Ye An

Going up along the river, the rock walls on both sides are towering, and the water flow becomes more and more turbulent.

There are many strange rocks in the river, and several stalagmites rise from the ground, intersecting with the stalactites hanging from the top of the head, forming a forest of strange stones.

The river passes through the stone forest, and the colorful light is shining in the water, which is particularly eye-catching in the deep underground.

"What's that?" Ashe poked his head curiously, brought the torch close to the water surface, and almost got hit on the cheek by the lifted fish tail.

The fish tail is fan-shaped, nearly half a meter long, and the edge is as thin as a cicada's wing, like a piece of colored silk floating in the river.

Ash was taken aback, grabbed the torch and backed away quickly so as not to be swept by the fish's tail.That beautiful fish tail looks soft, but it is actually composed of tiny scales, the edges are as sharp as knives, once it is swept, it will definitely be bruised and bloody.

"Be careful." Ye An reminded the three of them to be vigilant and not to underestimate the fish schools in the river. "The fish schools in the dark river are very fierce, and it will be very troublesome to be injured."

As Ye An spoke, he released his will and probed the fish in the river.

Under the clear water surface, hundreds of colorful fish are crowded in the river, the male fish has gorgeous fish tails, but the scales and tails of the female fish are inconspicuous.

The fish school gathers more and more, and the male fish keeps swimming in the group, and the scales on the tail glow with colorful light, which is dazzling, like a colorful picture unfolding in the water waves.

Ye An was amazed for a moment, and soon discovered the intention of the fish school to gather.

When the male fish swims, a large number of female fish dig sand on the bottom of the river to lay eggs.Fish eggs, like pearls, rolled and spread on the bottom of the river, and were soon buried by the river sand.

After the female fish bury their eggs, they leave in groups, while the male fish pack up their tails and swim to the bottom of the river, where they stay quietly.They will not eat or move for several days, and guard the eggs until the fertilized eggs hatch and the fry survive.

Ye An watched for a while, and found several strange guys mixed into the fish school, each of which was nearly one meter long, with a semi-cylindrical body, with dark brown spots on the outer skin, and a hard exoskeleton. A catfish he once encountered in a frozen lake.

Compared with their brethren in the frozen lake, these catfish are average in size, but they are equally ferocious and cunning.

They guard the bottom of the river, waiting patiently for the fish to gather. The females leave after laying eggs, and then rush out from the hiding place, spread the bony spurs on their bodies, use their size advantage to throw off the angry male fish, and devour the fish eggs at the bottom of the river.

Suddenly attacked, the carefully guarded fish eggs were swallowed in front of his eyes, the male fish was extremely angry, and kept swinging the colorful fish tail, trying to drive these robbers away.

The exoskeleton of the catfish is hard and sharp, the body surface is covered with mucus, and the vitality is extremely strong. The male fish can indeed hurt them and make them roll up, but they cannot kill them.Unless all the flesh on them is torn off, the internal organs are torn out from the protection of the bones.

Male fish are not good at this kind of fighting style. In contrast, ferocious female fish are the natural enemies of the catfish.

However, the female fish were extremely tired after laying eggs, and they went to the river ahead to fish together.

The battle in the water continued. The male fish attacked again and again, but the catfish turned a blind eye and continued to devour the eggs.When encountering a single male fish, they will erect their bone spurs and rush over, cut open the male fish's body, tear their wounds, tear off the beautiful fish tail, and hang it on the pelvic fin as decoration and trophies.

Ye An didn't intend to intervene in the battle of the fish school, but changed his mind after sensing the despair and anger of the male fish.

The mutated catfish is not the original population of the underground river, but floated with the river water.

Since their appearance, the fish schools in the river have encountered troubles one after another. The fish schools with weak attack power cannot protect the eggs, and their numbers have dropped sharply. Two or three groups have even disappeared.

Catfish do not dare to provoke predators such as mutated eels, and they will avoid mantis shrimps far away. These colorful fish are their short-term targets, and no less than three spawning grounds have been preyed on, and even one egg None left.If this continues, the colorful fish will also disappear in the dark river.

In the blink of an eye, a large white line appeared on the surface of the water again, and more catfish came following the smell of food.With more and more beetle catfish, male fish are increasingly no match, and this batch of fish eggs is at stake.

In order to protect the eggs, some male fish sacrifice themselves and send themselves to the mouth of the catfish, trying to save the unhatched life.The catfish was unscrupulous, relying on its own advantages to tear up the male fish, but did not eat the male fish's carcass at all, but threw it aside and continued to devour the eggs.

The desperation of the fish continued to spread, but the female fish swam too far, and even if they turned around and turned back, most of the eggs could not be rescued.

Ye An decided to do it.

"Stand back, don't come near."

Instructing the three teenagers again, Ye An put down the rope and animal skin bag, and walked towards the river with only a long knife.

The river was icy cold, and the moment I stepped in, my legs were almost frozen.

The ant spar hung on Ye An's neck began to work, and the absorbed energy poured into his body, easily helping him fight the cold and ensure that he could move freely in the water.

Ye An's intrusion disrupted the battlefield.

The desperate male fish thought he was an accomplice of the catfish, and started to attack indiscriminately, but was swung away by Ye An with the scabbard, and then assimilated his thoughts, conveying emotions such as helping and helping.

The catfish ignored him and continued to devour the eggs, stirring up a large amount of river sand at the bottom of the river.

