10 Chapter 9: The Overlord of a River

In four days, it would be time to pay the next Life Saving Tax, and Uncle still had nothing. He had been going in and out of the river several times since early morning, his face pale from the cold, but today was doomed to be fruitless.

He didn't dare to go into the river again, fearing that if he went in, he might not come out.

As he was packing up to leave, a sudden splash came from the river. Turning around, he saw a five to six-foot-long shadow swiftly gliding beneath the surface.

Then, he noticed that deep in the heart of the river, a series of water splashes burst up, and a huge Fierce Fish jumped out. Its blood-red eyes stared viciously at the shadow underwater!

Uncle was startled and quickly climbed up a tree: These were two Overlord-level monsters, competing for the title of king!

Before he could think further, the battle in the river had already started. Amidst the roaring water, waves were sent half a zhang high. Both monsters were incredibly powerful, sometimes diving underwater and sometimes rolling onto the river's surface to tear into each other.

Uncle could see the scene clearly at times, at others not so much. But just the thought of these two ferocious creatures inhabiting the same river section where he usually collected pearls sent a chill down his spine: If he ever encountered either of them, he'd probably end up as fish excrement at the bottom of the river, right?

Thank the heavens, I've been so fortunate never to have met either one before.

The river water gradually turned red with blood, giving off a strong fishy smell.

Finally, the shadow seemed to be losing, and turned to flee. After all, although it was also quite large, it was still much smaller than the Dominant Ferocious Fish.

The Dominant Ferocious Fish grew even more ferocious, chasing the shadow relentlessly, determined to tear and devour the challenger that dared to defy it!

Both monsters were incredibly fast in the water, chasing and fleeing for several miles, coincidentally coming near the riverbank where Uncle was hiding.

The shadow began to falter, its speed slowing down. However, the Overlord Fierce Fish seemed invigorated by the fight. It suddenly leaped out of the water, dove down, opened its huge mouth wide, and aimed for the shadow's waist.

The shadow had no chance to avoid the attack and, as it turned its head, it spat something out with a pfft.

The object was too fast to see, but a transparent bloody hole appeared on the Fierce Fish's hard head, stopping its diving momentum and causing it to crash into the water with a thud.

Uncle watched, dumbfounded, with only one thought in his mind: A new overlord had been born in this river!

Stronger and more cunning than the previous one!

From now on, he must be more careful when making a living in this area.

The sun was about to set, casting the last rays of light onto the water's surface. The newly crowned overlord, proudly swimming around in circles, then clamped its jaws onto the Dominant Ferocious Fish's corpse, sinking beneath the water with a gulp, disappearing without a trace.

As Uncle thought back on the entire process, there was no doubt that from the very beginning, the shadow had planned its final blow!

He thought about the new overlord, its two intimidating, light golden whiskers shining in the twilight, and momentarily lost his confidence in being able to continue making a living in this stretch of the river by being "careful."

...

Owen Bertram and Little Loach had completed their division of spoils.

Basically… Little Loach monopolized the delicious food, leaving only the two luminous Bone Beads for Owen.

Having truly eaten too much this time, Little Loach lay on the ground, unable to move. The thickest part of its body was originally its head, but now it was shaped like a shuttle,

starting from the neck and extending to just before the tail, it had grown significantly thicker around, making its head and tail appear especially slender.

It took a while before it slowly shrank back to its normal size.

At the same time, a thick warm current emanated from it. In the past, it was just a single surge, and that was the end of it. But this time, it was endless, like a great river!

Owen perked up, vaguely feeling that this time was different from before.

The warm current circled around inside Owen's body over and over, eventually flowing into the Great Seal in his lower abdomen.

Last time, the warm current here had already been compressed once. This time, more warm current flowed in, but Owen didn't feel any discomfort. Everything was smooth and natural:

The Heterotext in the Great Seal began to swell, eventually transforming into an object shaped like a seal. The imprint of the seal was the Heterotext itself.

After this object was formed, its capacity to contain the warm current increased significantly, to the point where Owen felt that the Great Seal in his lower abdomen had become empty and hollow.

The sun was about to set, so Owen took out his bone dagger, cut a piece of wood from a nearby tree, and made a Wooden Bottle to hold Little Loach.

During the entire crafting process, Owen felt incredibly "smooth." Even though the wood was very hard, using the bone dagger in his hand felt as fluid as Little Loach swimming in the water.

"A sword is used like this." Owen suddenly had such a thought.

Hastily returning home as the sun set, Tabitha waited anxiously for her brother today, her voice choked with tears: "Bad brother, I… I thought you wouldn't come back."

What she wanted to say was probably that she thought he wouldn't return.

Owen's heart was filled with compassion. The siblings relied on each other for survival. If he really didn't return, what would his sister do?

He wiped the tears from his sister's face: "Don't cry, don't cry. I promise I'll be back earlier in the future. Pinky swear?"

"Childish." Verna suddenly acted proudly, pouting: "Only little kids believe in pinky swears."

Owen was left speechless, and his sister had already cooked dinner for him, serving him a large bowl of rice.

After dinner, Verna snuggled into her brother's arms: "Sleepy, bedtime."

Owen held his sister and crawled into the tunnel. In his hand, he played with two Bone Beads. These seemed to be valuable items, but he wondered how much food they could trade for on the Life Saving Tax scale?

But he was not an ignorant village child. He knew that using such treasures to trade for food would be a waste.

As he pondered these things, Owen became drowsy and almost fell asleep. Suddenly, an incredibly chilling sensation, like a bucket of ice water being poured over his head, jolted him awake.

The village was eerily quiet, as if even the night wind had been frozen.

"What kind of monster is it tonight?"

Lately, not only had there been more outsiders, but also more monsters at night.

"Is there any trouble in the Large Dirt Mound?!" Owen's heart skipped a beat. If something truly happened to the mound, the entire village would probably...

That cold feeling, like an invisible flood, slowly spread across the entire village before gradually receding.

Owen let out a long sigh of relief, not even wanting to find out what kind of monster it was.

As long as it was over, that was enough.

He looked down at Verna, who was still sleeping soundly, as if she had no worries as long as she was in her brother's arms.

A faint smile appeared on Owen's face.