Chapter 52: Learn to 'Share'
Being very close to the shore, Su Xiao quickly rushed onto the sandy beach. Around him were shadowy cursed figures, including the mad dog Quake, who was biting half a Bloodsucking Hunter.
As soon as he charged onto the sand, Su Xiao saw Winnie lying on the soft sand.
"You all..."
Winnie looked at the group rushing toward her, reacted swiftly, got up from the ground in an ungraceful posture, turned around, and fled straight toward the sea.
Su Xiao plunged into the sea, grabbed a chain thrown by Ghost Shadow, and quickly approached the Doom Number, which was a hundred meters away.
Hundreds of Bloodsucking Hunters stopped on the beach. A few of them touched the seawater with their claws, then retreated one after another. They weren't unable to enter the sea, but they had an instinctive fear of the Demon Sea.
"Roar!"
A larger Bloodsucking Hunter let out a roar. Layers of air waves spread, causing large droplets of water to leap from the sea surface, and the surrounding sand and soil were pushed away layer by layer.
The hundreds of Bloodsucking Hunters circled by the shore for a while before returning to the dense forest behind. These Bloodsucking Hunters were exceptionally vengeful.
Climbing onto the deck of the Doom Number, seawater dripped from Su Xiao's hair and clothes. He wasn't too surprised by the danger level of the Eternal Life Island. This was what it took to break through the 200-point barrier of four attributes.
Su Xiao had deliberately approached the island's edge to test how dangerous Eternal Life Island was. Now that he had basic intelligence, the rest was left to Bubu Wang.
"Bubu."
"Woof."
Bubu Wang was already fully equipped with infiltration gear. The monitoring device on its head could transmit real-time footage.
"You ran into those blood-skinned monsters? They're fast and have strong destructive power. See, I told you, landing there won't pit you against unbeatable enemies."
Octopus Bro was sitting cross-legged with his tentacles, a straw in his mouth, drinking fresh-squeezed orange juice that Bubu Wang had given him.
The blood-skinned monsters Octopus Bro mentioned were the Bloodsucking Hunters. The name was fitting. The Bloodsucking Hunters looked like their flesh was exposed, but in reality, their bodies were covered in a layer of translucent fascia.
"I landed there and got half-eaten by the blood-skinned monsters."
"How did you get through the Hunter Zone?"
Baha had already named the area, a habit formed from long battles.
"Get through? How could I get through? Back then, I was big enough to stuff a dozen blood-skinned monsters full. They dragged me, half-dead, back to their nest. I escaped while I could. Seeing the stone cup at the center of Eternal Life Island was pure luck."
Octopus Bro still shuddered when talking about it. He had managed to leave Eternal Life Island alive only because he was delicious, and the monsters on the island couldn't bear to eat him all at once.
"Stuffing Bloodsucking Hunters full? You're insane."
Baha was at a loss for words.
The situation now was that Eternal Life Island was basically unexplorable. They had to fall back on Plan B: let Bubu Wang scout the island, find the stone cup, and get the Primordial Water from the pool below.
After waiting on the Doom Number for over an hour, Su Xiao confirmed the situation on Eternal Life Island through Bubu Wang.
First, Eternal Life Island could be divided into six parts, with a cave at the island's center as the focal point. This was the Central Area.
The stone cup was in the cave in the Central Area. The cave was over a thousand square meters in size, with many holes of various sizes in the rock ceiling above, allowing sunlight to shine directly inside.
Bubu Wang had peered through these holes in the cave ceiling and saw the stone cup inside, along with the pool below it, filled with a milky white liquid.
After a preliminary investigation, Bubu Wang lost interest. Inside the cave were crystalline roots everywhere. Among the crystalline roots, a dried corpse sat leaning against the pool.
Bubu Wang used a tree branch to touch the crystalline roots coiled in the cave. Instantly, white beetles appeared on the branch. A finger-thick branch was covered in thousands of white beetles in an instant, a nightmare for anyone with trypophobia.
Unless Bubu Wang turned into a super-mini version of itself, it would be difficult to squeeze through the crystalline roots tangled in the cave. Plus, the dried corpse by the pool exuded an incredibly terrifying aura. Just looking at it from a distance made Bubu Wang's legs tremble uncontrollably.
