The Cannibal Fish rushed toward the container and inevitably bumped into the stolons of the bitter grass, triggering an immediate system prompt.
Hearing the prompt about the approaching evolved Cannibal Fish, Ren Yuanyang was utterly exasperated.
"Haven’t they had their fill after eating three people?"
Ren Yuanyang immediately slapped the container, waking Lu Jiamei.
"Get ready to fight!"
Hearing the call to battle, Lu Jiamei was instantly wide awake. "Is someone approaching?" she asked.
"No, it’s the Cannibal Fish," Ren Yuanyang replied grimly.
Lu Jiamei was stunned for a moment, somewhat confused. "Weren’t three people enough for those Cannibal Fish to eat?"
"Who knows. Their appetites probably got bigger after they evolved!" Ren Yuanyang shook his head and ordered, "Go find a suitable knife for yourself. If they try to destroy this container, we’ll have to fight them to the death!"
"Yes, sir!" Lu Jiamei immediately found a long, thin fruit knife, but asked doubtfully, "Boss, can these Cannibal Fish really destroy a shipping container?"
"I don’t know. What if their teeth evolved to a ridiculous degree? We can’t let them destroy this container!" Ren Yuanyang jumped down from the top of the container, grabbed the Boning Knife from nearby, and readied himself for a fight.
Ren Yuanyang didn’t use the bitter grass to intercept the evolved Cannibal Fish. They had already proven the sharpness of their teeth yesterday, capable of damaging the thrice-enhanced bitter grass stolons!
Besides, there were so many Cannibal Fish that even if Ren Yuanyang used the bitter grass to block them, it would just be feeding them.
At that moment, the Cannibal Fish had reached the opening of the container on Ren Yuanyang’s side. But they didn’t attack the container right away; instead, they leaped directly out of the water!
Quick on her feet, Lu Jiamei grabbed a nearby chair and swung it at a leaping fish.
THWACK!
The leaping fish was sent flying!
But as the first Cannibal Fish leaped from the water, the others followed suit!
In an instant, the water’s surface was once again a chaotic scene!
Lu Jiamei couldn’t block so many Cannibal Fish by herself, and many of them leaped into the container.
"Boss, I can’t hold them all off alone!" Lu Jiamei cried out for help.
Ren Yuanyang pulled her back. "Don’t block them. Let them come up!"
Lu Jiamei froze for a second, then immediately took two steps back.
With no one blocking them, the Cannibal Fish successfully leaped into the container, but they could only flop around on the floor.
"Are they committing suicide?" Lu Jiamei’s eyes still held the grogginess of someone who had just woken up.
Ren Yuanyang pointed to the riddled crocodile corpse nearby. "The smell of the crocodile’s blood must have drawn them up here!"
Lu Jiamei was taken aback for a moment, then it dawned on her. Her face was full of disbelief. "Even if they smelled blood, they can’t be this crazy! They’re fish, how can they come ashore?"
"If they stopped to think about that, we’d be the ones in danger!" Ren Yuanyang shook his head and ordered, "Kill every one that jumped up here. And be careful."
Lu Jiamei nodded in agreement, then frowned and asked, "Boss, you’re not thinking of eating them, are you?"
These Cannibal Fish had just eaten dead bodies. The thought of actually eating them was truly sickening!
If they hadn’t seen it, it would have been fine—out of sight, out of mind. But the two of them had witnessed the Cannibal Fish dispose of three corpses.
"Don’t worry, these Cannibal Fish won’t be our food," Ren Yuanyang replied.
Only then did Lu Jiamei relax and focus on dealing with the Cannibal Fish that had jumped into the container.
The evolved Cannibal Fish were exceptionally ferocious. Even out of water, they weren’t easy to kill, and they flopped about energetically inside the container.
Lu Jiamei grabbed the oar from the small boat and started whacking the Cannibal Fish frantically.
One smack wasn’t enough to kill them, so she had to hit them a few more times, beating them until they stopped moving!
Just as Lu Jiamei’s arms were starting to ache, the Cannibal Fish suddenly stopped jumping into the container.
Whew!
Lu Jiamei let out a long sigh of relief, looking at the Cannibal Fish on the container floor. "Is that all of them?"
Ren Yuanyang shook his head. "Definitely not!"
After observing carefully for a moment, he discovered that the Cannibal Fish at the container’s opening had left!
"The rest of them are gone!" Ren Yuanyang’s brow furrowed.
"They’re gone? That’s great!" Lu Jiamei put the oar aside and rubbed her aching arms.
"This isn’t necessarily a good thing," Ren Yuanyang said, looking warily at the surrounding sea.
Lu Jiamei paused, then immediately understood. "Boss, are you saying something stronger is coming?"
"It’s very likely," Ren Yuanyang nodded.
Lu Jiamei grew tense again.
Just then, Ren Yuanyang suddenly received a system prompt.
[Four stalks of dizzy fish grass discovered. Enhance?]
Upon receiving the prompt, he checked the enhancement options, and his eyes suddenly lit up.
’Enhance toxicity!’
[Enhancement successful.]
[Dizzy Fish Grass (+1): Toxicity enhanced. Emits an odor unpleasant to aquatic creatures, causing them to stay away. Effective range: ten meters. If its branches and leaves are ingested by aquatic creatures, they will be paralyzed...]
The original dizzy fish grass is mildly toxic. When crushed and thrown into a river, it can paralyze live fish, which is how it got its name. For this reason, it isn’t planted near fish ponds. However, its flowers are very beautiful and fragrant, making it a popular ornamental plant in landscaping.
Ren Yuanyang bent down and observed carefully for a moment. Sure enough, there were some small, fragmented purple flowers on the water’s surface—the petals of the dizzy fish grass.
"So that’s why!" Ren Yuanyang realized.
Lu Jiamei, standing to the side, looked on in confusion at Ren Yuanyang’s strange actions.
"Boss, what are you doing?" Lu Jiamei asked curiously.
"I think I know why the Cannibal Fish left!" Ren Yuanyang pointed at the small purple flowers and said with a smile, "It must be because of these!"
"Those are some kind of flower, right?" Lu Jiamei grew even more confused. "Can flowers really drive away Cannibal Fish?"
Ren Yuanyang explained, based on the information from the system prompt, "These are the flowers of the dizzy fish grass... The evolved Cannibal Fish are more sensitive to its scent. The petals made them uncomfortable, so they left!"
After hearing the explanation, Lu Jiamei remarked again, "You really know a lot about plants!"
Ren Yuanyang waved his hand dismissively and instructed, "First, deal with the Cannibal Fish that jumped up here. These compressed biscuits are for breakfast today!"
Looking at the compressed biscuits Ren Yuanyang handed her, Lu Jiamei suddenly thought of a problem. "Boss, we need to think about salt now! It’s a good thing we have these compressed biscuits to provide some salt, but once we run out, it’ll be a huge problem if we haven’t found any!"
Ren Yuanyang paused for a second, then smiled and asked in return, "Do you know why I had you process the crocodile?"
Lu Jiamei was taken aback. The topic had changed so quickly that she had a hard time keeping up.
"Weren’t we just talking about salt? What does that have to do with processing the crocodile?" Lu Jiamei asked, her face full of confusion.
"Of course it’s related. Without enough salt, even if we butcher the crocodile meat, wouldn’t it just spoil?" Ren Yuanyang replied.
Hearing this, Lu Jiamei asked in pleasant surprise, "Did we find salt?"

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