Chapter 288

Chapter 288: Even Predation Must Emphasize Sustainable Development

Actually, Trilobite had planned for an extra meal.

But when he saw the cave full of blood and the young fish curled up in a corner, fast asleep, he realized what had happened.

“Oh, so the Haisigen Toothfish was a lady!”

“Hooray!”

“Ahem…”

Trilobite felt a bit confused.

He wondered why he was so excited over a fish.

“But anyway, she was a mother with kids, so I couldn’t eat her.”

Trilobite thought a moment and decided to spare the mother and her young fish.

After all, even hunters knew not to kill pregnant or newly birthed females.

This wasn’t about mercy; it was just basic sustainable development.

The population had to be kept up.

Besides…

“He wondered why, in the system vision, the Haisigen Toothfish and her young fish were light yellow, even though they weren’t blue or green…”

“Hmm…”

The system vision was something Miss Themis had given to Trilobite long ago.

It showed how much Chaos Energy was in the prey.

A “red” color meant the best, with lots of Chaos Energy; “orange” meant very good levels of Chaos Energy.

“Blue” and “green” light shades meant low Chaos Energy.

As for “yellow”…

There was a little, but not much.

“Light yellow was even less.”

“Not worth the trouble.”

“Besides…”

Trilobite felt hunger push him to crawl back to the Megalodon Shark he had hunted.

“Roar—grumble grumble…”

A deep roar echoed along the coastline.

“Oh no—!”

“Run! Run!”

“Big scary crocodile! Big scary crocodile!”

“We were caught eating! Discovered!”

Three little flying elephant octopuses screamed, waving their arms as they darted away.

Their large ear blades flapped constantly, looking utterly adorable.

Their cries caused an uproar around the Megalodon Shark’s corpse.

Swarms of small cephalopods, tiny fleshy-finned fish, and even what seemed like early fearful creatures scattered in panic.

Though Trilobite couldn’t understand their bubbling chatter, his knowledge of the food chain revealed what "good deeds" these creatures had done.

Opportunists.

Just like vultures, crows, and foxes in today’s food chain.

Though capable of hunting themselves, when top predators like tigers or lions took down large prey, they’d creep in and lurk nearby, waiting to steal scraps while the bigger hunters were distracted.

“Get lost—!”

Trilobite bellowed.

“Thieves!”

“Bah!”

“Disgusting!”

He roared fiercely until every opportunist fled.

“Hmm…”

“Never mind, not much lost.”

“Letting opportunists lick a few meat scraps is inevitable.”

“Back to eating!”

“Chomp… chomp…”

As Trilobite chewed, he felt massive amounts of Chaos Energy flooding into him.

The Megalodon Shark appeared light orange in his system vision—less intense than the deep-red Moschops, but its sheer size and position within the orange spectrum still provided substantial Chaos Energy.

“Hmm… Last time’s leftover…”

“Was about one hundred fifty thousand units of Chaos Energy.”

“Plus this Megalodon Shark’s two hundred thousand units.”

“That makes three hundred fifty thousand units total!”

“I upgraded myself plenty last time.”

“Now, let’s enhance my spawn!”

“First…”

As Trilobite expanded his roaming range, his animal instincts greedily claimed every area he traversed as territory.

This was natural.

After all, the postosuchus ranked among the mightiest top predators.

Setting aside the freaks of the dinosaur era, he still stood formidable among land predators.

The postosuchus could grow to a size of six meters and weigh around one ton.

Such a size would be considered a giant predator, making it larger than most predators in the archosaurs.

Of course, the average postosuchus was probably about the same size as Trilobite at the time, likely less than five meters long and weighing around half a ton.

However, a postosuchus needed a vast territory and plenty of prey to maintain its survival.

"Besides me, there should be no other gods"—this saying in the animal kingdom wasn’t about greed for power, but a basic guarantee for survival.

Naturally, Trilobite possessed the soul of a social animal; even with the influence of an animal body, his thoughts didn’t become overly reclusive. So, while ensuring he got enough food, he could tolerate other predators.

Moreover, he was infatuated with the paper young lady.

"She is indeed worth the obsession," he thought.

"She is pleasing to the eye and can earn me Chaos Energy; how wonderful."

"So, I need to help her grow strong, so she can live beautifully and healthily."

"And gather more Chaos Energy for me in the process."

"Mm!"

With these thoughts, Trilobite opened the "STEAM Evolution Mall."

"Well then…"

Without hesitation, Trilobite first bought seven "grow larger" upgrades for the red-haired young lady.

The sharks were already quite mature when they first evolved; although many unique and clever evolutions followed, they mostly involved minor adjustments.

With the basic body type of a shark, simply enlarging and thickening it would make it a dominant force in the water!

"Now, the red-haired shark young lady’s length should be over two meters!" he mused.

"At least she has left the category of little fish."

"Next…"

"How about giving the fourth symbiotic creature young lady some upgrades too!"

"I remember that the Cliff Lizard belongs to the skink suborder, closely related to snakes, venomous lizards, and giant lizards."

"Well then…"

Trilobite pondered as he kept upgrading his symbiotic creatures.

"Oh! Right!"

"It seems I can upgrade my spawn too!?"

"I remember I haven’t upgraded some of my spawn yet."

"How about I take care of that as well?"

However, Trilobite did not know that his "home" was still under siege.

It was an urgent situation!

Could this be considered a "tight situation at the front and a tight struggle at the back"?

"Whoosh—!"

The enormous dorsal fin breached the surface once more.

Ether Dragon Clodius fixed his gaze on the "Predatory Tree" that nearly engulfed the Crystal Walls. His Soul quivered in shock.

"How… how could this happen!?"

"Where is my legion? What became of my forces!?"

Clodius possessed no omniscient vantage. His "Divine Vision" couldn’t pierce the "Holy Tree’s" labyrinth of roots and tubers—this physical barrier veiled all within the "Sea of Ether" embraced by the tree.

Yet even his dulled senses recognized the truth: his forces had entered half a day prior with no sign of return. Though he’d roared, bellowed, and summoned until his "voice" grew hoarse, not a single scout returned bearing tidings—good or ill.

Disaster had struck!

And likely…

"Total annihilation!?"

True, the etheric worms, larvae from the Outer Gods from the Void, and Outer Gods from the Ether were little more than rabble—useless in a true God’s War. But this wasn’t God’s War!

The opposing deity—his equal—hadn’t even revealed itself! Yet his own minions had vanished without a trace.

Minions were mere minions, but they’d cost precious resources to recruit!

To lose them all in an instant…

Clodius tasted the bitterness of overnight bankruptcy.

"How could this happen!?"

"What lies hidden within!?"

"Whoosh…"

Clodius slowly surfaced, retreating backward.

He ground his teeth!

"No minions? Then I’ll do this myself!"

"I refuse to believe I, alone, cannot breach the defenses of your mere ‘Holy Tree’!"

"Whatever it takes, I will force your true form into the open!"

"Crash—!"

He drew further back, then surged forward!

A thunderous charge!

"Boom—!"

The Holy Tree’s roots and trunk shuddered violently from the impact.

"Still hiding—hah!?"

"Swish—!"

A shadow suddenly exploded from Clodius’s left flank!

"Ha—!"

Razor-sharp teeth savagely tore toward Clodius’s divine form!