Chapter 263, exclusively published on Jinjiang Literature City: The Sunken Ship
Judging from its length, this should be a whale skeleton.
The enormous skeleton lay silently on the seabed. When the others were drawn to it, they were startled, but then they thought, no matter how big it is, it's just bones. Can it be as scary as a live sea lizard?
Only after understanding this principle did everyone find it novel.
The whale's skeleton is so large that a person can easily pass through it. At this point, the whale bones are completely devoid of any flesh or skin. Instead, many fish and shrimp swim nearby, and seaweed and coral grow from the base of the skeleton.
While everyone else, including those on the cruise ship, marveled at the whale bone, which was larger than any Bryde's whale they had seen before, Lu Xuan wandered around and picked up two large, oddly shaped stones.
Those who noticed it were starting to have doubts.
Lu Xuan doesn't even pick up 'junk', so why is he picking up stones again?
Some people in the live stream were puzzled, but most of them were knowledgeable and experienced.
The stone found near the whale bone... could this stone be...?
When Lu Xuan returned to the fishing boat, Zhang Chengming and the others who had come with him curiously gathered around.
"Ah Xuan, what are you doing picking up these stones? Could there be some priceless gem hidden inside these dusty stones?"
Lu Xuan retrieved the testing device from his spatial storage and explained, "There are no gemstones; these stones themselves are treasures."
Xiong Mao couldn't understand it. "Can a stone really become a treasure?"
Looking at the composition and origin displayed on the testing instrument, Lu Xuan smiled and said, "Because they were not ordinary stones to begin with, but were remnants excreted from whales."
Those around were stunned, and Li Tuo blurted out, "Coming out of the body? Could this be whale sludge...?"
Li Jing slapped him hard on the shoulder. "Shut up."
Although that was his guess, his words were far too crude.
Moreover, Lu Xuan was still holding those stones.
Lu Xuan didn't care.
These stones are indeed from whales, specifically sperm whales' excrement or vomit, formed from the indigestible parts they ingested.
When he first determined the length of the skeleton, he thought it was a blue whale skeleton, but since these things could be found nearby, it was most likely a sperm whale.
Ancient sperm whales appear to have been larger than modern understanding suggests.
Lu Xuan said, "These stones also have a very famous scientific name: ambergris."
"Ambergris!?" Zhang Chengming and the others gasped. Even Wu Yang's gaze towards the grayish-white stones in his hand changed.
"Is it the kind of incense mentioned in the play, the kind used exclusively by the emperor?"
"The incense used by the emperor is actually made from whales..." Li Tuo was only halfway through his sentence when his elder brother covered his mouth again.
Lu Xuan continued his popular science explanation as if he hadn't noticed: "It is said that only one in a hundred sperm whales will develop this kind of stone, and there is only a very small chance that someone will find one in the sea or on the shore, which shows how rare it is."
Things are valued for their rarity. Whether it's semen or gallstones, if it's rare enough, it will naturally become a favorite of the powerful and even emperors.
Moreover, ambergris has excellent calming and soothing effects, making it a truly useful item for people in the palace.
Lu Xuan himself is not interested in these things, but he would probably like them very much if given to the new emperor.
The others also realized this, and their expressions immediately became somewhat restless.
When the Emperor visited the cruise ship before, Lu Xuan presented the yellow conch pearl to the Emperor on behalf of Su Ying, and the Emperor then rewarded Su Ying with a lot of jewelry and headwear.
Those were all imperial gifts, enough to be passed down as family heirlooms for generations.
If they offer up the ambergris, they might be able to inherit some treasures.
With that in mind, when everyone went down to explore again, they wanted to peel off a layer of soil around the whale bones. They picked up any stones that looked even slightly similar to the ambergris that Lu Xuan had picked up.
Later on, when there were no more stones that looked alike, they simply brought back any stone they could find, thinking that after washing and cleaning them, they might look alike again.
