“It hurts… it hurts… it hurts so much… it’s so heavy…”
The humpback whale's voice was translated into human language and reached Lu Yao's ears.
Lu Yao swam around the humpback whale again. He had just checked and found no obvious external injuries on its body, so perhaps something had been overlooked.
The humpback whale's skin is not as smooth as that of a killer whale. It has a rough texture and scars on its head, flippers and tail, as if caused by impact.
Its fins and tail are covered with barnacles of various sizes, making the exterior look bumpy.
Barnacles are arthropods that like to attach themselves to rough reefs or places with clean water and abundant food.
This seemingly harmless aquatic organism has a strong reproductive capacity and a huge number. It often attaches to the bottom of ships or coastal pipelines in large groups. It needs to be cleaned regularly, otherwise it will increase resistance and fuel consumption when the ship is sailing, or block the pipeline.
Sometimes, they choose to parasitize some marine creatures with rough skin and slow swimming speed, such as turtles and humpback whales.
There are so many barnacles attached to this humpback whale, densely packed on its skin, no wonder it is crying out in pain.
When barnacles parasitize creatures such as humpback whales, they do not rely on suction cups like snails cling to reefs, but instead embed their calcareous shells deep into the host's skin.
For deep-sea monsters that are more than ten meters long and weigh more than ten tons, a single barnacle may not cause much discomfort, but if large groups of barnacles pierce the skin and parasitize on the body, it will definitely cause discomfort.
Too many barnacles will also affect swimming speed and predation accuracy.
Occasionally, you will see humpback whales at sea with most of their bodies flipped out of the water, then slammed back into the sea. They may be cleaning barnacles off their bodies.
The humpback whale has some hideous, uneven scabs on its skin, like scars left after cleaning barnacles.
But it was host to many more barnacles than the small number it cleared away.
Lu Yao frowned slightly and swam under the humpback whale.
This action is actually very dangerous, but fortunately the big whale did not react too much.
Lu Yao slowly dived from the side that the animal could see. He didn't see many barnacles around its chest and abdomen. When he swam to the bottom, his face suddenly changed.
Lu Yao stared at the soft part, which was covered with barnacles, and couldn't bear to look at it: "This is that thing, right?"
System: [… Um, I don’t understand, what did you say? ]
Lu Yao couldn't tell whether Xiao Xiwan really didn't understand or was pretending not to understand, but it didn't matter anymore.
It’s so miserable! This humpback whale is so miserable, being bullied by barnacles like this.
Lu Yao swam back to the whale's head, looked it in the eyes, and patted it gently. Regardless of whether it could understand or not, he soothed it: "Wait a moment, I will help you clean up these parasitic barnacles right away."
"Mmmmm--" the humpback whale responded softly, as if it could understand what she said.
Lu Yao has read about humans helping sea turtles clean barnacles. The barnacles have already embedded themselves into the skin and are still alive. Tearing them off raw would cause great pain to the host.
People will soak the turtles in fresh water, wait for the barnacles to die, and then use tools to clean them off bit by bit, and then apply medicine to the host.
For a huge sea animal like a humpback whale, the idea of soaking in fresh water is not very realistic.
There are so many barnacles on its body that physically removing them must be more difficult than for a turtle.
Lu Yao went back to the nail salon and asked Mumu for help.
There are many alien clerks in the nail salon, and each of them is a master of magic, but only Mumu is a water magician.
Mumu was cleaning the shop. When she saw Lu Yao coming back, she silently put down the rag and slowly moved in front of her. Her big, watery eyes were full of joy. "Ji."
There are huge crying beasts in the deep sea, and there are also "chirping" slimes at home.
Lu Yao squatted down, touched Mumu's bald head, and said softly: "Mumu, there is something I need your help with. Only you can do it."
A gleam of light flashed across Mumu's eyes, and he said excitedly, "Chiji!"
He was finally able to help the store owner.
Lu Yao explained to Mumu that she wanted a huge sealing water magic.
Mumu turned back to the laboratory, and after a moment, she took out a crystal ball and handed it to Lu Yao, "Ji!"
Lu Yao took it and said, "Thank you. I'll bring some seafood back tonight. Have you ever eaten lobster or fresh sea urchin?"
Mumu's eyes sparkled and she shook her head blankly.
Lu Yao patted him and said, "Then I'll bring you the freshest ones tonight."
"grumble!"
Lu Yao returned to the Furry Shop, where the customers were absent-mindedly paying attention to the humpback whale still staying outside.
She put on a diving suit, swam to the side of the humpback whale, and led it to swim slowly away from the furry shop.
The customers were scared, and the autistic fish nearby were also timid. Seeing such a deep-sea monster wandering nearby, they dared not enter the store.
The man and the whale swam to a spacious and unfamiliar seabed, with only colorful corals, anemones and other aquatic creatures living nearby.
Lu Yao took out the water ball made by Mumu and threw it directly at the humpback whale.
The water ball expanded, getting bigger and bigger, slowly wrapping around the whale's skin that was parasitized by barnacles. The water ball was filled with fresh water, and used magic to create a barrier to isolate the sea water.
