Safety in Danger

Under the pursuit and inexplicable hostility of the gold pufferfish, Wang Shóu had no choice but to engage in battle.

Rearing his head, energy began to concentrate above it, forming a small, thin, white shield.

Then Wang Shóu smashed his head against the gold pufferfish.

But at the very moment Wang Shóu's head was about to smash into the gold pufferfish, it suddenly inflated into a huge ball with pointy spikes all over its body.

Smack!

Both the pufferfish and Wang Shóu were knocked away due to the recoil of crashing into each other.

'Ouch! That hurt!'

Immediately reacting, Wang Shóu withdrew his head but still felt intense pain as he recovered from the recoil.

Thankfully, due to the small shield covering his head, there were no bloody holes, though he still had to bear the full brunt of the pufferfish's counterattack.

'Well...nothing I can do about it anyway,' Wang Shóu grinned, still feeling pain from his head.

It was indeed foolish to come into close contact with a pufferfish due to its characteristic of inflating itself into a spiky ball, but he had no other way to damage the gold pufferfish.

There were only water-type moves and normal-type moves in Basculin's move pool, and water-type moves were obviously ineffective against a fish.

So, he had to resort to normal-type moves, though unfortunately, Basculin only knew physical normal-type moves.

Moreover, even contacting the pufferfish's spikes was very risky...

Wang Shóu had a solemn look on his face as he gazed at the deflated gold pufferfish, which was upside down, panickily flapping its small fins, trying to recover from the recoil too.

From his previous world, Wang Shóu learned that the spikes on pufferfish are very toxic and can easily kill a human.

In this world, where any animal was capable of mass destruction, the pufferfish's spikes were obviously much more potent too.

'So, I need to find a way to defeat this pufferfish without contacting its spikes...'

Facing this kind of enemy, Wang Shóu felt a headache as he couldn't think of a way to do so.

Changing into another Pokémon was not very reliable as they couldn't breathe underwater, and going up to the surface of the lake would attract the white tiger's attention.

'Damn it, this is going to be a battle of endurance...'

But the gold pufferfish, which had already recovered from the recoil, began to recklessly charge at Wang Shóu.

It didn't care about the consequences as it knew that Wang Shóu was wary of its inflated spiky attack, just like its previous enemies.

'!'

Taken by surprise, Wang Shóu immediately opened his mouth and spurted out a powerful concentrated stream of water toward the gold pufferfish.

'Water Gun!'

The concentrated water shot toward the gold pufferfish and forcibly pushed it back.

Though it barely hurt the gold pufferfish, it still took the pufferfish by surprise, causing it to involuntarily inflate itself again.

Seeing this, Wang Shóu's eyes lit up, and he had already begun to formulate a plan in his mind.

However, after deflating itself, the gold pufferfish was furious and angrily inflated itself.

With the sudden inflation of its body, poisonous spikes were forcibly ejected from its body in all directions.

'Oh crap! Headbutt!'

Caught off guard, Wang Shóu quickly turned his head forward with energy forming above his head to form a thin shield again.

Clang!

The poisonous spikes bounced off upon hitting Wang Shóu's semi-shield.

With the poisonous spikes bouncing off, Wang Shóu then rushed toward the gold pufferfish.

Then, suddenly with no warning, Wang Shóu forcefully shot a powerful blast of water toward the pufferfish.

Taken by surprise, the golden pufferfish involuntarily inflated itself to disperse the impact of the water blast.

'Now!'

Wang Shóu immediately charged toward the gold pufferfish, already preparing to do Headbutt again.

The gold pufferfish, which had just deflated, was caught off guard and could not inflate to defend itself.

Smack!

The gold pufferfish was smacked backward, with bruises on its forehead.

'Now I need to keep doing this and sooner or later, I will win!'

Wang Shóu thought, with a vicious grin on his face.

---

Above the surface of the lake, continuous fierce splashes amidst the water has disturbed the white tiger from its rest.

'Hmm?'

Raising its head, the white tiger had a question mark on its head, seeing splashes on the lake.

Tilting its head, the white tiger immediately sensed that there were two creatures under the lake fighting against each other.

Seeing this, the white tiger began to ponder whether it should kill them to stop them from disturbing its rest.

After a few seconds, the white tiger decided its next action.

Standing up slightly, reflecting the majestic appearance of the white tiger, it slowly raised its right paw, with its claws already extended.

The claws gleamed with cold light, ready to tear through all obstacles in their path, and it was no different for the two fishes too.

But suddenly, the splashes stopped and the lake returned to its once calm and still state.

Tilting its head again, the tiger sensed that the aura of one fish had become weaker while the other fish's aura remained strong. It obviously meant that a victor had been decided between the two fishes.

