Chapter 162: Transforming into a Dragon

Though she had no idea why the bears were suddenly seized with such panic, Catherine followed their lead and sprinted swiftly toward the riverbank. When it came to catching fish, she was no match for these beasts, but in terms of speed, she far outpaced them. Before even half of the bears could haul themselves ashore, Catherine had already made it to dry land. She turned back, gazing somewhat dubiously and apprehensively at the placid surface of the water.

Hm? What is the meaning of this? Why did nothing happen at all?

The Thanatos River remained as serene as ever. Just as Catherine was beginning to think she had been needlessly alarmed by her own overactive imagination, a loud 'thud' echoed through the air. The leader of the bear pack—a colossal Earth Bear that was still in the river and preparing to clamber ashore—seemed to collide with an invisible barrier. With a deafening crash, it was forced back several steps, toppling the bears behind it in a heap upon the ground!

However, it instantly flipped back to its feet. Disregarding its bleeding forehead, it planted its right shoulder forward and, assuming a brutal charging stance, lunged ferociously toward the riverbank once more!

Thud!!

Another thunderous crash! The Earth Bear's right arm was snapped clean off upon impact, sheared right at the shoulder joint with jagged white bone exposed to the air. Geysers of blood erupted from the severed wound, staining a large patch of the ground around it a deep crimson. Yet a bizarre phenomenon occurred: while the blood spraying in all other directions fell normally into the river water, the blood splattering toward the riverbank struck as if hitting a transparent glass wall, forming a vertical trail of blood that dripped sluggishly down!

Even after sustaining such a horrific injury, the Earth Bear refused to give up. A ring of earthy-yellow radiance surged around its body. Within the glow, its skin and fur took on a distinctly rocky texture, forming a complete suit of stone armor that made its five-meter-tall frame resemble a heavily armored tank! Imbued with this formidable momentum, it rolled twice on the spot to build up speed, then barrel-rolled wildly as it smashed straight into the invisible wall once again!

This was the ultimate combination skill of a Tier 5 magical beast, the Earth Bear: Rocky Avatar combined with Dynamic Dash!

Yet, it was still to no avail.

Accompanied by a crisp, shattering sound, the Earth Bear’s rock-transformed body became laced with cracks the very moment it struck the invisible wall. It instantly fractured into pieces, the outer stone armor peeling away from its hide in a clatter to reveal a crisscrossing web of bone-deep wounds. Lying submerged in the icy waters of the Thanatos River, small geysers of blood spurted from various parts of the beast's body. Yet it paid no heed to its injuries whatsoever, throwing its head back toward the sky and letting out a roar of absolute despair!

Not only it, but the dozen or more trapped giant bears all pulled out every trick in their arsenals, desperately hoping to shatter that illusory wall, yet none succeeded. Catherine watched helplessly as, in less than a minute, they battered themselves until they were bloody and utterly exhausted, ultimately collapsing in bitter despair into the shallow river water!

"What, what is going on here? What are they doing?" Catherine asked in horror. She suddenly felt a lingering sense of relief that she had run fast enough; otherwise, had she failed to reach the shore in time and been blocked by that invisible wall, she would undoubtedly have suffered the exact same fate as those bears!

"The river around the Yumen Gate waterfall is currently sealed off by a 'Dimensional Barrier.' It takes at least a Tier 7 magical beast to break through it using brute force alone," Ling Mo said with a hint of emotional resonance. "That Earth Bear must have witnessed this phenomenon before, but out of sheer greed, it refused to abandon its fish immediately, which is why it failed to escape in time. What a pity."

"What do you mean? Witnessed this before? What on earth is this?!"

"Watch closely now, the 'Dragon Gate' is about to open! This is one of the true Seven Wonders of the Magical Beast Rainforest!" Before Ling Mo finished speaking, the previously tranquil Thanatos River suddenly erupted into violent turmoil! A cataclysmic flood surge came roaring from afar, instantly multiplying the depth of the river, which had previously been only a meter or two deep! Those bears collapsed in the water were swept away without even a whimper, hurled with devastating force toward the blue-stone pool below!

At the same time, an inexplicable surge of energy began to condense at a point precisely ten meters directly above the waterfall. Elemental magic of all attributes converged madly toward this focal point, forming a multicolored vortex of energy! After spinning rapidly for a few seconds, the vortex burst apart, transforming into a tangible, giant rainbow that spanned the two banks of the Thanatos River with pinpoint precision. Viewed from afar, it looked as though a gigantic rainbow archway had been erected directly above the waterfall!

The rainbow archway was breathtakingly ornate, with stardust-like radiance cascading down from it, bathing the river and waterfall below in a kaleidoscope of colors and imparting a translucent, crystalline texture that made one feel as though they had stepped into a celestial wonderland.

