The Water Monster

In the lake at the bottom of the valley, herds of dinosaurs surged in to escape the scorching inferno.

Crocodiles suddenly broke through the water's surface, dragging them underwater into death rolls.

But taking advantage of a disaster like this was dangerous work.

Massive fireballs rained down from the sky like depth charges, striking the huge crocodiles until their white bellies floated to the surface.

As the fireballs were extinguished in the water, they vaporized into plumes of foul-smelling white smoke.

Haoyuan plunged into the lake, sending up a massive spray of water.

The noxious fumes filled his nostrils, causing him slight discomfort. He dove headfirst into the water and swam into the depths.

Just as he swam seven or eight meters down, a blazing heatwave generated by the asteroid's impact swept across the lake surface in the very next instant, flash-evaporating the top layer of water.

Thick plumes of scorching white steam surged upward.

The lake water was brought to a boil by the intense heat, churning with scalding bubbles.

Haoyuan was startled; his tail was nearly cooked through. Staring up at the boiling surface reflecting the orange-red flames, as well as the steaming white bones floating within it, he felt a lingering dread.

“I can't stay near the surface.”

He turned back and dived deeper to avoid the charred, massive rocks—fireballs coated in clinging bubbles—that occasionally plummeted into the water.

The disturbance created by his swimming gradually trickled down into the deep waters.

In the dark depths, amid the mud at the lake bed, a pair of giant golden eyes suddenly snapped open.

...

This lake was unexpectedly vast.

Haoyuan had descended a hundred meters, yet he had still not hit bottom. Instead, the deeper he swam, the darker and more abyss-like it became, as if it had no end.

The chilly water easily insulated against the scorching heat from above while swallowing most of the light and sound.

The surroundings were eerily quiet, and Haoyuan's mind gradually calmed down.

“I'll hide here for a couple of days first and head out once the earthquakes stop.”

“Before long, toxic gases from volcanic eruptions will condense and fall as rain. By then, this lake won't be usable, so I'll have to find running water from a river.”

Having a plan made Haoyuan feel much more relieved.

The darkness in the lake's depths resembled a lurking behemoth, ready to devour anything that crossed its path.

He cast a couple of glances into the abyss and chose not to delve any deeper, turning to swim horizontally in search of a lake bed at his current depth.

However, without him realizing it, the water around him was growing heavier.

Swimming became increasingly laborious, draining a significant amount of his physical strength. Sensing something was wrong, he immediately halted.

“Phew, phew... What's going on?”

It felt as if an invisible force was blocking his progress.

Sensing carefully with his dragon whiskers, he realized there were no undercurrents or whirlpools—the surrounding water had simply become heavy all at once.

His heart instantly chilled.

The next instant, a massive shadow suddenly emerged from the murky darkness below.

Haoyuan's pupils contracted. He turned, wanting to put distance between them, but the moment the massive shadow appeared, the water around him suddenly grew hundreds of times heavier.

“What?!”

Terrifying water pressure surged from all directions, heavy as a mountain, compressing every inch of his flesh and leaving him virtually immobilized.

The massive shadow shot upward from the dark depths at extreme speed, as if completely unaffected by water resistance, instantly reaching the murky realm just below him.

By the dim, ghostly blue light filtering through the water, Haoyuan finally saw its appearance.

It was a giant beast thirty meters long, deep charcoal black all over, possessing a pair of golden eyes. Its dorsal armor was broad and thick, with rows of jagged spines rising along its back like a continuous mountain ridge.

Its limbs were long and stout, its head resembled a cross between a giant turtle and a crocodile, its jaws were packed with razor-sharp teeth, and its long tail was thick and powerful.

Its claws were like pitch-black steel blades, gleaming with a chilling light.

It did not look like a stitched monster; its body felt seamlessly natural, every inch perfectly proportioned as if born solely for slaughter, inspiring a deep, shivering dread.

“How could such a terrifying creature exist in the dinosaur era?”

Haoyuan found it hard to believe.

