60 hunters from 12 families were naked and holding fishing net bags, neatly arranged in front of Bingyan, ready to go.
The crowd of onlookers shouted cheers, cheering for their own hunters, encouraging them to hunt more silverfish and bring glory to the family.
Listening to the shouts around him, Ying Yue also felt a little excited, looking forward to the results later.
"Hunters, please pay attention!"
A family head loudly said: "You are not allowed to use any tools, you can only hunt silverfish over 15 centimeters. In the end, you only have 2 hours!"
"Did you hear that clearly?"
"Listen clearly!"
"Start now!"
"brush--"
At the command, the hunters who were already ready to go jumped out of the ice eye, then instantly sank into the lake and disappeared.
"Plop——"
"Plop——"
30 seconds later, all 60 hunters entered the water, the ice in front of the ice became empty, and the crowd on the ice was waiting nervously.
"Old Liu, how many whitebaits did each family catch during hunting in previous years?"
"About two to three hundred pounds!"
"so much?"
"Is it too much? I think it's too little?"
Liu Weiguo smiled and shook his head: "Although there is a certain chance of awakening after taking whitebait, this chance is too low.
If you are lucky, you may awaken after eating a few whitebait. If you are not lucky, it will be useless no matter how much you eat. Haha, the whitebait is more like a lure!"
"Have you eaten it?"
Wu Wei asked curiously.
"I've definitely tried it before. It tastes really delicious. It's better than other seafood and river seafood I've ever eaten!"
Liu Weiguo seemed to recall the delicious taste of whitebait, and couldn't help but lick his lips and said: "It's a pity that we can only eat it once every five years, and the quantity is really limited. Oh, what a pity!"
"Is it really that delicious?"
Ying Yue couldn't help but underestimate it, but his spiritual thoughts radiated out, penetrating the ice toward the deep lake below.
Since it's so delicious, let's grab a few and try it.
After the spiritual thoughts came into contact with the water, they dispersed instantly and poured out like mercury, covering the entire deep lake.
Well, all 60 hunters are swimming underwater. It can be seen that they are all water mutants. They can walk on flat ground underwater and their speed is no worse than that of fish.
Unfortunately, their net bags are still empty and there is no receipt.
"Maybe it's because we just came down!"
Ying Yue murmured, and continued to scan with his spiritual mind, looking for traces of the silver fish, but to his disappointment, after searching for a long time, there was not even a bird feather.
Not to mention big fish over 15 centimeters, there are not even small fish as thick as chopsticks...
What's even more amazing is that except for aquatic plants, no aquatic life can be seen in the lake, and not a single fish can be seen.
Ying Yue suddenly withdrew his spiritual thoughts, looked at Liu Weiguo, and whispered: "Old Liu, are you sure there are fish in this lake?"
Liu Weiguo said a little strangely: "There must be one. If there is no fish, what are we doing here?"
"But the fact is, there are no fish down there, not even a single fry!"
Ying Yue shook his head slightly and whispered.
"This is impossible!"
Liu Weiguo didn't believe it: "There are fish in this lake. I saw it with my own eyes the last time I went hunting. There's no reason why there aren't fish this year!"
“We’ll see!”
Ying Yue shook his head and didn't say anything more. He knew that no one would believe what he said now, so let the facts speak for themselves.
Seeing Ying Yue's determined look, Liu Weiguo frowned and felt a little worried in his heart. Is there really no fish in the lake?
wait!
Everyone was discussing it while waiting quietly!
During this period, hunters came out of the lake from time to time to take a breath, and then sank again. People with sharp eyes noticed that the faces of these hunters were not good-looking.
It seems that the harvest is not satisfactory?
This is indeed the case!
Two hours passed quickly, and 60 hunters came ashore one after another, but their fishing net pockets were all empty.
"What...what's going on?"
A household owner pointed to the empty net bag and asked in disbelief: "Where are the silver fish? Why can't I see any?"
"Master, there isn't a single fish in the lake!"
The hunter gasped and said helplessly: "There is no fish at all in the lake, not even a shadow of a ghost!"
"What the hell is this? How can there not be a fish?"
Hearing this, the head of the family yelled angrily: "There are fish in the lake every year, but there are no fish this year. Do you think I will believe it?"
"Master, there are really no fish!"
Other hunters also said: "Can't see a fish!"
"Master, no other family has caught any whitebait, not even one!"
"They all came back empty-handed?"
"Yes, 60 hunters all returned empty-handed!"
"How...how could this happen?"
"Where have all the whitebaits gone?"
"Who can tell me where they have gone?"
The results of the hunt shocked, confused, and of course couldn't accept everyone. In the past, we could catch whitebait, but this year there were no fish. How could this happen?
"Why do things happen like this?"
"Where are the fish?"
The heads of the three sects and nine families gathered together, looking into the green icy eyes, and their brows knitted together tightly.
But at this time, Liu Weiguo looked at Ying Yue: "Professor, you really got it right!"
Ying Yue smiled and said nothing. He had already detected it just now, so there was no way it was fake.
"Why do the fish disappear completely?"
Wu Wei frowned and asked curiously: "Did someone secretly come here to hunt and catch all the fish in the past five years?"
"impossible!"
Liu Weiguo shook his head decisively: "Deepwater Lake is the center of the various martial arts families in the Northeast. Each family has a dedicated monitoring team and hundreds of surveillance cameras. It is almost impossible to hunt secretly!"
Wu Wei asked again: "Since the possibility of poaching has been ruled out, where have all the fish gone?"
Liu Weiguo smiled bitterly, if only he knew.
"There is another possibility!"
Ying Yue looked at the green lake and said suddenly.
"What's possible?"
Liu Weiguo and Wu Wei's eyes lit up and they looked at Ying Yue at the same time.
"Other creatures appeared in the lake and ate all the fish!"
Ying Yue slowly uttered these words, and a bright light flashed in his eyes.
He felt more and more that this guess was very possible. Since the deep-water lake gave birth to creatures like silverfish, it meant that an ecological balance had been reached in the lake.
As long as there is no over-fishing or human intervention, the ecosystem in the lake will definitely be able to maintain balance, and it is impossible for all the fish to disappear.
But now, the fish are gone, but man-made disaster has been ruled out.
It can only mean that other factors led to the extinction of fish.
The most likely possibility is that other alien creatures have eaten up all the fish in the lake.
However, Ying Yue also had some doubts. When he used his spiritual sense to explore just now, there was nothing in the lake, and no trace of other creatures was found.