Seeing this, the white tiger hesitated, shook its head, and began to lay down once again.

As for why the white tiger didn't continue its process to swipe its paw down and kill the fish in the lake, the thought process was simple— it was too lazy to do so.

The fight between the two fishes had already been decided, and now the lake had returned to calmness.

So there was no reason to waste its precious time killing a weak fish.

---

'Phew! I managed to chase away the gold pufferfish!'

Wang Shóu's fish form sighed in relief, attempting to wipe the sweat from his head—only to realize his fin was too short, making him look like he was doing a tiny fish dance instead.

Realizing this, Wang Shóu coughed in an attempt to hide his embarrassment.

'Ahem. Anyway...let's get the cornucopia!'

Wang Shóu swam upward toward the islet where the cornucopia was held.

Splash!

Jumping up from the lake, Wang Shóu quickly changed into a huge crow.

He had changed into Corvisquire, his second weakest form beside Basculin.

Even if the odds were low, Wang Shóu didn't want to alert the white tiger with the appearance of his more powerful form.

Walking deep into the isle, Wang Shóu soon quickly found the pseudo-cornucopia.

It was a majestic, large tree with a sprawling canopy of lush, vibrant leaves that provided a soothing shade beneath. The branches were sturdy and gracefully arching, each bearing numerous fruits that closely resembled oranges in shape and size.

As for the fruits, they were almost completely a beautiful scarlet color, reminiscent of a tempting, seductive rose.

The sight of these crimson orbs hanging from the branches would leave the lucky audience breathless with wonder.

'Is this...the pseudo-cornucopia?'

Wang Shóu thought with awe, not aware that the fruits were slowly changing into a completely scarlet color.

At the very moment that the fruit tree turned completely scarlet, it suddenly released a burst of brilliant fragrance that completely infused the air with its smell, signaling that it had completely blossomed.

Wang Shóu's face immediately changed, and he jumped forward to the tree, quickly storing the scarlet fruit tree into his inventory, but it was too late. Other spirit beasts were already alerted to the presence of the cornucopia.

At the same time, the white tiger had already perceived an aura of the cornucopia from the islet in the middle of the lake.

Under the tempting aura and the fragrant smell of the pseudo-cornucopia, the white tiger immediately stood up, with greed in its eyes.

'What kind of treasure is this? Whatever it is, it is mine now!'

So, bending its legs slightly, the white tiger did a single jump, easily crossing over the lake and landing on the islet.

Walking deeper, the white tiger sensed an aura of a weak creature near the heaven and earth treasures.

The white tiger was immediately enraged.

'Who dares to covet my treasures under my nose?!'

As a proud creature that always got what it wanted with its powerful strength, it couldn't tolerate that someone dared to steal what should be his treasure!

"Roarr!!"

Issuing a loud roar, the white tiger immediately rushed toward the location with blinding speed.

At the same time, when Wang Shóu heard the roar, his face became ugly. He knew that the 90,000-year-old white tiger had obviously been alerted to the birth of the scarlet fruit tree.

And when the white tiger arrived, it would signal his death. But he was unwilling to just die like that!

'Think! Think! Think! How do I get out of this situation?!'

Thinking frantically, Wang Shóu glanced at the lake and his eyes lit up as he got an idea.

So, Wang Shóu immediately began to act upon it.

A few seconds later, the white tiger landed gracefully at the place where it had sensed the location of the heaven and earth treasure.

However, looking around, the white tiger's face twisted into an angry expression.

"The heaven and earth treasure is gone!"

A loud, deep, majestic voice echoed through the air. Unsurprisingly, this voice came from the white tiger.

"And where is the damned thief?!"

In its vicinity, the white tiger could not sense the thief within thousands of meters of its location.

But how?!

The question swirled in the white tiger's mind. As a 90,000-year-old spirit beast, only spirit beasts of comparable age could hide themselves from his senses.

But this thief is obviously not a 90,000-year-old spirit beast, so how did it do it?!

Increasingly irritated, the white tiger emitted a loud roar.

"Hateful thief! When I get you, you shall know pain worse than death!"

After roaring incompetently, the white tiger turned around, going back to its resting place.

In its rage, it didn't notice that when the thief's aura disappeared, another aura of a certain fish appeared under the lake out of nowhere, and it is slowly swimming toward the river attached to the lake.

---

A/N: It has been four months since I last update. And for that, I deeply apologize to the readers who have been reading my book. Also, I also have to apologize again since I will likely not update for the next three weeks as I am going to Germany. The reason I wanted to make this update today is apologize and also to inform you that I had not dropped this book. So, once again, I deeply apologize and I hope that you will be patient. I promise that by the time I come back from Germany, I will do my absolute best to update as frequent as I can. Thank you and I hope you understand.