Struggling fiercely to no avail, he immediately channeled Water Surge and Wind Grace to counteract the crushing water pressure.

Sensing his resistance, the water monster sped up even further. The water seemed alive, actively flowing around its body without offering a shred of drag.

Thus, in nearly the blink of an eye, it closed in right in front of Haoyuan.

Haoyuan's eyes widened.

The water monster opened its gaping, bloody maw.

The water monster spun through the water twice before flying backward, while a massive tail covered in jade-like fish scales came to rest right where the monster had just lunged.

“Phew...”

Haoyuan breathed a sigh of relief.

At the crucial moment, he had urgently channeled Water Surge and Wind Grace into his tail, successfully freeing it to strike.

“This water monster is way too fierce, and I know nothing about it. Retreat is the best option!”

Without hesitation, Haoyuan swam toward the surface with all his might.

The monster's water control far surpassed his own, and with its massive body and home-field advantage, fighting here was extremely unfavorable to him.

Yet after swimming for only a few seconds, the crushing water pressure swept over him once more.

“It recovered that fast?!”

Surprised, Haoyuan turned back to see the water monster rushing toward him again.

Its rage seemed ignited, its eyes filled with murderous intent!

Haoyuan timed it carefully, preparing to repeat the trick. Just as the water monster was about to reach him, he freed his massive fish-scaled tail and prepared to whip it with full force.

Suddenly, a liquid gold luster gleamed within the water monster's pair of golden eyes.

Haoyuan's heart throbbed bizarrely.

Like a muffled thunderclap, the sound resounded clearly from his chest into his ears.

His entire body froze. As if he had witnessed something utterly awe-inspiring, he forgot what he was about to do.

The problem was, he hadn't actually felt awe-inspired at all!

He was just bizarrely crowd-controlled like that.

His body simply forgot its intended action.

“What kind of bizarre ability is this?!”

The moment the thought crossed his mind, a terrifying bite force crushed down on his neck.

His dragon scales instantly caved in and deformed. The neck muscles he had reinforced so many times were pierced right through the scales, and his neck bones groaned under immense pressure, bordering on fracture.

Right at that split second, he finally snapped back to his senses.

Ten thousand bolts of thunder suddenly erupted from his neck, brilliant, blinding lightning instantly engulfing the water monster's head.

Wild electricity detonated inside its mouth, a raging tide of scorching, searing pain ravaging its insides.

Screaming in agony, the water monster hurriedly released its grip and jerked back to the side in sheer pain.

Tiny crackles of electric currents darted wildly inside its mouth, a surging sensation of numbness completely stripping away its feeling, leaving it barely able to sense its own tongue.

Suppressing the urge to claw at its mouth, it gulped down large mouthfuls of lake water, trying desperately to ease the excruciating sensation inside.

As the monster recoiled in pain, the mountain-heavy water pressure instantly vanished into thin air.

Gaining a brief breathing spell, Haoyuan hurriedly activated Self-Healing.

The water monster was far larger than him, giving it a truly horrifying bite force.

Furthermore, the bizarre hard-control effect from its eyes had forced his entire body into a relaxed state.

This gave the water monster an opening to easily break through his neck muscles' defense and reach his bones.

If his scale reinforcement hadn't been insanely monstrous, absorbing most of the penetrating damage, he would already be dead.

Haoyuan's heart grew heavy.

“This water monster has such weird abilities... I wonder how much damage Thunder can even deal to it?”

He stared at the water monster, his pupils gradually dilating.

“Is this a joke?”

As lake water circulated continuously inside the monster's mouth, its wounds slowly healed.

“With this absurd healing ability, Thunder is just burst damage—it won't be enough to kill it!”

Haoyuan immediately turned and ran, channeling Wind Grace and Water Surge to shoot toward the surface.

Underwater, his attack methods were far too limited.

His fire was unusable, and most of the heat damage from his thunder would be absorbed by the lake water, severely nerfing its effectiveness.