The hungry shark was massive—perhaps not by the standards of an ocean shark, but for a creature living in a river, it was enormous. And judging by the two rows of razor-sharp teeth lining its jaws, its killing power would be anything but ordinary.Black stripes ran along its spine, its skin was covered in tiny scales, and its mouth tapered to a sharp point. Its eyes were piercing, exuding a ferocity that was almost tangible.Yun Luohe observed it for a while through [Scanning Eye], confirming that there was currently only this one hungry shark in the river.To craft a tidal windmill, she would need five pieces of sharkskin—but she had no idea how many she could get from a single shark.Either way, the only thing to do was kill it first.Since the shark was in the water, shooting it with a bow would be useless. She would have to dive in and finish it with her hunting knife.Fortunately, she had brought along the purified shark pearl this time, and she was wearing her Pearl Scale Armor.She equipped the shark pearl and then leapt into the water.With the pearl, she could breathe underwater—without it, dealing with this shark would have been impossible.Once underwater, she quickly closed in on the hungry shark, certain that with her agility and reflexes, she could finish it swiftly.But the situation was nothing like she imagined.The shark’s speed was incredible—lightning-fast. One moment it was far off in the distance, the next it was already darting away. Once it sensed danger, it bolted for the depths, tail thrashing like a massive blade, moving so violently that Yun Luohe couldn’t get anywhere near it.At first, she thought it was trying to flee.But when she chased it deeper, it suddenly stopped, then lunged at her with its jaws wide open.If her swimming speed hadn’t been so fast—and if she couldn’t maneuver freely underwater—its first bite would have shredded her to pieces.She immediately dove lower and, in that moment, spotted several chunks of Blue Crystal Ore on the riverbed. But this wasn’t the time to mine—first, she had to kill the shark.She twisted and rolled through the water, the shark’s teeth barely scraping her armor.A cold shiver ran down her back, bubbles streaming past her.This couldn’t go on—she had to restrict its movements.A sudden idea flashed in her mind. Seizing the moment, she pulled out a coil of web-rope spun from spider silk and flung it, the rope’s end wrapping precisely around the shark’s tail fin.The hungry shark thrashed violently, instantly dragging her through the water like an arrow shot from a bow.Gripping the silk rope with both hands, she maintained her distance while striking repeatedly at its back with her hunting knife.The cuts were shallow—her goal was only to enrage it.With skin that thick, killing it with a knife alone would be nearly impossible.The shark soon wheeled around and charged her head-on. Relying on her upgraded perception abilities, she predicted its movements and dodged at the last instant.The shark slammed headfirst into the Blue Crystal Ore.The ore was extremely hard, with jagged, razor-sharp edges.The impact left the shark’s head split open and bleeding.The water clouded red, and the scent of blood only made it more frenzied.A few fragments of Blue Crystal Ore broke loose from the impact. Yun Luohe quickly snatched one up and, as the shark lunged again, sidestepped and smashed the ore hard into its side.The jagged crystal was sharper than her knife, slicing a long, deep gash in its skin. Blood gushed out, the metallic stench spreading through the water.She rammed the shard into the wound, forcing it deep.Then, with her other hand, she drove her hunting knife into the shark’s gill slit—one of the most vulnerable spots on any fish.The hungry shark thrashed in agony, its massive tail sweeping across and striking her in the waist. The blow sent her spinning, but she clung to her knife, twisting it again and again in its gill.If she let go now, the shark might escape—she had to finish it here.Another tail strike smashed into her. Pain exploded through her body, her vision darkening, her grip on the knife nearly slipping.Gritting her teeth, she raised the blade again and stabbed repeatedly into its gill.Blood surged out like a fountain. The shark’s movements slowed, its once-fierce eyes dimming.Finally, with all her remaining strength, she plunged the knife deep into the back of its skull.Had she done it?Breathing heavily, she didn’t relax until she heard the dull thud of the hungry shark sinking to the riverbed.She broke the surface, gasping for air, before diving again to collect the drops:[Sharkskin ×2, Shark Tooth ×5, Shark Bone ×1, Shark Meat ×20 catties][Congratulations, player, for killing a Hungry Shark. You have obtained a special item: Oasis Night Market Pass (Grants access to the limited-time trade event in the oasis center two days from now; this pass allows entry to the Night Market area).]An unexpected bonus—but unfortunately, too little sharkskin to craft the tidal windmill.She shook the water from her armor, intending to examine the pass——when Mu Zitang’s voice echoed from outside the cave.“Yun-jie! Where are you? Yun-jie!”He sounded urgent.She hurried out of the cave.