Judging solely by their overall appearance, they were ugly and ferocious. They looked more like sirens than mermaids.
Each insect ship had one of these sirens, and perhaps the insect ships were controlled by them.
The sirens, possibly seeing that Law was unaffected by the screech, slowly closed their ugly mouths. Their pupil-less white eyes coldly stared at Law, as if looking at fish on a chopping block.
The insect ships moved, quickly at that. Their loose formation shifted, impressively forming an encirclement.
Suddenly, the fluid attacks resumed, this time coming from all directions like blooming fireworks.
Law took a deep breath, unleashed his full Aura, and deployed his Domain in all directions, halting all the fluid projectiles half a meter away from him.
Within seconds, he was enveloped in a sphere of fluid with various effects. The insect ships seemed to have ample ammunition, showing no signs of stopping anytime soon.
"Ten seconds left."
Law, trapped in the dark, enclosed space, silently counted down the duration of the fluid assault.
From several encounters, he knew that the soft-bodied insects capable of spraying fluid needed to pause for about ten seconds every half minute before they could continue.
Ten seconds later, the fluid attacks gradually slowed.
Law opened the sphere of fluid, scattering it and remotely directing it back toward the surrounding insect ships.
The gray fluid solidified into stone, crashing onto the squirming insect colonies, splattering body fluids everywhere. The green fluid acted like strong sulfuric acid, corroding large areas and emitting wisps of white smoke...
The fluids, with their different effects, fell back, indeed causing significant damage to the insect ships, though not fatal.
After dispersing all the fluid, Law stepped forward, shooting like an arrow toward the nearest insect ship.
Like a god descending, he landed on the deck with a single step. His compressed Aura erupted, crushing the insect colony beneath his foot into fragments that flew in all directions.
Law stabilized his stance, shifted his footing, and charged straight toward the siren.
Sizzle!
The siren coldly stared at Law. The insect colony around it boiled like water, detaching from their positions and forming a wave that surged toward Law.
Law looked up at the insect tide blocking the siren and muttered softly.
"Baton!"
A ring of Aura whistled through the air, parting the insect colony like a stream of water, clearing a path and revealing the siren's figure.
[Instant]
Law abruptly withdrew the Nen Ring, unleashing Aura around his body. In a flash, he appeared before the siren just as the insect tide behind him closed back in.
Seeing the alien creature right before it, the siren's white eyes flickered with a ripple. It opened its mouth full of sharp teeth, about to screech, but was cut off abruptly.
Law directly punched off the sorem's head.
The headless body slumped to the ground, and the constantly squirming anemone-like lower body gradually stilled. Every part of its body faded in color, turning grayish-white, seemingly symbolizing the loss of life.
The endlessly surging insect colony on the ship paused for a moment before suddenly scattering, falling into the sea like dumplings dropping into water.
Within moments, only Law, the siren, and the corpses of some sea insects remained on the ship.
Boom...
Without the sea insect colony to support it, the ship slowly began to sink.
"So that's how it is. This is the mother body, and also the weak point."
Law glanced at the discolored siren's corpse. Now that he knew the weak point, dealing with the rest would be much easier.
The ship was sinking, but Law didn't leave immediately. He curled his fingers together and plunged them into the siren's heart, digging out a blue diamond-shaped crystal adorned with fine, pale red tendrils.
The tendrils, upon touching Law's palm, raised their ends as if trying to pierce his skin.
With a slight thought, Law crushed the tendrils entwined around the crystal.
The reason why he knows that there is a crystal in the heart of the siren's corpse is all because of the clue given by the White Smoke Font.
If the tendrils on the crystal weren't removed, the siren would only be in a suspended animation state. Once it absorbed enough flesh and blood, it could revive someday.
Law stored the crystal and ascended into the air, heading toward the other insect ships. Using the same method, he killed each siren one by one. Each time a siren died, the countless sea insects attached to the ship would scatter, saving Law from wasting Aura.
Half an hour later, all thirteen insect ships had been sunk by Law.
Law safely returned to the Lawlie, bringing back thirteen blue diamond-shaped crystals.
Tonpa had witnessed Law's rampage firsthand and was staring as if he'd seen a ghost. Although he knew Law's strength was terrifying, seeing him single-handedly destroy thirteen bizarre insect ships left an ultra-visual impact on him.
"What are these?"
With the crisis resolved, Biscuit crouched beside the diamond-shaped crystals, her eyes sparkling brilliantly.
The crystals shimmered with a blue glow, as if liquid were flowing inside, resembling precious gemstones.
"These are Life Crystals, and they're also the hearts of those insect ship's mother bodies." Law picked up one crystal, rubbing it gently with his thumb. It felt smooth.
"I want one."
Biscuit didn't care whether it was a heart or not. She unceremoniously took the largest Life Crystal from the pile and began playing with it delightedly.
In her opinion, 'gemstone' was a more fitting name for the Life Crystal.
The thirteen Life Crystals had identical structures but varied in size. The largest was about the size of a fist, while the smallest was roughly the size of a tennis ball.
Tonpa watched from the side, wanting one but not daring to speak up.
Just then, Kuro, having heard the news, sneakily scurried over. He swept past the pile of Life Crystals, swiftly swallowing seven or eight of them in the blink of an eye, then landed not far away, warily watching Law.
Law had noticed Kuro's actions early on but didn't stop him.
"Tasty?"
Law looked at Kuro and asked with a smile.
Kuro's eyes flickered, sensing something off about Law's reaction, but he honestly replied, "A bit fishy, but there's a strong life force."
"Hmm, this thing is rich in life force. It can make soil fertile, not only significantly shortening plant growth time but also greatly improving quality. Simply put, it's like fertilizer."
Law stroked his chin and said seriously, "I thought about it, and it doesn't seem very useful. You can have the rest as feed."
"You mean... fertilizer?"
Kuro's face stiffened.
"Yep."
Law nodded earnestly.
Kuro slowly opened his mouth, and the Life Crystals clattered out one by one.
He had swallowed eight but now spat out seven, meaning he had already digested one.
"I was just making a comparison." The corners of Law's mouth lifted slightly. The uses of the Life Crystal went far beyond making soil fertile, as it had other applications. Its advantage, as Kuro had mentioned, was its rich life force.
Kuro had lost his appetite, mainly because the taste was indeed a bit fishy. He glared fiercely at Law before returning to the cabin to steer.
Law smiled and gathered the remaining eleven Life Crystals.
'The creatures encountered in the Dark Sea seemed to share a common trait, which is abundant life force.'
'Netero had said that the creatures on the Dark Continent were immensely large, implying that they had long lifespans and extremely strong life force continuity to grow to such sizes.'
'Thinking deeper, the principle of 'extremes meet' didn't seem to apply to the Dark Continent's environment. That place had extremely unique peculiarities. There, creatures seemed to walk in a corridor without end, able to grow continuously.'
'It was impossible to determine what the initial form of the Dark Continent was. Perhaps the Dark Continent possessed characteristics similar to a Möbius strip.'
The Lawlie continued forward, venturing into the unknown veil.