Chapter 103. Kun Peng
"I don’t think the previous plan I had in mind will work," Aiden thought. "At where I am, there are no longer beginner rank 2 chaotic beasts and rank 1 chaotic beasts in the skies and at the ocean surface. Only intermediate rank 2 chaotic beasts and above, remain in the sky and deep in the ocean. I need to enter the ocean now."
Aiden realized he had no choice but to take a risk.
"I’ll be scanning across the ocean depths so that I can be prepared for unforeseen threats," Aiden thought.
"But I need to camouflage myself to look like a sea creature as I explore the ocean," Aiden thought.
The crimson sword he held transformed into the shape of a large, malevolent-looking crimson shark.
He made the shape hideous-looking so that some sea creatures would be scared of it just by looking at it.
He entered the mouth of the malevolent-looking crimson shark. The inside was completely hollow. It had no heart, no lungs, and no life of its own—it was simply a construct he had molded his blood into, a fake body to hide inside.
Aiden willed the crimson shark to dive into the ocean.
The crimson shark dived into the ocean.
Aiden was inside it. He scanned the ocean.
Several creatures saw the crimson shark from afar. They were intermediate rank 2 chaotic beasts and even advanced rank 2 chaotic beasts among them, but when they saw how hideous the crimson shark looked, they backed off.
Aiden sighed in relief. "It worked."
He dove deeper into the ocean as he scanned across him.
He moved in this state for a long time.
Very soon, he saw trails of fresh corpses in the ocean depths.
They were scattered deeply in the ocean. Each of the corpses were very large. They were thousands of them. The corpses were very many. He could not even keep count.
Aiden noticed several claw marks at different places on the bodies of the corpses.
"Some dangerous creature killed them all. With these claw marks, could it be a fish with bird-like features or something? The only sea creature I’ve read is like that is a Kun Peng.
But a Kun Peng is a unique chaotic beast. If there’s more than one kind of unique chaotic beast here, then it means this pocket world is a special pocket world. I need to follow the trail of corpses to see where it leads to," Aiden thought.
As he followed the trail of corpses, he absorbed the blood essence of all the corpses in a 100-meter radius.
He did not stop advancing and scanning across the place for unforeseen threats as he moved, hiding in the mouth of the crimson shark.
Eventually, he absorbed the blood essence of so many creatures that his power got to the level of an intermediate rank 2 warrior.
Aiden’s radius of absorbing blood essence was now 200 meters.
Aiden kept advancing. He kept absorbing blood essence, too.
He was shocked by how much blood essence he needed to accumulate for his next breakthrough. This was because he had absorbed the blood essence of numerous corpses as he followed the trail of corpses. But his power was still at the level of an intermediate rank 2 warrior.
Aiden eventually came to a dead end.
He had absorbed the blood essence of all the corpses of the creatures he had passed. But he was still an intermediate rank 2 warrior.
"There’s nothing here? I thought the trail of corpses would lead me to something," Aiden thought.
"I should go further and hunt for intermediate rank 2 chaotic beasts and absorb their blood essence. Perhaps during the journey, I can discover another... shit, what the hell is that?"
Aiden saw a very ginormous creature ahead.
It was asleep... a legendary rank 2 chaotic beast.
No... they were actually two... two legendary rank 2 chaotic beasts.
The other creature was a large fish the size of a city. It had wings for fins. It also had a pair of thick golden claws. It was also asleep.
"A crakan and a kun peng... so my theory was on point. The kun peng killed all those creatures I came across. What I didn’t know was that a kraken was here too. So this is most likely a special pocket world. Two kinds of unique chaotic beasts, a kraken and a kun peng. I’m lucky they are asleep, else... I would have died without knowing how I died. But why are they asleep? Or they are guarding something? Could what they are guarding be responsible for the gate formation?"
Aiden found his theory plausible.
"So I’ll have to kill the legendary rank 2 Kun Peng and the Legendary rank 2 crakan to have access to whatever they are guarding. I guess I need to return when my strength is at the level of a legendary rank 2 warrior," Aiden thought.
After that, he turned around.
He reinforced the crimson shark with more blood and made it look more menacing as he journeyed beneath the ocean depths.
A lot of creatures that could have killed Aiden under normal circumstance scurried off when they saw the menacing shark.
But not all of the creatures feared the menacing-looking creature.
A group of sharks saw the crimson-looking shark. Ice danced across their bodies.
Who the hell was this shark, causing havoc in their territory? In their own savage, primal way, they felt threatened.
They had to get rid of that creature.
The group of intermediate rank 2 sharks shot towards Aiden.
Thanks to his extensive scan range, Aiden noticed them approaching him.
The crimson shark bolted off through the ocean like a submarine, leaving trials of bubble in its wake.
The intermediate rank 2 sharks kept launching ice blades and arcs towards it.
Aiden kept evading the attacks.
But the creatures were catching up to him.
He knew taking them all on meant death.
"What do I do... is that some sort of cave?"
He scanned the cave. It did not contain anything that was a threat.
The crimson shark turned into blobs of blood and reinforced the crimson wings on his back.
The sharks didn’t give up the chase when they could not see the crimson shark anymore.
Instead, they decided to eat up the insect that had been acting like one of them in their territory.
Aiden flapped the wings and bolted towards the cave.
The cave was too small for the large sharks to enter.
Aiden evaded the attacks of the sharks.
A couple of the ice attacks crushed into him, though. He coughed a mouthful of blood. But he reinforced his crimson armor with his blood. His regeneration, faster than before because of his breakthrough into the Intermediate rank 2 level, kicked in. He was healed in a few moments.
He entered the cave.
The moment he entered the cave, thousands of intermediate rank 2 sharks crushed into the cave entrance.
The cave shook but held. The sharks launched ice attacks of all kinds towards the cave. Aiden had to go deeper into the cave so that the attacks would not reach him. Very soon, the attacks ceased. The sharks were still at the entrance when he scanned the entrance. However, they had stopped attacking.
They decided to wait.
Aiden sighed and sat down in the cave.
Because of his enhanced vision, he could see very well.
"Wait... is that a corpse?"