Chapter 101: Breaking the Deadlock! The Devil Starfish! [4,200 Words—Please Subscribe!]

“A lake this vast on the map!”
“Is it possible that instead of taking the land route, they’re using a waterway?”
Suddenly, Lin Qiye’s eyes lit up with a flash of inspiration.
“If beneath Emerald Lake there lurk aquatic beasts or dark demons capable of digging underwater tunnels... then the secret passage at the lake’s bottom would be the most concealed!”
“Although underwater operations are extremely difficult, given the cunning of the Mind-Stealing Spore Demon, it would definitely operate beneath the water. Not only does this maintain a high level of secrecy, but it also uses the sewers as a cover, making humans waste their efforts searching there!”
“For example, right now, human demon-hunting teams have been scouring the sewer system for two weeks with no results, buying precious time for the Mind-Stealing Spore Demon!”
Lin Qiye suddenly understood.
He had grasped a fleeting breakthrough.
“Emerald Lake covers eight hundred acres, with a maximum depth of 80 meters. It’s a natural lake, free from demons and beasts for many years. Plus, humans maintain extremely strict hydrological monitoring—silently digging underwater tunnels would be nearly impossible.”
“There must be traces left behind.”
Lin Qiye’s gaze burned with conviction, his thoughts flowing smoothly.
He immediately accessed the recent hydrological records of Jiang City.
Sure enough.
He discovered something unusual.
“Ten years ago, even five years ago, during heavy rains, the lake’s water level would rise about three meters. But in the past three years, the fluctuation has been only 10 centimeters during storms...”
“A year ago, the data suggests the water level should have risen five meters during a storm, but it only rose 10 centimeters.”
“There’s a problem, definitely a problem. If aquatic beasts are digging tunnels beneath, they would likely work during storms, using the heavy rain to mask underwater disturbances.”
Lin Qiye smiled slightly.
A basic hypothesis formed in his mind.
“So, what kind of aquatic beast is working underwater?”
Few beasts possess the ability to carve underwater passages.
Lin Qiye opened news reports from three years ago.
He browsed through them one by one.
Among the complex information, he noticed a particular report:
“An unknown collapse occurred at a limestone mine outside Jiang City. Death toll: sixty; seriously injured: twenty-one.”
The investigation revealed that an unknown creature devoured the limestone beneath the mine, causing a sudden collapse during excavation.
Due to the fall from over two hundred meters, sixty-four miners died instantly.
The demon-hunting team concluded that an unknown demon caused the disaster.
“This mining accident must be connected to the creatures beneath Emerald Lake. The mine is 226 meters high, 300 meters wide, and 600 meters long. To devour so much limestone, it must be constructing a passage.”
“Then... what beast requires calcium carbonate for growth?”
During this period, Lin Qiye studied intensely.
Finally, progress came.
Images of several demons appeared in his mind.
“Could it be coral demons? Some hard-bodied coral demons require calcium carbonate to build their skeletons.”
“Under the Mind-Stealing Spore Demon’s control, coral demons could indeed cooperate to build tunnels. They might even create an elevator-like passage.”
“Perhaps the Azure-Winged Wolf King entered Jiang City silently through such a passage!”
Muttering to himself, Lin Qiye made a daring conjecture.
Though merely speculation, his intuition told him the truth was near.
Beneath Emerald Lake, a group of coral demons must be excavating tunnels.
How they entered the lake or how they dig the tunnels remained unknown to him.
But those details were no longer crucial.
What mattered was that Lin Qiye devised a precise countermeasure.
“If coral demons are digging tunnels below, dealing with them is simple. Coral demons hardly move and aren’t strong. It would be easy to eliminate them.”
Lin Qiye smiled faintly, lazily stretching.
Then, holding a copy of “One Hundred Thousand Whys,” he left the room.
In the living room, Gu’s parents and Uncle Zhao’s seven-person team sat around a map of Jiang City, pointing and discussing, searching for breakthroughs.
At this moment, Gu’s father pointed at Emerald Lake.
“Two weeks of work have ruled out the sewers for now.”
“Besides the sewers, there’s only Emerald Lake. Could the demons have entered Jiang City from the lake’s bottom?”
Upon hearing this, Captain Zhao shook his head.
