Chapter 630: Chapter 217: Isolating the Curse, Massive Trait Harvest! Now he urgently needed to verify his hypothesis. Without saying much, he’d first need to max out the characteristics of the Cotton Room and the Passing Cotton Pattern, extract them, and analyze the information.
He rushed to the riverbank and quickly changed into the Obsidian Battle Armor.
Within just five minutes, Luokuke emerged from under the water, with a face full of evident excitement. It seemed he had quite the harvest.
"I observed some anomalies underwater and found something hiding within its ulcers..." Luokuke said eagerly, wiping the water from his face.
"Is it the corpses Garcia mentioned, or the source of infection?" Cheng Ye asked casually while stretching his body.
"How did you know?" Luokuke was taken aback for a moment, then shook his head to clarify, "I didn’t see any corpses, but I did see a Soul Snatcher Catfish swimming around in its ulcers, at least five times larger than a normal one!"
Luokuke’s words seemed to further confirm Cheng Ye’s hypothesis was correct.
The "Cotton Room" inside the Demon Eye Sponge really was an independent space capable of housing other creatures.
Taking a deep breath, Cheng Ye dove into the water. His body had only gone down a few meters when his voice echoed behind him, "You rest first, I’ll be right back!"
"Damn, this young man!"
Before Luokuke could finish his words, he was utterly stunned, unsure whether to marvel at Cheng Ye’s swift actions or be surprised by his sharp insight into the underwater situation from their brief conversation.
Just as he snapped out of it, removing his battle armor and barely catching his breath,
he heard a hurried gurgling from under the water. In the next second, Cheng Ye, who had just dived in, soared out of the water!
This time, he adjusted his exit angle, flying over three meters high in the air before stepping onto the dock wall like a "Moon Step" move from parkour, taking a few nimble steps along the wall, and landing on the dock gracefully and nimbly.
In his hands, he was holding two sponge fragments, each double the size of the previous piece.
One was a pale yellow tubular portion, while the other was a pink piece with mucus, clearly cut from the central ulcer.
"Uhh?"
Luokuke was thoroughly befuddled, instinctively turning his head to the water, his legs nearly giving out beneath him.
As before, countless sponge tentacles stretched out from underwater, but this time in greater numbers, as if the Demon Eye Sponge was thoroughly enraged, its fury almost oozing from the eyes at the tentacle tips, glaring intensely at Cheng Ye on the shore.
"You..." Luokuke pointed at the sponge fragments in Cheng Ye’s hand, then at the tentacles underwater, stammering incomprehensibly.
"It’s fine, this is just the beginning." Cheng Ye opened the Containment Box, deftly stuffing the sponge pieces inside.
He glanced at the Passing Cotton Pattern, which had already reached 40%, his smile broadening, crumpling the battle armor in the process.
"Don’t rush, I’ll slash it ten more times; these two pieces aren’t even enough to fill the gap between my teeth!"
"What?"
Luokuke doubted his hearing; he was about to ask more when Cheng Ye had already turned again, diving into the water with a leap, leaving behind only ripples on the surface.
In just under three minutes, the familiar scene played out once again.
Cheng Ye rocketed out of the water like an arrow, landing steady on the dock, with hundreds of sponge tentacles trailing behind, nearly breaking the surface.
This time, the Demon Eye Sponge was not merely angered but utterly outraged. Three pillar-like tentacles emerged from the water, hurling towards the dock with gusty force, as if intent on dragging Cheng Ye back underwater.
Instinctively, Luokuke reached for his gun, ready to retaliate, but before he could lift his hand, he saw the midday sun shining directly on the tentacles.
The eyes at the tentacle tips suddenly seemed to melt like wax under intense heat, bubbling with murky water, with small scorch marks appearing on the surface.
In a split second, those three tentacles retracted frantically as if scalded, with all other exposed tentacles following suit, leaving only the water’s churning ripples.
Looking underwater, the previously thirty-meter-deep glow of purple light now broke through the twenty-five-meter darkness, dyeing the entire water’s surface with a faint purple hue, even tinting the moving waves with a bizarre glow.
Thousands of tentacles danced wildly within the purple mist, thick ones coiling like giant pythons, churning the water with violent movements, while thinner ones darted like venomous snakes, leaving trails in the water, each tentacle tip harboring an eye of various sizes, enough to make one’s scalp crawl.
More horrifyingly, every eye atop the tentacles was wide open, their murky pupils locked onto the water’s surface, densely packed gazes stabbing like needles, seemingly penetrating the air to land upon Cheng Ye.
Even without being under those gazes, Luokuke felt certain that if not constrained by inability to leave the water, the Demon Eye Sponge might have charged ashore, decimating Happiness City a dozen times over to quell its raging fury.
"Hey, it has quite the temper!"
Cheng Ye tilted his head, glanced at the chaotic underwater scene, and instead of appearing tense, smiled slyly.
This time, his haul was even more substantial than before, with four sponge fragments, and what’s more, he even had an arm-thick intact tentacle.
The eye at its tip, still attached with some mucus, sizzled and charred quickly under the scorching midday sun.
But this charred eye caused the "Regulating Eye" characteristic on his panel to surge by 40%, accelerating at a remarkable pace!
"It seems this thing is even better for harvesting traits than the black-and-white striped fish. What a divine assist!"
Cheng Ye was overjoyed.
After this round of harvesting, the progress bars for the Cotton Room and Passing Cotton Pattern were completely maxed out, with other traits seeing significant increases, except for Earth Element Cotton Pattern and Water Element Cotton Pattern, which remained slow to grow.
"Could these two cotton patterns be formed from the influence of Immortal Object fragments?"
Cheng Ye speculated silently, but his actions didn’t pause.
Even a 100% trait wasn’t enough; this Demon Eye Sponge was just like Trash Hui himself, only missing the cry of ’if you’re my brother, come slash me’.
Seeing the tentacles retract underwater, without waiting for Luokuke to respond, Cheng Ye once again sprang into the water.
In less than three minutes.
The water burst open as Cheng Ye flew out once more, landing firmly on the dock, his movements even more skillful and debonair, truly fitting Luokuke’s old-magazine depiction of a great hero.
Passing through the sea of blossoms, not a single leaf clings!
But.
"Is there any inspector at the Happiness City Inspection Station... who deals with infection sources like this?"
Luokuke had completely lost his ability to think, sitting dazedly at the dock’s edge, his eyes filled with bewilderment.
This time, Cheng Ye held four sponge tentacles. Just envisioning the scene of cutting these tentacles underwater and emerging through the enclosure of thousands of tentacles was enough to send shivers down his spine.
He turned again to the water, and through its now entirely purple surface, he could clearly see an entirely different emotion, beyond anger, in the Demon Eye Sponge’s murky pupils.
Known as... helplessness!
...