In the early morning, a gentle sea breeze swept across, and the ocean surface was as smooth as a newly polished mirror. The sun rose in the distance, casting a warm glow.
Eagles soared through the sky, occasionally diving down to snatch a sea snake.
On the surface of the sea, several tentacles lay across the water, swaying slowly.
Come and get me, come and get me.
If one looked closely, they would notice that these tentacles belonged to a sea fish, which was floating on its belly on the surface of the water.
Damn it, still no one.
Xia Qiu angrily flipped over. He had wanted to catch an eagle, using his tentacles as bait.
But it was useless.
The eagles were not fooled at all; they didn't even come close.
Xia Qiu wanted to hunt eagles, to see if he could grow wings or claws. Although the possibility was slim, he couldn't even catch one.
These eagles had excellent eyesight. They could clearly see the sea snakes and the dangers in the water, so how could they not see the huge dark shadow beneath these tentacles?
Forget it, forget it. I didn't have much hope anyway.
Xia Qiu flipped over and swam downwards, heading towards the distance.
There's a fish over there, about five hundred meters away, around twenty-five meters long.
After seven or eight days of observation, Xia Qiu had redefined his use of sonar, allowing him to accurately perceive the length and size of the surrounding sea fish.
Compared to when he was in the East Blue, his detection range had decreased slightly, but his detection sensitivity was much higher than when he first entered the Grand Line.
It's a cod.
A long body, three dorsal fins, and small, round scales.
As Xia Qiu approached, he confirmed it was a cod.
Seeing the cod, Xia Qiu charged forward, got close, and bit down, his two poison fangs piercing its body.
After his original teeth fell out, Xia Qiu had grown two poison fangs, which were slightly different from a sea snake's, being thicker.
Sea snakes are a subfamily of cobras, all possessing proteroglyphous fangs, meaning they have a groove on the side. Venom is delivered through a duct into the groove, flowing out.
Proteroglyphous fangs are relatively thin and slightly curved backward.
Xia Qiu's fangs were still grooved, but they were thicker, with a very slight curve.
His original front row of teeth were sharp fangs similar to those of a tigerfish. Now, with the addition of poison fangs, they still retained some of those characteristics.
Furthermore, the proteroglyphous fangs were longer than his original teeth, about fifty centimeters. This resulted in Xia Qiu's two poison fangs protruding slightly from his mouth when he closed it.
As Xia Qiu's fangs pierced the cod's body, the venom glands injected venom through the ducts, following the grooves of the fangs into the cod's body.
Ten grams of venom.
Xia Qiu injected approximately ten grams of venom into the cod. This amount represented a quarter of his maximum venom output.
While it seemed like a small amount, it was actually a hundred times the venom output of a cobra and twenty-five times its maximum output.
Even a fine-scaled Taipan could only expel about 125 milligrams of venom at a time, with a maximum of 400 milligrams.
The reason for such a large amount was twofold: his own large body weight and venom glands, and the large body weight of his prey.
Once the venom entered the cod's body, Xia Qiu released his bite, allowing the cod to swim away.
The cod swam further and further, and Xia Qiu tracked it with his sonar, following it slowly from a great distance.
Ten minutes later, the cod's movement stopped. Twenty minutes later, it fell. Thirty minutes later, the cod was dead.
The incubation period was about ten minutes. Sea snake venom typically had a longer incubation period, usually over thirty minutes, though some had shorter periods and killed faster, within five to ten minutes.
The venom Xia Qiu produced for hunting had an incubation period of about ten minutes, which was relatively common.
His own body was quite robust, allowing him to delay the onset of symptoms for up to thirty minutes.
Regarding the lethal dose, his ten grams of venom had killed a fish weighing about fifteen tons.
The median lethal dose was approximately 0.7mg/kg, comparable to an Indian cobra. While there were more potent venoms among snakes, it was still easily lethal to humans.
But it took too long.
A ten-minute incubation period, leading to death, had lasted for fifty minutes.
Based on the lethal dose of his venom, his maximum hunting weight was estimated to be around sixty tons.
Of course, this was purely based on killing with venom.
If he assisted with the attack, the venom could take effect within ten minutes.
This meant that any Sea King smaller than five hundred to a thousand meters could be effectively attacked.
It wasn't as useful as he had imagined, but it was still quite significant.
Therefore, Xia Qiu's next step was to consume other venomous snakes to increase his venom's potency and reduce its incubation period.
Most snakes with faster-acting venom were terrestrial, such as the inland taipan, where death occurred within five minutes of being bitten, and just one milligram could be lethal.
He wondered if there were any sea snakes in the world of One Piece with faster venom action.
Next was toxicity, requiring the ability to injure giant Sea Kings.
Xia Qiu had already thought of a type of snake, the water snakes Boa Hancock used to lure ships, which contained potent venom. With them around, even giant Sea Kings wouldn't dare approach.
Xia Qiu added the water snakes to his menu.
However, venomous snakes that even giant Sea Kings feared posed a great threat to him, and pure strength wouldn't be effective, making them difficult to capture.
Therefore, Xia Qiu needed more abilities.
After eating the cod, Xia Qiu returned to his habitat, where Moo Moo was resting.
Their current habitat was no longer on the back of the island but on the side.
One reason was that the original range of the sea snakes was within a thousand meters. But since he and Moo Moo had blocked the path to the island, any sea fish that came close were driven away. The sea snakes couldn't prey on sea fish, so they moved further away from their dens, which threatened Xia Qiu and Moo Moo.
The second reason was that he needed to hunt pirates, which could only be done near the front port.
But the smell near the port was too foul, making him uncomfortable to approach, so Xia Qiu and Moo Moo stayed on the side of the island, near Reverse Mountain.
Seven days.
He had been here for seven days and hadn't encountered a single pirate ship.
Occasionally, ships left the island, but they were just the island's residents. The smell from the ships made him feel sick whenever he got close.
It was precisely because of the smell of these ships that the island's residents could survive on this dangerous island.
Xia Qiu continued to wait. On the tenth day since his arrival, he felt a violent tremor. He immediately swam to the surface to observe and saw a massive ship entering the nearby waters.
The ship was about sixty meters long and twenty meters wide, a true behemoth.
The bow was a giant lion's head, with its mouth agape and sharp teeth.
The pirate flag also featured the design of a roaring lion's head.
It looked imposing.
But you've already gone through bankruptcy and restructuring, and your movies have been getting worse year after year. Do you still have the nerve to come to the Grand Line?
Die for me.
Xia Qiu closed his nictitating membranes and charged towards the pirate ship.
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Translation by: randomtranslator.com
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