"Brother Li." A voice called out just as Li Yang was looking around. Sun Datao came running over.
Sun Datao was wearing a tank top, and he looked a bit tanner.
"Brother Li, where have you been these past few days?" Sun Datao asked curiously.
"I took a trip to Xuan City," Li Yang said with a smile.
He didn't tell Sun Datao about the Emperor's Slit Shell. After all, it was like winning the lottery. Telling people would only bring envy and no real benefit.
"Xuan City is a great place to visit," Sun Datao said, sounding envious.
Li Yang glanced at Sun Datao's clothes and asked, "What about you? I heard you were working at a construction site?"
Sun Datao had decided not to go to college after the entrance exams and started working to earn money a few days ago. In truth, his scores weren't that great anyway.
"Yeah, my dad found me a job at a construction site. I'm just doing odd jobs for now, 100 yuan a day," Sun Datao said with a sigh.
With his scores, the best he could hope for was a vocational college. He figured it was better to just start earning money now. After all, if you learn a trade in construction, the pay can be pretty good.
He had younger siblings to support at home, so he had no choice but to start working early.
"Come on, Brother Li, let's go see the large yellow croakers!" Sun Datao said excitedly after they had chatted for a bit.
The two of them followed the crowd to the pier, which was now packed with people, including many from local hotels and restaurants.
Some of these people had been contacted beforehand, while others had heard the news and came hoping to buy some of the fish.
Large yellow croakers have delicious flesh and possess extremely high medicinal value. Their fish maws can be dried to make a prized food called "fish belly," and can also be made into "yellow croaker glue." Furthermore, the liver of the large yellow croaker is rich in vitamin A and can be used to make fish liver oil.
Their excellent taste and rich nutritional value have made large yellow croakers highly sought after. Decades ago, they were plentiful, but long-term overfishing has made wild large yellow croakers incredibly rare. According to surveys, the number of yellow croakers caught in recent years can be counted on one's fingers, and each one sells for a higher price than the last.
Generally, you won't find large yellow croakers in small eateries; only major restaurants have them, and they are not something the average person can buy. This just goes to show how huge the market for wild yellow croakers is.
A fisherman once caught over two tons of wild large yellow croakers at sea and sold them for the staggering price of 9.57 million yuan. One can only imagine the value of these fish!
"Zhang Hu's family really hit the jackpot."
Sun Datao's eyes were filled with immense envy as he watched the scene unfold.
He, Li Yang, and Zhang Hu all lived in the same residential complex. His family was average, and so was Zhang Hu's. At almost thirty years old, Zhang Hu was having a hard time even finding a wife, and now he had suddenly struck it rich.
Li Yang remained silent. He watched the large yellow croakers being unloaded, feeling a flicker of temptation, but he quickly shook his head.
'I can walk on the seabed, but catching a whole school of large yellow croakers is basically impossible.'
'I'm just one person. I might be able to catch a few, but catching all of them is out of the question.'
'Even if I had a fishing boat, I couldn't tell the people on the surface where to cast the nets from underwater.'
'All in all, trying to make money this way isn't a viable option.'
'Forget it. I won't dwell on it. Time to get back to treasure hunting!'
Li Yang took a deep breath. 'If I can just find a single shipwreck in the next few months, then a hundred million yuan won't be a problem for me anymore!'
'The ocean is full of unknowns. Anything is possible!'
...
Fifteen meters... seventeen meters... twenty meters...
Plunging back into the seawater, Li Yang pushed steadily onward.
After more than three days in Xuan City, his strength had clearly improved, allowing him to venture into deeper parts of the sea.
Before him were dense patches of seagrass and coral clusters. Various fish, shellfish, and mollusks swam slowly by, their numbers clearly increasing with the depth.
Li Yang's vision was completely unaffected underwater, allowing him to take in all the beauty of the seabed.
However, Li Yang was in no mood to admire the scenery.
He meticulously searched the seabed for treasure, leaving no corner unexamined.
He had found that Emperor's Slit Shell in a forgotten corner, a treasure he had almost missed.
As a result, Li Yang's search was now noticeably more thorough than before.
HISS!
Just as he was inspecting a crevice in the rock, a mottled snake several dozen centimeters long suddenly darted out and lunged straight for him.
Li Yang was startled, but his current physical fitness was immense. His body dodged instinctively, evading the sea snake's attack, as his right hand shot out to grab it.
But the small sea snake was incredibly fast in the water. Seeing its attack had missed, it swiftly retreated and vanished from sight.
Li Yang didn't give chase. He was now on high alert.
'The seabed holds immense opportunities, but also immense dangers. Take that little sea snake, for example. Who knows if it was venomous? If it had bitten me just now, the consequences would have been unpredictable.'
Besides sea snakes, the ocean floor was home to all sorts of dangerous creatures.
Other people who ventured into the deep sea wore wetsuits and had various forms of protection, but Li Yang had none.
He was still only at a depth of twenty meters. If he went any deeper, he might even encounter sharks or other large, dangerous marine predators.
But besides treasure hunting in the sea, Li Yang currently had no other way to help his father.
Li Yang took a deep breath. 'I just need to be careful. With my physical abilities, as long as I'm cautious enough, I can avoid most dangers. Even if I run into a shark, I can put up a fight.'
If he were still an ordinary person, he would be treading on thin ice right now. But his body was now several times stronger than a normal person's, and this powerful physique gave him a great deal of confidence.
He searched meticulously for over four hours, but this time, he came up empty-handed.
'I'll go back to shore and cultivate. Once my training is done, I'll return to the sea!'
Li Yang wasn't discouraged. He had a plan and decided to head back to the surface.
'An increase in strength means I can go even deeper.'
After a final look around, Li Yang prepared to leave.
BUZZ...
Just then, his expression suddenly changed. In his mind, the small sword pulsed faintly.
'What's going on?'
Sensing the pulse, a look of shocked uncertainty appeared in Li Yang's eyes.
'That small sword is incredibly mysterious. I have no idea where it came from. Other than displaying that Body Refining Technique in my mind, it hasn't made a single stir. It's just been sitting there, completely settled in.'
'But now, it's actually stirring.'
'Is this pulse... trying to lead me somewhere?'
Focusing on the sensation, Li Yang's gaze shifted toward a specific direction along the seabed. In the distance, he could feel a faint pull.