Like patches, they stick to the barnacle-infested skin of humpback whales.
The bubble burst, and Lu Yao knew that the barnacle was dead.
She took out a utility knife, wrapped dark magic around the blade, and scraped away the dead barnacle tissue on the whale's skin bit by bit.
The destructive property of the dark magic instantly cleared away the fragile calcareous shell fragments. The whale was so large that Lu Yao was busy running around for nearly three hours to clear most of the barnacles off its body.
During this period, humpback whales return to the surface from time to time to breathe.
When Lu Yao was tired, he lay on its back to rest and let it float up.
She still couldn't float to the surface of the sea, as if there was a membrane that could accurately distinguish between humans and marine life.
Once he touched the border, Lu Yao was separated and slowly sank to the bottom of the sea.
When the humpback whale came back to breathe, it found Lu Yao had fallen into the sea and made a whimpering sound that sounded like "confusion".
Lu Yao didn't know how to explain it, so he cheered himself up and cleaned the last few barnacles off its body, and finally used light magic to heal it.
"Okay, the barnacles are gone. Does it still hurt?"
Lu Yao gently touches the humpback whale, using telepathy.
"It doesn't hurt anymore." It shook its flippers and tail lightly, looking very happy, its eyes fixed on Lu Yao, "She looks like a mother. Perhaps, she really is a mother. We need to tell our fellow tribesmen that mother is back."
There is a certain delay in telepathy. By the time Lu Yao heard the full content, the humpback whale had already swam away, flapping its tail.
Mother is back, what does that mean
A mystery fell into Lu Yao’s mind. He slowly turned around and swam back with his tired body.
She felt like a car washer who had just washed a large tall passenger bus. Her arms were sore and weak, her legs could hardly lift, and she swam abnormally slowly.
"Ying—" A familiar cry suddenly came from behind. It was not quite the same as the sound of a humpback whale, but a bit like a killer whale.
Sure enough, a giant sea panda suddenly appeared beside her, crying "嘤嘤". Its round, slightly convex face, a bit like a dolphin, came closer and talked very fast.
"Oh, oh, oh."
It was the killer whale calf she had rescued.
Their populations seem to be returning here frequently recently.
It must be said that it came at a very coincidental time. If it had come earlier, I would have been beaten.
By this time, the humpback whale had left.
There was also an adult male killer whale accompanying it, but I don’t know if it was the same one as last time.
Lu Yao looked into the eyes of the adult male killer whale with inquiring eyes.
After a while, the adult killer whale opened its jaw slightly and said, "Hmm."
It’s confirmed, it’s still that cool male killer whale.
The killer whale cub was very lively. It stayed close to Lu Yao and kept crying.
Lu Yao felt a little weak and reached out his hand tentatively.
The adult male killer whale pushed the killer whale calf aside without leaving a trace, and supported her slightly with his smooth body.
The next second, the killer whale calf squeezed back in, gently nudged Lu Yao's waist with its head, and kept nagging.
What's going on in a killer whale's mind
Lu Yao suddenly felt curious.
Lu Yao reached back and touched the killer whale cub’s smooth skin, silently casting telepathic spells.
A few seconds later, a clear boy's voice sounded in Lu Yao's mind.
"Ah, I like my sister."
"Would you like to catch a shark together?"
Lu Yao: “…”
As expected of the overlord of the sea, catching a shark is as easy as catching a jellyfish.
After a while, the boy's voice sounded again.
"Shark, not very tasty."
"Whale, delicious."
“…” Lu Yao swam away silently.
Tiger cubs are really ferocious, but fortunately they don’t eat people.
After soaking in the water for too long, her hands and feet were exhausted. She began to lose her balance and couldn't help but drift to one side.
The adult male killer whale came over again, gently held her, shook his head in the water, then turned sideways and gently bit one of her wrists, then dragged her up and swam slowly forward.
Lu Yao was not so scared this time. He was even a little curious about what the killer whale was thinking at the moment.
At this time, they passed by a seabed where garden eels lived. The tiny eels huddled in caves, with their heads and half of their bodies exposed, swaying gently in the sea water, catching plankton, like a cluster of thin branches swaying in the wind.
To be honest, the scene looks a bit weird from a distance.
But if you get closer and observe the garden eels, you will find that they are actually very cute.
It has a slender body with small spots all over its body, some of which are very brightly colored, big eyes, and is relatively timid.
They live in groups and are used to hiding in caves. Their tails will not leave the caves when hunting. This is their way of survival.
Lu Yao's eyes fell on the cute little eel, and he whispered, "Ah, I suddenly want to eat eel rice."
The garden eels that were indulging in hunting not far away seemed to sense the danger. They collectively retracted their bodies and hid in the caves, leaving only a pair of eyes to carefully explore the situation outside.
Lu Yao looked away in boredom. What she wanted to eat was a large eel with fat and soft meat, not this small sticky eel that looked cute and had no meat.
The adult killer whale holding her blinked and gently turned its body to the side to make her more comfortable.
Lu Yao came back to his senses and remembered what he had been thinking about just now.
She exerted a little strength, bent her fingers, touched the killer whale's sharp teeth, and cast her telepathy skill.