On the Ark.

Until Chūmaru said, "Do you think that power from the deep sea has any brains?"

Lin Ye turned to look at her: "Why do you ask that?"

"What I want to ask is, does it have the ability to think?" Chūmaru tapped his head. "Is it a pure beast that only possesses extremely powerful strength, or is it a creature with extremely high intelligence? Like us?"

Blue Poison replied, "It depends on the species. Although the food chain in the ocean is very different from that on land, one thing is the same: the higher a species is at the top of the food chain, the higher its intelligence. Although I haven't seen it yet, the deep sea must have its own civilization."

"After all that, does that mean the deep sea does have intelligence? If we are indeed facing a powerful enough opponent," Chūmaru turned to look at the soldier's corpse again, "then it shouldn't do anything meaningless. So, could it be that it sent this corpse back alone because it had the same idea as us? After all, it is also a highly intelligent creature like us."

"The same thoughts as us?" Chūmaru's words puzzled Lin Ye. "What do you mean?"

"It's about putting ourselves in their shoes." Chūmaru pointed to the soldier's corpse. "He's dead, and he's been controlled by the Deep Sea, so he must be something from the Deep Sea, right?"

"Ah."

Chūmaru then pointed to the drone that had been left in the tent earlier: "That's our stuff, isn't it?"

Magellan corrected, "That's my drone."

That's exactly what I meant, don't interrupt.

Before Chōmaru could finish speaking, Tenka gradually understood her meaning: "Could it be that you meant to say..."

"We use drones to explore the deep sea, so is the deep sea doing the same thing as us...?" Chūmaru looked at Lin Ye.

Lin Ye was stunned.

He recalled the eye he had just seen in the image.

Yes, this soldier is clearly dead, so why are his eyes still open? The images captured by his eyes could not possibly have been transmitted to his brain, so where were they transmitted to?

The people inside the tent felt a chill run down their spines.

The gaze I just saw didn't come from a soldier, but from... the deep sea.

It wasn't the soldiers staring at them, it was the deep sea!

Whether it was a misperception or not, after realizing this, Lin Ye felt the temperature around him drop even lower, as if a chill was seeping in from all directions. He couldn't help but take two steps toward Tianhuo, because Tianhuo's body temperature was much higher than that of an ordinary person.

“That explains why he did such bizarre things, right?” Chūmaru said, arms crossed. “If I were to control Magellan’s drones, I’d probably crash them after a couple of laps. The Deep Sea was the same; it wasn’t very skilled at controlling ‘drones,’ so…”

"enough!"

It was Shimoba who interrupted the entanglement.

Even with her strong personality, Shimoba couldn't help but interrupt Tsumugi after understanding what he meant, because the conjecture was simply too terrifying.

"Don't be angry, I was just saying it casually." Chūmaru shrugged. "I don't know if it's really true, so if you think it's wrong, just forget about it."

No, it's not wrong.

Everyone knows that.

What's even more frightening than Chūmaru's guess is that this guess is probably true.

Not only are they probing and observing the deep sea, but the deep sea is also probing and observing them!

"But, but why would this happen?" Magellan couldn't help but ask. "The Deep Sea clearly has the ability to take away the other three tents, nearly sixty people, so why would they test and observe us? Are we special compared to those people?"

Tianhuo turned to look at Lin Ye: "There is only one explanation."

Lin Ye lowered his head and looked at the [Maple] hanging at his waist.

"The deep sea doesn't need to observe us, because we're no different from those who have disappeared," Tianhuo said softly. "A being as powerful as it only cares about those equally powerful, or at least those it perceives as equally powerful. That is, the forger of this sword—God!"

The moment Tianhuo finished speaking, a bolt of lightning ripped across the sky, instantly turning the dark world white.

Then, a rumbling thunder slowly followed, as if in response to Tianhuo's statement.

Yes, the Deep Sea doesn't need to care about these people at all. The only beings the Deep Sea needs to care about are those of equal caliber, and that is, gods. The Goddess of Kalan, Messiah, that girl with a healing smile, is their greatest source of comfort, allowing them to stand safely in the tent at this moment.

From the Deep Sea's perspective, it wasn't facing Lin Ye and the others, but rather the Messiah.

"So it treats us like gods?" Chūmaru was quite surprised. "That's why it doesn't dare to attack us?"

“You’ve got the order wrong.” Tianhuo glanced at Chanmaru and said, “It attacked everyone, then realized it couldn’t work on us, so it noticed us and started testing us. It probably doesn’t know about the gods of the land; it’s just a hunting habit.”

"Hunting...habit?"

“Yes, no matter what kind of ferocious beast it is, the first thing it does when it encounters a creature it has never seen before is to observe it. It observes whether the other party poses a threat and judges whether it can be hunted,” Tianhuo said.

"So, has the deep sea yielded any results?" Chōmaru asked. "Does it know whether we are ferocious beasts or lambs?"

