Chapter 163: Artificial Facility?

"Damn it! It actually transformed into a dragon!"

"So Gyarados really does evolve from Magikarp? I always thought that was a myth!"

"What kind of sorcery is this? A golden scale is not a creature of the pond; the moment it meets wind and clouds, it transforms into a dragon!"

"What the hell? Does this Gyarados share a surname with Monkey King?"

"I ran into this thing back when I was a sailor! Tier-6 magical beast! Its physical attack power is insane! Its ultimate move summons a water tornado that connects heaven and earth! I almost died from that move back in the day!"

"Motherfucker, we're brothers in the same boat of misery! My ship was flipped over by this son of a bitch too! I'm so damn broke now I can't even afford cigarettes, I have to scavenge other people's butts to smoke every day!"

"Strictly speaking, this doesn't count as true dragon transformation! No matter what anyone says, Gyarados is still a sub-dragon species, worlds apart from the pure dragon race!"

"Must you be so pedantic? Did you expect this fish to leap across the Rainbow Bridge and turn into a five-clawed golden dragon with an old man sitting on top?"

"This is genuinely the closest thing to the legendary 'fish leaping through the Dragon Gate' from the Chana Empire. Who knows, this place might really be the legendary Yu Men Kou Waterfall!"

"I actually believe it eight-tenths now!"

"Don't believe it! Maybe this is all just a coincidence?"

"If you can still call this a coincidence, then it's way too coincidental?!"

"I suddenly have this hair-raising feeling. First there was 'Puss in Boots', and now we have 'Fish Leaping through the Dragon Gate'. Could it be that all those stories passed down through everyday life are actually real?!"

"Live streamer supporter 'Folklore Enthusiast' gifted the streamer a Chaos Meteor! And left this message: Although I love folklore, I really don't want those legends to be real! If things like 'Nian', 'Xi', 'Doomsday Bringer', or 'Fallen Angel' are actual living entities, the future of humanity is way too bleak?!"

"Live streamer supporter 'Shadow of the Night' gifted the streamer a Chaos Meteor! And left this message: I think maybe a tiny fraction of legends might have corresponding prototypes in reality, but more than ninety-nine percent of legends and myths cannot possibly be true!"

"How could all myths be real? Otherwise, show me Heaven! The key requirement is that it must contain seventy-two virgins who have serviced however many men they please; miss even one and it's fake!"

"Stop arguing up there! Are these things important? Who cares if it's real or fake, as long as it doesn't affect normal life, right? By comparison, I really want to know what this Gyarados is planning to do! Why isn't it leaving?"

"I've been staring at it ever since it finished evolving! For some reason, it seems to be constantly staring at Teacher Ling and the other two!"

"Hurry up and run, Gyarados! If you don't leave now, it'll be too late!"

"The guy standing in front of you has eaten the liver of a true dragon! A tiny Tier-6 magical beast like you is no match at all!"

"It's over, it's over. It seems to be swimming toward Teacher Ling! Poor thing, dying right after finishing its evolution!"

"I wonder how Teacher Ling will cook this thing? Barbecue or raw fish... raw dragon slices?"

"..."

Actually, Ling Mo was a bit puzzled at this moment. According to his experience, a creature like Gyarados that had just finished evolving should have already set off, hurrying to swim toward the upper reaches of the Thanatos River. He had no idea what game this Gyarados was playing, keeping its gaze fixed in this direction. Moreover, with Ling Mo's sharp spiritual perception, he could clearly distinguish that the Gyarados wasn't looking at him at all—its gaze had been locked onto Catherine the entire time!

Huh? This Gyarados is actually coming this way? Its mouth opened so wide, what is it trying to do? Considering how hard it was for you to evolve, I originally intended to spare your life, but if you actively come looking for death, that's a completely different story!

Seeing the massive head of the Gyarados getting closer and closer, to the point where its fangs were clearly visible, Ling Mo secretly flexed his fingers, about to make a move and finish it off, only to see the Gyarados stop on its own.

At this moment, it was only about four or five meters away from Catherine. It neither used its powerful physical attacks nor displayed any magical fluctuations; it just stared fixedly at Catherine until she began to feel a creeping chill down her spine. Only then did its fang-filled mouth twitch as it struggled to speak:

"Can you... give my... mother... back... to me... please?"

What does that mean? Give your mother back to you? When have I ever seen your mother?

Catherine wore a blank expression, and just as she was about to tell the creature she had no idea what it was talking about, Vane pulled on her sleeve and wordlessly pointed at her right hand.

