Chapter 226: Underground Ecosystem (2)
Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Lin Yan immediately recalled the black shadow he had glimpsed in the Dragon Water Absorption Pond.
The ice shattered, and the frozen Saber-Toothed Fish scattered. However, they were still frozen. Even though their vitality was tenacious, they were still frozen.
The two big fish swam around the jade pillar excitedly and swallowed all the scattered strange fish in their huge mouths.
“Are they here for these sword-toothed fish?”
Lin Yan took a closer look. The structure of these strange fish’s mouths was very strange. There was actually not a single tooth in the mouths. Furthermore, the upper and lower jaws in their mouths were simply like two layers of hard slate. Once they were closed, it was as if two huge slates were pressed tightly together.
“If an ordinary big fish eats the Saber-Toothed Fish, it will probably be bitten through the stomach by the Saber-Toothed Fish before it can digest them.
“However, the structure of this big fish’s mouth clearly makes them the natural enemy of the Saber-Toothed Fish.
“Once you swallow the Saber-Toothed Fish and close your upper and lower jaws tightly, you can sandwich the Saber-Toothed Fish between two thick and sturdy rock slabs and make it unable to move.
“There’s also the Saber-Toothed Fish that I saw in the Dragon Water Absorption Pond. Its entire body was corroded…
“It must be that this big fish will secrete acid in its mouth and directly digest the strange fish!”
The two big fish swam around and bit their upper and lower jaws tightly. Then, they happily circled around and slowly swam around.
During the process, one or two lucky Saber-Toothed Fish woke up and opened their mouths to bite the black fish.
However, the skin and flesh of the black fish were actually rich in elasticity. When the Saber-Toothed Fish bit down, its flesh immediately sank. When it removed all the bite force, it was like a spring that was stretched to the limit and bounced back, sending the Saber-Toothed Fish flying!
“It seems that this big black fish is the natural enemy of the Saber-Toothed Fish…”
After the strange black fish swam away, Lin Yan swam back into the water.
As expected, after seeing him leave the jade pillar, the remaining Saber-Toothed Fish that had woken up stopped chasing him. Instead, they occupied the edge of the jade pillar and kept guarding.
Next, Lin Yan began to do happy repetitive work.
He kept going back and forth between the jade pillars and the lake. The jade pillars were harvested one by one. When there were too many of them, he carried a beast skin bag and left the greenish-blue forest. He returned to the hidden cave and put down all the White Jade Fire Lotuses, leaving two Mud Fruits to guard it.
Fortunately, he had created a few new Mud Fruits last time, so there were enough.
Then, he returned to the lake and repeated the operation.
This was very time-consuming, especially towards the end. The further the jade pillars were from the shore, the longer it would take to get there.
However, the entire process was blissful. To be able to constantly collect priceless Black Grade Unusual Items so easily, he was willing to waste more time!
However, the lake water was too big, and it was filled with Corpse Buddha Cockroaches, especially the gigantic Corpse Buddha Cockroaches. They were entrenched on the other side of the lake.
Lin Yan asked himself. It was impossible to collect the entire White Jade Fire Lotus in five days.
He could only choose the most convenient, shortest, and safest White Jade Fire Lotuses to collect.
Time passed especially quickly without knowing day or night.
About four to five days later, in Lin Yan’s cave, the White Jade Fire Lotuses were already piled up like a small mountain.
Just the faint halo emitted by the Unusual Items made the underground cave look magnificent like a paradise.
As he returned to the lake more and more times, Lin Yan had a deeper and more detailed understanding of the ecology of the Underworld.
First, it was the Saber-Toothed Fish. They were indeed entrenched around the jade pillars.
Only when Lin Yan approached the jade pillars would they charge at him crazily and attack him in large numbers.
After many observations, Lin Yan realized that these Saber-Toothed Fish seemed to be feeding on this jade pillar!
There were a few times when he saw the Saber-Toothed Fish open its curved mouth and open its upper and lower teeth into an arc. It was just enough to stick to the round surface of the jade pillar and eat it.
Their teeth could not be completely closed, but when they gnawed on the jade pillar, they could fit tightly.
Later on, driven by curiosity, Lin Yan went down to the jade pillar and touched it after freezing the strange fish.
It was only then that he realized that the surface of the jade pillar was covered in a thin layer of moist and dense meat organic matter!
Or rather, it was secreted by this jade pillar!
The Saber-Toothed Fish fed on this layer of fleshy organic matter.
Therefore, this jade pillar was the producer of this underground lake ecosystem!
Coupled with the rich sulfur smell around him and the hot underground temperature, Lin Yan suddenly remembered some reports he had seen in his previous life.
It was said that there were some strange bacteria that lived in bottom calderas. They used geothermal energy and sulfides to carry out a physiological activity similar to photosynthesis to manufacture organic matter.
He couldn’t help but guess that this jade pillar produced organic matter through a similar physiological activity.
Later on, Lin Yan observed more carefully and discovered more things.
For example, the Corpse Buddha Cockroaches would also go into the water!
They would shrink their bodies into a shuttle shape and use the tentacles behind them to swim, like octopuses. Their target in the water was the big black fish and jade pillars!
The elastic flesh on the surface of the big black fish was almost immune to the bite of the Saber-Toothed Fish.
However, the Corpse Buddha Cockroach was even larger than them. Its saber arms were incomparably sharp and could directly pierce through the black fish!
Most of the time, they would hunt with this big black fish as their target, probably as food.
However, sometimes, they would attack the jade pillar!!
However, at this moment, the attack and defense were reversed. The Saber-Toothed Fish became the Corpse Buddha Cockroach’s natural enemy!
The fine scale armor on its surface and its tiny body made Corpse Buddha Cockroach’s saber arm useless.
However, its terrifying bite force could easily penetrate the Corpse Buddha Cockroach’s carapace.
Therefore, every time the Corpse Buddha Cockroaches attacked the jade pillar, they would often suffer heavy casualties and become a feast for the Saber-Toothed Fish.
They did not attack the jade pillar for food. They always cut off a fragment of the jade pillar, picked it up, and ran, just like how they collected immature Mud Fruits.
Therefore, the entire Underworld was actually connected by a tight food chain.
There was the chain of the jade pillar, the Saber-Toothed Fish, the big black fish, and the Corpse Buddha Cockroach.
There was another chain of the jade pillar, the Corpse Buddha Cockroach, the Saber-Toothed Fish, and the big black fish.
They restrained each other and worked together tightly. All of them had natural enemies.
Ordinary natural ecosystems are stable, but often have extremely rich biodiversity.
Including the jade pillar, there were only four creatures in this underground lake, but it could maintain a tight ecological balance.
This feeling… It was as if it was not formed naturally, but artificially created!
What made Lin Yan even more afraid was that it was completely impossible for these four creatures to naturally maintain a long-term ecological balance…
It would only be possible if external forces continued to intervene and maintain it!