Jiang Chuan picked up the second ball of bait and threw it out. This time, the Fish King’s response was noticeably more urgent; it swam forward by half a meter but still stopped at the last moment, watching the ordinary fish scramble for the bait, a hint of hesitation seemingly flashing in its eyes.

Cheng Ye cast the net again and caught over twenty more fish, yet the Fish King still didn’t take the hook.

It wasn’t until the third ball of bait was thrown that this one, mixed with a moderate amount of mosquito blood and flesh, hit the water and spread a thick, fishy smell.

The Fish King finally couldn’t hold back. Its enormous body gave a sudden twist, directly pushing aside the ordinary fish vying for the bait and swallowed it whole, intending to dive back into the water.

"It’s now!"

Cheng Ye was well-prepared; the fishing net was already spread in the air. However, the Fish King’s speed was too fast, and it was still a step too slow, only grazing its tail fin, allowing it to escape into the water.

Unable to catch it, the Fish King seemed quite pleased, resurfacing in the distance and elegantly swaying its body.

"Continue, throw both balls this time!"

Cheng Ye feigned frustration, but his voice remained calm.

Jiang Chuan nodded, grabbing a ball of bait in each hand. The two balls of bait drew arcs in the air, about to fall into the water.

The water instantly boiled!

The ordinary fish flocked to it frantically, yet just as the bait was about to be snatched, a massive shadow shot up from below.

The Fish King actually leaped straight out of the water!

Over a meter long, its body drew an arc in the air, opening its mouth full of sharp teeth to swallow both balls of bait at once.

But unfortunately, before it could triumphantly fall back into the water, out of the corner of its eye, it caught a glimpse of the humans on the bank. This time, instead of a fishing net, they were holding a long stick glinting coldly...

That was something that instinctively frightened it earlier!

"Hey, hooked!"

Cheng Ye’s eyes sharpened as he pulled the trigger.

Boom, boom, boom!

Thunderous noise exploded on the riverbank at dawn, with the Thunder 1’s deer bullet hitting the Fish King’s head at close range.

What was expected to pierce through flesh instead sounded with a crisp clatter, as though hitting reinforced iron sheets.

However, the impact of the deer bullets was violent enough that, after only a brief hindrance, the bullets penetrated the scales completely, instantly shattering the entire fish head, with dark red blood mixed with brain matter splashing onto the water surface with a "splash."

Pa.

The Fish King crashed heavily back into the water, splashing up a person-high spray.

The surrounding ordinary fish panicked and scattered, yet a few bold ones directly rushed forward to tear at the Fish King’s wound.

"Net!"

As Cheng Ye reached for the gun, Jiang Chuan had already reacted, holding onto the fishing net in standby, and immediately cast the net upon hearing the call.

The two worked seamlessly together.

The Fish King was soon dragged ashore, despite having several bite marks on its body, it was still relatively intact.

However, looking inside from the shattered head portion, what was exposed wasn’t the usual white bone, but a metallic sheen of pure black fish bone, with dense patterns that resembled some kind of intricate machinery, looking particularly eerie.

What further sank the hearts of the two men was that there was still something moving inside the Fish King’s body!

The still-fluid flesh was visibly writhing at a perceptible rate, as if controlled by an unseen force, trembling and contracting following a certain pattern!

"Retreat quickly!"

The bizarre scene made their scalp tingle.

Even though Cheng Ye wanted to gather biological information, he dared not handle it at this moment and immediately ran away.

The two retreated over ten meters away and stood, looking back to see the fish flesh writhing even faster, even faintly hearing a "sizzling" sound.

After about half a minute, the writhing suddenly stopped without any warning.

"Is it over?"

Bang.

Before Jiang Chuan finished speaking, the back half of the fish carcass suddenly exploded!

Blood, scales, and bone fragments flew in all directions like a small hand grenade, staining the ground around with dark red sludge, leaving a small crater in its original place.

Fortunately, the two had retreated in advance, or else their faces would have been covered.

"Is this... the source of infection?"

"Probably related."

Cheng Ye shook his head, quickly searching his mind for known Water Series sources of infection but found no matching descriptions.

No known source of infection causes the host to explode after death.

He carefully searched through the exploded flesh and the remaining fish carcass.

Soon, their eyes both locked onto a piece of blue-green fragment embedded in the fish bone.

It looked like a scale or some kind of creature’s shell, only about the size of a bottle cap.

Intricately engraved with spiral patterns on the surface, it was still faintly trembling, as if it were alive.

"Is there a containment box in the car?"

"Yes!"

Jiang Chuan immediately responded, turning to run toward the pickup, and fished out a metal box about the size of a shoe box from under the back seat.

"This is a high-spec containment box, usually used to store special sources of infection, resistant to corrosion and leakage."

"Let’s try it."

Cheng Ye took the long-handled clamp that Jiang Chuan handed over, trying out the containment operation personally for the first time, but he was familiar with the procedure.

And without parasitic infection sources, it generally poses no threat; otherwise, the containment team would be a suicide squad.

The two approached the fish carcass remains cautiously, with Jiang Chuan holding the containment box, gently lifting the lid to reveal a black antibacterial pad inside.

Cheng Ye held the clamp, aiming it towards the blue-green fragment, and slowly reached over.

As soon as the clamp touched the fragment, the incessant trembling suddenly stopped, and the spiral patterns on the surface of the fragment dimmed, seemingly losing vitality in an instant.

Almost simultaneously, the panel prompt popped up right away.

[The Collector has detected biological information dissipating and is automatically absorbing...]