Chapter 8: Calamity

Lin Qiu, hearing the system’s warning, swam even faster.

The earth’s crust beneath the sea was trembling, volcanoes erupting—soon, the entire ocean would be boiling. Plumes of heat and magma from the seabed would tear through the surface, shooting up to the sky. Any marine creature in the nearby waters that failed to escape in time would become nothing more than ingredients in a seafood soup. Even he, an orca with a system—an apex predator without enemies in these waters—would become part of that doomed feast.

Lin Qiu wished he could sprout more tails to swim faster. Panic surged in his heart as he felt the water temperature rising rapidly around him.

From down in the ocean, he could not see the changes in the water. Yet on the satellite cloud maps above, a corner of the sea was swiftly turning crimson.

Deep below, at over a thousand meters, a volcano that had lain dormant since the Triassic Age began to stir. Just minutes earlier, the entire seabed had shuddered, and a crack had split open on the ocean floor. That fissure was spreading relentlessly, widening under the immense pressure of the sea, forming a vast chasm beneath the waves.

As luck would have it, the crack ran straight through the volcano, cleaving it in two. Now, the magma beneath the crust found its outlet and surged forth.

In the depths, countless mysterious sea beasts darted away, fleeing for their lives. The viscous magma flowed out, boiling the water in its path, turning the dark depths a glowing red.

Suddenly, Lin Qiu, racing through the water, flicked his tail forward in a sudden stop. “This is bad!” Panic flashed in his eyes, mixed with deep unease. Caught by inertia, his massive body spun, tail and head swapping positions as he desperately swam back the way he came.

“Warning, warning—danger detected ten nautical miles ahead. Water temperature has reached seventy-five degrees. Host, please turn back.”

“Shut up!” Lin Qiu snapped, ignoring the system’s voice as he pushed himself to swim even faster.

His body became a streak, slicing through the waves, vanishing swiftly into the distance. He activated his straight-line acceleration skill—a costly move. Every skill, he knew, consumed stamina, draining him as he used it. But now, his only concern was not his own strength, but the people on the cruise ship.

Because of his earlier sabotage, the cruise ship’s radar was down. Blind amidst disaster, it drifted like a ship without eyes, helpless before the wrath of nature.

“Damn it, the pit I dug, now I have to fill it myself. Karma’s a real thing,” Lin Qiu grumbled inwardly, yet his speed did not falter. He could sense some mysterious force within him rapidly depleting—a result of his unrelenting use of acceleration.

Ahead, a tide of sea beasts surged toward him. A human-like smile curled his lips. “Meat delivered to my door—how can I refuse?”

A sinister laugh echoed in his mind as Lin Qiu opened his jaws wide; a vortex like a black hole formed at his throat. Countless sea beasts were caught by a powerful suction, swept inexorably toward his mouth.

From the depths of his gaping maw, a strange black gleam shone. The creatures shrank as they spun into the vortex and disappeared without a trace.

He devoured them ceaselessly, yet felt no new bloodline awaken—only his stamina was maintained. The limitless devouring system did not mean that consuming any creature would bring new skills or an evolved bloodline. To strengthen his bloodline, the prey’s essence had to be purer or stronger than his own.

But as an orca, the ocean’s apex predator, such rivals were nearly nonexistent. In the past, those he devoured to strengthen his bloodline had possessed noble lineages, not necessarily great strength, for bloodlines were a mysterious thing.

The system had explained to him that consuming certain beasts led to evolution because their ancestral blood was exalted. In the Triassic era, the seas teemed with rulers, yet there were no ancestors of orcas among them. In those distant times, orcas did not yet exist.

His ancestor was Pakicetus—a land animal no bigger than a small dog, which entered the sea to hunt, gradually becoming amphibious, and eventually evolving into the orca—a magnified dolphin. Orcas feasted on great white sharks, yet, like dolphins, were friendly to humans and never attacked them.

After the Triassic, many ancient sea creatures perished, but countless new ones emerged. Judged by bloodline, orcas, in truth, had little claim to greatness. That was why sea beasts could sometimes strengthen him, but never surpass him—his inheritance from Pakicetus was ferocious, ruthless, and cunning.

Thus, Lin Qiu devoured as he sped toward the cruise ship.

By now, the entire sea was in upheaval. Wave after wave soared skyward. Above, black clouds gathered, silver lightning flashed, and torrential rain poured down. Walls of water, a hundred meters high, marched relentlessly toward the horizon.

The cruise ship, before these watery walls, was but a toy. If struck, it would shatter in an instant.

On deck, Xu Bing and the sailors screamed in terror.

It was the world’s doomsday.

Fear filled their hearts, eyes dulled with despair. Before the power of nature, humanity seemed so small.

As the deluge of water rushed toward them, a sailor suddenly shrieked, “Look! An orca—it’s swimming toward us!”

The cry drew Xu Bing’s gaze. Her eyes widened as she saw the thirty-meter-long orca on the surface.

“It’s him?!”

She recognized Lin Qiu at once. Orcas, like wolves, lived in pods. A solitary orca, especially one this size, was nothing short of a miracle. Was there any other orca in the sea as massive as this?

“What is he doing?” The sailors stared in disbelief, their hearts nearly stopping.

For they saw the enormous orca pushing the cruise ship, driving it rapidly ahead.