Chapter 39

Ten frogmen, divided into five pairs, one after another, dived into the sea. Xu Hang also planned to have Ye Yuan go down with one of the groups, but Ye Yuan refused. How could he act alone if he went down with them?

To do a job well, one must first sharpen one's tools! This saying really makes a lot of sense when it comes to frogmen. Looking at these professional diving gears, Ye Yuan knew that each set was worth a fortune.

Putting on the diving suit, carrying the oxygen tank, wearing the diving goggles and mask, and putting on the flippers, they even prepared a submersible propulsion unit for Ye Yuan. Ye Yuan didn’t bring this thing, as it was really too heavy.

Diving into the sea, Ye Yuan really didn’t want to be equipped like this. This set of equipment weighed at least several dozen kilograms.

But there was no way around it; otherwise, he wouldn’t be able to explain why he stayed underwater for so long.

Moving away from these frogmen, he quickly swam towards the seabed. Looking at his watch, it directly showed that he had already reached a depth of 130 meters.

Due to the lack of pollution, the seawater here was particularly clear. However, the light was a bit insufficient, but this didn’t bother Ye Yuan. His underwater vision was very good; while ordinary people could only see a few meters, he could see objects several dozen meters away.

Ye Yuan clearly saw the fish and shrimp swimming below. A small sea snake swam past him. This sea snake was over 2 meters long and looked quite fierce.

Sea snakes are generally venomous and highly toxic. Ye Yuan directly exchanged the sea snake for 60 points in the space.

Here, Ye Yuan was mainly looking for that black-red stone.

Reaching a depth of 150 meters, this was already the limit for ordinary frogmen. The water pressure at this depth was something few could withstand.

The scenery here was simply breathtaking.

The plants were colorful and varied, with purple, red, and green hues. The shapes were also complex, ranging from tiny diatoms to giant algae several dozen meters tall.

Ye Yuan didn’t have time to continue admiring the underwater scenery. He began to search the seabed carefully. Before he went down, the frogmen had reminded him that the stones were usually buried under the sand and were only discovered when someone stepped on them. Ye Yuan, of course, didn’t need to work so hard.

His senses fully open, he covered an area of several dozen meters. Hmm~ nothing, change the location and continue searching, still nothing, change again. Unconsciously, Ye Yuan had already reached the edge of the sea trench.

Looking at the sea trench, Ye Yuan suddenly had a bold idea. He found a reef, placed his oxygen tank in the crevice, and took off his flippers. He only kept the diving mask, putting the rest in the reef.

He directly dived into the dark sea trench. At first, there were still many small fish swimming around Ye Yuan, but they gradually became fewer. Eventually, he could only occasionally see a few large creatures. Now, he rarely saw any fish here.

The mysterious underwater world always presents things we cannot predict. When Ye Yuan dived to a depth of 1,000 meters in the dark world, he saw a large, deep red plastic bag in the distance.

At first, Ye Yuan didn’t pay much attention, but in the blink of an eye, the red plastic bag started moving on its own. After careful observation, Ye Yuan realized it wasn’t a plastic bag but possibly a dangerous marine creature.

This creature looked like the "Kongming lanterns" we usually release. At this moment, a very strange fish swam past the "plastic bag." The "plastic bag" enveloped the small fish, slowly contracting its body until it was completely wrapped, and the small fish was visibly eaten.

Ye Yuan knew that thing was dangerous and quickly moved away. He had no idea what kind of creature the "plastic bag" was, as it wasn’t in his knowledge base. He decided to look it up online when he returned.

After moving away from the "plastic bag," Ye Yuan’s senses detected a stone similar to the one he was looking for not far ahead. He immediately swam over.

Clearing the sand, he found a stone twice the size of the one shown to him by the middle-aged man. He directly put it in the net bag and continued searching.

The frogmen had searched for so long without finding anything, possibly because they didn’t dive deep enough. Ye Yuan knew that Xu Hang must have kept many things from him, otherwise, he wouldn’t have withheld the purpose of the stone.

Ye Yuan searched the area for a long time, finding a total of three such stones. The last two were very small.

Finally, Ye Yuan decided to leave the large one for the country and keep the two smaller ones as his labor fee. He put them in the space, temporarily not exchanging them for points. Ye Yuan was afraid that if the system activated new functions in such deep water, he wouldn’t be able to handle it. He decided to wait until he returned to shore before doing anything risky.

The time was almost up. Ye Yuan came to where he had left his equipment, put it on underwater, and returned to the warship. If it were anyone else, changing equipment underwater would be impossible, but for Ye Yuan, he felt more agile in the water than on land.

On the warship, the ten frogmen had already come up to rest. Xu Hang was anxiously watching the sea.

"Colonel Xu, where did you find such a guy? He acts on his own and doesn’t return on time. I hope nothing happens to him. Such a wild approach shouldn’t have been called in," a frogman said mockingly.

"Shut up."

Several frogmen, seeing Xu Hang’s expression, exchanged glances and didn’t say anything more.

At this moment, the sea surface churned, and Ye Yuan’s head emerged.

Xu Hang’s heart, which had been on edge, finally relaxed.

He knew Ye Yuan was a good swimmer, but that was just a guess. If something happened to Ye Yuan because of this mission, he wouldn’t be able to explain it to Ye Yuan’s family.

Ye Yuan was pulled onto the warship, and a naval soldier helped him remove his equipment. He took a bottle of mineral water and drank it in one go.

All of this was an act by Ye Yuan. Otherwise, how could others believe he was fine after carrying several dozen kilograms of equipment underwater for so long?

"Did you find it?" Xu Hang asked without much hope.

Ye Yuan took out the larger stone from his net bag and handed it to Xu Hang.

"Take a look, is this it? I couldn’t see clearly underwater, but it looked like it, so I brought it up."

When Xu Hang saw the stone in Ye Yuan’s hand, his eyes widened. He knew the use of this thing, and it was very useful for martial artists.

Ye Yuan’s stone was even larger than the three previously salvaged ones combined. This time, Xu Hang was in charge of the salvage operation, and the higher-ups had already agreed that if there was any harvest, he could keep a portion.

With such a large "stone," he could get at least a 5 cm piece, which would make his cultivation speed 3 to 4 times faster over the next year.

Xu Hang walked to Ye Yuan’s side and laughed, "You’re amazing. Those frogmen searched for so long, but you found more than all of them combined." The frogmen nearby glanced at the stone in Xu Hang’s hand, and the one who had mocked Ye Yuan earlier lowered his head in embarrassment.

PS: Thanks to brother 08a for the tip.