As Yang Kai was immersed in his joyful discovery, he suddenly heard a slight splashing sound coming from nearby. Turning his head, he fixed his sight on a small dolphin about a metre or so in length. Arriving in front of a cyan Ocean Lotus, this little dolphin opened its mouth and swallowed it down in one gulp.
Although most of its body was hidden beneath the sea, this little dolphin appeared both elegant and cute, even as it chewed happily on the Ocean Lotus.
Sensing Yang Kai looking towards it, the little dolphin turned to look at him as well, blinking a few times but showing no signs of fear, instead just slapping the surface of the water with its tail a few times before slowly wandering over to another pink Ocean Lotus.
Soon, the pink Ocean Lotus was also eaten by it.
The little dolphin seemed to be in a good mood and flicked its tail even faster.
Yang Kai originally wanted to drive it away, but after hesitating for a moment he eventually gave up such thoughts. Since entering this ocean, all the sea beasts he had encountered were vicious and bloodthirsty, all of them immediately attacking him without any exception.
This little dolphin, on the contrary, behaved harmlessly, and Yang Kai did not sense any danger from it, so he simply let it be.
One person and one dolphin acted separately and quickly collected all of the Ocean Lotus in this area.
The six silver lotus and the golden lotus were all picked by Yang Kai while the little dolphin only managed to collect a few of the lower grade lotus from the periphery, seemingly making it a bit upset. Swimming over to Yang Kai’s side boldly, it began circling around him and crying out in protest.
Yang Kai failed to stifle his laughter, and after the little dolphin arched its head towards him once, he relented and took out a cyan lotus from his Space Ring.
He could not bring himself to refuse the longing look of the little dolphin.
The eyes of the little dolphin instantly brightened, and it sent out a few more cries, like a baby begging for good.
Yang Kai brought the cyan lotus to its mouth and the little dolphin swallowed it down in one bite, its eyes narrowing into crescent shapes.
Once the cyan lotus entered its stomach, the little dolphin burped contentedly before swimming around Yang Kai more and more quickly, acting even more intimate than before.
Yang Kai grinned at this sight as he felt his heart warm after spending so many days in the freezing-cold water.
Suddenly, a disturbance on the surface of the ocean appeared nearby and rapidly began approaching the human-dolphin pair. Obviously, there was a sea beast that had sniffed out Yang Kai and the little dolphin and was coming to feed.
The little dolphin’s ability to sense danger was quite sharp and it immediately hid behind Yang Kai, only poking half of its head out to observe, an almost human-like look of panic flashing across its eyes.
Yang Kai stretched out his hand and patted its head to comfort it before narrowing his eyes and staring towards the approaching sea beast.
Soon, with a great splash, a terrifying-looking, shark-like sea beast leapt out from the water, opened its giant mouth filled with razor-sharp teeth, and bit towards Yang Kai.
The little dolphin’s tail flicked violently as it let out a series of anxious cries.
Yang Kai remained still, however, waiting until the sea beat was only a few metres away from him before suddenly throwing out his fist, striking its forehead like a bolt of lightning.
With Yang Kai as the centre, the ocean surface suddenly caved in and a series of strong ripples quickly spread out.
*Hong…*
The forehead of the giant sea beast visibly distorted, nearly collapsing altogether as its huge body was sent flying several hundred metres before crashing back into the water.
Soon, red blood spread out from the spot it landed and a huge, overturned sea beast floated up to the surface where it remained motionless.
The little dolphin was visibly stunned, and its two extremely energetic eyes stared towards Yang Kai, then towards the sea beast in the distance, then back towards Yang Kai…
It did not seem to understand how such a small Yang Kai had sent such a big sea beast flying; their two bodies were completely incomparable in size after all.
However, it did not spend much time thinking about this issue and instead just turned a look of admiration towards Yang Kai while making some joyful cries. It then swam around in front of Yang Kai and arched its head towards him.
Yang Kai glanced at it in confusion, not quite understanding what it was trying to say.
The little dolphin continued to arch its head in a beckoning motion…
Only after thinking about it for a while did Yang Kai finally understand and pointed to the little dolphin’s back while asking, “You want me to climb up?”
The little dolphin nodded strongly.
Yang Kai wore a strange expression as he looked over the metre-long dolphin and hesitantly asked, “I don’t think that’s a good idea, aren’t you too small?”
He was worried this little dolphin wouldn’t be able to move if he mounted it.
The little dolphin no longer bothered asking and instead dove under the water. The next moment, Yang Kai felt himself being held up by something and quickly floated up above the water’s surface.
Soon, half of the little dolphin’s body was exposed above the surface of the water, and after letting out some happy cries, it began swimming forward rapidly.
Soaring across the waves, Yang Kai could not help exclaiming, “Seems I underestimated you.”
The speed of the dolphin in the water was more than ten times his own. As it swam forward, it was as if the sea took the initiative to separate to its sides, not resisting it at all.
The little dolphin turned its head triumphantly and glanced back at Yang Kai, as if trying to say, “you can praise me more”.
Yang Kai laughed loudly as he sat atop the little dolphin and relaxed, allowing it to take him wherever it wanted.