Although most of their efforts were ultimately in vain, Wu Yang and Ye Lin were lucky enough to find two more small pieces.
Upon hearing the news, Li Yue and Ye Jing on the cruise ship couldn't help but smile with delight.
The other women could only sigh with envy.
In addition, during their thorough search, the able-bodied men also discovered whale bones, or rather, a trench not far from the underwater city.
The trench itself is nothing special; there are plenty of them on the seabed. The deepest trenches are so dark and creepy that they make your skin crawl. In the past, when young men went out to fish, they would try to avoid them if they happened to find one.
But this time, an underwater probe accidentally fell into the trench and captured a blurry image of a huge object at the bottom of the trench in the darkness.
Upon discovering it, the people on the cruise ship couldn't help but mutter, "Could it be another whale skeleton?"
"It doesn't look like it. Whale bones are just skeletons, but this big guy in the video looks solid."
The people on the ship squinted and peered closer, but because it was so dark below the trench—pitch black except for a little light from the probe—and the probe's light couldn't reach a wide area, it was difficult to see the entire giant object clearly.
Lu Xuan, however, took out his high-powered night vision binoculars and looked over after receiving their message.
It turned out to be a huge shipwreck, but because it was surrounded by barnacles and seaweed, its outline was partially obscured, making it difficult to see clearly at first glance.
The viewers in the live stream erupted in excitement once again upon hearing the words "sunken ship".
[Humorous! Shipwreck!]
[Does this mean we can really find treasure at the bottom of the ocean now? Ships that could travel the oceans in ancient times wouldn't have carried some valuable treasures, right?]
[If it were fabrics or spices, they would probably be ruined long ago, but exquisite ceramics, bronzes, gold and silver jewelry, etc., would certainly have survived.]
It also depends on whether the ship is on its way out to sea or returning. If it's the latter, the cargo it carries will likely be different.
But regardless of the cause, there's no reason not to explore the shipwreck once it's discovered.
However, the location of the shipwreck was too deep, exceeding a thousand meters. Although the Covenant's diving suits and equipment could barely allow people to dive to a depth of a thousand meters, the physical condition of low-level superhumans could not support such intensity.
After a moment's thought, Lu Xuan took out another remote control for the detector and guided it to float into the sunken ship, making a general circle around it, with a particular focus on finding the cargo hold.
After spending some time discovering that there were indeed quite a few wooden crates in the cargo hold that appeared to be intact, and even some gold coins from an unknown dynasty scattered on the ground, not only did Lu Xuan raise an eyebrow, but the viewers in the live stream and the men, women, and children on the cruise ship also became excited.
There really is a treasure!
There are also gold coins!
If those wooden boxes were also filled with gold coins, wouldn't they be rich?!
Lu Xuan: With wealth practically handed to us, it would be a disservice to ourselves not to seize it.
Lu Xuan quickly came up with an idea and signaled the others to step back, then took out the submarine that they hadn't had a chance to use.
This submarine was a guaranteed drop from the Black Gold Blind Box a long time ago. It's definitely not as big as a military submarine, and it's more like a sightseeing submarine.
The entire top is covered by a transparent glass dome, allowing a clear view of the surrounding environment. There are also many seats inside, including row seats and luxurious sofa seats, which can accommodate two to three hundred people in total.
Lu Xuan had everyone else enter the submarine's isolation compartment, drained the water, and then removed his diving equipment to tell them about the shipwreck.
Everyone was excited to hear this, and they were also very curious about the submarine. They touched and looked at everything until the Lu Xuan submarine was about to begin its descent, at which point they each found a place to sit down and fasten their seatbelts.
The submarine descended very quickly, in the time it takes to drink half a cup of tea, less than ten minutes. Through the lights on the submarine, the people inside could already see the outline of the sunken ship.
Lei Yan was a little worried, "We can't withstand the water pressure at a depth of a thousand meters, and Ah Xuan won't be very comfortable either, will he? Are you planning to explore it alone?"
