Live Streaming: Great Adventure in the Wilderness

Bi Fang took a deep breath and plunged into the water.

The moment he entered the water, Bi Fang’s heart rate dropped from 60-70 beats per minute to 30-40, and his blood vessels contracted in response to the shock.

He could distinctly feel his blood leaving his limbs and flowing towards his heart, lungs, and brain.

This sensation was like being lost in a certain space where the direction of the water’s surface was indistinguishable, as if he himself were Armstrong stepping onto the moon.

Without the glow of a flashlight or the companionship of fellow divers, the ocean depths seemed even more pitch-black and silent.

Dark waters surrounded him on all sides, with no knowledge of what unknowns lurked within, as if wrapped in the solitude that comes with being on an alien planet.

This is why most underwater operations are conducted in pairs.

Solitude can drive a person mad.

As for the eternal solitude, Bi Fang had a relatively high tolerance for it, having experienced many solitary journeys in various kinds of wilderness.

Some say that saturation commercial divers have the loneliest job in the world.

Their job is simple: to install seabed oil drilling heads in the icy waters hundreds of meters deep.

In this pitch-black world, unreachable by sunlight, everything can only be seen with the aid of artificial lighting.

At such great depths, divers need an extremely complex and precise set of equipment to maintain life.

Attached to the diving suit is a hose less than the width of a wrist, connected to the diving bell, supplying breathing oxygen, the electric power needed for the expansion diving suit, and the communication line with the surface all through this hose.

It is known as the "umbilical."

But at this moment, Bi Fang had no "umbilical," no backup, with only the oxygen tank on his back and the sharp harpoon in his hand to aid him.

Bi Fang cautiously searched his way down the rock wall, unable to float alone in the water.

The Niu Gangjue fish were too fast, so fast that even if Bi Fang could anticipate them, the tremendous water resistance made it hard for him to evade in time, and he had to rely on the reactive force from the rock wall.

Ten meters, twenty meters, soon, Bi Fang arrived at the place where he first encountered the Niu Gangjue.

Bi Fang could clearly feel the increasing difficulty in his lungs’ effort to expand.

An invisible giant hand seemed to be trying to squeeze all the air out of Bi Fang, who resisted the urge to exhale and locked the oxygen tightly within his body.

Every act of respiration was a struggle against the invisible giant hand, a battle against the aquatic buffalo, and not a single detail could be neglected.

If it were someone else, they might have already been overwhelmed by fear, let alone pick up a weapon to fight.

All fear stems from the unknown.

When it comes to what is known, you either accept it or resist it.

It is only the unknown, especially the unknown that might harm oneself, that causes fear.

Don’t hold a heart of fear towards wild beasts; when you confront them, they are observing you. If you show fear, they will know you are vulnerable and will bite you from behind.

Beasts can smell your fear; the more afraid you are, the more excited they get.

The image of that professor who had once shared this wisdom with Bi Fang, which had served him ever since, reappeared in his mind; but at that time, the professor had also spoken other words, those of deeper contemplation.

What is fear?

Essentially, isn’t it a form of the unknown?

When a person feels fear, it is either because their thinking is not deep enough, so they fail to see through the nature of the thing that is causing their fear, or because they cannot maintain continuous and effective mental activity.

The process of seeing through the nature of things is also the process of turning the unknown into the known.

For the same thing, one might understand its essence at one moment, but when it comes time to practice, the level of mental activity drops. The thought process that saw through the nature of the thing does not maintain its effectiveness for long, resulting in a feeling of fear during the execution of the predetermined method.

There are two kinds of people who rarely feel fear: one is the fool and the other is the doer.

The fool’s mind is not cluttered with many thoughts, so they do not feel fear towards most things.

The doer bases their actions on themselves, they think and practice to the best of their ability; if there is an unknown, they strive to turn it into the known, immediately coming up with all possible countermeasures, thus they fear nothing.

The ones to fear the most are the ordinary people in between these two.

They possess a certain level of thinking capacity, yet struggle to think deeply and consistently. Where their thinking falls short, fear takes root.

Humans naturally fear the unknown; this may be an animal instinct, or there may be other deeper reasons, but this fear of the unknown severely blocks a person’s executive power, seriously hinders the accumulation of "confidence," and erodes the zeal for progressive thinking.

Therefore, there are also two methods to overcome fear.

The first is to increase the proportion of active thinking, even if the initial stage is painful.

The second, where active thinking has yet to form, is to create as clear an image as possible, possibly with the help of language and writing. For anything in the mind, at the very least, one must be able to make a clear description.