Ye An passed through the school of fish, locked onto the largest catfish, drew his long knife out of its sheath, cut through the undulating water patterns, and plunged straight into the body of the catfish.

The armored catfish had tenacious vitality. Even though it was pierced by the blade, it still did not die immediately. Instead, it kept swinging its body, trying to attack Ye An with bone spurs.

Naturally, Ye An wouldn't give it a chance, picked the target out of the water with a long knife, threw it directly to the river bank, and said to Camille and the others: "Cut off its head, if you can't cut it off, smash it with a stone!"

The three of them acted immediately, Ash and Ova managed to hold the catfish, and Camille swung down the dagger.

The exoskeleton of the catfish shattered, and the struggling body suddenly stopped, blood flowed out along the fracture, and soon stained the gravel under the three people's feet.

Soon, the second and third catfish landed on the shore. Camille and Ash kept swinging their knives. Ova grabbed a fist-sized rock, pointed the sharp side at the head of the fish, and smashed it several times. , the wounded catfish was smashed to pieces, and the bone spurs and skin on the body became tattered.

The catfish felt threatened, stopped swallowing the eggs, and began to besiege Ye An.

They were not big enough, and Ye An's knife was too sharp, the group of catfishes began to swim quickly, all the bone spurs on their bodies opened up, trying to cut Ye An's legs, leaving more wounds on his body.

Ye An took his time, and when the speed of the catfish group increased, the color of his eyes deepened, and he locked on the target one after another.He was very careful as the male was still around.

In order to avoid accidental injury, he allowed the catfish to get closer.

Two catfishes swam past Ye An's legs, and the sharp bone spurs seemed to penetrate his calf.At the very moment, the catfish stopped suddenly and was frozen in the water like a piece of wood.The next moment, the stiff catfish began to writhe in pain, its head exploded in the water, and the minced meat and bones drifted away like mist, forming two dark red balls under the water.

The rest of the catfish did not understand what happened, and another seven or eight catfish were locked up one after another, their heads were shattered, and the headless corpses floated in the water, and then slowly sank.

Seeing this scene, the three teenagers on the bank stopped their movements without blinking, their expressions full of awe.

Ye An approached the catfish, but the catfish swept away their previous arrogance and quickly swung their tails to wander away. The few in the distance even turned around and ran away, trying to stay away from this fierce hunter.

Without needing Ye An's traction, the male fish quickly surrounded it and intercepted the catfish desperately.Even if it is torn apart, these guys who only eat fish eggs must be kept.

In this way, the school of fish and the catfish must be mixed together. Ye An stopped using the ability and did not use the long knife. Instead, he grabbed a catfish with his bare hands, pierced the fish with his fingertips, and tore it hard, killing the catfish on the spot. Catfish torn in half.

The broken body was thrown into the water, and the surrounding male fish immediately surrounded it and tore it to pieces with hatred.

As the river got deeper, Ye An sank into the water with his breath held, his black hair floating in the water, as if merging with the school of fish, constantly catching and shredding the targets in front of him.

The catfish fell into a panic and began to run wildly for their lives. The male fish gradually became no match. Seven or eight catfish tore through the shoal of fish and rushed to the distant river.

Before they could swim far, a large wave of water suddenly rose in the river, and the fish body covered with silver-gray scales broke through the water, slid a long arc in mid-air, and plunged into the water again.

It's a returning female.

They rushed back from their hunting grounds and rushed towards the catfish with fury.

Different from the attacking method of the male fish, the female fish bite directly with their teeth, and they work together to tear open the wound on the catfish body. The smallest members get in through the wound and tear the internal organs of the catfish until they tear the target body to pieces.

Even though they belonged to the same species, but their attacking methods were so different, Ye An was taken aback, stunned for a moment, and was almost escaped by a catfish.

After the female came back, Ye An attacked back and forth, and none of the more than 30 catfish that attacked the eggs escaped. Except for the ones thrown ashore, they were all torn to pieces and sank to the bottom of the river.

Neither the male nor the female fish swallowed the minced meat, and let them cover the remaining fish eggs. During the process, they only picked up the sharp fish bones and bone spurs, and bit them with their mouths and threw them away.

The minced meat of the catfish covers the eggs and will become the nourishment for the eggs. When the fry are born, this will be their first good meal.

There are male fish watching over them, and no shellfish or river snails will approach them. Even if they approach, they will be swallowed and cannot pose any threat to the fish eggs.

The females cleared the field and swam past the males in groups without stopping for a moment.The male fish no longer shows off its tail, but follows the female fish like a young daughter-in-law, feeling ashamed that he can't beat the catfish.

Sensing the emotions of the female fish, Ye An did not rush to go ashore, but looked at the school of fish with interest.

The female swims up to Ye An and swims around him twice.With such a close distance, he can naturally feel the energy emanating from him, which belongs to the spar.

To Ye An's surprise, these female fish didn't seem to be interested in the spar. To be more precise, they just took it easy and had no intention of obtaining it.

Ye An looked at the school of fish suspiciously, and suddenly remembered that the catfish and the male fish were very close to him before, and it seemed that they had never had similar thoughts.

"what happened?"

Ye An's doubts were passed on to the female fish, and the school of fish swam for a while, then suddenly swung their tails, as if preparing to swim upstream.

"Stay where you are and don't wander around, wait for me to come back!"

Seeing the intention of catching the female fish, Ye An told the three teenagers loudly, then grabbed the tail of a female fish and was led by the school of fish to swim quickly to the upper reaches of the dark river.