What if he encounters danger? How will he explain it to Lu Qing and Lu Chen?
The other people also showed some disapproval.
Lu Xuan smiled and said, "I'm not that stupid."
He could use his superpower to cover his body and isolate himself from the water pressure, but that would consume a lot of his superpower, making it a losing proposition.
Lu Xuan said, "Who says you can only retrieve treasures from the same spot you find them in? The water pressure is deep here, so let's go back to the underwater city and explore slowly."
The others didn't immediately figure out how to get back to explore, until Lu Xuan left the submarine alone and swam to the huge shipwreck right in front of him. He touched it with his hand, and the shipwreck instantly disappeared from everyone's sight.
"Ah!" Li Tuo slapped his thigh. "Why didn't I think of that? We could have just put the sunken ship into our spatial storage and brought it back with us."
He had originally planned to take the shipwreck directly ashore for everyone to explore together, but considering that they were at sea and didn't have enough space to put the shipwreck there, he swallowed his idea.
Never mind, the underwater city is only a few dozen meters deep, it won't cause any problems.
After securing the sunken ship, Lu Xuan did not immediately surface.
Having rarely dived to such a depth, he piloted the submarine, leading the hunting team and villagers from the cruise ship who were observing through the probe, around the area near the trench.
The waters below the trench are generally dark, but not entirely without light. Occasionally, you can see deep-sea anglerfish that inhabit this area. These fish have bioluminescent appendages on their heads, bringing a little light to the dark seabed.
The people on the submarine exclaimed, "Humans can't withstand the water pressure here, it's amazing that these little fish can survive so well."
"These fish are really ugly."
Lu Xuan: "..."
The deep-sea anglerfish also has another, more resounding name: monkfish.
Anglerfish are not good-looking at all; their ugliness is their defining characteristic.
Besides the deep-sea anglerfish, they also discovered some other fish. Lu Xuan wasn't an expert on all kinds of fish and couldn't distinguish all the species. However, all of these fish emitted a faint light, which is probably a characteristic of many deep-sea fish.
The ascent took longer than the descent, about half an hour.
When they returned to the underwater city, everyone clearly looked like they hadn't had enough.
But the thought that there was another shipwreck waiting for them to explore quickly roused them, and they looked at Lu Xuan expectantly.
The latter didn't keep them waiting long. With his left hand, he put away the submarine, and with his right hand, he placed the sunken ship on the open ground next to the whale bones.
When the massive shipwreck, which was about 80% intact and several times larger than whale bones, appeared, Zhang Chengming and the others were immediately shocked.
After a long while, reminded by Lu Xuan, everyone came to their senses and, thinking of the large number of wooden crates and gold coins in the cargo hold discovered by the detector, rushed to turn on their underwater lights and enter the sunken ship.
Having explored the general layout of the ship beforehand, the group's search was very targeted.
First, loot the cargo hold, then search the crew's quarters, the bridge, and other important areas, and finally search the rest of the place.
There's no rush to count the items we found. We'll first pack up the space and wait until we get up there to open the boxes with the others!
During their looting, they also discovered a number of skeletons.
With the ship sinking, the crew members naturally could not escape the disaster.
The group was momentarily at a loss, unsure of what to do with the skeletons.
If you take someone else's treasure, you have to do something about it, right?
Should we take the remains with us and find a way to bury them, or should we leave them on the seabed with the ship?
Just as everyone was in a dilemma, Lu Xuan's communicator received another message.
Lu Xuan's eyes darkened, and he gestured to the others.
Forget about the skeletons for now; the people up there are in trouble. Let's go up first.
The young men's expressions changed upon understanding this. Thinking of their loved ones on the cruise ship, they disregarded the remains and hurriedly swam upstream.
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Author's Note: Thanks to "Flower Falls" and "Swallow" for watering the nutrient solution. 2025-07-13 11:09:41
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