CHAPTER 673: CHAPTER 130: RESCUE (PART 1)

Treasure Mother Reef is located in the waters where the inner and outer Fan Di Sea meet. It wasn’t originally a reef, but merely an area where Pearl Mother Shells thrive. Although the shells produced here are only about the size of a thumb.

The pearls collected from them are also thumb-sized and have a special luminous green hue, which is much loved by Imperial Nobles and the wealthy.

In the early years, there were many private pearl collecting ships prowling these waters. After harvesting, a massive amount of discarded Pearl Mother Shell husks was dumped here, and over the years, they accumulated into this special limestone shell reef cluster.

Later, due to the needs of the Fandi Port’s harbor construction, the meticulous fishing of Pearl Mother Shells ceased, and the pearl collecting ships stopped operating.

After a few hundred years of recovery, the population of Pearl Mother Shells in this area began to gradually flourish again, and fishermen have even encountered giant mother shells capable of swallowing a young shark whole.

But most of the time, Treasure Mother Reef is calm and peaceful. Under the azure sky, when the sunlight shines directly, the seawater sometimes transforms into a bright blue, and sometimes into a Nao green, stunningly beautiful.

The young boy from the fishing village, Yu Dan, broke free from Shalman and jumped into the water like a Jiao Long diving in, very much at ease.

His family was poor, and lately, they were in urgent need of money due to his mother’s illness.

When he was only three or four years old, he had heard of neighboring fishermen near Treasure Mother Reef diving for pearls and moving to the city after striking it rich.

As he was young and had no fishing boat of his own, he listened to the tales of fishermen who had poached pearls. They said that when the astronomical tide rose, at high tide, a large number of thumb-sized Pearl Mother Shells would be washed onto the reefs.

Yu Dan grew up in the fishing village, and after finding out the day of the astronomical tide, he planned to sneak off to Treasure Mother Reef and guard it overnight. He thought, by guarding the reef for just one night, he would be able to effortlessly collect a pile of mother shells the next day.

Who knew he would run into Yue Jinghua and Shalman on patrol, leading to the earlier incident.

Yu Dan swam for more than two hours, until his dark skin showed a pale whiteness, before he finally saw the part of Treasure Mother Reef exposed above water.

Shaking off the water, he climbed onto the reef and pulled off several clusters of sea reeds growing next to it, weaving a simple reed basket to hold the Pearl Mother Shells.

Although he had long heard of the fame of Treasure Mother Reef, this was Yu Dan’s first time visiting this cluster of reefs.

After drying off the water on his body, he looked around.

By then, the sky had darkened a bit.

Yu Dan carefully took out a packet of Flint wrapped in oil paper, lit it with care, and was then able to see the full view of Treasure Mother Reef.

The reefs, with no sharp edges to speak of and having been washed by the sea, were dark, their surfaces as if coated in beeswax, very slippery.

The whole area of Treasure Mother Reef was about a hundred square meters, with some local seaweeds and hermit crabs growing alongside.

At night, as the tide slowly rose, with each wave stronger than the last, Yu Dan couldn’t help but feel frightened.

After all, he was just a seven or eight-year-old child.

"It’s okay, it’s only for three or four hours. Once the tide recedes, I’ll have money to buy medicine for mom and food for my younger siblings," Yu Dan muttered to himself, his slender arms and legs huddled together, sitting on the reef and staring at the sea level, where the waves rose higher with each wave.

Entering the night, the sea breeze shifted from the moist warmth of the day to a cold chill. Yu Dan, who had swum hard during the day, felt exhausted, eventually falling asleep to the dull sound of the waves.

In the middle of the night, he felt something damp beneath him and woke with a start.

Looking at the reef under his feet, Yu Dan’s face immediately turned pale. He clearly underestimated the magnitude of the high tide during the astronomical tide. The Treasure Mother Reef, which was over a hundred square meters before the tide, was shrinking rapidly as the surrounding sea water closed in from all directions.

By the looks of it, in another two hours, it would be completely submerged.

Yu Dan was both tired and hungry, terribly frightened about something, and amid the tumultuous rising tide, he seemed to hear some strange noise.

"Just wait a bit longer, the tide will soon recede," the poor child gulped down some saliva, comforting himself.

But it was at that moment that his pupils suddenly shrank, and his knees buckled.

Amidst the ferocious waves that surged like wolves and tigers, he saw a triangular fish back.

As a child living in a seaside fishing village, Yu Dan was very clear about what that meant.

The Death Triangle, a type of Humpback Shark in the waters beyond the Fan Di Sea, with razor-sharp teeth and a body as hard as steel.

Legend has it that a group of Humpback Sharks attacking together can even sink a Sea and Air Ship.

Watching the Humpback Shark getting closer, terror and exhaustion overwhelmed Yu Dan, causing him to collapse on the final reef.

Meanwhile, Yue Jinghua and the others had already set sail from Fandi Port towards Treasure Mother Reef.

Despite the Helmsman sent by Captain Ya Lei, Yue Jinghua and her Sea and Air Ship were not having a smooth journey.

After nightfall, the wind direction changed, and they had to temporarily halt the sailboat to adjust the Wind Sail’s direction.

But just after the sailboat had its direction adjusted, the fishermen discovered that the ship suddenly couldn’t move.

At this time on the sea, the wind and waves were rising gradually, vaguely indicating the astronomical high tide that was about to come. Everyone gathered at the deck to look down, all inhaling sharply.

They had thought it was seaweed entangling the hull, but it turned out to be...

"It’s the lantern jellyfish, it’s a blockade, a Sea Beast blockade," under the ship’s bottom was like neon lights being lit, a faint ring of orange, and the experienced fishermen recognized what it was immediately.

Perhaps it was due to the rising tide, the sea creatures that were active under the water during the day surged to the surface one after another.

After they had adjusted the sailboat’s direction, the ship encountered the first round of Sea Beast blockade, which greatly delayed the speed of Yue Jinghua and others’ ship.

It was also Yue Jinghua’s first time witnessing the so-called blockade.

The sea creatures that dwell in the inner sea of Fandi Port are a large number of lantern jellyfish, their whole bodies shining with an orange glow, which looked like small chrysanthemum lanterns in the dark night.

It was these seemingly beautiful jellyfish that were the deadliest killers around the beach.

Their cold, soft bodies, covered with short and thick tentacles; the tentacles were covered with toxic barb-like suckers. Whether it was human skin or the smooth deck of a ship, once a lantern jellyfish attached itself to it, it was very difficult to break free.

"What should we do now?" Those experienced fishermen all showed a look of terror. Besides the Shark Whales and such sea creatures, what they feared most when sailing were these troublesome soft-bodied jellyfish.

"Don’t worry, just wait a little longer," compared to the panicked fishermen, Yue Jinghua was much more composed.

Her eyes, bright as stars, shone with a wolf king-like radiance in the dark night.