“Not good!” he said. “Two new groups just showed up—aggressive—and they’re already fighting!”Yun Luohe stashed the shark loot into her backpack. “Let’s go take a look.” ****The newcomers were from Zone Seven and Zone Six.Bai Sha’s team was from Zone Three.In other words, all four teams here were from different zones.They didn’t bother with introductions—both new teams had reached the oasis at almost the same time, unaware others were already there. They clashed outside over who had the right to enter first, and within moments, the fight was on.By the time Bai Sha arrived with her people, the melee was in full swing.When Yun Luohe reached the scene, chaos reigned.Yang Mian was locked in a fierce fight with a tall man, while Qin Sisi and Cheng Xuening hung back, letting their pets assist—they weren’t strong enough for direct combat.Bai Sha’s teammates were all present but clearly struggling.Bai Sha’s face was grim—until she spotted Yun Luohe and Mu Zitang. Then she finally relaxed.From a distance, Yun Luohe released Yúntūn to assist.The spider needed no orders—instantly spewing dozens of thick strands of silk to wrap around the legs of every unfamiliar fighter.To Yúntūn, “unfamiliar” meant everyone except Yun Luohe’s team—Bai Sha’s people included.“What the hell is this silk? I can’t cut it!”“Damn, what is this thing?!”“Boss, this stuff’s so tough my weapon’s got chips in it!”Hearing the panicked shouts, Yun Luohe smiled faintly.If only Roubao were here too, that would’ve been perfect—but she’d left the cat at the reef. ****With Yúntūn disrupting the enemy, Yun Luohe and Mu Zitang waded in, quickly reversing the situation.She freed Bai Sha’s people, and together they drove both new groups out of the oasis.Bai Sha’s team had a trap specialist who quickly went to work—setting steel-jaw traps and large pits on the eastern approach, then embedding thorny barricades tipped with scorpion stingers. Anyone passing through would trigger bells to sound the alarm.But with their desert time running out, Bai Sha’s team soon left.Yun Luohe’s group had only about ten minutes left themselves.She still thought about the Blue Crystal Ore in the underground river, but there was no time to mine it now.She told the others about the shark she had fought and killed, showing Yang Mian a piece of Blue Crystal Ore.His eyes lit up. “You’re saying there’s more of this down there?”“Not a lot, but some. You’d need an obsidian pickaxe to get it. We can go tomorrow.”“For now, let’s just clean up our loot and talk back at base,” she said.Mu Zitang grinned. “Bet that shark was huge. Wish I’d been there to see Yun-jie take it down.”“Take it down? I almost died in there. If I hadn’t had gear for underwater combat, I’d have been shark food,” Yun Luohe said, her bruised waist still aching from the tail strikes.“That thing was so fast it could smash Blue Crystal Ore with a tail swipe. My armor’s nearly ruined.”The Pearl Scale Armor’s durability was almost gone—she’d need a replacement.She handed Yang Mian the shark teeth. “These should make excellent arrowheads—far better penetration than normal arrows.”He nodded. “These’ll be deadly.”She kept the shark bone for future armor crafting—it was listed as a rare defensive material, though she lacked the blueprint for it now.Hearing she was hurt, Qin Sisi gave her an ointment to take home.Moments later, their time was up—and they vanished from the desert in beams of light. ****By nightfall, Yun Luohe had been working on the reef for hours.A thunderstorm raged overhead.Lightning rods sparked blue, but there weren’t enough of them—strikes still hit the reef edges, damaging the base and shrinking its area.If things were this bad here, others’ reefs had probably suffered worse.Some players’ reefs caught fire, losing buildings and large chunks of area.Mu Zitang returned to find the trees on his reef burning—his parents frantically dousing the flames after one tree strike had spread to the others.The world chat was a mess—people begging for lightning rods, burn ointments, and fire-fighting gear.Yun Luohe was swamped.Her haul from the desert was impressive: spring water, dates, ostrich meat, ostrich feathers, ostrich eggs, Blue Crystal Ore, Desert Fragments, grass seeds, palm leaves, sandworm glands, mint leaves…The spring water made excellent iced drinks—tastier and far more effective at cooling than normal.She °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° grilled ostrich meat over red willow wood, producing a golden-quality [Desert Skewer] that restored 15 stamina per hour for three hours and gave a 50% chance to resist heatstroke. Eating more skewers stacked the effect.As a bonus, she received a [Portable Jerky] recipe—desert merchants’ favorite, compressing meat for better storage and double the effect of normal jerky.That reminded her of the Night Market Pass. If there’d be merchants there, the jerky could be valuable.She made white jerky from fish, and red, higher-grade jerky from ostrich and crocodile meat, using up her crocodile stock.Opening shells also yielded blueprints for [Advanced Sun Cloak] and [Date Energy Bar].She made five cloaks for the team in exchange for equal-value materials, plus extra basics as payment.The [Date Energy Bars] were simple—one egg made two bars—so she made ten for emergencies.By late night, she checked world chat again; most players were still awake, waiting out the storm.Heading to the herbal workshop, she overheard talk about how many had died in the desert and the high prices of heat-resistance potions.She planned to brew more cooling potions—Chu Ling had already requested more in trade.In particular, she needed rare materials for new blueprints: mother-of-pearl, glowing squid ink sacs, giant jellyfish membranes, elastic seaweed fiber.She messaged Si Qi about the glowing jellyfish from before.Si Qi replied that they had discovered its [Energy Siphon] ability during storms but still needed advanced insulation to harness it safely—one such material being sharkskin.Yun Luohe sighed. More sharks to kill, then.She told Mu Zitang to have Tianji Pavilion search for more shark locations.For now, the only confirmed sighting was in the underground river.She didn’t know if it was one shark per river or one respawn per day—but she’d find out tomorrow.Killing today’s shark had been exhausting—and she’d need to be even better prepared next time.

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