SMA Chapter 80- Crises Everywhere

Chapter 80

 

Relying solely on Xia Yi’s pure speed, they estimated it would take at least three months to swim out of the Coral Sea.

 

Initially, Xia Yi didn’t pay much attention, but later he discovered that, just like his closed breathing, directly absorbing oxygen, it was completely passive. 

 

It seemed that since the tsunami triggered by the earthquake, he could subtly control the surrounding seawater to temporarily displace it, affecting speed, and the key to speed was resistance, the less resistance, the faster.

 

Xia Yi didn’t have the explosive power and endurance to swim with the Siren, otherwise he could completely chase after the tuna with them.

 

This also made the Siren intentionally or unintentionally approach him. Firstly, he was dissatisfied with the current speed, and secondly, he also found that swimming around Xia Yi consumed less energy.

 

As for the Coral Sea, many people probably think of a song. In reality, the Great Barrier Reef was part of the Coral Sea, which was a large northeastern sea area of Australia, with a very broad area. 

 

Just by its name, one can tell what was most abundant here—countless coral reefs on the seabed formed a quite complex maze, resembling a huge fortress. Ordinary ships are reluctant to come here because there are too many submerged reefs below the sea surface.

 

The seawater here is a stunning deep blue, with high transparency.

 

Pollution is minimal because there are no freshwater river mouths entering the Coral Sea. It is a paradise connected only to the ocean. In recent years, the water temperature in the Coral Sea has always been high, naturally tropical, plus warm currents…

 

The water temperature of 26 degrees Celsius makes Xia Yi feel like he’s taking a hot bath.

 

He noticed Siren was somewhat uneasy.

 

Perhaps the mermaids, with their naturally cooler body temperature, were not quite accustomed to such high water temperatures…

 

Xia Yi didn’t dwell on this matter. He was just puzzled by Siren’ renewed efforts to speed up their journey. Could it be that Siren was eager to take him somewhere?

 

Sometimes the silver fish tail lightly touched Xia Yi’s body, but that was all. The scales looked smooth, but they were exceptionally rough when rubbed against. 

 

There was a slight tingling sensation on the skin after being scratched, because in reality, seawater, or any water for that matter, lacked lubrication and could at most enhance buoyancy by buffering pressure.

 

Xia Yi still hadn’t figured out what purpose the ivory-white seashell carried by the Siren served.

 

Yesterday, when they caught another stone fish, Xia Yi noticed that the Siren consciously dried the swim bladder and brought the seashell to the coral reef to dry it out. Then he filled the dried seaweed inside the seashell and wrapped the dried swim bladder around it, using the hardened roots of the seaweed to seal it, followed by tightly affixing several scales of the large fish to ensure there were no gaps, and finally covering it with thick seaweed mud.

 

These actions were done extremely quickly, seemingly a habit of the mermaids, but Xia Yi really couldn’t understand what the bubble-like thing in the fish’s belly was for.

 

As they swam further away from the Great Barrier Reef, they encountered many sharks lingering and tracking prey. Even after two days of heading south, they still encountered their fierce figures. It seemed they were the overlords of the Coral Sea in groups.

 

Besides tiger sharks and great white sharks, most of the other sharks encountered were in groups. They lurked beneath the sea surface, especially when looking up. They had a huge mouth completely located under their skull, with a great curvature. Even in the sea, they would slightly open their mouths, although that didn’t count as an expression, it still looked ferocious.

 

“They are very interested in prey that moves or makes a lot of noise on the surface…”

 

The Siren draped his shoulder over Xia Yi’s, swimming indifferently past the shark group. The water rippled over the smooth scales, and his hair floated upwards, scattered in the seawater. There were always some small fish curiously swimming past it, mistaking it for seaweed. The first time Xia Yi saw it, he understood why jellyfish could catch prey by waiting for them to approach their tentacles! 

 

Indeed, the proverb about curiosity killing the cat in this matter was correct.

