Discovering the Treasure

Without turning on navigation, Zhang He's yacht had already entered New Guinea's economic zone without him realizing it.

Near the equator, the deck was scorching, so everyone jumped into the sea to cool off.

"Eh? There's another island base here."

As long as they remained in the water, everyone could see a stretch of seafloor just a few meters beneath their feet.

Sunlight dappled the water, illuminating the mud, rocks, and vast expanses of coral, among which fish and shrimp swarmed.

It had probably once been an island, but rising sea levels had submerged it.

"Could there be pearls here too?"

"Whether there are pearls or not, this place is beautiful."

The water was only four or five meters deep this time. Apart from the girls, the men couldn't be bothered to change into diving suits. They simply held their breath and dove down to play.

After playing for a while, they discovered that there were no pearls here. The few small shells they found were edible at best.

Still, there were fish, shrimp, and shellfish here, all tropical delicacies. That alone was enough to delight everyone.

"We can finally go fishing! Hurry and bring the fishing rods!" Zhang He said.

But Xiao Kun said, "Why bother with fishing rods? It's so hot. Let's just catch them with our hands."

Everyone chimed in and chased the fresh fish they knew through the water.

But after more than ten minutes, they surfaced helplessly and said, "It's too difficult! Xiao Mo, how did you catch fish with your bare hands?"

A few days ago, they had seen Mo Qiong holding a fish in his bare hands, and it had looked effortless. Since they had the chance this time, they wanted to try it too.

Who could have expected that the fish in the sea would toy with them so easily?

Mo Qiong laughed. "With sharp eyes and quick hands."

His so-called sharp eyes and quick hands only required him to touch a fish. After that, the fish could no longer control its own fate.

"It must have been a fluke. The fish here are too agile. Try catching a few more," Xiao Kun said. He had gone out to sea many times and knew how difficult this was.

Without another word, Mo Qiong dove into the water. Before the splashes had even settled, he surfaced holding a large Spanish mackerel.

"Holy crap..." Everyone gasped. It hadn't even been five seconds.

"Wait! Wait! Catch another one for us to see." Everyone dove underwater, wanting to see how Mo Qiong caught fish.

Mo Qiong smiled, sank into the sea, and slowly approached the school of fish before suddenly sweeping his hand into it.

One fish was struck by his palm. It tried to flee in panic, but somehow couldn't escape Mo Qiong's grasp.

Mo Qiong pressed the fish against his chest, and his other hand, which had been waiting for this moment, immediately hooked its fingers into the fish's gills.

"Here..." Mo Qiong surfaced, holding up the fish with a smile.

The others surfaced too, staring in astonishment. They had watched carefully. His grip was simply too strong. He had held the fish so tightly that it couldn't even slip away underwater.

"How did you keep the fish from slipping out of your hand?" Zhang He asked.

Mo Qiong said, "Nothing special. Practice makes perfect."

"I love eating fish. I've been catching them in the water since I was little. After doing it enough times, I naturally got proficient."

As he said this, even Mo Qiong began to laugh. He had thought of Qin Ya again. He had never had a favorite food, but after saying it so often, he felt he was about to believe that fish really was his favorite...

After catching several more fish for everyone, he took the opportunity to slap one toward the GPS that had gone missing earlier.

No, to be precise, it was toward the canister. Every canister had a marker. Unless a fish had carried the canister away, the crown had to be nearby.

Sure enough, after Mo Qiong slapped the fish, it slipped from his grasp and swam directly out of the school. It moved faster and faster, abandoning its group.

Mo Qiong hurried after it and saw the fish disappear into the coral.

"Hmm, is it hidden beneath this coral?"

Mo Qiong found that the coral itself was already damaged. He pried apart several pieces and saw only mud beneath them, but there was a small hole. At that moment, the fish was forcing its face into it and continuing deeper.

The hole slanted downward, with several meters of plowed-looking marks leading away. It seemed that some object had pierced diagonally into the seafloor.

"The treasure is beneath here. My canister must have been destroyed when it crashed into the ground, which is why it lost contact."

Thinking this, Mo Qiong continued watching the hole. From time to time, mud and sand billowed out like mist in the water currents stirred within.

That meant the little fish was still burrowing. Once it stopped, it would mean it had reached its destination.

After silently counting for a while, Mo Qiong noticed that the movement had stopped. He estimated that the treasure was buried about two meters underground.

Mo Qiong smiled, immediately concealed the traces of the canister, and covered the spot with coral again.

Then he went back and caught two more fish to take to the boat.

Everyone played for a while longer. Mo Qiong began following Zhang He, and when Zhang He drew close enough to see the coral area, Mo Qiong suddenly exhaled.

The breath shot through the water like an arrow and entered the coral reef.

Mo Qiong knew that the air must have entered the small hole, so he reached out and patted Zhang He.

Zhang He had no idea what was going on, but then saw Mo Qiong pointing at the coral, signaling for him to look.

He turned to look and saw bubbles rising from within the coral, as though something beneath it were blowing bubbles.

The air had reached its destination and was naturally floating upward.

But Zhang He didn't know that. He thought there was a large shrimp down there.

The two surfaced, and Zhang He said, "With this many bubbles, it must be something huge. We'll circle around it from both sides, and that'll be dinner tonight!"

Mo Qiong laughed. "All right."

The two took deep breaths and dove again. They reached the coral from opposite sides and cautiously peered into the gaps.

When they found that they couldn't see anything, Zhang He pried the coral apart.

But there was no large shrimp. Instead, they saw the small hole.

Although the hole was clogged with mud and sand, the fish had cleared it once, and the air had blown through it again, making it quite obvious.

Zhang He lay down and reached into the hole.

