Gao Wu: Oh no! Young Master Zhen is a cultivator!

The impact of the barracuda was much greater than expected, and the blade vibrated and hummed.

The moment the third fish bounced back, Lin Ran used the momentum to turn around, and the blade slashed across the belly of the second fish.

laugh!

The scales shattered, and a mist of blood seeped into the water.

The remaining two barracudas were still adjusting their positions when he activated his water manipulation technique to get close and slashed them down one by one, swiftly and cleanly.

Three more crystal cores entered the tent.

The crystal nucleus of this fish is silvery-white, slightly smaller than that of the glass jellyfish, but its spiritual energy fluctuations are comparable.

For the next half hour, he swept back and forth in the reef area.

We encountered two more waves of barracuda, a total of nine.

During the trip, I also encountered a lone third-order swordfin fish with serrated bony plates along the edge of its dorsal fin, which could be used as a knife when it flicked its tail.

It is larger than the barracuda, but more agile.

Bang!

Lin Ran punched the swordfin fish on the top of its skull, causing several fine cracks to appear on its bone plates.

The second punch sent the fish flying white.

"The skin is quite thick." He flicked his wrist and pried the crystal core out of the skull.

By this time, the backpack contained a total of twenty-seven third-order crystal cores.

Just as he was about to explore further, the sand beneath his feet suddenly trembled.

A dark shadow rose from the sand.

The carapace is over 1.5 meters in diameter, with dense bumps on its surface, and thick limbs extend from the edge of the carapace, supporting the entire body.

A Tier 3 Ironclad Turtle has defensive capabilities comparable to a Tier 4 Turtle.

The edge of the tortoise shell has a ring of dark red lines, which are traces of minerals that have settled on the seabed over a long period of time.

The armored tortoise turned its short, thick neck, and its two beady eyes locked onto Lin Ran.

Instead of charging forward, it retracted its head and limbs into its shell, and its entire body sank to the ground like a stone.

Lin Ran stepped forward and stabbed.

when!

The blade struck the carapace, leaving only a white mark.

"It's really hard!"

He tried two more cuts, one on the edge of the carapace and the other at the seam of the plastron, but neither worked well.

The Ironclad Turtle's shell is considered top-tier in terms of defense among third-tier mutated beasts; ordinary weapons simply cannot penetrate it.

The armored turtle seemed to realize that its opponent couldn't do anything to it, so it stretched out its head again, let out a low hiss, and suddenly rammed into Lin Ran.

Lin Ran dodged to the side.

The turtle shell rolled past him half a meter away, and the water it stirred up made him sway.

It's quite powerful.

Before the armored turtle could turn around, he circled around to the side and rear, and thrust his long sword into the gap at the edge of the shell.

Crunch!

The tip of the knife squeezed into the articular cartilage, penetrating three inches into the flesh.

The armored tortoise, in pain, flailed its limbs wildly, stirring up the mud and sand on the seabed.

Lin Ran gripped the hilt of the knife tightly, refusing to let go, while his other hand formed a hand seal, and a compressed fireball condensed in his palm.

While you can't throw fireballs into the water, hitting them at close range is a different story.

Bang!

He shoved the fireball into the crack in the shell. A muffled thud came from inside the shell. The armored turtle's limbs stiffened for a moment, then slowly went limp.

When Lin Ran unearthed the crystal core, he found that it was a size larger than the previous ones, with fine patterns on its surface, and its spiritual energy fluctuations were close to those of a fourth-order crystal core.

"This is a pleasant surprise."

He continued searching along the edge of the reef area and encountered several more red snails.

These snails with red markings on their shells aren't very aggressive; it's just that their shells are so hard that it takes a lot of effort to break each one open.

Once he had the thirty-seventh Tier 3 crystal core, he stopped on a reef and weighed his backpack.

"That's enough for tonight. Should we go back now, or try our luck again?"

The moment this thought crossed his mind, a familiar fluctuation of spiritual energy came from the southeast and was rapidly approaching.

Lin Ran turned his head.

In the deep blue sea, a huge black shadow is approaching.

Eight tentacles tumbled in the water, their inner suckers opening and closing, gleaming eerily in the darkness.

It's that giant octopus from before.

"I didn't expect this guy to hold a grudge." Lin Ran tightened the backpack strap on his shoulder.