“Digging tunnels under a lake? Isn’t that too difficult? Besides the risk of water seepage, the lakebed sediments are unstable and prone to collapse...”
“With so many unfavorable factors, digging a tunnel large enough for the Azure-Winged Wolf King would surely create disturbances detectable by Awakened Ones, right?”
“But the Awakened Ones checked the lakebed and found nothing abnormal, didn’t they?”
“I don’t believe the tunnel is under the lake.”
Uncle Xiong also shook his head.
“What aquatic beast could handle such an engineering feat? Sea crabs or other burrowing demons? I don’t think any similar creatures exist.”
Opposite Uncle Xiong, Uncle Li used a portable computer to pull up a series of data.
After careful examination, he looked up.
“A year ago, the Jiang City demon-hunting team investigated the lakebed and found nothing unusual. The lakebed terrain hasn’t changed much, and aquatic life is normal. So it’s probably not a lakebed issue.”
Hearing this, Lin Qiye shook his head slightly.
It seemed he had to play detective like Conan.
Unfortunately, lacking a knockout needle, Lin Qiye stepped forward with a stern expression.
“It must be under the lake.”
His sudden interjection cut through the discussion.
Everyone turned in surprise to look at the serious young master.
“What are you talking about, Young Master Shao?”
“Are you addressing us?”
“Yes. My point is that the tunnel must be under the lake. You should search for hydrological changes in Emerald Lake over the past three and ten years. Once you see the water data, you’ll understand.”
Upon hearing this, Uncle Li immediately accessed hydrological data.
But after some time, the group remained perplexed.
“Any clues?”
“I don’t see anything special...”
Aunt Zhou, the healer, furrowed her brows, unable to decipher any hidden secrets in the data.
Only Gu’s parents seemed to catch a hint, though not fully grasping it.
Lin Qiye remained silent.
“Don’t you really see anything unusual? Ten years ago, even five years ago, heavy rains in Jiang City would raise Emerald Lake’s water level by three to four meters.”
“But in the past three years, it has only risen 10 centimeters during storms.”
“What could cause such stable water levels?”
Uncle Zhao asked, “Doesn’t that mean Emerald Lake’s flood storage has improved?”
Lin Qiye shook his head.
“No. Even larger lakes experience surges during floods.”
“The lake’s water rise is too precise—there must be a reason.”
He opened “One Hundred Thousand Whys” to the page on pipe coral.
“Pipe coral prefers stable environments and forms isolated ‘lakes’ within reefs to block tides. When water levels rise too high, they adjust depth through pipes.”
“See the characteristic of pipe coral? Could a cluster of pipe coral be gathered at the lakebed of Emerald Lake? After all, only they would obsessively regulate water levels.”
Lin Qiye’s analysis was logical and well-founded.
It left the seven Awakened Ones dumbfounded.
They exchanged glances, pondering his words.
“Young Master Shao’s analysis... seems very reasonable!”
“Emerald Lake has always controlled floodwaters, but never was the water rise only 10 centimeters during storms. It used to be several meters!”
“But for the past three years, it’s only been 10 centimeters. That’s too coincidental—dozens of storms all with the same minimal rise can’t be mere coincidence.”
“Something’s fishy.”
“But... how could pipe coral demons adapt to freshwater?”
“Is it really pipe coral demons building tunnels under Emerald Lake?”
Confusion clouded their faces.
Though Lin Qiye enlightened them, many doubts remained.
Facing their skepticism, Lin Qiye spoke decisively:
“Search for the limestone mine disaster in the northern city from three years ago. See if you can connect the dots.”
Lin Qiye commanded like a seasoned strategist who had seen through everything.
Uncle Li didn’t treat Lin Qiye as a mere toddler but sincerely obeyed.
He immediately brought up that news report on his computer.
The group fell silent reading it.
“Removing so much limestone must be to accelerate pipe coral growth! There’s no other explanation!”
“Young Master Shao’s analysis is almost the truth!”
“Hiss—”
Realizing Lin Qiye’s logic, they all gasped.
“A Xuan, a Yan, your son has perfectly inherited your intelligence.”
“Even surpassing you—at just one and a half years old, he’s phenomenal and destined to be an S-rank Awakened!”