Suddenly, he seemed to feel something. When he pulled his hand out, it turned out to be a small fish.

The small fish struggled briefly before escaping, leaving Zhang He deflated.

At the same time, Mo Qiong began digging directly. He widened the hole considerably and continued deeper.

Zhang He assumed that Mo Qiong was determined to find the large shrimp hiding inside, so he helped dig as well.

The mud and sand were very loose, and they easily dug half a meter down.

But Zhang He soon stopped and gestured for Mo Qiong to surface.

Once they surfaced, Zhang He shook his head and said, "That doesn't look like a shrimp's burrow."

"I agree. It's deep and narrow, and there's air coming from inside. What do you think it could be?" Mo Qiong asked.

Zhang He thought for a long time, but still felt that only a large shrimp could cause something like this.

"Strange... The hole is too small. That much air definitely isn't from an ordinary little shrimp. Only a large shrimp would release that much gas," Zhang He said.

Mo Qiong laughed. "Why not dig it open and see?"

Zhang He nodded. "Let's go back to the boat and get our equipment."

The only way to learn the ocean's secrets was to discover them. Zhang He was an idealistic sailor with an exceptionally strong sense of curiosity. That was also why Mo Qiong had chosen to explore with him.

If it had been Xiao Kun and the others, they probably would have simply left it alone.

After putting on their diving suits and taking their tools, the two returned to the hole and began digging.

Unexpectedly, when they had dug down one meter, they unearthed bones. Buried in the soil and soaked in seawater for who knew how many years, they had almost crumbled into fragments.

Only after digging out several pieces did Zhang He suddenly realize that they were human bones.

"Holy crap..." Zhang He hurriedly surfaced.

When Mo Qiong came up, Zhang He said, "Could this really be a dead person blowing air?"

Finding bones in the mud of the seafloor was perfectly normal. Who knew how many years ago the person had died here?

Mo Qiong laughed. "They're just bones. Are you scared?"

Zhang He shook his head with a laugh. "I'm not scared... I just didn't expect to dig up human bones."

As he spoke, he suddenly became excited and shouted, "Xiao Mo, let's keep digging. There might be something good nearby!"

"Why?" Mo Qiong was stunned, thinking, Did he already realize there's treasure here?

Zhang He laughed. "These bones have been here for at least several hundred years. There might be old things from that era around here."

"Xiao Mo, trust me. There's definitely something surprising here."

Mo Qiong understood. So this was what Zhang He considered something good.

Clearly, Zhang He had never considered the possibility of pirate treasure. To him, even a few personal belongings preserved near these bones would be treasures.

As he spoke, Zhang He grew enthusiastic and dove down on his own.

However, unaware that there was treasure beneath them, Zhang He dug horizontally, clearing away the surrounding coral and scraping aside a large patch of mud. He discovered that many bones were buried here.

Mo Qiong, meanwhile, continued digging downward, staying in place and scraping away at the soil.

At a depth of about two meters, Mo Qiong suddenly dug into a chest.

It was a redwood chest with a damaged surface. After clearing away the mud, the first thing Mo Qiong saw was the canister he had shot out.

"The crown is inside the chest. My canister smashed straight through it," Mo Qiong said helplessly.

He saw that the canister had also been crushed. The GPS inside was completely useless. Clearly, after forcing its way down two meters underground, even the canister had been unable to withstand the pressure.

Holding the canister, Mo Qiong swam out of the pit. Seeing that Zhang He wasn't paying attention, he threw the canister far away, letting it follow a school of fish into the distance.

After a while, Zhang He looked over and saw Mo Qiong gesturing to him.

When he swam into the pit and saw the treasure chest, he was instantly stunned.

Through the damaged opening in the chest, they could see a large quantity of jewelry inside. A magnificent crown set with more than forty pearls lay on top.

"This is a treasure site!" No further reminder was necessary. Zhang He instantly realized what this meant.

He tried to lift the chest, but it was extremely heavy, making it difficult to surface while holding it.

However, as he moved the chest aside, he noticed another chest emerging from the mud nearby.

"There are more around us!" Zhang He gestured toward Mo Qiong.

Mo Qiong nodded and joined him. Together, they dug out several more chests, but the more they unearthed, the more they could see surrounding them.

After playing for so long and then digging for so long, their air tanks were nearly empty. They had no choice but to surface.

"Holy crap! There's a treasure buried here!" Zhang He said excitedly as soon as he surfaced.

Mo Qiong was excited too. "Is this the good stuff you were talking about?"

Grabbing Mo Qiong, Zhang He growled, "It's much better than that! I thought finding some ancient coins would already be great. I never imagined there would be so many chests. This is treasure! Do you even know what treasure is?"

Seeing how excited he was, Mo Qiong took the opportunity to probe him. "But how are we going to take so many chests back?"

Zhang He said, "Now that we've found treasure, are you worried we can't bring it back? Come on, let's call everyone over to help. We'll find all the chests and move them onto the boat. The things in these chests are definitely worth a fortune."

"Then does that mean we've struck it rich?" Mo Qiong asked with delighted surprise.

Zhang He simply grinned foolishly. "I actually found treasure! This is my first time! Hahahaha!"

"Xiao Mo, do you know? In the ocean-exploration community, finding treasure is one of our greatest pleasures. A few big names I know have merely dredged up some ancient coins or discovered some broken pottery jars, and that already counts as striking gold in our circle..."

"But we found a real treasure site! Someone must have buried these chests here hundreds of years ago. This is a genuine underwater treasure!"

"Hahaha, we found it so easily!"

"I must be a fated explorer! I'm just going to drift wherever fate takes me for several days every time I go out to sea from now on!"