A seventh-tier mutated beast is simply beyond his current capabilities to handle.

Before the giant octopus could get close, he raised his hand and made a hand seal, sinking his body into the reef beneath his feet.

The surrounding mud and sand churned, and Lin Ran's figure had already disappeared from the spot.

The giant octopus's tentacles slammed onto the rock where he had just been standing.

boom!

The reef broke into several pieces, and the pebbles tumbled in the current.

Eight tentacles pounded the seabed frantically, churning up mud and sand, and causing small mutated beasts to scatter and flee.

The giant octopus swam around the area twice before finally leaving, unwilling to go.

Lin Ran emerged from the rock formations two kilometers from the coast and slowly surfaced.

The night is dark.

It was already past midnight when he scaled the wall and entered the Lin family villa.

Back in the room, I put the backpack on the bedside, took out the crystal core inside, and began to set up the spirit-gathering array.

There was a sudden noise outside the door.

Clang!

Then, a scream came from next door.

"what!"

Lin Ran stopped what he was doing, opened the door, and looked outside.

At the same time, Lin Zhiyao peeked out from the doorway next door.

Her hair was wet and clung to her cheeks, and she was wrapped in a bath towel, looking around.

The moment she saw Lin Ran, her expression changed from surprise and suspicion to indignation: "Lin Ran, I'm your sister! How dare you peep at me while I'm showering!"

Lin Ran leaned against the doorframe, looking puzzled. "Don't you want to listen to what you're saying?"

"Still not admitting it? I clearly saw a figure standing at my bathroom door while I was showering, and when I came out, I saw you!"

Lin Zhiyao grew angrier as she spoke, as if Lin Ran had truly done something that would incur divine and public wrath.

Hearing her say that, Lin Ran had already guessed the whole story.

The other party made noise at his door and deliberately appeared at Lin Zhiyao's bathroom door.

As soon as he opened the door, Lin Zhiyao opened hers too; the timing was perfect.

If the charge of peeping at his older sister while she was bathing is proven true, Lin Ran will most likely be unable to stay in the Lin family any longer.

At the very least, I can't live under the same roof as the three Lin sisters.

Moreover, the charge sounds so vile that it would be enough to drive any normal person crazy if it got out.

If nothing is unexpected, this is Lin Haozhe's doing again.

After the Liu Xiulan incident, things quieted down for a while, but now they're testing the waters again.

Although Lin Ran didn't feel a strong sense of belonging to the Lin family, he couldn't allow Lin Haozhe to slander him.

He knew what was going on, but remained outwardly calm: "So, you don't close the door when you shower?"

"How could that be!" Lin Zhiyao's anger didn't subside. "Who would leave the shower door open?"

"That's hard to say. But none of that matters."

Lin Ran shrugged: "Since you closed the door, how could anyone peep at you while you shower? Does the person peeping have X-ray vision?"

The clumsy attempt to frame someone was easily exposed.

Lin Zhiyao opened her mouth, then hesitated for a moment before saying, "You can't come to my room in the middle of the night!"

Lin Ran had experienced Lin Zhiyao's thought process many times before and was already used to it.

He simply gave a playful smile: "How can you be sure it's me?"

"I noticed something was wrong, so I immediately wrapped myself in a towel and came out, and then I saw you standing at the door."

Lin Zhiyao became more and more convinced that her logic was sound: "What are you doing out here in the middle of the night instead of sleeping in your room?"

"I just heard someone scream, so I came out to check," Lin Ran said matter-of-factly. "Isn't that normal?"

"How do I know if what you're saying is true?" Lin Zhiyao persisted.

Lin Ran glanced at her, looking down from her hair to her ankles wrapped in a bath towel.

"The reason is actually very simple: even if we are not related by blood, I would not be interested in a bean sprout."

Lin Zhiyao was stunned for a moment, looked down at her toes, and her face instantly flushed.

"Who are you calling a bean sprout?!"

"I'm just giving you a piece of advice, eat more papaya, maybe it's not too late," Lin Ran said earnestly.

"Aaaaah!" Lin Zhiyao's voice rose several octaves: "You bastard Lin Ran! I'll fight you to the death!"

As she spoke, she was about to rush towards Lin Ran.