Xia Qiu pursued the returning information, chasing after it into the distance.
The other party's figure was continuously descending, vertically descending, and the speed of descent was not fast.
Xia Qiu swung his body with all his might to chase after the other party, rapidly closing the distance between them.
Boom.
Xia Qiu's massive form carried immense pressure, his enormous size leaving the other party with no desire to fight.
The other party accelerated its escape, but Xia Qiu also swung his body and accelerated, chasing after it.
The distance between them continued to shrink, and Xia Qiu soon arrived not far behind the other party.
It was a Giant Squid.
The target Xia Qiu had locked onto was a Giant Squid, a creature of the Oegopsida order, also known as a squid.
It had a narrow, conical body and five pairs of tentacles. Four of these pairs were relatively short, less than its mantle length, and were considered short arms.
There were also two particularly long tentacles, called feeding tentacles, used for capturing prey. They could be retracted into sacs at their base and were about three times the length of the other tentacles.
This Giant Squid's mantle length was about ten meters. The first pair of tentacles was only six meters long, the second to fourth tentacles were eight meters long, and the feeding tentacles reached nearly twenty meters.
Its mantle length plus the length of its short arms made its total body length close to twenty meters, making it an absolute behemoth.
Very large.
On Earth, adult Giant Squids typically range from ten to thirteen meters in length, with the longest reaching about twenty meters.
This Giant Squid, at twenty meters long, was already incredibly impressive.
Very fast.
But not as fast as Xia Qiu. Being pursued by Xia Qiu, it found itself behind him.
Whoosh.
The squid suddenly retracted its tentacles, then powerfully expanded them, shooting forward and instantly appearing over a dozen meters away, continuously increasing the distance between the two fish.
So fast.
Seeing the other party's move, Xia Qiu tried his best but couldn't catch up.
They could use their tail mantle and cartilage to expel water from the siphon on their underside, combined with the power released from contracting their tentacles, allowing for extremely high speeds, reaching up to 15m/s, or about fifty-four kilometers per hour.
Xia Qiu's top speed, however, was no more than forty-five kilometers per hour, or 12.5m/s.
But his stamina wasn't enough.
After just a few bursts of speed, the other party's pace slowed, and then its speed dropped sharply.
Hehehe, can't run anymore, huh?
Xia Qiu exerted himself and chased furiously, closing the distance again. Instead of attacking from the rear, he moved to its side and lunged to bite its mantle.
Crunch.
Xia Qiu's massive jaws clamped down on the middle section of its mantle. His sharp teeth pierced its body, but it didn't kill it.
Taking advantage of the situation, it wrapped its tentacles around Xia Qiu's head.
The five pairs of tentacles tightly coiled around Xia Qiu's head, preventing him from opening his mouth, while simultaneously dragging him down, hoping to control his movements.
The method Giant Squids use to hunt whales and sharks is to first suffocate them before consuming them.
Sharks have gills and can breathe underwater, but their breathing method requires constant swimming to force water into their mouths and out through their gills, where they absorb dissolved oxygen.
If they stop swimming, sharks will suffocate and die.
Therefore, squids will entangle them, forcing them to stop swimming and killing them.
Against whales, squids would entangle them and prevent them from surfacing, thus killing them.
Of course, the success rate is very low. Against sharks, they can only deal with sharks smaller than themselves, but due to different habitats, encounters are rare.
Whales, primarily sperm whales, weigh at least forty to fifty tons or more.
Thus, Giant Squids are an important food source for sperm whales.
And this Giant Squid was attempting to use this method to kill Xia Qiu.
The tentacles of a Giant Squid possess immense power, not only from muscle contraction but also from the suction of their suckers.
The short arms have two rows of suckers, each about ten centimeters in diameter, while the tentacles themselves are twenty-five to thirty-five centimeters in diameter.
The feeding tentacles have four rows of suckers, and in some areas, even six rows, but their diameter is smaller, and their gripping strength is not as great.
Its tentacles can grasp weights ten to twenty times its own body weight.
However, it couldn't restrain Xia Qiu.
Firstly, there was the size difference. Xia Qiu's body length was thirty-four meters, larger than even the biggest sperm whale, weighing over two hundred tons.
A twenty-meter Giant Squid weighs over one ton, not even reaching one and a half tons.
Such a weight was essentially a joke to Xia Qiu.
Its tentacles couldn't block Xia Qiu's gill openings. With its mantle bitten by Xia Qiu, the six to eight-meter short arms could only reach Xia Qiu's gills from the tail end, unable to completely block them. Moreover, Xia Qiu already had four layers of gill openings.
Furthermore, he couldn't restrain Xia Qiu's mouth. With a slight exertion, Xia Qiu freed himself from the tentacles, opened his mouth, and bit down again.
This time, it bit near the Giant Squid's eyes. Then, it slowly tore and ground the flesh with its teeth. The spot it bit directly turned into minced meat.
Having been bitten twice, the Giant Squid was already too weak to support itself and died instantly. However, its tentacles were still attached to Xia Qiu's body; this was the instinct of the tentacles to control their suckers and actively adhere.
But without the Giant Squid's muscle control, the force was too weak. Xia Qiu shook the Giant Squid's head while biting it, and the tentacles slowly detached.
Then, Xia Qiu gnawed on its body, including the tentacles, and swallowed them whole, leaving nothing behind.
Xia Qiu felt his stomach fill up.
Its weight wasn't significant, but its volume was immense. After consuming just one, he felt full.
He wondered if this one would work.
The largest squid or octopus he had eaten before was only about five to six meters long.
This one was about twenty meters long, and a Giant Squid at that. He wondered if it could make him grow tentacles.
Xia Qiu looked forward to it and swam back in the direction he came from. After swimming for a while, a heat flow appeared.
Here it comes.
The heat flow was incredibly intense, different from before, but not abundant. It turned into fine streams that spread throughout his entire body.
These heat flows appeared continuously and were consumed just as steadily.
He wondered if it would work.
Xia Qiu prayed, but the heat flow began to fade, and his body surface didn't change.
Was it a failure?
He couldn't grow tentacles?
Was he just being wishful?
Xia Qiu felt a bit disappointed. Tentacles could be used for attacking, grappling, defending, and restraining.
With tentacles, he wouldn't have to worry about enemies attacking his vulnerable spots.
But he couldn't grow them.
He was from Phylum Chordata, while squids and octopuses were from Phylum Mollusca. They were different phyla, so how could they grow together?
However, the next moment, Xia Qiu felt something was wrong.
Octopus Hachi was an Octopus Fish-Man, possessing traits of both an octopus and a human. He was a combination of Phylum Chordata and Phylum Mollusca.
If he could do it, why couldn't he?
At that moment, Xia Qiu suddenly felt an itch on his lower abdomen, spreading from below his gills to between his pectoral fins.
The area was about eight to nine meters long and no wider than the sides of his abdomen, between his pectoral and pelvic fins.
Along with the itch, the scales in this area began to shed, replaced by the slowly growing base.
But this part of his body protruded slightly from his abdomen, and the heat flow vanished without a trace. The base hadn't even fully formed, let alone extending into tentacles.
But the mere appearance was enough.
It meant he could grow tentacles.
What was lacking was more Evolution Energy.
Therefore, he needed to continue hunting them next.
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Translation by: randomtranslator.com
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