Tip of the Mysterious Iceberg

The massive white dragon stood vertically beneath the orange-lit surface, looking down at it with utter disdain.

There was not a shred of fear or intention to flee—only an indefinable, sharp dominance.

The water monster couldn't process this situation; its brain completely froze up.

Why would that absurdly cunning, desperately fleeing creature suddenly radiate such a powerful aura?

It felt deeply uncomfortable, even harboring a sudden trace of fear.

Yet it quickly grew humiliated and enraged by this feeling, letting out a furious roar.

No matter what, it needed to get rid of this unbearable, suffocating heat and the scorching water near the surface.

It violently spewed Icy Mist at the giant white dragon, sending dense, frigid white clouds surging outward to envelope the entire battlefield.

The Icy Mist closed in right before him, yet the giant white dragon didn't even attempt to dodge.

Puzzled, the water monster ramped up its output.

The Icy Mist slammed directly into the giant white dragon, but his scales showed no signs of freezing.

A heavy weight settled in the water monster's heart.

Its golden spiritual eyes flared with molten gold radiance as it burst through the current, charging forward at extreme speed.

Water pressure as heavy as a mountain crashed down in its wake.

Then, through the gap parted by the rushing currents, it saw the giant white dragon open his mouth.

Haoyuan threw back his head and exhaled downward. Channeling both Water Surge and Wind Grace, he unleashed a towering torrent of scalding heat that spiraled down in a massive, surging cone.

Splash! The boiling water drenched the water monster completely.

A sizzling sound like splattering hot oil erupted. The water monster instantly curled up and twitched like a prawn dropped into a deep fryer, screeching in excruciating pain.

Its pitch-black skin burned red and peeled back, releasing a rich, savory aroma of fatty meat underwater that violently whetted Haoyuan's appetite.

He expelled all the swallowed boiling water in one go, then plunged straight behind the screeching monster, seizing its nape in his jaws and rocketing toward the surface.

The instant they broke through the surface and reached the peak of their upward momentum, he released his grip.

As the water monster fell back down toward his chest, Haoyuan extended his Kirin Arms, grabbing its upper and lower jaws and forcefully prying them wide open.

He unleashed his long-accumulated Fire Line, pouring it directly down the monster's throat.

Like pouring oil onto an open flame, intense fire burst forth in an instant, raging furiously inside the monster's gullet.

The water monster thrashed in unbearable agony. Haoyuan exerted every ounce of his strength to hold its jaws open while relentlessly blasting Fire Line.

The monster struggled even more violently, flailing its tail and limbs in total panic.

Suddenly, a long, slender object whipped over from behind, strangling Haoyuan's neck and interrupting his Fire Line.

Looking down, he saw a pink tentacle.

Through his dragon whiskers' perception, he could tell it had shot out from the monster's raised tail.

The tentacle wrapped tightly around his neck several times before yanking backward hard, forcing Haoyuan to tilt back and struggle for air.

The grip of his Kirin Arms suddenly loosened. Seizing the opportunity, the water monster whipped around and lunged at him with its gaping, bloody maw.

In the nick of time, a spark of lightning flashed across the surface of his glistening, jade-white scales, followed by a blinding, brilliant burst of light.

Arcing electricity crackled and screeched wildly.

The pink tentacle was scorched black outside and cooked tender inside. Before the water monster could even let out a scream, its lunging motion instantly transformed into a desperate dive.

Haoyuan failed to grab the monster's dorsal spine, so he quickly grabbed the pink tentacle and yanked it back, only to pull air and nearly lose his footing.

The water monster had severed its own tentacle to survive!

“Dammit! As if I'd let you get away!”

Haoyuan slurped the tentacle right into his belly before diving headfirst into the lake, giving chase straight into the deep water.

The water monster fled for its life. Severely injured across most of its body, it no longer had any strength left to fight the white dragon.

Yet the white dragon pursued relentlessly from behind.

It ruptured its stomach skin, releasing a cloud of corrosive acid.

The white dragon didn't slow down in the slightest.

It tried to manipulate the water pressure to obstruct him with all its power, but it was hopelessly outmatched; the giant white dragon smashed right through it with Water Surge and Wind Grace.

A bolt of lightning struck down, causing the water monster's entire body to shudder violently. It realized it had no choice but to make a final, desperate stand.

Having forced the monster to a halt, Haoyuan charged forward. However, the descending monster suddenly flipped over and shot out a flurry of tentacles.

