Chapter 9: The Price of Evolution

A cruise ship three hundred meters long, with a displacement of tens of thousands of tons—on land, not even ten killer whales could budge it, but in the ocean, his strength was immense. With the buoyancy of water, he propelled the ship swiftly forward. Yet for Lin Qiu, the effort was enormous.

“A loss—a huge loss!” Lin Qiu felt the power within him rapidly draining away, the speed of the ship dropping fast. Not far behind, a hundred-meter-high wall of water loomed. If he stopped, he could dive into the deep sea and escape, but everyone aboard the cruise ship would perish.

“I brought this trouble on myself—so I must see it through, tears and all.” Lin Qiu gritted his teeth, flicked his tail, and accelerated once more, roaring inwardly, “System, think of something, quickly!”

“Host’s energy insufficient, replenishment required,” came the system’s eternally indifferent, electronic voice—cold, emotionless.

“Energy, always energy!” Lin Qiu howled inwardly. Where was he supposed to find energy now? The sea was vast and filled with noble-blooded sea beasts, but precisely because it was so vast, encounters were rare.

“Is there anything else I can use to quickly gain strength? I want to level up.”

“Apart from bloodline, host can only sacrifice his own bloodline for an upgrade.”

“My own bloodline?” Lin Qiu’s eyes widened.

“In other words, to ascend to Level 2, host can burn his own bloodline, using the power of the burning lineage to force an upgrade to Level 2.”

“After the upgrade, host’s strength will increase tenfold, and all skills will be enhanced, doubled in effectiveness.”

As the system’s leisurely voice echoed, Lin Qiu’s heart roared, “System, burn my bloodline—give me the power to ascend!”

“Ding. Host’s will detected. Bloodline burning initiated.”

Before the system finished speaking, Lin Qiu felt his entire body heat up, as if roasting over a fire. The agony tore from him a desperate scream, transformed into a sonic howl that surged toward the seabed.

Sea beasts fleeing for their lives were killed instantly by the sonic blast. The seawater’s temperature soared, nearing eighty degrees. As he swam at speed, the water cooled somewhat, staying within bearable limits.

The burning bloodline’s heat made him feel thoroughly cooked. Yet Lin Qiu sensed his strength multiplying rapidly. The cruise ship ahead seemed to require no effort at all to push forward.

Thus, a spectacle appeared on the sea: behind, towering water walls surged forward; the cruise ship, amid lightning, thunder, and torrential rain, sped across the undulating waves like a released arrow, leaving a straight white wake that vanished into the distance.

“It’s over!” In the sea, a fifty-centimeter-long dolphin watched the departing cruise ship with complex eyes, its body sinking uncontrollably.

“System, why am I like this?” The little dolphin drifted downward, posing the question.

“To answer the host: bloodline burning increases level and exchanges for ten times the power, but the body also shrinks.”

“Fortunately, host was close to the required upgrade points; otherwise, burning the bloodline could reduce you to a single cell—or erase you entirely.”

“I…” Lin Qiu wanted to weep. If he could close his eyes, he would sob uncontrollably.

His thirty-meter, imposing body once roamed the ocean with impunity. Now, he was reduced to a dolphin less than a meter long.

His magnificent dorsal fin, once like the halberd of a heroic general, was gone.

He had fallen from grace. After the upgrade, he had gone from killer whale to tiny dolphin.

“Why can’t I move?” Lin Qiu issued a final stubborn inquiry.

“Because host forcefully increased power to meet upgrade requirements by burning bloodline, you must now endure gradual adaptation to this power.”

That was the system’s answer.

Lin Qiu sensed the energy inside him swelling, filling every cell and fiber. He reckoned it would take at least five minutes to fully adapt.

But now he was immobile, hovering above a river of magma. If he slowly drifted into the molten waves, he’d become roasted dolphin for real.

“My lifelong reputation, my ambitions—gone!” Lin Qiu cried out in despair. The instant his sonic howl left his mouth, he shut up.

Previously, his sonic howl emanated from his mouth with a force that could shatter metal and stone.

Now, what was this? Opening his mouth, the sound that came out was, “Yap!”

Yap? What nonsense was this? How could it sound so awful—like a puppy that hadn’t lost its baby voice, utterly adorable.

“No…” He roared in anguish inwardly.

Just as his body was about to tumble into the rolling magma, the system sounded an alert.

“Alert, alert. Mysterious signal detected in the canyon. Accept?”

As the system’s warning rang out, and as he was only breaths away from falling into the magma, his bodily strength finally synchronized with his flesh.

“I’m out!” Lin Qiu let out a “Yap!” and flicked his tail. A massive propulsion shot him forward, his body streaking like lightning, vanishing above the magma.

“That scared me to death—almost became roasted dolphin.” Escaping by a hair’s breadth, he floated in the scalding sea, upright, using his right hand—or rather, his fin—to mimic wiping cold sweat.

“That was really close!” Upright, tail swaying, he retreated quickly.

After a while, confusion flickered in his eyes.

“System, what did you just say?” Lin Qiu asked uncertainly.

As he dodged disaster, he thought he heard the system speak—it might have been a hallucination.

“Alert, alert. Unknown mysterious signal detected. Accept translation?”

“Mysterious signal?” Lin Qiu was surprised. “Where is the signal from?”

“To answer host: signal is in the Rift Canyon.”

“There’s a signal wave down there?” Lin Qiu grew even more astonished.

This was a deep sea over a thousand meters down—how could there be a signal wave?

Curiosity was universal; even as a tiny dolphin, he retained it.

Driven by curiosity, he nodded in a human-like fashion, “Accept. Translate.”

“Ding, signal receiving…”

“Ding, signal translating…”