Chapter 155: Switching Between Human and Fish

Chapter 155: Switching Between Human and Fish

After Huang Bo and his two underlings left, the villa became empty.

Those three left in a great hurry. There might have been something left behind in that villa. Even Huang Bo’s fingerprints could be used as evidence. Maybe even some clue could be discovered, letting him understand what kind of company the so-called Lutu Company really was.

Li Zian walked toward that villa.

But after walking more than a dozen steps, he stopped. Huang Bo was just testing him moments ago, then suddenly left—wasn’t this deliberately luring him to show himself?

Through the gaps between the trees, the villa could be seen at a glance, brightly lit with no one moving around, like an undefended fortress. But at this moment, Li Zian felt more and more that it was a trap.

Li Zian picked up a stone and threw it hard toward a tree more than ten meters away. The stone was infused with Zhenqi. After leaving his hand, it flew in a straight line, whistling through the air, and hit the trunk of that tree in less than a second.

Thud!

A dull sound rang out. The bowl-thick tree trembled, and the crown shook as well.

Suddenly, Li Zian’s ears caught a “whoosh” sound. It came too fast. Before he could react, the tree trunk shook again. A burst of bark and wood fiber fragments exploded outward; one piece even flew onto the back of his hand, cutting a small gash.

Looking back at the trunk, there was now a large, messy crater on it.

That was a crater left by a bullet impact.

The other side indeed had a gun, and it was even fitted with a silencer!

Just as the pain from the back of his hand came, Li Zian threw himself down abruptly. At that very instant, a series of dense “whoosh whoosh” sounds entered his ears. Within a several-dozen-meter radius around him, bullets whistled past, causing trees to shake continuously. The forest was filled with flying bark, leaves, and wood splinters.

Li Zian was indeed still under the Incense Burning State, able to hear the sound of bullets flying through the air. But the speed of sound in air was clearly not as fast as the bullets themselves. By the time he heard the sounds, the bullets had already arrived.

This made him very passive, but he still gained something. As this spray of bullets flew over, he had already located the shooter’s position.

That gunman was on the hillside next to the village road behind the villa, only about two hundred meters away from him. Judging from the distance and the sound characteristics of the fired bullets, that gunman should be using a rifle, not a handgun.

Earlier, that gunman took advantage of the sound of vehicle movement to climb the hillside and find a suitable shooting position. However, Li Zian knew he had not been discovered by him; otherwise, he wouldn’t have fired randomly like that.

Suddenly, the sound of someone running footsteps crashed into his ears—and it was two people.

Huang Bo and another underling were coming back.

“Professor Huang, are you sure that kid is hiding nearby?”

“My intuition is never wrong. You search from the village road; I’ll search through the woods,” said Huang Bo’s voice.

Li Zian then crawled out from under the tree trunk where he was hiding and ran in the direction from which he had come.

There was no path in the woods. He couldn’t run at 3.0 times, but he could barely manage 6.0 times.

For jungle trail running, this speed was already quite excellent. But before he had run far, Li Zian detected footsteps coming from behind.

It was Huang Bo’s footsteps.

Thump thump thump thump…

These footsteps had a sound reminiscent of a hand tractor, and the frequency was even faster than his—at least 4.5 times!

How could an old man run so fast?

Had he truly mastered some peerless martial art, becoming as light as a swallow?

Li Zian immediately became nervous. He was running at about 6.0 times, while Huang Bo was at about 4.5 times. Before long, he would catch up. Although it was dark in the woods, running at such high speeds would inevitably break branches, and the grass he ran through would leave very obvious traces. So, it was impossible for him to shake off Huang Bo!

Thump thump thump thump…

Huang Bo’s footsteps continued to follow, chasing relentlessly, and getting closer and closer.

Li Zian’s Incense Burning State was also nearing its end, and the footsteps he detected became somewhat fuzzy. If the Incense Burning State disappeared and he could no longer determine Huang Bo’s location, that would be very dangerous. If Huang Bo were alone, he wouldn’t be so afraid to fight him—after all, he had brought Movement-Halting Ointment and Body-Poisoning Ointment, and either type of medicinal plaster would give Huang Bo a hard time. The problem was that Huang Bo still had two helpers. One of them was chasing from the road and would surely run faster than him. Moreover, the other one carried a rifle. Once he locked onto him, bullets would travel faster than anything.

Ahead appeared a stretch of reef beach. Seawater crashed against the reefs, making splashing sounds.

Li Zian made a quick decision, dashed out of the woods, and swiftly ran into that reef beach.

“You can’t run away!” Huang Bo’s voice came from behind.

Li Zian ran to the seaside and glanced back. He saw a tall, thin figure rushing out from the woods. Although he couldn’t see the face clearly, it was undoubtedly Huang Bo. Almost at the same time, the underling wearing a vest and shorts also rushed out from the other side of the woods, forming a pincer attack.

