Chapter 7 – Slaughter and… Observation

Su Lifeng’s decisive killing of Cheng Peng, combined with his unquestionable tone, gave his words a commanding weight to the others.

As soon as he finished speaking, the remaining male students immediately suppressed their nausea and fear, dragging Cheng Peng’s corpse close to them.

The student who had been scared witless earlier also reached out, but he was a step too slow.

He couldn’t help but steal a glance at Su Lifeng. Seeing that Su Lifeng hadn’t noticed, he let out a sharp sigh of relief.

But at the thought of the harsh reprimand Su Lifeng had given while saving him, and the brutal efficiency with which Su Lifeng had attacked Cheng Peng… the boy shuddered. He gripped the piece of scrap metal in his hand tightly, his face shifting from a pale white to a sickly, bruised grey.

“Listen up, everyone. No matter what happens in a moment, stay pressed against the hull and don’t move. No matter what it is, do you understand?” After giving his instructions, Su Lifeng looked at Cheng Peng’s floating corpse with little confidence. “Hopefully, this body can fool them…”

“Fool them? Fool what?” one student asked, his heart skipping a beat. He peered into the pitch-black water, suddenly struck by a terrible premonition.

In an instant, time seemed to stretch into an eternity for everyone.

“Su Lifeng, do you think… do you think we’ll make it back alive?” Jiang Yushi was pressed right against Su Lifeng’s side. She was already dressed lightly, and now, under the combined effects of the freezing seawater and sheer terror, she couldn’t stop shivering. Her thin white shirt had become translucent from the water, clinging to her impressive curves and outlining a beautiful figure she rarely showed off.

However, faced with such a sight, Su Lifeng was in no mood for appreciation. He turned to look at her, suddenly reaching out to wipe away the droplets of water clinging to her face. He tucked a wet strand of hair behind her ear and nodded firmly. “We will. We’re definitely going to make it back alive!”

Jiang Yushi met his gaze, her eyes gradually reddening. Then, she gave a heavy nod of her own. “Mm! Then when we get back, you have to tell me your little secret!”

“Taking advantage of a crisis? You wish,” Su Lifeng said, momentarily stunned before responding with feigned annoyance.

Jiang Yushi blinked, then let out a small laugh. “What? Is that really how you see me?”

Beside them, Cheng Xiaomei seemed to want to smile along, but as soon as the corners of her mouth moved, tears began to roll down her cheeks again.

God, she was just an ordinary college student. Why was this happening to her?

Splash!

A massive sound of breaking water abruptly cut off her thoughts.

Accompanied by a deluge of water falling like torrential rain, the students’ pupils constricted in unison, their faces turning the color of ash!

Su Lifeng also felt as if his heart had been squeezed by a giant hand.

“Goddammit, what the hell is that?!”

In his Precognitive Vision, he had sensed danger beneath the water.

But he never expected it to look like this!

Looking at the gargantuan creature that had appeared before them, Su Lifeng instantly understood the meaning of those words.

“Absorb material, Xenospecies evolution…”

The Gelatinous Substance inside Cheng Peng that had replaced his movement and thoughts was the “Xenospecies.”

They entered the bodies of “material” and then took them over.

Judging by the terms “absorb” and “evolution,” this act of occupying the material’s body was the Xenospecies’ way of life.

Coupled with the learning ability they had displayed earlier, Su Lifeng believed that the act of replacing “material” and constantly switching to new “material” was what drove the evolution of the Xenospecies.

As a graduate student in the School of Life Sciences, Su Lifeng had never heard of such a creature existing on Earth…

And “materials” didn’t just refer to humans.

The term also encompassed other living creatures…

“We weren’t the only ones who stumbled into this area…” Su Lifeng muttered under his breath.

“Ah!”

A sudden burst of blood-curdling screams erupted from the tourists on the surface of the sea.

Two massive Xenospecies abruptly breached the water from the depths. One of them emerged right in the middle of the densest crowd!

“Is that… an octopus?” a man stammered, frozen in shock. Before he could finish his thought, a tentacle coiled around him, flung him into the air, and tore him to shreds in an instant!

Flesh and severed limbs rained down, tossed back into the crowd by the Xenospecies Octopus with a sickening splash.

Several people were instantly drenched in blood. Staring at the floating remains before her, one girl’s movements ground to a halt; she stood there, paralyzed.

The intense psychological shock had stripped her of the courage to resist…

She wasn’t the only one. Others also sank into a state of despair and passivity amidst the screaming. With hardly any struggle, they were ripped apart by the octopus’s tentacles.

“The human Biological Species… they are easily influenced by the fate of their own kind…” On the deck of the Cruise Ship, the Girl watched everything happening on the sea with curiosity, her voice a low murmur.

The other Xenospecies also watched in silence. The stillness on the deck formed a sharp, eerie contrast with the carnage on the water.

“Ah…” Su Lifeng and the others were relatively far from the main crowd, but the blood staining the sea still drifted their way, and severed limbs were scattered everywhere in an instant. Half a torso was even thrown near them. Jiang Yushi bit her lower lip until it turned pale, then clamped her hand over Cheng Xiaomei’s mouth before the younger girl could scream.

“It’s okay… it’s okay…” Jiang Yushi turned her head away and whispered into Cheng Xiaomei’s ear. She was speaking to the girl, but also to herself.

The other Xenospecies Octopus was only about ten meters away from them…

The college students were almost completely rigid with fear. Su Lifeng could feel his own heart thumping wildly.

This was a primal terror, a fear stemming from the very difference in their levels of existence!

He stared fixedly at the Xenospecies Octopus, forcing himself to observe it.

In terms of sheer scale, this Xenospecies Octopus was far too massive…

One of the largest predators in the deep sea, the giant squid, reached a maximum length of only twenty meters.

But this Xenospecies Octopus was a staggering thirty meters long… a size Su Lifeng estimated by comparing it to the length of the Cruise Ship.

He suddenly thought back to the violent shaking of the ship… if these two Xenospecies Octopuses had dragged the Cruise Ship into this place, it was entirely possible!

But why did the signal cut out? And what was that grinding sensation…

An island that shouldn’t exist on any shipping route, a bizarre stretch of sea, and creatures that didn’t exist on Earth… all these factors combined gave Su Lifeng a sudden, chilling realization.

This place might not be a part of Earth’s oceans at all.

In his premonition, he had heard the words “the door is open.” When the Cruise Ship was being squeezed, perhaps it was passing through that very “door.”

“No matter what, I have to survive…” Su Lifeng thought to himself.

At the same time, he thought of the Black Thread that had entered his body… since the Xenospecies could possess the bodies of other creatures, why was he fine? Or was it that the Xenospecies inside Cheng Peng’s body had already been killed by him, and he had… absorbed it?

Splash!

After tearing several tourists to pieces, the Xenospecies Octopus suddenly paused. Then, with a violent motion, it turned around!

The two eyes on its hideous head, each as large as a wagon wheel, locked onto them…

Su Lifeng’s mind went blank.