That’s a
monster that reached 10 or more meters in length!
It has a
round head and a pointy mouth. It’s body was aerodynamic and has yellow and
white stripes. It also has spikes on both side of it’s body.
Like a big
rig that had lost control, it dashed out of the water at high speed and
collided head on onto the highest jumping fish. The giant creature’s tail hit
the metal chain bridge and made a loud noise. The bridge shook wildly from side
of side.
Giant splashes
of waves hit the shore and everybody subconsciously got out of its way as
though they were finally reacting to Anne’s warning from earlier.
Wei Xingshan
looked at the surface of the river that had already returned to normal and
turned pale.
Everybody
else was still stunned. No matter what the creature was, it was quite scary
when it reached that size. The crew got progressively more scared as the moment
started sinking in.
If Lin Shuo
hadn’t warned then, never mind being slammed or eaten by that creature, if it
just fly past them, they’d have shit their pants.
“Emperor of
fresh water,” Lin Shuo had already returned his arrow back into his quiver and
looking much more relaxed, “He was the one who left the stench. It’s not that
threatening.”
“These type
of fish are also known as Korean sturgeon,” said Yang Ta as he adjusted his
spectacles, “The waters around Heilongjiang are their habitat. A large Korean
sturgeon can weight up to several tons.
“And the ones
there were jumping over the bridge were chum salmon, it’s a species of
anadromous fish in the salmon family, also an important food source for the
Korean sturgeon.”
Picture: Kaluga sturgeon
Source: www.shuichan.cc
Picture: Kaluga sturgeon
Source: dailymail.co.uk
Old man He Zihong
nodded and elaborated, “Every year around fall season, the chum salmons will
return to fresh water in massive amount to lay their eggs. This is the most
narrow spot of the river in the area, and also full of reefs underneath the
water. So when a large group of them pass through, they were forced to decrease
their speed, but they were also chased by their natural predator. These chum
salmons had no choice but to jump out of the water, which was the amazing scene
that we have witnessed.
“What even
more impressive was the Korean sturgeon that we have seen. A wild sturgeon
growing to that size is not something that you see everyday!”
“The people
who built this bridge didn’t know anything about biology,” Yang Ta shook his
head and adjusted his spectacles. “Building a bridge at this location,
especially an extremely unstable one like a metal chain bridge was way too
unsafe. No wonder nobody dare use the bridge.”
“Xiao Yang,
you are wrong,” said He Zihong, “If the hunting behavior of the sturgeon was
affecting the safety of the bridge, then all they needed to do was to kill the
fish. Even though that fish was gigantic, but it’s no rival to the fishermen.
“You must
know that wild sturgeon in northeast China has almost gone extinct. It’s not
possible that the villagers gave up an already-built bridge over a fish. That
would be a very silly thing to do.
“So, the
question really is: why is there a sturgeon of this size here? And, if it’s
native to this area, why haven’t the fisherman hunted it yet?”
He Zihong
paused at this point and looked inquisitively at Lin Shuo, “Mr. Lin, what are
your thoughts?”
“Speaking of,”
asked Liu Qing, “Mr. Lin, why didn’t you kill the sturgeon when you had a
chance? That would be a good deed for the villagers here.”
“The emperor
of fresh water was merely hunting for it’s food and caused us no trouble, why
should I kill it?” said Lin Shuo as he casted her a glance.
The starling
standing on Lin Shuo’s shoulder chimed in, “This creature might be big, but
it’s not very intelligent when it comes to fighting. Even in the water, when
Shuo-ge’s ability is only down to 10%
of normal, he could easily get rid of it. Shuo-ge, it’s not such a difficult task. What say we give them a 50%
discount and say, maybe, $5 million?”
The starling
bird’s words stunned everyone.
Stiffly, Anne
said, “Ba-ye, I think that’s okay.
Our research facility has limited capital.”
“Such a cheap
woman,” said the starling as he turned his head away.
Lin Shuo
ignored the bird and pointed at the metal chain bridge, “The danger has passed
now, let’s hurry up and cross the bridge. Professor He, you can ask the locals
any other questions that you may have.”
“What about
these logs?” asked Wang Yong, looking at the Korean spruces with an
unreconciled look.
And Wang Yong
was the only one who felt that way, all the other mercenaries who had helped
with chopping the trees looked at them with painful look. After all, it was a
lot of work to acquire them.
“Okay, you
guys can take your time to reconstruct the bridge. I’ll wait on the other
side.” Having said that, Lin Shuo leaped gently onto one of the metal chain and
started crossing at a leisurely pace.
Under his and
the recurve bow’s weight, not only was the metal chain stretched straight, it
also made a clanging noises as thought it would break at any point.
At the end,
the bridge did not break and Lin Shuo’s silhouette disappeared into the woods
on the other side of the of the river.
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