean was no different from looking for a needle in a haystack.

The reason was simple: the ocean was simply too vast. If he wanted to search every section of seabed on Earth, it would probably take him several decades.

The best method was to seek out mutated sea creatures and track them from behind.

In theory, every animal on Earth currently possessed an almost greedy need for spirit stones. If they had mutated after consuming spirit stones, they certainly would not have forgotten the taste. Normally, they would instinctively draw near to mineral deposits in search of more.

Unfortunately, the oarfish disappointed Lu Chen. They repeatedly swam and paused along the seabed, sometimes speeding toward shallow waters, sometimes turning around to chase prey. Their route was utterly bewildering.

He followed them for three whole days, yet never discovered any spirit-stone deposits near the waters where they lingered.

Now, however, the oarfish seemed to have been startled by him and shot toward the surface as if gone mad.

Lu Chen could only give up in frustration. Of course, after these creatures had wasted several days of his time, he could not simply let them go.

After a few compressed energy blasts, they became food in Lu Chen’s stomach.

Only after wiping out the entire school of oarfish did he notice that something was wrong with the surrounding environment.

He had spent so long chasing his prey that, without realizing it, he had descended to a depth of a thousand meters.

Under pressure exceeding one hundred times that of standard atmospheric pressure, Lu Chen’s body felt not the slightest discomfort.

A surge of pride rose within him. He wanted to know the true limit of his resistance to pressure—whether he really could descend into a trench ten thousand meters beneath the sea.

In any case, since he had failed to find a spirit-stone deposit, he could not return empty-handed.

But before Lu Chen could begin his experiment in deep diving, an indescribable sense of agitation suddenly welled up inside him.

He had encountered no mortal danger, and there were no large predatory creatures nearby.

He simply could not understand where this feeling of unease had come from.

The next moment, the fish around him also began to go berserk. One after another, they frantically sped toward the surface.

Before long, Lu Chen sensed strange sound waves traveling through the seawater.

This was… an earthquake that had triggered a tsunami.

When sudden natural disasters erupt, animals are often far more sensitive than humans. Before disaster strikes, they can sense abnormal tremors rising from beneath the earth. Oarfish were among the most representative examples.

That was why Lu Chen had previously found these creatures in shallow waters.

After being hunted, they had fled in panic without knowing where to go, repeatedly darting between shallow and deep waters. That was how they had ended up following such a bewildering route.

Now that he understood the source of his unease, Lu Chen was not foolish enough to approach the seismic zone for a closer look.

Although he was a sixth-tier ferocious beast, before the might of nature he was no different from a tiny ant. Earthquakes, in particular, were often followed by aftershocks.

If he were caught in one, he might die without even knowing how.

As the saying went, those who did not court death would not die.

Lu Chen had originally intended to use his magnetic-field sensing ability to locate the waterfall in the Madura Jungle and return.

Instead, he discovered that his ability had ceased to function. The information gathered by his consciousness was a chaotic mess, making it impossible to determine his exact position.

After a few seconds of confusion, Lu Chen understood what had happened.

The earthquake and tsunami must have caused it. With the environment deep beneath the earth thrown into disorder, disturbances in the planet’s magnetic field were only natural.

For other animals, this might result in temporary difficulty distinguishing direction.

But Lu Chen had other ways to orient himself, such as using the sun and stars.

He quietly surfaced and glanced at the blazing sun overhead before choosing the most direct route toward the coast.

The journey passed safely, and he did not see any more human drones circling overhead.

Two days later, he finally returned to the river mouth.

Unexpectedly, he had only just appeared when a drone rapidly approached.

Damn it… Is this ever going to end?

Lu Chen was just about to attack when he noticed the emblem beneath the drone and stopped.

“Your Excellency, Dragon King, I am Dong Mingjun. We have finally found you.”

A human voice came from the drone.

Dong Mingjun? What did he want?

Puzzled, Lu Chen raised his head and questioned the drone. Although he carried no communication device, his deep, resonant voice still carried clearly back to it.

“Your Excellency, Dragon King, this is an emergency. A group of mutated beasts has appeared in the coastal waters through a spatial rift and is advancing toward the cities…” Dong Mingjun hurriedly explained the latest situation.

Two days earlier, an earthquake and tsunami had occurred in waters several hundred kilometers from the Xia Kingdom. Immediately afterward, a spatial rift had suddenly expanded…

So it had not been a simple earthquake and tsunami after all. The existence of another dimension was involved.

After listening to Dong Mingjun’s explanation, Lu Chen gained a general understanding of the ferocious beasts from that other dimension. They belonged to the same kind as the beasts that had appeared along the coast of the Meligen Kingdom several months earlier.