Catherine looked down and saw a silver-shimmering fish quietly impaled on her dagger, twitching weakly with every movement, clearly breathing its last breath...

What the hell! This is your mom?!

Catherine was startled, hastily raising the dagger in her hand and asking the dozen-meter-long Gyarados, "When you say mother, do you mean this?"

The Gyarados's massive head slowly nodded. Its speech was much smoother now than before: "That's right, she is indeed my mother. Although our Magikarp clan spawns tens of thousands of eggs at a time, and my mother might not necessarily know I am her child, after evolving, I can clearly sense the bloodline connection between us... Um, could you please be a bit gentler? I see your 'tooth' is quite sharp, and Mom is almost being cut in half."

"...... Sorry, sorry!" Catherine looked up and saw that, sure enough! Her previous movement raising the fish had been a bit too abrupt, and the sharp edge of the dagger had widened the wound on the silver fish even further. The fish was practically being split vertically, and she hurriedly pulled it off the dagger, handed it toward the Gyarados, and apologized profusely: "My apologies, please forgive me! If I had known this was your mom, I definitely wouldn't have stabbed this one..."

"It's fine. This is just normal hunting behavior, and I'm the one breaking the rules," the Gyarados carefully accepted its mother. A ball of pale green water enveloped the fish, sealing the piercing wounds on both sides of its body. Its ferocious lips twitched—presumably a smile—as it radiated goodwill toward Catherine: "Sorry for taking your lunch away, but... well, doesn't the Chana Empire have an old saying, 'When one man attains the Tao, even his chickens and dogs ascend to heaven'? So no matter what, I wanted to come pick up my mother and let her live a few days of good life."

Seeing the bizarre expressions on Catherine and Vane's faces, the Gyarados asked doubtfully, "What's wrong? Is there something wrong with what I said?"

"No," Vane said with a somewhat tangled expression. "It's just that I didn't expect you to not only speak, but also be so cultured that you even know idioms."

"Oh, there's nothing strange about that," the Gyarados replied nonchalantly. "When I crossed the 'Dragon Gate', a tremendous amount of knowledge inexplicably flooded my mind. Why would knowing idioms be strange? Besides, this 'Dragon Gate' was originally manufactured by you humans; you should know its functions much better than I do."

"!!!"

The information contained in the Gyarados's brief sentences was so overwhelming that Vane and Catherine were completely plunged into shock, left utterly dumbfounded! The entire live stream chat room fell into absolute silence:

In the Magical Beast Rainforest where no human had ever set foot, a 'Dragon Gate' that had existed for who knows how long turned out to be manufactured by humans, according to a magical beast!! This single sentence was practically shattering Catherine and Vane's worldview to pieces!

Seeing the two of them lose their reactions, the Gyarados said nothing more. It nodded politely toward Ling Mo, carefully held its mother in its mouth, slowly submerged into the water, and gradually swam away into the distance.

Seeing the Gyarados leave, Ling Mo didn't bother waking the two of them up. He just teased Panpan nearby. After quite a long while, Vane was the first to regain her senses, her expression colored with extreme complexity as she spoke:

"I... suddenly feel like this world is so unfamiliar."

"Though I have no idea what scenarios you've been imagining in your head," Ling Mo patted Panpan's head, stood up, and said, "Rest assured, if the sky falls, there are taller people holding it up. It has nothing to do with you."

Vane nodded. She glanced at the live stream interface in the corner of her left eye's vision, and a slow smile tugged at the corners of her mouth: broadcasting information of such high impact, yet the live stream channel still hadn't been banned—what that implied went without saying.

"I couldn't care less about any of that," Catherine snapped back to reality, curling her lip as she said, "I'm only concerned about one thing, Master. Why did you just let that Gyarados swim away? I've never tasted dragon meat! Furthermore, it stole my fish! Now, I don't even have a fish for dinner, let alone anything to feed Panpan!"

Hearing Catherine's words, Panpan immediately nodded while chiming in with soft "Awooo" sounds. Ling Mo lightly kicked it and frowned, "If I didn't let it go, what else could I do? Gyarados evolve from those red Magikarp; not only do they inherit the red Magikarp's trait of 'being all skin and bones', but the tiny bit of meat left is extremely sour and gritty, completely inedible."

"Have you eaten it, Master?"

"Of course. Otherwise, why do you think I'd be so disappointed every time I see another Magikarp evolution?" Ling Mo spread his hands and said, "We can only blame our bad luck. If a salmon had crossed the Dragon Gate instead, the evolved 'Mega Gyarados' is practically the embodiment of deliciousness. I've only eaten it twice in all these years, sliced into sashimi, dipped in wasabi, and it's so good you'll swallow your tongue! I can eat a ton of it by myself!"