“Amazing!”
The group showered him with praise.
...
“But... Emerald Lake is 1,800 acres. Where would pipe coral hide? Even Yue-level demon-hunting teams couldn’t find it.”
Gu’s father raised a question.
Lin Qiye smiled lightly.
“That’s simple.”
“In nature, some animals can predict earthquakes before humans.”
“If we can’t find where the pipe coral hides, why not let their natural predators find them?”
“To my knowledge, the Devil Starfish Demon is the natural enemy of pipe coral. One starfish can consume one cubic meter of coral per day.”
“Release a thousand Devil Starfish Demons into Emerald Lake, and they will surely find the pipe coral and destroy the tunnels.”
Lin Qiye said confidently.
He had already calculated that the Mind-Stealing Spore Demon waited three months to act because it couldn’t seize the opportunity immediately.
Otherwise, why not simply devour Jiang City outright?
Therefore, releasing Devil Starfish Demons would definitely destroy the tunnels!
Hearing Lin Qiye’s plan, Uncle Zhao, Uncle Xiong, Uncle Li, Gu’s parents, Aunt Wang, and Aunt Zhou’s eyes all gleamed with surprise.
There was no denying that Young Master Shao was a prodigy.
His words were worth listening to!
So, Uncle Zhao immediately ordered three thousand Devil Starfish Demons.
Clearly, Lin Qiye’s reasoning had won over Captain Zhao.
...
The next day, three thousand Devil Starfish Demons were transported near Emerald Lake.
Uncle Zhao’s group reported to Jiang City’s military commander, then released all the starfish into the lake.
Among them, three hundred wore pinhole cameras.
The goal was to locate the pipe coral.
After fasting for a day, the starfish instinctively began hunting as soon as they entered the lake.
They keenly sensed the presence of pipe coral.
Thus, they swarmed the lakebed, crawling toward the pipe coral.
Two hours later, they found the hiding place and began ‘digging’ through the sediment.
Before long, they cleared an area, revealing the remains of pipe coral beneath the silt.
The remains formed a circle—clearly a tunnel!
“There really are pipe coral demons!”
The seven from the Shanhai Demon-Hunting Team were stunned.
Jiang City’s military commander and other demon-hunting groups also looked shocked.
The commander laughed heartily.
“As expected of the Shanhai team, known for their intelligence. I never imagined you’d be this brilliant!”
“Excellent! To find a tunnel that a hundred demon-hunting teams searched for two weeks in just hours, I’ll give you a special reward!”
Seeing the secret tunnel beneath Emerald Lake filled the commander with both fear and relief.
Fear that a mysterious passage had formed beneath the city unnoticed.
Relief that the Shanhai team’s intellect had destroyed it.
On the camera feed, the starfish excitedly devoured the pipe coral remains.
Within ten minutes, all three thousand starfish disappeared beneath the lakebed...
One starfish consumes one cubic meter of coral per day; three thousand consume three thousand cubic meters daily.
Meaning, even with a tunnel diameter of three meters, three thousand starfish could devour 800 meters of passage daily.
A day passed.
The Mind-Stealing Spore Demon seemed to be in seclusion.
It hadn’t detected any anomaly and allowed the starfish to ravage freely.
The starfish, ravenous, gnawed relentlessly forward.
One day.
Two days.
Three days...
Ten days...
Twenty days...
As the starfish ventured deeper, humans discovered the tunnel had extended over ten kilometers!
Silently connecting the outside and inside of the city through the lakebed and fifty meters underground.
The tunnel was even large enough for three-meter-tall demons to pass!
The only drawback was the pipe coral’s fragile structure.
However, iron-eating golden jellyfish demons were reinforcing the tunnel.
At their current pace, the tunnel would be sturdy enough for mass demon troop movement in a month!
Then, all tens of millions of Jiang City’s inhabitants would become hosts!
But at this moment, their plan was about to collapse.
The three thousand starving starfish devoured the hard work of the pipe coral, destroying the tunnel completely.
Lake water rushed into the passage, the pressure suffocating the demons inside.
Their corpses floated to the tunnel’s upper reaches.
After thirty days of feasting,
The Mind-Stealing Spore Demon’s piercing screams echoed through the lakebed...
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