The ten-meter-high water column slowly dissipated, and then Xia Qiu continued to inhale air, storing it in his lungs.
This dark shadow that spewed the water column was Xia Qiu.
Strictly speaking, what he spewed was not a water column, but waste gas after breathing. This stream of air, after being ejected from the nostrils on top of his head, carried the surrounding seawater, forming a water column.
The reason he could breathe was that Xia Qiu's body structure had changed again.
He had grown lungs, and two nostrils had appeared on the back of his head, near the ramming horn.
Growing lungs was not something that happened overnight.
The evolution could be traced back about four years, to when he hunted dolphins. Since then, he had hunted dolphins many times, then blue whales, and then Fish-Men.
Ordinary Fish-Men had more Reinforcement Energy and less Evolution Energy, but they didn't have none, especially strong ones like Arlong, Kuroobi, and Chuu. Not to mention that he himself had also eaten a large number of Fish-Men.
The evolution information that was relatively abundant was probably for the lungs.
Combined with his previous hunting of marine mammals, he had grown lungs.
Xia Qiu could breathe on the surface of the water, absorb oxygen, store it in his lungs, and then dive to the seabed.
A single dive could last up to twenty minutes.
Being able to breathe with lungs meant that Xia Qiu was evolving towards marine mammals.
Viviparous reproduction, lung respiration, and constant body temperature.
Xia Qiu couldn't confirm the viviparous reproduction part, because the difference between viviparous and oviparous is that the former is when the fertilized egg develops inside a mother's uterus, while the latter is when the fertilized egg develops independently outside the mother.
Xia Qiu could feel that he had a penis, but he couldn't determine the method of reproduction.
However, Xia Qiu could achieve both lung respiration and constant body temperature.
But Xia Qiu couldn't be considered a mammal because he hadn't degenerated his gills.
He could not only breathe through his nostrils but also suck water through his mouth and filter it with his gills to absorb dissolved oxygen in the water.
This gave Xia Qiu two ways of breathing.
But unlike traditional amphibians, most amphibians use gills to breathe in water when they are young, and then use lungs and skin to breathe when they grow up.
Xia Qiu, on the other hand, breathed with both gills and lungs simultaneously.
Xia Qiu guessed that this was related to Fish-Men. Fish-Men had both gills and lungs, allowing them to switch freely between water and land.
This meant he could leave the water.
If he only had gills, he would not be able to be exposed to the air for a long time. Due to the structure of fish gills, when they leave the water, the gill filaments and gill lamellae stick together, greatly reducing the breathing surface area and making it impossible to supply enough oxygen.
However, gills can breathe in the air, but there is too little oxygen. As time goes by, when exposed to the air, the gill filaments dry out, water vapor evaporates, causing the gill structure to be destroyed, and then they will completely lose their ability to breathe and die.
But he was different. When exposed above water, he could switch breathing methods and didn't need to open his gill covers, exposing himself to the air and causing his gills to be destroyed, making them unusable even in water.
Just like Fish-Men, he could also switch.
So, if he grew limbs, perhaps he could go ashore.
Maybe he could try.
Xia Qiu thought, and slowly dived into the water, oriented himself, and swam towards the distance, Moo Moo following closely behind.
In these three months, Moo Moo had become Xia Qiu's follower.
As long as he followed Xia Qiu, he didn't have to worry about stronger sea fish appearing, and he also got to eat meat. Why wouldn't he?
Conversely, if he tried to escape, he would be severely beaten by it.
So Moo Moo accepted this reality, recognized Xia Qiu as its boss, and followed him to sail in this sea area.
Xia Qiu led him swimming into the distance, constantly searching for something.
After swimming for a while, Xia Qiu's sonar detected a behemoth appearing on the water surface.
It was a ship.
It was in the northwest direction, about three thousand meters away.
Hopefully, it was a pirate ship.
Xia Qiu rushed towards the target, with Moo Moo closely following.
Xia Qiu approached within a hundred meters of the sea ship, slowly surfaced, and looked at the sea ship.
He saw a ship about forty meters long appearing before him, and on the ship, there was a pirate flag with fangs.
Was it a pirate ship?
Xia Qiu's eyes lit up, and he charged towards the warship.
His huge body, carrying immense power, directly rammed into the pirate ship.
Crack.
The ship's keel broke, a crack appeared in its hull, and it slowly began to sink.
Plop, plop.
One pirate after another jumped into the sea.
Xia Qiu didn't attack; he waited quietly.
As the pirates in the ship began to swim and gather, Xia Qiu made sure there were no pirates left on the ship.
Then Xia Qiu began his attack.
"No, no."
A pirate, looking at Xia Qiu's massive mouth, cried out in terror for help, but it was useless.
Snap.
Xia Qiu crushed him and swallowed him whole.
He then continued his pursuit, killing and eating pirate after pirate.
Moo Moo waited on the side, knowing his boss wouldn't let him eat people and that he'd only get beaten if he went over.
In a short while, all twelve pirates had become Xia Qiu's meal.
But Xia Qiu's eyes were filled with disappointment.
Too few. The Reinforcement Energy provided by these pirates was too little.
All the pirates combined only provided as much Reinforcement Energy as Colonel Lido.
Compared to Xia Qiu's current massive size and physical strength, such a heat flow was so scarce that he couldn't feel any qualitative change.
And it was too troublesome. He had attacked four pirate ships this month, eating the people from four ships.
But these were chosen from over a hundred ships. They surfaced again and again, only to bring disappointment.
The wasted stamina was more than the pirates he had eaten.
The East Blue wasn't without powerful pirates. The Black Cat Pirates and the Krieg Pirates, while not comparable to the Arlong Pirates, could still provide some Reinforcement Energy.
But the East Blue was so vast, where would he find them?
Eating the other pirates was as good as eating nothing.
Even eating the Black Cat Pirates and the Krieg Pirates would only yield somewhat satisfactory Reinforcement Energy.
Attack the Marines?
The strongest Commodore or Captain in the East Blue branch of the Marines could be dealt with when he was fifteen meters long.
No value.
This made Xia Qiu very dissatisfied. At the same time, a certain thought in his mind grew stronger.
Was it time to go to the Grand Line?
In Xia Qiu's heart, the desire for exploration and the thought of becoming stronger, for the first time, surpassed his fear of the Grand Line.
...
"Is this the Grand Line?"
At Reverse Mountain, a pirate ship from the West Blue flipped over Reverse Mountain and rushed down the waterway.
Bang.
The pirate ship landed heavily on the sea, slowly stabilizing, but fine cracks appeared all over its hull.
"We've finally reached the Grand Line, hahaha, let's conquer it!" On the deck, a pirate wearing a captain's hat stood up and shouted loudly, "We'll start from here and make the Black Horn Pirates famous throughout the world."
"Roar, roar, roar." The other pirates shouted loudly.
At the stern of the ship, a hooded figure saw this, shook his head, and said softly, "You won't be able to survive on this route with just yourselves."
"I will help you reach the next town, and then I will leave you."
"It's time to find the next partner."
The owner of the figure slowly walked back into the cabin and closed the door.
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Translation by: randomtranslator.com
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