Chapter 621 - 618: Feather in the Water

Chapter 621: Chapter 618: Feather in the Water

"They’re flying toward the sea. If they can swim and enter through the underwater cave opening, we’ll be trapped. Go now, just in case."

"Okay."

Mo Ling also realized the gravity of the situation. The battle was changing by the moment. Without hesitation, he flew immediately toward the depths of the cavern.

Soon, Mo Ling found the Great Clan Leader and told it of the survivor’s concerns.

The Great Clan Leader took this very seriously, immediately sending Mo Ling and a group of ear flies to the underwater cave opening below.

Navigating the winding cavern passages, the ear flies soon arrived at the part of the cavern submerged in seawater.

The ear flies couldn’t swim. The most they could do was stand guard here.

The seawater rose and fell, lapping against the rock walls. All around was a profound silence. This was the deepest part of the cavern; the sounds of the distant slaughter were no longer audible.

"I don’t think I can hear the sound of the Feeding Birds of Prey flapping their wings anymore. Did they really fly this way?"

"I remember the underwater cave openings are all very deep. Would the Feeding Birds of Prey really dive that deep just to get around us? Are they that smart?"

The ear flies present were all a bit skeptical, but none dared to let their guard down. They all listened intently to the sounds beneath the water’s surface.

"GLUG... GLUG..."

Occasionally, a few bubbles would break the surface. The seawater itself was full of miscellaneous noises, and its rising and falling also caused strange echoes in the cavern.

At this moment, the ear flies couldn’t make out what was in the depths of the sea at all.

Mo Ling pressed himself quietly against the rock wall, listening carefully.

Seawater moving through crevices made a muffled slapping sound... A fish turned, gently disturbing the current. A seashell opened and closed, tapping constantly... A loose fragment broke off a corroded rock, drifting aimlessly along the rock face with the surging flow.

"CLICK, CLACK..."

Mo Ling’s consciousness seemed to follow the direction of the sounds, traveling ever deeper.

He became completely immersed in that unceasing world of sound.

Sound comes from vibration, and the vibrations of all things are interconnected. The vibration of the rock wall came from the vibration of the seawater, and the vibration of the seawater came from the things within it. When these vibrations were stripped away and analyzed one by one, the exact state of their sources was laid bare.

A tangible world appeared in Mo Ling’s mind.

This was the world of sound, composed of everything he heard.

It was noisy, yet incomparably orderly.

In that instant, Mo Ling understood what the survivor had told him.

’The world... is meant to be noisy.’

Or rather, it is this noisiness that makes up the world. The world cannot be described by a single sound. The arbitrary vibrations of all things, a hundred flowers blooming and a hundred schools of thought contending—that is the very foundation of the world.

Just then, Mo Ling noticed an unfamiliar sound.

It was completely different from any sound he had heard before. It was a very strange sound of flowing water, extremely faint, as if a light, fluffy feather were floating in the sea. Not only that, but the sound was already very close to the surface.

’This is bad! That’s a Feeding Bird of Prey.’

Mo Ling’s heart leaped into his throat.

"They’re here, right below us!" he immediately warned his companions.

However, before his companions could react, a clump of feathers surfaced. Water slid over the feathers’ surface without wetting them in the slightest, as if they were coated in a strange oil that repelled moisture.

After emerging from the water, the clump of feathers began to tremble.

Enormous wings suddenly unfurled. The sound of them spreading stunned the present ear flies into a momentary paralysis.

"It’s a Feeding Bird of Prey! Quick, mimic its call!"

A series of shrill bird calls traveled down the cavern toward the water’s surface.

But after hearing the calls, the giant Feeding Bird of Prey showed no reaction at all. It simply flapped its wings and flew straight up.

"What’s happening? Did the call fail?"

"No! It’s not that the call failed, it’s that it can’t hear the call at all!"

The ear flies’ echoes reverberated through the cavern, and only then did they belatedly realize that this Feeding Bird of Prey, which had emerged from the water, seemed completely unable to hear sound.

From the water, several more clumps of feathers surfaced. A few more Feeding Birds of Prey spread their wings and flew upward.

Refusing to believe it, the ear flies cried out again, but these new Feeding Birds of Prey were exactly like the first, showing no reaction to the bird calls.

"Have they seen through our mimicry?" The ear flies instantly panicked. Mimicking the calls of the Feeding Birds of Prey was their only defense. Once the calls were ineffective, they would be fish on a chopping block.

The Feeding Birds of Prey passed through the narrow cavern passage and immediately located the hiding places of the ear flies. At the same time, many more feathers surfaced on the sea. It seemed the Feeding Birds of Prey had confirmed the location of the underwater opening and were now swarming in.

"Run!"

"We can’t run! We have to stop them!"

"They can’t hear the calls! How are we supposed to stop them?"

As the ear flies argued, the first Feeding Bird of Prey lunged forward. Its sharp beak crushed the rock wall, and it swallowed the ear fly hiding within.

The Feeding Birds of Prey weren’t about to wait for their prey to finish a discussion. Their hunting was highly efficient, and they immediately began the slaughter.

"Run! Run!" Some ear flies were so frightened they fled from the crevices in the rock.

But these fleeing ear flies just became targets. The Feeding Birds of Prey behind them swarmed forward, instantly devouring these self-delivered snacks.

The remaining ear flies no longer dared to make a rash move. If they wanted to escape, they would have to return to the wide main passage, but there was no outrunning the vicious Feeding Birds of Prey there. They could only inch along within the narrow rock walls, trying to find a way into other passages.

Mo Ling was completely stunned, his mind filled with questions.

’Why did the bird calls fail?’

’Why aren’t these Feeding Birds of Prey reacting to sound at all?’

Suppressing the fear in his heart, Mo Ling hid in a rock crevice and listened carefully. He wanted to find the reason why these Feeding Birds of Prey were immune to the bird calls.

Flapping their wings frantically, this group of Feeding Birds of Prey seemed unusually agitated.

’Is it because they were circling in the air for too long?’

That didn’t seem to be it. They were constantly shaking and bobbing their heads, and they kept scratching their skulls with their claws, completely unconcerned even when they drew blood.

Moreover, Mo Ling noticed that the bodies of these Feeding Birds of Prey were swaying unsteadily, and sometimes their movements would even freeze abruptly.

’What are they doing?’

This flock of Feeding Birds of Prey seemed to be enduring some kind of pain, which also made them extremely violent.

Their current slaughter of the ear flies and destruction of the rock walls seemed to be just a way to alleviate their own suffering...

’What is the reason?’

Mo Ling searched continuously amidst the cacophony of sounds. The surrounding vibrations gradually formed a tangible picture in his mind:

The head-shaking, head-bobbing Feeding Birds of Prey.

The blood on the sides of their skulls.

Their swaying bodies.

The sharp claws, scratching ceaselessly...

’The place those claws are scratching... it’s the ear canals of the Feeding Birds of Prey!’

’They’re deliberately destroying their own hearing?’ Mo Ling could hardly believe it.

’Could it be that they’ve seen through the ear flies’ method of attack and found a countermeasure? Are they really that intelligent?’

’No! That’s not right.’ Mo Ling immediately connected this to the way they had entered the cavern, and suddenly, he understood.

’It was the water pressure! It destroyed their hearing!’