Hearing this news, Baha shouted "Coward!" in the team channel, then entered an alternate space. It took over 40 minutes to sneak near Bubu Wang.
In the end, Baha left a "Damn it!" and started retreating toward the island's outer edge. Even he felt a bit uneasy after seeing the dried corpse. Bubu Wang mercilessly mocked him, as Baha rarely got the short end of the stick.
Unless they launched a full-frontal assault, there was no way to get the Primordial Water. Besides the tangled crystalline roots and the dried corpse by the pool, the cave had other surprises.
That was basically the situation in the Central Area. As for the outer ring, Su Xiao divided it into five major areas:
Hunter Zone: Territory of the Bloodsucking Hunters. At least a thousand of them, maybe more.
Snake Zone: Inhabited by pitch-black pythons with crystals on their heads. Making eye contact with these pythons instantly triggers an undetermined mental control effect. Bubu Wang, blending into the environment, accidentally made eye contact with one and lay on the ground drooling for half a minute.
Poison Insect Zone: This was pure hell. Conservatively estimated, there were tens of millions of supernatural poison insects of all kinds. Bubu Wang went in and was paralyzed for over ten minutes. Without Su Xiao's various alchemical potions, the six abnormal statuses it suffered in that area would have been enough to finish it. Note: This was without combat, just from the harsh environment triggering six abnormal statuses.
Active Plant Zone: This area looked peaceful but was actually the most treacherous. Many plants were alive and blocked perception. Bubu Wang personally saw a supernatural beast come to forage, get sprayed unconscious by a house-sized Rafflesia, and then swallowed.
Giant Crocodile Zone: This was the third most dangerous area. Dozens of giant crocodiles lived there. Their survivability was at the mini-boss level. Each bite could potentially trigger an instant death judgment. Fortunately, only their survivability reached mini-boss level.
Central Area → Poison Insect Zone → Crocodile Zone → Snake Zone → Active Plant Zone → Hunter Zone. That was the ranking of the six areas. With luck, they might encounter the island's three wild big bosses, all lurking in the Central Area, each occupying their own territory.
If Eternal Life Island weren't large enough, it couldn't withstand the devastation of these monsters. Forcing a way in was suicide.
Su Xiao sat on the deck, thinking. Apart from the two high-risk areas of Eternal Life Island and the Great Vortex in this world, the Doom Number's combat power was now among the top on the Demon Sea.
With a place like Eternal Life Island, of course, one should learn to 'share.' For example, tell Duke, Twin Towers Empress, and Black Witch Sa, the three great pirates, that Eternal Life Island had Primordial Water.
Not just pirate factions, but also the contractors in this world. The Demon Sea had a high-risk area like Eternal Life Island that could be entered without 'shelter-type items.' Anyone interested could come. Su Xiao only needed 1000 milliliters of Primordial Water, at most 1500 milliliters. The pool on the island had at least 200 liters of Primordial Water, which was 200,000 milliliters.
With so much Primordial Water, there was plenty for everyone to fight over. The problem wasn't scarcity but whether one could seize it.
Luring all parties here would turn Eternal Life Island into chaos. Amid the chaos, it was very possible to snatch some Primordial Water. After that, they could figure out how to reap benefits on the island.
For now, ignoring the potential gains from Eternal Life Island, Su Xiao had a way to make a huge profit in Soul Coins. He opened the World Contact Platform and posted a message. The content was as follows:
Bai Ye (Reincarnation Paradise): "Discovered high-risk area on the Demon Sea: Eternal Life Island. This area is extremely dangerous. Killing ordinary units yields 12 to ??? Soul Coins. The island has over 200 liters of [Primordial Water] and abundant rare minerals. Compared to other areas, the mineral zone is relatively safe. The coordinates of Eternal Life Island are... (View subsequent content requires payment of 150 Soul Coins)."
Prompt (Void Tree): This information is authentic and has been notarized. After purchase, these coordinates cannot be disclosed in any way on the World Contact Platform. If such behavior is discovered, 15,000 Soul Coins will be forcibly deducted. These Soul Coins will belong to the provider of the coordinates (Reincarnation Paradise·Bai Ye) as compensation for the loss of intelligence.