Chapter 770 Matched

Xiao Peng never thought that the seabed conditions in a region could be so complicated.

There are no aliens in the Bermuda Triangle, but it is indeed not a very safe sea area. Compared with the Mediterranean Sea, it is simply "hell"!

How wonderful is the Mediterranean? It's calm year-round, with even a half-meter-high swell enough to make you gasp in shock. Thousands of years ago, people dared to paddle out to sea on small rafts. But here? Needless to say, the seabed is littered with reefs of all sizes, making sailing there incredibly dangerous.

Nowadays, with advanced technology, ships can follow safe routes, but what about hundreds of years ago? Back then, the routes were paved with human lives!

Aside from those public waterways, the seafloor topography of each nation's territorial waters is a secret kept secret by each nation. So why are the Americans constantly dropping all sorts of probes into Chinese waters? It's to understand the seafloor for military purposes. This also makes Xiao Peng and his team's exploration more difficult: after all, they're not sailing along a safe channel.

This further increased the search time. Every time a reef was discovered, it was like "coming with high hopes but returning with disappointment". When had Xiao Peng ever had such a hard time finding a shipwreck?

Seeing Ma Xiao looking at the photos, Xiao Peng decided to go all out and simply gave Ma Xiao the copy of the clues Moreau had found. In addition to the letter from the ship's priest to the bishop, it also recorded this English poem. Xiao Peng thought that this might be a clue to the treasure, but...

That crappy poem was just too bad! Xiao Peng couldn't understand it at all, so he simply showed it to Ma Xiao and let him take a look.

Ma Xiao was stunned again after receiving the letter. He hadn't expected Xiao Peng to share such important information with him. He didn't say anything, but simply lowered his head to read. After a moment, he said, "Boss, with all due respect, I'm right. We've been searching the wrong place."

"Huh?" Xiao Peng was smoking a cigarette and was stunned when he heard Ma Xiao's words: "Why do you say that?"

As a result, Ma Xiao did not take out the photo, but took out a copy of the poem and showed it to Xiao Peng.

Xiao Peng had read that crappy poem countless times, memorizing it by heart: The light of the half-moon shone on the beach, sea elves danced with the water in the moonlight, and the sea god watched you from the western ocean. So head east, but beware of Leviathan, who sleeps beneath the sea, guarding the queen's dignity and the saint's teachings. Anyone who disrespects him will be punished, and anyone who disturbs his slumber will be plunged into a nightmare.

Ma Xiao explained: "Boss, if I'm not mistaken, this should be the clue to the location of the treasure!"

Xiao Peng waved his hand and said, "You're just talking nonsense. I've guessed the same thing before, but look at this poem. What a mess! I've used various decoding methods to crack it, but I haven't found any pattern. I'd like to find a cryptographer to decipher what message is hidden in this poem!"

Ma Xiao was stunned after hearing this. He knew he shouldn’t laugh at this time, but... unless he couldn’t help it!

"Pfft!" Ma Xiao couldn't help but burst out laughing. "Boss, with all due respect, you're overthinking things. How could you even think of using codes? How could the Europeans be that clever? Even in the early days of World War I, the so-called codes were still largely the same as the 'Yin Fu' and 'Yin Shu' created by our ancestor Jiang Taigong. You're asking a ship's chaplain from over 500 years ago to communicate using codes? Do you think that's feasible?"

Xiao Peng blushed after hearing this: "But I can't think of any other explanation for this crappy poem except that it's a code!"

Ma Xiao shook his head and said, "Boss, you're a smart person, but smart people tend to overcomplicate things. This poem is indeed very confusing, but what if you treat it as a riddle?"

"Riddle?" Xiao Peng was stunned. He had never considered looking at the poem from this perspective. "Can you explain it?"

Ma Xiao was very modest: "I have an answer, but I don't know if it's correct."

Xiao Peng was still looking down at the poem, waiting for the next words, but Ma Xiao stopped talking. Xiao Peng looked up and saw Ma Xiao looking at him: "Why didn't you say anything? I'm waiting! What? Are you still waiting for me to send you a red envelope?"

After hearing this, Ma Xiao hurriedly said, "Boss, look at these lines in this poem: 'Under the moonlight, the sea elves dance with the water,' 'The sea god is watching you,' 'Leviathan,' 'The queen's dignity,' and 'The saint's teachings.' If I'm not mistaken, these are all hints at the treasure's location."

Xiao Peng became interested: "Huh? What do you mean? Ma Xiao, explain it!"

Ma Xiao thought for a moment and said, "If I'm not mistaken, 'Ocean elves dancing with the water under the moonlight' should refer to Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico has a fluorescent beach, which is actually a 'Noctiluca scintillans red tide'. This is a common tidal organism. When it explosively gathers and reaches a certain density under certain environmental conditions, it causes the water color to change, and the phenomenon of fluorescence appears at night. And Puerto Rico's fluorescent beach is one of the world's famous tourist attractions. And the half moon is clearer than the full moon."

Xiao Peng thought about it for a moment and said, "Although this is a bit far-fetched, it does make sense. So what's next?"

"'The Sea God is watching you' can also be explained. What does the Sea God use to see people?" he asked Xiao Peng.

Xiao Peng said anxiously, "I'm not familiar with him, how can I know how he judges people?"

Ma Xiao didn't get angry, but explained: "Of course the Sea God sees people with his eyes!"

Upon hearing this, Xiao Peng slapped his forehead: "'Eye of Poseidon'! The 'Great Blue Hole' in the Gulf of Mexico!"

Ma Xiao snapped his fingers: "BINGO!"

The "great blue hole" Xiao Peng is referring to isn't the Blue Hole company behind the hit game PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, but rather a unique natural phenomenon found in the ocean. Specifically, it's a large, circular hole in the ocean, so-called because the water inside is deeper than the surrounding water.

Initially, people speculated about the formation of these blue holes, including claims they were "created by meteorites" and "created by aliens." The real reason, however, is that millions of years of ice ages caused sudden freezes, freezing water and causing a sharp drop in sea levels. The alternating erosion of seawater and freshwater led to the formation of caves in the limestone. Because the limestone is porous and loose, gravity pulls it into vertical shafts similar to chimneys. Melting ice and snow, rising sea levels, and the influx of seawater create the blue hole phenomenon we see today. Similar formations can also be found in China's South China Sea.

The most famous blue hole in the world is in the Caribbean Sea, the Great Blue Hole, which is also nicknamed the "Eye of Poseidon"!