Chapter 80

Qiao Ning casually ruffled Binglin's hair and said in a scumbag-like tone, "Don't worry, no matter how many pets I collect, you will always be the most important one. The others are just for show."

Icescale, being a simple-minded dog, had never heard such rubbish before; it didn't even understand the problem. Anyone with a kindergarten diploma wouldn't have been fooled by Qiao Ning.

Having resolved the potential fire problem in the pet enclosure, Qiao Ning activated submarine mode, leaving the road and venturing into the sea.

Each deep-sea overlord has its own territory, and it is unlikely that another deep-sea behemoth will appear.

Qiao Ning didn't know much about prehistoric giant turtles, only that one kind was about the height of a two-story building. The giant turtle in this sea area was clearly much larger, having evolved to be dozens of stories tall and hundreds of feet long, weighing tens of thousands of tons.

According to the system data, this spiny-armored tortoise spends most of its time sleeping each day. It only wakes up when it needs to hunt, and after a hunt, it can go for several days without eating.

Of course, its appetite is quite astonishing, requiring it to consume thousands of tons of food per meal.

Qiao Ning heard that even large whales only eat a dozen tons a day.

This giant tortoise has a huge appetite. Qiao Ning hesitated earlier because she was considering the size of her pets' food intake. Of all her pets, only Green Pearl is somewhat better; the rest are all gluttons, each with a huge appetite.

If another 100-ton-per-meal spiny-armored dragon turtle were to appear, Qiao Ning's vision would go black just thinking about it.

Or should we just forget about it?

However, having an empty pet slot and missing this opportunity to capture the Ocean Overlord might mean missing out on another chance like this. This is already the second Trial Calamity; only the final one remains. Who knows what the situation will be like then? It's always good to be prepared.

Qiao Ning gritted her teeth and decided to try her luck with the Spiny Armored Dragon Turtle. Gentle deep-sea predators are rare, so the chances of successfully taming it are high. Moreover, turtles are naturally high in defense and have thick health bars, making them excellent battle partners.

As for how much it eats... Qiao Ning thought, with such a large appetite, it shouldn't be picky about food, right? As long as it eats everything, feeding it more high-grade feed and animal feed pills should be enough to fill it up. If that doesn't work, she'll just have to let it hunt for itself.

The map displays the location of the deep-sea predator as a huge, highly visible red dot. With a target direction, Qiao Ning's search became much faster.

Just as the information described, the Spiny Archon Turtle doesn't like to move. Even after the submarine has been in operation for so long, that big red dot hasn't moved an inch.

When they were about two hundred nautical miles away from it, Qiao Ning instructed Bing Lin to conceal its aura, lest it awaken, making it difficult to subdue.

Unexpectedly, she suddenly noticed that the red dot on the map seemed to move slightly!

"I must be seeing things, right?" Qiao Ning continued to observe the dots on the map, but after a few minutes they still didn't move.

Maybe... she suddenly turned over in her sleep? Or maybe she changed position and stretched her legs?

As Qiao Ning was thinking this, she suddenly saw the red dot move again. This time, she was sure she wasn't mistaken. It not only moved, but it seemed to have moved a distance.

Moreover, it was swimming towards Qiao Ning's location.

Are deep-sea monsters really that sensitive? Have they already detected her invasion of their territory?

That shouldn't be the case. She's just a tiny creature in the ocean. Even if a giant beast discovers her, it wouldn't consider it an invasion.

At most, they'd see a tiny piece of food, barely enough to fill a tooth gap. They wouldn't react much.

Qiao Ning didn't stop the submarine and continued forward. Then she saw the red dot on the map moving faster and faster. In just ten minutes, combined with the submarine's speed, the distance of about two hundred nautical miles was shortened to a few dozen nautical miles.

After about two more minutes, Qiao Ning finally saw the big guy.

"My God..." Seeing such a behemoth in person is a completely different experience from seeing the data displayed by the system. The shock was indescribable, and I'll probably never forget it.

The last time I was this shocked was when I encountered a super-giant ice monster in the extreme cold of the highway world.

Compared to the Spiny Armored Dragon Turtle, her whale-shaped submarine seemed like a small fry; it could probably blow the submarine away with a single breath.

You need to find me.

Suddenly, a voice appeared in Qiao Ning's mind. It wasn't a human voice, but it inexplicably conveyed the meaning of those words to her.

Moreover, it's a statement, not a question.

Qiao Ning immediately realized that it was the spiny turtle talking to her!

She knew that some pets with higher bloodlines or stronger abilities could communicate with players by sending signals. For example, Fat Tiger, Locust, and Little Red the Man-Eating Flower could all send her messages.

Needless to say, Ice Scales can communicate without any obstacles.

However, that's basically only possible after becoming her contracted pet. Before that, there's a barrier between players and other mutated beasts; even Ice Scale can't directly "talk" to her—perhaps because Ice Scale isn't an adult yet. Before becoming her pet, it can only sense her thoughts but can't convey its own thoughts to her.

"Yes, I did come to find you..." The sudden change of events left Qiao Ning unsure of what to say. She couldn't very well tell the Spiny Armored Dragon Turtle that she had come to take it as a pet, could she?

I feel like I'm going to be blown away a hundred and eight thousand miles.

I understand what you mean. If you can do it, please give it a try.

Qiao Ning was taken aback, because the spiny-armored dragon turtle wasn't threatening or intimidating her, but rather pleading with her.

