Chapter 173 The Ancient God Awakens, Which Bastard Did It?!

"Alarm! Alarm!"

A sharp, piercing alarm sounded, and on the screen, the red dot representing the unknown creature was hurtling straight from the deep sea toward the "Cheetah" on the surface at a terrifying speed!

Its size kept increasing! It was no longer a fish, or even a whale! It was a small, moving mountain!

The nerves of everyone in the command room instantly tightened to the limit, and muscle memory made them subconsciously want to rush to their combat posts.

"Don't do it!"

Just at this critical moment, the old tree's steady voice rang out: "Don't move, let me talk to it first."

Want to chat?

The group looked at each other in bewilderment.

Let's have a chat with a hot-tempered guy who's all fired up and ready to drag them down with him.

"Go, get out of here." Zhou Jue made a decisive decision and was the first to walk out of the command room: "Assemble on the deck, maintain the highest alert level, but no one is allowed to fire before receiving orders."

"Yes!" Cheng Gan immediately reacted and quickly responded.

Instead of staying in the cramped command room, anxiously watching the red dot on the screen, it's better to go outside and face this behemoth head-on.

The group quickly passed through the passageway and arrived at the destroyer's spacious deck.

The sea breeze howled, carrying salty, damp air that rushed towards us.

The once calm sea surface now resembled boiling water, churning violently, with undercurrents surging beneath the surface, forming huge whirlpools.

The sky darkened, with dark clouds gathering as if to press the entire sky down on their heads.

"It...it's almost here." A soldier looked at the strange phenomenon on the sea, his voice a little hoarse.

Without him saying anything, everyone felt the immense, heart-pounding pressure emanating from the deep sea—a pressure originating from the level of life itself!

Just then, an extremely familiar aura, along with the surging seawater, entered the senses of the rapidly rising Listening Sea Beast.

Hmm? Is that old guy's aura?

Its upward momentum slowed down subconsciously, but how could the anger and despair accumulated over millions of years be so easily quelled?

"boom--!!!"

A deafening roar! It sounded like a volcano erupting from the seabed!

The thousands of tons of steel of the Cheetah destroyer lurched violently under this enormous force!

Immediately afterwards, a giant wave tens of meters high shot into the sky and crashed down!

"Splash—!"

Zhou Jue, Cheng Gan, and the other soldiers standing on the deck were completely soaked by the torrential rain that came down from the sky before they could even react.

The icy seawater seeped into their hair and collars, soaking everyone and leaving them looking utterly disheveled.

Zhou Jue wiped the seawater off his face, his mind filled with only two words.

Goodness.

This is quite a unique gift.

"Ahem..." Old Tree's voice rang out at the right time, carrying a hint of suppressed amusement and teasing.

"I once heard that the Listening Sea Clan was gentle and peaceful, the most elegant creatures in the ocean. But seeing them today, the rumors seem to be... quite wrong."

No sooner had the old tree finished speaking than the angry thought, translated by the leaves, exploded once more!

"mild?!"

"If you were locked in a dark room and starved for thousands of years, and finally caught a whiff of meat, only to be woken from your dream by someone, only to find that the meat was fake, with just a tiny bit of aroma that you couldn't even taste! And then you had to watch yourself starve to death! Ask yourself! Could you be so calm?!"

The voice was filled with endless grief and indignation, and then, the target of that thought instantly locked onto the old tree's aura.

"Drywood! It's you?! You're not quite dead yet?!"

Dead wood...

Zhou Jue's lips twitched slightly; this nickname sounded very dated.

"You little brat, you're still alive, so of course I'm still hale and hearty." The old tree's voice carried a hint of amusement, as if it were seeing an old friend it hadn't seen for many years.

"Enough nonsense!" The Listening Sea Beast's mind was filled with rage: "Was it you who did this?! Did you deliberately leak a trace of spiritual energy to trick me into waking up from my slumber?!"

Its voice suddenly became sharp and mournful.

"Tell me! Are you nearing the end of your life and can't go on living, so you want to drag me down with you before you die, so you won't be lonely on your way to the underworld?!"

These heart-wrenching words silenced everyone on the deck. They could almost see the ancient behemoth questioning the world and its own tragic fate.

The old tree fell silent.

After a long while, it finally sighed softly, "It wasn't me."

It denied the Listening Beast's guess, but its voice carried an almost imperceptible heaviness.

Because it could clearly sense that the life force of the sea-listening beast before it was rapidly fading away at an irreversible speed.

Like a punctured balloon.

For it, awakening is the beginning of its death countdown.

The old tree's consciousness quietly connected with Zhou Jue.

"Xiao Jue".

"Senior, please speak," Zhou Jue replied in his mind.

"Do you still have your sacred spring?"

"have."

"Could you... give it some? Just a little bit will do."

The old tree's voice carried a hint of pleading: "It won't last much longer. In any case, once it wakes up, it will ultimately be related to you."

“No problem.” Zhou Jue agreed without hesitation.

As the old tree said, this is their fault, and they should take the blame.

With a thought, a large red and white plastic bucket appeared out of thin air in Zhou Jue's hand. This was the very bucket she usually used to water the old tree with the spiritual spring.

At this moment, the bucket was filled with a crystal-clear liquid that emitted a faint glow—it was the Spirit Spring!

The instant the spiritual spring appeared!

"Gurgle..."

A strange sound, translated through the leaves, entered everyone's minds.

Was that the sound of swallowing saliva?

The sea beast's original anger and despair seemed to have been paused.

A scorching gaze instantly shot out from the deep sea, locking onto the plastic bucket in Zhou Jue's hand.

Zhou Jue felt that gaze.

Without hesitation, she picked up the bucket, took two steps forward, and walked to the very edge of the deck. Looking at the churning sea in front of her, she spoke sincerely.

"Senior, I'm very sorry."

"We unintentionally disturbed your slumber and woke you up."

"This is our fault."

Zhou Jue handed the bucket forward, saying, "This bucket of spiritual spring water is a small token of our apology. We hope you will accept it."

The sea became eerily calm.

A gigantic, yet crystal clear, as if sculpted from crystal... claw? Or perhaps fin? slowly emerged from the water.

It carefully used the tips of its two claws to grip the plastic bucket, which was completely disproportionate to its enormous size.

Then, it abruptly retracted.

"Ton..." A hearty gulp of water echoed in everyone's minds.

One second later.

"Hiccup~"

A satisfied burp followed, and then the plastic bucket, completely empty, was gently placed back on the deck.

The sea monster's voice, devoid of its previous anger and even carrying a hint of arrogance, rang out again.

"snort!"

"This was your fault to begin with!"

"Besides, this one bucket... it's not even enough to fill a tooth gap. Damn it, I'm still going to die!"