Chapter 368: One In A Hundred [Part 1]
Some of the gas in the bubbles were partially dissolved in the water. Cillin stretched his fingers out of the barrier so he could find out what the mysterious substances were.
The results were pretty surprising. The bubbles contained all kinds of gasses. Some could be used as fuel, and some were fairly toxic. Of course, the toxic gasses posed no threat as long as they did not reach a lethal amount.
A bunch of sea beasts swam out of the marine trench after the bubbles had mostly risen. Generally speaking, they were than most of the aquatic creatures that did not live in the marine trench. Even the small ones were incredibly deadly predators such as the Guardians.
Cillin saw tentacle-like creatures like the one Wheeze had attacked earlier, and sea beasts that were even bigger than them. They were all fleeing as quickly as possible though. Most of the sea creatures were swimming away from the marine trench, while the few that remained swam to its farthest edges.
Boom!
There was another loud boom, and the entire underwater city shook in response. The sea creatures fled even faster, and the Guardians who stayed behind with the Moors grouped together and clung to the ground tightly. Their eyes were full of fear.
“It’s coming!” The clan elder was shaking with excitement. “The legendary overlord of the marine trench and the true overlord of the sea, Antioch!”
The rest of the Moors were staring intently at the marine trench as well. The younglings had only heard of it from their elders, and their elders had only heard of it from their elders. No one here had ever truly witnessed the apex predator of Sea Paradise with their own two eyes.
The sea water began to churn dangerously. They couldn’t feel it behind the barrier, but they could see it from the swaying seaweeds that it was getting more and more violent.
Lung could sense that Antioch was rapidly approaching his location. He knew that the overlord held no ill will toward them, but he could not help but feel a bit nervous anyway. The pressure it gave off was that overwhelming.
OOOOOOOOONNNNNNGGGGGGHHHHHHH—
A low-pitched noise that sounded like the blaring of a ship horn or muffled thunder rang in everyone’s ears. Not only that, it was growing louder by the second.
Some Moors were already covering their ears and backing away in fear. They hugged the cowering Guardians in an attempt to feel secure.
Cillin was recording the sound because he realized that it contained a lot of information.
OOOOOOOOONNNNNNGGGGGGHHHHHHH—
The noise happened again. It sounded much louder and closer than the previous one.
On the platform, Lung was making a weird cry of his own to communicate with Antioch. He most likely succeeded because Antioch’s third cry was far, far more subdued than before. It no longer felt like the sound waves were going to kill them.
By now, every deadly predator in the marine trench had left to make way for the arrival of the true overlord of the sea. Even some of the plants on the walls had curled inward.
Everyone sucked in a deep breath when a massive head finally emerged into view.
They had thought that the marine trench was absolutely massive, and it was. It just wasn’t big enough for Antioch to surface comfortably.
As the overlord slowly swam upward, Cillin suddenly realized that he had seen it from somewhere. Lung’s subordinates also realized the same thing a minute later.
Some time ago, they had entered the second floor of the small hill and deposited the star map fragment into a round-shaped pedestal. The hologram of a sea beast had been projected after the pedestal had come to a stop. Barring exceptional circumstances, the sea beast had to be Antioch.
A thousand years?
Cillin had met a thousand-year-old creature before, the Black Viper. However, this Antioch was even bigger than it was. He was almost certain that the sea beast was much, much older than just a thousand years old.
Even if he assumed that Antioch could not understand the human language, it had surely lived long enough to become sapient. He could not treat it like your generic animal for sure.
While Lung was communicating with the big fellow, Wheeze had launched into a rant right next to Cillin’s ears, “Is it just me, or does this big fellow look like a dumb brick? The cohort it surrounds itself with are pretty lacking as well. Not only could they not speak, they couldn’t even stand on their tails!”
Cillin knew that Wheeze was missing its friends at the Mist Bodhisattva Empire and his little pet, Blueskin. It just couldn’t bring itself to admit it directly.
“Blueskin can’t grow this big, you know. Even its mother is only as big as the mid-sized creatures in the marine trench,” Cillin commented.
Wheeze disagreed. “Brawn without brains is just as bad as brains without brawn! Blueskin’s race is easily ten times more cunning than these dumbos!”