Listening to Ling Mo's enticing description, Catherine felt her saliva flowing in torrents. She wiped the corner of her mouth, glanced at Panpan, sighed, and dejectedly walked toward the waterfall while muttering, "Sigh, what more can I say? I guess I'll just honestly go back to fishing..."

"No need," Ling Mo waved his hand, stopping Catherine in her tracks, and said, "After that little spectacle just now, almost all the fish capable of swimming up are dead. For a while, no fish will swim upstream. The remaining fish lack the strength, their meat isn't springy enough, and the energy they contain is very limited. They aren't worth eating."

"Then what do we do?" Catherine looked at Panpan with extreme reluctance and said, "I was counting on catching a few fish to win Panpan over so it would let me cuddle it more. Now it looks like that wish has fallen through too?"

"Not necessarily," Ling Mo shook his head, stood at the top of the waterfall, pointed in a certain direction below, and said, "You two follow me first. See that half-exposed wooden wall over there? That's my small cabin. It's the place where I've lived in the rainforest for decades. There's still some preserved food inside. I'll treat you two to it as compensation for the fish you had stolen."

Catherine's eyes lit up. She asked expectantly, "I remember when I first met you, Master, you told me there were nine types of deliciously preserved foods in the rainforest that could last as long as a Chimera's wing. Are you saying what you're treating us to is one of those?"

"Eight. Originally nine, but 'Knot Peak' has been eaten to extinction by me—at least extinct in the Magical Beast Rainforest," Ling Mo corrected.

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go!"

A quick glance was enough for Catherine to locate Ling Mo's cabin, which was only a kilometer or two away. She let out a joyful cheer and leaped down the cliffside next to the waterfall step by step. Ling Mo smiled faintly, gestured for Panpan to follow, and just as he was about to head down, Vane silently stepped up beside him and asked in a very low voice:

"Mr. Ling, that Dragon Gate—do you know where the location of its origin magic array is?"

Vane's temperament underwent a dramatic shift at that moment; clearly, Viera couldn't help emerging after witnessing the earlier spectacle. Ling Mo chuckled softly and asked, "What? Are your injuries healed? Weren't the lessons the 'Enigma' taught you enough? You still want to court death?"

Viera's expression turned ugly instantly. She let out a cold snort and said, "How was I supposed to know the Enigma would be so bored?"

"Tier-6 magical beasts are all more boring than the last, didn't you know?"

Viera choked for a moment, then said with some annoyance, "This doesn't seem to have anything to do with that Dragon Gate, right? Mr. Ling, can you please tell me? Can't you just give me a straight answer? The reward will definitely satisfy you!"

"Forget it, you'll never find the origin magic array. I've lived in this place for so many years and checked it out long ago," Ling Mo sighed and said, "That 'Dragon Gate' is merely a projection; its true body is actually located in the Elemental Plane, guarded by the 'Lord of the Dark Sea', the Iron Serpent. If you want to court death, feel free to go."

"The Elemental Plane..."

Viera sighed, fell silent once more, and her gentle temperament vanished. Vane came back online, rubbed her brow with some reluctance, a trace of gloom flashing in her eyes. Without saying much else, she simply nodded briefly at Ling Mo and hurried off in Catherine's direction.

"I'm leaving. What are your plans for afterward?" Ling Mo picked up Panpan, looked into its eyes, and muttered to himself, "Leaving the Magical Beast Rainforest once again—will this time be any different from before? Do those old friends still want my head on a platter just as much?"

Seemingly sensing Ling Mo's mood, Panpan let out a low, mournful whine, as if comforting him. Hearing its sound, a smile appeared on Ling Mo's face: "You're saying I shouldn't think too much about it? Just eat well and play hard? That truly is a cozy attitude toward life. If only I could be so carefree..."

"Ah——————!!!"

Ling Mo's words were interrupted by a miserable scream—it was Catherine's voice! He was startled: What's going on? Did she run into danger? There shouldn't be any magical beasts above Tier-4 anywhere near here!

Thinking of this, Ling Mo took a direct step forward, crossing a thousand meters in the blink of an eye to arrive at Catherine's side. There, he speechless found that his brain-damaged disciple had been too excited and failed to watch her step, accidentally triggering the simple trap he had set up near the entrance to keep wild boars away. Her ankle was caught in a rope, and she was currently hanging upside down from a crooked-neck tree, swaying gently in the breeze with an expression of absolute despair...