The underling with the gun did not show himself, but he was probably not far away. And that guy posed the greatest threat to Li Zian. For all he knew, at this very moment, that guy was in some dark corner, aiming some kind of rifle, ready to pull the trigger and fire a cold shot at any moment.

Li Zian did not hesitate at all. After just one look back, he sprinted a few steps, stepped onto a reef, and then leaped into the turbulent seawater.

The water here was relatively deep and very swift. An ordinary person jumping into such water, even if they could swim, would be in danger.

Li Zian knew a little about swimming, but his skill was mediocre—not even comparable to those fitness swimmers in pools. All he could do was a rustic freestyle stroke with improper form. However, he was someone with Zhenqi. He took about two baths every day, most of the time just rinsing under a showerhead, sometimes soaking in a bathtub. Once, while soaking in the bathtub, he accidentally submerged his entire body underwater, and it was that time he discovered he could hold his breath for a very long time.

How long could he hold his breath underwater?

He could hold it for ten minutes without even taking a breath!

Splash!

Li Zian’s body plunged into the seawater and was swept by the waves toward the deeper part of the ocean. Before the force of the waves subsided, he desperately swam toward even deeper water.

When he held his breath to the limit and his lungs felt like splitting, the Great Sluggish Cauldron suddenly awoke. Streams of Zhenqi were released, circulated throughout his body, and then returned to the Great Sluggish Cauldron. This cycle was equivalent to his lungs completing a deep breath.

The swelling pain and tearing sensation in his lungs disappeared, and his brain showed no signs of oxygen deprivation. At the same time, tiny bubbles appeared on his skin. But this wasn’t because his skin acted like lungs—it was the Zhenqi circulation affecting the seawater, forming small oxygen bubbles. Before these bubbles could leave his skin, the Zhenqi took away the oxygen inside them, circulating it to all parts of his body.

On Earth, the contribution of forests to oxygen is only about twenty percent, while the ocean’s contribution is about eighty percent. Sea algae in the seawater are the real oxygen producers on this planet. So, there is never a lack of pure oxygen in the sea; it’s just that humans don’t have gills like fish. But the Great Sluggish Cauldron and Zhenqi gave Li Zian an alternative “fish lung.” Being in the seawater wasn’t like holding his breath in a bathtub—he could hold it for even longer.

Now, with large amounts of pure oxygen entering his body along with the Zhenqi circulation, Li Zian not only felt no oxygen deprivation or reaction but even had a slight feeling of freshness, like walking in a forest after rain. The oxygen rich in negative ions was so refreshing that his brain’s thinking was even more agile than on land.

Back in Crescent Moon Village, he once had a dream where he dreamed he turned into a fish.

Now the dream had come true. He really had turned into a merman, able to use the Great Sluggish Cauldron and Zhenqi to breathe underwater, and stay as long as he wanted.

By the time Huang Bo and the underling in shorts chased to the seaside, Li Zian had already swum underwater for several dozen meters.

Li Zian still felt a bit unsafe, so he swam further underwater before stopping. He turned to look toward the seaside, but all he saw was churning seawater; he couldn’t see Huang Bo and the underling in shorts on the reef beach at all.

However, he heard Huang Bo’s voice.

“Li Zian, my friend, come out. You can’t hold your breath for long. Would you rather drown in the sea than come out and talk with me? I mean no harm. I just want to discuss a big business deal with you. You ask how big? I tell you, tens of billions!”

Sound travels faster in water than in air, though it was a bit muffled.

But Li Zian still heard it clearly. He cautiously floated upward but did not bring his head out of the water. Instead, he looked toward the reef beach on the shore through a layer of water.

With just a bit of water blocking his view, Li Zian saw three blurry figures. The gun-holding underling had arrived as well.

Huang Bo stood on the large reef where Li Zian had stepped to jump into the sea, still unwilling to give up. He loudly said another sentence: “I don’t believe you can stay in the seawater for half an hour! If you don’t come out now, when you pop up, I’ll serve you bullets!”

Li Zian thought to himself, “This guy is so dangerous. I need to find a way to kill him. It would be great if he came into the sea. In the water, all three of them together are no match for me.”

On this side, the three waited for Li Zian to surface.

Li Zian waited for the three to enter the sea.

But both were wishful thinking. Huang Bo never entered the sea, and Li Zian never surfaced.

The gun-holding underling fired several shots into the seawater, trying to force Li Zian out. But bullets couldn’t travel far in water and posed no threat to Li Zian.

After waiting a few more minutes, Huang Bo lost patience. He said, “Old Qiang, you go left. Da Chui, you go right. Search carefully!”

The two underlings acknowledged. The one with the gun went left; the one in shorts went right; each went their separate way.

Old Qiang, Da Chui—Li Zian remembered these two names.

He turned and swam toward the direction of the port.