 

At this moment, Xia Yi’s pupils suddenly contracted upon seeing a large shuttle-shaped shadow appear ahead.

 

The experiences in the ocean had already taught Xia Yi that appearances didn’t matter at all in the underwater world. There were too many fish that didn’t look like fish. The key was its enormous size, larger than Abiseth. 

 

Could it be another sea monster from nuclear pollution?

 

More than ten large tuna rushed towards the terrifying shadow.

 

Then the huge shadow split into two halves in the middle, looking very much like a monster swallowing a three-meter-long tuna in one gulp.

 

Feeling Xia Yi’s stiffness and tension, the Siren looked over in confusion:

 

“Do you want to eat sardines?”

 

“…”

 

As they got closer, Xia Yi suddenly saw the true appearance of the silver-black blended “monster”. It turned out to be a shoal gathered into a shuttle shape. 

 

At a glance, it was densely layered from head to tail, and it wasn’t motionless—it was still rotating as it swam. When the tuna rushed over, it dispersed to both sides along its direction, and when the tuna turned its head to attack again, the silver-backed herring shoal gathered back into a whole.

 

This density was too terrifying; Xia Yi felt dizzy looking at it.

 

Yellowfin tuna were clearly relentless, flicking their tails and attacking again.

 

The shark group had moved in closer but remained at a distance, not yet ready to attack.

 

“What are they doing?” someone asked.

 

“They’re waiting for a small part of the fish shoal to separate from the rest,” came the reply. “Sharks are too large to charge directly into the whole shoal.”

 

The sharks were targeting larger, more desirable prey like fat yellowfin tuna, rather than small sardines. 

 

Initially, Xia Yi didn’t understand. 

 

It seemed to him like the fish shoal was just drifting around, much like strawberries on a rotating tray—easy to grab with minimal effort. All the predators had to do was open their mouths and let the fish and seawater come to them. It looked like a simple and satisfying meal.

 

However, Xia Yi soon realized his thought process was still human. Fish only had mouths, no hands. 

 

Even if they plunged into a pile of food, if their mouths didn’t connect, opening wide would only fill their mouths with seawater; their gills’ drainage capacity wouldn’t be enough!

 

Don’t be fooled by the fierce charge of the yellowfin tuna. The fish shoal followed the main force entirely—southward if the main force moved south, accelerating along with it. When the outer layer of sardines saw the yellowfin tuna charging, they naturally dodged aside. After splitting left and right, countless layers of sardines followed the fish in front of them to evade swiftly. Even if the predators turned to bite midway, it was useless!

 

Without tactics, even if they turned the fish shoal into a sieve, they couldn’t catch a mouthful of sardines. It was inevitable for a wolf to charge recklessly into a flock of sheep, but if the sheep ran as fast as the wolf and the wolf couldn’t use its claws to attack, it would exhaust itself without a chance to eat.

 

Even with the ability to instantly backflip and attack again, the rear of the fish shoal had already dispersed, and instant recovery wasn’t that quick.

 

—It was like an endlessly moving iron barrel formation.

 

Xia Yi stared at the dozen or so yellowfin tuna. After probing several times, these guys started plunging in forcefully from different directions. 

 

Then, having gained nothing, they withdrew. In the state where the fish shoal was broken into seven or eight pieces and hadn’t fully recovered, half of the yellowfin tuna charged again. 

 

Those that hadn’t escaped the fish formation also launched attacks, specifically targeting those small, scattered fish shoals. Gradually, two groups of fish shoals were repeatedly charged and separated from the main force.

 

The sharp decrease in numbers made these sardines panic. After all, the densely packed main force had disappeared. Simply put, they discovered they were going in the wrong direction. Fish shoals were like humans; if there wasn’t external influence, they could probably listen to a unified voice and work together.

 

 Once a fundamental mistake in the route was discovered, of course, they immediately stopped following their companions ahead and hurriedly tried to find the correct path back to a safe place.

