Chapter 149: Chapter 150: Red Flower Sea Snake
Fish were biting one after another. Zhang Aihua was so excited he wished he could just pull out a knife and make sashimi right then and there.
Suddenly, a fishing rod started shaking violently. Song Yufang exclaimed in pleasant surprise, "Honey, come help me pull! This one’s so heavy!"
Zhang Aihua hurried forward to help. WHOOSH! A giant Red Flower Sea Snake emerged from the water.
Its vibrant pattern was completely out of place in the surrounding environment. A single glance was enough to know it was highly venomous.
The snake’s girth was nearly as thick as Song Yufang. After surfacing, it thrashed around the hook, trying to climb out of the water. It was an incredibly frightening sight.
Zhang Aihua froze in terror. It was Lei Hu, standing nearby, who saw the danger. He quickly drew the dagger he always carried and, with a swift slice, cut the fishing line.
The line snapped, and the giant Red Flower Sea Snake fell back into the sea. Everyone had just breathed a sigh of relief when the snake’s head emerged from the water again. Its sinister eyes locked onto them as it prepared to crawl ashore.
Zhang Aihua grabbed a shovel and started smacking the giant Red Flower Sea Snake on the head. THWACK! THWACK! He bludgeoned it until it went limp and fell back into the sea, its fate unknown.
Confirming the snake was gone, everyone prepared to resume fishing.
Suddenly, Zhang Yiwen noticed a bizarre scene beneath their feet.
The ice was gradually turning red. The way the color writhed and spread was eerily reminiscent of the giant Red Flower Sea Snake from moments before.
The others were still cheerfully fishing, completely engrossed.
A chill ran down Zhang Yiwen’s spine. "Run!" he screamed. "A swarm of snakes is coming up! Run!"
In the instant they were stunned, SLITHER, SLITHER! The fish on their hooks were suddenly swallowed whole by sea snakes.
One giant Red Flower Sea Snake was terrifying enough, but now there were thousands upon thousands of them.
It was truly horrifying.
Everyone’s first reaction was to run. Run fast. Run for their lives.
Someone was reluctant to abandon their catch, but a sidelong glance at a sea snake with its fangs bared and mouth wide open scared the piss out of them, and they ran faster than anyone.
Everyone scrambled desperately for the shore. The Red Flower Sea Snakes were supposed to be marine creatures, yet they were climbing out of the ice holes one after another. Luckily, their movements on land were noticeably slower, which allowed Zhang Aihua and the others to get ahead of them.
Seeing the endless stream of Red Flower Sea Snakes, they knew they didn’t have nearly enough bullets to shoot them all.
Zhang Aihua could only tell everyone to run first. He sent Lao Er and Brother Qiu to inform Jiang Si’s group, hoping they could kill all the sea snakes emerging from the sea before the ice froze over.
Of course, they couldn’t just ignore the snakes they themselves had lured out by drilling through the ice. With no bullets, they would have to use weapons and traps.
When Zhang Aihua got back to camp, he immediately had everyone start digging trenches. The idea was that if the Red Flower Sea Snakes fell in, they could spear them to death with pitchforks, thus keeping the camp safe.
Meanwhile, Qin Shen had already sensed their predicament. He, along with Jiang Si, Lu Zhifeng, and Jiang Linhai, went to investigate.
Lao Er and Brother Qiu met them halfway and hastily explained the situation. But Jiang Si’s group showed no surprise; they had clearly known about it already.
A chill ran through Lao Er and Brother Qiu. ’Could it be?’ they thought. ’Did they know that drilling through the ice would lure out the sea snakes and deliberately said nothing, hoping to kill us off indirectly?’
But then they immediately shook off the foolish idea. ’If Jiang Si’s group really wanted to kill them, they could have done it effortlessly before.’
’They must have something like a drone that allowed them to survey the situation.’
Sure enough, they then heard Jiang Si ask them, "What color are the snakes? How big are they? Are there a lot of them?"
Brother Qiu answered, "Their bodies are red and white, and they have a teardrop-shaped pattern on their heads. They’re huge—I’ve never seen sea snakes that big. Some are as thick as a person’s waist. When they suddenly appeared, they covered the entire sea surface."
Lao Er added, "They crawled onto the shore trying to bite people, like they wanted to eat us! It was terrifying. Aren’t water snakes supposed to stay in the water? How can they come ashore?"
Everyone had seen plenty of mutated creatures, but this description still sent shivers down their spines.
Sea snakes the size of pythons, venomous, and capable of surviving both in water and on land... That was a truly tricky problem.
If they couldn’t be completely eradicated, they would be having nightmares for a long time.
Jiang Si and her group walked forward for a while. Suddenly, they spotted a red shadow writhing ahead. The snow seemed to be impeding its movement, as its slithering was noticeably slow.
Qin Shen suddenly grabbed Jiang Si and, in a few quick movements, climbed a massive, withered tree. Standing on a branch, they had a perfect bird’s-eye view of the ice field.
It was a terrifying scene, yet at first glance, the vibrant colors looked like an ocean tide, almost beautiful.
A closer look, however, was enough to make one’s skin crawl.
There were just so, so many sea snakes, and more were still pouring out.
Seeing Jiang Si and Qin Shen in the tree, the others immediately scrambled up branches as well, hoping to avoid being targeted by the Red Flower Sea Snakes.
But the giant Red Flower Sea Snakes must have spotted them. Surprisingly, they lost all aggression and turned back towards the ice.
Jiang Si was surprised. She shot a questioning look at Qin Shen, asking if he was the one who scared them off.
Qin Shen shook his head. His pressure ability mostly only worked on mammals—the primitive, less-evolved kind. It wasn’t something he had even used yet.
’Qin Shen didn’t scare them, so why did they run? Could it be they can only stay on land for a short time?’
It wasn’t just Jiang Si who noticed something was off. Jiang Linhai, having finally managed to climb up and sit near Qin Shen and Jiang Si, said, "Sisi, look! Aren’t the snakes at the front all crawling back?"
Jiang Si nodded. "Yes, it looks like it."
Jiang Si turned to Brother Qiu. "How long have the snakes been on shore?"
Brother Qiu recalled, "Not more than half an hour."
The returning snakes collided with those still trying to get ashore, causing a traffic jam at the already small ice holes. Now, none could get in or out.
Sure enough, the first batch of Red Flower Sea Snakes began to show signs of distress. Their writhing and struggling grew weaker and weaker until finally, they lay motionless, like fish left to dry out in the sun.
Seeing this, everyone’s faces lit up with excitement.
If the Red Flower Sea Snakes could only survive on land for half an hour before dying, then the threat they posed was drastically reduced.
Jiang Si’s group didn’t lack food, so the sea snakes coming ashore wasn’t a major issue for them. For Zhang Aihua’s group, however, it had a huge impact.
Fishing would become extremely difficult from now on.
In fact, they could probably forget about eating fish altogether.
They couldn’t survive just eating radishes every day without any protein.
Lao Er voiced the question on everyone’s mind: "These dead snakes... can we eat them?"
Everyone’s eyes lit up. As long as you didn’t puncture the venom gland, eating snake should be fine, right?
One large Red Flower Sea Snake would be enough to feed them for a long time.
But to be cautious, Lao Er and Brother Qiu decided to drag one of the Red Flower Sea Snakes back and try feeding some of its meat to a fish.
An hour later, the surface of the ice froze over again.
Without exception, every Red Flower Sea Snake that had come ashore was dead.