“Perhaps, but I’m pretty sure that Antioch is at least as smart as they are.”
“Like meow it is!”
Cillin stopped arguing with it after that. The cat was currently throwing a fit, and it wasn’t going to listen to anything until it had calmed down.
A while later, Lung finished communicating with Antioch and shot his subordinates a smile. “Antioch said it can return us to the surface.”
As it turned out, the sea overlord really was named Antioch.
“Er, we’re not in a hurry, right young master? I have a question,” Pascado said, “God’s Tear allows you to command all manner of sea beasts, right? In that case, why must we summon this Antioch? Surely you could’ve just command the other sea beasts to help us. Or did Antioch forbid them to help us or something?”
Lung shook his head. “Antioch is part of the reason why they wouldn’t help us, yes, but it’s not the main reason. A thousand years ago, the first person who drank God’s Tear forbade them from helping anyone who came to the sea bed from returning to the sea surface. The ban is lifted only when the next person to consume God’s Tear and grow a second vocal cord successfully appears.
“None of the sea beasts living in the marine trench are stupid, and they made sure to inform their offspring about this rule when they have reached the end of their lifespan. There is also Antioch to make sure that the rule is enforced. That is why none of the sea beasts living in the marine trench or the deep sea overlords would have helped us.”
“I see.”
“Even if that isn’t the case, I would’ve summoned Antioch anyway. I wanted to know if God’s Tear truly is as amazing as it sounds. If yes, then all is well. If not, then I would know that it’s not the genuine article, or at least not as good as the legend claims. So far though, I can tell that it’s definitely the real thing.”
Another person asked, “What were you talking about with the big guy, young master?”
“We talked a bit about the past, but it wasn’t willing to speak much about the Xi Family because it promised them it wouldn’t divulge their secrets. However, it also said that the Xi Family is its friend, and a friend of the Xi Family is also its friend. Since I am the second person to obtain God’s Tear, it would help us because I was technically chosen by the Xi Family.”
Cillin did not take Lung’s last sentence seriously though. If Lung had not been able to grow a second vocal cord and thus could not communicate with Antioch, he was certain that overlord would not treat them kindly even if it had chosen to show itself. There was no such thing as a easygoing sea creature, and Blueskin was a prime example of that. It could act like a clown before those it acknowledged, but everyone else was just food to be consumed.
The expedition squad had gone through a lot to come to this point. Most of their machinery were unusable in the deep sea, and even the triphibian spaceplane that had cost a lot to build were severely paralyzed. It was all worth it in the end though. They would soon be going home with everything they had dreamed of, and more.
A while later, Antioch grabbed their paralyzed spaceplane and began swimming toward the spaceplane. Big Rock and the others had returned to the spaceplane, but Lung had decided to stand on Antioch’s head as it rose. He leaned against one of its giant horns for support.
Cillin, Wheeze and Czedow chose to follow the Moors. This would be the first time they swam to the sea surface in such numbers, but no one thought they would encounter any trouble with Antioch to open up the path and the Guardians to protect them.
This was the first time in a thousand years the Moors were able to swim upward without fear or worry. It wasn’t hard to see why Cyrea and everyone else believed that they were the luckiest generation ever in the history of their race. Not only did they get to witness the overlord of the marine trench with their own eyes, their thousand-year burden was finally removed from their shoulders. Every single Moor was cheering on top of their lungs.
Cillin also got what he came to Sea Paradise in the first place. The rare ores he needed were literally a dime a dozen at the sea bed. Many of the ores that were listed as rare in the entire GAL were ridiculously common in the deep sea of Sea Paradise as well.
Whenever the Moors needed to build something, they would ask the Guardians to help transport them to the city. Moreover, the Moors treated them like they would a common rock. When Cillin had offered to purchase the ores, the clan elder had waved him off and declared, “Just take them!” He would not accept a single credit from Cillin even after Cillin had informed him that they were incredibly valuable throughout the galaxy.
In the end, Cillin was able to convince the clan elder to accept some toys, food, and an assortment of other items that the Moors found to be interesting. He even gave away a couple bags of fish biscuits. For once, Wheeze was completely fine with losing its precious food. After all, it knew that the ores were far, far more valuable than the fish biscuits.