While saying this, the professor looked squarely at Bi Fang, who stood slightly immature in the forest, and swatted the venomous snake off the branch with his hand. Despite his old age and weakened strength, when the venomous snake bared its fangs, there was not a trace of fear in his eyes.

"I know the venom release mechanism of the venomous snake, I know its inner fears, I know what to do in case of poisoning, I know its behavioral habits, I know at which moment it will strike, what kind of attack it will launch, how to evade it, and I even clearly understand how each of its muscles exerts force," he said.

"So, don’t be afraid. There is no need to be afraid. If you are afraid, then it simply means you do not know enough," the professor said as he pinned the neck of the venomous snake and deftly extracted its venom.

"What should I do now?" Bi Fang asked.

"Go look, go learn, go practice, travel the world, understand everything," the professor answered.

When any unknown becomes known, fear vanishes without a trace, left only to seek refuge in another unknown.

Diligent people are often brave because they continuously do their utmost to understand everything around them, continuously turning the unknown into the known.

Bi Fang knew everything in the bay, the creatures that lived there, the terrain, the habits of the Niu Gangjue, its ways of attacking, its weaknesses.

At this time, Bi Fang felt no fear. He braced himself against the rock wall and sank again.

Within a fifteen-meter radius, Bi Fang could clearly sense everything: the little fish hiding in the crevices of the rock wall, the floating seaweed, the slowly moving crustaceans.

But that huge figure did not appear.

In the darkness, the Niu Gangjue had not gone far. It swam rapidly through the water, its flat body harboring explosively powerful bundles of muscle, the key to its reaching speeds of sixty kilometers per hour.

When it followed the oxygen tank, charging at the flashlight, and launched its attack, the Niu Gangjue’s small brain only then realized it had been deceived.

It swam quickly back to the area, but when the Niu Gangjue found its target again, it discovered that he was different than before.

It wasn’t about changing from two to one; rather, there was a sense of danger.

Animals, fighting daily, have honed a sense of crisis far greater than humans. At first glance, the Niu Gangjue’s battle-hardened consciousness issued a warning: what lay before it was not prey but a fierce beast.

On the other hand, its genetic instincts told it to charge, to ram; it was the undisputed ruler of the waters, feared by all creatures...

Once the impulse surfaced, it was difficult to contain.

The powerful caudal fin stirred the water, and the tremendous reactive force propelled the Niu Gangjue’s body as it suddenly charged at Bi Fang!

Here it comes!

Almost the instant the Niu Gangjue burst into the fifteen-meter range, Bi Fang immediately sensed its presence.

Fast, way too fast.

Sixty kilometers per hour meant the Niu Gangjue was moving at over sixteen-point-six meters per second—a fifteen-meter distance would take only 0.9 seconds!

A normal person’s reaction time hovers around 300 milliseconds, which starts to decline after the age of 30.

Athletes with specific training can reduce their reaction time to particular stimuli, like a starter’s pistol, to between 150-180 milliseconds. The scientific community currently recognizes the human limit of reaction speed to be 100 milliseconds.

In a running race, if the reaction to the starting pistol is less than 100ms, or 0.1s, it is judged as a false start!

Bi Fang’s reaction was quick, nearly on par with professional athletes, allowing him to keep his reaction time below 200 milliseconds—still, that left him only seven milliseconds to act!

Pinned against the rock wall, Bi Fang propelled himself sideways to dodge, with pebbles splashing everywhere.

The seabed’s rock wall was very loose, much like large pieces of stratified sandstone that would shatter on impact, stirring up a lot of silt and sand.

However, in the darkness, it hardly mattered whether there was much silt or not.

Bi Fang drifted to the side against the flow. In the sea, without solid ground for his legs to push off, Bi Fang twisted his waist. His core strength flowed through muscles and bones to his arms and finally channeled into the spear.

A tremendous thrust was applied to the spear, the sharp harpoon penetrating the water, forcing out a multitude of air bubbles and drawing a straight white line as it stabbed at the Niu Gangjue.

White waves, gray-black silt, bright red blood.

All buried in the pitch black of the ocean floor, unseen in this clear trichromatic display.

Having previously carried Mandy, his speed had decreased. Now, without that burden, and with Bi Fang’s skill and timing, the chance of missing was minuscule!

Bi Fang gripped the spear firmly with both hands, not spinning or twisting but swiftly pulling it out.

