The next day.
Haoyuan was woken by the low, sorrowful wails of the dinosaurs.
The sounds rose and fell in a continuous wave, drifting down from the water's surface and disrupting his pleasant sleep.
Frowning, he reluctantly crawled out of the water, eyes burning with morning irritation.
Passing through the wide corridor to the mouth of the karst cave where the dinosaurs had gathered, he froze in his tracks once he saw what was actually happening.
The morning irritation in his eyes slowly dissipated.
A massive herd of herbivorous dinosaurs was crammed at the cave entrance, hesitant to step out. Anxious yet helpless, they could only let out constant, low wails.
And in front of them, a continuous curtain of rain blocked the entrance.
It was acid rain.
Haoyuan stared blankly at the scene before finally letting out a long sigh.
The massive amount of dust and volcanic ash generated by the asteroid impact had condensed into acid rain, halting the dinosaurs' search for food.
Without food for an extended period, the dinosaurs would starve to death inside the cave system.
Yet, if they went out and ate the vegetation corroded by the acid rain, it would burn their stomachs and poison their bodies. It was no different from drinking poison to quench thirst; the end result was still death.
Once the herbivores died, the carnivores would lose their food source and perish as well.
This was a tragedy of inevitable extinction, one that could not be resisted.
Haoyuan shook his head helplessly. Turning around, he slowly dragged his massive body away.
Behind him, the hesitant dinosaurs finally made up their minds. A young dinosaur mother took the lead, guiding her calf into the vast curtain of rain.
Then, one dinosaur after another stepped out.
Since the asteroid impact, disasters had run rampant, and they hadn't eaten in a very long time.
Strong adult dinosaurs might be able to endure it, but the calves and juveniles simply couldn't hold out.
They weren't mammals and couldn't nurse; they had to forage for themselves.
Over the next few days, the acid rain fell continuously, growing heavier by the day.
Every day, Haoyuan would see dinosaurs braving the rain to forage.
When they returned, steam would rise from their backs as dead skin continuously peeled away.
Some whose skin wasn't thick enough already had obvious yellow and white patches.
By contrast, the calves' skin was generally intact—it was clear their parents had shielded them from everything.
The night was thick.
Haoyuan was sound asleep.
A few piercing shrieks suddenly shattered the silence of the night, startling him awake.
Alertly raising his head, Haoyuan looked past the panicked dinosaur herd and witnessed a gruesome scene.
A sub-adult dinosaur had been tackled to the ground by two Nanotyrannus. They tore and bit at it, ripping its belly open. The dinosaur's eyes were filled with terror and despair as it let out agonizing wails.
The Nanotyrannus seemed to have starved for a long time. Even before it had breathed its last, they began tearing off and devouring its flesh.
Accompanying the cruel, forceful bites of the Nanotyrannus, its flesh was ripped away piece by piece, and warm blood pooled across the ground.
Haoyuan watched quietly for a moment, then lowered his head to return to sleep.
Morning came.
A juvenile hadrosaur over two meters long fled for its life, pursued by three two-meter-long dromaeosaurs.
Its mother, a barely adult hadrosaur measuring seven meters long, gave chase anxiously from behind, flanked by four other dromaeosaurs that relentlessly harassed her.
In its panic, the juvenile hadrosaur lost its bearings and ran toward the subterranean river, too late to turn back.
The leading dromaeosaur seized the opportunity and leaped. Its sharp, sickle-like claws dug into the juvenile hadrosaur's body, its jaws snapping rapidly in an attempt to cause more bleeding.
The two dromaeosaurs behind caught up and swarmed it.
The hadrosaur mother let out a heart-wrenching roar and ran as fast as she could.
The little hadrosaur was pinned to the ground, crying out in pain and calling for its mother.
Splash!
Just as the other two dromaeosaurs were about to sink their teeth in, the surface of the subterranean river suddenly surged. A massive torrent of water cascaded down, washing away the blood from the juvenile hadrosaur's body.
The dromaeosaurs stopped their jaws, leaping away from the juvenile hadrosaur. Backing away in unease, they looked up at the colossal figure before them.
The frantically running hadrosaur mother ground to a halt, staring tensely at the behemoth while keeping her calf, whose lower half was submerged in the water, in her peripheral vision.
Haoyuan lowered his massive head, glancing at the hadrosaur mother and the dromaeosaurs before his eyes came to rest on the little hadrosaur.
Its injuries weren't severe, but it was too terrified to stand, sprawling on the ground and trembling uncontrollably.
He raised his head, cast another glance over the dromaeosaurs and the hadrosaur mother, and submerged back into the river.
Leaving only surging ripples on the water's surface.
The hadrosaur mother cautiously took a tentative step closer.
The dromaeosaurs began to stir again, locking their gazes onto the calf that was just climbing to its feet.
Splash!
Accompanied by the sound of breaking water, the carcass of a five-meter-long dinosaur was flung with a heavy thud right in front of the nearest dromaeosaur.
The dromaeosaur and the two behind it were startled at first, but their gazes quickly filled with greed as they looked at the far larger dinosaur carcass.
Still, they didn't dare move. Instead, they looked up at the behemoth in the river.
Haoyuan gestured with his eyes. Fearing they wouldn't understand, he was about to slip back underwater to put them at ease.
When the pack of dromaeosaurs suddenly swarmed forward, throwing themselves onto the five-meter-long carcass and tearing into it ravenously.
“???”
Haoyuan was utterly dumbfounded.
Wait, are dromaeosaurs really this intelligent?
I didn't even say a word. I just gave them a look, and they understood?
This completely blew Haoyuan's mind.
“Quite teachable!”
Haoyuan nodded in satisfaction.
When he looked back down at the little hadrosaur, he found that it had been frightened back onto the ground, not daring to move an inch.
“...”
Haoyuan didn't bother with it further. He dove back into the water, gathering up the dinosaur carcasses that had floated down the river without being intercepted by crocodiles or Mosasaurs, and threw them all in front of the carnivorous dinosaurs in the distance.
For one, it would ensure he got a good night's sleep. For another...
Haoyuan swam to the surface and made his way toward the entrance of the karst cave.
He didn't really know what he was trying to do.
It was just that the sudden, massive extinction of these dinosaurs, who had kept him company for hundreds of years, made him feel a tinge of loneliness.
Perhaps it was like having a neighbor who lived next door and played with you every day, only for them to suddenly pack up and move away.
A strange, inexplicable sense of loneliness...
Though new neighbors would eventually arrive, he still quite liked the dinosaurs. They were diverse and interesting, and their eggs were delicious.
Reaching the mouth of the cave.
A large number of dinosaurs had huddled here, banding together for warmth as they braced against the dropping temperatures while waiting for the rain to weaken or stop.
Peering through the curtain of rain, the heavy, suffocating clouds under the pitch-black sky were packed tight, laden with impact dust and volcanic ash.
On the distant horizon, the dark red glow of volcanic eruptions flashed frequently, sending columns of greyish-black smoke straight into the sky.
The world had fallen into an eternal night; nuclear winter had arrived.
“Sigh.”
Haoyuan sighed and stepped out into the rain.
A pungent stench of sulfur, rotten eggs, burnt ash, corrosive sourness, and suffocating metallic tang rushed over him.
It was an extremely unpleasant smell.
The acid rain landed on his lustrous, jade-white scales and slid off harmlessly, unable to corrode them in the slightest.
This was because Haoyuan, in order to deal with the mimic monster, had maxed out his scales' corrosion resistance.
He evolved his respiratory system slightly.
Haoyuan took a deep breath.
“Whale Gulp Dragon Inhale!”
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