The Fish King suddenly flicked its tail, and with that momentum, its massive body surged forward, squeezing through the torn net, darting into the water. Within seconds, it surfaced not far away, still in that leisurely bubble-blowing posture, as if the previous struggle was just done casually.

"Damn, what the hell is this thing?"

Jiang Chuan uncharacteristically swore, looking at the fishing net in his hand with a big hole, it wasn’t hard to imagine that if it bit into a person, it could probably snap their bones directly.

"After more than twenty years of fishing bans, it’s not surprising to see such a giant grow in this river."

Cheng Ye disposed of the black and white stripes on the second net, his eyes sweeping over Jiang Chuan’s torn net, shaking his head, "Let’s not worry about the Fish King for now. Let’s catch more ordinary fish to take back. I just happen to need some for research."

"Alright!"

Jiang Chuan didn’t insist, tossing the broken net aside, leaving only one net repeatedly cast.

The Fish King was still leisurely swimming in the water, occasionally glancing at the two busy men on shore, as if watching a show.

But Cheng Ye wasn’t in a hurry at all. Was it really a problem not catching it? What he needed was just the biological information provided by the Fish King.

He might as well draw his gun and fish physically later. No matter how fast it swims, can it be faster than a bullet?

For the next hour, the two of them almost worked in assembly line fashion. Jiang Chuan cast and retrieved the net, while Cheng Ye squatted nearby, taking the net and skillfully killing the fish with a small knife.

Jiang Chuan was not surprised by Cheng Ye’s action to stab each fish to death.

The best way to check for sources of infection is to eliminate the carrier. Besides, taking dead fish back through the inspection station is easier than live ones.

Soon, catching up right when the growth factor reached 80%, the water property had already accumulated to 200% progress.

And the underwater breathing had also increased to 28%.

This was a trait even harder to accumulate than the growth factor, but the harder it was to accumulate, the more excited Cheng Ye became.

Because according to the rule of the Collector, the harder it is to accumulate something, the more powerful it often is.

After catching over a hundred more, the water was still densely packed with schools of fish.

After maxing out the growth factor to 200% and accumulating underwater breathing to 100%, only then did Cheng Ye stop.

Standing up, his legs and feet were numb from crouching. His hands and face were red from the cold, his fingertips almost numb, but looking at the back of the pickup filled with fish, his eyes were full of satisfaction.

Nearly four hundred fish piled up into a small mountain, covered with a thin layer of snowflakes, the vehicle body even sunk slightly under the weight.

These fish were almost all big ones weighing five or six pounds; some small fish, after being processed, were directly thrown back by Cheng Ye for burrowing.

The ground was covered in a thick layer of fish blood, mixed with melted snow, staining it a dark red, somewhat dazzling under the morning light.

"Alright, these should be enough!"

Cheng Ye clapped his hands, tossing the last fish into the back.

Simple fish cleaning didn’t take much time. As for dealing with the innards, he planned to take them back to the Celestial Essence Community and have the women workers there help out.

Since Dapo Town was the target, it’s important to train a batch of workers who could handle fish catches; this would be the main economic source of Dapo Town’s future and needed to be established promptly.

Jiang Chuan also gathered the nets, wiped the sweat off his forehead, getting a little heated from continuously exerting himself just now.

He looked towards the river, the Fish King was still swimming there, and seeing the two about to leave, it slowly approached the shore, seemingly reluctantly seeing them off.

Jiang Chuan was amused.

But Cheng Ye just waved his hand, swiftly opened the car door, and laughed as he took out Thunder 1.

Unexpectedly, just as Cheng Ye disengaged the safety, and even before he could aim, the Fish King, which had been swimming on the water’s surface, suddenly dove into the water, leaving only a faint ripple.

"Hey, really?"

Cheng Ye was surprised.

He had only seen black bears testing human beings in short videos, pretending indifference when approaching, then hurriedly fleeing after hearing the sound of a gun being loaded.

Unexpectedly, this Fish King was so clever that it hid as soon as he was about to open fire.

Even more surprisingly, when he put away the gun, just as he was letting the thought go, that Fish King slowly resurfaced.

This playing-hard-to-get attitude made Cheng Ye’s heart sink.

A Guiding Fish?

Or... through its narrow fish eyes, a strange illusion occurred to him.

Was this thing trying to lure them into the water? Treating them as prey?

Quite something.

If such a monster isn’t eliminated, once Dapo Town starts construction and fishermen come for fishing, the consequences would be unimaginable if they were attacked stealthily. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

Seeing Cheng Ye standing in contemplation, Jiang Chuan gritted his teeth, rolled up his sleeves, "Here’s the plan, Inspector Cheng, I’ll go into the water to catch it, and you cover me from the shore."

"Into the water?" Cheng Ye was taken aback for a moment, his brows furrowed instantly.

"It’s fine, I’m good in water, fought with Fusion Bodies in Lin River City before."

Jiang Chuan grinned, already poised to take off his clothes, "This thing looks fierce and dares to lure us into the water, I want to see what it’s capable of."

In fact, he could see Cheng Ye’s desire for the Fish King and understood Cheng Ye’s concerns.

He had done risky tasks like this many times before and didn’t mind doing it once more.

Besides, he was a Half-Step Extraordinary, certainly not going to mess up over a fish.

But just as he was pulling open the jacket to reveal his firm muscles, a hand gently grabbed his wrist.

The grip wasn’t strong, but it was very firm.

"Don’t go." Cheng Ye’s voice was very calm, yet carried an indisputable tone, "We haven’t figured out this river, how deep it is, how many other mutated creatures there are, or if there are hidden infection sources, what’s the point of going down?"

"But..." Jiang Chuan was startled.

"Before protecting others, consider your own life first."