Yang Kai did not know what kind of beast this cute little dolphin was, but from its performance just now, he was certain it must have great difficulty surviving in this environment. However, since it could understand his words and even respond to him, it showed that its sentience wasn’t low, at least not inferior to a seven or eight-year-old human child.
With the little dolphin as his own private mount, Yang Kai felt much more at ease, and he no longer needed to soak himself in the sea all day.
As for why it was so intimate with him, even actively asking him to ride it, obviously, it also understood how difficult it would be for it to survive here without his protection.
This could be regarded as a kind of cooperation, a win-win situation.
Yang Kai thought that the little dolphin’s only use was as a means of transportation, but he soon found that he was mistaken.
And greatly mistaken at that!
This little thing seemingly swam through the sea randomly and aimlessly, but it was not long before it brought Yang Kai to a patch of Ocean Lotus.
Yang Kai thought it was luck at first, but two days later, he discovered that this little dolphin seemed to have the ability to sniff out Ocean Lotus from thousands, if not tens of thousands of kilometres away.
Yang Kai reaped a great harvest!
In addition to the several dozen Ocean Lotuses he found at the beginning, he managed to obtain at least another hundred of them over the next few days.
Pink and cyan Ocean Lotus made up the majority of these while the number of silver ones was relatively small, and only three were golden.
These things were a specialty of Shadowed Soul Island and could not be found anywhere else. Using these Ocean Lotuses, Yang Kai could refine special Body Tempering pills in large quantities, not only allowing him to enhance his own strength, but also the strength of his friends and family.
As such, the more Ocean Lotus he obtained the better.
The little dolphin also ate until its stomach was stuffed! The Ocean Lotuses were found by it, so naturally, Yang Kai would not prevent it from eating its fill.
Time flew by, and half a month later, at least five hundred Ocean Lotuses were stored in Yang Kai’s Space Ring. Although he did not know the exact value of these Ocean Lotus on Shadowed Soul Island, just taking into consideration how many he had obtained over the distance he had crossed, he could judge that they were certainly in short supply.
Only if Shadowed Soul Island organized a group of powerful masters to explore further out to sea would they have a chance to reap a bigger harvest, otherwise, they would have to content themselves with a few Ocean Lotus which drifted closer to the island.
On this day, the little dolphin brought Yang Kai to an island.
This island was quite small, only a dozen or so kilometres in diameter, less than one percent the size of Shadowed Soul Island.
However, this was the first time Yang Kai had seen any other island than Shadowed Soul Island. Naturally, he was quite curious and looked around carefully, quickly discovering a small river that led to the interior of the island.
The little dolphin quickly swam up this river and entered the island.
Soon after, an inland lake appeared in front of Yang Kai. This lake was connected with the sea outside and seemed to occupy about a fifth of the area of the island. What was most important though, was that many Ocean Lotuses were blossoming in this lake. A rough estimate put the number of Ocean Lotus here at over a thousand.
Yang Kai’s eyes immediately lit up.
Even after the rich harvest he had these past few days, Yang Kai could not help grinning widely at this sight.
“Good job!” Yang Kai sat cross-legged on the little dolphin, stretched out his hand, and patted its head while offering his praise.
The little dolphin was also very happy!
After getting along these days, the little dolphin had become more and more dependent on Yang Kai, especially after Yang Kai easily killed so many sea beasts. It currently almost worshipped him.
Those sea beasts were all vicious giants that could swallow it in one bite, but Yang Kai was able to kill them all with just one or two punches.
Soon, one person and one dolphin arrived at the island lake and Yang Kai leapt off and swam between the multi-coloured lotus. Once Ocean Lotus after another was stuffed into his Space Ring. Not to be outdone, the little dolphin ate one Ocean Lotus after another until its belly became nice and round.
It then began swimming around the lake lazily, looking particularly carefree.
After an hour’s work, Yang Kai had picked more than two-thirds of the Ocean Lotus in the lake.
Just as he was turning his attention to the last remaining lotus, an angry roar reached Yang Kai’s ears. This roar was filled with righteous indignation and indescribable grief, like the one who was shouting was seeing the villain who had killed his parents.
“Bastard, you dare steal this old master’s Shadowed Heaven Lotus!”
As soon as these words fell, a figure rushed over from nearby, his bloodshot eyes glaring at Yang Kai fiercely as he leapt into the air.
The earth cracked under the impact of his footfalls.
Mid-air, this man threw a punch towards Yang Kai.
This fist was silent and seemingly without any strength, but Yang Kai’s eyes narrowed when he saw it approach and a solemn expression filled his face. Drawing a deep breath, Yang Kai gave a loud shout as he too leapt out of the water and sent out his own punch to meet the enemy’s attack.
When the two fists struck one another, visible ripples spread out through the air into the surrounding area.
Time seemed to freeze suddenly.
Soon though, a deafening bang erupted and a violent wave of force burst out, distorting the nearby space.
Yang Kai flew back while the unknown cultivator was also unable to stabilize his body, tumbling a few times through the air before landing back on the shore he had leapt from.