"Is this the 'Dragon Gate'?" Vayne's voice trembled slightly as she desperately tried to suppress her excitement. "I've read descriptions of the 'Dragon Gate' in obscure ancient manuscripts. I originally thought they were nothing more than the rambling, nonsensical ravings of ancients, but I never imagined it actually existed! And it's even more dreamlike than the books described! What happens next? If some fish manage to cross this gate, will they truly transform into dragons?"

"They truly will," Ling Mo nodded, confirming Vayne's assertion. "This is an extraordinarily rare spectacle of magical beast evolution. Whether they can truly transform into dragons is hard to say, but at the very least, their tier will rise by at least two levels!"

By this time, the school of fish below had already gone into a frenzy! A dense, dark mass of fish was already waiting in anticipation within the blue-stone pool. When those dozen giant bears fell in, they were disoriented and battered to the point of being unable to offer any resistance, and were instantly torn apart by the countless powerful fish, swallowed down into their bellies as a chaotic mess of flesh. Then, as the rainbow archway fully solidified, the school of fish seemed to receive a command. One by one, they mustered every ounce of their strength, thrashing their tails and making an arduous, grueling ascent toward the top of the waterfall!

This was a journey of immense hardship. As the fish began swimming upstream, everyone in the live broadcast stream realized that the radiance spilling from the rainbow bridge was by no means benign. The already surging waterfall became even more violent after absorbing the points of luminous energy. If that were all, it would be one thing, but crucially, the cascading water was no longer ordinary liquid—it had transformed into a current imbued with a certain 'sharp' attribute!

The bodies of the fish swimming desperately upward were sliced by these glowing currents. Before ascending even five meters, their beautiful bodies were covered in lacerations of varying sizes, bleeding incessantly. By the time they reached a height of ten meters, this 'cutting' force seemed to intensify severalfold, tearing the leading vanguard of the fastest swimmers into multiple pieces and casting them down like discarded trash!

All sorts of crimson fish fillets were scattered downward, resembling a localized rain of flesh and blood. This horrifying spectacle unfolding beneath the dreamy rainbow bridge highlighted an eerie and profound cruelty. Yet the fish seemed completely oblivious, swimming upward with all their might, utilizing the micro-cover provided by the corpses of their fallen companions to push onward. Within a short moment, some fish had already reached a height of over thirty meters, leaving a mere ten meters between them and that ethereal rainbow bridge!

Then, the vanguard school of fish began engaging in vicious infighting while swimming upward!

Some slammed into others with their bodies, some swept them away with their tails, others opened their jaws wide to bite neighboring fish, and a few possessing exceptional magical talents even condensed massive water bullets to bombard those below them. In short, they resorted to every conceivable means to obstruct other fish from continuing upward while ensuring they themselves weren't knocked down.

Watching this chaotic scene, Catherine was somewhat speechless. Puzzled, she asked, "Have these fish gone mad? Instead of just swimming properly, they're wasting energy attacking each other?"

"That's because the number of fish that can enter the 'Dragon Gate' above is limited," Ling Mo explained with a smile. "The fish that cross the Dragon Gate will absorb a portion of the energy from the rainbow bridge above. Within moments, that bridge will vanish. Seeing the finish line so close, these strong and sturdy fish intend to eliminate a few competitors first. This is entirely normal. You needn't be surprised; according to the theory of evolution, humans evolved from animals, so all the innate traits of 'selfishness' found in humans exist in animals as well."

"However," Ling Mo continued, his tone turning somewhat mocking, "I have witnessed this phenomenon of fish leaping the Dragon Gate more than thirty times. In every single instance, the number of fish that cross is far from enough to drain the energy of the rainbow bridge. Every time, the bridge simply vanishes automatically once its time is up. These fish are worrying needlessly. Doesn't it sound strikingly similar to how certain human societies wage wars out of fear that resources might run out one day?"

Catherine and Vayne offered no reply; their attention was entirely captivated by the fish school continuing its relentless climb. No matter how fiercely they fought, the vanguard still retained seven or eight of the bravest and most cunning fish. They had pulled a vertical distance of nearly ten meters ahead of the fish behind them, and right above their heads, the rainbow archway was now less than a meter away!

With hope within touching distance, they abandoned their mutual strife, poured all their remaining strength into their upstream sprint, broke through the top of the waterfall, and leaped out of the water in a frantic race to vault into the multicolored 'Dragon Gate'!