With its immense power, if the spear was not withdrawn in time and the Niu Gangjue started to struggle, Bi Fang might be unable to hold onto the spear, potentially even bending or breaking the shaft and injuring himself.

A splash of fresh blood followed the harpoon’s withdrawal, an unstoppable flow – the efficacious result of the harpoon’s blood groove.

In comparison, the Hundred-refined Steel that Bi Fang had forged in the wilderness paled into insignificance. Not only was it aesthetically inferior, but it also wasn’t resistant to corrosion. If it were tainted with blood, it needed to be swiftly cleaned, let alone being submerged in seawater.

The progress of human technology was no joke, and no ancient so-called "divine weapon" could compare to a modern industrialized tactical dagger.

With that one spear thrust, Bi Fang had almost pierced through the Niu Gangjue’s belly!

Having struck successfully, Bi Fang quickly left the scene. As expected, this vicious strike enraged the Niu Gangjue. Hitting the rock wall in its frenzy, it thrashed about, causing a large number of rocks to fall into the unfathomable ocean depths.

Without needing to gather much strength, it charged again towards Bi Fang.

Without the rock wall to push off from, the Niu Gangjue wasn’t just charging in a straight line. Bi Fang twisted his body, narrowly avoiding the strike, quickly moving closer to the wall.

Underwater, human swimming skills could never compare with those of fish, due to the absolute gap created by their physical structure!

This guy’s skull was incredibly hard; Bi Fang even doubted whether his harpoon could penetrate it. The strength and curvature of its head and back were formidable, and its head and belly were almost in a straight line. It possessed a linear explosive power that was hard for humans to imagine. Being hit directly would definitely not be pleasant.

A fractured rib was not out of the question. Bi Fang had to be extremely cautious. Facing off against the Niu Gangjue, he was like a matador in an arena fighting Spanish bulls.

Seizing the brief stagger in timing, Bi Fang pumped his lungs, exhaled the waste gases, took a fierce breath through the mouthpiece, and large bubbles filled with carbon dioxide floated upwards.

The Niu Gangjue, which had missed its target several times, was completely overtaken by rage. It traced a huge arc in the sea, coming at Bi Fang once more. The water parted on both sides of its streamlined body, making it resemble a massive underwater crossbow bolt.

Bi Fang pressed close to the rock wall, ready to repeat his previous tactic; suddenly, something unexpected happened.

Within the huge semi-circular perception circle, a large streamlined creature suddenly burst in!

Was it a second Niu Gangjue!?

There wasn’t enough time for him to think any further; Bi Fang subconsciously thought it was a Niu Gangjue that liked to hunt in packs. Without bothering to retaliate, he pushed against the rock wall and floated upwards; but in the very next moment, Bi Fang realized he had guessed wrong.

The creature that had burst in was heading straight for the round-headed Niu Gangjue!

Faster, and more ferocious!

The unsuspecting Niu Gangjue was knocked over by this sudden interloper, knocked off its original trajectory, and disappeared straight out of Bi Fang’s sensing circle.

What situation is this?

Were the Niu Gangjues fighting each other?

Bi Fang stopped moving, filled with confusion, and sensed again, discovering that the second streamlined creature’s body shape was completely different from the Niu Gangjue’s; it was longer, sleeker, and had an elongated snout, not a blunt one.

Such a familiar form...

A dolphin, was it actually a dolphin!?

Bi Fang’s eyes, hidden within the goggles, suddenly widened. Could it be that a dolphin had just saved him?

Yes, although dolphin hunting season hadn’t started, this didn’t mean dolphins hadn’t come around. These days, they had already been showing up around the bay in succession, just not yet in large groups.

The Niu Gangjue that was knocked aside adjusted its body and quickly regained its composure. Far from retreating, it began to fight with the dolphin that had entered the fray.

In Bi Fang’s perception, the two swift giants appeared and disappeared, their battle immensely fierce.

The dolphin, unlike Bi Fang’s active attack, was on the offensive, just like the Niu Gangjue!

Bi Fang was certain that Niu Gangjues were not on the dolphin’s diet. This dolphin was helping him!

Can dolphins save people?

If someone asked him this question, Bi Fang would not hesitate to give an affirmative answer.

Yes!

And it was a conscious act of saving someone.

Mandy, perhaps still on the shore, was the most qualified to speak about this, as he, too, had been rescued by a dolphin. Precisely for that reason, when invited by Richard, as a diving champion, Mandy did not hesitate to agree.

Even if it meant diving into a Dragon’s Den!