The tentacles wrapped around Haoyuan's body and yanked him back forcefully.

Haoyuan was caught off guard, stumbled forward by the sudden pull.

He quickly stabilized his footing, grabbed two of the tentacles, and let lightning flicker around his body.

Seeing this, the terrified water monster hastily spewed Icy Mist.

The expected outburst of wild lightning failed to occur. Haoyuan was shocked to realize that the thunder energy within his body was completely depleted!

The water monster instinctively cowered, but when it raised its eyes and saw that nothing had happened, it immediately used the tentacles to pull itself forward, lunging with its bloody maw wide open.

Its golden spiritual eyes flared once more with molten gold radiance.

At such close range, Haoyuan's vision was irresistibly drawn to that molten gold light.

His heart gave a strange, powerful thud.

An indefinable, overwhelming sensation swept through his entire body following that eerie heartbeat.

As if beholding something incomprehensibly grand and awe-inspiring, Haoyuan's body suddenly froze in place.

The monster's gaping, blood-soaked maw was right before his eyes.

Haoyuan's pupils dilated as he hastily opened his status panel.

The instant the monster's jaws snapped down, a brilliant explosion of lightning erupted. Tens of thousands of lightning snakes surged from his scales, transforming into a raging tide of thunder that poured down like a waterfall, drowning the monster's maw.

The water monster shrieked in agony, yet it did not back down. A fierce, suicidal resolve flared in its eyes as it endured the excruciating pain, keeping its maw open to snap down against the surging thunder tide.

Before Haoyuan could even catch his breath, he caught sight of the monster's fearless eyes and felt an excruciating, sharp pain at his neck.

He let out an enraged roar of pain and bent his head down to bite into the back of the monster's neck, immediately triggering a Reflex Constriction that bound the monster's entire upper body in a death grip.

The water monster's razor-sharp claws clawed frantically at his chest and abdomen.

Haoyuan used his Kirin Arms to pry at its jaws, opening his own bloody mouth to lock onto its throat.

Pink tentacles coiled and whipped in madness.

Brilliant, dazzling bursts of lightning flared time and time again.

“Hah... hah...”

Uncoiling his flood dragon body from the water monster's corpse, Haoyuan gasped heavily, collapsing limply into the water.

He floated and drifted with the current alongside the dead monster.

“I-It's finally over...”

Haoyuan panted heavily, gazing down into the dark, deep lake bottom as his tense nerves finally relaxed.

The dark, abyssal lake floor looked like a crouched giant beast waiting to devour anything in sight.

Looking at it made Haoyuan feel vaguely uneasy, yet he couldn't bring himself to move. He just stared quietly, taking heavy breaths as his heartbeat gradually smoothed out.

Just as one of his heavy breaths was about to finish, the entire dark, abyssal lake floor suddenly peeled open, revealing a colossal golden vertical eye.

Haoyuan's breath froze.

It felt as if he were standing directly before a towering, majestic sun.

The black vertical slit at its center—like an abyssal rift—suddenly twitched, instantly focusing and locking onto him with terrifying precision.

The moment their eyes met, Haoyuan's heart stopped dead in its tracks.

His eyes were forced wide open, staring right into it, unable to blink or close.

His entire body froze solid, unable to budge even a fraction of a millimeter. Even his blood stopped flowing.

Like a microscopic ant before an incomprehensible, cosmic power, he was completely at its mercy.

His humble life drifted with the current, as if it could be obliterated into nothingness at any second.

The passage of time seemed to stretch infinitely—agonizingly clear and slow, where every single second felt like an eternity.

Unable to breathe, lake water rushed into his nostrils. With his heart unable to beat, the blood throughout his body began turning ice-cold.

Just as Haoyuan thought he was going to die right then and there, the golden eye suddenly closed. It seemed to have merely cast a casual glance at him before losing all interest.

The entire lake returned to a tranquil silence.

“GASP—”

Haoyuan twitched violently, instinctively inhaling a massive gulp of air, feeling as though he had just been dragged back from the dead.

His heart pounded wildly, and his blood resumed its circulation.

He gasped twice, and without a second thought, activated Wind Grace and Water Surge. Grabbing the water monster's carcass, he shot toward the surface, desperately fleeing this terrifying lake.

This world was far too frightening. For such terrifying entities to exist... this was definitely not the Earth he knew.