The very instant they broke the surface of the water, brilliant radiance shone uniformly upon these powerful fish warriors, making their scales shimmer with gorgeous luster. Then, amidst this dreamlike brilliance, Catherine watched in horror as the bodies of these fish gradually turned transparent. In less than three fleeting seconds, they transformed into illusory, indistinct phantoms floating in the air like oversized soap bubbles. A river breeze blew past, and with a soft 'pop', they burst and vanished into thin air without a trace!

"Ha, it ends this way every single time. Truly never gets old," Ling Mo's voice rang out, laced with a trace of nostalgia. "Back when I first saw this 'Dragon Gate', I foolishly thought I could undergo transformation too, and like an absolute moron, I swam up the waterfall right along with them. It was only when I actually leaped out of the water that I realized the cascading light was actually the light-type magic 'Molecular Disintegration'. If I hadn't run fast enough, I nearly would have been melted away!"

"Master, your life experiences are truly colorful..." Vayne praised with a twitching mouth, before asking with a puzzled expression, "Didn't they say crossing the Dragon Gate leads to evolution? Those fish are only Tier 3 or Tier 4 magical beasts; their bodily strength couldn't possibly withstand a spell like 'Molecular Disintegration'. Doesn't jumping up there amount to seeking death?"

"Not necessarily."

Before Ling Mo needed to explain, upon witnessing the fate of the vanguard fish, the remaining school below fell into a brief silence before undergoing a new transformation! Categorizing themselves by species, they spontaneously gathered into tight 'fish spheres'. For instance, in a salmon sphere, the smaller and weaker salmon positioned themselves on the outermost layer, sturdier ones formed the middle layers, and the strongest were shielded deep within the core. Then, these 'fish spheres' leaped out of the water together, allowing the outermost fish to let the light of 'Molecular Disintegration' wash over them and turn them into bubbles, buying a chance for their inner companions to draw closer to the archway!

"This is the quality I admire most in magical beasts, and it is also what sets them apart most from humans," Ling Mo remarked with emotion. "Though they fight amongst themselves, the moment they realize they have no chance whatsoever, they spare no hesitation in paying with their lives to pave the way for their companions and make the ultimate contribution to their tribe. Much like sheep on the grassland, the old, weak, sick, and wounded will voluntarily break away from the herd, heading in the opposite direction to lure predators away from the group. This has nothing to do with nobility; it is simply a survival instinct."

Amidst Ling Mo's reflections, the airborne 'fish spheres' met their doom one after another. First was the earliest-jumping salmon school; due to their sparse numbers, when they were still over five meters away from the rainbow archway, even the innermost fish was struck by 'Molecular Disintegration' and dissolved into bubbles. Next came the trout school; possessing cylindrical armor plating on their heads, they managed to hold out slightly longer, but all eventually turned to bubbles as well. Following them were the snakehead fish, river trout...

The school of fish was completely wiped out. At this point, the rainbow bridge in the sky had also grown somewhat ghostly and translucent, on the verge of vanishing. Catherine sighed inwardly: it seemed they wouldn't get to witness the miraculous spectacle of fish transforming into dragons this time. Just as she felt a tinge of disappointment, from the very bottom—swimming the slowest and leaping out last of all—a red 'carp sphere' soared toward the rainbow archway! Even though outer layers of red carp were continually irradiated and turned into bubbles, they marched forward toward the rainbow archway with unwavering determination!

"Just like the script from last time, how boring." Ling Mo exhaled, catching the puzzled expressions of Catherine and Vayne, and explained, "These red carp are inedible, with pitifully little meat on their bones. Aside from that red shell, they are practically all fish bones, though their physical frames are relatively tough. Of the thirty-plus 'fish leaping the Dragon Gate' scenes I've witnessed, at least half ended with them having the last laugh, crossing the dragon gate and evolving into—"

Before he could finish his sentence, the 'fish sphere' formed by the red carp had already approached the rainbow archway. Although the outer red carp had been decimated, until the final 'protective layer' vanished into thin air, a single red carp measuring over a meter in length remained unexposed to the rays of 'Molecular Disintegration'. Before the rainbow bridge completely dissolved, it plunged headfirst into the 'Dragon Gate'!

Instantly, brilliant multicolored radiance enveloped it entirely! A massive torrent of elemental energy poured into its body as if it were worthless. Amidst a blinding, unbearable brilliance, its body constantly fractured, reformed, elongated, and gradually assumed the shape of a dragon. Finally, when the magnificent light finally dissipated, a gargantuan sea dragon over ten meters in length, adorned with blue and yellow patterns, its massive jaws agape and a signature trident-like horn growing from its forehead, materialized in midair and slammed heavily back down into the water, kicking up towering waves. Anyone with even the slightest knowledge of magical beasts could easily recognize this as the ultimate form of the carp, known famously as the 'Ocean Assassin'—

Gyarados!