“It probably doesn’t know yet.” Tianhuo looked at the soldier’s corpse again. “Just like you said before, it’s not very skilled with ‘drones’ and can easily break them. So what it sees right now is just another drone. With the intelligence of the Deep Sea, it’s unlikely that it would include drones in its hunting list.”

"So, does that mean we've evaded its detection?"

"Probably." Tianhuo was also somewhat uncertain. "I can't say for sure, but if these speculations are true, then there is a high probability that those missing people are still alive, or even that they didn't go to sea and are still in this vicinity."

Magellan asked, puzzled, "Why are you so sure?"

Skyfire didn't speak; instead, it was Blue Poison who answered.

Blue Poison slowly said, "Because beasts will not eat before the threat has been eliminated."

The group exchanged glances.

"I have a feeling the image of the Deep Sea is about to be revealed," Chūmaru tilted his head. "So, what will the Deep Sea do next?"

Skyfire countered, "What was our first reaction when we saw this corpse?"

Without hesitation, Chūmaru replied, "Of course I came to check on the situation."

Everyone fell silent.

Lin Ye wasn't sure if it was just his imagination, but he thought he heard footsteps.

Even though it was pouring rain outside, the sound of the rain seemed to drown out all other noises, he still heard the faint footsteps, which gradually grew heavier. He initially thought it was his imagination, but he soon realized it wasn't, because the footsteps became heavier and heavier, sinking into the mud, as if the whole earth was shaking.

Everyone heard it.

"They've arrived," Tianhuo said softly.

Clang.

Lin Ye pulled out [Maple].

Blue Poison loaded poison arrows into the crossbow.

Frostleaf took the battle axe from behind her.

Chūmaru held the sword with one hand.

Magellan activated the drone's armament system.

Tianhuo's fingers lightly tapped his staff.

All eyes were fixed on the tent flap, and everyone held their breath.

The footsteps disappeared.

But they knew that "Deep Sea" was parked outside the tent, separated from them by a curtain.

There was only one curtain.

Lin Ye had never felt so nervous before. His heart was pounding, and his palms were sweaty, making him worry that he might lose his grip on [Maple]. But he also knew that his worries were unnecessary. Once "Deep Sea" really lifted the curtain, he would never let go of [Maple] no matter what.

only……

The curtain was not pulled open.

One second passed, two seconds passed, ten seconds passed.

Half a minute passed.

Nothing happened.

If he had to say something, he just felt that the temperature inside the tent was lower and that rain was falling on his head.

Wait... rainwater?!

Lin Ye seemed to realize something, and his body stiffened for a moment, but he still slowly raised his head.

Then he saw a golden pupil, bigger than a basketball, staring at him from outside the torn tent.

Lin Ye opened his mouth slightly, and then heard Tianhuo beside him shout and raise his staff.

The next second, flames appeared above the golden pupils, as if they were about to ignite the night sky.

Heavenly Fire waved his staff.

The flames fell, instantly engulfing the "deep sea".

……

……

Author's BB: This kind of plot really needs to be written late at night. The chapter of nearly four thousand words was written in one go, unlike the constipated chapter last time. It was so damn satisfying.

Chapter 335 The Fallen Fire

Lin Ye had never seen such a creature before.

It was about three or four meters tall, but its body was strangely shaped like a clay model that a kindergarten child might casually sculpt during recess. Yet it was alive, and its eye, which took up almost half of its head, looked so terrifying, like a demon from hell.

But before it could do anything, it was struck by Originium Arts from Skyfire, who was the first to react.

The flames that fell from the sky instantly engulfed the entire body of the giant creature, causing it to burn fiercely and illuminating almost the entire town of Harlan in the rainy night.

The giant creature in the flames emitted a piercing scream, probably a wail, but Lin Ye had never heard such a wail before. It was like the sound of a knife scraping against glass amplified countless times. At the same time, it struggled, and the flames tore its body into pieces, quickly igniting the entire tent.

"Get out of here right now!" Lin Ye shouted. "Get out of here quickly!"

In fact, his reminder wasn't even necessary, as most of the personnel present were experienced combat operators. Upon seeing this, they reacted immediately. Chūmaru swung his greatsword and cut a large opening in the side of the tent, through which everyone ran out.

Before long, the tent collapsed in the flames, and the giant creature fell down, but it did not die. It continued to struggle and let out a shrill cry.

"What on earth is that?" Chūmaru asked, staring at the creature before him. "It's so bizarre! Is this the 'deep sea'?"

“It could also be the second ‘drone’ in the deep sea,” Tianhuo said coldly. “But it definitely comes from the deep sea; I’ve never seen anything like it on land.”

Magellan could hardly believe her eyes. After a long pause, she murmured, "This is... unbelievable."

“It’s not just us who find the things in the deep sea incredible,” Blue Poison said. “The things in the deep sea can’t understand us either; at the very least, they’ve never seen fire. So, Miss Skyfire, please, keep attacking.”

"Huh? Continue the attack? What are you talking about?" Tianhuo frowned. "This guy is already dead."