From space, Sea Paradise looked like a massive, navy blue pupil that was staring directly at you. It was as if the planet itself was trying to awake the fear hidden in its visitors’ hearts little by little.
Mo Heng had already mentioned this, but Sea Paradise was definitely surrounded by a strange electromagnetic field. Cillin could feel it in his bones when they entered the vicinity of the planet. The fact that some of the equipment in the spaceplane suddenly malfunctioned was the proof of it.
They had come prepared, however. The fruits of the Andrea Family’s labor immediately began working their magic.
The spaceplane was outfitted with two different sets of equipment. One of them was for normal use, and the other was for Sea Paradise only. A quick switch later, everything returned to normal on the spaceplane.
“How do you feel?” Cillin asked Czedow but not Wheeze because it was clear that the gluttonous cat was perfectly fine.
“I’m fine. The electromagnetic field is effective against common machinery, but not so much against us because we are autonomous individuals. The equipment the Andrea Family prepared for Sea Paradise is excellent, however. The machine language they speak is different from the common machinery. I’m learning a lot just listening to them,” Czedow answered.
“That’s good.” Cillin relaxed after hearing that Czedow was unaffected by the planet’s unusual electromagnetic field. The robot was a huge help and a giant load of burden off his shoulders in any situation.
“Wheeze, don’t run off on your own when we enter the planet,” Cillin instructed next.
“Mm mm,” Wheeze responded, but didn’t even look back at Cillin. It was too busy staring at the approaching planet on the display and swinging its tail from left to right. It was clear that the devious fellow was plotting something again.
So Cillin pulled up one of its ears and asked, “Do you hear me?”
“Yes, yes!” Wheeze promised.
“Cillin, get ready! We’re about to make an entry!” Lung called from the other side.
A while later, turbulence began rocking the spaceplane as they made an atmospheric entry. This was normal because it was the moment where the unusual electromagnetic field was at its strongest. It was also why Lung had asked everyone to prepare themselves. The unprepared could definitely find themselves being thrown left and right like a ragdoll.
As the environmental analysis appeared on bridge display, Cillin confirmed once more that the atmospheric composition of Sea Paradise wasn’t something a normal person could endure. Even a rank A person with a very strong constitution might not be able to breathe unassisted for more than half a day. Humidity was sky high because it was an ocean planet, and thin layers of clouds and mists occasionally took form above the sea surface. As it turned out, the blue of Sea Paradise was even deeper at close range. From the sky, it looked like they were staring into a bottomless, navy blue abyss.
The equipment had already been distributed, and everyone was changing into the appropriate attire. The protective suit and breathing mask Cillin was wearing were specifically developed by the Andrea Family for underwater use. Despite its unassuming appearance, it was tough and highly resistant to pressure. On the surface, it almost looked like a normal dive suit because most of its mechanisms were inactive. In the sea though, they would come online and distinguish it from a normal dive suit.
“Czedow? Why aren’t you putting on your equipment?” Pascado asked when he saw that Czedow wasn’t moving at all. They were going to take off the protective suit after the landing—it was so that their bodies could adjust to the new environment—but they put them on now because it was a precaution against emergencies. It would be far too late to begin putting on a protective suit if an accident happened, and they were forced to make an emergency exit.
“I don’t need it,” Czedow answered simply.
Pascado and the rest of the bodyguards watched him oddly. “Are you an aquatic human too?”
Czedow shook his head but didn’t give an explanation.
One of them shot Czedow a glance before pointing at the fat, round and ugly gray cat next to him. “What about the cat? You can’t seriously tell me that it doesn’t need to wear a suit too? The atmosphere of this planet isn’t nothing like a habitable planet’s, you know.”
Wheeze simply flicked its ear once before replying, “It’s fine. I’m not like you people.”
Why does it sound like it’s condescending us?
Unwilling to admit weakness, a couple of people removed their breathing masks and said, “To be honest, we don’t really need these equipment either. Once we entered the water, these breathing masks will be completely useless to us. Say, you guys wanna hold an underwater competition later?”
It was at this moment Lung walked over and slapped them in the back. “Cut it out already. You won’t have the time to fool around anyway.”
If Cillin hadn’t given him the star map fragment, then maybe Lung would’ve given them some free time. That was no longer the case. Until God’s Tear was found, they couldn’t waste any energy on useless things.
Since the boss had given the word, the bodyguards had no choice but to suppress their pride. However, they were a bit confused by Lung’s unusually serious attitude. Was it because he was nervous?
“Is the new map out yet?” Lung asked next.
The Andrea Family possessed several planetary maps of Sea Paradise, but they weren’t very useful because the planet itself was constantly changing for whatever reason. For example, Lung was currently holding a map from ten years ago. There were supposedly to be three large coral reefs at their chosen landing spot, but in reality they had sunk into the deep due to a crustal movement. That was why they had to rescan and redraw the planetary map every time they visited this place.
The second equipment the Andrea Family developed was capable of withstanding the planet’s unusual electromagnetic field, but its calculation speed was much slower as a result. Normally, a detailed planetary map could be scanned and drawn in less than a minute. Now, it took nearly twenty minutes to complete the task.
Young master, there is an atoll at your chosen coordinates, but it’s only a kilometer wide in diameter, and it is surrounded by a warm current. The salinity of the sea water is also above average, which probably means that some types of fishes and sea beasts will appear in large numbers in that area.”
Lung thought long and hard as he listened to his subordinate’s reports. Obviously, the old man’s plan was no longer viable. They weren’t even at the landing spot they had discussed earlier, or he wouldn’t be worrying about something as basic as finding a resting place.
Unfortunately, there were no other atolls in this particular sea region. Most people would think that the atoll was more than big enough for their purposes, but Lung and his men were of the opposite opinion. It was because they took the fishes and sea beasts that resided in the area into consideration.
Just like many large animals on the land, the coral reef was usually the domain of many powerful sea beasts. These ferocious animals absolutely had no intention of yielding even an inch of their territory, especially because there were no real land on Sea Paradise at all. Therefore, every coral reef was a never-ending battlefield. Aquatic creatures were battling each other for territory every moment.
Lung looked at the new map before saying, “Well, we definitely cannot land our spaceplane here.”
The images on the map told Lung a lot of things. Aquatic humans like them only needed one look to identify what type of species would be occupying a certain part of a coral reef. Moreover, unlike the sea beasts from other planets, the sea beasts of Sea Paradise were especially difficult to tame. Even highly trained tamers needed time to the new environment and make their taming skills work. That was why attempting to tame the sea beasts with their tamers would be a bad idea.
Right now, nearly every part of the atoll was jampacked with large groups of sunbathing sea beasts. There were a couple of spots that were conspicuously empty, but that was because they were the territory of a much bigger sea beast. To set foot in those areas was the same as committing suicide.
This meant that they would have to defeat a group of smaller sea beasts first before they could set foot on this atoll.
Lung was about to give his subordinates the order to clear out some space when Wheeze leaped onto Cillin’s shoulder and said to Lung, “I’ll go. I’ll take care of those worms for you.”
