BXBX NOVEL Chapter 367.2
The Guardians was fast and sensitive enough to escape from danger if they encountered a sea beast that they could not defeat, but the same could not be said for the Moors. That was why the Moors always brought the Guardians with them whenever they left the safety of their city. Over the years, a strong bond has been established between the two species. Cyrea trusted his Guardian so much that he didn’t even react to his Guardian swallowing him alive to escape danger.
Speaking of danger, Cyrea’s opinion of Wheeze had clearly changed after its display of power. As the gray cat swam back to the city, he looked at it like he might look at any great power; with great deal of fear and respect.
It was at this moment Czedow sent Cillin a message. “Lung’s awake!”
The hunter immediately seized the gray cat by the nape and made a beeline toward the clan elder’s house. Cyrea was slow, but he quickly realized that it had something to do with the man who consumed God’s Tear and followed behind Cillin. At the same time, he thought to himself, did it work? If it did, does that mean we can leave and play freely from now on?
At the clan elder’s house, Lung was sitting up from the stone bed. He still looked a little pale, but his eyes were shining with excitement.
Big Rock was just ecstatic that his young master had awakened, but he wasn’t sure if the transformation was a success. It should be—he would be dead if it wasn’t—but Lung looked the same as before, and he had not uttered a word since he had awoken. He had no idea what his young master was thinking right now.
“How do you feel, young master?” Big Rock asked tentatively.
Lung gave his throat a squeeze and frowned a little. His expression kept alternating between exertion and relaxation. Then, joy overcame his features all of a sudden.
Lung’s subordinates could only stew in anxiety since the young man still wasn’t saying anything. It wasn’t their place to prompt the young master, not to mention that they had zero experience in this area. Some of them looked at the clan elder in hopes that he could provide them with an answer, but the old man was just as clueless as they were. After all, the “manual” never mentioned what would happen after the subject had awakened.
“I am fine.”
A long, long silence later, Lung finally said three words in total. The first word sounded strange, and the second word sounded stiff. His intonation had returned to normal on the third word, however.
Cillin happened to hear Lung speak when he entered the house. He shot his friend a look and asked, “It changed your throat?”
Lung nodded and gave his throat—specifically the vocal cords—another light squeeze. Unable to suppress a smile, he said, “I’m still not completely used to it, but I’m sure it won’t take long.”
“Excuse me, but what exactly has changed, young master?” Big Rock asked.
Lung cleared his throat before replying, “I have two vocal cords now.”
Two vocal cords?
His subordinates looked at each other in confusion, but the clan elder slapped his knee as if he just recalled something. “That’s right! I remember now! It was said that the person who survived the transformation would grow a second cord!” He took out an old style notebook and flipped to a certain page before nodding. “Yep. Your first vocal cord is the original; a.k.a the one you use to communicate with humans. Your second vocal cord is used to communicate with sea beasts.”
“... We can already communicate with sea beasts without a special vocal cord though,” Pascado commented. It was the truth. Trainers could not communicate verbally with sea beasts, but there were many other ways they could use to communicate and tame one. Frankly, this was starting to look a little underwhelming.
However, the clan elder shot him a look of disdain before pointing at the Guardian lurking at the entrance behind Cyrea. “You said you couldn’t tame a Guardian, right? If you can’t even tame something as gentle as a Guardian, then there’s not a chance in hell you can tame anything else in that marine trench. I bet the only fishes you can tame are the innocent babies at the middle to upper levels, am I right? Pah!”
If that thing’s gentle, then everything in the sea is gentle! And screw you! Our beasts are anything but babies!
The clan elder’s words were hurtful enough, but his condescending tone made it hurt twice as bad. For a second, Big Rock and the rest of Lung’s subordinates contemplated if they could get away with slapping an elderly.
That said, they understood that the clan elder wasn’t talking out of his ass, and that God’s Tear could not be as ordinary as it looked. They just wished that the old man could be less offensive.
The clan elder gave no fucks about their dissatisfaction though. He continued, “Now that he has successfully grown his second vocal cord, he should be able to communicate with the fellow in the marine trench and have him carry you back to the sea surface.”
“That fellow?” Lung asked in confusion.
Cillin immediately recalled the story Cyrea had told him earlier. It was probably the sea beast whose snores were loud enough to shake the city.
“How do you feel now?” The clan elder asked Lung.
“I think I’m doing okay,” Lung replied while squeezing his throat again.
“In that case, feel free to test out your new vocal cords. You must not go to the marine trench before you’ve mastered it though.”
“No problem!”
Lung was all for it. Ever since he grew a new vocal cord, he felt like his affinity with the sea had grown by leaps and bounds. He instinctively felt that he could understand the creatures of this sea a lot better than before.
Just in case, Lung traveled to the opposite end of the marine trench before he tested out his new toy. As it turned out, his feelings weren’t imaginary after all. Not only had he grown a second vocal cord, he really had become a lot more acclimatized with the ocean environment. He felt like he was a true sea beast who could breath and swim in the deep sea as easily as it was on land. In fact, he was certain he could swim all the way to the surface on his own. But of course, he was hardly going to leave his friends and subordinates behind.
The initial tests went very smoothly. Lung was able to compel a sea beast to swim up to him and show him its tongue. He even made it roll around in circles like a pet trying to please its master.
On Cillin’s shoulder, Wheeze shot the playful sea beast a glance before snorting. “Disgraceful!”
Cillin shot Wheeze a glance and said nothing. Even if he did, it would never admit that it was just as “disgraceful” a creature as the sea beast, if not worse.
After testing his ability on multiple sea beasts and getting more or less the same results, Lung finally followed the clan elder to a spot in the marine trench. It wasn’t far away from the spot Cillin had been at earlier, but here there was a stone platform on the ground. All the Moors in the city had assembled in order to witness this historical moment with their own eyes. When the day was over, they would finally be able to relinquish their responsibility and enjoy the sea to their heart’s content.
Lung’s subordinates stared at their young master with deep pride as the latter stood on the platform. And how could they not? Lung had more than proven himself to be the worthy successor of the Andrea Family!
After studying the instructions jotted in the clan elder’s notebook and preparing himself, Lung began communicating with “that fellow” in the marine trench.
When he was done, everyone held their breaths and waited for whatever it was that was going to happen.
BOOOOOOOOOM!
There was a massive boom, and the world began to shake as if there was an earthquake.
The humans and almost-humans saw nothing out of the ordinary, but all of the Guardians were pressing themselves against the ground and shivering slightly. Their eyes were full of fear, and they were making weird, bubbly noises from their mouths. These creatures were usually unperturbed even when they encountered grave danger, but now they looked like all they wanted was to crawl into a hole and hide.
“Look!” A Moor pointed at the marine trench.
Bubbles of all sizes had begun to rise from the marine trench. In fact, they covered nearly the entire marine trench. It was as spectacular as it was terrifying.
It was at this moment Wheeze said something that absolutely ruined the mood beside Cillin’s ear. “Hey, do you think that the sea beasts living in the marine trench just farted at the same time?”
Cillin gave its ears a pinch. “Have some manners, will you?”
Wheeze flicked his fingers away, disgruntled. If that wasn’t the case, then why did the bubbles appear to be brown in color?
Cillin stared at the rising bubbles for a moment. It was true that they looked rather brown, but they definitely weren’t the farts of a sea beast.