 

And these supposedly clever fellows were the creators of tragedies and the start of the end of life.

 

Once they panicked and separated from the group, they immediately became the prey of predators. Following closely behind, they were swallowed in one gulp. This unfortunate sardine was just the first, and there would be more sacrifices one after another. 

 

Anyone who couldn’t keep up with the group’s speed or acted independently would become food—unless they had the skill or luck to wedge themselves into the crevices of the coral reef to escape. However, the chances of these sardines rejoining the fish shoal after leaving were very slim.

 

Don’t forget the stone fish disguised as reef rocks, don’t forget the various ambushers lurking in the coral reefs.

 

Some just opened their mouths, disguised as a gap in the coral reef, waiting for small fish to fall into the trap. 

 

How convenient—food swimming into their mouths automatically!

 

Xia Yi was somewhat dazzled.

 

It turned out that marine life needed their own strategies to secure a bite to eat and break through the enemy lines!

 

The yellowfin tuna, having hastily swallowed two sardines, smartly returned to continue following the fish shoal’s charge. The foolish and greedy ones still chased after those scattered and panicked small shoals of sardines. 

 

After all, it wasn’t easy to separate the fish shoal. One yellowfin tuna, with a slightly shorter body length, impatiently spent effort again, gleefully gobbling up the sardines lagging behind.

 

Following this small, panicked shoal of sardines too far out, when it suddenly felt intense water turbulence, it fiercely flicked its tail and desperately swam forward. But it was already surrounded by sharks from all directions.

 

It and its prey both became a sumptuous feast. Unfortunately, it was the main course, and those small sardines were the appetizers.

 

“Sharks will tear each other apart for food. The ferocious ones often injure or bite other sharks. After they finish hunting and leave, the injured ones gradually fall behind… That’s when they become the target of attacks…” 

 

The Siren pressed against Xia Yi’s shoulder, his voice soft yet enticing.

 

Xia Yi turned his head sharply and indeed saw the mermaid casting a critical glance at the sharks swarming for food.

 

After a moment, the Siren regretfully felt that compared to sharks, yellowfin tuna tasted much better.

 

Before he could finish his thoughts, his expression suddenly changed.

 

The Siren grabbed Xia Yi and started swimming upwards towards the water surface.

 

Although the sunlight was good, the eastern sky was pitch black, and the direction of the clouds was unusually strange, as if an invisible hand was swiftly pulling them towards the east, packing the clouds there even tighter.

 

“A hurricane is forming,” the Siren stared in that direction, looking grim.

 

“Eh?”

 

“Don’t worry. Although it’s not far, even the highest waves will only churn up the shallow seas. Let’s dive deeper as much as possible.”

 

Siren didn’t need to say this; Xia Yi also felt the need to speed up. Hurricanes and typhoons were the same phenomenon. When fully formed, wind speeds could reach over level 12. Forget about seawater; even things in the sea would be forcibly rolled up and thrown far away.

 

The fish shoal also sensed the crisis. Their hunting was forcibly halted. The unlucky bodies of the yellowfin tuna were torn into pieces by several sharks, who swam and nibbled along the way. Their path was also to dive deeper, swimming forward desperately, along with the descent.

 

This sea area wasn’t deep enough; it was very dangerous. They had to quickly find a safe place to take cover.

 

“Why is there a hurricane? Isn’t this supposed to happen only in summer?” 

 

It might only be April now.

 

Xia Yi had spent too much time at sea without a calendar to count the days. He didn’t know the exact time.

 

“In summer… Ah, yes, according to human terms, sometimes it can occur in autumn too.”

 

“Autumn?”

 

Xia Yi repeated his puzzlement and then realized.

 

This was the Southern Hemisphere; of course, April was autumn—how dull of him not to realize sooner! 

 

If this were spring, with abundant food and summer approaching, what about the mating season for marine life? 

 

Ahhhh….I didn’t see anything!