Dragon Raja 3; Chapter 126: Subspecies (11)

Dragon Raja 3

“Calling the headquarters, calling the headquarters! We are approaching the location of the embryo. Although the oxygen supply is sharply declining, we still have about 50 minutes of activity time at the seabed. The surrounding marine ecological environment is strange, but other conditions are normal. This is a rare opportunity; we request to continue the survey. Repeat, we request to continue the survey.” Caesar put on his headphones.

After a moment of silence, Schneider’s voice came through: “You have made an incredible discovery. I agree to your request to continue the survey. Please pay close attention to whether the equipment is operating normally, prioritizing safety if necessary.”

“Did my old folks at home put pressure on the Executive Department?” Caesar laughed.

“I’ve heard that your uncle is preparing to take the next flight to headquarters, bringing a double-barreled shotgun—one barrel to blow my head off and the other to blow Professor Manstein’s head off.”

“Don’t worry; I won’t give him the chance. I won’t do as he says, but I still want to inherit the Gattuso family!” Caesar ended the call.

“Look! Look! What is that? It’s beautiful!” Lu Mingfei suddenly shouted.

Caesar and Chu Zihang looked down, and at first glance, they thought a swarm of fireflies was rising from the depths of the trench. There were thousands of them, glowing with a ghostly blue light, swirling around the dying hammerhead shark, resembling a vortex of starlight. This scene seemed like it should be accompanied by music from Joe Hisaishi, like a battlefield under the night sky, with fireflies circling the corpse of a fallen warrior, as if to honor his spirit. As they got closer, they could see that those were slender little fish, their bodies covered in beautiful silver-blue scales, with the glow coming from a long tentacle atop their heads.

“What kind of fish are those?” Lu Mingfei asked.

Chu Zihang’s expression darkened. “Family of the Opisthoteuthis, the viperfish… the viper!”

Lu Mingfei felt a chilling aura from that word, completely mismatched with the beautiful appearance of these little fish. At that moment, a small viperfish swam past the observation window, and Lu Mingfei shivered violently. That little creature looked less like a fish and more like a snake! Its body was slender, with tiny tail and pectoral fins, and its large, gaping mouth was filled with transparent teeth that protruded like daggers, resembling an angry king cobra ready to spit venom.

“What the hell is that fish?” Lu Mingfei instinctively wanted to retreat. Even though there was resin glass between them, he felt like it was a venomous snake ready to pounce and bite.

The starry viperfish all rushed toward the hammerhead shark as if a bell had rung, signaling the start of a feast. They plunged their dagger-like teeth into the shark’s body, biting fiercely with their powerful jaws. The dying hammerhead shark suddenly straightened its body; the intense pain squeezed out its last energy. This once ferocious predator thrashed wildly, but couldn’t shake off the snake-like fish. They burrowed into the shark’s body, biting through its thorax, abdomen, and all the muscles. As the struggling shark gradually revealed its pale bones to Lu Mingfei’s eyes, the viperfish began to consume its oil-rich liver.

Minutes later, the pale skeleton slowly sank. The viperfish drifted away, appearing like a galaxy. Their movements were as graceful as possible, but when it came time to feed, they resembled the most brutal beasts on land.

The three of them understood that the giant squid had not calmly left after killing the hammerhead shark but had fled in fear.

The blood from their battle had attracted the viperfish from the depths of the trench; they were the true rulers of this sea, capable of devouring living creatures with the brutality of slow torture. It was no wonder the battle between the hammerhead shark and the giant squid had been so frenzied—neither dared to engage for too long; once the scent of blood spread, the viperfish would leave their lair, and both contenders would become prey.

“This is even more ferocious than piranhas in the Amazon!” Lu Mingfei wiped his sweat repeatedly. “Thank goodness we’re in this iron shell!”

“No, they can bite through steel because they aren’t ordinary viperfish,” Chu Zihang and Caesar exchanged knowing glances, clearly realizing something.

“I thought these things were extinct,” Caesar said.

“The last record of the ghost-toothed viperfish was on a Sumerian clay tablet, right?” Chu Zihang said.

“Yeah, the Sumerians used them to refine iron ore,” Caesar replied. “Biological iron refining predates high-temperature iron refining by a thousand years.” He added, “If I’m not mistaken, both the shark and the giant squid are subspecies, right?”

“They should be subspecies. No wonder they can adapt to the extreme environment here.”

“Hey, what are you guys talking about? I don’t understand a word,” Lu Mingfei said.

Chu Zihang turned to look at Lu Mingfei. As a killer embryo, he rarely showed expressions of fear or unease, but now his pupils were dilated, his face pale, as if he had just seen a ghost.

“Those creatures are called ‘ghost-toothed viperfish,’ legendary beings. Dragons used them as torture devices; nobles who committed fire crimes would be punished by being tied to bronze pillars and sunk into the deep sea, where large groups of viperfish would eat the nobles along with the pillars. Since all historical records about dragons are based on conjecture from ancient texts, the existence of ghost-toothed viperfish has always been in doubt. However, the history of iron technology suggests that ghost-toothed viperfish did indeed exist. Most historians believe that the Hittites invented iron smelting around the 15th century BCE, yet the college once acquired iron artifacts that were much older, made by the Sumerians, who lived before the Hittites. But during the Sumerian era, humans shouldn’t have been able to produce flames hot enough to smelt iron ore. The result of technological reconstruction indicates that the Sumerians used biological iron smelting; they raised viperfish to consume iron ore, and the iron content accumulated and purified in their bodies. The Sumerians then burned the viperfish with low-temperature flames to obtain high-quality iron, which contained transparent crystalline substances—those were the viperfish’s teeth,” Chu Zihang explained.

“Damn, eating iron ore with these things is outrageous!”

“Because they are creatures carrying dragon genes,” Caesar said. “All the creatures here carry dragon genes. Look over there, the giant squid has returned.”

The giant squid was hovering next to the white bones of the hammerhead shark, its remaining nine tentacles undulating and curling, with suckers appearing and disappearing, as the mouth in the center of its tentacles sucked in the blood-red seawater.

“The ghost-toothed viperfish tore the hammerhead shark apart, and the shredded remains are left in the seawater. The giant squid can swallow the bits of flesh just by drawing in seawater,” Chu Zihang said. “Watch its tentacles.”

As the seawater filtered through the giant squid, it became increasingly clear, allowing Lu Mingfei to finally see those tentacles. The tentacles, over half a meter in diameter, were covered in scales, writhing like nine frenzied snakes in the sea. There shouldn’t be a giant squid covered in scales in the world.

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