But why is that? This spiny tortoise is clearly a sentient and intelligent creature. She thought that a creature like this wouldn't normally want to be kept as a pet.

I might be dying soon.

Qiao Ning heard the Spiny Armored Dragon Turtle transmit such a signal.

Only you can keep me alive.

This world is destined for destruction. My sleep is getting longer and longer. I hadn't woken up for a long time before I sensed your arrival.

Every living thing has a survival instinct, and the spiny sea turtle is no exception. Although it has lived longer than most marine creatures, it is still in its prime in terms of lifespan. Naturally, it doesn't want to die.

Qiao Ning instantly felt a surge of pressure, because the higher the bloodline and the stronger the pet, the lower the chance of successfully taming it. Even if the Spiny Armored Dragon Turtle willingly became her pet, it wasn't guaranteed to work.

But since things had come to this, she could only give it a try.

Qiao Ning checked her Lucky Star passive talent. It had already been triggered today when she chose the direction of the underwater highway and avoided a dangerous area of ​​the deep-sea overlord's territory.

The current underwater highways are crisscrossed, and no one knows what kind of sea the next fork in the road will lead to.

So Qiao Ning asked the Spiny Armored Dragon Turtle, "If the capture fails, will it affect you?"

Yes. I'm already quite weak. If the contract fails, I might become even weaker, or I might die. But if you don't try, my fate is also death.

Qiao Ning is now under even more pressure.

Since that's the case, we can only wait until tomorrow when the Lucky Star passive effect appears, otherwise the Spiny Armored Turtle might suffer for nothing.

After briefly communicating with it, Qiao Ning didn't leave. Instead, she parked the submarine nearby and waited for midnight to arrive.

I'm probably going to fall asleep again. When you're about to form a contract with me, you'd better wake me up first. That will increase the chances of success.

Before Qiao Ning could say anything from inside the diving tank, she saw that the spiny-armored dragon turtle had already closed its eyes. She could even see large bubbles rising from the seawater as it breathed.

No, she fell asleep way too quickly.

It seems that the spiny turtle is really weak to a certain extent.

The Spiny Armored Turtle doesn't snore when it sleeps, but Icescale says that while it's asleep, it emits a sound wave inaudible to humans every so often to deter marine life within its territory. Therefore, large predators are rarely seen near where it hibernates. And outside predators dare not easily invade the Spiny Armored Turtle's territory.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, Qiao Ning searched the vicinity for treasure chests and actually found quite a few. She found over a hundred gold treasure chests and ten diamond treasure chests.

Moreover, since there were no powerful predators in the vicinity, they did not encounter any danger while obtaining the diamond chest.

Seeing that the dragon turtle was sleeping soundly, Qiao Ning decided to go back to the submarine with Bing Lin to open the chests. The drop rate of the golden treasure chests was unprecedented today; there were several hundred sets of items such as diving shields, accelerators, and acid-resistant shields. Even if the natural disaster escalates tomorrow, it should be enough for them.

The diamond chest mainly contains capsules, in four different colors. Except for the gold capsules, which only come in 10s, there are 50 of each of the other colors.

At midnight, the Lucky Star passive skill "Auspicious Star Descends" refreshed its trigger count, and Qiao Ning immediately went out of the submarine to call for the Spiny Armor Dragon Turtle.

However, she tried various methods to wake it up, even using the Black Flame Bone Blade, but the dragon turtle remained motionless, its eyelids didn't even twitch, and only the bubbles constantly rising in the water indicated that it was still alive.

"What should I do? I can't wake it up at all." The big turtle only told her to wake it up, but it didn't say it was this hard to wake up.

"Why don't we just try to subdue it directly?"

Qiao Ning looked at Bing Lin beside her: "Do you have a way to communicate with it directly? Like how you usually communicate with me, can you just use your thoughts to call it?"

Ice Scale nodded: [You can call out to it, but you might not be able to wake it. It's too weak; I can sense its life force is almost gone.]

Like a flame that is about to go out, but is still struggling and flickering.

"It's okay, I'll give it my best."

Upon hearing its master's words, Ice Scale no longer hesitated and opened its mouth, emitting invisible sound waves that surged towards the Thorn Armor Dragon Turtle.

When the sound waves were emitted for the third time, the spiny turtle finally opened its heavy eyelids.

It seemed that even opening its eyes was difficult for it, which showed that it had probably exhausted the last bit of energy in its body when it swam quickly to her with its weakened body.

【Thanks……】

The spiny turtle doesn't seem to be able to convey any longer messages.

Qiao Ning didn't dare to delay any longer and immediately began taming the pet. This time, the taming progress bar was shockingly long and unusually slow.

As time passed, the spiny turtle's eyelids began to droop again, clearly indicating that it was about to collapse.

Qiao Ning felt anxious and kept staring at the passive state of Lucky Star, hoping to see the passive state be triggered.

Her obvious emotional fluctuations were naturally felt by Ice Scale, which knew that its master was very anxious at the moment, but it could not help. It could only come over and cuddle with her to comfort her.

Qiao Ning habitually stroked Bing Lin's head.

Two or three hours passed before they knew it, and the spiny-armored tortoise's eyelids began to close.

Qiao Ning had a premonition that once the Spiny Armored Dragon Turtle closed its eyes this time, it might never wake up again. And naturally, she couldn't contract a dead creature as a pet; the contract would definitely fail.