Gazing at the colossal skeletal remains, silent for who knows how many years and now completely petrified, Yang Lin was utterly stunned.
Before this, he had believed he had encountered his fair share of giant creatures.
There were adult African elephants the size of small houses, adult blue whales resembling icebergs, and the two colossal constrictor snakes outside, thicker than his waist.
But in comparison to the fossilized skeleton before him, he finally understood what a true behemoth was.
And this was only the part his vision could encompass; some of the skeletal remains seemed to be buried in the silt.
What lay before him now was a terrifying skull as large as a small car.
On this enormous fossilized skull, two hollows, large enough for Yang Lin himself to crawl into, gazed silently in his direction.
Of course, this wasn't what truly shocked Yang Lin.
What genuinely astonished him were two slightly smaller, symmetrically positioned hollows above and not far from the larger ones.
An image of a creature with two horns and a long, coiling body inexplicably appeared in his mind.
To confirm if his assumption was correct, he quickly circled to the back of the fossilized skull.
The next second, a vertebral fossil, stretching out like an endless mountain range, appeared before him.
If he calculated by proportion, including the parts buried in the silt, this creature's length in life must have exceeded one hundred meters.
Upon reaching this conclusion, Yang Lin fell into silence.
"Could it be that there really were dragons in ancient times?"
"Or is this just an ancient constrictor snake that underwent a deeper evolution due to excessive radiation?"
At this moment, Yang Lin fell into deep contemplation.
His nine years of compulsory education had taught him that dragons were merely legendary creatures, nonexistent in reality.
But if it wasn't a dragon, then the fossil before him looked exactly like the legendary true dragons.
"Right, I'll know if it has limbs."
However, just as Yang Lin was about to examine the fossil for limbs, a dark shadow emerged from the water.
Before he could react, Father Constrictor had already arrived beside him and, without a word, carried him out of the water.
Clearly, Father Constrictor had seen Yang Lin stay underwater for too long and assumed he had perished.
As soon as he was brought out of the water by Father Constrictor, two heads appeared before Yang Lin.
They were Mother Constrictor and Baby Jiaolong.
Baby Jiaolong's eyes were filled with worry.
"We thought you had died. We didn't expect you could stay underwater for so long."
"Have the apes evolved the ability to survive in water?"
Listening to Mother Constrictor's words, Yang Lin put on a polite yet awkward smile.
He then recalled the giant skeletal fossil he had just seen underwater.
"I just found a skeleton down there. Do you know what's going on?"
As soon as Yang Lin asked this question, a flicker of peculiarity appeared in Mother Constrictor's eyes.
"We aren't entirely sure ourselves, but according to our speculation, that skeleton should be an ancestor of our tribe."
"We heard our ancestors didn't originally live on this island."
"Alright, it seems I won't be able to take a piece of fossil back for research."
"What did you say?"
"Nothing, nothing. I said I should be going back."
Yang Lin naturally wouldn't tell the Constrictor couple that he had taken a liking to their ancestor's fossil.
He had even considered moving the entire fossil to the Xihong Zoo.
Frankly speaking, with such a fossil, he could open a museum.
But he decided against it. Even if he brought it back, people would surely think he had faked it.
A prehistoric beast a hundred meters long, who would believe it?
It was at this moment that he suddenly remembered the purpose of his trip to the island.
He immediately explained the current construction issues on Dolphin Island to the Constrictor couple.
After all, judging by the current situation, they were the undisputed rulers of this island.
If they were to give their approval, it would certainly be effective.
After he expressed his intentions, the Constrictor couple surprisingly agreed.
"If it's outside the forest area, then there's naturally no problem."
"But you might have to wait a little."
As the Constrictor couple finished speaking, their massive bodies moved in the next moment.
Before long, they disappeared into the dense forest with a great commotion.
Simultaneously, the birds and beasts across the entire island erupted like a startled flock, scattering wildly within the island.
The construction team on the outer beach of the island soon noticed this scene.
Under their terrified gazes, two huge black shadows moved through the dense forest in opposite directions.
When all the commotion subsided, a massive trench, spanning the entire island, appeared on the outskirts of the forest.
It looked as if it had been crushed by some terrifying creature.
"What... what lives on this island?"
"Hasn't Director Yang been out for so long? Did something happen?"
"It looks like a snake's tracks."
"How could there be such a big snake?"
...
While the construction team was filled with uncertainty, the Constrictor couple returned to Yang Lin's side.
"We've marked our scent around the island's perimeter. All the animals should be too afraid to approach carelessly."
Hearing Father Constrictor's confident words, Yang Lin breathed a sigh of relief.
This way, the development of Dolphin Island wouldn't be a major issue.
After all, the areas they needed to construct were mainly concentrated on the outskirts of the island.
This would ensure that even after Dolphin Island officially opened, humans and animals would remain completely separated.
However, just as Yang Lin thought it was over, Father Constrictor's next words completely astonished him.
"What? You mean you want me to take your child out into the outside world?"
Upon hearing the Constrictor couple's request so abruptly, Yang Lin thought he had misheard.
Where would parents actively send their children out?
"Human, listen to us. Although we have lived on this island for generations, we also know that this island is too small, too small."
"If our child were to grow to our size in the future, the balance of this island, accumulated over thousands of years, would be broken. It would be a disaster for the ecosystem here."
"Moreover, I can sense that our child is already very different from before. Its future should not be confined to this small world."
As they spoke, the Constrictor couple looked at Baby Jiaolong beside them with affectionate gazes.
There was reluctance, but more than that, there was hope.
Seeing the Constrictor couple like this, Yang Lin found it hard to refuse, primarily because he couldn't refuse.
Because at some point, Baby Jiaolong had habitually coiled itself around him.
"Parents are so different."
"Those Constrictors know to send their children abroad to develop, while my own parents dumped me in the country and went abroad to have fun themselves."
"Indeed, children and grandchildren have their own fortunes; without them, I'd be enjoying myself."
As he spoke, Yang Lin let out a long sigh.